Tag: hate speech

Jewish Community of Helsinki: Hate speech is directly responsible for the rise of anti-Semitism in Finland

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Yaron Nadbornik, the president of the Jewish Community of Helsinki, said that the rise in online hate speech has caused great insecurity of Helsinki’s small Jewish community. The Jewish Community of Helsinki launched this week a campaign to raise 15,000 euros in 48 hours to finance increased security needs. 

The Jewish Community of Helsinki uses 200,000 euros for security annually.

Read the full story (in Finnish) by Helsingin Sanomat here.

“I will not say that it is only the extreme right that is directing this [online] hate speech against the Jewish community,” said Nadbornik.”Let’s just say that they are people from different ideologies that write online thousands of hate comments against Jews.”

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YLE News: What Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen forgets to tell us about growing hate speech in Finland

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There’s a lot of evidence of how Finland denies an issue like racism and near-constantly plays down its impact on migrants, minorities, and society in general. Prosecutor General Raija Toivainen claims in a YLE News story that racist statement lead to bitterness, radicalization, and terrorism. 

Fine. I agree, but then states:

“Racism’s targets are driven into a corner, where it is easy to become bitter. This creates the perfect breeding ground for organised crime or even terrorism… People who have been chased to the fringes of our society are easy to manipulate and cajole into extremist groups. Do people that spread racist hate speech realize the effects of what they are doing?” she wonders.

So hate speech and hate crime drives “victims” into a corner and from there they become radicalized and terrorists.

While this may be the case, Toivianen forgets to tell us about the danger of terrorism by white Finns. Why didn’t she mention Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who murdered in cold blood 77 people in 22/7?

And what about the complicity of the politicians and public officials who should know better?

Hate speech is the soil from where violence breeds. It is indiscriminate and emboldens white Finns to commit crimes, even terrorist acts. Hate speech and racism affect everyone in society.

Hate speech and racism affect everyone in society and not just one group.

We should never forget this fact, but it’s convenient and allows us to “condemn racism” and never leave our racialized comfort zones.

Read the full story here.

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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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Migrants suffer from the Ulysses syndrome, societies from the Cyclopse syndrome

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I wrote a story in Migrant Tales nine years ago about the Ulysses syndrome, an illness that affects migrants, which speaks volumes about the lives of asylum seekers in Finland and how officials and the government contribute to their misery. If the Ulysses syndrome explains the suffering of migrants what would we call a society that is indifferent to their suffering?

Psychiatrist Joseba Achotegui of the Universitat de Barcelona describes the illness in the following words: “It comprises loneliness, as family and friends were left behind; a sense of personal failure, and a survival struggle that takes over all other priorities. The syndrome is characterized by physical symptoms like headaches, and psychological symptoms like depression.”

Here’s an example of what an undocumented migrant, of which we have many in Finland these days, suffers:

Norma lived in terror and in hiding. This 45-year-old single mother left her 11-year-old son in 1999 when she migrated to Madrid. When she moved to Spain, she didn’t know anyone never mind have a place to sleep. She was an illegal alien.

The woman was afraid that the police would find and deport her. “It was that way nine years ago,” she admits. I would never go out for a stroll. I’d forget to board a metro at stops because I was in another world thinking of my child.

While the Ulysses syndrome abounds, what could we call a society that is incapable, or anesthetized by politicians’ indifference and hate speech, to their suffering?

Would the proper name be the Cyclopse syndrome?

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As Finland heals from Friday it must address homegrown extremism and violence against migrants and minorities

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Today more than ever Finland needs leadership to heal from what happened on Friday but also condemn openly all forms of violence in this country. The greatest fear that some migrants and minorities have n Finland after the terrorist attack in Turku are reprisals against Muslims and migrants.

We already saw three business establishments run by foreigners being attacked over the weekend. In one of them, there is a man giving a Nazi salute from the shattered window. A business establishment selling Arabic pastries and a barbershop in Helsinki were attacked as well.

Instead of just speaking about terrorism, politicians must show leadership and condemn as well all forms of violence, especially against the migrant community that is as grieved as the rest of the country after the terrorist attack.

The fear that some migrants and minorities feel in Finland is very real.

“What scares me the most is that Turku will be a platform for Islamophobic groups [in Finland and elsewhere],” said Roxana Crisólogo Correa Saturday, a Peruvian poet who has lived a number of years in Finland. “Moreover it will encourage us as a society to find simple solutions to complex problems and be reinforcing and dividing more our society by stressing ‘us’ and ‘them.’”

 

Read the full story (in Finnish) here. A man giving a Nazi salute on Friday.

Below is another business that sells baklava in Itäkeskus in Helsinki was attacked as well.

 Another business establishment’s window is smashed in Itäkeskus, Helsinki.

A barber shop in Helsinki suffered a similar fate on Friday. The owner of the barbershop is a naturalized Finn who moved from Iraq in 2009.

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Defining white Finnish privilege #36: Hate speech and censorship

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Let’s be honest and expose one of the biggest lies concerning hate speech and censorship that always pops up at interviews like the one Thursday MTV with (the old) Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo and the editor of the party’s magazine, Matias Turkkila. 

Both claim that people aren’t allowed to express themselves freely when it comes to cultural diversity because they don’t want to be named racists. Before I respond to this false claim, let’s see who are Slunga-Poutsalo and Turkkila.

Slunga-Poutsalo is one of the persons who signed the Nuiva manifesto in 2010, an anti-immigration proposal to keep Finland white and how to disenfranchise migrants and minorities. She called asylum seekers in 2015 “economic migrants” and “social welfare shoppers.”

Turkkila is an old ally of Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted of hate speech in 2012 and caused the PS to implode after he was elected chairman in June.

Turkkila is also one of the founders of Hommaforum, a racist platform where its members, usually anonymously, make racist comments. Hommaforum could be described as a racist peep show where racism is the erotic attraction.

Both Slunga-Poutsalo and Turkkila had the opportunity in MTV to spread once again a lie that “common Finns” cannot say what they think about immigration.

 

Watch the full interview (in Finnish) here.

The affirmation is, as we know, one of the biggest lies spread by anti-immigration politicians. On many occasions, the person making such a claim said right after it something racist and bigoted.

Finnish white privilege #36

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A feature about a PS white supremacist and how the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) normalizes racism and bigotry

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Northern Finnish Kemi city councilperson Harri Tauriainen is a white supremacist that is head over heels about US President Donald Trump. In a sloppy human-interest story about Tauriainen, the state-run Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) makes no mention of the councilperson’s racist and bigoted political views except him denying that he’s a racist and neo-Nazi sympathizer. 

The Finnish media, like other media in the EU, has difficulty in grasping how racism impacts migrants and minorities since they are white.

In the YLE story, there was no mention as well of Tauriainen’s most infamous quotes like, “It’s incredible that this human trash [convicted foreign criminals] aren’t put in their places. Put a stamp on their asses and deport them for good from Finland.”

Read the original story here.

But if the YLE reporter appears to suffer from convenient amnesia, she could take the trouble to see one of Tauriainen’s latest Facebook posts on how “hate speech is legal in the United States,” and how “illegal human trafficking rages on.”

In the story, YLE only had nice things to say about Tauriainen even if it mentions the far-right vigilante group Soldiers of Odin. The reporter even played down the 47.4% plunge in votes he got in the 2017 municipal elections from 2012.

Migrant Tales will go even further to help the YLE reporter to understand who Tauriainen is and what he symbolizes to our ever-growing culturally diverse society.

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The Finnish League for Human Rights: Is Finland in need of hate crimes prevention law?

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Hate crimes affect members of minority groups all over the world. Some countries take it more seriously than others by passing and enacting hate crime prevention laws, and by investigating suspected cases and prosecuting perpetrators so as to deliver justice to victims. The number of suspected hate crimes registered by Finnish police have increased more than fifty per cent between 2014 and 2015.

Every year since 2008 Finland’s Police University College publishes a report on hate crime based on data of suspected hate crimes reported to the police. The report provides insights into the state of hate crimes in the country. Currently, the Finnish penal code does not define hate crime or racist crime. However, since 2011 the racist motive has been an increasing ground for punishments. Hate motives such as race, skin color, religion or sexual orientation are taken into consideration by courts during sentencing, and they may lead to an enhanced penalty. However, it appears that the police, prosecutors and judges have challenges in recognizing the potential hate motive in the crime process.

Read the full story here.

Current legal measures may not be enough

A total of 1250 suspected cases of hate crimes were brought to the attention of the police in 2015, according to police data. Compared to the previous year the figure represents a 52 percent increase in suspected hate crimes. Majority of suspected cases in 2015 had racist features based on ethnicity and national background.

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How a story in Migrant Tales was incorrectly judged as “hate speech”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A news story I published Saturday about two black and one foreign woman who were insulted and threatened in a racist manner got taken down in the Rasmus forum. It was the first time ever that this has happened to me in Facebook. 

Facebook only gave me a note stating that the story didn’t abide by its community standards.

So what did my “hate speech” story say?

A year ago a white Finnish woman threw a bucketful of water at three women and four children below and started to insult and threaten them in a racist manner.

Said the victim, Ruth Waweru.Folabit, in Migrant Tales last year: “When another neighbor told the woman to shut up, she called her an n-word lover. She said that she was a Finn, and therefore, nothing would happen to her [for harassing her in a racist manner and throwing a bucket of water].”

After a year the three victims get the following decision from the prosecutor:  “I will not press charges because the suspected crime, when evaluated as a whole, should be seen as minor considering the harm it caused or the degree of guilt of the suspect that it reveals.”

I will not go into all the details of the story because they are already published, but it’s quite incredible that a white person in Finland can do something like this and get away with it. I just wonder what would have happened if the person who threw the water, insulted and threatened three white people was black.

“I’d probably get deported,” said one of the victims.

Suvi Tanninen, who complained to Facebook about the story, claims that I was guilty of “hate speech” because I wrote demeaningly about white Finns.

In the posting she calls me “a mental retard.”

One look at her Facebook page “likes” reveals who this person is: Tanninen “likes” far-right online trash publications such as Nykysuomi, MV, vigilante group the Soldiers of Odin, Suomen Sisu and Finland First.

All of the above are responsible for fueling and maintaining hate speech against migrants and minorities in Finland.

Here is the official complaint that Suvi Tanninen gave to Facebook about the article, which she claimed was hate speech (sic!). Facebook should do it’s job better and not just censor people in the way the story was today.

UPDATED (13.5): You still see people who think racism is ok and don’t mind advertising. Even so, why don’t they learn how to spell the word “racist” correctly?

 

 

 

Throwing water and hurling racist insults at black people is ok if you are a white Finn

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales has followed a story that sadly began in the Helsinki neighborhood of Herttoniemi in May 2016. A white woman threw a bucketful of water at three adults and four children from the second floor and started hurling racist insults. Two of the victims were women from Kenya and another one was a white woman from the United States.

Said the victim, Ruth Waweru.Folabit, in Migrant Tales last year: “When another neighbor told the woman to shut up, she called her an n-word lover. She said that she was a Finn, and therefore, nothing would happen to her [for harassing her in a racist manner and throwing a bucket of water].”

Open-and-shut case, right?

Wrong.

Waweru-Folabit got a letter from the prosecutor almost a year later after the incident:

I will not press charges because the suspected crime, when evaluated as a whole, should be seen as minor considering the harm it caused or the degree of guilt of the suspect that it reveals.

This case, and especially the prosecutor’s decision to not press charges, is a disheartening example of how the system drags its feet and plays down racism in Finland.

If a white woman throws water at somebody and starts insulting people in a racist manner it may suggest a hate crime.

What would have happened if we’d switch roles and a black woman would throw water at a white Finn and start insulting her? Would she be charged and forced to pay compensation for damages?

On May 23, 2015 Ruth Waweru-Folabit posted this message on her Facebook wall. Migrant Tales reposted it with her permission.

Migrant Tales spoke with Waweru-Folabit about the prosecutor’s decision.

“I would have at least expected an apology from the woman and that my wet clothes she’d pay for sending my clothes to the dry cleaners,” she said. “I thought by pressing on with this case it could be a warning to others and that they cannot get away with such things. I just wanted some kind of justice for what happened.”

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