Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 211 of 245

Abdirahim Husu Hussein: A focused candidate with clear goals for Finland

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Abdirahim Husu Hussein is no stranger to Miglrant Tales. He has written a number of times for us and we have followed his political career with keen interest. “Husu” as he’s known to his friends and acquaintances is a Center Party candidate running for parliament who is focused and determined to reach his goals.

Finland holds parliamentary elections on April 19 and different polls predict the Center Party emerging as the big winner.

Contrary to some other Finnish candidates who were born elsewhere, Husu has never given up his ideals or accommodated his values to serve those in power. Finland needs people like Husu in parliament especially these days when anti-immigration rhetoric and bigotry are spreading throughout Europe and Finland.

Husu said that number 13 was his lucky number.

“I’m enjoying this campaign despite the harassment that I’ve received because I’m a Muslim and because of my ethnic background,” he said. “Considering that such people write such things shows that they must be extremely unhappy. I wish I could help and relieve their pain.”

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Camilla Edström Ödemark (March 29, 2015): Exposing White Voids

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Camilla Edström Ödemark is an artist from Åland who moved from her native Mariehamn to Sweden after she graduated from high school. Her artwork hits a sensitive spot especially if you’re in that sometimes challenging situation of adapting to a new country.

Ödemark says that her work focuses on what or who is “abnormal” or “alien” to a group identity and how they help maintain the status quo. In the White Voids exhibition, which opens on April 2 in Helsinki at 6pm at the Third Space Gallery (Tarkk’ampuanktu 18), Ödemark takes us on a journey to white hegemony.

The journey may surprise some while others may immediately identify with the narrative landscapes she places before us.

Camilla Edström Ödemark (Photo by Philippe Beer-Gabel)

White Voids is her first solo exhibition in Finland. Her work has been exhibited in the Moderna Bar at the Museum of Modern Art and the Multicultural Center in Sweden and in Finland (Vapaan Taiteen Tila and Aine Art Museum).

One of the first questions that springs to mind about Ödemark’s work is how a woman from a provincial place like Åland became interested in the “abnormal” and “alien.”

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Defining white Finnish privilege #20: Labeling Others to strengthen “us” and “them”

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Migrant Tales

There were two news stories where the term “person with foreign background” was used by the media this week. The first case was reported on Wednesday, when two people with ”foreign backgrounds” were attacked in Joensuu and the second one a day later, when a suspected Finnish man who tried drive over a fifteen-year-old ”with foreign background.”

After some simple investigative journalism that none of the national media cared to do, Migrant Tales revealed that some o the gang-rape suspects of Tapanila were Finns even if the police labeled them in a statement as teenagers with “foreign backgrounds.”

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Why do the media and police continue to use such a deceptive term to label people who are not white native-speaking Finns? The answer is white Finnish privilege.

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Perussuomalaiset ad stresses “us” versus “them”

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ad below (in Finnish) is the pits. The only mention it makes about our culturally and ethnically diverse society is picture of a Muslim woman. All of the people in the ad are white Finns. It uses slogans like: “Let’s build a good Finland” and “the Perussuomalaiset are on the side of (white) Finns.”

This ad is further proof that the PS is a party that is against New Finns and ready to fuel intolerance in this country at our expense.

A small piece of advice to the PS: This country was never yours, will never be, because this country is ours.

The PS’ view of Finland as this ad shows is what’s wrong with this country today. Finnish racism excludes people who are different from them as these ad clearly shows.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD6yziZ7NhU

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names 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.

RoPS coach Juha Malinen gets snubbed by the Football Association of Finland for inappropriate tweet

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The head coach of Rovaniemen Pallo Seura (RoPS), Juha Malinen, has stuck his foot in his mouth again. Contrary to the first time in April, when he announced that he had the most “Finnish team” in the country according to the surnames of the players, he is now embroiled in another scandal.

The Football Association of Finland (FAF) swiftly snubbed Malinen’s tweet in a statement, where he groups Finnish and “foreign” surnames even if those with former surnames are Finns. FAF said that “all of the under 21-year players on the national team are Finns…”

It was therefore inappropriate for the RoPS coach to group players in such a manner, according to FAF.

This is the tweet that got Malinen in trouble again.

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Perussuomalaisten vaalimainos korostaa “he” ja “me”

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaisten vaalimainos on pohjanoteeraus. Ainoa viittaus meidän kasvavasta monikulttuurisesta ja etnisestä yhteiskunnasta on muslimi nainen. Kaikki ihmiset vaalimainoksessa ovat valkoisia suomalaisia. Iskulauseet ovat: Rakennetaan hyvä Suomi ja Perussuomalaiset (valkoisia) suomalaisten puolella.

Tämä vaalimainos todistaa, että Perussuomalaiset ovat uusia suomalaisia vastaan ja valmiita lisäämän suvaitsemattomuutta Suomessa meidän kustannuksella.

Pieni vinkki Perussuomalaisille: Tämä maa ei ole koskaan ollut vain teidän, eikä koskaan tule olemaan, koska tämä maa on myös meidän.

Perussuomalaisten näkemys Suomesta on juuri se mikä mättää yhteiskunnassa tänään. Suomalainen rasismi syrjii eikä osallista toisia niin kuin vaalimainos antaa ymmärtää.

https://youtu.be/kD6yziZ7NhU

You can read the same opinion piece in English here.

Epic failure of the Finnish media in reporting the impact of the Tapanila sexual assault case

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The theory that immigration is responsible for crime, that the most recent “wave of immigration,” whatever the nationality, is less desirable than the old ones, that all newcomers should be regarded with an attitude of suspicion, is a theory that is almost as old as the colonies planted by Englishmen on the New England coast.

—Edith Abbott in the report of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (1931:23)

A-Studio hosts Markus Liimatainen and Annika Damström invited Sadak Elwan, Kadar Gelle and Maryan Askar to give “their views” on the Tapanila gang-rape case. While this wasn’t the worst example of opinionated and prejudiced journalism, it shows the epic failure of the Finnish media in reporting the impact of the Tapanila sexual assault case.

Liimatainen cites a National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula) study published in 2014, “Immigrants as crime victims and offenders in Finland,” which claims that sexual assaults committed by those born in Africa and the Middle East were 17 times higher than those by native Finns.

Damström, who takes this study as the “ultimate truth” about sexual assault and migrants, asks the guests how they explain such a high statistic.

It’s clear that Damström and Liimatainen didn’t do their homework as journalists but apparently allowed themselves to be carried away by tidbits of information that were unreliable to begin in the Optula study.

Even the study that they cite claims that since the statistical information was only provided by the police, we don’t know what the real figures are. Hence, the study is unreliable and cannot be used to give any type of “ultimate truth.”

The reporter doesn’t mention these issues about the study but prefers instead to treat its conclusions as the “ultimate truth.” Anti-immigration groups are making the same conclusions as she.

Watch full talk show (in Finnish) here.

Professor Vesa Puuronen of Oulu University spoke to Migrant Tales and said that since the statistical information is only from one source, it has therefore a lot of holes.

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Defining white Finnish privilege #19: My rape statistics about your group

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales has followed migrant rape statistic stories for some time. You should always treat them with tweezers when two matters appear:

The news story only cites percentages, not numbers
The percentages are used to label all migrants, especially some groups.

Most of the stories written about migrant rape cases in Finland fit these two characteristics to a tee. Why? Because the percentages have more umph and permit us to eat our cake and keep our prejudices of others.

The Enbuske & Linnanahde talk show is one of many shoddy and racist examples of how the Finnish media labels whole groups in this country thanks to their interpretation of crime statistics.

Now you see the ad below…

This ad, which asked “why Somalis rape” was removed after people started sending emails to the talk show. There were 38 Somalis who were convicted of rape between 2009 and 2013. In 2013 there were over 15,789 Somalis living in Finland who were not Finnish citizens or who spoke Somali as their native language.*

…now you don’t.

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Why do migrants have too little say over their matters in Finland?

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish ministry of education allocated 1.3 million euros in 2015 compared with 1.2 million euros the previous year to support migrants in sports, according to YLE. Despite such sums of money migrants and their children still face obstacles like discrimination and racism in sports.

Discrimination today in Finnish sports appears as exclusion, name-calling, insults, even violence in some cases.

Despite the challenges, sports can play a big role in helping a migrant make new friends and adapt to his or her new homeland.

Read full story here.

Continue reading “Why do migrants have too little say over their matters in Finland?”

Tärkeä kysymys vailla vastausta: Olivatko Tapanilan joukkoraiskauksesta epäillyt suomalaisia?

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Tapanilan joukkoraiskaustapaus on järkyttänyt monet mutta samalla se on tuonut ilmi ikäviä yhteiskunnialisiä asioita kuten välipitämättömyys sekä rasismi. Keskustelu on jyrännyt eteenpäin valtamedian ja sosiaalimedian avulla.

Ihmisten voimakas reaktio sosiaalimediassa ei ole yllättävä, koska yksi Tapanilan joukkoraikkaustapauksen tarkoitus on todennäköisesti ollut vahvistaa meidän ennakkoluuloja toisista ja vahvistaa “me” “heidän” kustannuksella.

Erittäin tärkeä kysymys on uhrin tilanne mutta tapaus avaa toisen tärkeän asian: ketkä ovat suomalasia ja keitä eivät ole. Laillisesti ihminen tunnetaan suomalaiseksi jos hänellä on suomen kansalaisuus. Miksi sitten poliisi kutsuu viittä 15-18 v epäiltyä “ulkomaalaistaustaisia” jos suurin osa heistä on suomalaisia?

Continue reading “Tärkeä kysymys vailla vastausta: Olivatko Tapanilan joukkoraiskauksesta epäillyt suomalaisia?”

Category: Enrique Tessieri