Giving a Nazi salute at the notorious Dachau concentration camp not only shows tremendous ignorance but is a slap in the face to all the victims of Hitler’s racial policies. According to The Nomad Today, a Spanish ex-pat online newsletter, two Finnish tourists who visited the camp gave a Nazi salute. Writes The Nomad Today:
Read on »Posts Tagged: Germany
Education without empathy and moral compass can turn you into a monster
The process to turn Finland’s far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party wants to become “a normal mainstream” party continues. You see, they claim, we’re “normal” because we have physicists and party members, like Riikka Purra, working on their PhDs. Sakari Puisto, who is also vying to be elected chairperson of the PS and Purra, has a Ph.D.
Read on »Ahmad Liath: “I left Iraq because I long for freedom”
Ahmad Liath was twelve years old when he left Iraq in 2005. Two years before that year, the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and in 2004 his father was killed.
Read on »Initiative Black People in Germany (ISD): Enriching the Public Discourse by highlighting Colonial Continuities
The Initiative of Black People in Germany (ISD)* has been actively working on the empowerment of people of African descent and Black people in Germany for almost 30 years. Its aim is to raise their voices and also to generate visibility for their perspectives and realities in the German society. The ISD is dedicated to challenging the discourse that does not want to see nor acknowledge Black presence in Germany. For more than three hundred years, people of African descent have been born and raised in Germany, have made Germany their place of home, but narratives about the Black experience in Germany often remain silenced in the public discourse. While their stories do not exist in the dominant historiography, stereotypical clichés dominate the images of the Black Diaspora. Racist pictures and beliefs need to be understood as a historically developed relationship of power – blurring past and present depictions of Black people’s realities.
Read on »Authorities should look at factors like social exclusion, third culture and school bullying for what happened in Munich
As the dust settles over what happened in Munich on Friday, when Ali Sonboly took the lives of nine people and injured tens of others, there are a lot of questions that are taking our eyes off the ball. Instead of talking about “Islamic terrorism,” why are we not talking about some other motives that could have played important roles in the tragedy?
Read on »Asylum seekers have exposed Europe’s schizophrenia and bigotry
Nothing could depict better Europe’s schizophrenia and hypocrisy concerning asylum seekers than what happened recently in eastern Germany, where a building that was going to house them was ablaze and cheered by some onlookers, according to the BBC.
Read on »YouGov: Of seven countries surveyed Finland ranked as the most intolerant with Denmark
Of the seven countries surveyed, Finland was ranked together with Denmark as the most intolerant country to black people, gays, and Jews, according to YouGov, an internet-based market research company. Other countries that were surveyed were France, Germany, Britain, Norway and Sweden.
Read on »An apology from a former Islamophobe
Kathrin Oetrel of Pegida, which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, formally apologized for her role as spokeswoman in the far-right Islamophobic movement. When will Islamophobic and xenophobic politicians in countries like Finland apologize in the same manner as Pegida’s former spokeswoman? Don’t hold your breaths, however. There will be no
Read on »German Pegida movement leader quits after posing as Hitler
Lutz Bachmann, the head of Germany’s anti-Islam Pegida movement, quit after he posed on his Facebook as Hitler. The excuses and explanations after what Bachmann did are disingenuous. We’ve heard it so many times when these types of people get their fingers burned: Satire! Kathrin Oertel, a Pegida spokeswoman, said that while Bachmann’s comments about refugees
Read on »Julian Abagond: Was Hitler evil?
MT comment: Was Hitler and the Nazis an aberration or a product of European racism and colonialism? Was the devastation that Hitler sowed the same beast that Europeans had imposed on others in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia? By blaming Hitler and the Nazis for what they did, are we denying the problem of
Read on »Spiegel Online International: A case that successfully challenged ethnic profiling in Germany
This story, which was published by German Spiegel Online International, offers some good points on how to challenge ethnic profiling. It’s pretty clear that this illegal practice goes on in Finland as well and is more widespread than believed. Migrant Tales asked in June blog entry: “How serious is ethnic profiling in Finland? Denials that it
Read on »Finland’s mini Breivik: gunman kills two and wounds seven
What motivates a young man to take the law in his own hands and kill indiscriminately defenseless people? While we still don’t know the motives behind the killings in Hyvinkää, the suspect’s “likes” on Facebook may offer us some clues. Writes YLE in English: ”Police in the town of Hyvinkää, some 50km north of Helsinki, say
Read on »Far-right groups and anti-immigration extremists in Finland and Europe flirt with fascism
When far-right groups and anti-immigration extremists flirt with fascism nothing good can ever come out of it. Even if it sounds incredible, we have in Finland our own holocaust deniers or those who claim the Nuremberg Trials were a farce.
Read on »Speigel Online International: Study (on Muslims in Germany) Hints that Mutual Suspicion Is Slowing Integration
A new integration study released on Thursday has triggered yet another debate about the role of Islam in Germany. The report found that a surprising number of non-German Muslims are skeptical about integrating into society. But the country’s own doubts about immigration may have muddied the data.
Read on »The "us"-and-"them" smoking-gun statement that once justified mass murder in Europe
One of the matters that surprises me about some Finnish politicians is how they continue to flirt with ideologies that led Europe to its destruction in the 1940s. The younger they are, and the further they are in time from fascism, the more some flirt and idolize this ideology. To them I would like to give them a quote by Rudolf Hoess, the notorious commandant of the Aushcwitz concentration camp during 1940-43.
Read on »Spiegel Online International: Racism in Germany – A Story of Death Threats and Casual Insults
Germany was shocked to learn the extent of the crimes committed by a recently uncovered right-wing extremist group. But racism is hardly an anomaly in Germany. One family’s experience shows just how widespread prejudice and hate really is.
Read on »Spiegel Online International: Neo-Nazi Killings Expose Broad German Xenophobia
The discovery of a neo-Nazi terror cell in Germany has many concerned about the country’s reputation. With good reason. Racism and xenophobia have deep roots in German society — and the vocabulary used to describe the right-wing extremist crime spree is telling.
Read on »Spiegel Online International: Skulls of Colonial Victims Returned to Namibia
Germany revisits the dark chapter of its brief colonial history this week with the return of 20 skulls belonging to genocide victims in a former colony. A Namibian delegation is in Berlin to take home the remains of those killed more than a century ago. This could be just the beginning of such reconciliations.
Read on »SPIEGEL Interview with Economics Minister Rösler: “I Used to Dream I Was a Vietnamese Prince”
German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler, who was adopted into a German family from Vietnam at a young age, insists that he never had problems because of his background. He spoke with SPIEGEL about integration, discrimination and what it means to be German.
Read on »guardian.co.uk: North Carolina’s reparation for the dark past of American eugenics
North Carolina’s compensation to victims of forced sterilisation is a chance to illuminate a gruesome US tradition of racial ‘science.’
Twenty-seven American states joined a decades-long pseudo-scientific crusade to create a white, blond, blue-eyed, biologically superior “master race”. Their misguided utopian quest was called eugenics. But only one state, North Carolina, is now readying a massive plan of financial repatriations to its survivying victims. Just how much North Carolina should pay is now the subject of a historically wrenching debate.
Read on »guardian.co.uk: This multiculturalism debate is not about culture
The idea that there is a distinct set of British values is a myth. All cultures are multi-cultures – this debate is being used as a proxy. The debate about multiculturalism is hotting up. It also clearly splits the coalition, as the contrasting speeches of David Cameron and Nick Clegg have shown.
Read on »Aamulehti: Ylänurkka: Maan tapa leviää Euroopassa
Suomen sosiaalidemokraattisen puolueen puheenjohtajalla Jutta Urpilaisella, Saksan kristillisdemokraattisella liittokanslerilla Angela Merkelillä ja Britannian konservatiivisella pääministerillä David Cameronilla on ainakin yksi yhteinen piirre.
Read on »Muslims are not the real enemy to European democracy
It is quite significant when EU heavyweights such as France and Germany start using anti-immigration sound bites. Recent statements by German Chancellor Angela Merkel are a good example of the disturbing trend, when she stated that multiculturalism has “utterly failed” in Germany.
Read on »Two questionable eras in Europe with the same message
Two posters (apologies for the offensive content) from different eras: One that is anti-semitic from Germany in 1940* and the other from a referendum in Switzerland in 2009 on a ban of building minarets on mosques. Even though these posters were printed in different periods, the message is the same: barbarization of a group. *The
Read on »Finland also locks up asylum seeker children
-
- A child in the Joutseno Immigration Removal Center.
Recent Comments