The lead story in Sunday's Helsingin Sanomat is about how racism and intolerance have tarnished Finland's image abroad, according to a survey of Finnish expats living in different countries. Even if the daily blames the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party for our country's questionable image abroad, the real culprits are none other than us.
Thanks to the growing number of supporters, Migrant Tales has become that "voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public." During these past years we have read and debated many points of views and have complied them on a list below.
Doreen Lawrence has said David Cameron's government is not doing enough to tackle racial prejudice, which continues to blight society, and has warned that spending cuts will hit working-class and black Britons the hardest.
The many threads on Migrant Tales mirror what is wrong with the ongoing debate in Finland and our ever-growing cultural diversity. On the one side we have those who cannot do anything else but complain while the other side looks for solutions.
One of the biggest challenges to Finland's new integration program is how well it promotes what it set out to do. How passionate are we Finns about ethnic and minority equality in this country if the most important piece of the puzzle is still missing: the big picture and what place new Finns and their children have in our society.
Suomalaiskirjailija- ja toimittaja Umayya Abu-Hanna muistelee kauhulla yli neljä vuotta sitten päättynyttä adoptioprosessia Suomessa. Abu-Hanna onkin muuttanut Hollantiin, jossa hänen mukaansa adoptioperheen on parempi olla kuin Suomessa. – Adoptioprosessi Suomessa oli helvetillinen ja epäreilu. Toiminta ei ole yhtään läpinäkyvää. Adoption perustelut eivät ole ollenkaan tiedossa, Abu-Hanna kertoo MTV3 Uutisille.
I am an immigrant. Sometimes I feel so frustrated in Finland that I just wanted to ‘give it back to the society’. Hence the crime. People like me (hypothetically) acting out of frustration. If the mentality here is that no foreigners are good and only a tiny fraction of people like Juha, the social worker, understands and/or appreciates diversity it doesn’t help much because the general society isn’t open=minded. I would even call racist.
Does the defeat of two anti-EU politicians, Center Party's Paavo Väyrynen and Timo Soini of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, on Sunday suggest a shift from last year's parliamentary election that was fueled by anti-EU and anti-immigration sentiment? Even if the municipal election in October will offer us a good answer to that question, yesterday's election result does show a major shift.
With all of the votes counted, the presidential election went pretty much as the polls had predicted. Kokoomus’ Sauli Niinistö, the front-runner, won with37.0%. Second place was a head-and-head race, a semi-cliffhanger, with Pekka Haavisto of the Greens (18.8%) beating Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party (17.5%).
Finns go to the polls today vote elect their next president. Opinion polls reveal that Kokoomus' Sauli Niinistö is the front-runner followed by a close neck-and-neck race between Pekka Haavisto of the Greens and Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party.
January 29, 2012
by Enrique
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