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Outrage over photos of sunbathers lounging by drowned children

4K views 112 replies 62 participants last post by  Momsteader 
#1 ·
#6 ·
This is just horrible. Can someone tell me what Roma is? I can tell that it is a group of minorities but have never heard this term before. I can't imagine just sitting there while children are dead on the beach. I clicked on the picture and it isn't graphic but it is clearly obvious that the girls are dead and there are people sitting nearby enjoying the beach and not paying any attention to the girls.


Wendi
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by the_lissa View Post
Roma people are commonly known as gypsies.
Are they from Romania? Are there different groups of people that are known as gypsies? When I worked at a hospital a Romanian child was admitted and had a very big family. They seemed great to me but many of the staff was disdainful towards them and referred to them as gypsies. Are these groups the same? (romanians/romanies, gypsies and roma)

Thanks! I am not trying to be dense just always confused about this.

Wendi
 
#9 ·
Roma = gypsy. Roma is preferred by roma people, I'm told. But it's not well known in the US.

I don't understand what the people were supposed to do. Be distressed and go home? I suspect that's what I'd have done - been too distressed to stay. But what if you weren't distressed? Then what?
 
#10 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by lactivist View Post
Are they from Romania? Are there different groups of people that are known as gypsies? When I worked at a hospital a Romanian child was admitted and had a very big family. They seemed great to me but many of the staff was disdainful towards them and referred to them as gypsies. Are these groups the same? (romanians/romanies, gypsies and roma)

Thanks! I am not trying to be dense just always confused about this.

Wendi
It sounds like, Romania, but not really. That would be Romanian. Roma means "The People" to Roma. The term Gypsies came from an erroneous belief that Roma had descended from Egyptian travelers.

Romanians aren't the same as Roma, and there is a lot of prejudice against the Roma in Romania. (There are Romanian Roma!
) They would absolutely hate to be referred to as such.
 
#11 ·
Some people in Romania may be Roma, but there are distinct groups of Romanians and of Roma (formerly Gypsy).
 
#12 ·
Okay I guess the people I met in the hospital were Roma from Romania.
I am starting to get it. Thank you all for your explanations. These people are travellers/roamers correct? or is that wrong too? I am so curious about different kinds of people and how they identify themselves.

Wendi
 
#13 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by lactivist View Post
Okay I guess the people I met in the hospital were Roma from Romania.
I am starting to get it. Thank you all for your explanations. These people are travellers/roamers correct? or is that wrong too? I am so curious about different kinds of people and how they identify themselves.

Wendi
Careful. English Roma are VERY annoyed with people who define themselves as "Travelers/Roamers" when in fact they are ...... hippies. Or Irish Travelers. Or others who aren't really Roma, just nomadic like them. The Roma don't like being lumped in with the adventurous kids who get in trouble with the law. They have their own problems, kwim?
 
#15 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by kmeyrick View Post
Careful. English Roma are VERY annoyed with people who define themselves as "Travelers/Roamers" when in fact they are ...... hippies. Or Irish Travelers. Or others who aren't really Roma, just nomadic like them. The Roma don't like being lumped in with the adventurous kids who get in trouble with the law. They have their own problems, kwim?
I wasn't lumping anyone together. I was just clarifying that they do actually live a nomadic lifestyle. Thanks for the clarification.

Wendi
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by lactivist View Post
I wasn't lumping anyone together. I was just clarifying that they do actually live a nomadic lifestyle. Thanks for the clarification.

Wendi
Oops, sorry, I didn't mean you lumped them all together. A lot of people don't know this, and the media kind of lumps them together. Hence the misimpression.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lactivist View Post
Where do they originate from? I think I have to go do some research. This is fascinating.
Wendi
There has been a raging debate about this for years. But most likely they originated from India. Their language and dialects have traces of early Sanskrit.
 
#18 ·
The people in those photos don't look like they are having a grand old time, the woman in the first one has her hand pressed to her mouth and her companion looks off in the distance - they look like they are in shock.

The second photo just shows a persons leg - you don't know what their emotion is.

And in the video, the people are looking down, or looking at the girls.

Maybe I missed the drinks and laughing but it looks to me like people were shocked. And what better place to sit and contemplate the death of 2 small girls than at the ocean. The water can be very calming.

I don't think people's reactions to grief or shocking situations should be judged so harshly. I for one have no idea how I'd react to seeing that. I can't say that I'd immediately get up and leave the beach, I might stay just to see what happened.
 
#19 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by fek&fuzz View Post
The people in those photos don't look like they are having a grand old time, the woman in the first one has her hand pressed to her mouth and her companion looks off in the distance - they look like they are in shock.

The second photo just shows a persons leg - you don't know what their emotion is.

And in the video, the people are looking down, or looking at the girls.

Maybe I missed the drinks and laughing but it looks to me like people were shocked. And what better place to sit and contemplate the death of 2 small girls than at the ocean. The water can be very calming.

I don't think people's reactions to grief or shocking situations should be judged so harshly. I for one have no idea how I'd react to seeing that. I can't say that I'd immediately get up and leave the beach, I might stay just to see what happened.
The water the can be very calming? That wouldn't settle me, since the water was what killed these two little girls. Those two don't look shocked, they look like they aren't paying attention. The police and reporters noticed the indifference in the article. And seeing two dead little bodies would freak me out, not give me a reason to reflect upon it.

I know you believe in the best of people, and you personally wouldn't be so callous, but these guys truly were
 
#20 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by kmeyrick View Post
The water the can be very calming? That wouldn't settle me, since the water was what killed these two little girls. Those two don't look shocked, they look like they aren't paying attention. The police and reporters noticed the indifference in the article. And seeing two dead little bodies would freak me out, not give me a reason to reflect upon it.

I know you believe in the best of people, and you personally wouldn't be so callous, but these guys truly were

Just out of curiosity, what would the appropriate reaction look like in photos?
 
#21 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by fek&fuzz View Post
Just out of curiosity, what would the appropriate reaction look like in photos?
Tears, vomiting, packing up and running, offering to help, that sort of thing. Not cuddling up to your boyfriend and looking at the pretty ocean.

I'm not flaming you, I'm flaming them. The Roma have been maltreated for years and everyone denies it, says they commit crime and that's the real reason, nothing personal, etc.

I think this incident with so many people being so callous does indeed prove that it's hatred.
 
#22 ·
: (for the girls and their parents)
 
#24 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Calidris View Post
really? the story I read said that 2 of them were pulled out, so someone must have been helping them.
Life guards were eventually alerted and they were able to save two older girls. Other grown men closer by saw and heard them but no paternal instincts kicked in. Neither did any women's maternal instincts. I'm not a strong swimmer but I'd have jumped in.
 
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