Tag: Finland

Defining white Finnish privilege #38: Cultural appropriation and racism are quaint discussion topics between white Finns

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Sanna Ukkola is a YLE journalist who has stuck her foot in her mouth a number of times. Hosting Pressiklubi on Friday was a clear example when she put on an Amerindian feather hairpiece and showed a clip of Pekka ja Pätkä blackfaces to the audience. 

While she excused herself for wearing the hairpiece, the whole talk show was a fiasco and an embarrassment to YLE. Is cultural appropriation ok? We don’t know because the talk show didn’t take a clear stand on the issue.

Two of the guests, Matti Virtanen, a Talouselämä journalist, and conservative National Coalition Party councilman, Tere Sammallahti, added more injury to pain with their comments about cultural appropriation. The other guest was Left Alliance chairwoman Li Anderson, who disagreed with almost everything that the two other guests said.

Virtanen claimed that it was ok for Miss Helsinki candidates to wear the hairpiece because it was a copy and therefore didn’t insult anyone.

Yes, right, Virtanen. You have privilege and power to make such a point but not the moral authority because you are white.

Meet the candidates who are vying to be crowned Miss Helsinki. Source: Tämä päivä.

If Virtanen and Ukkola stuck their foots in their mouths, Sammallahti ended up with a Frankenstein shoe in his.

See original tweet by Outi Länsman here.

“Now that I have a 1.5-year-old boy child at home,” he said, “I hope he won’t have to grow up in a work where he’s made to feel guilty for being born white and, probably, heterosexual.”

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Facebook Ahti Tolvanen: Is terrorism a real threat to Finland?

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We have just heard in the news today that Supo has received funding to hire 50 more personnel this year to fight terrorism.

The above would lead one to think terrorism is a major problem in Finland. The only known case of possible terrorism in recent memory in this country relates to a knife attack in Turku this summer where a young Moroccan asylum seeker attacked people randomly in the street, killing two women and wounding 9 people with a knife.

Although this murderer is now charged with terrorism the proof of this which has been made public is rather sketchy. He apparently published a statement on a private site on the net which has not been made public. Witnesses say he also expressed support for radical ideas of jihadist groups and read their postings on the internet. So far no violent group has come out saying he is a member or even supporter. It is not at all certain that when the case goes to court there will be a terrorist conviction.

Beyond this case there was a very interesting case reported in Iltalehti 16/17.9. with the front page headline “Poliisi esti Suomessa iskun poliitisiin päättäjiin”. The story inside names none of the possibly arrested “terrorists” nor does in name any politicians who might have been threatened. The only sources named in the story are high-ranking police officers. Nothing more has come out in over a week after this story was published. One explanation may be that the police have investigative reasons for not mentioning anyone involved. The other explanation might be that nothing like what was described even happened.

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Tigthening immigration and asylum policy is putting a noose around our Nordic values

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I spoke this week to a Syrian refugee who got his residence to stay in Finland. He said that his wife and two children are living abroad and cannot come to Finland (because he isn’t working). He stated that he hadn’t been with his wife and children for two years.

After tightening family reunification laws last year, Center Party parliamentary group leader MP Antti Kaikkonen believes that the government has gone too far in tightening immigration policy, according to Lahti-based daily Etelä-Suomen Sanomat. The Center Party believes that the 2,600-euro/month salary requirement to bring your spouse and two children should be changed. 

The suggestion by Kaikkonen has received a flat no from the Blue Reform (“New Perussuomalaiset”*) party that defected in June from the “Old” Perussuomalaiset (PS) party to not lose their ministerial posts since the Center Party and National Coalition Party would not have accepted the PS under Jussi Halla-aho in government.

Halla-aho, who has built his political career on Islamophobia, was convicted In 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion.

As we have seen recently, the tightening of Finnish immigration and asylum policy has not only succeeded in killing our empathy for the suffering of others but showed what novices our politicians and decision-makers are when it comes to migration and cultural diversity. We have done great harm to our own values and sense of justice with the tightening of such laws.

The case of the Syrian man who lives in despair because he hasn’t been with his family for two years is not the only case.

When Finns emigrated in mass to North America before World War 2, they not only brought their families but their relatives, neighbors, and friends. The more, the merrier!

Blue Reform MP Simon Elo gives the thumbs down to Kaikkonen’s proposal of loosening family reunification guidelines. Source: Facebook.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: Unspeakable politicians and their own gain

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White Finns rarely consult migrants and minorities on anything important. They may ask them their opinion on x and y but the final decision on policy is made by them because you don’t really count. And then there are people like Jussi Halla-aho, Laura Huhtasaari, Timo Soini, Wille Rydman, and many others who pour gasoline and stoke the fires of ethnic hatred in this country. It is unspeakable that they do so for their own gain. 

Timo Soini telling an Old Perussuomalaiset racist to behave. at the end of the day, Soini got his fingers burned and ejected from the party. If there is a person who gave fascism, racism, homophobia, and sexism a platform in this country, that person is Soini.

* After the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity.  One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic. Both could be called the “new” and “old” PS. 

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Lack of empathy

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The lack of empathy by politicians and the government for the suffering of vulnerable groups like asylum seekers came to light again when two refugees stabbed themselves in protest of Finland’s asylum policy. Lack of empathy is the first step or reminder that our society is dysfunctional and in trouble. War now seems a possibility. 

“Old” Perussuomalaiseet* MP Tom Packalén with his shined shoes and is total lack of empathy, a national illness these days. Cartoon by Sira Moksi.

* After the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity.  One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic. Both could be called the “new” and “old” PS. 

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Double standards by the Finnish police. Who can insult whom?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

These two videos speak volumes about the differential treatment of asylum seekers and white Finns by the police. In the first video, the Finnish police handcuff two Finnish-speaking asylum seekers at the immigration detention center of Joutseno. One of them apparently for saying something inappropriate.

UPDATED One of the many matters that are interesting to watch in the video below is how well two asylum seekers speak Finnish. It is ironic that they are at an immigration detention center showing off their good Finnish-language skills.

Learning Finnish is important but it isn’t a panacea for your integration problems in this country. Migrants are, however, near-constantly fed this simplistic myth.

The video below (see 2:88-3:40 min) the first one, a white Finnish anti-immigration protestor is videotaping the police at a demonstration and openly insulting them by stating in their faces that they are “traitors,” “pigs, shit, and dickheads.”

The Finn continues to insult the police, but nothing happens to him.

What would happen if an asylum seeker did the same?

You wouldn’t hear the sound of silence but the door of a police cell shutting.

 

In this video (in Finnish) taken at the immigration detention center of Joutseno in eastern Finland, the police enter to detain and handcuff two asylum seekers who speak Finnish and who are apparently awaiting deportation. They detain and handcuff a second one who said something that the police didn’t like.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: Rejoice 100 years of Finland’s treatment of migrants and minorities

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Should we boycott Finland’s centenary celebrations? One hundred years of building a white Finnish-speaking Lutheran society has not only whitewashed my roots and who my family was but on top of that continues to exclude me from being treated as an equal member of society. Do you have the courage to not only see but change how Finland treats migrants and minorities as well as eliminate the foul language it uses to label and perpetuate its power and privilege?

Those groups that don’t have power and privilege are not respected. “Finland is a free country. Here we sew [national] costumes, buy and sell them. Let the Finns rejoice and respect the Saami and their roots.  Source: Suohpanterror.

MTV: Normalizing racism and bigotry in Finland with Jussi Halla-aho’s help

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After attending a European Network Against Racism in Brussels that ended Saturday, I discovered on my arrival to Finland that Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Chairman Jussi Halla-aho, convicted for ethnic agitation in 2012 and who built his political career on Islamophobia, is now a columnist in MTV, Finland’s largest privately owned television station. 

The big question is why Halla-aho and what does it say about the hostile anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity atmosphere in Finland?

It reveals, in my opinion, the continuing role of the media in normalizing racism and bigotry in this country.

Few will disagree that the PS under Halla-aho’s leadership is now unmistakably a far-right party that belongs in the same league as Marine Le Pen’s Front Nationale, Sweden Democrats, Danish People’s Party, AfD of Germany, UKIP, among others.

Cartoon by Sira Moksi.

In a statement by MTV3 managing editor Ilkka Ahtiainen, he justifies inviting Halla-aho because he’s chairman of the PS.

Fine, but there is one flaw in his statement that exposes a problem in the debate on our ever-growing cultural diverse society in Finland: It is a friendly debate only between white Finns.

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