True Finns And Fake Finns
We were reading an old Bangkok Post newspaper and saw news about the recent parliamentary elections in Finland. A nationalist party called Perussuomalaiset was translated in the news as True Finns.
The translation is hilarious. More accurate alternatives might have been Simple Finns, Basic Finns, or Elementary Finns (like in elementary school). The logic would follow better the party's ideology: We don't want foreigners to live in our fridge, steal our food, drink our vodka and seduce our women. Go away evil foreigners!
The nationalist party is exploiting Finnish racism. Most Finns are proud to be racists, but they do not reveal their thoughts publicly. Racism has been an integral part of Finnish culture and Finnishness for ages.
During the World War II, Finland was allied with Nazi Germany. There were concentration camps in Karelia and some crazy Finns were planning to conquer the Soviet Union and create Great Finland. Those war criminals were never charged and the atrocities have not been confessed nor apologized. Instead, Finns are proud of their war heroes, independence and—racism.
The positive outcome of the 2011 election result is that now Finns are openly what they are: xenophobics. The downside is that the ours what the voters are craving after, don't really exist as everything in Finland has either come from Russia or from Sweden.
Nationalism serves the interests of the elite like it has done for centuries. Voters are being promised a brighter future but the politicians will be the only ones enjoying it. Fortunately corruption and greed will quickly fix the situation. Or does anyone know any political party that has kept their promises and acted for anything else but their own good anywhere in the world?
