Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 57 of 246

Migrant Tales Literary: Where happiness lives

Posted on September 10, 2021 by Migrant Tales

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.

William Blake (1757-1827)

Leo Honka

Of all the seasons that pass over Finland, possibly fall is the most magical. But what makes it stand out from the others?

Is it the pitch-darkness? Is it the vast universe above and its peppered celestial inhabitants that appear to gaze down on us longer than usual?

Yet again it could be the sound of rustling leaves and rapid breezes that holds on for a moment to trees before losing steam. Are they the moonlight beams that light timid forest paths that lead to places that test your courage?

Or is it the bittersweet combination of homesickness dancing momentarily with merry anticipation before you part for distant lands?

Searching for happiness

For some Finns, autumn is the most mysterious season. If a ghost house comes alive in the evening, all the spirits – imagined and real – appear to awaken from deepest slumber and to the woods during this time of the year.

For me, fall is that time when I fight pitch battles against melancholy with a sword called hope. The battle is waged by visits to the forest, which teems with lingonberries, mushrooms, and other delights.

The journeys into the woods can be very spiritual. They can be like brief walks on the avenues of the soul.

**Autumn near Vanhala. Photo by Enrique Tessieri**

If weddings are commonplace in Finland at midsummer, it’s in fall when souls make secret vows and marry other souls in secret weddings under tall shady spruces by rushing, chilly streams playing splashing sounds with stones.

One of the forests I enjoy visiting in fall is near Vanhala, a hamlet made up of a few farmhouses and an elementary school. The village, which is located 15 minutes from Mikkeli, is so small that I once biked through it without noticing it.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Finland’s hardline and bureaucratic immigration policy is deadly for democracy

Posted on September 9, 2021 by Migrant Tales

“Finland’s hardline and bureaucratic immigration policy based in great part on suspicion and fear of outsiders is partly to blame for the rise of a populist and hostile anti-immigration party in the last decade and even for high migrant unemployment. A systematic policy of exclusion suggests that our plans to bring foreign labor will fail. A good example of this never-never land thinking is the Perussuomalaiset* party, which wants to sell residence permits for 50,000 euros.”

The Finnish media’s reporting about migrants and minorities is a disappointment

Posted on September 8, 2021 by Migrant Tales

It is surprising, even worrying, that outsiders are the ones that help burst the media’s many bubbles. One such OP-ED published Wednesday in Helsingin Sanomat by Antti Kivijärvi, and Martta Myllyä sheds light on the blind spot created by exceptionalism and ethnocentrism.

Should it be a surprise that this state of affairs happens whenever migrants (usually asylum seekers and Muslims) and minorities are the topic?

Recently we saw this ethnocentric monster appear with the Helsinki district court’s ruling that carrying Nazi Germany flags in public was not ethnic agitation.

The debate surrounding neo-Nazis and racism in Finland does not consider the victims themselves. When have you seen a black sociologist offer his views on an act of racism or of racism in general in this country?

Two days after the Helsinki court’s ruling, Kirkko ja kaupunki was the only media in Finland that interviewed the Jewish community.

Certainly, Jews, Roma, and other victims of Nazi terror have some opinions about Nazi flags.

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

QUOTE OF THE DAY: A migrant’s journey never ends and may last generations

Posted on September 7, 2021 by Migrant Tales

“When a migrant embarks on a journey, he may not realize that the journey the migrant is on never ends and that he is part of another journey that a relative began generations ago. Thus a migrant’s journey may begin during our lifetime, but it rarely ends during our lifetime. Your relatives, those who are now talk of the future, may remember and admire your journey and courage long after you died.”

My paternal (right) and maternal relatives in Argentina. On the right are Dante Tessieri and his wife Aida on the left with Angelo Lullo and his wife Augustina on the left. All three except for Augstina were from Italy. Even if the pictures were taken over a hundred years ago, I still remember them, even share their pictures with you. **Source: Tessieri family album.**

PS’ Riikka Purra feeds Afghans to the dogs

Posted on September 4, 2021 by Migrant Tales

The new chairperson of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, Riikka Purra, will soon be calling out the knives. In her latest tweet, she reveals her radical cruelty against the vulnerable.

In the Tweet below, she feeds the Afghans to the dogs and shows the worst of Finland.

No experts, human rights activists, defenders of the rule of law, feminists, journalists. No Afghans to Finland.
No requests from the United States, Nato, the EU, or UNHCR.
No debt of honor, four-year residence permits, family reunifications, citizenship.

Will, we read any editorial on Sunday or any objection by politicians to Purra’s far-right battle cries?

I doubt it.

The far right and their xenophobic diatribes score another point for now.

Finland’s issues with Nazi flags and a too often biased and insensitive media of minorities

Posted on September 2, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales published on Tuesday comments by Yaron Nadbornik, the president of the 1,100-strong Jewish Community of Helsinki, concerning the Helsinki district court’s ruling that carrying Nazi Germany flags in public was not ethnic agitation.

If there is one group of people who have a lot to say about Nazi flags and the Holocaust, they are the Jews and other minorities like the Roma.

As usual, the news in Finland about the district court’s ruling occurred in a bubble between white Finns, but to our surprise, the media did not approach one Jew or member of the Roma community for comment.

Migrant Tales did interview Nadbornik on Tuesday and asked him if newspapers like Helsingin Sanomat and others had approached him. His answer was “no.”

After Migrant Tales published his comments, Kirkko ja kaupunki did a story on Wednesday citing Nadbornik’s views.

“Displaying a swastika flag is a demand for genocide,” he was quoted as saying.

The Finnish media coverage of the district court’s ruling on the Nazi flag reveals ignorance and disinterest in the Holocaust, racism, and equity issues. Shame on the media for their incomplete coverage of an important social topic that impacts minorities.

While it may surprise some, victims of racism are usually not interviewed by the media but by white authorities who have never experienced racism.

Today is a good time for the media to wake up and challenge those structures that encourage biased reporting.

Riikka Purra and her PS cronies want to make discrimination and racism legal

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Migrant Tales

We all know about Perussuomalaiset (PS)* new chairperson Riikka Purra’s radical views on cultural diversity and migration in general. Yes, she’s the one warning about how Muslims are taking over Europe and how brown and black Finns will replace white Finns.

Her latest Tweet below suggests that white Finns should be the only beneficiaries of social welfare, but Finland must reform the constitution to do this. Purra states that she is ready to reform the constitution if she becomes the next prime minister.

The new PS chairperson lives in a time warp constantly attacking windmills. Purra speaks highly of Denmark, the Nordic region’s most Islamophobic country, and hopes to wipe out migrants and minorities with the help of discrimination, social exclusion and far-right nationlism. She can try, but she will fail beceause our ever-growing diversity as a nation is growing and blossoming every day.

The question that all of Purra’s and her party’s hostile attacks against migrants and minorities should raise a question: Are we going to allow it to happen?

Riikka Purra Tweets: “Should we consider changing our social security system that would be based on nationality (taking into account the EU). There are no good options [because the state] is running out of money. Such a change would require, for example, a reform of the constitution so it would not be a simple change of the law.”

Finland’s Perussuomalaiset party says that the use of the Nazi flag in public should not be criminalized

Posted on August 31, 2021 by Migrant Tales

THE STORY WAS UPDATED

Only the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and Ano Turtiainen’s one-man party expressed opposition to criminalizing the use of the Nazi flag in public. The story by Yle was published a day after the Helsinki District Court dismissed ethnic agitation charges agitation against five men of carrying a swastika flag in public on Independence Day 2018.

PS parliamentary group leader Ville Tavio told Yle that they should not criminalize the use of the Nazi flag.

“In my opinion, our society is not in such a critical [and fragile] state that we need the state to intervene [in this matter],” he said.

Yaron Nadbornik, president of the 1,100-strong Jewish Community of Helsinki, stated that the decision of the Helsinki district court shows that the country still has a long way to go in acknowledging hate crime, and the existence of minorities.

Considering what the Nazi flag symbolizes for Jews and other minorities, Nadbornik said that not a single newspaper had gotten in touch with him about the district court’s decision. He said that the recent case showed the little power the non-discrimination ombudsman has in challenging racism and discrimination.

In an interview in 2020, Nadbornik said that it was not until 2018-2019 when the police started to recognize anti-Semitism as a problem in Finland.

“It is od that even if the non-discrimination ombudsman spoke out in favor of criminalizing the Nazi flag, their position was not weighed by the court,” he said.

Another Jewish leader said with sarcasm that the court decision “didn’t get a lot of support” from the Jewish community [of Finland].

Leif Hagert, who is an activist for Roma and minority rights in Finland, was surprised by the district court’s decision.

“The Nazi flag represents hatred and racism,” he said. “I find it hard to understand why such opinions and values need to be proclaimed on the streets. I hope the court of appeal’s ruling is different. [from the district court’s]”

The Roma were also victims of the Holocaust with an estimated 1.5 million perishing during 1935-1945.

Some observers believe that the PS’ stance on the criminalization of the Nazi flag is another indication of the group’s close ideological bonds with the far right and neo-Nazis.

Insulting migrants is called “discussion” and a privilege of white Finns

Posted on August 30, 2021 by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

Remember when Center Party parliamentary group leader Juha Pylväs slammed asylum seekers as “parasites” that wanted to live off social welfare? Pretty sickening and lowly on his part.

I hope that Pylväs get charged with ethnic agitation.

But what is worse? The silence and support for what he said and the arguments that justify the latter?

Hanna-Leena Mattila is a Center Party politician from the city of Raahe in western Finland. She uses the same argument to call migrants parasites and deviants by stating that despite Pylväs’ words, “[We still]l have to be able to discuss [the problems of migration] without hesitation.”

Mattila’s Facebook post below:

Mattila states: “Juha Pylväs said what many people think: Our goodwill should not be abused. [His) use of words were not the best. Migration and its many forms have to be discussed without hesitation,”

How quaint and unimaginative are Mattila’s Tweet. What politicians like her say over and over again is that only white Finns can insult migrants.

The sometimes farcical “discussion” about migrants is similar if only men were speaking about women’s rights.

Another shameful fact of the ongoing debate that won’t be corrected any time soon as long as white Finns control the debate.

Hesburger employee debacle: Wake up Finland!

Posted on August 29, 2021 by Migrant Tales

One of the big questions that the Hesburger employee debacle proves is that Finnish unions, the police, and state regulators don’t take the law seriously enough. Migrant Tales has cited numerous cases where employers exploited foreigners.

It’s clear that if their employers exploit some migrants, it happens as well to white Finns.

A group of former and present Hesburger employees of the fast-food chain made public the chronic understaffing problems and exploitation at work. Some said they worked long hours without breaks and did not even have time to go to the bathroom.

One may ask how this is possible in a Nordic welfare country like ours that promotes social equality and fairness?

If I were critical, even realistic, I would go as far as to state that laws that are aimed at protecting workers are selective. If you are a migrant, young, and without a profession, there is a good chance your rights aren’t respected.

These apply to labor laws, and Finland’s Constitution is supposed to guarantee that everyone is equal before the law. Too often we forget a key component of social equality – equity.

As the Hesburger case reveals, why were the employees who brought these illegal practices to light? Where is the Regional Administrative Agency (AVI)? The unions?

The Hesburger case does not only reveal the illegal working conditions of a fast-food chain but a much broader problem of complacency.