Nato-huuma meinaa taas Suomessa ryöpsähtää yli. Ulkoministeri Haavisto meni tokaisemaan, että me kyllä kohta mennään Natoon ilman Ruotsia. Tavallisesti harkitseva ja diplomatiankin taitava ministerimme lienee jälleen puun ja kuoren välissä, kun olisi tyydytettävä klikkiotsikkoja kaipaavien toimittajien tarpeet, rähisevän äärioikeiston ja natokiimaisen, sotaa pelkäävän kansanosan tarpeet ja oman hallituksenkin toiveet.
Juuri tässä tilanteessa pitäisi maltti kuitenkin säilyttää. Suomi on Ruotsille paljon velkaa siitä, että Ruotsi on meidänkin puolestamme pitänyt yllä Pohjoismaiden mainetta demokraattisina valtioina, jotka tarpeen tullen auttavat diktatuureista pakenevia vainottuja ihmisiä. Se, että Ruotsissa nyt on Suomea huomattavasti enemmän Erdoganin vihaamia ja luovutettaviksi vaatimia kurdeja, ei suinkaan ole aihe syytellä Ruotsia ja vaatia heiltä toimintaa. Päinvastoin, on jo vihdoinkin aika, että Suomi asettuu tällaisessa tilanteessa tukemaan Ruotsia siellä, missä kyse on ihmisoikeuksista ja vainottujen kansojen hengestä ja terveydestä.
Naton jäsenyys saavutettakoon aikanaan diplomaattisin toimin, neuvotteluin ja Naton oman päätöksentekokyvyn avulla – ei sieluja kauppaamalla. Kannattaako sitä paitsi sellaiseen Natoon liittyä, jossa ei rauhan aikana olla yksimielisiä siitä, että Suomi ja Ruotsi ovat kumppaneita, joita halutaan yhdessä puolustaa? Kuinka sitten kriisin tullessa saadaan päätökset aikaan – pitääkö silloinkin lähettää suomalaisia Turkkiin uhrattaviksi?
Migrant Tales has written several stories about how security guards on local trains in Helsinki and the Greater Helsinki Area have suffered brought treatment by security guards. The Eastern Uusimaa Police Department announced Monday in a statement investigating assault cases in which at least six employees of Avarn Security are suspected of assault.
“In the suspected offenses, the security guards transported the victims they encountered during their work to a more sheltered location near the train stations, after which they assaulted the victims and filmed the acts,” says Mikko Minkkinen, crime commissioner of the Eastern Uusimaa Police Department.
The crime was revealed when a bystander reported the assault to the police.
So far, six people have been arrested for the crime. The police said that the number of suspects might increase.
For the security guards to have a “system” of assaulting victims shows that the practice could be widespread. It also reveals poor management on behalf of Avarn Security.
“What happened shows that there are problems with hiring the right people for the job,” said a security guard who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There are all types. Some are pretty violent by nature and should pass rigorous psychological tests, like the police, before being hired.”
A comprehensive study in 2018 on ethnic profiling by the University of Helsinki showed how ethnic profiling, especially by security staff, was a source of special concern.
“Many said [in the study] that security guards were often rude and treated them roughly, even violently,” said the University of Helsinki Professor Suvi Keskinen of one of the ethnic profiling study’s findings.
The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is the most Trumpian party in Finland’s parliament. Its parliamentary group leader Ville Tavio, who has spoken highly in the past of similar far-right politicians like France’s Marine Le Pen of France, is happy that former President Donald Trump is back on Twitter.
Twitter banned Trump after he incited an insurrection to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and halt the peaceful transfer of power to President Joe Biden. No president of the United States has done what Trump did to undermine US democracy.
Like Trump, Tavio and his band of PS politicians are cancer undermining our society and institutions.
“What kind of a country would Finland be if politicians like Tavio ever took over? We have already seen how much their politics polarise and label racialized people. In the United States, they call these types of politicians “crazies.”
Who would they go after they rid Finland of those they loathe? Not me, you might believe.
Wrong.
It would be the end of democracy as we know it.
A tweet by Tavio expressing his admiration for autocratic iliberal leaders.
In neighboring Sweden, the Sweden Democrats were able to form part of the government thanks to right-wing parties like the Moderates.
The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) is flirting and playing ball with the PS in Finland. Contrary to Sweden, Finland’s far-right party will not accept forming part of a minority government. It will want the whole thing, even if it means devouring Kokoomus.
Where is your MAGA cap, Tavio? Two of your MPs, Wilhelm Junnila and Veikko Villen, have posed with it.
Apart from Finland’s racism problem, the PS has become popular due to the tacit support of the media and non-PS politicians for their views.
If we unite and give parties like the PS and those like Kokoomus that support them the thumbs down, we can send them back to the minor political leagues.
The Midterm elections in the United States were an encouraging rebuke of Trump and the Republican Party.
Targeting and hating people because of their background isn’t “normal” or a tool to build a well-functioning society.
It is a recipe for the social exclusion of Others and to sow future fields of genocide.
A Kanta-Häme district court that dropped charges against seven police officials and security guards for forcibly removing in 2017 two Muslim women’s hijabs will not be treated by the court in what remains of the year but in 2023, according to prosecutor Heidi Savurinne.
Two asylum seekers saw their hijabs removed forcibly in 2017 by the police and security guards because they refused to take them off for a photo. Finland does not allow Muslim women to wear the hijab if they enter the police force. Source: Yle
The case is significant from the view of religious freedom and equality before the law. Why are asylum seekers forced to remove their hijabs for police photos if those with residence permits don’t have to? As long as a woman’s face isn’t covered, EU law allows women to use the hijab for a passport picture.
The Nordic saw a predictable political earthquake on September 11, when the right-wing bloc led by the far-right Sweden Democrats nudged the right-wing bloc to victory. The election brought Sweden in line with its other Nordic neighbors: all four now have or had large far-right anti-immigration parties.
Of the four countries, the entrenchment of the far right is best seen in Denmark, where mainstream parties like the Social Democrats tow the Islamophobic line.
The far-right Danish People’s Party came to power in the early 2000 and had steadily worked to turn Denmark into a haven for anti-Muslim rhetoric and hatred.
In light of what happened in Norway and in Finland, what will be the path of the Sweden Democrats to implement their Islamophobic policies?
Step 1 was the election. Step 2 is polluting Swedish politics with more racism. Like in Denmark, “straight” parties like the Moderates or Social Democrats may rob the Sweden Democrats of their support by becoming as Islamophobic as them. It is what happened in Denmark.
September 11 is a bad day for many: 9/11 and the coup in Chile that ousted democratically elected Salvador Allende.
That infamous day will also be remembered when far-right politics came home to roost in the Nordic region.
Whenever I get fan or hate mail, I wonder why they never sign them with their names. I normally don’t publish hate mail but this will be an exception. The one below is by KKK Molly, at least it is what’s on her email address. I wonder what “KKK” stand for? Ku Klux Klan, maybe?
Why are you here exactly? Nobody is forcing you to live in Finland or anywhere else in Scandanavia. If you don’t like “racism”, there is a quite simple solution: Leave. In every single one of your articles you express the most brazen form of foreign entitlement to somebody else’s country i’ve ever seen. You have the erroneous believe you have the inherent right to White people’s hospitality and social welfare as if it has been bestowed upon you by God himself, and that indigenous Finns and other indigenous Scandanavians are obligated by some invisible mandate to give you the fruits of their labor and treat you as superiors.
You come in and DEMAND that you be given special privileges and protection at the EXPENSE of the native population. What if you invited somebody into your house and they started making demands and acting like it’s their house now – I’m sure you would be more than displeased. Not an inch of gratitude from non-White foreigners, never a for “We appreciate your hospitality” it’s always “You’re not doing enough for ME” from you sand niggers.
Come here and act like you own the place – And you wonder why the indigenous population doesn’t like you. It’s never your fault – It’s always “White racism” which in your minds, exists for no reason other than white people being inherently evil.
We hear many slogans from you people: “Dismantle whiteness” “We deserve more rights” “We have a right to live in White countries” but NEVER ONCE have we ever heard “Thank you”.
You are little more than entitled colonizers. You have a homeland to go back to. If Finns and other scandanavians become a minority in our own lands, we have nowhere to flee.
Keep making demands. Keep pushing until we’re against the wall and have no choice but to send you all straight to hell.
This is Part 2 of Tariq’s* ordeal in Finland. Go here to read Part 1.
“This is my case:
I have been living in Finland for eleven years. I moved here to be with my wife, and upon arriving, I started to work and study at the same time. After three years in the country, my ex-wife wanted a divorce, and we separated on friendly terms. I lived in Kanta-Häme area for four years.
My ex had a close friend working as a police officer in the Kanta-Häme region, and he was dealing with immigrant cases. I was invited to his office after my divorce and was questioned on the details of my divorce process to see if I still had legal reasons to stay living in Finland. I was working at the time and received a study place shortly after.
I moved to the Helsinki region and started my new life. Later, in Helsinki, I went to the police station to ask for some information. After getting my documents to process my request, the office informed me that there was something written in my info about me that I was completely unaware of and still don’t know exactly what it is. He took my residence permit card and told me to wait. He returned after some minutes with his supervisor, they asked me to follow them inside the station, and I was questioned on issues like what I was doing here since my divorce.
I told them I was studying and had about three months left to complete my graduation. He informed me that the police had canceled my residence permit and that I had thirty days to leave the country or be deported. He took my residence permit away and refused to give it back when I asked.
I asked him whether he had the right to take my permit away, and his answer was that he had the right to do so. I left the police station and went to meet a lawyer. I explained the situation, and she told me he had no right to take my residence card. Immediately she called the police officer that had taken my card away, and she told him that he didn’t have the right to do that by any laws since I hadn’t broken any laws in Finland. He said that he had an order from the Kanta-Häme police to take my permit away on site.
I have been officially asking the police about this order, but I have been denied access to my info here in Finland.
After this incident, I was forced to quit school with three months left. I had to find a job and then apply for a residence permit based on my work contract. I was also denied the permit because my salary fell short of a hundred euros from the minimum, which you have to have to finance my life here. They informed my boss directly that I didn’t have a valid permit and couldn’t work because of that. My boss contacted Migri [Finnish Immigration Service] and told them that I was doing my job, they were happy with me and didn’t understand why I couldn’t get the necessary permit to continue.
I didn’t stay waiting and so went looking for a new job, with a higher salary of about three thousand euros and with that I appealed against their decision, but again they refused. This time, I changed jobs to apply for a residence permit.
Since this time, I have been harassed by the police. For some reason, I just started getting a lot of traffic fines. I received tickets for speeding and reckless driving from the police without evidence, such as dashcam videos. Went many times to court due to these fines since I contested them, but in court, I always lost. The court told me they don’t think the police can lie. Also, during one stop a policeman was shouting and cursing at me when approaching; for this incident, I had a witness in the car with me. I took the fine to the court, where the case went on for seven hours with my lawyer Miro Delgado. The judge ultimately decided that I was fined wrongfully, and the fine was canceled. The two policemen weren’t reprimanded for their behavior or wrongfully giving me the fine. I had to sell my car because of this continuous harassment.
During the time we were going through this process, I started a new relationship, I got married, and was granted a residence permit for family reasons.
In 2016 I applied for citizenship, it normally takes one year to get a decision, but in my case, it took the immigration office three years to give me a negative answer. The negative decision was because I had been legally in the country all this time without a residence permit, which directly resulted from the immigration office’s long processing times and cancellation of my residence permit. That was also the reason for not getting permanent residence in the country.
Each migrant who survives in Finland deserves a medal for heroism.
Tariq* has lived in Finland for over eleven years. If there is a person who has run into complications with the police, Migri (Finnish Immigration Service), and due process, he is one of them.
According to Tariq, his citizenship process has been arbitrarily delayed due to a police fine that was canceled.
“In March last year, the police was called by some security guards for resisting arrest,” Tariq said. “In the first place, security guards cannot arrest you. The police came, they did not hear my side of the story, and they slapped me with a fine.”
Each migrant who survives in Finland deserves a medal for heroism.
Tariq alleged that the security guards had hurt his hand. He wanted to go to the hospital but was not taken there.
“At the time [of this incident], I was applying for Finnish citizenship [a second time],” he continued. “Due to the fine, Migri stopped the application process until the issue was resolved.”
Tariq inquired about the fine around the end of August and found out, to his surprise, that the police had canceled it.
In an interview with the Washington Post, political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who authored The End of History and the Last Man (1992), gives his views on the Ukraine War and what it may imply for Russia and Vladimir Putin.
He argues that the rise of far-right parties in Europe and Donald Trump in the United States have received fuel from Putin. He mentioned a few of these politicians but leaves out Jussi Halla-aho and the Perussuomalaiset* party.
Francis Fukuyama: “I think Putin represents something very sinister in the minds of many people in the West.
A lot of people in Western democracies see that in their country, there’s a right–wing nationalist politician that is either supporting Putin or acts a lot like Putin. Matteo Salvini in Italy; Éric Zemmour, Marine Le Pen in France; Viktor Orban in Hungary. And Donald Trump.
So I do think there is a kind of awareness of more liberal-minded people that this alternative also exists in their country.”
