Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Internet Racists, Beware!

Finland is an exceptional country. Within living memory it fought successfully to avoid absorption by the USSR, and has a strong sense of national identity. As Western European nations go, Finland is — except for its Swedish minority — relatively ethnically homogeneous.

The Finns are prosperous, self-governing, respect human rights, and have no colonial past. Yet for some reason Finland has not escaped the pervasive sense of “white guilt” that has become the bane of Western Civilization over the last fifty years. As I reported a year ago, Finland is seeking more Third-World refugees, as if the example of its next door neighbor, Sweden, were not enough to deter it from such a foolhardy enterprise.

The reason for this ethnic death-wish may be found in a bureaucratic structure that exists entirely to promote, protect, and cater to ethnic minorities. After all, if you’re a bureaucrat, having more clients means increasing your power, right? So bring on the immigrants!

A few months ago I wrote about the Finnish Ombudsman for Minorities Mikko Puumalainen. Since then he has been succeeded in his position by Johanna Suurpää, who is pursuing her duties with the same zeal as her predecessor. According to YLE:

Johanna SuurpääOmbudsman: Bring Net Racists to Justice

The Ombudsman for Minorities wants racialists operating on the internet to be brought to justice, writes the newspaper Kaleva.


The Ombudsman Johanna Suurpää says those disseminating material of a racialist nature must be brought before the courts in order to demonstrate its illegal character.
- - - - - - - - -
She told the newspaper the prevailing wisdom seemed to be that anything could be placed on the net. Suurpää did not estimate the actual number of racialist websites but said large amounts of material promoting racial prejudice was available. She felt a small but active group were responsible for most of it.

She admitted, though, it was difficult to intervene in all cases. In addition to the Ombudsman for Minorities, material of a racialist nature appearing on Finnish websites is also monitoring [sic] by the National Bureau of Investigation.

So if you blog in Finland, be warned: The Ombudswoman is watching you!

And who gets to define “racism” for the purposes of Finnish law? Is it Finland’s parliament, acting directly at the behest of the Finnish people? Or is it some subset of the unelected bureaucracy?

Ms. Suurpää uses the words “racialist” and “racist” interchangeably, at least in this translation, and the two words are often used to mean the same thing. But some people define racialism as “scientific racism”, that is, the assertion that the races of homo sapiens have distinguishable and measurable characteristics, including psychological traits, which set them apart from one another. “Popular racism”, on the other hand, means the common belief that one race is superior to the others.

Perhaps Ms. Suurpää means to include both definitions in her crusade against internet intolerance. But her stance highlights a recurring paradox: in order to fight racism one must be a racialist, since races have to be defined and distinguished from one another in order to protect designated victim groups. The Ombudsman has no choice; she must exercise racialism in order to do her job.

In other words, the cause of anti-racism perpetuates racism. It’s one of life’s bitter little ironies.


Hat tip: KGS.

22 comments:

Ed Mahmoud said...

Little things like this, in Finland, and Mark Steyn's adventures with the Canadian thought crime police, make me glad we have a First Amendment in the US.

laller said...

Hey Baron,

You really should be saying: "So if you blog in the EU, be warned: The German authorities are watching you!".

According to an article in BT(article in Danish here: http://www.bt.dk/article/20041229/KRIMI/112290243/1349), with the coming EU extradition regulations, many many people in the EU risk prosecution in Germany, eventhough those people aren't breaking the laws of their own country or the country in which their blog/site is hosted. The "crime" occurs, according to German courts, where the page is read, not where it's hosted or written.

Paul said...

The ombudsperson, Johanna Suurpää, looks like an intelligent person. In fact, I'm sure she's very, very intelligent to have risen to her position. The question remains, how could she be so intelligent and at the same time be so completely ignorant and naive when it comes to the cultural and religious substance of Islam??? Could it be that there is no time tested experience in Finland??????

I'll tell you my experience with Finland. We looked for vendors for our shutdown valves. They were long lead time items and very expensive. We asked for pricing and shipping time information from our Finnish vendors and were told we would have to wait a few weeks. The whole country was on vacation for 5 or 6 weeks! Incredible!!!

Needless to say we selected a more serious business partner for our shutdown valves. Whew.

By the way, I can handle the Johanna part. Johanna is rather like Joanne, or Joanna. But Suurpää, how are you supposed to pronounce that? It looks like a Thai name to me, but apparently not.

Henrik R Clausen said...

You better take really good care of your First Admendment. It is being undermined by the Saudis. Rachel Ehrenfeld is relatively alone in fighting back.

Tipping off some journalists and helping her get some well-deserved PR would be good.

On the subject of racism, I think it's better to reject the label. I can't think of any reason on earth to be racist. Wouldn't help anyone.

Henrik R Clausen said...

"The "crime" occurs, according to German courts, where the page is read, not where it's hosted or written."

Wow. This is dangerous. The Rachel Ehrenfeld case I'm reffering to is a case of just that.

If we continue down this path, protection provided by nations for its citizens will become increasingly diluted.

X said...

At least you would have the possibility of the protection provided by an extradition hearing. Once the new EU arrest warrant is on the books you can be arrested in any EU "province" for something that might be a crime in one place but isn't in another. So, for a ludicrous example, if I were to create a computer game here in the UK that featured a swastika (like the eponymous Return to Castle Wolfenstein) I would be liable for arrest under german laws prohibiting their display, no matter whether or not I provided a german-only version with the symbol removed - because it would be available to germans visiting the UK.

On top of this, there is a new treaty out there called the Prüm Treaty, which allows the police forces of any member state to cross provincial borders to make an arrest without asking for permission. It also provides for DNA databases to be made available to the police force of any member state on request. The UK has signed up to a modified version of this that doesn't include the "hot pursuit" portion but it will only be a matter of time before this is, like so much about the EU, "harmonised" so that the UK's opt-outs no longer exist. Our police force is already in the process of being re-arranged along a continental paramilitary model rather than the civilian force it used to be in order to "harmonise" policing services. Incremental steps are the order of the day.

Just like Islam, in fact...

Baron Bodissey said...

Laller --

You are right. I have blogged in the past about the EU "framework decision", which will make the Finnish situation the model for the whole EU.

The USA is not that far behind. All it will take is one Hillary appointee to the Supreme Court to effectively kill the First Amendment.

Anonymous said...

@ laller

do you have any German sources for that?
THX
TC

KGS said...

It is very amusing that Johanna's last name "Suurpää" means in Finnish:

1.) Great head
2.) Grand head

Choose your favorite. *L* KGS

KGS said...

Hi Paul,

Her name could be pronounced in the following way:

Pronounce "shure" (minus the h)with p and two a's as in apple.

*L* KGS

Zenster said...

In other words, the cause of anti-racism perpetuates racism. It’s one of life’s bitter little ironies.

Not really. Too often I have found that many of the supposedly "colorblind" liberals I know are really rather bigoted. One can only suppose that their obsession with routing out racism is an externalization of their own conflicted attitude towards people of color.

It is no small coincidence that the most free and open discussions I have encountered on the net are quite frequently at conservative websites. Only Islam seems to have more easily offended "sensibilities" than those of the liberals.

livfreerdie said...

The way Russia, Putin, is coming on like gang-busters the EU might want to rethink their position. I'm not sure the US is willing to bail Europe out of a mess of their making for a third time. It is easier to help those who help themselves but that appears to missing in Europe at the moment. To paraphrase a great man, maybe it is the calm before the gathering storm.

Tom

Profitsbeard said...

What will they all do when genetic engineering allows you to change your skin color at will?

They are fighting irrelevant delusions wrapped into bad biology cloaked in suicidal high mindedness.

As usual.

How do you say self-loathing schmucks in Finnish?

Papa Whiskey said...

For an excellent discussion of the origins and effects of white guilt, see Shelby Steele's book on the phenomenon. His new one on the Barack Obama candidacy is quite good, too.

Vasarahammer said...

"How do you say self-loathing schmucks in Finnish?"

Try 'itseinhoiset ääliöt'.

Suurpää is a lawyer by training like her predecessor. Her background is in human rights activism that started in the early 90s when the first Somalis arrived from Soviet Union.

In Finnish legal jargon the term used in prosecution is 'sananvapausrikos', which means Freedom of Speech felony in English. Kind of Orwellian, isn't it?

X said...

It's such a shame to see such a beautiful language so abused.

Anonymous said...

As far as Multiculturalism is concerned, Finland has been a backward country. But the "model student" of Europe's mistakes is catching up fast. Expect the last monocultural haven of Nordic countries to be transformed into "little Sweden" in about 20-30 years.

Ypp said...

It is contrary to intuition, but worst multiculturalists always appear in wealthy, ethnicaly homogenious white countries.

laller said...

tc,

I'm afraid I don't have a German source for the article. It's the papers own production after all, so there's not gonna be a source in German. If they wrote the article based on German articles, they aren't telling.

I wouldn't mind searching for something in German, but my German isn't what it used to be. To be expected after years of neglect, I suppose. Bothersome though.

Zenster said...

Vasarahammer: Freedom of Speech felony

I must shamefully admit that this trumps even my finest submissions to the realm of powerful oxymorons. “Arab unity”, “Palestinian consensus” and “Islamic integrity” all fall by the wayside in the face of this travesty of definition. What freedom is there when an unalienable right becomes a declared felony?

Lauri Olavi: Expect the last monocultural haven of Nordic countries to be transformed into "little Sweden"

NITPICK: Ahem … Finland is not—by accepted definition—a member of the traditional “Nordic” realm. It is a Baltic nation and shares Scandihoovian history largely by default. Please consider the following contrasts in numerical counting from one to three:

Norwegian: = “Null, En, To, Tre”

Swedish: = “Noll, En, Två, Tre”

Danish: = “Nul, En, To, Tre”

Finnish: = “Nolla, Yksi, Kaksi, Kolme

Vasarahammer said...

"Finland is not—by accepted definition—a member of the traditional “Nordic” realm."

I think you are wrong in this. Finland is not a Scandinavian country , but definitely belongs to the "Nordic" realm. There is a substantial Swedish-speaking minority as well as hundreds of years of history as a part of Swedish empire plus a common religion (Lutheran). The main thing that separates Finland from the rest of Nordic countries is language.

While I agree that Finland's membership in the Nordic council may result from a political need to separate the country from the Soviet sphere of influence during the Cold war, there are cultural similarities that are impossible to ignore. The nobility in the Baltic countries was mainly German, but in Finland it was Swedish. Swedish was the main language used in public life even during the Russian rule. Finnish only emerged in the latter half of that period.

Anonymous said...

It's the New Inquisition!

Racist!
Fascist!
Blasphemer!
Sacrilege!
Heretic!

History repeats itself. Welcome the neo-Inquisitors!