A melange of illustrated nominees of hegemons
Category: Anonymous
Immigrants – muted numb objects of the Finnish media narrative
“When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”
? George R.R. Martin
Finland enjoys an image of grandiosity on the shiny outside. The happiest country in the world, a young and progressive female government, low daily Corona infection rates, free education, and healthcare! Finland is topping numerous statistics like the smart use of a bulky language barrier for any outsider who does not have a sound reason to learn Finnish. Too many immigrants rely on English-language news outlets, never getting deep enough into Finland’s actual reality behind due to the language barrier. Life is good!
YLE News in English has been the only main channel for following current affairs along with some smaller news outlets such as Helsinki Times or Foreigner.fi. Until 2012, Helsingin Sanomat International Edition stopped publishing news in English. Naturally, the selection of news in English is smaller, pre-selected in relevance for immigrants or international audiences, commonly with the same topic having a different news slant in English than Finnish (a recent example: the mental wellbeing of the Finnish youth). International readers or residents with no or poor command of Finnish appreciate the effort.
However, frequent readers have noticed that hot topics in English do not appear on social media, leaving them with a bitter taste of YLE’s intentions to discourage heated discussions.
YLE News‘ announcement was made on April 16th, 2021 on Facebook:
“We have extremely limited resources to moderate comments. This way, we still post all our stories on Facebook, but we don’t have the burden of moderation.”
“Our team does not moderate anything on the Finnish side. We have to use our resources as best we see fit, and on balance, we think it’s better to use the time to produce news rather than moderate comments.”
Incorrect. YLE Uutiset, the Finnish Facebook feed, defines in its code of conduct what kind of comments are banned and confirms that “the discussions are moderated in accordance with Finnish legislation, the journalist’s instructions and YLE’s values.” At least, in theory. Thus, the Finnish- and English-language Facebook feeds do have a code of conduct (see below).
Continue reading “Immigrants – muted numb objects of the Finnish media narrative”Anonymous: Do not be silent!
When you are silent, everyone does whatever they want, and you have encouraged them with your silence.
Do not be silent, if someone is oppressed in your presence and you are silent, you have helped the oppressor, you have supported him with your silence.
Do not be silent, speak, you distinguish good from bad, you see, you understand, and you are aware, why are you silent? Your silence gives power to the enemy, your silence gives energy to bad people, your silence confirms them.
Do not be silent when bullies attack the weak.
Do not be silent when a foreign man is made homeless by his Finnish wife. The woman deceived him. They have lived for years, and they have children. But Finnish law calls all men mentally ill and Finnish women worthy mothers. I have talked many times to these men who were foreigners or refugees and even Europeans and Scandinavians. They have all been shocked and very sad, but on the contrary, women have brought another man into their home and taught the children that the real father is bad, and you should forget him ….
Do not be silent when an Iraqi or Afghan refugee is chased by a racist with a gun in the streets or forests and in small cities…
Do not be silent when a racist insult an African because of the color of his or her skin.
Do not be silent when a foreigner or a poor Finnish is under pressure and homeless, hungry, cold and helpless!
Do not be silent When you see a Finnish or foreigner homeless person under the roof of an escalator, he is asleep, he/she is in pain, he is tired and he is speechless, they gave up on humanity, and they are hopeless, but YOU do not be silent, you must stand for humanity because yourself is a human too!
Do not be silent when the law votes against your rights.
Do not be silent when the government and ministers, president lie to you, and lie to you again and again!
Do not be silent when racist and savage guards beat a foreigner in front of your eyes
Do not be silent when the racist police on the street ask you for an ID card, when the police lock you in a cell.
Do not be silent when you are attacked in a group
Do not be silent when the law and the newspaper and media lie to you
Do not be silent if you see someone being attacked
Do not be silent, you are human, you must feel for other human beings, you must respect humanity.
Do not be silent, those who oppress, assassinate, kill, beat, humiliate, exploit, violate the rights of others, racist, evil and savage, they have not ruined the world and the planet. Yes, but you have ruined it, you are in it. You have destroyed the world with your silence, yes you are.
O you who are silent and conservative, you and your crime and sin are worse than thousands of times more. you are guilty.
Do not be silent when refugees and their children and their parents and young people are trapped in Finnish camps behind iron wires.
Those who remain silent are worse than the oppressors because they feed and nurture them with their silence.
I am never silent, I have never been silent, and I consider those who keep silent as my enemies.
Suomalainen äiti: “Tällä hetkellä sanaton kuvastaa hyvin tunnetta”
Mgrant Talesin kommentti: Julkaisemme kolmas kirja epätoivoista suomalaisista äidistä. Hänen miehelle ei myönnetty oleskelulupaa.
Onko toivoa jäljellä enää siitä, että voisimme joskus elää normaalia perhe-elämää? Niitä onnellisiakin hetkiä on aina varjostanut alitajuisesti se fakta, ettei miehelleni ole edelleenkään myönnetty oleskelulupaa. Lohdutan itseäni sillä tiedolla, että lapsemme ovat niin pieniä, etteivät ymmärrä tästä tilanteesta mitään. He eivät tiedä sitä, että heidän äitinsä joutuu jatkuvasti pelkäämään, että heidän isänsä viedään taas pois. Kuinka paljon ihmisen täytyy taistella siitä, että saa elää rakastamansa henkilön kanssa? Eikö lapsien oikeus elää isänsä kanssa merkitse enää mitään?
Tällä hetkellä sanaton kuvastaa hyvin tunnetta, joka hallinto-oikeuden päätös aiheuttaa.
Lue myos:
Syrian refugee: Parting is hard, but the hardest is to remain separated
Migrant Tales insight: This short letter to the Finnish public is an example of Finland’s inhumane immigration policy. As a refugee, you will get a residence permit, but the price will be a high one: You will have to live alone, separated indefinitely from your loved one.
The Syrian refugee story is one of the many cruel faces of the Finnish Immigration Service.
“I got married on 2015 before an almost 7 months of leaving my country to Finland.
After that I got resident permit and applied for family reunification so I coul live together with my beloved wife. After almost a year and a half wait, my wife got an appointment at the Finnish embassy in Beirut (because my wife can’t visit Turkey as a Syrian ); after that, we had to wait almost another year for a decision from Migration (The Finnish Immigration Service) which was negative. I was devasated and lost as my wife was too but a social worker told me to contact a lawyer which she gave me his name and number. The social worker said he is a very good lawyer.
I went to him and he said, after reading the decision, that migration has some doubts about your marriage. He said that he will write them my answers to dispell these doubts and everything will be fine.
But also after waiting some months a second negative decision came. I was totally broken and told the social worker and lawyer about this. I said that I will go back to my country because I can’t waste my life and lose my wife specially after I lived with her and loved her dearly long before we were married. The social worker and lawyer calmed me down and ensured me that it was another mistake by migration and the lawyer will write another appeal to the high court, which will rule in my favor. After waiting for 10 months, the high cout overturned my appeal.
Before this, my lawyer advised me that if I wanted I could meet my wife in another country and bring some pictures with plane tickets for both of us, hotel booking and send it to the court. I was able to see my wife for the first time since 2015, when I came to Finland.
I can’t describe how bad is my psychological situation and my wife telling me that I have to go back to Syria because we don’t have any hope. My problem is that it is impossible for me to go back to Syria because of the bad situation there. Our problem, our separation, got worse because living without my soulmate was hard.
I can’t focus on my studies or anything else. I feel dead inside.
I’m doing everything possible to bring her to my side in Finland. Maybe I have to go back to Syria, even if I will die there.”
How racists shoot themselves
An Afghan student’s view of a symbolic weapon used by racists.
The history of this drawing: A student drew it from the top of his head and wrote “racists” on the upper right-hand corner.
Indefinite detention of a naturalized Finn held without any charges by the police
Migrant Tales insight: We got an email from a reader who was worried about the fate of her partner, who is a Russian-speaking Estonian with Finnish citizenship. He has been detained since 11.10.2018 but still has not been charged with any crime. The woman doesn’t know what will happen and her partner’s lawyer has made it clear that she has still not been made aware of the nature of the case. How long can the Finnish police hold someone without any charges?
We aim to follow this story and will report on it as soon as we get any news on the fate of the man.
Some police cells in Finland may look like this one from in Mikkeli. The detained person is in Helsinki. Source: Migrant Tales.
He writes:
“That’s it, I’m taking time out of your recreation time for that.
Go ahead and do it, because eventually I’m gonna be out of here and you’re still going to be losing your entire life to this place.
The Roma girl next to me in the elevator begins to belly laugh, in spite of the stomach ache which was bothering her earlier, and her wide skirts tremble with each successive giggle. The guard shuts up and glowers all the way up to the rec yard on the roof.
Even though we aren’t permitted to talk to each other, human nature has a way of helping us to communicate even as we talk past one another furtively for fear of drawing the attention of the sadistic guards.
‘Why are you here?’ A skinny Estonian guy rasps at me, as he chews relentlessly on the toothpick permanently lodged between his teeth.
‘A mistake,’ I whisper back, too loudly, and one of the guards hears me.
‘Yeah, a mistake, that’s what you all say. Every time it’s a mistake.’
I try not to let comments like this bother me, but the truth is, the rampant generalization and de-personalization hurt me.
Continue reading “Indefinite detention of a naturalized Finn held without any charges by the police”
A letter to the Non-Discrimination Ombudsperson Kirsi Pimiä
Dear Kirsi,
I have written to PM Juha Sipilä twice concerning his ‘reluctance’ to publicly acknowledge racial discrimination in Finland (FRA EU MIDIS-II 2017 12.12.2017 meeting in Helsinki).
Cultural diversity is a highly emotive subject especially when one becomes a victim of racially motivated hatred and intentional discrimination.
Go to original posting here.
You have acknowledged the results of the EU MIDIS-II report – together with Deputy State Prosecutor [Raija Toiviainen]– and I thank you and others for speaking out on this politically sensitive issue. I believe that you deserve the backing and support of an administration that has thus far shown only weakness and ineptitude in challenging racism and discrimination. Denial of racism in Finland – such as the 2015 Nordic Media press conference showed – is no longer acceptable.
In my opinion, leadership should come from the PM, and I have invited PM Juha Sipilä to engage with his critics and take action to eradicate discrimination and other social ills that affect Finnish society.
The FRA EU MIDIS-II 2017 report – together with insight from [FRA Director] Prof M O’Flaherty – confirms that the Finnish government can no longer deny that there ISN’T a problem. It is also evident that this issue – if permitted to persist – will lead to dissent and hatred (possibly radicalization) within Finland.
For perhaps too many new Finnish citizens in Finland are relegated to live as second-class citizens with third-rate representation.
I have personal experience of racist treatment and discrimination against myself and my family, including my daughter, who was bullied by a racist school teacher. The same school teachers also attempted to destroy our family with harmful false allegations. My Finnish wife was in total disbelief that this happened in her country. The resulting fallout ended in one teacher’s suspension from the school and the others getting yelled at (we were told unofficially).
Continue reading “A letter to the Non-Discrimination Ombudsperson Kirsi Pimiä”
Why doesn’t Prime Minister Juha Sipilä respond and show leadership?
Dear PM Sipilä,
I am resending and reminding you of my communication on an issue that has not gone away and which – in my opinion – you have yet to acknowledge.
Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, accused of fueling social inequality, is notorious for its lame stance on racism and discrimination. Source: Eduskunta.
In my opinion, you are, as Finland’s PM, obligated to respond and show leadership on the FRA (EU Minorities & Discrimination survey) expert panel findings, presented in Helsinki 12.12.2017.
I hope that you will respond in a manner that befits the office you have been bestowed.
Respectfully*
* Name not published by request.
See also:
- A letter to Prime Minister Juha Sipilä
- EU-MIDIS II: White Europe’s tacit approval and silence of ethnic discrimination
Facebook: Different treatment for different folks in a racialized Finland
Here’s a good question in the Facebook posting below: What would happen if a migrant searched for empty bottles at the Espoo train station?
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This posting in a closed Facebook wall was published with permission by Migrant Tales.