Czech Roma persecuted: Canadian government study »
Posted By gamahuche 4 months, 3 weeks ago in Political News
Incidents of members of the Roma minority in the Czech Republic being firebombed, turned away from restaurants and refused housing by landlords are contained in a fact-finding report released in Ottawa Monday.
The report by the Immigration and Refugee Board also noted that in May, the Czech government was considering a ban on two extremist political parties after the broadcast of a National Party video on Czech television which called for "the final solution" to the Roma "question."
The report was released two weeks after the Canadian government re-imposed a visa requirement on Czech citizens to reduce the flow of Roma — once known as gypsies — claiming refugee status in Canada. It was the second of two reports from the March 23-31 fact-finding mission.
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gamahuche
"I would rather be a square peg than fit in a pigeon hole" -
an essay which won me the "Lamb Essay Prize" at the Religious ...
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gamahuche4 months, 3 weeks ago
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The Canadian government is between a rock and a hard plce over this issue. While the Roma are definitely undepriveleged and discriminated against in the Czech lands in all the ways that are described in the article, they are also quite "other" than the white population here and will be quite conspicuous in Canada also. For the most part they live together in extended families, somewhat tribally, and are not integrated in Czech society. Its hard to make definitivee judgments about whether that is by choice or necessity.The number of English speakers will be very low; the number of French speakers virtually nil.
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As a country which supports human rights the Canadians will be tested if they open the doors wide and admit a large number of Roma - and branded hypocritical and discrimatory if they don't. Many Roma might well find that Canada is not an ideal home either and seek to be repatriated.. I am sympathetic to all the parties involved and present this story as a moral and ethical challenge. -
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david_nwpa4 months, 3 weeks ago
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The Roma are to the Czech Republic as the Yelnish are to Switzerland. The discrimination against them has been rampant for centuries. In the case of the Yelnish, the Swiss had a policy at one time of separating their families. The men would be conscripted into the military; the women sent to convents and homes for wayward women. Their children would be removed and sent to orphanages. If the children were old enough, they would be used as slave labor. It is from the Swiss model, which did not end until the 1960s, that Nazi Germany developed many of its ideas on persecution.
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The Roma might be better suited in another country for their safety, but perhaps somewhere other than Canada would be preferable. This example serves as another reason to fix US immigration law. -
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Charlson4 months, 3 weeks ago
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Discrimination against "gypsies" or Roma has endured for centuries. They have been persecuted for being outside of societal control and their nomadic lifestyle can be a contributing factor in continuing these discriminatory practices. They have been associated with traveling circuses and carnivals and criminal activities associated with these groups. They also resisted integration in the general populations of nations and see themselves as a nomadic nation separate from others. The US has it's share of Roma. Great article gamahuche.
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Dionys4 months, 3 weeks ago
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We also have to remember that a good number of Roma were executed along with the Jews by Hitler and his crowd. People always seem to forget the persecution of Roma and homosexuals by Hitler and remember only that the Jews were horribly persecuted and murdered.
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earthlingerer4 months, 3 weeks ago
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Some people think they have a "divine right" to live without passports, birth certificates, or real jobs. They instead choose to illegally cross international borders, illegally build homes/shelters, and in many cases, live in separatist communities known by the authorities for drug crimes, as well as property crimes.
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A recent governmental survey of a local Roma tabora where I live turned up the fact that not a single woman in the community stated or could prove any present or past form of employment.
Roma (gypsies) undertake special means to continue their "way of life" despite the fact that it is illegal. Underage marriage is just the tip of the iceberg. Illiteracy is also another problem.
As far as the Roma go, you reap what you sow.-
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Dionys4 months, 3 weeks ago
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Some people think they have a "divine right" to place their borders on other people by forcing passports or their idea of what constitutes a "real job" onto other people. They choose to illegaly occupy land once occupied by others, illegally build homes/shelters that destroy the land they're placed on, and in many cases, live in fenced-in separatist communities known by the authorities for being intolerant of people who don't "fit the mold."
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Yippies undertake special means to continue their "way of life" despite the fact that it is oppressive, forces a narrow cultural interpretation of "what is good" upon others and forces people to live trying to "keep up with the joneses." Rampant, violent and destructive consumerism is just the tip of the iceberg. Illiteracy is also another problem, as is voting Republican.
As far as "manifest destiny" goes, you reap what you sow. -
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canadianrancher574 months, 3 weeks ago
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Even if the Canadian government allows Roma to enter Canada it is hard to say if they will make a better life because of it, it seems odd that in this day and age the tag of gypsies will still follow them and they will still be the people on the wrong side of the tracks.
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Many years ago there were a group of what were called gypsies move into our area and some of them were able to get part time work at very low paying jobs, but when a family, or a group of families, needs money to live on and only part time work can be obtained it seems the reality of having to steal to provide come true.
In the many years that have passed I have now seen other groups that have sort of lived like the gypsies to survive but have not been faced with the tag of gypsie, some of these people have been from Pakistan and also Vietnam, although they usually don't come to the real small centers they are in most larger centers and seem to eventually get there feet under themselves.
Isn't it sad how putting a name tag on a group (and that includes other groups)forces them to live a life filled with prejudice and hatred.
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