Enrique Archives - Page 47 of 152

Black and white Marshal Mannerheim

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Migrant Tales

Tabloids such as Iltalehti and blog forums like Uusi Suomi have raised passions to fever pitch due to a new movie about Marshal Carl Mannerheim (1867-1951). The issue that they are heatedly debating and questioning is why Finland’s most famous military figure is being played in a movie by a black man from Kenya?

The producer of the movie, Erkko Lyytinen, told Ilalehti that he has received death threats as a result of the movie, which will debut in Finland on September 29.

So? Black Mannerheim. What’s the problem? Why is it an issue?

Andy Warhol had no problems about painting political figures like Mao in unnatural skin-colors like dark blue and green. The unnatural colors reminded us that these people are human like us.

Warhol saw Mao with green lips and dark-blue skin…

… Marilyn Monroe’s skin changed colors too.

Since we’re not talking about a serious documentary, picturing Mannerheim as a black man should not raise passions. Isn’t it a good thing that some are using poetic license to understand who Mannerheim was and what he represents today?

Certainly.

Mannerheim is still a controversial figure, who is seen by some Finns as a savior and by others as a scoundrel.

Kalle Kinnunen, a Suomen Kuvalehti columnist, claims that the strong reactions by some Finns about black Mannerheim expose racism.

At the end of the day, is it such a sacrilege to picture Mannerheim and his deeds in a different skin color other than white?

What does it say about our history and how we see ourselves ethnically?

Helena Eronen, the one that wrote about sleeve badges, resigns

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Migrant Tales

Helena Eronen announced Monday on Uusi Suomi her resignation as Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari’s aide. Eronen suggested in a controversial blog entry in April that foreigners should start wearing sleeve badges to help police hunt criminals.

Even if Eronen claimed that her controversial blog entry was satire and not intended to insult anyone, it did just the opposite.

There is some unconfirmed speculation that one factor behind Eronen’s resignation was an affair with Hirvisaari, which the latter’s wife wasn’t too happy about.

Hirvisaari got suspended for five months by the PS parliamentary group for not sacking his aide.

Even if Eronen isn’t a member of the PS, she used to advertise on Uusi Suomi as belonging to Muutos 2011, a far-right anti-immigration party.

While the PS has not said a word about Eronen’s resignation, it’s clear that the party is releived because she was a liability.

While the choice of hiring aides by some PS MPs raises some questions, Ulla Pyysalo is another aide that is still working at parliament after her name appeared on a Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta (SKV) membership list. SKV is a neo-Nazi association.

Hirvisaari was fined in December for inciting ethnic hatred.

Pasta macaroni: a 1-2-euro meal in Finland

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Migrant Tales

Asylum seekers and immigrants are very resourceful people when it comes to stretching their small allowances. Pasta macaroni is a common meal among some immigrants and doesn’t cost very much to make. You can feed yourself for only 1-2 euros.

Taking into account the high cost of living and low allowances that asylum seekers and unemployed immigrants receive in Finland, the school is for some the only place where they can eat a balanced and varied meal.

Here is one example of what an unemployed immigrant family may eat in Finland: breakfast consists of white bread, butter, marmalade and a glass of milk; pasta macaroni for lunch (see below); and pancakes with jam, butter or tuna flakes with oil for dinner.

Pasta macaroni is a cheap way to feed yourself.

There are different versions of how to make pasta macaroni.

Pasta macaroni (about 1 euro/person):

Small onion
Garlic
200g of macaronies
Can of tuna fish flakes with oil
Water
Salt and spices like chili

Chop onions and fry until golden brown. Add macaronies, water and salt to taste. Place tuna fish flakes with oil after the macaronies have absorbed the water. Macaronies can be boiled separately and served with the fried onion-tuna-oil sauce.

Pasta macaroni tomato sauce (about 1.50 euro/person):

Small onion
Garlic
200g of macaronies
Can of tuna fish flakes
Can of tomato sauce
Salt and spices like chili

Chop onions and fry until golden brown. Add tuna flakes, tomato sauce and spices. Boil macaronies spearately. Mix cooked macaronies with tomato-tuna-fish sauce.

If you get tired of macaronies, you can switch to spaghetti, which is more expensive. It can add about 0.50 euros to the cost of your meal.

Exceptional Finns with immigrant backgrounds

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Migrant Tales

Some Exceptional Finns with so-called immigrant backgrounds are Husein Muhammed, Nasima Razmyar, Arman Alizad, Tino Singh, Abdirahim Husu Hussein and Ali Jahangiri. All of them have one thing in common: They are exceptions to the stereotype but have immigrant backgrounds.

But how can you call a person who has lived most of his or her life in Finland “a person with immigrant background” if he speaks Finnish or Swedish as his main language or is near-perfectly bilingual? For how long must that person carry that extra label, immigrant background, before he or she is accepted?

You know that there is something fishy about the whole term, Exceptional Finns, since anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset, speak in favor of these types of immigrants and Finns.

Exceptional minorities permit racists to be racists. You are an exception and therefore you can get your shoes shined. Only exceptional people count from your ethnic group. Let’s not dwell on the problem: Why are people shining shoes and living in poverty in the first place? Answer: They are not exceptions. Source: Flickr.

The fact that these exceptional people are not considered full-fledged Finns (because they have that drop of immigrant background) not only reveals a lot about our racism but our views of cultural diversity.

Cultural diversity is not a social illness. It not colorblind as well. It is a lifestyle-identity choice that we make personally and which society should protect and encourage. Whether we want to hyphenated our identity or not is a personal choice. It is our choice.

The existence of the Exceptional Finn with immigrant background reveals how some want to eat their racist cake and have it at the same time. It permits them to feel like they are not racist even if they are. This line of thinking in a white Finnish world would work in the following way: Those who do not succeed at becoming exceptions are failures.

In many respects, and in a Finnish context, all these cases represent what Julian Abagond calls in the United States Exceptional Negroes.

“Exceptional Negroes are those who are ‘no like other blacks.’ They do not fit the stereotypes. Sometimes they achieve great things, rise to the top of their field,” writes Abagond. “They become sports heroes, film stars, tokens, black best friends, beloved servants and so on. Some even have white fans, lovers or admirers.”

Language plays an important role in Finland and is an important factor fueling discrimination. Finland’s large white Russian community is a case in point.

Will JSN react to the A-Studio program on rape convictions?

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Migrant Tales

I have sent a complaint to the Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN) concerning the A-Studio program that gave, in my opinion, a one-sided view of a problem that has an impact on all immigrants living in Finland. A-Studio claimed that a quarter of all rape convictions in Finland during the first five months of the year were by foreigners.

What the A-Studio report forgot to stress enough was that the total number of rape convictions by foreigners totaled 25 during the period under review.

Rape statistics are commonly used by far-right and anti-immigration groups to fuel ethnic hatred.

The Anti-Defamation League of the U.S. singles out a number of ways to recognize hate speech. One of these is the use of crime statistics incorrectly to drive home their claim: men from certain groups rape and therefore are a danger to our society.

The question that the A-Studio reporter, Tuomas Kerkkänen, should have asked is if 25 convicted rape convictions constitute a problem never mind a documentary to highlight the issue. Moreover, very little is said in the story about the majority of rape convictions, which are by Finnish men.

A number of similar storied like the one by A-Studio were published after the story was aired on August 1. What is surprising, however, is that many of these stories use only percentage figures. They don’t mention that rape convictions totaled 25 cases.

While everyone has a right to express himself or herself in our society, such a right should not be misused by a state-owned broadcaster like YLE to reinforce a reporter’s apparent prejudices of certain ethnic groups in Finland.

Fairness is an important aspect of any good news story. The A-Studio story wasn’t fair to the viewers or to those immigrant groups that it unfairly labelled.

How rape statistics reveal a serious problem: racism and prejudice

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Migrant Tales

You know there is something fishy whenever any person starts to use percentages to drive home the point that immigrants are rapists. If anything, rape statistics do reveal a problem: racism and prejudice.

One blogger on Uusi Suomi writes: ”In April, Finns were told that men from xxxx are guilty of committing rape alarmingly often.” Using a tabloid story as a source, he states that in 2006-09 34% of all convicted rapes were by foreigners.

There are some serious problems with the conclusions of the tabloid never mind the writer:

How many foreigners were convicted of rape?
Are we speaking of an ”alarmingly high” amount?

In the Uusi Suomi blog entry, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari, who was fined in December for inciting ethnic hatred, believes that 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year is enough proof to close our borders.

Hirvisaari writes: “We don’t need ‘free movement’ since it only brings too many problems and forms part of the left-wing agenda to undermine the nation-state. ’Let’s do away with borders and mix different nationalities.’ Border control and immigration policy should be contrarily tightened.”

Here is some of Hirvisaari’s latest double-talk on his latest blog entry: “Multiculturalism is a destroying politicial ideology, which does not fit in a [culturally] diverse society.”*

Yes, that’s right, such a comment was made by a Finnish MP based on 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year!

If anything, rape statistics reveal a serious problem: a society’s racism and prejudice.

Why isn’t anyone labeling Estonians?

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Migrant Tales

If I belonged to a certain anti-immigration party in Finland, how would I use the following information to score brownie points with the voters: 700 out of 1,200 suspected drunk-driving cases in Finland are by Estonian nationals, according to tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.

Even if such a high number of Estonians were caught driving under the influence of alcohol during the first half of the year – 60% of all DUI cases by foreigners – you don’t hear any politicians demanding that Estonians should be barred from driving in Finland.

Remember a A-Studio documentary that insinuated that the “high” amount of rape convictions in Finland were by immigrants who came from war zones? YLE based its claim on 25 convictions during the first five months of the year!

Why isn’t anyone labelling Estonians with the same enthusiasm as the A-Studio documentary if we are speaking of a much higher 700 suspected DUI cases?

The answer is obvious: Estonians are white, certain non-EU immigrants in Finland aren’t.

Massive Greek police clampdown on immigrants

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Migrant Tales

Cash-strapped Greece showed its dark side over the weekend when some 2,000 police in Athens and surroundings arrested 1,100 undocumented immigrants and held another 4,900 for questioning, according to Clandestina blog. The action is a disturbing example of how the Greek government is trying to blame immigrants for the country’s financial problems.

It is estimated that Greece has close to one million undocumented immigrants mostly from Asian countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and others.

Apart from having no legal protection, one of the most worrying aspects of the clampdown by Greek police is the silence of European politicians. This is not only shameful but a clear indication that matters are going to get worse in Europe for immigrants before they improve.

Adding salt to injury, the police named the operation Xenios Zeus, which was the ancient Greek god of hospitality.

Two thousand police were mobilized in Athens and 2,500 on Greece’s eastern border with long-time enemy Turkey.

The massive crackdown, which will continue, took place before the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and European Central Bank representatives were set to meet Greek officials concerning a 31.5-billion-euro tranche of aid next month.

Writes the Los Angeles Times: “Public Order and Citizens’ Protection Minister Nikos Dendias defended the roundups as necessary to keep Greece from unraveling, arguing that the country faced the biggest “invasion” since the influx of the ancient Dorians thousands of years ago. Dendias had earlier claimed that “unbelievably high” numbers of immigrants were involved in crime, according to Greek news reports.”

Der Spiegel names Timo Soini as one of Europe’s most dangerous politicians

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Migrant Tales

German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, published the top ten most dangerous politicians in Europe concerning the euro crisis. One of these was Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini, who is in the ”good” company of Geert Wilders, Viktor Orban, Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage, Silvio Bertlusconi and four others.

Even if Soini is in the opposition, his shadow hangs heavy over the government of Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, according to Der Spiegel. “Not a penny more,” he is quoted as saying defiantly about the euro crisis. “We have paid enough.”

Even if Soini is considered as one of the most dangerous politicians of Europe, there’s nothing to be proud of. All of Der Spiegel’s ten-most dangerous politicians are euroskeptics as well as Islamophobists, populists and even quasi-dictators like Prime Minister Orban of Hungary.

Writes PS MP Reijo Tossavainen on his Uusi Suomi blog: “In my opinion Timo Soini is right. I am satisfied, and even somehow proud, that Soini as well as other Perussuomalaiset members have been against [euro bailouts]…I am pleased that the same trend is evident in other parts of Europe as well.”

I wonder what medicine Soini, Tossavainen and others of the PS will prescribe to Europe if the euro becomes history and we slip into a deep recession.

Will they step up their attack on the usual scapegoats like immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals and other minorities?

I’m afraid that’s happening right now.

Finnish youths with immigrant backgrounds are the new underclass

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Migrant Tales

A new map published by Statistics Finland shows the percentage of marginalized youths (15-29 yrs) by regions. It not only shows a growing problem in this country, but an especially serious one among youths with immigrant backgrounds, who have a much higher chance of being marginalized than white Finns.

A marginalized youth is anyone who is unemployed and not attending school after finishing middle school.

The black boxes are white Finnish youths and the yellow ones youths with immigrant backgrounds. They show what percentage of youths (15-29 yrs) are marginalized from the whole age group.

The highest number of marginalized youths with immigrant backgrounds are n Kainuu (28.8% with immigrant backgrounds versus 3.4% white Finns), Kymenlaakso (26.1%/5.1%), Lappi (24.4%/3.8%), Etelä-Savo (21.7%/3.7%), Pohjois-Karjala (21.3%/3.0%), and Pirkanmaa (21.0%/3.5%).

The lowest percentages can be found in Etelä-Pohjanmaa (12.4%/2.6%), Etelä-Karjala (15.8%/4.1%), Keski-Pohjanmaa (16.0%/2.8%) and Satakunta (16.6%/3.9%)

What do these percentages tell us? In my opinion, they show that we have failed miserably to integrate and accept people with immigrant backgrounds as equal members of our society.

How many of these marginalized youths with immigrant backgrounds have lived the majority of their formative years in Finland? Why do some, after living most of their lives in this country, still feel like outsiders?

While being marginalized is a complex matter that is attributable to many factors, probably the first step in becoming part of this underclass is accepting that you do not belong here. You start to believe that Finland is a country made only for white Finns.

If there is a neglected underclass in Finland, they are the youths with immigrant backgrounds!

Category: Enrique