68% of Italians want Gypsies expelled - poll

I really hate to think it impossible to stop humans from hating groups of other humans, but xenophobia is universal.

I've never been to a country which doesn't have "others" they just can't stand. And in each case, its always the same. They can't be trusted. They lie. They steal. They'll kidnap your children. They're lazy. They aren't smart (like us). They smell. They'll eat your dog.

Well, in some locations there's something to that last one. Keep Fido in the yard or you might never see him again.

Sixty-eight per cent of Italians, fuelled by often inflammatory attacks by the new rightwing government, want to see all of the country's 150,000 Gypsies, many of them Italian citizens, expelled, according to an opinion poll. The survey, published as mobs in Naples burned down Gypsy camps this week, revealed that the majority also wanted all Gypsy camps in Italy to be demolished . About 70,000 Gypsies in Italy hold Italian passports, including about 30,000 descended from 15th-century Gypsy settlers in the country. The remainder have arrived since, many fleeing the Balkans during the 1990s. Another 10,000 Gypsies came from Romania after it joined the European Union in January 2007, according to an Italian human rights organisation, EveryOne, part of the approximately half million Romanians believed to be in Italy.

Yep, that's a photo of cooked dog.

You might want to be careful the next time you eat out. The menu might give you a clue.



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