xenophobia Archives - Page 62 of 92

Nazi salutes and the growth of far-right ideology in Finland

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Migrant Tales

In two weeks, two Perussuomalaiset (PS) politicians got their fingers burned badly after one made a Nazi salute with a Hitler mask while another took a picture of another one who made the same salute in parliament. One of the reasons why some Finns can do this in public is because they have a blind spot for the Holocaust and the atrocities committed by the Nazis in World War 2.

Turku University historian Markku Jokisipilä agrees. He was quoted as saying on Iltalehti that some people in Finland don’t see Nazism the same way as elsewhere in Europe because they don’t grasp its connection to the Holocaust.

It’s been quite a week for the PS but what can you expect if too many of its members have a fascination with Nazi Germany.

In the first case, Kangasala councilman Jani Viinikainen, resigned from the PS after it became clear that it was him wearing a Hitler mask and making a Nazi salute below.

Viinikainen, a far-right politician who has a close ideological ties with Hirvisaari, first denied he was in the picture. He tried to play down his role by stating that the Nazi salute he made wasn’t at a 45° angle and done with his left arm.

Former PS councilman Jani Viinikainen on the right with Seppo Lehto on the far left.

Finland still has a problem with Nazism because it has never debated openly its role with Hitler’s Germany during the Continuation War (1941-44). Debating it would be opening a can of worms that would put into serious question the credibility of some of our most important historic leaders like Marshal Carl Mannerheim.

The excuse, which impairs our understanding and condemnation of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in World War 2, is our hatred of the former Soviet Union and the Russians.

The same reasoning we used to go to bed with Nazi Germany works to promote far-right ideology today in Finland. Since we loathe Muslims, the new enemy, it’s fine to join and vote for a right-wing populist party like the PS and make Nazi salutes.

This ideological juggernaut that conditions our world view usually gets the last say and permits some to be tolerant of intolerance. It has given birth to far-right politicians like Hirvisaari, Jussi Halla-aho, Juho Eerola, Olli Immonen and many others. How do you explain a party like the PS that rose from relative obscurity to the country’s third-largest in parliament in 2011?

You can belong to a legally registered party in Finland and still wear a brown shirt under your suit. It’s not shameful and permits you to come to terms with “jokes” like the one below by Lehto.

Seppo Lehto, who was sentenced to a 2.5-year prison sentence for ethnic agitation, gave a Nazi salute in parliament on Friday. He was PS MP James Hirvisaari guest.

Analysis: Is sacking MP Hirvisaari the beginning of the end for the PS?

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Migrant Tales

One of the interesting questions that the sacking of MP James Hirvisaari raises is if it is the first visible crack that will force the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party to implode, eventually. Is Timo Soini’s PS a ticking time bomb and Hirvisaari a time counter indicating that we’ve got ten seconds to seek cover before the bomb explodes?

Even if it is still too early to say, the Hirvisaari episode is an indication of the festering ideological sickness that the party suffers.

Miska Rantanen of Helsingin Sanomat believes that while its still to early to say if the party will suffer the same fate as the Rural Party in the 1970s, the PS looks like a tired team of players that are fouling out.

The Rural Party, which evolved into the PS in the 1990s, won the 1970 election with 17 seats from one in the previous election. The party, however, imploded due to internal bickering and differences.

Since intolerance, xenophobia and prejudice exist thanks to hot air comprising of inflated exaggerations and gross generalizations, anti-immigration politicians like Hirvisaari need to continually raise the bar to keep their followers entertained. Like dictators, they eventually lose touch with reality and fall from political grace.

While politicians like Soini are trying to wash their hands of Hirvisaari, we shouldn’t forget that it was he who helped Hirvisaari to get elected. Not only did Soini help Hirvisaari he left the PS door ajar for other far-right nationalists and racists.

Like Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja wrote, Soini made a pack with the devil when he brought them on board.

How Syrian refugees fleeing war show how the Finnish media gives (again) racists inflated respectability and importance

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales published a while back a story about how the media gives racists and radical anti-immigration groups inflated respectability and importance. Why should we care what a Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP like Jussi Halla-aho, who was on top of it convicted for ethnic agitation, thinks about giving asylum to Syrian refugees?

Verkkouutiset is run by the National Coalition Party. Read full story here.

Why should the media care if another PS MP like James Hirvisaari, who was convicted for ethnic agitation as well, is “forced” to resigns from an extremist association like Suomen Sisu but supports a far right and racist group like the Finnish Defense League?

And what would you say about PS MP Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, who has sent a written question to parliament about the government’s plan to give asylum to a few hundred refugees from Syria?

Certainly all of the above have some newsworthiness. The PS is an anti-immigration, anti-Islam and anti-gay party. MPs like Halla-aho, Hirvisaari and Saarakkala, who are the most vociferous opponents of cultural diversity, are expressing their opposition to government policy, which is already pretty thin to begin with when it comes to Syrian refugees.

Here’s the question we should probably ponder: How is it possible that a country like Finland, which knows too well what the suffering of war and refugees are, is doing so little to help refugees fleeing a country that is suffering one of the worst sectarian bloodbaths in modern history?

Folks, we’re talking about granting a few hundred Syrian refugees asylum to our country, while our neighbor Sweden, has already given permanent residency to half of the Syrian refugees and announced it will give 8,000 more residency.

Is the “news” Halla-aho’s or Saarakkala’s lowly opinions of refugees, or that Sweden is giving thousands resident permits to Syrians while we’re having a philosophical discussion about why we should even let in a few hundred?

Why isn’t there anything written by Ilkka or Verkkouutiset that compares our response to the Syrian refugees question with Sweden’s?Aren’t we always competing against our eternal rival in the west in almost everything?

True, Finland’s worst rivals are Sweden. But we don’t compete in some areas that really count and are important, like giving shelter to those fleeing war.

In that match, Finland gets romped every time 6-0 against Sweden.

Government talks in Norway are a preview of what may happen in Finland in 2015 with the PS

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Take a close look at Norway if you want to see what may happen in Finland after the 2015 parliamentary elections, when the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) may be in government.The populist anti-immigration Progress party (FrP) of Norway will form part of a coalition government with the Conservative Party (Høyre), Christian Democrats and Liberals.

If the Conservative Party can accept to govern with a party that used to have mass killer Anders Breivik as a member, certainly the Center Party of Finland, if it wins the next parliamentary elections, won’t have any problems governing with the PS, even if some of its members have been sentenced for ethnic agitation.

Read full story here.

Parties like the FrP, PS, Danish People’s Party, Sweden Democrats and other of the Nordic region, which are anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam, are a good example of the intolerance and racism that has creeped into Nordic politics.

How do these parties work and what is their role in strengthening intolerance and institutional racism in their respective countries? They function as watchdogs gaining our attention, even our sympathies, with the help of fear-mongering and spreading intolerance thanks to our prejudices.

Their strategy is simple: The best way of maintaing things as they are is not to challenge or question anything. If in doubt, blame the immigrant or minority x.

Eyeing power, it’s natural that parties like the FrP want to sound sensible just before the formation of a new government.

A good way of finding out the real issues and cut through the snow job is to watch closely what politicians deny and, most importantly, what they don’t say.

The new incoming Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, claims in an interview with The Local that the FrP ”is not a xenophobic party.”

She continues: ”…Parts of the immigration policy they [FrP] are pushing for have already been implemented elsewhere in the Nordic region.”

Solberg doesn’t elaborate but let’s get it straight from the FrP party leader’s mouth, Siv Jensen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWkIL41HQ40&feature=player_embedded#t=0

Apart from playing down the FrP’s anti-immigration and anti-Islam stances, one of the most incredible things I hears Jensen say in another interview with The Local was that she was against Norwegian immigration policy, not immigrants.

According to political editor Martine Aurdal of the daily Dagbldet, who is Jensen’s biographer, claimed that after 22/7, when Breivik killed 77 people, the leader of the FrP has left out more extreme rhetoric from her speech.

Why?

Because it sounds awkward especially after what Breivik did and certainly doesn’t win you over votes.

So what’s the lesson we can learn from all this?

Attitudes and xenophobia remain intact. The only matter that changes is the message.

Former Perussuomalaiset councilman convicted for ethnic agitation shows no remorse

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Who can forget Black February 2012, when three Muslims lost their lives in a span of about three weeks in January-February? The last one, which was horrific, ended with the cold-blooded killing of a Muslim at a pizzeria in Oulu. A former Perussuomlaiset (PS) councilman wrote on Facebook that a medal should be awarded to a Finn called Janne for shooting and killing one of the victims.

The former PS councilman from Köyliö, Tommi Rautio, was sentenced in December and fined 120 euros by a Satakunta regional court for ethnic agitation.

He was sacked from the party in March and not reelected in October to city council. He got nine votes.

National Coalition Party Helsinki politician Ossi Mäntylähti was responsible for bringing Rautio’s comments to national media attention. Migrant Tales was also present in informing the immigrant community and foreign media, of which Boris Peltonen of Germany daily Die Welt got in touch with Mäntylahti and Migrant Tales.

Read Die Welt story (in German) here.

Rautio resurfaces Sunday on Mäntylahti’s Facebook thread. He explains all of the things he lost after his conviction but nowhere does he express any remorse for what he wrote.

Go to Ossi Mäntylahti’s Facebook page here.

He claims that what happened to him was Mäntylahti’s fault because he was provoked. After his conviction, Rautio claims he lost all of his friends, relationships, job and source of livelihood.

Rautio claimed in court that what he wrote about giving a medal to Janne was done ironically.

This is what he wrote after the killing in February:

”If Janne is the one [who shot the foreigners at the pizzeria] then we should give Janne a medal…if not Ossi [Mäntylahti] there is already a war going on and in every war [soldiers] are decorated.”

If you visit Rautio’s Facebook page, you’ll find Islamophobic postings and groups.

This week, the Youth League of the National Coalition Party published its 2014 program, where it suggests, among other things, scrapping ethnic agitation laws in Finland.

If ethnic agitation laws were scrapped, Rautio would not have been convicted for hate speech.

YLE in English: Lifting visa requirements from Russians would create thousands of jobs

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Migrant Tales

This has got to be one of the strangest stories I’ve read on YLE in English. It claims that lifting visa requirements for Russians would create thousands of job in Finland. Is xenophobia so ingrained in some Finns that they still think that foreigners and Russians are such a threat that they don’t grasp that tourism, never mind immigration, spur economic growth and create jobs?

Writes YLE in English: “Visa freedom would boost the Finnish economy and increase employment, according to researchers at the University of Eastern Finland. Last year Russians made four million journeys to Finland, with a visa-free regime expected to double the volume of traffic.”

The negative attitudes that some house of immigrants, which is maintained by myths and prejudice passed from generation to generation and learned at home and at school, is the real culprit that is feeding our ignorance.

It not only feeds our ignorance and fear but is impoverishing us as a nation. It is our prejudice that is robing us of new blood, innovation and hard work.

Ever thought why we are required in this country to raise the retirement age? Because our population is graying and because there are too few young people replacing those jobs left by our ever-growing army of pensioners.

Read story here.

Some Finns are still suspicious of immigrants and outsiders no matter how many positive examples you show them.

Even if an OECD study published in June that immigration boosted economic growth in Finland in 2011 by 0.16%, there are too many in Finland who believe that immigration is a burden and threat on our society.

As long as we continue to see immigrants and Otherness with suspicion, the more harm we will inflict on our nation.

Therefore, those who spread urban myths of immigrants and racism are the real enemies of our society who will leave you without a job and a future.

Susanna Koski: “The Youth League of the National Coalition Party has zero tolerance to racism”

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Susanna Koski is quoted as saying on Helsingin Sanomat that the Youth League of the National Coalition Party that she is president of has zero tolerance to racism. “We don’t accept racism in any form or shape,” she said.

Read original story (in Finnish) here.

Right, Koski, you don’t tolerate racism but want to do away with those laws and institutions that protect immigrants and visible minorities from racism.

What kind of society would Finland be if you did away with the Ombudsman for Minorities and laws that govern ethnic agitation?

Your comment sounds like the double-talk that we commonly hear from far right Perussuomalaiset (PS) politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and Timo Soini to justify racism and intolerance in this country.

The reason why you claim to have “zero tolerance to racism” is simply because you are white and have no idea what racism is. Your denials remind me of what happened before the April 2011 elections, which opened the floodgates of intolerance for the racists.

Let me refresh you memory. Back then, National Coalition Party chairman Jyrki Katainen said “debating immigrant issues in this country didn’t make you a racist” and Social Democratic Party (SDP) Economy Minister Jutta Urpilainen’s infamous maassa maan tatalla (In Rome do as the Romans do) statement.

If you have zero tolerance to racism why are your arguments similar to PS MPs that have been sentenced for ethnic agitation?

We wrote this week:

Some of the proposals put forth by the National Coalition Party’s youth wing are barbaric because they would bolster and reinforce our prejudice, discrimination and outright hostility to people who are different from us.

Isn’t that type of behavior barbaric?

Immigrants and visible minorities will defend Finland’s Nordic welfare society

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Putting aside the far right opinions of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party and others that want to change this country for good and for their personal benefit, who’s out there to defend our Nordic welfare state that took so long to build?

Two important groups that will certainly fight for our Nordic welfare state are immigrants and visible minorities.

Why would some immigrants and visible minorities want to defend our Nordic welfare state? Because they stand to lose the most if the president of the National Coalition Party’s youth league, Susanna Koski, got her way.

Koski surprised even members of her party Monday by proposing, among a long list of other things, that theOmbudsman for Minorities office should be scrapped together with the quota refugee program and ethnic agitation law.

A society that offers a no-holes-barred approach to dialoging with immigrants and visible minorities would not only fuel social inequality but strife as well.

The Perussuomalaiset (PS) is another party that is in the same ideological league as the Youth League of the National Coalition Party.

Why would anyone want to change our way of life and society if it has given us so much? The only answer I can come up with is plain greed, ignorance and outright intolerance.

But not to worry! The immigrants and their children, who form part of our society, will be one of the many defenders of our Nordic welfare society.

The shadow of Anders Breivik’s mass killings hang over coalition talks after Norway elections

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Migrant Tales

The landslide victory of Norway’s opposition Conservatives (Høyre) on Monday was short-lived after the country’s next prime minister, Erna Solberg, faced tough coalition talks with the anti-immigration and populist Progress party (Fremskrittspartiet) of which Anders Breivik was a member and whose cold-blooded killings continue to haunt the country, reports Reuters.

Visit Wikipedia site here.

Outgoing Labor Party Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his allies were able to win 72 seats compared with the 96 that Solberg and its allies won, which is 11 more needed for a majority.

Høyre won 48 seats, Progress party (29), Christian Democratic Party (10) and the Liberals (9).

Even if the Progress party has tried to distance itself from the xenophobic Sweden Democrats and Danish People’s Party, Breivik’s shadow continues to haunt the party as well as the country.

After 22/7, when Breivik gunned down in cold blood 69 Labor Party youths on the island of Utøya (69 dead) and eight more from a bomb explosion in Oslo, life has not changed in Norway but in the Nordic region as well.

The election result of the Progress party lags behind pre-22/7 results. In September 2011, it lost 6.1% percentage points in the municipal elections and on Monday it lost 12 seats.

Even if some believe that Norway has forgotten what happened on 22/7, it’s unlikely that anti-immigration rhetoric and populism can make something so horrific disappear.

Youth League of the National Coalition Party sees no evil in hate speech

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Migrant Tales

The president of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party, Susanna Koski, surprised even members of her party Monday by proposing, among a long list of other things, that the Ombudsman for Minorities office should be scrapped together with the quota refugee program and ethnic agitation law.

The proposals for 2014 by the National Coalition Party’s youth wing have been strongly condemned by the party’s secretary, Taru Tujunen, who considered them “absurd.”

“I don’t understand at all why Finland should accept for example racism,” she was quoted as saying on YLE. “I’m strongly against this and the National Coalition Party denounces in full these types of proposals [by the Youth League of the National Coalition Party].”

National Coalition Party veteran MP Ilkka Kanerva said on A-studio that proposals to do away with the ethnic agitation law made far right anti-immigration PS MP Jussi Halla-aho look like “an amateur.”

“These views by the Youth League of the National Coalition Party are from another planet,” he said.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

When asked by Nelonen why Koski wanted to scrap the ethnic agitation law, her answer took on the surreal. She defended the youth wing’s position by claiming that “people should be seen as individuals” and therefore there shouldn’t be laws against ethnic agitation.

Right, Koski, Finns are a group but other ethnic groups aren’t in this country.

What the head of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party is saying is that we don’t want to deal with our ever-growing cultural diversity.

Using the same arguments commonly used by far right PS MP James Hirvisaari, Koski asked why it’s ok to make fun of some religions but not of others.

While the 150 proposals put forth by the National Coalition Party’s youth wing would rapidly turn Finland into a U.S. American dog-eat-dog society where money is king, some of the proposals made by the group are racist and xenophobic and in line with what the most far right representatives of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party.

The youth wings of the PS and National Coalition Party have lobbied to demote the Swedish language to elective status at schools.

PS MP Olli Immonen, who is the chairman of the far right Suomen Sisu association that aims to keep Finland white, has suggested as well scrapping the Ombudsman for Minorities office, do away with foreign aid, the quota refugee system and ethnic agitation law.

The question we should ask is if the opinions of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party stray from what other mainstream parties think about racism and cultural diversity. Does it imply that xenophobia and racism are becoming more acceptable in this country?

This is not the first time that the National Coalition Party’s youth wing has created waves within and outside of the party.

It’s former chairman Wille Rydman was forced to resign as chairman last year for his strong anti-immigration stance.

Saul Schubak, the former vice chairman of the National Coalition Party’s youth wing, was forced to resign last year when he wrote on Facebook that people who aren’t fit to parent should not receive child allowances.