MrRING
Android Futureman
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2002
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Comics writer Peter David got into some social media trouble for an opinion he had heard while in Europe that some Romani parents would purposefully mutilate their children to make them more effective & heartbreaking beggars. Peter David heard it and thought it was the truth, but is it an actual urban legend or just something one person told the comics writer?
Here's where he talks about what he heard:
https://www.peterdavid.net/2016/10/08/me-and-my-big-mouth/
The Comics Beat website talks about the Romani take on the situation here:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/romani-op...ponds-to-peter-davids-anti-romani-statements/
Here's where he talks about what he heard:
https://www.peterdavid.net/2016/10/08/me-and-my-big-mouth/
The larger problem was that suddenly my mind flashed back to 1993, when I was in Romania, in Bucharest, for the filming of a movie there. I was being guided around and then I saw something. And I wrote about it back then, and I will reprint the pertinent section here:
We go into the department store, take the escalator to the third floor. As we pass the second, I can’t believe what I see.
A child, a girl, somewhere between five and eight years old, is following her mother, calling after her. Her skin is dark. She might have been beautiful, if given a chance.
She is on her knees. Walking on her knees.
Sort of.
Her legs don’t bend back. They are bent forward, at the knees.
Her body is teetering at about an 80 degree angle, like a Gumby or a collapsing marionette. She half-pulls, half-shuffles along, sliding on her calves.
My guide sees what I’ve spotted. His face is impassive.
“What the hell is wrong with her?” I whisper. Grasping at the only explanation I can, I say, “Chernobyl?”
“Gypsies,” he replies.
I don’t understand, and tell him so.
“You see a lot of gypsy children like that,” he explains. “When they’re a few months old, sometimes their parents break their knees or their elbows, or put out an eye. They figure it will help them make more money when they beg.”
The Comics Beat website talks about the Romani take on the situation here:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/romani-op...ponds-to-peter-davids-anti-romani-statements/