Crossing a line in Norway and condemning it in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

When does a person or group cross the magic line from right-wing populism to far-right? The tragic events that struck Norway on Friday should help us to distinguish better where that magic line is and what our reaction to it should be.

If Anders Behring Brejvik, the man who was responsible for the death of over 90 people on Friday, would have never carried out his outlandish deeds he’d be walking amongst us today visiting the numerous hate websites on the net.

What happened in Norway is a rude wake up call for us in Europe and Finland. It casts an eerie shadow on the role of those politicians, political parties and associations that spread a culture of hatred against immigrants and minorities and repackage it as patriotism.

Even though these groups are dazzled by the power of racism they soon notice that after the monster has been left out of the cage it can bite back at them.

Brejvik was chairman of the populist and anti-immigration Fremskrittspartiet party in Oslo West for about nine months and then on the local party’ board for about two years.*

Moreover, Brejvik was reported by TV1’s 20:30 news that he is an admirer of Perussuomalaiset MP Jussi Halla-aho, who is a mamber of the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association.

The tragic events in Norway should embolden us to act and distinguish those groups and members in our society that want to change it at the cost of other people’s civil rights. Probably the reason why some of us haven’t branded some of them yet as far-right extremists is because we are in denial or dread admitting that there are these types of people and groups amongst us.

We need  a serious debate in Finland about the role of associations like Suomen Sisu in our parliament and the racism that festers in the Perussuomalaiset party.

The tragic events of Norway should strengthen our resolve to defend our Nordic way of life, which is built on social justice and equality for all. We should stand firm and be especially vigilant against those who want to destroy our noble values.

It is the minimum we can offer to the victims in Norway.

* Thank you Jonas for the heads up!

Reuters: Analysis: Questions over far-right link in Norwegian attacks

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: The terrible events that hit Norway on Friday appear to be the work of a far-right extremist, according to a story by Reuters below. Taking into account the rise of far-right and right-wing populist parties in Europe due to anti-immigrant and anti-Islam sentiment fuelled by a shaky economic panorama, what happened in Norway can be a serious wake up call to countries like Finland.

Writes Reuters: “But violence, while sometimes fatal, has rarely escalated beyond group thuggery and the use of knives. That may have changed in Oslo and on the holiday island of Utoeya on Friday. Seven people were killed in a bombing in the capital — Western Europe’s worst since the 2005 London al Qaeda-linked suicide attacks that killed 52 people — and at least 10 (the number has risen to at least 80) in a shooting rampage by a lake.”

Migrant Tales and some bloggers who visit our blog have regularly expressed concern about how some far-right members of parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party have stoked the flames of racism with their provocative statments and blog entries.

If a terrible tragedy is possible in Norway could something similar happen in Finland? Certainly it could and it has happened before when lone gunmen have gone on shooting rampages in Jokela and Kauhajoki.

Why is tolerance and acceptance important in society? Why should we confront bigotry and fascism forcefully?

Oslo and Utoeya island, northwest of the capital Oslo, are probably answers and the tragic consequences.

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By William Mclean

A report that Norway’s bomb and gun rampage may be the work of a far-right militant confronts Europe with the possibility that a new paramilitary threat is emerging, a decade after al Qaeda’s September 11 attacks.

Read whole story.

Norway’s tragedy appears to be homegrown

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

We are all saddened by the loss of life and tragedy that ripped open a terrible scar in Norway after a car bomb exploded in the capital and a man shot dead 80 innocent victims on Friday, according to media reports.  The police have apprehended a suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian “conservative,” according to politicons.com.

As the tragic events unfolded on Friday, some were quick to point the finger at international terrorism.

This now appears unlikely, according to the Guardian of London.  “The targeted nature of the attacks at both government offices and the Labour party youth camp both suggest a more political agenda rather than an attempt to create widespread terror,” the daily reports. “Norwegian news reports last night said that police did not think the attacks were linked to international terrorism and that it was more likely directed at the current political system.”

Former ambassador to Norway, Ole Norrback, jumped the gun a bit on the YLE’s Friday 20:30 news but said the right things. Even if the bombing initially suggested the work of an international jihadist terrorist organization, according to him, it should be seen as the work of a minority.

Norrback said that the majority of the immigrants living in Norway are hard-working people who have nothing to do with what happened.

Let’s wait for more information by the police to determine what kind of political motive the man had and how his actions could impact the rest of the region.

The PS and their culture of fear in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

If there is one matter that I would wish stopped in Finland it is the culture of fear being spread by the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party. We can all remember prior to the April election how some members of the right-wing populist party portrayed immigrants and refugees as gang rapists and social welfare shoppers as soon as they crossed the border into Finland.

The fear-mongering by the PS appears to have no end. It changes constantly according to the political situation. Yesterday immigrants were their favorite target and today it is the financially embattled European Union.

I was quite astonished when I read a letter to the editor published this week in Mikkeli daily Länsi-Savo. A prominent PS politician sounded the alarm bells claiming an apocalyptic end to Finnish culture and language if the EU ever became a federation.

He compared our fate as a “small nation” to other Fenno-Ugric tribes of Russia that numbered a few thousand at the most.

Certainly it is a sad matter that our Fenno-Ugric relatives were devoured by a bigger and more powerful Russian culture but to compare their fate to a nation of over five million is ludicrous.

If Finnish culture is so vulnerable as the PS politician wanted to show to outside encroachment, why didn’t it disappear when Finns formed part of the Swedish and Russian Empire for about 700 years?

What will be the next fear-mongering stunt by the PS?

That we are being invaded by Martians?

 

Iltalehti: Ulkomaalainen mies ryöstettiin Vaasassa

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment:  An African 40-year-old man was robbed and assaulted on Saturday in a Vaasa neighborhood, reports tabloid Iltalehti. The attackers, who were 5-6 white Finns between the ages of 20 and 25, started to call the man names like the n-word. After being threatened in public, one of the assailants threw a punch at the man, who then fell on the ground and was kicked. 

Being verbally and physically attacked in public is horrible for anyone but what surprises me, if the report by Iltalehti is accurate, is that the police is treating the matter as a robbery.

Certainly we should not jump to conclusions until the police report is out and the perpetrators have been brought to justice.

However, it is common practice in countries where paramilitary groups roam freely to kidnap their victims at their homes and steal something to show that robbery could be involved.

Once again we must thank the Finnish media for bringing these types of crimes to light. It shows that sensible Finns will not accept this type of behavior in their country.

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Uhri kaadettiin maahan, ja häntä lyötiin ja potkittiin.  Afrikkalaissyntyinen 40-vuotias mies ryöstettiin Ristinummella Vaasassa lauantaina klo 15 jälkeen. Miehen luokse oli tullut 5-6 suomalaista noin 20-25-vuotiasta miestä ja ryhtynyt nimittelemään tätä muun muassa neekeriksi. 

Read whole story.

Nelonen: Hakkaraisten tulipalojen koettelema saha hoipertelee konkurssin partaalla

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Comment: This time Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP Teuvo Hakkarainen is not being carried out drunk by two doormen from a bar or for his racist gaffes, well almost. At the end of the video clip he does make an attempt to  do his infamous imitation of a Muslim Minaret call to prayer.

This time it was his family’s sawmill business that is on life support.

One of the scoops that the Nelonen TV newsclip revealed was that Hakkarainen’s family business has received during the last decade 835,808 euros in subsidies, of which 284,292 euros came from the EU. On his personal website, some of the promises he vows to make is to get Finland out of the European Union.

Hakkarainen’s sawmill was reported previously of having got half a million euros in subsidies from the EU.

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Perussuomalaisten kansanedustajan Teuvo Hakkaraisen perheyritys on rämpinyt vakavissa talousvaikeuksissa kymmenen vuoden ajan. Lähes konkurssikypsälle sahalle on pumpattu yhteiskunnan tukia vuosikymmenen aikana yli 800 000 euroa.

Read whole story.

SPIEGEL Interview with Economics Minister Rösler: “I Used to Dream I Was a Vietnamese Prince”

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Comment: Below is a very interesting interview with Vietnamese-born German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler on Spiegel Online. Rösler was brought up in a German family when he was nine months old. Rösler is for many immigrants and Germans of immigrant descent a role model.

The economic minister also questions indirectly Angela Merkel’s claim in October that multiculturalism has failed.  Spiegel asked him if Germany’s policies towards immigrants have been too indulgent with those who refuse to integrate. “My belief is that our policies have offered too little, in terms of language courses for example,” he said. “Punishment shouldn’t be our first response.”

Another interesting point Rösler made was on Muslims living in Germany. “There are around 4 million Muslims in the country and they to help to shape it, so yes, it’s also correct to say that Islam belongs in Germany.”

He had good advice for those that ridicule immigrants and minorities.  “How is someone supposed to become part of society when he or she is told from the beginning, “You’re not really a part of us?”

In my opinion, the last statement, “You’re not really a part of us,” is what exposes the true nature of the anti-immigration beast of parties like the Perussuomalaiset. 

How are people supposed to integrate and embrace our culture if these groups are constantly building walls around Finland?

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German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler, who was adopted into a German family from Vietnam at a young age, insists that he never had problems because of his background. He spoke with SPIEGEL about integration, discrimination and what it means to be German.

Read whole story.

Some past and present reflections of life in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

In 1984, a groups of foreign students published a critical book of life in Finland called Strange days – the experience of foreign students in Finland. Some claim that the content of a good book can withstand the unrelenting hand of time. How would the reflections of being a foreigner in Finland sound if we read Strange Days today?

The front cover of Strange Days published in 1984. The drawing shows former Aliens' Office head Eila Kännö inspecting a black person applying for a residence permit. The drawing is by Rabbah Boussuira..

Those who moved to Finland in the 1980s or earlier can appreciate that matters have improved a lot from those times thanks to EU membership and new laws like the Constitution (1999), Nationality Law (2003) and Non-Discrimination Act (2004).  Even though there is no mention that we are a multicultural society in these laws, they do show greater sensibility to minorities and acceptance of cultural diversity.

Finland passed its first Aliens Act in 1983, or about 65 years after the country gained independence in 1917. Finland did not have immigrants at the time since foreigners were officially called aliens (muukalaisia).

Below are a few quotes picked from Strange Days published 26 years ago. Are they still valid? You be the judge:

The game of cultural politics remains heavily skewed against the “ulkomaalainen” (literally “from outside the country and in a deeper sense, from outside the world). Finnish culture is tight-knit, to be in Finnish society is vastly different from being inside Finnish borders among Finns. Quite appropriately, outsiders are administered by the Ministry of the Interior. Foreigners who live peacefully for many years here are usually outstanding individuals, and only gradually do they begin to grasp how literally the meaning of outstanding has been taken: they are required to stand outside, both in the abstract sense of social and cultural participation and often in concrete matters like housing and admission to restaurants. Greg Moore and Adrián Soto, pp. 5-6

How many times I have listened as my dark-skinned friends tell of the Finns’ awkward, insulting and violent behavior towards them. Almost every time I walk through the streets with one of my more “foreign” looking companions, some Finn figures out a way, more of less grossly, to emphasize our otherness, our foreigness. Therefore, the fact that I have white skin has definitely helped me survive here; however, my disillusion has definitely grown since I became aware of this. Steve Huxley, p. 9

But if you look deeper into Finnish society you will find a type of covert racism which is waiting to lash out as soon as the size of the foreign and minority population increases. Enrique Tessieri, p. 12

Even though Finland's immigrant population has grown by ten times since 1984, when Strange Days was published, the ongoing one-sided debate on immigrants makes this drawing still valid by Rabbah Boussuira.

…most of their history Finns have been dominated by foreigners. First the Swedes came over in the twelfth century and more or less bullied the Finns into accepting Christianity and fighting their wars against the Russians for them. Then the Russians took over and did more or less the same thing until 1917, when Finland ducked out the back door and declared independence while the Russians were distracted by revolution at home. The Finns had their own civil war in 1918 and one issue was whether the country should be run by foreigners in the future or the Finns themselves. The Finns compromised on democracy and independence, leaving foreign kings and international revolution to others. Ahti Tolvanen, p. 35

We Finns are not taught to express ourselves orally. Teachers have insurmountable problems in making their students speak. This is due in part to fear of exposing oneself to criticism. Thus, shyness, a strong faith in authorities, and the feeling of personal insignificance, result in emptiness in the head and an inability to speak after the long, silent years of infancy. Children should not receive too much attention, you know, as this would only spoil them and make them too self-confident. The best is to subdue it (i.e. the child) as thoroughly as you can, then it will eventually turn out to be a respectable, humble citizen. Maaria Seppänen, p. 47

Right-wing populist parties want Europeans to live in their news blackout

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The job of autocratic regimes is still made easy today thanks to faulty technology and infrastructure. If a military regime usurped power from a democratically elected government, it can literally “turn off the lights” and keep the population in a news and information blackout.

While some may claim that this could never happen in Europe, where access to information is supposed to be our inalienable right, news and information blackouts do take place in many parts of the world. Some countries where this occurs are Myanmar, Turkmenistan, North Korea and in remote areas  where basic infrastructure like electricity and telephone services are not available.

Even if we live in Europe in the dead center of the information highway (an old term but still valid), some of us strangely prefer to treat news in the same way as countries like Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia or China.

Things have got so bad in these nations that many of their inhabitants have learned to trust those who have placed their civil rights in cold storage and be   highly suspicious of those who are trying to regain them.

Just because we live in Europe and have access to information doesn’t mean that we are not in danger of falling into the same trap as countries like Belarus, China or Vietnam. Wikileaks is a good example that this problem exists in countries that claim to be open and democratic.

But who are these groups in Europe that want to  switch off the information and news lights?

They are none other than right-wing populist parties. We all know their names: Sweden Democrats, Jobbik, Perussuomalaiset, Danish People’s Party, National Front of France, Lega Nord, Slovak National Party, British National Party to name a few.

Certainly switching off the news and information lights would be impossible in Europe in the same way as Cuba. However, there are many ways to skin the news and information cat. On of the most effective ways is with the help of rhetoric, populism and nationalism used by these parties, which are anti-EU, anti-immigration, anti-minority and anti-Islam.

Let’s take for instance the anti-immigration “switch.” If we accept the arguments of these parties who picture immigrants as social-welfare shoppers, rapists, criminals etc, our fear shuts down our reasoning and ability to register news and information that is well-balanced and objective. We end up living in a self-imposed news and information blackout thanks to our fear.

What these right-wing populist parties haven’t told you, however, is that we are the only ones who have the power to turn on or off that crucial switch.

Our civil rights have to be defended everyday.

Iltalehti: Perussuomalainen eduskunta-avustaja levitti törkeää vitsiä

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Comment: Here is another example of how the PS cannot put a lid on their own racism. Tabloid Iltalehti reports that PS MP Juho Eerola’s aide, Ulla Pyysalo, posted a racist joke about Green Party MP Jani Toivola, who is black and gay.

Here is MP Toivola’s reaction to the “joke” on the Green Pary website. 

These types of “jokes” by people close to Eerola shouldn’t come as a suprise since the MP from Kotka belongs to the far right wing of the PS. If Eerola were Hungarian, Swedish or Danish, he’d find his ideological home in parties like Jobbik, Sweden Democrats or the Danish People’s Party.

A member of the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu, Eerola has praised in the past Benito Mussolini’s economic model. If he is really that lured by a corporativist model, he should take some time to study Juan Domingo Perón’s economic model for Argentina during the 1940s and 1950s.

Eerola, like his PS anti-immigration cronies, are responsible for inciting some Finns to adopt even more hardline and unrealistic positions when it comes to immigration.

Pyysalo regrets what she said on Ilatlehti: “It was dumb, I didn’t want to insult Toivola personally.” 

The tabloid asked if she considers herself a racist. “I don’t know. It depends how you define racism.”

How you define racism? What about a racist joke on Facebook?! The excuses by the PS on how to make their racism more acceptable takes stranger forms by the day. 

When contacted, Toivola expressed dismay at what Eerola’s aide had written on Facebook. 

One of the matters that far-right PS MPs like Eerola are trying to do in Finland is make something unacceptable like racism acceptable. At the forefront of this shift in values is nobody else but the PS.

Are you surprised?

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Linda Pelkonen

Kansanedustaja Juho Eerolan (ps) avustaja Ulla Pyysalo julkaisi rasistisen vitsin Facebook-profiilissaan sunnuntaina. Kirjoituksessa vitsailtiin Jani Toivolan ihonväristä ja seksuaalisesta suuntautumisesta.

Read whole story.