Their culture remains one of the most misunderstood and underrepresented, and is often falsely stereotyped by other cultures. Some characteristics that permeate all gypsy cultures is the denial of citizenship, denial of being bound to any piece of land, except to the earth as a whole. Although some gypsies claim that their journey is in the search of a homeland, the truth is that they would rather hold steadfast to their heritage than give it up for a settled home. Gypsies who settle down, tend to absorb the culture around them and become members of the culture they join.
Monthly Archives: March 2006
Parents of Kurdish political refugee murdered in Turkey
There is some friction between Belgium and Turkey.
First there was the case of Fehriye Erdal, a far-left militant that was convicted last Thursday in Belgium for being a member of a criminal organisation (Turkish group DHKP-C or Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front). Trouble is, when Belgian authorities proceeded to arrest her she had disappeared. A big fuss ensued with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül demanding an investigation and the extradition of Erdal to Turkey.
Today another story has emerged in the Belgian press. The unlinkable VRT Teletekst reports on pages 157 and 158 that Flemish Minister of Foreign Policy Geert Bourgeois has written the Turkish ambassador to Belgium a letter asking an explanation for the murder of the parents of Derwich M. Ferho, the president of the Kurdish Institute in Brussels. Ferho’s parents were kidnapped last Thursday in Turkey and killed in what some people, notably the Kurdish Institute, suspect to be an assault by Turkish death squads and local security services. It seems that Ferho’s parents had previously been threatened by Turkish authorities because their two sons, both political refugees living in Belgium, had engaged in, and I quote from the unlinkable news item on VRT Teletekst, “anti-Turkish activities abroadâ€.
Geert Bourgeois has asked for an explanation and warned that there could be a problem if Derwich’s parents were indeed murdered by Turkish authorities, especially in view of Turkish negotiations to enter the EU. When Bourgeois himself was asked if there could be a link with the missing Erdal, he responded: “It would be too early to say, but I would not rule out that possibilityâ€.
Since nothing seems to be confirmed yet… to be continued
Italian Elections 2006
Ok, the Italian elections are now just about one month away, although you wouldn’t guess this from reading the British press where the David Mills/Silvio Berlusconi case is what seems to be making all the running. Now as I indicated in this post, I will try and give some systematic coverage to the election issues as they evolve during the campaign. In that post I outlined 7 issues which I thought would be worth looking at in an election which I think is going to be very important not just for the Italian people themselves but for all citizens of the EU. I had a first pass at one of the topics here (and here).
Maybe the best starting point is number 7 on the list: the sense of denial.
Looking at the fact that Berlusconi himself seems to have started his campaign in Washington, while former Commission president Romano Prodi now seems to have become an early convert to neo-protectionism (and this piece), I would definitely say that this is really the number one issue. In order to help me on my course through these troubled waters Roberto of Wind Rose Hotel has kindly offered to send me some on the spot material. Here is his first missive. It confirms my worst fears.
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Ilan Halimi: clichés turning lethal
There was a big uproar in France during the past few weeks caused by the horrifying murder of Ilan Halimi, a 23 year old Jewish shop clerk, by a gang of hoodlums who called themselves, very aptly, “The Barbariansâ€.
Halimi was abducted by the gang on January 21st. On Monday 13th he was found naked, gagged and handcuffed, his body bearing burn marks and showing signs of torture, near the railway station of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. Soon after he died.
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Le Soir on Islam’s Laicism
An interesting point of view.
“Islam is in fact a laicity-based faith [one
rooted in the separation of religion and government affairs],”
the Franco-Tunisian writer and essayist Abdelwahab Meddeb
explains in an interview. “It has no Church, nor a supreme
moral authority. During his final crusade, the Emperor
Frederick II, had observed that Muslims made a distinction
between the temporal and the spiritual. … We can trace the
origins of the reflection on laicity to Averroès [1126-1198].
He was the first to plant the seeds of the idea that there
existed two truths, one philosophic, the other theologic. He
saw them as twin sisters. But it is his philosophical
successors who end up forging the theory of a dual truth and
bringing about the split between philosophy and theology. …
Let us not forget that the non-separation of religion and
politics is part of the phantasmagoria surrounding the origins
of Islam that is all the rage among fundamentalists.”
By way of Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb, Germany) and its estimable newsletter on European topics. I imagine the article is from Le Soir‘s issue of today, but the link does not specify, and my French is not up to searching it out. Any pointers to and/or translations of the full article gratefully accepted.
Menzies Campbell new Lib Dem leader
Reactions from Lib Dem bloggers: 1,2,3,4.
Also, fistful member Matt (not a lib dem) points out taht ‘It wasn’t a particularly good result for YouGov, who have been Britain’s most accurate pollster in many elections, and particularly in hard-to-guess ones such as leadership elections, ie the Tories’.
Damage at heart of Europe’s single market?
Following up on the points made in this post and this one, former EU competition commissioner Mario Monti has a comment article in today’s FT (behind the firewall unfortunately, but his point is clear from the extract):
The single market, a key pillar of the European Union since its foundation, is in danger. Several member states are reluctant to proceed further in building it; they oppose, for example, the services directive. They even try to undermine the working of those components of the single market that are already in place – and oppose foreign takeovers.
Worryingly, the epicentre of this revolt against the single market lies in countries that are at the core of the single currency. The eurozone, in order to deliver the benefits expected from the euro, needs to have more of a single market than the rest of the EU, but already it is getting less. The euro, meant to be the crowning achievement of the single market, looks increasingly like a currency in search of its market.
More Troubling News
Just off the wires from Iraq:
The sectarian cleansing that drove 68-year-old Abbas al-Saiedi from his home may be as alarming a sign of a country on the brink of civil war as the killings that have swept Iraq in the past week…….
Al-Saiedi’s story, a tale of fear and desperation told to The Associated Press on Wednesday, represents a growing phenomenon of religious cleansing in which members of each Muslim sect are driving the others from neighborhoods where they have long lived side by side.
The practice, which has been going on for some time in neighborhoods south of Baghdad, is a barometer of the degree to which the Shiites and Sunnis have moved on the path to civil war. The number of incidents cannot be fully gauged, but is not yet at the level of mass expulsions of the kind that took place in the Balkans during the civil war there in the 1990s.
For their part, Sunnis have long-standing claims of attacks by Shiite-dominated and, some say, government-linked death squads and eviction from homes in the very neighborhoods now being occupied by Shiites displaced from Sunni areas.
A Coalition Of The Willing?
Thursday’s edition of the International Herald Tribune features an interesting article concerning the recent European rows about state interference in favour of so-called national champions.
Quoting Elie Cohen, the Tribune’s authors – Katrin Bennhold and Graham Bowley – suggest that both the French government’s allegedly new/refound role as M&A consultant in the Suez and Gaz de France deal (to avoid a bid from Italy’s ENEL) as well as the Spanish government’s attempt to thwart a takeover of Endesa, a Spanish utilty by E.ON, the German power corporation, are indicative of a resurgence “nation state” as a political concept in the Europe of the 21st century.
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Slate slide-show essay about Spanish architecture.
How did modern architecture in Spain get so good? asks Witold Rybczynski.