ISSUE 24 (154) • 17 – 23 JUNE 2010 • €3 • WWW.HELSINKITIMES.FI DOMESTIC BUSINESS CULTURE EAT&DRINK Helsinki Green Gambling Villa Karo Soup Summer living in addiction celebrates delight in Guide Finland insurance anniversary Kruununhaka pages 11-13 page 4 page 8 page 15 page 16 LEHTIKUVA / HEIKKI SAUKKOMAA It’s time to have a voice The immigrant community in Finland lacks a unified voice. A new initiative could solve that problem. HELSINKI TIMES Mustafa Gürler, Eilina Gutsatin- sky and Mulki Mölsä have formed DISCUSSIONS about immigration the establishing committee that are running hot in Finland, and it is aims to initiate this new democrat- going to be a major topic in the up- ic process. coming parliamentary elections. Immigrant Parliament of Fin- Finnish political parties have tradi- land (IPF) will be the fi rst of its kind tionally had some immigrant can- in the world. An old and success- didates, although none has been ful model, democracy, is taken in- elected to the parliament so far. to new use to give a unifi ed voice to Now, a new initiative aims to the immigrant community and help build immigrants their own par- them integrate into Finnish society. liament. A long period of planning If all goes well, by the time that is fi nally turning into action and the newly elected Finnish eduskunta Mari Kiviniemi was chosen ahead of three other candidates to become the head of the Centre Party. a group of infl uential immigrants convenes next year, there will also be has joined forces to make it hap- an immigrant parliament in Finland. pen. Alexis Kouros, Umayya Abu- Hanna, Ahmed Akar, Jeremy Gould, Read more on page 2. Ministerial changes next week STT upon next week. At least one new ployment,” Kiviniemi said after TEEMU HENRIKSSON – HT minister will be appointed as Ki- a meeting with the Centre’s par- Invisible mosquitoes fail to viniemi will be replaced as minis- liamentary group and the party’s THE CENTRE’S Party conference on ter of public administration and leadership. Kiviniemi said that the Saturday 12 June chose Mari Ki- local government. allocation of ministerial portfolios dampen World Cup spirit viniemi, Minister of Public Admin- Kiviniemi is currently in talks was not discussed in the meeting. istration and Local Government, with the leaders of the govern- Kiviniemi did not want to esti- NICK BARLOW ly hammered the Australians 4-0 as the Centre Party’s chairman. ment parties about governmental mate how many ministers would HELSINKI TIMES in their fi rst group game, have giv- Kiviniemi is also to become the changes and small-scale govern- be replaced. Neither did she want en the standout performance to prime minister of Finland, only ment negotiations that are to be- to estimate for example how taxa- AS WE go to press, the 2010 World date, and will certainly progress the second woman ever to hold the gin this weekend. “We are not tion would be changed during this Cup is nearly a week old. So far it is beyond the group stages. England post. going to re-open the whole Gov- government’s period in office. fair to say the tournament has lived have once again fl attered to deceive According to Kiviniemi, all min- ernment Programme but will up to expectations – occasionally. and walked away thoroughly dis- isterial changes will be decided concentrate on economy and em- Read more on page 3. We have had shocking goalkeeping appointed from an opening draw blunders, specifi cally from Rob- against the US, although if they fail ert Green of England and Faouzi against Slovenia or Algeria heads Chaouchi of Algeria, a wonder goal will surely roll. Golf is on the for the tournament’s opener cour- Off the fi eld it seems the inter- Proposal to amend tesy of host nation South Africa’s national football fraternity gath- rise again Siphiwe Tshabalala, and a fi ne col- ered in the rainbow nation have lection of red cards from, on the had little to complain about, with NICK BARLOW citizenship rules whole, unusually profi cient refe- one possible exception. The now- HELSINKI TIMES rees. On the minus side we have al- quintessential vuvuzela – a plastic so had one serious bore-draw from horn that when played by the thou- WITH 128 golf clubs, more than 150 Foreigners living in Finland could gain Finnish citizen- Uruguay and France and no true sand sounds like a swarm of mas- courses and upwards of 132,000 ship sooner in future if new amendments are approved. classics, although American foot- sive and angry invisible mosquitoes players, the Finnish golfi ng scene ball fans may disagree. – has caused some controversy is in surprisingly good health, con- At this early stage, and with not with France captain Patrice Evra sidering that domestic golfers are PETRA NYMAN ship excludes any time spent in the even all teams having played a game ascribing blame for his teams’ dire limited to a few months’ playing HELSINKI TIMES country on a temporary basis. The thus far, any predictions must err performance fi rmly at its door, com- time. Finnish nature can be stun- proposal suggests that in future on the side of caution, but it’s fair plaining the squad couldn’t commu- ning and, because a majority of THE GOVERNMENT has come to half of this time would be counted to say that Germany, who ruthless- nicate easily because of the noise. Finland’s golf courses are located an agreement on the contents of a towards the requirement of obtain- LEHTIKUVA /SIPHIWE SIBEKO in the woods, you can expect im- proposal involving an amendment ing Finnish citizenship. This would pressive environments as well as of the citizenship law. Currently, an hasten the application process for hazards. immigrant can apply for Finnish cit- those who have spent time in the Although last year saw a large re- izenship after six years of contin- country studying or working. duction in the numbers of new golf- uous permanent residence in the The amendment would addi- ers in Finland, largely because of country. The proposal suggests cut- tionally make it easier for former the recession, the signs are looking ting this time to fi ve years. Finnish citizens to regain their cit- good for the future. Several young- Additionally, citizenship could izenship. This could be done with sters are rising through the ranks of be obtained as soon as after four a simple application regardless of the amateur leagues and aim to be- years of continuous residence, if whether the individual currently re- come the new Minea Blomqvist or the individual can demonstrate his sides in Finland or abroad. Mikko Ilonen. or her fl uency in either Finnish or Despite the proposed changes to Even if you fi nd watching the Swedish. This regulation would en- the citizenship law, each application sport on television one of the most courage immigrants to attain lan- will be considered as its own case. boring ways to spend an afternoon, guage skills and thus support the To become a Finnish citizen an indi- being outside and actually playing it settling process into their new vidual must meet all of the require- is a totally different proposition. home country. ments and cannot have any history At the moment, the time counted of crime. The law is intended to come The vuvuzela has been the biggest talking point of the World Cup so far. Read more on page 14. towards an application for citizen- into effect in the autumn of 2011. 2 17 – 23 JUNE 2010 Q & A HELSINKI TIMES Alexis Kouros is a medical doctor, writer and filmmaker. He established both SixDegrees and Helsinki Times and is the editor-in-chief of both publications. Immigrant Parliament of Finland Aiming to turn a monologue into a dialogue, IPF can revolutionise how immigrants have been participating in their new homelands. Here are questions and answers about what it is and why we need it badly, for the sake of both immigrants and the Finnish society at large. Q: What is the Immigrant integration-related organi- know quite a few cases that community and still be pro- that some of them disagree A: Developed countries, Fin- Parliament of Finland and sations and NGOs in Finland these kids move to other plac- tected because of his ethnic with? land included, are right now why do we need it? but they are all built around es when they grow up. background. A: That is both true and un- exporting democracy to the A: Immigrant Parliament a topic, function or ideology. This will of course correct it- fortunate. I think that the im- “third world”, sometimes of Finland (IPF) is an inde- Even unifying them all under self through the participation Q: What about the small- migrant community should even by military force. We are pendent and non-political an umbrella group would not choice; those who don’t see er ethnic groups who do not not see each other as com- now bringing it back to them, organisation where elected solve the problem, because themselves as immigrants have enough votes to have petitors. We may have lots and I think that they should members of the immigrant most immigrants are not in- will not participate even if their own representative? of differences, starting from rejoice. We have learnt the community would come to- volved in those activities. they have the option. Larger groups, such as Rus- culture and religion to ed- lesson. gether and discuss main- IPF is in no way a replace- Of course, the parliament sians, are going to have more ucation, language and skin The Immigrant Parlia- ly immigrant-related issues ment or competition for any can make adjustments and representatives and some colour.