The Perussuomalaiset plan to sack MP Hirvisaari from the party

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Inviting Seppo Lehto to parliament, where a picture of him making a Nazi salute, was the last straw for Perussuomalaiset(PS) chairman Timo Soini, who was quoted as saying on MTV3 that PS MP James Hirvisaari will be sacked from the party. 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-10-3 kello 11.04.07

Read full story here.

The decision to expel Hirvisaari was made by the five-member working committee of the PS governing board.

PS party secretary, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, said that Hirvisaari had hurt the party’s credibility and therefore would be expelled, writes Helsingin Sanomat.

Following Hirvisaari’s rocky and controversial political career, where he doesn’t hide his far-right credentials, Migrant Tales asked in July when the PS would sack the MP, who was convicted for ethnic agitation.

Even if this is a step in the right direction, it’s too little too late.

Hirvisaari has not only damaged the credibility of Finland’s legislature, but spread hatred and suspicion of immigrants and minorities living in this country.

He will not be missed.

A guest of the Finnish PS gives a Nazi salute in parliament

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We all know how a political party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) has declared war against immigrants and other minorities in this country. The latest attack by the PS was against the Finnish parliament by a guest of MP James Hirvisaari, who was pictured giving a Nazi salute. 

UPDATE: Hirvisaari confirmed Thursday that it was him who took the picture of Lehto below.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-10-3 kello 0.36.10

Seppo Lehto, a guest of PS MP James Hirvisaari, gave a Nazi salute on Tuesday in parliament.

The picture of Seppo Lehto,* a far-right anti-immigration activist who was sentenced to a 2.5-year prison term for ethnic agitation, to support Jussi Halla-aho’s Euro MP candidacy, was widely distributed in social media and reported by the national media.

Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation like Hirvisaari, said that he had nothing to do with what Lehto published on his blog.

Dailies like Helsingin Sanomat speculate that the picture of Lehto making the Nazi salute could have been taken by Hirvisaari. The PS MP refused to confirm or deny this to Finland’s largest-circulation daily. 

Hirvisaari described Helsingin Sanomat’s attempts to get in touch with him as ”bullying.” As a general rule, the PS MP only answers journalist’s queries by email.

In an odd style of journalism, Helsingin Sanomat refused to publish Lehto’s name in the story.

What is probably the most incredible matter about the whole affair is the silence of the PS leadership.

Why is it so difficult for Finland’s third-largest party in parliament to openly condemn such publicity stunts? Is there silence a reinforcement of their declaration of war against immigrants and minorities in this country?

Absolutely.

*Seppo Lehto has visited and commented on Migrant Tales a number of times. His views are pretty clear: anti-Islam and anti-multiculturalism. Since we believed that it would be useless to have a meaningful debate with a person like Lehto, we decided to ignore him. The comments by him stopped and we never heard in writing from him ever again.

Maryan Abdulkarim: Ihminen ilman historiaa on kuin puu ilman juuria

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Maryan Abdulkarim*

Yhteiskunnan julkista kuvaa tarkasteltaessa ei heti havaitse, että Suomessa elää ja on pitkään elänyt useampia erilaisia etnisiä ryhmiä. Ennen kuin oli ketään muuta, Suomenmaata asuttivat saamelaiset. Sitten tänne alkoi saapua maahanmuuttajia, valkoihoisia ihmisiä, jotka puhuivat outoa kieltä. Saamelaiset ovat tänä päivänä etninen vähemmistö, joiden äidinkielet ovat uhanalaisia. Mitkä seikat ovat vaikuttaneet siihen?

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(Kuva: Tom Gehling / cc 2.0)

Toinen etninen ryhmä, joka on ollut Suomessa jo yli 500 vuotta, ovat romanit. Iso osa romaniväestöstä ei puhu sitä kieltä, joka oli aikanaan heidän äidinkielensä. Vuosisatojen saatossa he ovat suomalaistuneet, omaksuneet suomen kielen äidinkielekseen sekä suomalaisuuden kansalaisuudekseen. He kohtaavat kuitenkin edelleen voimakasta syrjintää, eivät saa juuri tilaa suomalaisessa historiankirjoituksessa, eivätkä ainakaan kattavasti esiinny peruskoulun historian kirjoissa.

Suomeen suuntautuva maahanmuutto on ollut kasvussa viimeiset vuosikymmenet. 1990-luvulla saapuneiden maahanmuuttajien lapset ovat nyt aikuisuuden kynnyksellä olevia nuoria suomalaisia. Tämä tuoreempi ryhmä on aiheuttanut enemmän keskustelua, kuin vanhemmat etniset vähemmistöt yhteensä viimeisten vuosikymmenten aikana.

Ihmisoikeusaktivisti Malcolm X:n tunnetuimpiin lausahduksiin kuuluu lause “ihminen ilman historiaa on kuin puu ilman juuria”. Tulevaisuutta on vaikea rakentaa, jos ei tiedä historiastaan ja sen vaiheista. Kuka oli saamelaistenMannerheim? Entä romanien? Tataarien? Juutalaisten?

Kun kasvatamme lapsia ihailemaan vain yhden ryhmän sankareita, välitämmekö samalla viestin, että muiden ryhmien ja kansojen sankareiden anti meille on mitätön? Että suomalaisuutta ja suomalaisia tekoja arvostetaan silloin, kun niiden tekijä on valkoihoinen, suomenkieltä äidinkielenään puhuva ihminen ja useimmiten vielä mies?

Yksi tapa edistää yhdenvertaisuutta on ottaa koulun historian kirjoihin mukaan myös vähemmistöjen historia. Kertoa Afrikasta ja Aasiasta muutakin, kuin ne Euroopan maat jotka ovat niitä valloittaneet. Kertoa Islamista muutakin, kuin että ristiretkeläiset ajoivat muslimit pois Andalusiasta.

Yhdenvertaisuus ja sen saavuttaminen ei ole kvanttifysiikkaa, se on yksinkertaista. Tahdomme yhdenvertaisen yhteiskunnan, sellaisen joka arvostaa jokaista yksilöään, tämän etnisestä alkuperästä sen enempää kuin uskonnostakaan riippumatta. Eikö olisi jo korkea aika siirtyä sanoista tekoihin? Paasikivi, eräs itsenäisen Suomen presidenteistä, on todennut, että “tosiasioiden tunnustaminen on viisauden alku”. Joten tunnustetaan tosiasiat ja aloitetaan siitä, että vaaditaan enemmän yleissivistävältä opetukseltamme.

Ja myös koulun penkin ulkopuolella, tiloissa joissa nuoret kohtaavat, olisi hyvä joskus mainita historia ja tietenkin koristaa tila niin, että kaikki löytävät samaistumisen kohteita.

*Kirjoittaja Maryan Abdulkarim työskentelee Väestöliiton Monikulttuurisessa osaamiskeskuksessa ja on Allianssin yhdenvertaisuusteemaryhmän jäsen.

Alkuperäisen blogikirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.

Tämä blogikirjoitus julkaistiin Migrant Talesissä luvalla.

PS MPs like Juho Eerola don’t know how closed Finland used to be to the outside world

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 Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Juho Eerola wrote in 2010 that he was attracted to Benito Mussolini’s fascism. He argues that it is a model that we could learn a lot from. Such a statement not only shows his fascist political credentials, but his ignorance of Finnish history. The Restricting Act of 1939 (law 219/1939), which was in force until 1995, kept Finland closed to foreign investment.  

The Restricting Act of 1939 prohibited foreigners from owning real estate and acquiring a majority stake in Finnish companies – limiting this to 20% normally and 40% under special permission. The Act stipulated that foreigners could not own shares in sectors such as forestry, securities trading, transportation, mining, real estate and shipping.

So what gives, Eerola? Didn’t you know that Finland was a near-closed country to foreign investment during most of the last century?

There were very few immigrants that moved to Finland during the cold war era as well. The country’s tiny immigrant population peaked in 1928 with 29,685 foreigners but started to retreat after the 1930s, plunging to 5,483 in 1970, according to the Migration Institute.

Why did the number of immigrants, which was small to begin with, plummet? Just like the Restricting Act of 1939, which aimed to restrict foreign investment, it was Finland’s aim as well to restrict and make it as hard as possible for immigrants to move to this country.

Finland got its first Aliens Act in 1983, sixty-five years after its independence in 1917.

Apart from not being able to own land, organize demonstrations never mind start a publication, immigrants didn’t have the right to appeal deportation decisions.

The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) spied on immigrants as it does today. Even if one of their worries was finding out who were working for the KGB, they kept close tabs on many immigrants, recording things like how many demonstrations you attended.

Finland wasn’t, however, a fascist state like Mussolini’s Italy although it was a geopolitically isolated country during the cold war era.

Eerola forgets to mention the dark side of Mussolini’s fascist state. Il Duce was an autocrat that took his country to war and brought great destruction and ruin to his people.

Mussolini was executed with his mistress, Clara Petacci, on April 28, 1945.

His lifeless body was strung up by his heels with other fascists in Piazzale Loreto in Milan.

Few Italians long for his style of politics never mind his economic model. Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-29 kello 14.23.40

 Juho Eerola Hommaforum July 6, 2010: I myself am attracted to Benito Mussolini’s fascism, and in particular the economic policy [the country] pursued. Entrepreneurship was encouraged but it was under strict government control. Vital large corporations could not be owned by foreign investors but were firmly in government hands. Italy achieved during those times full employment and strong economic growth. We could learn a lot from such a model.

Thank you Christine Bergström for providing the link where Eerola made his quote about Mussolini.  

Abde Hussein shows there is more than one way to put racism on the defensive

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There’s more than one way to put intolerance on the defensive. Abde Hussein wrote on Thursday an encounter he had with a young unemployed white Finn, who said in public that he was a “monkey” and “living off welfare.” A discussion ensued but to make a long story short, the young white Finn turned out to be the monkey (no insult intended to these primates).  

Without getting hot under the collar, Hussein turned the insults hurled at him against the young man, who was ignorant of Finnish grammar, unemployed and living off welfare.

The encounter, published on Abde Hussein’s Facebook wall, has attracted over 9,440 “likes” and 1,565 votes.

Just like Ricky Ghansah’s encounter with a racist, who insulted him at a bus stop but forced him to apologize in public after paying his bus ticket, Hussein’s posting shows that we can beat the crude racists at their own game.

If there were a school to learn how a social ill like intolerance happens in our society, Ghansah’s and Hussein’s cases would be discussed in the elementary course.

Exposing intolerance in the intermediate and advanced levels of the course, however, would be more complicated.

At the advanced level, you’d study institutional racism, politicians, public officials and common people expressing their intolerance but in such a way that it is difficult to make out. At this level you learn that intolerance exists because there is a system that is maintained by our prejudices and fear of losing power and privilege.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-29 kello 9.02.38

 

This post on Abde Hussein’s Facebook wall had over 9,440 “likes” on Sunday.

Just like social media brought some Perussuomalaiset (PS) politicians  to the attention of the media and public before the 2011 parliamentary elections, we can beat intolerance with the same tools.

While there may be many ways  to beat a social ill at its own game, silence is one method we should avoid at all costs.

If financial market suffer from bursting bubbles, like we saw with the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy of 2008, so do political bubbles fed by xenophobia, anti-immigration and populism.

Political bubbles burst when we discover they are based on the opportunistic hype of politicians.

Hussein’s posting encourages us to believe that Finland’s darkest period in modern times isn’t invincible.

Thank you Amir Hassan for the heads-up.

Ana María Gutiérrez-Sorainen: Ihmisoikkeudet eivät ole neuvottelukysymys

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Ana María Gutiérrez-Sorainen*

Kansanedustaja Mikael Jugnerin avustaja Nasima Razmyar (SDP) lähetti julkisen kirjeen perussuomalaisten kansaedustaja Jussi Halla-aholle omassa Ilta-lehden blogissaan.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-28 kello 20.05.45

Tämä on jo toinen kerta, kun Razmyar osoittaa huomionsa perussuomalaisille. Jokainen saa kirjoittaa kenelle hän tahtoo, yksityisesti tai/ja julkisesti.

Koska tuo kirje on nyt julkinen, voimme me muut arvioida sitä vapaasti julkisestikin.

Ensiksi Nasima Razmyar ikään kuin antaa itsellensä jonkun maahanmuuttaja- ja pakolaisedustajan viran ja osoittaa tahtonsa neuvotella nyt Halla-ahon kanssa Syyrian pakolaisista. Nasima tahtoo hyvää, mutta, mutta…

Kuten olen sanonut aiemminkin, ei ole sellaista “maahanmuuttanutta”, joka edustaisi jotakin homogeenista maahanmuuttajaryhmää. Jokainen politiikassa toimiva henkilö edustaa itseään ja häntä äänestäneitä. Olisivat äänestäjät syntyneet Suomessa tai ihan Australian viimeisessä kolkassa.Yhdenvertaisina kansalaisina olemme osa yhteiskuntaa. Toki vähemmistöjen ongelmista ja haasteista ei pidä vaieta.

Kirjeessä Nasima Razmyar ei tuo uutta tietoa tai sellaista, mikä ei olisi ollut jo esillä julkisuudessa. Kuten itse Halla-aho on selittänyt televisiossa, hän vastustaa Syyrian pakolaisten vastaanottoa muun muassa siksi, että hänen mielestä lähtökohtaisesti Syyriasta tulevat pakolaiset eivät sopeudu suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan. Jos kansanedustaja Halla-ahon kanta on sellainen jyrkän kielteinen, mitä järkeä on lähteä neuvottelemaan hänen kanssaan Syyrian pakolaisten auttamisesta? Ellei ole niin, että itse on valmis taipumaan Halla-ahon tahdolle. Oletan, että Nasima ei missään nimessä halua nyt luopua pakolaisten auttamisesta Suomessakin. Oletan näin, vaikka hän oli se, joka marssi puolustelemaan puolueensa puheenjohtajan maassa maan tavalla – lausuntoja.

Ihmisoikeudet eivät ole neuvottelukysymys Suomessa eikä muualla, ellei ole niin, että neuvottelu vie edistykseen ihmisoikeuksien hyväksi. Niiden kanssa, jotka polkevat ja haluavat jatkossakin polkea ihmisoikeuksia, ei pidä sopia.

Lopuksi siis voi vain todeta, että Nasiman kirjeellä on vain imagoarvoa, joka tekee hänestä neuvottelevan ja sovittelevan ihmisen. Nyt  meni vain vähän överiksi. Jokaisessa ihmisessä on hyvää ja pahaa. Jokainen meistä päättää itse, miten tulee toimia ja antaako pikkusormensa tai ei.

PS: henkilökohtaisella tasolla ymmärrän Nasimaa. Ei se ole kovin imartelevaa kestää Halla-ahon seuraajien nettikiusaamista “kriittisyyden nimellä” vaikkapa Hommaforumissa. Puhun nettikiusaamisesta kokemuksella.

*Kansalaisaktivisti, entinen kunnanvaltuutettu, espanjan kielen opettaja, kääntäjä ja tulkki, blogisti, neljän lapsen äiti, Suomen kansalainen.

Alkuperäisen blogikirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.

Tämä blogikirjoitus julkaistiin Migrant Talesissä luvalla.

Why doesn’t Timo Soini make a clear split with its PS racists? Answer: political hara-kiri

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Columnist Yrjö Rautio of Apu magazine writes that if Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini doesn’t make a clear split with PS MP racists like Jussi Halla-aho and his followers, the party should make official that it supports the following values: “paranoia, hatred and human evil.” 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-28 kello 12.06.43

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Rautio makes a valid point. The real question, I believe, is why Soini hasn’t rid its party of its racists, especially those that have been sentenced for ethnic agitation.

The answer to the latter question is self-evident and clear: The PS would commit political hara-kiri if it rid its party of its racists.

We all know that intolerance is learned and based on ignorance, lies and prejudice.

Another PS MP, James Hirvisaari, who was convicted for ethnic agitation like Halla-aho, posts a story written by Aalto University lecturer Kyösti Tarvainen. He’s the person, who using a pocket calculator, predicted that the Muslims would become a majority in Finland due to their high birth rates.

Since many of these type of arguments are exaggerated lies whose aim is to fuel hatred against certain groups like Muslims, it’s not clear when Tarvainen posted the blog entry. Hirvisaari doesn’t give us a clue either because his aim may be to show something that was written last year is still topical and new.

Tarvainen expressed concern in February 2011 by sending an email to prominent Green Party politicians protesting Hussein Muhammed’s candidacy. He said that the Greens have made a mistake by allowing Muslims to stand as candidates in the Green Party.

Just because a person has a PhD or is a lecturer at a university doesn’t mean that he doesn’t house racist ideas.

If you disagree, check out the academics that were member of the Nazi party and SS.

 

 

Saving one life, one refugee from Syria, IS important

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Arguing that accepting a few hundred refugees from Syria is not important because it is a drop in the bucket, is an outrageous statement made by Jussi Halla-aho, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala and others. The other point they are trying to drive home, that these people will be a burden on Finland, exposes their loathing and ignorance.

How many refugees can you name in history that fled to other countries and became model members of their new home countries? One of these was Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi Germany, a racist regime that rose to power by scapegoating minorities like Jews.

The argument, that refugees are a burden, is an insult to all the refugees of the world. Only an extreme egoist, who lacks feelings for the suffering of others, can make such a point.

These types of intolerant arguments are the same as those made constantly by anti-immigration and far-right politicians to drive home their point.

If you dissect their arguments, they are nothing more than typical anti-immigration sound bites spread with the help of the Finnish media, which gives them inflated respectability and importance.

Using such arguments to influence refugee and immigration policy, we could similarly ask why did Raoul Wallenberg or Oscar Schindler save tens of thousands of Jews if millions were murdered in Nazi concentration camps?

Stating that saving lives is futile because there are so many and makes no difference is similar to a racist trying to convince you that it is useless to oppose intolerance because nothing can be done.

If you accept that ludicrous argument, you have lost the war.

Saving one person is valuable and important.

If you disagree, why not ask the victims fleeing war and death.

PS MP Jussi Halla-aho put on the hot chair after his ridiculous arguments against Syrian refugees are exposed

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Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho was put on the hot chair on A-Studio, when he was asked about his and PS MP Vesa-Matti Saarakkala’s written question to parliament opposing government plans to give asylum to 500 refugees from Syria. 

A good question to ask is why accepting 500 refugees from Syria is in the national spotlight? Sweden plans to accept around 16,000 Syrian refugees. Moreover, why do we give airtime to an MP who has been convicted for ethnic agitation? Why are Halla-aho’s anti-immigration views important?

If we had answers to these questions, we’d understand the nature of the xenophobic beast that has inflicted Finland.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-26 kello 1.06.47

Halla-aho and his band of PS anti-immigration followers have gotten this far in their political careers thanks to journalists and officials who have done little to nothing to question their inflated exaggerations and outright xenophobia.

Finnish Red Cross manager Kalle Löövi showed that we don’t need to sit back in silence and can question and expose Halla-aho’s ideas.  He calmly but firmly told Halla-aho that his stance was wrong and said that Finland was accepting 500 needy refugees that are in danger of dying.

And  what’s wrong with helping people fleeing war? We should be proud that our country has the opportunity to help others who may repay us one day in kind.

Arguing that accepting a few hundred refugees doesn’t mean anything is probably the most outrageous statement made by Halla-aho and Saarakkala. Saving one person from a terrible conflict like in Syria is valuable and important.

Why then does Halla-aho oppose bringing Syrian refugees to Finland?

If we uncover the red herrings, the real reason lies in the fact that Halla-aho loathes Muslims, is vehemently against cultural diversity and is running for Euro MP.

 

Migrant Tales Literary: Foreigner

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Musimenta Dansila

you call me

in your eyes a foreigner

I am to mother earth

are we not all?

as a foreigner

I stand declare

mother earth to be mine

as a foreigner

you despise me

you segregate me

you scorn me

but isn’t mother earth for all?

as a foreigner

I refuse to be caged

I shall sough my seeds

they will be kissed

by the sun

all over the earth

a foreigner’s seed

will expand

embrace,

feed your heart

with warmth

foreigners we all are

to mother earth!