Category: Enrique Tessieri

Iraqi and Afghan demonstration protestors attacked in Helsinki by Finnish thugs

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It’s clear from the comments of far-right Suomi Ensin protestors and even of some Helsinki city councilors that they want the #righttolive demonstration that has been going on since February to end. Even so, far-right demonstrators are confident that the police and Finnish political establishment is on their side that they video and upload an attack against two demonstrators of the #righttolive camp. 

Writes Saku Timonen in his blog: “This [far-right] Suomi ensin group constantly stirs conflict and provokes [the #righttolife demonstrators]. They would like to fight and when they’re about to they use an illegal weapon [spray].”

One of the most disturbing matters about the incident is the police, who are nowhere around and allegedly dragged their feet to capture the perpetrator, one of which is

Imagine if the asylum seeker demonstrators would have acted in the same way as these thugs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQujPf8yhT8

Guess who uploaded this video? Right, Marco de Wit of far-right Suomen Ensi (Finland First). They have tried everything to make the lives of the asylum seekers protesting peacefully as difficult as possible. Interior Minister Paula Risikko visited the Suomen Ensi camp in February and gave them a thumbs up.

Writes Helsingin Sanomat: “At the end of the incident, a little over 20-year-old man’s face was sprayed [by the Finnish perpetrators with a pepper spray]. After this happened, the victim went to the closest restaurant to wash his face but he was followed by the group that had sprayed him [in the face]. These [Finns] threatened the man for a short while in the restaurant, according to the police.”

The hate speech and provocations are real.

Migrant Tales published a video below on Wednesday and attracted over 6,200 views.

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How Sampo Terho’s essay in 2007 is still the norm but in a different context to fuel fear and racism of migrants and minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finnish Perussuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho wrote a decade ago in Kanava an essay with the classic far-right populist rhetoric about the threat of migration. His point of view in the essay is not only sinister but was a central argument used by parties like the PS to attract voters and that their racism was “normal.”  

UPDATED (20.3): By publishing this baloney in a respected publication like Kanava, Terho’s aim is to substantiate his racist points of views.  

Many politicians who wrote racist things in the past and which helped them get elected want us to forget.

We cannot and should not forget for the sake of decency and respect for future generations.

Terho is not just any PS MP with racist views, but one that is vying to become chairman of the anti-immigration party after Timo Soini steps down in early June.

In a letter to the editor to Helsingin Sanomat, Terho claims that his or Halla-aho’s election to the helm of the party will not force it a path of “sheer darkness and evil.”

Columnist Yrjö Rautio wrote in Helsingin Sanomat Friday that if either Terho or Halla-aho become chairman of the PS it would not only mean the end of Soini’s populist project but a slip into “sheer darkness and evil.”

We disagree with part of Rautio’s analysis. The PS was always a party of “sheer darkness and evil” and its main architect is Soini.

Who is Terho anyway and what are his thoughts about migration and cultural diversity?

Even if the PS MP has tried to hide what he wrote in Kanava, it is a classic example of the racism and ethnocentrism that is spread by far-right and right-wing populist anti-immigration groups at the time to instill fear, hostility and racism against migrants and minorities.

Let’s look at some of the main points of Terho’s essay headlined, “European’s past and future.”

Read full essay here.
  • Terho groups humans in the essay into three racial groups: “Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian;”
  • The European population of Africans will grow three-fold by 2050;

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Timo Soini and the denial of Finland’s racism problem

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairman Timo Soini announced after being at the helm of the anti-immigration party for twenty years that he’ll step down as chairman in June. The narrative and the way that some newspapers and politicians are picturing Soini is a good example of Finland’s denial of racism. 

Who gave a voice and platform to politicians that have made their political careers on spreading racism and bigotry like Jussi Halla-aho, Sampo Terho, Olli Immonen, James Hirvisaari, Tony Halme and a very long list of others? All you have to do is to take a look at the hateful quotes these politicians have made against migrants and minorities to understand the connection between Soini and them.

Why is it difficult to exclude and call out a party like the PS, Soini and its politicians as racist bigots?

The answer is simple: Very little to no cultural and ethnic diversity.

Racism doesn’t impact them directly and it’s invigorating for some of them to watch since they reinforce their closet racism.

PS MP and leader of the party’s parliamentary group Sampo Terho is worried about white Europeans becoming a minority due to Muslims. Source: Verkkouutiset.

While there are many examples of how our denial of racism is perpetuated, a few recent examples highlight how it’s done. One of these is Social Democratic Party MEP Liisa Jaakonsaari who said in last week’s A-studio:Talk that Soini was now ok because “he’s not a racist.”

“I respect Timo Soini,” she said. “He has said a number of times that he isn’t a racist, even if I want votes of the racists, I’m not racist [he’s said].”

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“Integration” Denmark style: Eat your racist cake and have it

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Integration Minister Inger Stojberg celebrates the fiftieth amendment to tighten immigration policy. Yes, the “integration” minister celebrated by buying a cake to tell her constituents that in Denmark we celebrate when we pass laws that make migrants’ and asylum seekers’ lives more difficult.

She writes on her Facebook wall:

“Today I got the 50th amendment to tighten immigration controls ratified. This needs celebrating!”

Even if some would want to throw the cake in the picture in her face, we should thank Stojberg for revealing the undercurrent of white nativist privilege and power in the Nordic region. Denmark is one toxic example.

No, Stojberg isn’t a member of the xenophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP) but a member of the Liberal Party. Yes, “liberal,” what ever that means in today’s Denmark.

Matters have gotten so out of hand in Denmark that politicians like Stojberg compete against the DPP to be crowned the most xenophobic. Even parties like the Social Democrats are no different.

Xenophobia is like a drug for Danish politicians. They need their daily fix like Stojberg’s cake.

The integration minister’s cake is another example of Denmark as not only a country that is xenophobic but one that is xenophobic on steroids. Read full post here.

Stojberg’s cake has been commented on widely in social media. Even the New York Times wrote about it.

Continue reading ““Integration” Denmark style: Eat your racist cake and have it”

Behind Timo Soini of the populist Perussuomalaiset party is a hefty and mini #socialmediafrankenstein called Jussi Halla-aho and Sampo Terho

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the biggest questions some observers have asked for a while in Finland is what political house of horrors will appear after Timo Soini retires and the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* return to the minor political leagues? We got the first glimpse of that answer today when PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho announced that he too is vying for chairman of the party. 

Soini, the PS’ long-term leader who will step down in June after leading the right-wing populist party for 20 years, has given a home to eccentrics like Halla-aho, among many others.

This time, however, matter didn’t go according to plan as he got bit by the same anti-immigration forces he unleashed against our ever-growing culturally diverse community.

The whole story of Soini’s political creation, the PS, could be summed up in two scenes from the 1930’s classic Frankenstein.

The first scene below is when Dr. Frankenstein creates his monster.

In the second scene the monster destroys his creator.

Continue reading “Behind Timo Soini of the populist Perussuomalaiset party is a hefty and mini #socialmediafrankenstein called Jussi Halla-aho and Sampo Terho”

Saturday’s demo by far-right groups like the Perussuomalsiset, Suomi Ensi, Rajat kiinni! and neo-Nazi fanatics was a stinging flop

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A handful of well-organized Afghan and Iraqi asylum seekers demonstrating against deportations at the Helsinki Railway Square since February scored a victory over a splintered far-right anti-immigration counter-demonstration that turned out a flop. They were all there: the Perussuomalaiset* (PS), Suomen Sisu, Suomi Ensi, Rajat kiinni!, Suomen vastarintaliike and who knows what. 

Juha Mäenpää is a councilperson from Ilmajoki and a deputy MP of the PS who was at the counter-demonstration. He said in December 2015 that “god had answered his prayers” when an asylum reception center was razed to the ground.

Juha Mäenpää’s campaign ad when he ran for MP. Source: www.persujuha.fi

Some state that Mäenpää was one of the organizers of the counter-demonstration against the Afghan and Iraqi demonstration but he denied such claims.

“I don’t know who organized the event,” he told Migrant Tales by phone. “There were a number of demonstrations going on at the same time.”

On Facebook and about two weeks before the event, the counter-demonstration was announced as a “purge” against “illegal migrants who should leave Finland.”

“Do you think that the organizers would advertise that they’d ‘purge’ by force [such people] and advertise it on Facebook? the councilperson said denying that there were any plans of using violence. “[If they’d use violence] they’d keep their plans a secret.”

Mäenpää, who doesn’t appear to get along with Suomi Ensin leader Marco de Wit, said that in his opinion both demonstrations (Suomi Ensin and the asylum seekers) should be forced to leave the Helsinki Railway Square.

“It’s naive not to think that these people [asylum seekers] aren’t dangerous,” he continued. “We don’t know who they are. They could be criminals or Isis terrorists and therefore we need to lock them up like [asylum seekers] in Hungary and Estonia until we can figure out who they are.”

Hungary’s parliament has voted to put all asylum seekers in detention camps and to live in containers, according to the Guardian. Estonia has taken similar steps to lock up asylum seekers, according to Mäenpää.

He said that Muslim asylum seekers could never adapt to life in Finland.

Continue reading “Saturday’s demo by far-right groups like the Perussuomalsiset, Suomi Ensi, Rajat kiinni! and neo-Nazi fanatics was a stinging flop”

Thank you asylum seekers for exposing Finland for what it is!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland got during 2015 and 2016 38,017 asylum seekers mostly from Iraq (21,698), Afghanistan (5,939) and Somalia (2,408), according to the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). Even if these asylum seekers have received the government’s and Migri’s cold shulder, we should thank hem for exposing our deep denial of racism as a society and ineffective immigration-integration policy.

While the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä is quick to point out that those 38,000-odd asylum seekers were housed and taken care off when they came here, it’s only part of the truth.

The full story is radically different and kept under wraps: The government squandered hundreds of millions of euros just to fulfill theirs and especially the Perussuomalaiset’s (PS) anti-immigration policy that hinges on racism, prejudice and greed for political power.

We spent hundreds of millions of euros just to keep tens of thousands of asylum seekers in asylum reception centers twiddling their thumbs.

Most of the organizers against the asylum seekers’ demonstration Saturday were members of the Perussuomalaiset party, according to the Kaivuri blog. We can’t say for certain but in the picture above is Ilmajoki city councillor Juha Mäenpää of the PS speaks at the event. Mäenpää said in December 2015 that “god had answered his prayers” when an asylum reception center was razed to the ground. Migrant Tales will post another story later today about the impact of Saturday’s demonstration.

Apart from revealing how unjust the government’s and Migri’s immigration and asylum policy is, asylum seekers in Finland have brought out the best in our society by showing that there are many of us who still believe in Nordic ideals such as social equality and fairness.

It’s clear that the government has lost its humanitarian compass if we look at its track record on immigration policy and its treatment of the most vulnerable sectors of society, like the unemployed and those that live below the poverty line.

Continue reading “Thank you asylum seekers for exposing Finland for what it is!”

How the Perussuomalaiset party permit racism to see another day in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As almost everyone knows in this country, Finland will hold municipal elections on April 9. The right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are in shock for a number of reasons: their chairman, Timo Soini, who has run the party for 20 years is stepping down in June, and recent polls suggest that they will suffer a stinging defeat in the municipal elections. 

Janne Hurme is a singer who is running for the Turku municipal council on the PS ticket.

He is one of a long list of examples of how the populist anti-immigration party and Finland eat their racist cake and keep it at the same time.

Migrant Tales wrote about a tragic suicide attempt of an asylum seeker near the railway station on Wednesday. The comments made in social media about the attempted suicide revealed the racism and bigotry that is well-entrenched in our society.

Hurme keeps it going with the following post on Facebook:

A hanging? The idiot [asylum seeker] with hair jell climbed a tree but doesn’t know how to come down. Nothing special considering that the place of a monkey is the tree.

The snapshot of the comment was taken from Jori Eskolin’s blog:

One thing is what Hurme wrote but the most incredible matter of all is the reaction of the PS.

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Defining white Finnish privilege #33: Appropriating our narrative to maintain the status quo, amass more power and privilege

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the most important matters that one learns when reading about our ever-growing culturally diverse society in Finland is that there is fierce opposition from some circles against cultural and ethnic diversity. According to these groups, the only way that a multicultural Finn, migrant and minority can live in Finland is if they have control of the narrative. 

Catchwords such as social equality (tasa-arvo), equal opportunities and Nordic social welfare democracy are minefields laid by white Finnish society to amass power, privilege and, most importantly, keep minorities passive.

Far-right group Suomi Ensin (Finland First) demonstrating aganist asylum seekers at the Helsinki Railway Square. They are the vocal side of bigotry and racism in Finland. Many Finns are closet racists who don’t come out like Suomi Ensin. Photo: Enrique Tessieri.

Another catchphrase used ad nauseam in this country by politicians, public servants and the like is “we have zero tolerance for racism.”

When xenophobic and ultranationalistic politicians like Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Ville Tavio can state with a poker face on A-studio: talk that he has zero tolerance for racism, you understand that such a statement isn’t worth much.

White Finnish society in this context means the effective whitewashing that has taken place in Finland during its near-100 years of independence to erase as much as possible all traces of cultural and ethnic diversity off the map.

Definition #33

The fact of the matter is that despite all the rhetoric about being “against racism” there are in the backdrop of that statement few if any multicultural Finns, migrants and minorities in places of power. When a public official states “he or she is against racism” it is usually code for maintaining the status quo and keeping cultural diversity on a short leash or passive.

If politicians were really interested in doing away with racism and bigotry they would stop using catchphrases and take concrete steps to give multicultural Finns, migrants and minorities representation in the police service, Finnish Border Guards, politics, management, and many other professions.

The reason why nobody wants to change the narrative, and why it has been appropriated by those that have power and privilege, is because nothing is supposed to change.

For many of us, social equality is nothing but a catchphrase used to pacify multicultural Finns, migrants and minorities from demanding their rights and to be treated as equal citizens.

See also:

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” 

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s poor track record on challenging xenophobia and hate speech

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä not only has tightened immigration policy but is complacent and near-silent about the rise of xenophobia and hate speech in Finland. Sure, we’ve heard so many times the familiar “we’re against racism” affirmations, which are only catchphrases that are not supposed to change anything.    

If we are honest with ourselves, what can we expect from a government that has little regard for the most vulnerable sectors of society like the unemployed and those that are dependant on social welfare? If they treat people who live under the poverty line with disdain why would they care less for migrants never mind asylum seekers?

To make matters worse, Sipilä’s government comprises of a right-wing populist party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which has made a name for itself with its nationalistic anti-immigration and anti-EU rhetoric. What can you say about the PS’ partners in government, the National Coalition Party (NCP) and the Center Party, which should know better but don’t?

I’m surprised by how little attention we pay in Finland to the connection between the rise of anti-immigration populism and hate crimes. Few care since the bottom line is that society and its institutions see migration and cultural diversity as a threat. Policy, rhetoric, even the Finnish Immigration Service’s videos on Finland convey the same message: We see you as a threat.

Wednesday was another day this week when we saw another example of how fear turned to hate and complacency fuel the lowest form of racist behavior.

An asylum seeker had attempted to commit suicide at the Helsinki Railway Square, where the Iraqis and Afghans have been demonstrating against deportations since February. According to Helsingin Sanomat, the young asylum seeker had climbed a tree and attempted to hang himself.

While what happened is one of a myriad of examples of how Migri is a source of despair for migrants, it is incredible to note the knee-jerk reaction of hatred that flooded some social media sites on that day. Finland, one of the most richest countries in the world with its renowned education systems has people who would care less about exposing their hatred, racism and bigotry shamelessly.

One of these reactions to the attempted suicide was published in Sakari Timonen’s blog:

“Are there any interested persons ready to carry out a group hanging of asylum seekers [uses a derogatory term]? Since the euthanasia [bill] has moved forward [in parliament], we’re not in danger of being sentenced [for committing such crimes]. We could also burn them but I need a sponsor since, after paying taxes, I don’t have enough money to buy enough gasoline for the task. It could also be a French-style guillotine lynching, which would be triggered by pulling a rope [and then letting go of it].  SE (Suomi Ensin/Finland First far-right group) or any other one could organize a theme evening next to the [Helsinki Railway] square about these execution methods. There could also be a big plaque where it would read and promise that when you die you’ll be with 72 virgins in heaven. What I write isn’t racist since I am only thinking of the asylum seekers’ best interest of leaving Finland for good, if they can leave. I don’t know.”

That Facebook post was published this week by a Finn in a backdrop of government silence.

While these types of comments show the sickness that inflicts Finnish society today, the complacency and leadership by politicians is so obvious that it is socially nauseating.  Good examples are NCP Interior Minister Paula Risikko who met with protestors of the Suomi Ensi camp last month as did ardent Trump supporter MP Laura Huhtasaari of the PS.

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