YLE: Soini demands temporary explusion of Halla-aho from Finns party parliamentary group

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Comment: It certainly looks like troubles are brewing in the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party after far-right MP Jussi Halla-aho took a bigger piece of his foot in his mouth than usual. With total disregard for a troubled EU member state and our European democratic values,  Halla-aho suggested on Facebook that Greece should install a military junta and suppress protestors with tanks.

PS head Timo Soini, who is upset by what Halla-aho said, is proposing expelling the MP for a month from the parliamentary group.

The controversial PS MP, who is chairman of the administration committee, has been known to make provocative statements in the past by insulting Muslims and our cultural diversity. He apparently does so to “awaken people” to his distorted view of the world. 

For a country like Finland, which prizes itself for defending human rights and promoting social equality, Halla-aho’s statement is a rude slap in the face to this country. It could be seen as a fleeting return to the 1930s, when fascism was on the rise in Finland and most of Europe.

Adding salt to injury, Halla-aho overlooked the painful fact for Greeks that they were ruled by a military junta in 1967-74. Probably this type of a de facto government, which has no respect for basic human rights, is the one that Halla-aho wants immigrants and minorities to live under in Finland.

The row between Soini and Halla-aho is the first of many public cracks that will cause the PS to lose credibility in the coming months. Certainly if the PS can be the PS without its usual dose of xenophobia and conservative nationalism, Soini’s decision may even strengthen the party.

But the jury is out and the problems of the PS are starting to surface. It’s not a pretty picture.

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The leader of the Finns party, Timo Soini, has demanded the temporary expulsion of controversial MP Jussi Halla-aho from the party’s parliamentary group. The move follows a writing on Facebook made on Wednesday by Halla-aho in which he said a military junta could best solve Greek crisis by using tanks to crush protestors.

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HS.fi: Soini sai puolustella omiaan Pietarissakin

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Comment: One of the surprising matters about the ongoing debate in Finland on immigrants, immigration and refugees is that politicians forget that their comments have a much wider audience than they think. This is especially true of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, which has poured on with gusto its anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric up to the April election.

This time Russian journalists in St. Petersburg had the opportunity to quiz PS chairman Timo Soini about his party’s anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Russian sentiment.

Soini told the journalists that for him Norway was a model country that he’d want Finland to emulate. In his usual populist style, Soini forgot to mention that Finland does not have such a luxury because it isn’t the Saudi Arabia of Europe like Norway.

A question by a Russian journalist caught Soini by surprise when he asked the PS leader if a Breivik-type killer would emerge in Finland if we followed in Norway’s footsteps.

Soini disagreed because he said that there was no relation between the two matters.

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Perussuomalaiset ja Timo Soini kiinnostivat pietarilaistoimittajia tiistaina enemmän kuin kaupungissa vieraileva eduskunnan ulkoasiainvaliokunta. Venäläistoimittajat tenttasivat valiokunnan puheenjohtajaa Soinia etenkin perussuomalaisten viileästä suhtautumisesta Euroopan unioniin ja maahanmuuttoon, mukaan lukien venäläisiin.

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Der Spiegel International: Right-Wing Populists Face Test in Denmark

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Comment: The right-wing populist Danish People’s Party will face an important election test on Thursday two months after right-wing fanatic Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway. The first test for anti-immigration populist parties came this month in the Norwegian municipal elections, were the Progress Party saw its support plummet by 6.1 percentage points to 11.5%.

Migrant Tales predicted shortly after Breivik’s mass killings in Norway that an important watershed was crossed and that support, at least momentarily, would wane for anti-immigration parties in the Nordic Region.

A Megafon poll for Politiken and TV2News published on September 12 showed that the opposition alliance will win 92 seats compared with the government’s 83 seats in the 179-seat parliament.

Ten years of sustaining a minority government in Denmark has permitted the Danish People’s Party to turn the country’s immigration legislation into Europe’s strictest. Here is a story on The Local of Sweden that highlights the problems that some multicultural couples face due in Denmark.

Karsten Dybvad, the CEO of the Danish Confederation of Industries, suggested on Politiken that Denmark’s strong anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim stance have hurt the country’s image abroad.  “We have surveys showing that businesses feel we have problems with our cultural openness and image abroad. That is of course something we would like to help improve,” Dybvad says.

Contrary to Norway, Denmark and Sweden, where the Sweden Democrats have lost support in a recent poll, the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party continues to receive strong support in Finland. This maybe partly explained by the fact that the PS is now emphasizing more of its anti-EU side rather than its opposition to immigration.

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Just two months after the politically inspired massacre in Norway, a right-wing populist party, one of Europe’s most influential, will face a test of voter sentiment at the ballot box. The Danish People’s Party has been instrumental in tightening at least 20 laws pertaining to immigration and migration.

Read whole story.

MTV3: Linja-autoliikennöitsijät: Rasismi ei ole lisääntynyt

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Comment: Here is an excellent example below what is wrong in Finland with the ongoing debate on racism. The story below is apparently a rebuttal to another one published in Savon Sanomat, where Riita Wärn of the Confederation of Finnish Industry (EK), warns that growing racism in Finland could hinder its image and scare off skilled immigrants from moving to this country. 

While it is a good matter that a predominantly white Finnish lobby group is making such a statement, another white Finnish person, general manager Janne Vihavainen of bus company Veolia Transport affirms that racism isn’t growing in Finland. “We cannot state that racism has grown significantly in Finland,” he said.

What worries me  about these types of debates like between Wärn and Vihavainen is that there are no immigrants or visible minorities giving their opinion on the matter. Even though I side with the woman from EK and commend that association for speaking out against such a social ill, there are still no immigrants giving their opinion.

Are immigrants or their associations too afraid to speak out? Do reporters shy from asking them if there is racism in Finland because they feel uncomfortable about what they may hear and have to write?

We don’t have to use a real immigrant such a question. Why not ask a Multicultural Finn if there is racism in this country?

The question is why we don’t ask these groups this important question.

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Viljami Vuorento

Pääkaupunkiseudun linja-autoliikennöitsijät eivät allekirjoita Elinkeinoelämän Keskusliiton Savon Sanomille kertomaa näkemystä rasismin lisääntymisestä. EK:n työvoima- ja maahanmuuttopolitiikan asiantuntijan Riitta Wärnin mukaan maahanmuuttajiin on alettu viime vuoden aikana suhtautua aiempaa penseämmin. Erityisen huolissaan EK on maahanmuuttajavaltaisten alojen työvoimapulasta.

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Savon Sanomat: Rasismi uhkaa Suomen mainetta

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Comment: The Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) is concerned about racism in Finland and how it could tarnish the country’s good image and scare off skilled immigrants.”Before drunkards would yell (at immigrants) at night,” said EK’s Riita Wärn. “Harassment now happens at day. This is very worrying.”

While it is a positive sign that more pressure groups and common Finns are speaking out against racism, I am pretty certain that the election victory of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party in April already tarnished the country’s image.  The PS doesn’t have to worry about skilled labor coming to Finland because there are more attractive and friendlier countries to move to in Europe.

Even if racism and discrimination is raising its head in Finland, the most probable thing is that it always existed but never had a reason to come out in such force as today.

Do you agree?

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Jukka Patrakka

Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto (EK) on huolissaan ulkomaalaisten lisääntyneestä häirinnästä. EK:n mukaan asenteet ovat koventuneet selvästi viimeisen vuoden aikana. Varsinkin turvapaikanhakijoihin ja romanikerjäläisiin, mutta myös muihin maahanmuuttajiin on alettu suhtautua penseästi.

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Finland: To isolate or not to isolate ourselves from the world

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By Enrique Tessieri

If there is a post-Finlandization period in this country it manifests itself today through fear and suspicion of the outside world. As the April election result showed, a large minority of Finns don’t have a problem about returning to the days when Finland was near-isolated geopolitically from the outside world thanks to its special relationship with the former Soviet Union.

A Helsingin Sanomat poll published Wednesday showed that 40% of Finns are not very enthused about Europe and would not would not run under any circumstances to the aid of countries like Greece. Finland’s polarized society exposed itself in April, when a surprising 19.1% voted for the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party.

If the Helsingin Sanomat poll showed that 40% of Finns would be ready to turn their backs on Europe and the world, the PS victory in spring has turned that will into a strong political message. Even if the PS is a mixed bag of ideologies, it bases its support on anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim sentiment.

The Helsingin Sanomat poll and the election result show how polarized Finland is today. On the one hand you have a large minority that wants Finland to effectively isolate itself from the world while the majority has a different opinion.

One of the matters that has impressed me a lot about the Finns is how this society can leap through history with Superman aspirations and with little debate.  A case in point is our ever-growing cultural diversity as a society after promoting ethnic and cultural homogeneity during the last century. The same is true when looking at Finland’s geopolitical near-isolation during the cold war era (1945-1991).

How difficult can it be for a country like Finland, which had seen its foreign population plummet to a mere 7,000 people in 1970 from 24,451 in 1920, to leap from a near-homogeneous society to one that is today tolerant and culturally diverse? A similar watershed was crossed in 1995, when we became a European Union member.

Fortunately the majority of Finns have been able to keep up with these breath-taking transitions. The Helsingin Sanomat poll shows that over half agreed at least to some degree that Finland should help eurozone countries.  Even if the PS scored a historic victory in April, 81% of Finns did voted for the traditional parties.

Debate in Finland is picking up as our society becomes more diverse ethnically and culturally. Our conceptions of ourselves as a unified ethnic and cultural block are changing but are still reinforced at school whenever  Finns are pitted against the outside world as is the case with the lessons of the Winter War (1939-40). Even though we are grateful to those who sacrificed their lives, glorifying these types of wars only serve to strengthen our sense of “us” and “them.”

It is a bit absurd that in 2011 we continue to place so much emphasis on the Winter and Continuation War (1941-44) taking into account that Russia is our neighbor and that the largest national and linguistic group living in Finland are Russians.

Finland needs today a much richer and varied debate on where our country is heading in this century.This debate is vital so we don’t end up living inside a nationalistic and xenophobic bubble.  It is as well the only effective way to challenge the threat posed by parties like the PS.

The whole issue can be summed up by an editorial of Sunday’s Helsingin Sanomat: “Finland’s greatest danger isn’t terrorism (in light of 9/11) but isolating itself (from the world).”

MTV3: Rasistin raitiovaunusta poistanut Pekka Sauri: Välinpitämättömyys ärsyttää

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Comment:  Changing the laws is not enough to tackle a social ill like racism but leadership like Deputy Mayor Pekka Sauri of the Green Party showed on a tram in Helsinki helps a lot. A black family had entered the tram. This prompted a middle-aged man, who was apparently inebriated and drinking beer, to harass the family. Sauri reacted and asked the man to get off the tram, which he did. 

Sauri said that the incident, which was first reported by tabloid Iltalehti, shows that the world has become a dangerous place and that people should react and speak out when something like this happens.

“I have got a lot of reaction, 98% positive, after the story was published ,” he said. “I have got feedback from a few racists (as well).”

Despite the leadership shown by Sauri, the deputy mayor said that what concerned him most about the incident was the silence of the  passengers.

He said that people should just say “Stop!” loudly enough if such an incident occurred again. “The harassment could stop (as a result),” he said.

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Pauliina Pietilä

Helsingin apulaiskaupunginjohtaja Pekka Sauri kertoo saaneensa paljon kiitosta puututtuaan rasistiseen tilanteeseen eilen Helsingissä. Sauri istui eilen illalla tuttujensa kanssa raitiovaunu 10:ssä, kun Kansaneläkelaitoksen pysäkin kohdalla sisään nousi afrikkalaistaustainen perhe.

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Thank you for making Migrant Tales what it is today

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By Enrique Tessieri

My personal gratitude goes to all the bloggers that have made Migrant Tales “a voice for those immigrants and minorities whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public.”

Our latest recognition comes from Aleksandr Shatravka, who we met thanks to this blog. Thanks to that meeting, I was able to publish in Apu magazine one of Finland’s first-ever comprehensive stories about what happened to Soviet refugees when they were caught by Finnish Border Guards and returned to the USSR.

I had waited over 25 years to meet one of these former Soviet refugees.

Shatravka has now published a book in which he cites Migrant Tales.

Migrant Tales has been mentioned elsewhere as well: Here is a link to Dunia Magazine that published a column by yours truly. Migrant Tales has got attention from some important news publications. In the spring I got a call from a journalist from “Deutschlandradio”, the National German Radio, it was mentioned on Time Magazine right after the April 17 election, and recently I got a call from the BBC. is another Twitter publication that picks up our blog entries as well as other ones like The Finns Daily.

I am very pleased that what we write on Migrant Tales gets noticed in and out of Finland.

Our success would not have been possible without you!

Spiegel Online International: How 9/11 Triggered America’s Decline

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Comment:  The impact of 9/11 can be clearly seen after ten years of that devastating attack that made the United States lose its way in the so-called war on terror declared by former President George W. Bush.

Contrary to Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who said right after the mass killings by Anders Breivik that Norway’s answer would be more openness and more democracy, Bush went on a $3-trillion foreign policy crusade that has cost the United States dearly.

Writes Speigel Online International:  “For a short time after the attacks, the country seemed united. Americans embraced each other. Even the cold city of New York suddenly seemed warm. But instead of cultivating public spirit, President Bush sought to find a pretext — any pretext — to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. This is his most tragic legacy, the fact that America can no longer even mourn its victims properly — because Americans have long been not just victims, but also perpetrators.”

If there is one party in Finland that can thank Bush it is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The US’ war against the Muslim world gave rise to Islamophobists like Jussi Halla-aho and a long list of others. Without their anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric the PS could have never won 39 seats in the April election. 

In 2003 I published an opinion-piece on Suomen Kuvalehti on the US invasion of Iraq and how it would have catastrophic consequences for the credibility of that country. At least for me, the Iraq invasion was a strong whiff of deja vu since it was the way Washington handled its big-stick policy in Latin America.

“Latin America was a region where coups – oops! régime change — occurred on a grand scale. If experience of how the U.S. influenced Latin America in the last century is anything to go by, the people of the Middle East are in big trouble,” I wrote back in 2003.

Probably the saddest matter of 9/11 is that the United States under Bush started to believe its own spin and invincibility.

Where were you on 9/11 and how to do you think that attack, which should be seen as a crime and not as a declaration of war against all Muslims, changed the world?

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The events of Sept. 11, 2001 led to a wave of solidarity with the US. But the superpower has lost that goodwill over the course of the wars it subsequently waged. Now America is mainly seen not as the victim of terrorism, but as a perpetrator of violence itself.

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HS.fi: Salon irtisanottu talonmies palaa töihin

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Comment: The fired building superintendent, who got laid off because clients complained of his ethnic background, has been rehired by his former employer Salon Omakotiyhdistys ry, according to HS.fi quoting Finnish News Agency (STT).

The moral of the incident? If you expose discrimination and racism things may change.

Keeping quiet if you are a victim of discrimination and racism is as bad as working in the black. In both cases you forfeit your rights and leave your future to chance.

Another encouraging matter about the incident shows that things can change for the better in Finland but there is one key requirement: Silence is a definite no-no.

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STT

Turku. Salossa irtisanottu ulkomaalaistaustainen talonmies palaa takaisin töihin. Salon omakotiyhdistys pyysi aiemmin miestä palaamaan, ja hän kertoi perjantaina tulevansa takaisin.

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