Graded Second Class?

ISSUE 13 (143) • 1 – 14 APRIL 2010 • €3 • WWW.HELSINKITIMES.FI TRAVEL DOMESTIC BUSINESS TV GUIDE Special issue: Light Outdoor Two-week Stockholm – a splendid sentences advertising Easter cultural get-away critisised digitises special pages 12-13 page 3 page 9 pages 19-22 of words might be more than just Urpilainen’s immigration a mere slip. "It may also be about wanting to get one’s own share of the rising anti-immigration senti- views firmly challenged ment,” Arhinmäki said at a Left Al- liance press conference in Kouvola. PEKKA POHJOLAINEN, invaara’s immigration-related blog He reminded people that the “maas- HANNU KUPARINEN – STT text from a couple of years ago. The sa maan tavalla” slogan was already MICHAEL NAGLER – HT text, which dealt obeying Finland’s used by anti-immigrant groups in laws, had the headline “maassa the 1980s. At that time the slogan SDP chairwoman Jutta Urpilainen’s maan tavalla.” was continued with the words “tai ”maassa maan tavalla” (”When in Paavo Arhinmäki, the chair- maasta pois” (“Or get out”). In her Rome, do as the Romans do”) state- man of the Left Alliance, was mys- original statement Urpilainen had ment continues to make waves in tifi ed by Urpilainen’s statement. He not said the fi nal part. the immigration debate. On 20 suspects that Urpilainen's choice Read the full story on page 4. March Urpilainen said at a meet- Helsinki Times ing of SDP party branch chairmen that Finnish immigration policy had wishes all readers a Happy Easter! failed because there were people in Finland who had arrived in the coun- The next issue try 20 years ago who couldn’t even of Helsinki Times will be published on 15 April. speak passable Finnish. The SDP is preparing an immigration policy For daily news please visit our website at www.helsinkitimes.fi programme, the main point of which LEHTIKUVA / MIKKO STIG is “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” north of the country, night frosts The statement has been seen are still expected. as cheap populism. On Saturday Moderate The agency warns that the melt- the Greens and the Left Alliance ing water from roadside snowbanks as well as Urpilainen herself re- may freeze on the roads during the turned to discuss it. As if to stir Easter night. The use of studded tires is still the matter even further, the SDP’s permitted in the week following East- deputy chairwoman Maria Guzeni- er, and longer if the weather requires. na-Richardson had dug up former traffic The outward traffi c will be bus- Green Party chairman Osmo Soin- SDP leader Jutta Urpilainen. iest on Thursday 1 April between 14:00-19:00. On Good Friday morn- expected ing there will still be plenty of traf- a head-on collision course with the STT fi c, but the roads should be clearer brusque and leery Finnish nation. than the day before. In the capital Graded second class? Although not an analytical pam- region, the outward traffi c is ex- phlet about Finns’ attitudes to- THE TRAFFIC during the Easter hol- pected to be heaviest on nation- HELSINKI TIMES in Finland – Visitor from the wrong wards Russian or other immigrant idays is expected to be relative- al roads 3 and 4. The roads around country). groups, Latisheva’s personal ac- ly light. This is due to Easter being Tampere and Jyväskylä may also be Latisheva went from an enter- count is a poignant addition to the early this year, and few people head jammed for short periods. TO BE BORN Finnish may be like win- prising, successful interpreter and ongoing discussion about immigra- for their cottages because of high The return traffi c will be busiest ning the lottery, as the saying goes, travel guide in Leningrad (now St tion in Finland. The book, along with snowdrifts, the Finnish Transport on Monday 5 April between 13:00- but moving to the country later in Petersburg) to a second-grade citi- Latisheva’s outspoken statements Agency estimates. 20:00, but there will also be a lot of life is not always such a stroke of zen just by crossing the border from accusing Finns of advanced Russo- Towards the end of the week the traffi c on Sunday evening. luck, claims Russian-Finnish author the former Soviet Union to Finland, phobia, has stirred much debate. weather will warm up, and in the Inna Latisheva in her acerbic auto- she writes. Soon after moving to south the temperature will stay See also Easter holiday opening biography Ryssänä Suomessa – Vi- Finland with her fi ancé, Latishe- Read an interview with Latisheva above zero at night. However, in the times on page 23. eras väärästä maasta (As a Russian va found her Russian mentality on on page 14. 24.2.—6.6. The Power of Africa Tue, Fri-Sun 11-18, Wed-Thurs 11-20 Free entry Wed-Thurs 18-20 Ahertajantie 5, Tapiola, Espoo www.emma.museum Busses from Kamppi, Helsinki: 106, 110 2 1 – 14 APRIL 2010 VIEWPOINT HELSINKI TIMES ulation falling on Finland’s households to stay in Fin- shoulders was 0.08 per cent, land has also been blown one of the lowest in the Eu- out of proportion. “Even if Alexis Kouros rope, and the world. For com- their families would pay their Editor-in-chief parison, the same fi gures for healthcare bills, that would Finland’s neighbours are: not be the real cost to the so- Russia 6.5 per cent, Swe- ciety, as health care is sub- den 0.6 per cent, Estonia 0.11 sidised by the government per cent. Even more distant, in Finland” wrote an opin- Immigrants need to and politically closed, Bela- ion piece in the Helsingin Sa- rus had 0.6 per cent of the nomat. Sadly enough, it was world’s immigrants. not written by a farmer from Kouvola, but a member of the organise for better treatment FORTUNATELY for Finns, Fin- Finnish Parliament. land has got the “nicer” type Immigrants in Finland are seen but not heard. We have become bystanders in a discussion of immigrants. By the end of REMITTANCE fl ow, or the 2008, there have been less money immigrants send concerning us. Finland talks about immigrants as if we were not in the room. than 32,000 international home, is one of the most im- immigrants who had moved portant factors in preventing WE ARE a nation of more think of Helsinki. I am sure better place to live. Immi- The narrow-mindedness and to Finland as refugees or asy- escalation of immigration it- than 200 million people. We this is the case with many gration, the textbooks say, negativity has also spread to lum seekers. This number is self. Billions of dollars sent are young and old, children who have been immigrants needs both a “push” and a the mainstream media. about 20 per cent of the total home reduce the misery in and adults. We recognise no for years. “pull” factor. The decision to of 143,000 international im- the poor countries and in fact borders and go to the fur- leave one’s homeland and to IN AN EXTREMELY biased ep- migrants residing in Finland. is the most important and re- thest places on earth, tak- THE DANGERS of a world grow new roots is not an easy isode broadcasted by YLE, The main reason for people to liable form of development ing risks and leaving loved without borders have been one. For the rich countries MOT, an investigative jour- move to Finland has been ro- aid today. Offi cially record- ones behind, to reach for our greatly exaggerated. In fact worried about masses of peo- nalism programme, at- mantic. Contrary to common ed remittance fl ows to de- dreams. We are strong, but on today’s globe there are ple coming to share their re- tempted to calculate the belief, there are more foreign veloping countries reached amongst the weakest. We are no borders for most of the sources, the key element is to “costs of multicultural Hel- women moving here to live a staggering 283 billion dol- discriminated against and things that can travel. Cap- ease the push on the source sinki” which the journalists with their Finnish husbands lars in 2008. From this 0.70 some of us have no rights. ital, merchandise, ideas, vi- nations of humanitarian mi- saw as the social benefi ts than the other way around. billion was sent home by im- Most of us feel unwelcomed, ruses, terror, crime, fear and gration. But unfortunate- given to unemployed immi- migrants in Finland, which maltreated, abused. Many of hope can all spread to the ly and on the contrary, the grant families. After sever- SO WHY is all the nagging in is about 0.33 per cent of Fin- us have no access to health- furthest places on Earth al- countries from which most al far fetched and extreme the media and especially in- land’s GDP. For comparison, care. When things go wrong, most instantly. Everything of the world’s refugees leave, cases of how unemployed ternet discussion groups Finland’s offi cial develop- we are among the fi rst to be can travel freely, except hu- namely Afghanistan, Iraq immigrant families in Fin- about the Somali moth- ment aid contribution for blamed for it. man beings. Crossing the and Somalia, have been ran- land receive the highest so- er with 15 children which, 2010 is 0.42 per cent of its borders of Europe, deserted sacked by the world’s richest cial welfare benefi ts in the strangely enough, is becom- GDP.

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