PS MP Hakkarainen of Finland launches new attack against immigrants and Muslims

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, who suggested two years ago that homosexuals, lesbians and Somalians should be relocated to the Åland Islands, has launched a fresh attack against immigrants and Muslims on a blog entry.

Sensible people understand that generalizing about different groups, like Hakkarainen does, is not only wrong but racist.

Migrant Tales strongly condemns this type of hate speech that only serves to fuel ethnic hatred and further Hakkarainen’s questionable political career. We not only condemn the PS MP’s words, but the silence of Finland’s political establishment, especially that of the PS.

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Read original blog entry here.

Hakkarainen, who represents the Central Finnish town of Viitasaari where there are few to no Muslims, was the first part of the PS tragic-comic political play that kicked off after the historic April 2011 elections.

Watch what the newly elected MP had to say about Muslims in this video English subtitles.

At that time, PS chairman Timo Soini defended politicians like Hakkarainen with a poker face by claiming there wasn’t one racist running for office.

According to Hakkarainen’s latest blog entry, the government doesn’t want to admit that Finland allows too many migrants to the country, which cost too much to upkeep and are a drain on the country.

He claims that too many immigrants live off social welfare and are ”increasingly guilty of crimes, which were previously rare, among others, like gang rape.”

According to the PS MP, whose drinking problems have been well-documented by the media, it is every Muslim’s “honor and responsibility” to kill and annihilate every religion and Jews, according to the Koran. ”The West is being flooded by millions of Muslims inside a wooden Trojan horse…” he wrote.

Citing a story on Turun Sanomat, he claims that there are Muslim extremists concentrated in Turku ready to declare jihad.

Hakkarainen slammed Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, who he called an ”imam” and supporter of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Is Hakkarainen for real or is he a political buffoon, who likes to amuse hard-core racists like himself?

He is for real. He is one of the many faces of intolerance and nationalism of Finland today kept intact by society’s near-silence.

Julian Abagond: Was Hitler evil?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

MT comment: Was Hitler and the Nazis an aberration or a product of European racism and colonialism?  Was the devastation that Hitler sowed the same beast that Europeans had imposed on others in Africa, the Americas,  Asia and Australia? By blaming Hitler and the Nazis for what they did, are we denying the problem of our own intolerance? Was Hitler German and/or white? 

_______________

By Julian Abagond

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Was Hitler evil?

Most White Americans will say yes: he killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust!

But to avoid any double standard we should apply the same moral reasoning White Americans apply to their own history:

  1. Everyone does it. Tribalism goes back to at least the invention of the spear. History is full of mass killing of civilians: Rwanda, Congo, Darfur, Srebrenica, Hiroshima, Hanoi, Gaza, Dresden, Nanking, Tamerlane, Alexander the Great,  Mongols, Assyrians, Iroquois, the killing of Armenians, Kurds, American Indians, Australian Aboriginals, Tasmanians, Namibians and on and on. If Hitler killed more people than some others, it was because he had better technology.
  2. Technology made him do it. Anyone with Hitler’s technology would have done the same thing.
  3. Europeans kill each other all the time. What’s the big deal?
  4. Jews are racist too. They have forced Palestinians off their land, apply separate laws to them and regularly massacre Palestinian civilians.
  5. Americans are no better. They have forced American Indians off their land, applied separate laws to them and regularly massacred American Indian civilians.
  6. Hitler is not uniquely evil. See above.
  7. Hitler’s intentions were good. He saw the Holocaust as doing the world a favour.
  8. It was the times! The West back then was nakedly racist. Racism had the backing of science. The book Hitler called his Bible was bought by over a million Americans: “The Passing of the Great Race” (1916) by Madison Grant, a rich New Yorker. The word genocide was not invented till 1943 and not properly defined till after the war – by the winners to condemn Hitler! We should not judge the past by current morals.
  9. We should be grateful. Germans invented the printing press, car, jet plane, rocket, etc. They gave us much of the modern medicine that allows most people to live past 40. Albert Schweitzer and other Germans have helped people in Africa. Condemning Hitler without pointing out all the good Germans have done is unbalanced and hypocritical.
  10. Get over it! It took place a long time ago. My family did not take part in it. No one you know was affected by it. Why make such a big deal about it? The past is dead and gone. There are more important issues.
  11. It is racist to talk about racism. Talking about anti-Semitism keeps it alive. Condemning Hitler is divisive.
  12. You can dismiss what Americans say about Hitler: they were his enemies; many of their journalists and historians are Jewish; their schools teach patriotic lies.

Every single one of these arguments, with the names changed, have been used on this blog to downplay American racism, slavery and genocide.

W.E.B. Du Bois:

there was no Nazi atrocity – concentration camps, wholesale maiming and murder, defilement of women or ghastly blasphemy of childhood – which the Christian civilization of Europe had not long been practicing against colored folk in all parts of the world in the name of and for the defense of a Superior Race born to rule the world.

Read original story here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

 

Anti-immigration forces in Finland loathe cultural diversity in order to defend white privilege

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Paavo Arhinmäki, head of the Left Alliance, was quoted as saying in Joensuu that Finland has never been a “monocultural” country. This is true but how many Finnish politicians understand never mind speak out and defend multiculturalism or cultural diversity? Unfortunately, too few.  

The fact that too few politicians have the courage to speak up for Finland’s cultural diversity is one of the factors that is throwing sand in the gears of acceptance and respect for minorities.

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Read Finland never was, is, and will be only “white” here.

Those that claim that Finland is a ”monoculturally homogeneous” country, aim to turn back the hands of time to the days of nationalism and fascism of the 1930s.  

Which groups speak of Finland as one cultural bloc and fight tooth and nail against culturally diversity?

The first political group that comes to mind is the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party and its many cronies like the Suomalaisuuden liitto and Vapaa kielivalina, which aim to demote the Swedish language to elective status at schools.

But these are not the only ones who see cultural diversity as a threat to white Finnish-speaking Finland.

All political parties have strong anti-immigration voices. One of these is the youth wing of the National Coalition Party, which has given us the likes of Wille Rydman.

So what should you know if you want to understand the mindset of Finland’s present anti-immigration sentiment?

First and foremost we must understand history. After the Finnish Civil War of 1918, right-wing and far right forces had a carte blanche to build a country based on nationalistic, conservative and fascist values prevalent in Europe during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s.

That changed after the war, when those forces that furthered right-wing and conservative-nationalistic forces were put in cold storage.

Those very forces are now lifting their heads through parties like the PS. The issues are the same as before the war but in a different time-frame context. Before communism was the enemy and today it is immigration and cultural diversity.

As post-war Finland showed, values like mutual acceptance and respect between different political forces is possible.  Not only did it learn to coexist together in peace, it was one of the factors that made Finland prosper as a nation.

I wonder what type of country Finland would be today if the Nazis, which the Finns fought side by side with against the former USSR, would have won.

Today we need the same recipe for success that was in force after the Continuation War (1941-44): political acceptance and respect for all groups in Finland. Today we need acceptance and respect for cultural diversity – not failed ideologies that promoted racism and “monoculture.”

Finland never was, is or will be white and Finnish speaking.

Dana: Forbidden questions

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Dana

Questions need answers, silence is not an answer, silence has no wave, without a wave you can’t move, without a wave u cant build, without a wave you go and give up, without a wave u can’t wake up.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

1. Is Sauli Niinisto your favor president? Why, if yes? Why not? Can you answer this question or are you afraid of something or someone? Why? Whom?

Why can’t you answer?

What’s so positive about his character? What’s so negative about it?
What would you ask him if you could hit him with a question?

I would ask him what he thinks about my rights and who takes responsibility for all the crimes against me and my life in this country.

2.Do you think there is freedom in Finland? What does freedom mean to you?

3.Have you ever been harassed or attacked in a racist manner? Physically? Mentally? How? Was it with words?  Who attacked you? Could you share this with us?

4.Do you know who your ministers are? What are they really doing in parliament? Do you trust them or care at all about them? Why?
Aren’t the ministers those who influence your daily life and destiny? U should know what they’re talking about and what important things they do… but what are they? Do you know how much their salary is?

5. What are the major problems you have in this country?

6. What kinds of humans do you think and are your friends? Why?

Do you see yourself as a racist? Have you ever been a racist? Can you admit it? Not to me but yourself? Are you honest enough with yourself?

What language are you supposed to use with the doctor if you don’t speak Finnish or Swedish?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What happens if you don’t speak Finnish or Swedish and need to take your one-year-old baby to the doctor’s? What about if the doctor isn’t a Finn? Migrant Tales got the following email from one of our readers: 

Hi, I’ve lived in Helsinki for 3 years and would like to share a story that happened to me, my European husband and baby. I’m sharing this story with you because it was the most racist treatment my family had ever received in Finland.

On February 2013, I went to the children’s clinic because my baby was suffering from high fever. Arriving at the clinic in the morning, I was told that no doctor was available to treat my baby girl. The nurse was, however, very helpful. She took us to a room and gave medicine. The nurse recommended that we visit our local health center in [in the eastern Helsinki neighborhood of] Kontula, which she called on our behalf but there were no doctors available on that day. We were then sent to the Myllypuro health center, where we had an appointment with a doctor at 1:30pm.

We arrived to the Myllypuro health center at 1:25pm. Since it was the first time we’d been there, we didn’t know where to go. We asked a clerk at the information desk, who told us that we were in the right place. While this was happening, I  heard from afar my name but wasn’t totally sure. We took a seat and waited for our name to be called by a doctor.

At 1:40pm the doctor called my name. In a very rude manner and speaking only Finnish, which we had difficulty understanding since we don’t speak Finnish well, the doctor said he wouldn’t treat us in English. He said in English that the health center doesn’t accept patients who don’t speak Finnish.

I asked, even insisted, why he couldn’t speak English since he spoke the language fluently.  He answered back in a rude manner and we continued to argue. I told him that I wouldn’t leave until he treated my baby. The doctor then threatened to call the police if we didn’t leave. He said that we were in the wrong place since we should have gone to the Kontula health center in the first place. He also said that he couldn’t treat my baby because he didn’t have the right medial instruments. I told him that we were sent to the Myllypuro health center by a nurse and that she had made the appointment on our behalf.

I asked him why he treated another couple’s baby and not mine while we waited 20 minutes for the nurse at the Myllypuro health center to make an appointment with a doctor at the Kontula health center. I don’t understand why the doctor who wouldn’t speak English to us or treat our baby wasn’t attending any patients. Couldn’t he have checked my baby at that time?

We got an appointment with a Russian doctor at 3pm. The appointment given to us was that of an African couple, which had to wait before we were treated by the doctor. This was not fair to the African couple, I thought.

We spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon before our baby was finally treated by a doctor. Why didn’t the doctor in Myllypuro help? No compassion exists in this country!

I made a complaint to the Ombudsman explaining exactly what had happened to us.

I got a letter from them stating that I had nothing to complain about since my baby got treated. I’m not happy with the response from the Ombudsman. I may have been slightly late to the health center because I didn’t hear my name called but the treatment I got from the foreign doctor, and that he wouldn’t speak English to us, is is pure racism and discriminatory.

Please tell me what I must do.  I feel voiceless in this country, where most Finns want cover up racism at all costs.

Lives are put on hold at the Karhula, Finland, refugee center

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Have you ever visited a refugee center in Finland? I did on Sunday in Karhula, located 130km east of Helsinki. The refugee center, which comprises of two four-story blocks, revealed some of its inhabitants when you reached a small court in its middle hidden from the outside world. 

The court, which had bed sheets and clothes drying on each of the buildings’ floors in the damp and rainy afternoon day, surprised and shocked me. Do people live here? It must be depressing, I thought.

The feeling is something like being at a railway station or airport transit lounge, where there is a sense of hope even if you are in a no-man’s or woman’s land.  The refugee center is different from the optimistic anticipation you may feel at a railway station or airport. The only thing missing is that don’t know where the next station will be.

Two asylum-seekers from Africa started speaking to me from the second floor while four children, aged about seven, who asked me to take a picture of them.  All four spoke fluent Finnish, which suggested that their parents had lived at the refugee center for quite some time.

“How long have you lived here,” I asked.

Nobody knew or answered back.

One of the children appeared disturbed and hyperactive. The only girl in the group told me proudly about a spare bike tire, which is used as a swing. She asked me to take a picture of her next to the so-called swing.

A former asylum-seeker with whom I visited the refugee center told me that some people wait 2-4 years for a positive decision, even longer, to remain in Finland.

“You live in constant fear in a refugee center because you never know when you’ll be deported,” he said. “Your life is on hold. Apart from fear, you are mocked by a near-constant sense of pessimism.”

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 If there is a picture that says it all about the refugee centers, its this one. Everything is broken.

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 The Karhula refugee center is a depressing place.

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As if hidden from the outside world, a small court instantly appears. It shocks you.

 

National Coalition Party of Finland to spearhead ban on begging

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Matters are getting tougher in Finland if you are a minority belongs to an affluent group like the Swedish-speaking Finns or a poor one like the Romany minority. What do both initiatives, to demote Swedish to elective status at schools and ban begging, tell about Finland today? 

One way to answer the latter question is to look at who is behind these two initiatives. With respect to the one that aims to demote the role of Swedish at schools,  all four associations behind the direct initiative have strong anti-immigration stands never their views of cultural diversity.

While the Swedish-speaking minority has the resources to defend themselves from attacks by populist politicians hellbent on destroying their rights and gained privileges,  it’s a totally different story when looking at the bill to ban begging, which would target the Romany minority.

Why are conservative politicians like MP Arto Satonen of the National Coalition Party so keen on banning begging? Is it because of the party’s poor showing in the polls?

A good editorial by Lahti-based daily Etelä-Suomen Sanomat claims that while conservative politicians are stirring up debate once again over a begging ban, it is the wrong way of addressing the issue.

“A strict begging ban seems like a simple solution. However the core of the problem can’t be solved by simple means. If Finland were to follow Denmark’s example it would send out a message that it’s no longer worth coming here to beg. Our streets would be more orderly, because the beggars and their sinister ringleaders would move off somewhere else.”

The daily says that “huge efforts” are needed to challenge poverty and promote human rights everywhere in the EU.

Finnish primary school books still depict foreigners stereotypically

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It is quite incredible that one of the best school systems in the world still portrays people from different cultures in a stereotypic manner. Eeva Rinna, a doctoral researcher from Tampere University, claims that textbooks in primary school still depict Africans as bongo players, Cubans as happy and sociable and Germans as hard-working, reports YLE in English. 

”In Africa people are playing bongo drums and maybe wearing loincloths. Finland is embodied by Christmas elves.  This is interesting… this Australian. He has a loincloth and traditional instruments, but he’s western-looking,” said Rinna.

Considering that Finland has done a lot to bridge the gender gap between men and women, it’s odd that we’re still seeing in primary school books stereotypical descriptions of other cultures that only serve to fuel prejudice.

One of the matters that Rinne noted in such textbooks was that Russia is often portrayed as a threat to Finland.

“In geography books Russia is almost invisible in terms of Finland. Russia is not necessarily mentioned at all as Finland’s neighboring country,” she said.

It pretty easy to find the source of our present-day prejudices.

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Read full story here.

neekeri

Formerly Finnish children were taught the n-word at school.

Neekeri

This picture was used in elementary school books up to the 1970s. It says that the n-word’s face doesn’t whiten no matter how much it is washed.

 

Direct initiative to demote Swedish language at schools stands slim chance of approval

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What are we to think about a direct initiative that got over 50,000 signatures today to demote Finland’s second official language to elective status at schools? While this initiative stands a slim chance of passing in parliament, it shows how intolerance has raised its head in Finland recently.

Even if those that are lobbying against Finland’s 290,977-strong Swedish-language minority claim that by eliminating mandatory Swedish will help people learn more “useful” languages like Russian, the whole campaign is nothing more than a red herring.

Finland has lots of polyglots despite the fact that Swedish is mandatory at schools.

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Swedish as a mother tongue is spoken by 5.36% of the population, according to the Population Register Center.

Vapaa kielivalinta, which has spearheaded the initiative together with Suomalaisuuden liitto, the youth associations of the Perussuomalaiset and National Coalition Party, claims the goal of the anti-Swedish-langauge initiative is:

    • freedom of choice of languages in schools
    • reduction of unnecessary language demands in public service
    • national action for these issues.

Even if those that are endorsing this effort claim with a poker face that it will further tolerance, it will actually do the opposite. At least three of the associations promoting the initiative have very strong anti-cultural diversity stands.

Suomalsiuuden liitto, for example, has played a key role in undermining cultural diversity in Finland from the onset of independence. The chairman of Vapaa kielivalinta, Ilmari Rostila, is a Tampere city councilman for the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset party.

If the initiative passed in parliament, we may well ask what is the next matter that we’ll try to dismantle of our cultural diversity, which has been on the defensive for quite some time.

If Swedish is the second official language of this country, why is it being treated with such contempt?

Because there are groups that are bent on destroying as much of our cultural diversity as a nation as possible.

Migrant Tales Literary: Sharp-eyed bird and Yellow Crocodile Kingdom (Part II)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

 

By Dana
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Have you heard about  the crocodile
That has a kingdom of hate and lies?
Have you heard about its angry eye
That can only see in black and white?
Have you been in the land of darkness
Where soldiers spray sadness and weakness?
Have you met a bird with big light wings
Who lives under terror and painful things?
Have you been told where u r living
Are u aware, safe or sleeping?
Have you spoken with freedom of choice
Can you accept a bird with a loud voice?Have you heard a song teaching good law

Or did they wash your brain, made u a cow?Have you ever, talked to eagles

Or have you fought, with hungry big bears?Have you read, about human rights

Can you feel the immorality between walls
Have you seen scorpions in parliament
Have you been told it is full of guns?
Have you told yourself hi and good night
Have U wished for a party, with GOD and light?
Have you felt handcuffs, right on your wrists
Have you gone to court without lawyers?
Have u heeeard about the crocodile
Who eats birds, and is a shy killer?