The far-right populists in Scandinavia like representatives of the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party are having a fit about a SAS Airline ad that was taken down because it said the truth about culture: everything is copied.
SAS said in a statement: “It is regrettable that the film is misunderstood, that some choose to interpret the message and use it for their own purpose.”
The good news? “We are now continuing the planned campaign, and we hope that it emphasizes the core message that travel enriches us,” the airline said.
https://youtu.be/ShfsBPrNcTI
One reason why far-right populist groups are going nuclear due to the ad is because it exposes their lies and fake nationalism.
The video asks what is truly Scandinavian?
The answer: “Absolutely nothing…Everything is copied.”
And continues: “Everytime we go beyond our borders we are colors, innovation, progress…[we] bring the best of everything to here…in a way Scandinavia was brought here piece by piece by everyday people whofound the best of our home awa from home.”
The tweet by Saksa Saarikoski of Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily, represents to the tee how our society has changed and become ever-suspicious of asylum seekers.
Finland’s interior minister, Maria Ohisalo, has correctly criticized the EU for its lame and disastrous asylum policy. The suggestion that Ohisalo wants to bring refugee minors from the island of Lesvos to Finland has – surprise, surprise – unleashed a torrent of debate.
Saarikoski’s tweet below picture well the integrity of the ongoing debate: “I understand that we must help children, but is a fast lane to bring 16-17-year-olds [to Finland] reasonable? Doesn’t that encourage a system where the child is sent first, and then the family arrives later? That puts children in harm’s way and to exploitation.”
Really, Saarikoski? Do you have any proof? Are all children sent to the EU aim to help their families come to the EU?
Erna Bodström gives Saarikoski an answer: “Hey Saska, if you want facts, why don’t you find out instead of tweeting without knowing [what you are talking about]? As a journalist, you have learned how to find facts.”
When a journalist at Finland’s largest daily makes such comments about asylum seeker minors, it reveals something worrying about our society: We are hostages to our racism and crippled to change our point of view.”
A dumb question: What the f**k is wrong if a person wants to migrate or flee violence for a better life and future?
What is wrong with these people who want to rob people of this right?
Any sensible person, irrespective of his cultural and religious background, does not condone sexual harassment. Even so, the police and Iltalehti continue full steam ahead to blame Muslims for these types of crimes.
The blame game is so potent that we forget that most of the sexual harassment cases are committed by Finns. It is not a question of being a white Finn or a foreigner, but a serious issue that men have concerning women.
Moreover, the Iltalehti story does not tell us if these are convictions or how many tourists are suspects. It is all written in code: foreigner + sexual assault means Muslim in Finland.
In countries like Finland, publishing and spreading sexual harassment stories will get you far. If we look at the Oulu sexual harassment cases alone, they were like a lifesaver for the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)*.
Jussi Halla-aho, the chairperson of the far-right Perussuomalaiset party, tweets: “Yeah, really in the Perussuomalaiset party wants a mutliethnic or cultural Finland, which is consistently in our party’s program and in our practical activities.” Source: Twitter.
The media and the police gave a lot of support to the PS’ fear-mongering in Oulu as did government parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) by spreading the same anti-Muslim racism. Today, Finland is being held hostage by a far-right party in parliament that is set on destroying our institutions and because it feels invincible.
The trick? Yell rape out loudly as you and blame migrants for all of the country’s problems.
Why doesn’t the media and society, in general, get fed up with racist wise tales on a topic like sexual harassment?
One reason may be that our society has failed in challenging our racism and hatred. These types of social ills are fueled by our ignorance and fear, which in turn are spoon-fed populist quantities by parties like the PS.
If we look at our society, the forces of the far-right are challenging and mocking at us. It is a good matter that Finland is starting to wake up to this threat and slay the ogre back to where it came from, the gutter.
One matter is for certain: You don’t need to prove somebody is a racist because that person does it for you. Racists also think people are stupid and can’t see through them.
While I am not suggesting that Turkkila is a racist, he’s had a big role in helping the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and its politicians to spread the party’s Islamophobic message and their brand of hatred of people of color.
Matias Turkkila “feels angry” because he name was mentioned onpage 315 of the report: “As in previous years, Laura Huhtasaari, PS vice president and MP, ranks high on the Islamophobic network together with the president of the party, Jussi Halla aho, who was convicted in 2012 of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion. Others include: Teuvo Hakkarainen, Sebastian Tynkkynen, Atte Kaleva, Matias Turkkila, Marco de Wit, Marko Mäki, Junes Lokka, and Tiina Wiik. Even if Muslims account for an estimated 1.8% of the total population and nonEU migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Africa amount to 16.9% (63,362 in 2017) of Finland’s foreign-born residents, Halla-aho, Huhtasaari, and other Islamophobes like the neo-Nazi PVL make a big deal about Muslims being a threat to society. Huhtasaari, who supports U.S. President Donald Trump and Hungary’s strongman Viktor Orbán, is worried about the “Islamization” of Europe. In a recent post on social media, she expressed her three greatest concerns: “no substitution for Finland’s population and culture; we don’t want Finland taken over by Islam; and we don’t want people in our streets to be substituted for women and girls wearing veils.” Source: European Islamophobia Report 2018.
Some facts about how Turkkila and how he has furthered racism with the help of the Islamophobic network:
He’s was PS Jussi Halla-aho’s campaign manager. Halla-aho was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion;
Founding with Halla-aho or by himself Hommaforum, an Islamophobic platform to frame and attack antiracists and other people they don’t like;
He is editor os Suomen Uutiset, a PS publication that regularly spews hatred and misinformation about people of color and Muslims.
The question: Does Matias Turkkila belong to the Islamophobic network of Finland?
If there is one party that racializes sexual assaults, especially committed by Muslims, that party is without a doubt the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. Its chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, first vice-president Riikka Purra, MP Sebastian Tynkkynen, and the rest of the 36 MPs of their party in parliament.
All of them, the 39 PS MPs, used Islamophobia and xenophobia to get elected. They have nothing else to bring to the political table except for their hatred of Muslims and non-EU citizens.
Both the Perussuomalaiset and its youth chapter are opportunistic cowards. In this tweet affirming that cultural appropriation is ok, there is no Jew with a kippah. I asked them about this, but they never responded.
In the Perussuomalaiset Youth tweet above, the Islamophobic and far-right group makes a statement about cultural appropriation, which is ok, according to them.
If you look at the picture, the only thing I can make out is a Mexican, two Arabs, and, possibly, somebody from the Far East. There are no Jews in the picture because that would force all hell to break loose. The PS, like its youth organization, bully and pick on soft targets like Muslims.
Remember the Oulu sexual assault cases and the hysteria it brought upon Oulu and Finland? Not only were the PS guilty of spreading anti-Muslim racism, government parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and even the police did so as well.
The spread of this racism would not have been possible without the collusion of the media. The media should know better to distinguish what racist reporting is and what is not.
Harvey Weinstein
In the United States, we’ve been reading about the scores of women that disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually abused and raped.
In one story in the Huffington Post, it states that the Weinstein case has not only sparked debate about the sexism and abuse in the entertainment industry but anti-Semitism as well.
Writes the Huffington Post: “Several white supremacists and even one prominent Jewish magazine, though, have latched onto Weinstein’s Jewish identity as somehow explaining his abusive behavior towards women.”
Just like our far-right Islamophobic politicians like Halla-aho, Purra and others, anti-Semitic commentary in the U.S. came from the likes of David Duke, a white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan leader, who said that Weinstein is “a case study in the corrosive nature of Jewish domination of our media and cultural industries.”
Certainly, Muslims do not have the same power are Jews have in the United States. Even so, the racializing of the Weinstein case is strikingly similar to how the PS and other racists frame Muslims.
It is a case in point how the Finnish media treats Muslims and a good examples why the Finnish media has an “r” and “I” problem.
Kaikki tietävät, ettei Presidentti Sauli Niinistö ole kovin äänekäs kun puhumme rasismista, turvapaikanhakijoista ja eriarvoisuudesta. Niinistö ei myös näe, että rasismi on uhka suomalaiselle yhteiskunnalle.
Niinistö edustaa suomalaisten kaksinaismoraalia seuraavalla tavalla: yhdellä kädellä hän tuomitse rasismin mutta toisella hän ruokkii sitä
Hänen “tolkun ihmisten” ylistys on hyvä esimerkki siitä kuinka rasismia ja eriarvoisuutta ei tulisi haastaa.
”Kuulkaa, nyt tuli vastaan juttu, joka ehdottomasti pitää lukea. Se on Jyri Paretskoin kirjoitus ”Tolkun ihmiset” Iisalmen Sanomista. Kun lehti ei varmaan ihan kaikille vielä tule, niin liitän jutun tähän. (Lähde: Satakunnan Kansa)
Tolkun ihmiset kannustavat hiljaisuudella maahanmuuttovastaisuutta. Lähde. Ville Ranta.
Täsmälleen neljä vuotta myöhemmin, toimittaja Yrjö Rautio vastasi kolumnissaan napakasti ja paljasti mitä “tolkun ihminen” on:
“Ääripäistä puhuminen on vain raukkamainen tapa välttyä itse ottamasta vastuuta. Tolkun ihmisiä ovat vain ne, jotka nousevat vihaa ja pahuutta vastaan. Se on ihmisen moraalisista velvoitteista suurin.” (Lähde: Helsingin Sanomat).
Some Finnish politicians condemn racist acts with one hand but with another encourage them.
National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MEP Henna Virkkunen stated in a tweet lofty European values after an MP of the same party said Saturday that it would be easier for Kokoomus to work with the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party than with the Greens and left-wing parties.
She tweeted below: “The values that #kokoomus wants to build in Finland and Europe are education, tolerance, encouragement, caring, equal opportunities. Kokoomus wants an open, free, and internationally-minded community [and] this is distant from what the Perussuomalaiset represents.”
While her tweet is welcome, it reveals the ideological battle going in that party. One faction of Kokoomus is liberal and pro-EU while the other nationalistic, and xenophobic represented by politicians such as MP Wille Rydman, Jukka Kopra, Pia Kauma, Elina Lepomäki, Kai Mykkänen, and others.
Is Virkkunen’s tweet disingenuous?
In October, Virkkunen voted with Petri Sarvamaa, who is a member of the same party, with Laura Huhtasaari of the PS to not step-up search and rescue operations for refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.
Virkkunen is also one of the 36.3% (85/234) MEP candidates who either “strongly disagreed,” “disagreed” or were “neutral” in an Alma Media’s election compass that asked: “Is it the obligation of the EU to save all those migrants who attempt to come to Europe and who are at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean?”
Virkkunen answered “disagreed.”
Is letting people drown or turning a blind tye to their fates in the Mediterranean European and Finnish values?
Over 27,000 people have drowned crossing the Mediterranean since 1993.
Migrant Tales insight: Remember 2015? It was the year when over 30,000 asylum seekers, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, came to Finland. Do you remember the reaction of some Finns who attacked fourteen asylum reception centers? Why weren’t these acts of violence classified as domestic terrorism?
This disgraceful story is dedicated to Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Ano Turtiainen, who is in the news for all the wrong reasons and, who, was convicted in 2018 of inciting violence against the Finnish Red Cross, which manages many asylum reception centers. The conviction has its roots in 2015 Facebook post that was liked by PS MEP Laura Huhtasaari.
The fact that fourteen asylum reception centers have been attacked in Finland since mid-September is scandalous. According to the police service of Kangasala, an asylum seeker was beaten by two or three men Saturday evening near the Kaivanto reception center, reportsYLE News.
And the news doesn’t stop here: Neo-Nazi vigilante patrols, one Perussuomalaiset (PS)* substitute MP from Kankaanpää, Juha Maenpää, stated in December that god had answered his prayers after a reception center that was supposed to house asylum seekers was razed to the ground. If an asylum seeker commits a crime there is a social media lynch mob ready 24/7.
If it is a Finn that rapes a woman the public, politicians and the media don’t appear too interested.
Double-standards and xenophobia are rife in Finland today.
In the ever-worsening anti-immigration atmosphere, some politicians and the government are even showing some understanding to the hostility against asylum seekers, which has spread and affected all migrants and minorities living in this country. Interior Minister Petteri Orpo blamed asylum seekers on YLEfor these attacks by stating that is would calm matters down by tightening immigration policy even more.
You may be asking why the National Coalition Party and Center Party aren’t even raising a finger against the PS’ obsession against immigrants and asylum seekers. These two parties need the support of the PS to streamline the welfare state. In return, the PS can tighten immigration policy and thereby appease their racist voters.
Like in all the attacks against the reception centers this fall and early winter, only one suspect was caught in Kouvola (24.9.2015), a middle-aged man was charged and given a one-year prison sentence.
How big will this disgraceful list grow below?
Attacks against asylum reception centers in Finland
“The inhabitants of Juva are quiet about [MP] Ano Turtianen.* It is a sign that there is a lot of shame.”
A Juva resident
THIS POST WAS UPDATED
Juva in the region of Etelä-Savo is a sad example of how a town withers demographically and what types of politicians appear and are supposed to save it from itself.
Etelä-Savo, like Juva, is graying, and rapidly. The population of the region plummeted by 18.2% to 142,380 inhabitants in 2019 from 174,237 in 1990. Thirty percent of the region’s inhabitants are over 65 years old, with Juva having 32%.
In the face of the region’s and Juva’s demographic challenges, voters don’t support people who want effective solutions but body-building politicians like Ano Turtiainen [1] of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party.
Turtiainen is no “lawmaker” per se but one who breaks the law.
Source: Facebook.
In 2018, he was convicted of inciting violence against the Finnish Red Cross, which manages many asylum reception centers. The conviction has its roots in 2015.
In that year, asylum reception centers were attacked by white Finns. In 2015, a record number of asylum seekers, especially from Iraq and Afghanistan, came to Finland.
In an interview with Mikkeli-based daily Länsi-Savo, Turtainen boasted after he took away his appeal that the conviction was “a feather in his cap.”
In the year that Turtiainen posted and incited people to attack the Finnish Red Cross, there were fourteen asylum reception centers that were attacked in Finland in 2015.
During that year, over 30,000 asylum seekers came to Finland.
Nature is helping in keeping population growth in check. #ebola #Africa he stated on Facebook in June 2019.
The latest incident involving Turtiainen for slamming police Chief inspector Jari Taponen a “castrated wimp” for telling him that freedom of expression carries responsibilities.
Taponen has filed defamation charges against Turtiainen.
Another one of PS MP Turtiainen’s “famous” Facebook posts. He writes: “It came from painful constipation for swallowing the Greens in government…it was a great relief to see a bucketful of shit…
[1] Ano is a real name in Finland. The equivalent name for women is Anna. The translation of “ano” in Spanish is anus.
The vandalism that took place on Sunday against the Turku Synagogue did not come as a surprise, said Harry Serlo, a spokesperson of the Jewish Community of Turku.
“What happened is a general trend [in Finland] and should be seen in such a light,” he said. “I don’t like to talk just about anti-Semitism but how all minorities are targets of such hatred [these days].”
Serlo said he was especially happy with President Sauli Niinistö’s reaction and condemnation of what occurred.
The spokesperson of the Jewish Community of Turku said that the best way to counter anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred against minorities is not only political leadership but respect for diversity, which should be taught at an early stage at schools.
“This is a long process [to root out hatred] and will take a very long time before matters start to change for the better,” he said.
The Turku Synagogue was built in 1912 and is one of two synagogues in Finland today. The size of the Jewish community of Finland numbers over a thousand members.
