An Apology

I’ve never felt ashamed about being Finnish. I love my country, I love my language and this tiny spit of land far up in the north is rather dear to me. During the past few weeks something has changed. I’ve seen this country – or its inhabitants, in fact – do things that make me feel sick, ashamed and sad.

I’m not good at talking politics, never have been. Besides, the situation being as it is, there isn’t much left to say: everything worth saying has already been said and simultaneously all kinds of crap worth neither saying nor hearing has unfortunately been said as well. What this is about is, of course, the refugees of the Syrian Civil War (and the refugee crisis in general).

I’m ashamed. I’m deeply, deeply ashamed because of the way we’ve handled things here in Finland. We’re such bullies in the EU… At first people just said disgusting things but now they’re doing disgusting things too. Writing loads of racist crap on the Internet is bad enough and yet the situation is getting worse all the time. In my opinion the saddest thing is that we’re talking about people that have either lost their homes or can no longer stay safe there even if they still have one. Then they come here and face all that hate, all that hostility and prejudice. A few days ago there was an incident with a bus that was taking refugees to a reception center. There was an illegal protest, people gathered together throwing things at the bus, launching fireworks and shouting things that could easily be understood without knowing the language at all. How cruel is that? All those noises, screaming and explosives probably remind the refugees of the things they’re trying to get away from. It’s disgusting. It’s wrong.

Now I’m ashamed.

I’m apologizing. I’m sorry we’ve handled things so badly here. I’m sorry we’re not doing more. I’m sorry our attitude is that of a narrow-minded middle-school bully. I’m sorry we’re so bound to our own perspective it’s all we can see.

Dear Finland. Please, open your eyes. And your mind as well.