Banning circumcision would be the first step in undermining religious freedom in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Why is it that anti-immigration parties and politicians are usually making a case or drafting legislation to outlaw circumcision of boys or ban Muslim women from wearing burkas? Is it because they have a soft spot for Muslim or Jewish children and women?

Take a whiff of their arguments and you will find an obvious red herring. The real issue why they are interested in attacking these rights is their  loathing of Muslims.

It is therefore no surprise that an anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) is so keen to outlaw circumcision of under fifteen-year-old boys. The PS MP spearheading the new law is Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, who doesn’t hide his disdain for Muslims.

Only 21 out of 39 PS MPs have endorsed the draft bill. Some names worth mentioning are Counterjihdists Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, James Hirvisaari and Juho Eerola.

What the PS MP won’t tell you is that this first measure, to outlaw circumcision, is one of many steps to infringe upon the civil and human rights of different religious groups in Finland.

Saarakkala could learn a lot from the German government, which recently backed new legislation that aims at ending a long legal dispute over circumcision, reports BBC.

The new law, which will be voted on by the end of the year, will make circumcision legal as long it is done by trained experts and that the parents are informed of any medical risks.

Writes the BBC: “The row over circumcision began in June when a court in Cologne said that the ritual circumcision of a four-year-old Muslim boy, in accordance with his parents’ faith, had caused the child bodily harm. The case came to court after a doctor carried out the circumcision, and it led to medical complications.”

After this case, the German Medical Association told doctors in Germany to stop circumcising boys.

The recommendation by the German Medical Association forced Jewish and Muslim groups to challenge the ruling, which they considered “an affront [to] their basic religious and human rights.”

Migrant Tales Literary: Elixir – ?????

Posted on by Dana

Elixir – ?????

By Dana

?? ??? ????? ?? ?? ??? ????                    ??????? ???? ???? ? ????

In this unlimited evil and cruel world

Oh GOD  u r the right one and sage

?? ?????? ?? ? ??? ?? ????                  ???? ?? ?? ? ?? ???? ????

In your doorway night and day oh GOD

I whimper all minutes and moments , oh spirit

?? ?? ???? ????? ???????                      ??? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?????

That u, sacrosanct lover, my guide

 U r my root spirit, my moon face.

?? ????? ???? ? ???? ?????                         ??????? ?????? ???????

Fill me with spirit: lily, nightingale and song

U can turn me into a rosary, living and immortal

? ????? ? ??? ???? ??? ???                  ????? ?? ????? ?????? ???

Keeping me a safe distance from deception and duplicity

Visit my existence , banquet and GOD

????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ???                     ??? ?? ??? ????? ?? ?? ? ???

Turn me me into an aromatic light flower

Heal my life from bad and evil

??????? ??????? ?? ????                     ??? ???? ?? ?? ?? ??? ? ????

Oh GOD apparel me with ur spirit

Dress me always with ur colors and visage

???? ????? ????? ???????                            ???????? ???? ? ???? ????

Father, my pleasant Baba, my elixir

My portion, shelter and staddle

??? ?? ??? ?? ?? ???????                         ?????? ???? ?? ?? ?????

Oh GOD u r an unlimitted treasure of jubilatation

A bright  beautiful star and explicit

??? ???? ??? ??????? ? ??                     ??????? ?????? ???? ? ???

 Granting me patience, focus  and path

Showering  me with health, wisdom and happiness.

 

 

 

Finland’s present demographic challenges are a threat to its prosperity

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland will see dramatic changes to its population age structure in the next four decades, when the number of over-64-year-olds will soar by 941,000 to 1.639 million people, according to MTV3, citing Statistics Finland. Likewise, our labor force will shrink by an estimated 600,000 people in about 25 years. 

It is surprising, if not worrying, that the majority of politicians, never mind political parties, don’t consider Finland’s demographic woes a serious enough problem to address today. Few if any speak openly about attracting skilled immigrants to the country as one of many measures to slow the worrying trend.

In many respects, these politicians are hostages of their own complacency and shortsightedness. It’s very difficult to speak out in favor of immigration and cultural diversity when such politicians have been silent or made in the past slipshot comments on the issue.

But why would any sensible immigrant want to move to a country that doesn’t appear interested in them? Moreover, what’s so attractive about a country where it takes a long time to learn the language, has high taxes, long-and-cold winters and does everything possible to remind you that you are an immigrant?

Didn’t 19.1% of the Finns vote last year for the Perussuomalaiset (PS), an anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party?

Pekka Myskylä of Statistics Finland, however, believes that our foreign population will account for 16% of the total population by 2057.

In a blog entry published in December 2009, Migrant Tales wrote that the number of pensioners will rise from the present 17% (905,000 persons who are older than 65 years) to 27% by 2040 and 29% (1.79 million) by 2060, according to Statistics Finland, Better medicare will fuel this trend, with persons over 85 years rising from 2% (108,000) to 7% (463,000).

What Finland doesn’t need today is a party like the PS that fuels xenophobia and instills fear in the hearts and minds of Finns on issues like immigration.

 

 

 

The lack of cultural diversity is impoverishing Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Jussi Jalonen, a Tampere University history researcher, asked recently why a populist party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) continues to grow in popularity despite the numerous scandals that have riddled the group. There is an answer: Finland’s lack of cultural diversity.

How is it possible that a party like the PS can win 39 seats in the last parliamentary elections from 5 seats previously? The answer: Finland’s lack of cultural diversity.

How is it possible that the Finnish media, politicians and the general public were swept off their feet by the PS’ anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam message up to April 17, 2011? The answer: Finland’s lack of cultural diversity.

Contrarily, if Finland were a country that would have had larger ethnic and religious minorities in the last century and if these were promoted in a spirit of social equality (tasa-arvo), we’d never be in the political and ideological mess that we are in today.

There are many examples of how a society can grow and reap synergies from cultural diversity. Some positive examples are Silicon Valley, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia and many others.

Since no society is perfect, never mind one that is culturally diverse, there are poor examples we should avoid. One of these is the former apartheid system of South Africa.

The recent example of the black Mannerheim movie is proof of some Finns’ hostility towards diversity and how we continue to cling at any price to our cultural and ethnic myths.

In many respects, the “one-people-one-nation“ view of white Finland is the making of our own social Frankenstein. We have promoted it from day one when we declared independence from Russia on December 6, 1917.

Even if PS chairman, Timo Soini, claims that his party has 27 “immigrant” candidates running for office in the municipal elections, it reinforces the party’s hostility towards diversity. Thanks to these candidates, PS’ “one- people-one-nation” political message is strengthened as a result.

Immigrants who have little idea about how our open society functions democratically and, worse, have no enthusiasm to throw overboard their baggage of hate and racism, is one of the threats facing our society.

It is surprising to note that many of these immigrants aren’t those with the least education, but those that have good professions and economical means to assimilate into white Finnish society.

Throughout the last century, Finland has been a negative model for cultural diversity despite the fact that 1.2 million Finns emigrated from this country between 1860 and 1999.

Finland’s social and economic life savior is not keeping Finland “white,” but becoming culturally diverse.

If we fail in this task and do not promote modern Nordic values such as mutual acceptance and respect, our society will become ever-polarized. The same Civil Rights Movements we saw in the United States emerging in the 1950s and 1960s will become a reality in Finland this century.

Since we have done everything possible to kill cultural diversity from the last century as opposed to defending and promoting it, we are paying today a high price for our shortsightedness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mamukriit-Looks: The who’s who of anti-immigration Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

You’ve heard of Per-Looks, the latest fad taking the Finnish social media scene by storm last week.  We now give you Mamukriit-Looks, a gallery of Perussuomalaiset (PS) politicians running for office in the October 28 municipal elections who have built their political careers on anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiment.

In the picture gallery below, you will find politicians that have been fined for hate speech, Counterjihadists and who have applied for membership in a neo-Nazi association. One candidate even suggested that it was a “patriotic” shooting certain politicians and boiling Muslims alive.

Sad but true.

MAMUKRIIT-LOOKS

Per-Looks: A taste of one’s own medicine for the PS of Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I’ve been reading with some interest the ongoing debate on social media about the Per-Looks blog that has outraged some Perussuomalaiset (PS) party members. The blog shows a number of PS candidates running for office in the October 28 municipal elections.

Just for the record, I don’t like to make fun of people due to their ethnic background, religion, culture or looks and dress as is the case with Pers-Looks.

While the pictures published on Per-Looks aim to give an image that the PS are a bunch of Finnish hillbillies, the blog does offers the anti-immigration and anti-Islam party a taste of its own medicine.

Possibly those who feel offended by Per-Looks now understand how it feels to be a visible immigrant attacked in the Finnish media by politicians of parties like the PS.

Blaming the social democrats for the prank, Matti Puukkonen of the PS said that Per-Looks  was “a cowardly act made by losers who are in politics.”

Just like former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who commonly blamed negative media coverage on communists, the PS like to criticize eco-socialists for the critical coverage they receive in the Finnish media.

The person who made Per-Looks was quoted as saying on Nelonen TV that the aim of the blog was not to ridicule the PS candidates.

“The [purpose of the] Per-Looks blog is not to make fun or to make a political statement with the pictures,” the person said in a statement sent by email. “The pictures on displayed are just as they are found on different web sites [of the PS].”

Since the publishing of Per-Looks, other ones have appeared such as one for the National Coalition Party (Kok-Looks), Pirate Party (Pir-Looks) and Greens (Vih-Looks).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The PS’ shameful and opportunistic stand on refugees

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party’s municipal election program recommends that municipalities should not accept refugees because the best way to help people fleeing strife is in refugee camps bordering these war-ravaged countries. 

This stand by the PS is so extreme that many PS municipal candidates have not endorsed it except for Counterjihadists like PS MP James Hirvisaari (see question 3).

The fact that the PS recommends municipalities not to accept refugees is a clear example of how the party uses opportunistically and shamelessly the immigrant-refugee card to lure votes. Like its anti-EU line, its anti-immigration and anti-Islam stands attract votes.

Dadaab in Kenya is the world’s biggest refugee camp that houses over 400,000 refugees.

Using PS populist election rhetoric about refugees, the question we should ask is if refugee camps are effective and humane places to help people.

Take a look at a video clip of the Dadaab camp to arrive at your own conclusions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlHWHLG_pds

Eritrean refugees in Sudan are another sad reminder of people who have lived in  camps for 30-40 years.

Click here to see video clip on the forgotten Eritrean refugees of Sudan.

 

Ajankohtainen kakkonen: Four immigrant candidates

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There’s an interesting news documentary this week on Ajankohtainen kakkonen about immigrant candidates taking part in the October 28 municipal elections. One matter that bothered me about the program was the use of the word mamu by the reporters when referring to the candidates.

Mamu is the shortened word for maahanmuuttajia, or immigrant. There are mixed opinions among immigrants about what the term implies.

Another matter that the program lacked was that we didn’t get any clear idea what these candidates stand for on major municipal issues like health care, pensioners, high unemployment and social exclusion of young people.

As immigrant candidates, I would have been interested in knowing what their stand was on the role of cultural diversity in Finland.

There was, however, one Romanian candidate of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, Cristian Tudose, who said he was running because Finns were too naive to protect their culture.

”Finns need foreigners to protect their culture because Finns are too naive and cannot say loudly enough that, ‘hey, now we do things our way here.’”

One of the matters that has always worried me about some immigrants who move to this country is how their own prejudices find a cosy home in Finland. Romania is far from being a model country for cultural diversity if we take into account the shameful plight of the Romany minority there.

In the last municipal elections, 96,373 immigrants were eligible to vote but only 19.6% did so. Today that number has grown by about 40,000 to 137,005. How many will vote is a good open question.

Linus Atarah, iCount campaign coordinator, said that the big problem concerning immigrant voters is that many do not know enough about the parties never mind for which candidate they should vote for.

Some 400 immigrants are running for office in the upcoming municipal elections.

 

Women for Refugee Women: ‘The dream I hope and strive for’

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Helen came to the UK 9 years ago  after she was imprisoned in Ethiopia for her political activities. She claimed asylum but was refused, and looks after herself and her three children on £50 a week.

I’ve been in the UK since 2003. I have three children aged one, two and four. Things have got easier for me recently because my eldest goes to nursery just round the corner and he loves it. The past year has been very difficult because my daughter was born premature and suffers from reflux and was in hospital for eight months. My first child was also premature and also had reflux but as he get older he is able to keep much more food down, and is sick less, so I am hoping the same will be true of my daughter.

We live in North London and the hospital was two hours away, so I had a journey for four hours a day with my other two children on public transport. Sometimes my very dear friend would look after the other two so that I could go to the hospital on my own, but often I had to take them with me for the long daily journey. At the time I was living off £50 a week including travel so it was very difficult, but I felt it was very important to make sure the mother and baby have a strong bond and that my daughter should be with me every single day.  There were some premature babies on the ward that didn’t have regular visitors and it was very sad to see them crying on their own without the comfort of a mother. I think the daily journey for eight months was really worth it because after all that my daughter is a happy baby who knows her brothers and me very well.

I had to leave Ethiopia in 2003 because I was in trouble with the government.  I was young and had many ideals and protested against them. It is hard for me to remember the person I was that was brave enough to do that. I was imprisoned and many terrible things happened to me while I was in prison. My family was affected too and we still don’t know what has happened to my father. He has been missing for a long time.

My family paid a lot of money to get me out of Ethiopia because they thought that I would be killed if I stayed. I didn’t really know where I was going – just that it had been arranged that I should go somewhere safer.   When I arrived in London the man who was accompanying me took me to a café and then he said he was going to the toilet and just disappeared. I was so frightened. I didn’t know where I was and had no money and didn’t know what to do.  I felt completely lost and without anyone who cared about what happened to me.

I was taken to the Home Office in Croydon to tell them my story and a group of us had to sleep outside in a doorway waiting for it to open. When I finally got to speak to someone and she asked where I had stayed the night she didn’t believe that we had slept outside. From then on she didn’t believe much of what I said and my English wasn’t good enough at that point to be able to explain the situation I was escaping from.

I was taken to a place in Crystal Palace and then to Dover, but my case was refused. My friend let me sleep in her room and she wouldn’t let me walk by the window because I had no status and we were afraid that I would be seen and taken into detention and then sent back to Ethiopia. It was after that that I met my children’s father. He was the wrong man for me, I see that now, and we are not together any more. But many women make this mistake, and they are able to rebuild their lives after that. I am now trying to make what is called a fresh application for asylum. It is very hard to do this because to do so you must present fresh evidence, How do I prove what happened to me nearly ten years ago?

I think what is so difficult is the indecision. It really damages your confidence and I need to build a life. I want to work and contribute. I would like to be an independent person earning my own money. I am not allowed to work, but that is the dream that I strive and hope for.

I know that I have a very happy looking face, with a big smile and dimples which my kids have all inherited but inside I sometimes feel so afraid for my and the kids’ future.  Some days I feel very depressed because I don’t want us to be stuck like this in limbo.

Helen’s name has been changed. She told her story to Sophie Radice.

Read original blog entry here or visit the website.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.