Re: Not very far from the truth.. But at least the Jews have a distinct language, religion, and cultural history which defines them as a nation.
All right... So, I'm sure you'd support a UN resolution granting Europe's Gypsies a piece of Euroland, wouldn't you?
We'll give Gypsies (another Holocaust victim, btw) Transmoldavia, in the heart of Europe, and ask the US to supply the new country with all the weaponry necessary to secure it against hostile, barbaric Europeans who wouldn't hesitate to drive our worthy, beloved Gypsies to the sea... the Black Sea, that is. Fair enough?
UN reports Gypsy plight
Peter S. Green The New York Times
Friday, January 17, 2003
PRAGUE Gypsies throughout Central and Eastern Europe are falling into poverty at levels closer to those in sub-Saharan Africa than the rest of Europe, and most government policies have little chance of improving the situation, according to a report issued Thursday by the United Nations Development Program.
The report studied the Gypsies, or Roma, as they prefer to be called, in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, where they are "the poorest of the poor." Unless action is taken before these countries join the wealthy European Union, the Gypsies may become a permanent underclass, according to the UN study.
Among its most alarming findings were that many Roma often go hungry, that one in six is "constantly starving," and that one in five Gypsy families did not send their children to school for lack of decent clothing. Just one-third of Gypsies surveyed had completed studies at high school or vocational school.
"By measures ranging from literacy to infant mortality to basic nutrition, most of the region's Gypsies endure living conditions closer to those in Sub-Saharan Africa than to Europe," said the report, entitled "Avoiding the Dependency Trap." According to the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest, there are between 6 and 8 Million Gypsies across Europe, the majority in former Communist states.
The report blames the Gypsies' problems partly on their own communities and partly on the very systems of education, labor and economic and social development which are often imposed on them from above, and which fail to serve their real needs.
"All these causalities form a system leading to exclusion," the report said.
iht.com |
