Migrant Tales Literary: The expatriate and the meaning of the four seasons of Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Three matters happen to some of us when we move to a foreign country: We learn to live with separation and yearning. Some of us grasp as well that in each farewell we die a little as the French poet, Edmond  Haraucourt, once wrote.

In distant lands we learn to hear those lachrymose tunes emanating from the woods and that in each season the concert is different but the same.

Winter: Assurance

The forest under sub-zero temperatures has many personalities. Contrary to humans, and since trees and plants cannot move like humans, they must travel with their imagination and with the help of the seasons.

Do they feel separation, yearning and change as we do? The answer may lie in the many flakes of snow that descend on our faces, each having a different weight thawing into water.

Is the acceptance of winter to my silence and stance an assurance that Finland has never forgotten me, even if I live today in faraway lands?

A group of Finnish settlers in Misiones, Argentina, in the 1920s.

Spring: Separation

In foreign lands I have heard spring water trickling and budding leaves thousands of kilometers from the source in Finland. In foreign lands, I’ve paid closer attention to the three springs: early spring; mid-spring; and late-spring. I especially miss mid-spring, or those days that begin to announce faintly summer’s approach.

Such days overflow with sunlight, with nights still infatuated with pitch-darkness.  Nature’s susurrations are everywhere. Under the sweet scent of birches, spruces and firs, lichen releases a soft crackling sound that sounds like an enormous just-opened bottle of lightly carbonated mineral water.

The separation of late-spring and early-summer ends with a furious knockout punch to the former.

Summer: Longing

There are two types of longing that some experienced: faint and strong. They are no different from the sub-seasons you’ll find in spring and in summer. Summer is so short in these latitudes that you can almost count the days with your fingers.

Days continue to get longer in early-summer until they reach their zenith in midsummer. Summer eventually learns to balance itself over the landscape in harmony and is at a perfect distance from its predecessor and successor, spring and autumn.

I occasionally take afternoon naps on summer. Rain makes me drowsy. If you listen closely, each raindrop that splashes on the roof has a different sound. It is like a lullaby that puts me to sleep.

Around mid-July, the sun barely winks or hints of dark night. Now twilight and darkness appear on tiptoes and with great care begin rearranging the landscapes for autumn.

Summer can be a tragedy for some. 

Autumn: Farewell

When autumn leaves and colors begin to abound, it is a time for some of us to bid Finland farewell and return to our homes in foreign lands. If you still haven’t left, darkness is now so thick that one feels as if he were floating in the abyss like in early and mid-spring.

The real reason why some of us return to Finland in summer is because we fear that our former childhood landscapes may forsake us. Every time we return to our former homes and say farewell we are modestly reaffirming that we are and continue to be Finns irrespective of our new religious, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.

Even if some would want to banish us for good from this land, its useless because everyone knows that you cannot intimidate your deepest feelings and memories.

Fairy tale worlds with the help of hate speech in Finland and elsewhere

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The recent anti-immigration killings in Norway at the hands of Anders Breivik and this week in Italy by Gianluca Casseri show how xenophobic fairy tales can turn a person into a killer. As populist and far-right parties in Europe continue to throw petrol at the flames of their hate speech, it is only a question of time when new Breiviks and Casseris will appear on the scene. 

The delusion and lack of resolve by our societies does not only hinge today on the EU’s lack of resolve to tackle its serious financial issues, but the belief that we can keep our rising nationalism and hate speech on a short leash.

This social ogre, which has been let out of the cage in Finland as well, is trying its hardest to convince us that its pathological social behavior is normal. There is nothing normal about racism never mind spreading hatred of other groups especially if our society is based on social justice.

These groups that the term “fatherland” to justify their actions are playing with fire. Not only are they weakening our national icons and cherished symbols of our society that are supposed to stand for noble values such as acceptance, they are shooting them in the head.

When looking at any far-right or right-wing populist parties in Europe, we should as concerned citizens walk that extra mile and ask what is the real message behind their populist soundbites. The fact that they don’t tell us what they are is the clearest indication of not only of their reckless opportunism, but the fact that society would never accept their real views.

Certainly spreading urban myths peppered with racism and xenophobia have an impact on Europe. Apart from threatening to weaken our present values, they encourage and offer smoking guns for future and present killers to terrorize our societies with real weapons and/or hate speech.

Breivik and Casseri are fresh examples of what Europe has in store for itself if it does not face the challenge posed by parties that attack society with their hate speech.

We must act now or suffer the consequences by others who paint our world with the somber colors of hate speech.

Spiegel International Online: Italy Killings Underscore European Extremism Problem

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Comment: One of the biggest threats to Europe these days is not the Euro crisis and the economic downturn but the rise of xenophobic far-right groups. Saverio Ferrari, an expert on right-wing terrorism, described the latest far-right killer Gianluca Casseri “a classic lone wolf.”

The neo-fascist and xenophobic CasaPound attempted to distance itself from Casseri by claiming that the killer was a sympathizer of the but that the killer was “a dog without an owner.”

Surprisingly, some in Italy now praise what Casseri did. “Meanwhile, Casseri has been become a hero of the right-wing extremist scene in the country, praised as a true Italian and a “white hero” worthy of renown and respect on the racist website stormfront.org. Casseri ‘cleaned up,’ a task for which he deserves thanks, a statement on the website read,” writes to Spiegel International Online. 

Let’s admit it, the only reason why far-right groups have risen in popularity in Europe these days is because they have  more support as a result of the worsening economic situation. Another factor has been the complacent silence of too many politicians, the mass media and the general public.

Ferrari assured us that Italy will react to the killings. This may be difficult to believe considering that xenophobia against non-European immigrants never mind the Romany minority has been on the rise.

Here is a video clip in Italian about a black man stating that the killing was expected taking into account the years of hatred spread against immigrants by politicians belonging to the former government who insult these people wholesale. 

“The terrible murders could be the impetus to finally think about this and draw some conclusions,” Ferrari said. “Either way, Italy will react.”

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The murders of African street vendors by a right-wing extremist writer in Florence have shocked Italy. Questions are now emerging about whether the gunman acted alone. But one thing seems certain, he was close to a right-wing radical group that has a pop culture appeal admired even by Germany’s neo-Nazis.

Read whole story.

YLE in English: Supo looks into possible Finnish connection to Florence shooter

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Comment:  The tragic killing of two Senegalese men and wounding of three others by a far-right anti-immigration extremist in Florence on Tuesday may have a Finnish connection with Suomen Kansalinen Vastarnta (SKV), a neo-Nazi association, according to YLE in English. 

The mass killings in Norway in July and this week in Florence should be seen as wake up calls of the threat of far-right groups in Europe and how far they plan to go in order to get their hate message across.

In a recent poll by MTV3, presidential hopefuls Timo Soini of the PS, Kokoomus’ Sauli Niinistö and Christian Democrat Sari Essayah believed that the far right do not pose a threat to Finland.  

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The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) is taking an interest in the racist shooting in Florence. The shooter, who killed two African immigrant street traders, belonged to a far-right organisation that also has Finnish members.

Read whole story.

Finland’s PS Soini plays down racism in his party to “one, two or three” cases

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By Enrque Tessieri

Perussuomalaiset (PS) party presidential hopeful Timo Soini’s excuses about racism in his party are getting more surreal by the day. At a presidential debate Wednesday on MTV3, Soini claimed that racism wasn’t a problem in the PS and confined to  “one, two or three” cases compared with a half a million people who voted for the party in April. 

Is Soini in total denial about this serious issue in his party? It appears that as more of these cases come to light in the PS, the more fantastic Soini’s explanations get.

Let’s analyze what he said on MTV3 and ask who are those “one, two or three” cases that the speaks of?

The most recent one is that of PS MP James Hirvisaari, who got fined for hate speech and incitement against an ethnic group. We have as well PS MP Jussi Halla-aho, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Freddy van Wonterghem and others…  Oops!  That already makes more than three without mentioning Ulla Pyysalo and Tuomas Okkonen, who applied for membership in the neo-Nazi association, SKV.

Soini conveniently forgot to mention PS MP Olli Immonen, who believes that a “race war” is imminent between Europeans and Muslims.

If you go to Immonen’s official website, you will see a smiling Soini pictured behind the PS MP.  Just below him are links to “Just say no to Islamisation” and anti-immigration forums like Homma and Scripta.

Only “one, two or three” cases?

I don’t think so.

Rosa Parks’ humble example lives on

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Of the many Civil Rights Movement icons that emerged during the 1950s, the late Rosa Parks is one of my biggest heroes. With her humble example on a December first afternoon of 1955, Parks changed US history by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. 

Back then, black passengers were obliged to sit in the back of municipal buses. If the bus was full they were required to give up their seat to a white passenger.

Parks refused and was arrested.

                                                                             Rosa Parks. Source US Information Center. 

Four women and a man had taken similar steps as Parks but none of them had sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott that took place on her trial on December 5.  She was found guilty by the court and fined $14.

The bus strike that Parks sparked lasted for 381 days and was led by a 26-year-old Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. In a groundbreaking 9-0 decision in 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on municipal buses was illegal.

Parks’ civil disobedience became an important symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. She became famous internationally as an icon of peaceful resistance against racial segregation.

This brave woman, who died in 2005 at the age of 95, proved that people can change the course of history with their humble example. No weapon, police brutality, state terrorism or racism are a match for a woman like Parks.

If she was able to challenge with a simple refusal to relinquish her seat on a bus fifty-six years ago, imagine what we can do today with our examples.

Here is an interesting clip about Parks’ life.

Finland’s ignorance of racism and fascism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

One of the political dramas that Finland is facing today is that it does not know what racism and fascism is. The Finnish media up to the April 17 election not only lost its teeth and forgot its important role in defending our civil rights but helped the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) with its complacency.

It’s difficult to say if some journalists preferred not to write critically about PS candidates that belonged to Suomen Sisu because they were ignorant or because the racism of these candidates appealed to them.

While Migrant Tales calls Suomen Sisu a Nazi-spirited association, this was unfortunately the exception not the rule when it comes to the Finnish media.

Expo magazine editor Daniel Poohl said recently that Suomen Sisu ideology is a mirror image of fascist parties in Finland, Germany and Italy during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s.

If the Finnish media has done a shoddy job at reporting the rise of the far-right and populist threat to Finland, politicians haven’t done any better. Instead of trying to show leadership against racism and neo-fascism in Finland, they preferred to remain silent or, worse, assimilate the PS’ anti-immigration message.

Didn’t the politicians of all of Finland’s major and minor parties elect the head of the PS’ Suomen Sisu wing, MP Jussi Halla-aho, to chair the administration committee in charge of setting immigration policy?

It was only after Anders Breivik appeared on the scene in Norway and killed 77 Norwegians in July that some members of the Social Democratic party started to ask question about Halla-aho’s role in the administration committee.

Another tragedy of the media and too many politicians are their treatment of PS head Timo Soini, who tries to portray himself to the public as a good cop of a right-wing populist party that is anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim.

I totally agree with Poohl.  In the ongoing debate on Finland’s political future there is one important matter missing: knowing what racism and fascism is and their threat to our values and society.

Having lived, worked and traveled extensively in Latin America, I know that democracy can be shelved very easily.

Recovering it will be a real bitch.

Far-right anti-immigration killing in Italy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A far-right anti-immigration sympathizer of neo-fascist association CasaPound shocked Italy today when the killer shot dead two Senegalese street vendors in Florence before taking his life, according to the guardian.co.uk.

The police said that the killer,  Gianluca Casseri, 50, first shot dead the two Senegalese and wounded a third victim with a .357 Magnum at a crowded plaza in the outskirts of the city.

CasaPound, a revamped third-millennium fascist association that openly supports Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), has grown in Italy as the economy slows and unemployment rises.

CasaPound derives its name from USAmerican poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972), who embraced Mussolini’s fascist regime in World War 2.

As Europe’s economic problems worsen how many of these types of far-right killers who blame immigrants for  their problems will appear and kill innocent victims? How many far-right parties like CasaPound will give them their ideological ticket to commit such crimes?

Click here to see a video clip on CasaPound.

Finnish language is no magic bullet to integration

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

We read almost constantly stories in the Finnish media about how learning the Finnish language is supposed to be a magic bullet to full integration. By effectively accepting the idea that learning Finnish will solve all your integration problems are we sidestepping more serious issues that are hindering adaption?

The claim that language will solve all your problems may be true to some extent but by no means is it the pill that will turn you into a full member of society.

In Spain, where there are millions of Latin Americans who not only speak Spanish as their mother tongue and even have the same religion as the Spaniards, suffer from discrimination. In the United States there are black people who speak English as their native tongue but who still suffer from prejudice.

Even our Romany minority in Finland, which number around 10,000 people, have lived marginalized from us for centuries.

As long as we place all of our efforts on language as the magic integration cure, we will continue to brush the real issues under the rug. The more emphasis we place on language the more some people will use it to discriminate against others.

Some people learn Finnish faster than others. What are you going to do about those people who don’t learn to speak it well? Are you going to punish and marginalize them from our society for the rest of their lives?

If language isn’t the magic bullet policy-makers are seeking to convert us to insiders from outsiders, what, then, is hindering integration? Attitudes and institutional racism are good culprits.

The issue is not language per se but acceptance. How many Finnish politicians use the term acceptance in their speeches when they speak about immigrants and other minorities?

Without challenging the institutions and the culture of discrimination in Finland, we will conveniently sidestep the real issues that hinder integration of our new members of society.

There is more to integration than just learning grammar.

PS MP Hirvisaari gets convicted for hate speech

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By Enrique Tessieri

Perussuomaliset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari was convicted Monday by a Kouvola court for incitement against an ethnic group, according to Helsingin Sanomat in English. He got off the hook last year in November when a court in Päijät-Häme acquitted him of the same crime.  Hirvisaari says that he will appeal the latest decision in a higher court. 

It’s nothing surprising that Hirvisaari, who is ideologically in the far right and who blamed Anders Breivik’s mass killings in July in Norway on poor immigration policy, is one of Finland’s best-known Islamophobes.

Hirvisaari writes the following on Uusi Suomi blog shortly after the mass killings in Norway took place: “I really am not surprised that something like this could happen in Norway. In the last years at least ALL [sic!] of [the] tens of [people] accused of violent rapes have been done by immigrants/foreigners that have come from outside Europe.”

It shouldn’t come to any surprise that Hirvisaari is now trying to portray himself as a martyr of free speech, according to his latest  Uusi Suomi blog entry.

All eyes are now on PS chairman Timo Soini has said publicly that any party member that got “convicted for racism” would be kicked out of the party.