Lessons from Venezuela

Venezuela is extremely rich in its natural resources, but now in chaos. The reason is the same that led to the collapse of Soviet Union and its empire few decades ago. That is: the contradiction between the human nature and planned economy - which leads to economic inefficiency, corruption and oppression of human rights.

Right now it is not known what will happen in the ongoing revolution in Venezuela. Its justification can, however, be evaluated from the list of countries, which have shown their support to parties.

The socialistic dictator Maduro has been supported by Mexico, Bolivia, China, Turkey and Russia, whereas the leader of revolution, Juan Guaidó, has been supported by the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Canada, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.

However, something can be inferred about Venezuelans themselves, as even the leader of the revolution is slightly leftist. It shows to me, that Venezuelans have not understood the reason for their poor situation. I mean, the problem is not the current dictator, his personality or his greed of power. Instead, the problem is the basic nature of socialism, which is only implemented by Maduro - and if did not exist, someone else would do it.

But of course, the Venezuelans have a right to decide on their own future. We others can only understand the reasons for the problems in Venezuela, and vote according to this understanding in elections of our own countries.

This is especially important now, when the world is going towards a period of slower economic growth. And the outcome of a leftist government would be rugged also for us in Finland.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Wishes to hell by novelist Itkonen
Why a journalist was unaware on the number of Stalin´s victims?

The original thought in Finnish:

Mitä jokaisen suomalaisen pitäisi oppia Venezuelasta?

Twitter account of an remarkable politician was locked

The Twitter account of the leader of the True Finns - a political party with ca. 10% support among Finnish voters - was locked. The leader, Dr. Jussi Halla-aho, noted that "when discussing about affecting the elections, it may not be necessary to search the threats from as far as Russia".

The reason for the locking is unknown, but there is no doubt that its purpose was to reduce the importance of social media in election campaigns. Thus, it was a trial to narrow freedom of political speech. And this happened in a situation, where the rape cases in Oulu and Helsinki had inevitably shown that Halla-aho and his supporters have been right on the harmfulness of the Finnish immigration policy - and the leaders of all other notable parties been naive and completely wrong.

I hope that the aim of the persons behind the locking of Halla-aho´s twitter accounts was not to block democracy. And I also hope, that the people entitled to vote understand, that narrowing Halla-aho´s freedom of speech confirms that the tragicomic outcomes of other politicians and authorities regarding the immigration policy are only propaganda motivated by the becoming parliamentary elections next April. And whose purpose is - for the reasons I do not understand - to continue our lack of readiness to prevent the next migration wave from developing countries. 

I mean, a migration wave which will come with certainty. That is because of the population explosion and its consequences in those societies. As well as the generous services provided by Finland even to those, who do not have a right to stay in our country.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
A set of immigration-derived sexual crimes in a Finnish town
Wishes to hell by novelist Itkonen
When will they ever learn?

The original though in Finnish:
Halla-ahon Twitter-tilin sulkemisesta

A set of immigration-derived sexual crimes in a Finnish town

In a town of Oulu, located in north-west coast of Finland, a number of humanitarian immigrant-related sexual abuses - including a true rape-ring - of kids between 10-15 years have occurred. One of the victims has also conducted a suicide months ago. This has led to a set of reactions, that I want to share with my reader.

The first cases were not opened to public by police or other authorities, nor even by mass media. Instead it was a private person, who published information about these crimes in the social media. Thereafter also politicians and media had to come out.

Police, however, did not tell the whole truth, but instead lied that it does not know about any suicides related to the topic. Two days ago, however, a minor media - PT-media - published its finding that there is no doubt about the suicide. Soon after, the police had to announce that one of the victims has died, indeed.

Very interestingly, the lie by police has not raised any discussion in Finland. Not by media, not by ministry of internal affairs, not by the juridical system or not by any of the politicians. To me, that is weird, and I am waiting with great curiousness whether anything appears.

The Oulu crimes have also caused unpleasant publicity in Hungary to the prime minister of Finland, Juha Sipilä (center party). There media published a claim that he would have said that "you do not need to be angry to immigrants although they sometimes rape one of two little girls". Well, he has never said exactly that, but his first reaction on this topic was to remind citizens that the crimes do not give anyone right for hate speech or violence against immigrants.

Even after several separate cases of sexual crimes against teenager girls in Oulu - a town with about 200 000 inhabitants - the leading Finnish politicians have no willingness to tighten the immigration policy of the country. Instead, they are willing to increase resources to police, look for possibilities to oversee the social media and to find easier ways to deport criminals after their crimes. But not to tighten the demand for immigration by humanitarian grounds.

After all this in Oulu, I am waiting with great interest what will happen in the elections of the Parliament four months from now. At least the most recent opinion poll showed that the popularity of True Finns - the only party willing to tighten the immigration policy - has increased among voters. However, even after this their share of voters is just above 10%, and is therefore not going to change anything in the immigration policy - unless further voters get convinced about their policy during the election campaigns that have just started.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see, if Oulu was a special case among Finnish towns, or whether similar rape-rings can also be found in other bigger urban areas enriched by immigration from islamic countries. Or - in the light of police actions due to the Oulu case - whether similar cases have already occurred, but been out of publicity.

Previous thought on the same topic:
The Danish government proposed reforms for immigration policy
Rape statistics in Finland and Sweden are breaking prejudices
When will they ever learn?

This writing was a combination of several original thougths in Finnish:
Uusi ulottuvuus totuuden jälkeiselle ajalle
Oulun tapahtumien poliittinen jälki on vahvempi kuin Turun terrori-iskun
Valehteliko poliisi virkavastuulla Oulun raiskaustapauksissa?
"Ei tarvitse olla vihainen maahanmuuttajille, vaikka he välillä raiskaavat yhden tai kaksi pikkutyttöä"

Current status of mankind and its culture

Happy New Year to all my readers!

In the first morning of this year I opened my computer and looked for the news. And noticed that islam had once more reminded Britons about its presence in their society and that terrorism by car had arrived to Japan. Both phenomena are relatively new and tedious.

Also in Finland several small occasions had taken place. Small fights during the night, shooting to air by a legal weapon (hunting is popular here, so guns are common), banging a door with an ox and even a catfight at a street.

The truth is that the night of New Year rarely goes without some kind of fights in Finland. I hope that also this time everyone participating would regret, and be punished as the law says.

The cases in UK and Japan are more serious. In neither case the problem was not linked with alcohol as in the Finnish cases (not to say I accept that), but had a more serious roots. However, as I do not have details in those cases I will not comment more on them.

Instead, I will go back to the onset of our calendar. At that time the Roman emperors organized happenings, where the theme of amusement was violence and cruelty. The gladiators fighted against each other´s, and - if people so wished - murdered their contestant in front of thousands of eyes. To me that sounds like a shocking culture and I am happy that such behavior has been left behind in our western culture.

Or has it?

I ask because perhaps the best boxer ever, Floyd Mayweather, made a lot of money by beating a Japanese kickboxer who nobody though would have any chances against him. Despite that the fight was organized - and actually also another one earlier.

There is a small difference to the gladiators. The guys getting beated are motivated by money, whereas the early gladiators had no real choice. Although later there were also voluntary gladiators, who were also looking for money in largely the same way as Mayweather and his contestants from from the realm of kickboxing.

The biggest difference between the ancient and the modern gladiators I am discussing here is the fact, that in the Roman fights the aim was to have an exciting and even fight between the gladiators. And that the life of the loser might have ended. In contrast, the contestants of Mayweather did not even dream about winning the fight, and Mayweather himself probably did not want to hurt them badly - and definitely not to kill. Instead - the fight was organised just to have a big amusement show.

To me it is odd that someone was ready to pay huge amounts of money to organize such a show. And so many people were willing to see this "fight" although everyone know it was not more than one-sided assault based violence entertainment.I hope that the source of this interest was not a hope to see a murder-case like in the ancient gladiator shows.

After this long introduction, my question is : what does this all tell about the current status of mankind and its culture?

Related thoughts:
Seeing sex developed novel cultures
Rape statistics in Finland and Sweden are breaking prejudices

The original though in Finnish:
Mitä väkivaltaviihde kertoo ihmiskunnan tilasta?