Tag: Racism

Who’s responsible for the spike in hate crimes in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen states that there is an upsurge in hate crimes in Finland, according to YLE News. He states that those hate crimes that are reported to the police service are only the tip of the iceberg. Is Kolehmainen being disingenuous? Why doesn’t mention he state clearly that politicians and political parties are polarizing society and emboldening racists?   

The national police commissioner states that one of the problems is that victims are reluctant to file a complaint to the police service. And why would they? It takes months, if not a near-eternity, for the police to get in touch with you.

Migrant Tales reported in May a case when a white Finnish woman insulted in a racist manner and threw a bucket of water on a Kenyan woman who lives in Helsinki. Still today the police and the non-discrimination ombudsman have not been in touch with the victim.

The latest sentences for hate speech – all present or former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politicians – of MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, Tampere city councilor Terhi Kiemunki, Olli Sademies, Sebastian Tynkkynen and many others are an example of where part of the problem originates.

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Undocumented migrants in Finland: Päivi Nerg lives in denial, politicians live in denial as do the media and most of the country, too

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Finnish immigration policy in general and asylum policy, in particular, is a good example of the decades-long suspicion that Finland’s political establishment has of outsiders. If some words could be used to describe the present state of things, it could be “not my problem” and “denial.” 

That statement, not my issue, reveals a lot about ourselves as a society and our capacity to live with difference.

The ongoing debate in the media about undocumented migrants is a case in point. Few if any newspapers blame the ever-growing number of undocumented migrants on the politicians who voted in favor of doing away with in April of residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

By doing away with this option, parliament forced the number of undocumented migrants to rise from a few hundred to the thousands. In other words and in plain English, the politicians and government have created the ever-growing undocumented migrant problem in Finland.

We all know that populism means simple solutions to complex problems. The government, which comprises of the Center Party, National Coalition Party (NCP), and Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, believes in simple solutions to complex problems in areas like migration.

The vote to do away with residence permits on humanitarian grounds is a case in point. Lobbied by the PS, the Center Party and NCP voted – together with the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats in the opposition – to do away with such a clause.

Naively, irresponsibly, ignorantly and with a dose of self-deception, the government believed that by doing away with residence permits on humanitarian grounds would solve the problem. It did not solve any problem but worsened it. In the government style, the blame for their incompetence is blamed on the victim, or in this case the asylum seeker.

Thanks to too much complacency in the media that too many continue to have major blind-spot issues with immigration, migrants and asylum seekers, officials like Päivi Nerg can appear and say with a poker face that she “is concerned about the security risk that illegal [sic] immigrants pose,” according to a story by Helsinki Times.

Read the full story here.

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PS’ Teuvo Hakkarainen and Olli Sademies: Ethnic agitation charges and racist bravado

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What happens when one present and one former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politician faces charges for ethnic agitation? Answer: They lie through their teeth and act dumb (which isn’t difficult for such politicians). PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen got sentenced today for ethnic agitation and will have to pay a fine of 1,160 euros. Olli Sademies, a substitute councilman who retired from the police force, is in court today facing ethnic agitation charges as well.  

The court will give its verdict on Sademies’ case on January 13.

Hakkarainen is a good actor. He plays the dumb country boy and starts to making up his own interpretation of events claiming incredibly that he didn’t know that there was a law against hate speech even if he’s a lawmaker.

Moreover, Hakkarainen knows that Finland has a hate crime law because he was one of eleven MPs that wanted to make it redundant tin 2013, according to Jussi Kohonen.

Hakkarainen got charged after he wrote on his Facebook wall in mid-July after the Nice killings: “We’ve got to stop pussyfooting. Muslims out of this country! Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. We shouldn’t accept Muslims from the Middle East and Africa to our country.”

It’s not the first time that the PS MP has made racist statements.

Below is a recording of him on his first day in parliament after he got elected in 2011.

Here are some other stories:

Like Hakkarainen, Sademies plays dumb as well.

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” he was quoted as saying in summer by Demokraatti . “What is that ethnic group anyway that I have agitated? Charging me is absurd and it’s a racist opinion.”

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Seven months and no justice yet after a Kenyan woman was racially insulted and splashed by a bucket of water

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Remember when a Kenyan woman was sitting outside her home in the Helsinki neighborhood of Helsinki one Sunday afternoon on May 22 and a white Finnish woman splashed a bucket of water on her, her children and their friends after shouting racist insults? Well, nothing has happened since then even if Ruth Waweru-Folabit pressed charges against the woman and complained to the non-discrimination ombudsman seven months ago.

Migrant Tales wrote back then: What is most upsetting about the story is that the police didn’t bother to ask her if she wanted to press charges against the woman that insulted her in a racist manner in public and threw a bucket of water on her, her two children and friend’s children.

Waweru-Folabit wrote to me on November 7 that she still hasn’t heard from the police service and non-discrimination ombudsman regarding her case. “I have tried my best to put this behind me for my kids’ sake,” she wrote, “but some kind of justice would be good.”

How long will it take for justice to take its course?

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Will Halla-aho be the PS’ savior or the party’s political grave?

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A while back I asked a friend what would happen if the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* implode as we’ve seen in the polls. What will emerge from the ruin of that xenophobic party? Will we see another party that is more sinister and more dangerous to cultural diversity?

With PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho’s decision to challenge Timo Soini and run for chairman of the party could well mean the birth of an ever-radical anti-immigration party in the same league as the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party.

Will Halla-aho be the lifesaver of the PS’ problems and succeed at bolstering the embattled party’s poll standings? If we read PS politicians like MP Laura Huhtasaari, the Islamophobe with the white kindergarten teacher smile, the answer is a confident yes.

According to her, “Finland needs Perussuomalaiset values, Jussi is a pioneer, a nationalist who defends our rights. He doesn’t vacillate. He’s not afraid of being labeled because he believes in what he says.”

When watching the news about Halla-aho and how the media reports about this MEP, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, it’s amazing to note how much fascination and interest there is in a politician who has built his political career on insulting minorities and spreading racism.

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A naturalized Finn and businessman cannot open a bank account at the only bank of Pertunmaa

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Pertunmaa is a small town of 1,800 inhabitants 18km off Highway 5 that takes you to Mikkeli. The owner of Pertunmaan Pizzeria, which opened its doors this month, has had trouble opening a bank account for his business at the only bank of the town. 

According to the owner, Rasoul Khorram, who has lived in Finland for six years and is a naturalized Finn, was told by the Osuuspankki savings bank manager Jouko Isokuortti turned him down when he wanted to open a bank account.

“He [Isokuortti] said that I couldn’t open a bank account at his bank because I was a customer of Nordea [bank],” he told Migrant Tales. “He said I didn’t speak Finnish well enough and should take more classes [to learn the language better].”

Khorram protested and said that it wouldn’t be practical to open a bank account at the nearest Nordea branch office which is Mikkeli located 57 kilometers away.

“When I told him that I’d like to get in touch with his manager, he ordered me to leave the premises,” he said.

Considering that Khorram is a Finnish citizen, it’s pretty clear that the Osuuspankki manager’s decision to not let him open an account is arbitrary and discriminatory.

While the interview for this story was made in Finnish with Khorram, the fact that he is a naturalized Finn should be sufficient proof that he can speak the Finnish language.

Pitäjänuutiset, the local newspaper that is read in Pertunmaa and Mäntyharju, wrote a story on the problem.

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Migrant Tales (December 27, 2011): Immigration laws reveal what kind of society we are

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Migrant Tales insight: This opinion piece was published exactly five years ago. Check out what we wrote back then and how immigration law in Finland have tightened. If immigration laws reveal what kind of society we are, what do our immigration laws reveal about ourselves?

Last year, 32,476 asylum seekers came to Finland. While many of us received them with open arms, that welcome eventually turned into suspicion and a sinister wish that they’d leave our country as fast as possible.  

The attitude of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, after he offered asylum seekers his home in September of last year, not only exposes hypocrisy but reveals moral cowardice in the face of a challenge. 
________________________

Tell me what your immigration laws are and I will tell you what kind of society you live in. Show me how those laws defend minorities and encourage cultural diversity and I will show you hypocrisy.

There is a saying that a person’s true character is not exposed during good times but when there is great adversity.

The global financial meltdown of markets in September 2008 and the euro financial crisis today is testing our “good will” to breaking point.

Far-right, populist and even right-wing conservative groups in countries like the U.S. have succeeded in making  racism sound fair, according to Colorlines.*

There are worse examples of how the spirit of the laws and that of deeds show how our societies are flirting and have succumbed in some cases to the ways of despotism.

A case in point is Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona, who got his wings clipped after the Obama Administration’s Department of Homeland Security stripped him of several federal tools for immigration enforcement, according to Police Patrol. *

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A letter of apology for the disgraceful treatment of asylum seekers in Finland by the government

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Dear Asylum Seeker, 

The cartoon below by Ville Ranta could apply to Europe as well. Instead of having politicians like Perussuomalaiset* Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and other government ministers stating that “you can’t come in because there’s no room for you,” it’s our hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy that has been exposed to the tee. 

Even if some may curse your present, I welcome it. Thanks to you, the over million asylum seekers that came to Europe in 2015, you have exposed our hypocrisy and our exceptionalism.

Aminkeng A. Alemanji wrote in his doctoral dissertation a very good description of how our exceptionalism works:

“The imperfection of the other is used to establish and maintain the hierarchies that put the dominant group [white Finns and Europeans] at the top and the Other at the bottom. [T.] Coates [2015, 105] reminds us that “a mountain is not a mountain if there is nothing below”, and in Finland it is the Other as a result of his/her imperfection that is below – the valley necessary for the mountain [the dominant group] to be a mountain.”

This is an old cartoon from last year but still topical. See the original posting here.

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Is Christmas a time of joy and hatred towards Muslims?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An asylum seeker in Finland sent Migrnat Tales this picture at a bus stop in Mikkeli, located about 230km north of Helsinki. Finland is gearing up for the Christmas spirit as some racists post posters full of hatred towards Muslims. We apologize to our Muslim friends for posting such a horrible poster. 

The question about this poster is pretty simple: How come a person can easily place such a poster at a bus stop? Why didn’t they stop such a person? Why didn’t they tear down such a poster?

The people who posted this poster below are the same ones who will tell you with a poker smile that there’s no racism in Finland. They justify their hatred by believing in ethnic fairy tales.

Just taking down these types of posters in silence isn’t enough. Politicians, as well as other civil leaders and the general public, should go public and condemn such racist and Islamophobic diatribe.

Defining white Finnish privilege #32: The white Finnish police service and “them”

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If there is an institution that is the epitome of white Finnish privilege that is doing everything possible to hinder cultural and ethnic diversity among its ranks, that institution is the Finnish police service. 

Am I exaggerating?

Just go to the police service’s online pages and you will not find a single person who is a visible minority.

Gathering from the police service’s website, women are well-represented but nothing, absolutely nothing, is said about visible minorities never mind the police’s sensitivity towards our ever-growing culturally diverse community.

Visit the Finnish police service’s web page here.

Definition #32

The fact that there isn’t a single visible minority on the Finnish police websites shows us that they are far behind the times of other European nations like the United Kingdom and Sweden.

There must be a lot of opposition to cultural diversity as well if  a recent poll showed that about half of the police surveyed claimed to have voted for the National Coalition Party and the anti-immigration populists Perussuomalaiset.*

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