Mr. Ellilä vs. Mr. Puumalainen

And so it begins. A criminal case against a fellow blogger.

The case against Mr Mikko Ellilä was not initiated by a disturbed citizen. It was initiated by a high official - Finland's Ombudsman for Minorities, Mr. Mikko Puumalainen.

Mr. Puumalainen does not represent all possible minorities. His duty is to represent ethnic minorities only. Furhermore, he and his staff should be promoting good ethnic relations and monitor the realisation of equality. Fine tasks. Everyone needs good relations.

An example quote from Mr. Puumalainen: "..it was futile for Finland to hope for immigrants to solve the country's labour shortage problem if the next government did not roll up its sleeves and take tangible action to improve the standing of immigrants and to weed out racism.".

Weed out racism. Harsh words.

There may be a problem regarding labour shortage. But as we all know, this problem cannot be solved by opening borders to third world countries.

Ombudsman for Minorities is getting nervous. Representatives of ethnic minorities (a polite euphemism for somalis, I guess) do not get well-paid jobs. They drop out of schools, burden the welfare system. Act violently. Just as everyone expected to happen.

Mr Ellilä is saying these things aloud. As a fellow Finnish blogger, I also write about these matters. Many others do the same. Very few using their real name. Are we being careful - or are we just being cowards? I do not know. Should we be writing using our own names or not - options I constantly waver between.

Mr Puumalainen is certainly trying to help us to make up our minds. Recently, he gave out these words: "At the moment, the main forum for agitating racism is Internet. Authorities are baffled. We should develop mechanisms (to combat racism), for instance using the technology developed for combatting child pornography. Criminal law should be clarified so that it is possible to intervene to the defamation of ethnic groups and individuals alike."

I must say, he started with the easiest victim. Mr Ellilä's writings are somewhat harsh. He constantly uses terms like "neekeri" (an equivalent to "Negro"), "destruction of western civilization by islam" etc.

And he uses his real name.

I have no idea of what's going to happen to him. He'll propably be fined for some amount. But that's not going to be the end of it. What shall be Mr. Puumalainen's next step? Will he continue his (slightly paradoxial) defamation campaign against evil wrongdoers? Or will he just demand higher fines for "offenders". Or will they initiate Internet censorship campaign?

Propably he'll go for all of them.

We must speak up while we still can.

-- lot