27.8.2017

The triple betrayal of not doing age tests


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The Finnish police now reports that that it can confirm the identity of the man who stabbed two people to death and wounded 8 in Turku a week ago. The police also reports that his real name is not Abderrahman Meckah, and that the man is not 18 years of age, as he had himself earlier claimed. He was born in 1994, so he he's about 23.

This is in no way surprising. Many have been suspecting that some of the young men in children's asylum centers are not actually children at all.  In fact it was obvious from the start. Look at the "17-year-old" who posed together with PM Juha Sipilä, in front of TV cameras. It very soon emerged that we was 20 at the time, not 17.

On the other hand, I've spoken to many of these boys when we arranged football trainings for unaccompanied minors at the time of the great influx in 2015-2016. I believe most of those I saw have reported their age at least approximately correctly. Young people's center was the right place for them. They were nice lads, just alone out in the wide world. It was easy to sympathize with them. I wish well to them. But some were obviously much older than they claimed.

Not outright believing everything they said was deemed bad. Many politicians told everyone with suspicions to shut up. Suspecting what these men told us would be racist, bigoted and stupid, hate speech, not tolerated. Suggestions for age testing were turned down, often quite scornfully, e.g. by Li Andersson (Left Alliance) . This was despite that fact that when testing was done, about 70 % of those tested were deemed not minors. (For the others who were tested, it remained sometimes doubtful, sometimes not).

But this whole mess makes me consider three different betrayals, done in the same deed.

Betrayal of the taxpayer

This may not be the most important point, but it is the most obvious. It is a colossal waste of government funds to put a 20- or 25-year-old man to a children's refugee center and treat him as a child, because the resources we expend on children are vastly more expensive than what we can afford to take care of able-bodied and able-minded young men. As taxpayers we have the right to be indignant.

And of course, in principle it was also a betrayal of security, although I don't think that's a big deal in practice.

Government: we told you we can see this is waste, and you turned us down. The biggest twats here are the Left Alliance, Swedish People's Party and Greens. But most of the others were similarly populist.


Betrayal of children

But if we forget the petty matters of money and resources, we also notice that we have put grown up men, 20 or 22 years old, or much older, to live in the same housing and go to the same schools with actual children of 12 to 14 years who just honestly reported their correct age. Is this appropriate? 

I think not. There are several risk factors. There is the risk of different kinds of exploitation. Sexual abuse is not unheard of, particularly among some of the ethnic groups involved here. There is risk of indoctrination and radicalization. Or just crime, petty crime or serious.

Betrayal of Abderrahman Meckah

On the level of individual people, in addition to the two women who were killed and several who were wounded, the one most betrayed by this situation is Abderrahman Meckah. Or whatever his real name is -- his identity is actually unimportant. But there are many young men like him. They have been lured to come to the northern lands, with the banners "Refugees welcome", with promises of a house offered by the extremely naive Prime Minister in our country, and of jobs, suggesting that they are actually welcomed by the receiving countries  and societies. That there were no jobs that they could do was not told to them. That the local job market is very specialized and needs high levels of education and language skills to participate, was not told to them. That there is ample resentment towards them was not told to them by the xenophilic activists, nor was it of course shared to them by the traffickers -- presumably mafias in many countries -- who made plenty of money when arranging the travel.

In a way, our political system created Abderrahman the pathetic killer.  And created Abderrahman the jihadist who sought meaning to his useless life by shouting Allahu Akbar when stabbing people. Abderrahman the despised prisoner who will have to watch his every step over the next decade or two, to avoid being cut to pieces by fellow inmates in his prison.

He alone carries the criminal responsibility, but he was set up by naive politicians. Perhaps good-meaning politicians, perhaps cynical and calculative populist "Refugees welcome" types, but in any case, those who sent the invitation are responsible for what became of Abderrahman, the knife and the market square in Turku.

Kuvahaun tulos haulle turku knife attack candles
Candles at  the square in Turku where two people were killed (Helsinki Times)



8.6.2017

Women's pension euros


We've been told how women earn less than men during their working life; now we're told  by Talouselämä that women get less pension than men do.

Well, that's correct when we look at it as a monthly payment, because men have worked more years, more hours, and have earned more and paid more in pension contributions.

But if we look at the total pension pot paid out, on the average, the picture turns around:



Retiring age Life expectancy Average pension Total pension
Men 61.3 78.53 1848 € 382 092 €
Women 60.9 84.13 1453 € 405 038 €



So, women are, on the average, paid out about 23 000 euros more during their retirement - despite the fact that men paid more in to the system. 

Sources for this data:

Average retirement age: http://findikaattori.fi/fi/75
Life expectancy: http://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/ksyyt/2003/ksyyt_2003_2004-11-02_tau_001.html
Average pension: http://www.etk.fi/elakejarjestelmat/suomi/elakkeensaajien-kokonaistulot/keskimaaraiset-elakkeet/


29.4.2017

On hijab and David's Star in Austria

The Austrian president Alexander van der Bellen proposes that all women should wear a hijab to show solidarity to Muslim women in Austria and to "fight Islamophobia". As a parallel he cites that the Danish started to wear the yellow David's Star to show solidarity to Jews in their country during Nazi occupation.

This is an embarrassingly twisted view, for several reasons.

First of all, van der Bellen references a myth. The Danish king or Danish people did not start to wear David's Star in solidarity to Jews. Anyone can quickly check this with Snopes. It did not happen.

When a religious symbol is used in a
situation like in this Alamy stock photo,
that is what vilifies its meaning. 
Otherwise, no one cares.
Secondly, wearing hijab is a person's own choice. Whatever perception people have about what the hijab means is largely decided by how the wearers themselves behave and express their religion. As a religious symbol, European law should be neutral about it. But as it's a person's own choice, it's rather insulting to compare the voluntary wearing of hijab to a situation where Nazis would insist that people of certain race must wear a mark to enable persecuting them based on that race. Nobody should be proposing a persecution of people based on voluntary wearing hijab. In fact, even the Nazis did not require Jews to wear the star in Denmark.

(At least I hope the wearing of hijab is voluntary, and not instigated by fear of reprisals and violence.)

Finally, I can only wonder why van der Bellen proposes that Austrian women should start wearing hijab in solidarity. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense if Austrian men, and  Alexander himself in particular, would start with that solidarity?

17.4.2017

The lost tale of Turkey in EU

The Turkish constitutional referendum has been resolved in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's favour. Whether honestly, or, as is more likely, through some suspicious electoral practices, it doesn't really matter. Erdogan will cling to power.

It's time to look at the history of Finnish comments, which show how the local politicians, eager to please the policies in Brussels, have kept talking in favour of Turkey admitted to the union. We'd be in quite a trouble if they had had their way.

The articles are mostly in Finnish, headlined like this:

1997: MTV: Turkey's EU membership is being debated
1999: Verkkouutiset: EU countries support TUrkey's membership
2004: Greens: Membership talks with Turkey must be started soon
2005: Rehn would like to start Turkey's membership talks as planned
2006: Lipponen drivers Turkey's EU membership
2007: Olli Rehn: Turkey membership 'vital' for EU
2008: Foreign minister Alexander Stubb: EU must expand with consistent policies
2009: Matti Vanhanen supports Turkey's EU membership
2011: Erkki Tuomioja: Iceland and Turkey joining EU would strengthen the union
2012: President Halonen promises Finland supports Turkey's EU membership
2013: Journalist union: EU membership would improve Turkish freedom of press
2014: Europe-Youth: Turkey is willing to adapt to similar rules with other EU countries
2015: EK: EU-Turkey economic ties develop further

Finnish politicians apparently kept banging their head to the wall, because it would pelase Brussels. Then comes David Cameron, who is starting to fathom that his electorate really, really does not like to be in the same union with Turkey, or even in the same union with Jean-Claude Juncker who wants to be in the same union with Turkey:

2016: Turkey unlikely to join EU 'until the year 3000', says Cameron

Well, that tale is now over, in many ways.

I just hope, for the sake of the people in Turkey, that they can climb out of this hole without major violence and loss of freedom.

2.3.2017

You wanted identity politics. You got identity politics.

(I wrote this the day after Trump won the election, but forgot to publish then).

The world is stunned by Donald Trump's victory in U.S. presidential elections. I'll add my nickel's worth to the discussion why he won.

Trump won because his voters saw others involve in ferocious identity politics, and decided to do the same.

There was Black Lives Matter, tuned to a frenzy so much that they claim that saying "all lives matter" is racism. Really?

There are the people who demand "safe spaces" in universities, to avoid being exposed to controversial ideas or anything that makes them uncomfortable. This is against the very purpose of university, which is to spread, discuss and debate ideas. It's bonkers.

There was the Occupy movement, ferociously partisan.

There are various movements for sexual activists, for example the use the toilets not matching the actual physical gender of people. It's an important matter for a few people out of a million, and it's going all the way to U.S. Supreme Court.

These countless identity movements have left a large part of Americans feel that they are, too, a minority group. At least that they are treated like a disrespected minority group. So why shouldn't they rally to a candidate who makes them feel like they're finally being listened to?

Their vote counts.

Le Pen for President campaign


It appears the French judiciary and European Parliament desperately want Marine  Le Pen to win the French presidential election.

Le Pen posts Twitter messages that highlight the brutality of Daesh. Then the French start to give her more visibility by starting a court case, and the European Parliament lifts her immunity.

But what is Le Pen doing? She is simply showing how brutal the Daish is. She's not working for them. She's working against them. She's maybe using them, knowing that most people find Daish disgusting.

And then the European idiots start to give her more publicity, ensuring she will win the presidential election.

Dear MEPs: you are giving us our very own Trump moment.