Thursday, August 27, 2009

Nobody cares about Gypsies

When I was a kid, my mother used to threaten me when I was bad, telling me the gypsies were going to come and kidnap me. I used to wish they would. Not really down with the alleged thievery but otherwise I loved the idea of traveling around the world in a wagon and camping out and dancing and singing around a campfire. And the fortune telling. I wanted to be a fortune teller.

I had no idea they still suffered such a bad reputation all these decades later but apparently, people still believe the worst about them. Madonna was booed in Romania when she spoke out against gypsy discrimination. I'll never understand mass bigotry. [graphic]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

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4 Comments:

Blogger Capt. Fogg said...

I would never make the mistake of thinking bigotry went away in Eastern Europe just because of WW II. In fact it's been kept alive by the Soviets who were always happy to cultivate scapegoats.

There is some legitimate concern about some aspects of their society, like being anti-literate and sending small children out to beg, but there's more to the hate than that I think.

If you can find a movie called Latcho Drom (it's not easy) you'll find a gorgeous and very sympathetic film. Well worth the search.

4:02:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

I think I may have seen that many years ago. I don't recall the movie though. It would be worth searching for. Thanks for the reminder.

5:07:00 PM  
Blogger Capt. Fogg said...

It's all music, do dialog.

10:47:00 AM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

Oh that does sound familiar. I'm going to try to find it.

12:28:00 PM  

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