Category: Enrique

YLE ensures that opinion pieces and news will be easily identifiable in the future

Posted on by Migrant Tales

YLE emailed a Migrant Tales reader, who expressed concern Friday about an opinion piece written as news by Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Olli Immonen. It was an odd coincidence that Immonen’s opinion piece was published in such a manner, considering that the PS MP is the new chairman of Suomen Sisu, a far right anti-immigration association. 

The email sent by Teijo Valtanen, the regional and  radio current affairs director, states: “Because in your opinion it wasn’t easily enough to distinguish that [what Immonen wrote] was an opinion piece, we will check these columns written [weekly on Fridays by Oulu region] MPs to ensure that they stand out sufficiently from news and are easily identifiable as opinion pieces.”

Thank you YLE. Even if Valtanen states that the broadcaster will take special care so that this mistake doesn’t happen again, this is exactly what should be always done. It’s the readers right to know if he or she is reading an opinion piece or a news story. Opinion is opinion and news stories are supposed to be fairly written without editorializing the topic.

In countries where the media is controlled by autocratic governments that have little respect for human rights, a strongman’s opinion can be presented as “news.”

Since the media plays an important role in our Western society to ensure Montesquieu’s checks and balances, the newsroom should be always off limits to representatives of the judiciary, legislative and executive.

Taking into account the attitude of some politicians especially from the PS, some of them would be more than happy to control what the media says.  This became self-evident right after the PS’ historic victory in 2011. Both MPs Jussi Halla-aho and James Hirvisaari, who have been sentenced for ethnic agitation, tried to tell the media how they should write about the populist party.

Hirvisaari, who wanted the media to stop nicknaming the PS persu, which could be seen coming from the word perse, meaning anus, claimed in 2011 that YLE should be made redundant because it brainwashes the public.

Why shouldn’t we be worried if an opinion piece written by a party member who loathes the media appears as news?

Our reaction to such a mistake clearly showed that that we want politicians, especially like Immonen, to stay out of the newsroom.

The media does its job when it places politicians under scrutiny, especially those who want to undermine its role and compromise its independence.

Case Suomen Sisu: YLE corrects mistake but remains quiet about it

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The opinion piece of Suomen Sisu’s new chairman, Olli Immonen, was mistakenly published as “news” on Friday by YLE. That was later corrected by YLE, apparently after the broadcaster got a number of concerned emails from readers. The latest problem? YLE didn’t mention that it had corrected the mistake.

Why is this important? Because YLE has an obligation to tell its readers when it has corrected a story. Those that read the original posting by Immonen still believe that the Perussuomalaiset  (PS) MP’s rants about postmodern art was “news.”

See how YLE corrected the mistake by comparing both snapshots below. The first one, which was published Friday, is an exact copy of what the chairman of the extremist anti-immigration association published on his Uusi Suomi blog.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-3-23 kello 5.39.28

 

Before..

Kuvankaappaus 2013-3-23 kello 5.39.46

 

…and after. Why doesn’t YLE mention that it had corrected the mistake?

Suomen Sisu has been called a lot of things in the past, from Nazi-spirited to extremist by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo). The group still lives in the murky world of eugenics, a disgraced pseudo-science whose aim was to create a master white race by wiping out other ones.

Suomen Sisu openly supported “racial hygiene” and discouraged white Finns from marrying foreigners, which the anti-immigration association denies.

It’s views on multiculturalism are very similar to the Ku Klux Klan and U.S. American Nazi Party, which express concern about the whites becoming a minority in their country.

 

YLE presents far right Suomen Sisu chairman’s opinion piece as “news”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) appears to have published ad verbum an opinion piece by the new Suomen Sisu president, Olli Immonen, as “news.” Nowhere in the story does it tell readers that this is an opinion piece written by the Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP but presents it instead as a news story, which it is not. 

If this is the case, one may ask what kind of journalism and journalists are working for YLE in Oulu. Any self-respecting journalist does not regurgitate news ad verbum.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-3-22 kello 19.02.23

 

For some odd reason Suomen Sisu, an extremist anti-immigration association, got free ad space on YLE. Read original story (in Finnish) here.

Suomen Sisu has been called a lot of things in the past, from Nazi-spirited to extremist by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo). The group still lives in the murky world of eugenics, a disgraced pseudo-science whose aim was to create a master white race by wiping out other ones.

Suomen Sisu openly supports “racial hygiene” and discourages white Finns from marrying foreigners.

Some Finnish banks require Somalis to be Finnish citizens to have access to online banking

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales understands that employees of banks like Nordea, Osuuspankki and Handelsbanken in Kouvola and Mikkeli tell Somalis that they must be Finnish citizens in order to have access to online banking. A blog entry published in March 2012 highlighted the difficulties that stateless persons face in opening a bank account never mind gaining access to online banking. 

Migrant Tales reported a year ago that a Nordea bank employee in Mikkeli told a stateless passport holder that he would need a valid passport to open an account.

Banks refuse to serve stateless passport holders because the person’s former identity cannot be confirmed on the document.

If one asks ten African immigrants if they have online banking or not, some will tell you that they have while others don’t, even if they are all stateless passport holders. This suggests that banks treat stateless persons and/or some Africans arbitrarily.

According to a stateless passport holder, some branch offices will give you online banking servies, while other’s won’t. Some banks require a passport and others a driver’s license to open a bank account.

“We went to the Osuuspankki branch office in Kouvola and inquired about online banking,” said a Somali-born immigrant. “The bank employee told me that I need to be a Finnish citizen before I can have online banking services. I should inquire to the police about this, the employee said.”

JusticeDemon said a year ago that there is a clear administrative problem over what counts as proof of identity and over the  implementation of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (Accession by Finland on 10 October 1968).

One point of that Convention is Article 27 (Identity papers), which states, “The Contracting States shall issue identity papers to any stateless person in their territory who does not possess a valid travel document.”

According to the Ombudsman for Minorities contacted last year by Migrant Tales, an identity card issued by the police should count as valid identification just like a passport.

The National Discrimination Tribunal of Finland (Syrjintälautakunta) gave Nordea Bank Finland a conditional fine of 5,000 euros for not accepting a French identity card as proof of identity, the Tribunal said in a statement.  Moreover, the Tribunal considered the bank’s refusal to serve the client and his removal from the premises as an infringement on his dignity and integrity.

Länsi-Savo: Osaava ulkomainen työvoima tarpeen

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Ei tarvitse mennä kauas todetakseen, että tulevaisuus on jo laskenut Etelä-Savossa: Sulkavan kunnassa 31,1 prosenttia väestöstä on eläkeläisiä ja vastaavat luvut Heinävedellä ja Puumalassa kiipeävät 30 prosenttiin. Mikkelissä asiat ovat hieman paremmin (20,3 prosenttia), mutta huonommat jos vertailemme koko maata (18,1 prosenttia).

Kuvankaappaus 2013-3-22 kello 6.50.27

Alkuperäisen kirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.

Etelä-Savo ei ole pelkästään nähnyt sen väestön ikääntymistä nopealla vauhdilla, väestökato on ollut toinen vitsaus. Vuonna 1980 eteläsavolaisia oli 174?619, mutta 2011 se oli laskenut 153?738:aan.Eri ennusteet povaavat sama menoa: vuonna 2020 väestömäärä laskee 146?042:een, ja vuonna 2030 määrän arvioidaan laskevan jo lukuun 141?059.

Lähteenä lukuihin on Etelä-Savon maakuntaliitto.

On ihmeellistä, että jotkut mikkeliläiset kunnallispoliitikot uskovat yhä, ettemme tarvitse osaavaa työvoimaa muualta kuin Suomesta.Näyttää siltä että näille politiikoille ainoa vastaus nykymenoon on jättää tulevaisuutemme Etelä-Savossa sattuman varaan ja populismiin.

Mitä merkitsee Etelä-Savon maakunnalle väestökato ja vanheneminen? Vastaus on yksinkertainen: alikehitystä ja itsenäisen päätöksenteon menettämistä isompaan kasvukeskukseen. Tämä kehitys on jo alkanut maakunnassamme.

Tarvitsemme enemmän kun koskaan johtajuutta ja isoa kuvaa siitä, miten ratkaisemme väestöllisiä ja taloudellisia haasteita. Yksi menestyksen pilari lepää osaavan työvoiman saamisessa Suomesta ja ulkomailta maakuntaan sekä moninaisuuden hyväksyminen.

Kansainvälisyys ja maahanmuutto ovat vanha ja tehokas keino korjata väestökadon puutteet. Tätä on käytetty ennen, nyt ja käytetään tulevaisuudessakin.
Samalla tavalla kuin maat houkuttelevat yrityksiä, jotka luovat uusia työpaikkoja, sama asia koskee osaavaa työvoimaa ulkomailta.

Isänmaallisuus merkitsee asennetta, jossa toimitaan maan parhaiksi. Etelä-Savon parhain intressin puolustaminen on taata sen väestöllinen ja taloudellinen hyvinvointi niin tänään kun tulevaisuudessakin. Ilman ulkomaalaista työvoimaa tämä ei onnistu.

Maakunta jota me kannustamme, ei ole pelkästään kansainvälinen ja moninainen, se on samalla ylpeä omista eteläsavolaisista juurista eilen, tänään ja tulevaisuudessakin.

Enrique Tessieri
Veysi Zengil
Hamid H. Alsammarraee
Mustafa Mohamed Ahmed
Kansainvälinen Mikkeli ry

 

Tenth anniversary of the Iraq war: Washington’s new-old foreign policy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment:  This story appeared on Suomen Kuvalehti’s website shortly after the US-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003. All you needed back then was common sense to understand that the invasion of Iraq was a huge and costly lie.

The column reposted in June 2007, shortly after the birth of Migrant Tales in May of that year.  

________

As U.S.-led coalition military forces continue to pound Iraqi army positions and the war claims its share of mounting civilian casualties, one matter appears certain: U.S. and U.K. forces are not being greeted by the population as liberators.

Whatever the reasons may be for stiffer Iraqi resistance, it is incredible that Washington has overlooked one very elementary fact: People are nationalistic and don’t like to be invaded by foreign armies.

Loyalty and love of one’s country are the first facts children learn at school no matter how poor or rich their country is. The United States is no exception.

When I was thirteen years old and studying at a Catholic school in California, the history teacher spoke often about how “evil” the former Soviet Union was and how “right” our system of government is.

“People in the (former) Soviet Union live in a prison,” the U.S. history teacher said. “If you open the doors of Russia, millions of people will flee to freedom.”

Having lived in a number of countries, I openly disagreed with the teacher. I tried to use logic: “If the Russians have never traveled anywhere in their lives, surely they consider their country the best in the world,” I said.

A silence descended over the classroom and I felt naively that I had made my point. The teacher looked at me, and then snapped: “What are you – a communist! If you don’t like America go live in Russia!”

Coup vs. régime change

As time moves on so do geopolitical perceptions. One of these is the George W. Bush doctrine’s view of how governments are changed. The new term is “régime change,” which has sidelined a fancier French word used before known as coup d’etat.

Latin America was a region where coups – oops! régime change — occurred on a grand scale. If experience of how the U.S. influenced Latin America in the last century is anything to go by, the people of the Middle East are in big trouble.

In the 1970s, some Latin Americans accused Washington of double standards. Why did the U.S. support despotic and brutal military régimes south of its border if it is a model of a western democracy?

The list of tyrants that ruled Latin America is a long and tragic one. Few will question the CIA’s role in regime change during the cold-war era. Its director during 1976-77 was none other than former President George Bush Sr.

We were told back then by Washington that the justification for régime change and military juntas was to defend Latin Americans from communist tyranny. Even so, any serious student of the region understands that Washington’s main goal was to defend its national security interests.

Will U.S. national security prevail in the Middle East as the driving force of President Bush’s administration as new geopolitical maps are redrawn of the troubled region? There is nothing to suggest the contrary, considering Bush’s obstinacy for a military solution for disarming Iraq and the present administration’s suspicion of the UN.

The scars left by ruthless dictators have traumatized Latin Americans for generations, like the Iraqis, who will not only be haunted by a past tyrant — but by a terrible war waged by the U.S. in the name of a questionable invasion.

Some immigrants adapt so well to Finland that they even parrot the language of the racist

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Intolerance doesn’t only originate from the majority group, but is alive and kicking among some immigrants as well. White immigrants may have prejudices against their fellow black ones, gays against heterosexuals, religion x against religion y.  In sum, there’s a lot of intolerance promoted out there that reveals itself in the most surprising places. 

One of the pillars of  our integration program in Finland should be to teach immigrants how to live in a culturally diverse society and the importance of mutual acceptance and respect for others. This may be easier said than done, taking into account that immigration and cultural diversity are new to some Finns.

Here’s the crux of the problem: If we don’t practice what we teach we encourage at the end of the day newcomers to hold the same negative values as us. Don’t we make a mockery of our own values like social equality (tasa-arvo) if we don’t practice what we preach?

Some immigrants have adapted so well to our society that they even parrot the language and jokes of those that loathe them.

I was quite surprised to hear an immigrant make a joke about another immigrant.

Here’s what he said: There was a bomb explosion at a white Finns’ and immigrants’ home. Why didn’t the Finns die?

Answer: Because the Finns were at work and their children at school. The immigrants were all at home because neither their parents were employed nor did their children attend school.

What?!

A black unemployed immigrant telling such a tasteless “joke” about other immigrants in Finland?

As far as our integration program is concerned, it got a big “FAIL” with this person.

Sad but true.

 

 

The National Discrimination Tribunal of Finland fines Nordea for discrimination

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The National Discrimination Tribunal of Finland (Syrjintälautakunta) has given Nordea Bank Finland a conditional fine of 5,000 euros for not accepting a French identity card as proof of identity, the Tribunal said in a statement.  Moreover, the Tribunal considered the bank’s refusal to serve the client and his removal from the premises as an infringement on his dignity and integrity. 

Writes JusticeDemon: “A conditional fine is similar to a suspended prison sentence. Just as the felon must report to the parole office and stay out of trouble, a party that has been fined in this way must report back to the authority on its further conduct.”

“The Tribunal considered that no official instructions or the Bank’s own instructions prevented the Bank from accepting the petitioner’s French identity card as proof of identity. Because the petitioner’s French identity card is accepted as a travel document across the European Union, its reliability is comparable to an identity card issued by Finnish authorities when establishing a person’s identity,” according to the statement.

Foreigners who are stateless have had an especially hard time in opening bank accounts in Finland because it says on their passport that the person’s identity cannot be verified, Migrant Tales reported in March 2011.

Even so, some banks have given stateless persons a bank account but without the right to online banking. Other banks require a valid driver’s license, while other ones don’t accepted it as valid identification.

The National Discrimination Tribunal is an impartial and independent judicial body established under the Non-Discrimination Act and appointed by the Government.

What Finland can learn from countries like the U.K. about racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We can learn a lot from countries like the United Kingdom, where multiculturalism is an official social policy. Few won’t deny that the U.K. as well as other European countries don’t know what racism is if we look at their direct involvement in the slave trade and in the systematic genocide of indigenous peoples outside Europe. 

What does the U.K. do differently from us in Finland when it comes to racism? They take a social ill like racism more seriously than us. Few if any sensible politicians, except from xenophobic parties like the BNP or UKIP, deny that racism isn’t an issue in the country or that this is caused by immigrants.

Despite the rise of an anti-EU and anti-immigration party in 2011 in this country, the Perussuomalaaiset (PS) and its leader Timo Soini continue to play down racism with quaint sound bites like, “I cannot be a racist because I am a Catholic.”

Soini tried this line on HARDtalk and got torn to shreds. PS MP James Hirvisaari, an anti-immigration extremist who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, tried the same approach on a blog entry, Kristitty ei voi olla rasisti (A Christian cannot be a racist).

It’s pretty obvious that Hirvisaari, who must be worried about his image as a racist and extremist, must have asked Soini what to do about this. The head of the PS  must have advised him to write a blog entry and argue that he, a Christian, cannot be racist.

Even if the credibility of such claims from Soini, Hirvisaari and others are questionable to say the least, they reveal two matters about those who make them: (1) They have no idea what racism and how damaging it is and therefore don’t take it seriously; and/or (2) know what racism is but are its junkies because it feeds their hunger for power and brings them media attention.

PS town concillor Mika Hiltunen is the latest politician to face ethnic agitation charges. There are, unfortunately, many others who build their political careers on spreading racism, prejudice and intolerance in all forms and shapes.

You may ask why doesn’t the media see things the same way like Migrant Tales. It does. The problem is that 99% of the national media is run by white Finns who have never faced racism. People like Soini and his band of followers aren’t yet a threat to them never mind white Finns.

If there is a model we could start to look at on how to deal with racism in our country, one good country to start is the U.K. never mind Canada and Australia. All three countries have adopted multiculturalism as their official integration policy.

Check out what happened to councillor Christ Joannides of the Conservative Tory Party after he made Islamophobic comments on his Facebook page. Right. He got in hot water and is now facing a police investigation but he hasn’t been kicked out of the party.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-3-19 kello 11.16.24

The Tories continue to have their racism issues in the party as this story on North London Newspapers reveals. To give the boot or not, that is the question.

Contrarily, Migrant Tales wrote about Tory MP  Aidan Burley and how he was sacked from the party after attending a “Nazi” stag party.

By breaking his campaign promise, that any PS politician, especially an MP, would get sacked if sentenced by court for ethnic agitation, sends a mixed message: We’re sort of against racism but we’re not really. Carry on.

Shameful and disgraceful behavior coming from the leader of Finland’s third-largest party in parliament.

While racism and the PS may be in vogue today, history will judge them as a racist party that never got it when it came to cultural diversity.

What will happen to Finland if the PS matches its parliamentary election result in 2015?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Should we be worried by the latest polls, which show the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party vying for second place? What does the rise of the PS say about the present state of Finland? What will happen if the party matches its 2011 election result in 2015?

Right after the disappointing municipal election, PS head Timo Soini promised that his party aims to become the biggest in 2014, when Finland holds European parliamentary elections.

If you are an optimist, the rise of the PS in 2011 could be seen as a knee-jerk reaction to Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity, globalization and especially to the economic crisis that has hit the European Union and our country.

In my hometown of Mikkeli, we had our first refugee center in the early 1990s. The initial reaction was hostile, sometimes even violently towards the newcomers. That fortunately changed with time and today it’s nothing uncommon to see immigrants in Mikkeli.

While matters have changed for the better, others like institutionalized racism, prejudice and intolerance haven’t. They linger on because nobody has challenged these problems seriously enough.

Kansainvälinen Mikkeli, an association promoting cultural diversity and internationalization, approached by email some candidates before the April 2011 parliamentary election who wanted to tighten immigration policy and cut funding to such groups. Kansainvälinen Mikkeli published these responses on their Facebook page and thereby  opened debate with these candidates.

The email was important because it showed these candidates that their views concerning immigrants were being heard.

While it’s clear that time will change matters for the better in this country for immigrants and visible minorities, what if the PS match their last parliamentary election result in 2015? What would happen if they become the biggest party two and a half years from now and its leader, Soini, becomes prime minister?

While the latter scenarios are unlikely, such an election victory by the PS in 2015 would end up polarizing our society ever more. Soini’s and the PS’ answer, with the silent blessing of the bigger and some smaller parties, would play down intolerance by denying it as a minor problem.

It’s pretty clear that immigrants and visible minorities will never be treated as equals in Finland as long as they leave this important work to others. We must rise to the occasion and we must take charge of our own future.

One of the reasons why the PS has grown to such a big party and why our answer to their discourse has been so ambiguous, is because too many white Finns don’t feel threatened by them.

Leadership is needed more than ever today to drive home a fact that Finland is a culturally divers society.

No matter how much the racists and extremists kick and bitch about this fact, that’s what’s written in stone.