Finns: “poorly educated, abuses drugs, skives off school, dies young in a violent manner”
Why may our Swedish neighbors not think too highly of us in Finland? Cause their school books (published in 2001 or later) tell them so. And they wonder why Sweden has a problem with immigration and racism! - Maybe because the Swedish welfare state is pounding this kind of bigotry into children’s minds starting at age 5…
According to Swedish school textbooks, Finns are poorly educated and abuse drugs, but are nonetheless excellent in sports. The same books keep quiet about the Finnish-speaking minority in Sweden.
[...]“The Finn is poorly educated, abuses drugs, skives off school, dies young in a violent manner, but is nevertheless good at sports. Moreover, Finland has been at war. This is the view these books give”, Ylikiiskilä reports.
“This is a pretty depressing image, and even more so, if we look at individual books. All the 21 textbooks which I studied were published in 2001 or later”, he notes.
Wow, that’s really fucked up. The state always likes to blame the parents for inciting racism into their children when here, it’s clearly the state who’s doing it!
damn.
Comment by Iiris — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 5:12 pm
As a Swedish speaking Finn, I’m fuming right now. Not only is the Swedish trash-newspaper Aftonbladet finnophobic, but now Sweden’s textbooks are a “textbook example” of incorrectness and prejudiced image spreading. Now, at least, we know where that finnophobism comes from.
Phil, where’s that Conan O’Brien’s “Sweden Sucks” picture? It fits this post perfectly!
And why can’t the Swedes accept that they have a minority that speaks Finnish when Finland is much more better at accepting us Swedish speaking Finns? Answer: the same reason queing is so popular and common in Sweden, that’s why…
Comment by Mr. Anonymous — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 5:15 pm
“Wow, that’s really fucked up. The state always likes to blame the parents for inciting racism into their children when here, it’s clearly the state who’s doing it!”
Changing the record must be a totally foreign concept for you? You do realize that you blame everything on about three instances? it’s getting kind of tired.
Comment by Anzi — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 5:19 pm
It is common knowledge that the Swedish media is not at all that interested in Finland and that people there generally know very little about us.
Even though I admit to liking the Swedes in general, their self-important smugness is extremely irritating. Also their way of always having to have everyone agree on everything is ridiculous. Listening to Swedes argue is as bland and boring as listening to a Swede attempt to curse.
Comment by Anzi — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 5:47 pm
The Swedes are snobs…
Comment by giustino — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 6:17 pm
There seems to be no mention of this in Swedish sources (even though the guy who did the study works in Sweden), which is a bit funny, if you consider what kind of noise there was about the supposedly racist ‘Nogger Black’ ice-cream.
Comment by windy — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 6:35 pm
Being Swedish myself, with a Finnish mother, i would like to state that i have never encountered any sort of negative attitude towards Finns, and definetly no “racism”.
Allthogh i am not surprised of our textboks being somewhat retarded. Our school system is a joke( hence my heinous spelling
).
As to the mater of why Swedes can’t accept they have a Finnish minority. I think it is considered a non issue in Sweden.
Because of the immigration of non Europeans to Sweden in recent years, i think Finns are generaly thought of as Swedes.
Comment by Christian — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 6:59 pm
I doubt the welfare state has anything to do with it. Textbooks in schools do, however, have a tendency to be somewhat retarded. There is no money nor academic prestige in writing them, which means people who actually knows something about a subject have better things to do. Schoolbooks are typically written by retired schoolteachers, and tend to reflect views from a bygone past.
Comment by Söderberg — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 7:45 pm
Hey, I think we can afford it. They are ex-regional superpower and if occasional contempt for neighbours keeps them out from the streets, let’s grant it to them. Just like for the french.
If somebody taps your shoulder 3am at nakkari (”hot-dog kiosk”) and says “Jävla skitstövel”, would you punch his nose or laugh?
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 8:43 pm
http://www.riemurasia.net/jylppy/displayimage.php?pos=-7734
The World In Flames 1939-1945
Comment by samwyse — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 9:18 pm
What the hell does “skives” mean anyhow? Weird how educated Finns use British slang terms sometimes, this isn’t the first time I’ve noticed it. If she used an American slang expression, for example “Swedish textbooks diss Finns”, it would sound ridiculous.
Comment by DC Denizen — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 9:40 pm
So the Swedish Government is like the Saudi Government. Both teach their young to hate their neighbor?
How soon before the Swedish young start a jihad against Finland?
Comment by winter — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 10:28 pm
Sure, Sweden has a long tradition of belitteling Finland, but this just doesn’t sound credible.
Comment by Tomi — Wed, Dec 7th, 2005 @ 11:46 pm
Why may our Swedish neighbors not think too highly of us in Finland?
Out of interest, do you, Phil, think you could ever, say after 50 years of living here, refer to yourself as a “Finn”. I mean, it’s common to say “I’m an American” even among the first-generation immigrants. But that doesn’t work in Finland - apparently because “Finnish” refers to ethnicity rather than nationality. On the other hand, I know second-generation “immigrants” who seem to have no problem with “Finnish” … excluding, then again, certain Finland-Swedes who insist on using “Finländare”, Finlander.
Comment by Tomi — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 12:14 am
A long, long time ago ( might have been in 1963 ), I had an opportunity to work and live in Sweden. My love life sucked, putting it mildly, until I came to realization that in order to get a peace of tail I had to become anything but en Finne. Man, that did change everything!!
Comment by Pekka K — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 2:56 am
Quite amazing that they still have that stuff in their textbooks.
Comment by kjr from finland — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 3:03 am
Out of interest, do you, Phil, think you could ever, say after 50 years of living here, refer to yourself as a “Finnâ€Â.
I look forward to referring to myself as a Finn, but first I need to master the language then wait till I’m 34 (so I don’t need to join army) and get my citizenship. But then again, I could never imagine myself NOT being American.
Comment by Phil — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 7:50 am
After sending this article to some Swedes for feedback they all stated their surprise. The image of Finns in Sweden doesn’t seem to be compatible with the picture drawn in this article. However, it is funny how much response is created in Finland. Maybe the real problem is a notorious Finnish infireority complex?
Comment by alexbafana — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 9:56 am
After sending this article to some Swedes for feedback they all stated their surprise. The image of Finns in Sweden doesn’t seem to be compatible with the picture drawn in this article. However, it is funny how much response is created in Finland. Maybe the real problem is a notorious Finnish infireority complex?
You said it better than I could. I think everyone knows that the majority of Swedes don’t have this view of Finns.
Comment by Gonzo — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 10:26 am
#14: Maybe off topic in this thread, but “finländare” is the correct term in Swedish, unless you explicitly refer to the Finnish language.It’s equivalent to Phil calling himself “American” (=the country), not “English” (=the language).
Comment by Söderberg — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 10:53 am
Yet the majority of Finns feel inferior to Swedes, on some level.
Comment by perkele — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 10:56 am
Yet the majority of Finns feel inferior to Swedes, on some level.
For some reason, we tend to feel inferior towards pretty much any developed nation.
Comment by Gonzo — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 11:40 am
We at least you aren’t like us Americans, who pretend like we feel SUPERIOR to other developed nations, when in actuality we are so insecure on the inside.
Case in point, EVERYTHING that is going on in the world right now.
Comment by perkele — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 11:45 am
Sorry, “We” should be “well”
-”No TV and no beer make Homer something something”
-”Go crazy?”
-”Don’t mind if I do!”
Comment by perkele — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 11:46 am
Maybe off topic in this thread, but “finländare†is the correct term in Swedish, unless you explicitly refer to the Finnish language.It’s equivalent to Phil calling himself “American†(=the country), not “English†(=the language).
The Finland-Swedish elite came up with Finländare, finländsk (as well as with the distinction between “finnar” and “finlandssvenskar”). about a hundred years ago. The idea was to fight the fennomanic movement by uniting the Swedish-speaking population which until then had had very little in common. I’ve got no problem with that. I just was curious about whether “Finn” is losing its ethnic connotations and becoming a “neutral” term once again. By the way, “Finn” is Swedish - apparently meaning originally the Sami.
Comment by Tomi — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 12:17 pm
Actually “Fenni”, used by Tacitus in “Germania” most likely referred to the Sami. As for finländare-finne, the problem with which term to use arose in the 1800s when the fennomans began to conflate country and language.
Comment by Söderberg — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 2:29 pm
I used to read Hufvudstadsbladet as student. When Matti Nykänen won olympic gold metal he was a “finländare”. When he had some well known problems later, he was a “finne”.
Comment by Jormanen — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 2:38 pm
Holy shit! Being an American, i grew up learning from our textbooks which offer subtle, distorted views on our history and our dealing with the world (Ex. Civil War and States Rights, the Natives and Making Room for Whitey, World War 2… America Saves the Day! *yawn*). However, i don’t ever remember seeing anything as bigoted as the example in the article. Maybe that’s what’s so shocking about it, to us Americans anyways. (Yes yes, we have our own bullshit to deal with. Blah blah blah.)
I don’t expect Swedes to collectively hold that opinion of Finns, and if they don’t? Good for them. I would, however, really hate to see some Swedes growing up with that idea of Finns in their head. Because, being American, i can also relate to having the facts distorted and “swept under the rug” in order to save face and being disappointed years later when i learn the truth.
Anyways the truth of the matter is that Finns are actually sauna-dwelling elves that will eat your babies!
Comment by gopha — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 3:44 pm
WTF is this fuss about?! The Swedes are giving us Finns a compliment. They are saying we’re badasses and too cool for school. We are good at sports and we die young like James Dean - how cool is that? They even acknowledge that we kicked some serious commie ass in WW2. Thanks Sweden.
Comment by Timppa — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 5:15 pm
What kind of a schoolbook would in any context give the picture that a certain nationality skips school?
Are we talking about novels that you can borrow from the school-library? This whole thing just reeks of “Slow newsday, lets fill it up with crap”
Does anyone have a link to quotes from these books?
Comment by Anton — Thu, Dec 8th, 2005 @ 7:37 pm
Shut the fuck up!
http://www.geocities.com/ffncc/Students-Best.htm
Comment by Alessandro — Sat, Dec 10th, 2005 @ 7:47 pm