Racism Archives - Page 15 of 208

Finnish racism, the PS, and the duck test: Nobody knew, but suddenly everyone now knows

Posted on August 12, 2023August 12, 2023 by Migrant Tales

One of the most startling comments heard from politicians like Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and Anna-Maja Henriksson of the Swedish People’s Party (SPP) is that they were ignorant of the Perussuomalaiset’s (PS)* racist posts and comments on social media.

The claim by the head of the SPP left a lot of political analysts with open mouths.

“If the racist writings [by Ministers Riikka Purra and Wille Rydman] had been known, we would hardly have entered the government negotiations,” Henriksson was quoted by STT.

SPP Education Minister Anna-Maja Henriksson claims that her party would have never entered government negotiations if the racist writings of Riikka Purra and Wille Rydman would have been known. Source: STT.

Probably what Henriksson is saying is that if she’d known that the racist writings would have caused such a scandal, the SPP would not have entered into government negotiations.

But why didn’t the SPP, Orpo, the media and others take the duck test: If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.

Denial of the PS’ racism problem and how it has spread in our society still runs deep. We know that it exists, but we do little to challenge it. Let’s just ignore it.

Even the daily of my hometown of Mikkel, had local PS politicians claimed that “racism has no place in the Perussuomalaiset party” and that the scandals are a media fabrication.

For too many years, the media has turned a semi-blind eye to many of the racist writings and comments by PS politicians. Like a cancer that spreads, they now acknowledge that something must be done. It’s as if Finland, not wanting to look at a dark side of itself, has now found the courage to face the mirror.

Everything isn’t lost and there are some encouraging signs. The fact that the media has exposed the racist writings of high-ranking politicians is not only welcome but vital if we are to live in a society where our Nordic values, enshrined in human rights, and the rule of law are respected.

Migrant Tales Literary: Trilce Garcia and her family fly on Unnfair Airlines

Posted on August 8, 2023August 8, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: Trilce Garcia is a Peruvian who has lived in Rauma for the past two years with her husband and children. On her way back to Helsinki at Vienna Airport, a man cut in line in front of them and that’s when the problem began. She complained to Finnair and the airline got back to her a week later. She hasn’t heard from them since. The incident happened on 26 June.

The government’s plan to help tackle racism will disappoint and most likely be a dud

Posted on August 8, 2023August 9, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Monday’s A-studio talk about racism confirmed that Prime Minister Petteri Ospo’s plan to tackle racism and discrimination will most likely end up dead on arrival. One of the guests on the talk show, National Coalition Party (NCP) third vice president, Mari-Leena Talvitie, could not name one concrete action that the government would take to address the social ill.

Taking into account that Prime Minister Opro was willing to go to bed with the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, a party with a solid track record on racism, raises some questions about the government’s anti-racism plan, which it plans to give to parliament in September.

Can we trust it? Or is it a ploy to save the government from a no-confidence vote?

Talvitie could not list any concrete measures about such a plan.

“The concrete measure and goal is that everyone has the right to live in a safe society in Finland,” she said, but the host asked the MP to be more concrete.

“The [concrete] measure I see is that [racism] must be tackled, whether it happens at schools or hobbies or elsewhere,” she said. “You get that through discussion, through education, through the involvement of organizations, and through the clear involvement of our society.”

So, according to Talvitie, the government washes its hands and tells the public to speak out against racism if it occurs in places like bus stops and schools.

PS MP Joakim Vigelius had another take on Finland’s racism problem.

Source: Twitter

@Muksunen tweets above: “[Joakim] Vigelius used classic whataboutism and started talking about the disabled when the topic was RACISM.
Vigelius made a reference to the “old 15-year-old [racist] posts [by Riikka Purra]” but forgot to mention a video by the Perussuomalaiset Youth yesterday depicting and ridiculing Muslim women [wearing black plastic sacks]. It [the video] supposedly “defends women.”

Vigelius added that PS followers have a different view of what is racism. He said that the word has suffered inflation.

I wonder if victims of racism consider the social ill to have suffered “inflation.”

Petteri Orpo’s government of Finland loathes migrants: Is it an overestimation or underestimation?

Posted on July 30, 2023July 30, 2023 by Migrant Tales

By now, after numerous scandals, Prime Minister Petteri Opro may be thinking that getting into bed with the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* was a huge mistake that will have far-reaching consequences for the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) and even end up costing him his job.

If Orpo and PS Finance Minister Riikka Purra had a crystal ball to look into the future, what would they have done differently? Quite a lot, I think.

Prime Minister Orpo got the first sour taste of scandals to hit his government with Vilhelm Junnila, who resigned almost s soon he was appointed as minister of foreign trade.

It could be summed up in two words: overestimate and underestimate.

It’s pretty clear that Orpo and Purra underestimated the Wilhelm Junnila debacle. Or maybe the correct term should be wishful thinking, believing that Junnila’s racist, far-right, and anti-Semitic writings would not raise any questions.

One matter that Purra and her party overestimated was the lure of racism and xenophobia. Like a magic button, the PS can turn to its magic racism button to get votes, and lots of them, and media complacency.

But has this now changed? Are we now seeing, as what PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen called a paradigm shift migration policy, a change in our perception and acceptance of racism?

Time will tell if my comment was an overestimation or an underestimation of the situation.

Finland’s government gets ready for another scandal. This time it’s Minister for Foreign Trade Wille Rydman. The party? You guessed it.

Posted on July 28, 2023July 28, 2023 by Migrant Tales

It is ironic that when Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Finance Minister Riikka Purra published Wednesday a blog playing down her racist and violent postings of 2008, another scandal erupted when Helsingin Sanomat revealed a number of racist messages of PS Minister for Foreign Trade Wille Rydman. The messages were written in 2016 between him and his former girlfriend.

Rydman’s anti-immigration views were so well known in his former party, the National Coalition Party (NCP), that he was known as “NCP’s Halla-aho.”

Jussi Halla-aho, the speaker of parliament, is known as the “father of Finnish racism” due to his blog writings on Scripta.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

In those messages, Rydman called asylum seekers who came in 2015 “desert monkeys” and used other racist words for blacks, Muslims, and Jews. He wrote that a certain flower, the lilly of the valley, spreads and multiplies like Somalis. Rydman said he’d be ready to forbid the person wearing the hijab instead of the veil.

The incident is the sixth scandal involving five PS ministers and the speaker of the parliament.

Rydman ran into problems last year when Helsingin Sanomat published an investigative story where a number of young women, some of whom were minors, claimed they were harassed by him.

The scandal caused Rydman to be suspended from the party. He joined the PS in January.

Riikka Purra plays the victim and plays down her racist blog writings of 2008

Posted on July 27, 2023July 27, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Finance Minister Riikka Purra’s defense rests on playing the victim and underplaying her racist and hostile blog postings she wrote on Scripta in 2008, where she used the n-word, Turkish monkey, threatened to kill youths of migrant origin on a commuter train, among other anti-social postings.

On the right, a self-confident Riikka Purra. After the scandal broke, her image changed (left).

Scripta is a blog written by Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and for breaching the sanctity of religion. Halla-aho was appointed in June speaker of parliament.

You can access some quotes from Halla-aho’s blog here.

A warning: Scripta is littered with Islamophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and misogynist writings.

A good example of how an Islamophobic party like the PS covers its hatred for Muslims. In the top picture, the PS claims that Muslim women are oppressed because they wear certain Muslim attire. In the second cartoon below, the PS gives its real opinion: “Why don’t you go back to where you came from? That dress has no place in Finland.” Purra made a comment in 2019 of a woman with a “black sack” which she hasn’t apologized.

One of Purra’s main defenses of her racist, homophobic, and hostile writings is that they were written 15 years ago and eight years before she entered politics. She wrote that the writings were “15-year-old comments made on the Internet 15 years ago.”

If I had to break down her defense:
One third playing the victim
One third blaming others like the media
One third defiance

Even if Purra doesn’t mention it in her blog, she was 31 years old in 2008 and a university researcher.

Her second defense argument is that her racist postings were done as “insider humor and sarcasm.”

22/7: A day of infamy we must never forget but returns

Posted on July 22, 2023July 26, 2023 by Migrant Tales

It is a creepy coincidence that during another 22/7 anniversary when a mass murderer in Norway killed in cold blood 77 victims in 2011, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark are ruled by governments that are hostile to people from outside the EU.

In Finland, we have two far-right terrorist investigations suspected of planning attacks against migrants.

Source: Yle

The same language that the Norwegian killer used to justify his actions was used in Finland by Riika Purra, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* finance minister and deputy prime minister, to denigrate migrants. Like the Norwegian killer, who warned about Muslims taking over Europe, Purra lashes out in her Scripta writings against Muslims, gays, the Romany minority, and Africans.

Apart from spitting on beggars, Purra threatened to use a gun on a commuter train to kill youths of migrant backgrounds.

Two images of PS Finance minister Riikka Purra: Confident and beaten after the revelations of her racist and violent blog posts of 2008 came to public light. Sources: BBC and Iltalehti.

Scripta is an Islamophobic, xenophobic, and homophobic blog written by Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and for breaching the sanctity of religion and is the speaker of parliament.

All you have to do is look at Orpo’s government to understand Finland’s shameful racism problem now threatening our democracy

Posted on July 18, 2023July 18, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo is a weak leader and part of Finland’s racism problem.

National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government, which has been christened as the Chamber of Horrors by Munich-based daily, Süddeutsche Zeitun, is a disappointing example of how you should not confront racism in this country. Many are rightfully worried about how racism, through the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party and NCP, is threatening our democracy.

A headline for a Helsingin Sanomat story. “Orpo leads with his eyes closed,” explains ideally what is wrong with the prime minister’s leadership and the government.

Another ludicrous claim s the so-called “good” government program praised by Orpo and others in the government, even if it disenfranchises and discriminates against migrants and minorities.

The government has lost credibility due to the numerous scandals dealing with racism and links to the far right. Without credibility, it is clear that the only way to regain it is by letting go of the PS and forming a new government. If nothing changes, all efforts by Orpo to restore confidence will look like wild goose chases.

Another problem is the constant denial of racism and the PS. A recent example was when Orpo was asked on A-studio if he thought a 2019 description by PS Finance Minister Riikka Purra of a Muslim wearing “a black sack” was acceptable.

A good example of how an Islamophobic party like the PS covers its hatred for Muslims. In the top picture, the PS claims that Muslim women are oppressed because they wear certain Muslim attire. In the second cartoon below, the PS gives its real opinion: Why don’t you go back to where you came from? That dress has no place in Finland.”

Orpo responded that it was unacceptable.

Let’s test your level of naivety: Is Finland finally awakening to its “r” problem?

Posted on July 16, 2023July 16, 2023 by Migrant Tales

It would be wrong to just blame the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* for Finland’s racism problem. The rise of the PS after the 2011 election would not have been possible without the direct and indirect support of other political parties, the media, and the public.

When results of the 2011 election started to appear on television screens, which placed the PS in the major political leagues after 39 MPs were elected versus five previously, a perilous watershed was crossed. Back then, Migrant Tales was one of the few voices in Finland warning about the rise of the PS.

My concern was even heard by Time Magazine.

But let’s go to the original question in the headline: Are we waking up to our country’s racism problem?

As mentioned, it would be misleading to just blame the PS for the growth of this problem.

Finland’s racism problem, which is a pretty serious social ill, has grown thanks to denial and playing down the problem. If Riikka Purra’s writing was concerning, they will be small fries when compared with the hostility our culturally diverse communities will endure when we grow bigger and demand our rights and public spaces, which rightfully belong to us, too.

Finland’s Prime Minister Orpo’s Pyrrhic victory

Posted on July 12, 2023April 22, 2024 by Migrant Tales

The only matter that Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s embattled government will gain if it does not go under after its chaotic start on 20 June, is a Pyrrhic victory. In today’s press conference with journalists, Orpo defended Finance Minister Riikka Purra’s apology for her violent and racist comments made in 2008 when she was a 31-year-old researcher at Turku University.

The long-overdue meeting with the media was to clear up Purra’s apology for her past writings where she commonly used the n-word, spoke of Africans as subhuman and even threatened to kill migrants.

One of these was written on 25 September 2008 about young people of migrant origin on a train: “If they gave me a gun, there’d be bodies on a commuter train, you see.”

Apart from the Vilhelm Junnila resignation and scandal, far-right conspiracy theories and views of Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ministers like that of Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Justice Minister Leena Meri, Foreign Trade and Development Minister Ville Tavio, Foreign Trade Minister Wille Rydman and Jussi Halla-aho, the speaker of the parliament, the government has proved to be a liability to Finland and its international image.

At the press conference, Prime Minister Orpo continued to sound like a broken record assuring us that the government is committed to social equality and against racism. On Monday, it went as far as to put out a joint statement to this effect.

Helsingin Sanomat columnist Jussi Pullinen asks a good question that rips wide open the official façade of the government:

“The [scandalous] chain of events led to a government statement reaffirming its commitment to universal human rights principles and renouncing racism. For a Western [European] government to have to make such an assurance is highly exceptional and raises many questions.”

Incredible, no? The government, a Finnish government, has to put out a statement that it supports human rights and is against all forms of racism and discrimination.

Purra tweets: “Or are the activities of the Perussuomalaiset based on extremism, racism, or incitement of hatred, but on promoting the interests of Finns and Finns themselves? Our immigration policy is legitimate and legal and there is nothing wrong or suspicious about it.”

Purra’s defence of the government’s severe immigration policy is preposterous. Andrew Stroehlein, Human Rights Watch European media director, offers below Purra a stinging rebuke: