September 27, 2015

"Hundreds of predominantly Iraqi migrants who have travelled through Europe to reach Finland are turning back..."

"... saying they don't want to stay in the sparsely-populated country on Europe's northern frontier because it's too cold and boring."
"You can tell the world I hate Finland. It's too cold, there's no tea, no restaurants, no bars, nobody on the streets, only cars," 22-year-old Muhammed told AFP....
Too cold, with the temperature only going up to about 50°, which is 10° colder than Iraq in the dead of winter, so the prospect of winter in Finland must be terrifying. The fear of a lack of crowds is harder to understand, but think about it. There are Americans who live in New York City who would be freaked out by Nebraska. Factor in the temperature change, and it's like moving an American man from Miami to North Dakota. He'd probably complain just like 22-year-old Muhammed.

59 comments:

Michael K said...

Did anyone mention Finland's welfare policy ?

Wilbur said...

Not many Finns wearing shorts,

But then, not many shorts-wearing Iraqi men either,

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I remember vaguely from those lectures on evolutionary psychology that they've actually got mapped the migration routes our ancestors took out of Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia many thousands of years ago.

I don't remember at all anything about how Finland figured into it.

iowan2 said...

He would complain like a 22 year old.

That's it. end of sentence.

I thought these were refugees that lacked basic food, clothing,shelter. They sound more like spoiled rich tourists.

But I kind of had that figured out

Michael K said...

"They sound more like spoiled rich tourists."

More like "The Man Who Came to Dinner." One was quoted in the European press as saying he was seeking "the best salary."

Michael said...

No, it would not be like "moving" a man from Miami to North Dakota. Like Mohammed the man from Miami would make the decision to move north on his own but unlike Mohammed the man from Miami would know that it is cold and sparsely populated in the north.

MadisonMan said...

If you are relocating to Finland, take a light box with you. The darkness is what gets to you.

Quaestor said...

Europeans, go to your nearest Prado or Max Planck Institute and kiss your Western Civilization good-bye.

Anonymous said...

no bars?

Iraqi?

Fritz said...

Beggars can't be choosers . . .

David Begley said...

Here in Nebraska, we have counties that are larger than some states. We have more cows than people. Good ahead and freak out.

Also bear in mind that Obama will legally admit 280,000 Muslims this year. The population of Lincoln, Nebraska is 258,000 when the Cornhuskers are not playing football at home.

wildswan said...

All we have to do is send them to North Dakota where there are lots of good jobs.

William said...

In a crowd of middle eastern migrants, the journalists always find the appealing child to photograph, but most of the migrants are rough looking men. From what I've read the Middle East has a robust rape culture--even worse in some respects than college fraternities. Best not to talk about it. Anyone who objects to the sudden arrival of thousands of immigrants in their culture is undoubtedly a bigot and racist. Very thoughtful of that one Finn to dress up in KKK robes to make the point.

CWJ said...

Yep. Refugees alright. Fleeing for their lives.

But Althouse need not worry about having to take them in. Winter's coming and I'm certain they'll find Madison too cold as well.

Ambrose said...

According to Google translator, the following is Finnish for "Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out."

Älä anna oven osua Butt matkalla ulos

JPS said...

"You can tell the world I hate Finland."

Wow. 22 or not, I think he owes his hosts, who didn't invite him, something more like, "They let me in here, no one's trying to kill me - I am grateful to be here."

In fact, he reminds me of something a friend in college said about our foreign classmates who liked to complain about America:

"It's not like they came here, lived and worked here, got their citizenship, then criticized. That's fine. But these guys - it's like crashing a dinner party and telling the host, Your wife's ugly and her cooking sucks!"

Paco Wové said...

"I'm certain they'll find Madison too cold as well."

They can all crash at Megan McArdle's place in D.C.

Jason said...

Military age male. If he's got all his limbs working, and he's not blind, either he's Daesh, or he should be fighting Daesh.

Send him back.

Titus said...

The thought of moving to Nebraska or North Dakota is horrifying.

I would rather die.

Charlie said...

Fritz: New rules. They get to be choosers BECAUSE they are beggars.

David Begley said...

Titus:

Come visit Nebraska. You would be very surprised.

CWJ said...

On a more sincere note, my Egyptian daughter from Aswan (far southern Egypt) was afraid her blood would freeze the first time it got down into the 40s. By late spring she was complaining about the heat (70s). You can get used to anything.

Annie said...

The EU admits that only one in five 'Syrian refugee' are actually Syrian. Most are of these migrants are young men.

They are invaders, shopping for the best welfare - already demanding things be their way. Just wait 'til they are fully unleashed amongst Europe's 'uncovered' daughters.....or as they like to call them, whores.

Freder Frederson said...

Come visit Nebraska. You would be very surprised.

I have visited Nebraska. I mostly agree with Titus. Although exile in Omaha or Lincoln would be (barely) preferable to death.

lgv said...

I think there is plenty of room in Antartica. Everybody shares it anyway. It would be the perfect safe haven. They could build their own society with Sharia law. It would work out well, since the women would be fully covered whenever they went outside. Other UN members will help pay for and deliver the tea.

Freder Frederson said...

The EU admits that only one in five 'Syrian refugee' are actually Syrian.

You really should provide a link to back this assertion.

chickelit said...

Titus said...
The thought of moving to Nebraska or North Dakota is horrifying.

What, too many hot sweaty male bodies (many of them brown) plumbing wells and capping gushers for you?

Freder Frederson said...

All we have to do is send them to North Dakota where there are lots of good jobs.

Correction. There were lots of good jobs a year ago. In case you hadn't noticed, the price of oil has dropped 50% over the last year. New drilling in North Dakota has all but ceased and the number of jobs has dropped by 12% since March. Unemployment is still very low but that is probably because those who get laid off probably leave that prairie wasteland asap.

Bob Boyd said...

"Yesterday marked 21 years since I arrived in Finland."
"Did you celebrate with a beer and a sausage?"
"No. I've become Finnish. I told no one. I sat in the dark in silence and thought about herrings."
"That's the spirit."

swiped from: www.expat-finland.com

bleh said...

These "refugees" should be in camps in neighboring Muslim countries where the weather is warm and the tea is flowing. I doubt cars are allowed inside the camp.

Sebastian said...

"turning back"

To Bavaria? Catalonia? The Riviera?

This won't be the last report on the pitiable "refugees" that shows them as calculating welfare shoppers.

Sure, the Euros have lost most of their self-respect, but maybe being played for suckers will rile them just a bit.

Skipper said...

Then why leave Iraq? Hmmm

Chuck said...

From elsewhere in that article:

"Muhammad was then asked where he'd like to go. 'Madsion would be nice,' he said, with a twinkle in his dark brown eyes. 'The bar scene is great in Madison, and for a Big Ten University, the chicks are amazingly hot.'

"Muhammad then continued; 'Ann Arbor would be okay, too. They've got a pretty aggressive Muslim community which I think I might like, as long as they let us go to the strip clubs near Detroit Metro Airport.'

"East Lansing would be pretty awesome, too," Muhammad was quick to add. 'Those women are crazy; crazier than Madison. I had a friend from Aleppo who grew up in Dearborn and got into Michigan State. We talked about 72 virgins at the Mosque and what he said was, dude, there aren't 72 virgins in all of East Lansing but the women there will blow your freaking mind.'

Muhammad was open to other possibilities, including Columbus and Evanston. But he drew the line at West Lafayette and Bloomington, in Indiana, saying that he would prefer Sweden, or the Netherlands, citing the active sex and hashish industries in Amsterdam and Stockholm. Muhammad ended the interview with a question to this reporter; 'Dude what do you know about Penn State? I don't even know what town that is; is it called State College, or College Town, or College Station or something like that? On YouTube, I saw some videos of parties there. Looked pretty cool.'"

BN said...

Crazy Horse was unavailable for comment. But I think I know what he'd say about this guy who came and left because of the weather.

BN said...

If Finland won't come to Muhammad...

Big Mike said...

@Chuck, I trust Muhammad is aware that Champaign, IL, and Lincoln, NE, are surrounded by hog farms and he'll be expected to eat bacon.

Bill said...

A woman I worked with years ago moved from Hong Kong to Tucson to get married. When her parents came to visit the first thing they asked was "Where IS everybody?!"

CatherineM said...

Just google refugees complaining and you get videos like this: http://youtu.be/05TXz8AUQVY

And this http://youtu.be/G6JuHuCOpPE

It's cold, the clothes aren't enough and...slow internet.

YoungHegelian said...

... It's too cold,...

Somehow, Europe always fools people about how far north it is. For example, Chicago is the same latitude (41 deg) as Barcelona, Rome & Istanbul!

If it wasn't for a lucky alignment of oceanographic features, Europe (especially northern Europe) would scarcely be habitable at all!

Birches said...

My uncle served a mission to Finland in the 70s. He's Mexican, though not very dark at all, yet the Fins called him a n----- all the time. They'd never actually seen someone as dark as he was. He remembers fondly a couple of kids starting a chant one day on the bus, "N----- go home! N----- go home!" I wonder how much has changed in 40 years.

Anonymous said...

Lord I love the Finns. Read a little history of the Winter Wars both one and two fought against the Russian invaders when Stalin thought those reindeer herders would be easy to roll over. One Russian soldier remarked that it was as if the generals had purposely planned on getting as many of their own men killed as possible. When they weren't being shot they were freezing to death. Companies of Finnish soldiers would dig tunnels through the snow and pop up in the middle of Russian camps with deadly results to the unsuspecting Russians.

When the Finns decided enough was enough they ceded some territory to, "the neighbor," their term for Russia, and warned them not to come back. They then told Hitler to pound sand when he tried to enlist them in his invasion of Russia. The Finns are a proud independent people.

As to the matter of letting all these young male refugees into Europe and the US I would like to point out that when the Emigrant Aid Society of Massachusetts was sending settlers to Kansas to pack the ballot box to vote Kansas as a free territory (history now repeating itself or rhyming?) Missourians (Border Ruffians) would stop parties of migrants who did not have women with them and turn them around the thought being, no women, no real commitment to the new home.

jimbino said...

The Finns need to drag some Muslims into a sauna then flog them with branches.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

They could stampede into Mecca. Or they could just die; I'd be fine with either way.

JPS said...

Young Hegelian:

"Europe always fools people about how far north it is. For example, Chicago is the same latitude (41 deg) as Barcelona, Rome & Istanbul!"

Somewhere in Nabokov's works a transplanted European in the northeastern US shivers against a winter wind and remarks, "And this at the latitude of Palermo!"

I've had the converse experience of burning my feet on hot sand, admiring the palm trees, and realizing I was at the latitude of Vermont.

Tim said...

North Dakota doesn't want them to come either. Titus and Freder are welcome to the pleasant confines of the blue run cities. Just hope the "rubes" don't cut off your food or power.

Freeman Hunt said...

During freshman orientation many years ago a new friend from Ethiopia asked if it was going to get "colder than this." It was about seventy degrees, and he was wearing a sweatshirt.

"Oh, I am so sorry to tell you..."

Completely unrelated: His country gave him a real gold watch for academic achievement before he headed off to college.

Dr.D said...

There is a solution, doncha know? The could always go back where they came from.

Maybe the saying will catch on among the muzzies,

"There's no place like home"

referring, of course, to their sandboxes.

The Godfather said...

I'm interested in terminology (as I think @Althouse is, also). Migrant. Immigrant. Refugee.

My understanding has always been that a migrant is someone who temporarily moves from one place to another, typically for a job. Mexicans who move to the US to harvest crops are migrants. At the end of the season, they return home.

An immigrant is someone who moves from one place to another with the purpose of staying permanently or indefinitely -- like my ancestors who moved to the US from Ireland or Germany in the latter half of the 19th century, or those ancestors who came here from England in the 17th century.

A refugee is someone who moves from one place to another because of some disaster or other crisis in the place where he used to live, which makes that place intolerable. A refugee hopes that when the crisis passes, he will be able to return home. So the residents of New Orleans who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina were refugees.

Surely some of the camp-of-saints moving into Europe from the Middle East and North Africa are refugees, but they won't be able to return to their homes until peace is established in their home countries. Given that neither the US or Europe shows any particular interest in dealing with the forces that made the Middle East and Africa intolerable for them, the refugees aren't likely to be able to go home, so they should be called immigrants.

The people crossing the US southern border seem to be looking for a better life, not fleeing some temporary catastrophe, and certainly not seeking merely seasonal work. They are also immigrants.

Thus, the descriptions of these masses of people as refugees and migrants is clearly wrong; they are immigrants. In deciding how to deal with them, we ought to call them by the right name.

tim in vermont said...

Shouldn't the bakers in Vienna be sounding the alarm about now?

eddie willers said...

'The bar scene is great in Madison, and for a Big Ten University, the chicks are amazingly hot.'

Watching the Florida game yesterday, I was glad Brent Musburger was elsewhere.

His drool would have shorted the mic.

chickelit said...

The Godfather wrote: I'm interested in terminology (as I think @Althouse is, also). Migrant. Immigrant. Refugee.

Then you might be interested in my brief comparison of the terms in German and English: link

Clyde said...

It appears that beggars CAN be choosers.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

“Officials in Giessen have taken to warning their own citizens not to go out alone at night. Near the local school they have suggested that women and children not leave their homes dressed in a ‘provocative’ style that exposes too much skin because of the assaults taking place.

What's an SJW to do?

n.n said...

The world grows ever smaller and dangerous while ignoring causes and profiting from the treatment of symptoms.

SukieTawdry said...

I propose we assign a travel consultant to each migrant/immigrant/refugee who can match him/her to the climate/amenities of his/her choice.

eric said...

Why do so many Somali's live in Minnesota?

hawkeyedjb said...

“Officials in Giessen have taken to warning their own citizens not to go out alone at night. Near the local school they have suggested that women and children not leave their homes dressed in a ‘provocative’ style that exposes too much skin because of the assaults taking place.

"What's an SJW to do?"

It's ok to blame the victim, as long as she's a victim of Islam.

Gahrie said...

Why do so many Somali's live in Minnesota?

Because even Minnesota is better than Somalia.