Jussi Halla-aho Archives - Page 12 of 15

UPDATE (Feb. 14): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

Feb. 14

“Suomessa on jatkuva sadekausi” (Ilkka)

What’s wrong with this news story? If one follows news about immigrants and cultural diversity in Finland on Uutiskynnys.fi, one daily will stand out from the rest: Ilkka. The newspaper from Seinäjoki appears to specialize in writing about the Perussuomalaiset’s (PS)* anti-immigration rhetoric without asking the all-important question: What are your sources and can you back up your claims? Their latest story about PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho is a perfect example. “It’s the truth that where there’s a problem nearly always there are Muslims. Their culture and religion hinders their integration into Western culture,” he was quoted as saying. Ilkka permits a politician, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, to make such fiery statements without even questioning them. Ilkka is shoddy and opinionated journalism at its worst in Finland.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

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

Social media Frankensteins

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Ever wondered how a wannabe becomes a social media hit by spreading hatred and racism? There are a lot of these types of politicians and characters around who with low budgets become famous and even get elected thanks to social media. They are called #SocialMediaFrankensteins.

With the help of social media and many blind followers, some of these #SocialMediaFrankensteins have become household names because of their hate appeal.

In Finland some who come to mind are MEP Jussi Halla-aho and his faithful follower Muutos 2011 MP James Hirvisaari as well as many others like MPs Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, Teuvo Hakkarainen, and others.

Isn’t it odd that the majority of them are members of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party?

#SocialMediaFrankensteins can be organizations too because they use social media to spread their bigotry. Some of these are: Pegida, English Defense League, PS, Danish People’s Party, Sweden Democrats, Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom, Front National of France…

This clip from the original Frankenstein movie of 1931 shows the mad Dr. Frankenstein rejoicing after he awakens a human monster from the dead. “It’s alive! It’s alive! It’s alive!..” he yells at the top of his voice. “Now I know how it feels to be god!”

The same revelation that Dr. Frankenstein makes, how it feels to be god, is what #SocialMediaFrankensteins feel after they get followers and become a household name from the wannabe cemetery.

What is a #SocialMediaFrankenstein and how does it relate to the 1931 monster movie starring Boris Karloff?

A monster like Frankenstein spreads indiscriminately terror with his hatred. He kills everyone who gets in his way;
#SocialMediaFrankensteins spread indiscriminately terrorize whole communities with their racism and bigotry. They label and victimize whole group by painting them with a single brush;
A monster like Frankenstein becomes famous only after it stars in a movie;
#SocialMediaFrankensteins become famous after they publish their racist diatribe on social media;
A monster like Frankenstein is finally burned alive and sent back to the land of the dead;
#SocialMediaFrankensteins meet their fate after they get caught at their own game of racism. They are burned online;
Frankenstein dies but we never forget his terror;
#SocialMediaFrankensteins die and, like the Holocaust, we never forget the terror they spread.

PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho is a good example of a #SocialMediaFrankenstein. He was created thanks to social media and a xenophobic party like the PS. The poster reads: “Charlie Hebdo 7.1.2015 12 dead. Popcorn thank you. In another place people die while another person eats popcorn and enjoys the show. Let’s not forget to be humans. Your country thanks you.” PS. Source: Paljastettu.

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

The PS is a Finnish populist party that bases its popularity on bashing migrants and minorities

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Think about a party that starts to get nervous about its poll standings and then its most popular anti-immigration politician, who has made his career on spreading suspicion and intolerance of certain migrants, states: We mustn’t forget that we are an anti-immigration party. In order to reverse our poor standings in the polls, let’s make our anti-immigration message louder and more visible.

That party’s name is none other than the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and the politician that wants anti-immigration to be the main campaign thrust of the party in the April parliamentary elections is MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation.

Imagine the type of Finland migrants and minorities live in today. A populist party like the PS, the third-largest in parliament with 37 MPs, plans to target the migrant and minority community in order to improve its poll standings.

It’s difficult to figure out what is more outrageous: Halla-aho’s statement or the near-silence of the mainstream parties that see nothing wrong with his battle cry. They are probably silence because they have little idea how such statements by a party like the PS fuel suspicion and maintain a climate of intolerance towards migrants and minorities in this country.

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

Finland and the PS: The face of racism becomes uglier as it ages

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in general and specifically MPs like Juho Eerola, Olli Immonen and Teuvo Hakkarainen are, together with MEP Jussi Halla-aho, examples of the worst kind of extremism and racism we can find in Finland today in the halls of our parliament. They are permitted to spread their racist and bigoted views because they have white Finnish privilege.

Disagree? Ask yourself what would happen if a Muslim spoke of white Finns in the same way as these politicians do about Muslims.

The Charlie Hebdo attack exposed a lot of things about us. Apart from our shock and grieving, it also unmasked our hypocrisy.

In Finland it exposed once again the opportunism of some PS politicians but also their extremist ideas and declaration of war against those migrants and Finns they loathe, like Muslims.

Racism in its most extreme forms has a goal: the annihilation of whole groups through genocide. We saw this when Europeans colonized the Americas, Africa and other regions like Australia. With the help of pseudo scientific “theories” like eugenics, Europeans were able to justify genocide or the displacement, exploitation and death of millions of non-Europeans.

What are we to make out of the following statements below by PS politicians before and after the Charlie Hebdo attack?

Eerola, who admitted being attracted to Benito Mussolini’s fascism and economic policies, states in a letter to the editor below that Finland can still be saved from Islam;
Immonen wants immigration from Muslim countries to end to Finland and Europe. Those Muslims that live here should be given incentives to return back to the countries they came from, according to him;
MEP Halla-aho states on his blog that the world view of the majority of Muslims is no different from those that carried out the Charlie Hebdo attack;
Hakkarainen claimed in 2013 that Europe is being invaded by millions of Muslims in a Trojan horse.

This tweet by Saska Saarikoski of Helsingin Sanomat says it all about Halla-aho and his cronies. “Halla-aho is worried about terrorism. Let’s not forget that the worst terrorist act [Anders Breivik on July 22, 2011] committed in the Nordic region was by a person who admired Halla-aho.”

How are we supposed to read these types of statements by members of Finland’s third-largest party in parliament? Should we shrug them off as populism or something more diabolical?

What do these politicians aim to gain from their extremist statements? More votes? Maybe. Media attention? Maybe. Keep Finland Christian and white? Absolutely.

Read full story here.

What can you say about a politician and a party whose aim is to socially exclude whole groups of people with the help of those high walls of racism?

Probably one matter that we can conclude is that Finland is still in deep denial. It hasn’t yet awoken to the perils of intolerance and doesn’t have a clue why spreading such hatred is hazardous to our society.

Since too many in this country don’t see intolerance as a serious enough social ill, it requires a lot more leadership from Finns and migrants of all backgrounds. It would be naive to believe that the ugly face of racism will leave quietly and peacefully.

Time has the ability to expose our stupidity and ignorance. How do you think future scholars and common people of our culturally diverse society will interpret the statements of politicians that aim to keep Finland white at all cost? Will the faces of their grandchildren and great grandchildren turn red with shame?

This is exactly what happened to the worst racists in the US Civil Rights Movement (1955-68).

Most USAmericans want to forget what was done and said during slavery and the Jim Crow era.

The same fate awaits these politicians.

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

Defining white Finnish privilege #15: Case Halla-aho and the PS

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Migrant Tales

It’s clear that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are trying to regain their balance as their popularity in the polls continues to plummet. This week MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, tells his party that a tougher stand on immigration is needed to regain voter confidence.

“It would be good that the party leadership understands that one of the central pillars of our support hinges on our critical view of immigration,” he was quoted as saying on Kaleva. “This is not a marginal issue for voters.”

A marginal issue?! Would it be ok for me to be sexist and paint all women with a single brush because some voters agree with my prejudices?

That is Halla-aho’s reasoning for his xenophobic attacks on migrants and minorities in this country. He doesn’t care if what he thinks is true or an exaggeration as long as it attracts votes.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Thanks to Finnish white privilege, Halla-aho and the PS can declare war on migrants in Finland. If a Muslim or a migrant made a similar statement about white Finns, he’d be lynched on social media chat sites and platforms.

Migrants and their families who live in this country have every right to respect, equality before the law and security. Halla-aho and the national media erode and make Finland a hostile place for migrants and minorities.

In which way do Halla-aho’s statements and the media, which regurgitate them, foster respect for those who live in Finland and aren’t white Finns? Hostility breeds hostility.

Definition #15

When you have white Finnish privilege, you are permitted to declare war on groups like migrants and minorities. They are only foreigners and therefore it’s perfectly acceptable.

Moreover, the media continues to classify hostile statements by politicians like Halla-aho as someone who is only “critical” of immigration. In our book, this type of language should be labelled as xenophobic and outright racist.

A get-tough stance by Finland’s third-largest party in parliament should not only be seen as a declaration of war against migrants and minorities but against everything that our Nordic welfare state should stand for.

See also:

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

MEP Halla-aho wants a tougher PS stance on immigration

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The popularity of the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* plummeted to a record low of 13.3% in December and this has caused visible cracks in the party’s leadership. MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, blames PS chairman Timo Soini’s too soft stand on immigration for the drop in popularity, according to Oulu-based daily Kaleva.

“It would be good that the party leadership understands that one of the central pillars of our support hinges on our critical view of immigration,” he was quoted as saying on Kaleva. “This is not a marginal issue for voters.”

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

In order to understand Halla-aho’s real message, all you have to do is go back to 2008-11 when politicians like him were openly labeling and victimizing migrants and minorities as rapists and criminals with the help of a near-toothless media.

Halla-aho’s attack of Soini for being too soft on immigration is a typical Frankenstein movie plot. The mad scientist, in this case Soini, creates a social Frankenstein called Halla-aho, who turns against and kills his master.

Another matter that helps uncover Halla-aho’s opportunistic motives is his constant whining about migrants and minorities. Like the legendary Spanish antihero Don Quixote who attacked windmills with Sancho Panza, Halla-aho’s windmills are migrants and cultural diversity.

Is Don Quixote Halla-aho and Sancho Panza Soini?

Why are they windmills? Because Finland is already culturally and ethnically diverse. The only way you are going to turn Finland into an imaginary white Finnish country is by placing all those who aren’t ethnic Finns into box cars.

Halla-aho divides Finland into two groups: the so-called ethnic Finns (the good people) and migrants (those that are ruining Finland).

In the ongoing debate about immigration, there is one group that is always forgotten. This group, which is made up of tens of thousands of people, are Finns with multicultural backgrounds.

One of the reasons why this large group of people is largely ignored is because it would force some to see and accept Finland as a culturally and ethnically diverse country. For far right politicians like Halla-aho, it means giving up the fight to keep Finland white.

In Halla-aho’s world, a white Finn is any person who is ethnically white and speaks the Finnish language as white Finn. Swedish speakers aren’t included never mind groups like Estonians and Russians.

It’s highly doubtful that one person can change the misfortunes of a party like the PS. The party’s track record speaks volumes. Even so, it reveals that a more radical anti-immigration party like the Sweden Democrats and Danish People’s Party may be lurking in the PS background.

This party – if created – will be many times scarier than the PS.

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

How the Finnish media gives anti-immigration parties like the PS space, inflated respectability and importance

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Migrant Tales

An article in Sunday’s Helsingin Sanomat about Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Mika Raatikainen, who will replace former PS MP Jussi Halla-aho’s after he was elected to the European parliament in May, reveals once again this country’s media fascination with racist double-talk and rhetoric that just don’t add up never mind make sense.

If there is a culprit in Finland that has made this country a more hostile place for migrants and minorities, it is the media.They are part of the problem.

An article published this week on migrant crime by Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat is another case in point.

The Etelä-Suomen Sanomat journalist makes a disingenuous claim at the bottom of the online version of the story by stating that researchers of The National Research Institute of Legal Policy fear that studying migrant crime will label different national and ethnic groups.

This is exactly what the journalist does in the article.

Even so-called quality dailies like Helsingin Sanomat, which should know better, play into the anti-immigration rhetoric of parties like the PS, which are hostile to our Nordic democratic way of life, migrants, minorities and our ever-growing cultural diversity.

It’s clear that one of the aims of the PS after its historic election victory of 2011 is to become a ‘normal’ mainstream party.

Is this possible? How can a party that spreads ethnic hatred, victimizes certain ethnic and religious groups, polarizes society by stressing ‘us’ and ‘them,’ is homophobic and promotes nativist nationalism can ever become ‘normal.’

Certainly this is what the PS wants but it is quite another story if they can eat and have their populist cake at the same time.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Why is there so much interest in the Finnish media with a party that openly promotes racism and has had MPs sentenced for ethnic agitation, like Halla-aho? Why does the Finnish media pay so much attention to a party that has had some of its members applied to becoming members of neo-Nazi groups like Kansallinen Vastarinta?

Why isn’t there any mention in the Helsingin Sanomat story about Halla-aho’s and the PS’ ties with the far-right extremist Suomen Sisu association?

The answer is simple: Finland’s media is white. Since it is white it doesn’t have to worry about becoming a victim or target of the PS that near-constantly fuels suspicion of migrants and minorities in this country.

The Helsingin Sanomat story offers us common anti-immigration slogans, such as our social welfare system should not serve the whole world, used by the PS.

I beg your pardon? Is the above possible? Who has made such a claim except for the PS?

If you are a politician and want to fear-monger in this country, a sure way is by stating that hordes of migrants will soon invade the country. Such fear-mongering has been used for decades in Finland.

In the Helsingin Sanomat story, Raatikainen claims that he disagrees with Halla-aho on a few points but but is quick to define himself as an ‘immigration critic’ who is in favor of tight immigration policy. He agrees with Halla-aho in that he doesn’t “want people [migrants to move here] who don’t do anything and are involved in crime.”

If I were the journalist interviewing Raatikainen, I’d ask him which groups in this country want migrants to move here who don’t do anything and commit crime? That question would open a whole new area of discussion that would shed light on his anti-immigration rhetoric.

Raatikainen confuses us with his double-talk, when he first claims that he’s against migrants who don’t want to work and commit crime but those that come here to study, work and do their best are welcome.

Don’t the majority of migrants fall into the latter category?

As in many stories about the PS written in the national media, Raatikainen’s interview reveals a generous pinch of political opportunism.

Parties like the PS don’t have a clear idea of how they’d improve immigration policy never mind how to turn newcomers into dynamic members of our society.

Even if they have no idea about many of the things they talk about, they are right on one matter: Anti-immigration rhetoric is sexy and it appeals to Finnish voters as well as to the media.

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

Jussi Halla-aho: France the football giant

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: We get a lot of email and tip-offs from our readers. The latest one we got is of three blog entry translations in English of Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted for ethnic agitation. This second one, France the football giant, was published in Scripta on July 2, 2006.

Apart from understanding how racism in Finland thrives and which arguments are used to spread hatred of other groups, one matter is clear from all three writings: They are repulsive and we apologize if anyone is offended by them. The writings have nothing to do with a PhD’s critical thinking; they are simply urban tales and prejudices that have been piled high and deep.

Another important aspect that we must acknowledge about these writings is that they are hostile towards migrants and intended for gullible Finns. They are hateful writings that fuel prejudice, which in turn fuels social exclusion.

Acceptance of these two anti-immigration parties this week in the ECR with “MEPs with criminal records,” proves that shoplifting is a worse offense for a politician today than being sentenced for ethnic agitation. It sadly exposes as well why racism has grown in Europe and why mainstream politicians and the media have helped fuel such intolerance.

Our only motive for publishing these blog entries is so that other Europeans who don’t speak Finnish can read what kind of politician Halla-aho is.

For more insight into the PS, take a look Far-right and anti-immigration quotes in English by the PS.

Migrant Tales will publish Monday the last of the three blog entries, Do not tolerate the intolerant one (2007).

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

_____________________________

The headline includes an obvious allusion to my earlier article Bahrain the Sports Giant, and those who know me already sense what is eating me this time…

…and those who are ignorant of soccer, let me introduce the French team, victorious at least as yet, those dashing descendants of Asterix, Charlemagne, Louis the 14^th, Montesquieu, de Gaulle, and Sartre:

Fabien Barthes

Jean-Alain Boumsong

Eric Abidal

Patrick Vieira

William Gallas

Claude Makelele

Florent Malouda

Vikash Dhorasoo

Sidney Govou

Zinedine Zidane

Sylvain Wiltord

Thierry Henry

Mikael Silvestre

Louis Saha

Lilian Thuram

Gael Givet

Alou Diarra

Willy Sagnol

David Trezeguet

Pascal Chimbonda

Frank Ribery

That’s fine, as far as it’s about sports, it’s probably all the same who is kicking the ball, as far as he is kicking it with skill and emotion. However, the fact that it’s the team representing France, of all countries, raises questions about comparability, representativity and role casting.

What does it mean for a team to be the national team? When the line-up listed above wins a tournament, does it mean that France is the winner? Does this team represent France in the way, say, the Spanish team represents Spain? In one word, are the Spanish and French national teams national in the same sense, and are their exploits comparable in the sense of national team sports? (I am thinking of the philosophical side, not of juridical technicalities.)

Somebody could say that this team obviously represents French and Frenchmen, because Frenchness isn’t what it was half a century ago. Still, there are problems here.

The first problem: The fact that there are black players in the United States national soccer team feels, still philosophically speaking, natural, as their presence in North America is as old as the United States as a country. Black people are thus an integral part of the American nation just like White people, whatever our idea of their contribution to the success of the nation. French, on the other side, has existed in a Celto-Romano-Germanic continuum as a state and a nation for more than one thousand years. Blacks and Arabs have abruptly entered the country after World War II. The players of the national team are either first-generation or second-generation immigrants, and in my opinion it is justified to ask whether they represent France at all, except in the sense of the above-mentioned juridical technicalities.

The second problem: Even if we forget about historical continuities, it is questionable, whether the above- mentioned line-up even represents today’s happily multicultural Frenchness. Even at the present stage about 80 per cent of the inhabitants of France are Frenchmen according to my own narrow definition. A little more than 10 per cent are Muslims, and less than 5 per cent are Blacks.

Of course it is impossible to introduce ethnical quotas for national teams, but in my opinion a team of 21 players, where 13 players are Black, two are Arabs, one is from the Indian subcontinent and one is some strange kind of Tahitian is essentially a different lot than the nation it is supposed to represent. I might have not remembered or noted to emphasize this in my article about Bahrain, but the point is that I am not disturbed by the presence of Blacks in the French team. Some French (in today’s sense of the word) are Blacks after all.

What does disturb me is that France, predominantly White, has a national team where 60 per cent of the players are Black. In my opinion it would be just fine if Finland was represented by a Romani or a Sami, because Romanis and Samis are historically part of Finnishness. On the other side I’d find it peculiar if the national team of Finland (in any sports event) would suddenly be manned exclusively by Nepalis living in Finland.

…as a matter of principle, this ethnical disproportion between representative and represented makes me think that the Western hidalgo, in all his multicultural tolerance, has outsourced physical stress and endurance to the Negro. Why dontcha go runnin’ after that ball for massa, boooy… [English in the original.] (Let me add here that the multiculturally tolerant lot is also enthusiastically outsourcing the wiping of their arses and the mopping of their floors to the Negro. “Who will work our menial jobs if we don’t increase immigration?”) Even in athletics, France has had a pitch-black national team for years. When white French and English spectators are sitting and watching TV, supporting their own Africans, I can’t help thinking of Roman gladiator school owners threatening each other that “my Nubian Negro is going to kick your Nubian Negro’s ass”.

[Followup discussion in Halla-aho’s blog]

Name: Kumma

What I am doing: Starting a discussion

Message: How come a Negro couldn’t be French? There have always been people coming to France from God knows where. Now that better traffic connections and tolerance have brought Negros there, hey presto! – the new arrivals shouldn’t be French any more!

July 2, 2006

Answer: I understand that there are lots of people who don’t want to read my stuff, but I do find it difficult to grasp why anyone not reading it still should comment upon it. In my opinion the problem is one of representativity. Whether we accept the Negro as a Frenchman or not, the team does not represent France as she is today.

Moreover, I find it justified to ask whether the Negro is French in the sense Jean-Pierre is, if the Negro has entered the country just thirty years ago, and if his only real role in society (in addition to ghetto rioting) is doing sports for France.

Jussi Halla-aho: Of human value

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: We get a lot of email and tip-offs from our readers. The latest one we got is of three blog entry translations in English of Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted for ethnic agitation. This first one, Of human value, was published in Scripta on April 13, 2005.

Apart from understanding how racism in Finland thrives and which arguments are used to spread hatred of other groups, one matter is clear from all three writings: They are repulsive and we apologize if anyone is offended by them. The writings have nothing to do with a PhD’s critical thinking; they are simply urban tales and prejudices that have been piled high and deep.

Another important aspect that we must acknowledge about these writings is that they are hostile towards migrants and intended for gullible Finns. They are hateful writings that fuel prejudice, which in turn fuels social exclusion.

Acceptance of these two anti-immigration parties this week in the ECR with “MEPs with criminal records,” proves that shoplifting is a worse offense for a politician today than being sentenced for ethnic agitation. It sadly exposes as well why racism has grown in Europe and why mainstream politicians and the media have helped fuel such intolerance.

Our only motive for publishing these blog entries is so that other Europeans who don’t speak Finnish can read what kind of a politician Halla-aho is.

For more insight into the PS, take a look Far-right and anti-immigration quotes in English by the PS.

Migrant Tales will publish Sunday France the football giant (2006) and on Monday, Do not tolerate the intolerant one (2007).

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

__________________

An axiom is a claim that is so obviously true that it doesn’t need to be backed up. It’s probably axiomatical (pun intended), that when granting a claim the status of an axiom, we should be especially careful. The claim should preferably be such, that it can be proven to be and have been true everywhere and always.

One of our modern axioms is that all people share a human value, and said human value is of equal size for every person. Even the worst racists and anti-egalitarians try to fit the human value axiom into their own theoretical formulas. Denial of the axiom is altogether politically incorrect.

If we claim that everyone is of equal worth, we also claim that we know the value of a human being and that it can be measured. If it cannot be measured, we cannot prove how much each individual has it. Human value can’t be anything that comes from outside us (from Heaven), or at least it can’t be proven as such, because it’s not written in the stars, waters or rocks. Actually, nothing points to equal human value (or human value in general) being anything else but a convention and a statement typical for our age, like past axioms: ”The Sun revolves around the Earth” ”The Pope is infallible”, ”A woman has no soul”, or ”Masturbation leads to near-sightedness”. They used to be believed in as blindly as human equality is believed in now. There’s been as much measurable evidence to support them as there is for human equality. Because they couldn’t be proven, they were declared axioms that didn’t have to be proven.

The only human value that can be measured and therefore exists beyond all doubt is the instrumental value of an individual. Individuals can be set to a hierarchy based how much the community would weaken were their abilities and functions removed. A farmer, a breeder of edible animals and a construction engineer are more valuable than others, because without them the community would die of starvation and cold. On the other hand, they would survive even if everyone else were removed. An individual using a weapon is the next most valuable member of society, because he protects the food supply and houses from beasts and enemies and keeps community members from responding to their primitive urges and annihilating each other.

An artesan (and his modern variations) is valuable in the sense that his products and inventions make life easier for everyone hierarchically above and below him. Natural scientists (especially physicists and chemists) are valuable, because they produce knowledge, which both the artesan, soldier, construction engineer and food producer put into practice. It’s possible to survive without basic research, but it’s uncomfortable. A doctor is valuable, because he makes our lives last longer and increases our quality of life. Necessary he of course isn’t, because the large majority of people would survive to breeding age without him. Breeding is the primary function of all species that everything else leads to.

The people listed above pretty much materially produce the society in which we live. These professions make free time and the existential thoughts that follow it possible, which includes most of astronomical and even more so all humanistic sciences. They separate us from monkeys, but are in no way necessary. Although it has to be said, that behavioral sciences have perhaps made us less likely to kill each other. Then again, wartime increases cohesion within groups and almost always leads to technological breakthroughs.

Artists, priests and politicians are basically worthless. Any community would perform its functions well enough without them, and everything that they do is possible only because of the actions of others. Artists especially are plagued by bitterness towards science, but no painting would be painted without the chemical industry, which is natural science in effect. The meaninglessness of these professions to the rest of the community is manifested by them surviving on alms and handouts alone (which are called state grants).

Intelligence, when it is not used for something necessary, is of subjective value, but a few will deny that reading a good book or listening to someone talking sense stimulates the intellect and puts you in a good mood. I consider it absolutely bizarre and insulting to think that Esko Valtaoja wouldn’t be more valuable than Juha Valjakkala, Helena Lindgren or an immigrant leaning on a wall at the Helsinki railway station.

Based on what I’ve said above and until someone explains me proper how come everyone is of equal worth, I am of the opinion that difference means difference of worth and everyone is of unequal value. However, unlike egalitarians imagine, unequal value doesn’t lead to gassing of those of lesser worth, unless there is no other valid reason for said gassing. I consider myself more valuable than a mouse carcass lying on a forest path, but I won’t tear the carcass to pieces because of that. I enjoy the world more with art and linguistic studies in it (I’m not all that certain about religions and the Parliament). But if the boat starts leaking, I consider it clear that the less valuable cargo goes overboard first, in this case artists and linguists.

Egalitarian nonsense is brought about by having too many people with enormous energy but nothing sensible to do. Karmela Liebkind, Rosa Meriläinen and Mikko Puumalainen as Finnish examples. Like people from any era, we are also blind to ourselves and our thoughts being just a momentary flash, soon to disappear in the endless tide of time. Upcoming generations will spit on our graves and guffaw and fart at what we consider meaningful. There is no reason to believe that ”equality”, ”tolerance”, and other things important to us will end up in the long list of nonsense from a bygone world. Alongside the Sun revolving around the Earth, infallibility of the Pope, the soullessness of a woman and near-sightedness as a result of masturbation.

The political record and chicanery of the PS of Finland is what has estranged so many voters from politics

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Migrant Tales

While some are still scratching their heads about the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* joining the European parliament’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group this week, it shows why so many voters have become estranged from politics.

Read full story here.

Before the historic 2011 parliamentary elections for the PS, when 39 of its MPs got elected from 5MPs previously, the party had a solid anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam message.

It’s party leader, Timo Soini, watered down the PS’ stand on Europe recently by stating that he’s now against Finland leaving the EU. While its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric are still strong and lurking in the sidelines patiently waiting to stir voter emotions, its most outspoken enemies these days are homosexuals and gay marriage.

Hoping to become the biggest party in Finland after next year’s parliamentary elections, the PS has, however, tried to give a more moderate and mainstream image of itself. This is understandable considering that it wants to be a member of the next government and the disappointing showing of the party in the presidential, municipal and euro elections.

In all three elections, the PS hasn’t come even close to its 19.1% showing of 2011.

But after criticizing and riding the wave of voter discontent and mistrust of mainstream parties, the PS is trying to look more like them. Is this a good matter or is it another trick by the party to lure voters?

While at Migrant Tales we have spoken out repeatedly against the PS’ racism, provincialism and nativist nationalism, what is happening inside the party resembles the pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

The last paragraph of Orwell’s book says it all with respect to the revolution at Manor Farm and what the PS did in 2011:

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Green Party politician Ozan Yanar asks a very valid question on his Facebook page. He states with evident dismay that here’s the “labor party without socialism” that has joined David Cameron’s conservatives in the European parliament. The absurdity of the situation is further highlighted by the fact that AKP, the political moderate voice of Islam in Turkey, joined the ECR [through the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists], according to him.

Moreover, the ECR is in favor of Turkey’s membership in the EU. PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who has declared war on Islam in the same way as the worst Islamophobes in Europe, is now a member of a political group that approves Turkey’s membership in the EU.

In anyone’s book a criminal record isn’t a good matter to have in your records. Even so, and in the conservative spirit, where social and economic inequality are acceptable because people aren’t equal, the membership of the PS and Danish People’s Party in the ECR proves that it’s politically worse getting arrested for shoplifting than ethnic agitation.

UK Prime Minister Cameron, the leader of the ECR, isn’t too bothered by racism and prejudice since it was his government that launched the “Go Home” campaign against undocumented immigrants and spread fear to Britons that the country will be overrun by swarms of Romanians and Bulgarians on January 1.

Cameron has been playing political catchup with dismal luck against his rival Nigel Farage of the UKIP. If the UK prime minister would have taken the time to see what happened in Finland when mainstream political parties started to flirt with the anti-immigration message of the PS before the 2011 elections, he would have learned an important lesson: Don’t try to compete against xenophobic parties because you give legitimacy to them.

While the PS’ leader Timo Soini wants to show that his party is “normal” and “mainstream” these days, we should never forget what the party said and did to get where it is today.

In that message and in their actions is concentrated the poison that has estranged so many Europeans from politics.

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