Finland’s biggest daily Helsingin Sanomat published a story about a Finnish woman who impersonated a Japanese tourist asking dumb questions to Finns. The show was so popular that it even won a Venla award, a Finnish version of the USAmerican Emmy Award.
That was in 2014.
Why would Helsingin Sanomat, a newspaper with vast resources and power, like to commemorate a Finn that impersonates a Japanese tourist? What’s the joke, and isn’t this racist and embarrassing that a daily wouldn’t even ask if this show is offensive to the Asian community in Finland?
Is this racist? Sure it is because it spreads stereotypes of the Japanese. It is also shameful considering that Finland’s most prominent daily still publishes these types of stories in 2019 uncritically.
In the Helsingin Sanomat story, there is no mention if this is racist and if it insults Asian communities of Finland. Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
One may ask why such stories ever get past the copy editors and why no one at the daily asked if these types of stories were ever ok?
Helsingin Sanomat recently celebrated its 130h anniversary. See any people of color or minorities, even if about 16% of Helsinki’s population are not white Finns? Source: Helsingin Sanomat.
The answer to that question could probably be found in the picture above, where there isn’t a single visible minority on the Helsingin Sanomat staff, even if about 16% of Helsinki’s population comprises of migrants and non-white Finns.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced today that Finland would assist in the repatriation of some 30 Finnish children in the al-Hol camp in Syria, according to Yle.She said that Finland had no obligation to help the mothers.
While the announcement was expected after President Sauli Niinistö stated his view on the matter Sunday, it’s clear that the decision by the government is political.
University of Helsinki family law researcher, Sanna Mustasaari, warned about the danger of mixing politics with the al-Hol children’s welfare.
“The mothers weren’t helped because it was [a] political [decision],” she said on Yle’s A-Studio, adding that “under no circumstances” should the child welfare authorities, in searching for legal reasons to help the child, allow politics to influence their decision.
University of Helsinki family law researcher Sanna Mustasaari. Source: Yle.
President Sauli Niinistö announced Sunday that Finland must help the Finnish children in the al-Hol camp in Syria but not the mothers.
What does this mean in practice? It suggests that Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government will take the same line as Niinistö.
One of the interesting matters to ask about the whole affair is why it is such a hot issue? What roles do prejudice and anti-Muslim sentiment play in the debate?
If the president and the government see eye to eye on the matter, what does it imply for the mothers? What about those who don’t want to be separated from their children? Does it mean that both mother and child will remain in Syria in squalid conditions?
The handling of the whole al-Hol matter by the government will weaken its credibility further. A president and a government that is ready to throw its citizens to the dogs cannot command a lot of respect from people who take human rights seriously.
If the government is having such a difficult time agreeing on how to help some 10 women and 30 children, what does it mean to government plans to strengthen human rights and improve the legal situation of asylum seekers?
A while back, President Niinistö suggested that Finland’s policy concerning the women and children in al-Hol should be similar to the other Nordic nations, which only grant assistance to children, not their mothers.
Even if Niinistö turns to the other Nordic nations for policy guidance, he forgets to tell us about the anti-Muslim sentiment in Norway and that the country is ruled by the Conservative Party and Islmophobic Progress Party. Even in Denmark, where the Social Democrats won the elections, Islamophobic sentiment is the highest of all the Nordic countries.
In Sweden, which has always been an example of a welcoming nation to migrants and refugees, is having second thoughts as the shadow of the Sweden Democrats grows.
I am certain that if President Tarja Halonen (2000-2012) were in office, the government’s response to the al-Hol Finns would be different and more in line with these people’s human rights.
President Niinistö’s announcement concerning the Finns in al-Hol should not come to any surprise. His past comments and views about migration and cultural diversity are in line with what he said.
The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) claims to champion liberal Western values and entrepreneurship, right? Is this true if the party succumbs to cheap anti-immigration populism?
Kokoomus MP Wille Rydman likes spewing copy-and-paste soundbites of the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party.
Apart from his staunch Islamophobic views, he also takes up pseudo-scientific eugenicist views as in this recent news story.
Jussi Halla-aho, convicted for ethnic agitation in 2012, heads the PS. Under his leadership, the party has steered further to the far right.
Rydman is no exception when it comes to lawmakers attempting to capitalize politically of the fate of about 40 women and children at the al-Hol camp of northeast Syria.
The tweet below is an example of how far Kokoomus continues to stoop and how willing it is to forfeit the rule of law for personal gain.
One of the cheapest tweets by a Finnish lawmaker.
“Instead of offering state aid for repatriation, if an adult Finnish citizen has turned his [or her] back on this country to serve a brutal terrorist organization, the correct thing to do is to revoke that person’s nationality and place a permanent bar from entering the country. A 17-year-old Islamist extremist is no safer from one who is 18 years old.
If these people bore a child when living in “a caliphate,” what kinds of bond does such a child have in practice with Finland? If he has never been to Finland and was brought up under an Islamist system, there is no point in repatriating the child nor is it legally possible without the whole family. [So be it] if this cannot be done legally without retrieving the rest of the family at the same time.”
One of the suggestions made by Rydman is that Finnish citizenship should be revoked with permanent bans to enter the country.
If Rydman’s opportunistic populism does not make you reach for the collective barf bag, Kokoomus Helsinki City Councillor Atte Kaleva is another one throwing Islamophobic tantrums. He tweets below that a person is guilty before he is proven innocent.
Atte Kaleva’s tweet reveals his disdain for the rule of law.
Both Rydman, Kaleva, and Kokoomus are examples of cheap populism and, most worrying, how fast they’d be ready to ditch the rule of law and our Nordic way of life for a handful of votes.
One of the most significant political debates going on in Finland now is the fate of about 40 Finnish women and children at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. The debate has taken such shameful turns that even ministers have tuned to their followers on social media to ask whether these women and children should be repatriated.
It is clear that prejudices and hardcore racism against Muslims, especially women who ditch their white Finnish majority culture for another religion, is one driving force in the ongoing debate.
The saddest matters about the ongoing debate is the near-constant Islamophobic disinformation and wishy-washy politicians scoring brownie points with voters. The discussion exposes pretty well our racism towards Muslims.
Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily and which should know better, is also responsible for spreading stereotypes and racism against Muslims.
Other mainstream media in Finland like Yle commonly spread stereotypes about Muslims like in this story published in 2018.
Since the repatriation debate of the Finnish women and children at al-Hol is an ongoing story, Helsingin Sanomat has an illustration of five women and four children to highlight the topic. Even if the women at al-Hol wear niqabs, the drawing suggests they us burkas (sic).
The difference between the hijab (or veil), niqab, and burka is pretty clear as the picture below shows. Muslims are common in our society, and we should learn to know the difference between the three.
From left to right: the hijab, niqab, and burka. Source: Sunday Times.
If papers like Helsingin Sanomat want to stop spreading stereotypes and disinformation about vulnerable groups like Muslims in Finland, they should get their facts right and take the time to research their stories better.
They should, at the minimum, know the difference between a niqab and burka.
The Center Party of Finland is a liability to the future of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government. We already saw how they forced former Prime Minister Antti Rinne to resign. And then, we witnessed Finance Minister Katri Kulmuni’s Instagram poll.
Kulmuni’s post not only exposed her total disregard for human lives and the country’s international obligations but was a warning that some politicians, even ministers, are ready to leave the fate of their citizens to public opinion and chance.
She asked in the Instagram poll whether it would be ok repatriating “[Finnish] children only” or “children and [Finnish] mothers” from the al-Hol camp in Syria.
Andrew Stroehlein of Human Rights Watch was one of many who were awestruck what Kulmuni’s post. “Seriously, Finland? This is awful, if true,” he tweeted Thursday.
Finland has always been good at getting the maximum mileage from its international image by hiding its problematic social sore spots.
One of these is women’s rights and equality. Women still make about 20% less than men and a recent survey found Finland to be the second-most violent country for women.
Even if some brag about how Finland became the first to grant women the right to vote in 1906, it was not until 1984 when women were able to grant citizenship to their children through jus sanguinis.
Finland also had draconian laws against foreigners and foreign investment thanks to the Restricting Act of 1939 (Law 219/1939), which was made redundant in 1992.
Moreover, Finland got its first Aliens Act in 1983, or about 66 years after independence in 1917. Finland had total disregard for human rights when in the Cold War it returned Soviet citizens back to the USSR without granting asylum. Finland has serious issues with racism, hate crime and asylum policy.
And here lay the question of questions that reveal how deep our collective heads are stuck in the mud: How can such a perfect society, which is supposed to be the happiest in the world, have an openly racist and misogynist party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* leading in the polls?
Even if our media scores high on the World Press Freedom Index, why is much of the reporting uncritical when it comes to serious social issues like migrant and minority discrimination and rights? The fact far-right populism is breathing down the necks of mainstream parties is a good indication of the failure of the media to challenge such social ills.
Let’s get real. What Finance Minister Kulmuni posted is a symptom of our denial in confronting those sore spots that only help cover and play down our more serious social problems.
The sooner we understand this, the sooner we can begin to start making Finland a good country to live in for all of its inhabitants irrespective of their backgrounds.
It is pretty incredible how some Finnish politicians and even ministers like Katri Kulmini forget that this country abides by international agreements like the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the balance of power.
Finance Minister Kari Kulmuni forgot all this and published on Instagram a poll where she asked if the wives of Isis fighters and/or their children should be allowed to return to Finland.
Kulmuni, like so many Finnish politicians, forgets that the country has three independent branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial.
Shame on Kulmuni and the Center Party, for playing with the lives of Finnish citizen on social media.
Economy Minister Katri Kulmuni removed her Instagram post.
The hostility that Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government has faced is a good example of the misogyny that still exists in Finland. While Finland has made important strides in gender equality, women still make, on average, 20% less than men.
Even if women in Finland became the first to have the right to vote in 1906, it was not until 1984 when women were able to grant citizenship to their children through jus sanguinis.
Finland also had draconian laws against foreigners and foreign investment thanks to the Restricting Act of 1939 (Law 219/1939), which was made redundant in 1992.
Moreover, Finland got its first Aliens Act in 1983, or about 66 years after independence in 1917. Finland was also the last Nordic country to approve gay marriages in 2014.
If Prime Minister Marin’s government is made up mostly by women, when will we see ministers who represent minorities? When will Finland have its first black or gay prime minister?
The next important step in social equality in Finland will be having minority ministers. Source: Newsweek.(Top picture) Sanna Marin’s government is an important step in gender equality in Finnish politics and government. (Lower picture) The days when the government was all male and white. Prime Minister Harri Holkeri’s government (1987-91). Source: Facebook.
I am confident that that day will come no matter how much racist, homophobic, and sexist kicking and bitching we see in Finland from the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset,* and mainstream parties like the National Coalition Party, Christian Democrats and other.
These social ills, which have come out into the open, are examples that not only must we do more work in tackling these problems but that we are winning the battle.
In Argentina, we had a saying whenever there was a military coup. We used to say to each other that “there is no evil can last a hundred years.”
The rhetoric of the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*party looks like a direct copy-and-paste job from Donald Trump’s Republicans and Fox news. The PS’ leader Jussi Halla-aho labels maliciously Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government as “socialist” and even PS MP Ville Tavio claims it is “communist,” you know that this is all a copy-and-paste job from the Republicans.
US President Trump and Republican senators such as Lindsay Graham commonly use terms such as socialism and communism to justify dog-eat-dog capitalism and all the racism that goes with it.
The PS are now doing the same thing.
The Fox & friends is US President Donal Trump’s favorite chat show.
The tweet below by Tavio is a good example. He states: “Is [Sanna] Marin’s government the most communist in Finnish history? Marin is more or less just as close to the Communist Party than the SDP [Social Democratic Party]. In power, we see clearly the Feminist Party, which is far-left ideologically.”
In the screenshot below, PS MP Jani Mäkelä claims that Marin’s government is more communist the puppet Terijoki government of the Soviet Union during World War 2 that was supposed to rule Finland.
PS MP Ville Tavio tweets: “Is [Sanna] Marin’s government the most communist in Finnish history? Marin is more or less just as close to the Communist Party than the SDP [Social Democratic Party]. In power we see clearly the Feminist Party, which is far-left ideologically.” Jani Mäkelä tweets: “Terijoki [the puppet Communist government of the Soviet Union that was supposed to rule Finland during World War 2] comes in second place [to Marin’s government]. Source: Twitter.
If you want to find out what new far-right soundbites the PS will spew, check out what Republican politicians are saying in the US.
I, if anyone, wishes Finland’s new prime minister, Sanna Marin, the best of luck and success.
Someone asked me a while back what I thought about former Prime Minister Antti Rinne’s government and if it signalled major improvements and changes in immigration policy and in fighting racism.
My answer was short: It all depends on the deeds.
While there has been a lot of talk by the government about respecting human rights, the rule of law, we still have not moved forward even if suspicion and racism are no longer the narrative as was the case in Juho Sipilä’s government.
We’re still in the same place we were before: The hardline policy of the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) is still the rule; there is a national outcry and lack of leadership about repatriating 10 women and about 30 children from the al-Hol camp in Syria; racism is profitable politically as opinion polls show; there are no new effective steps to tackle racism, job discrimination, hate speech and hate crime in our society.
When Prime Minister Marin speaks of ensuring that Finland remains an inclusive and socially just society, she must mean for migrants and minorities as well.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government. See any minorities?Source: Facebook.
I might be wrong and I hope I am. If the picture above and the ethnic makeup of Marin’s government is anything to go by, it sill does not show any visible minorities.
