We are the new minorty
already here, if you like it or not
ready to build whatever needs building
and travel that long difficult path
of acceptance.
Like it or not
we’re your neighbors
and don’t forget, that we’re here
like chimapnzees swinging on birches, sixes and aspens
in this freezing cold
with you, albino monkeys.
Helsinki, early 1980s
This story, which was published by German Spiegel Online International, offers some good points on how to challenge ethnic profiling. It’s pretty clear that this illegal practice goes on in Finland as well and is more widespread than believed.
Migrant Tales asked in June blog entry: “How serious is ethnic profiling in Finland? Denials that it doesn’t occur at all by the police suggest that it may be a much wider problem than believed.”
Like any challenge facing society, we need proactive solutions. This story of a black German who was a victim of ethnic profiling on Spiegel Online International is not only inspiring, but offers hope: We can challenge such an injustice with our example.
An important matter to remember if you are harassed in public or are a victim of ethnic profiling and discrimination, is that it’s all about our children and grandchildren. We want them to live in a society that lives up to its values and that its laws should protect everyone.
The black German simply got tired of being constantly stopped by police because of his ethnic background.
“In the two years prior, they [police] had selected me about 10 times for a random check of my identification. It’s a pretty rotten feeling. I was born and raised here. I am German. According to the anti-discrimination law in the constitution, skin color is not grounds for a spot check.”
Read I didn’t want to be treated differently any longer here.
Saul Schubak, the vice chairman of the National Coalition Party’s youth wing, has unleashed a storm due to his views on poverty. Schubak wrote on Facebook that people who aren’t fit to parent should not receive child allowances.
He writes on his original post: ”Child allowances should be definitely eliminated. It’s absurd that we give support to weaker material [parents] to reproduce and then we wonder why there are drug-addicted children that are taken into protective custody from their alcoholic parents.”
Schubak’s views were strongly criticized because they hinge on eugenics, a disgraced pseudo-science that was used before the end of World War 2 to justify racism and ethnic inferiority of other groups.
After the National Coalition Party distanced itself from Schubak’s view, the young National Coalition Party youth leader patched up his original comment by admitting that it was ”a bit indiscreet,” stressing that he wants child allowances to be scrapped for all socioeconomic groups.
Just like racists use the ”we-want-to-debate-openly-immigration” argument, which is only a byword or phrase to bash immigrants, Schubak uses the same tactic to scorn the poor and vulnerable
It’s amazing that whenever these people want to “openly debate” an issue in society, it’s commonly about those groups that are the most defenseless and that have the least means to defend themselves against such attacks.
To what extent can we or should we debate the watering down of our human and Nordic civil rights?
Those that want to undermine and fuel greater social differences and income gaps in our society, not only reveal their contempt for our Nordic welfare state values.
Schubak’s Facebook page picture of him attending the Republican presidential convention speaks a thousand words about his values and political views. His comments about Finland’s poor is no surprise.
Finland hasn’t been the same since the April 2011 elections, when the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party won its historic victory and became Finland’s third-largest party with 39 seats versus 5 seats in 2007. The PS’ latest election flop is another indication that the vast majority of Finns and immigrants are giving the thumbs down to anti-almost-everything populism.
The spoils of last years election victory appear to have weaned considerably. This is good news not only for immigrants in Finland but for the country as well. In the presidential election in January, Finns Party chairman Timo Soini got 9.4% of the votes, while in last Sunday’s municipal election the PS could only muster 12.3%, a far cry from 19.1% it gained in last year’s election.
Many have wondered how is it possible that an anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party could become in such a short time a major political force in Finland. My guess is the following: Our lack of cultural diversity.
If Finland had larger ethnic and religious minorities, it’s highly doubtful that a radical populist party with a strong anti-immigration message would have ever raised to national prominence as the PS did.
One of the big debates going on in Finland presently is how our ever-growing immigrant population will change our country. While we don’t have a precise answer how it will change Finland in this century, we can say with certainty that it will change the country.
If I had the opportunity to take a fast peek into the future, I would see a society that comprises of many ethnic and cultural groups. I am confident that our cultural diversity will benefit and strengthen us for one main reason: it will ensure that no group ever gets the high ground.
No society is perfect, not even those that claim to be ”near-homogenous” like Finland. Since no society is perfect, never mind one that is culturally diverse, there are many poor examples we should avoid.
One of the most important are those examples that stray away from our values, which are strongly enshrined on acceptance, respect and equal opportunities.
Migrant Tales is always happy about the public recognition it has received in the past. The latest is from Mikko Kapanen of YLE Areena. He considers Migrant Tales to be one of the most influential blogs forums on multiculturalism in Finland.
Click here to listen to the program.
Kapanen published in May a blog entry called, Africa is a country: The geo-branding war.
Harri Taurianen, the new Perussuomalaiset (PS) city councilor of the northern Finnish city of Kemi, is a good example of how the PS continues to attracts a generous number of people who are multiculturally challenged.
Taurianen, who claims it’s good to uphold Finnish values and likes to spread far-right blah blah, imported his campaign slogans directly from foreign groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.
It appears that the new city councilor got a call on Wednesday from the PS in Helsinki since his Facebook page has mysteriously vanished.
Iltalehti quotes Taurianen giving the following advice to immigrants: ”Check and make sure you have a good reason to move to Finland. Make sure that you are the only person moving to Finland.”
And continues: ”It’s incredible that this human trash [convicted foreign criminals] aren’t put in their places. Put a stamp on their asses and deport them for good from Finland.”
Amon Rautanen of Kotka is another PS candidate who got a boost from his violent threats towards government officials and Muslims.
* The original story mentioned incorrectly Tauriainen’s name as Turtiainen.
Thanks to two friends, I was able to watch a “Welcome to Finland” video funded by the Finnish and Swedish film boards as well as the Nordic Children and Youth Committee. Writes Ilona: “You don’t need to speak the [Finnish] language to understand the depth of shameful, racist humiliation being enacted here.”
You can watch the “Welcome to Finland” Doxwise video here.
”We are going to support these hungry refugees which are on hunger strike because they think that criminals and shit heads and rapists shouldn’t be deported under any circumstances from Finland because it’s inhumane,” says one of the men.
The three men start grilling chicken and bacon next to an Afghan who is cold and on hunger strike. Apparently the men understand that he is a Muslim who doesn’t eat pork. One of the many foolish things that the men do is get drunk and streak naked in the video.
So let me get this straight: Tax-payers’ money was used to make fun of Afghan refugees on hunger strike in front of Parliament? Moreover, the whole project was planned on the anti-immigration Hommaforum website.
The only reason why such a video could be made is because these men aren’t refugees from a war-ravaged country.
Would they dare make a video mocking white Finnish women in a sexist and humiliating manner?
I doubt it.
Thank you Ilona and Ruth for the heads-up.
How long could the ever-growing list of anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) candidates be on Mamukriit-Looks? Too long for a good country like Finland to be overrun by candidates who spread prejudice and hatred. Below are some new Mamukriit-Looks candidates.
Jan Igor Hirvimäki of Salo suggests that social welfare to blacks (he uses the n-work on his Facebook page) should be slashed in half and that such groups should be forbidden from moving to Finland.
Hannu Tanskanen of Vihti published on Facebook a big picture of Adolf Hitler. He suggests that Hitler could serve as an important source on how to deal with homosexuals and immigrants.
Esko Kontio, a candidate for Savonlinna city council, wrote on Facebook that government leaders should be placed before a firing squad and shot for high treason.
Despite these above-mentioned statements by people who should know better, probably the worst of the bunch is Harri Tauriainen, who got elected to the Kemi city council with 460 votes. He openly publishes racist and white power material on his Facebook site. According to Tauriainen, Finland’s white “race” is under siege.
These are pictures taken from Harri Tauriainen’s Facebook page. Note the “save our race” and white power emblem.
Migrant Tales published earlier this month Mamukriit-Looks: The who’s who of anti-immigration Finland, which was a continuation of Per-Looks, a blog entry than caused outrage among some Perussuomalaiset (PS) candidates running for city council. Even if both blog entries were published with a dose of satire, the election of many PS anti-immigration candidates to city council is no joke.
If the Mamukriit-Looks blog entry is anything to go by, successful anti-immigration candidates running for city council cannot expose their racism too crudely since too much hate turns people off. One of these candidates was Anna-Maija Ahl from Sastamala, who got only 18 votes. The other one is Reija Hirn-Brazhevsky of Savonlinna, who got 14 votes.
Hirn-Brazhevsky’s knee-jerk comments are like an explosion of hate that leaves you stupefied. Her comments give the impression that nobody ever told her – except for now – that white people aren’t the only group living in Finland.
What is shocking is that despite the electoral setback that the PS suffered on Sunday, the majority of Mamukriit-Looks anti-immigration candidates got elected. Of the the 40 PS candidates in the blog entry, 23 got elected while 16 did not.
In the Mamukriit-Looks blog entry you will find Counterjihadists, ultra-nationalists, politicians slapped with fines for inciting ethnic hatred, candidates that admit liking fascism, some even applied for membership in a neo-Nazi association when they were drunk.
Remember Risto Helin of Vaasa, the PS candidate who wore a neo-Nazi shirt to attract votes? Well, he got elected with 234 votes.
Surprised? Check out Amon Rautianen, the PS candidate running for Kotka city council, who wrote on Facebook that it would be “patriotic” to kill government members and that Muslims should be boiled alive. Rautiainen got elected with 152 votes.
This group has some of the top ten anti-immigration candidates of Finland. From top row left to right: Olli Immonen (elected with 1,270 votes/Oulu), James Hirvisaari (elected with 191 votes/Asikkala), Matias Turkkila (not elected 276 votes/Helsinki), Jussi Halla-aho (elected with 6,026 votes/Helsinki), (second row) Juho Eerola (elected with 1,053 votes/Kotka), Freddy Van Wonterghem (elected with 189 votes/Kotka), Simon Elo (elected with 352 votes/Espoo), and Kai Haavisto (not elected 62 votes/Espoo).
What do Sunday’s municipal elections tell us about where Finland is heading politically? Even if the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party won 12.3% of the votes, which was a disappointment for Timo Soini, it reinforces Finland’s anti-EU and anti-immigration stance.
The biggest winner of the election was the Center Party (18.7%), which had lost a lot of votes to the PS in the April 2011 election, and the PS. The biggest losers were the Greens (8.5%) .
If Sunday’s results are anything to go by, the secret of being rich in votes and (in)famous is to be a PS member and be a Counterjihadist or strongly against immigration and cultural diversity.
Finland’s most notorious Counterjihadists did well in the election. Some of these include Jussi Halla-aho of Helsinki who won 6,026 votes, while Olli Immonen (1,270)of Oulu and Juho Erola (1,053) of Kotka secured a lot of votes as well. James Hirvisaari of Asikkala got in with 191 votes.
Anti-immigration candidates did well in the municipal elections. From top row (left to right) Olli Immonen (elected with 1,270 votes/Oulu), James Hirvisaari (elected 191 votes/Asikkala), Matias Turkkila (not elected/Helsinki), Jussi Halla-aho (elected 6,026 votes/Helsinki), Juho Eerola (elected 1,053 votes/Kotka), Freddy Van Wonterghem (elected 189 votes/Kotka), Simon Elo (elected 352 votes/Espoo), and Kai Haavisto (not elected/Espoo).Other PS anti-immigration hardliners that were elected include Amon Rautianen of Kotka, who suggested on Facebook that Muslims should be boiled alive, got elected with 152 votes. Freddy van Wonterghem, who got fined for hate speech, went to city council with 189 votes.
Other PS candidates notorious for their anti-immigration stances include Teemu Laitinen (530 votes/Espoo), Sppo Huhta (509 votes/Espoo), Simon Elo (352 votes/Espoo) and Ulla Pyysalo (102 votes/Taipalsaari), MP Eerola’s aide who applied for membership in the neo-Nazi Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta association.
All in all, the elections were a blow to the PS but it shows that Finland is still flirting with intolerance and far-right nationalism.
As one voter put it, the PS’ 12.3% result was a blow to Soini. “Things could be worse if they would had won about 16% of the votes as some polls predicted,” he said.