Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 44 of 245

Sweden is the pet topic of the Perussuomalaiset, spreading fake news, too

Posted on August 15, 2022 by Migrant Tales

If you didn’t speak out against racism, who would?

Sweden is a pet topic of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. They constantly and obnoxiously remind us what a horrible place Sweden is because there live Muslims and other migrants.

PS chairperson, Riikka Purra, continues to push her ethnonationalist and ethnic replacement theory at almost every opportunity. She constantly attacks people who are vieraskielisiä, people who do not speak Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue.

Purra tweets below:
In the [September] Swedish [parliamentary] elections, there is a general debate to discuss how many “non-Nordics” can live in each area and what problems too many will cause.
So times are changing, even in Sweden. Unfortunately, it is too late [for them].
If only Finland would understand [to act] before such a matter happens.”

Purra forgets to mention how much migrants have contributed to building Sweden’s economy and well-being. She doesn’t, for obvious reasons, mention how our ever-growing elderly population will impoverish us.

Moreover, Purra, like her PS lapdogs and followers, are constantly whining about how bad Sweden is and how immigration is bad for society.

Twitter (Riikka Purra): Islamofobia ja “sokeus,” perussuomalaiset ja islamofobia

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaisten puheenjohtaja Riikka Purra leimaa kaikki muslimit vaarallisiksi. Kaikissa uskonnoissa ja kulttuurissa on mielipuolisia ihmisiä. Miksi Purra ei puhu sanaakaan Ricky Shifferista?

Shifferi on yksi Trumpin kannustaja joka hyökkäsi aseella FBIn toimiston Cincinnatissa ja sai surmansa myöhemmin.

Annan Purralle yhden kattavasta raportista islamofobiasta Euroopassa, jossa olen maininnut hänet ja hänen puolueensa monia kertoja. Tässä linkki.

**Lähde: European Islamophobia Report 2020**

White Finnish justice is sometimes lopsided

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Migrant Tales

An example of how white Finnish justice works?

Two inebriated white Finns start to harass a non-white boy in a racist manner. The boy yells something back at them and speeds away with his bike.

A white Finnish couple says something at the men about their behavior toward the boy. They approach the couple, and the thirty-year-old man hits and kicks one of the suspects who yelled at the boy.

The man, claims that he attacked the inebriated men after they got about a meter from him. The man said he attacked them because he feared they might have a knife.

The court did not accept the defendant’s claim and was fined 1,300 euros for assault and threatening a person unlawfully.

A court of appeal had turned down a request to overturn the original ruling.

**Read the full story (in Finnish) here.**

Up to here, we can sort of understand the case. However, an important piece is missing: racist harassment of a child by two white Finnish adults. Did the police attempt to find the child and bring charges against the two men?

The story reads as if racist harassment is unimportant and has no bearing on the case.

White Finnish justice is lopsided.

After 16 hours in the darkness, Migrant Tales is up and running again

Posted on August 13, 2022 by Migrant Tales

I was shocked when my provider suspended my account on Friday. The first matter that I thought about was if there was an unpaid bill and that was the cause for my provider to suspend my account.

The last time we had a similar scare was in 2012, when we were down for about 13 hours.

My provider gave me the following news: “Hello, It appears that there is an attack coming through on the domain. Specifically a lot of wp-login hits and main page of the site.”

Not being able to post anything because the site was under attack is a horrible feeling, to say the least. That is why it is important to have a good provider who can offer expedient support when needed.

Death threats, threats in general, harassment, and malicious attacks against the site are all part of a blogger’s ecosystem.

After a dip in the darkness, we are up and running again.

This made my Saturday night.

How coded language is used in Finland to get around labelling groups and racist words

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Migrant Tales

In Finland, some parties are openly racist, and others are more subtle about it. Both are dangerous to our community. The more we know about them, the better prepared we are to challenge such a menace.

Large opposition parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) have one matter in common: they loathe asylum seekers from outside the EU but rarely name the ethnic group directly.

In all respects, they are nothing more than cowardly bullies for treating vulnerable people like asylum seekers with such contempt.

Parties that profit politically off asylum seekers are such cowards that they usually speak in code. The term “asylum seeker” is used usually to signify Muslim as well as “person of migrant background,” when he’s not an asylum seeker.

Ever wonder why both these parties usually refuse to use the word “Muslim” or “Arab?” True, the PS no longer does but uses Afghans (and previously Somalis) in some of its postings like the one below, where it claims that keeping such people out of Finland and putting them in refugee camps in a neighboring country helps 50 refugees.

The PS tweet below states:”Do we want to help – or do we want more migrants? The best way to help them in neighboring [countries].
One Afghan to Finland costs as much as [helping] 50 people in bordering countries.”

MT Media Monitoring: Why doesn’t Helsingin Sanomat tell us the full story about labor market discrimination?

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest daily, missed another opportunity to expose the elephant in the room about why so few Ukrainian nurses and medics are hired in the face of a chronic labor shortage in the health sector.

True, the daily does address issues like language as a factor. But isn’t this a common excuse in the labor market to not hire non-Finns? Another factor cited by the paper is the bureaucracy (Valvira, the national supervisory authority for welfare and health) and rules, which make hiring healthcare professionals challenging.

Numerous studies on Finland’s and EU’s labor markets conclude they are racialized and segregated. So many toxic matters that impact migrant employment spring from structural racism. Why are we treating such a social ill with kid gloves?

Olga Silfver of the Ukrainian association of Finland sheds light on the country’s racialized and segregated markets, which also apply to white and Christian Ukrainians.

Why is racism such a difficult matter for Helsingin Sanomat to address?

Posted on August 9, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Helsingin Sanomat raised an important question: There are a record amount of asylum seekers from Ukraine, but nobody is crying murder like when mostly Iraqis and Afghans came to Finland in large numbers in 2015.

In a statement Monday, the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) said that there are over 37,000 Ukrainians registered in the Finnish asylum reception system, more than the over 32,000 asylum seekers that arrived in the country in 2015.

Finland’s largest daily asks a good question that should expose our double standards: Why do Ukraininens get preferential treatment against the hostile reception asylum seekers from outside Europe received seven years ago?

Third culture: Misconceptions like “traveling opens your mind.” Answer: Not always.

Posted on August 7, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Third culture children are those who grow up in a country other than their parents’.

I have traveled since I was a year and a half between continents and boarded airplanes throughout my life like buses and heard many times a given assumption that traveling is supposed to open your mind.

True or false?

FACT 1: While traveling may sometimes broaden your horizons about different countries, cultures, and peoples, it may have the opposite effect and reinforce your prejudices and racism toward others.

FACT 2: While traveling opens your mind to the world, your peers may not like your “open” views. It is a classic situation that may lead to bullying. Your difference becomes a source of scorn.

My eighth-grade classmates in 1968. While I hope some of these students had a pleasant journey through middle school, mine was marred by mistrust, ridicule, outsiderness, rejection, and ostracism. I survived Blessed Sacrament and became a stronger person from it. This picture has been posted on social media. I hope my former classmates don’t mind if they appear in this post.

I attended a conservative Catholic middle school in Hollywood, California. Since I had traveled so much and lived in many countries during those early teen years, my view of the world was very different from my classmates.

The situation led to bullying, even by the teachers.

One of these teachers was Vincent Orlando, who taught history. I must have been 13 or 14 years old at the time.

MT MEDIA MONITORING: How politicians perpetuate urban tales about migrants (Uusi Suomi)

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Migrant Tales

An interview by Uusi Suomi of National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MP Atte Kaleva, who is part of Finland’s Islamophobic network, demonstrates a common flaw by the Finnish media that perpetuates urban tales and misconceptions spread by politicians about migrants.

Kaleva claims that implementing a quota system for “foreign” students at schools in Finland would help to tackle so-called urban segregation.

Some teachers have suggested earlier that classrooms should have quotas for the number of “foreign” pupils. It may sound like a simple solution to the problem, but it is legally impossible for several reasons:

I fear nationalism and racism as much as Russia

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Apart from tightening laws and plans to build a fence on parts of the Finnish-Russian border, politicians in Finland are debating shutting tourism from Russia to Finland. As I have mentioned previously, one of the biggest fears of the war in Ukraine is awakening Finland’s deep distrust and hatred of Russia.

The hatred will not only affect the Russians and our views of that country but spill over to other groups like Muslims and People of Color. If matters were shaky for these groups in Finland, they would worsen as the war drags on.

Despite all the bravado and defiance by politicians as the eye of April’s parliamentary election, some level-headed opinions are out there. One of these is Helsingin Sanomat, which wrote that the issue of visa restrictions was “not so clearcut. Restrictions must be in line with our values and goals. Sanctions should not be imposed on the basis of nationality, but according to a person’s actions or inaction.”