Tag: Far-right parties

Finland’s mini Breivik: gunman kills two and wounds seven

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What motivates a young man to take the law in his own hands and kill indiscriminately defenseless people? While we still don’t know the motives behind the killings in Hyvinkää, the suspect’s “likes” on Facebook may offer us some clues. 

Writes YLE in English: ”Police in the town of Hyvinkää, some 50km north of Helsinki, say a young man dressed in military fatigues began shooting with a rifle from the roof of a building in the city centre at 1:53am Saturday…

An 18-year-old woman was killed. Another victim, a 19-year-old man, died later in a hospital. Seven other people have been hospitalised with gunshot wounds, including a 23-year-old woman police trainee, who has critical injuries.”

Human rights activist and writer, Jussi K. Niemelä, states that the suspect’s “likes” on Facebook suggest the usual far-right ideology. Some of the suspect’s “likes” include the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset party, Bundeswher, the German Defense Force, and Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper nicknamed “White Death” by the Red Army during the Winter War (1939-40).

Some have called the gunman Finland’s Anders Breivik, who killed 77 victims in Norway.

While we have to wait for the final report by the police to know the killer’s probable motives, one matter is certain: The attack was senseless and reveals the illness that has inflicted our society today.  It is the same ogre that we saw kill innocent victims in Jokela and Kauhajoki.

Migrant Tales offers its heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.

PS MP Olli Immonen plans to boycott YLE “for a short while”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Far-right anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP, Olli Immonen, said Monday he will boycott YLE “for a short while” since the state-owned radio and television company reports unfairly about the PS.  According to him, there is a systematic propaganda campaign against the PS by YLE

I doubt that many will lose sleep over Immonen’s decision, taking into account that his pet political topics include anti-Immigration, anti-Islam and an odd nostalgia for Finnish fascism of the 1930s.

Immonen has done the right thing, however. In English we say: “If you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen.”

It is clear that the PS MP from Oulu cannot take the heat.

Why are so many PS party members so hypersensitive about the media? Is it an indication that the party has lost touch with Finland, never mind its convoluted political program?

Immonen is a sad example of the illness that has inflicted Finland these days. Mention the magic word “Muslim” to a person like him and he changes into a political Mr. Hyde.

Ulla Pyysalo is another sad example.  She is PS MP Juho Eerola’s aide, who got her fingers burned when her name appeared on a neo neo-Nazi membership list.

Pyysalo was recently active on Facebook:

Ulla Pyysalo: …it’s been known for some time that a Muslim man can beat his wife. Maybe they didn’t believe this before… Ulla Pyysalo: and force them to have sex, or rape…

Pyysalo, like Immonen and her boss Eerola, belong to the same far-right faction of the PS. Others that form part of this same group are PS MP Jussi Halla-aho and James Hirvisaari.

Undermining the anti-immigration ideology of populist parties in the Nordic region

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

It is a tragedy that 77 people had to die at the hands of Anders Breivik on July 22. Ironically the mass killer did more than anyone to undermine the ideology of anti-immigration populist parties and hate groups in the Nordic region and Europe. 

The political fallout of Breivik’s deeds was clear: The first blow came to the Progress Party (FrP) of Norway, which saw its support plummet in the municipal election by 6.1 percentage points to 11.5%. That was followed by election setbacks in Denmark and Finland.

Not even the far-right Sverigedemocraterna of Sweden has been spared.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg became an exemplary leader after the mass killings of Norway. His reaction was totally the opposite from what we saw in the United States after the September 11 attacks. Contrary to President George W. Bush, the Norwegian prime minister said that his country’s reponse to the mass killings will be more openness and more democracy.

The question that hounds us, however, is if Breivik were a Muslim instead of a white Norwegian, what kind of an anti-immigration backlash would we have seen in the Nordic region and Europe?

On a BBC documentary, Stoltenberg said that Norway had become after July 22 “more tolerant,[and] more careful not to judge people” by ethnic origin.

Wise words by a wise leader of a country that suffered one of its worst tragedies in recent history.

Will the PS succeed at its vicious campaign against immigrants and visible minorities?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

 Will Matias Turkkila, the new Perussuomalaiset (PS) editor-in-chief that aims to jump start the party’s website into a Hommaforum phenonmenon, succeed? In order to answer that question we’d have to rephrase the question in to the following way: Will Turkkila and the PS succeed at luring Finland’s biggest nationalist and multiculturally challenged crowd to the party’s cause whatever that may be?

You don’t need to be a brilliant analysts with a crystal ball to figure out that PS chairman Timo Soini is very concerned by the party’s waning popularity as the crucial municipal election nears in October.

In order to slow the PS’ demise as one of Finland’s four largest parties,  Soini has turned to his favorite weapons of choice that helped him last year: bigotry, prejudice, nationalism and anti-EU sentiment.

Soini will never admit that he wants to incite nationalist sentiment because “he is a Christian.” He will tell you this with a poker face as he has said repeatedly: There isn’t one racist in the PS or that racists will be baned from running for office in the municipal election.

The latest appointment of Turkkila by the PS is a last-ditch effort by the party to save its political hide and vie for a respectable result in the 2015 parliamentary election. The PS is looking at new ways to disguise its bigotry, prejudice and nationalism in order to lure voters. What better way than by appointing as their new editor-in-chief a person who made Hommaforum the most successful hate site in Finland?

This present period, 2011-15, is a wretched and dangerous stretch especially for immigrants, visible minorities and sensible thinking Finns.  It would be naive, even an exercise in self-deceit, to claim the contrary.

The big question that we should ask is if the PS will succeed at turning their poor poll showings into something that we saw before their impressive election victory last year.

I doubt it but at the end of the day that depends on each and everyone of us.

Be warned: Whatever argument the PS uses to inject nationalist sentiment and make bigotry acceptable in Finland  is part of a vicious campaign that will at the end of the day hit immigrants and visible minorities.

Anti-immigration Hommaforum editor to head PS’ party newspaper

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

What kind of message does the Perussuomalaiset (PS) give when it names Matias Turkkila as the new editor-in-chief of the party’s newspaper and web page?  It reinforces what Migrant Tales has been saying all along: the PS will step up their nationalistic and anti-immigration campaign up to the do-or-die municipal election in October.

Turkkila, who used to be a member of the far-right Suomen Sisu association, was PS MP Jussi Halla-aho’s campaign manager in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Halla-aho received 15,074 votes in Helsinki, which is the second-highest amount after Left Alliance chairman Paavo Arhimäki, who got 17,226.

The newly appointed editor-in-chief is editor of Hommaforum, an anti-immigration messageboard site where Migrant Tales has been mentioned on numerous occasions. Hommaforum is closely related to Scripta, Halla-aho’s blog.

Critics of the PS politicians who based their campaigns on anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim rhetoric are naturally not surprised. Green Party Uusi Suomi blogger Pekka Siikala recently described PS Chairman Timo Soini as “Finland’s most immoral person” over this latest appointment and his sustained failure to deliver on a promise to throw racists out of the party.

Some political observers see Turkkila’s appointment as a last-ditch attempt to repair the PS’ image, which has been tarnished by numerous scandals. Whether he succeeds is a totally different question.

But Soini must succeed in the October municipal elections. If his party does as poorly as in the presidential election, it will mean a long and painful march to the 2015 parliamentary election.  The 39 seats won by the party last year are in serious jeopardy.

Turkkila’s appointment as editor-in-chief suggests that he may become the party’s unofficial spokesman after Matti Putkonen has burned all of the its bridges with the Finnish media.

 

Anti-immigration groups in Finland care less about immigrants and visible minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Behind all the rhetoric spread by anti-immigration groups in Finland and elsewhere a fact emerges: they are out to destroy the lives of as many immigrants as possible with their prejudice and racism. When a Justice Ministry official hands over rape statistics on various immigrant groups he gives a power weapon to slander and victimize people from various countries.

Such statistics have little value apart from hindering the integration of hard-working immigrants and those that want to make and build their future in this country.

Risto Laakkonen said on YLE’s Historiansarjoja: Raggarit, rasismi ja suomalaiset program how Swedish newspapers stopped linking crimes to national origin in 1970. The Finnish Embassy in Stockholm was instrumental in reaching an agreement with the editors-in-chief of Sweden’s major newspapers, who agreed not to publish the nationality of individuals committing a crime.

Things had gotten so bad in Sweden that the media had a common saying whenever a Finn was involved in a crime: En finne igen, or Yet another Finn.

Racist perceptions of different groups in Finland is more widespread than people would like to think, and the media have played a key role in spreading racism and prejudices among the population.

The fact that a political group openly spreads and distorts crime statistics about another national group is the worst form of chicanery.

If anti-immigration groups like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party are honestly interested in promoting the integration of various cultures in our society, why do they commonly single out immigrants and never suggest the same things for Finns?

A case in point of the latter can be found in a good opinion-piece by Hussein Muhammed.  PS MP Jussi Halla-aho has suggested that unemployed immigrants should be put to work, even if this means digging and refilling holes.  Muhammed asks: “…why must this kind of work only apply to “newcomers?” Shouldn’t it apply equally to “natives” or to the majority population that are unemployed?”

Why do anti-immigration groups apply two standards? One of these are for “newcomers” and the other for “natives?” Why are they so eager to use crime statistics and point the accusing finger at the whole group?

The answer to that question is simple. It is prejudice with a capital P, and racism with a fat R.

Migrant Tales to celebrate its fifth anniversary in May

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Migrant Tales will celebrate its fifth year in existence on May 30. By then we’ll have passed the 1,000 posts mark and have received and responded to well over 30,000 comments, the lion’s share of which we have got in the past two years.  Migrant Tales is a community of writers: JusticeDemon, Mark, Peter, eyeopener, Jonas, D4R, Sasu, BlandaUpp, Foreigner and many, many others.

What more wonderful occasion than our fifth year in existence to launch our new website http://migranttales.net?

I first used Migrant Tales in 1999, when syndicating columns for a number of English-language Finnish American publications in the United States and Canada.

Whenever a migrant moves to a new country he not only returns back to his former home a changed person, but has many tales to tell about his travels.

Those tales, which come from a large community of voices, can be read daily on our blog.

Our passion for social justice and our struggle against all forms of discrimination is our shield against the many vicious and hostile attacks that our blog and community has endured in Finland. The election victory of an anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS), is a clear challenge.

Our success as a blog would have never been possible without the support of many bloggers and publications. Migrant Tales has been contacted by Deutschlandradio, the National German Radio, Die Welt, BBC, TV channel 4 of St. Petersburg and others.

Here is a link to Dunia Magazine that published one of our columns. Migrant Tales earned a mention in Time Magazine right after the elections of 17 April 2011.  and The Finns Daily are Twitter publications that pick up our blog entries. We have also been mentioned on YLE’s Suora linja and on numerous blogs, such as the Community Activist and popular Facebook pages like My Finland is international.

Traffic to our blog has soared. We expect the number of visits for the whole of 2011 to be surpassed in June. Despite our growth and successes, Migrant Tales ‘ main reason for existence is to challenge an ever-growing social ill in Finland.

We seek nothing more than to be a voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public.

Apart from mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities, our aim is inclusion of all people in Finnish society irrespective of background.

Thank you for your support and don’t be afraid to get involved!

Migrant Tales May 16, 2011: Xenophobia and racism are the poverty of Finland today

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Some people claim that ever-growing poverty and social inequality in Finland were the reasons why the Perussuomalaiset (PS) scored such a big election victory last year. We read in the media about lengthening bread lines and how it has become more difficult for some people to make ends meet. Even so, does this justify growing xenophobia and racism in our society?

Some cast their only vote last year in the belief that our most pressing problems in this country would be solved by supporting an anti-immigration candidate.

Voting for such a person, however, is like calling a pyromaniac to turn off a raging fire. You need qualified firemen to deal with such a situation in the same way that Finland today needs leaders and politicians who have political experience and a strong background in economics, globalization and sociology.

Poverty is unacceptable in any society. In some parts of the world it means living on $1 a day, or even less. It means making hard decisions like choosing not to eat today in order to feed my children.

I remember a documentary I saw in university a long time ago about a poor family in the U.S. Appalachia Mountains. “In the same way that some rich folks may be proud of being rich,” the young father said standing next to his wife, “I’m also proud of being poor.”

The couple didn’t have enough money to buy milk so they fed their baby gravy from a bottle.

I am certain that when Finnish politicians and policymakers speak of poverty they don’t mean living on $1 a day or having to feed your baby gravy (läskisoosi).

Poverty means different things in affluent countries like Finland and in the developing world. Poverty teaches some of us two important lessons: our vulnerability in society and that nothing is permanent. If there is some wisdom we can learn from it, probably it is treating people with respect even during good times, because we never know when we’ll need their help.

The rise of racism and right-wing populism in Finland and Europe are proof that these lessons are not even being acknowledged by some. Moreover, the arrogance of some politicians is like adding salt to the open wound of Finland’s polarized society.

The more we boast our racism and suspicion of minorities in public and in private, the more our society will continue to slip into a more profound type of poverty. We will not throw extra weight overboard to slow our downward spiral, but instead stand by our most inalienable values like social equality for all.

Xenophobia and racism are the real poverty facing Finland today.

YLE poll: The Perussuomalaiset party suffers a new blow in the polls

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The many problems of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party worsened today after a poll published by YLE showed the popularity of the party further slipping by 1.7 percentage points to 14.1%. The biggest party was Kokoomus (22.6%), followed by the Social Democrats (up 1.8% to 19.1%) and the Center Party (16.4%).

The plunge in the polls is quite significant, taking into account that the PS’ popularity once stood as high as 23%. The party won 19.1% of the votes in last year’s election.

Without a doubt it’s been a scandal-rich year for the major tabloids, thanks to the numerous PS racist gaffes, foot-in-mouth displays, declarations of wars against immigrants and the media, members joining neo-Nazi parties, satirically suggesting Holocaust-style armbands to help police in ethnic profiling, decorating cold-blooded killers and recent internal bickering.

In the meantime keep your seatbelts fastened. This is only the first year and we still have three more to go. What kind of a country will Finland look like after four years of the PS in Parliament? Will we recognize it? How much damage will be done to the credibility of our institutions, never mind our international image?

The people who lifted the PS from a minor to a major party last year are now sending it back to where it came from.  There is no sympathy from the major parties, never mind the media, which has grown some teeth after initially treating the PS as some kind of sensation before the election.

Migrant Tales has constantly warned about the PS and the damage it is capable of inflicting on Finland.  Our editorial line, and the fact that we got it right, explain why our blog has seen unprecedented growth in the past year.

Migrant Tales wrote shortly after the election:  “Another factor that spurred the PS to new heights was a watershed statement in March 2010 by Kokoomus chairman Jyrki Katainen, who stated that being critical and debating immigrant issues in this country didn’t make you a racist. After that green light to racism was given, the Social Democratic leadership gave the PS another pat on the back with their infamous saying, maassa maan tavalla.”

Supporting the PS is not just being anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-establishment but supporting a party that aims to change Finland into something that it isn’t quite sure of.  Some PS MPs want to take it back to the 1950s while others are fascinated by the fascism that mushroomed in the 1930s.

There is no room for dissent in the narrow-minded world of the PS.  All you have to do is repeat patronizingly after every other word fatherland, fatherland and fatherland.

Like Migrant Tales, Sweden got it right a year ago.

Immediately after the PS election victory the New York Times wrote: “In the European news media, particularly in Sweden, the True Finns have come under fire as right-wing racists. Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb and others have defended Mr. Soini from such accusations, though other members of his party hold more radical views on immigration.”

Even Social Democrat Lasse Lehtinen tried to assure Europeans that they have nothing to fear. “Timo Soini is actually a very civilized guy,” he was quoted as saying in the New York Times. “He reads a lot. He thinks a lot.”

If the leaders of the major parties and the majority of Finns had been visible immigrants for a day before the election, then they would have seen Soini and the threat of the PS much more clearly, as they do today.

Why is the Perussuomalaiset party riling mad at the Finnish media?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

You know that there is something wrong whenever a group, never mind a major political party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), start accusing the media for their problems. This is exactly what Matti Putkonen and MP Jussi Halla-aho did Wednesday on  YLE, when they blamed the media for treating the PS unfairly compared with other parties.

This view was contested by Risto Uimonen, chairman of the Council for Mass Media in Finland and a guest on the show. He said that since the election, when the PS became the third-largest party in Finland, it’s only natural that it has come under greater media scrutiny.

Even though Putkonen, who was convicted of rape in the early 1990s, vows to restore the PS’ good name in the media, it’s pretty clear that any such attempt will end up in failure before it leaves the drawing board.

If we look closely at what Putkonen and Halla-aho said, it’s clear that the party is pretty much in the dark about the watchdog role of the media.  Statements by them and PS MP James Hirvisaari, who has called the media “bloodthirsty hyenas,”  should instead sound alarm bells.

I am certain that if these PS politicians had their way, they’d be the first to curtail press freedom in order that the media would write what they wanted. Putkonen said in a letter to journalists that the media should “serve the fatherland when writing the news.”

Does “serving the fatherland” mean distorting the news and self-censorship when reporting on the PS?

If the PS were fair and had a drop of self-criticism, they’d understand that much of the so-called negative coverage of the party is self-inflicted. Have they forgotten PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, sacked PS councilman Tommi Rautio, Ulla Pyysalo, Helena Eronen, Freddy Van Wonterghem and a long, long list of others?

Sad but true. Every month, sometimes every week, we are questionably entertained by some scandal that hits the front pages of the tabloids.

The ignorance and contempt that some PS members have for the media and for freedom of expression in Finland can be seen as well how the party addresses other issue like immigration and cultural diversity.

In their amateurishness and populist anti-democratic wishful thinking, they seek to rewrite history and move the goalposts of  society to fit their intolerant world.

The media is the best insurance that such a thing will never happen.