Category: Enrique Tessieri

¡Qué vergüenza tu xenobobía y tu racismo, jefe de gobierno Horacio Rodríguez Larreta!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Se sabe ya desde hace mucho tiempo que los senegaleses que viven en la Argentina son discriminados y hasta brutalmente tratados por las fuerzas del “orden” público. Así pasó otra vez en los barrios porteños de Flores y Once donde, según Megafón, hubo más de mil senegaleses fueron detenidos.

Todo esto huele a algo mal y la pregunta que deberíamos hacer es ¿por qué la justicia porteña ordenó ahora el allanamiento en un domicilio (Alsina 2677) donde viven trabajadores ambulantes senegaleses?

¿Es una coincidencia que la Argentina tendrá el 27 de octubre elecciones presidenciales, por diputados y por senadores? Es una coincidencia que el jefe de gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, pertenece al mismo partido que Mauricio Macri?

Escribe una residente de Buenos Aires:

Leer la nota completa aquí.

Escribe Megafón: “Ingresaron efectivos policiales con muchísima violencia y desde organizaciones de trabajadores de la calle y organismos de derechos humanos, denuncia una clara persecución del gobierno de Horacio Rodríguez Larreta contra los inmigrantes.”

La Argentina no sólo tiene una larga y rica historia de inmigración europea sino, también, una parte de nuestra historia blanqueada es de los afroargentinos y pueblos originarios.

A comienzos del siglo XIX, un tercio de la población de la Argentina fue negra, según el historiador John Lynch.

No es la primera vez que los seguidores del Presidente Macri usan mano dura contra inmigrantes vulnerables como los africanos, los bolivianos, los peruanos, entre otros grupos.

El trato a los senegaleses es una vergüenza que debería ser fuertemente condenado.

DPP, Golden Dawn, FPÖ…chalk up another loss for the far right in Europe

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THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

The snap elections in Austria saw the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) suffer a blistering defeat with the number of MPs plummeting by 37.3% to 32 from 51. Sebastian Kurz of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) was the biggest winner getting 38.4% of the popular vote and gaining 11 MPs to 73 MPs.

FPÖ vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and his ministers were forced to resign in May after a video published by two German newspapers offered damaging evidence of him allegedly offering government contracts in return for political support from Moscow.

Austrian election result. Sebastian Krutz’ ÖVP is the clear winner with the Social Democrats (SPÖ) coming in second place and in third the FPÖ. The Greens (Grune) did well in the election as well. Source: Austrian interior ministry.

Even if the FPÖ got clobbered in the election, minorities such as Muslims are worried about Kruz’ anti-Muslim rhetoric. “He did not understand that repeating hardline anti-immigrant rhetoric in a nicer tone does not defeat far-right populists,” said Nina Horaczek, an investigative reporter at Falter, who was quoted in NPR. “It makes them stronger.”

Even if 2019 was supposed to be the year when far-right parties break down the election door, the Danish People’s Party, which is a close ideological ally of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, lost 21 of its seats in July to end up with 16 seats in that country’s parliamentary elections.

The PS, in which the Danish election result sent shivers up the party’s spine, its political message under the leadership of Jussi Halla-aho is entrenched in far-right and radical-right ideology.

The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn and Matteo Salvini’s Lega Nord have suffered as well political setbacks in 2019.

Copying the tactics of Lega Nord’s Salvini in giving firey Islamophobic messages, the PS has used the same rhetoric to gain support. Such violent language against minorities is like a flat bicycle tire: You must pump it constantly for air to remain in the tire.

The ever-Islamophobic and racist language of the PS not only continue to fuel the hostile environment but directly incites and legitimizes violence against migrants and minorities.

* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

An island called n-word that reveals how Finnish racism works and is unchallenged

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In the rural region of North Karelia in eastern Finland, there is an island called n-word in Finnish. Yes, you heard right: n-word, according to Journalisti, a publication of the Union of Journalists of Finland.

But that’s not all.

In Finland, the n-word is inappropriate and racist. The island in North Karelia is not the only example of the n-word in Finnish geography.

The offensive word explains why the Union of Journalists North Karelia (PKJY), which owns the small island, applied to the Institute of Languages of Finland (Kotus) to change the name to Uutiseksi (News).

The proposal by PKJY, which approve the name change at a board meeting earlier this year, turned to Kotus but its request was turned down.

“Even if the n-word is used in a derogatory [and racist] manner today, the name cannot be changed because it makes some feel uncomfortable,” Kotus said in a statement.

Somebody should enlighten Kotus that the usage of the n-word today is racist and offensive, “not uncomfortable.”

The decision by Kotus is a good indication of how Finland deals with racism, or how it does nothing substantial to challenge it.

The island derives its name from lehtin-word, which was what some called journalists and people working for the media in the 1980s.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Teaching integration or institutional racism?

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Finland puts a lot of effort into its integration program. Earlier this year, with the sexual assault cases in Oulu, we saw the then government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä blame asylum seekers for not integrating and that our integration problem was a failure.

All of these accusations had one matter in mind for then Minister of Interior Kai Mykkänen and the National Coalition Party: the April 2019 parliamentary election. Mykkänen went as far as to suggest giving a test to asylum seekers about Finnish values.

A realistic picture of integration in Finland? Source: Metropolia.

As we all know, the suggestion of giving an integration test is only intended for public consumption. What are Finnish values anyway? Is one of them being a supporter of institutional racism?

What do you think white Finns teach asylum seekers about Finland at integration courses? Some may do a good job but at the end of the day, many teach asylum seekers to accept institutional racism by telling him or her fairy tales about our society. In effect, such teachers are saying that this is the way things are done and you must accept it.

One example is when such courses speak of gender equality. They do not tell women, who are asylum seekers, on how to combat labor discrimination. Moreover, they don’t give the students skimpy information in many cases about changing institutional racism.

If we are serious in turning people into active citizens, we must do away with much of our exceptionalism and superiority complexes we have of other people. Tackling all forms of racism should be a much higher priority.

The next question is why we don’t do that and with greater determination?

Halla-aho’s anti-immigration soundbites and why we should not relax hate speech laws

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Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson Jussi Halla-aho gave us on Yle Ykkösaamu his usual anti-immigration blah blah and why Finland should relax its hate speech laws.

In the interview, Halla-aho, who was convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012, defended the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association and played down PS MP Juha Mäenpää’s description in parliament that asylum seekers are a non-human “invasive species.”

Mäenpää is the same politician who stated in 2015 that “God had answered his prayers” after an asylum reception center was razed by fire.

Read the full story here.

While these types of counterarguments by Halla-aho, who has steered the party in into the far-right ideological lap of leaders like Lega’s Matteo Salvini and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, have no significance because the PS leader would even find arguments to justify the rise to power of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler in 1933.

Helsinki University criminal law professor Kimmo Nuotio threw some cold water on Halla-aho’s claim that hate speech laws have no place in an open society. Apart from pointing out that the PS’ proposal is political, he did not consider the ongoing debate healthy for democracy.

Moreover, the number of ethnic agitation cases that reach the courts are still modest as the table below shows.

Ethnic agitation cases that were taken to court in 2018. Even if such cases rose by 138.5% last year to 31, it is still a tiny amount. Source: Justice Ministry.

“Personally, I find this type of discussion harmful,” Nuotio said, “it’s an attempt to undercut the basis for these laws.”

One matter that the Ykkösaamu journalist should have asked is why do we have laws against hate speech? The answer is obvious. Without them, it would be open season for racists and parties like the PS openly harass, attack, label and socially exclude vulnerable groups like Muslims for their political gain.

The argument used by Halla-aho to not open Finland’s labor markets to outside the EU is equally deceiving. Adding the usual fear-mongering that outside the EU there are half a billion people who could come to work, he claimed that such workers would drive down salaries.

Possibly valid to some extent, such people in our labor market like now would force our authorities to do a much better job in regulating markets and ensuring that exploitation does not become the norm.

* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

Finland should wake up to its hate speech, hate crime and racism problem

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Green League MP Iris Suomela raised an essential question in parliament on Wednesday about rape. She said that there are “hundreds of thousands” rape cases in Finland of which 50,000 are reported annually to Victim Support Finland (RIKU).

“The end result of all this is that the police record about 1,200 [rape] cases [annually] of which around 200 get sentenced,” she said.

It is a very good matter that the government is not only changing sexual abuse laws, which include consent but aims to essentially improve how the police handle such cases.

One question that arises when looking at Finland’s present sexual abuse laws is if hate crime and hate speech are also underreported in the same way. If Suomela speaks of annually of about 50,000 rape cases that are reported to RIKU, what kind of ballpark figures are we looking at for hate speech and hate crime?

According to the latest figures, hate crimes in Finland during 2017 rose by 7.97% to 1,165 cases compared with 1,079 the previous year, according to the Finnish Police University College. 

The report states that only 21% of harassment and hate-speech cases in 2016 were not reported by the victims, according to the ministry of justice. If this is the case, we are talking about thousands, possibly tens of thousands of cases annually.


Ethnic agitation cases that were taken to court in 2018. Even if such cases rose by 138.5% last year to 31, it is still a tiny amount. Source: Justice Ministry.

Even if Finland has very good hate speech laws and laws that promote social equality, the question these above figures bring up is what MP Suomela raised: Few victims report such crimes to the police. We need a change in culture and to listen to the victim.

The latter claim is supported by some of the conclusions of a recent European Network Against Racism (ENAR) shadow report. “Most EU Member States [like Finland in the report] have hate crime laws, as well as policies and guidance in place to respond to racist crime, but they are not enforced because of a context of deeply rooted institutional racism within law enforcement authorities,” ENAR said.

See shadow report here.

Apart from institutional racism issues, another practical matter we should ask if there are enough police monitoring hate speech and hate crime in Finland and enforcing the law vigorously.

The Finnish police have at the most 10 Internet police officers who monitor hate speech, reports Yle, citing police inspector Måns Enqvist of the National Board of Police of Finland.

Ten is too few in light of the ever-growing hate speech and hate crime problem in Finland.

QUOTE OF THE DAY (Riikka Purra): Human scum and racism

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THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* First Vice- President Riikka Purra asked in a tweet: “In your opinion, is it racist to call an African rapist human scum?”

Indeed, it is racist! It is especially racist if you are a white politician who is a member of an Islamophobic and Afrophobic party.

Can a human, irrespective of the crime, be referred to as subhuman?

Her question is a bit similar to what former UK Prime Minister David Cameron called migrants trying to enter Britain as a “swarm,” which is a term applied for fish and insects.

It is not appropriate for anyone, especially politicians, to refer to people as “scum” or a “swarm.”

Purra, who hates asylum seekers and is near-constantly spreading conspiracy theories tweets: “In your opinion, is it racist to call an African rapist human scum?”

In the interview with Susanne Päivärinta on Wednesday, the chair of the parliamentary administration committee, which oversees immigration policy, Purra could not name the three biggest national groups in Finland.

She told Päivärinta that they were the Russians, Estonians, and Somalis. Wrong. The three biggest groups are Estonians, Russians, and Iraqis.

Purra talks big and spreads Islamophobic fear but has problems with her facts like what percentage of foreign nationals live in Finland.

She didn’t even know.

Purra is a disingenuous politician whose anti-immigration rhetoric is a sham.

* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.

Yle opinion poll: PS support surges, about 20% of Finns suffer from social ills like racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales does not usually publish opinion polls. However, the latest one published by Yle warrants a quick response.

White Finnish newspapers headlined the news as, “Support for the Perussuomalaiset* party surpasses 20%.” I and many of my friends see it differently: “Support for the PS shows that Finland has a serious untreated racism problem. Watch out brothers and sisters and get ready for more hostility and violence.”

Read the full story in Finnish here.

Politicians like PS Vice-President Riikka Purra may ask how can one insinuate that half a million voters could be racist.

My answer: How many millions of Nazi Germany were indirect or direct complices in the Holocaust? How many millions of white Europeans and USAmericans were involved in slavery and the slave trade?

Yes, the PS is a racist party that exposes Finland’s untreated social ills like racism.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform was wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.