Tag: Islamophobia

Where is the outcry for the Danish government’s assimilation plans of migrant children?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Denmark’s xenophobic and especially Islamophobic government plans to regulate by law the life in 25 low-income Muslim neighborhoods in Copenhagen. The message is clear and should cause outrage but we have not heard a humble finger lifted by the European Union about the government’s forced assimilation plan. 

Denmark’s forced assimilation plans should be seen in the same light as conversion therapy for gays and lesbians because it is based on the presumption of what one group subjectively sees as “normal.” Moreover, the motive of those who want to assimilate these Muslims is rooted in racism and white Danish privilege. The last thing they want these children to be when they grow up is to be equal citizens of society with a mind of their own.

Writes the New York Times:

“Starting at the age of 1, “ghetto children” must be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week, not including nap time, for mandatory instruction in “Danish values,” including the traditions of Christmas and Easter, and Danish language. Noncompliance could result in a stoppage of welfare payments. Other Danish citizens are free to choose whether to enroll children in preschool up to the age of six.”

Read the full story here.

Apart from getting answers like what are “Danish values,” there is no guarantee that these children will not suffer from discrimination and racism when they grow older.

The best integration policy that the Danish government can make, without exposing its hypocrisy and racism, is to offer opportunities for people to be treated as equal members of society irrespective of their background. The country’s integration policies make a mockery and sham of those Nordic values that it claims to uphold.

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Thailand versus the Mediterranean: Your human value hinges on ethnic and cultural background

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We have all been reading about the rescue operation in northern Thailand and it raises a worrisome question: Why is there so much media coverage of twelve children trapped for sixteen days in a cave when between 23,000 and 28,500 of people have perished in the Mediterranean during 1993-2018 while trying to come to Europe?

While all lives are sacred, the reporting by the media of the trapped boys in Thailand expose the hypocrisy of our values. What the media stories are saying in between the lines is that your value as a human being hinges on the color of your ethnic and cultural background.

Read the full story here.

Those who disagree have only to look at the bloody and racist history of countries like the United States, the Americas and others like Australia.

Those tens of millions of Europeans that fled their continent not only carried their physical belongings but their spiritual baggage like racism and toxic attitudes. By turning a blind eye to the deaths in the Mediterranean, we are only confirming those attributes that enabled so much death and devastation in the world.

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Viktor Orbán is one of the many scary faces of Europe’s violent and racist legacy

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“We created the opportunity to defend Hungary. A great battle is behind us. We have achieved a decisive victory.”

After the FIDEZ-KDNP alliance gave Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán 133 out of 199 seats in the April parliamentary elections, where anti-immigrant and anti-EU liberal ideology was contested in a hostile campaign, the prime minister said that the vote was a decisive victory to defend the country.

After the election victory, Orbán is out to make good of his campaign promises, which aim to undermine further the country’s judiciary, academic and liberal democracy.

New laws, called Stop Soros legislation, aim to hit NGOs that help “illegal” migrants and with up to a year in prison terms and slap a 25% tax on associations that support immigration. One of the aims of the law, which is intentionally vague to grant wide enforcement powers, aims to protect what Orbán calls “Christian culture.”

The correct question to ask is what does “Christian culture” mean and what does it imply for the future of religious freedom in Hungary never mind democracy.

Zoltan Fleck, a professor of the faculty of law at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, was quoted as saying in a BBC documentary that Hungary would not have qualified to become an EU member under the present system.

Balint Josa, who is program coördinator for United for Intercultural Action in Budapest, said that the new laws aim to impede the work of NGOs so that cooperation will be ever-difficult.

“In spite of the laws,” said Josa, who was publicly listed by the Orbán government as “an enemy” of the state, “NGOs should be vigilant and help each other because what is happening in Hungary can happen elsewhere in Europe. Populism is very attractive because it is an easy and fast way you get power.”

Josa warned that Hungary is inspiring similar Islamophobic and xenophobic populists in other European countries.

“[EU] Europe is based on cooperation and what they [the populists] offer is separation,” he continued. “They don’t offer any solutions in any areas.”

I compare the present health of the European Union to a patient with Alzheimer’s. In only four years, the deterioration is apparent. The difference is so pronounced that shocks you.

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PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen gets convicted for sexual harassment after ethnic agitation. Why is he still a lawmaker?

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Disgraced Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen was convicted by a Helsinki District Court for sexual harassment after he attempted to kiss MP Veera Ruoho by force, according to YLE News. Hakkarainen was convicted last year for ethnic agitation. 

The Helsinki District Court ordered Hakkaranen to pay fines amounting to 3,060 euros to the state and 1,400 euros in damages to Ruoho in damages as well as her court costs.

The incident took place at a Christmas Party last year at Parliament when Hakkarainen was intoxicated. He approached Ruoho grabbed her by the neck and forced her to kiss him.

On Tuesday, Helsinki prosecutor Eija Velitski said that she would appeal the decision that Hakkarainen receive a suspended jail sentence.

But on Tuesday Helsinki prosecutor Eija Velitski announced her decision to appeal the case requesting that Hakkarainen also receive a suspended jail sentence. Velitski that in the worst of circumstances, the PS MP could have caused Ruoho’s death.

While the politician saw his day in court, many are wondering why Hakkarainen does not resign as MP or why the PS, which is always blaming migrants for sexual harassment and rape, does not sack him from the party.

Read the full story here.

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The children of separated families in the US are telling us to change our greedy ways

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In Europe, the driver of millions of asylum seekers is us. We invaded with the United States and gave support to the destruction of Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. In Latin America, the driver of refugees to the United States is Washington’s big-stick policy and economic exploitation of the region’s wealth and opportunities. 

In both cases, the finger is pointing at us. The problem has its roots in history.

Is this how the so-called developed world is going to react to the ever-growing climate-change crisis?

Yes, you can be sure that is how the leaders of the United States and other major powers will react.

The children that the Trump administration is separating from their families and locking up in cages are the ones fighting to restore our sense of humanity. They are telling us that matters must change or else.

They will succeed because nothing will be able to stop them except for turning the United States into a totalitarian tin-pot concentration camp.

Source: ProPublica.

Viva los validates inmigrantes del mundo!

The more politicians and racists vilify migrants the stronger we get

Posted on by Migrant Tales

No matter how much politicians vilify migrants and continue to attack us, the more desperate their situation becomes. We, migrants, are a near-endless resource. As long as people can dream and hope, migration will remain. You cannot kill it. 

As a person born in Latin America, it is incredible how selective the media is in reporting racism. After so much tampering in our internal affairs while exploiting our wealth, the United States, specifically the likes of President Donald Trump, are “surprised” by the hundreds of thousands of migrants that are fleeing strife, war, chronic inequality, and poverty.

A simple question: I wonder why people are fleeing to the United State?

In the United States they separate children from their parents. In Europe and Finland we are more “civilized” since we don’t separate children but incarcerate them with their parents.

It is the same story in the Middle East after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The United States and its European partners invade, pillage, kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Middle Easterners and expect opportunistically people to stay, inhabitants of the misery, we created for them.

A simple question: I wonder why people are fleeing to Europe?

The environment is another problem of our making and it is hitting us hard but with a difference from the latter two examples: the disaster includes us, the perpetrators.

A simple question: I wonder who is to blame and what are we going to do?

No matter how much tin-pot populist like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kruz, Italy’s Lega Nord, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark’s Islamophobia on steroids, and chaotic Brexit, try, we will prevail in the end.

Their knee-jerk reaction, their Islamophobia, and xenophobia, are ample proof of that.

Finnish identity: You define who you are, nobody else can or should do that for you

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.

Anaïs Niin (1907-77)

The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is a shrinking single-issue political party that wants, but cannot succeed, at turning Finland into a Denmark-style country where political parties try to outdo each other in their racism and bigotry. 

With parliamentary elections just ten months away in April 2019, it is clear that the PS is doing everything possible to attract attention with their political antics. Contrary to the 2011 parliamentary elections, when the number of their MPs rose to 39 from 5 in the previous election, those years are long gone.

According to some polls, the PS is going to be one of the biggest losers of the 2019 parliamentary elections.

While this may be the case, the PS will launch repeated attacks and spread lies about migrants and minorities.

One of these involves closing our borders to asylum seekers, especially to those who cannot read or write.

One PS city councilman from Mikkeli contended in a blog post, which was full of grammatical errors that 46% of all sexual crimes against under-18-year-old teenagers are by asylum seekers.

The claim, which the councilperson bases on a Police University College report, forgets to mention that 46% figure he uses is from a sample of 147 cases or a total of 68 cases. In 2015, 32,477 asylum seekers came to Finland. If we just look at that year, 147 cases out of 32,477 asylum seekers total 0.45%.

Getting one’s facts wrong and grossly exaggerating them is nothing new for the PS.

Another recent claim by the PS is that in 30 years Finland will have cities where white people will be minorities.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

The claim, that white Finns will become a minority in the face of migrants and minorities, is one of the oldest tricks in the books by anti-immigration parties.

Continue reading “Finnish identity: You define who you are, nobody else can or should do that for you”

Exposing white Finnish privilege #52: Having no privilege is dangerous

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A report commissioned by the Finnish ministry of the interior revealed that migrants are 2.5 times more likely than white Finns to be assaulted, reports YLE News. 

Another study published in 2014 by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), showed that first-generation immigrants at school are more likely to experience bullying, physical threats and sexual harassment than white Finns.

Even if violence and harassment of migrants are too common in Finland, the report published by the ministry of the interior claims that “very little is known about the relative security of different groups in society.” In its survey, THL admitted in their study that there has been up to know very little information about this groups of minors who have foreign-born parents.

While it is a good matter that Finland wakes up to the ogre of racism and the violence it sows in society, that the results of these studies “surprise” officials reveal, in my opinion, a heavy dose of denial and the unwillingness to do anything effective to challenge the problem. White privilege must numb and discourage them to act effectively.

 

Read the full story here.

White Finnish privilege #52

While Finnish privilege not only permits you to keep your social entitlements, it guards you better from violence unless you are a woman.

Continue reading “Exposing white Finnish privilege #52: Having no privilege is dangerous”

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Denmark proves that Nordic “equality” is selective and does not apply to minorities like Muslim women

Posted on by Migrant Tales

While we should not be surprised that Denmark, the Nordic region’s and one of Europe’s most Islamophobic country, voted to ban the niqab and burka,* according to Politico. While I have seen only twice in my lifetime in Finland a woman wearing a niqab, I have never seen one using a burka. How many women will be affected by this ban? Apart from making it clear who has the right to gender equality in Denmark, the measure is another example of Europe’s hypocrisy. The women Denmark targets are the ones that it now attacks with more gusto thanks to the ban.

What policies – if any – does Denmark apply to create an inclusive and culturally diverse (non-white society)? Ban, tar and feather these women in public is the answer.

The only good thing I can say about the country is that the Perussuomalaiset party’s [1] bid to turn Finland into an Islamophobic and racist nation like Denmark failed. Small consolation to an overbearing social ill facing us today.

Read the full story here.

* The media mixes up niqab with burka, a garment worn by women that covers their body and the face. When some media speaks of the niqab, a dress that covers the woman’s body except for the eyes, they call it wrongly burka. 

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

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

Why the Finnish media and police do not have credibility with minorities and migrants

Posted on by Migrant Tales

You bump into news and scoops.

When I was making a living as a journalist many years ago, I learned that the best way to get scoops was by having good sources. Even if this is clear, the question is how do you get those good sources so that you bump into news and scoops?

I use today in Migrant Tales the same strategy I used to get news and scoops when I lived off journalism. If you do things the right way with patience, news and scoops will come to you.

Rubbing off the old sell-by dates with new ones is easy. All you need is nail-polish remover, a rag, and a stamp with fake sell-by dates. Read the full story here.  Unscrupulous employers will do anything to exploit migrants and asylum seekers.

A classic example is the most recent example of a food distributor utilizing asylum seekers and changing the sell-by dates of its old products. This news “came to us” because we have a reputation for speaking out for vulnerable groups like asylum seekers. That reputation is backed by solid knowledge of the topic.

The fact that we get big scoops and the national media doesn’t so often is because it represents the interests of white Finnish power and privilege. The same goes for the police. Migrants and minorities don’t turn to the police for help in many cases because they do not trust them.

For these reasons, unscrupulous businesspeople and exploiters of migrants in Finland will continue to conduct business as usual because politicians, the media, and society are more concerned with reinforcing stereotypes and victimizing migrants and minorities than representing and protecting their rights.

We must stand up for our rights. Nobody else can do it for us except for us.