Comment: The more we read about how racism and greed have destroyed so much beauty before us, the more we should be concerned about fighting these types of social ills.
The Community Village Activist publishes an interesting opinion-piece that asks some timely questions: “But I digress. What I wanted to ask is: When worlds collide, who’s interests should win? The group with the bigger guns?”
We know the answer to that question. However, look at the misery and hatred we have sown due to our greed and racism, which is an important fuel of the former.
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I’m European American and I’ve been trying to unpack what it means to be living on the land of First Nation Peoples / Indigenous Native American land. Every sane individual would agree that people are not supposed to steal, and yet, Non-Native Americans live on stolen land every day.
Thank you @getgln for the heads up!
Hi Enrique, I’ve update my page to clarify that I wrote the blog article and used the photo of the New Yorker cover to illustrate my point. Sorry for the confusion.
OK, thank you, Glenn. I will update the headline.
Yes, greed and racism has destroyed so much beauty, and you are encouraging that, Enrique! You are racist against Finns (they can´t be white, the Finnish identity must be changed etc., you are essentially against everything that makes Finns as Finns), and you support globalisation in it´s extreme version, which is nothing else than form of greed. When will you understand that you are trying to kill beauty?
Laputis, so you think I am a racist because I don’t see Finns as you. Well, here I am in flesh and blood as many others who are NOT white with blonde eyes.
What do you support, racial hygiene?
I don’t understand why someone should think that Enrique is racist. In what post has he said that Finns can’t be white, can’t behave like Finns, can’t have Finnish names or whatever thing that goes against Finland? I really can’t see that anywhere in this post. For God’s sake, he’s half Finnish. I really can’t understand why you are so afraid of people coming to your country. You should be proud of that, it means that your land is attractive, that it is so good to live in that many people would love to do so. I myself have lived in Tampere for a year and I can truly say that my time there was one of the happiest periods in my life. I was really sad when I had to leave Finland and go back to Spain (where I’m originally from). Of course, when I went there I had to adapt to the Finnish way of life, which is very different from the Spanish one. That doesn’t mean that it’s better, in any case, or that Spanish habits are worse. When foreign people arrive to one’s country, it’s evident that they should adapt to the autoctonous way of life; but it’s also true that the autoctonous people should adapt to having new people in their countries. And that’s for example having interpreters for other languages, making easier for them to start a new life (by helping them out with bureaucracy, for instance, which is a nuisance even for natives…). And of course, feeling empathy. Because one never knows where he/she will end up, and for sure they would like to be wellcome wherever they go. I guess that is just common sense.
How in heaven is that changing someone’s identity, I wonder? I think that is something that would make a person grow personally.
Anyway, nobody said it was easy. But it’s definitely worth it.
Enrique, creo que escribes un blog muy interesante y que haces una gran labor difundiendo todo lo relacionado con este tema. Es una pena que la gente no entienda que no eres el exterminador de la cultura finlandesa, sino que destacas lo malo de una sociedad y eso es arriesgado pero valiente, y la gente lo debería ver como una oportunidad para cambiar esos defectos. ¡Ánimo! Un abrazo desde Galicia, España.
Hola María, perdoname que no puede contestarte más rápido ya que estuve de viaje en Helsinki. Welcome to Migrant Tales and thank you for your valuable support. After reading and commenting on thousands of threads there is very little that surprises me. It’s a bit like when I lived in Hollywood, California, and cruised the boulevard at two am. You see and hear everything.
I have lived and worked in Spain (Fuengirola and Madrid) and like the country a lot. My great grandmother was from Lugo!
You can be proud of yourself for having empathy. A lot of people don’t have such an important quality.
Enrique, I just don’t understand one thing – if you are half Finnish by ancestry, speak Finnish language, and live in Finland, then you can be considered as Finn. So far everything is OK. But then you start advocating for being “Finnish” also random immigrants without Finnish ancestry at all etc. I don’t understand – what makes you to speak for them? What are you so unhappy about?
–But then you start advocating for being “Finnish” also random immigrants without Finnish ancestry at all etc. I don’t understand – what makes you to speak for them? What are you so unhappy about?
I believe that identity is a personal matter. A person decides what his identity is. Moreover, societies should be more inclusive. People shouldn’t have to wait for generations to be accepted by the majority.
@Marta:
I am not Finnish. I am just immigrant in Finland. But I don’t necessarily share opinions with some other immigrants.