Eronen strikes back in order not to strike out

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The Helena Eronen scandal, Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP James Hirvisaari’s aide who suggested with bad satire that foreigners should start wearing armbands, struck back today with a new column in order not to strike out. 

She has come back but with a vengeance especially against Turun Sanomat, the Turku-based daily that broke the story that then spread to Sweden, Russia and who knows where tomorrow.

After being apparently shocked by the reaction that her column caused, her boss Hirvisaari must have given her a long pep talk. Such pep talk, however, spells disaster and convolutes the PS even more, especially after the party’s parliamentary group recommended sacking Eronen.

Eronen claims that she is innocent. Her aim was to use satire to show how armbands for foreigners could help policemen distinguish between foreigners and Finns. The column was as well a pretty clear jab at the Ombudsman for Minorities.

Hirvisaari as well as his ideological comrade in arms, PS MP Olli Immonen, hold the Ombudsman for Minorities office in low regard. Immonen suggested in October that it would be a good idea to make the Ombudsman for Minorities office redundant.

There’s a lot more to what and why Eronen wrote what she did than meets the eye.

Her defiance is evident. When she published her latest blog entry, she included the one that got her in this mess in the first place and was later republished on Hirvisaari’s blog.

Uusi Suomi censored the column again as it did the first time.

Eronen offers an odd apology with her fingers crossed apparently behind her back. She does say sorry per se but only to those who were authentically offended. She does not tell us what “authentically offended” means but it becomes clear pretty soon.

After a long not-so-mea-culpa explanation she finally gets to the punch line of her column and singles out Turun Sanomat: “And so my blog entry was handled by a brilliant Turku journalist…”

There is one important matter missing in Eronen’s latest blog entry: She doesn’t tell us what she did wrong and why it has caused such an uproar.

Eronen asked for trouble when she wrote her column about armbands

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Finland has been inflicted for a number of years by people who think they can say and write anything they please about immigrants and visible minorities in Finland. It’s only natural that when you let out racism and prejudice to roam freely in society unchecked, things will eventually snap as we saw in Norway in July. What did Helena Eronen, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari’s aide, do wrong?

Eronen blames the scandal on her own ignorance, according to an interview she gave to YLE. “The strong reactions to it [blog entry] were to be expected,” she said.

Reactions to what she wrote about sleeve emblems for foreigners to help the police in Finland have been published in Sweden and now throughout Russia and former IVY countries such as Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Eronen blew it to put it lightly. If you are white and try to be “sarcastic” about other nationalities, work for a right-wing populist party like the PS and your boss is none other than Hirvisaari, you are going to get in hot water. She forgot as well those whom she was being sarcastic about, the immigrants, and if this may be offensive to some groups.

Who are the losers and winners of the scandal?

The biggest loser shouldn’t be difficult to figure out. That’s Eronen and the negative debating atmosphere in Finland concerning immigrants and visible immigrants.

Do I think that Eronen’s column was in bad taste? Certainly. But there may be a silver lining revealing that matters may have changed in Finland since Jussi Halla-aho and his xenophobic band roamed the net with near-impunity.

Some, like MP Hirvisaari, who was fined for hate speech in December, still don’t get it. They live somewhere deep in the previous decade when defaming and insulting immigrant groups and cultures was a free-for-all social media lynching job.

Hirvisaari added more damage and salt to Eronen’s wound Wednesday by republishing his own blog the column that was taken off Uusi Suomi. He went as far as to claim that the scandal is an example of the rot that inflicts the media in Finland.

The biggest winner could be the PS. Eronen could give them a scapegoat opportunity to wash their hands of all the racism and prejudice they have spread in Finland since last year’s election, according to a column by Jussi Jalonen. Such a sacrificial object looks especially inviting for the PS with the municipal election nearing in October.

Finland, and I am certain Eronen as well, have learned a valuable lesson: When you write about immigrants and visible minorities you should be extra careful and try to see the world from their perspective when dressing a column up in sarcasm.

If you have that ability, probably one of the first things you’d do is drop the whole topic and write about something else.

PS parliamentary group wants Hirvisaari to sack Eronen

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The Perussuomlaiset (PS) party parliamentary group decided today that Helena Eronen, PS MP James Hirvisaari’s aide should be sacked immediately for writing about foreigners wearing armbands to help police differentiate the nationality of the person, according to YLE. 

After the meeting, Hirvisaari told reporters that nothing had been decided about Eronen.

PS parliamentary leader Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner, who stepped out of the meeting after Hirvisaari, gave a totally different version.  She said that the majority of the PS MPs decided to recommend to Hirvisaari that he’d “immediately sack his aide [Eronen].”

Ruohonen-Lerner said that this type of writing by Hirvisaari’s aide hurts the party and the parliamentary group.

She said that the parliamentary group cannot give the boot to Eronen. That was Hirvisaari’s job.

What PS MP aide Helena Eronen wrote about armbands for foreigners in Finland (part 2)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Even if Helena Eronen’s boss, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari wants to play down the impact of his aide’s blog entry by claiming that we do not know what satire is, the whole affair exposes something far worrying: It is a new dive into the depths of these shameful political times.  

I don’t know what is worse: what Eronen wrote or Hirvisaari’s defense.

As everyone knows, Eronen published a column Wednesday on Uusi Suomi suggesting how foreigners should  wear armbands to help the police to distinguish whether the person is a Finn or not.

Hirvisaari wrote on his blog Wednesday evening that the scandal exposed the “ever-evident rot of the [Finnish] media:”

Now, folks, think about it. If an MP says that Finnish media is infested with rot, what words would he spare for immigrants never mind Muslims?

Hirvisaari was fined for hate speech in December.

One of the questions we could ask about what the Eronen scandal reveals is wrong with Finland today and where is it heading?

What do we accomplish by writing and suggesting that foreigners should wear armbands especially during these difficult times? Nothing at all. Instead we do nothing more than promote greater polarization of our society by stressing “us” and “them.”

Much of the persona of the PS as a party relies on promoting “us” and “them.” The racism and prejudice that festers in the PS, and which gets a lot of attention from the media, will destroy it in the end.

But not all agree with Hirvisaari’s take on things. Possibly one positive matters to emerge from this scandal is PS parliamentary leader Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner, who condemned what Eronen wrote.

“I hope that we can distance ourselves totally from these types of writing,” she was quoted as saying on MTV3. “They bring harm to our party and parliamentary group.”

What PS MP aide Helena Eronen wrote about armbands for foreigners in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri 

Every month we’ve seen some sort of scandal coming from the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party. In April, which is only eleven days old, we already got another one by an aide who suggested in a blog entry that foreigners should start using armbands to help police distinguish who is an immigrant and who is a Finn. 

Eronen was hired as PS MP James Hirvisaari’s aide in January. Hirvisaari, a hard-core  anti-immigration extremist, was fined in December by a court for hate speech.

The PS MP defended in a  new blog entry on Uusi Suomi Eronen’s writing.

Eronen suggested on her blog entry today that foreigners should start using sleeve badges in order to help the police figure out rapidly who is a foreigner and who is a Finn. Her blog entry was directed at the Ombudsman for Minorities, which accused today the police of ethnic profiling.

Her opinion piece was published around midday and was deleted by Uusi Suomi in the afternoon.

She writes: “If every foreigner were required to use an armband of his/her national background, the police could immediately spot whether that ‘aha, that is a Muslim from Somalia’ or ‘aha. that is a beggar from Romania.’ Muslims could [use sleeve badges] with a half moon…Russians [with] a hammer and sickle, Kampucheans could have field mines, a burger [could be used to distinguish] USAmericans…”

Eronen  appears to like her own suggestion so much that she envisions a ceremony taking place.  “…take for example if a refugee from Kurdistan would get permanent residency [in Finland], his red half moon would be changed for a blue-white half moon when he’d become a Finnish citizen… Think about what an important moment in that Kurd’s life [if he would exchange his red half moon for a blue-white half moon at some ceremony at Immigration Service]. It would enforce integration and would make Finnish and Finnishness an important goal [for every immigrant to attain].”

The parliamentary aide suggests that potential terrorist could wear chips under their skins to monitor their movements.

One of the matters that has raised concern in Finland has been the PS’ ties with neo-Nazi groups like the Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta. There has been concern as well of PS MPs like Hirvisaari who belong to extremist associations like Suomen Sisu.

If you visit Eronen’s Facebook page and go to photos, you’ll find one where she is wearing an army-looking cap with a flower emblem. The edelweiss flower was used by a mountain commando division in Hitler’s army.

Finnish police accused of ethnic profiling

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A day after the police released a Somali who was under police custody for about seven months, the Ombudsman for Minorities expressed concern about ethnic profiling by the police, according to YLE. 

Rainer Hiltunen, the Minority Ombudsman’s head of office, said that he receives calls from foreigners who say they have been repeatedly questioned in the street by police. Some of those stopped are naturalized Finns and visible minorities.

The police deny any wrongdoing.

“If a person is stopped, they’re told why,” said Helsinki police inspector Jari Taponen, who denied hearing of any cases where people were not told why they were questioned by the police.

Helena Eronen, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari’s new aide, suggested in a column today that a good way to help the police to distinguish immigrants from Finns would be to oblige people to wear sleeve badges.

This kind of “satire” coming especially from a Hirvisaari aide is in pretty bad taste.

Hirvisaari was fined for hate speech in December.

I remember being stopped a long time ago by the Finnish police on the freeway from Porvoo to Helsinki. We were three “foreign-looking” men inside a Skoda driving home when Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Pavel visited Finland in 1991.

One of the questions that surprised me by the policeman when we were pulled over was if I was a Finnish citizen. I refused to answer the policeman’s question because I thought it had nothing to do with whatever I was being stopped.

After a semi-long tug-of-war with the policeman, I told him that I was a Finnish citizen. He then told me that I had been pulled over because one of my headlamps was out.

If that was the reason why he stopped me, what did that have to do with me being a Finnish citizen or not?

Somali resident of Finland suspected of supporting terrorism is released from custody

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A Somali male held in police custody since September for allegedly supporting terrorism abroad was released today by a Helsinki court, according to YLE. The police said that the man,  who was deprived of his liberty for seven months, cannot leave the country because investigations are still ongoing. 

Kaj-Erik Björkvist of the police told YLE  that the released man is still a suspect together with five others for supporting  al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization based in southern Somalia.

Even if no Finnish media will not ask an important-yet-obvious question in light of the ongoing civil war in Somalia and the ever-worsening atmosphere for immigrants in Finland, Migrant Tales will: Why has it taken so long to pin anything on the suspects?

Fine, this could be due to police resources and the fact that getting hard evidence from war-torn Somalia may be easier said than done.

However, whether the men are found guilty or not of the charges against them, the whole case is bad news for the immigrant never mind Somali community of Finland, especially during these times when an anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party won 39 seats in last year’s parliamentary election.

Writes JusticeDemon:  “Assuming that the case is eventually dropped entirely or only minor charges are preferred, then the next stage may be to seek compensation from the State for unlawful deprivation of liberty. This will initially turn on whether the District Court acted reasonably and proportionately in ordering remand detention, and secondarily on whether the police acted correctly in turn by fully advising the court of the pertinent evidence, including exculpatory details and the forensic reliability of sources.”

When Migrant Tales reported back in September about the arrest of two people suspected for supporting terrorism abroad, it didn’t take long for the finger-pointing to begin in Finland. Some blamed former minister for immigration and European affairs, Astrid Thors, for bringing terrorists to the country.

The longer this case drags on the more damage it will cause irrespective if the suspects are found guilty or not.

Now we know the meaning why justice must act swiftly.

Ilta-Sanomat tabloid ad (lööppi) from April 20, 1993

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales publishes on and off Finnish tabloid ads* (lööppi in Finnish) from the 1990s. Taking into account that Finland’s immigrant population started to grow during that decade, it is easy at least through some of the main stories of tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti to see how some of them reflected our xenophobic, prejudiced, racist or anti-Russian views.

The billboard below shows, in my opinion, the other side of the xenophobic coin. If some tabloid ads painted the former Soviet Union, Estonia and non-Europeans as a threat to Finland, sometimes that outside world rejected Finnish things like milk in the European Union.

Finland became an EU member in 1995 together with Sweden and Austria.

*Migration Institute archive.

Maahanmuuttokriittyys vai pelkkää rasismia uudella kaavulla

Posted on by Sasu

Sasu Xinkang Ölander*

Suomalaisia vaivaa värisokea rasismi. Kun haluamme olla rasisteja annamme asialle aivan uuden nimen. Esimerkiksi maahanmuuttokriittisyys. Jos siis olemme maahanmuuttokriittisiä niin eikö meidän sitten kannata sulkea rajat tai pysäyttää kaikki virolaiset. Virolaisethan on se suurin maahanmuuttaja ryhmä joka, tekee pimeitä keikkoja. Virolaiset ovat myös lukumääräiseksi suurin maahanmuuttaja ryhmä, ei somalit. Kuinka moni perussuomalainen olisi valmis tekemään sen. Tuskin kovinkaan moni koska, virolaiset ovat eurooppalaisia. Maahanmuuttokriittiset kohdistavat energiaansa väärään suuntaan jos ajatuksena on sosialipummien ajaminen pois tai työpaikka varkaiden kiinnisaanti. Jos se olisi tavoite niin heidän pitäisi matkustaa kolmanteen maailmaan ja alkaa kovalla äänellä taistella työsopimuksien ja niiden kunnollisen sisällönpuolesta. Mutta sehän nostaisi eurooppalaisten kesto- ja kulutustuotteiden hintoja. Maahanmuuttokriittiset eivät varmastikaan halua heikentää valkoisen rodun taloudellista ylivaltaa, eihän.

Maahanmuuttaja termi on itsestään jo sekava jos mietimme miten termiä käytetään mediassa. Juridisesti maahanmuuttaja on ihminen jolla ei ole suomen kansalaisuutta. Mutta media ei käytä termiä niin. Ennemmin media assosioi maahanmuuttajan ihmiseksi, joka ei näytä eurooppalaiselta. Tämä assosiointi virhe antaa termille rodullisen leiman. Maahanmuuttokriittiset eivät oikeastaan ole maahanmuuttoa vastaan vaan värillisten muuttoa vastaan. Värisokeat rasistit toimivat juuri näin. Rasismi ei muutu mutta, termit jolla sitä tuotetaan muuttuu.

Tämä johtaa siihen että, on kysyttävä mitä sellaista värillisessä vähemmistössä on joka, saa suomalaiset hyökkääviksi. Syy ei ole islam koska suomessa on jo vuosisatoja asunut tataari vähemmistö jotka ovat islamin uskoisia. Syy voisi olla ”maahanmuuttajien” erilainen kulttuuri. Jos oletamme että, ongelma on kulttuuri niin silloinhan se väistyisi sitä mukaan kuin ”maahanmuuttajat” sopeuttavat kulttuurinsa suomen lainsäädäntöön. Siinä prosessissa suomalaisten on oltava mukana. Meidän pitää kertoa omat arvot ja lait mutta, suomalaiset eivät saa tyrkyttää omia arvoja. ”Maahanmuuttajat” hoitavat itse sopeuttamisen ja karsivat ristiriitaiset käytännöt pois kunhan kulttuurin ydin säilyy.

Valitettavasti Tampereen yliopiston Tiedotusopiston Laitoksen tutkimus Etnisyys ja Rasismi Journalismissa todetaan että, kulttuurin sopeuttaminen ei mitenkään riitä. Tutkimuksessa todetaan että , ”maahanmuuttajien” on oltava suomalaisempia kuin suomalaiset ovat. Tämä tulos kertoo meille että, suomi kansakuntana on sisäistänyt rasismin tärkeimmän dogmin. Eurooppalainen/valkoinen kulttuuri on normi johon kaikki verrataan. Koska eurooppalaisuus on ihanne niin kaikki muut ovat friikkejä tai eksoottisia. Suomalaisten on kysyttävä mitä on olla normi itseltä. Suomalaisten on kysyttävä omaa oikeutta olla yksi kolmas osa maailmaa. Mikä meriitti antaa meille oikeuden sanoa mikä kulttuuri/rotu on normi ja mikä ei.

Perussuomalaisten voiton yksi syy on se että, ”maahanmuuttajat” eivät ole oppinut suomalaisuutta kyllin hyvin. Tämähän on ihan sama asia kuin 1800-luvun alkupuolen lähetyssaarnaajat kohtasivat. Alkuperäisasukkaat eivät oppineet kristillisiä arvoja kyllin nopeasti ja sen takia sosialidarwinismi voitti alaa. Perussuomalaisten voitto voidaan nähdä myös osoituksena että, suomalaistuminen ei riitä. Kun meillähän on näitä Jani Toivoloita tai Nazimi Razmyaraita. Henkilöitä joista on tullut suomalaisia ytimiä myöten mutta, näkeekö kantaväestö heidät suomalaisiksi. Minä epäilen että, ei, koska suomalaisuus on olla valkoinen. Jos ajattelemme näin niin kaikki sopeutumis ja sulautumis yritykset ovat turhia ja tämä näkökulma luo myös muurin jokaisen värillisen eteen. Värillinen ei voisi koskaan olla suomaalainen itse mutta, hänen jälkeläiset voisivat olla jos he harjoittaisivat eugeniikkaa ja kieltäisivät juurensa. Tästä eroon päästäkseen on käsite suomalaisuus muutettava monikulttuuriseksi tai värilisten on rakennettava oma yhteisö johon tukeutua.

PS: Syy miksi maahanmuuttaja termi on lainaus merkeiksä on sen epämääräisyys.

*Kirjoittaja on 18-vuotias lukiolainen Helsingistä. Hän määrittele itsensä aasialais-suomalaiseksi.

Far-right groups and anti-immigration extremists in Finland and Europe flirt with fascism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

When far-right groups and anti-immigration extremists flirt with fascism nothing good can ever come out of it. Even if it sounds incredible, we have in Finland our own holocaust deniers and those who claim the Nuremberg Trials were  a farce.    

Has Perussuomalaiset MP Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola and his aide Ulla Pyysalo as well as Kotka councilman Freddy Van Wonterghem ever seen war? I don’t mean playing a Playstation 3 war game or seeing a war movie, but suffering and witnessing the real thing?

When politicians make statements denying or playing down the Holocaust, state that the the Nuremberg Trials [see Natsi-Saksasta] were “a farce,” or openly admit they like Benito Mussolini and fascism, they are breathing life back to a beast that can terrorize Europe again.

Even if the fascism they like is different from the one we saw in the 1930s, it is the same ogre but in twenty-first century garb. The scapegoats and enemies may have changed, for example Muslims today and Jews before, but it is the same beast.

Rudolf Hoess, the Auschwitz commandant during 1940-43,  justified the death of an estimated 2.5 million with the following quote:  “I had my personal orders from [Heinrich] Himmler [to exterminate Jews]…Not justified [to exterminate so many people] – but Himmler told me that if the Jews were not exterminated at that time, then the German people would be exterminated for all time by the Jews.”

But there is a far bigger question that Auschwitz doesn’t answer right away: Does that type of systematic mass murder that took place there reveal the dark side of the Nazis or something worrying about us?  Do we all have the potential as a group to become mass murderers?

If we look at the former Soviet Union under Stalin, the systematic genocide committed against Amerindians by white Europeans, the terror that reigned under the Pol Pot regime of Kampuchea, China under Mao Tse Tsung, the slave trade and European colonization of Africa  as well as many other cases, they prove beyond any doubt that we are capable of  barbaric deeds.

It makes no sense to spread hatred and attack and victimize other human beings and groups. If you disagree you need to reread your history again, and again, and again.

The author at the gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp where it reads Arbei Macht Frei, “Work Makes (One) Free.” 

 Some 400,000 Hungarian Jews were exterminated in spring 1944 at Birkenau, or Auschwitz 2.

 The shoes of the victims that ended up in Auschwitz’ gas chambers.