Red Herring tales (Part I): City of Vaasa plans to prohibit the use of burquinis

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Ever heard of the burquini, a swimming outfit consisting of head scarf, tunic and trousers designed for Muslim women? The western Finnish city of Vaasa plans to prohibit the use of these swimming suits at a city committee* meeting next Wednesday. The reason? Because it is a security risk and not hygienic, according to a City of Vaasa official contacted by Migrant Tales.

The use of  burquinis in Finland is generally prohibited at public swimming pools, according to Suomen Uimaopetus- ja Hengenpelastusliitto (SUH), the Finnish swimming instruction and lifesaver’s association.

The SUH is drawing up guidelines that aims at prohibiting the use of burquinis at all public swimming pools in Finland.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-24 kello 10.39.28

 

France and England can be cited as two examples of how public swimming pools have treated the issue.

Two Muslim women wearing burquinis in France, which outlaws the use of the Muslim veil together with Belgium, were asked to either change into conventional bikinis or one-piece suits or leave the swimming pool.

Contrarily in England, a London Croydon council dropped the guidelines from its website that prohibited the use of burquinis for all swimmers after it sparked a backlash of protests from non-Muslims.

One of the matters one senses when speaking to the representative of the City of Vaasa and SUH, is that there has been little to no contact with the Muslim community concerning the issue.

The City of Vaasa official asked why Muslim women should be given special liberties if  men cannot wear shorts at swimming pools.

The SUH representative said that it had got in touch with the Somali association of Finland and a Somali city councillor but none of them had commented on the matter.

While safety and hygiene are important when using a public swimming pool, it’s odd that both representatives have not even bothered to explore how the issue was solved by the Croydon council, which must have addressed the same issues (safety and hygiene) that the City of Vaasa and SUH are arguing to prohibit the use of the burquini.

The question that the whole issue surrounding the use of the burquini in Finland is whether those that want to prohibit it are honestly interested in finding a compromise and a solution. That is why the arguments used to prohibit the use of the burquini are red herrings disguising a wider issue: our rejection of other cultures.

If I had to give both the City of Vaasa and SUH a grade on two-way integration, that grade would be a D- (needs improvement)!

*The City of Vaasa leisure committee comprises of nine members of the following parties: National Coalition Party (2), Social Democratic Party (2), Swedish People’s Party (2), Perussuomalaiset (1), Center Party (1) and Christian Democrats (1).  

 

How do you challenge racism?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Challenging a social ill like racism is no easy task. In countries like the United States, slavery was legal in some states for a very long time, between the sixteenth and nineteenth century.  Despite the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and the Thirteenth Amendment (1865), it took a Rosa Parks in December 1955 to ignite the Civil Rights Movement. 

Racial inequality is still a widespread problem in the United States.

Must we wait hundreds of years for immigrants and minorities in Europe to be treated as equals?

In Finland, for example, the Romany minority has waited for half a century for social equality.

There was a distressing story on Jyväskylä-based Keskisuomalainen about a young dark-skinned twenty-year-old woman who was in a toilet. One of the white Finnish women standing in line exclaimed upon seeing the black woman: “I’m not going to [sit on the same toilet bowl] as that n-word,” she said speaking to a woman behind her. “You go ahead if you dare.”

The insults by the woman in a Jyväskylä toilet didn’t stop here:  “You can fucking go where you came from. I can’t stand people who live off my taxes and leech in this country and live like insects.”

The sad matter of the story is not only the loudmouth racist, but the woman who wrote about what happened on Keskisuomalainen. She didn’t speak up on the spot and tell the racist woman that what she was saying was out of line.

Challenging a social ill like racism isn’t easy. I therefore raise my hat to the woman for at least writing about what happened. I’m certain she’ll never forget what she heard in that Jyväskylä toilet because what she heard is disturbing. Racism not only hurts its victims but some of its bystanders like the rest of society.

Racism can rally some pretty “colorful” people as the video clip below shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL1jDcAHkc8&feature=player_embedded#!

The English Defense League is a dangerous organization. One of its followers claims that he’s marching against “Muslamic law” and “Muslamic ray guns.”*

How do you challenge racism?

By raising your voice and expressing your disapproval if somebody speaks or treats anyone n a racist way.

Since racists are cowards, a strong show of disapproval of their behavior can make them think twice before they think again before opening their mouths.

* Thank you Mikko Kapanen for the heads-up.

When can we give the PS and other Finnish parties a racism-free bill of health?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the biggest deceptions in the ongoing debate about racism in Finland is that it is only a Perussuomalaliset (PS) party problem. Making such a claim would be simplifying matters to the extreme: Racism is a widespread problem in all Finnish parties (some more, some less) and in our society.

5963094283_ac0a771210 Integration must be a two-way process in order to work effectively. Source: Flickr.

If I had to draw a cartoon about the situation it would be something like the following: the PS would be the loudmouth racist and the biggest parties would be the near-silent institutional racists.

If you think that only the PS is responsible for bringing out our darkest side, don’t forget National Coalition Party Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen’s “debating immigrant issues in this country didn’t make you a racist” never mind Social Democratic Party (SDP) Economy Minister Jutta Urpilainen’s  infamous maassa maan tatalla (In Rome do as the Romans do) statement.

Migrant Tales understands that the brainchild of the maassa maan tavalla flop was Hannu Vesa, who advised SDP MP Eero Heinoluoma on what the party’s stance should be concerning immigrants during a time when the PS’ rising popularity was threatening the SDP.

Vesa is a former executive director of the South Savo regional council and a long-time SDP member with close ties to PS chairman Timo Soini.

Here’s the billion-euro question: When can we give the PS, other Finnish parties, and Finland a racism-free bill of health?The answer: When most of society gives the thumbs down to such anti-social behavior and makes it clear that it is unacceptable.

Look at it this way. How would sensible Finns react if a male chauvinist started to insult women by telling them they had no worth and were only good for making and taking care of children?

Our reaction to racism and intolerance should be no different.  The message should be a clear one: This type of behavior isn’t only  unacceptable but shameful as well.

Parties like the PS, which have a lot of issues concerning racism (see the latest Kai Haavisto-James Hirvisaari scandal), are not interested in ridding their loudmouth racists because they are still useful to the party.

Racism is an illness and society needs a clean bill of health from it in order to grow and prosper.

Was PS MP James Hirvisaari bullied at school and in the army?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The most recent scandal to rock the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is another sad chapter in the history of the right-wing populist party and for the same reason: racism. The culprits are now MP James Hirvisaari and Kai Haavisto, member of the party’s Uusimaa regional board. What’s wrong with these people?

How can anyone who can count to five with his fingers suggest in 2012 that chemical castration should be an option to deal with potential rape when permitting new refugees to live in Finland?  What kind of world does Hirvisaari live in if he thinks that gang rape in South Africa is a genetic trait and a national pastime?

With respect to Hirvisaari, one could ask if his instransigent hatred against Africans and Muslims is “normal.”

Probably behind Hirvisaari’s hatred lies a hurt man who was bullied at school and in the army.

I wonder what Hirvisaari would say if I’d ask him the following question: Were you bullied as a child and as an adult? Are you getting back at those that hurt you by bashing immigrants in the same way?

 

 

 

The PS cannot rid itself of its racists because it would commit political hara-kiri

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It’s been interesting to read how some Perussuomalaiset (PS) party members suddenly feel overwhelmed by the most recent racism scandal to rock the party. PS MP Tom Packalén asks in tabloid Iltalehti what should be done? Answer: For a start, why not sack them?

The other option is to defect from the PS like Kontiolahti councilwoman Mirva Hyttinen did on Sunday. She defected from the party after PS councilman Mika Hiltunen slandered refugees on Facebook by labeling them as social bums and rapists.

“I meet foreign people at work on a daily basis, and I cannot accept this type of intolerance,” she said.

How would any sensible person react if somebody labeled and victimized refugees as rapists that should chemically castrate such people as PS Uusimaa regional board member Kai Haavisto suggested? What about if like PS MP James Hirvisaari claimed that gang rape in South Africa was a genetic trait and a national pastime?

Here’s the million-euro question: Why doesn’t the PS sack those members who are openly racist (and there are many of them)?

The answer shouldn’t surprise us:  Racism and nationalism give the PS its political strength. How do you think they rose from nowhere to become Finland’s third-largest party in parliament?

Do I believe that the PS regrets what Haavisto and Hirvisaari wrote? If they did, they’d sack both of them from the party.

But this won’t happen because sacking racists from the PS would be synonymous with committing political hara-kiri.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-20 kello 21.28.48

Even if the PS uses rape statistics to justify its racism, it forgets that one of its party heavyweights, Matti Putkonen, was sentenced to eight months in prison in 1990 for rape.

Racism, xenophobia, and intolerance are powerful political forces in Europe these days. PS head Timo Soini understands this perfectly well. That is why he will not sack Haavisto and Hirvisaari from the PS. If we look at Soini’s track record on racism, we’d see a very long trail of broken promises and outright deceptions.

Remember when Soini said that any party member sentenced for hate speech would be banned? Remember when he played down racism in the PS to “one, two or three” cases? Remember when he scolded the foreign media, especially from Sweden, for giving the “wrong” picture of the party?

So many scandals have hit the party since the April 2011 election that we’ve lost count on Migrant Tales. And so have many others.

The PS reveal a lot of things about Finland. For one, it exposes racism as a much bigger problem in this country that some have wanted to believe.

If we are fair, all Finnish parties have their fair share of racists. Even so, no party has capitalized and given a platform to racists as the PS.

Even after the Kai Haavisto-James Hirvisaari blows over, we’ll be back to square one: nothing will happen.

Why?

Because the PS will not commit political hara-kiri.

* 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. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” 

Rule number one about racism: Don’t generalize!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It is amazing that people who should know better have never learned one very important fact: Don’t generalize about ethnic groups.  We’d avoid a lot of harm to ourselves (living in the narrow world of hate and racism) and others (labeling and victimizing) if we stopped generalizing about ethnic groups.

The suggestion by Kai Haavisto, a Perussuomalaiset (PS) Uusimaa regional committee member, who wrote on a Uusi Suomi blog that certain refugee groups should be chemically castrated before permitting them to live in Finland, is a perfect example of how racism is spread and maintained in this country.

PS MP James Hirvisaari, who was fined in December for inciting ethnic hatred, adds more hate and racism to Haavisto’s suggestion by stating that “we should talk openly about gang rape” because in some African countries, like South Africa, such a crime is a genetic trait and “a national pastime.”

Hirvisaari only has a high school degree but PS MP Jussi Halla-aho has a PhD in linguistics. Halla-aho got convicted for defaming a religion and spreading ethnic hatred when he suggested that Somalis live off social welfare because it is a genetic trait.

In Finland and elsewhere, racism is kept alive because some people believe in old wise tales about ethnic groups. They believe these old wise tales in the same way as children believe in fairy tales or in Santa Claus.

When people are hostile and racist to other groups when they generalize, their aim is to show how different they are from us. Since they are so “different” it permits me to be racist towards them because they are “a threat.”

The big difference between fairy tales and racism is that the latter causes harm to society and especially to their victims.

Let’s get one matter straight: There is no such thing as national character because societies are too complex. This a fact that should be taught at school and to adults. The behavior we have is learned – not instinctual.

If we want to undermine racism and control those prejudices we learned, it is important that we start teaching our children at school that it is a grave mistake to generalize about ethnic groups.

If anything, such a lesson would be one big blow to our racism.

 

Jan Holmberg (Mainio -blogi): Ulkomaalaisena töissä – omassa maassaan

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Jan Holmberg

”Go home fucking foreigner!”, kajahtaa takaani. Seison Espoossa juna-aseman laiturilla. Olen juuri lopettanut 14 tuntia kestäneen työvuoron sairaalassa. Tuijotan uupuneena lähestyvää lähijunaa. Ainoana paikallaolijana päätän, etten huomioi nahkatukkaista nuorta miestä.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-19 kello 17.01.30

Astuessani junaan mies saavuttaa minut sopertaen vihaisesti: ”Go back where you come”. Koetan miettiä sopivaa sanottavaa, kuten olevani Suomessa syntynyt suomalaisten biologisten vanhempieni kasvattama suomalainen. Junan ovet sulkeutuvat ennen kuin ehdin sanoa mitään.

Nämä arkipäiväiset jytkyt hiipivät elämääni muutama vuosi sitten. Ne ovat seurausta uudesta epidemiasta. Siinä harhaluuloisuus säilyy hengissä ihmisen aisteista tai järjestä huolimatta, mikä aiheuttaa itse taudin. Oireita ovat ajattelemattomuus, ennakkoluuloisuus, loukkaava käytös ja suora toiminta.

Järjetöntä rotusortoa

Asemalaiturilta tuttuja miehiä, ja naisia, tapaan yhä useammin esimerkiksi sairaalan päivystyksessä. Ei ole tavatonta kuulla potilaan omaisen tivaavan tiukasti, olenko minä varmasti suomalainen hoitaja. Totean aina mielessäni, ettei rotusorto kuulu potilaan tai omaisten oikeuksiin. Samaan aikaan terveeltä vaikuttava suomalainen rotuyksilö jatkaa sortamistani vailla järjen häivää.

Kerta toisensa jälkeen vakuutan kysyjälle olevani syntyperäinen suomalainen. Henkiseen väkivaltaan on vaikea puuttua niiden kohdalla joille on, suomalaista sananlaskua lainatakseni, lusikalla annettu.

Töistä kotiin palatessani mietin mitä kauheauksia olisin sujuvaa suomea puhuvana, ammattitaitoisena, mutta ulkomaalaisena sairaanhoitajana voinut potilaille tehdä. Hoitaa heidät kuntoon?

Häkellyttäviä ihmisiä

Törmään epidemian oireisiin tämän tästä luennoidessani ympäri Suomea. Monesta vaasalaisesta on kummallista, etten nimestäni huolimatta puhu sujuvaa ruotsia. Mielestäni ihmettelijät eivät itsekään puhu mainitsemaansa kieltä, vaan sekakieltä. Kerran vastasin kyselijälle, että on kanske just tärkeää, att vi alla ha så jätte kiva tiden här i Finland. Keskustelu ei jatkunut kummallakaan kotimaisella kielellä.

Turussa erään korkeakoulun sihteeri puolestaan totesi minulle heti keskustelun kärkeen, että aikukiva ku sä tajuut noi hyvi suamee ku mä en oikee osa mittää kiälii. Helsingissä minulle puhutaan kysymättä asiakastilanteissa englantia ja Lappeenrannassa Venäjää.

Psykiatrisena sairaanhoitajana olen tottunut asioimaan harhaluuloisten ihmisten kanssa. Tilanteista selviäminen ei tuota hankaluuksia, mutta kieltämättä häkellyn ja vaivaannun tällaisten ihmisten edessä edelleen.

Realismia etsimässä

Miettiessäni asiaa ääneen minulle vastataan kukkahattusedän vilauttelevan natsikorttia. Tapaamillani ihmisillä on kuulemma oikeus olla kriittisiä ja puhua suunsa puhtaaksi. Totta, mutta ihmisillä ei ole oikeutta sanoa ihan mitä tahansa ilman järkeviä perusteita. Reiluuden ja reaalitajun pettäessä vaikeneminen on kultaa.

Jokaisen on ymmärrettävä, että erilaisuuden kunnioittaminen ei automaattisesti tarkoita tasa-arvottomuutta. Myötätunnottomuus ja ajattelemattomuus sen sijaan luovat helposti ihmisarvottomuutta.

Sinänsä mainioissa tilanteissa voi nähdä koomisia piirteitä, silti epidemian kohtaaminen on outoa ja epämiellyttävää. Suosittelen jokaiselle epäilijälle työskentelyä ulkomaalaisena omassa maassaan. Se on silmät avaava elämys.

Mainion Facebook-sivulle pääset tästä.

Alkuperäisen blogikirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.

Tämä blogikirjoitus julkaistiin Migrant Talesissä luvalla.

Migrant Tales in Greek

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Blog entries that are published on Migrant Tales get sometimes mentioned in some major publications like Time, Sveriges Radio, YLE’s Suora linja and others. One of the most recent reposts was by UNHCR in Greece, located in one of Europe’s hotbeds of xenophobia.  

The work we do on this blog got mentioned  (in Finnish) on Re Vera as well.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-19 kello 7.56.40

UNCHR of Greece reposted one of Migrant Tales’ posts about integration and diversity in Europe.

Sensible people understand that there is little time to pat oneself on the back in Europe these days when it comes to challenging the rise of racism, xenophobia and far-right parties that loathe cultural diversity.

When racists claim to want to “debate” cultural diversity issues, what they are really saying is “let’s talk about how to water down and justify outright discrimination and social exclusion of whole groups based on ethnic and cultural background.”

Are certain inalienable civil rights, like equal treatment before the law, “debatable?”

Look at what is happening in countries like Greece, Hungary and in other parts of Europe and the so-called “debate” taking place in such places.

The rise of far-right ideology, which bases its world view on prejudice, racism and social exclusion, is nothing more than our failure as a region staring back at us. It exposes how we have failed to come to grips with the horrors of our history and our darkest side.

The ideology that brought us mass wars like WW2, which cost the estimated lives of about 60 million people, still hides behind our racism, our prejudice and our xenophobia.

We must do more to nip this type of anti-social behavior in the bud.

If we fail in this important task we will be sowing the seeds of future wars that will end up consuming us without remorse.

 

 

Anti-immigration sound-bite: Rape! Rape! RAPE!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I was surprised to read a blog post on Uusi Suomi by Kai Haavisto, a Perussuomalaiset (PS) politician from Espoo, who suggested that those groups that are prone to commit rape should be castrated chemically before being allowed to live in Finland. 

Haavisto is well-known for his racist views. One of his blog entries in September suggested that the ”refugee problem” to Finland could be stopped and solved by exporting rice to Africa.

While Haavisto’s views may surprise sensible people, the reaction to what he wrote is even more stunning. The response is no different to how lynch mobs reacted when they took the law in their hands.

Social-media lynch mobs are just as sinister. Their aim is not to lynch one person but whole groups shouting in a frenzy: Rape! Rape! RAPE!

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-18 kello 11.20.35

PS MP James Hirvisaari, who was convicted for hate speech, turns into a political Mr. Hyde if you mention two words to him: immigrant rape. In this comment above, he said that the high amount of rape committed in South Africa was a genetic trait.

As everyone knows, rape is one of the pet subjects of anti-immigration and racist groups in Finland and elsewhere.

As Migrant Tales has written on a number of blogs , the whole immigrant-rape issue is a storm in a tea cup. This does not suggest that we play down rape or any crime.

Anti-immigration groups use rape statistics to “prove” that as soon as an immigrant or refugee from a certain part of the world enters Finland, he becomes a gang rapist.

Nowhere in Haavisto’s blog entry, where he suggests chemical castration, does he give us any figures about what are the volumes of suspected never mind sentenced rape convictions. He only assumes (when you assume you make an ass our of u and me) that rape is a pastime of the immigrant community.

Certainly Haavisto’s blog entry is racist and it was surprising that Uusi Suomi’s moderators took such a long time to ban it.

If one traveled back to goes to Nazi Germany, this is exactly the type of eugenics that was carried out against Jews and other minorities like the Roma and the mentally ill.

Sad but true.

 

 

Journalists should question instead of spread racism and prejudice

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Journalists are one group that have helped to spread and reinforce our prejudices and racism of other groups. There’s nothing surprising about this considering that journalists, like the media that employs them, mirror in part what the public feels. 

l_1084-medium1

Ilta-Sanomat is one tabloid resonsible for spreading racism in Finland during the 1990s. This billboard tells us that Somali refugees will stay put in Finland.

Even if this may be the case, the difference between a sharp and mediocre journalist is how well he or she can question and expose abuses in our society. The job of the media is to be a watchdog and ensure that our system of checks and balances functions properly.

Too many journalists and the media, however,  forget what their primary role is. Instead of questioning social ills, they have helped to spread prejudice, racism and xenophobia in our society.

Closing one’s eyes to racism or going after such a social ill without teeth is unfortunate because we all lose. The spirit of our laws, like our Constitution, should be our moral shield and benchmark.

Check out section seven of Finland’s  Constitution:

No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age, origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person.

Even if the highest law of the land tells us convincingly that discrimination is wrong, why do some journalists and the media have a difficult time figuring out what is intolerance and what should our response to such a social ill be?

One of the most racist papers in Finland is tabloids like Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat, which markets news like a used car salesman, who would even sell his or her mother if the price were right. Another publication is Uusi Suomi, which helped Perussuomalaiset (PS) politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and a long list of others to become household names.

Online publications like Uusi Suomi and tabloids like Iltalehti are responsible for spreading stereotypes like that immigrants are lazy, rape and commit crimes in this country.

A good example of how prejudice and stereotypes of foreigners are maintained and spread by the media is a reent story on Länsi-Savo, teaching Russians how to use the toilet bowl.

Another example that fuels stereotypes and racism in this country is a non-story about banning in Finland the use of the burqa and niqab.

I have never seen a woman wearing such clothing in Finland. I wonder how many of the journalists at Iltalehti have never mind anti-immigration PS MPs, who want to ban the use of such clothes in our country.

Coverage of racism, hate speech and  social exclusion has improved thanks to much better reporting by Helsingin Sanomat, Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, Keskisuomalainen, Savon Sanomat, Kainuun Sanomat, Karjalainen, Turun Sanomat, Kansan Uutiset and others.

These papers have done a good job at doing their job.