Instead of training/hiring those best qualified, we get this, because, you know, minorities just can’t identify with white ethnic Finns whose country they choose to live in.
By default they’re implying that minorities are in fact bigoted or even racist, and unable to learn the basic rudiments of Finnish.
Diversity in emergency services
The lead item in Monday’s Metro freesheet is the news that the City of Helsinki is pushing to achieve more ethnic diversity on its teams of first responders.
Helsinki City’s Rescue School has just issued an invitation to apply for its programme that includes a note of special encouragement to applicants of multicultural origins and to women.
The students accepted will be trained as safety experts qualified for work in accident and emergency prevention, preparedness, civil defence, rescue operations and medical first response.
Metro quotes the school’s head of development, Marko Seppä, as saying that the aim is for the demographics of emergency services to better reflect the diversity of the city’s population. He added that bringing more diversity into the force can be of practical value in, for example, dealing with foreign-language speakers. Also, he noted, in some medical response situations, patients may feel more comfortable being aided by a female paramedic.
The Rescue Department’s chief communications officer, Taisto Hakala told the paper that it is important for first responders to understand the people that they serve and that, “Our legally mandated job is to provide safety services to everyone, be they ethnic Finns, tourists or undocumented migrants.”
Applicants for the programme are required to speak Finnish.
“Our operative language is Finnish, so knowledge of Finnish is necessary to avoid risks to those we are helping and for our own safety, even under the most critical circumstances,” explained Marko Seppä.
