BE NEWSY

Ran across some interesting articles in the BBC NEWS this morning.

I'm learning a ton about the roots of ethnic strife in China and all that's blazing hot and ugly in the streets these days; but that got me thinking about other instances of ethnic strife, and that got me searching for news from my adopted homelands--Hungary, Ukraine, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia, Serbia...Eastern Europe in general.

So I found this article on the Roma. Check it out at this link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8136812.stm

It gives an interesting snapshot on their ethnic and cultural history and does a graphic job of speaking to the kind of heavy-handed hate they've been trampled with through various European eras.

For centuries, the Roma people's nomadism has marked them as shifty, deceitful, lazy, suspicious, other. In fact, in the throw-down with the Turks in the Ottoman wars, other Europeans often branded them as Turkish spies. This sparked the first widespread Roma genocide in Europe in which the Roma people were viciously hunted, humiliated, and butchered. (The article mentions everything from head-shaving to ear-slicing to forced sterilization.)

It's a sordid history, one that doesn't get a lot of face time in high school and college history classes.

It's also a sordid reality that's just beginning to get face time in world news reports and political summits.

You should really read the whole article--it's a fast read, and I promise you'll learn something. (I did.)

Join me in perusing the worlds news for a bit--there are so many human stories we need to start investing in (our time, money, service, prayer, whatever). But it all starts with tuning in, listening to the story, and sharing it with your neighbors.

Thanks for reading.

Come back again soon.