 ’Multiculturalism’ is starting to go out of fashion in Oulu with more and more columns devoted to criticising it in Kaleva, but this didn’t stop the city’s ’Multicultural Integration Service’ putting on a lively Mothers Day celebration which included Middle-Eastern dancing, Sudanese chanting and free cake to ‘bring cultures together’.
The ‘Multicultural Mothers Day’ celebration took place in the Villa Victor ‘International Activities Centre’ (on Kirkkokatu) and the hall was packed, with quite a few having to stand at the back, with mothers and kids from all over the world: Japan, Sudan, Iraq, India and Turkmenistan to name but a few.
Multicultural Adoption
Compered by 24-year-old student and trainee Petri Jukka, the events began with a speech by Oulu priestess Rev. Satu Saarinen, who has recently adopted a two year old South African child. ‘He has another mother but she wanted a better life for him,’ she said, before explaining how great she believed Finland’s social security system to be if you are a mother. ‘Finnish society supports motherhood very well’ the priestess explained.
‘As a mother I can’t perform miracles but I know that my love is a miracle’ she declared, in speech that moved between Finnish and English.
Sudanese Chanting
A number of Finnish violin laments were followed by lively Sudanese dancing, chanting and ululating from members of the city’s Sudanese congregation with their leader, Rev. Amos Manga, drumming away in the background. They danced their way up the aisle at the centre of the room before performing at the front while other Sudanese danced and chanted from within the audience. According to the Sudanese priest, who was ordained in a widely reported ceremony in Oulu Cathedral last June, all of the songs that they performed were ‘about Jesus.’
The Sudanese spectacular was followed by a group of middle-aged Finnish mothers performing Middle-Eastern dances. The crowd became particularly excited about this light-heartedly erotic display with camera flashes continuously going off throughout as the ladies performed in their ornate costumes. There were then a number of performances by children from the city’s ‘English Language Club.’ This included gymnastics, dancing, singing songs about mothers and various Finnish songs and the reading of a poem in Finnish, by a particular Iraqi girl, about how fantastic mothers are. One mother from Turkmenistan commented on how much more ‘happy’ the foreign performances were than the Finnish violin and piano tunes, most of which were fairly sombre.
Advising Immigrants
After the performances finished, people socialised over coffee and a rather nice strawberry and raspberry cake in the foyer of Villa Victor. The area is decorated with various examples of ethnic art and aims to allow immigrants to come and socialise and relax – there are newspapers, magazines and internet facilities.
In addition, there are other services such as health advice. Even the toilets contained posters telling immigrants that they should remember to wash their hands after using the facilities and that they should remember to use deodorant when they sweat.
‘What are you supposed to do?’
Shahnaz Mikkonen, the event co-ordinator, came to Finland from Iran in 1972. She felt that the event was important because, ‘Many people don’t celebrate Mothers Day as they do in Finland so it’s nice for them because otherwise they wouldn’t get a party like this.’ Mrs Mikkonen disagreed with the view that Multiculturalism is a left wing ‘ideology’ – a view expressed in the Kaleva letters column on various occasions. ‘It’s just nice to bring different cultures together,’ explained Mrs Mikkonen, ‘so we can share with each other and get to know each other through music and celebration.’ In response to those who claim that Multiculturalism has failed she added, ‘It depends how you handle it.’
She felt that mixing cultures was inevitable and the only way it could be stopped was if foreigners were simply prevented from coming to Finland. ‘What are you supposed to do? People are going to come,’ she said. ‘Why should only white people be allowed to travel?’ She said that as immigrants are in Oulu they should be helped ‘so that they can integrate and go to work and become well-educated.’ Her ‘hope’ was that ‘events like this’ could lead to better integration and ‘more tolerance’.
And she added that the Finnish gene-pool is very ‘homogenous’ which leads to ‘sickness’. ‘Letting people in will mean a better genetic future for Finland!’ she smiled.
‘It doesn’t help them integrate’
However, not all sections of the city were supportive of the event. According to Veli-Pekka Kortelainen, the leader of the Oulu branch of the anti-EU party ‘True Finns’ which has five Members of Parliament, ‘An event like that doesn’t help people to integrate into Finnish culture. It helps them to integrate into a kind of mixed salad, multicultural culture but not into Finnish culture.’ He added, ‘It’s a nice idea but all it really does is help minorities to get along with each other . . . not with other Finns’.
‘Multiculturalism is about looking to other cultures for ideas,’ he claimed, ‘but forgetting about the qualities of our own culture. ‘If someone asks, ‘What value does being a Finn have?’ you should ask them, ‘What value does having your own personality have rather than just being like other people?’
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