Europe must hang her collective head in shame!

Scattered across Europe, with a language of their own and a distinct culture, they have been subjected for centuries to severe persecution, maltreatment and harassment.  It all culminated with the Holocaust, in which they were systematically exterminated.  But in today’s Europe, they still face racism and discrimination.

Abducted? No. But taken away by racist "authorities"
from the only family she ever knew.

No, I am not talking about the Jews; I was referring to the Roma people. A recent incident should serve as a stern warning to those many Europeans (including large swathes of the European media) who harbour dark, foetid prejudice.  It should highlight the problem – and the need to urgently and decisively deal with it – to the European political leadership.  Let us not mince words; after all, this is “Politically-incorrect Politics” – not the BBC.  During a “sweep” (read: blanket house-search) by the Greek police, the cops noticed a four-year-old child; her blond hair contrasted with the complexion of her parents.  Questioned, the latter explained that the girl had been transferred to their care by her Roma mother.  But for racist policemen (and for many a racist media outlet) that explanation was suspect by definition.  Surely the Aryan-looking Maria, the “blonde angel” could not be the daughter of an “inferior race”, swarthy Roma mother.  And the only “reasonable” explanation was… that she had been abducted from her obviously Aryan parents.  Why “abducted”?  Well, because – for those who don’t know – that’s “what they do”.  That’s the anti-Roma version of the anti-Semitic blood libel.  Jews kill non-Jewish children; Gipsies abduct non-Gipsy children.  A slightly different accusation; the same medieval prejudice.

Demolished lives

So deeply entrenched is the prejudice, that the suspicion alone was enough for the police to arrest the couple and for the social services to take the child away from the only family she ever knew.  All this, while the no-less-prejudiced European media largely took the accusation at face value, with zero attempt to challenge it.  (What's the point in having a free press, I ask, if it's free to share the prejudice, rather than unmask it??  What's the point in having journalists if they see their role as conveying hearsay, rather than searching for the truth?)

It turns out that little Maria’s mother was Roma (and probably blond as well, as many Roma really are behind the dark veil of bigotry surrounding them).  It turns out that she gave the child into the other couple’s care, because she was unable to raise her.  And no wonder: throughout Eastern Europe, Roma are still severely discriminated against.  They are being continuously humiliated and are often subjected to verbal abuse and physical violence; they are socially ghettoised in pauper, derelict neighbourhoods; being discriminated in terms of employment, they are condemned to abject poverty and practically forced into either begging or stealing; their children are segregated in the worst schools, which perpetuates the problem ad infinitum.

Yes, end it NOW!

Not that Western Europe fares much better.  The authorities of the Dannish city of Helsingør decided (in the 21^st century!) to segregate Roma children in “special classes” in the city schools.  In Italy, mobs perpetrated pogroms against entire Roma camps, extracting “revenge” for crimes committed by individual Roma.  Germany has deported en-bloc 50,000 Roma asylum seekers from Kosovo.  They were kicked out after having spent more than 10 years in Germany; many were children born, raised and educated in Germany.  France (what happened to “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”??) deported so far circa 20,000 Roma, despite the fact that they were European Union nationals.  51 Roma camps have been demolished.  In the UK, Andrew MacKay MP stated in a House of Commons debate that “they [Roma and “travellers”] are scum”. It is time for all this to stop.  It is time to cast away shameful, Dark Age prejudices.  I have created a petition demanding that the European Commission designs and implements programmes aimed at fighting this reprehensible phenomenon.  If you feel the same, please sign it: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_antiRoma_racism/?copy.