Tag: Far-right parties

The lack of cultural diversity is impoverishing Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Jussi Jalonen, a Tampere University history researcher, asked recently why a populist party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) continues to grow in popularity despite the numerous scandals that have riddled the group. There is an answer: Finland’s lack of cultural diversity.

How is it possible that a party like the PS can win 39 seats in the last parliamentary elections from 5 seats previously? The answer: Finland’s lack of cultural diversity.

How is it possible that the Finnish media, politicians and the general public were swept off their feet by the PS’ anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam message up to April 17, 2011? The answer: Finland’s lack of cultural diversity.

Contrarily, if Finland were a country that would have had larger ethnic and religious minorities in the last century and if these were promoted in a spirit of social equality (tasa-arvo), we’d never be in the political and ideological mess that we are in today.

There are many examples of how a society can grow and reap synergies from cultural diversity. Some positive examples are Silicon Valley, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia and many others.

Since no society is perfect, never mind one that is culturally diverse, there are poor examples we should avoid. One of these is the former apartheid system of South Africa.

The recent example of the black Mannerheim movie is proof of some Finns’ hostility towards diversity and how we continue to cling at any price to our cultural and ethnic myths.

In many respects, the “one-people-one-nation“ view of white Finland is the making of our own social Frankenstein. We have promoted it from day one when we declared independence from Russia on December 6, 1917.

Even if PS chairman, Timo Soini, claims that his party has 27 “immigrant” candidates running for office in the municipal elections, it reinforces the party’s hostility towards diversity. Thanks to these candidates, PS’ “one- people-one-nation” political message is strengthened as a result.

Immigrants who have little idea about how our open society functions democratically and, worse, have no enthusiasm to throw overboard their baggage of hate and racism, is one of the threats facing our society.

It is surprising to note that many of these immigrants aren’t those with the least education, but those that have good professions and economical means to assimilate into white Finnish society.

Throughout the last century, Finland has been a negative model for cultural diversity despite the fact that 1.2 million Finns emigrated from this country between 1860 and 1999.

Finland’s social and economic life savior is not keeping Finland “white,” but becoming culturally diverse.

If we fail in this task and do not promote modern Nordic values such as mutual acceptance and respect, our society will become ever-polarized. The same Civil Rights Movements we saw in the United States emerging in the 1950s and 1960s will become a reality in Finland this century.

Since we have done everything possible to kill cultural diversity from the last century as opposed to defending and promoting it, we are paying today a high price for our shortsightedness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New World Finn: Open the doors

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Twenty-five years ago, when I worked briefly for the Buenos Aires Herald as a young reporter, I wrote a column about how Argentina’s past could come to haunt it in the future. The last military regime (1976-83) that ruled the country was one of the most ruthless that Latin America had seen during the last century. Tens of thousands of people disappeared in a civil war that was characterized by habeas corpus writs and the silence of cemeteries.

The same concern I wrote about in that column a long time ago has resurfaced in Europe today.

New World Finn is a quarterly exploring Finnish culture in the New World.
The column, Open the doors, raised the following points: “True, there is in present-day Argentina a consensus against military-run governments. However, even though these last years of democracy have instigated a new political era, there are still precious little questions being asked not only about our past – how different sectors such as politicians, unions, member of the clergy, historians, journalists, the U.S. embassy, among others, colluded in making a mockery of democracy and human rights – but most importantly, where we’re supposed to go from here.”

Could history be repeating itself again in Europe and Finland?

As our economic woes deepen in this part of the world, the louder we’re hearing the diatribes of far right and right-wing populist groups. We saw in Finland last year the rise of the Finns Party, which is anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam. The Finns Party, which only got 5 seats in 2007, won 39 seats in the last election!

The next hurdle for the Finns Party will be the municipal elections of October 28. A recent poll by YLE revealed that the Finns Party would be the biggest winner of the municipal election. If the party gets 15.8% of the votes as the poll suggests, it will be a big leap from 5.4% that the party got in the 2008 municipal elections. The poll sees that the National Coalition Party getting in October 22.7% compared with 23.5% in 2008. That would be followed by the Social Democrats with 18.7% (21.2%), and the Center Party with 16.6% (20.1%).

While all political parties in Finland are officially against all forms of racism and discrimination, it’s not clear what their real views are on the issue. How do they promote cultural diversity and how often do they speak out against racism? You will find in all Finnish parties members who are for or against immigrants and immigration. Even so, no other party has so many openly anti-immigration members like the Finns Party.

The Greens and Swedish People’s Party, and even the Left Wing Alliance with some reservations, appear to be the most open to immigration and cultural diversity, according to some polls.

“Intolerance is taking root throughout Europe and Finland. We witnessed with shock last year its ugliest side, when Anders Behring Breivik went on his murderous rampage killing 77 innocent victims. Europe witnessed this spring intolerance form a young Arab in Southern France who gunned down Jewish schoolchildren.

Contrary to North America, some claim that our view of ourselves as ethnic groups in Europe hinges too much on “race and blood.” The concept dates back to 1935, when a Jewish doctor in Germany was sent to a concentration camp for saving a patient’s life by donating his blood. This same idea, that blood and ethnicity are related, is how some Europeans see themselves ethnically today.

In order not to repeat the mistakes of the past, we have to look at our history. Finland, which was ravaged by internal and external wars during the first twenty-five years of its independence, built a model society based on respect, acceptance and social equality. The fruits of those efforts are everywhere today. In order to build the same type of society in this century, we must take great care not to exclude different ethnic groups.

We could look across the Atlantic as well for good cultural-diversity models. Even if racism is an issue in many parts of the Americas, countries like the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and others understand that racism and discrimination are social ills that must be challenged.

The last paragraph of the Buenos Aires Herald column I wrote stated the following: “There are a lot of pending questions and, as long as Argentina does not accept the difficult challenge of answering them, the door of this country will remain closed, isolation will prevail, and despotism will one day flourish as it always has in the past. It will not come from abroad, however, as many would have us believe, but from our backyard.”

The column appeared in the autumn 2012 issue of New World Finn.

An interesting blog that follows far-right candidates in Finland’s municipal elections

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I bumped into a blog called Kunnollisvaalit 2012 (in Finnish), which aims to expose far-right candidates running for office in the Finnish municipal elections of October 28.  The blog cites 11 Perussuomalaiset, 2 Center Party and one Muutos 2011 candidates as “far right.”

The blog aims to expose what these candidates are posting on the Internet.

Kunnollisvaalit 2012 considers far right the following groups: Suomen Sisu (Nazi-spirited association), Nuiva Manifesto (PS’ anti-immigration manifesto), Finnish Defense League (Counterjihadist), Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinata (neo-Nazi).

Remember Ulla Pyysalo, PS MP’s Juho Eerola’s aide, who was planning to join the neo-Nazi Suomen Kansalinen Vastarina? Well, she’s running for city council in Taipalsaari.

On a thread on Facebook with TU tennis, Ulla Pyysalo compared immigrants to animals and plants. ”Yes, transplanting animals or plants in a new environment has always ended in failure.”

Risto Helin is a “white power blood & honor” candidate for the PS  in Vaasa. 

Pyysalo continues, now comparing immigrants to racoon dogs.  ”I heard just recently that hunters are encouraged to kill these raccoon dogs,” she writes. ”God dang it how racist and terrible. Eeek help! :DDDDD,”

The Kunnollisvaalit 2012 list below of fascists, Nazis and racists isn’t complete. PS candidates such as James Hirvisaari, Olli Immonen, Freddy Van Wonterghem are missing.

The 11 PS candidates that Kunnollisvaalit 2012 cites are:

Muutos 2011 and Center Party:

 

PS Counterjihadists: Live and die politically by the sword

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is at a crucial juncture concerning its strange-bedfellow relationship with Counterjihadist and populist radical right members. What kind of links do some members of the PS have with far-right groups like the Finnish Defense League (FDL)?

The FDL is nothing more than a mouthpiece of the English Defense League, a violent street protest movement that opposes the spread of Islam in Europe.

What would happen if a whistle-blower in a group like the FDL  revealed the strong links between the far-right group and certain prominent members of the PS?

Certainly all hell would break loose.

Politicians like PS MP Jussi Halla-aho and especially James Hirvisaari have a lot to worry about these days since they are the Counterjihadists and populist radical right members of the PS.

You get a lot of interesting mail in Mikkeli like a recent copy of the Perussuomalainen. Note the highlighed words in yellow asking  “immigrants” and “everyone” to become PS candidates in the October municipal elections. The PS would be the last party I’d join for obvious reasons.

Things have changed a lot since the April 2011 elections, which gave the PS its historic victory. Since then, different ideological power struggles have become more pronounced within the party. The rude appearance of Norwegian Counterjihadist mass killer Anders Breivik in July 2011 has divided the PS ideologically.

This week we saw PS MP Juha Väätänen being ousted as chairman of the party’s Helsinki branch. This is expected to turn into a messy power battle as the municipal elections near in October.

In Mikkeli, we saw the PS implode when two of its four city councillors ditched the party to join the Christian Democrats and Center Party.

Figuring out what kinds of undercurrents are threatening the PS’ unity is not easy because the party is a tinderbox with the following warning: Do not move – highly explosive.  Approach at your own risk.

In the meantime, take a seat and fasten your seat belts in a new act unfolding of the tragic-comic political play called the PS.

When will parties like the PS start banning Islam in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Pär Norling, a leader of  the populist radical right Sweden Democrats of Bolnäs, located about 250km north of Stockholm,  demanded the following on Sveriges Teleivision (SVT): ”Ban Islam in Sweden and deport those who persist in believing in the religion.” When will we start to hear similar demands from politicians in Finland?

One matter that populist radical right and Counterjihadist-spirited parties in Europe and Finland don’t tell you is that the fuel they use to fire their arguments comes from abroad. It’s hardly ever homegrown.

MPs of parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) claim as well how incompatible a religion like Islam is with our Finnish way of life. One of their best-kept secrets they will never tell you publicly, however, is that they too wouldn’t have any problems banning Islam from Finland.

Migrant Tales believes it is only a question of time before anti-immigration and Counterjihadist politicians will begin making the same demands about Islam in Finland as Norling, who claims that neo-Nazism is a by-product of immigration.

Writes the Local of Sweden, quoting the Sweden Democrat politician: “’That [Islam] can exist elsewhere but in Sweden it doesn’t fit in.’ When asked what ought to be done with those who still want to believe in the religion, despite it being banned, Norling responded: ’Then the solution is deportation.’”

We don’t need to ask the politician what he thinks about religious freedom. It’s obvious that Norling’s solution suggests embarking on a slippery slope that would not only compromise our civil rights but undermine our Nordic democratic institutions.

Even if politicians like PS MP Jussi Halla-aho and his band of Counterjihadists, populist radical right and anti-immigration followers would never dare make such a statement about Muslims in Finland, it is exactly what they aim to do if it were possible politically.

It’s clear that parties like the PS want to drastically limit immigration especially from Africa and the Muslim world. Didn’t Halla-aho suggest recently that the refugee status of Somali refugees in Finland should be lifted due to the improved situation in Somalia?

One of the big differences between the Sweden Democrats and PS is size. The former is a small party in Sweden, while the latter is the country’s third largest.

Finland’s demographic landscape is changing (again)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland is presently in the midst of one of its biggest demographic changes in its history due to the rapid growth of its immigrant community. Our ever-growing cultural diversity as a nation has brought out the best in many of us but has encouraged some of us to throw in the towel on sanity. 

Is Finland in danger of becoming a Hungary or Greece?

Those promoting Hungary’s far-right Jobbik or Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party model on immigration and cultural diversity are none other than the usual band of extremists of parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), who see nothing wrong with these xenophobic and anti-Semitic groups.

They don’t see these parties as a danger because Jobbik and Golden Dawn promote the same matter as the PS: ethnic purity at any cost, even losing our Nordic liberal democracy to far-right extremism.

Migrant Tales wrote in a recent blog entry: “In many respects it [open discrimination of immigrants and visible minorities] will look like Russification all over again in the 2010s but with different players – the PS are the Russians and immigrants/visible minorities are personified through Eugen Schauman.”

When I moved to Finland a second time in the late-1970s, our foreign population totalled about 10,000 people, or around 0.2% of the population. Most of these so-called “foreigners” were Finnish expats who had moved back to the country.

The biggest national group living in Finland at the time were Finns who were naturalized Swedes.

Back then, Finland was in its own league when it came to cultural diversity. Albania was the other European country that resembled Finland. People joked back then that our country was the Albania of Europe since it had so few immigrants.

Our foreign population started to grow rapidly and steadily after it hit rock bottom in the 1970s, when it totaled about 7,000 souls. By 2002-03, Finland’s immigrant population passed the 100,000 barrier for the first time, reaching 103,687, or 2% of the population.

Our immigrant population totals today 183,133 (3.4%).

With the rise of far-right, populist and anti-immigration parties growing throughout Europe, we in Finland should be especially concerned about how such a trend could impact our country socially, politically and above all economically.

Finland needs right-wing populist and anti-immigration parties like a hole in the head.

We need more than ever today leadership and proactive solutions to make cultural diversity work.

 

Breivik, Europe’s Counter-Jihadist mass killer, gets at least 21 years

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer who shocked Europe and the world on July 22, 2011, was sentenced to at least 21 years in prison. The sentence by the Oslo district court is not only a relief to the loved ones of the 77 victims, but sends an important political message as well. 

The court considered the mass killer sane when he was on his murderous rampage. He was not  seen as a psychotic lone wolf as far-right and xenophobic groups would have wished.

Norway begins today the long process of healing the wounds inflicted by Breivik and the Counter-Jihadist ideology that encouraged him to carry out his killings.

According to researcher Toby Archer of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Counter-Jihad is the new ideology found in the blogshpere, which is not anti-Semitic and does not associate itself with neo-Nazis.

Counter-Jihad movements could be seen as a modern expression of fascism spreading the same message of intolerance. In the 1930s it was Jews, today the scapegoats are Muslims.

The Norwegian mass killer’s deeds did great harm to anti-Islam and anti-immigration groups throughout Europe, especially in the Nordic region. In many respects, the political tide has turned after 22/7.

What Breivik did in the summer of 2011 is incomprehensible, but the smoking gun behind the bloodshed was far-right hate speech that warns Europe that it is being invaded by Islam.

Migrant Tales applauds the sentence by the Oslo district court.

 

(Migrant Tales, August 19, 2012): Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming, the super immigrant

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Migrant Tales insight: Even if the op-ed was published about 10 years ago, too many politicians and officials continue to falsely believe that “super immigrants” will save the country from its low birth rates, aging population, and ever-present racism. 

See also: The world’s happiest country faces a labor and talent crunch

THIS OP-ED PIECE WAS UPDATED.

Is it possible that in 2012 we have politicians who are totally against immigration? We actually have quite a few of them in Finland. While all political parties have these types of politicians, none of them have so many as the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. 

Certainly, these types of politicians won’t tell you directly that they are against immigration to Finland. That would sound too radical and make them vulnerable and force them to lose votes.

What they will tell you, however, is totally a different story. With poker faces, they will state that they are not against immigration but against immigration they consider harmful to Finland.

These politicians sound like they are reading to you the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, when Prince Charming  wakes the beautiful princess with a kiss from her deep sleep. Anti-immigration politicians and parties don’t speak of Sleeping Beauty per se, but about super immigrants.

Sleeping Beauty (anti-immigration  view of Finland) , Prince Charming (super immigrant) and other pro- and anti-immigration forces. In this famous Walt Disney fairy tale, everyone is white except for the evil witch, who is almost white. 

Who are these super immigrants?

  • They function perfectly as a group even if humans are far from perfect
  • They are white northern Europeans, some Far East Asia groups like the Chinese (white Russians are excluded)
  • They commonly belong to the Christian faith
  • They are heterosexuals
  • They are skilled professionals and well-behaved
  • They adapt quickly and without problems to our way of life
  • They are never unemployed (they are against social welfare and handouts)
  • They are paid less than  Finnish employees
  • They don’t mind wearing sleeve badges to help police ethnically profile more effectively
  • They never practice their culture in public spaces
  • Their children only speak their parents’ language at home
  • Their parents speak near-perfect Finnish
  • Cultural difference and slight Finnish accents are fine because they allow us to distinguish who is “us” and “them”

Let’s stop kidding ourselves about these so-called super immigrants. They may exist but not in the numbers that a party like the PS or other anti-immigrant groups would like to see moving to Finland.

If you are waiting for these types of people to inhabit Finland in the near future, you might as well turn into Sleeping Beauty.

A column about super immigrants will appear next week in Savon Sanomat, Kainuun Sanomat and Karjalainen. 

Somali-Finn Abdulah: Living in no-man’s land (Part 2)

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When Abdulah*, 30, talks to you about his twenty-two years in Finland, one of the first questions that arises is how has so much suffering escaped our attention. For Abdulah, acceptance isn’t only virtually impossible from white Finns, but can be  just as hard to get from the Somali community.  

“I have decided to live outside this society,” he says. “I have learned that there is no place here. Even my people have turned their backs on me.”

Abdulah says that there are two matters you must never lose if you don’t want to be abandoned by the Somali community.

“Language and religion are crucial,” he explains. “I don’t speak Somali that well anymore since I grew up in this country. I  became an atheist two years ago and left the Muslim faith.” 

 How long will it take for minorities like the Somalis to be treated as equals in Finland?

Abdulah admits that he no longer believes in god.

“How can there be a god if people are constantly killing each other in Somalia?” he continues. “How can there be a god if there’s so much hatred and racism towards you in this country? How can god exist in such hells?”

There are many young men like Abdulah in Finland, who grew up the greater part of their lives in this country. He says that some have problems with the law.

“I don’t identify with such people anymore because I used to be one of them,” he says. “If you start drinking and taking drugs, your situation will only get worse. That’s the reason why I changed my life.” 

Abdulah hasn’t forsaken hope despite the difficulties he’s faced. Two factors give him strength: his family and plans to be a gardener.  

 Billboards like these in the early 1990s spread prejudice about Somalis in Finland. The tabloid ad claims that Somalis had made phone calls to the tune of hundreds of thousands of marks and supposedly passed the bill to the social authorities. 

“But living in Finland still feels like being in a trap,” he adds. “I want to free myself but I don’t know how.”

Abdulah discovered Migrant Tales by chance when he was searching for an alternative forum that spoke up for immigrants and visible minorities like him. 

“I used to visit Suomi24, Hommaforum and even took part in Iltalehti chat forums,” he says.  “They always said the same negative things about immigrants and Somalis. I felt relieved when I found Migrant Tales. It was like a light at the end of a dark tunnel that gave me hope.”

Abdulah is a very sensitive and respectful person. Despite the difficulties he’s encountered, he believes that one must be outspoken if he’s going to challenge a social ill like racism.   

“We have to fight back,” he concludes. “Silence hasn’t changed my life for the better. That’s why I’m active in forums like Migrant Tales.” 

*Abdulah’s name has been changed to protect his identity. 

 

 

 

Somali-Finn Abdulah: Living in no-man’s land (Part I)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Even if I have never met Abdulah* in person but only by phone and through his comments on Migrant Tales, it’s as if we’ve known each other for a long time. Abdulah moved to Finland from Somalia in 1990 with his parents and six sisters. He was eight at the time. 

When Abdulah came to Finland, there were only 21,174 immigrants living in the country, accounting for a mere 0.4% of total population, versus 183,133 (3.4%) today, according to the Population Registration Center. 

“For a child from Somalia, moving to Finland was at first exciting,” he says. “We were starting a new life in a new country. I was fascinated by the snow.”

Abdulah says that his brief honeymoon with Finland ended abruptly when he started elementary school. He was the school’s first and only black student. 

“That’s when the bullying started; I was even attacked physically by my classmates,” he continues. “Something bad happened to me almost every day at school.”

 Being black in an all-white crowd can be sometimes dangerous in Finland. 

Abdulah says that once all of his classmates, which numbered about 20, waited to attack him after school. Even a school “friend” assaulted him once with a knife. 

“I’ve been bullied, called names like the n-word, insulted, kicked and hit hard at school,” he says. “The only way to survive was to be quiet and roll with the punches. There was nothing else I could do because the teachers never believed me. They were always on the side of the white students.”

“I’ve been bullied, called names like the n-word, insulted, kicked and hit hard at school,” he says. “The only way to survive was to be quiet and roll with the punches. There was nothing else I could do because the teachers never believed me. They were always on the side of the white students.”

Abdulah says that he’s tried to make friends with Finns but it has been virtually impossible. He did make some friends at school but their friendship never lasted long.  

 This type of tabloid ads were common in the early 1990s. It reads: “Armed refugee hater chased after blacks.” 

“First they’re your friend and then they abandon you,” he says. “I was nine when I met a very nice boy at school. On the way to his home a friend of his meets us and asks him why he’s with me. He then told me right their on the spot that he could no longer be my friend.”

Even if the bullying has left deep scars on Abdulah, one of the worst memories he recalls was when he was nine and walking with his mother to the market.

“A drunk man attacked me on the street and started insulting me,” he says. “My mother called out for help but nobody came. That incident really traumatized me. I was only a child.” 

Abdulah admits that growing up and living in Finland has made him paranoid. The election of an anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset didn’t help dispel his fears about racism against Somalis in Finland.    

The matter that concerns Abdulah the most about the Perussuomalaiet is their belief that Finns should not have children with blacks. 

“With the election victory of the Perussuomalaiset that brought to parliament some fascist [anti-immigration] politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and others, things started to turn ugly in this country from an already very bad situation for Somalis and blacks.” 

Part 2 will be published Saturday.  

*Abdulah’s name has been changed to protect his identity.