Tag: Finland

Attempted arson attack against Helsinki’s Pitäjämäki asylum reception center

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales understands that Helsinki’s Pitäjämäki reception center was the target of an arson attack on Friday or Saturday. A Molotov cocktail was hurled at the reception center but didn’t light up properly. 

A handgun and tommy gun was found in the possession of a man sitting in his car near the Pitäjänmäki reception center.

The man in the car wasn’t apparently planning to attack the reception center and wasn’t connected with the arson attack, according to the source.

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On Friday the police apprehended a man in car with a handgun and tommy gun near the Pitäjänmäki reception center.

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While this attempted arson attack was not reported by the media the question is how many of these types of unreported attacks have their been in Finland?

Two arson attacks have already been reported by the media: in Lammi (6.10) and Ylivieska (31.10).

Migrant Tales Literary: Would you buy a used car from PS’ Timo Soini?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Timo Soini is chairman of the nationalist populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. After the most recent opinion polls showed that the political future of the PS is bleak to say the least, what will Soini do after his party returns to the minor political leagues? Will he start to sell used cars? 

Would he sell used Halla-ahos or, maybe, Immonens, Eerolas, Elos, Huhtasaaris and Slunga-Poutsalos at rock-bottom prices?

Would you buy such a used car from him and would you trust his promises?

Scaldia_Moskovitch_von_1963

Why not buy an Immonen? The engineering is as simple as the foul and poisonous arguments it exhales from its behind. So simple, in fact, that the biggest threat to this car and its driver is adding a square root to its 1 + 1 = 2 anti-immigration arguments. Buy it to impress racist simpletons. Source: www.zwischengas.com/de/blog/2012

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Here’s a spanking-new Eerola! Impress your friends with this vehicle that comes with a year supply of barf bags. Is it a rocket or a car? Who knows? You’ll respond that even if you are a practical nurse that has worked 12 years at a refugee center you still consider yourself an authority on immigration (sic!). Look at the headlights and rocket “fascist-style Mussolini” look. It’s backlights are intended to be more subdued in order to neutralize the racist demeanor that flashes whenever you signal to switch lanes. Source: www.dominnie.blogspot.com  

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Why are integration programs in Finland doomed to failure?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here’s the billion-euro question: Why are integration programs in Finland usually doomed to failure? What can Finland and Europe learn from countries like Canada that have a more successful approach to integration? 

One matter is for certain: A big part of the problem resides in between our collective ears. Do we see migrants as a problem or an asset to our society? Certainly factors like human and financial resources play important roles in determining how successful our integration programs are.

You don’t have to search too far to understand the challenges we face in making people feel that Finland is their home and that they’ll be treated with respect and as equal members of society. Even if the answer to the problem sits under our noses the big question is if we want to do anything about it.

Like in any other country, social exclusion in Finland is not only costly to tax payers but for migrants, who are obliged to go through a slow rites of passage, or integration ritual, which doesn’t even assure them of a job after all of their efforts.

Brandy Yanchyk, a Canadian documentary film producer, recently showed her most recent documentary, Finding Edge Road, in Finland.

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See Find Edge Road demo here.

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What has the PS given to Finland apart from destroying our international image, labeling migrants and polarizing society?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are one of the worst surprises that Finland got after 2011. If the latest opinion poll is anything to go by, the nationalist populist party has returned to the minor political leagues, where it was originally from. 

While it was relatively easy for the PS to increase its popularity in the opposition with the help of a complacent media and politicians that turned a blind eye, being in government has been a totally different story.

As the polls show, the PS has been a paper tiger all along that believed, after two parliamentary elections, in its self-deception and forget its campaign promises.

One of these continues to be an empty promise that they will fix the Somali and Muslim problem in Finland. Like many of its empty pledges, they never will.

The PS is like cheap fast food. It may taste good after the first bite but the impact on your health is devastating.

Timo Soini and the PS tried to show – and succeeded – with poker faces these past years to defy the laws of politics like gravity and create a political revolution with the help of anti-immigration and anti-EU rhetoric.

The PS took a risk by joining the coalition government and they near-destroyed themselves in the process. Not only did they cause great harm to themselves, they have put in harm’s way as well Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government and all of Finland.

Due to the PS’ serious woes, it may well be that we may have new elections as early as next spring.

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Go to PS website here.

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YLE poll: Support for PS of Finland takes another dip to 9.8%

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A poll commissioned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) revealed more pain for the nationalist populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, which saw its support plummet below 10% to 9.8%. The party that gained the most in the poll were the Social Democrats, which saw their support rise by 2.4 percentage points to 20.7%. 

Trying to become a “mainstream” party in government has been like digesting poison for the PS, which has based its support on nationalism and anti-immigration rhetoric.

For Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse society the poll is the best news yet in a long time.

It’s naive to believe that the PS could ever abandon its racism and nationalism since that would mean committing political hara-kiri. Being a member of government has apparently a swifter hara-kiri for the party.

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Read full story here.

While some have waited for the populist party to face the same fate as its predecessor the Rural Party in the 1970s, when the party imploded due to internal bickering, it is the voters that are giving the thumbs down today to the PS.

One diplomatic source told Migrant Tales recently that the PS appears like the sinking Titanic. The orchestra is playing and that distracts people from their doom.

I have written before that the even if the PS may implode or return back to the minor leagues, it’s what is coming after them that could be scarier.

Support for the PS will be tested in April 2017, when Finland will hold municipal elections.

* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English-language names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Finnish PS Kotka counclman under police investigation for ethnic agitation

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Mertsu Merivirta is a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party councilman of the southern Finnish city of Kotka. His Facebook wall is full of nationalist anti-immigration posts and sexism. If you’re going to victimize migrants and minorities why not include women as well. 

Is it a surprise that Merivirta is a member of the nationalist populist PS?

All of the above is second- and third-hand knowledge about the PS, a party that gets attention and support by spreading bigotry about migrants and minorities.

Merivirta is under police investigation for ethnic agitation for a Facebook post on October 28, which has been removed.

In light of the police investigation, the Kotka city board not only condemned what was published but recommended that the  PS city council group suspend Merivirta from taking part in city council meetings until the investigation is over.

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City of Kotka councilman Metrsu Merivirta was in “a euphoric” state when he posted this on his Facebook page, which was removed. The post states above the machine gun  that soon you’ll have as neighbors “happy migrants.” “Greet them in the traditional way in Finland,” the post adds.

Guess what the answer was from the head of the Kotka PS city council group, Freddy Van Wonterghem, a far right politician who has been sentenced for ethnic agitation as well?

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When Supo labels all asylum seekers and migrants in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finnish security intelligence police Supo head Antti Pelttari claimed at a press conference Tuesday that there are two terror threats that the country faces: the rise of refugee links to terrorist groups and hate crimes linked to neo-Nazi groups, according to YLE News.  

It’s ironic that just before the 8:30 pm TV news broadcast that quoted Supo chief Pelttari, there was aired an anti-labeling commercial with a young boy. On his shirt there were labels like “problem youth,” “loser,” “abandoned,” and “not wanted.”

Reading the mixed statements by the Supo chief, which were echoed in the Finnish media, the child below could have well been an asylum seeker with the same apathetic expression and the following labels on his shirt: “terrorist,” “criminal,” “coward,” “parasite.”

Näyttökuva 2015-11-3 kello 21.26.03See full commercial (in Finnish) here.

Reading the story in YLE News about the Supo press conference it was difficult to figure out what Pelttari was saying.

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Police College of Finland: Suspected hate crimes retreated a tad in 2014

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The amount of racist and other hate crimes reported to the police in 2014 grew a tad to 822 compared with 833 in the previous year, according to the Police College of Finland. Racist crimes retreated to 678 from 710 suspected cases with other hate crimes rose to 144 from 123. 

The Police College of Finland said that the first suspected death as a result of a hate crime was reported.

“The person was a member of an ethnic minority and the victim who was an ethnic Finn and the incident is suspected of being racist,” the statement said.

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Suspected hate crimes and racist crimes during 2010-14. The first row reads “racist crimes” and the second one “other hate crimes.” Yhteensä means total. Source: Police College of Finland.

Like in many countries in Europe, hate crimes go underreported and are only the tip of the iceberg, according to a recent shadow report by the NGO European Network Against Racism.

The Finnish criminal code still does not recognize the term “hate crime.”

Perussuomalaiset woes deepen as Sebastian Tynkkynen reelected chairman of the Finnish party’s youth league

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The problems of the nationalist populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party got worse Sunday after its third vice president, Sebastian Tynkkynen, got reelected by a clear majority to head the party’s youth league. 

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Read full story here.

Tynkkynen got elected with 42 votes against 22 for Sami Vuotila, the PS youth league’s vice president, according to Iltalehti.

Tynkkynen got his membership revoked over a week a go after he unsuccessfully challenged the PS’ leadership demanding that a special congress be convened to debate whether the party should continue in government, according to YLE News.

Considering the sloppy manner in which the PS board revoked Tynkkynen’s membership and that it may have been against the law, it’s clear that the third vice president’s reelection as chairman of the PS’ youth league means more trouble and internal bickering for the anti-immigration party, which has seen its poll ratings nosedive recently.

If Soini and the PS leadership don’t watch out, Tynkkynen may threaten them with their very own Stalingrad, a decisive battle that became a turning point in the war Nazi Germany waged in Russia. If, however, they do succeed in purging Tynkkynen from the party it may well turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory. Soini and the PS leadership face a lose-lose situation.

Tynkkynen, who is demanding that Finland close its northern border with Sweden like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán did with Serbia and Romania, has built ties with far right groups like the Sweden Democrats.

It’s clear that if the party adopted some of Tynkkynen’s demands it could well mean an early exit from government.

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The PS of Finland is an amateurish party that wants to normalize ignorance and racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finns are nice people in general. Some are patient and like to give kooks an opportunity. They do so because they mistrust the establishment or want to confirm that their trust of the establishment is justified.

Let’s be sincere. If the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ever got over 50% of the vote they would turn this country back to the murky days of the 1930s. There would be no press freedom only a charismatic leader that would goose step us to a country that would look like Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.

But thanks to the fact that the PS’ is an amateurish party that is trying unsuccessfully to normalize racism, ultranationalism with the help of ignorance, becoming the biggest party of Finland with over 50% of the votes is a political pipe-dream.

One of the PS’ happy-go-lucky MPs, Teuvo Hakkarainen, who has made many racist comments in the past, claimed recently that international agreements and the constitution hinder the PS from carrying out its policies.

What kind of policies does he mean? He probably doesn’t know but the catchphrase sounds right to incite ultranationalist sentiment.

Yes, right, Hakkarainen is the MP who sent to a woman last year a picture of his phallus by SMS.

You may rightly ask why we are putting up with MPs like Hakkarainen and a party that has little respect for our Nordic values and constitution. Why would some Finns vote for a late PS MP like Tony Halme, who has called former President Tarja Halonen a lesbian and showed his racist machismo in the following quote below?

“I promise here and now to buy gas for each Lada, if the communist traitors to the fatherland drive away forever straight to hell. The only thing that helps is to stick a Balalaika up their asshole and kick them to the border.”

PS MP Kaj Turunen, who used to sell ice cream in Savonlinna before he was elected to parliament in 2011, is another PS lawmaker that doesn’t understand our laws.

Yes, he’s the politician who filed charges in 2014 against Social Democrat chairman Antti Rinne in 2014 for ethnic agitation. Somehow Turunen believes that the PS is an ethnic group, which it isn’t.

After watching Thursday’s A-studio Turunen was at it again with the following tweet: “YLE attacks the PS and the party will attack YLE.”

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Mikkeli-based daily Länsi-Savo approached Turunen and asked him about that eerie tweet that is common in countries ruled by dictatorships.

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