The majority of Mamukriit-Looks candidates got elected to office in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales published earlier this month Mamukriit-Looks: The who’s who of anti-immigration Finland, which was a continuation of Per-Looks, a blog entry than caused outrage among some Perussuomalaiset (PS) candidates running for city council. Even if both blog entries were published with a dose of satire, the election of many PS anti-immigration candidates to city council is no joke. 

If the Mamukriit-Looks blog entry is anything to go by, successful anti-immigration candidates running for city council cannot expose their racism too crudely since too much hate turns people off. One of these candidates was  Anna-Maija Ahl from Sastamala, who got only 18 votes.  The other one is Reija Hirn-Brazhevsky of Savonlinna, who got 14 votes.

Hirn-Brazhevsky’s knee-jerk comments are like an explosion of hate that leaves you stupefied. Her comments give the impression that nobody ever told her – except for now – that white people aren’t the only group living in Finland.

What is shocking is that despite the electoral setback that the PS suffered on Sunday,  the majority of Mamukriit-Looks anti-immigration candidates got elected. Of the the 40 PS candidates in the blog entry, 23 got elected while 16 did not.

In the Mamukriit-Looks blog entry you will find Counterjihadists, ultra-nationalists, politicians slapped with fines for inciting ethnic hatred, candidates that admit liking fascism, some even applied for membership in a neo-Nazi association when they were drunk.

Remember Risto Helin of Vaasa, the PS candidate who wore a neo-Nazi shirt to attract votes? Well, he got elected with 234 votes.

Surprised? Check out Amon Rautianen, the PS candidate running for Kotka city council, who wrote on Facebook that it would be “patriotic” to kill government members and that Muslims should be boiled alive. Rautiainen got elected with 152 votes.

This group has some of the top ten anti-immigration candidates of Finland. From top row left to right: Olli Immonen (elected with 1,270 votes/Oulu), James Hirvisaari (elected with 191 votes/Asikkala), Matias Turkkila (not elected 276 votes/Helsinki), Jussi Halla-aho (elected with 6,026 votes/Helsinki), (second row) Juho Eerola (elected with 1,053 votes/Kotka), Freddy Van Wonterghem (elected with 189 votes/Kotka), Simon Elo (elected with 352 votes/Espoo), and Kai Haavisto (not elected 62 votes/Espoo).

Four of the eight candidates got elected to city council in this group. From top row left to right: Teemu Lahtinen (elected with 530 votes/Espoo), Petri Pulkkanen (not elected 189 votes/Espoo), Cristian Tudose (not elected 26 votes/Espoo), Amon Rautiainen (elected with 152 votes/Kotka), (second row) Mika Kujanpää (not elected 20 votes/Hanko), Kimmo Vehviläinen (not elected 96 votes/Helsinki), Reijo Tossavainen (elected with 114 votes/Savitaipale), and Johannes Nieminen (elected with 340 votes/Vantaa).

All of these candidates except for one got elected. From left to right: Mka Nikko (elected with 793 votes/Vantaa), Pasi Salonen (elected with 323 votes/Vihti), name unknown, and Teuvo Hakkarainen (elected with 197 votes/Viitasaari).

In this bunch, five of the eight candidates didn’t get elected. Top row left to right: Anna-Maija Ahl (not elected 18 votes/Sastamala), Reija Hirn-Brazhevsky (not elected 14 votes/Savonlinna), Tuomas Okkonen (elected with 37 votes/Lumijoki), Ulla Pyysalo (elected with 102 votes/Taipalsaari), (second row) Heidi Kuittinen (not elected 76 votes/Kirkonnummi), Jani Salomaa (not elected 85 votes/Salo), Sari Karlström (not elected 104 votes/Pietarsaari), and Jani Viinikainen (elected with 131 votes/Kangasala).

In this group only three candidates got elected. Top row from left to right: Jukka Wallin (not elected 64 votes/Helsinki), Risto Jääskeläinen (not elected 58 votes/Järvenpää), Jouko Vuorinen (not elected 48 votes/Tampere), Heikki Tala (elected with 206 votes/Järvenpää), (second row) Olli Sademies (not elected 334 votes/Helsinki), Petri Luumi (not elected 89 votes/Kouvola), Risto Helin (elected with 234 votes/Vaasa), and Erkki Havansi (elected with 435 votes/Kerava).

From left to right: Heta Lähteenaro (elected with 145 votes/Tuusula), Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo (elected with 647 votes/Lohja), Veli-Matti Saarakkala (elected with 633 votes/Kurikka), and Heikki Luoto (elected with 922 votes/Tampere).

 

PS anti-immigration candidates did well in the Finnish municipal elections

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What do Sunday’s municipal elections tell us about where Finland is heading politically? Even if the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party won 12.3% of the votes, which was a disappointment for Timo Soini, it reinforces Finland’s anti-EU and anti-immigration stance.

The biggest winner of the election was the Center Party (18.7%), which had lost a lot of votes to the PS in the April 2011 election, and the PS. The biggest losers were the Greens (8.5%) .

If Sunday’s results are anything to go by, the secret of being rich in votes and (in)famous is to be a PS member and be a Counterjihadist or strongly against immigration and cultural diversity.

Finland’s most notorious Counterjihadists did well in the election. Some of these include Jussi Halla-aho of Helsinki who won 6,026 votes, while Olli Immonen (1,270)of Oulu  and Juho Erola (1,053) of Kotka secured a lot of votes as well. James Hirvisaari of Asikkala got in with 191 votes.

 Anti-immigration candidates did well in the municipal elections. From top row  (left to right) Olli Immonen (elected with 1,270 votes/Oulu), James Hirvisaari (elected 191 votes/Asikkala), Matias Turkkila (not elected/Helsinki), Jussi Halla-aho (elected 6,026 votes/Helsinki), Juho Eerola (elected 1,053 votes/Kotka), Freddy Van Wonterghem (elected 189 votes/Kotka), Simon Elo (elected 352 votes/Espoo), and Kai Haavisto (not elected/Espoo).

Other PS anti-immigration hardliners that were elected include Amon Rautianen of Kotka, who suggested on Facebook that Muslims should be boiled alive, got elected with 152  votes. Freddy van Wonterghem, who got fined for hate speech, went to city council with 189 votes.

Other PS candidates notorious for their anti-immigration stances include Teemu Laitinen (530 votes/Espoo), Sppo Huhta (509 votes/Espoo), Simon Elo (352 votes/Espoo) and Ulla Pyysalo (102 votes/Taipalsaari), MP Eerola’s aide who applied for membership in the neo-Nazi Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta association.

All in all, the elections were a blow to the PS but it shows that Finland is still flirting with intolerance and far-right nationalism.

As one voter put it, the PS’ 12.3% result was a blow to Soini. “Things could be worse if they would had won about 16% of the votes as some polls predicted,” he said.

CHEATS!

Posted on by JusticeDemon

PS candidate seeks to buy votes in local elections.

The Board of Elections for the Tampere Region has reported a campaign advertisement to the local police for investigation on suspicion of electoral bribery.

The advertisement was placed in the local newspaper Nokian Uutiset on behalf of Rauno Hautamäki, a candidate for the anti-immigrant Perussuomalaiset party.

It promises that voters who take mobile phone pictures of their completed ballot papers and forward them as MMS messages to the number provided will be entered in a prize draw if the ballot bears the candidate’s number.

Voters receive their ballot papers on entering the polling station, where they complete them and drop them into the ballot box in person. This means that the requested photograph can only be taken in the polling station at the time of voting.

Electoral bribery is a criminal offence under section 2 of chapter 14 of the Finnish Penal Code.

Timo Soini on racism: See no evil, hear no evil

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It is surprising how a politician like Timo Soini of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party can argue anything he wants on television about immigrants and visible minorities. His objection to positive discrimination on a debate on MTV3 Wednesday is a case in point. 

Migrant Tales has  written in the past about colorblind racism, which is one of the most common forms of racism in Finland. On the surface, racial colorblindness may sound fair but the truth is that skin color and ethnic background still play powerful roles in our society.

Writes Psychology Today: “Colorblindness is the racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity…However, colorblindness alone is not sufficient to heal racial wounds on a national or personal level. It is only a half-measure that in the end operates as a form of racism.”

I still have a hard time figuring out what is worse: Soini’s colorblind statements or the fact that some journalists and politicians still don’t challenge this form of racism more strongly.

Imagine what a political scandal Soini would have faced if he asked to abolish positive discrimination in countries that are culturally diverse and have large immigrant populations.  The PS chairman’s stand on the issue is in the same political league as other far-right parties like the British National Party, Danish People’s Party and teabaggers of the U.S.

I met a member of Hommaforum at a seminar recently who was totally against positive discrimination. Sitting next to us was a black woman from Africa.

I asked him if he thought that Finland was today a society that was way past racism and discrimination. “Do ethnicity and cultural background play a role?” I asked. “What you are saying is that it makes no difference whether you are black or white.”

It’s clear that the PS’ stand on immigration and cultural diversity suffers from colorblindness.

The party’s declaration against all forms of racism in May 2011 is a good example of the colorblind racism that afflicts the PS.

The party may claim that it is for labor immigration and that it has a handful of white immigrant candidates running for city council.  This is only a red herring that aims to cover up the party’s issues with cultural diversity.

Here is a recent blog entry by Migrant Tales that puts in perspective the PS’ thinking on what kinds of immigrants should apply to come to Finland and how they should integrate into our society.

 

What do Finland’s political parties think about refugees and immigrants?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There were two interesting stories published this week about what political parties in Finland feel about refugees and immigrants. The findings are based on a questionnaire answered by candidates running for city council. Elections will be held on Sunday, October 28. 

YLE revealed that 31.5% of all PS candidates fully agreed that their municipality should not accept any refugees versus 4.6% who disagreed totally. That was followed by the Center Party (7.1%/11.9%), National Coalition Party (5.8%/15.9%) and Social Democrats (3.9%/27%).

The Greens were the most favorable to refugees. Only 0.3% totally agreed that their municipality should not accept any refugees while 60.7% totally agreed.

One of the questions asked by MTV3 was if the candidate thought that there were “too many immigrants” in their municipality.  Surprisingly, the PS thought there were just enough immigrants while other parties thought there were too many.

 

The question by MTV3 is pretty loaded since it’s extremely rare that anywhere, even in countries with few immigrants, people would state that there are too few  foreigners.

That is why the response by the PS is very revealing since it may show remorse by some candidates for the party’s tough anti-immigration stance.

Joseph: What being Finnish means to me (Part II)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This is part II of Joseph’s blog entry, What being Finnish means to me.  Click here to see part I.

By Joseph*

…Later on I discovered rap music to deal with my feelings. There were just so many things wrong in this society that I saw all the Somalis and other foreigners not integrating well enough into Finnish society. They grew up in gangs and were rebelling against a society that had excluded them socially with racism and prejudice.

Something I connected with these people. Maybe it was because of the loneliness or simply due to the feeling of being an outsider that brought us together.

I started hanging around with Somalis at the age of fifteen and I was the only so-called ”white boy” of the group.  Even so, we did all kinds of crazy stuff young adolescents usually do. We connected despite the fact that we came from different cultural backgrounds. We were like brothers growing up in a hostile world.

My friendship with this group resulted in trouble and social workers wanted to take me away from my mom. My mother sent me to live with my dad in the United States,  where I ended up in a boarding school. I got bullied a lot at the new school and was called a Russian because I spoke English with a foreign accent.

Calling me a Russian and being a Finn was as bad as calling a woman a whore. Being a citizen of two nations and being rejected by both is very painful. Racism is a sickness that reveals a person’s fear about something he cannot understand or deal with.

When I came back to Finland and spoke English with an American accent, people no longer recognized me as a Finns. They constantly shouted at me and told me to go back to where I came from. Some even called me a Russian or Arab. In my opinion, the identity we carry is a personal matter that nobody else can place on you.

I get very angry and bitter at my Finnish side when I remember what happened to me as a child and young man. I once even wanted to erase my roots and renounce my Finnish citizenship and move to faraway country.

Despite these initial setbacks, I calmly accept that I am a Finn who is a citizen of this country and who can speak Finnish fluently.  I love my Finnish roots and find inner peace in them when I walk in the woods, whether I am  in Helsinki or sit by a lake enjoying a sauna. I can never forget going fishing at our cottage with my grandpa and all the good times I spent in Finland. I have learned a lot of wisdom from my grandma and grandpa.

What does being a Finn mean to me? It means that even though Finnish people suffered a lot in the past, they managed to learn from their mistakes, pull through, create a vibrant economy, well-functioning social-welfare state and great educational system that is an example for many countries.

I have to forgive those people who mistreated and bullied me in the past because I wasn’t a so-called typical Finn. I understand that not all Finnish people are like them. I can therefore say honestly that some Finnish people who I have met are one of the best people I have ever known. They are so honest, humble and sincere that it is difficult to find people like them elsewhere.

I sometimes fall in tears when I think about what Finland has done for my family.

When I travel abroad, I tell people proudly that Finland is the only country in the world that paid back their debt to the United States. I can never hate the country where my mom and grandparents were born and, importantly, gave us an opportunity to start life anew.

Long live the Finnish Sisu! Be proud of your home country and roots!

* Joseph spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Joseph: What being Finnish means to me (Part I)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Joseph*

I came to Finland at the age of three. I spoke only English and understood Spanish since my mother was a Finn who lived many years in Venezuela.  We moved to a small city called Lappeenranta in eastern Finland. It is a beautiful city and the current unofficial capital of Karelia after Finland ceded Viipuri to the Russians after the Continuation War (1941-44). 

When I moved to Finland, I was too young to understand how such a radical change could mark my life. I soon forgot how to speak English and learned to speak Finnish perfectly.

When I moved to Finland, I sensed something wasn’t right. I got bullied by the kids who lived next door to us and who came from so-called functional families. My parents divorced when I was about three years old. I still remember travelling abroad and asking my mother when she’d come back to live with us in Finland.

There is something unique about Finland. There’s the peaceful atmosphere that I have not experienced anywhere else.  Even so, I remember being woken up as a kid at our apartment by yelling and shouting drunks in the street.

Finland still suffers from a deep scar that dates back to the war with Russia and when Finland was a part of Sweden for about 600 years. This continues to affect Finns and their identity. Some feel they are not good enough or that they should be ashamed of their roots because they were ruled for so many centuries by the Swedes and Russians.

I started school at the age of seven and I remember being hit and kicked by five boys. The teacher blamed me for the fight when I told him what happened.

Maybe the hate and xenophobia that some Finns felt about the Russians back then was because Lappeenranta is a border city next to Russia.

I switched schools many times when I was growing up in Finland. I was one of the top Finnish-language students in class getting A’s (10) and B’s (9) on tests.

I switched and promoted my nickname because it was more Finnish than my real name, which is difficult for some to pronounce. My mom spoke Finnish to me and my brothers so we’d fit in better and not get bullied so much by other kids.

As you can imagine, searching for acceptance led to a very rebellious adolescence since I tried finding love in the wrong places. It was a defective way to cure those scars for not having a father and for being mistreated and bullied  continually for just being myself. I was just an innocent little boy who couldn’t understand why all this happened to me.

When i moved to Helsinki at the age of 10, I used to escape the pain I felt inside of me by visiting the public library. I spent as much as nine hours daily in the library reading all kinds of books like literature.

Part II will be published Wednesday. 

* Joseph spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Race Files: Why “Racist” Is Such a Powerful Word

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Scot Nakagawa 

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about the term “racist.” Cognitive psychologists, political pollsters, and communications consultants have weighed in about how to talk about racism and advance an equity agenda while not alienating white people by labeling them racists.  Many advise never using the term to describe people, instead suggesting we only criticize actions. Some have gone so far as to argue against using terms like racism and racist at all, calling it a losing strategy and directing us to focus on actions and outcomes that result in unintentional inequities instead.

All of that is fine to a point. I tend to think it’s a good idea to focus on actions and assume the best of people. It’s the right thing to do if for no other reason than that it exercises and strengthens our generosity. Without generosity, coalitions and alliances don’t work, and authentic solidarity across racial differences is impossible.

But even as we try to embrace the best in each of us, we ought not forget that racist actions are attached to racist attitudes. Those attitudes may be so integrated into the common sense of our society that those who harbor them aren’t doing so consciously, but that doesn’t mean those attitudes don’t exist, nor that they aren’t damaging.

We need to call those attitudes out and make what’s common exotic. Unless we do, the logic of racism will continue to dictate the pace of progress toward justice, and that disparages the rights and humanity of those who are racism’s victims. It’s an approach that allows whites sensitivity to being labeled racists to dictate that racism with continue to reign.

Whites are about 78% of the American public. According to Gallup, about 19% of whites were opposed to interracial marriage in 2007. That’s a pretty small minority of whites, but in total number, that’s something like 49 million people. There are only 69 million or so non-white people living in the U.S. That means that the number of whites who oppose interracial marriage is greater than all of any one U.S. racial minority group. Why are they so afraid?

I believe what whites have to fear is white people.

When white supremacy was challenged by the racial justice movements of the 1950s and ’60s, white elites pivoted from overt racism and co-opted the language and symbols, but not the substance, of  racial justice. By doing so, they were able to position themselves as champions of a new colorblind code of civility that reduces structural racial injustice to an attitudinal problem. This enabled them to block attempts to reorganize unjust power relations while deflecting responsibility for continuing injustice on overt racists who were cast as ignorant, immoral, and backward.

This move caused whiteness to fracture. The dominant faction of elites adopted a strategy of coded messaging and avoidance of obvious racial conflict, while using overt racists as a foil against which to position themselves as racial egalitarians. When whites are exposed as racists, their anger is in part a reaction to the fear that they will be cast out of the dominant faction of whites and marginalized along with old fashioned racists like the KKK.

If you buy that, what we are up against, at least in part, is a factional fight among whites over how best to maintain supremacy. And for people of color to concede to that by avoiding direct attacks on racism is like cutting off our noses to spite our faces.

Read original blog entry here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

What do Somali minors sent to Somalia tell us about their treatment in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A news story on Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest daily, claims that Somali minors living in Finland are being taken against their will to Somalia. The daily speaks of ”a few” cases but suggests that in 2001 the figure may be around 50. 

Statstics Finland claims that during 2001-11 there were about 200 minors who had moved to Somalia from Finland.

While it’s clear that Somalia is still not a safe country to live in never mind be a place to send your children, one of the matters that caught my eye in the story was that these children and adolescents were sent there against their will.

Somaliliitto, the Finnish-Somali Association, said that minors should not be taken to Somalia against their will. “Somalia isn’t still safe and we don’t support the idea that Somalis should return to the country,” Somaliitto chairman, Arshe Said, was quoted as saying on Nelonen.

How were they sent to Somalia against their will?  How did they express their objection?

When I was a minor, I didn’t like moving from country to country. Even so, I had no choice because my parents decided what was best for me.

Does “being sent to a country against one’s will” mean being taken to a country that is politically unsafe, like Somalia?

Addis Ababa consul, Sari Jokinen, was quoted as saying that minors sent to Somalia were taken care of by relatives.

“Some have been very alarmed [about being in Somalia],” she said. “According to the children, there is no health care or possibilities to go to school in Somalia.”

What does the story, and the fact that a few minors go to live in Somalia from Finland, tell us?

It reveals that a very small minority of Somalis families in Finland are worried about how their children are losing touch with their parents’ culture. This is perfectly normal and happens in the best of families.

Some Finns forget that 1.2 million people emigrated from this land between 1860 and 1999. Sending your children to visit their grandparents was and still is an effective way for parents to keep their children in touch with their culture.

Family reunification was another important factor when Finns moved to other countries. Not only did they get their relatives to move to their new country but their neighbors and friends.

When I was a child growing up in California, I was grateful to my parents for sending me to Finland during the summers. I spent those summers with my grandparents getting that important injection of Finnish culture and language so it wouldn’t wear off completely.

Without those visits I would have been a poorer person today.

 

 

 

Parliament debates practicalities of expulsion from Finland

Posted on by JusticeDemon

Following a much-publicised nightclub shooting incident in downtown Helsinki about three weeks ago, the Finnish Parliament informally debated the problems of deportation on 11 October. Further views surfaced in the Finnish media on Sunday evening concerning how expulsion can be enforced in practice.

The debate has focused on the problem that arises when no country is willing to admit a deportee. The principal suspect in the nightclub shooting is a 38 year-old habitual violent offender with Vietnamese citizenship who has lived in Finland since childhood. Although an attempt was made to deport this person to Vietnam about three years ago, the Vietnamese government has refused to issue a passport to the deportee, whom it now considers to be a foreigner by reason of prolonged estrangement.

Similar cases have arisen in the past with candidate deportees of Iraqi and Somali origin, and also – tellingly – with members of the Russian-speaking community in Estonia.

One remark from veteran National Coalition Party MP Ben Zyskowicz was obviously playing to an ill-informed public gallery (aka folk who cheer when someone shouts more goodies, less baddies, and plenty of platitudes for all!!!) when he suggested in all seriousness that this kind of international impasse could be resolved simply by finding one or two sturdy policemen to escort deportees to their destination. It seems that even a trained lawyer with long experience in international relations and legislative reform sometimes cannot resist the temptation to offer cheap soundbites in the run-up to elections.

Zyskowicz obviously should have known better. His suggestion is typical of commentators with no appreciation of the issues at stake in cases where a State respectfully declines to admit an individual with whom it has no substantial ties. In any case the MP was brought back down to earth with a bump by long-serving police superintendent Veijo Rissanen, whom YLE News described as really not knowing whether to laugh or cry at such moaning from a parliamentarian:

We made it to the Vietnamese border in one case, but wound up bringing the deportee back with us on the return flight.

The concrete practice of expulsion must always include respect for the immigration formalities of the destination country. Servants of a foreign power (sturdy policemen or otherwise) who arrived in Finland to deliver an undocumented person with no advance clearance would be risking a jail sentence of two years for infringing section 8 of chapter 17 of the Finnish Penal Code.

It is important to recognise that reluctant receiving States are not necessarily behaving unreasonably. A State may be unwilling to admit socially maladjusted individuals with no material ties to the country in question, merely because of an assumed administrative status that is no longer meaningful. It is by no means clear why Russia, for example, should admit an Estonian-born Russian-speaking individual who arrived in Finland as a child accompanying parents admitted to Finland under the Ingrian resettlement programme in the early 1990s. Such a person is very much the product (and victim) of naturalisation and minority policy in Estonia and Finland, and it is hardly the fault of Russia when the outcome is a maladjusted adult.

This is obviously an extreme (though real) example, but estrangement is the commonest justification given by governments that refuse to issue travel documents or recognise any duty to admit deportees.

In the parliamentary debate Zyskowicz explicitly linked the issue of deportee acceptance to international development aid, suggesting that aid could serve as a means of coercing foreign governments into accepting deportees. Perhaps I have a perverse turn of mind, but I immediately thought of toxic waste reprocessing scandals at this point. The only difference is that instead of industrial waste, governments will be bargaining over financial incentives to accept human beings who have been effectively classified as social waste to be taken away and buried somewhere out of sight and out of mind.