Owing to the traffic that this blog has generated, I have decided on the following code of conduct:
1) This is NOT a forum to further the mistaken causes of racism, xenophobia, cultural nationalism and stereotypes of ANY group irrespective of their background, nationality and/or creed.
2) The blog aims to become a forum that furthers an immigrant’s chances of living a successful life in Finland.
3) The blog wants to become a social network for people to get good advice.
4) It aims to expose problems without fear nor favor about the problems Finland’s new inhabitants are facing and answer questions that Finns may have of these cultures.
Very fine principles. Lets all then adhere to them.
Besides wich your blog is now more popular than ever – if you don’t wish such attention then why have a blog? I would be more interested in seeing you syc… err… people with similar opinions than you debating here. Wheres the readership? I do write occasionally someting offensive at http://www.finlandforthought.net as “Hank W.” , and you are quite free to come call my stand on things asinine and stupid as I can take some flak.
Well stated, what your intentions are and are not. I hope people take these into consideration when reading and responding to your thought provoking blog entries. Respect, in the end, is what makes civil exchanges possible. G
Hi G, many thanks. And you are right. A while back, you mentioned that Canadian multicultural policy did not work. Could you, please, elaborate more on this and why you think it is a failure.
I hope you enjoyed a very nice summer in Canada!
DeTant, it is a question of quality not quantity. I did not put up this blog to go around in circles on a very challenging issue in Finland. It should function as a good editorial: statement of the problem, background and, most importantly, solutions.
This sounds a good idea.
Unfortunately, I have also found that if you post something up that threatens that narrow-minded views of the minority xenophobic internet-lurkers, they all spring into action. The same happened to me when I ‘dared’ to criticise Suomalaisuuden liito in my blog. Even Heikki Tala himself started commenting. The remarkable thing is, that it’s actually very few individuals – but that they seem to flood with comments, almost as if they never leave their computer screen. Unfortunately, I had no choice other than to simply not allow their comments to leave the moderation queue. Some of the content was borderline illegal. It’s a shame, because it destroys the ability to have a proper enlightening debate when people flood the comments with rhetoric rather than actual argument.
Good luck with continuing your blog!
Thank you very much, Jonas. It is always refreshing to hear your comments. As I mentioned before, a good post should not only give background information, but workable solutions. Good luck with your blog as well!