My great grandfather Dante Tessieri and his future wife, Aida Guaimonti, sailed from Italy in the 1890s to Brazil. Dante was a learned man, a physicist, and an anarchist that housed strong political opinions. He was forced to leave Italy, like many millions of his countrymen, because of political reasons.
Of all my great grandparents, Dante is the one that I admire the most. I admire his courage so much that I gave one of my sons his name.
While I cannot confirm it, he was allegedly part of a plot to assassinate King Humbert. After being detained and jailed, he escaped and skipped the country moving to Brazil, where my grandfather, Nemo, was born.
In the late-1800s, about 20% of the Italian population knew how to write. Dante, and his father Serafino Tessieri, were one of the fortunate few who could read and write. This coupon above was found by chance on eBay. Dante is the lighthouse keeper of the island of Pantelleria. Note Dante’s beautiful handwriting.
Millions of Europeans emigrated from Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. They escaped strife, war, famine, economic hardship and political persecution.
The Finns were no different from the Italians. They too emigrated en mass as the illustration below shows.
It is for that reason
Finland is a country of emigration. Before World War 2, the majority (about 370,000) emigrated to North America and after World War 2 (550,000) to Sweden. Source: Migration Institute.
While moving from the United States was a wise decision forty years ago, I have my doubts today about Europe being a safe haven. Are those same factors that forced Dante and millions of other Europeans to flee these shores arriving to haunt us once again? If not Europe or the United States, where could one flee to safety today?
The rise of fascism and populism in Europe during this century clearly shows that we have failed to do away with such ills, which .are still very much alive and kicking, waiting to resuscitate, like today.
Time will tell what happens. Even so, I am a bit apprehension about the future, and if we will end up again on those slippery slopes that led us to war.
I hope I am wrong.
Evey know and then I hear my great grandfather turning in his grave and stating sei pazzo!
If the learn-Finnish-and-you’re-integrated promise is misleading, so are many others spread by people who should know better.
“The best way to eliminate racism is to get people to know each other,” goes the affirmation. It is like the claim that traveling opens your eyes to the world.
After we do all these things, will we kiss and make up and live in a post-racial society?
Dead wrong.
What we are doing with the argument is what Robin DiAngelo points in her white fragility argument, or how to keep race off the table.
“All of those narratives function to get race off the table close the exploration [and] exempt the person from any further engagement and protect the racial hierarchy in a white position.”
When we mention things like more contact, traveling, learn the language, we are also taking race, or precisely the solution, off the table.
In order to tackle racism in society, we need to understand how we form part of the racist hierarchy and the role of power and privilege in such a social ill
Like traveling, contact with people can reinforce making you even more racist and hateful of other ethnic groups.
Traveling and living in different lands can have the same toxic impact and blunt our efforts to find credible solutions to winning racism.
Due to the Coronavirus spread throughout Europe, people are required to stay home in safe. Same in Finland, where also the hashtag #stayhome is in trend. Unfortunately, for many women, home doesn’t mean safety. On the contrary.
According to a 2012 study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), 47% of Finnish women have experienced gender-based violence at some point in their lives, starting at the age of 15. It puts Finland as second in the list of the 28 European Union countries that participated in the survey, right after Denmark.
This is quite a smack on the face, considering that The Nordic countries are often praised for their achievements on gender equality.
But what do we mean with gender-based violence?
Gender-based violence is violence directed against a person because of their gender. The majority of victims of gender-based violence are women and girls. Gender-based violence and violence against women are terms that are often used interchangeably, but the ‘gender-based’ definition is the one that we should use more as it highlights more the aspect of inequality among men and women.
The Istanbul Convention is a Council of Europe Convention that focuses on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, and published its first evaluation report on Finland on 2 September 2019.
The UN Entity for GenderEquality have stated that generally women of ethnic and cultural minorities are more in danger to become victims of violence. There is not a research that states why it is so, but in my opinion one of the factor is the sexualization of some ethnic groups ( like women of color, or south Asian women ) with an exasperation of their sexual characteristics and even porn categories only about them.
The Rape Crisis Center “Tukinainen” reports to receive 1000-1200 calls and attempted calls each month. The risk of physical assault is highest between the ages 15 and 34 years. ( datas from Tilastokeskus ) .
Nearly half of African background women reported experiencing discrimination during the past five years, that study found — most often at the hands of strangers. They were often subjected to name-calling or other forms of verbal abuse. (source Yle)
However, estimating the prevalence of sexual violence in Finland is difficult, because a big number of are not reported to the police.
Instead of telling to women how to dress up for not being raped and to blame the victims for not having reported the perpetrator to the authorities, let`s try to analyze some of the possible causes of lack of reaction from the immigrant women victims of gender-based violence:
·Failed integration: Following a quote of Mia Poutanen, chief superintendent on the National Police Board: “Integration programs focus on educating foreigners with regard to attitudes and values, but in many cases, it unfortunately does not start quickly enough, because asylum processing takes too long.”(source Yle). This explication speaks for itself, and I totally agree.
Often, even with integration program completed, the sensation of not being part of the community is strong: social integration is only feasible once immigrants are accepted as members of the society. Unfortunately, for many minorities this represent a big struggle.
·Lack of peer support and network: A big part of the foreign women living in Finland comes for following their partner/spouse. Women with a foreign mother tongue are more likely to be married than Finnish-, Swedish- or Sami-speaking women.: 43% of women with a foreign mother tongue and 32 % of women with a national mother tongue were married. (source ulkomaalaistaustaisethelsingissa.fi).This means that they don’t necessarily have a network of supportive people in case of need. They might face loneliness and exclusion, and the risk of social isolation is high. In case of danger or need, they might not have a person that can support them in the hard times.
·Poor language skills: According to a study of 2019, 82% of the population of foreigners living in Helsinki is born abroad. Immigration is still a relatively new phenomenon in Finland: The majority of Helsinki residents born abroad have migrated to Finland less than 10 years ago. This means that the majority of the international community, doesn’t speak Finnish as mother tongue. Reaching for help, searching information online, even just explaining what happened can become a struggle.
·Lack of knowledge of own rights: Many foreign women don’t know that they don’t have to stay in an abusive relationship for staying in Finland. The perpetrator might blackmail the victim by claiming that she might lose her kids or be deported if she calls the authorities.
·Women poverty: Despite the welfare benefits available in Finland, the struggle of poverty is still real, especially for those women that are not in the working-age anymore. Indeed, nearly 70 percent of over-65-year-olds are living exclusively on basic benefits are women. In practice this means that they only receive a guarantee pension of 784 euros monthly, paid to persons whose pre-tax pension income is otherwise less than 777.84 euros per month. (source Yle)
·Fixed-term work, unemployment and zero-hours contracts: Higher education does not protect residents with a foreign mother tongue from unemployment as efficiently as Finnish- and Swedish-speaking residents. The unemployment rate among residents with a foreign mother tongue remains fairly constant regardless of their education. Residents with refugee background have had more difficulties in finding a job than other people.
But how can to get help?
If you are a victim of gender-based violence, don’t be afraid to ask for help. You are not alone, it is not shameful to reach for help and it is more common than you imagine.
Here there is a list of some of possibilities to reach for help. If you have become or see someone else becoming the victim of violence, immediately call the emergency number 112. Intervention is always required in cases of violence.If you have sustained physical injuries, go to the nearest emergency room or call 112 for help.
Here is a list of some organizations that can be a good support:
· Monika Naiset ry is probably the most famous for promoting the equality and inclusion of immigrant women in Finland and prevents violence against women.
· Mieli the Finnish Association for Mental Health, provides crisis assistance and support in order to prevent mental health problems and suicides.
· RIKU, the Victim Support Finland`s organization, aims to improve the position of victims of crime, their loved ones and witnesses of criminal cases by influencing and producing support services.
Tukinainen, the crisis centre for sexually abused women, is a national victim support centre that provides support and guidance for people who have been sexually assaulted/ or abused, as well as providing guidance for their families.
On this date of March 21, 1960, the police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a group of peaceful protestors demonstrating against that country’s apartheid laws. In commemoration of the 69 people that were killed on that day, the United Nations called on in 1966 the international community to intensify its efforts to banish all forms of racial discrimination.
Despite celebrating this important day, there is still a lot of work to be done.
About two years and a half ago on February 23 in the Helsinki suburb of Vantaa, a Pakistani man was brutally attacked by three young white Finnish youths.
Writes the Helsinki Times: “Assailants inflicted 20-30 stab wounds on the victim using knives and other edged weapons. His lips were also cut and was stabbed near the eye. Fortunately, the victim was transferred to the hospital urgently and underwent major surgery. Although still in ICU [intensive care unit] and in critical condition with severe injuries, his situation is not life-threatening anymore, and he has regained consciousness.”
Anti-Hate Crime Orgnisation on the forefront of anti-racism activity in Finland. The association was founded in Helsinki on September 8, 2018, and officially registered on October 3, 2018. One of the guiding forces of the association is Rashid and his family. Rashid, who was the victim of a brutal crime in 2018, wished after recovery to do work against hate crime and racism. Ther association’s first board (from left to right): Enrique Tessieri (chairperson), Tegha Abeng (substitute board member), Thomas Babila (board member), Ali Rashid (board member), Ahti Tolvanen (secretary), Rashid (honorary and board member), Sobia (vice-chairperson), and Mounir E. Eliassen (treasurer).
Much to the amazement of the family and other NGOs, the police did not consider what happened to Rashid a hate crime.
“The police called us the following day after what happened to my husband,” said the wife of the victim. “The first question I asked the police if it was a hate crime. They said it wasn’t because the suspects were intoxicated.”
The three youths received 9.5-year prison sentences each after they raised the charges in April from attempted manslaughter to attempted murder.
What does this day, The International Day for the Elimination of Racism, mean to Rashid and Sobia?
“We left our own country, our people, and family to live in peace in a foreign land, but this horrible matter happened to Rashid and us,” she explained.
Sobia said that apart from having a profound economic, social, and psychological impact on their lives today, the family has not recovered from what happened. “It made us lose trust in Finland as a safe country,” she added.
Sobia states that she and her husband continue to get suspicious looks from strangers when they are in public.
“You can tell when you are not wanted because some people give you angry looks,” she said. “And this is because you may have dark hair and don’t look like them.”
What happened to Rashid and the rest of his family after that February evening shows that only one day to celebrate the elimination of racism is not enough.
It is also a reminder that racism can strike at you.
Populists like Perussuomalaiset MP Riikka Purra are desperate for attention in the face of the coronavirus pandemic because fewer are interested in their Islamophobia broken record.
MP Purra, who is also the PS’ first vice president, pulled a fast one on Yle’sA-talk by stating that she has doubts about Finland’s health infrastructure. “I have received information from a hospital that they wash disposable equipment,” she tweeted, declining to say who her source is. state her source.
If she were speaking the truth, she’d get in touch with health authorities to investigate the claim.
This will, supposedly, not happen because it is spreading fake news.
Source: Twitter.
The I-can’t-disclose-the-source comment by Purra is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Since her statement instills fear among the population, such fake news should be strongly condemned.
The PS is worried about their standings in opinion polls since the coronavirus pandemic has overtaken their mostly exaggerated and fake news about the threat of migrants.
Why are Muslims, especially women, usually pictured covering their faces? Do these types of images in the media reinforce our stereotypes about Muslim women?
Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s leading daily, is one representative of the media that reinforces stereotypes about Muslim women.
While the article is important because it talks about forced marriages, why can’t it write about the topic without stereotypes of Muslims, which in turn reinforce anti-Muslim racism?
The depictions in the media appear to go to great lengths to racialize an issue.
Why is this woman covering herself?Do all Muslim women cover themselves in public? Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
After writing several opinion pieces for newspapers such as Savon Sanomat, Kainuun Sanomat, Suomen Kuvalehti, Karjalainen and others, I am sometimes disappointed with the pictures that go with my story.
Burkas or niqabs or western stereotypes? Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
The most offensive story that I have ever read in Finland depicting Muslim women was by Yle in September 2018.
One of the latest cases (below) of such reporting was by the state-run Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle). The story was a poll about what different parties’ views was of migration and migrants. In the cover picture of the story, there are all the leaders of the political parties in parliament and a woman wearing a niqab. Part of the headline of the story was that only two parties would ban the “burka.” The picture with the woman wearing the niqab was later removed. Source: Yle.
It is surprising how much political mileage one gets from bullshit.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that has exposed the leadership vacuum left by US President Donald Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence. If we go back to 2015, when, Finland saw a record number of asylum seekers entering the government, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, which was in government, offered no leadership except for the usual anti-immigration rhetoric.
For this reason, Trump and Pence resemble closely Halla-aho and Purra, who base their politics on racism – like the Trump administration – and generous quantities of BS.
Ideologically, US President Donald Trump and Jussi Halla-aho are soul mates. They hate Muslims and other people of color. Both also hate the state and are ready to unleash neoliberal economic policies on the population, thus aggravating social inequality. Sources: US Government and Etelä-Suomen Sanomat.US Vice President Mike Pence is known as a dry rubber stamp at the service of his boss, Donald Trump. PS First Vice President Riikka Purra is also a rubber stamp parroting Halla-aho’s anti-Muslim and people of color racism. Sources: US Government and Ilatlehti.
A good word that describes all of these four politicians is bravado, or fake bravery and being foolhardy. All four are spinners of fake news as well.
Another matter that these four politicians have in common is that they bully the most vulnerable groups of society. Usually, those who don’t have the power or the means to stand up to their racism.
As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc but also offering us an opportunity. One of its opportunities was to expose the lack of leadership, corruption, and greed of the Trump administration.
The only matter protecting Halla-aho and his cronies is being the opposition. Faced with a crisis and a need to lead, he and the PS party would be cut from the knees due to a vacuum left by no leadership.
Like Tump and Pence, it is only a question of time when the real Halla-aho, Purra and the PS will be unmasked.
There is one matter that bonds all the Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs in parliament: They use migrants, especially Muslims and asylum seekers, to get votes. Their ads and rhetoric reflect well their racist disposition.
Take, for instance, the ad below that promises that she will make “Finnish well being and security” priorities.
Some of her pet topics are Muslims even if in her small, far-flung town of Outokumpu (6,803 inhabitants), there are hardly any foreigners, never mind Muslims.
Ouokumpu is located in such a far-flung place that it would be a miracle if a foreigner, never mind a Muslim, would find it on the map. Source: Wikipedia.
In Outokumpu – are you ready for this – there are 177 people (2.6% of the total town population) who are not Finnish citizens, 231 (3.39%) who were born elsewhere than Finland, and 239 (3.51%) who do not speak Finnish, Swedish or Sami as their mother tongue.
Despite their minimal numbers, Antikainen does not miss a chance to label Muslims as rapists and terrorists.
That is why she is obsessed with the message: prioritizing white Finns’ well-being and security.
Perussuomalaiset MP Sanna Antikainen campaign slogan and promises to defend the “well-being and security of Finns’ priorities.”
Antikainen’s Islamophobic worldview raises a lot of questions.
One of these is how she graduated as a registered nurse and what kind of an oath she took. The Hippocratic oath of nurses is also based on the Nightingale Pledge, named in honor of Florence Nightingale,
In the United States, nurses vow to treat patients equally: “Discrimination in any form is harmful to society as a whole and in opposition to the values and ethical code of the nursing profession, which directs the nurse to ‘…respect the inherent dignity, worth, unique attributes, and human rights of all individuals.’” (American Nursing Association, 2015, p.17).
Below are a Finnish nurse’s views about human rights and how to deal with people she does not like.
The PS likes Trump and his racist policies that are against migrants. Don’t be surprised if MP Antikainen would want to build a wall about her small town. Source: Twitter. This claim that “Europeans do not have the money for their social security,” is an old Islamophobic excuse to not help asylum seekers. We are a rich continent and we DO have a lot of money. Source: Twitter.
I sent MP Antikainen Thursday the following questions:
What do you mean when you state that you are “on the side of Finns?”
What about if a person was born in another country but is a Finnish citizen? Are you on his or her side as well?
What about if the person was born in Finland and is black?
Do you defend the interests of all people in Finland irrespective of their backgrounds?
I never expect to get an answer from Antikainen. Even so, the fact that she didn’t answer is already an answer that reveals a lot about herself and her party.
If the PS ever could change the laws of Finland, that would be a sad day for Finnish democracy and the rule of law.
It would be a very sad day indeed because it would be based on racism and far-right populism.
We won’t allow it to happen and, in the meantime, we will give parties like the PS and MPs like Antikainen a run for their money.
For some, the news is welcome. One of the main aims of AFCI is to undermine the role of the Swedish language. Swedish is Finland’s second official language.
AFCI no longer has an English page on its website. Source: AFCI (2017).
Another problem with AFCI is that it mostly run by members of the PS, a party that is openly hostile to Islam that sees the encroachment of English as a threat to the Finnish language and culture.
One of the matters that characterizes the AFCI is that it is in a time warp where its views of the Finnish language and culture are obsolete.
Another matter that the AFCI is accused of was its role in whitewashing Finnish culture. Right after it founding in 1906-07, there was a drive to change people’s “foreign”-sounding surnames into Finnish ones.
During 1935-35, some 200,000 Finns changed their surnames into Finnish ones.
Not granting funding to the AFCI is a step in the right direction.
Conservative parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) are on a dangerous path putting in peril human rights and the rule of law. The latest suggestion by Kokoomus parliamentary group leader, Kai Mykkänen, to pass legislation so Finland could suspend asylum applications like Greece is worrying.
The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party clutched political power in the last decade with the help of anti-Muslim racism. Only white EU citizens were spared from their hateful rhetoric as long as they kept quiet.
Anyone from outside the EU with different skin color or religion was targetted and victimized by their hateful rhetoric.
Since the historic victory of the PS in the 2011 parliamentary election, when they won 39 seats from 5 seats previously, the party’s message has steered further to the far right.
Even if it was only a time when the PS would show it real far-right colors, it is disappointing to watch how Kokoomus has climbed into bed with the PS.
Kokoomus parliamentary group leader Kai Mykkänen stated after Greece decided to suspend asylum applications for a month that Finland should pass legislation to do the same.
Even if politics makes strange bedfellows as in the case of the PS and Kokoomus, it is worrying how much alike they are in their xenophobic knee-jerk reactions. Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
“Finland must be prepared, if necessary if we were exposed to pressure from a large number of [asylum] applications coming towards Finland,” he was quoted as saying in Yleand added that the country should be able to do what Greece did under exceptional circumstances.
Somebody should tell Mykkänen and his party that it is a human right, specifically Article 14, guarantees the right to seek asylum. It does not read that such a human right can be suspended under any circumstances.
With such arguments, we could put on hold our democratic system whenever a political party in power deems.
Kokoomus, never mind the PS, are placing Finland on a dangerous path.
