Migrant tales - Page 305 of 536

Gareth Rice: Finland – welcome to the Ostrich Nation

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Gareth Rice*

The political, economic and social situation in Finland remains perplexing. Finns have been told for so long how good they have it, that they now refuse to believe anything to the contrary.

Read original posting here.

Once heralded for balancing a womb-to-tomb welfare state with a competitive economy, Finland hasn’t had it easy of late. The small Nordic country with a population of just over 5 million has struggled with four years of policy stagnation and a bickering coalition government, which has been mired in three years of economic recession. Multinational nails were hammered into the Finnish national confidence when, in 2013, Nokia’s mobile phone business was bought over by Microsoft Mobile, the new subsidiary of the software giant Microsoft. Today, Finland needs to make some far-reaching changes if it is to retain the best parts of its former economic glory. The 2015 national election results may exacerbate existing problems rather than provide solutions.

Continue reading “Gareth Rice: Finland – welcome to the Ostrich Nation”

Rasmus’ Thibault said Against racism! Facebook site is being targeted unfairly

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Christian Thibault, chairman of Rasmus, Finland’s only national umbrella group against racism, said in a statement that the Red Cross site on Facebook that manages the Against racism! page has been unfairly targeted by critics for linking one of Reija Härkönen’s opinion pieces.

“I was alerted by a number of people about this today,” he said.

Härkönen is a well-known blogger who has written numerous opinion pieces about topics dealing with racism in Finland.

Visit Against racism! Facebook site here.

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Migrants’ Rights Network: Warning – a renewal of ‘fortress Europe’ policies is not the answer to the refugee crisis on the Mediterranean

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Don Flynn*

Two high level meetings of EU political leaders in one week might encourage the belief that something positive is going to be done to address the tragedies of the last few days on the Mediterranean. But if the heads of government statement that emerged last Thursday is anything to go by it is clear that lessons are not being learnt.

The outcome of the meeting of EU heads of government in Brussels last Thursday has been widely criticised for the inadequacy of its response to the refugee crisis on the Mediterranean. Rather than address the most pressing question on how to arrest the escalating refugee death toll on the high seas the suspicion is that the authorities are using it is an opportunity to return to ‘Fortress Europe’ strategy which envisions the continent sealing itself from the migration pressures being generated across Africa, the Middle East and Central Asian regions.

Under the pretext of preventing people from dying at sea the leaders of the member states concluded their summit with a commitment to

“strengthen our presence at sea, to fight the traffickers, to prevent illegal migration flows and to reinforce internal solidarity and responsibility.” — Statement from the Special Meeting of the European Council, 23 Apr 2015

The concluding statement agreed by the heads of government reduced the bulk of its consideration of the factors that have produced the latest spate of efforts to cross the Mediterranean and the consequent rise on the death toll to the issues of people ‘trafficking’ and ‘key push factors’ in the countries where the migration flows originate.

Continue reading “Migrants’ Rights Network: Warning – a renewal of ‘fortress Europe’ policies is not the answer to the refugee crisis on the Mediterranean”

Facebook: Dear Little Girl at sea…

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The picture below and the comment that follows on Facebook is dedicated to the all those anti-immigration parties and politicians throughout Europe. Since I live in Finland, I’ll dedicate this tragic picture of the girl to our most anti-immigration and anti-EU party in the country: the Perussuomalaiset (PS).*

Even if every party in Finland has their share of xenophobes, I will individually dedicate this picture to some of our most outspoken anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity politicians that have built their political careers by spreading lies about migrants and refugees.

Who are they?

The list is long but I’ll name a few of them below:

Timo Soini, Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, Laura Hauhtasaari, Maria Lohela, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Päivi Räsänen, Tom Pakaclén, Maria Tolppanen, Mika Niikko, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, Kari Rajamäki, Pia Kauma, Wille Rydman, Simon Elo, Sampo Terho, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, Hanna Mäntylä and many, many others.

All it takes is a picture or an unexpected spark to action that changes everything instantly. If it isn’t this picture below there will be other other ones that will at the end of the day expose these politicians for what they are.

Mark my words, all it takes is a picture, an action, that will spark their demise and force their lies to come down in flames.

The post below may contain a disturbing image and text to some. Viewer discretion is advised.

Continue reading “Facebook: Dear Little Girl at sea…”

Dana: Open racist wave

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: After a year and six months I got an email from Dana, who has written many beautiful and powerful poems for us. I was delighted to hear from her after such a long time. Those who remember, the passing away of her parents in such a short time was a terrible blow for her. She had tried to bring them to Finland but due to our tight family reunification laws this wasn’t possible.

I’d like to personally welcome Dana back to our community. We look forward to reading many of her poems in the future.

_____________________________

Dana

Racist here racist there racist everywhere this is the danger… how can i leave this satanic circle?
How many racists are following me?… this is a big question i am not aware!!!

You are looking to solve a problem… you write, complain, it’s again lem
It’s tragedy’s doors that are closed… you are trying but you feel worse

What can i to do? how can i help?…I need a peaceful time but i have no chance!!!
Sad sad sad sad OHhhh no choice… here is Finland full of pain, sores

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Racism Review: On the White Jesus: No Evidence to Support the Popular Image

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Athena Griffin and Joe Feagin

The Jesus in the Bible could not have resembled the white Jesus figures as shown in these images:

(Image sources, left to right: Image left, Image center, Image right.)

Such images reflect what we would like to suggest, nothing more than grossly misled white imaginations—at least within an honest historical and scholarly context. While nobody knows what Jesus actually “looked” like, he was most definitely was not a white guy.

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Kati van der Hoeven-Lepistö: DENIED!

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Kati van der Hoeven-Lepistö

Rejection, one of the harsh parts of life. If there is one experience that all we humans have faced in our life that would be the pain of rejection. A bitter pain that makes you feels like an outsider. For some of us who are very lucky the feeling of rejection is the closest we will ever get to the feeling of being discriminated.

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Kati van der Hoeven-Lepistö: HYLÄTTY!

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Kati van der Hoeven-Lepistö

Hylkääminen, yksi elämän vaikeimmista asioista kuulla ja hyväksyä. Me kaikki olemme varmasti kohdanneet elämässämme hylätyksi tulon tunteen ja sen mukanaan tuoman kivun. Katkera kipu, mikä saa tuntemaan olon ulkopuoliseksi. Joillekin hyvin onnekkaille meistä hylätyksi olon tunne, on lähin, mitä koemme syrjinnäksi tulon tunteesta.

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Straight A students in racism and the rise of xenophobia in Finland

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Migrant Tales

You may be wondering why xenophobia has raised its head big time in Finland these past years and why candidates from parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* get elected on such a platform.

The Facebook post below that sources a false story about migrants called MV, Mitä v****a! or What the f**k!, offers an answer.

The online publication claims that only immigrants (sic!) were granted 85,000 euros in aid to get their own swimming hours, buy personal mountain bikes and free passes to the fitness gym in the eastern Finnish city of Lieksa, which has been a hotbed of racism in recent years.

In a nutshell MV is a source that incites ethnic agitation and reinforces the racist behavior of some people without abiding to any ethical or journalistic standards.

MV has even been used by PS MP Mika Niikko to lure voters on election day. The MP used the online publication as a source to incite voters by claiming that foreigners had gang raped again a woman. In light of the hysteria and public reaction to the Tapanila gang rape case last month, the police had to put out a statement alerting the public that the news published by MV was a hoax.

What does using a racist online publication like MV, which has over 34,000 likes, as a source by some of the Finnish public and politicians say about the state of our country?