Migrant Tales publishes on and off Finnish tabloid ads* (lööppi in Finnish) from the 1990s. Taking into account that Finland’s immigrant population started to grow during that decade, it is easy at least through some of the main stories of tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti to see how some of them reflected our xenophobic, prejudiced, racist or anti-Russian views.
Taking into account the suspicion, hostile attacks (verbal and physical) against a group in Finland thanks in part to tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat, a leader of the Somali community asks Finns not to blame them for everything.
I have wondered many times why the Somalis have been so victimized in Finland. One of the reasons may be that they were the first visible black group that came to Finland in large numbers. Their presence in our society acted as a key that apparently released some of our most racist views of Africans. This same victimization is still going on and was used by some Perussuomalaiset (PS) party members to get elected to Parliament in April.
With the PS heading south in the polls, some party members are reverting to the message of racial hatred and suspicion to bolster their sagging popularity. One of these groups that is being targeted by the PS is the Romany minority.
*Migration Institute archive.
This is what’s going on in Finland, Somalis came to Finland, so Finns let Somalis in because they signed geneva contract, some didn’t like the idea, so they figured out away to exclude them and máke their lifes miserable, so all doors been shut to them, they have no access to jobs and if any that’s 1 out of thousand, another thin is to pressure them socially wich means, constantly mocking them, accusing them of something they arent, physical attacks, mental attacks, non stop attack either physically or mentally. we have witnessed it on this blog, how some Finns come here and keep on slandering Somalis and coming up with the same old bullshit statistics just to oppress them, as we all can see from this tabloid to this day unfortunately nothing has changed, and then they wonder why are we not integrating in to Finnish society´, how can you possible integrate in to oppressing society who wants to label and stigmatize you even though you havent done persoanlly a thing.
D4R
It’s possible to integrate, it just requires more effort to realise your basic right to access work and services. Also, the racists that come here don’t represent the majority of Finns. You have a lot of invisible support in Finland, so don’t forget that. I know it would be nice that that support was more visible and vocal. Let’s hope it becomes more so.
Mark: D4R
It’s possible to integrate, it just requires more effort to realise your basic right to access work and services. Also, the racists that come here don’t represent the majority of Finns. You have a lot of invisible support in Finland, so don’t forget that. I know it would be nice that that support was more visible and vocal. Let’s hope it becomes more so.
Mark, i already integrated, im married to a Finn and have a beautiful half Finn , i was addressing to those racists who constantly complaing about why Somalis don’t integrate, to them i was pointing that, they complain about Somalis, but they don’t see themselves,their action of how difficult they make foreigners integration..
When i talk about racism, i only address only those racists, not All Finns are racist and not all of them are alike, ive known some great Finns who were to me like a brothers and sisters, some were like a father and a mother to me, so lets make things clear, not all Finns are racists, but there are some nasty racists out there and this blog is for to tackle them, before they get dangerous to the public.
Why were the Somalians afraid in November 1995, that they would all be blamed?
Who was victimized, Enrique? Come on now, you must know this. Tell us what happened in November 1995? D4R, can you tell us? You were probably too young, but you said “as we all can see from this tabloid to this day unfortunately nothing has changed”, and I do agree with you actually. Mark, and educated man, tell us what happened in November 1995.
D4R “for to tackle them, before they get dangerous to the public” – so what should be done?
A good question why they were victimized. Could another reason be that members of the Somali group participated in many crimes such as aggravated rapes in the 90s? When they were given refugee status, many Finns had the idea that all of them had gratitude for Finland for saving them from the Somalian Civi War, and that such gruesome crimes such as rapes were simply shocking.
What was behind this tabloid title? Why the Somali in the picture fears all Somalis will be blamed? Was it another series of rapes?
Allan: D4R “for to tackle them, before they get dangerous to the public” – so what should be done?
Allan, what should be done is to discuss, a people like me and you have to tal about this not fight eachother or accuse echother or stabb with workds eachother, this is both of our problems, we both want a peacefull society, Finnish peole are trully gret and peaceful people and i do admire them in certain things they have built this country for themselves and wor hard and that’s somerthing what i like, we Somalis are a minority to this country, we dn’t want to be a burden but we live here now and we just want to be part of the society, the racism that’s aimed against us is not fair and need to be stopped, sensible and honest Fnns have to stand up and stand u for us.
“the racism that’s aimed against us is not fair”
And what happened in November 1995 was fair, a show of gratitude? And the statistics since? As you said, there is a need to tackle before coming a danger to the public, but what is there left to do when there is a danger to the public? Its a human reaction to avoid this danger.
Allan: And what happened in November 1995 was fair, a show of gratitude? And the statistics since? As you said, there is a need to tackle before coming a danger to the public, but what is there left to do when there is a danger to the public? Its a human reaction to avoid this danger.
Allan, i don’t exactly know what happened in this , but i get the sense that the Somalis in this is saying to not accuse them of everything, what’s wrong about saying so if you feel that you’re injucticely accused of something you’re not, and i can really understand this tabloid because often some Finnish idiots like to throw false accusation and label a whole group of people as rapist, thiefs, lazy bums, unintelligent etc etc, and when the public is feeded to this type of stereotype about you then i guess it’s reall really going to make your life difficult, people will see you as that stereotype, do innocent people really deserve to be stereotyped like that? answer me please.
Yes, and you still are living in denial as to why these prejudices exist. Find out what happened. Nice man from Tampere, Finnish wife and two kids. Sound familiar?
Allan
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdigadir_Osman_Hussein
Ta en god kopp kaffe, luta bakåt o njut 🙂
Görän, check these dudes out, and gues what? they’re all Fins just like you:)
Nikita Fouganthine – Wikipedia
Jammu Siltavuori – Wikipedia
Görän, im going to play your games untill you tire out, you can count my word for it.
Görän, if you come here with some Somali criminals record on wikipedia so to insinuate all Somalis to be criminals, then why can’t we not apply the same to you too, how about we say you’re just like either Nikita Founganthine or Jammu Siltavuori, isn’t it fair, do accept that?
D4R
Allan ”Why were the Somalians afraid in November 1995, that they would all be blamed?”
”Mark, and educated man, tell us what happened in November 1995.”
Santeri ”What was behind this tabloid title? Why the Somali in the picture fears all Somalis will be blamed? Was it another series of rapes?”
D4R, you failed to take part in the discussion and/or to answer the questions. If the link provided was wrong, what is your answer?
Görän, are you a murderer or a rapist, or someone who’se capable of killing his own children and spouse in a snap? the reason im asking you is because i read almost everyday in the news a Finn who raped a child or murdered his own family or a Finn who ate his victim after killing, WHY DON’T YOU ANSWER ME MY QUESTION, YOU DON’T SEEM TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS, YOU JUST LIKE TO THROW SOME RANDOM MEANINGLES QUESTIONS, if you really want me to discuss with you in a rational way then you’re going to have to answer my questions or else your stupid arse is ignored, you’re not worthy of my time, to me you’re nothing, your not even thinking clearly, there is something seriously deficient in your thinkink process.
We are not asking what Somalians are doing in their own country are we? Or what Finns are doing in Somalia. We are asking why strange people from across the globe come to commit crimes to our country, as somehow feel the entitled to do so? That prejudice is all due to the Somalians own actions. Blame the people who came and did that impression before you start blaming the Finns.
Migrant Tales
Was it the convicted Somali child-abuser, raper, murderer that caused this tabloid?
Allan
In all people’s you get good and bad. It is never ever ever right to make the good people responsible for what the bad people have done. You don’t do it in Finland with Finns, so don’t do it with foreigners, because if you do, you are treating people as less than people. It’s that simple.
And it certainly is not the case that because some bad people have done things that it is okay to treat all people from that country badly, as if they are the criminals. Two wrongs don’t make a right!
This is my last reply to you Allan. I hope never to have to counter your poison again. You will call it censoring, I will call it having standards of human decency!!!
Mark, how is life brother?
so Enrique. What is behind this tabloid?
Funny how nobody has made a wiki on Jouko Petri Jaatinen, though the Norwegians seem to have missed the point of Nordic co-operation and self-censorship:
http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2005/12/02/451095.html
Hi suffernonsense and welcome to Migrant Tales. A lot of us do remember Jouko Petri Jaatinen, the infamous pedophile who abused a lot of children in Thailand.
I guess I’ll calm down some time today, D4R, but I’m hopping mad right now 😀 😀
Thanks for asking!
Please try to stay on topic. This thread is about the tabloid ad that Enrique posted. In that tabloid Somali’s are concerned that they would all be blamed about something. Now, you need to pay attention. There were absolutely no threats involved against Somalis. It was the Somalis themselves who pre-emptively got scared because some Somali did something bad.
What Göran did was just to enlighten us what was behind the fact why Somalis were afraid.
I want to illustrate this with example, because it seems you don’t get what I’m saying.
Person A goes and beats person B and leaves. Then person A starts to be afraid that maybe B’s friends will come and give revenge.
Now, person B and his friends has absolutely nothing to do with this. It’s person A who gets afraid because of his own actions. So you can’t blame B or B’s friends of anything.
Same applies to this tabloid. There is no excuse to blame Finns of anything or being prejudice. It was somalis who got scared because of something that another somali did. That’s why it’s very outrageous and dishonest from Enrique to try to make this tabloid look somehow bad about Finns.
Mark, im so busy right now, soon as i get my things right i wil send you an email, just to tell you of my history in Finland, thanks for sharing yours.
Farang
Try to understand this: A lot of Finns treat foreigners as ‘guests’. That means that if one of those foreigners does something bad, then some Finns are going to start feeling that it was a bad idea to let in ANY foreigners at all. So, what you are saying is that Finns do not have to process this response in any way, but that the foreigners nevertheless must understand that this is the way it is in Finland? So, when are folks like you going to grow up emotionally and actually process your own prejudices and stop telling everyone else that they must take responsibility for the fact that at the moment you refuse or are not willing to do this kind of psychological effort, an effort that is actually expected of any sensible and mature individual, not to make innocent people responsible for the crimes of the guilty!
D4R
Got it, mate!
stuffernonsense
Thank you to your adds, and welcome to Migrant tales 🙂
Mark, you didn’t seem to understand what I said. How is that possible even with that “example for dummies I gave”?
Orcourse it’s not right to prejudice all “guests” if one of those does something bad. This was not the case. Finns didn’t blame all somalis for one somali’s wrongdoings. But Enrique tries to imply it with this article.
It was the Somalis who only were afraid that MAYBE Finns would blame them, even if the Finns hadn’t said anything yet. So you can’t blame Finns for being prejudice only because some somalis thinks that the may get prejudice.
On vaarallista ajatella rasismia vain ainoastaan yksilön tekona. Rasismi on paljon muutakin.
D4R Itsetkin on yhtynyt siihen että tämä yhteiskunta asettaa valkeuden normiksi. Sellainen rasismi on enemmänkin systemmaattista tai rakenteellista rasismia.
Mutta jos me jätämme rasismin taistelun vain yhteen rintamaan, värilliset ohjataan ajattelemaan, että he ovat väärän laisia, mutta vain avoin rasismi on kiellettyä. Me emme voi keskittyä vain skinhead:deihin ja perussuomalaisiin. He ovat vain pieni osa tätä ongelmaa. Tämän on oltava taistelu suomen täydelliseen uudelleen muokkaamiseen.
Farang
Is it unreasonable to require you to express yourself consistently from month to month, or at least to let us know when you have changed your mind, and also to expect you to practice what you preach?
You did, after all, recently advocate summary deportation of any immigrant who expresses a dissenting opinion, even when that opinion is shared by Finnish citizens, and the grounds that you gave for this were that otherwise the “native population” (not you, of course) would develop “negative attitudes towards immigrants” (i.e. immigrants as a group). You didn’t explain how or why the “native population” would generalise in this way. Perhaps you should have provided another example for dummies to illustrate your reasoning.
Then a couple of days ago you announced that only immigrants abuse migrant workers in Finland (a false and abusive generalisation by any standards). Confronted with the cases of Iittalan Kivijaloste (Chinese stonecutters) and Matkaliikenne Koivisto (Russian bus drivers) you lapsed into incoherence – amusingly accusing me of not understanding what you had said:
so the false and abusive generalisation was somehow OK, because it was based on your own private selection of cases.
I heartily welcome your advice here that we should not judge individuals based on generalisations about the population groups to which they belong.
However, it would be helpful if you also personally exemplified that advice and refrained from expressing or condoning such generalisations, or using the perceived tendency of others to generalise as grounds for absurd public policy proposals.
Lopeta Sasu tuo jauhaminen, tuossa ei ole mitään järkeä. Suomalainen yhteiskunta ei mitenkään aseta valkeutta normiksi. Se, että täällä suurin osa on vaaleaihoisia, ei millään tavalla tarkoita sitä, että se olisi jokin yhteiskunnan asettama normi. Miten kukaan voi noin edes ajatella.
Ennenkuin seuraavan kerran kehtaat tuollaista väittää, niin kerropa mielellään esimerkein, miten se yhteiskunta sen normin oikein asettaa.
Samoin tuo paskapuheesi systemaattisesta ja rakenteellisesta rasismista alkaa pikkuhiljaa jo kuulostaa rikkinäiseltä levyltä. Jos sinä tällaisia juttuja keskustelet ihan tuolla internetin ulkopuolella, niin en usko että ihmiset sinua kovin tervetulleena pitävät. Ja tämänkin itseaiheutetun tilan sinä päässäsi käännät tietysti rasismiksi?
Ja tuo kommenttisi “suomen täydelliseen uudelleen muokkaamiseen” ei todellakaan ole sellaista puhetta, jota maahanmuuttajan kannattaisi julkisesti mennä möläyttelemään. Sellaista pidetään erittäin röyhkeänä ja samalla voimistat negatiivisia mielikuvia kaikista maahanmuuttajista. Omalta osaltasi siis vaikeutat myös kunnollisten maahanmuuttajien oloja täällä Suomessa.
Sasu in action 🙂
Sasu: On vaarallista ajatella rasismia vain ainoastaan yksilön tekona. Rasismi on paljon muutakin.
D4R Itsetkin on yhtynyt siihen että tämä yhteiskunta asettaa valkeuden normiksi. Sellainen rasismi on enemmänkin systemmaattista tai rakenteellista rasismia.
Mutta jos me jätämme rasismin taistelun vain yhteen rintamaan, värilliset ohjataan ajattelemaan, että he ovat väärän laisia, mutta vain avoin rasismi on kiellettyä. Me emme voi keskittyä vain skinhead:deihin ja perussuomalaisiin. He ovat vain pieni osa tätä ongelmaa. Tämän on oltava taistelu suomen täydelliseen uudelleen muokkaamiseen.
no Sasu, mikä on sun mielestä se rasismi mihin meidän pitää kohdistaa huomiomme? ehkä minulta on jäänyt huomaamatta jonkinlainen, jokin muotoinen rasismi.
Farang
Of course, you personally would not generalise from one person’s views to characterise an entire group. You already explained this very clearly:
So now you are arguing that Sasu should not express his perceptions, because this will reinforce negative views of all immigrants and sour conditions for decent immigrants in Finland.
It follows directly from this that you regard your fellow Finns as either not very intelligent or dishonest. Otherwise how could they generalise from Sasu’s remarks to reach conclusions about all immigrants?
Clearly you are now discovering how difficult it can be to hide your prejudices behind a veneer of respectability.
Justicedemon
“So now you are arguing that Sasu should not express his perceptions, because this will reinforce negative views of all immigrants and sour conditions for decent immigrants in Finland.
It follows directly from this that you regard your fellow Finns as either not very intelligent or dishonest. Otherwise how could they generalise from Sasu’s remarks to reach conclusions about all immigrants?”
Exactly. Big part of Finnish people, actually big part of all the people in the world are not very intelligent. That is not a secret. When negative things are done by an immigrant, there are big percentage of people who will generalise this for all immigrants.
I don’t do that, I don’t generalise. To me, Sasu is one individual, who I would not welcome here. But for many people it affects differently. They will think negatively of all the same kind.
You seem to have difficulties understanding that when a person speaks about something, it doesn’t automatically mean that he thinks that way. I don’t need to be a racist to be able to tell you how racists think or act? Do you agree?
But the comes people like you telling that I can’t know how victims of racism feel, because I’m not a victim of racism. That is plain stupidity.
Farang
Ah – we are all much edified to hear your assessment of the great unwashed, and to note that this is in no way to be misconstrued as a generalisation.
However, you might like to consider how this big part of Finnish people who are not very intelligent will also now generalise about you, perhaps by assuming that you are a supercilious prig. Maybe you are just too smart for Finland and you should leave before they arrive with their flaming torches at the foot of your ivory tower.
Sasu is doing just fine expressing his perceptions about Finland and its people, and a great deal better than you would if you you expressed yours in a public place without a team of Sherpas to watch your back.
Some idiots just don’t understand the fact, that half of the population are less intelligent than average.
Farang
”Some idiots just don’t understand the fact, that half of the population are less intelligent than average.”
who is less intelligent?
Hi Ronaldinho and welcome to Migrant Tales. A posed a good question to Farang.
Göran said: “Allan
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdigadir_Osman_Hussein
Ta en god kopp kaffe, luta bakåt o njut :)”
“Njut”?? That’s digusting, Göran. It sounds like 1) you are gloating, and 2) you think that reading about crimes committed by foreigners is an enjoyment. Because I guess it’s more important to have your prejudice confirmed than being disgusted by the crime? I don’t see how anyone can enjoy reading about an instance of sexual abuse of minors. I hope I somehow misunderstood what you were trying to express.
I also don’t think this case says anything about the Somalian immigrant group as a whole. To argue that, one would have to argue that he did those things because he grew up a Somalian and not something else. And that isn’t a rational conclusion, since these kind of people exist in all groups, including Finns, as shown above. But we seem to all agree on that anyway.
Did the other Somalian immigrants have a reason to fear this man’s actions would cause a backlash against them? I think so. All minority groups face this problem, some more than others. I mean what’s the first thing you think about if I say “Catholic priest”? Probably sexual abuse. I wish I could read the article that goes with the tabloid, because what is said there can either be a good thing or a bad thing. If the Somalis decided to come together and show that they are mostly good people, that they do not in any way think what that guy did was right, then good for them! I think that’s a good thing to do.
Ronaldinho, are you serious?
If we take the whole population and put them in order by their intelligence. Then we calculate the average intelligence. Isn’t it a mathematical fact, that 50% of the population are below the average and 50% of the population are above the average?
Do you even know what average means?
Ok, maybe median would be more accurate than average, but as the population is quite large, we can assume the average is pretty close to median.
Anyway, back to business. When we want to have solutions, we need to have solutions which can be applied to if not everyone atleast majority of people. If come up with a solution that for example only the 5% of the brightest ones would understand and act accordingly, what would be the point? 95 % of the people wouldn’t get it and that would be a wasted effort.
That’s what I mean that we need to take in account the stupidity of the people. So many people are so stupid that they will generalise negative issues done by immigrants so that they think that all immigrants are alike. It doesn’t matter how many times you tell them not to generalise, they won’t get it. This is the reason you need to understand that even if it’s not right, the crimes made by individual immigrants will have negative impact to all immigrants within lots of people. That is the reason why parties like PS will get votes just by spreading negative news about immigrants.
Thank you Native Finnish woman for straighting things how they ought to be, We Somalis are individuals just like any other nation on this earth and we deserve to be condemned as individual if did wrong not as group.
Farang
If we take the whole population and put them in order by their intelligence. Then we calculate the average intelligence. Isn’t it a mathematical fact, that 50% of the population are below the average and 50% of the population are above the average?
False
Farang
Bouncers in Finland have, on occasion, tried to justify discrimination on the grounds that the regular clientele of the establishment will react violently if visible minorities are admitted.
Can you guess how often this defence is successful in court?
What have you done to help educate all of those Finns who are less intelligent than you and help them to understand that it is wrong to judge all of the members of a group according to the actions of one member?
Justice Demon
Can you guess how often this defence is successful in court?
-tell us
Justicedemon, that has nothing to do with what I said. I already stated it very clear that it is wrong, but it is a fact that many people think that way. How come is it so hard to understand that I am only telling a fact that there are lots of people who are stupid enough to think that way? That in no way mean that I approve that kind of thinking.
I’m not sure if you are following, so I try an example: If I a person stealing a bike and then I say out loud “That guy stole a bike”. Does that mean that I approve stealing? No.
And the later part is also just plain stupidity. Why do you expect that I should be educating people who I don’t know and I am not involved with in any way? Why do you even ask that question? And do you really think that those people can be educated? Do you think that they even have any rational reason for their thinking? No. You need to accept the fact that people are different. Do you think that you can just say to a criminal that “Hey you, don’t be a criminal” and expect that he would stop doing crimes? How naive are you?
Farang
You are very quick to call others stupid (five times so far in this thread), but evidently not so well versed in psychology that you can understand what this says about you.
Your bicycle theft analogy is deliberately distorted. What you are really saying is that bicycle theft is commonplace in your town and therefore you take it upon yourself to deny others the right to cycle.
The structure of your argument is entirely clear. You argue that Sasu should not express his views because “others” (the “stupid” people) will incorrectly and improperly condemn some arbitrary group that you have predefined. Interestingly, those “others” will not condemn “all senior high school students” or “all 18 year-olds” or “all Internet bloggers”, but specifically “all immigrants”. The selection of the group that these “others” will condemn was a selection that you made, and the direct effect of that selection is a curtailment of Sasu’s rights. It is the way in which you have chosen to characterise Sasu that forms the basis for denying his freedom of speech. You argue that Sasu may not say certain things because of his background. That is the very essence of unlawful discrimination, and it is quite irrelevant how you rationalise it. There is no essential difference between curtailing his freedom because of your beliefs about how others will respond when he exercises that freedom and curtailing his freedom because of your beliefs about his genetic propensities or your beliefs about his astrological star sign. If there is a problem, then you should tackle the problem, and not harass the victim.
This is directly parallel to the bouncer who refuses entry to Roma on the grounds that “other” customers will respond violently to their presence in the pub. Try that excuse in court and you will double the fine that you have to pay, because you have committed the very same discrimination offence again. I might also add that your characterisation of the clientele is similarly offensive.
As for my “plain stupidity”, this is specifically equivalent to the observation that the court submits to bouncers who repeat the offence in court (or who would, if not strongly advised otherwise by defending counsel). As a bouncer it is your duty to maintain order, not by unlawfully excluding those whom you deem to be potential victims of disorder, but by educating and if necessary removing offenders. You are free to tell the court that it is “stupid” for making this point, but don’t expect this to reduce the fine.
justicedemon
Tell us about the bouncers in court.
J.D, your late post was intellectual explosive. I liked it, it makes a dumb people to read twice before he or she gets the meaning of your post.