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The International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

2021-05-17 8:00

Member of the Espoo Equality Committee

Today is the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. Homophobia, transphobia and biphobia do not only occur in interaction between individuals, but also in the structures of our society. They are encountered in situations and places where members of these minorities may not be expecting them.

Present-day Finnish identity

2021-05-12 7:00

The chair of the Espoo Equality Committee

Mall of Tripla. Drive in COVID-19 testing. Life Science Center Keilaniemi. Over the last decades, quite a few anglicism, words derived from the English, have made their way into our daily vocabulary. Internationality has strongly increased and continues to grow. This can be considered as one reason for the increase of anglicisms, and loanwords have certainly entered the Finnish language in the pas

Right kind of man

2020-11-19 15:11

The writers are members of the Equality Committee

The writers are members of the Equality Committee and have been born in different decades. Today we celebrate International Men's Day.

Multilingualism builds our city

2020-11-06 12:12

Nicholas Kujala

Espoo has traditionally been a multilingual city. Languages and different cultures are an important part of Espoo’s identity. By celebrating the Finnish Swedish Heritage Day, we honour the fact that our country was built in two national languages, both of which have wonderful traditions. However, this is not all we have in common.

Congratulations to the UN for its 75th anniversary!

2020-10-23 14:55

Rauli Virtanen

The 75th anniversary week of the United Nations takes place in extraordinary conditions as the coronavirus pandemic has shifted the focus away from the headquarters in New York. Instead, the organisation’s efforts are being celebrated largely remotely through various events, webinars and exhibitions held around the world.
Despite the circumstances, there is of course cause for celebration sin

A healthy learning community and healthy students are in everyone’s interest – student welfare work at educational institutes belongs to everyone

2020-10-01 11:29

Saara Mustalahti, school social worker

Educational institutes from preschools to basic education and secondary education, which I will call schools in this blog post, are such a wonderful system in Finland; as a rule, all children and young people are studying. Our comprehensive school system, which strives for equal starting points and also achieves world-class learning outcomes, is admired globally. Our curriculum is based on a frien

Espoo services for refugees celebrates Pride-week

2020-09-07 15:41

Eeva Ström and Ursula Drake

Helsinki-pride week will be celebrated on September 7-13, 2020. Espoo services for refugees participates in this Pride-week celebration under the leadership of its LGBTQ task force. The LGBTQ, or as we call it, our Rainbow Task Force was established in the fall of 2019 when social care professionals wanted to come together to think about the challenges and opportunities of equal encounter and LGBT

Today is the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

2020-05-17 7:00

Aleksi Vesala

Today is the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. The day was conceived in 2004 to highlight discrimination and violence faced by homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, intersexuals and other persons belonging to the LBGT community.

Let’s get to know each other

2020-04-08 7:00

Paula Åkerlund

Today, 8 April, is International Roma Day. To celebrate the day, the Equality Committee was going to organise a public event at Entresse Library with the theme “Come, let’s get to know each other”. This event on 8 April would have been the first ever event to showcase Finnish Roma culture in Espoo. We had planned an event that would have enabled encounters, highlighted Roma culture and offered pl

Towards a political culture free from harassment

2020-03-19 7:00

Silla Kakkola

On 29 October 2019, Helsingin Sanomat reported that the debating culture at the Finnish Parliament has become brusquer. When taking the floor, the Members of Parliament speak more succinctly and make pointed remarks that are short enough to be reposted on social media. In the era of social media, tweet-like word games are entertaining for sure, but only for as long as they do not violate the princ

On the World Children’s Day, 20 November 2019

2019-12-02 9:11

Helena Allahwerdi and Pirkko Liikanen

Every child is entitled to a good, safe childhood. Adults are responsible for guaranteeing that this is possible. I know this, don’t I?

A few days ago I saw a group of children beating and kicking another small child, yelling: “You coward! You baby! We won’t play with you! No, no, no!”

I did nothing, I just walked on. I think I violated the rights of the child.

The proper man

2019-11-19 6:00

Ilona Mikkonen

In recent years, gender, especially gender stereotypes and the narrowness of the roles they offer for people, have entered the public discourse in Finland. This discussion has, of course, been very welcome, and will hopefully continue. Unfortunately, though, this discourse often focuses solely on the gender-related expectations placed on women, overlooking the fact that gender stereotypes and role

“You’re from Sweden? So you speak real Swedish?”

2019-11-07 10:49

Markus Söderman

This is what I may hear when I tell someone, in my slightly fumbling Finnish, that I am from Sweden and have only learned Finnish as an adult. I must, of course, emphasise that the Swedish I speak is as real as the Swedish spoken by the Swedish-speaking population in Finland.

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