One of the matters that has always surprised me in Finland is that if you speak out against intolerance and racism, you are sometimes seen as the rude one, not the one making the inappropriate comment. Apart from playing down a social ill like intolerance, we too often lose sight of the real issue: the victim. There…
Tag: Lieksa
Lieksa, Finland: Parents don’t want their children to be driven to school by Somali taxi drivers
Leiksa, a far-flung town in eastern Finland, has attracted a lot of bad publicity in recent years from Perussuomalaiset (PS)* councilmen who demanded a ‘Somali-free’ meeting room to a migrant taxi driver that was assaulted recently, is once again in the news for all the wrong reasons. A group of parents from the town of 12,000 inhabitants don’t want their children to…
Lieksa, Finland: Migrant taxi driver assaulted by client
The North Karelian town of Lieksa is once again in the media after a migrant taxi driver was assaulted physically Friday by a client who also threatened to kill him, according to YLE Pohjois-Karjala. The suspect left the scene without paying the fare. The police are investigating the case as an assault case and for…
Lieksa, Finland, councilperson who wanted a “Somali-free” meeting room gets sacked as the PS’ town council leader
Esko Saastamoinen, the Perussuomalaiset (PS) councilperson from Lieksa who demanded that a ”Somali-free” meeting room for his delegation, has been sacked as the PS’ town council leader, according to Karjalainen, a Joensuu-based daily. Saastamoinen was, however, able to retain his post as the party’s Lieksa town board first vice president. The PS councilperson faces as…
Lieksa town secretary caves in to PS demands for “Somali-free” meeting room
An earlier story, which claimed that a Perussuomalaiset (PS) Lieksa town council leader doesn’t want to be in the same room where a Somali group meets once a month, has been corrected by Karjalainen, a Joensuu-based daily. It is not the PS town council leader, Esko Saastamoninen, making such a demand but the PS councilpersons…
Reija Härkönen: Miksi perussuomalaiset levittävät muukalaispelkoa ja rasismia?
Reija Härkönen Näin kirjoitti tutkija Toivo Itkonen, Muinaistieteellisen toimikunnan amanuenssi, saamelaisista: ”Ruumiillisilta ominaisuuksiltaan lappalaiset kuuluvat n.s. mongoloidisiin kansoihin, vaikka heidän antropologiansa on vielä melkoiselta osalta tutkimatta.” ”Lappalaiset ovat lyhytkalloisia l. brakykefaleja, jota osoittaa heidän pääkalloindeksinsä 82,7 – 87,6.” ”Lahjakkuus on suurempi kuin odottaisikaan, sillä kaikkialla missä lappalaislapsia käy koulua, on huomattu heidän muistinsa ja käsityskykynsä…
PS leader of Lieksa, Finland, refuses to be in the same room where Somalis meet
Taking into account all the problems and positive solutions that have been found in the town of Lieksa in the region of South Karelia concerning its over 200-strong Somali community, it is disturbing that a city councilmen like Esko Saastamoinen, Perussuomalaiset (PS) town council leader, states he doesn’t want to be in the same room…