Paul writes:
>Gypsies chose to live on the fringes of society and one the whole have not
>become part of the society. It may not be clear what to do with them, but
>since they take great pride in stealing and crime as part of their
>culture (see my 20/20 news show posting),
>sending them someplace doesn't seem like an unrealistic idea.
>
>Paul
As an American citizen of Lovari (that is one group of Hungarian Gypsies)
descent it is interesting to, again, note the degree of anti-Roma feeling
out there.
I don't steal, none of my extended family steals. However, I'm a law student
so, one could argue, that in the future I might be guilty of even worse
behavior. :-) There are, approximately, 750,000 Gypsies in the U.S. so
Americans are less familiar w/ us than Hungarians because the population
density is more dilute. Perhaps that accounts for the focus on negative
behavior. What about those of us who are professionals: lawyers, doctors,
teachers, even ministers? We exist in the U.S. and in Hungary!
All Irish are drunks; all Hungarians are morose, suicidal drunks; all Gadze
(non-Roma) are filthy, sex-crazed murderers...... I'm cautious about people
as well, but not because of the group they belong to, be it a gender, race,
or religion.
Stealing is based upon social circumstances sometimes, but let's be sure
that we don't start confusing that with genetic criminality ideas that would
send me to the death camps along with those Gypsies who do steal.
Rebecca Tracy
OSU Slavic & East European Studies
e-mail
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Charles,
Sorry if I over reacted. I guess that to me the discussion did
have a lot to do with Hungary because when I grew up there the
government did all it could to indoctronate us with similar beliefs.
But that's in the past now, so - bocsa'natot ke'rek to~led.
Bara't?
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Andrew Wilshire wrote on 9/29 on behalf of a friend inquiring about "Germanic
settlers" moving to Hungary in the Middle Ages. Medieval German-speaking
im-
migrants to Hungary proper were called "sva'bok" [Swabians] in Hungarian, al-
though I do not know if they actually came from Swabia. Any good one-volume
history of Hungary, such as that by Paul Ignotus, will contain some information
about these settlers and their descendants.
Be'la Ba'tkay
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Be'la Ba'tkay wrote:
>Paul's response to my earlier posting re:Gypsies is beneath contempt. If
>his attitudes are a sample of what so-called "religious" people believe,
>I am ashamed to be counted among their number.
Not having read the post in question I have no opinion on it. However,
in his previous postings Paul Gelencser has consistently shown a lack of
factual knowledge and much racist paranoia. I very much hope
that he is not representative of anyone but a narrow stratum of society:
most "religious" people and Hungarians I know are certainly unlike him.
Attempts by members of this list to reason with him had no effect, and I
have ceased reading his posts. You may like to include him in your kill file.
George Antony
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