Cyprus-Forum.com

[CopperLine]

Lena

How do you change people's minds, you ask. I don't know. But I do know that if you don't challenge bigotry and racism it will spread and grow.

"When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out."

Pastor Martin Niemoller

Substitute in the poem communists, social democrats, trade unionists for Pontians, Greeks, Turks, Arabs, Ghanaians, whoever you wish.


I couldn't agree with you more. Cyprus is by no means the only place where there is racism. (I didn't suggest it was)

In another thread Pyro said that I should open another thread on racism. I took up his suggestion.

You guessed wrong.

..racist against Cypriots ? No.

[mehmet]

Let me make a "racist" remark .

Miltiades, racism is the active discrimination of one race which is in power towards another ethnic group which is not in a power. What Pyron is demonstrating is prejudice. What you are demonstrating is nationaist chauvinism, albeit Cypriot rather than the Greek or Turkish variety more commonly demonstrated on this forum. And Lena, what if Copper Line is Pontiac, does it diminish his point of view about the dangers of generalising about a whole group from the behaviour of a few?

[skyvet]

There is NO place for "racism" in this world, especially when we are ALL one race - human!

[zan]

Let me make a "racist" remark .

Miltiades, racism is the active discrimination of one race which is in power towards another ethnic group which is not in a power. What Pyron is demonstrating is prejudice. What you are demonstrating is nationaist chauvinism, albeit Cypriot rather than the Greek or Turkish variety more commonly demonstrated on this forum. And Lena, what if Copper Line is Pontiac, does it diminish his point of view about the dangers of generalising about a whole group from the behaviour of a few?

If he is a Pontiac then he should have a low IQ and fit tiles for a living according to Pyro. He has proved his IQ over and over again so only one question remains and that is "Do you lay tiles for a living Copper Line?".

[miltiades]

Let me make a "racist" remark .

Miltiades, racism is the active discrimination of one race which is in power towards another ethnic group which is not in a power. What Pyron is demonstrating is prejudice. What you are demonstrating is nationaist chauvinism, albeit Cypriot rather than the Greek or Turkish variety more commonly demonstrated on this forum. And Lena, what if Copper Line is Pontiac, does it diminish his point of view about the dangers of generalising about a whole group from the behaviour of a few?

Wise words Mehmet , but the perpetrators of racist behaviour are not always in power , and the recipients of racist behaviour not always "not in power " Racism has had so many interpretations and a wide variety of labels attached to such behavior. For me there is only one interpretation. The discrimination against one based purely on race . Not even colour , that is colour prejudice not racism , for instance I like Blonds (who doesn't ) I do not find a particular group of women attractive , also culture , I'm a "culturalist" often mistaken for racist by those only to ready to play the race card. Culture selection is a perfectly natural human trait that has been with us since the beginning .
I do not condone cultures for instance where cruelty to animals is seen as part of life , take the Chinese for instance and the widespread practise of skinning dogs alive , or the Thailand wonderful culture of eating monkey brains while the animal is still alive !! Take India and the killing of baby girls , the mutilation of the human body in order to enhance their begging prospects , or back to China and parents selling their disable children to gangsters who use brutal force against these misfortunate children and force them to beg.
There are disgusting cultures in the world none the worst than the one that sentences a rape victim to death for the crime of being raped !!
The world is full of weird and cruel "culturalist " events. To hell with them .

[CopperLine]

"Do you lay tiles for a living Copper Line?"

Handy with a word trowel; hopeless with a grout trowel.

[Piratis]

First of all I don't think the term "pontiac" is correct one. It is either Pontian or Pontic Greek. Pontiac is a car brand which I don't think it has anything to do with Pontus.

Generalizing is wrong but also talking about something you have no clue about is also wrong.

It is a fact that almost all of young adult Pontian males that I, or people I know, met, exhibit a behavior that is very often rude and not particularly intelligent.

However this fact might be for a number of reasons which almost certainly are not associated with the intelligence of Pontians as a whole. Some examples of possibles reasons:
1) The ones we meet most are the loud ones. We rarely meet those that are quiet minding their own business.
2) Most Pontians came to Cyprus through Greece. It is possible that Greece choose which Pontians they wanted to keep and which they would encourage to come to Cyprus. So it is very possible that the Pontians that we have here are not a representative sample.
3) They are a lot of them and most of them are of lower education than the average Cypriot. This is not the case with Western and Eastern Europeans who are at least as educated as we are. The Asians and other non EU people require a work permit to be in Cyprus and they pass from very strict immigration services. Obviously the employers will keep only the hard working ones and not the trouble makers, and even those that are illegally in Cyprus are trying to keep a low profile for obvious reasons. On the other hand the Pontians are Greek (EU) citizens, and could not be deported easily even if they created trouble.

These are just some of the possible reasons, and I believe there might be more.

So it is wrong to generalize because almost always generalizations are false, but also it is wrong to dismiss so easily the observations that everybody in Cyprus (and I am not talking just about GCs) has made about the majority of Pontians that we have here.

[Pyrpolizer]

Careful Piratis, you are in risk to be branded racist too.

Nobody even dared write down not even one of his opinions based on his/hers experiences, as for my question about the settlers not even one Tc dared even opened his mouth to say anything.

Never mind I will from now on scan everyone of those hypocrites posts and prove them racist themselves by their OWN STANDARDS.

Just give me 5 minutes and I will expose the first one...

[mehmet]

Miltiades,

We shall have to differ on whether someone with no power can act in a way which is racist towards another person. I still maintain that racism is the action of discrimination on the basis of another persons race. What you have gone on to describe are your personal prejudices towards other cultural practices. You are entitled to whatever beliefs you want but only when you start acting differently towards people of another race are you discriminating in a racist manner. Do you have separate prices and standards of service for people from different nations? If everyone is treated the same then you are not acting in a racist way, even though you may think less of them for their own cultural practises.

[Pyrpolizer]

Ta,ta,ta, ta……
The first hypocrite exposed. Racist by his own standards.

OK! Lets try it this way. I have been working with the "Little people " here in the UK for the last 30 years and I have to say I know them pretty well. This is not in the work place or meeting them in the streets but in their homes. When they are at home you are privy to almost every thing about them. They even sometimes forget you are there and carry on arguing and discussing things that they should not. I see the real person that is sometimes filthy and sometimes neurotically clean. I see if they really care about their children’s education or they are more worried about their dog. They, sometimes even talk to me about their political or racial beliefs. I have met more races of people than I can possibly count with out leaving the country.

Greek Cypriots like to talk. Turkish Cypriots like to watch. Nigerians sleep all day. Pakistanis sit on your shoulder. Indians keep out of the way but offer you all the tea and food you can handle. Jamaicans use such small light bulbs that you cannot see a thing. Africans have at least ten chest freezers. Chinese have the greasiest kitchens. The older generation English is normally quite nice. The younger generation is hopeless. Recently we have the eastern Europeans that are so much more intelligent than the people around them that you feel sorry for them. There are more but I can’t think of them at the moment.

Of course there were more Zany for which you couln't think at that moment.



Zany would you employ a Nigerian who "sleeps all day"