You state “I do not understand the problem with the Roma but I guess every country has a minority on whom they blame all their ills and focus all their hatred.”

Perhaps you understand the problem better than you think. It’s called racism and it is certainly all around us in Canada. Having lived more than 50 years in Saskatchewan before moving away (most of that time in Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Regina) only the blind would say racism is not a very real problem in Saskatchewan and Canada.

Having worked with refugees, usually as a ‘host family,’ it is very evident that a good deal of the racism they face here is systemic.

Yes, every country has minorities under attack. What is particularly worrisome in Canada is that no one seems very concerned about dealing with the problem. Indeed, federal government policy now aims at helping the corporate sector economically cannabalize the poor.

So, we shouldn’t look askance at the Hungarians. We should instead focus on removing the log from our own eyes…

Hard economic times and poverty, of course, always aggravate problems like racism and, for the hard of thinking, blaming everything on a visible minority is always much easier than ferreting out the root of the problem. Similarly, electing a federal government that shares popular bigotries is much easier than putting out ‘into the deep’ of changing the way we treat people in need.

It doesn’t sound to me like the young Hungarians Dennis spoke with are all that much different than young Canadians. They are self-centered and want the ‘good life’ which, at their tender years, is seen in the accumulation of consumer goods and wealth.

The more things change, the more they remain the same…