Immigrants' cars vandalised in Lieksa, eastern Finland

The year 2014 started off with bad news for immigrants in Finland in general and Lieksa in particular.

Lieksa is a small town in eastern Finland with a reputation for racism and xenophobia. According to Ilta-Sanomat, numerous cars in the parking lot of an apartment building in Lieksa were vandalised -- in one night. Residents woke up in the morning of 4.1.2014 to the disturbing reality of damaged cars -- with broken backlights, glasses and side windows. Five of the cars defaced in the parking lot had Finnish registration numbers and belonged to residents with so-called "immigrant background".

Ilta-Sanomat reported that a police officer, Aki Kauppinen, could not tell whether or not the foreign background of the car owners incited the criminal activity.

In my view, it is plausible to conclude that the background of the car owners played a role in the senseless act of cowardice. It is no coincidence that all the cars affected in the violence belong to people with immigrant background.

The town of Lieksa has a shameful reputation for racism and xenophobia --  mostly against Somalis. Local xenophobes target immigrants and refugees for abuse. According to Helsingin Sanomat racial tensions heightened in Lieksa in 2011. The town has seen a Somali stabbed and a social worker threatened, and the tyres of her car slashed. Many locals reportedly think there are too many immigrants in the town, most of them from Somalia.

Several people were arrested in Lieksa in 2011 in relation to incitement of hatred against an ethnic group and six people were sentenced for online racism. In 2013, a Finns Party politician in the town requested a "Somali-free" room for his party meetings --  a request akin to apartheid.

In my opinion, mindful of the history and reputation of Lieksa, it is hard - if not impossible - to believe that the vandalisation of cars belonging to people with immigrant background was mere coincidence. The vandalism was a targeted hate crime and manifestation of racism. The authorities should do what it takes to rein in vandals who repeatedly give Lieksa and Finland a bad name. Immigrants and refugees targeted by senseless acts of violence should refuse to be intimidated and terrorized. They should fight, of course within the confines of the law, for the right to live in peace and security in Lieksa -- and anywhere else in Finland.

*Photo (not directly related to Lieksa vandalism)

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Happy New Year 2014!

A new year has dawned. Before I start putting out information, including my thoughts and perspective on a broad spectrum of social issues, I would like to first of all wish all readers a happy and prosperous New Year 2014.

May 2014 be better than 2013 and previous years; better in terms of human rights and the number of people upholding and speaking up in support of human rights principles.

May this new year see an end to widespread human rights violations in hot spots around the world, including Syria, South Sudan, Central African Republic (CAR) and other less prominent conflict areas. May there be a break through in peace talks in the Middle East. May political prisoners, prisoners of conscience and prisoners without a crime walk free unconditionally in countries like Myanmar, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Tibet, Sri Lanka, China, Eritrea, Cameroon, Iran, Cuba and other places where people are held incommunicado (Guantanamo Bay detention camp comes to mind). May refugees fleeing armed conflict and persecution find safety and human dignity in countries of destination.

It is my wish that ordinary people and governments around the world learn to show humanity and treat all natural persons in the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood, irrespective of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, disability or ethnicity.

Happy New Year 2014!

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Finland's population registry drops racially homogeneous website header

Diversity or lack of it can be manifested in many ways, including on websites. Finland's Population Register Centre (in Finnish: Väestörekisterikeskus) changed the look of its website which was previously adorned with a header that lacked racial and ethnic diversity but showed diversity on other grounds. The site is now without a header.

Photographs displayed on the now-dropped header of the home page of the population registry showed diversity on grounds such as age, sex and gender but lacked ethnic and racial diversity.

I observed and pointed out in a blog post, which I sent as feedback to the population registry in October 2013, that the registry's website excludes visible minorities. The website, in my view, portrayed Finland as a racially homogeneous country -- despite the fact that Finland has its share of visible minorities. I stated in the blog post that according to Statistics Finland, nearly 12 percent of people with foreign origin living permanently in Finland in 2012 were of African descent and about one quarter were of Asian origin. And that in my opinion, the header of the website of the population registry suggested that non-whites were not part of Finland's population structure. I recommended that the header should be updated to include racial and ethnic diversity that is representative of Finland's population structure.

About two months after I sent feedback to the Population Register Centre through the feedback section of its website the header in question was taken off altogether (see screenshot below).

It is unclear whether or not the change was made as a result of my feedback, since I got no response from the centre.

Regardless, I welcome the decision to update the layout of the website -- although I would have loved to see the header updated to show ethnic and racial diversity, not taken off completely.

The population structure of Finland has changed over the past couple of years. It is important that websites of organizations in the public and private sector which use images that appear to have been carefully chosen to show diversity reflect diversity on all grounds, including racial and ethnic diversity. In this age of information technology, websites send loud messages. National institutions and agencies should  pay more attention to the images they display on their websites. A racially homogeneous header on the website of a public agency like the population registry screams exclusion to observant viewers.

It is worthy to mention that other websites of government agencies such as that of Kela, Finland's social insurance institute still blatantly exclude images of non-whites -- the last time I checked. And Kela has numerous images on its website. Such exclusion, in my perspective, is reflective of the level of acceptance of people from different racial, ethnic and cultural groups in broader Finnish society. Acceptance of diversity is critical on moral and economic grounds.

See the header that was taken off, here.

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