Apparently few migrants and minorities attended the National Sports Forum

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some claim that one of the problems that migrants and minorities face in Finland is that they are underrepresented in different associations.  Last Sunday, the National Sports Forum held a meeting in Helsinki to talk about the future of sports in Finland. Gathering from the picture below, it’s clear that few migrants and minorities were invited to the event. 

This is odd considering that Helsinki is an every-growing culturally and ethnically diverse city. In 2013, around 45% of all the migrants in Finland live in Helsinki (50,661), Espoo (20,612) ad Vantaa (16,024), according to the Population Register Center.

The total amount of migrants that lived in Finland last year was 195,511, or 3.6% of the population.

So what happened?

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The National Sports Forum was held in Helsinki on Sunday. Visit the site here.

As everyone knows, sports plays a key role in promoting adaption and inclusion of people of all ethnicities into Finnish society.

The National Sports Forum should do a much better job next time to invite Others that are not seen in the picture above.

 

Zuzeeko’s blog: 1960-style racial abuse in a store in Finland, and silent onlookers

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Zuzeeko Tegha Abeng*

Things happen in modern-day Finland that look like scenes out of the U.S. in the 1960s when black people, such as 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, were taunted by angry members of the white community who opposed racial integration of public schools.

Ihmisoikeusliitto, a human rights organisation that monitors the human rights situation in Finland, revealed on its Facebook page on 4 September 2014 that one of its workers was followed and verbally attacked in a shop by another customer. According to the Facebook post, the customer followed the human rights workers in a shop and shouted insults as the latter walked away. No one in the shop said anything to the abuser or the abused. Everyone stared as the perpetrator continued the racially motivated abuse — until a security guard took the perpetrator away.

 

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According to Ihmisoikeusliitto, the reason for the taunting was the color of the victim’s skin.

Keep in mind that the reported racist taunting happened is 2014, not 1960. It’s unconscionable that such a thing happens in modern-day Finland, and not a single onlooker lifts a finger.

When I read the Facebook post, the story of Ruby Bridges came to mind.

Ruby Bridges was the first black student to attend a formerly all-white elementary school in New Orleans in 1960. When public schools were required by federal law to desegregate, she was the first African American to go to William Frantz Elementary School. For security reasons, Ruby was escorted to and from school by U.S. Marshals dispatched by president Eisenhower. White parents and students shouted insults and pointed fingers at Ruby as she went to school under the protection of U.S. Marshals. And white parents rushed their children out of the school in protest. Even teachers refused to teach.

In my view, shouting insults at someone in a public place in Finland because of the color of his or her skin is as shameful as the racially motivated taunting of Ruby Bridges in New Orleans in 1960. The verbal abuse reported by Ihmisoikeusliitto is, to an extent, similar to abuse faced by Ruby Bridges in the 1960s. The only difference lies in the scale of the abuse.

Unlike Ruby, the victim in the shop in Finland was taunted by a single abuser. Although the perpetrator acted alone, the silent onlookers in the shop, I believe, took the side of the perpetrator. My belief that the “spectators” were complicit is hinged on the words of archbishop Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”.

I have argued before in previous blog posts, such as in the piece about the plight of Finland’s black taxi drivers, and I’ll argue again, that blatant racism persists in modern-day Finland because members of the public and people with the power to change things let it persist. Perpetrators are emboldened by the silence of onlookers. People of good conscience and people in positions of authority in Finland should stand up and speak up forcefully against racism. Until then, racists will continue to drag Finland’s international image in the mud by repeatedly perpetrating 1960-style racial abuse in modern-day Finland.Read original blog entry here.

*Zuzeeko Tegha Abeng is an associate editor of Migrant Tales. 

Too many Finnish politicians and parties are ignorant of their country’s migrant and refugee history

Posted on by Migrant Tales

-titta, en finne igen i fyllan!
-satans finjävlar!

-look, (a) drunken Finn!
-damn Finnish devils!

The infamous saying, en finne igen, yet another Finn, can be found in Urban Dictionary. The statement was used by Swedes to claim that Finns are “violent, primitive savages” because some have issues with learning Swedish and alcohol. After World War 2, hundreds of thousands of Finns emigrated to Sweden. 

Watching YLE’s Pressiklubi and the debate between rector Tiina Rosenberg of the University of Arts Helsinki and Simon Elo, the head of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* youth league, it’s clear that the PS is one party that is very selective about how it treats Finnish history and racism.

One of the ways of tackling the prejudices that the Swedish media spread and reinforced about Finns in the 1970s was an active campaign by the Finnish embassy in Stockholm to meet the editors of different media. One of the outcomes of such lobbying was not labeling crime suspects to national origin.

Elo states on the interview that the PS has renounced racism but the party continues to act in the same way as the Swedish media did over 40 years ago when labeling Finns.

A good example is the latest edition of the party’s newspaper, Perussuomalainen, which claims in the most sensationalist language and images that Jihadists use refugee centers in Finland as holiday resorts. The pictures and the message of the story labels Muslims and migrants in Finland in the same way as the Finns were labelled once by the Swedish media.

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Watch program here.

 

Moreover, when Rosenberg mentioned that many Finns emigrated to Sweden, Elo snapped back and stated that it was “an insult” to compare Finnish migrants to refugees that come to this country.

Elo, with his knee-jerk statement,  exposes in one sentence the prejudices that this country has for refugees.

This shouldn’t surprise us since the term is loathed in the Finnish language so much that the 420,000 Karelians that were forced to flee their homes after the Continuation War (1941-44) are called evacuees, or evakkot, not refugees.

For some strange reason as well, Soviet citizens that defected to Finland during the cold war were never seen as refugees, which they were.

Elo’s statement, that one cannot compare asylum-seekers that come to Finland to Finnish emigrants that moved to Sweden because they “were hardworking,” exposes not only the PS politician’s ignorance of this country’s history but the myths that his party is reinforcing and spreading.

What does it say about Finland as well, a country that has seen over 1.2 million emigrants between 1860 and 1999 and resettled 420,000 refugees, doesn’t have a clear idea and understanding about its own immigrant and refugee history and on top of this has a party (PS) that is openly hostile to them?

The answer to that question lies in our own collective deconstructed memory and our low national self-esteem.

Haven’t studies showed that people with low self-esteem are more prone to prejudice?

Elo also claimed on the program that the PS is a party that supports “healthy” nationalism.

Is there such a thing in a party like the PS that flirts with far-right ideology and nativist nationalism?  Certainly Elo is white so he can claim anything he wants to but I suspect that many migrants and minorities will disagree with his statement.

Rosenberg said that the seeds of fascism are planted in a party like the PS, which singles out others from being treated equally and with dignity in this country.

Migrant Tales has said it many times: Parties like the PS are not only a menace to this country but especially to migrants an minorities.

Alberto Coronel sums up well what is happening to us in Finland today with parties like the PS with the quote below. In this same questionable group we can place the National Coalition Party, Christian Democrats, Center Party and Social Democrats.

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In plain English the quote by Chris Rock means in our context that if the PS could, they would disenfranchise as much as possible migrants, minorities and Finns who don’t see the world in the same way as them.

Why?

Because that’s their political agenda.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Defining white Finnish privilege #11: Case Teuvo Hakkarainen

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen is a good example of white Finnish privilege. Here’s an MP that has issues with alcohol, racism and now dates teenagers as well as allegedly takes minors to bars. He has sent on his work phone pictures of his phallus and Image magazine claims in its latest issue that the PS MP drove 306 km/hour with his motorcycle. Hakkarainen denies this. 

Let’s not forget as well that the PS MP was sentenced to prison for robbery.

After all these questionable “merits,” PS chairman Timo Soini said recently that he’s happy that Hakkarainen will be running for a second term in office.

Definition #11

Imagine for a second if a visible minority, migrant or, god forbid a Muslim would do only half of the things that Hakkarainen did. Even if that person would do only a quarter of the things that the PS MP has done and is doing, that person would be lynched alive on social media forums and by the print media.

The reason why Hakkarainen can get off the hook for all the things he’s done is because he’s white and a PS MP.

Instead of seeing him as a person squandering tax payers money, some see him as a hero.

Moreover, the PS sees Hakkarinen as an “authority” on migration. An authority? With that type of poor judgement, and not suggesting that the two are alike, we could argue that Heinrich Himmler was an “authority” on Jews, the Roma and all the enemies of the Nazi regime.

If you are white and have issues, join the PS. It’s a good party to hide your problems.

See also:

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Dr Gareth Rice leaves Finland today

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Dr Gareth Rice, a brave man who highlighted unfair hiring practices in academia, left Finland Saturday and moved to Glasgow. He will be missed by many.

While the path that Dr Rice took is known to many non-Finnish academics, he did something more: Put himself on the line by exposing what he saw as unfair hiring practices by the university.

During July, his stories highlighting what happened appearing in a number of publications like YLE in English and Helsingin Sanomat, the country’s biggest daily.

 

10707741_10152517859767600_939816654_o

Dr Gareth Rice. Picture by Christian Thibault.

Dr Rice writes:

I have lost count of the number of brilliant foreign academics who have upped and left this supposedly fair and open Nordic country because they are made to feel belittled and marginalised by a higher education system apparently designed to guarantee that Finns progress the fastest.

Finnish colleagues have given me four different explanations for this. One is foreigners’ difficulties with learning Finnish – from which I am certainly not immune. Another is that Finns trust other Finns and thus prefer to employ them. A third is that some Finns believe that they are more entitled to permanent academic contracts because it is “their” country. But the most surprising reason is that Finnish academics feel insecure and don’t wish to be challenged and undermined by foreign scholars.

Even if one door was closed in this country another opened in Glasgow.

“We will miss him here in Finland,” said Christian Thibault, chairman of Rasmus, an anti-racism NGO, “but with the obligation to continue the good and important work which Gareth has contributed so much.”

We wish him the best of luck and hope that he’ll visit us soon.

Perussuomalaiset hate campaign against foreigners is in full swing

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I was asked this week what I think is one of the best ways to tackle racism in Finland. One of the best ways,  I responded, is challenging urban tales spread by politicians, the media and public.  

It’s clear that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party’s hostility against foreigners with the help of urban tales is moving full steam ahead. In the latest issue of the party’s newspaper, Perussuomalainen, there is a sensationalist story suggesting that refugee centers are holiday resorts for terrorists. 

The story appears only on Perussuomalainen because no reputable publication in Finland would publish it.

Why wouldn’t it be published in other publications?

Because of what it represents and promotes: hatred and suspicion of  foreigners as well as a cheap trick to lure susceptible voters to the PS.

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Migrant Tales has only copied and pasted part of the Perussuomalainen article because of its provocative racist message.

Finland is going to have to get a grip on itself and ask some hard questions: Do we want to believe these types of racist sensationalist stories and impoverish ourselves as a country, or tell those that spread such malarky that we’ve had enough?

Why is xenophobia hazardous to Finland? Because it will scare away skilled migrants, entrepreneurs and foreign investment. Who wants to live and bring up a family in a country that accepts and supports intolerance?

In many respects, and in our own context, the influence of the PS on anti-immigration and nativist nationalist sentiment is similar to far-right Jobbik in Hungary. Has Hungary become more tolerant to Jews and Roma after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán started to play political ball with Jobbik?

It’s clear that the more recognition you give to parties that have far-right ideology and racism as there main agenda, the more they’ll grow.

Those spreading this type of fear-mongering on the Perussuomalainen article are none other than PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, and PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, who was sentenced to prison for robbery and become a household name due to his issues with racism, alcohol, and now teenage girls.

I will not spend any energy on translating the ludicrous claims by the PS because the headline speaks for itself.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

City of Ylivieska in Finland awards anti-Semite with distinction

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Juha Kärkkäinen, who was fined by a Finnish court in the fall of 2013 45,000 euros for publishing anti-Semitic writings of the likes of David Duke and others, was awarded a distinction from the city of Ylivieska, according to Oulu-based Kaleva. Dan Kantor, executive director of the Jewish Community of Helsinki, told Migrant Tales that he was “surprised that in this century” such things happen in Finland today.

Kärkkäinen is owner of  a company  based in Ylivieska that owns shopping centers in the cities of Lahti and Oulu.

The Pro Ylivieska distinction is awarded to a person or association who has distinguished himself or herself in the community and nationally.

A Ylivieska city official whom Migrant Tales spoke to said that the award was given only for Kärkkäinen’s accomplishments as a businessman. “What he thinks (about Jews) is his personal opinion and we have nothing to do with that,” the official said.

Even if Kärkkäinen isn’t editor of Magneettimedia, the publication is still owned by J. Kärkkänen Oy.

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Kärkkäinen appealed the sentence and 45,000 fine he got in the fall to a the court of appeal, which is expected to give legal validity to the lower-court ruling in the next two months.

“In the meantime Kärkkäinen has been able to publish his anti-Semitism on Magneettimedia (which is today an online publication),” said Kantor.

The decision to give Kärkkäinen a distinction by the city of Ylivieksa reveals a lot of matters, according to the executive director of the Jewish Community of Helsinki .

“First: That Finland’s laws are helpless and that such a thing (publish anti-Semitic stories on Magneettimedia) can continue to happen for such a long time (even if Kärkkäinen got sentenced by a lower court for ethnic agitation),” he said. “Second: Even if we’re waiting for the court of appeals ruling, anyone with a little common sense could tell that what was (and continues to be) published is wrong.”

See also:

 

Who spreads hatred in Finland: YLE or the PS?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Attempting to gain the maximum political mileage from the act of vandalism against the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* office in Helsinki on Thursday, party secretary, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, is pointing the finger at the “green-left alliance” (a favorite catchword that the party uses to describe its enemies) and YLE for comparing it to the anti-immigration far-right Sweden Democrats.

Another ludicrous claim made by the party at the same press conference Friday is that the PS has sacked all of its racists and fascists.

Matti Putkonen, who made the claim, hasn’t apparently heard of Harri Tauriainen, a city of Kemi councilman, who used to have “white power” emblems on his Facebook page and who said: “…it’s odd that we can’t put in line in Finland this colored human group of trash. Just put a stamp on their ass and deport them for good from Finland.”

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PS councilman Harri Tauriainen’s Facebook page. He will be running for MP in the April.

Putkonen hasn’t heard as well of Suomen Sisu, a far-right association whose chairman is PS MP Olli Immonen.

Suomen Sisi believes, among other fascist ideas, in “racial hygiene” and that white Finns shouldn’t marry foreigners.

Putkonen and the party appear to have conveniently forgotten about how its third vice president MP Juho Eerola is attracted to Benito Mussolini’s fascism.

There are many cases that clearly prove that the PS is rife with racists and fascists.

Gathering by these sound bites by Slunga-Poutsalo and Putkonen, it’s clear that there is manifest unease in the party. After getting 39 MPs elected in the 2011 parliamentary elections and becoming Finland’s third-largest party like the Sweden Democrats today in the Riksdagen (Swedish parliament), it’s clear that they won’t match that historic victory in 2015.

In the last presidential, municipal and EU elections, the PS has lagged far behind their best result so far.

We don’t hide the fact at Migrant Tales that the PS are for the above and many other reasons a menace to Finland and especially to migrants and minorities. We won’t vandalize their offices but we’ll fight them at the ballot boxes in April to send them back to the minor political leagues after the April 2015 elections.

Four years of the PS in the opposition has not only polarized our society, it has undermined our democratic institutions with its hostility towards migrants and minorities.

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Read full story here.

And here’s what we should be asking in light of what happened and what the PS wants us to believe: Who spreads more hatred in Finland – YLE or the PS?

Slunga-Poutsalo could ask the Somali and Muslim community, which have been a near-constant target of the party, what they think about much of the anti-immigration hostility against them. How has the spread of such hatred made their lives easier in Finland? Has it helped migrants in general to integrate and become equal members of this society?

The PS party secretary should ask as well how their intolerance has rubbed off on others like the National Coalition Party, whose MP, Pia Kauma, has spread outright lies about migrants buying new baby carriages with social aid.

Why does the PS continue to attack migrants and minorities? Why does the party continue to support Hommaforum, a racist website that is like a peep show where anonymous racists can see hate comments instead of naked women?

At the same time, Slunga-Poutsalo could ask Finland the same question: How have MPs like Teuvo Hakkarainen, Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, former PS MP James Hirvisaari and many, many others reinforced our Nordic way of life by promoting respect and social equality to everyone?

Slunga-Poutsalo could take a long look at the mirror herself and ask about the Nuiva Manifesto, which she signed. If the anti-immigration manifesto ever came into force, it would bolster racism and white privilege to new heights.

While acts of vandalism against a party should be condemned, so should the violence and hostility of parties like the PS against migrants and minorities.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

PS claims it has sacked all of its racists and fascists from the party (sic!)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Matti Putkonen said at a press conference Friday that comparing the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* to the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats was spreading hatred against the party. He went as far as to suggest that the attack against its office in Helsinki had something to do with such stories, reports tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. 

Putkonen, who was convicted for rape about 23 years ago, lost his temper when HBL journalist Susanna Ginman questioned his claim that all the racists and fascists had been sacked from the party.

Ginman asked why PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, wasn’t sacked from the party.

Putkonen snapped back and asked if she considered Halla-aho a racist.

The journalist answered in the affirmative.

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Read full story here.

If Migrant Tales would have been present at the press conference, we’d respond in the same way as the HBL journalist did.

We don’t know what kind of a person Halla-aho is but if we check what he’s written, it’s clear that they are rife with racism.

I’d ask Putkonen as well about Suomen Sisu, a far-right association, about MP Juho Eerola, who admitted being attracted to Benito Mussolini’s fascism.

The chairman of Suomen Sisu, Olli Immonen, is a PS MP.

One of the reasons why the PS has been riddled by so many scandals is because too many of its members are racists and fascists.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

New dissertation about migrants sheds light on our ignorance and prejudices

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Two news stories published this week highlight in my opinion why intolerance continues to dominate debate in these parts. The latest story published by YLE was about a dissertation by Annukka Muurin, which showed that multicultural, or third-culture Finns, speak Finnish better than their parents’ language. 

Isn’t this a pretty obvious finding if the child grew up and goes to school in Finland?

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

 

Another important story was published on Wednesday by THL, which confirmed that first-generation “immigrants” at schools experience more bullying, physical threats and sexual harassment than white Finns.

In spring, Pekka Myrskylä, wrote that around 60% of migrants live in poverty in Finland.

The valuable work done by Muurin raises a lot of other important questions about how we accept cultural diversity and about third-culture Finns. What does her dissertation say about how our schools, which are supposed to be an example to the world, treat pupils from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds?

What does it say about how schools prepare non-white Finns to become active and equal citizens of our society?

What does mother tongue mean anyway? What about if your father were a single parent and you’d learn his so-called native language?  Would that be called “father tongue?”

Considering that we live in an ever-diverse world where people grow up in culturally and linguistically diverse places, is it correct to simply define language in simplistic “mother-tongue” terms? Moreover, what impact does the majority culture labeling you with a certain “mother tongue” have on your identity and place in society?

Language is, unfortunately, treated as something like “race” or ethnicity that there is something “pure” about it (sic!).

Another question that Muurin, the THL survey and Myrkylä bring to light is the following question: Why do most of these myths and prejudices exist if they aren’t true?

The answer to that question is pretty clear: Politicians, political parties, policy makers, institutions and white privilege have a lot going for them under the present system. Ignorance and prejudice are the armies that keep them in power.