Being a migrant for a number of generations is special. Why do some of us are always hoping to go somewhere but we are always returning?
New immigrant arrivals in Argentina during the beginning of the last century. Source: Google
My late father, Nemo, put this surreal situation in the following words: Being at a railway station is like being in the land of nowhere with a sense of being somewhere else, or estando en una estación de tren es estar en la tierra de nadie con un sentir de estar más allá..
For some, this state is a feeling of intense joy because there is so much anticipation.
Diana Bellesi is an Argentinean writer and poet who put the latter state in the following words:
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party MP Sebastian Tynkkynen was convicted for a third time of ethnic agitation, according to Yle News. The two previous convictions were handed down in 2016 and 2017.
The Oulu District Court handed Tynkkynen, who is the PS’ third vice president, 70 day fines amounting to 4,400 euros.
The PS MP naturally denied any wrongdoing, and that conviction ran against his right to free expression.
“Why was it necessary to speak [out against Muslims who are a danger to society], taking into account what was happening behind the scenes with respect to the sexual abuse of children and how it undermined security in general,” he was quoted as saying in Iltalehti and continues: “I saw back then that I had a moral obligation to speak out against this.”
A “moral obligation” to speak out against sexual harassment? How disingenuous of you, MP Tynkkynen.
Let’s look at media coverage and how the police and politicians reacted to sexual harassment cases of minors in Oulu in 2018-2019. Back then, MPs like Tynkkynen were fueling the fires of fear against asylum seekers, which are mostly Muslims.
One of the biggest challenges and shortfalls of Finland’s integration law is that it is one-sided: Here is a list of things you must do to adapt to our society. This aim is very general, and if you start to study it closer, you will find no answers.
While language is essential, and Finland places a lot of emphasis on this, it is not your get-out-of-jail pass to live “integrated” and happily forever. As people of color and other minorities know, integration is a two-way street.
Considering the present political landscape and how much minorities influence the public policy of migrants and minorities, we are still a long way off and on the wrong path to achieve a society that respects difference.
If we look at school children in one of the world’s best education systems, why is it that some dark-skinned people are ashamed because they aren’t white enough? This fact forms part of a backdrop of discrimination and bullying at some Finnish schools.
Treat with tweezers whenever percentage figures are used to depict sexual assault cases by migrants.
A government-commissioned study published Thursday concluded that migrants are over-represented in suspected sexual assault crimes, perpetuating a toxic narrative. Such generalizations give ammunition to Islamophobes like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party to maintain and reinforce racist stereotypes.
To look at how the Finnish media reported the study, we’d have to look at what the media and study did not mention.
For one, the study cites suspected sexual assault cases but also mentions convictions. The media took the bait and cited with gusto suspected cases and concluded that “migrants are overrepresented” in sexual assault crime, accounting for 37.5% of all cases. That compares to 57.4% of sexual assaults by Finns.
In Finland, as in other Western countries, a person is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
Radical-right Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party MP, Sebastian Tynkkynen, who has two ethnic agitation convictions and a third pending, is trying to get the most political mileage from an incident at an #elokapina demonstration.
Some unknown persons at the demonstration allegedly attempted to attack Tynkkynen and shoved him. The police asked if the MP wanted to press charges, and he said it wasn’t necessary apparently because nothing serious happened.
All types and forms of violence should be condemned, but why are the PS making up a big fuss about the incident? The whole affair, in my opinion, appears like a storm in a teacup.
The incident with Tynkkynen overlooks other forms of verbal and physical abuse and violence that the PS have promoted for years and continue to spread.
Why don’t we see more leadership among politicians? What about the media? Why don’t they openly condemn racism, and especially Islamophobia, and appear worried about the growth of these social ills thanks to the likes of Tynkkynen and the PS?
White Finnish privilege #80
The answer to the above question lies in the double-standards of our society made possible thanks to white Finnish privilege.
Violence against white Finns gets a lot more attention than what migrants and minorities see.
It is the same feeling of anticipation you have at an airport, where you are in the land of nowhere with a sense of being somewhere else.
You are wrong if you if you believe that there is only one way of traveling. As a migrant who has travelled all of his life, I have learned that there are many modes of travel.
Landscapes upside down or rightside up? Photo: Enrique Tessieri
Geography
Traveling with the help of geography is the easiest way of acquainting oneself with a new place. All you have to do is let your eyes do the recording and, presto! The sceneries and experiences that enter through the eyes usually release pleasant sensations in the mind and heart due to their novelty. Even though traveling geographically is a bit for dummies, there are other modes of travel.
Spiritually
When you travel in this way, you fall into a sort of trance daydreaming of places near and far away with a fuel called imagination. Fueling imagination is done by arousing it with the help of a good book and maps. Some of the initial beatufy of this mode of travel has been lost with the Internet.
Imagination
With the helo of imagination as a mode a travel, history can be converted into a personal time machine. Have you ever imagined while gazing at very old pictures what it would be like if you could enter them and chat with the immobile people? What would they say and what would I tell them?
Culturally
My favorite mode of travel is culturally. In order for this to be effective, I need the help of geography, spirits and imagination to sumerge myself in culture. If I do everything right, I can enter and leave cultures at ease traveling light as a feather.
The Oulu district court found Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Sebastian Tynkkynen guilty of ethnic agitation for his Facebook postings in 2017, according to Yle.While no Finnish media mentioned it, the third conviction for ethnic agitation is a record for a Finnish lawmaker.
Hiding behind Islamophobic arguments and that the sentence violated his free speech rights, Tynkkynen said that he will appeal the ruling by the district court.
The court fined him 4,050 euros.
The PS elected a new five-person board in August. Apart from Tynkkynen, the third vice president, the second vice president, Mauri Peltokangas, is also facing ethnic agitation charges.
Finland’s worst Islamophobists: Sebastian Tynkkynen and Junes Lokka. Source: Facebook
The prosecutor defended his case by saying that Tynkkynen had targeted asylum and immigrants in his Facebook posts by blaming, among other things, that all Muslims are terrorists.
According to Helsingin Sanomat, Deputy Mayor for Education of Helsinki, Nasima Razmyar, believes that the best way to deal with inequality at Helsinki schools is by paying teachers a bigger salary. Ramyar has a good idea, but it does not even begin to deal with why there is so much inequality at some schools and why we are now hearing this suggestion from her.
“The differences are huge,” she was quoted as saying. “We have areas [in Helsinki] where 40% of families live on income support. Socio-economic differences are visible daily at schools.”
Razmyar said that a lot of work by teachers and principals at such schools deals with handling social problems.
While it is a good matter that Razmyar is trying to find solutions on how to deal with rising inequaility at Helsinki schools, her suggestion of paying teachers a higher salar fall short on addressing the real culprit, which is racism and social inequality in our society.
The City of Helsinki has many resources to deal with social inequality among youths, money is only one of many that will help alleviate the problem.
Imagine as well the attacks by anti-immigration politicians and parties against minority children on how they receive preferential treatment through better-paying teachers.
Even if such advocates may claim that immigration is costly, we can also argue that racism, discrimination, and social exclusion cost society.
Let’s hope that Razmyar and the City of Helsinki can come up with more effective solutions.
This is a good start but it is a disappointment because it subcontracts social ills to higher pay.
Wrong. I am not talking about people who post a lot of racist trash like from the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. I am specifically talking about those who claim to be against racism but are unwilling to challenge institutionalized racism and suffering, in many cases, from white fragility.
Our system of institutional racism has so much impunity in Finland that it has not only given birth to the PS, one of the biggest parties in parliament but ensured its growth.
Institutional racism is so “normal” in Finland that few take it seriouslsy, never mind those public services that are supposed to protect our rights. It explains why people with diehard racist ideas can camouflage their bigotry with the help of institutional raicism, and why they get money and support for projects that are supposed to challenge racism and improve the lives of Others.
Instead of challenging racism, such projects perpetuate it.
If you want, I can give you a list of some of the worst spreaders of racism in Finland: the PS, Kokoomus, Christian Democrats, and all the parties, the police, Riikka Purra, Jussi Halla-aho, Wille Rydman, Ano Turtiainen, and a very, very long and shameful list of others.
Ever wonder why the media gives such people so much space to spread their views and rarely asks Other Finns their opinions?
As more people from different cultures and countries move to this country, the more racism will raise its ugly head. The reason is simple: there is little serious opposition to such a social ill.
All hell will break loose in the future eventually when enough non-white Finns begin to demand their rights and, lord and behold, power.
Do not fool yourself. Nobody will give our dignity and rights if we do not demand them ourselves.
