Tag: Perussuomalaiset

Ilta-Sanomat poll shows Greens leading PS in municipal election

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A poll commissioned by Ilta-Sanomat gave the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party a big surprise. If the October municipal election took place today, the Greens would get 11% of the votes compared with 10% by the PS.  The previous setback that the PS got from the Greens was in the presidential election, when an openly gay candidate beat two conservative anti-EU hopefuls, Timo Soini of the PS and Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party. 

The poll showed that most of the votes would go to Kokoomus (26%) followed by the Social Democrats (17%) and Center Party (16%).  The Left Alliance would get 8% while the Christian Democrats and Swedish People’s Party would attract 5% and 4%, respectively.

Before the April 17 election, which gave the PS their historic victory,  the Greens were the only party that openly questioned and criticized Soini’s party.

The good showing of the Greens in the presidential election and in the Ilta-Sanomat poll could be voter payback and support for speaking out against a party that has disappointed many voters.

A lot of things can happen before the October municipal election but one matter is for certain: The PS’ journey south in the months ahead will be a bitter pill to swallow.

With such a prospect ahead, Migrant Tales believes that the far-right anti-immigration wing of the PS led by MP Jussi Halla-aho will step up their attacks against immigrants and visible minorities as the municipal election nears.

A good example of this was a proposal by hard-core far-right PS MP Olli Immonen who suggested that Eastern European Romany beggars should be forcibly deported out of Finland.

PS MP James Hirvisaari, who was fined for hate speech in December, has stepped up his attacks on Muslims in blog entry published today headlined “Belgiastan.”

Ilta-Sanomat tabloid ad (lööppi) from November 16, 1995

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales publishes on and off Finnish tabloid ads* (lööppi in Finnish) from the 1990s. Taking into account that Finland’s immigrant population started to grow during that decade, it is easy at least through some of the main stories of tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti to see how some of them reflected our xenophobic, prejudiced, racist or anti-Russian views.

Taking into account the suspicion, hostile attacks (verbal and physical) against a group in Finland thanks in part to tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat, a leader of the Somali community asks Finns not to blame them for everything.

I have wondered many times why the Somalis have been so victimized in Finland. One of the reasons may be that they were the first visible black group that came to Finland in large numbers. Their presence in our society acted as a key that apparently released some of our most racist views of Africans. This same victimization is still going on and was used by some Perussuomalaiset (PS) party members to get elected to Parliament in April.

With the PS heading south in the polls, some party members are reverting to the message of racial hatred and suspicion to bolster their sagging popularity.  One of these groups that is being targeted by the PS is the Romany minority.

*Migration Institute archive.

Why was Migrant Tales deactivated for about thirteen hours?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Thursday night was one of the worst I had experienced in a while: my son tells about some SKV neo-Nazi stickers put on a lamppost in front of our house  and then Migrant Tales gets deactivated a couple of hours later because “it does not comply with the WordPress.com Terms of Service or advertising policy.” What’s going on? 

Without any warning, WordPress shut us down and hate forums like Hommaforum, which is closely linked to Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho’s Scripta, are dancing on Migrant Tales’ grave.

Sorry to ruin the party, folks, but the music ended abruptly thirteen hours later after we were deactivated. I got the following message from WordPress: “Your site was flagged by our automated anti-spam controls. I have reviewed your site and have removed the suspension notice. We are very sorry for that happening and the inconvenience it caused you.” Hmmm.

An anonymous comment on Zuzeeko’s blog, On The Road to Success, reinforces a different story: “It’s offline due to Neo-Nazis making fake complaints against the blog.”

But that’s not all. The following day I get an email from a person who apparently holds a serious grudge against us. After trying to get us to pay him 3,000 euros to settle out of court for [now listen to this] for defaming an anonymous person on our blog, he actually does end up sending an email to one of my workplaces and tells the whole staff what a terrible person I am.

The person even threatened to organize a petition against me. The petition, according to him, is to force me to state in every blog entry that I do not represent all immigrants in Finland but only those on Migrant Tales.

Apparently, this person is very angry at us because we think his and Halla-aho’s points of view of immigrants are simplistic to say the least.

During the spring, Migrant Tales will move to another site where it will be virtually impossible to shut us down.

Thank you all for your support. We have grown stronger from this experience.

Trolls come in many sizes and shapes in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

I read an interesting blog entry on Iowa State Daily that gave a very good suggestion to the vicious racist stuff you find in the blogsphere: “Require identification for comments and monitor, monitor, monitor the trolls,” said Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. “The blogosphere is full of trolls, and some write the most vicious things. Keep them out of mainstream media, and ignore them whenever you can.”

Even if this suggestion seems pretty sensible, we must take it a step further and ask why we must have an effective troll detector. The answer is simple: spreading vicious urban tales that are racist are more hostile than meets the eye.

While it is difficult to measure how much racism and suspicion hate forums like Hommaforum and Scripta fuel, it’s pretty clear that they do have an impact on some Finns’ prejudices. Maintaining these prejudices is synonymous with sidestepping and maintaining some people’s racist perceptions.

After taking part and reading over 21,700 comments on Migrant Tales, I could pretty confidently say that trolls have inhibited debate and effectively taken our eye off the ball, or the real issue, which is finding solutions to the social ill.

One of the most ludicrous claims by Internet trolls is that if their hate speech is censored we will be undermining an important civil liberty like free speech. Apart from being utter baloney it is one of the trolls’ many red herrings on the Internet.

Trolls aren’t always anonymous. If Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari ever took part in a discussion on Migrant Tales, there is a good chance that he’d never make it past our troll detector.

One of the favorite strategies of the trolls is to take an issue like racism and accuse the victim of being the racist or changing the argument around.

Trolls are a strange bunch that are constantly demanding to be treated as exceptions. They label whole ethnic groups like PS MP Jussi Halla-aho did today in Parliament with Eastern European Roma, but don’t like to be labelled themselves as far-right racists.

In many respects their arguments on the rights of immigrants and visible minorities in our societies resembles what was debated in many Latin American countries in the 1970s: Should we have a military or democratic government in power?

Can we ever “debate” and compromise those civil liberties guaranteed in our Constitution? Certainly not but this is what anonymous and real-name trolls are actually lobbying for.

In the spiteful and myopic world of people like Hirvisaari, the argument is not only hostile to certain ethnic groups but horrifying: We have the right to tear off the Muslim veil off women because we are looking after their rights.

These types of arguments commonly used by Finland’s far-right anti-immigration extremists are nothing more than red herrings. If you think that these people are looking after your civil rights, think twice.

If you disagree with what I am writing, pay a visit to Hommaforum and read the far-right Counter-Jihadist baloney on Halla-aho’s blog Scripta and you will see what I mean.

JusticeDemon has said in the past that we mustn’t feed the trolls on Migrant Tales.  True but we should see them like the famous warning on a pack of cigarettes: Trolls are hazardous to your mental health and may seriously distort your view of other groups.

 

Finnish PS hardcore far-right MP gives a kick in the gut to the Romany minority

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Olli Immonen represents the worst of the worst when it comes to the acceptance of our ever-growing culturally diverse society. Apart from predicting a war between Islam and white Christian Europe, Immonen never loses the opportunity to kick the most vulnerable members of society in the guts. 

Migrant Tales warned recently that the PS in general and its far-right anti-immigration wing in particular will begin a new round of vicious attacks against immigrants and minorities to boost their sagging popularity in the polls as the municipal election nears on October 28.

Immonen said Monday on his Facebook page that the only way to deal with Roma street beggars in Finland from Romania and Bulgaria was to make begging a crime and  forcibly deport them back to their home countries.

Pekka Tuomola of the Helsinki Deaconess Institute asked Tuesday on MTV3  if it is even legally possible to make poverty a crime.  He said that Finland cannot close its eyes to the poor. The Romany minority problem is a European issue and  solutions must be found together with other countries, said Tuomola.

PS MP Immonen from Oulu, who has been strangely quiet concerning two tragic deaths of Muslims that took place in the northern Finnish city in January and February, appears to have a passion for the fascist Lapuan liike movement (1929-32) and its predecessor, IKL (1932-44).

One of the matters that the Lapuan liike movement did during its short-lived  heyday was kidnap its enemies like communists to the Finnish-Soviet border. The fascist party once even kidnapped a former president, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg (1919-25), to the border.

When speaking of Romany beggars from Eastern Europe, Immonen uses the same term, or muiluttaa, that the Lapuan liike movement used when it kidnapped, beat up and sent its enemies to the Soviet border.

A tabloid Iltalehti reporter asked Immonen why he used the same term that the fascist party used when speaking of Eastern European Roma street beggars.

“I certainly did not mean that [term used by the Lapuan liike movement],” he said. “I have myself used the term muiluttaa [forcibly transport] as a synonym of transporting [them out of the country]. Does this mean specifically that [street] beggars should be escorted with the help of the authorities from Finland, if necessary even by force.”

Immonen, like other hardcore Suomen Sisu association members of the PS like MPs Jussi Halla-aho and James Hirvisaari and Juho Eerola, all belong to the same party that chairman Timo Soini claimed “doesn’t hate anyone.”

One of the aims of Suomen Sisu is to discourage white Finns from marrying foreigners.

Hommaforum stoops to new depths by "defaming" adolescent

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Hommaforum is a forum closely linked to Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP Jussi Halla-aho’s blog, Scripta, and to Suomen Sisu, a far-right extremist association. Even if Hommaforum and Scripta are only smears of hatred that stain Finland’s good name and values,  they don’t care whom they tar and feather. But to attack and defame publicly a brave fifteen-year-old girl, Rebecca Holm, who spoke out against racism shows how low they will go to make their point. 

If Holm wants to know some of the places where racial harassment against her and her friends come from, the answer is pretty clear.

According to Kansan Uutiset and Swedish-language daily HBL,  a complaint has been filed to the police for defaming Holm on Hommaforum after she was awarded on March 21 the Red Cross Award on the UN Day Against Racism.

In their usual smartalecky and cantankerous style, Hommaforum members claimed that Holm was “brainwashed” and that her harassment claims were nothing more than fabrications. Some wrote that Holm was being used by her family and friends.

“I have a feeling that if Rebecka didn’t get her daily dose of racism she would become frustrated and slip into depression,” said another Hommaforum member anonymously.

All those who commented about Holm on Hommaforum did so anonymously.

To not have the decency to speak out against an adolescent with one’s name says a lot about this forums. In my opinion, Hommaforum and Scripta are good examples of the sickness that has inflicted our society as of late.

They are like social media peep shows where little anonymous men meet. Instead of watching a naked woman or man, they get off by reading, writing and commenting about a social ogre called racism.

Hommaforum stoops to new depths by “defaming” adolescent

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Hommaforum is a forum closely linked to Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP Jussi Halla-aho’s blog, Scripta, and to Suomen Sisu, a far-right extremist association. Even if Hommaforum and Scripta are only smears of hatred that stain Finland’s good name and values,  they don’t care whom they tar and feather. But to attack and defame publicly a brave fifteen-year-old girl, Rebecca Holm, who spoke out against racism shows how low they will go to make their point. 

If Holm wants to know some of the places where racial harassment against her and her friends come from, the answer is pretty clear.

According to Kansan Uutiset and Swedish-language daily HBL,  a complaint has been filed to the police for defaming Holm on Hommaforum after she was awarded on March 21 the Red Cross Award on the UN Day Against Racism.

In their usual smartalecky and cantankerous style, Hommaforum members claimed that Holm was “brainwashed” and that her harassment claims were nothing more than fabrications. Some wrote that Holm was being used by her family and friends.

“I have a feeling that if Rebecka didn’t get her daily dose of racism she would become frustrated and slip into depression,” said another Hommaforum member anonymously.

All those who commented about Holm on Hommaforum did so anonymously.

To not have the decency to speak out against an adolescent with one’s name says a lot about this forums. In my opinion, Hommaforum and Scripta are good examples of the sickness that has inflicted our society as of late.

They are like social media peep shows where little anonymous men meet. Instead of watching a naked woman or man, they get off by reading, writing and commenting about a social ogre called racism.

Finnish human rights activist and writer reports threats by two PS members to the police

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Every month the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party offers us a scandal. Well, here is the one for the month of March: two PS members, Klaus Eovaara and Jani Viinikainen, have threatened on Facebook writer and human rights activist Jussi K. Niemelä, who has reported the matter to the police.

Niemelä is the editor of the Vallan-vahtikoira blog, which has criticized the PS for its racism and ties with Suomen Sisu and other far-right groups.

Elovaara and Viinikianen received warnings at the party’s national convention meeting earlier in March. Viinikianen founded a anti-gay and anti-Roma Facebook page last year.

Eloraara, who was a PS candidate for parliament in 2007, is a member of the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu assocation like PS MPs Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and others.

Suomen Sisu offers web links to sites that openly question the “Jewish conspiracy” and that praise Adolf Hitler as a military “genius.”

One of the matters noted by some concerning the scandal is the police’s reaction and how it has played down the affair.

According to Ana María Gutiérrez Sorainan citing Satakunta Radio, the police said “that there are two sides to the story and that the collision is due to ideological differences.”

 

Finland’s darkest period: 2011-15

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In the future, when Finnish historians of different ethnic backgrounds look at the present parliamentary term 2011-15,  they will most likely conclude that it was the darkest period for Finland and immigrants in the new century.  A prelude to this sombre period were  the municipal election of 2008 and how it reflected a shift in the national mood. 

It would be naive, even an exercise in self-deceit, to claim that the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party isn’t one  obvious culprit. The municipal elections of 2008 and 2003, when PS MP Tony Halme was elected to parliament,  speak volumes about how racism and xenophobia started to lift their heads in this country.

Despite being one of the worst periods in our recent history, where some groups and politicians aim to make racism and xenophobia as normal and acceptable as karjalanpiirakka, it has brought out the best in some of us. For some, like Migrant Tales, it has been a clarion call.

If this period has brought out the best in some of us, it has brought out the worst as well.

Some regretful examples come form of silence and lack of leadership by the Finnish media and some politicians. The success of the PS in the April elections is proof of the inarticulateness, complacency and even the flirting of these two groups with anti-immigration parties and groups.

The PS has provided us with monthly scandals beginning with MP Teuvo Hakkarainen’s first day in parliament to the recent suggestion by councilman Tommi Rautio’s  to give a medal to a cold-blooded killer.

A word of advice to anti-immigration extremists: Everything you write will come under scrutiny by future generations. Those future generations, which will be made up of Finnish researchers from different ethnic backgrounds, will highlight the racism and xenophobia that inflicted part of our society today.

When they give their lectures at our universities on ethnic studies or history, they will show to their students the shameful evidence left in the writings of numerous anti-immigration politicians like PS MP Jussi Halla-aho and his Suomen Sisu crowd, for example.

Time will increase the shamefulness of these racist writings. What is written today by some of these racists will look eerily similar to what some groups wrote about blacks during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Recognizing this will be the first important step in liberating our society from the illness that has inflicted it.

Who needs integration: immigrants or natives?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

We must ask hard questions if we want our new integration program, which came into force in September, to do what it sets out to: effectively integrate new immigrants as equal members of  society.  But one of the many challenges of the program aren’t resources and immigrants but the attitudes of the native population. 

Another important question is can an integration program actually integrate people? Integration, or adaption, is a long and complex process. How many years do natives need to study at schools in order to be integrated into society and the job market?

One of the most worrisome matters in the ongoing debate concerning our ever-growing cultural diversity is how some anti-immigration groups and politicians would be more than happy to have one set of laws and rules for the majority and another one for immigrants. Thus the natives would enjoy all the civil rights enshrined in our laws while the latter groups would have limited rights.

This is not to say, however, that this two- or many-tiered society already exists in Finland.

Good examples of this situation can be found on Migrant Tales’ comment board, where some bloggers have suggested limiting religious freedom and freedom of expression for certain immigrant groups.

The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party’s Nuiva Manifesto is a case in point. If ever adopted as the big picture of how Finland should integrate immigrants, the manifesto would not only spell disaster but seriously hinder immigrants from becoming equal members of society. Even if other parties don’t have such a manifesto, they quietly identify and support it.

Debate on different social media discussion sites show us another worrisome fact:  ignorance about our basic civil rights.

Should the government launch for some Finns their very own  integration program to bring them up to date about their rights and obligations as well of that of other groups?  Certainly. The sooner the better.

In my opinion, one of the flaws of the government’s integration program is that there is no big picture concerning the role immigrants and their children in our society.  Without such a grand picture it is difficult to debate matters like equal rights, social justice and equal opportunities.

Are we hesitant to speak and promote such a grand societal view that would include immigrants because it would require some of us to accept them as equal members of society?

If we have two sets of unwritten laws and rules for the native population and other groups, integration will only be a catchword used by politicians for their own selfish means.

One very important first step in the ongoing debate should be to include more immigrants and Finns with international backgrounds in the debate. That would certainly give more perspective to the debate and permit us to look at the realities and challenges instead of expectations by the majority population.