Omniglot forum • View topic - Greece, a perfect example of barbaric country?

linguoboy · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 9:02 am Posts:1001

Anders wrote:

linguoboy wrote:

Delodephius wrote:

Nationalistic parties openly threaten all who don't recognize the "purity" of the Greek state, whether they are Greek citizens or foreigners.

Tell me a European country where this isn't the case!

In Sweden it is the politicly correct ones who say that all swedish citicens are swedes. The nationalists are the ones who say that a person who is an immigrant with swedish citicenship is not a swede.

That makes Sweden is exactly like every other country in this respect. If you were trying to provide a counterexample, you've failed. If you weren't...I'm not sure why you posted.

Neqitan · Joined:Fri 17 Apr 2009 9:59 pm Posts:397 Location: Canada

Delodephius wrote:

I don't know. To my knowledge we don't get that here in Vojvodina. I think it is prohibited by a law that was passed last year, that under the threat of disbanding the party or imprisonment of its members, hate speech is forbidden. I don't know if this law counts only in Vojvodina or whole of the Republic of Serbia. Down in Serbia proper they don't have much laws against minority rights abuses.

Vojvodina? Do you speak Pannonian Rusyn?

Delodephius · **Posted:** Tue 30 Jun 2009 8:00 pm

Neqitan wrote:

Delodephius wrote:

I don't know. To my knowledge we don't get that here in Vojvodina. I think it is prohibited by a law that was passed last year, that under the threat of disbanding the party or imprisonment of its members, hate speech is forbidden. I don't know if this law counts only in Vojvodina or whole of the Republic of Serbia. Down in Serbia proper they don't have much laws against minority rights abuses.

Vojvodina? Do you speak Pannonian Rusyn?

No, but I understand it without much difficulty. It is one of the six official languages here.

Delodephius · **Posted:** Tue 30 Jun 2009 8:05 pm

Anders wrote:

linguoboy wrote:

Delodephius wrote:

Nationalistic parties openly threaten all who don't recognize the "purity" of the Greek state, whether they are Greek citizens or foreigners.

Tell me a European country where this isn't the case!

In Sweden it is the politicly correct ones who say that all swedish citicens are swedes. The nationalists are the ones who say that a person who is an immigrant with swedish citicenship is not a swede.

They don't do that in Serbia. In the constitution it says under article #1 that "Serbia is a state of Serbs and all its other ethnicities". I got my ID card in three language: Serbian, English and Slovak. When I filled out forms for job, college, certificates, I always have to fill out the category for ethnicity. In Serbian and in most Slavic languages there is no difference in language between words nationality and ethnicity, so technically Serbs by nationality are ethnic Serbs for example and vice versa.

Anders · Joined:Wed 20 May 2009 10:23 am Posts:52 Location: Sweden

linguoboy wrote:

That makes Sweden is exactly like every other country in this respect. If you were trying to provide a counterexample, you've failed. If you weren't...I'm not sure why you posted.

It seems to me from what Delo posted that the greek nationalists don't want to accept that there are minorities in their country and they name all greeks although they aren't in order to make everyone a greek. In Sweden it is the non-nationalists who want to make every person living in Sweden a swede.

Sobekhotep · **Posted:** Wed 01 Jul 2009 11:25 pm

Delodephius wrote:

When I filled out forms for job, college, certificates, I always have to fill out the category for ethnicity.

Here in the United States, they never ask you your ethnicity because it could be used for discrimination.

Delodephius · **Posted:** Thu 02 Jul 2009 12:22 am

Sobekhotep wrote:

Delodephius wrote:

When I filled out forms for job, college, certificates, I always have to fill out the category for ethnicity.

Here in the United States, they never ask you your ethnicity because it could be used for discrimination.

That is very rare here. At least I have never heard of anyone being discriminated when making a job application or something. All people I know ignore what ethnicity someone else is.

ILuvEire · **Posted:** Thu 02 Jul 2009 4:32 am

Sobekhotep wrote:

Delodephius wrote:

When I filled out forms for job, college, certificates, I always have to fill out the category for ethnicity.

Here in the United States, they never ask you your ethnicity because it could be used for discrimination.

Heh, not in the South. I have to fill in my ethnicity in for everything. Sometimes I bubble the "Other" spot it and write in "European American" or "White" instead of bubbling in "Caucasian." I'm not, nor have I ever been to, the Caucus.

Delodephius · **Posted:** Thu 02 Jul 2009 7:36 am

ILuvEire wrote:

Sobekhotep wrote:

Delodephius wrote:

When I filled out forms for job, college, certificates, I always have to fill out the category for ethnicity.

Here in the United States, they never ask you your ethnicity because it could be used for discrimination.

Heh, not in the South. I have to fill in my ethnicity in for everything. Sometimes I bubble the "Other" spot it and write in "European American" or "White" instead of bubbling in "Caucasian." I'm not, nor have I ever been to, the Caucus.

But, that is not ethnicity. That is race. When I need to fill a form under ethnicity I write Slovak, I don't write Caucasian or more precisely Alpinid (a sub-race).

Caenwyr · Joined:Sun 19 Apr 2009 7:01 am Posts:77 Location: Belgium

Delodephius wrote:

ILuvEire wrote:

Sobekhotep wrote:

Here in the United States, they never ask you your ethnicity because it could be used for discrimination.

Heh, not in the South. I have to fill in my ethnicity in for everything. Sometimes I bubble the "Other" spot it and write in "European American" or "White" instead of bubbling in "Caucasian." I'm not, nor have I ever been to, the Caucus.

But, that is not ethnicity. That is race. When I need to fill a form under ethnicity I write Slovak, I don't write Caucasian or more precisely Alpinid (a sub-race).

Thank God you don't. Concepts like that go hand in hand with scientific racism and craniology. I agree that in Europe these things are luckily less important than ethnicity, or culture if you like that term better.

Which reminds me of that quote by Blumenbach somewhere around the year 1800

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach wrote:

Caucasian variety - I have taken the name of this variety from Mount Caucasus, both because its neighborhood, and especially its southern slope, produces the most beautiful race of men...

He was the one who invented the terms "Caucasian" and "Alpinid", among many others. Knowing this I think I'd prefer to be called Slovak over Caucasian as well.