The anger and surprise that Gerry Brownlee has stirred up in this country sheds light why debating an issue like discriminaiton is so diffeicult to accept by some Finns. The New Zealand minister sharply criticised Finland last week in an address in parliament. Is our anger due to our low self-esteem or to the cold war, when censorship and self-censorship were pretty much the rule?
Tag: cold war
Finland's ever-growing cultural diversity is an opportunity to overcome past fears
One of the matters that Finnish academics, politicians, policy makers never mind the general public missed out completely about our ever-growing cultural diversity is that our history and myths are hindering us to see the big picture. The official and unofficial response to our culturally diverse society appears to be a subtle “no.”
Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity is an opportunity to overcome past fears
One of the matters that Finnish academics, politicians, policy makers never mind the general public missed out completely about our ever-growing cultural diversity is that our history and myths are hindering us to see the big picture. The official and unofficial response to our culturally diverse society appears to be a subtle “no.”
Finland: To isolate or not to isolate ourselves from the world
If there is a post-Finlandization period in this country it manifests itself today through fear and suspicion of the outside world. As the April election result showed, a large minority of Finns don’t have a problem about returning to the days when Finland was near-isolated geopolitically from the outside world thanks to its special relationship with the former Soviet Union.
What opinion polls tell us about Finland and anti-immigration
A lot of people are scratching their heads at the rise of the rue Finns in the polls. Even though we have to wait for the ballot boxes to speak in April, certainly the polls tall us something about where Finland is at and heading at this moment.
BLAST FROM THE PAST 1984 (Part 2): Strange days, the experience of foreign students in Finland
Even though Strange days, the experience of foreign students in Finland was published in 1984, many of the excerpts in the book could apply to Finland today.
BLAST FROM THE PAST 1984 (Part I): Strange days, the experience of foreign students in Finland
Twenty-six years ago in 1984 Strange days, the experience of foreign students in Finland, was published by Gaudeamus. The book was the first-ever published by foreigners in Finland over the arbitrary treatment they received by the then Alien’s Office, the police and by the country in general. See part two as well.
Immigration to Finland and the cold war
While history provides a good answer why Finland as a nation has shown a clear manifest unease of foreigners and outside investment, it still does not provide us with an all-encompassing answer as to why. Are we still resentful of newcomers because our language rights were granted in 1862? Is it due to the Russification period, when the Russian Empire attempted to impose the Russian language and culture on us at the cost of our precious autonomy?
A shameful view of Finland’s refugee policy during the cold war
In this week’s Apu magazine (issue 6/2010) there is a feature authored by me on a former Soviet citizen who was caught in 1974 by Finnish border guards and whisked back to the USSR without granting him the right to political asylum. You can read about it in Apu magazine or get some background information in this blog on how Finland’s special relationship with the USSR would not tolerate Soviet refugees.
Banishing the racial myths of Finland
One of the challenges that cultural diversity will bring on Finland is challenge its myths and views of itself especially on the ethnic front.