"The relationship between our country and the countries of Europe as a whole remains a real cornerstone of the global efforts of the United States and peoples around the world," she said.
Didn't Effin' Kerry already run on this?
Posted on 11/09/2004 6:27:30 PM PST by Libloather
Clinton Tells of Roma's Plight
Sen. Hillary Clinton Addresses Throngs of Students at Low Library
By Tanveer Ali
Spectator Staff Writer
November 09, 2004
While America speculated about her possible 2008 presidential bid, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), spoke to a packed Low Library crowd yesterday, shedding light on the discrimination and conditions that the ethnic Roma, or Gypsies, endure in present-day Europe.
Clinton's speech was the keynote address in the Plight of the Roma Conference held in Low Library, which also included three panel discussions regarding the history of the issue and future solutions. The conference was the brainchild of Volker Berghahn, director of Columbia's Institute for the Study of Europe, and Carl Spielvogel, former U.S. ambassador to Slovakia.
Clinton's speech outlined her experiences with the European Roma, both as First Lady and as a senator. She connected what she called the civil and human rights movement in Europe with similar issues in the United States.
University President Lee Bollinger introduced Clinton, saying that "her commitment to others reaches far beyond our city limits. Throughout her career Senator Clinton has been an advocate of the rights of women, children, and religious minorities around the world." Bollinger highlighted Clinton's efforts dealing with issues in Egypt, Tunisia, and China.
Clinton began her speech by acknowledging the University, the ambassador, Berghahn, and the institute.
"The relationship between our country and the countries of Europe as a whole remains a real cornerstone of the global efforts of the United States and peoples around the world," she said.
The Roma are an ethnic group who are believed to have migrated from India. Previously nomadic, the Roma population in Europe is estimated to number from eight to 10 million, a number larger than the total populations of many European countries. Much of the Roma's European history has been characterized by intolerance and persecution.
Clinton referred to the Nazi persecution of the Roma, known to the Roma as "The Devouring," and Roma discrimination under totalitarian rule.
"After the war emerged the totalitarian rule in countries where Roma were most numerous, [which] further inhibited their political, social, and economic development," said Clinton. She said they were often subjected to forced sterilization and into segregated housing, employment, and education.
In July 1996, Clinton met with Roma community members and visited East Central Europe. In yesterday's speech, she referenced a teenager in Budapest who told her, "The school people are not interested in who I am. They say, oh, another gypsy." While certain leaders of European countries did not want Clinton to delve into Roma issues, she saw minority rights as a key component in the development of Eastern Europe's young democracies, she said.
According to the senator, the Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation with Europe, or the Helsinki Commission, has made the plight of the Roma a "top priority." The commission held a briefing in September concerning the conditions of Roma in Russia and in 2002 held a hearing on Roma and human rights. In March 2003, Clinton and the bipartisan commission sent a letter to Slovak Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda regarding the coercion of Roma woman into being sterilized.
As attention to the plight of the Roma grows, which Clinton attributed to the growth and efforts of the European Union, steps are being initiated to reverse years of discrimination. "Last year, several governments in Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe have agreed to establish the decade from 2005 to 2015 as the Decade of Roma Inclusion," said Clinton. Eight European countries have also made a "political commitment to close the gap in the welfare and living conditions between the Roma and the non-Roma."
Clinton said that the issues of women and education should receive special attention. Roma women reportedly have lower life expectancies and levels of education and higher rates of mortality, fertility, unemployment, and poverty compared to other women of the same region.
Clinton claimed their condition resulted from "gender, ethnicity, and poverty" and said "they should be given special opportunities to develop skills and pursue education in order to have more control over their destiny."
In terms of education, Clinton called for desegregation and equal schooling opportunities, referring to the progress seen in the United States to desegregate the education system in the past few decades. She acknowledged that while equal education does not exist in this country, things are moving in the right direction.
Clinton drew comparisons between the effort to include the Roma in Europe and to include minorities in the United States. She asserted that democracy provides a freedom and future "for those who feel left out and left behind."
"The treatment of the Roma, ethnic, racial, and religious minorities in general is one that tests democracy," Clinton said. "The more we do to make democracy real in the lives in as many people as possible around the world, the closer we are to seeing democracy and freedom triumph for all."
"The relationship between our country and the countries of Europe as a whole remains a real cornerstone of the global efforts of the United States and peoples around the world," she said.
Didn't Effin' Kerry already run on this?
Yeah, but she's making a push for the gypsy vote. The only balls she's ever been interested in are crystal.
"Throughout her career Senator Clinton has been an advocate of the rights of women, children..."
Except if your an unborn child or pregnant of course.
Maybe if they don't want to be discriminated against they should stop robbing everybody blind.
I am really glad to also see her coming out against the treatment of women in Muslim countries, too. Beheading, beating, stoning, mutilation, etc. I mean, that'll be next, right?
She should know about being a gypsy.
Maybe she will make a play for the carnie vote next.
And not one word from her highness about how Muslim women are treated.
Very Important! We must publicize everything this nutty bit@h says over the next 4 years so that we can wipe her off the map before she ever strikes!!
(No rest for the weary)
Billzo's own 5 times Great Grandfather, Billy Blythe, was deemed "King of the Gypsies" in North America. He spent his summers traveling with carnivals with his maternal grandmother as she worked as a fortune teller.
Clue!
The US Army is not in Tuzla, at the very center of the Roma's "Seven Sacred Hills" in FYR for no reason at all. Hillary even took a Roma focused trip that began at Ephesus at the shrine of the Virgin Mary. (Recall that Jesus' mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalen traveled with their servant "black" Sarah to Ephesus, little Sarah turning into the patron saint of the Gypsies or Roma.)
Hillary's trip ended at Athens, a city dedicated to the ancient goddess Athena whose night-time tem is the owl, the Roma traditional god of death.
There's even more, but it really shouldn't surprise anyone that Hillary Clinton really does have a strong feeling for the plight of the Gypsies ~ after all, she's part of the traditional royal class, as is Billzo.
Expressing this interest is the one good thing I've been able to credit her with.
They still get discriminated against unless they are sufficiently light skinned and have been allowed to attend school to learn to read and write.
That other 1%, though, are hell on wheels aren't they?!
From what I observed in Europe, it's significantly more than 1 percent.
As usual, only one side of the picture is given.
Gypsies pride themselves on NOT assimilating and on stealing from the populace. They WANT to be on the outside.
Dude! I've spent a bit of time in eastern Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Based on my obversations there are a heck of a lot more than 1% of the Roma who refuse to play the game according to the rules. But then again, I've also heard that over 85% of all statistics are just made up on the spot.
Still, the ones you see aren't the ones that are successfully playing the game.
A story for you. Joseph Mengele picked out a young Gypsy boy to accompany him around the death camp. He dressed the boy in the finest clothes and fed him the best food available at the highest levels of the Nazi hierarchy.
Joseph treated the boy like his own.
But, then the end came, and Mengele feared for his life. He grabbed the child and tossed him alive headfirst into one of the great ovens used to burn the bodies of the dead.
That's rather the way the Europeans have dealt with Roma since their first encounters. It's time to get over it.
Yeah, I've had my experiences with them (trying to pick my pocket or steal my wife's handbag) in Italy and Hungary. They aren't exactly winning hearts and minds over there. I have yet to meet anyone who has interacted with them who has a positive thing to say. A culture explicitly based on thievery and deliberate non-assimilation.
My Gawd.
Hitllary has found another poor Opressed Minority that can find salvation, truth, justice and the American Way only in her form of huge government!!!
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In a new Time of War...
With our own Freedom at stake...
Here at home...
.."IS it SAFE?" = HILLARY on Senate Armed Services Committee..
http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=629
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