One Step Ahead Of The Hounds

Rabid Racism and White Europe

(Image via AP/Vadim Ghirda)

When African American slaves were on the run they had to keep out of sight and hide from the white population of the American South. But it wasn't just the hate filled eyes of their would be masters that the runaway slaves had to avoid, they also had to cover up their scent and trail. Bounty hunters would often deploy dogs to chase down fugitive slaves. Their packs of foaming mouthed hounds could pick up the slightest smell of a fleeing slave without so ever being in sight of the fugitive. Once on the trail the dogs would release a call to their master. This baying tell the ruthless hunter that their human prey was just down the path a little ways. And once the dogs were on the heels of the fleeing slave the game was about up.

Extreme prejudice was used once a slave was taken back into custody. Whips, chains, and torture were all used to subdue the spirit of the victim. The desire to crush the "rebelliousness" of the victim was the main priority of the slave owner. It was the necessity to break the desire for freedom that kept the whip so close at hand. Yet it was that very same desire for freedom that led the slave to run away time and time again.

Mankind is made with a desire to live free. It is an intrinsic part of our natural state that no matter how grotesquely oppressed it may become the desire for freedom always finds an outlet. Against all odds, against all obstacles, the longing we have for liberty finds a path out of our minds and into reality.

For the Roma of Europe the desire to live in a land of liberty cannot be denied. For this desire they risk physical abuses of all sorts. For this desire they risk death at the hands of radical hate groups. For this desire they cross border after border as they flee the oppression that has long kept them captive in Eastern Europe. For the Roma this desire for freedom was stoked with the ascension of their respective homelands to the union with Western Europe. It was with this hope that many have moved Westward.

The migration of poor communities to countries where economic growth is taking place is not a new concept. It occurred in waves of immigration here in the United States. The Midwest was essentially built by the first waves of immigrants seeking the benefits of America's economic boom. Yet Western Europe, currently in a state of stagnation, seems to think it is somehow immune to this natural desire of all mankind.

Extreme poverty is a form of slavery in the aspect that it keeps a people in bondage to the monotony of simply surviving from one day to the next. Given a glimpse of hope, even if it is what we call poor in the West, those kept in the chains of such poverty will always take the chance at running. For these runaways the end reward is a better future for their children. For these runaways the light ahead is a life lived with less hunger and less want. Yet for these refugees the dogs don't seem to nip at their heels till they arrive at what they once viewed as freedom.

Roma have always lived in France, Germany, England, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe. Their numbers in these countries have increased with each economic downturn due to the need for cheap labor in semi-free markets. Agricultural outfits have for decades utilized the Roma community as near slave labor as they utilize the desperation of Europe's most discriminated against ethnic group. So it is unlikely that we can write-off the latest upward tick of xenophobic attitudes across Western Europe to a make-believe "influx" of Roma from the East.

Yet in places like France this portrayal of the Roma, as invading Mongol hordes, is catching traction amongst both politicians and hate groups alike. The dogs that the Roma have to run away from lay in wait in the National Front and amongst the right wing politicians. The rabid response to the propaganda these organizations create is an ever increasingly racist France. By telling the same lies that Hitler did over a long enough time without relent these politicians have garnered support amongst their rage filled base. And in addition they have planted the seeds of for their bitter harvest.

One politician in particular has done more to rally the dogs of France in recent days then MP Gilles Bourdouleix. While visiting a Roma encampment Mr Bourdouleix told a reporter in regards to the Romani, "Maybe Hitler didn't kill enough of them." It wasn't till the media took the story and ran with that Mr Bourdouleix decided that his words were perhaps "poorly chosen". And yet the French MP didn't redact his words, no; instead Mr Bourdouleix decided to blame the reporter for the story and claimed he had been "misquoted".

An American would expect that a politician who openly used such hate speech would be dragged out of office by his own party. But the French didn't seem too eager to bring out the guillotine. Instead they seemed reluctant to denounce Mr Bourdouleix. Some might say that the French politician is receiving a relative slap on the wrist for his statement. Even though Europeans will be commemorating the Porajmos (The Devouring or the Romani Holocaust) on August 2nd, Mr Bourdouleix's comment was then repeated as an opinion poll on a popular French news website. One can only guess from our side of the pond how the French voted in such a poll.

So lets take a moment and pretend that Mr Bourdouleix's view of the Roma is even remotely viable. Let us take a look at what the Romani people would be fleeing from in the East if they are really "invading" Europe....

In Slovakia the citizens of the town Kosice have erected walls to "keep the Roma out". However the concrete walls in effect have created a massive ghetto that confines the Roma within. The claimed purpose of the wall drastically contradicts the actual purpose it serves for the "settled" citizens of Kosice. And that is to keep the Roma in one place where they can easily be attacked or gathered. Either scenario is far more sinister than the purported goal of keeping the Roma segregated (an already devious objective).

Across the rest of Slovakia the more discrete methods of segregation are institutionalized. Slovakia does not allow Roma to be in the same schools (if in schools at all) as the non-Roma citizens. Roma are run out of cities and villages alike by Slovakian police. Politicians in Slovakia use even more racially tainted slurs than French politicians. And vigilantism amongst Slovakian civilians is far worse than in France (though in 2012 French citizens did take to burning out Roma camps).

Then you factor in the abuses Roma face from Slovakian government directly. In recent years the European Roma Rights Center has documented 200 cases of Romani women who were forcibly sterilized by the Slovak government. In many cases the Slovak government obtains coerced signatures of their victims by either sedating the victim or operating first and offering consent forms afterward. In most cases the government does not fully depict what has been done until the woman finds out in a later exam. This very tactic of abuse would in any government indicate a state sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing. Yet Slovakia denies every case due to the coerced signatures they obtain under duress.

"While I was on the operating table and under anesthesia, the doctor gave me some papers to sign. I asked what it was and he told me that it was 'something about the child'. I was not able to read what was on the paper because I was not fully conscious at the time. I only found out later that I had signed consent to be sterilised and now I cannot have any more children."

~Roma Woman Forcibly Sterilized in Slovakia

So lets take a moment and pretend that racist like Bourdouleix aren't spreading hate about the Roma. How can we blame a people for moving West when the East has offered them only unmitigated suffering? How can we blame the Roma for attempting to flee decades of abuse at the hands of civilians, governments, and brutal armies and militias? Should the Roma be expected to stay in countries like Slovakia where they are subjected to abuse without legal recourse? Should they be forced to have their basic human rights stripped from them while they live in hellish conditions? Or should the Roma be permitted to seek refuge in the West?

It is not hard to see that the Romani people have suffered for centuries at the hands of bigots like this French politician. They have endured more hardship than any other European minority of our time. They died in the camps alongside the Jews and yet they are widely forgotten. It was the Roma who bore the brunt of socialism's wrath. It was the Roma who were silently sacrificed to the purges of Communism. The other victims have had their names recorded. The other victims have had their stories told. Yet it is the Roma who are forgotten to history and forced to live beyond the realm of modern day Europe's prosperity. They are a people that have clung to existence by holding onto the fringe of Western society.

So why now that we have accepted the tolerance we so proudly boast about that the Roma still cling to the edge of our so called enlightened society? How can we, the Western world, accept this sort of deplorable segregation and institutionalized discrimination?

It is obvious when stepping away from the mainstream and looking in that the gap between the Roma and the rest of society has not shrank. Slurs for the Roma still are used like the word nigger was used in the dirty south. Portrayals of Roma in the media are still just as derogatory (if not more so) than they were during Hitler's reign. Pop culture has romanticized the Roma to the point that their image of the Roma is more vile than even some Medieval caricatures of the them.

If this gap is to be closed society must stop projecting upon the Roma what we would wish them to be and accept the Roma for who they truly are. We cannot expect the Roma to assimilate to the point of surrendering their culture (if at all). Instead our societies must take pride in the differences between us and celebrate the Roma culture for all it is and not just the parts we find favorable.

As for our governments, they must be forced to implement programs designed to integrate Roma into society. These programs must combat the segregation of Romani from schools (either forcibly or through "white flight"). They must combat hiring processes that would discriminate against the Romani in both Eastern and Western Europe. And they must desegregate housing across Europe and bring Roma out of ghettos and slums and offer humane living conditions for both Roma and non-Roma citizens.

These are not suggestions in all reality but rather demands for a civilized society. Without these the West cannot claim that we are free and open societies but rather repressive regimes in which "separate but equal" is accepted over "justice for all".

Want to learn more about Roma in Europe? 

Follow us on Twitter: @Alders_Ledge

Follow us on Facebook: Alder's Ledge

Source Documents
(Note: not all sources listed)

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/world/europe/roma-children-kept-separate-and-unequal.html?_r=0

Eurasia Review
http://www.eurasiareview.com/13072013-hindus-want-end-to-walls-separating-roma-in-slovakia/

Mint Press News
http://www.mintpressnews.com/french-politicians-racist-remarks-tap-growing-xenophobic-sentiment-in-europe/165928/

Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-republic-neo-nazis-attempt-pogrom-on-roma-commit-arson-nine-injured-28-arrests
-
http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/who-will-be-chosen-as-the-greatest-hero-fighting-injustice-unfair-treatment-and-wrongs-in-the-czech-republic-people-can

France 24
http://www.france24.com/en/20120928-marseille-residents-force-out-roma-gypsy-burn-camp-france-valls-sarkozy-repatriation

Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/gilles-bourdouleix_n_3639606.html

New Europe
http://www.neurope.eu/article/french-deputy-condemned-over-anti-roma-remarks

European Roma Rights Center
http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/file/slovakia-country-profile-2011-2012.pdf

Separate Is Never Equal

European Roma Still Face Apartheid
(Roma In Europe series)

(European Union Member States Continue To Segregate Roma Children In The Classroom)

The foundation for a better future in any society is found through education. In a world where we are rapidly being reduced to the sum of what our degrees and diplomas say we have achieved there really is no other way forward. Regardless of our own determination and personal ingenuity the world around us views us through paper work. If an portion of our society is thus kept from having access to even the most basic levels of education they are therefore kept from the vast majority of what our society has to offer.

Would we elect government officials that were kept from graduating even the most preliminary levels of education? Would we trust a doctor to treat our ailments if he/she was never able to go to medical school? Would we believe a teacher if he/she had never even been to any form of upper level education?

It is a common trend amongst unskilled labor, the backbone to our economy, that many are placed in those roles due to a lack of education. We may rather enjoy believing that everybody has access to education at any level if they simply apply themselves. This provides us an excuse to look down upon the grocery clerk while ironically they make our daily lives possible. It gives us the ability to stare down our noses while the sun beats down upon the construction workers that slow us down in our daily commutes to our so called prestigious jobs. But what if we knew the stories of these people, if we knew what obstacles they had to overcome, we might look at the systems our society flaunts in a different light.

For some of the most neglected members of our society the story that they start with almost immediately erases the opportunities we take for granted. Personal choice becomes less of a reason for their place in society as society itself begins to hijack those said choices. In the case of the Roma in Europe this hijacking can be summed up as blatant discrimination on the part of governments, local communities, and the society in which the Roma live.

Centuries of looking down upon the Roma as a permanent underclass (or outsiders) has left a systemic discriminatory perception about who the Roma people are. It has left the very name Roma, or gypsy, a sort of slur in and of itself in European society. When someone feels cheated they say they have been "gypped". When a stranger appears to be poorly dressed and unkempt they are flat out referred to as a "gypsy". And then there is the romantic prejudices of the Roma as being fortune tellers, witches, and symbols of bad luck. All of this has left a barrier that Roma people have had to climb over to reach the world that has attempted to go forward while leaving them behind.

Roma children in Europe are the first to notice this when it comes to the hallmarks of childhood. Instead of being allowed into the same school systems that other European children get to go to many Roma children are forced to either attend schools designed solely for Roma or take classes designed for the mentally handicapped. In Greece this has been more evident than in other European states. When schools were built in Sofades (a town comprised of roughly half Roma citizens) the Roma who were closer to schools catering to "Greek" children were told they had to go to schools farther away. The reason: these children were Roma, and Roma children are not allowed to attend school with other children in Greece. Plain and simple discrimination on the basis of ethnicity.

“It’s shameful that, despite three separate European Court rulings now, Greece has failed to change its ongoing discrimination against Romani schoolchildren and the flagrant violation of their right to education,” said Jezerca Tigani, Deputy Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International. 

Last year countless European courts took up the issue of Roma children's rights to an equal education in European schools. These court decisions were considered historic since they for the first time addressed the long upheld discrimination by European society against the Romani people. In many ways these courts took upon the same fight that American schools had been forced to do when they desegregated schools and allowed black and white children to be educated side-by-side. Yet that is a point that European nations tend to avoid since they were supposed to be the leaders in ending slavery, segregation, and all that "old world" bigotry.

Some might ask why we should talk about segregation while Romani families face violent attacks by racists (both in politics and in racist extremist groups) in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Some might ask why we should worry about school while Roma are still facing deportations from France, Germany, Italy, and other "developed" European countries in the West. And while these concerns are very pressing indeed, the open hostility in society at large is the basis for why these conditions exist in the first place. If we are to accept that children can be introduced to the idea that they are less than human from the start of their "education" then we accept that other children can be taught that the prior are the "them" in an "us vs them" scenario. It allows for the effects of discrimination to be imprinted upon the next generation while the one in control allows the cycle to persist.

"What startled me most of all was the unbelievable aggression, the hateful speeches, and the openly racist positions occupied at certain points by the loudest participants, male and female, from the special schools. These are the same people who meet disadvantaged Romani children and their parents every day. They are the very people who educate those children, " said Michaela Marksová-Tominová, Czech Shadow Minister for Human Rights and Equal Opportunities.

When hate is allowed to be the first taste of what a society has to offer for a child it becomes a lens through which that child will view the world in which he/she lives. While many can overcome this discrimination through hard work on their own part, many others cannot. It is an obstacle that chips away at what our society can be and will become. It destroys the foundation of a society for generation to come. Thus permitting the instability we have lived with thus far to persist into the world we leave behind for our children and grandchildren.

When we deny education to a child we aren't telling that child he/she can be anything that they can dream of. We tell that child that they aren't valuable in our society. We tell them that for as long as they are alive they will always be outsiders in our community. The denial of education (full, equal, and integrated)  is a method of oppression and rejection. It forces upon the next generation the prejudices of the previous generation. And for this reason it denies society at large the hope for a better future.

If Europe is to continue forward in its progressive views on what it means to be European they will have to come to terms with their past. Either they fully integrate the Romani people into European (accepting the differences and not forcing assimilation) or Europe admits that they are a society that accepts apartheid. For in a world where we claim that "all men are created equal" we can never expect that being kept separate be viewed as equality.


























Source Documents
(Note: not all sources listed)

Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/european-court-again-chides-greece-over-discrimination-against-roma-schoolchildren-2013-05-30

Open Society Foundation
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/roma-education-2013-time-europe-remedy-its-democratic-deficit

Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/artur-conka/roma-families-in-europe_b_3253404.html

Prague Daily Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2013/05/24/%C4%8Dr-fails-deal-segregation-romani-students-ai-report-says

West's Burmese Parrot Finds Her Own Voice

Just As Vile A Voice As Any Other Nationalist
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

(The Ironic Ideologue) 

Almost from day one of her imprisonment the outside world begged and pleaded for Aung San Suu Kyi to be released. Their misguided pleas were intended to help bring about the "democratic revolution" that the idealist believed Suu Kyi stood to represent. It was believed that universal human rights were right around the corner for Burma. And Suu Kyi was the poster child for the movement.

Well here we are today and Suu Kyi is released and free. She is an active participant in Burma's ruling party. Her voice is clearly heard in Myanmar as the voice of the people... or at least those whom Burma considers to be human beings. And for some time now she has been the voice of democracy in Burma for the outside world transfixed with her every move. 

For those who have been watching the Arakan region of Suu Kyi's country one would wonder where the democracy she speaks of is. Universal human rights are as far from reality for the Rohingya as food and water are. There is nothing human about the way Burma is treating it's native ethnic minorities... especially the Rohingya. 

So what does Suu Kyi think about Burma's Muslim minorities? 

Till recently Suu Kyi had parroted just what the West wanted to hear about the situation in the Arakan. During her visits tot he West she has been the polite pet of the Western governments as she collected her awards and spoke when told to do so. When watching Suu Kyi in her parades across Europe you could almost see how she mirrored just what her audience had projected upon her. In doing this, Suu Kyi's performance has been impeccable... much like other famous nationalists of days long past.

“A country must decide its citizenship for itself..."

~ Aung San Suu Kyi 

Suu Kyi recently responded to critics of her country's 1982 Citizenship Law in much the same way as her leader, Thein Sein, has in the past. Dancing around the phrases "mind your own business" and "shut-up", Suu Kyi made it clear that Burma's laws will only be made and decided upon by the Burmese. This has been state policy every since the law was made after all. 

On February 20Th, 2013 Deputy Minister of Immigration and Population Kyaw Kyaw Win told the Burmese Parliament that there was no such thing as a "Rohingya" minority in Myanmar. Leaders, such as Suu Kyi and Thein Sein, seem to agree since not one of them decided to make a rebuttal to the idiotic claim. In fact there has only been one government official (Shwe Maung) to even bother to correct the Minister of Immigration and Population (note who made the initial claim and his position in government). 

Suu Kyi's party took the opportunity to once again claim that the Minister of Immigration and Population was technically correct since Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya at all. This once again helped to solidify the fact that Suu Kyi herself does not disagree at all with Myanmar's current stance upon the genocide of the Rohingya people. Instead it points to the fact that Suu Kyi, much like the rest of her party, believes that the "stateless" Rohingya are simply illegal immigrants... no matter how long ago they may have "immigrated" to what is now modern day Myanmar. 

"We have to be very clear about what the laws of citizenship are and who are entitled to them."

~ Aung San Suu Kyi

It is this embed racism and bigotry that has helped fuel the complicity of Arakan state officials and Myanmar military leaders in the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya throughout Burma. It is the underlying reason that the ethnic violence has been allowed to spread from the Rakhine region on into the capitol city of Rangoon. And it is the reason that the Burmese government itself has no reason nor will to stop the violence that started in mid 2012. 

Suu Kyi's complacency in the genocide should show the West that as long as Burma is not forced to recognize that its actions (and inaction) are violations of international law then Myanmar will do nothing to correct its criminal behavior. In addition to this the fixation with Suu Kyi herself will forever show future and present war criminals that the West's (and international) affection can be bought. Her cult of personality shows that even genocide can be forgiven as long as the killer is willing to portray himself/herself in the light the world finds comfortable.

Suu Kyi's awards should have been revoked or withheld after the conflict began. It would not have been long before the world could had noticed that this "ethnic violence" was in fact ethnic cleansing. And had we not been so busy praising Suu Kyi, we would have noticed her lack of concern and complacency with the slaughter. 

If silence is as much a crime as doing the killing itself. Then Suu Kyi is a murder, not the victim.

Source documents 

(note not all sources are listed)

The Irrawaddy

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/27763

Democratic Voice of Burma

http://www.dvb.no/news/mp-hits-back-at-official-denial-of-rohingya/26571

French Roma Face New Porajmos

Socialism Helping Reconstruct Romani Holocaust

Over the last decade the European Union has been going through a stage of reconstruction. With new member states coming and some flirting with the idea of leaving the trade block has been under incredible stress. For the Roma of Europe this stress has helped increase the hate crimes targeted at them and their children. Yet surprisingly in the land of tolerance and multiculturalism, European authorities have been slow (if responding at all) in helping stem the tide of hate.

Over the years the socialist movement within Europe has often targeted the Roma since most members of society do not emphasize with the Romani. The most notable case would be the Porajmos under the Nazis. However in recent years the socialist have been just as capable of reconstructing the great devouring.

In 2012 France alone was able to deport at least 11,803 Romani. Rounding down, around 80 percent of these were forcibly removed according to the European Association of the Defense of Human Rights (AEDH). Most of these had their possessions burnt or destroyed by local authorities as their homes were bulldozed. President Francois Hollande was the man who pulled the trigger on each and everyone of these deportations... the socialist leader of France. 


"This is incredibly worrying and very disappointing given that Francois Hollande made a pre-election pledge to change the way the Roma were being dealt with in France," Victoria Vasey from European Roma Rights Center. "But it just looks like business as usual."

During August of 2012 the UN warned France that its deportations of Roma were in direct violation of the international human rights convention. However since the fall of 2012 the French leadership has ramped up their attempts to deport Romani. They continue to claim that these Roma are illegal immigrants from places either outside the EU or from member states right at the border of the trade block. Most are being sent to Romania and Bulgaria (members of the EU) since the citizens of these two countries are not legally allowed to travel within the EU without proper papers and passports. And since Romania and Bulgaria openly discriminate against the Roma, it is unlikely that the Roma will be given access to passports by local authorities.

To further complicate things the leadership under Hollande has joined with the Netherlands in an attempt to further regulate the terms of membership that Romania and Bulgaria currently enjoy. The long term goal appears to be the permanent ban on customs-free travel for Roma from Eastern Europe. This would allow the socialist in Western Europe to continue shipping off their own Roma to foreign countries from which they could not readily return.

For Roma in Eastern Europe the flood of deportees has only further exacerbated tensions between their community and their neighbors. In places like the Czech Republic these new arrivals have also helped fuel more and more hate crimes against all Romani within the country. These have included rapes, murders, and the burning and looting of Roma homes. Many of the crimes have been linked to the ever growing right wing movement in Eastern Europe.

But discrimination against the Roma does not stop in Europe when it comes to deportations. In recent months the Canadian government has begun its own attempts to deport Roma who arrived in North America due to violent oppression back in Europe. The first step in starting the Canadian deportations has already begun as Canada has openly told Hungarian and Czech Roma to stop applying for asylum. This move was meant to make it clear that Canada will no longer accept Roma who are fleeing violence and possible pogroms within Eastern Europe.

All of this makes it ever more difficult to understand just how France, Germany, and the UK expect Roma to live in countries like Romania and Bulgaria after being deported? The Roma of Eastern Europe have made it very clear that they need somewhere to turn to get away from Nazi style attacks on their homes and community. The wave of immigrants that France claims has occurred should be seen as a call for help rather than another reason to accept the idea of passing the "Roma problem" onto the next country in line.

This situation also leaves us asking why long term members of the European Union in Western Europe are not being pressured to stop deportations? Looking at the numbers of Roma immigrating from Eastern Europe compared to the numbers being sent back it should be obvious that France is deporting Roma who have lived in France for generations. The numbers simply point to the fact that the socialist government of France is deporting French Roma alongside immigrant Romani in an attempt to ethnically cleanse France of its native Romani population.

So where is the outrage amongst the supposedly bighearted Europeans? Or is the issue of human rights only a topic of discussion in Europe as long as it applies to Syrians or Congolese refugees?

Czech Nazis Ready To March

-

In past marches the Prague police have done little or nothing to stop the Czech Nazis from attacking Roma. DSSS party members (Workers Social Justice Party) have assaulted Roma men, women, and children. Their hatred knows no bounds.
-
With the world watching, DSSS plans to march on Chanov in the Czech Republic. Their goal is to show up in overwhelming force to scare off Roma families. In this way they are trying to replicate methods use by hate groups world wide. The KKK used this method to attack African American families in the United States.
-
A group in the Czech Republic has recently begun siding with the Roma cause. Hate Is No Solution, a human rights group, is planning to be at Chanov waiting for the DSSS march. They are the counter movement to the hatred rising in Czech society.
-
"Every time the Nazis have marched into Romani-inhabited localities in the past, they have broken the law. They shout harsh anti-Romani slogans and members of the Romani minority are often physically assaulted once the march is over," says Miroslav Brož of Hate is No Solution. "The greatest psychological burden of the Nazi marches is borne by Romani children. We believe these marches by Nazis chanting hateful slogans beneath the windows of their apartments will scar them for life."
-
And that is the side of fight Alder's Ledge falls in. The children of Chanov's Roma will be facing this wretched scene on April 7th. Their young eyes will be looking out their windows at a crowd of fellow Czechs who hate them.
-
These Nazis don't hate the children of Chanov personally. It isn't anything the little kids have done. It isn't because the children are criminals. It's because the Roma children were born to gypsy families. It's because they aren't white.
-
And that is why these sorts of marches should be shut down. The hatred that the National Resistance (Národní odpor) spews on it's website should be confined to it's online presence. Or at the very least, the march should be forced to be in a white neighborhood where Roma children wouldn't be present.
-

Yeniche

...The Other Gypsies.



-
Here at Alder's Ledge we focus primarily on the most at risk societies around the world. As for the "Gypsies", we almost always talk about the Roma community in Europe. However today we will be focusing on the Yeniche people and their lives in Western Europe.
-
The Yeniche have lived in Europe for as long as anyone can remember. Huddled around the Rhineland area of Germany their population has been targeted for extermination time and time again. Switzerland, up to the 1970's, used a system of separating parents from their children to attempt to destroy the nomadic culture.
-
Today it seems that the ever shrinking world, and the deterioration of European culture, is helping to achieve the Swiss goal.
-
According to current estimates the Yeniche people population is spread out as follows:
Germany 412,000
France 300,000
Italy 293,000
Netherlands 81,000
Hungary 60,000
Belgium 52,000
Austria 41,000
Belarus 11,000
Luxembourg 2,500
-
Note that Switzerland does not have a number to report or remains unwilling to record the Yeniche population currently residing within its borders.
-
Historically the Yeniche have claimed to be of Celtic origins. Their is no real proof of this claim nor is their proof that it isn't true. After all, nobody alive today knows what happened to the vast Celtic society or its peoples during its decline. Even our best Historians can't prove this claim to be false.
-
Nowadays the Yeniche rightfully claim to be citizens of the nations in which they have lived for centuries. They are mostly Roman Catholic and other forms of Christianity. And, like most Europeans, they speak both the Yeniche language and the languages of those societies around them.
-
By no means however can they be called Romani. They are ethnically, culturally, and linguistically unique. Despite the fact that many Yeniche side with the Roma and Sinti when it comes to politics, they don't claim to be part of those two different cultures.
-
Most important of all, and the reason I write about them today, the countries in which they live are all ramping up their far-right. These countries are moving to expel or destroy the Yeniche culture. And the reason simply is that the Yeniche culture resembles that of the Roma. And for that reason the Yeniche culture seems foreign to the sedimentary cultures of Western Europe.
-

Bloody Past

The First Genocide of the 20Th Century.

"I destroy the African tribes with streams of blood... Only following this cleansing can something new emerge, which will remain..." German General Trotha.

Many people who have studied the genocides of the 20Th century have long begun with the Armenian Genocide. It seems appropriate to start with the World War One Holocaust. Yet the first genocide of the 20Th century was actually committed by the same country that would carry out the infamous World War Two Holocaust.

In the race for supremacy in Africa Germany began its fight to subdue the tribes of Namibia in South West Africa. Its empire there was one riddled with violence. And in most cases this violence was intended not for the maintaining of peace but the expulsion of less desirable tribes.

The Herero and Namaqua were two tribes that the German government decided were less than desirable. These two tribes had a long history of being warriors and proud defenders of their territories and possessions. And those two things, land and animals, were not allowed to be kept from white German "settlers". After all, in Namibia Germany would develop the ideas that would lead to the Holocaust itself.

Lebensraum was first put into action in Namibia as German settlers pushed further and further into tribal lands. The idea behind the Nazi's most exploited of ideas was that the Father Land had a right to spread its legs so to speak. The people who happened to live on this new German land simply had to be enslaved or expelled. And the food grown here was to be used to grow Germany... not Namibia.

The starvation and lack of ability to find water for themselves and their cattle would be the straw to break the camel's back for the Herero. In 1904 the Herero decided that expulsion and starvation were no longer an option. They became a people who wanted, or actually needed, their country back.

In the battles that would follow the Herero and Namaqua quickly found themselves at the mercy of the German army. Unable to sustain their rebellion the two tribes were being taken prisoners by the thousands. Those who tried to run were forced into the arid lands at civilization's edge and denied water. The water holes they could find were often poisoned by the German army in an attempt to kill the rebels in hiding.

"I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this letter to the Hereros. The Hereros are German subjects no longer. They have killed, stolen, cut off the ears and other parts of the body of wounded soldiers, and now are too cowardly to want to fight any longer. I announce to the people that whoever hands me one of the chiefs shall receive 1,000 marks, and 5,000 marks for Samuel Maherero. The Herero nation must now leave the country. If it refuses, I shall compel it to do so with the 'long tube' (cannon). Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare neither women nor children. I shall give the order to drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words to the Herero people." General Trotha.

General Trotha failed to mention that he had by this time already killed nearly all the Herero who had ever carried a weapon. His goal in making this declaration to the Herero was to further intimidate the starving Herero still hiding in the arid bushland. He simply was conducting the orders to remove the "undesirables" from German held territory.

The Generals own men and other Germans had already recorded his "German soldiers of good repute" brutal attacks on the said "rebels".

"I was present when the Herero were defeated in a battle in the vicinity of Waterberg. After the battle all men, women, and children who fell into German hands, wounded or otherwise, were mercilessly put to death. Then the Germans set off in pursuit of the rest, and all those found by the wayside and in the sandveld were shot down and bayoneted to death. The mass of the Herero men were unarmed and thus unable to offer resistance. They were just trying to get away with their cattle." Jan Cloete, German guide.

As for the Herero who were captured, if allowed to surrender, death would have been a better option.

The second part of the genocide of the Herero and Namaqua came when Germans employed their second most infamous idea... the Konzentrationslager, concentration camps. And the camps they built were the early models that would be seen in the beginning of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Mortality rates in these camps would begin around 45% and then quickly spike.

Shark Island was the most infamous of these camps. It was used for forced labor and later for medical experimentation. Those who died here were told that they would be turned into food for the sharks... hence the name of the camp. Those who lived were constantly reminded that they were not citizens of their own homeland. They were even more so reminded that they were not considered human to their captors.

Food in the camps was limited to uncooked rice and salt. German prison guards denied the Herero pots to cook the rice and refused to allow the prisoners to build cooking fires. As a result the prisoners slowly starved and died of dysentery. While still living they were forced to work on German chain gangs.

"There are hundreds of them, mostly women and children and a few old men ... when they fall they are sjamboked by the soldiers in charge of the gang, with full force, until they get up ... On one occasion I saw a woman carrying a child of under a year old slung at her back, and with a heavy sack of grain on her head ... she fell. The corporal sjamboked her for certainly more than four minutes and sjamboked the baby as well ... the woman struggled slowly to her feet, and went on with her load. She did not utter a sound the whole time, but the baby cried very hard." Percival Griffith.

Medical experimentation included mainly the forced sterilization, injection with small pox, typhus, and tuberculosis. Herero women who had been raped and later gave birth were forced to hand their "mulatto" children over to people like Eugen Fisher who would study them as his test subjects; all the while calling them "Rehoboth bastards" and "of lesser racial quality". The studies Fisher did upon these children were the same studies later done on the Jews and Roma.

Fisher would take his subjects away to study their eyes, the length of their noses, the width of their skulls, and the proportions of their bodies. When finished with them he would have them killed. It was at the end of his studies that Fisher decided that genocide was the only solution for "lesser racial quality" individuals. He noted, "whoever thinks thoroughly the notion of race, can not arrive at a different conclusion".

In the end the German involvement in Africa would come to a close with the beginning of World War One. Until then the Herero and Namaqua would be continually subjected to the genocidal ambitions of the German government and its settlers. It wouldn't be till nearly a hundred years later that the German government, let alone its people, would even admit that "perhaps genocide may have occurred" in Namibia.

As for the rest of the world the genocide in Namibia is somewhat forgotten. Much like other genocides this one has fallen away from our history books due to the depressing reality of what horrible things we have done to one another.

What Happens When Auschwitz Comes Back On Line?

-
Anti-Semitism Making A Comeback
-

-
The French Front National party is now applying a "feminine" touch to its party... the ousted leader is placing his daughter at the head of the Front National. Jean-Marie Le Pen is now a thing of the past. His daughter Marine however will not fully change the party rhetoric... references to the "gas chambers" will still be present if the Front National wants to win the French Presidency in 2012. However the racist propaganda will simply be made more "family friendly".
-
When the Democrats wanted to change their image during President George W. Bush's second term they elected a "grandma" figure as Speaker of the House. Marine will simply fill this same need on behalf of the Front National.
-
In a recent release by the United State's State Department France's anti-Semitic incidents have risen by 300 percent since 2009. These said incidents involve public figures slandering Jews in general, defacing of synagogues, news papers publishing blatantly anti-Semitic remarks and images, government officials and party leaders committing acts of "blood libel" and slander against Jews in general, and political parties running on openly anti-Semitic platforms. Front National being the lead party to have committed acts of and encouraging acts of anti-Semitism.
-
States Department Special Envoy Representative, Hannah S. Rosenthal told NewsMax.com that “When you find some rhetoric, whether it’s from a government official, from a religious leader, from a community leader, or in graffiti that calls for killing or harming Jews, that clearly is an incident of anti-Semitism." She went on to clarify; “When Jews are accused of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing and [people] blame all Jews around the world, that’s an act of anti-Semitism. When Jews are accused of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust, that’s an act of anti-Semitism.”
-
The accurate reporting of new in regards to Israel is not an act of anti-Semitism (according to the States Department and Hannah S. Rosenthal). And yet it has become increasingly rare in Europe to be capable of finding news articles accurately reporting on Israel. It is however easy to find news articles that slander the state of Israel and openly question its legitimacy.
-
While France descends into the grips of the far right the rest of Europe seems to already be already there. Germany now has entire states that are controlled and governed by political parties and politicians that openly admit to being neo-Nazis. The radicals in Germany find time to have shooting practice in the woods near their villages. Others are encouraged to openly attack and drive out their Jewish neighbors.
-
Hungary on the other hand doesn't need to isolate its right wingers... they already control the federal government there. The Jobbik Party in Hungary (the second largest in Hungary) marches through Jewish neighborhoods with Nazi era flags (flags the Nazi conspirators in Hungary used). All the while they wear Nazi armbands and sign songs that glorify Hitler and the concentration camps. Yet their main target has recently taken the back seat while the Jobbik party attempts to ethnically cleanse its country of its Roma minority.
-
The Czech Republic and its surrounding neighboring countries all have recently taken their "double genocide" law before the EU so as to openly deny the Holocaust's importance in their nations' histories. Some might argue that in a country where the population openly did the Nazi's dirty work one might want to "forgive and forget". But if we have learned nothing from our combined history as human beings it is that "if we do not learn from our past we are damned to repeat it".
-
So as the question above stated... What happens when Auschwitz comes back on line?
-
In a Europe so deeply embedded in economic woes and ethnic tensions Hitler issued the first "Final Solution". Today we look at a Europe that is once again deeply embedded in economic woes and steeped in ethnic and religious tensions (as the Dutch "warning to the visible Jews" points out). Can we be looking at a Europe that could possibly issue a truly final solution of its own?
-
In my eyes it is a haunting issue that camps like Auschwitz remain in near working condition. Some may argue that the camps could not be used in their present state of existence... but how much work really needs to be done to kill people there? Others may point out the fact that they are reminders of our past and that I agree. But the issue remains, besides rebuilding the gas chambers and furnaces, the camps could now house nearly the same amount of people as they did in World War Two.
-
Look at the camps we housed the Japanese in during World War Two. How long would it take to rebuild those?
-
In Europe we witnessed the rebuilding and reconstructing of death camps during the "civil wars" in the Balkans. These death camps, constructed by Serbs, were used to destroy or diminish the targeted population. They were built without concern for the safety or comfort of the imprisoned... for obvious reasons. Thus, these camps took rather little time to bring on line.
-
With the intent of causing death by design, concentration camps can be constructed quickly and cheaply. They need not be comfortable to live in nor do they need to support human life in even the most primitive form. Thus Auschwitz is possibly already in working order.
-
So I should go on to ask who would be sent to a newly operational Auschwitz?
-
Sadly the same groups of people targeted by Hitler would be sent to newly built or refurbished death camp. Roma, mentally ill, any political decenter, anti-socials, and yes... the Jews would be targets once again. The only groups missing in this proposed new Holocaust would be the homosexuals, communist, and Polish (unless they happen to be of any group listed in the targeted list).
-
A new addition might be added in my opinion. Muslims, who the Europeans invited into their countries yet now resent, could be targeted due to religious differences. Most people who are watching the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe disagree with me due to the stereotype that claims Muslims are "natural enemies" of Jews. However the laws being passed across most of Europe show clearly the "Islamaphobia" taking hold of Europe.
-
Who would support such a disgustingly historical proposal such as another Holocaust?
-
Far Right (neo-Nazi style) Parties in Europe as of now...
-
National Revival of Poland Party- Poland
Jobbik Party- Hungary
National Front- France
Social Democrats- Germany
Republican Party of Germany- Germany
German People's Union- Germany
National Democratic Party- Germany
Social Democratic Party- Austria
Socialist Party- Austria
Austrian People's Party (OVP)- Austria
Freedom Party- Austria (linking itself to the late National Socialist Workers Party)
Party for Freedom- Holland
Pim Fortuyn's List- Holland
Livable Netherlands- Holland
Dansk Folkeparti (Danish Peoples Party)- Denmark
British National Party- England
Fatherland Party- Norway
Progress Party- Norway
Norwegian Patriots- Norway
Norwegian Peoples' Party- Norway
National Democrats- Norway
National Alliance- Norway
Vigrid- Norway
Flemish Block- Belgium
Hellenic Front- Greece
Northern League- Italy
National Alliance- Italy
Popular Party- Portugal
Swiss Peoples' Party- Switzerland
The True Finns- Finland
-
All the groups listed above have either supported or tried to pass themselves laws that would and could lead to government sanctioned discrimination against Jews and other minorities in Europe. Only a select few of those listed above have not openly admitted that their parties are anti-Semitic in nature. All the rest have leaders who either glorify the "attempts at creating a pure European" Europe. So it is not a far stretch of the imagination to assume that these followers would openly or overtly support the killing or deportation of all minorities in Europe.
-
So how would the next Holocaust play out?
-
During Hitler's Holocaust there were clear distinctions between countries in Europe. Borders were closed and people could not be taken across a border without "papers". Today, as long as you are an "acceptable" citizen, people can cross the borders in Europe with much greater ease. The individual countries in Europe no longer retain true sovereignty seeing as how they are now subjected to the laws of the European Union.
-
If the parties from the said countries were to unite European law just a little more than it already is they could easily ignore the few regulations that still exist. Gaining power across adjoining borders is no longer a concern as it was back when Hitler's Nazi party began fostering sister parties in neighboring countries. The need for sympathies in neighboring countrymen is not needed. Therefore the far right in Europe can easily move targeted communities into the few regions of Europe where the population is considered "rural".
-
With the targeted communities "out of sight and out of mind" the new death camps can be brought into the modern age. Automated and nearly autonomous in nature, these camps can exterminate the "immigrants and minority populations" without the need to gain the local population's support. Party members could operate without concern of the local populations' moral objections... assuming they would have any.
-
In this scenario there would be no need for an army or Waffen SS to carry out the orders of racist politicians. The simple following of eugenics (a primitive form of the Evolutionary Theory) could be used to encourage party members into acting in much the same manner as the SS did during World War Two. This use of "reason and rational argument" is often much easier than one might think in getting people to act upon even the most barbaric of desires.
-
In a study of social behaviors a collage class was able to get students to "administer increasing levels of electric shock" to a perceived "patient". The "authoritative figure" provided to them needed only to offer a little "encouragement" when the "patient" screamed out in agony. Some students even continued to "administer increasing levels of electric shock" once the perceived "patient" ceased to cry out in pain... in effect they were punishing a perceivably dead victim.
-
The application of this system in real life often occurred during Hitler's reign in Europe. Pol Pott in Cambodia used it to achieve a sadistic rule over his Kempher Rouge. In a proposed "new age" Europe this style of rule would fit the bill to induce a second Holocaust. It could easily be applied to ramp up support for the next "Final Solution".
-
In the event that this nightmare would come to past, we could only hope that the Europeans would act out militarily against another ally of the United States. However this, the only way to stop this scenario, seems highly unlikely since Europe has shown that is unable or incapable of using its military force upon external threats.
-
For this reason it is highly important that we get more and more people to become aware of the growing threat of anti-Semitism in Europe. We must keep our eyes upon our neighbors across the pond at all times. It is increasingly clear with each passing election (their elections) that they are quickly backsliding into the sins of their past.
-
It is very likely that this proposed scenario will never again be repeated upon European soil. But it is also very likely that it will. And for this reason we can not falter in our defense of freedom and the common human liberties and rights and freedoms our God granted every man and woman from birth.
-
Wake up America... Wake up oh bastion of freedom... Wake up oh sleeping giant.
-



-
You can follow post like this one by following us on Facebook. Our Facebook group can be found by searching; Alder's Ledge.
-

-
Source Documents for this Post.
-
PressEurop - English
http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/462841-far-right-human-touch
-
News Max
http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/Hannah-SRosenthal-stae/2011/01/13/id/382730
-
jpost.com
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=200967
-
thenews.pl
http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul147358_far-right-party-organizes-pro-polish-march-in-silesia.html
-