Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 187 of 245

Vigilante gangs, the Finnish police service and our denial of racism

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

The big news story in Finland today is vigilante gangs by xenophobic, far-right and neo-Nazi groups. That’s not all. Some of the members of these vigilante gangs have criminal records.

Should we be surprised?

Not really. The political and xenophobic atmosphere in Finland is ideal for the growth of such vigilante gangs.

Neo-Nazi gangs with criminal records patrol the streets of Finnish towns and cities.

I use the term “gang” to describe these groups because for non-white Finns they don’t offer any sense of security but severely undermine it. Such vigilante gangs are a nasty reminder of Finland’s racism problem and how it is has come to back haunt us from the 1990s.

These vigilante gangs are as well a good example of how something racist in Finland gets national attention and becomes mainstream and a household word.

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are the best example of how racism and hostility against migrants, minorities, and cultural diversity become mainstream and acceptable by the political establishment, media, and public. While our attention is on groups like the Soldiers of Odin the real culprits are the PS and us, who give them the benefit of the doubt and a platform for their racist views.

As long as the PS are in power and as long as the Center Party and National Coalition Party need their support in government to trim the welfare state, matters will get worse in Finland for migrants, minorities and our culturally diverse community.

How did racism become an instant political hit in Finland? The answer is that there was little to no opposition to it. The reason why there is too little opposition to such a social ill reveals our denial and how we play down the problem collectively. Racism doesn’t affect white Finns directly so there’s no reason to be too worried about the issue.

Continue reading “Vigilante gangs, the Finnish police service and our denial of racism”

Finnish police service of Häme give the green light to vigilante gangs in Asikkala

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Migrant Tales

THIS POST WAS UPDATED

If the comments and actions of politicians and the police service in 2015 are any indication of what we’ll expect this year, then asylum seekers, migrants, and minorities will see another shameful year of hostility and violence. On Saturday, a detective chief inspector of southern Finland, Markku Tuominen, was quoted as saying that Finns should avoid contact with foreigners and today the police service of Häme welcomed street patrols in the town of Asikkala, according to Hämeen Kaiku.

Isn’t it the job of the police service to provide security to everyone? Aren’t they the ones that have to patrol our streets? Why did the police service of Häme give the green light to Asikkalan-Turva, an association, to patrol the streets of the town located 133km north of Helsinki and near the city of Lahti?

The street patrols by Asikkalan-Turva are being carried out in a town where an asylum reception center was already the target of an unsuccessful arson attack in December.

Considering the number of reception centers that have been attacked since September it’s odd that the police of Häme don’t show too much concern for the security of the asylum seekers.

Continue reading “Finnish police service of Häme give the green light to vigilante gangs in Asikkala”

Twitter: White Finnish rapist or arsonist = lone wolf, drunk

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Migrant Tales

In Finland, we have had a number of arson attacks against asylum reception centers. We even have one substitute MP of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party who wrote that “god had answered his prayers” when a building, which was supposed to house asylum seekers, was razed to the ground earlier this month.

Does Finland play down crimes carried by their nationals but magnifies those committed by asylum seekers, migrants, and minorities?

Green League chairman Ville Niinistö said during the weekend that the police doesn’t take attacks against reception centers seriously enough. If such attacks were carried out against senior homes or day care centers the reaction of the police service would be different, according to him.

Why don’t the police and politicians brand arsonists who attack asylum reception centers as terrorists? I wouldn’t even want to think what our reaction would be if an asylum seeker carried out similar acts. Why does the prime minister call an emergency crisis meeting because of a suspected rape case when there are thousands of shameful rape cases that go unreported and are committed daily by suspected white Finns?

The post on Samuel Turtianen’s Facebook wall offers us more hypocracy. The posting was published on PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho’s, MPs Olli Immonen’s, Teuvo Hakkarainen,’s and Laura Huhtasaari’s wall, all of whom are well-known Islamophobes.

The PS is a government party that shares power with the Center Party and National Coalition Party.

Turtiainen appears to be a supporter of the PS.

He writes:

“Dear Citizens, those of you who have taken to some extent personal risks in acting and eliminating already functioniong and planned asylum reception centers. Your work is and has been in many respects important to our independence and defending our security. The hands of the police are politically tied, which means that the people have to act on their own. These acts have thanks to the media became widely known to all of us and we know what’s the question. Is the time right to expand our actions to the enemy’s main centers, where this [asylum reception center policy] is managed. In the shared article it become clear that our worst enemy [Finnish Red Cross] cheers [a person down] when a cirtizen expersses her personal fears.”

The “article,” or opinion piece by Tiina Palovuori, a PS member, was about her recent visit to an asylum reception center in Tampere. She asked if she had to take precautions because she feared being raped.

When we label Others terrorists and criminals we permit scapegoating to live anther day and justify our exclusiveness, entitlement or white Finnish privilege. It makes us feel like saints.

The mixed response of the police, politicians, and the general public in the face of ever-growing xenophobia in this country reveals the extent of our own moral problem.

In the Finnish language, it would read something like the following below:

* 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.

Writer Nura Farah is one of the bright hopes of multicultural Finland

Posted on December 26, 2015September 30, 2025 by Migrant Tales

Nura Farah is Finland’s first published writer with Somali roots. She moved to Finland as a refugee in the early 1990s when she was 13 years old and when one of her countries became absorbed in a costly and painful civil war that continues to date.

Her first book, Aavikon tyttäret (Daughters of the desert), published by Otava last year, gives a glimpse of the lives of women in Somalia during that country’s struggle for independence in 1940-60.

Nura Farah. Kuva: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava.

Apart from being the first “Somali” writer to publish in the Finnish language, her latest milestone as a writer was winning in December the 2015 Suomi-palkkinnon award, which is given by the ministry of education to aspiring and established artists and writers.

This year’s prize was 24,700 euros.

“I’m not the only one who’s got the award there were others [like writer and film director Hassan Blasim and artist Abdel Abidin],” said Farah with a hint of humility. “This year’s [Suomi-palkinnon] awards reflect support by the ministry of education for multiculturalism.”

Farah said that there are many challenges as Finnish society becomes ever-culturally diverse. She believes that multiculturalism can work, but it’s important that migrants and minorities don’t isolate themselves from the rest of society.

“We live in difficult times these days,” she continued. “It’s even scary and I sometimes feel that we’ve returned back to the 1990s [when racism was more public].”

According to Farah, one of the problems that Finland should acknowledge today is that social exclusion is a problem we must challenge. She said that even if you were born in this country to non-Finnish parents you’re still not accepted as an equal member of society never mind as a “real” Finn.

Is Finland swapping Nordic values like social equality for social inequality?

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Social Democratic Party (SDP) MEP Liisa Jaakonsaari gives a good interview to Helsingin Sanomat about the government’s 80-point plan to tighten immigration policy that not only targets asylum seekers but impacts negatively the whole migrant and minority community of Finland.

According to Jaakonsaari, 70 of the 80 points in the government’s plan has the stamp of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. If this is the case, no wonder Finland is having difficulty in focusing on more pressing matters like jump-starting economic growth and creating jobs.

Like the SDP MEP correctly pointed out, the big picture of the new policy is clear: Asylum seekers shouldn’t come to Finland because they’re not welcome.

Imagine, we already have an underclass of people in this country that are so disenfranchised that Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government can even propose, with a poker face, shelving indefinitely their basic civil and human rights. This is happening in a country that takes seriously human rights and brags about social equality.

Migrant Tales wrote recently:

The government now hopes with the 80-point plan to not only make life difficult for asylum seekers, and in turn for all migrants and minorities in this country, but introduce policy changes that are unconstitutional. PS Social Welfare Minister Hanna Mäntylä has been eager to lower subsidies to asylum seekers that get a residence permit.

Asylum-seekers, migrants, and minorities aren’t the only one’s feeling the brunt of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, which is comprised by the PS, Center Party and National Coalition Party. Finns who are pensioners, unemployed and rely on social welfare are the target of massive social welfare cuts that will make their lives harder.

Jaakonsaari said that giving a temporary residence permit to those that get asylum in Finland is a good example of PS anti-immigration ideology. Even if it wasn’t pointed out in the Helsingin Sanomat interview, the idea to offer temporary residence permits comes from Norway, where the anti-immigration populist Progress Party (FrP) shares power with Conservative Party (Høyre).

The Finnish media hasn’t for some reason connect the dots, but nationalist-populist parties in the Nordic region are following each other’s anti-immigration rhetoric and policies on how to tighten and make life as hard as possible for asylum seekers and their respective migrant communities.

What’s the solution? There is none except that as long as the PS are in government, the anti-immigration climate in Finland will not improve but get worse. Hostility against migrants and cultural diversity is what makes the PS tick politically.

Don’t expect anything to improve in the short-run either.

Massive spending cuts by the government and tighter immigration policy will encourage migrants and refugees to compete and fight against each other and against poor Finns for ever-meager resources. But mark my words: The more space that is given to the PS politically the more hostility there will be against asylum seekers, migrants and our ever-culturally diverse society.

Listen to full interview here.

Even if SDP leader Antti Rinne is quoted as saying that he backs and considers government plans to tighten immigration policy “a very good idea,” such a stance is a big mistake. We saw this type of mimicking of the PS in 2011 with poor consequences for the Social Democrats.

Continue reading “Is Finland swapping Nordic values like social equality for social inequality?”

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Spot-On Journalism

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism has been updated throughout the year. Too many stories that appear in the Finnish media exemplify poor and sloppy journalism, especially when they cover racism and our ever-growing culturally diverse society. The editorial published below by Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat is a rare example of spot-on journalism in Finland.

To see examples of poor and shoddy journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

September 18

Häpeäksi Lahdelle – (Etelä-Suomen Sanomat)

What’s so good about this editorial? Kalle Aaltonen is a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party Lahti city councilman who likes to spread anti-immigration rhetoric to get attention. Each insult that he throws appears to boomerang back to him with a provocation. On Wednesday, he appeared to accept the latest challenge. He didn’t find a new provocation that challenged him but probably the last nail on his political coffin. He wrote on his Facebook page that the Red Cross could go “f**k itself as well as all of you other wankers who have made it possible/permitted Finns’ kindness and taxes to be misused.” The PS will decide Wednesday whether to sack Aaltonen from the party. In the face of these irresponsible statements by a city councilman, Etelä-Suomen Sanomat took leadership and denounced Aaltonen’s latest rant. Too often we’ve seen the opposite in Finland when the national media incorrectly believes that by not noticing racism and politicians like Aaltonen racism will go away.

Apart from telling the Lahti city councilman that what he said was unbecoming of a politician and defending the important role that the Red Cross plays in managing the record number of asylum seekers in Finland, the last paragraph of the editorial is spot on:

“Perussuomalaiset party secretary Riitta Slunga-Poutsalo has described Aaltonen’s behavior as idiotic. There’s not much we can add to that. Aaltonen’s coarse language is not only a shame to himself and to the Perussuomalaiset [party] but to the whole city council and through it to the city of Lahti. If Aaltonen is incapable of making the right decision others will have to do it on his behalf.”

The “Denmarkization” of Finnish immigration policy

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS) are eager to pass legislation that will not only hurt asylum seekers but all migrants and minorities that live in Finland. After breaking almost all of their campaign promises and after their poll rating have plummeted to single-digit percentages, the PS only have one trump card left in their political bag of tricks: anti-immigration rhetoric and policy.

The PS won’t openly admit except occasionally that they have a semi-secret ideological love affair with the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP).

Just to give you a small glimpse of what the DPP stands for, the poster below published by Politiken, one of the country’s biggest dailies, offers an eyeful.

Like the rise of the PS, the only issue that has kept the DPP in politics since early 2000 is Islamophobia and anti-immigration rhetoric. They never form part of the government but instead support minority governments, like now.

Continue reading “The “Denmarkization” of Finnish immigration policy”

PS MP comes to Huhtasaari’s rescue but doesn’t have a faint idea about human rights

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Leena Meri came to the rescue of MP Laura Huuhtasaari, who claimed that human rights don’t apply to everyone. What Meri argues about the UN Declaration of Human Rights is equally worrying considering that she was a policewoman.

Both Meri and Huhtasaari are in the same league when it comes to Islamophobia. Both are building their political careers on hostility towards Muslims. It is naive to think that the hostility they spew about Muslims doesn’t affect all migrants and minorities in this country.

What does this anti-immigration former policewoman PS MP write in the party’s online publication to support her colleague Huhtasaari?

Human rights weren’t originally founded to give rights to practice terrorism but on the contrary. In other words grant normal people the right to live in freedom without being under a dictatorship or terrorism. If our laws in any way are hindering our fight against terrorism such laws should be changed quickly instead of debating such matters.

Meri appears not to have read, like Huhtasaari, the UN Declaration of Human Rights carefully. She should especially take a look at articles 10 and 11.

ARTICLE 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

ARTICLE 11.

Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Read full opinion piece here.

Continue reading “PS MP comes to Huhtasaari’s rescue but doesn’t have a faint idea about human rights”

A Finnish lawmaker who states that human rights don’t apply to everyone

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Migrant Tales

With a populist anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in government, it’s clear that issues like human rights and the right to asylum would be questioned by such a bigoted party. Laura Huhtasaari, right, the PS MP with the kindergarten teacher smile, has stuck her foot in her mouth again.

This time, it isn’t for denying that evolution exists but for suggesting that human rights don’t apply to everyone.

PS MP Huhtasaari tweets: “Human Rights have been founded to protect civilians, not terrorists, war criminals or criminals.”

If the PS MP would have read carefully the UN Declaration of Human Rights she’d know that human rights apply to everyone, even suspected terrorists, suspected war criminals and suspected criminals.

Continue reading “A Finnish lawmaker who states that human rights don’t apply to everyone”

Why do the police identify Others as “person with migrant background” even if this is confusing, even illegal?

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The tabloid story below picked up by Koko Hubara on her Facebook wall is an excellent example of how the define ethnicity and race. The police service is one of the most eager institutions in this country when it comes to labeling who are “real” Finns and those who are not.

By law, a person is considered a Finn if he or she is a Finnish citizen. Even so, the police don’t care if you have Finnish citizenship or even if you were born in this country.

The Ilta-Sanomat story below is a prime example. It states that that “people with a migrant background” tried to rape a teenage girl in the southwestern Finnish city of Pori.

What does “people with migrant background mean?” Is it code for people who aren’t from the EU? But wait a minute! Europe is culturally and ethnically a very diverse place, Finland as well. Why then is the police defining on its own accord so-called “ethnic” Finns, or kantasuomalaiset, and non-white Finns, or “people with a migrant background?”

A classic example of the way the police arbitrarily puts Finns into different ethnic categories was the Tapanila rape case in March.

Migrant Tales spoke in spring with the policeman, Jyri Hiltunen, who is in charge of the Tapanila rape case. He confirmed that some of the suspects are Finnish citizens.

“I don’t know exactly if all of them are citizens or not because this isn’t an essential piece of information in the case,” he said. “But some are [Finnish citizens].”

Not an essential piece of information? I disagree, considering some of these then suspects were born and raised in Finland as well.

Read original Ilta-Sanomat story here.

A person’s ethnicity and national background are defined the following manner: by nationality, place of birth and mother tongue.

Continue reading “Why do the police identify Others as “person with migrant background” even if this is confusing, even illegal?”