Some Finnish politicians condemn racist acts with one hand but with another encourage them.
National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MEP Henna Virkkunen stated in a tweet lofty European values after an MP of the same party said Saturday that it would be easier for Kokoomus to work with the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party than with the Greens and left-wing parties.
She tweeted below: “The values that #kokoomus wants to build in Finland and Europe are education, tolerance, encouragement, caring, equal opportunities. Kokoomus wants an open, free, and internationally-minded community [and] this is distant from what the Perussuomalaiset represents.”
While her tweet is welcome, it reveals the ideological battle going in that party. One faction of Kokoomus is liberal and pro-EU while the other nationalistic, and xenophobic represented by politicians such as MP Wille Rydman, Jukka Kopra, Pia Kauma, Elina Lepomäki, Kai Mykkänen, and others.
Is Virkkunen’s tweet disingenuous?
In October, Virkkunen voted with Petri Sarvamaa, who is a member of the same party, with Laura Huhtasaari of the PS to not step-up search and rescue operations for refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.
Virkkunen is also one of the 36.3% (85/234) MEP candidates who either “strongly disagreed,” “disagreed” or were “neutral” in an Alma Media’s election compass that asked: “Is it the obligation of the EU to save all those migrants who attempt to come to Europe and who are at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean?”
Virkkunen answered “disagreed.”
Is letting people drown or turning a blind tye to their fates in the Mediterranean European and Finnish values?
Over 27,000 people have drowned crossing the Mediterranean since 1993.
Migrant Tales insight: Remember 2015? It was the year when over 30,000 asylum seekers, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, came to Finland. Do you remember the reaction of some Finns who attacked fourteen asylum reception centers? Why weren’t these acts of violence classified as domestic terrorism?
This disgraceful story is dedicated to Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Ano Turtiainen, who is in the news for all the wrong reasons and, who, was convicted in 2018 of inciting violence against the Finnish Red Cross, which manages many asylum reception centers. The conviction has its roots in 2015 Facebook post that was liked by PS MEP Laura Huhtasaari.
The fact that fourteen asylum reception centers have been attacked in Finland since mid-September is scandalous. According to the police service of Kangasala, an asylum seeker was beaten by two or three men Saturday evening near the Kaivanto reception center, reportsYLE News.
And the news doesn’t stop here: Neo-Nazi vigilante patrols, one Perussuomalaiset (PS)* substitute MP from Kankaanpää, Juha Maenpää, stated in December that god had answered his prayers after a reception center that was supposed to house asylum seekers was razed to the ground. If an asylum seeker commits a crime there is a social media lynch mob ready 24/7.
If it is a Finn that rapes a woman the public, politicians and the media don’t appear too interested.
Double-standards and xenophobia are rife in Finland today.
In the ever-worsening anti-immigration atmosphere, some politicians and the government are even showing some understanding to the hostility against asylum seekers, which has spread and affected all migrants and minorities living in this country. Interior Minister Petteri Orpo blamed asylum seekers on YLEfor these attacks by stating that is would calm matters down by tightening immigration policy even more.
You may be asking why the National Coalition Party and Center Party aren’t even raising a finger against the PS’ obsession against immigrants and asylum seekers. These two parties need the support of the PS to streamline the welfare state. In return, the PS can tighten immigration policy and thereby appease their racist voters.
Like in all the attacks against the reception centers this fall and early winter, only one suspect was caught in Kouvola (24.9.2015), a middle-aged man was charged and given a one-year prison sentence.
How big will this disgraceful list grow below?
Attacks against asylum reception centers in Finland
“The inhabitants of Juva are quiet about [MP] Ano Turtianen.* It is a sign that there is a lot of shame.”
A Juva resident
THIS POST WAS UPDATED
Juva in the region of Etelä-Savo is a sad example of how a town withers demographically and what types of politicians appear and are supposed to save it from itself.
Etelä-Savo, like Juva, is graying, and rapidly. The population of the region plummeted by 18.2% to 142,380 inhabitants in 2019 from 174,237 in 1990. Thirty percent of the region’s inhabitants are over 65 years old, with Juva having 32%.
In the face of the region’s and Juva’s demographic challenges, voters don’t support people who want effective solutions but body-building politicians like Ano Turtiainen [1] of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party.
Turtiainen is no “lawmaker” per se but one who breaks the law.
Source: Facebook.
In 2018, he was convicted of inciting violence against the Finnish Red Cross, which manages many asylum reception centers. The conviction has its roots in 2015.
In that year, asylum reception centers were attacked by white Finns. In 2015, a record number of asylum seekers, especially from Iraq and Afghanistan, came to Finland.
In an interview with Mikkeli-based daily Länsi-Savo, Turtainen boasted after he took away his appeal that the conviction was “a feather in his cap.”
In the year that Turtiainen posted and incited people to attack the Finnish Red Cross, there were fourteen asylum reception centers that were attacked in Finland in 2015.
During that year, over 30,000 asylum seekers came to Finland.
Nature is helping in keeping population growth in check. #ebola #Africa he stated on Facebook in June 2019.
The latest incident involving Turtiainen for slamming police Chief inspector Jari Taponen a “castrated wimp” for telling him that freedom of expression carries responsibilities.
Taponen has filed defamation charges against Turtiainen.
Another one of PS MP Turtiainen’s “famous” Facebook posts. He writes: “It came from painful constipation for swallowing the Greens in government…it was a great relief to see a bucketful of shit…
[1] Ano is a real name in Finland. The equivalent name for women is Anna. The translation of “ano” in Spanish is anus.
Migrant Tales insight: Daniel Malpica is an artist who, like many, has been wronged by the Finnish Immigration “Service.” Malpica is an old friend of this blog. Below are some of his earlier writings:
The vandalism that took place on Sunday against the Turku Synagogue did not come as a surprise, said Harry Serlo, a spokesperson of the Jewish Community of Turku.
“What happened is a general trend [in Finland] and should be seen in such a light,” he said. “I don’t like to talk just about anti-Semitism but how all minorities are targets of such hatred [these days].”
Serlo said he was especially happy with President Sauli Niinistö’s reaction and condemnation of what occurred.
The spokesperson of the Jewish Community of Turku said that the best way to counter anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred against minorities is not only political leadership but respect for diversity, which should be taught at an early stage at schools.
“This is a long process [to root out hatred] and will take a very long time before matters start to change for the better,” he said.
The Turku Synagogue was built in 1912 and is one of two synagogues in Finland today. The size of the Jewish community of Finland numbers over a thousand members.
National Coalition Party chairperson Petteri Orpo tweets that “I condemn the vandalism against the Turku Synagog and I’m satisfied that the Turku city council signed a motion [condemning] what happened.”
Orpo’s support is important, but the question that arises from what happened is if there are different scales of importance when it comes to vandalism motivated by hate.
When the Resalat Shia mosque in Eastern Helsinki was in March when it was vandalized with hate graffiti a day before the Christchurch mosque shootings, no politician expressed outrage.
Petteri Orpo tweets:“I condemn the vandalism against the Turku Synagog and I’m satisfied that the Turku city council signed a motion [condemning] what happened.”
This is a sad example of political hypocrisy even if both cases are equally alarming.
On the left is the Turku Synagogue and on the right, the Resalat Shia Mosque in Eastern Helsinki. Sources: Yle and Facebook.
Another matter that does not seem right in Orpo’s condemnation is his anti-immigration track record when he was interior minister and later finance minister.
Below are some of the questionable matters that Orpo and the previous government (2015-2019) of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä “had to be reviewed” in the face of an “unseen wave” of asylum seekers that came in 2015:
Free legal representation restricted to applicants who required exceptional grounds for assistance;
Deadline for appeals was lowered from 30 to 21 days after a second rejection and to 14 days after the third rejection;
The government tightened appeal times in the hope of ejecting asylum seekers faster from Finland;
There were further administrative restrictions and practical difficulties making the application process more complicated;
Tightened family reunification laws;
No time limit on detaining families with children in immigration removal centers like Joutseno and Metsälä;
Lack of government leadership in tackling Islamophobia and racism contributed to Finland’s hostile environment affecting migrants and inhumane immigration policy.
Finnish politicians like Orpo condemn racist acts with one hand but with another encourage them.
Finland has had, for a long time, an “r” problem in the way of Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and other social ills like hatred against the Romany minority. Part of it has to do with the historical acceptance and even closet glorification of our alliance with Nazi Germany.
The photograph below of Marshall Carl Mannerheim and Heinrich Himmler toasting to a glass of schnapps, at the height of Operation Reinhard to commit mass murder to wipe the Jews off the face of Europe.
You may ask people about this shameful picture and if it is ok to be on the wall of Mikkeli Klubi in Mikkeli. “It’s history,” the majority would respond and thereby washing their hands of such genocide.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Turku Synagogue saw its walls vandalized with red paint, according to Yle News.
Is it a cultural thing or is that some of us have witnessed racism and the oppression from it directly? It seems that every time a Finnish politician speaks about “rising racism” he attempts to be diplomatic and kind.
President Sauli Niinistö was asked to comment on what happened in Turku. Writes Yle News: “[N]iinistö characterized the incident at Turku Synagogue as very disturbing. He said the vandalism was an indication of broader racism, saying that the growth of racism and anti-Semitism was worrying and that their developments were linked.”
Niinistö said that the growth of racism and anti-Semitism “was worrying” and what happened in Turku “very disturbing.”
The term “worrying” should, in my opinion, be replaced with alarming taking into account the present situation spearheaded by an Islamophobic party on the warpath against migrants and minorities.
A respectful question to President Niinistö: What have you done to challenge this “worrying” and “very disturbing” news?
President Niinistö, like any other politician in Finland, is part of the racism problem in Finland. It is, unfortunately, done through denial and watered-down reactions.
The good news is that President Niinistö appears to be waking up as he warned in his New Year’s speech about the dangers of hate speech.
Racism is like a rabid dog on a short leash. The racist shows of his dog and other racists are amazed. But a warning: The dog can bite back and hard because the sick dog knows no master.
The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is a party that is spinning out of control, and it is self-inflicted: Ethnonationalism, fear-mongering about white Finns becoming a minority, glorifying fascism, attacking researchers and other institutions, tweets about defecation and eating feces.
The PS leadership wants us to believe that there is no connection between them and rising Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, hate speech and attacks on our institutions. The party rose with hatred in its throat, sanctimony in its message, and hatred for migrants and minorities like Muslims on its tongue.
Welcome to the PS’ style of doing politics. Frame and attack people who oppose you and blame everything on migrants.
Finland, the country with the best education in the world, produces Frankenstein politicians who can only utter words filled with hate and fantasies of Nazi Germany.
In the same way, the slaughter and mass murder of the Jews and other minorities began in Germany in the 1930s, the PS has politicians who label asylum seekers and Muslims as “invasive species.”
And let’s not forget the Holocaust deniers like Jussi Halla-aho, who plays down such mass murder in a 2004 quote:
“Retroactively opposing the Holocaust is nicer and easier than getting involved in solving present-day problems. It is nice to accuse the Germans because cosi fan tutti. Armenians are irrelevant, because Armenians don’t own Hollywood and the American media.”
The PS has steered further to the far right under the leadership of Halla-aho, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion.
If the PS ever got its way and did away with hate-speech laws in Finland as it wishes, it would lead to a free-for-all turkey shoot where the victims are migrants and minorities.
Using racism to gain more votes and power is a double-edged sword. It is like a rapid dog that can bite back as Anders Breivik did in Norway, murdering 77 victims.
There is another danger: Greed and hatred will fuel internal fighting and bickering.
Even if the PS has a nose around its neck, it is important that we deal with this menace or succumb to its fascist ways.
Migrant Tales insight:A few days ago, I got an email from Mehdi Ghasemi, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tampere and Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura (SKS). He says that he’s working on a project that aims to increase the “visibility, readability, and research on immigrant authors in Finland.”
His latest book, Opening Boundaries: “Toward Finnish Heterolinational Literatures,” is an anthology by twenty-four immigrant authors living in Finland from sixteen different nationalities in ten different languages.
Opening Boundaries: Toward Finnish Heterolinational Literatures is a part of our project, entitled “Toward a More Inclusive and Comprehensive Finnish Literature,” conducted at the Finnish Literature Society (SKS) and the University of Tampere during 2018-2019. The anthology includes some literary outputs by twenty-four immigrant authors, living in Finland from sixteen different nationalities, and their works in ten different languages make this collection multilingual. However, for the sake of readability, the translation of some of their works in Finnish or English has been offered.
This cross-cultural collection of texts demonstrates the emergence and growth of new heterogeneous, multicultural and multilingual literatures within the Finnish literary canon. This anthology is also an indication of our cultural and literary activities, which, if appreciated, can further grow and enrich the Finnish literary canon. In that case, the literary works produced by immigrant authors in Finland not only diversify the narratives, languages, themes and genres of Finnish literature, but also add to the literary credits of their host society. This would pave the way for the celebration of ethnorelativism and recognition of all authors, regardless of their races and languages, involved actively to promote Finnish literature. Since immigrant authors reside in Finland, they usually take their subjects from the Finnish society, history, culture, language and literature, mix them with their transnational and transcultural experiences and eventually offer a body of literature, which proffers different insights and transforms Finnish literature in both form and content.
Mikä saa monet suomalaiset miehet kuvittelemaan, että riittää, kun he vain ovat miehiä? Kuinka pitkälle kantaa vaikkapa sellainen perussuomalaisuus, että hoohakkaraisena ollaan avustajatätien ohjauksessa Euroopan parlamentissa tai persu penkissä istutaan kunnanvaltuustojen kokouksissa antamatta mitään panosta yhteisten asioiden hoitamiseen? Mistä lähtien suomalaiset ovat alkaneet olla halukkaita jättämään hallinnon ääliöiden käsiin?
Kovasti ällistyttävät myös nämä ukkelit, joita ei ilmastonmuutos pelota, mutta siihen äärimmäisen hyvin perehtynyt ja koko sielunsa voimalla kamppailuun lähtenyt ruotsalaistyttö pelottaa.
Naisten johtama hallitus on myös nostanut setämiesten säärikarvat pystyyn. En ole koskaan nähnyt vastaavaa ulinaa heikosta, keskustelukyvyttömästä ja epäpätevästä hallituksesta, kun neljän vuoden hallitustyöstä on tehty pari kuukautta. Hallituksen naisten yhteinen saunominen sattui suomalaiseen sieluun syvälle. Yhden naisministerin englannin kielen ääntämyksen kehuminenkin aiheutti närkästystä, onhan suomalaisten miesten kökköenglanti ihan yhtä tärkeää!
Näyttäisi myös siltä, että meillä Me too -kampanja aiheuttaa muuta maailmaa enemmän vastareaktioita ja puistatuksia. Asia yritetään painaa villaisella ja unohtaa, ettei miehille vain tulisi paha mieli. Miksi ei keskustella enemmän siitä, miten poikien ja miesten on lupa naisia lähestyä? Luulisi, että tällaiset asiat opitaan jo omissa perheissä, mutta onkohan sitä kaikissa perheissä koskaan opittu ja onko nykyään niin, että oppi tulee sosiaalisesta mediasta? Pitäisikö peruskouluissa järjestää käytös- ja kosiskelukursseja?
Monet muistavat Napakymppi nimisen1980-luvulla suositun TV-ohjelman, jossa neiti tai herra X valitsevat itselleen kumppanin palkintomatkalle. Järjestään tuossa ohjelmassa olivat naiset ihan fiksun oloisia, mutta suurin osa miehistä kömpelöitä ja kummallisia. En ollut itse edes tunnistanut tätä asiaa, ennen kuin tuolloinen puolalainen esimieheni kysyi, mistä tämä johtuu. Muualta tullut näki selkeämmin eron muun maailman miehiin. Miksi Suomessa miehet keskimäärin ovat niin paljon naisia hömelömpiä?
Tähän samaan rytäkkään on vielä nostettava ns. Incel-miehet. Meillä on Hommaforum ja moni muu sosiaalisen median alusta pullollaan miehiä, jotka valittelevat naisettomuuttaan. Väistämättä on syntynyt sellainen vaikutelma, että naiskatkeruuttaan purkavat miehet ovat juuri niitä samoja, jotka vihaavat myös vammaisia, vähemmistöjä, feministejä, ”vasemmistolaisia”, eli lähes kaikkea muuta, kuin itseään. Tai ehkä sittenkin eniten itseään ja sitä peitellään käymällä somessa riekkumassa naisten kirjoitusten kommenttiosioissa ja huutamassa rajoja kiinni, jotta muut miehet eivät saisi meidän naisia.
Yhtenä mallina nettimouhuajille on toiminut rasistien ”mestari”, joka on kertonut nuoruuden huonosta naismäihästä ja nyt näyttää esimerkkiä, että naisia kyllä piisaa, kun on valtaa ja tunnettuutta. Ja sitä taas saa vähemmälläkin karismalla, kun osaa oikealla tavalla vihata ja kiihottaa muitakin surkimuksia vihaamaan. Kuka kertoisi heille, että sellaisiin miehiin takertuvat naiset ovat hyvin pieni vähemmistö? Erityisen kiihkeän vihan kohde nettinulikoille ovat vierasmaalaisen miehen valinneet naiset. Tuleeko vihaajille koskaan mieleen, että kohteliaisuus ja toisen huomioon ottaminen ovat saattaneet viedä naiselta jalat alta?
Miksi meillä ajatellaan, että maaseudun poikien ei tarvitsekaan muuta osata, kuin tarttua pyssyynsä ja luikkia metsään kuuntelemaan korpikuusien kuiskintaa? Miksi juuri meillä murrosikä tarkoittaa sitä, että poikalapsen ei tarvitse tervehtiä, katsoa silmiin tai edes vastata, kun kysytään? Jo valmiiksi umpimielisessä maassa ollaan monessa perheessä vain alistuttu siihen, että nuori tuijottaa tietokoneen ruutua yöt pitkät ja käy yhteisissä tiloissa vain hakemassa virvoitusjuomansa. Pitäisihän olla selvää, että murrosikäiset pojat pidetään mukana perheen ja suvun normaaleissa toimissa ja hyvät käytöstavat kuuluvat etenkin heille, joiden hormonitoiminta vilkastuu. On maita, joissa IT-nörtit ja autonasentajat hallitsevat normaalin kanssakäymisen muiden ihmisten kanssa ja osaavat vaikkapa kaupassa pyytää anteeksi, jos vahingossa tönäisevät toista ihmistä.
Mitä meillä on tehty poikien eristäytymiselle? Syrjäytymisen ehkäiseminen oli yksi presidentti Niinistön kampanjan kärjistä jo ensimmäisellä presidenttikaudella. Missä ovat pyhät puheet nyt? On käsketty maahanmuuttajien pitää huolta omistaan. Kuinka on käynyt meidän omille? Nyhjöttävätkö jotkut tietokoneen ääressä peräkammareissa ja vuodattavat naisettomuuden tuskaansa ja vieraanpelkoansa vastaanottavaisille vihakanaville? Sieltäkö tulee se sakki, joka äänestää vaaleissa mahdollisimman törkeää öykkäriä? Miksi he eivät ole mukana yhteiskunnassa oppimassa tavoille? Ei tämä ole rahasta kiinni, vaan välittämisestä.
