Hungarian MEP Katalin Levai on Wednesday demanded an investigation into a series of anti-Roma comics.
In her letter addressed to the chief prosecutor of Budapest, Levai (Socialist) said the content went against basic human rights and could be interpreted as incitement to hatred against a minority group.
Moricka, a magazine with a circulation of 45,000, portrays the Roma as “mustachioed, ear-ringed, big-toothed gipsy crickets,” according to a report in the press. They are also depicted as drunks living on social benefits, attacking hard-working and tax-paying ants with baseball bats.
Alfred Szucs, editor-in-chief of Moricka, was struck of the list of the national association of Hungarian journalists on Friday.
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I haven’t seen the comic but it doesn’t surprise that there is a market for such juvenile material in Hungary.
Who benefits by dehumanizing the Roma? Nobody. It only helps to exacerbate an already bad situation.
Joe says: “I haven’t seen the comic”.
But you already have a pretty strong opinion about it. Nice.
Then he says: “Who benefits by dehumanizing the Roma?”.
Who said the comic was about the Roma?
It’s about crickets and ants. No mention of “roma” or “gypsy” or anything like that in the comic.
@Stan. You naive or something? That last bit about it’s just ants and crickets showed real lack of insight into that crazy world we call ‘metaphor’. And as with much crude and unsophisticated propaganda, it doesn’t have to be explicit for it to be obvious what the artist is attempting to portray. I thought you were against all that propaganda stuff, especially after your long life of struggling against Communism and lefties to make the world safe for free enterprise.
Demagogue,
You don’t read much, do you?
The original fable about the ants and grasshoppers was written by Aesop. Thousands of years ago. Obviously it’s not about Gypsies, but lazy freeloaders. The question is why are the Gypsies so quick to identify with the crickets in the fable? Maybe instead of complaining all the time, they ought to work a bit harder to change their image. Ignoring a problem will not make it go away. Blaming others for your own troubles will not help either.
Stan may have a point here. Otherwise we would have to accede to identifying the ants with the remainder of society and that it works in harmony, for the common good, with a united purpose and not at all for person self interest – which of course would be laughable.
@Stan. Got ya! ‘Maybe instead of complaining all the time, they ought to work a bit harder to change their image. Ignoring a problem will not make it go away. Blaming others for your own troubles will not help either.’
But aren’t you always blaming others for the troubles of Hungary? It can’t work both ways.
If you want the Roma to stop complaining about how they are portrayed in media, then shouldn’t you stop complaining about how the right-wing are portrayed in media or how Hungarians in other countries are portrayed. In fact, any kind of negative stereotyping. Then we could all be horrible to each other all the time and the world would be a better place, right?
Re: the comic and it’s classical origin. Duh, of course I know the original you berk. The point I’m making is why not portray the crickets as crickets instead of making them wear the stereotypical costume of the Gypsy villain. And don’t say it isn’t the stereotypical costume associated with Gypsies across the whole of Europe that these crickets are shown wearing, because it is. I have seen the comic in question. Anyway isn’t this court case an example of people trying to improve the image of Roma?
Stan, no offense but you’re too easy to bait due to your attack dog sensibilities. Calm down and stop picking fights with Joe just for the hell of it. You’re writing is better when you aren’t foaming at the mouth with homophobic rage and when you are making valid comments into the economy and domestic politics.