Tag: xenophobia

The Eronen-Hirvisaari scandal reveals their contempt for press freedom, immigrants and minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Helena Eronen  , the Perussuomalaiset (PS) parliamentary aide who  suggested in a satirically intended blog entry that foreigners and minorities should start wearing armbands,  appeared on two talk shows Friday.  One of the most disturbing matters that is reinforced in both interviews is Eronen’s Hirvisaari-spirited view of immigrants and contempt for press freedom.

Calls to limit press freedom have been the strongest from the PS. Every time a scandal breaks out, and there have been many in the past year from the PS, too many times the standard response is that of the victim blaming the “elitist” media of bullying.

The PS, Eronen and especially Hirvisaari,  who was fined for hate speech in December, conveniently forget that it is the job of our media to hold accountable what politicians say and be society’s watchdog. What would we think of our media if they didn’t report all those unpleasant things about elected officials such as PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen or former PS councilman Tommi Rautio, who suggested to decorate a Finn for killing in cold blood a Muslim?

Hirvisaari’s contempt for press freedom is a cause for grave concern. He has described journalists as “bloodthirsty hyenas” as well as “arrogant and lying scum.”

This concern appears to be held by the PS parliamentary group as well, which suspended the PS MP for five months for not sacking Eronen.

Apart from the EU, immigrants and especially Islam, some PS members have a serious issue with the media. We have nothing to worry about, however,  as long as the powers of the media are not curtailed.  Spotting double-talk and holding politicians and their aides accountable are the best insurance against tyranny and far-right ideology.

It is easy to spot the rigmarole of the far right in Finland. Eronen, who used to advertise on her Uusi Suomi blog that she belonged to the anti-immigration Muutos2011, said she thought ethnic profiling by the police was wrong but acceptable in some cases.

The way Eronen tried to defend ethnic profiling “in some cases” reveals the concern expressed by the office of the Ombudsman for Minorities.  Rainer Hiltunen, the Minority Ombudsman’s head of office, said this month that he receives calls from foreigners who say they have been repeatedly questioned in the street by police. Some of those stopped are naturalized Finns and visible minorities.

Eronen apologized on A-studio but with her fingers crossed behind her back. She says that she is sorry if what she wrote offended some people but thanked her boss Hirvisaari for standing up for her and his convictions.

Apparently one of those questionable convictions is that it is acceptable to write about armbands that bring back stark memories of the Holocaust and that ethnic profiling is fine by the police.

Are Hirvisaari and Eronen a mean Finnish version of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

If I had to draw a cartoon about suspended Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari and his aide Helena Eronen, I’d draw them as the legendary Spanish literary icons Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. If Hirvisaari were Don Quixote, would his windmills be “multiculturalism,” “Islamization” and the media? 

Contrary to Hirvisaari, Don Quixote was a kind-hearted impractical idealist that wanted to make right the incorrigible wrongs of the world.

Here is a painting by Pablo Picasso of  Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.  If Eronen were Sancho Panza she’d be much thinner. 

Alongside Hirvisaari Don Quixote is the always faithful Eronen Sancho Panza, listening to those far-right tales that would reinforce and encourage her to write demeaning blog entries of ghastly matters like female genital mutilation never mind about armbands. Here is a link to a young woman’s view [in Finnish] of Eronen’s blog post on female genital mutilation.

One of the matters that should worry sensible Finns about the Eronen scandal isn’t what she wrote but her boss Hirvisaari. It’s sometimes difficult to figure out what shines through this far-right PS MP: His ignorance of our democratic institutions like the media and/or his extremist views?

If it were up to Hirvisaari, he’d change the Constitution and our laws to censor and place limitations on press freedom directly from the annals of the 1930s but in a twenty-first century context.

By stating that the media intentionally lies and distorts reality, Hirvisaari exposes his far-right credentials and his contempt for our most cherished civil rights. What you are hearing in fact is a mean Hirvisaari Don Quixote charging at windmills.

Below is an excerpt of the PS MP’s latest blog post headlined Lies and power on Uusi Suomi. It sends shivers up one’s spine but you be the judge:

It is clear that the media has distorted the blog entry the truth by my parliamentary aide and blatantly lied to the public’s face. I have written in previous blog entries about the outrageous manner in which the Turun Sanomat staff  treated the ”armband” blog post.

Another monstrous lie: The media has falsely claimed for a long time that some members of the Perussuomalaiset parliamentary group are ”far right,” ”racists” and even ”Nazis.” The Perussuomaalist party does not have a ”racist wing.” This intentional demonizing [by the media] as well as all forms of distortion must stop in the name of truth.

…In the above-mentioned examples the issue is the power of the media. The people are deliberately fed lies. It is time that the media should look at itself in the mirror.

Look at itself in the mirror? Hmm.

Even if we pointed the mirror to Hirvisaari he’d have a difficult time figuring out which is the mirror and which are his demonic distortions of those institutions that shelter us from his extremist views.

PS MP Hirvisaari gets suspended for five months for not sacking Eronen

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The Helena Eronen scandal, the parliamentary aide that infamously suggested in Finland that foreigners should start wearing armbands to help police profile ethnic groups, took a new turn Tuesday when the Perussuomalaiset (PS) parliamentary group decided to suspend MP James Hirvisaari until September 15 for not sacking his aide.

It is clear that in the face of  Eronen’s and Hirvisaari’s open defiance, the PS will end up paying a costly political price taking into account the October 28 municipal election. This latest political fallout is taking place a year after the PS won its historic election victory and at the time when Anders Breivik is testifying in Oslo for killing 77 people.

While it was expected that the police will not investigate Eronen’s complaint to sue Turun Sanomat for defamation, it may well turn the other way around with criminal charges brought against her for what she wrote as a parliamentary aide, according to Turn Sanomat.

In many respects Eronen’s and Hirvisaari’s insistence that we must read what she wrote as satire reveals what is wrong with the thinking of these public servants and their anti-immigration ideology.

Just like their free-for-all to insult any ethnic group or nationality, they have no limits, no shame, no morals, no respect and no empathy. They are political liabilities to our democracy because of their shameful disregard for our civil rights.

They are the far-right ogre that has entered parliament in sheep’s clothing.

As Breivik speaks out against multiculturalism the more damage he inflicts on anti-immigration parties

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

As Anders Breivik,who killed 77 people on July 22 on his crusade against multiculturalism, takes the stand and speaks out against immigration and Islam the more damage he inflicts on anti-immigration parties in the Nordic region like the Perussuomalaiset (PS).  After his rampage in Norway, nothing was ever the same for parties like the PS because Breivik  put them on the defensive.

Writes the BBC: “Breivik’s comments have ranged from vehement criticisms of liberalism and multiculturalism to claims that he ‘supports the model in South Korea and Japan.'”

Breivik was quoted by the BBC as telling the court he had “carried out the most spectacular and sophisticated attack on Europe since World War II” and  would do it again.

Certainly far-right anti-immigration PS MP Jussi Halla-aho would have wished that Breivik would have never existed. He if anyone has done more damage to Halla-aho’s and his Counter-Jihadists’ rhetoric.

In a story published today Migrant Tales writes:  “He [Halla-aho] says on the [Tom Enbuske talk] show that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer is a mentally ill lone wolf, despite the fact that he quoted him in his anti-Islam manifesto.  Certainly it’s convenient for Halla-aho to single out Breivik as a madman because it permits him to wash his hands of the probable impact his xenophobic rhetoric may have on others [like Breivik].”

You don’t have too bright to grasp that if you let out a social ill like racism and feed it with your hate it’s going to hit back one day.

That is exactly what Breivik did.

He is no madman nor loan wolf but a shameful anti-social miscreation our society gave birth to.

Halla-aho says ghettoization spreading in Finland’s major cities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho said on a popular talk show that he stands by everything he said and doesn’t regret anything. He does, however, admit that sometimes the timing of what he said was wrong. He then tells us that ghettoization is taking place ” full steam ahead” in Finland’s biggest cities.

As Migrant Tales has warned and as scandals continue to rock the PS whiile opinion polls show voters turning their backs on the right-wing populist party, the anti-immigration message of the PS will start to pick up.  Halla-aho didn’t lose such an opportunity on the talk show, claiming that our biggest cities are turning into ghettos.

Some analysts see, however, that his far-right anti-immigration rhetoric are the problem that will cause social exclusion and ghetoization.

With the usual poker face, Halla-aho tells us that all he want to do is avoid the problems that immigration brought to Sweden. He says on the [Tom Enbuske talk] show that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass killer is a mentally ill lone wolf, despite the fact that he quoted Halla-aho in his anti-Islam manifesto.  Certainly it’s convenient for Halla-aho to single out Breivik as a madman because it permits him to wash his hands of the probable impact his xenophobic rhetoric may have on others.

On a more positive note, the anti-immigration message that spread like wildfire in Finland before the parliamentary election appears to have met greater scrutiny today by the media, some politicians and the general public.  A case in point is the Helena Eronen scandal that suggested   “armbands” for foreigners.

One typical debate and public-relations stunt used by Halla-aho and his far-right group is profiling themselves as white Finland’s saviors and victims of the media.  He claims that in Finland one cannot have a different opinion concerning immigration despite the fact that it was his anti-immigration message got him elected to parliament in the first place.

Below are two classic videoclips that Halla-aho doesn’t regret. On the one immediately below he warns “most Finnish cities will be surrounded by a ring of burning ghettos.”  Finland’s foreign population in 2010-11 totalled 167,954 people, or a mere 3.1% of the total poulation.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=30SSbpq-o_A]

Here is another one that was used in last  year’s parliamentary election. The campaign ad asks if multiculturalism is a “too hot potato” for Finland? Note the turban on the potatoe. Isn’t it from India?

Multiculturalism means for Halla-aho an immigration policy that permits Muslims and Africans from moving to Finland and Europe.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L0zgxL8l_xg]

These videoclips were taken from Jussi K. Nieminen’s Facebook page.

The Eronen “armband” scandal reveals healthy accountability by the media

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The Helena Eronen scandal exposes an important watershed in Finland. It is a similar turning point as we saw on July 22 with the mass killings in Norway by Anders Breivik and in February, when Tommi Rautio suggested decoarating a white Finn for killing a Muslim in in cold blood in Oulu. The latest scandal reveals something equally important: accountability.  

Back in the so-called good old days before last year’s election, politicians could say just about anything they pleased against immigrants and visible minorities without being held accountable. Times have changed since then and the Eronen scandal is a case in point.

What would happen if Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho published today a fraction of the quotes he made last decade? What would happen if Eronen published her infamous column on sleeve emblems in 2006 or 2008? Would she experience anything close to the criticism she is getting today? Probably not.

The magic word is accountability. Politicians, and especially those who gained prominence with their racist and Nazi-spirited language before last year’s election are now being held accountable for what they write by the media, some politicians and the general public. This is good news for Finland.

Accountability can do wonders. An association like Kansainvälinen Mikkeli sent an email to all those candidates before last year’s election who were strongly in favor of cutting back funds to immigrant associations and tightening immigration policy. You’d be surprised by how apologetic some were when they answered back.

It shows that if we ask questions and let politicians know that we are watching, listening and ready to act they will think twice what they say in public.

The media can play an important role. Leadership was shown by Turun Sanomat last week, when it picked up Eronen story on Uusi Suomi. The Turku-based daily merely did its job by asking her a question and, most importantly, held her accountable for what she wrote.

It’s still unclear whether Eronen will be able to keep her job as PS MP James Hirvisaari’s aide. In the meanwhile the scandal will continue to grow.

Turun Sanomat reports that apart from Sweden, Russia and former IVY countries, the column that suggested sleeve markings for different national groups has now spread to Holland, Iceland, Italy, Poland and Romania. To add more fuel to the fire, Johan Bäckman asked the police to investigate whether Eronen’s column is guilty of inciting ethnic hatred, according to Turun Sanomat.  

Eronen asked for trouble when she wrote her column about armbands

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Finland has been inflicted for a number of years by people who think they can say and write anything they please about immigrants and visible minorities in Finland. It’s only natural that when you let out racism and prejudice to roam freely in society unchecked, things will eventually snap as we saw in Norway in July. What did Helena Eronen, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari’s aide, do wrong?

Eronen blames the scandal on her own ignorance, according to an interview she gave to YLE. “The strong reactions to it [blog entry] were to be expected,” she said.

Reactions to what she wrote about sleeve emblems for foreigners to help the police in Finland have been published in Sweden and now throughout Russia and former IVY countries such as Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Eronen blew it to put it lightly. If you are white and try to be “sarcastic” about other nationalities, work for a right-wing populist party like the PS and your boss is none other than Hirvisaari, you are going to get in hot water. She forgot as well those whom she was being sarcastic about, the immigrants, and if this may be offensive to some groups.

Who are the losers and winners of the scandal?

The biggest loser shouldn’t be difficult to figure out. That’s Eronen and the negative debating atmosphere in Finland concerning immigrants and visible immigrants.

Do I think that Eronen’s column was in bad taste? Certainly. But there may be a silver lining revealing that matters may have changed in Finland since Jussi Halla-aho and his xenophobic band roamed the net with near-impunity.

Some, like MP Hirvisaari, who was fined for hate speech in December, still don’t get it. They live somewhere deep in the previous decade when defaming and insulting immigrant groups and cultures was a free-for-all social media lynching job.

Hirvisaari added more damage and salt to Eronen’s wound Wednesday by republishing his own blog the column that was taken off Uusi Suomi. He went as far as to claim that the scandal is an example of the rot that inflicts the media in Finland.

The biggest winner could be the PS. Eronen could give them a scapegoat opportunity to wash their hands of all the racism and prejudice they have spread in Finland since last year’s election, according to a column by Jussi Jalonen. Such a sacrificial object looks especially inviting for the PS with the municipal election nearing in October.

Finland, and I am certain Eronen as well, have learned a valuable lesson: When you write about immigrants and visible minorities you should be extra careful and try to see the world from their perspective when dressing a column up in sarcasm.

If you have that ability, probably one of the first things you’d do is drop the whole topic and write about something else.

Let’s stop fooling ourselves about the Romany minority in Finland and Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

I’ve been following with disappointment the stories published in the Finnish media about the East European Romany minority beggars coming to Finland.  If politicians don’t get it, it’s pretty clear that a part of the media never mind the public won’t either.  Social ills like xenophobia, prejudice and racism are not “fixed” in a few days, months or years but take generations for the open wounds to heal.

Moreover, a great part of the Romany minority problem in Europe is not only due to these people, but to our own prejudices and racism that we have seen erupt recently in countries like Slovakia, Hungary and others.

So far we have two apparent political solutions in Finland on how to solve this so-called “problem:” One of them is to deport them out of Finland and another is to seek help from the Romanian authorities by sending a fact-finding mission to that country.

Let’s get serious for a moment folks.  What we should be really doing is ask why an anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) has raised this issue and how the government is responding.

It’s pretty clear that the PS, worried about its poor standings in recent opinion polls, is using anti-Roma sentiment to lure disappointed voters back to its party.  The government in turn has no choice but to be seen doing something as the PS attempt to raise this issue as a matter of national security.

But let’s try to understand the recent red-herring debate in parliament between the opposition PS and government. Why are we so concerned about these people coming to Finland? Is it our racism and loathing that reflects back on us when we see them begging? Is it our failure as a society to deal with our own Romany “problem?” Are we shocked to see that there are actually people in Europe who are poor and exploited?

In Finland we have about 10,000 people belonging to the Romany minority. Political parties have rarely if ever spoken up for them.  If our handling of our own Romany minority problem is anything to go by, we are very far from finding any solutions to these people from Eastern Europe.

Another important question we should ask is how many people are we speaking of? Hundreds, thousands or maybe tens of thousands? Why don’t we have any ball-park figures? Is this the way politicians and the media victimize a group like the Roma and show them to be a bigger threat than they actually are?

One of the matters I’d recommend to all parties concerned in this country is that we should stop treating racism and social exclusion as something that we can fix instantly.  No matter how much we try, the Romany minority problem will not go away tomorrow nor after tomorrow.

It will take a lot of time to solve and heal.

In order for us to do something effective in the meantime, we should take a totally different approach to the problem. We should start to look at our history and our own prejudices as part of the problem.

 

Being a bystander is being part of the problem that has inflicted Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Would it be correct to claim that if we put prejudice, discrimination, racism and social exclusion on the defensive in our society we’d become stronger? How would it impact homophobia, gender violence and violence in general?  

There’s an interesting blog entry by Joe Gerstandt  that sheds light on how a social ill like gender violence has not been challenged seriously enough in the United States. His conclusions offer us in Finland and Europe an opportunity to see why we aren’t doing enough on issues like racism, hate speech and social exclusion.

One of Gerstandt’s  interesting conclusions, and one which we have made on Migrant Tales on many occasions, is the role of the bystander, or the person who decides to be silent in the face of social injustice.

Gerstandt uses a quote by Desmond Tutu to drive home his point:  “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

Instead of griping about prejudice, racism, social exclusion and the rise of far-right ideology in Finland, we have to seek effective answers to challenge such threats to our society.

Writes Gerstsandt: “Bystanders might be good at not doing stuff that they are not supposed to be doing. Bystanders are not dropping hatecrimes on people, they are not running around spewing a bunch of vile stuff. The bystander problem is a problem of omission…it is the stuff that they are not doing that is the problem.”

Before last year’s parliamentary election in Finland, we got a taste of what can happen when there are too many bystanders and silent people in our society watching over a looming social problem like xenophobia, far-right and right-wing populism.

But since we are interested in solutions on Migrant Tales, we must seek ways that would encourage and even inspire more people to become leaders instead of bystanders.

If our traffic stats are anything to go by, they show that many immigrants, visible minorities and Finns from all backgrounds have got the message: We cannot stand and watch from the sidelines any longer as our society and institutions are being openly challenged by populists, modern fascists and political opportunists.

Ilta-Sanomat poll shows Greens leading PS in municipal election

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A poll commissioned by Ilta-Sanomat gave the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party a big surprise. If the October municipal election took place today, the Greens would get 11% of the votes compared with 10% by the PS.  The previous setback that the PS got from the Greens was in the presidential election, when an openly gay candidate beat two conservative anti-EU hopefuls, Timo Soini of the PS and Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party. 

The poll showed that most of the votes would go to Kokoomus (26%) followed by the Social Democrats (17%) and Center Party (16%).  The Left Alliance would get 8% while the Christian Democrats and Swedish People’s Party would attract 5% and 4%, respectively.

Before the April 17 election, which gave the PS their historic victory,  the Greens were the only party that openly questioned and criticized Soini’s party.

The good showing of the Greens in the presidential election and in the Ilta-Sanomat poll could be voter payback and support for speaking out against a party that has disappointed many voters.

A lot of things can happen before the October municipal election but one matter is for certain: The PS’ journey south in the months ahead will be a bitter pill to swallow.

With such a prospect ahead, Migrant Tales believes that the far-right anti-immigration wing of the PS led by MP Jussi Halla-aho will step up their attacks against immigrants and visible minorities as the municipal election nears.

A good example of this was a proposal by hard-core far-right PS MP Olli Immonen who suggested that Eastern European Romany beggars should be forcibly deported out of Finland.

PS MP James Hirvisaari, who was fined for hate speech in December, has stepped up his attacks on Muslims in blog entry published today headlined “Belgiastan.”