Kolme suomalaista MEPejä, perussuomalainen Laura Huhtasaari, kokoomuslais Petri Sarvamaa ja Henna Virkkunen äänestivät 24.10. vastaan EU:n pelastus operaation puolesta Välimerelle. Europarlamentin äänestyksessä ehdotus hävisi niukasti, 290 vastaan 288 puolesta.
Huhtasaaren, Sarvamaan ja Virkkusen kanta on valitettava ja on osoitus kuinka EU on valinut kuoleman elämän puolesta. Missä on näiden poliiikkojen ihmisyys?
Kiitos Sirpla Pietikäinen, Eero Heinaluoma ja Mauri Pekkarinen kun äänestitte pelastus operataation puolesta. Seuraavat MEPit eivät äännestäneet: Ville Niinisto, Heidi Hautala, Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, Silvia Modig, Elsi Katainen, Nils Tovalds ja Teuvo Hakkarainen .
Vain 3 ääntä olisi tarvittu lisää.
Nämä MEPit äännistivät vastaan EU:n pelastus operaation puolesta Välimerelle. Kuva: European Parliament.
Keskustelin lyhesti MEP Virkkusen kanssa toukokussa miksi hän oli “erimieltä” Alma Median vaalikonen seuraavan väitteen kanssa: “EU:n velvollisuus on pelastaa kaikki hukkumisriskillä Välimeren ylittävät Eurooppaan pyrkivät siirtolaiset.”
Hän ei vastanut seuraavan kysymksen:
Virkkunen on näyttää oleva sitä mieltä, että ihmiset on aina autettava mutta pitää rangaistaa salakuljettajat, eli ihmisiä saa kuollaa prosessissa.
Kuinka monta ihmiset pitää kuola Välimerellä ennen kun EU pystyy tekemään salakuljetus kannatamaton? Kuukausia? Vuosia? Tai ei koskaan?
Tänä vuonna on hukkunut yli 1000 ihmistä Välimerellä. United for Intercultural Action on vuodesta 1993 dokumentoinu “yli 36 570” kuolematapauksia kun ihmiset ovat pyrkineet Eurooppaan.
The 2019 recipient of the Nordic Council Literature Prize, Jonas Eika of Denmark, took the opportunity to expose generally the racism and social inequality in the Nordic region and in particular, in his home country of Denmark.
Eika, speaking at the Stockholm Concert Hall, blamed Danish Social Democrat Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen for perpetrating state-sponsored racism.
“I’m speaking to the Danish prime minister who’s also sitting somewhere in the audience, Mette Fredriksen, who’s at the head of the Social Democratic Party which has come to power by taking over the previous government’s racist language and politics,” said Eika. “Metter Fredriksen, who calls herself “the children’s PM,” but pursues an immigration policy that splits families apart, impoverishes them, and subjects a slow, destructive violence in the country’s so-called departure centers [immigration removal centers].”
Frederiksen failed to applaud after Eika’s speech and told the media at a press conference with other Nordic prime ministers the following day that she disagreed with what the writer said, according to vaaju.com.
Hear Eika’s speech below in full with English subtitles.
Eika also talked about racism and the rise of populist anti-immigration parties that promote social exclusion in the Nordic region and elsewhere.
“I’m also speaking to the other Nordic ministers in your countries,” he said, “refugees are also placed in closed prisons or remote camps, and they are broken down and made ill, some attempt o take their lives.”
“[a]nd I think that the racist nationalism, which is their years, is winning ground in the Nordic nation-states,” he continues, “[it] is dependent on whiteness, on an idea of the white majority’s exclusive right to national welfare and safety and I see whiteness as [a] heritage of the colonial past,” he said, “which also exists in the Nordic countries, and which none of the powers who previously colonized and oppressed original peoples have shown any real commitment to confronting. Quite the opposite.”‘
Joan Morais named and shamed in a tweet the Portuguese MEPs who voted against the motion in the European Parliament o improve search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean.
Thee Finnish MEPs that voted against the motion last week: Laura Huhasaari of the Perussuomalaisset* party, Petri Sarvamaa, and Henne Virkkunen of the National Coalition Party.
While we know the Islamophobic mindset of Huhtasaari, nether Sarvamaa nor Virkkunen gave any explanation for their vote.
So far this year, over 1,000 lives have been lost while crossing the Mediterranean. Since 1993, UNITED for Intercultural Action has documented “more than 36,570” deaths of people who died in an attempt to enter Fortress Europe.
Migrant Talespublished in May a list of Finnish MEP “let them drown” candidates, who did not believe it is the EU’s obligation to save migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean.
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Needing only three votes to pass, seven of the 13 Finnish MEPs didn’t even bother to vote (Ville Niinistö, Heidi Hautala, Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, Silvia Modig, Elsi Katainen, Nils Torvalds and Teuvo Hakkarainen) with Petri Sarvamaa, Henna Virkkunen and Laura Huhtasaari voting against the motion.
The child asks where is Europe and the mother replies, at the bottom of the sea. Source: Facebook. Thank you Xur Piñera Alonso for the heads-up.
Is it surprising that two National Coalition Party (NCP) MEPs voted like Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset MEP Hutasaari? Reading the anti-immigration rhetoric of NCP politicians like Wille Rydman reinforces a close xenophobic bond between the two parties.
All three MEPs are in good “dry” company. All three voted against the motion to step up efforts to rescue people drowning in the Mediterranean Photo: European Parliament.
Only three Finnish MEPs that voted in favor of the motion were Sirpa Pietikäinen, Eero Heinäluoma, and Mauri Pekkarinen. Bravo for them!
Despite Huhtasaari’s, Sarvamaa’s, and Virkkunen’s heartless view of migrants’ lives, what is even more surprising s that over half of the Finnish MEPs didn’t even care to vote for such a necessary motion that would have helped save lives.
So far this year, over 1,000 lives have been lost while crossing the Mediterranean. Since 1993, UNITED for Intercultural Action has documented “more than 36,570” deaths of people who died in an attempt to enter Fortress Europe.
Migrant Talespublished in May a list of Finnish MEP “let them drown” candidates, who did not believe it is the EU’s obligation to save migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean.
Thursday was not only a sad day for migrants crossing the Mediterranean but a shameful one of Finland’s MEPs, especially those who voted against the motion and those who didn’t care to vote.
The Finnish media remained near-silent about the vote and did not even care to report it to their readers.
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Soy tan viejo que me acuerdo perfectamente de la noticia del día 11 de septiembre de 1973, un martes, cuando las fuerzas armadas chilenas bombardearon el Palacio de la Moneda donde muere el presidente legítimo de los chilenos, Salvador Allende.
Esta semana muchos se levantaron de una pesadilla larga que empezó hace 46 años, durante el golpe de estado de Chile, el 11 de setiembre de 1973.
En su último discurso que pronunció el Presidente Allende por radio dijo,
“…Y les digo que tengo la certeza de que la semilla que hemos entregado a la conciencia digna de miles y miles de chilenos, no podrá ser segada definitivamente. Tienen la fuerza, podrán avasallarnos, pero no se detienen los procesos sociales ni con el crimen ni con la fuerza. La historia es nuestra y la hacen los pueblos.”
Y sigue casi al final del discurso: “Sigan ustedes sabiendo que, mucho más temprano que tarde, de nuevo se abrirán las grandes alamedas por donde pase el hombre libre, para construir una sociedad mejor.”
Las imágenes de abajo, como escaleras al infierno, son de la pesadilla que empezó hace más de cuatro décadas.
Primer paso a la pesadilla: el inferno toma forma. Fuente: YouTube.Segundo paso a la pesadilla: acercando al infierno. Fuente: YouTube.Tercer paso a la pesadilla: en el infierno. Fuente: YouTube.
Pero este mes de octubre se levantó un nuevo Chile clamando justicia y esas alamedas que habló el Presidente Allende en su último discurso a su pueblo.
Esas alamedas van acompañados por la música de Victor Jara, también asesinado por la dictadura chilena.
La reacción del presidente chileno, Sebastián Piñera, a los manifestantes demuestra en claro la burbuja donde gente como él siguen viviendo hace más de cuatro siglos.
¡Renunciá Piñera! El Presidente Allende habla hoy al pueblo chileno y a ti, a los que intentan detener los procesos sociales con el crimen y con la fuerza.
If there is one matter that shines brightly from the editorial standards of Yle, it is its whiteness and how little regard they have for our people to voice the concerns of our ever-growing culturally diverse community.
We need more of these types of articles and studies and much more activism on top of them.
Take for instance, the Yle article on five reasons why there is discrimination in the Finnish labor market.
The Yle article points out five of them:
(1) Discrimination in the labor market has broad support among Finns;
(2) employers are ignorant of labor discrimination laws;
(3) employers believe they will lose money if they follow the law;
(4) discrimination at the workplace is difficult to prove;
(5) victims are reluctant to report to the authorities because they fear reprisals.
All of the latter are valid points, but I would have wanted Yle to dig deeper. This is a valid point because of the level of discrimination is so prevalent.
There are other culprits as well as lack of leadership and resolve from politicians, the police, media, policymakers, and a long list of others who shape public opinion.
Moreover, if discrimination is so widely accepted, it means that our education system has failed.
I have lived in Finland on a semi-permanent basis since 1978. One of the first matters that I learned when I moved here was that my “foreign name,” despite having a Finnish mother, was a disadvantage even when trying to rent an apartment.
Racism is real and an ogre in Finland, and it is impoverishing Finland socially and economically. We need studies and articles but more than ever, action and leadership in tackling such social ills and call out and bring to account those who spread them.
What thoughts race in your head whenever a politician, public official, or white Finn rambles on about how social justice is a key value of our society and why racism and discrimination, which are illegal, have no place in Finland?
While the latter is important for newcomers to know, the issue is how such topics are taught and framed to students that have little idea of Finnish society.
I am a sociologist who has been an immigrant-Other all my life. It should not surprise you why I am interested in immigration topics.
The editor of Migrant Tales, Enrique Tessieri, with author and journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge, who authored Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. Her book that focuses on feminism and structural racism is a classic of the anti-racism movement. Photo by Bashy Quraishy.
One of the courses I teach is “active citizenship” (Aktiivinen kansalainen). Nearly all my students came to Finland as refugees or are seeking asylum. Since I have a lot of respect for the students, I tell them frankly: Do you want me to teach the hypocrisy, spread myths, and lies about your new home country or tell how we can change matters?
When we talk in class about social ills like racism, the Perussuomalaiset*, and other toxic topics that impact newcomers negatively, I encourage them to organize and use all the democratic means available to change matters.
For those who whine silently, I offer them handkerchiefs.
None of the students cry. Some listen more attentively than others.
Finnish white privilege #65
Today, Saturday is a better example than any to show the impunity of Finnish white privilege in the media. An article by Yleon five reasons why discrimination exists in the labor market offered only a partial view of the issue. Helsingin Sanomat published a human interest story on the same day about PS first vice-president, Riikka Purra.
One of the problems with the Yle article is that it absolves the police, politicians and other public officials for doing little to nothing to challenge discriminatory practices in the labor market. If you disagree, look at the underwhelming number of discrimination cases that are mentioned by the Yle article.
Likewise, the Helsingin Sanomat article of Purra is another example of toothless Finnish white privilege journalism. Nowhere in the story does the writer challenge Purra’s Islamophobic far-right views. Even the book she is reading by James Burham, “Suicide of the West,” exposes the PS politician’s ideology, which is mistrustful to migrants and Western liberal values.
Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán dispises Western liberalism.
Purra’s party and herself are the ones fueling the hostile environment against migrants and minorities in Finland. The Helsingin Sanomat article offers us, instead, exalting pictures of Purra.
Both articles highlight why racism and discrimination have impunity in Finland. Both articles were written by white Finns who have never suffered racism in their country. Moreover, they don’t grasp how these articles fuel the hostile environment.
If the Roma minority has lived in Finland for over 500 years and faces racism and social exclusion even today, at this pace migrants and minorities will have to wait centuries for matters to improve.
Do we have to wait so long? Do we have to accept that we are second-class members of society?
Matters will never improve as long as our voices are faintly heard and our activism half-hearted. Even so, we are fortunate. We have many exemplary activists who are challenging the present order of things.
Migrant Tales wants to congratulate Maryan Abdulkarim, a true activist for social justice, for being awarded the Minna Canth award.
Canth (1844-97) was one of Finland’s foremost writers who wrote about social issues like women’s rights in nineteenth-century Finland.
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Wille Rydman is a National Coalition Party (NCP) MP who has built his career on xenophobia and racist soundbites. For some in the NCP, he is known as the Halla-aho of the party.
Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairperson Jussi Halla-aho is largely responsible for steering the party further to the far-right. He was convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012.
Contrary to Halla-aho, Rydman likes to regurgitate what some of the PS’ most racist and hateful messages, like the Islamization of Europe, among other hogwash.
He wrote earlier this month that the ethnic composition of Europe is changing due to low birth rates and that such ethnic diversity is negative for the region.
He claimed in the blog entry that migratory pressure on Europe in recent decades is so drastic that what happened to Rome, when non-Roman tribes invaded it, is small change compared to what is happening today.
PS first vice-president Riikka Purra has spread such myths about how white Finns will be a minority due to migration from outside of Europe.
Certainly, the bullshit that Rydman spreads is xenophobic and racist. Somebody, maybe his party although I’m not holding my breath, should condemn what he said and tell the NCP MP that Europeans are not only white.
Europe is a continent that is historically culturally and ethnically diverse. Talk of whites becoming a minority is extolling white supremacy, which Rydman does.
Apart from a long list of racist soundbites earmarked for public consumption, I had an opportunity to chat with Rydman in 2010. Back then, he wrote in a letter to the editor of Helsingin Sanomat that the state should neither support nor fund multiculturalism because it would hinder the adaption of immigrants into our society.
When I corrected him that his opinions were a letter to the editor, he insisted that it was “an article” published by Helsingin Sanomat.
Some of Finland’s most hot-headed Islamophobes were allegedly bullied in school. That is the case of Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, and others. Were Rydman’s name and ethnic background a source of bullying?
That now leads us to the Stockholm syndrome: A condition where a victim may start to identify with or form a close connection to the people who have taken him or her hostage. In the latter cases of Halla-aho and Hirvisaari, the oppressor is the bully and the victim, the bullied.
That then leads us to Uncle Tom, Tuomo-setä, but that is another story.
The xenophobic stand of politicians like Rydman of the NCP, show how right-wing conservative parties like in the UK have succumbed to populist anti-immigration rhetoric while threatened from far-right parties like the UKIP. It is unfortunate that the NCP is heading towards the same ruinous path as the Tories of the UK.
There is no UKIP in Finland but we have the PS.
I’d like to dedicate the following quote to Rydman by Toni Morrison:
“But when you take it away, take your race away, you are all strung out,” she said. “All you got is your little self, and what is that? What are you without that? What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart? Do you still like yourself?”
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
There are many types of social ills that are cancerous, but the one I want to speak now is about institutional racism in Finland. Institutional racism is a racket, a criminal conspiracy, to exclude people by ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds.
Institutional racism is a racket that maintains a system that is exclusive and unjust. It destroys lives and robs people of their opportunities that should be guaranteed by law.
Racialization is one of the accomplices of institutional racism.
In Finland as elsewhere, there are many people who stand up to racism. Even so, such people are too few.
Toni Morrison (1931-2019), the novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor, stated that race is a social construct. If so, why does racism exist?
“It [racism] has benefits,” she said, “money can be made off it, people who don’t like themselves can feel better because of it, it can describe certain kinds of behavior that are wrong or misleading; so it has a social function – r a c i s m.”
In the video below, Morrison makes an excellent point to racists or people who profit directly or indirectly from such a social ill.
“But when you take it away, take your race away, you are all strung out,” she continued. “All you got is your little self, and what is that? What are you without that? What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart? Do you still like yourself?”
Finnish white privilege #64
In the same way that Islamophobic parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* claim that immigration costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros, we can argue that institutional racism costs Finland hundreds of millions, if not billions of euros.
Where is this money wasted? You will find it spent on many integration programs that don’t integrate and make newcomers active members of society; and in maintaining racist structures that fuel social exclusion and high social welfare costs to name a few.
In Finland, it is easy to give a two-faced image of ourselves. Institutional racism permits us to keep our closet prejudices and racism intact while claiming to help migrants in state- and EU-sponsored programs.
The final judge of the effectiveness of these programs is the results: Did you get hired with a dignified salary? Did the program say a whimper to expose and challenge institutional racism?
It is upsetting to see people who claim to want to advance the opportunities and rights of migrants but are stone quiet.
We are all accomplices if we cover our eyes to institutional and all forms of racism and respond to such cancerous forms with our silence.
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
The head of the far-right Nazi-spirited vigilante group Soldiers of Odin, Mika Ranta, threatened in a statement to take over the Tornio border checkpoint and defend it by force if the Swedish authorities let in asylum seekers as in 2015.
Center Party MP Mikko Kärnä states in the Center Party newspaper Suomenmaa that he has asked the police to investigate if the far-right group, which has ties with the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, broke the law by stating that it would take over the Tornio border checkpoint and defend it by violence.
The lion’s share of the over 32,000 asylum seekers that came to Finland in 2015 did so through the northern city of Tornio, located 737 km north of Helsinki. Source: Yle.
Kärnä also said that if the Soldiers of Odin’s association broke the law, they should be banned.
Soldiers of Odin founder Mika Ranta, who promises to pay 1,000 euros to anyone who knock a woman’s teeth down her throat. Source: Twitter.
What has overtaken this country if we have violent far-right public figures spread hatred with relative ease? Finland was slow to react and is still reacting. National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen and then Minister of Employment Jari Lindström openly supported in 2016 vigilante gangs like the Soldiers of Odin while then-Interior Minister Petteri Orpo was skeptical.
“If the Swedish border guards plan to slide from their responsibilities and imagines that it can let in people without appropriate travel documents to cross the Finnish side of the border, we will organize in Tornio to protect our people. If the Finnish government does not before that take responsibility for the country’s internal security and initiate effective border controls to curb organized crime and prevent undocumented aliens from entering [our country], it is the task of brave Finns with their iron determination to take over the border checkpoint in Tornio. If we face after that violence from aliens, we will meet in The Hague [court of justice]. It is the same if we face violence from the authorities. We will use force if necessary. This nonsense must stop. Bring back respect for legality and bring the traitors to justice.
MRanta
Sticking one’s head in the snow will not make the far-right threat disappear.
That is why we need a concerted effort to challenge such groups in order to defend our Nordic democratic institutions.
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
