Racism and homophobia in F-land

Two news items today:

An 8-year-old ethnically Somalian girl was pushed out of a train on the platform by an adult Finnish male, who also called her “a monkey” and told her to get out of his way.

The discussion following this on the newspaper website concentrated on calling the story “a probable lie”, blamed the girl herself for some invented bad behavior “since that’s how they are” and called the news story propaganda since it told of an act of violence towards the Somalian minority. And, oh yes, someone managed to disparage the girl and her family and of course many times they were told to go back to Somalia.

In the Finnish parliament, a parliament member compared gay and lesbian families to “someone marrying a dog”. The discussion following this on the newspaper website lauded him for his “values”.

Sometimes I do not miss Northeast Europe at all.

Sami al-Hajj, a journalist

Sami Mohy El Din Muhammed Al Hajj is a Sudanese journalist and a cameraman for Al-Jazeera. In December 2001 he was arrested on a work trip in Pakistan and then held prisoner in Guantanamo for years. He was finally released without any charges on May 1 2008.

During the whole ordeal Al Hajj had no idea what he was being suspected of. The charges thrown at him in interrogation situations changed from day to day. He was not able to prove his innocence since his interrogators would not let him defend himself. He was tortured, force fed, sexually assaulted. His son, who was just a baby when he was captured, spent his early childhood without his father.

Al Hajj reported that during 125 of his 130 interrogations, he was questioned as to whether Al Jazeera was a front for al-Qaeda. He was the only journalist held in Guantanamo Bay.

This is Sami al-Hajj’s son Muhammad holding a picture of a father he did not remember and only met again last May.

I wonder what kind of atrocities we will find out once president Obama gets around to closing Guantanamo Bay. I can imagine that some in the previous administration are busy busy busy covering  their tracks right now.

From the department of Irony

The Brits have decided not to let Geert Wilders in. Of course, he is shocked, just shocked – but why? Isn’t it what he teaches: close the borders from extremist elements?

Agnes Dherbeys & Nepal

I’ve been following the political turmoil of Nepal somewhat; read a couple of books about the strange history of the Nepalese royal family and tried to understand the problems of the country in the larger context of being tucked somewhere between China and India.. Agnes Dherbeys is a photojournalist who has been following Nepal’s chaos.

I like the classic black and white photojournalistic style and her tones.. perhaps not that contemporary but still looks pretty damn good to me.

Cautiously Optimistic

Congratulations to President Obama.

Local council elections / Finland

I noticed that I am not able to vote in the local council elections of my previous dear home city Helsinki. Makes sense, since I’ve already actually voted in Delft (my vote went for GroenLinks, although nowadays, knowing a bit more, I would probably cast it for SP). But anyway.

Plenty of my friends were happy to vote and some were even taking part:

Helsinki

Yuri Akseli Höykinpuro (The Left Alliance)

Eva Isaksson (Greens)

J. Pekka Mäkelä (Greens)

Espoo

Jerri Kämpe (Swedish Party)

Tampere

Anukaisa Alanen (Greens)

Alas, none of them was actually elected. The Helsinki council got a bit weird, with a so-called “multiculturalism critic” gaining a large number of votes. We’ll see how this effects the city itself. I am beginning to feel that I’ve already been away for so long (over 3 years!) that the city has changed. Yeah, I can’t find my way around Kamppi anymore, but also mentally, and not only geographically.