It takes heroes to avoid genocide

It was exactly 80 years ago, when a state with over 180 million inhabitants and expansive socialist ideology, attacked its democratic northwestern neighbor of 3.7 million people without declaring war and by bombing civilians. Colonel Antero Svensson reported on this aggression to military headquarters by requesting Military Marshal Mannerheim or Lieutenant Colonel Valo Nihtilä on the phone.

However, these high military leaders were not available, so Svensson gave information to the reserve lieutenant, Torsti Juhavaara, who was on duty. This was the beginning of a chain of events that made the entire world admire the Finns, and which perhaps more than any other single thing still unites us as a nation.

The opening tones of the attack were given in an agreement between the Soviet Union Vyacheslav Molotov and the German Joachim von Ribbentrop, in which the communist power was given free rein over Finland by the Hitler´s regime. And a few days earlier in Mainila, where the Russians staged an attack on themselves.

During the war, Finland succeeded in maintaining its independence and society. In order to achieve this goal over the aggression by the overwhelming enemy, the small nation needed actions, whose executors became national heroes.

These heroes include, for example, Hjalmar Siilasvuo, Lieutenant General, whose small fighting forces destroyed two Soviet divisions in Suomussalmi,  Simo Häyhä, who shot hundreds of Russian soldiers and became the world's most successful sniper ever, fighter pilot Jorma Sarvanto who destroyed six Russian bombers in five minutes, an achievement considered to be the "five-minute world record of fighter pilots" or - as the greatest of them all - Marshal Mannerheim, who successfully led the war despite the desperate difference between the military power of the two armies.

The stake of this war was - no more or no less - a genocide of Finns or its avoidance, as historian Teemu Keskisarja has noted. Thanks to the heroes who were ordered to the front 80 years ago - more than 300 000 Finnish soldiers in addition to those mentioned above - and also the women and children at home who made it possible for the army to fight for freedom, and the foreign volunteers who participated in the war with our own troops, we maintained an independent Finnish nation and its way of life

Without that heroism, we would not have a red professor today who ordered his students to remove Mannerheim's picture from the wall. Nor would we have a standard of living that enables the present state of welfare and at the same time attracts people from developing countries to seek a higher standard of living in our country.

But maybe after the fall of communism in the neighboring country 28 years ago, we would have a new independence and with it a healthy sense of nationality and faith in the future, like our southern neighbors in the Baltic countries who, 80 years ago, surrendered without resistance to the supremacy of the communist superpower.Or at least a government that would not include the ideological descendants of the aggressive socialism of threatening our existence in late 1930´s.

With these words, I wish my dear readers a happy 80th anniversary of the start of the Winter War between Finland and Soviet Union in 1939-1940.

The original blog text in Finnish

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
An ignorant mediahouse failed again in historical facts
Why a journalist was unaware on the number of Stalin´s victims?

Minister Maria Ohisalo panicked

Finland was found guilty by the European Court of Human Rights, because an Iraqi asylum seeker returned voluntarily back to Iraq after a negative decision, and got killed there. That drove the Interior minister of Finland, Maria Ohisalo (greens), to panic, and she promised to increase further money to asylum business, although she understood, that the Iraqi had returned voluntarily.

Naturally it is a pity and unfortunate that the Iraqi got dead. And it is true, that he would not have died if he had been given an refugee status. But it also is untenable that the court decision indicates us Finns to have eternal responsibility on everyone who has asked asylum from us even if we did not find basis for a refugee position.

Actually, it is logically clear, that the only way be sure that none of the asylum seekers (on which we are eternally responsible) will not get dead in their home countries is to give a refugee position to them all. That is because all humans make mistakes sometimes - including those who make decisions on asylum seekers.

Unfortunately it is equally clear that in Finland - or anywhere in Europe - it is not possible to give refugee position and life-lasting economic support to all asylum seekers. That is because of negative reactions of ethnic Finns, due to economic reasons and since the attraction among poor people in developing countries that would results from such a decision. That is why we need other types of solutions.

One option would be to establish asylum camps to all those who do not deserve a refugee status, although that would not solve the problem of those returning to their home countries voluntarily. However, it would remove the responsibility from ethnic Finns as no pressure to leave the country would be put on anyone.

That is why I propose our Interior minister Ohisalo, that instead of her expensive and poorly working ideas she would be active in establishing an asylum camp, where all asylum seekers lacking an acknowledged need for a refugee status could live and obtain minimum requirements for living by working. The results of that work could be used to cover part of the costs by e.g. selling subcontracting services to the Finnish Industry.

Because only people who are in Finland illegally (i.e. without residence permit) would be placed in asylum camps, they should be kept out of touch from the ordinary people. The best solution would be to rent the place from e.g. Russia, but if that is not possible, also remote areas in Finland would do. In any case, the camp should be surrounded by fences and be controlled by guards. The latter would also provide working possibilities as guards for people living in the area.

Anyone in the asylum camp should have a right to leave, but only out of the country. That should be controlled so, that no misuse of this option would occur. In the worst case, all asylum seekers leaving could be accompanied by a police to the plane.

Establishing such an asylum camp would naturally be expensive - easily more than ten million euros. It should be noted, however, that even such a big sums would be cheaper than the costs due to illegally residing (and growing) group of people, which is prone to crime and violence.

In time, the savings would be even bigger, as such asylum camps would reduce the number of people who are seeking higher status of living via seeking for a refugee status. There the scale is vast taken that the annual costs of humanitarian immigration in Finland exceed annually three billion euros.

Based on this, I put my hope on minister Ohisalo, that she would recognize asylum camps as highly producing investments. Therefore the only thing she needs is courage to make a decision to solve the problem of eternal responsibility of asylum seekers. And to start building asylum camps as soon as possible.

Aiempia ajatuksia samasta aihepiiristä:
IL:n haastattelu paljasti, ettei Maria Ohisalo ole tehtäviensä tasalla
Turvapaikka ehkäisisi laittomaan oleskeluun liittyviä negatiivisia ilmiöitä
Kielteisen päätöksen saaneille on rakennettava turvapaikka