Category: Enrique

Using rape statistics to fuel ethnic prejudism and racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This week’s A-Studio report on the ”high” number of rape convictions of foreigners in Finland, and another one published by Tampere-based daily Aamulehti in April, not only shed light on “a problem” in Finland but expose the prejudice of the media and Finnish society concerning immigrants.

The exact arguments that the above-mentioned stories use to drive home their point are eerily similar to those spread by Finland’s anti-immigration groups.

A-Studio uses 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year to suggest that there is a ballooning rape problem in Finland by foreigners.

While rape, like any crime, must be strongly condemned by society, such statistics should not be used to reinforce our prejudices of certain groups. This I believe is the underlying problem of both reports by A-Studio and Aamulehti.

Migrant Tales found out in spring that the author of the Aamulehti story, Toni Viljanmaa, is a freelance journalist. Did he offer the story to the daily on sensationalist grounds in order to get it published? We don’t know.

Whenever journalists begin to editorialize their news stories in order to drive home their personal views, it’s the credibility of the story that is undermined. Taking into account that a lot of journalist at YLE are card-carrying members of  different political parties, we do not know what sympathies the journalist of the A-Studio report, Tuomas Kerkkänen, may have for the Perussuomalaiset (the Finns Party).

After the A-Studio report was published on Wednesday, tabloids such as Iltalehti picked it up and asked if sex education shouldn’t form part of the immigrants’ integration program.

While new information is always essential for a newcomer in order to read more effectively the cultural codes of a group, these types of stories, which were even published by Joensuu-based daily Karjalainen, are just as offensive as the A-Studio and Aaamulehti stories. They imply that foreign men are prone to rape due to their ethnic background.

While most rapes are committed by white Finns in this country, why aren’t the backgrounds of these convicted rapists revealed with the same enthusiasm? Are men in Eastern Finland more inclined to rape than, say, in Western Finland?

Making such a claim would be preposterous especially when there are so few cases to begin with.

Lee Walton (@eclat521) retweeted this blog entry.  He writes: “ridiculous- as an immigrant should I have been “taught” that rape is wrong? It’s against the law in UK, & ALL other countries!”

A-Studio’s immigrant rape report: A prejudiced storm in a tea cup

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An A-Studio report on the “high” amount of rape convictions of foreigners in Finland is not only another unfortunate example of arbitrary reporting by the Finnish media, but reinforces the perception of how hate groups in this country use crime statistics against immigrants.  

Migrant Tales encountered another similar story about foreign rape cases in April by Aamulehti.  In both cases, it isn’t clear whether the rape cases are committed by tourists or immigrant residents.

What made the A-Studio report especially questionable were the very statistics it used to drive home its point.

In the very same style as hate groups in Finland, the A-Studio report claims that since a quarter of all rape convictions in this country were committed by foreigners, there is “a serious rape problem” in this country.

A while later, however, we learn that we’re talking about 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year. We are even shown a table by A-Studio of the convictions by nationality. Of the 25 convictions, the biggest group are the Iraqis (7 cases) followed by Afghans (2), Nigerians (2), Swedes (2) and Serbian & Montenegrins (2).

Nina Nurminen, a prison psychologist at the Criminal Sanctions Agency, does not state in any part of the A-Studio interview that we are speaking of a small minority and that it would be wrong to conclude and label foreigners and especially Iraqi men as potential rapists. She does suggest, however, that people who come from war zones may be more inclined to rape.

A medic of the Family Federation, Miila Halonen, adds more fuel to the claims by telling us how Finnish women are “raped” without them knowing it. In other words, an immigrant meets a Finnish white woman, has sex with her and then dumps her. A friend of the immigrant calls the same woman and does the same thing.

Is Halonen implying that this is a form of “rape?” What about one-night stands among white Finns? Is it ok for a white Finn to do this but not acceptable if the person is a foreigner? How many of these types of cases is Halonen speaking of?

Like Nurminen, she too wanders off into generalizations labeling foreign men as preying on innocent women.

On top of her claims, she says that sex education should form part of the immigrants’ integration program.

Do you think that the A-Studio report was fair and offered a well-rounded story on the matter, or was it a prejudiced storm in a tea cup?

 

 

PS MP shows more ”tolerant” side to Helsingin Sanomat concerning homosexuality

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Contrary to what James Hirvisaari commented on the Hommaforum website, the Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP gave a more “tolerant” view on Helsingin Sanomat concerning his statement that homosexuality is “a sexual developmental disability.”  

Hirvisaari said that even a disabled people like homosexuals need to accept themselves for what they are, he emphasized that  homosexuality or disability does not erase human dignity. He said that his comments were not intended to incite hatred against homosexuals.

Outi Hannula, the chairwoman of the Finnish gay rights organization SETA, didn’t buy everything that the PS MP said.

“In what day does seeing homosexuality as a developmental disability differ from labelling it as an illness?” she said. “It seems that this is an attempt to label a person as deviant and unnatural.”

One of the questions that the whole affair raises is why bring up the topic in the first place.

The only sensible answer to that question is that Hirvisaari is trying to raise support and public visibility for the PS, which has seen its poll standings take a hit.

Finland will hold municipal elections in October.

Finnish anti-immigration party MP claims homosexuality to be a “disability in sexual development”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In light of the municipal elections of October 28 and the Perussuomalaliset (PS) party’s poll standings, it’s no surprise that MPs of the right-wing populist party like James Hirvisaari are leading the charge against different minorities in Finland. In a comment on Hommaforum, the PS MP considered homosexuality to be “a disability in sexual development.”* 

Hommaforum is an unofficial PS website used to spread intolerance of minorities in Finland.

Of the Counter Jihadists in parliament, Hirvisaari is in the same league with other Suomen Sisu association fellow members like Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen and others.

“In my opinion there is a good reason to ask if homosexuality is some sort of disability in sexual development if a person cannot develop in the natural order [being able to reproduce] of things,” he is quoted as saying on Hommaforum. “It’s not [homosexuality] a sickness but only a disability.”

Hirvisaari, who got fined for hate speech in December, is a good example of the negative passions and political forces that social media has unleashed in this country.

The decision by the Kouvola Court of Appeal to fine Hirvisaari for hate speech was upheld in June by the Finnish Supreme Court.

The PS MP’s near-constant rants against different minorities are a wake-up call for us on how some politicians like Hirvisaari are breathing life back into intolerance and polarizing our society.

There is a clear connection between xenophobic and homophobic behavior. In order to promote tolerance in a society, we must challenge both of these social ills.

Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen expressed such concern recently on YLE. He said that the actions and comments of parties like the PS have hurt Finland’s international image.

”What is clearly causing harm [to our society these days] is the racist, near-fascist, xenophobic old way of thinking that is propagated by certain sectors…” he said.

 

*Taking into context what James Hirvisaari said, and trying to understand it, probably “disability in sexual development” is a better translation of kehitysvamma in this context than sexual disorder.

 

Words have consequences: Deciphering code words of hate in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales
…hate groups have used conflicts over immigration to advance                                                                                         their White Supremacy, their hate, their stereotypes…                                                                                                            Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States was founded in 1913 to address anti-Semitism and ”to secure justice and fair treatment of all.” ADL’s Stacy Burdett reveals in an interview below the code words of hate used in the U.S. to dehumanize and victimize immigrants and visible minorities. The same speech is rampant today in Finland and Europe. 

Below are four ways to recognize the code words of hate:

  • Immigrants are an army of invaders
  • Dehumanization
  • Immigrants bring crime and disease
  • Conspiracy theory

While Hispanics are singled out as a danger to the United States, anti-immigration groups in Europe point their finger at Muslims.

Let’s look at Burdett’s points and see if they apply to Europe and Finland.

Immigrants are an army of invaders. With this claim, anti-immigration groups drive home the point that immigrants, or Muslims in the case of Europe, are an ”army” or “horde” invading our values and way of life.

There are many examples of people and groups using this argument. One of them is Aalto University senior lecturer Kyösti Tarvainen, who claimed, using a pocket calculator, that Muslims would outnumber Finns this century due to their high birthrates.

Pet adjectives used by these groups to describe immigration are “uncontrolled” and/or “mass.”

Dehumanization. Immigrants are talked about as swarms, hordes or in worse terms.  Burdett says: “…when you teach children at school to think a person is animal-like, less than human, you teach them that this group is less-deserving of their basic civil rights.”

Former Interior Minister Kari Rajamäki (Social Democrat) once labelled refugees as “welfare shoppers” that come in groups to this country to live off our generous social welfare system. The claim implies that since they come here as “welfare shoppers,” they should be treated as second-class members of our community.

The Nuiva Manifesto, an immigration policy endorsed by the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, points out what basic civil rights should be taken away from immigrants.

Immigrants bring crime and disease. This is a common  argument used by anti-immigration groups with the help of inaccurate statistics.

PS MPs like James Hirvisaari have used rape statistics and social welfare payments to single out and attack certain immigrant groups and minorities in Finland. One of his most incredible claims was that Norwegian mass killer, Anders Breivik, carried out his massacre because of “uncontrolled immigration” and because 100% of all rapes committed in the country were by foreigners.

Conspiracy theory. In the United States, anti-immigration groups claim that Mexicans that come to the U.S. do so to reconquer the Southwest and take back land that once belonged to Mexico.

In the same way, these groups in Finland and Europe claim that ”multiculturalism” is a conspiracy to permit Muslims and blacks to take over Europe ethnically and culturally.

Concludes Burdett: “When people all over the country are trained to think of immigrants as invading our way of life, trying to rip apart our civilization and undermining our values, when we are trained to think that they are a little less than, less-deserving of rights, less human, animal-like, almost…good people will be inculcated to hate.”

…”words have consequences. There is a direct connection between the policies we have in our societies, the words of leaders, daily lives of minority communities and immigrants and unfortunately we have seen hate crimes against Latinos, Asians and other immigrants on the rise.”

Sounds eerily familiar, even if Burdett is speaking about the United States.

Thanks to Daily Community Village Activist for the heads-up. 

 

Racist graffiti appears (again) in an eastern Finnish city

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It was only in 2010 when Kansainvälinen Mikkeli (International Mikkeli) brought to the city’s attention racist graffiti. To the association’s surprise, the graffiti had been on the walls of the Kattilansilta School and an underpass for over six months. Nobody, never mind the city, appeared to care too much about them.  

While this type of graffiti is the work of a small minority, it should not only be condemned by the city but painted over. What kind of image does racist graffiti give to a city like Mikkeli? How many new families and businesses will they scare away?

Does our silence suggest that we approve of this type of behavior or that we are ambivalent to it?

 This picture was taken in July 2012, even if Nazi Germany was defeated in May 1945. 

 White Power and SS signs, a trademark of neo-Nazis, together with a familiar warning. This picture was taken in July 2012.

One of these associations that is spreading stickers promoting neo-Nazism is the Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta (SKV). The sticker was placed in spring 2012 in front of the author’s home. It reads: “Multiculturalism is hazardous to your children and grandchildren.” 

 

 

PBS documentary: U.S. Border Patrol, an example we should avoid

Posted on by Migrant Tales

When I grew up in Southern California, the object of racist insults weren’t only blacks but especially Mexicans. Even if there were no Mexicans never mind blacks at our elementary school in Hollywood, some students – if not all – had very strong prejudices against them. 

An investigative documentary by PBS shows that not only is the treatment of Mexicans and other Latin Americans a widespread problem in the United States, it has risen to endemic proportions if we look at the actions of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Here is a link to the PBS website to the investigative report titled, Crossing the line. Here’s Part I.

Writes PBS: “In the rush to stem the tide of undocumented immigrants, has Border Patrol committed widespread abuse on [US]American soil? A former Border Patrol agent blows the whistle on unacceptable conditions in detention centers, including massive over-crowding and detainees who claim they were deprived of food and water.”

One part of the PBS documentary caught my eye with respect to Finland. It claimed that in 2010, there were only three complaints by detainees and 21 over treatment in general by Border Patrol officials.

If so few complaints have been filed against the U.S. Border Patrol against thousands of complaints by former Mexican detainees that suggest abuse, torture and even sexual harassment, the single- and double-digit figures above are highly revealing.

In Finland, there were questions raised by the Ombudsman for Minorities concerning ethnic profiling by the police. The police responded that there weren’t any such cases.

Such a claim in April, which was backed Christian Democrat (KD) Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen,  shows in my opinion that ethic profiling by the police is an issue just like the mistreatment of undocumented immigrants is by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Take a look at the PBS documentary. It will shock you.

When any institution like the U.S. Border Patrol is out of control and not accountable for its actions, the biggest loser are the very values that these agents claim to defend and uphold. It is indeed a slippery slope.

Who are the real enemies threatening the United States: undocumented immigrants or a U.S. Border Patrol that appears to be out of control and acts with impunity?

Thanks go to Community Village Daily Activist for the heads-up. 

Suomi on väkivaltainen maa

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Onko Suomi väkivaltainen maa? Vastaus riippuu siitä kuka olet: valkoinen suomalainen, mies, nainen, maahanmuuttaja, näkyvään vähemmistöön kuuluva tai vammainen.

Ennen kuin perustelen väitteeni, haluan tehdä muutamia selvennyksiä Susanna Kinnusen blogiin.

  • Olen ”pieni vihainen mies.”  Uskon, että ne, jotka tuntevat minut  henkilökohtaisesti olisivat aika paljon erimieltä.  Harrastin paljon mm.  koripalloa ja tunnetusti pelaajat ovat hyvinkin kookkaita
  • Olen  ”valtakunnanmaahanmuuttaja.” Olen suomalainen, jolla on suomalainen,  argentiinalainen ja yhdysvaltalainen tausta. Olen suomalaista sukujuurta ensimmäisessä polvessa, katson siis olevani suomalainen.

Uskon yhä, että Suomi on väkivaltainen maa erityisesti niitä ihmisiä kohtaan, jotka poikkeavat etnisesti meillä totutusta. Suomessa tehdään EU:n jäsenmaihin verrattuna kuudenneksi eniten henkirikoksia, Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen mukaan.

On selvää, että alkoholin runsas käyttö lisää ja kärjistää sosiaalisia ongelmia ja väkivaltaa.

Lööppi vuodesta 1992.

Ei riitä, että joku valkoinen hyvin toimeentuleva ihminen kertoo, ettei väkivaltaa tai rasismia ole Suomessa. Olisi reilua kysyä niiden ihmisten mielipidettä jota tämä asiaa koskee.

Mielestäni tässä on koko maahanmuuttajien  ja suomen kasvavan  monimuotoisuuden kompastuskivi: kuuntelemme vain omia mielipiteitä koskien toisia ihmisiä ja ryhmiä.

Kun kirjoitin omassa blogissa, Finland is a violent country as you know, tarkoitin erityisesti maahanmuuttajia.

Jotkut kysyvät miksi Migrant Tales blogissa  kirjoitetaan paljon näkyvistä vähemmistöstä. Syy on yksikertainen: kun heille menee paremmin kun puhumme syrjinnästä ja väkivallasta (henkistä, fyysistä ja instituutionalisesta), koko yhteiskunta toimi paremmin.

Uusi Suomi

James and Jussi out of control

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As the municipal elections of October near, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs, James Hirvisaari and Jussi Halla-aho, are doing everything possible to bolster the sagging popularity of the right-wing populist party. It’s unclear, however, if they are attempting to stir up support for the Suomen Sisu wing of the party or for the PS.

In their usual style, one of the MPs throws a furious right against decency while the other swings a left at the country’s judicial system. 

Graffiti on a school wall in Mikkeli that reads “white power” in Finnish.

Both MPs, who have built their political careers on victimizing and fueling suspicion of immigrants, are out of control. Even PS chairman Timo Soini appears perplexed. His silence speaks a thousand volumes about the present state of the party.

In the same crude style that Hirvisaari customarily attacks immigrants, he now targets Finland’s political parties. He slammed on Facebook  the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) for being an elitist party, the Social Democrats for supporting “freeloading multiculturalism,” as well as the  Greens and Left Alliance for being homosexual parties. 

This video clip reveals what Hirvisaari thinks about same-sex marriages, which is just as questionable as his views on cultural diversity.

After the Finnish Supreme Court fined Halla-aho in June for defaming religion and inciting ethnic hatred, the PS MP removed the passages on his blog that got him in trouble but replaced them with links, which permit the reader to read the original text. 

The police has contacted Halla-aho about the links and told him that they should be removed. He told YLE that he would not remove them even if the police and Supreme Court order it.  

Writing about Hirvisaari and Halla-aho reminded me of a story JusticeDemon brought to my attention on the Guardian and which took place this month in England.  

The story shows how some Pakistani men in a sex case made the national headlines, while similar cases involving white men went largely unreported by the national media. 

Just as different immigrant groups in England have been labeled and accused of being pimps luring innocent white English adolescents into prostitution, muggers and looters, Halla-aho, Hirvisaari and others have stigmatized immigrants in the same way. 

A favorite label placed on Muslims and Africans in Finland is that they are “leeches” and “gang rapists.”

Migrant Tales has shown beyond any doubt that rape statistic by Hirvisaari and others are bogus. 

The victim of a rape crime can be a person who has been abused sexually or one that has been accused unjustly of such a crime. The fabricated rape case in Lammi, in which Halla-aho and Hirvisaari used in their blog writings to show that refugees are a menace to our society, is a case in point.

Despite the fact that all rape charges were dropped, Halla-aho and Hirvisaari never apologized for sending a social media lynch mob against the asylum seeker.

Writes the Guardian about a similar case in England:  “By now surely everyone knows the case of the eight men convicted of picking vulnerable underage girls off the streets, then plying them with drink and drugs before having sex with them. A shocking story. But maybe you haven’t heard. Because these sex assaults did not take place in Rochdale, where a similar story led the news for days in May, but in Derby earlier this month.”  

“Fifteen girls aged 13 to 15, many of them in care, were preyed on by the men. And though they were not working as a gang, their methods were similar – often targeting children in care and luring them with, among other things, cuddly toys. But this time, of the eight predators, seven were white, not Asian. And the story made barely a ripple in the national media.”

And concludes: “Make no mistake, the Rochdale crimes were vile, and those convicted deserve every year of their sentences. But where, amid all the commentary, was the evidence that this is a racial issue; that there’s something inherently perverted about Muslim or Asian culture?”

When we accuse whole groups of a certain crime what we do is reveal our most entrenched prejudices.


 

 

Sweden convicts Peter Mangs for Malmö immigrant murders

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A Malmö District Court convicted Peter Mangs, 40, of two counts of murder and four attempted murders, according to the Guardian. The man, who is a Swede of Finnish descent, killed his first victim in 2003 and terrorized Malmö during 2009-10. All of his victims were immigrants.

Mangs will undergo psychiatric evaluation before his sentencing in early September.

Writes the New York Times in May: “And although the scale of the accusations are nothing like the charges against Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian on trial in Oslo for the systematic killings of 77 people last year in a crusade against multiculturalism, the parallels have not been lost on residents here in Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city and one of its most diverse.”

Prosecutor Solveig Wollstad was quoted as saying on Iltalehti that Mangs destroyed many people’s lives.

“He carried out his crimes in a cold-hearted manner without feelings [for the victims],” he said. “His aim was to shoot immigrants.”