Racism revisted
I was speaking two volunteers at the institute this morning about racism. One of them told me that the "white Power" symbol was actually the symbol for Serbia. That may be true, but when it's coupled with the words "white power" or "neo Nazi", I thing it takes on a darker symbolism.
We also talked about the amount of swastikas I've been seeing around. He said that Romanians aren't racist and that drawing them is more a form of rebellion than anything else. Apparently there are tonnes of such symbols at the soccer field. I guess that would explain why my neighbour's son showed me a picture of himself and a friend with a big banner with the white power symbol on it, yet claimed they weren't nationalistic. I'm sorry, but I don't see how a swastika could represent anything but intolerance. Not only were the Jews massacred during the Holocaust but millions of Roma, homosexuals and Jehova's Witnesses also lost their lives.
Perhaps the swastika isn't directed at or solely at the Jews, but it sickens me that such a symbol could represent rebellion. Choose something else. Even the "Anal Justice" grafitti that I saw by the Piata Unirii would be better. But please don't exert your independance and rebelliousness by drawing grafitti which can only represent hate.
5 Comments:
There was a time in 1990 when Iliescu took power whithout being elected. The first elections were regulated by a law which required that no extreme right movement would be registered.
In the same spring of 1990, people on the streets of Bucharest and Timisoara requested that no extreme leftist, member of the political police or leader of the decesead communist party, will be allowed to candidate. (there's a Timsoara Proclamation, read 8th paragraph of it, http://www.timisoara.com/timisoara/rev/proclamation.html ).
Iliescu, ex-member of the Central Comittee (a 400 ppl assembly leading the Comunist Party), ex-leader of a regional Communist Party group at Iasi, didn't and couldn't agreed.
That's the first thing that placed extreme right on a persecution row and, eventually, atracted more sympathy, even for those that didn't had extreme right convictions.
You can still see in Romanian Constitution, modified in Dec. 2003, that the extreme right is forbid (art. 30, par. 7 , http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=act2_2&par1=2#t2c2s0a30 , forbidds any extreme nationalist movement, therefore it is against extreme right, but there's no similar thing against extreme left as an opinion, e.g. no one can be forbid to have in its platform the promise of re-nationalisation of factories).
Basically, you know that in Romania you can do almost everything (e.g., on basis of what I said in the earlier paragraph, state took away large factories from their owners). Almost anything, but no extreme right declarations.
Another thing about extreme right. Elie Wiesel is a Nobel laureate for Peace, althoug his merit is to hunt down nazis. I fail to see where is the peace process, but, anyway... He declared that his parents were sent in nazi camps by the romanian cops. Paul Goma, a famous Romanian writer living in France for more than 30 years, where he published important testimonials about Romanian communism terror, took this issue in his own hands and observed that, at the date declared by Wiesel, the region where his family lived was under Hungarian occupation. Asked by the famous playwriter Eugene Ionesco, Wiesel retaliated that these are details and no one should care about it. That's wrong! The percentage of Jews escaping alive through the Nazi-friendly regime is the biggest of al the countries that had a German occupation! The leaders were trying to have a "plan B" in case Germany wil be defeated, because we were their allies only on the fact that Russian took a part of Romania. This Plan B involved an as-good-as-possible protection of Jews, a good treatment for American or English prisoners etc.
When a Nobel laureate lies about Romania, you can feel there's something wrong, and you may be tempted to diminish extreme right faults to a level under the reality.
I'm not a nationalist, I am leaving Romania for USA. I don't want to see extreme right legalized. I just pinpointed some causes of the increase in sympathy for the extreme right. But I want the truth to be known and I want to see the extreme left forbidden too.
I actually heard this on a talk radio program yesterday. The swastika symbol is actually a symbol of peace, luck, and prosperity. You can find traces of it that go thousands of years back in history. And in WWI the American 45th Air Division had patches of the symbol on their attire. It was when Hitler used this symbol for his political party, and associated it with his evil that people started renouncing the use of it.
Another quick example of it's use is in old American Western movies, you'll see this symbol painted on indian teepees.
If you had some extra time, check out it's history, it was all over the world and used a lot in Europe before the Nazi's made it a bad symbol.
You're right when you say it means something darker with the words you find underneith it. Even though you see it spray painted all over, I can bet anything the guy that actually painted it has no idea of the meaning in the context that he used it.
~Torrey
Hi Karla!
Whoever wrote that the swastika was once a symbol of peace was right. The nazi's used it and turned it into what it is known as today, but if you look at Buddhist temples or the like, they usually have that exact symbol somewhere, and it's definitely not meant to represent white power. When I was in Hong Kong, I went to visit the Big Buddha on Lantau Island which is the world's largest bronze Buddha, and on the huge staircase all the way up to the statue, swastikas decorated the railing (except the symbol wasn't on a tilt) and there was a huge swastika on Buddha's chest. It really made me wonder, but once I discovered the original use of the symbol, it explained alot!
Anyhoo, hope all is good on your end Karla :)
Bye for now
Mariko
Hey Torrey,
Yeah, I already knew that about the swastika (I am the product of a liberal arts education, after all). It's an Eastern symbol of the ever revolving sun, or something like that. I've seen lots of rugs from India which incorporate the symbol.
I went to visit a synagogue in Montreal which was built in the 1920s. The tour guide pointed out how the wall mouldings incorporated the swastika. The design was very popular 80 years ago in decorations.
I've been told that the Nazi swastika is revolving in the opposite direction, but I'm not positive.
I'm sure whoever painted it knew *exactly* what it meant. When you see a swastika coupled with "die Jews" (on the phone booth) or "neo Nazi" (on an apartment), there is only one way it *can* be taken. I *highly* doubt that those painting swastikas around the city are actually honouring the sun.
Thanks a lot for your comments, Lucisandor! It gives me some stuff to think about. I've read that about Elie Wiesel. Almost reminds me a bit of what Michael Moore is going through. Present one side of the story, include some false facts, and then either deny those facts later on or try to downplay them.
As for the left and the right, if I understood correctly, it's similar to what's happening in Sweden right now. 1/8th of the population is an immigrant and the government is trying so hard to accomodate the foreigners that things are going too far. Anything "anti" left is considered "pro" right. I've been told that it's considered too nationalistic to have the Swedish national anthem on your cell phone, or swear a jacket with the flag on it.
D'oh... offtopic, about Michael Moore. Although I sympathized with his ideas, I heard him in Fahrenheit 9/11 talking bullshit about Romania. He inserted Romania between two Pacific island or soething, two countries that in no way could fight against Saddam, implying that Romania's participation to the bloody Bushist "coalition of will" is useless. We have 700 men in Afghanistan and 600 in Iraq. Officially there are only 2 dead, and I know for the a fact that Romanians aren't sent to the most dangerous missions.
But MM missed a good mooment for keeping his mouth shot.
It's like those Holywood movies where any french woman has unshaved axilas and that's a horrible thing.
Post a Comment
<< Home