Tag: Perussuomalaiset

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Unspeakable politicians and their own gain

Posted on by Migrant Tales

White Finns rarely consult migrants and minorities on anything important. They may ask them their opinion on x and y but the final decision on policy is made by them because you don’t really count. And then there are people like Jussi Halla-aho, Laura Huhtasaari, Timo Soini, Wille Rydman, and many others who pour gasoline and stoke the fires of ethnic hatred in this country. It is unspeakable that they do so for their own gain. 

Timo Soini telling an Old Perussuomalaiset racist to behave. at the end of the day, Soini got his fingers burned and ejected from the party. If there is a person who gave fascism, racism, homophobia, and sexism a platform in this country, that person is Soini.

* 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. Both could be called the “new” and “old” PS. 

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.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Lack of empathy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The lack of empathy by politicians and the government for the suffering of vulnerable groups like asylum seekers came to light again when two refugees stabbed themselves in protest of Finland’s asylum policy. Lack of empathy is the first step or reminder that our society is dysfunctional and in trouble. War now seems a possibility. 

“Old” Perussuomalaiseet* MP Tom Packalén with his shined shoes and is total lack of empathy, a national illness these days. Cartoon by Sira Moksi.

* 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. Both could be called the “new” and “old” PS. 

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.

Twitter (Reija Härkönen): MTV ja Halla-ahon osat 1-7

Posted on by Migrant Tales

MTVn toimituspäällikkö Ilkka Ahtiainen väittää: “Vakaumuksemme on, että kirjoitukset ovat osaltaan edistäneet tosiasioihin pohjaavaa ja moniarvoista yhteiskunnallista keskustelua. Parhaassa tapauksessa tämä hillitsee vastakkainasettelua, johon netin maailmassa on niin kovin helppo sortua.”

Niin Ahtiainen, mediaedustajat kuten MTV on ollut tärkeässä roolissa välittämässä vihaa maahanmuuttajien ja vähemmistöjen kohtaan.

Kuinka Halla-aho vihapuhe meitä vastaan voi hillitä vastakkainasettelua?

Puhutte noin koska edustatte valtaa ja etuoikeuksia.

Tässä ovat Reija Härkösen twiittiä osat 1-7…

 

 

Osa 1

Osa 2

Continue reading “Twitter (Reija Härkönen): MTV ja Halla-ahon osat 1-7”

Double standards by the Finnish police. Who can insult whom?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

These two videos speak volumes about the differential treatment of asylum seekers and white Finns by the police. In the first video, the Finnish police handcuff two Finnish-speaking asylum seekers at the immigration detention center of Joutseno. One of them apparently for saying something inappropriate.

UPDATED One of the many matters that are interesting to watch in the video below is how well two asylum seekers speak Finnish. It is ironic that they are at an immigration detention center showing off their good Finnish-language skills.

Learning Finnish is important but it isn’t a panacea for your integration problems in this country. Migrants are, however, near-constantly fed this simplistic myth.

The video below (see 2:88-3:40 min) the first one, a white Finnish anti-immigration protestor is videotaping the police at a demonstration and openly insulting them by stating in their faces that they are “traitors,” “pigs, shit, and dickheads.”

The Finn continues to insult the police, but nothing happens to him.

What would happen if an asylum seeker did the same?

You wouldn’t hear the sound of silence but the door of a police cell shutting.

 

In this video (in Finnish) taken at the immigration detention center of Joutseno in eastern Finland, the police enter to detain and handcuff two asylum seekers who speak Finnish and who are apparently awaiting deportation. They detain and handcuff a second one who said something that the police didn’t like.

Continue reading “Double standards by the Finnish police. Who can insult whom?”

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The most dangerous racists and bigots of Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What is more dangerous, an openly racist party like the Perussuomalaiset* or politicians of mainstream parties who tow the line on structural racism, bigotry and do absolutely nothing to change matters. For me, the most dangerous group are the latter, who state with a poker face that they are against racism and don’t do anything about tackling such social ills. 

They are the same people who are now speaking of no-go zones in Sweden. There are no such things as no-go zones. That’s a racist urban tale. 

* 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.

 

Reija Härkönen: Hallituksen inhimillisyysvaje

Posted on by Reija Härkönen

Ihmisten kunnioittava, toisensa hyväksyvä yhdessäolo on parasta.

Poliitikot, viimeksi ministeri Risikko tänään Ylellä, toistelevat mantraa polarisaatiosta ja siitä, että ”muut” eivät uskalla osallistua keskusteluun, kun on ne ääripäät. Koska minä uskallan julkisesti vastustaa rasistista ja uusfasistista politiikkaa ja vääryyksiä, kuulunen siis näiden ”tolkun” poliitikkojen määrittämään ääripäähän.

Tolkuttajien mielestä minun ja kaltaisteni pitäisi osata olla hiljaa, tai puhua hellästi, jotta en estäisi muita osallistumasta. Mutta tiedättekö mitä: minäkin kuuluin siihen hiljaiseen enemmistöön, joka ei edes kulmakarvastoa hyppäyttänyt, kun halla-ahotyyppiset poliitikot alkoivat liikehtiä. Tilanne kuitenkin eskaloitui niin, että omatunto ei vaiennut. Heti alkuun kansalaiskeskustelijalle kävi ilmeiseksi, että kiltin tädin rooli ei toimi: kukaan ei korvaansa lotkauta, maailma on täynnä hymistelijöitä, me miehet tehdään tässä nyt töitä.

Ainoa, mitä saattoi seurata, oli muutama vedä itses hirteen -viesti sähköpostissa.

Tästähän se johtuu, että keskusteluun ei uskalleta osallistua. Minunkin lähipiirini huolestui heti turvallisuudestani – ja vähän kai omastaankin.

Onkin niin, että ne keskustelevat, jotka uskaltavat. Muilla ei ole siihen mitään
mahdollisuuksia sen vuoksi, että se ainoa olemassa oleva ääripää on niin rivo, rankka ja päällekäypä.

Valitettavasti näyttää olevan myös niin, että nykyiselle hallitukselle tuo räyhäjoukkio on melkeinpä siunaus. Hallitus saa rauhassa toteuttaa omaa agendaansa eikä kunnon vastustusta synny. Oppositiopoliitikotkin ovat varovaisia. Vain harva uskaltaa ottaa jämäkästi kantaa pahimpiakaan epäinhimillisiä puheita vastaan. Osaa hillitsee pelko, toisia uhka äänestäjien kaikkoamisesta.

IMG_7353

Tämäkin on osa hallituksen maahanmuuttopolitiikkaa.

Pienet, toistuvat myönnytykset hallituksen taholta pitävät vihapuhepoliitikot tyytyväisinä. Perussuomalaisetkin keskittyvät nyt räksyttämään nyhtöpersujen takinkäännöstä, mutta seuraavat mielihyvällä, kuinka hallitus yhä tarmokkaammin toteuttaa maahanmuutto-ohjelmaa, jonka taustalla lymyävien arvojen piti olla hallituksen kahdelle puolueelle ja yhdelle yhdistykselle vastenmielisiä.

Jos olisi kysymys normaaleista poliittisista päätöksistä, asia olisi selvä: demokraattisesti muodostettu hallitus toteuttaa haluamaansa politiikkaa. Kun kuitenkin puhutaan siitä, kuinka pitkälle muukalaisvihamielisten tahojen sallitaan sanella hallituksen toimia, ollaan hakoteillä.

Continue reading “Reija Härkönen: Hallituksen inhimillisyysvaje”

MTV: Normalizing racism and bigotry in Finland with Jussi Halla-aho’s help

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After attending a European Network Against Racism in Brussels that ended Saturday, I discovered on my arrival to Finland that Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Chairman Jussi Halla-aho, convicted for ethnic agitation in 2012 and who built his political career on Islamophobia, is now a columnist in MTV, Finland’s largest privately owned television station. 

The big question is why Halla-aho and what does it say about the hostile anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity atmosphere in Finland?

It reveals, in my opinion, the continuing role of the media in normalizing racism and bigotry in this country.

Few will disagree that the PS under Halla-aho’s leadership is now unmistakably a far-right party that belongs in the same league as Marine Le Pen’s Front Nationale, Sweden Democrats, Danish People’s Party, AfD of Germany, UKIP, among others.

Cartoon by Sira Moksi.

In a statement by MTV3 managing editor Ilkka Ahtiainen, he justifies inviting Halla-aho because he’s chairman of the PS.

Fine, but there is one flaw in his statement that exposes a problem in the debate on our ever-growing cultural diverse society in Finland: It is a friendly debate only between white Finns.

Continue reading “MTV: Normalizing racism and bigotry in Finland with Jussi Halla-aho’s help”

Timo Soini’s fall from grace and the legacy of planting the political seeds of bigotry and racism in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One lesson we could learn from former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairman Timo Soini is that the right balance between flattery and speaking in code will get you everywhere, well, almost everywhere. You can win big elections like in 2011 and ride, albeit momentarily, the crest of the popularity wave until you hit the wall in disgrace with your fingers badly burned. 

Treatment by politicians and the media of Soini, who ruled the PS for twenty years (1997-2017) and who gave nationalist bigots and the far right a political platform, is odd. The fact that some cannot see that fascism is flirting with them is worrying.

Soini’s rise and fall from power were possible thanks to the media and politicians who were afraid to challenge his populist anti-immigration ideas. His political program, if he ever had one, was nothing more than hot air. It all had to do with Soini grabbing power.

The fact that other political parties like the National Coalition Party and Center Party helped fuel the rise of the PS reveals a lot about these parties’ moral fiber. We are seeing this today in the government’s stiffening immigration policy, deportations, and the ever-growing inequality of our society.

Soini gained his place in Finnish politics this decade thanks to the political establishment and the media. Some naively still believe that you can have a quaint chat with bigots, fascists, and racists.

A proverb by William Blake highlights this predicament:

“The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.”

The only reason why some believe that you can have a sensible chat about cultural diversity with racists can happen is because they are white and not affected by the debate. Racism doesn’t affect white people directly because they benefit from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl5PviXNRyk

 

Soini speaking at a UKIP rally in 2012. It was his third visit to such a gathering where he said he admired the UKIP because they could state that they hate the EU and love their country “without shame and guilt.”

Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage was/is a close political ally of Soini. Farage now speaks at far-right rallies.

Soini and his cast of eerie and odd political bedfellows throughout the years would make a great horror show. If you want to know and connect the dots, like in the video above and Farage at a far-right rally below, Soini has left a trail of lies, deceit, and contempt for our Nordic values.

Continue reading “Timo Soini’s fall from grace and the legacy of planting the political seeds of bigotry and racism in Finland”

Finland’s government to tighten again immigration and asylum policy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The desperation of New Alternative* or Blue Reform (BR) party, the faction that split from the Perussuomalaiset (PS) in June to keep their jobs as ministers, must be overbearing. BR Minister for European Affairs, Culture and Sports Sampo Terho announced Thursday that the government plans to tighten immigration and asylum policy laws in the face of the Turku attack, according to YLE News. 

Interior Minister Paula Risikko, as well as other government officials, announced after Turku plans to tighten immigration policy and give greater surveillance powers to the police and the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (SUPO).

Just like the good old days when the PS was one party before it imploded on June 13, BR’s Minister Terho is the one giving statements about tougher immigration policy.

Apart from making it a crime to help undocumented migrants, Terho said that the nationality would see modifications so that suspected terrorists who are dual nationals can have their Finnish citizenship revoked.

While these points are nothing new since they have the clear stamp of PS Chairman Jussi Halla-aho, it is sad to watch how short-sighted and opportunistic the government is and how it wants to punish the migrant and minority community. No matter how much they tighten immigration and asylum policy, it will never make Finland safe from terrorism.

Nour Gamal, a #righttolife activist, told Migrant Tales by phone that government aims to tighten immigration and asylum policy is part of a long-range plan to make life as miserable as possible for asylum seekers in Finland.

Minister for European Affairs, Culture and Sports Sampo Terho is as much an Islamophobe as Jussi Halla-aho.

“They [the government] are not only making life difficult for asylum seekers but for Finns that want to help undocumented migrants as well,” he said. “It’s a systematic plan to make the lives of asylum seekers as miserable as possible, so they’ll leave the country and so that no new refugees will come here.”

Gamal said that the parliamentary elections in 2019 are the only hope left to asylum seekers.

While not mentioned, plans to change the nationality act may also have dire consequences for dual citizen rights in Finland.

As long as BR remains in government the worse matters will get for migrants and minorities in this country.

* 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.

Finland’s Draconian immigration policy today has its roots in the Cold War era

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Sound policies aim at producing good results. Bad policies made with malicious intent only bring suffering and disaster.

The quote sits well with Finland’s Draconian immigration and asylum policy. The number of undocumented migrants has soared from an estimated 300. Those who are lucky enough to get a residence permit can say goodbye to ever bringing their loved ones to this country because family reunification requirements were tightened.  In sum, the Finnish government and the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) have done everything possible to make their lives as miserable as possible and expel them from here.

You don’t have to be an expert on immigration policy to understand how we have arrived at this shameful juncture. Even if the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* – today Blue Reform, or the “new” Perussuomalaiset – was primarily responsible for the tightening of immigration policy, such policies were backed by its two partners in government, the Center Party, and National Coalition Party.

In Argentina, the Finns founded a colony in 1906. Even if life was hard, they weren’t threatened with deportation as many asylum seekers are today in Finland. That goes for the majority of the over 1.2 million Finns who emigrated from this country. It is sad that Finns don’t learn at school about this fact, which was efficiently whitewashed and confined to a few festivities. The Malinen family is posing in front of their farm in Argentina in the 1920s. Photo: Lahja Malinen.

Even if the government has tightened immigration policy, opposition parties like the Social Democrats haven’t distanced themselves from such policies but supported them with their near-silence.

In the spring of 2016, the Social Democrats voted in their majority to do away with granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds. One of the Social Democratic MPs to vote in favor of this measure was Nasima Razmyar, a former refugee. This law (2/2016) is responsible for the high number of undocumented migrants.

The only parties that voted against the law were the Left Alliance, Greens and Swedish People’s Party.

Why so much animosity towards asylum seekers? I believe it has to do with Finnish history and education that teaches from a very young age nationalistic myths and be suspicious of foreigners and people who are different from the white Finnish-speaking majority.

While it may surprise many, the Cold War era for Finland (1944-91) reinforced official suspicion of outsiders. There was a time in our short history as an independent nation when foreigners were deported without any right to appeal, were prohibited from buying land, establish businesses in key sectors of the economy, organize demonstrations, among other human rights violations.

Even if in a different context, the total disregard for asylum seekers’ safety we see today was a part of Finnish policy in the Cold War, when Soviet asylum seekers were returned against their will to face harsh punishment in the USSR.

Is it here where Finland wants to return?

If so, we’re going to put up a hell of a fight!

* 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.