An article in Yle News brings us back again to one of the biggest challenges for multilingual children at Finnish schools: How the Finnish education system treats cultural diversity.
Language and cultural interpreter and early childhood educator Nadezda Kärmeniemi admitted that multilingual children are caught between differing attitudes at schools.
She is saying that there is no uniform system on how Finnish children, who speak more than one language, are treated at schools.
“Unfortunately, there are instance in our society where speaking oner’s mother tongue is not allowed,” she said. “When a child goes to school, the multilingual ‘coat’ may be left at home, with only Finnish used at school, as there is a sense that the language used at home does not belong there.”
Cultural diversity means for me two-way adaption. All cultural and ethnic groups in society have space to express and be themselves. The glue that holds them together with other groups is building respect through learning from each other.
This picture was taken from the former Urpola School of Mikkeli. It tells multilingual children that they should speak Finnish and that they are mamus, a derogatory term no longer used to mean migrants. Photo: Enrique Tessieri
Having taught and worked at a folk high school with multicultural backgrounds for thirteen years, I have noticed the following challenges:
Yle’s Ykkösamu talk show exposed to a tee what the parliament’s new foreign affairs committee chairperson thinks of Human Rights. The first question by the host forced Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion, to reinforce his contempt of Human Rights.
The interview was done after Halla-aho began his mandate as chairperson of parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
“The Perussuomalaisets’ view [on human rights] is that the right to move to Finland and remain here is not a human right but a privilege,” he told the host, adding that Finns’ human rights, like the right to security and wellbeing, should be taken into account.
We have only to visit his past statements and the aim of the PS to end all asylum seekers from coming to Finland, especially from Africa and Muslim-majority countries.
In plain English, Halla-aho loathes asylum seekers.
Let’s give Halla-aho a few pointers on Human Rights and cut through the chase.
Source: Twitter
Yes, there is another point that Halla-aho made about the human rights of Finns. He states this with a poker face even if his past writings have encouraged foreigners to rape politicians like Eva Biaudet and Tarja Filatov.
Riikka Purra, the chairperson of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, defended Jussi Halla-aho’s blog writings that are full of racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and anti-democratic worldviews. In one of Halla-aho’s writings, he hopes foreigners rape MPs like Eva Biaudet and Tarja Filatov.
The former PS chairperson’s blog writings were under scrutiny again after he was named chairperson of the foreign affairs committee. He also denied mentioning Eva Biaudet’s name in the infamous blog post.
Source: Twitter
It was disproven by Helsingin Sanomat and Halla-aho stuck by his lie, stating in the interview he would not apologize for what he wrote.
Source: Twitter
Imagine Purra, who holds a master’s degree and who is writing her doctoral dissertation and is one chosen offspring of the Finnish education system, can spread so much racism and hatred against people who never had the same opportunities as her.
Her logic went as far as to defend Halla-aho’s racist writings that are a good example of George Orwell’s famous quote in 1984: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,” and our own “racism is cultural understanding.”
There are a lot of baffled faces at the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. “Did you see our regional election result?!” one asks while the other states: “A Yle poll saw us nosedive by 3.3 percentage points to 15%. and now Helsingin Sanomat reinforces the latter.”
In our opinion, the PS is a far-right party that beats mainly the anti-immigration drum. The party is so obsessed with anti-immigration themes that it lost, a long time ago, its good sense if it ever had any.
Its good showing in the 2011, 2015, and 2019 parliamentary elections hinges on its anti-immigration theme. Before 2011, Finland was being intoxicated with racism from politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, the 2015 election was helped by a sexual assault case in Helsinki, and in 2019 by the overblown sexual assault cases of Oulu.
All of the PS 39 MPs elected in 2019 had an anti-immigration platform.
So what gives? Why are the PS facing a crisis in the polls?
Contrary to the past, politicians are more outspoken and openly question the PS racist and far-right ideology. Voters are also getting tired of hearing, like a broken and scratched record, the same anti-immigration theme over and over again.
Moreover, the PS has lurched further into the far-right thanks to Halla-aho and its new chairperson, Riikka Purra, who parrots what the former chairperson says.
If this type of strategy by the PS does not work and forces the party to suffer election losses, I hope that they continue spreading the same hateful rhetoric until they are blue in the face. More of Halla-aho, Purra, Mauri “Perkele” Peltokangas, Jani Mäkelä and a long list of others.
Keep up the “good” work, PS!
Kick out all the migrants, “let God sort ’em out.”
Presidentinvaalien alla v. 2012 RKP:n ehdokkaan nimen kirjoittaminen oli somen kielikriittisille lähes mahdoton tehtävä. Osa virheistä meni painovirheiden ja huolimattomuuden piikkiin – Biudet, Biadet. Sekään ei tietysti ollut kovin kohteliasta, kun puhutaan yhden poliittisen puolueen ja siis yhden kansanosan valitsemasta ehdokkaasta maan korkeimpaan virkaan – nimi pitäisi tietysti aina pyrkiä kirjoittamaan oikein. En oikein ymmärrä myöskään sukupuoleen ja ulkonäköön liittyvää lällättelyä kun oli kysymys presidenttiehdokkaasta:
”Biudet kertoo Kalevan mukaan kutsuvansa Immosen vierailulle toimistoonsa. Hurmaako kaunokainen Immosen ja pelastaa määrärahansa, jää nähtäväksi.”
Oma tarinansa ovat naisvihaajien, ruotsinkielisvihaajien ja muukalaisvihaajien porukka, jotka säännönmukaisesti vääntelevät kansanedustajan nimeä milloin mihinkin muotoon. Olipa tuolloin vaalien alla esillä tällainenkin tilasto:
”Nuorisovaalien ensimmäisen kierroksen äänet jakautuivat seuraavasti: Niinistö 36,1%, Soini 20,3%, Haavisto 16,2%, Arhinmäki 7,9%, Väyrynen 7,4%, Lipponen 5,3%, Biudetti 4,5% ja Essayah 2,4%.”
Monella nimenmuunnokset näyttivät viittaavan siihen, että on jotenkin hienoa olla juntti ja tahvo, kansanmies tai -nainen, jonka suuhun vieraskielinen nimi ei taivu, vaikka käsisuihkulla osoitettaisiin:
”Eva Biaudet (lausutaan eeva bjödee)”
”Biudeetti vastustaa demokratiaa ja haluaisi omasta näkökulmastaan epämieluisat demokraattisesti valitut kansanedustajat pois eduskunnasta. Ei ehkä ihan tervettä touhua, sanon minä.”
Joillakin ruotsinkielisten viha johti tarkoitukselliseen loukkaamiseen myös nimenmuunnoksen avuin:
”Bidee on huonolla ruotsilla kerrottu väljähtänyt vitsi. Kolmen prosentin äänisaalis olisi RKP:n falskille helmikanalle jo valtava torjuntavoitto.”
toiset taas olivat liittyneet koulukiusaajiin ja innoissaan vieneet alapesuallasta tarkoittavaa sanaa vielä vähän pitemmälle
”Katsokaa nyt vaikka pönttö-bideen hovia; oikein YLItarkastajaa täynnä koko vetämistä vaille oleva pönttö…”
Nyt helmikuussa 2022, kun Eva Biaudet jälleen osoitti selkärankaisuutta ja rohkeutta seisomalla hyvien arvojen, jakamattoman ihmisarvon ja rasisminvastaisuuden takana, eikä halunnut äänestää ulkoasiainvaliokunnan puheenjohtajaksi uusfasistia, tuo samaa bidee-lätinä on taas alkanut opposition kannattajien keskuudessa.
Ihmisillä on tietysti pelkonsa. Vieraita kieliä osaamattomilla ihmisillä voi olla vaikeuksia muistaa, kuinka Biaudet äännetään tai kirjoitetaan. Pelottaa, että vaikuttaa tyhmältä, jos ei osaa. Mutta siihenkin apu on niin helposti saatavilla: google. Ja toisaalta: Eva Biaudet on ollut julkisuudessa vuosikaudet ja hänen nimensä on nähty ja kuultu satoja kertoja. Jotain voisi ehkä oppiakin.
Suurin osa bideettäjistä on kuitenkin naisvihaajia, ruotsinkielispelkoisia ja perussuomalaisia, jotka eivät voi sietää sitä, että ruotsinkielinen nainen puolustaa vähemmistöjen oikeuksia. Ei voi kuin toivoa, että äidit ja isät kasvattavat nykyisten ja tulevien sukupolvien pojat ja tytötkin vähän paremmin.
Olemme eläneet ruotsinkielisten rinnalla koko ikämme ja jo monta sukupolvea. Maahanmuutto on lisääntynyt ja toivottavasti lisääntymään päin ja jokaisen on opittava elämään muidenkin, kuin kotikylän tutun väen kanssa. Eiköhän olisi jo aika ymmärtää, että kaikilla on oikeus omaan kieleensä ja nimeensä.
(Kirjoitus on julkaistu vähän toisen muotoisena Uuden Suomen Puheenvuorossa tammikuussa 2012.)
The new chairperson of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Jussi Halla-aho, did not get such a warm reception. In a highly unprecedented move by the committee members, 11 voted in a secret ballot in favor of Halla-aho while six abstained.
Halla-aho took over the committee’s chair Mika Niikko, its former chairperson, resigned in disgrace after suggesting that some Western leader should assure Russia that Ukraine will not seek Nato membership.
Even if the PS wouldn’t care less, too many in Finland have not forgotten who Halla-aho is and that he was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion. The former PS chairperson’s writings in the 2000s are full of racist Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, or for suggesting that three women politicians be raped by foreigners.
Source: Twitter
Halla-aho has not apologized or regretted his past writings.
Below are some of his recent tweets:
Halla-aho tweets (left) that we’d have “no reason to masturbate” if there were no news about migration and asylum seekers. On the right, he states: “Trump is the best thing that happened in a long time to the United States and the Western world.” Source: Twitter
Considering that people like Halla-aho could build a political future by spreading racism, those very things he said have come back to haunt and bite him.
He might get a lot of votes, but he would never become prime minister, never mind president.
Thanks to Halla-aho, the PS has become even more racist and openly flirted with neo-Nazi and far-right groups.
Should we be surprised that six MPs abstained on Halla-aho’s appointment to chair the foreign affairs committee?
Not at all.
His racist writings and opinions will follow him till the end of his days.
The ministry of interior published on Thursday its recommendations on what to do with some 3,000 undocumented migrants who came to Finland in 2015-2016. Of this group, about 300 are childrenliving in legal limbothanks to a 2016 law that abolished granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds.
The number of undocumented migrants rose from a few hundred to a few thousand thanks to the 2016 law.
Before the passing of the law during Prime Minister Juho Sipilä’s government, asylum seekers who could not be sent to their country because of human rights violations were given temporary residence permits.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan took a proactive approach to discrimination in the Metropolitan Police.We need the same in Finland to deal with a problematic issue in the Finnish police force.
“Last week I made it clear to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner (Cressida Dick) the scale of the change I believe is urgently required to rebuild the trust and confidence of Londoners in the Met and to root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination, and misogyny that still exists. I am not satisfied with the commissioner’s report on being informed of this. Cressida Dick has offered her resignation of which I have accepted.”
“It’s clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police. “
Wise words by Mayor Khan.
Why don’t we hear the same from our politicians?
It is clear that the same issues that stain and undermine confidence in the Metropolitan Police also are a blow to confidence in Finland, especially among migrants and minorities.
We have read too many stories in Finland about racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination, and misogyny in the Finnish police.
“It always amazes me to hear Finland’s most xenophobic politicians from the Perussuomalaiset* and National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) pointing the accusing finger at Sweden about how the country has failed because of immigration. Sweden has a more dynamic and competitive economy than Finland’s because of migrants. If there are problems in Sweden, the state is one big culprit. Don’t just blame migrants. That’s cheap populism.”
According to Helsingin Sanomat, former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson Jussi Halla-ago is expected to replace Mika Nikko, the chairperson of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, according to Helsingin Sanomat. Niikko resigned Tuesday evening after he suggested in a tweet that the West should assure Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine will not join Nato.
While Niikko is a loose canon, Halla-aho isn’t any better. He wrote in 2011, on Facebook that Greece should have a military junta to crush protests. He was temporarily banned from the party’s parliamentary group for the comment.
No media in Finland has mentioned how inappropriate Halla-aho would be as chairperson of the foreign affairs committee for suggesting, among other matters, a military coup in Greece.
In 2011, he was temporarily banned from the party’s parliamentary group after he wrote on Facebook that the military junta could best solve the crisis in Greece by crushing protestors.
