Tag: xenophobia

Europe has been put in harm’s way by Europeans

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Can Europe honestly look at itself in the mirror today and say it is still a beacon of hope, cultural understanding and respect as we bar refugees, permit the children of these people fleeing war to die on our beaches while thousands die trying to reach our shores?

According to the UN Refugee Agency, an estimated 310,000 refugees have already crossed the Mediterranean compared with 219,000 refugees for the whole of 2014, according to the UN Refugee Agency. 

How many more will have to cross and make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean and die before we wake up to the crisis and find effective solutions on a regional EU level?

The chances of finding such solutions and, importantly leadership in today’s Europe, is close to none.

We have lost our way and live in a bubble inflated by so much hubris that we don’t even grasp that it is our bellicose stand and support for wars like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that have led us to this crisis.

Things have gotten so bad in some EU countries that populist anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* quote Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s shameful rhetoric. He’s called Calais a “jungle” and refugees as “swarms of people coming across the Mediterranean.”

And to add more salt to injury and shame, European leaders like Cameron conveniently forget that their country’s wealth was built on the blood of millions of slaves, colonialism and global economic bullying and intimidation.
Continue reading “Europe has been put in harm’s way by Europeans”

Dear little boy washed ashore…

Posted on by Migrant Tales

All it takes is a picture or an unexpected spark to action that changes everything instantly. If it isn’t this picture below there will be other other ones that will at the end of the day expose these politicians for what they are.

In May we learned about a Dear little girl at sea who was kind enough to look the other way as she floated lifelessly in Mediterranean waters. 

Now there has appeared a Dear little boy washed ashore, lifeless on the beach. He’s also considerate to our indifference. His face is half covered by his arm.

Contrary to the Dear little girl at sea we are going to put him in a warm bed and imagine for a moment that he’s ok.

We wrote back in May:

Mark my words, all it takes is a picture, an action, that will spark the demise of xenophobes and heartless politicians and force their lies to come down in flames.

Whose lies are we speaking of?

Those very politicians and people that German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked you not to follow those that put the dignity of other people in question.

She said explicitly: “Don’t follow their leaders or those who have prejudice, coldness, even hate in their hearts.”

Since I live in Finland I will name a few of them in this post. We have one party in government, the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* that bases its popularity on xenophobia and on getting rid of the Somali and Muslim “problem” in Finland. You can find such politicians in all of Finland’s parties.

Timo Soini, Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, Laura Hauhtasaari, Maria Lohela, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Päivi Räsänen, Tom Pakaclén, Maria Tolppanen, Mika Niikko, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, Kari Rajamäki, Pia Kauma, Wille Rydman, Simon Elo, Sampo Terho, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, Hanna Mäntylä and many, many others.

The post below may contain a disturbing image and text to some. Viewer discretion is advised.

Continue reading “Dear little boy washed ashore…”

Our indecision and indifference to the humanitarian crisis facing Europe is the greatest threat

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In the face of the humanitarian refugee crisis that we are seeing today in Europe, some leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel are offering leadership while others are frozen with indecision and indifference. 

 It is disappointing that Finland, which had to relocate over 400,000 of its own refugees after hostilities ended with the former Soviet Union in 1944 is one that is gripped by hesitation and have, like other Eastern European countries, meekly answered Merkel’s call.

What did the German chancellor say?

“There will be zero tolerance for those who put in question the dignity of other people,” she said warning people to stay away from far right and xenophobic rallies. “Don’t follow their leaders or those who have prejudice, coldness, even hate in their hearts.”

Why does she say this? Because Germany hasn’t forgotten those rivers of blood that flowed in World War 2 and the Holocaust.

Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö’s and Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s lack of leadership in the face of the humanitarian crisis isn’t a coincidence. Both of them reveal with their lack of resolve why this country has become in recent years fertile ground for xenophobia and ultranationalism.

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Continue reading “Our indecision and indifference to the humanitarian crisis facing Europe is the greatest threat”

A cemetery called the Mediterranean

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This will be one of the shortest posts ever published in Migrant Tales thanks to a picture published on the front page of El País of Madrid. Those dots on the water are people who got shipwrecked off the coast of Libya. 

This is tragically not the first picture showing people shipwrecked, on crowded vessels or floating lifelessly on the Mediterranean.

These are real people that Europe and our politicians have turned their backs on.

Every time we look the other way or deafen our ears to their cries we chip away a piece of our humanity and values.

Shame on Europe. Shame on you and me.

Thousands of people are visiting since Thursday a post on Migrant Tales that was published in May.

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UPDATE (August 28): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

August 28

Joka seitsemäs suomalainen on rasisti – tässä tuntomerkit (Suomen Kuvalehti)

What’s wrong with this story? Here’s a question to Suomen Kuvalehti: Why when speaking of immigration, cultural diversity and a poll about racist attitudes in Finland do you put a picture of a Muslim woman to go with the story?  It’s odd that almost every time we speak of immigration and cultural diversity in Finland the media often publishes a picture of a black person or Muslim woman. Why do they do this if the majority of immigrants that live in Finland are Europeans? While the poll by Suomen Kuvalehti on Finnish attitudes towards foreigners and racism is interesting, the story fails with the picture and reveals the newsmagazine’s prejudices. These types of pictures that are published with stories on our cultural diversity perpetuate urban tales and racism.

 

Näyttökuva 2015-8-28 kello 11.32.56

Matti Putkonen takes the Perussuomalaiset to the Twilight Zone

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here’s what happened Wednesday. Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen, who’s been pictured with neo-Nazis and recently declared war on “the nightmare of multiculturalism,” gave a press conference where he promised to write clearer text so that nobody could interpret them as racist or having neo-Nazi overtones. 

Immonen also announced that he’d step down until October from the PS parliamentary group, writes YLE in English.

But that’s not all, PS strongman MattiPutkonen went on to point his finger at a number of politicians, professors and editors who, according to him, were “slandering and taunting the Perussuomalaiset party as well as inciting people and the media to threatening hate speech.”

According to online publication Uusi Suomi, PS member Matti Putkonen announced the following people were guilty of “hate speech” against the PS. These were four Social Democratic Party politicians (Eero Heinäluoma, Annti Rinne, Tytti Tuppurainen and Erkki Tuomioja), Li Andersson of the Left Alliance, Green League chairman Ville Niinistö, National Coalition Party’s Henna Virkkunen, former Rural Party head Pekka Vennamo, two professors and three editors are guilty of hate speech against the PS.

The PS enter the Twilight Zone.

Once again we see how the PS twists words like a magician out of a hat. One of the most incredible ones used by the party recently was “illegal refugees.”

What is an “illegal” refugee anyway?  Continue reading “Matti Putkonen takes the Perussuomalaiset to the Twilight Zone”

The Perussuomalaiset is a racist and far right party because…

Posted on by Migrant Tales

No matter how much Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party member Matti Purkonen, MP Sampo Terho or Timo Soini assure us that they are against racism and fascism,[1] the more they incriminate their party. Renouncing racism and far right ideology would be tantamount to committing political hara-kiri for the PS. 

Should we be surprised on Friday by PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo’s claim that four out of five refugees coming to Europe are only economic migrants? Should we be surprised by PS MP Olli Immonen’s declaration of war against “the nightmare of multiculturalism” and his ties with neo-Nazi groups?

Not at all. What you see is what it is.

There are two matters that the Finnish media doesn’t get with the PS and hasn’t connected the dots:

  1. The PS grew from obscurity thanks to the fact that society saw Somalis as a negative factor and that they would get rid of this “problem;” [2]

  2. Soini is seen for some odd reason as the “good cop” of the PS who is trying to bring in line racists, xenophobes and fascists to whom he gave a political voice in Finland. The media should stop giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Everyone knows that the PS will fail in  ridding Finland of what it thinks is the Somali “problem,” which now includes as well Muslims and Middle Easterners.

Continue reading “The Perussuomalaiset is a racist and far right party because…”

Thank you Timo Soini and Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo for showing us (again) how big of a social ill racism is in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Imagine how a political party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* can destroy with their xenophobic and populist sound bites not only the credibility of a government that’s planning to slash billions of euros but the good name of this country abroad. 

In one racist statement they soil our country’s image but there is a silver lining: They reveal how much racism is a problem in this country and how much work needs to be done to challenge and eliminate it.

It is a good matter that we have the resources to challenge a social ill like racism. The only matter, in my opinion, that is still lacking, is the will to challenge it on all fronts.

PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, who is a firm supporter of MEP Jussi Halla-aho’s xenophobic rhetoric, led the charge again on Friday with her comment about refugees.

Näyttökuva 2015-8-23 kello 10.14.10

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Continue reading “Thank you Timo Soini and Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo for showing us (again) how big of a social ill racism is in Finland”

Migrant Tales’ D4R: Estonians can be just as racist as some Finns

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Just because you are a migrant doesn’t mean that you can’t be a racist jerk. 

Our faithful reader and friend D4R called me up Thursday and told me about a racist incident with two Estonian men on the train. One of them asks D4R in a hostile tone where he purchased such good clothes and if he was living off social welfare. 

“Social welfare pays you guys for everything,” one of the Estonian men continued. “Why don’t you move back to Africa?”

D4R couldn’t hold back his feelings and responded.

“This isn’t Estonia,” he said. “I have lived longer in this country than you, I work and pay taxes.”

One of men started to act aggressively and placed his face close to D4R’s.

“Fortunately his friend had more sense than him and they both left,” he said. “I called 112 to inform them that I felt threatened.”

D4R said he did not want to pick a fight with the person because, as has happened in the past, he felt he’d be arrested by the police for starting the fight.

 

Finnish PS MP Olli Immonen takes swipe at asylum seekers, migrants and minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Olli Immonen is at it again after his xenophobic Facebook posting about “the nightmare of multiculturalism.” This time he is taking a swipe at asylum seekers. He uses terms like “uncontrolled” and “avalanche” to promote his brand of xenophobic and far right hostility not only against asylum seekers, but against Finland’s ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse community. 

Yes, right, Immonen is the PS MP who posed in June with members of the neo-Nazi Kansallinen vastarintaliike (SVL).

Immonen is also chairman of Suomen Sisu, a Finnish white supremacist association. In a Finnish context, the association is ideologically  similar to the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party.

Is it a surprise that Immonen is now pointing his xenophobic arsenal at asylum seekers? How could you not be surprised if his whole political career is based on racism, fascist and neo-Nazi ideology?

Or should we be equally surprised why a government party like the PS still hasn’t sacked Immonen from the party?

The longer the PS MP stays in the populist party the more incriminating will the evidence be that it has links to fascists and neo-Nazi groups like the SVL.

Continue reading “Finnish PS MP Olli Immonen takes swipe at asylum seekers, migrants and minorities”