Racist Crimes Continue to Increase
Published 31.07.2007, 10.30 (updated 31.07.2007, 10.31)


Racist crimes continue to increase in Finland. More than 700 racially-motivated crimes were reported to police last year. This may be just the tip of the iceberg, as experts say the vast majority of race crimes go unreported.

Racist crimes increased over the previous year, in which 699 crimes were reported. In earlier years, the number was fewer than 600.

Violent attacks or attempted assault has become the most common form of racist crime, accounting for over half of reported cases. Slander, threats, and vandalism are also on the rise.

Typically, racially motivated crimes occur at night, at bars and clubs. Most of the victims are actually Finnish citizens. Foreigners who come under threat are usually from Turkey, Somalia, or Iran. Three-fourths of victims are men.

The study, conducted by the Police College of Finland, considered racist crimes to be any illegal act which was at least partially motivated by the victim's ethnic background.

YLE


Is Resident Evil 5 Racist?
By: Avinash Bali | Aug 02,2007



Watching a white man slaughter hordes of black zombies may seem like harmless violent fun for most of us, but for conspiracy theorists it’s just another stupid conspiracy theory to sink their teeth in and here’s what one such blogger who writes for the Black Looks, a blog that deals with African women had to say:


The new Resident Evil video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing Black people. The Black people are supposed to be zombies and the white man’s job is to destroy them and save humanity. "I have a job to do and I’m gonna see it through."

This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young... fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.

So is Capcom racist on some level or is the author of that article smoking some seriously potent stuff?

Thanks to evil avatar for the heads up.


On music: Racist elitists? Tell that to the football crowd (From the Daily Telegrah)
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 02/08/2007



Why is classical music always taking the rap, asks Julian Lloyd Webber

'The main problem with classical music is its audience," complained Sean O'Hagan in The Observer. "Anyone who still thinks classical music is not elitist should take a look around them when they next take their seat at a live performance."

Citing the recent Prom when John Eliot Gardiner commandeered the services of the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble to play alongside his English Baroque Soloists, O'Hagan continued: "Even in the case of the surreally wonderful Soweto String Quartet (sic) the number of black performers exceeded the number of black audience members."

But why is classical music always taking the rap when that dread word "elitism" rears its peculiarly ugly head? Maybe some people would have a problem sitting next to the white, middle class and - by his own reckoning since he's attending a classical concert - elitist O'Hagan. Especially as he obviously needs to get out more.

To Glastonbury, perhaps, where this year's attendees were by all accounts 97 per cent white. Or maybe to a football match, where he will find "the number of black performers" regularly exceeds "the number of black audience members".

The truth is that black people still feel uncomfortable in large crowds of white people and white people still feel uncomfortable in large crowds of black people. No one is to blame but then no one enjoys being racially abused.

advertisementOnly recently I was astonished when a Chinese friend was taunted when we went to a football match together. So perhaps football - with its notorious emphasis on prawn sandwiches, sky-high ticket prices and dubious business practices - should assume the white, middle-class, elitist tag. Either way, to dump this social dilemma on to classical music is ludicrous.

Meanwhile, I can reassure both my Chinese friend and O'Hagan that they are far less likely to be racially abused in a concert hall than virtually anywhere else.

The love of music has nothing to do with the colour of your skin or the colour of your money. Last month I was privileged to open a children's centre in South London. A few tiny cellos had been thoughtfully provided and I will never forget the look (and the giggles) of sheer delight on the face of one little girl when she drew her bow across the strings and made a fabulous sound.

She was black, by the way (I didn't start this, O'Hagan did) and was obviously very talented but the chances of her being able to develop her ability are bleak: her parents - like many others regardless of colour - can't afford to buy an instrument or pay for lessons. This is a tale that can be told up and down the land and it's another social dilemma that can hardly be dumped on the music itself. In fact I reckon Beethoven would have been appalled.


"Pop Goes the Planet" screamed the front page of the Independent on Sunday - and they weren't wrong. BBC1's summer orgy of pop began with Glastonbury, continued with Live Earth and took in the Diana tribute concert at Wembley which, we were told, was a reflection of the Princess's taste in music.

How odd, then, that only a few minutes out of a concert lasting many hours managed to escape the tyranny of the beat. For Diana was a keen classical pianist. She was good enough to be able to sit down and play part of Rachmaninov's Second Concerto to a group of Australian schoolchildren on a battered old upright - a moment memorably captured on many a TV news broadcast at the time.

The Princess herself told me that the Rachmaninov was one of her favourite pieces of music and, sure enough, a CD of the concerto showed up on the list of Diana's personal effects during the Paul Burrell trial. A young pianist like the Chinese showman Lang Lang would have wowed that Wembley audience.

What a missed opportunity to show the world that, to Diana, music meant a lot more than being the Princess of Pop.