Tag: Finland

(Part 2) At the mercy the faculty process: Staff well-being in the University Of Helsinki

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Dr. Gareth Rice*

The Urbaria Document

The URBARIA document delineates the results of a workplace well-being survey conducted by the occupational healthcare provider Mehiläinen. It is bulletproof evidence that those who abused their power were not held accountable. The results were shared with staff in an “info coffee session” on 12th June, 2019. The survey was based on interviews with 30 individuals involved with the running of URBARIA. Rather than focus on individual gripes, the survey highlighted collective concerns.

I saw a familiar pattern which had been going on for years. To quote from page one of the document: “Urbaria’s work atmosphere is poor, with inappropriate behaviour occurring on many levels. The problems were seen to result from the management not being present or acting poorly.” Professor Mari Vaattovaara, URBARIA’s director and those who continue to protect her have lot to answer for here. I exposed her skull-duggery in the Geosciences and Geography Department at the Kumpula campus back in 2014. I thought that global exposure in Times Higher Education would have embarrassed HY into taking action against such behaviour. Alas, the URBARIA document confirms that the same inappropriate behaviour has simply been allowed to migrate from one HY campus to another.

Looking on the URBARIA website, you’ll see one background image of a pigeon – not sure of its connection with academic research – and some information about places, people and politics. You get no sense of how much of a ‘sandcastle’ URBARIA is. As outlined in the document, its goals, responsibilities and job descriptions are unclear and there is a lack of resources for the Master’s Programme in Urban Studies and Planning and ambiguity of content. There are also major problems with supervision and management, communications and transparency of recruitment processes. Many of these serial problems were presided over by Vaattovaara, who is URBARIA’s director and bizarrely is due to remain in that post until 2021!

A particularly concerning section of the URBARIA document states the following: “Complaints were raised on the actions of three individuals at the institute, both as supervisors and wielders of authority. Since the URBARIA document wasn’t official, why weren’t the three individuals named? Would they have been named in an official document? I am quite sure that everyone who made the complaints knows who the three individuals are, so why protect them?

The next sentence in the document reads: “The matters stated in the complaints have been dealt with according to the Faculty process with the dean, director of department and head of human resources, and they will be considered closed at this session.”

What exactly is “the Faculty process” for resolving complaints, especially ones of a serious nature? I really hope that it isn’t the same process which was in place from 2008-2014; this gave Vaattovaara power which she was able to freely use against colleagues in the Department of Geosciences and Geography at the Kumpula campus.

It goes on: “However, if no change is seen in practices, the matter should be raised directly with the director of department.” Can we trust that the director of the department will escalate the practice in question so that HY’s Faculty process is able to put an end to it? But it should be more than this. The wider academic community and the public really need to know that the Faculty process is properly fit for purpose: Has it resulted in disciplinary action against the three aforementioned individuals? Does it allow HY to terminate their employment contracts if they refuse to change their behaviour? On page 3, the document goes onto state that, “Inappropriate behaviour can result in a reprimand, warning or, ultimately, termination of employment.” Termination of employment is rare but it has happened. In relation to the sacking of Professor Lassi Päivärinta for sexual harassment, Hämäläinen told the Helsinki Times in 2014 that: “It has been the top priority of the university to guarantee the well-being of its employees. We have a zero tolerance policy toward inappropriate behaviour.” It’s this sort of transparency that HY owes its staff and the public instead of trying to hide behind the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999).

It’s not all doom and gloom. The URBARIA document recommends a number of measures, which if strictly adhered to, will make it near impossible for any inappropriate behaviour to continue. In an attempt to distance itself from nepotism, HY’s recruitment processes “will be observed to an even higher degree.” In an attempt to stop Professors from being able to guarantee academic tenure to their favoured PhD students or friends, irrespective of better competition, “General disqualification rules” were introduced last year. They apply to applicants who have “Joint publications (three years), supervisor-employee relationship, polemic relationship, supervisory relationship (10 years), family connection or friendship. In the case of director of department, the rules only pertain to employees directly under their supervision, students, etc.”

Staff workloads are “determined in the employment contract, while more specific details are agreed with their supervisors and immediate supervisors.” Again, if they are strictly adhered to, staff can negotiate various tasks to ensure that they have a balance between teaching, research and other duties. This should send a clear message to certain bullying Professors, who in the past were able to keep their teaching hours secret and offload work onto junior colleagues (as was the case in the Department of Geosciences and Geography).

Under the section “Rules of Conduct for Workplace”, the URBARIA document claims that HY is also committed to “the guidelines and activities of the Finnish National Advisory Board on Research Integrity (TENK).” This is good to hear, for there are too many Professors who have their names on academic publications without having contributed anything to them. I have spoken with enough PhD and Master’s students to know just how powerless and intimidated they feel when they are basically told that their supervisor’s name should appear on all of their publications. There now seems to be a way stop this misconduct: “Suspicions relating to research ethics (pertaining to, for example, publication author lists, research methodology misconduct, rights to data, research misconduct) should be first discussed with the supervisor, after which a written notification should be submitted to the chancellor, if necessary.”

The URBARIA document also highlights a concern about order of operations. The Master’s Programme in Urban Studies and Planning was established at the University level “without making a decision on its resources at the same time.” Whilst this led to “heavy workloads and uncertainty among staff and those heading the programme”, it should not detract from another important issue: Thanks to increased transparency, more discerning academics are wise to how badly URBARIA is run and have chosen to avoid the place.

To those who want to see improvements in Finnish higher education the message should be clear enough: The chain of command in HY has protected those who wish to abuse their power which has led to the problems outlined above. Ultimately, the reason why perpetrators followed the route they did was because they were allowed to, and that’s our fault. As a culture, that’s our fault. My advice? When you come across those who abuse their power, be fierce in your convictions and don’t shy away. If HY wants to be a genuine supporter of the #eisyrji campaign and to better convince the academic community that its top priority really is to guarantee the well-being of its employees, then it would do well to more frequently exercise its zero tolerance policy toward inappropriate behaviour.

Go to Part I here.

*Dr. Gareth Rice is an academic currently based in the UK. Prior to this he worked in Finnish Higher Education as a postdoctoral researcher and a lecturer in Urban Geography. As an occasional journalist his writings have appeared in Times Higher Education, National Geographic, Counterpunch, Helsinki Times and Migrant Tales. He enjoys visiting coffee shops to meet friends, sometimes new people or to read magazines, which typically include Prospect, The Atlantic, The Economist, Monocle, MOJO, Sight and Sound or The New Yorker. He also appreciates nature, has spent a lot of time in Nuuksio National Park, Lapland and Loch Lomond exploring the great outdoors.

(Part 1) At the mercy the faculty process: Staff well-being in the University Of Helsinki

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Dr. Gareth Rice*

This article has been almost one year in the making. What it reveals will, I hope, move the academic community to stop looking at Finnish higher education through rose tinted glasses, and to raise its brow and express earnest concern about the abuse of power and lack of accountability within one of Finland’s best known universities and their botched attempts to cover them up.

On 20.08.2018, University of Helsinki tweeted the following:  “We are proud to be a part of the #eisyrji campaign, against discrimination in the workplace. Let’s make Finnish working life even more equal: http://www.eisyrji.fi  #equality.”

With this tweet the University of Helsinki (HY) was declaring that it was part of the Work Against Discrimination campaign and a staunch advocate of an equal work culture. The tweet also helps to create the impression that Finnish higher education has a reputation of playing fair when it comes to the recruitment, promotion and treatment of academic staff. There are faculties in some Finnish universities where this is undoubtedly true and they should be commended for such good practice. As this article will show, however, such good practice has not extended to the Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (URBARIA) https://www.helsinki.fi/en/helsinki-institute-of-urban-and-regional-studies at the University of Helsinki (HY). There you will find a despicable open secret that staff are afraid to even acknowledge for fear of losing their jobs.

I gather that it will not seem presumptuous to assume that, since you are reading this article, you may be aware that I have previously written similar articles. They exposed the abuse of power and lack of accountability in the Department of Geosciences and Geography at HY. At the time, the casual, practiced nature of the behaviour suggested to me that it was part of a longer-term pattern. To re-read those articles is to be reminded that, between then and now, insufficient progress has been made by HY to properly deal with the ineradicable perpetrators. In any case, I believe that – if you read this article right to the end and ponder over the details and evidence presented – you will sense that my frustration was outweighed by my indefatigable zeal for more accountability in Finnish higher education.

It has not been possible to write the article until now because HY was able to (legally!) withhold a certain document – a report concerning a work well-being evaluation at URBARIA – from the media and the general public. So concerning is the content of this document that it is easy to see why I ended up dealing with HY’s legal team, who were the last in the queue of those who attempted to keep it from me.

The hassle of getting the document is just as important to this story as its contents. I tried on for size every possible approach to get a copy of the document, but the responses to my initial emails gave me an accurate enough read on how HY was intending to play this game. When I asked to see the document, I was passed around various staff members, all of whom were equally cagey in their responses to me. A typical email response read:

Dear Gareth,

We share the material and documents of the work well-being evaluation only to those, who are currently part of that work community because that evaluation relates strongly to the well-being issues in that work community. We have emphasized confidentiality to all who participated in that evaluation so it would not be correct to share that material outside of that work community.

If it wasn’t evident to me at this point that HY wanted to stymie the writing of this article, what happened next made it very clear. I wrote a letter to Esa Hämäläinen, HY’s Director of Administration and asked him for a copy of the document. He emailed me back to say that, “Our university lawyer, Ms. Laura Karppinen, responds on behalf of the University Leadership to your request.”

When I emailed Karppinen to request access to the document I was again refused. Since I was now dealing with a lawyer I couldn’t resist inquiring about the legal basis behind HY’s decision. She told me that: “In accordance with the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999) section 5, subsection 4, and with the judgment by the Supreme Court of Administration 2002:2, this type of work well-being documents are not official documents and consequently not within the sphere of public access, as they are documents prepared for the internal activities of authorities.”

Karppinen’s email closed with following words: “However, since you have requested a copy of the report, you have the right to demand that the matter be decided by the University by a written decision. Please inform me if you wish a formal decision to be made.” Taking this to be a glimmer of hope, I responded right away and suggested that Karppinen go right ahead to get a formal decision from HY.

It’s a good thing that I wasn’t overly optimistic. A few weeks later her email arrived with two attachments. A letter entitled “Dean’s Decision” stated that, “The Faculty of Science refuses the request for access made by Dr. Rice.” In the “Statement of the reasons for the decision” section the letter went on to quote section 5, subsection 4 from the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999): “This Act applies to documents prepared for negotiations or communications between persons in the service of authorities or between authorities and private individuals or corporations acting on their behalf, or for other comparable internal activities of such authorities, only if the documents contain such information that, according to the archives legislation, they are to be archived. However, if the documents are archived, the authority may order that access to them may be only by permission of the authority.”

The legal language boils down to this: if HY wants to keep documents from the media it just needs to ensure that those documents are not defined as official and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999) enables them to do so.

The second attachment was information about my right to appeal, which I would need to lodge with the Administrative Court of Helsinki within thirty days’ notice of HY’s decision. Unless the Court overturned HY’s decision, I would need to pay a general processing fee of 260 euros, not to mention the costs of flights and accommodation to and from Helsinki. 

The clock was ticking but I had no intention of going to court to appeal HY’s decision. Given how stitched-up things are in Finland, I figured that they would probably circle the wagons and win, and that I’d be left downtrodden and out of pocket. My smile had gone. No-one at HY was willing to spirit out a copy of the document to me. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing else that I could do. Case closed. Move on.

***

A few weeks later, in December 2019 I received an anonymous envelope. Inside was a four page document, written in Finnish. It was entitled “Osastonjohtajan infokahvitilaisuus URBARIA 12.6.2019, Porthania 3. Krs.” A quick online translation check told me that the document’s English title was “URBARIA info coffee session by the director of department on 12 June 2019, Porthania (third floor).” Could this be the document that HY had previously withheld from me? I had no idea but I was keen to find out.

I needed advice. Who had the moral fibre I could trust? The only person who I felt would be honest enough to confirm the authenticity of what I had been sent was Karppinen. She had been very straight with me in all of our correspondence. I steeled myself and started to type the email and waited. After only a few days her response came: “Dear Dr Rice, Thank you for your message. I can confirm that the document you attached is indeed one of the documents mentioned in the decision HY/1725/00.09.02/2019,…” However, before starting to write this article I also checked that the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999) only applies within Finland. It did. My smile snapped back on.

Go to Part II here.

*Dr. Gareth Rice is an academic currently based in the UK. Prior to this he worked in Finnish Higher Education as a postdoctoral researcher and a lecturer in Urban Geography. As an occasional journalist his writings have appeared in Times Higher Education, National Geographic, Counterpunch, Helsinki Times and Migrant Tales. He enjoys visiting coffee shops to meet friends, sometimes new people or to read magazines, which typically include Prospect, The Atlantic, The Economist, Monocle, MOJO, Sight and Sound or The New Yorker. He also appreciates nature, has spent a lot of time in Nuuksio National Park, Lapland and Loch Lomond exploring the great outdoors.

Jussi Halla-aho and PS press kit is now available

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Check out our constantly updated page about Jussi Halla-aho and the Perussuomalaiset.

The aim of the page is to keep in the spotlight the racist and far-right matters that Halla-aho and the PS say on a weekly basis.

We will also publish anti-immigration quotes from parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and Christian Democrats.

Don’t be a silent bystander! Stand up to racism and bigotry. Source: Ville Ranta.

Visit the page here.

If you hear or read about a quote about the PS that would interest our readers please drop us a line.

[email protected]

Wake up Finland! Is the PS far-right political agenda who we are?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Toni Jalonen story of the former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* second vice president who resigned because he said he was a fascist, is an opportunity for Finland to take a long and deep look in the mirror.

Above all, it is an opportunity to look at the hypocrisy within the PS and political culture. It also reveals the lack of teeth of the media.

Jalonen gives the thumbs up to PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho on keeping Finland white and Muslim-free and people of color-free.

Toni Jalonen is a hardcore ethnonationalist and a fascist. In the tweet, he “totally agrees” with Halla-aho that the PS does not want a Finland that is culturally diverse Finland. Source: Twitter.

Here is the question: How can a country like Finland find sympathy for a party that promotes ethnonationalism, far-right ideology, and fascism?

I mentioned in a previous posting the following:

  1. About 20% of Finland’s population are hardcore racists who like or agree with fascism;
  2. We deny what the PS is because acknowledging it would be saying something ugly about ourselves. It’s like the story of the alcoholic who has a difficult time admitting that he has a drinking problem and must go to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Disagree?

Why, then, doesn’t the media put PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho in the hot seat and ask him about his racist and far-right writings? Wasn’t he convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012? Yes.

And just a fast comment about PS Youth chairperson Asseri Kinnunen, who voted Saturday for a change in the bylaws of the youth association, is seen standing in fascist attire from the 1930s Lapua Movement and Patriotic People’s Movement (Isänmaalinen kansanliike, IKL).

Are you too a fascist PS Youth chairperson Asseri Kinnunen? What’s with the black shirt, blue tie and that Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu rollup behind you? Source: Toopics.

If I had the opportunity to get an answer from these PS politicians, I’d ask them to elaborate on the following questions about their far-right political program:

  1. The PS wants to bar Muslims and people of color from coming to Finland. Does this mean that you will ditch international agreements like the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights?
  2. Does the PS believe that these radical changes, which would imply Finland leaving the EU, are possible?
  3. The PS wants to scrap hate speech laws. How will you assure that migrants and minorities won’t become victims of racist harassment and hate crime?
  4. Could the PS define what is racism and social equality?
  5. What does social equality mean? Is it only a white Finnish right?
  6. Your party clearly states that it does not want Finland to be culturally and ethnically diverse. (Duh. It already is). If this is the case, and it is, what are you going to do about all those who are not white like you and live in Finland?
  7. Is the PS going to put them in camps, islands and/or send them back to where they, their parents or grandparents came from?
  8. When the PS speaks of making radical changes in immigration law, does this mean that migrants and minorities will become officially treated as second- and third-class citizens before the law?
  9. Tell us specifically what would Finland look like if you had your way in changing immigration law and the constitution? What would you do to people who oppose such changes?

I suspect that the PS would only answer these questions totally off the record and anonymously.

PS Youth’s candid racism and fascism forces it to split from the party even if both adhere to the same far-right agenda

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Not obtaining the two-thirds majority needed to change the bylaws, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Youth turned down a motion from the party to change its bylaws 56 votes in favor to 45 against. The vote was a definite setback to PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho.

Even if the party will make a decision in early March on how to proceed after the vote, it means that PS Youth will split from the parent party.

Read the full story here.

The only ones who appear surprised by the result is the PS leadership. Under Halla-aho, the party has promoted, even encouraged, ethnonationalism and fear-mongered about how white Finns will become a minority in their own country thanks to Muslim migrants.

PS party secretary Simo Grönroos, who is a declared ethnonationalist and a member of the fascist-spirited Suomen Sisu, confirmed after the vote that the party would establish a new youth association.

“Of course it is important that the party has its own youth organization,” he was quoted saying in Yle News, “so yes the party will found its own youth wing.”

Halla-aho is in the same quandary as former PS leader Timo Soini when internal power struggles were waged between him and the far-right Islamophobes led by Halla-aho.

Thanks to a media that is normally toothless in confronting PS politicians with tough questions, and other politicians who fear that opposing the PS’ racist policies may be counterproductive, Halla-aho and his cronies have had an easy ride in Finland.

Former PS Youth second vice president Toni Jalonen, changed that momentarily when he admitted over the weekend at a conference in Estonia that he is “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist.”

Abdisalam Mohamed Abdulah: Returning to Finland’s Black February 2012

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: The story below was one that was published in February 2012 about “Black February,” when three Muslims died and a Finn committed suicide after killing one Muslim and wounding another. As with the Pakistani who was viciously attacked in February 2018, there were a lot of question marks about how the police carried out the investigations.

Today we talk openly about instigating civil war and about politicians admitting they are fascists. The party? Guess.

This artricle below is to raise our consciousness about how Islamophobia is a cancer spreading in our society at this moment.

______________________________________________________________________________

Remember Black February? Over about three weeks we read about the deaths of three Muslims , a suicide and a Perussuomalaiset (PS) councilman who offered to give a medal to a white Finn for killing one of these victims in cold blood. On Monday Migrant Tales had the opportunity to meet the father and a family friend of one of the victims, Abdisalam Mohamed Abdulah. 

The first thing that you notice when you meet Abdisalam’s father is his grief.  Anguish inhabits all of  Mursal Abdulah: It’s in his eyes, in his face, in his posture, in his voice,  in his persona.

The death of his eighteen-year-old son was such a strong blow that he is still recovering from the shock when two policemen broke the tragic news to him and his wife on a Friday February 17 at 10am.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” he said returning to that terrible moment of his life. “My wife fainted.”

See also:

Abdisalam’s father and wife were in the first group of Somali refugees that came to Finland in August 1990 by train from the former Soviet Union. Their son was born in Finland. Abdisalam was a good athlete,  student, and son, according to his father.

“He [Abdisalam] planned to study medicine,” he continued. “I was ready to send him abroad so he could become a doctor.”

Abdisalam Mohamed Abdulahi was a Manchester United fan. In August he would have turned nineteen.

The last time that Abdisalam’s father saw his son was on Thursday night. “His last words were that he was going to take a shower, go to a [high school] party and return,” he said. “He never did.”

Abdulah isn’t at all happy with how the police have handled the case.  Apart from not expressing any empathy for the parents’ grief, it was difficult to get any information from them about the crime.

“We were treated coldly and felt like we were the criminals,” he said. “The police appeared to be more concerned about keeping the case under wraps because they feared a revenge attack by Somalis.”

Abdulah says that if a crime were committed by a Somali it would have received a lot of  media attention.

“The thing that struck us the most was when we went to the police station,” he said. “The same information that they wouldn’t give us, we then read in the tabloids right after we left the police station. How is it possible that the papers knew more about Abdisalam’s death than us?”

Abdisalam’s death happened between midnight and 7am.  The suspect and the victim were school acquaintances.  Abdulahi says that his son died from a mortal blow to the head.  The suspect’s father was present at the crime scene as well.

I asked Abdulahi if he feels that justice will be done? “I don’t know,” he said trying to be diplomatic. “I’m not sure that I trust the police.”

One of the matters that the father has a big question mark is the complicity of the father in the whole affair. He doesn’t believe the police that the father was not an accomplice in the crime. “Abdisalam was big and physical compared with the attacker,” Abdulah said. “There must have been somebody else helping him [that could have been the father].”

A friend of the family present at the interview speaks.

“The worst thing in Finland is that if you have a different religion, culture and language, you are left on the  fringes of society,” he said. “No matter how much you try to integrate you are always left outside.”

Abdulah concludes: “Those Somalis that went to Australia and Canada are living better lives than I in Finland. All I have to show for over twenty years in Finland is a cold country with long winters and the death of my son.”

Migrant Tales expresses to the parents, relatives and friends its condolences for Abdisalam.

The PS’ and Jussi Halla-aho’s “circus” tour continues after fascist Toni Jalonen resigns as PS Youth vice president

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS POST WAS UPDATED

Some may believe that the big news from the weekend is that the former second vice president of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Youth, Toni Jalonen, admitted publicly to being “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist.”

Reaction to what Jalonen affirmed came fast and hard after it hit social media. National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) leader Petteri Orpo stated that “Halla-aho’s circus is mixed up,” and all of the parties’ youth leagues pledged not to work with PS Youth only after they renounced ethnonationalism and fascism.

Jalonen fascist affirmation was followed over the weened by other PS outbursts from MP Ano Turtainen, who wrote that civil war was inevitable if Christian Democrat MP Päivi Räsänen is charged and convicted of ethnic agitation. European MP Laura Huhtasaari sent us to the twilight zone as well when she said in an interview that Kokoomus is a Communist Party.

Jalonen and the PS Youth’s third vice president, Tomer Souranto, resigned as well on Tuesday due to the scandal. Even if the PS tries to wash its hands of what happened, there are some unanswered questions lingering: Did Jalonen represent only himself or PS Youth) Did PS Youth pay for his and Souranto’s trip to the Etnofutur IV event in Tallinn?

If you look at the Etnofutur IV program below, Jalonen is listed as a Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu and PS Youth representative.

Former PS Youth second vice president Toni Jalonen speaking on behalf of Suomen Sisu and Perussuomalaiset Youth. Source: Facebook.
Top picture and in “good” company: Toni Jalonen (left) at the Etnofutur IV conference posing with the Estonian Minister of Finance Martin Helm of the far-right EKRE party, former PS Youth third vice president Tomer Souranto and EKRE party member Ruuben Kaalep. Bottom left photo: Kaalep and far-right French leader Marine Le Pen giving the white power sign. Bottom right: Helm and father, interior minister Mart Helm giving the white power sign in parliament. Source: Yle, ERR News, and Migrant Tales.
Toni Jalonen and some PS Youth members from Satakunta showing the white power sign in a February 15, 2020 posting. Writes the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) about the white power sign: “In 2017, the ‘okay’ hand gesture acquired a new and different significance thanks to a hoax by members of the website 4chan to falsely promote the gesture as a hate symbol, claiming that the gesture represented the letters ‘wp,’ for ‘white power.’ The ‘okay’ gesture hoax was merely the latest in a series of similar 4chan hoaxes using various innocuous symbols; in each case, the hoaxers hoped that the media and liberals would overreact by condemning a common image as white supremacist.” Source: Facebook.

If we are fair, PS chairperson Halla-aho’s irritation with what happened isn’t what Jalonen said, but that he sees such statements by his followers as a challenge to his leadership.

We saw a lot of this when Timo Soni, the former chairperson of PS, led the party. The Halla-aho faction that made racism in the cornerstone of its political message finally succeeded at ousting Soini in disgrace.

There is one sentence in Tuesday’s Yle A-studio that reveals the latter when Halla-aho admitted that he was “surprised” by Jalonen’s statement and saw it as “a provocation.”

Where has Halla-aho’s stuck his head during the past years? How can he forget what he’s written and where he has published his far-right racist writings? Let’s not kid ourselves, fascism and other far-right nonsense are an integral part of the party’s message.

Usually, the message comes out in code, but now Jalonen decided to open up and spill the beans dressed with the colors of the 1930s Finnish fascist Patriotic People’s Movement (Isänmaalinen kansanliike): “Today I am an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist [clapping].”

Jalonen’s scandalous statement isn’t the only matter that points to the PS’ liking of fascism. Check out the PS Youth logo. It also flirts with ethnonationalism and fascism. Risto Laakkonen once said that when you start to talk about Finns as a tribe, you start to flirt with racism.

What does this PS Youth logo evoke? White Finnish traditions, ethnonationalism, and racism under the guise of fascism.

If Finland is so much against racism and fascism as mainstream politicians and policy-makers want us to believe, how do you explain the popularity of the PS?

There are two explanations, in my opinion:

  1. About 20% of Finland’s population are hardcore racists who like or agree with fascism;
  2. We deny what the PS is because acknowledging it would be saying something ugly about ourselves. It’s like the story of the alcoholic who has a difficult time admitting that he has a drinking problem and must go to Alcoholics Anonymous.

There is no doubt in my mind that the PS is a threat to Finnish society and our way of life. Flirting with it or being a bedfellow will not change or tame the party.

If the PS had their way, Muslims and people of color would be treated worse than in the United States at the expense of neoliberal economic policies. The borders would be shut to non-EU asylum seekers. It would mean that Finland would ditch its international agreements and become a copy of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. Welcome gross human rights abuses.

The PS is a nightmare that would become real if ever in government.

Disingenuous Jussi Halla-aho, disingenuous fascist-spirited Perussuomalaiset

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It is justified to consider the Nürnberg trials a farce. Guilt was decided in advance, and the justifications for the sentences were absurd.[1]

Perussuomalaiset* (PS) chairperson Jussi Halla-aho (2010)

Isn’t it incredible how PS Youth second vice president Toni Jalonen put himself in the eye of a political storm when he admitted over the weekend that he is “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist?”

Not only admitted these words in public is one matter but doing it with his Finnish fascist black shirt and blue tie adds more light to the hypocrisy of the Finnish political system and specifically on the PS.

Halla-aho was quoted as saying in Helsingin Sanomat that the PS doesn’t tolerate nazism or fascism. These assurances are as empty as Halla-aho admitting that the PS isn’t a racist party.

A 2011 campaign ad of Wille Rydman of the National Coalition Party. In some ads like this one he appears for some strange reason with photoshopped dark skin and in others with white skin. Rydman believes that his party should work closer with the PS. It is for this reason, and many others, why he is known as the Halla-aho of the National Coalition Party.

Jalonen used MP Juha Mäenpää, who is suspected for ethnic agitation over his invasive species remark of asylum seekers, as an example of why it would be injust to sack him from the party.

“I understand that if the party sacks me, but I do not see it as just if you look at what others have said [publicly] in the party,” he was quoted as saying in Helsingin Sanomat, pointing the finger at Mäenpää.

What makes the whole we’re-going-to-possibly-sack Jalonen farce by the PS leadership is itself and its track record. Jalonen’s case shows that it is fine being a fascist in the party as long as you don’t say it too loudly in public.

Halla-aho was, for example, convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion. He was also suspended a year earlier from the party for two weeks for supporting a military regime in Greece.

“What is needed in Greece right now is a military junta, which would not need public approval and could use tanks against strikers and demonstrators,” he wrote on Facebook.[2]

The PS has, under the leadership of Halla-aho, become more radicalized. Racist concepts like ethnonationalism, ethnic replacement, fascism, and other ones are today the norm.

The same challenges former PS leader Timo Soini had with the racists in the party, which was nothing more than a power fight between him and Halla-aho, is now taking place in the party but with fascists and ethnonationalists.

Let’s not fall for the hypocrisy of the PS, but continue to focus on challenging a party that wants to turn Finland into a country like Victor Orbán’s Hungary.

[1] For an example Alber Speer (an architect) got a long sentence since he knew about the holocaust but didn’t try to prevent it. As if a person living in a dictatorship should fight against the dictatorship even if it costs his life. Source: Wikiquote (Hommaforum).

[2] Wikiquote

The PS playbook of how to spread racism, disinformation and fake news

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* first vice president and MP, Riikka Purra, is at it again. During the postal strike, she misled people by stating that 98% of early morning mail carriers were migrants.

Early morning mail carriers are a small part of the postal company’s services. According to Posti, 80% of postal workers in Finland and 70% in Helsinki and Greater Helsinki are Finns.

The latest disinformation trail that Purra and her boss, Jussi Halla-aho, want to lead us is a perfect example of how the PS turns factual news into disinformation.

In the latest disinformation campaign, Purra backs what Halla-aho claims that the vast majority of asylum seekers, especially those who are minors, are boys. Purra purposely confuses us with more percentage figures, which state that 92.6% of refugees in the Greek refugee camp (Lesvos?) are boys and 91.3% over 14 years old.

One may ask what do these figures have to do with those asylum seekers who came to Finland in 2015.

Purra’s tweet: “Not the same percentages as those cited by the UNCHR now. Those that came alone to the refugee camp in Greece (Lesvos?) are 92.6% boys and over 91.3% are over 14 years old.”
Halla-aho’s tweet:”About 95% of asylum seekers who came five years ago [in 2015] were men and 95% were over 14 years old, according to Eurostat.” Source: Twitter.

As everyone knows, one of the myths upheld by Islamophobic parties like the PS is to give the impression that the vast majority of asylum seekers are men.

In an interview with Yle on Saturday, President Sauli Niinistö seemed to confirm the myth about male asylum seekers by stating that “girls weren’t present among the asylum seekers [who came here in 2015] a few years ago.”

President Niinistö’s statement is a good example of how politicians may speak out against racism with one hand but validate it with another.

So how does the disinformation playbook work in the case of what President Niinistö claimed and how it was rebuked by the researcher and human rights activist Erna Bodström?

She tweets: “Hei @Halla_aho! I didn’t mislead anyone since I spoke of all asylum seekers – those who came by themselves or with their family – who came here in 2015. Sorry that the tweet wasn’t clear. Source: Twitter.
“Over half of those 0-13-year-olds who arrived in 2015 were minors. Girls in that group were almost 20%. Don’t spread information. Source: tilastot.migri.fi.” Source: Twitter.

The main steps of the PS disinformation playbook:

Take the words of a credible politician like President Sauli Niinistö and turn it around to reinforce your disinformation and fake news. In this case, Niinistö claimed wrongly that there were hardly any women asylum seekers who came to Finland in 2015.

If a credible researcher like Erna Bödström challenges misinformation, just spread more misinformation with dodgy statistics. Halla-aho talks about 2,535 asylum cases when, in fact, we should be talking about over 30,000 asylum seekers arriving in Finland in 2015.

Grumble and cry a river about how unfair researchers are and how the media is the enemy of the people. Send out a lynch mob to attack the person who questions your baloney.

PS Youth vice president: “I am an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

Toni Jalonen, who is the second vice president of the Perussuomalaiset* (PS) Youth and member of the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu, states openly in a speech below that “I am an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist [clapping].”

Yes, you heard, right. Politically matters appear spinning rapidly out of control in the PS and some are living in an alternate reality.

Recently, PS MP Ano Turtiainen called on his followers to civil war never mind PS MP Juha Mäenpää, who said in summer that asylum seekers are “an invasive species” that had to be eliminated.

Just like former PS leader Timo Soini had a tough time keeping the racist outbursts of his party in line, Jussi Halla-aho is seeing the same problem. Even if he is on the same ideological wavelength, open fascism, and ethnonationalism are eating the party from within.

On the left is Toni Jalonen, PS Youth vice president admitting that he is “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist.” The Lapua Movement was a fascist organization that failed to overthrow the elected government of Finland in 1932 after which the the Patriotic People’s Movement (Isänmaalinen kansanliike, IKL) was formed. The Lapua Movement-IKL did not use brown shirts but a black one with a dark blue tie. Is it a coincidence that Jalonen is wearing a Lapua Movement outfit? Source: Twitter and Good Reads.

PS Youth substitute board member for Lapland, Johannes Sipola, has said a lot of terrible things like condoning and blaming the Christhurch killings in March on multiculturalism.

It’s clear that he is one of the first to defend Jalonen like in the tweet below.

From the second paragraph it reads: “Jalonen represents the [PS’] youth association and yes, the youth association is openly fascist. This line is supported as well by the members. That is why Jalenen was voted to his post.” Source: Twitter.

Where will all this lead?

It will not end well, I am afraid. It is only a question of time when something will snap, and we will – hopefully not – see something tragic like we are seeing today in different parts of Europe.