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No country is without sin. And nobody has a clean slate. There are a lot of unpalatable secrets lurking in any country’s history and present. Even though it might be uncomfortable dragging them into the spotlight, acknowledging these less-than-savory facts is the first step to solving the issues in the first place.
The redditors living in Europe opened up about the dark facts about their home countries in a brutally honest thread over on r/AskEurope. These facts might not be for everyone, so fair warning, some of the things you might read are darker than dark.
If you’d like to share some lesser-known dark secrets about your home country, Pandas, you can do so in the comment section once you’re done reading this list.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Spain.
During the Francoist regime, many single mothers were told their newborn children were dead. They weren’t allowed to see the corpse, and the baby, which wasn’t dead, was given to a married couple. Many years later, the graves of many of these supposedly dead babies were found to be empty. This was done with the absolute cooperation of the Catholic church.
Wilko Lunenburg 3 years ago
I don't understand why the catholic church still is not recognized as a criminal organization.
anarkzie 3 years ago
They have been on the wrong side of history on so many issue that I have to wonder that as well.
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Freya the Wanderer 3 years ago
I jow several ex-Catholics, and one said he left when he decided it is morally bankrupt. I have a feeling he's right
Load More Replies... AnnaBanana 3 years ago
A lot of churches did it. It's the reason I'm adopted.
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H Edwards 3 years ago
How the Catholic Church still has so many followers is beyond my comprehension.
Patrick O'Harris 3 years ago
People gladly ignore stuff like that as long as they're not the victim.
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Ines Olabarria-Smith 3 years ago
Single mothers and poor families. Also babies from the “wrong” families (losing side of the war). This awful practice has happened all over Europe. In nazi Germany too.
Altea 3 years ago
Not only during the Francoist regime, this happened well into the 90's. Up until a new law was passed by which adoptions were handled by the government. Before they were all managed by the hospitals, many of them catholic, hence the corruption in the process. And they weren't all single mothers, sometimes just women with low incomes, even if they were married. In many cases they had a frozen dead baby that they would show the mother to convinced her she/he had died. This makes me so angry...
Hseed 3 years ago
Ehmmm... I may add the nurses at the hospital showed a dead corpse (obviously not the child from the poor victims, that was the one that was sold). They held that corpse in a sort of refrigerator to show it, just in case there was no "fresh" one to show. And in some cases the families that adopted didn't know anything about the origin of the kid. Seems like a chapter from American Horror Story but it's true, I hope there's a special kind of hell for those who were involved in any part of the process...
Agnes Jekyll 3 years ago
Watch the movie Philomena--it's an adaptation of one of these women and the child who was stolen from her.
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IlovemydogShilo 3 years ago
This happened in Ireland too. I HATE the Catholic church and unfortunately I was raised a Catholic.
RELATED:
#2
England. I don’t know how unknown this is but Alan Turing who helped to break Nazis’ enigma code was arrested for being gay and was chemically castrated by the government he helped years ago. He was banned from GCHQ and the US which greatly effected his career. He killed himself in 1954.
Guy MacGregor 3 years ago
This is a well known fact. They even made a movie about it starring Benedict Counterstrike
Kamelion 3 years ago
Please learn to spell Mr. Crispysnitch's name correctly
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Fay Kneuse 3 years ago
He was only very recently pardoned, posthumously, by the Queen. This wasn't until 2013.
Betsy Novack 3 years ago
Well I'll bet that made his day. No harm, no foul. Think of all the people who are automatically dismissed by narrow mi fed assholes
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Rosemary Probert 3 years ago
Of course they were, it's just that when you are a member of the establishment, politicians, aristocracy, royalty etc it is easier to conceal. There is one rule for them and another for us lesser mortals.
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Angel Llamas 3 years ago
Roumors say that he killed himself by eating a poisoned apple. Thats why the Apple logo is like that, in his memory.
Wang Zhuang 3 years ago
Brilliant man, the father of AI. I actually didn't know about the castration, wow
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
His treatment was appalling and brings shame on the UK
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Q B F T 3 years ago
Not that unknown when you make a blockbuster about it. What about your genocidal Churchill? Also not that unknown, but seems to get little Englander's backs up a lot more when you point out what a p.o.s. he was...
ZAPanda 3 years ago (edited)
Pretty much. Let's see. 400s - 800s - saxons massacreing celts. 800s-1000 - vikings massacreing saxons. 1066 - french massacreing saxons. 1066-1500s - various civil wars. 1509-ish. Henry 8, famous for killing his wives because he was a patriarchal piece of s**t. 1500s-1600s - witch hunts and start of colonialism particularly americas, scotland and ireland. 1700s - 1900s colonialism and genocides of native populations in victim countries across the entire world. 1900s+ anti-feminism (finally partly eradicated), persistent racism (at least till the colonies got independence), but somewhat continuous, witness Brexit (xenophobia). 2000s - America's minion of evil in unprovoked invasions of muslim countries. Yeah basically a s**t country.
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#3
In Italy a r*pist could marry his victim to avoid any legal persecution (this practice was called "matrimonio riparatore"). The women were pressed to accept the marriage to avoid social shame. Franca Viola, in 1948, was the first woman to refuse to marry her r*pist, but this practice was abolished by law only in 1981.
Kesam 3 years ago
I was going to write the same. It nearly feels like protecting the perpetrator.
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Trond Øien 3 years ago
The atrocities committed in some god's name throughout the centuries the world over are just mind-numbing. Sadly it continues to this day.
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Tenacious Squirrel 3 years ago
The concept of marriage was always tied to (or based on) a man’s “right” to ownership of a woman, including rape. On a related note, marital rape wasn’t even recognised in many places until the 70s and in many other places it still isn’t. Abolish marriage, it has no place in modern society and excuses all sorts of discrimination (it’s literally just a tool for either oppression or deterrent).
Caroline Nagel 3 years ago
Women forced to marry thair rapist, that's in the bible. Italy is a christian country, hence the law.
Rahmad Mulya 3 years ago
And... that practice still happening on my country... On the part where the law cant reach
Jo Choto 3 years ago
We all know the word is rapist. The word isn't the problem. It's the idea. If the idea is too distressing for you to read, eliminating one letter of the word isn't going to help. We know what rape is. We know what death is, murder, suicide, drugs, assault, torture. Hiding letters doesn't change any of that.
Paul Davis 3 years ago
You think this is bad but there's a lot of pressure in the U.S. and other countries to re-adopt laws like this. We need to shut down the smug, red-tie-wearing pro-rape crowd as hard as possible.
User u/AkruX explained that they were inspired to create the thread on r/AskEurope after learning that their home country, the Czech Republic (aka Czechia), was at one point ranked the third-worst slavery haven in the entirety of Europe. They were completely shocked by this.
Very recently, Bored Panda spoke to Brooke Burris, who chairs the Tri-County Human Trafficking Task Force in the Charleston area in South Carolina. She went into detail with us about human trafficking. It’s a deep-seated problem that is global, not located in just any one or two countries.
According to Brooke, people care about fighting against human trafficking more when they realize that it’s a local problem.
#4
Sweden used to treat Sami natives in northen Sweden as second class citizens for the longest time and we barely learn about it in school. As late as the 70s Sami children were still forcefully taken from their Sami parents and adopted by Swedish parents to ”make them Swedish”
Stuart “2-D” Pot 3 years ago
No. Shame on your ancestors, you shouldn’t feel guilty for the things people did before you. You are your own person, don’t let them make you look down on yourself :)
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Wang Zhuang 3 years ago
I don't know about the rest of you, but until I read this post, I had never heard of the Sami people. I had to look them up. BP can be good for encouraging education
UpupaEpops 3 years ago
Yes, as an Indigenous Ethnic Minority woman, it always cracks me up when Sweden is considered the most socially progressive country in the world. The blond(ish) children of my dark-haired aunt were asked in front of their mother, why it's always their nanny doing the school run and when can they meet their mum. Not by another parent, by the way, this was asked by their teacher. And this was in the nineties, in Stockholm, not some small backwater town in the past.
Ranch Dressing 3 years ago
Weren't the Sami also forcibly castrated? Well into the 70s I heard
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Sam 3 years ago
The same thing happened to native peoples in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. It was a really common practice
Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
I'm Australian and I have a friend whose mother was part of the Stolen Generation. :( Easily one of the most shameful parts of our history.
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Ausrine Ciapaite 3 years ago
I didn't know Sami even existed until I visited a museum in Oslo. I was shocked to hear that they were oppressed for a very long time, their lands forcefully taken and their human rights outright ignored. Sami were considered to be lesser than animals. This whole history reminded way to much about native Americans. I'm glad that now days Sami got legal rights. I just wished that we'd learn about them in schools as well.
Trisha Howson 3 years ago
I didn't even know this we weren't even taught this in American history we where taught about native Americans and ect. But not this werid.
Load More Replies... Rosemary Probert 3 years ago
I suspect this is true of most peoples who are outside what we like to think is "normal" society, in America, Australia, Britain too. Nomadic peoples were especially regarded with suspicion by settled, so called "civilised" communities and all kinds of crimes and bizarre behaviour were attributed to them because they were "different", but often they had a higher moral code than the "normal" people. moral.
Jo Choto 3 years ago
Used to? Used to? Last time I talked to a Sami person in Norway, she was still facing untold amounts of prejudice and had experienced violence growing up and she was young. Racism is the bane of all European countries and it's still alive and kicking against the Sami in all of Scandinavia.
Marcellus the Third 3 years ago
Denmark, not having any Saami to mistreat, acquired Groenland and did the same with the Inuit.
adiiantryx 3 years ago
this is common as a programme in china in the uighur regions to make uighur children 'han'
Hanna Sofia 3 years ago
i'm from a swedish/finnish sami heritage and we're still treated badly :/ not nearly as bad as some of my family's horror stories though; my dad was sent to a swedish school not knowing a word in swedish, he was beaten every single time he accidentally spoke sami
MimSorensson 3 years ago (edited)
I’m not sure how relevant it is that it was even worse before - treating parts of the population badly to ANY extent is just unacceptable. Makes me ashamed of Sweden, goddamned it. We need to straighten the hell up and fly right, that’s what I say, and until we do, we suck.
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Norway. How terrible we have suppressed the Sami people and how we forcefully assimilated them in order to “fit in” with the “Norwegian culture”. And how the racism against them still exist very much to this day. They are still treated horrible by Norwegians and we are barely learned anything about their history in our schools.
Tx jac 3 years ago
What's worse yet ...I had to look up Sami people to understand what was being talked about. Here in the US we do not learn of their history
Cecilie Linn 3 years ago
30 years ago I learned about the Sami people - how terrible Norwegians where towards them, but also very much about their culture and why they are so important! Now I'm not from up north in Norway where most of the sami live - I was actually around 25 the first time I met someone that I know was Sami. And I went to public school, so what I learnef should pretty much be the standard in Norway. My kids also learn about the Sami since kindergarden - every single year, specially around February (usually they celebrated the Sami national day February the 6th with bidos, the Sami flag etc ♥️)
Cecilie Linn 3 years ago
Both me and my kids learned about the Sami at school (all sides of it) and through the years I have seen it talked about MANY times in the news, documentaries, talkshows etc. I also loved Mánáid-TV that came around the late 80s or early 90s (it's a childrens show) if you want to see more Sami tv, then you can check out https://nrksuper.no/kategorier/samisk or. https://tv.nrk.no/programmer/samisk. There is also radio channels available (it's an amazing and lovely language btw)
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Viv Hart 3 years ago
Aren't the Sami the people of Lapland? The people who trek with their reindeer herds on their grazing wandering. Most interesting culture, saw them when I travelled with the Hurtigruten coastal supply ship from Bergen, all the way up to and round North Cape, and back. 125-Lapp-d...88ef69.jpg 
Cecilie Linn 3 years ago
Wonder if there is another country named Norway, because I am from Norway and we indeed learned about the horrible inhumane way norwegians treated them, it's a extremely shameful chapter of our history! The first time I can remember learning about it I was probably 7-8 years old - so about 30 years ago! My kids also learned about them in kindergarden and at school - every february (the Sami national day) they learn about their history, the different Sami types (some live by the coast, other move with the reindeer +), shamanism, joik, their clothes and so on. I do know that there still exist idiots that for some reason look down at the Sami people, but it's a smaller, and rather stupid, part of the population, but I for one has always been proud to live in a country with such amazing aborigines ♥️. The directorate of Education also states this ''All students must learn about the same and Sami conditions in school. The right to also receive instruction in the Sámi language and instruction in Sámi in other subjects is different within and outside Sámi districts. In the Sami districts, Norwegian and Sami are equated in education''.
Teresa Stabler 3 years ago
Thankfully the Native Americans in the US were able to get their own land as they wanted but they're still treated like second-class citizens and are very untrusting of the government and rightfully so.
#6
Poland is ranked as the most homophobic country in the EU
Sam 3 years ago
Is this actually a surprise? I mean Poland publicly announced "gay free zones"
Ewelina Rydzewska 3 years ago
Its supported by current governemnt. Half of people isn't happy with their decisions😕 They push us to medieval ages😞
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CatWoman312 3 years ago
Whether it's your religion or personal belief, I don't understand for the life of me why what someone else does in their personal life impacts you in any way. If being gay is wrong then that's on them. You'll be judged for how you treat them though, that's for sure.
Kate Węgłowska 3 years ago
I'm polish living abroad and I feel so ashamed that lots of people in my country is like that. But we cannot generalize there also good people who are not homophobic.
Trevor Nicholson 3 years ago
It was Lithuania when I visited in 2015, then Croatia joined the EU and took the title. But in recent years, Poland has slid backwards in a big way.
"The U.S. Dept. of State has recognized that trafficking is a global problem, solved on the local level through a multidisciplinary response. The more local one's focus on the nature and prevalence of the issue, the better and truer understanding one will have as to both (1) the scale of trafficking and (2) how they specifically can take ownership of the problem and become a part of the solution,” she explained.
The expert noted that human trafficking is a far broader and more complex problem than it’s presented in movies.
"Kidnapping and using physical force/coercion is only one means by which a trafficker can control a victim," she said.
#7
NOBODY answered from the USA!? SO MANY...but I've always thought that how the land was taken from the original inhabitants one of the worst things this 'land of the free' has done. The massacres, the forced relocations, the infecting with smallpox, the loss of their identity as independent peoples...the list just goes on. Continued up until taking Hawaii away from the ruling monarchy in the 1800's.
Final score:
243points
Guy MacGregor 3 years ago
No one haven't because it is such a recent and new nation there aren't much in the end. (Not saying there isn't at all, but their history is still quite short, and nothing they did hasn't been done before by others.)
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Or done by thos eothers before the US existed as its own country :-( Everyone forgets the French, English, Dutch and Spanish (whoops, and Portuguese) did so much, way before 1776. It's frightening what colonizers did in the Americas. The ruthlessness...
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Mushroomlover 3 years ago
As a US citizen with Native American ancestors believe me, we are not okay with any of this. We are still fighting to get some of our original lands back to this day. If you can prove 10% Native American ancestry you can receive some benefits but it’s hard to do.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
My ancestry is merely 7% Native American, and I fully support all moves to restore what *can* be restored, tho' I get zero from it.
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MikeyWaveOven (he/him) 3 years ago
I agree that these are all bad, but the question was in r/askEurope. Of course nobody answered from the USA
Laura Edwards 3 years ago
No, because we're busy working on new and interesting ways to set our country back at least 100 years in terms of rights of women and people of color. We don't have time to get all historical. Stay tuned for the turning back the calendar to 1695 as we make women get papers travel saying they aren't pregnant. I wish I was kidding.
Sarah Rose 3 years ago
That's third, at best fourth wave feminisim ideology. Any feminisim sprotting from the U.S. must recognize the genocide of the original community and current native rights. If you're interested in learning, you can look in to MMIW (Murdered Missing Indigenous Community) or Two Spirt movements. You're welcome to support our movements but please do not deny the current work of the native community
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Maiun 3 years ago
Up until the 1800s? What about the federal government stealing native land for oil pipelines in North Dakota? That's still going on.
Andy Acceber 3 years ago
And the fact that the U.S. still has colonies... in 2022. Trump's response to the hurricane in Puerto Rico was appalling.
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Paul Davis 3 years ago
Get angry that the red states putting out textbooks lying about how the native Americans really were super happy to be relocated from green livable lands to dead deserts and have cut out the massacres completely.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Oh, and don't forget the same textbooks claim slaves happily joined the Confederate States of America's armies.!
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Barbara Forshee 3 years ago
I'm from Hawaii, not a native mind you. I was born at an army hospital due to my father being stationed there. I have always thought how terrible it was that the US took Hawaii away from its people. Just because it was a strategic place for our ships. They never asked for that. The US should be ashamed of itself.
Brafne Heiwer 3 years ago
Look, no offense or anything, but usually countries don't ask before they take land. Hawaiians still live in Hawaii, but it now belongs to the US.
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El muerto 3 years ago (edited)
what about Japanese concentration camps. or mostly erasing the natives language and culture by forcing their children to boarding schools, you know like in Canada. CIA interfering with democratic elect governments throughout central and south America....there is list
Bear42212 3 years ago
You're a complete and total idiot. The Japanese were not in concentration camps. They were placed in interment camps, because of the threat that they could be working with Japan. They weren't put in gas chambers, or ovens, or starved.
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Brafne Heiwer 3 years ago
No matter what the post is about in regards to america, someone always starts talking about Trump. For him or against him, he's not even if office anymore. Give it a rest.
Load More Replies... #8
Australia. Basically everything to do with the First Nations/Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Mostly the stolen generations but there was a whole lot more f*cked up sh*t.
Caro Caro 3 years ago (edited)
The stories about stolen generations is so terribly sad and heartbreaking. Children ripped away from their mothers arms to be brought up by others (whites). This has caused so much damage it's indescribable. https://www.commonground.org.au/learn/the-stolen-generations#:~:text=The%20Stolen%20Generations%20refers%20to,through%20a%20policy%20of%20assimilation.
Thomas Stead 3 years ago
Also they did it to white people who had relations with Torres Strait Islander people and Aboriginals
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Clan Leader 3 years ago
Attention! We Torres Strait Islanders aren’t Aboriginal. We are Melanesian with our own history and culture. Did the Aboriginals have it rough. YES. But our experience is totally different
Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
Yep, there's a reason why they always say "Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander" as two separate things - it's because that's what they are.
Load More Replies... ZAPanda 3 years ago
The time has come to pay the rent, to say fair's fair, to pay our share. The time has come, a fact's a fact, it belongs to them, let's give it back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejorQVy3m8E aboriginal...ccdf06.png 
Ally MacMann 3 years ago (edited)
It started the moment the Brits set foot on the continent and declared it "terra nullius" - nobodies land, ignoring the fact aborigines had lived there there for 50,000 odd years. Even though there's now at least a recognition that there's a problem and even a government issued apology, discrimination is still a huge and well documented problem.
King Kashue 3 years ago
And ScoMo is still out there (representing a good chunk of people's sentiments) saying that the real tragedy is that the white folks haven't been forgiven yet. F*****g pisspot.
Lewis Fisher Wells 3 years ago
I know I love my city of Melbourne but it breaks my heart that the city I love so much I born from the actions of John batman who manipulated hundreds of First Nations Australians
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Tunk 3 years ago
Yes recognition is good but what about what is happening today? We keeping saying sorry but yet their lives are severely disadvantaged every day right now. We need change today! Major change. So much culture lost of the oldest civilisation on Earth. It is an outrage and we continue to destroy what precious little is left.
Tunk 3 years ago
Australia escapes scrutiny on this and so many other things. We are not the easy going stereotype we like to advertise falsely to the rest of the world. Far from it.
Load More Replies... #9
Turkey. There is overwhelming violence against women in Turkey. And the first thing [anyone] asks: well, what was she wearing?, what is she doing there this late?
Richard Portman 3 years ago
I think Turkey should admit that genocide. It happened. They should apologize in a real way. Until they do, Turkey will be haunted by the past.
Load More Replies... Anett Szondra 3 years ago
Victim shaming at its best. I've seen an exhibition of clothes what the victims were wearing. It was mostly long trousers and a normal shirt. Except for the smaller ones, youngest was only 4.....it was heartbreaking. Back to Turkey, they still do honor killing, you know when you get raped by a bunchbof guys and your family kills you because of the shame you bring on them
Betsy Novack 3 years ago
I actually dated a guy who had the audacity to tell me I should not be headed to the grocery store after 5PM and didn't think it was okay for me to wear my new red high heels anywhere. I had to get out of the car and end it when his psycho girlfriend he failed to mention ran us into the emergency lane of the freeway I'm pretty much done with this whole dating thing. I don't need a man. I've hit my own power tools and a cat who knows when it's time to leave my bed.
Load More Replies... Betsy Novack 3 years ago
I was on a bus in Istanbul. A little Mercedes van type thing to get people around the city. As soo as it pulled away from the curb I must have had 30 pairs of hands rubbing every inch of my body. I kept seating them away. And not a single man would look me in the eye. It was creepy beyond anything I could imagine.
Bubbles and sparks 3 years ago
A Muslim co worker once told me that a woman wearing the proper clothing and covered herself (hear and neck should not be visible) they were considered honorable women and those would be treated with respect. He was married and his wife was never covering herself, they were pretty Western... Then he had a setback, started reading the Quran, praying a number of times a day and next thing I saw was his wife, covered up from head toe... She's told a mutual friend she was forced into doing this by her husband, a refusal once cost her a beating :'( I have no idea if she ever got out of that smothering marriage.
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"In fact, according to a report of prosecuted sex trafficking cases in the U.S., 59% of coercive tactics used by traffickers were non-physical, compared to 41% of tactics involving physical coercion. Further, transportation is merely one type of action used by a trafficker,” Brooke told us.
Though it’s unlikely that human trafficking will be fully rooted out globally or in any particular country, it is vital to limit its scope.
“Until the Lord comes, I think evil will always exist in our world. Therefore, if I'm honest, I don't think we will be able to eradicate human trafficking entirely," Brooke said that it’s important to keep fighting injustice, but it’s equally vital to be realistic about the scope of the problem.
#10
Spain is only second to Cambodia for missing persons cases that were never resolved.
There is a government run online search tool for finding mass graves.
ZAPanda 3 years ago
I wonder if the "long march" from Mao Tse Tung also counts here. Apparently many millions died in the rural->urban forced migration.
J. F. 3 years ago
His idea to get rid of Sparrows also back fired in a horrible way
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RafCo 3 years ago
In Brazil there are commissions to help locate the disappeared. Many Spaniards we're brought in as experts to help advise the commissions. I've learned recently that Spaniards we're also recruited to assist in locating bodies in Cypress as well. It's sad to be good at this, but the work is so important.
#11
France. Forced sterilization of intellectually disabled people was a very common thing until the early 2000s. There's now a law requiring consent since 2001, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn forced sterilization still happens.
Ausrine Ciapaite 3 years ago
Actually I heard of this happening in Lithuania to this day. The reason why? Because when a mentally disabled person lives in a mixed-sexes institution, it's impossible to keep them away and romance does happen more often than you think. (I don't know what happens to same sex institution). Unfortunately people there often don't realise they should use birth control ( because of their permeant mental conditions). The person is unable to care for their child so the baby would end up in an orphanage which would hurt both: parents and the child. I know it's a controversial topic and it's hard to decide what is right or wrong here.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
If a person can't make a choice on birth control, how can they be able to consent to a medical procedure? Answer: They can't. Ergo, this is eugenics, still and forever more. Two people with a problem can have a normal child, btw. IMO, this law covers up the fact intellectually less-abled women are raped in these "institutions".
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Mattewis88 3 years ago
This was pretty common everywhere. And please try to understand that while it sounds terrible - a lot of mentally disabled people have very diminished impulse control and while they still have sexual urges, they cannot ask for consent from another mentally disabled person and you can't always keep your eye on them in institutions where males and females mix. Also, unfortunately (and the real horror here) is the very common sexual assault and abuse of mentally handicapped persons - often leading to pregnancy. These babies cannot be cared for by their mother and the dad.... well, would you let a rapist have your child? It may sound cruel, but it is in the end, for the greater good.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Do you understand that this covers up those rapes? the rape still occurs!
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Jennifer Norton 3 years ago
As a parent of a special needs adult I can tell you this isn't as cruel as you think it is. Our daughter isn't mentally capable of taking care of herself let alone a child. She lives with us but as we get older if she has to go live in a group home and she can still bear children we will probably do this. It's for her safety and well being. I know the wording "forced" makes it sound cruel but the alternative of putting someone with a child like mentality through pregnancy and child birth can be so much worse!
Trisha Howson 3 years ago
I very much agree. I had to put my sister in a home it was heartbreaking. My father would not care for her. And I was worried about this or worse happing. I would have took care of her but I currently I have three children and I do not want them to relive my nightmarish childhood. My mother was diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia and manic depression. There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened. Bad stuff. But anyway. I love my sister. I feel bad about putting her in home. But when she ran away couple years ago from home and my dad would not sign a paper cause she was over 18 and they wanted someone to sign so they could look for but said they needed to do evaluation on her to make sure she was okay. Dad would not sign it. So I did. I was scared some day I would learn someone had killed her or would use her in bad aways or get taken advantage of. She is like a child in a lot of ways and wouldn't take care of herself. She seemed a lot better last time I seen her.
Load More Replies... Caroline Nagel 3 years ago (edited)
This was a 'normal' practice in a lot of countries, not just France.
Jo Choto 3 years ago
I met a woman in the US who was told she had cysts that needed surgery. They gave her a hysterectomy and she didn't find out until a nurse who had been involved in many of these secret abuses started looking for all the victims. It was widely done in the US to young black women between the ages of 18-21 to prevent the spread of what was considered second-class human beings.
Hello Dolly 3 years ago
Holy crap! Stealing peoples insides are not okay! Especially with the long term impacts that has. I have long been asking for a hysterectomy because I have some medical problems but I have been denied since it could have terrible effects due to lost estrogen. Losing estrogen too early is not good.
Load More Replies... Rosemary Probert 3 years ago
Many French doctors still think autism is a mental illness while other countries have realised it's just another way of thinking. It's true autism often leads to depression, but that's because we don't fit the mould of so called "normal" people so are often bullied. Actually the evidence shows autism isn't as rare as was once thought. There is a wide spectrum and many "eccentrics" and geniuses fit on the higher functioning levels.
ZAPanda 3 years ago
Many research scientists, for example, are autistic. So autism causes vaccines.
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JanduSkaMat 3 years ago
I don't see nothing wrong here. If you are intellectually disabled how could you possible think of consequences of actions such as getting pregnant during sex, let alone taking care of a baby!
Kimi Tomminello 3 years ago
The answer is not to sterilize people. It's to stop intellectually disabled people from being taken advantage of and preyed upon.
Load More Replies... Andy Acceber 3 years ago
Wow, I'm deeply disturbed by all the commenters here saying forced steralization is okay. As a queer person, do I need to remind you that homosexuality was considered a mental disease by many for generations and used as an excuse to steralize people? Do I need to remind you that hysteria was once considered a legit mental disorder that only impacted women? Or that Stephen Hawking had a disability that could impair thinking though he was also a literal genius? Or that within just the last 20 years or so, the general understanding of autism went from it being a feared developmental disability to an understanding that the brains of autistic people just work differently? My point is our understanding of disabilities changes constantly. As much as we think we may understand mental disabilities today, none of us are experts. Permanently forcing our understanding of disabilities today on someone by steralizing them is a horrible, short-sighted, dehumanizing decision.
JanduSkaMat 3 years ago
I get your point. But if your IQ is below 50, you still have rights, you still have sexual urges, but you cannot take care of baby for christ sake!
Load More Replies... #12
Portugal has massive problem with domestic violence (including femicide and child abuse). Strict catholic patriarchy was THE rule until 1974, so it's still hanging around in older generations and trickling down on their descendants. And most offenders get off with a slap on the wrist because we still have courts full of old ass judges.
Ponyo (they/them) 3 years ago
it's horrible when people pervert their faith to fit their sick actions and thoughts
Rosemary Probert 3 years ago
Britain is just waking up to the level of non-physical abuse in society, the absolute control of one partner by another, and now includes coercion and financial control within a marriage as abuse. How the courts are dealing with the change depends on the judge.
Marcelo Anjos 3 years ago
Despite the femicide connected with domestic violence is in fact the number 1 of murders in Portugal, and is of course to much (even 1 is to much) , is not a trend or a thing, we have about 30 of this cases per year. The Patriachy was in fact a thing, but tends to vanish on younger generatins
Legen ( wait for it ) dary 3 years ago
On our days happen a lot of domestic violence. Once in a while show on the news a woman who killed her husband or the son. Reason.? Mother or son snapped after +20 years of domestic violence.
Betsy Novack 3 years ago
Catholics will be surprised when they don't automatically go to heaven. They will show up every day in an orange vest to work keeping things clean in heaven and go back to hell about 3:30.
Nuno Carvalho 3 years ago
As a Portuguese lawyer Incan assure you that the great majority of Portuguese judges aren't old. The medium age must've around 40-45. Maybe in appeal courts, those more media expose. And domestic violence isn't worse than other countries, it's less. The political agenda and the media makes it look so. Femicide isn't considered a crime in Portugal, homicide is. It's not a gender crime, it's a human being crime. Positive discrimination is, surely a greater (by numbers) crime in Portugal!
Load More Replies... #13
I think many people, that don't live in german-speaking countries, don't know that Austria was a fascist dictatorship for 4 years before the Anschluss
ADHORTATOR 3 years ago
they surrendered without firing one shot in 1938 and embraced the Nazis...after the war they considered themself as the first victims of Nazi Germany....
chi-wei shen 3 years ago
They based their role as victims on the fact that the referendum was highly unfair but forgot to mention that a completely fair referendum would have yielded basically the same result. At that time, Austrians wanted to be part of Germany. Some twenty years earlier, right after the First World War, some of the Austrian provinces (or states) had their own referendum and they always voted YES with an overwhelmingly high margin.
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T. D. Bostick 3 years ago
Austria is the only country that could dupe the world into thinking that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler was German.
Iapetos 3 years ago
Our chancellor is an embarassing creature. Watch him talk for a minute and lose faith in people. But on the other hand, our left cripples itself with infighting and bad priorities.
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Richard Portman 3 years ago
Centuries later and we are still cleaning up after the Holy Roman Empire and the Hapsburgs. Also looking at you, Spain.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
This. Austria doesn't get to play victim ---- it's also where Hitler was born and raised. He wasn't German. He was Austrian. Hmm...
Andrea Steinacher 3 years ago
true, but in Austria he was nothing but a failed arts-student, then he went to Germany ... and then he came back as - you know
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Thomas E S Thomas 3 years ago
Austria Hungarian empire was a religious dictatorship for 800 years.
CatWoman312 3 years ago
If you bother to pay attention in history class and learn about World War I, you'd know this.
#14
Huge collaboration of Dutch people during WW2 , snitching where people were hiding. Supporting the Nazis, joining the forces.
The Dutch railway company (NS) transported Jews, Sinti and Roma to Germany.
Royal Dutch Shell reported their jewish employees to the Nazis to be deported.
Mr Zipperface 3 years ago
All occupied countries had an element of collaboration, collaborators were mostly looking out for themselves although there was a lot of score settling too, people are people the world over.
Sam Schrevel 3 years ago
Well, let’s say the Netherlands thinks of itself as neutral during the war to save it’s citizens (except some specific groups that is) and we’re taught we were heroic in our underground resistance. Dutchie here
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ZAPanda 3 years ago
The irony here is the british put dutch boers (farmers) into concentration camps in south africa in the boer war. People do not learn from their own suffering and inflict it on others.
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 3 years ago
Could also have to do with the fact that those boers were still in Africa and not in the Netherlands so they were not the same people.
Load More Replies... julien 3 years ago
again NOT specific to the Netherlands : " 8 American Companies That Worked with the Nazis During World War II : Coca-Cola Company. Kodak. Chase Bank. Ford. IBM. General Electric. Random House. Standard Oil."
Teresa Stabler 3 years ago
After WW2 the US brought over a lot of Germany's top scientists and most of them were Nazis. Disgusting.
Load More Replies... adiiantryx 3 years ago
even companies from other countries collaborated with the nazis - i hope everyone knows which ones i'm talking about
julien 3 years ago
" FORD : Beginning in 1940, with the requisitioning of between 100 and 200 French POWs to work as slave laborers, Ford-Werke contravened Article 31 of the 1929 Geneva Convention. At that time, which was before the U.S. entered the war and still had full diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany, Ford-Werke was under the control of the Ford Motor Company. The number of slave laborers grew as the war expanded even though Nazi authorities did not require German companies to use slave laborers. "
Melia Janssen 3 years ago
While there were collaborations in many other European countries, in The Netherlands, they maintained meticulous records of all their residents, including the Jewish people, who were then traced through those same records by the Nazis. It's the major reason why so many Jewish people were able to be traced and deported to the concentration camps.
#15
Netherlands. In 1620, the Dutch East India Company committed genocide on the people on the Indonesian Banda Islands, under the flag of the Dutch fleet. Murdered 95% of the population as punishment. Their crime? Selling nutmeg to the Portuguese and the English. I don't even like nutmeg that much. Their population still isn't at the level it was before the genocide.
Caro Caro 3 years ago
The VOC was a very powerful company. They didn't care about the suffering they inflicted, it's all about the money and power and influence. Not something to be proud of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_conquest_of_the_Banda_Islands
Caroline Nagel 3 years ago
And nothing has changed. People are still exploited to put money in the pockets of the rich.
Load More Replies... Rahmad Mulya 3 years ago
And recently one of their politician demanded us to apologize for dutch casualties during the colonial era. Good thing is Mark rutte do the opposite and apologize to us.
Caro Caro 3 years ago
Yes, he did the right thing! I'm glad because the Dutch did some horrible things in Indonesia.
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Sapna Sarfare 3 years ago
I am reading a book related to it. It is written by an acclaimed Indian author Amitav Ghosh. It is called The Nutmeg's Curse - Parables for a Planet in Crisis. It is basically around what happened here changed things not just for them but history of mankind all around. It is on colonialism, exploitation and environmental implications. I have just started to read.
Caro Caro 3 years ago
Fantastic writer. Have you read "The Glass Palace"?
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Mazer 3 years ago
Every corporation that found a product to sell exploited the workers. The most damaging thing was to pay one group of people a different salary than other workers, pitting worker against worker while the fat cats just sat back laughing snd taking in big bucks. Sound familiar to present day America??? Yep, American businessman started the worker against worker scenario. Knowing people will fight over scraps
Marcellus the Third 3 years ago
Then don't read about the "pacification" of Aceh/Atjeh, more for the Kingdom of the Netherlands than for the VOC, late 19th century, and mostly lead by Swiss mercenaries. Similar percentages of dead, bit larger scale.
#16
In Ireland we were under such control of the Catholic church until 2000s. Our constitution was drawn up with their approval and still says that women have a role in the home. Anyway the control of the church meant that the church got away with shielding and transferring paedophile priests ( well known). The not so well known was the following three things outside Ireland are:
Mother and baby homes - This was where unwed mothers were brought. They were a shamed, has their children taken away. The children either died or were adopted illegally to Irish and American families. They also burned their records and one in Tuam Co Galway dumped the bodies of many children who died in a septic tank (tank where sewage is stored from houses not connected to the main sewage system).
Magdalene Laundries - this was where runways and some troubles were brought. They were slaves in a laundry and received nothing and were treated terribly and the religious orders made money off the backs of this slavery. The last one wasn't closed till the 90s which is messed up.
Also corporal punishment in schools until the late 60s early 70s especially in industrial schools (some of which were for troubled boys and the abuse there was messed up.
So yes we have a dark past. Now it makes sense why there are few young Catholics in Ireland. We don't mention it much but we know and it makes me ashamed and I'm 25.
XenoMurph 3 years ago
In my school we had a "priest" who had been moved for "accusations". And was moved from our school for a similar thing. But he was badly beaten, as he was coming out of the church one night. The story was that he was mugged and the contributions were stolen but we all thought if was for other reasons. This was late 80s as things were starting to change. The catholic church was losing support fast by then as the stories were coming out. Father Ted had a big effect on breaking the spell the church held over the country.
Donkey boi 3 years ago
Corporal punishment in schools lasted a lot longer in the smaller towns. I got the cane several times in the mid-late 80's. There was also 'the dot on the blackboard', 'the invisible chair' (I was always quite good at that one), 'water crucifix', and a few others. The worst were for 'Impure' actions or thoughts as the offending body part(s) were directly targeted. You were let of easy if you were made to stand in the class naked while the nun would point and explain what the sin was and why you were disgusting. Otherwise, Girls would get their breasts pinched or slapped with the paddle. I still have a scar on my penis from the bamboo cane because I got an erection (in case you didn't know, young boys hitting puberty cannot control those). Oh the memories!
ZAPanda 3 years ago
I'd find other victims and do a class-action lawsuit and put up a blog about it, and name the teachers who were guilty. They must not get away with this.
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Jules. 3 years ago
And yet the young indoctrination into the Catholic Church prevails. Its mind blowing. There's no way to officially leave the CC. It's a CULT.
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
The only cult with an entire country which is also a chair.
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Agnes Jekyll 3 years ago
Some of these young women were imprisoned in the laundries for their entire lives--sometimes for being suspected for being sexual--they hadn't even done anything at all.
GenericPanda09 3 years ago
Are you sure that corporal punishment got phased out that early? - I think I was about 14 before in the 80s before they stopped being allowed to beat us in school in England. Some teachers used traditional canes or leather straps...some used shoes or wooden rulers or anything else they could get their hands on (one woman teacher used stacked strips of card that when hit on the forearm with, it'd wrap round your arm and hurt more) - they were often the bully teachers that seemed to enjoy it.
Elaine Nolan 3 years ago
There were plenty of relic nuns and teachers who thought they could still get away with corporal punishment in the 80s. I had my hand whipped for no good enough reason, my Mam went around and told the num she'd ram the ruler down her throat if she laid hands or weapons on me again. My Mam was a quiet woman, but she wasn't having us go through what she did.
Load More Replies... Fay Kneuse 3 years ago (edited)
Corporal punishment in schools wasn't made illegal in England until the late 80's, which is shocking if you think about it. My parents have scars from being beaten in school. Some teachers were sadistic, and loved it. Mum has a scar on her eyebrow where her maths teacher threw a blackboard eraser at her, because he thought she was talking.
Laura Edwards 3 years ago
I had forgotten about the Magdelene laundries. I saw it on some documentary. Just horrific.
Caroline Nagel 3 years ago
Well, slavery is condoned in the bible, so it's not surprising the catholic church used/uses slaves. As I said before: the bible is an immoral book.
ZAPanda 3 years ago (edited)
I think the word you want is "disgusting" or "vile". Anyone who doubts this, read Judges 19–21 (gang rape and butchery) and Psalm 137:9 (smashing children)
Load More Replies... #17
Germany. Female genital mutilation in Germany. It makes me incredibly angry as it is an more or less unpunished crime for decades now and nothing is done really.
Every few years, when sombody decides to report about it measures are announced, but nothing will be really done.
Caro Caro 3 years ago (edited)
This is because the immigrants from certain countries mutilate their young girls mostly when on holiday... Unfortunately it's hard to prove and control. I think it would help if the women were better educated and taught about the consequences (bodily harm and legal). Some mothers don't want this for their daughters but are pressured by relatives... It's terribly sad.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
In the UK it is a crime to take a child out of the country for this purpose. I don't know how successfully this is policed, but it is at least clear that the official standpoint is that this is unacceptable and a crime against the child.
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CatWoman312 3 years ago
This is done in 2 different ways: one way is the clitoris is removed, making the girl uninterested in sex and making it painful when they do. Another way is having the vaginal opening sewed up leaving just a small enough opening for periods. The stitches are removed their wedding night as a ceremonial practice. Both ways are barbaric and just show how we continue to punish girls for the actions of men.
Caroline Nagel 3 years ago
A barbaric practice. I don't care if it is part of someone's culture, it's barbabric.
Cheche 3 years ago
I'm not too happy about the fact that someone stated this as a German problem (I'm not German) . People from third world countries move to "better countries to be safe, yet continue to practice a lot of bad traditions. This should not be held against the countries that offer them better life, which so many choose not to take
Belandriel 3 years ago (edited)
What is this b******t? This makes it sound as if it was legal in Germany, which it definitely is NOT!
Sarah Kathrin Matsoukis 3 years ago
Germany became too soft, we let everyone away with a warning and do nothing, we allow everyone in and they just abuse our system without respecting out laws.
der sebbl 3 years ago
There is not so much what can be done. Should every girl strip down after a vacation? The practice is totally f****d up and barbaric but there is, sadly, nothing much that can be done
Load More Replies... Betsy Novack 3 years ago
Try this crap on a guy. Doncha think God or Allah or Zim Zalla Bim had a purpose putting those things there. Teach boys respect and keeping it in their pants instead of boys will be boys. Girls don't even get a chance.
Jaaawn 3 years ago
That's what happens when you introduce people with Middle Age beliefs into modern society. And yes, it's mostly overlooked because it's 'culture' apparently. The 'get out of jail' card that works for a lot of people with certain 'cultures' that people are also told to embrace.
David Zumwalt 3 years ago
Extreme islam is a scourge. Much like many other religious zealots over history. It's all good because it's what "god" wants.
Mari 3 years ago
It's no islamistic practice. It is in some African countries a cultural practice, nothing to do with islam.
Load More Replies... #18
Russia. Most Russians actually support their government and especially Putin
Caro Caro 3 years ago (edited)
Brainwashed into thinking that the outside world is against you, don't underestimate the fear when living in a regime / dictatorship. Russians aren't stupid, just scared.
Sky Render 3 years ago
If you think this can't happen in your country, think again. The US has an entire political party that is dedicated to keeping their voters afraid and ignorant. "Shock and Awe" indeed.
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DS 3 years ago (edited)
This makes me so angry - it's NOT true. I'm Russian born with many friends/family members living in Russia. Literally EVERYONE I know is against the war. Thousands of Russians have been arrested for protesting. I've got friends who are out there protesting and are risking arrest; my friends with high-profile careers (lawyers, etc.) are signing public documents which put them at risk. This kind of post is unfounded in reality and only fuels Russophobia. The people who DO support Putin are often afraid of what could happen if a revolution occurred and a power vacuum opened up. They remember the 90s, when there was no food on shelves. Not having another option is NOT the same thing as supporting the current regime. The support polls for Putin are not reliable, but when the West engages in Russophobia it feeds right into Putin's narrative, which is - the West sees you, the Russian people, as the enemy.
CatWoman312 3 years ago
My dislike is towards Putin and his army that's follows him without question. The Russian people are blameless in this. This is Putin's war plain and simple. I am so sorry what your family and friends are enduring right now. I pray things will get better
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Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
I've been listening to first hand reports from Ukrainians with Russian relatives (very, very common) and how the Russian family members are assuring them they will be safe and the Russian army won't hurt them, then, when sent photographs of destroyed buildings and bodies on the street are stating that this is all being done by the Ukrainian army, and finally, when the Ukrainians are still trying to tell them what is going on in actuality, the Russian family are getting angry with them for continuing to lie and then blocking them. Listen to Ukrainecast to hear the accounts of many people there on the ground.
Nataly 3 years ago (edited)
It's difficult to form a good opinion when you are exposed to propaganda on a daily basis and critical news is being censured. That's the whole point why a censorship and a well functioning democracy are incompatible with each other. This statement may be true, but it's ignorant.
L.A. Trefry 3 years ago
I doubt many actually support Putin -- but admitting you don't carries long prison sentences. Also, propaganda brainwashes many (as seen in the US with Fox/OAN, etc.)
Rus Kus 3 years ago
I don't believe that it's a majority. Maybe author is from that kind of people circle but my experience is different. Majority of older people maybe believers as they are unfortunately very susceptible to propaganda from USSR times. Middle age people are divided as part of them are poor and uneducated, unable to see connections and logic reasoning. They are living in horrid conditions and vote for Putin saying that he is amazing but local authorities don't do their job properly. Not too surprising here that they believe anything they hear from TV. Another part are simple men and women working in government organisations and caring mostly for their families safety. Those don't say anything out of fear. And the rest of progressive thinking elders, brave middle aged people and the educated ones, majority of youth both schools and universities are against current politics. For me it doesn't sound like a nation's minority.
Rosemary Probert 3 years ago
We forget the way the authorities used to oppress the Russian people to keep them in order. Many alive today lived through those times so are still fearful of speaking out. Putin himself used to denounce the people around him when he was younger, and he will have filled the government with people who think like him, not allowing for any opposition. We saw that in the way he spoke to the military advisors when he attacked Ukraine recently.
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Atero 3 years ago
I might be wrong, but I doubt what Russians "support Putin". Memories of sh..t show they had after collapse of USSR and how it changed to a bit better with him coming to power are still running deep and I think they mainly don't want the risk going back to 90's. At least that's the POV of whom I know.
#19
The regional languages in France were progressively replaced by French from 1789. Only a few are still remaining (mostly those who aren't understandable by a French speaker, like Breton, Basque, Corsican, Alsatian, Francoprovençal etc.) but apparently more than 90% of our regional languages are now dead. You only find them in regional accents.
Sam 3 years ago
France actually outlawed specific letters needed to write in Breton. Like the Turks have done with Kurdish.
julien 3 years ago (edited)
actually specific breton "diacritical signs" on first names are outlawed ! the reason they give is french being the official language they don't want to see any first name writen with signs that don't exist in french like in arabic or chinese for instance ! lol
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Rosemary Probert 3 years ago
It happened in Wales too where the English tried to wipe out the Welsh language. The Scots also had their own language, Gaelic. It was often claimed the attempted eradication of the minority languages was to make communication easier across the country, but it's more likely to be about control. If they are allowed to speak a different language they could be plotting against the authorities. In Wales English visitors often used to claim they were being talked about by Welsh people speaking Welsh in the shops, pubs etc, as if the Welsh didn't have better things to talk about with their friends and family than the English stranger who had just come in. plotting against (the authorities) without us knowing!"
Sam 3 years ago
Scotland has two natie languages, Scottish Gaelic and Scots ( of Burns fame)
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Guy MacGregor 3 years ago
Yep.Kids beaten at school for speaking their mother tongue, replacement of local administration / authority (teachers, postmen, politics) by strictly french speaking persons, deportation of population... And I talk about 60 years from today. There are still living people who went through that.
julien 3 years ago
Although the US has never adopted English as its official language, the country does have a history of trying to suppress other languages. For example, there was a concerted effort by US authorities to suppress and eliminate the languages of Indigenous Americans.
Load More Replies... El muerto 3 years ago
Europe had a huge variety of languages, throughout its history. but at some point, when people started con create nation states, and decided to standardise language within the borders of a country, many languages were eradicated. France and Spain are good examples, but it happened everywhere in Europe the last few hundred years. but this didn't take hold everywhere as readily, and thus some languages still survive. but many have been erased
Sam 3 years ago
Breton is a Celtic language related to Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, so totally different language. Basque is its own unique language
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Wim Cossement 3 years ago
Just like the French aristocrats tried to do in Belgium. We became an independent nation in 1831 but it wasn't until 1878 all official communication in Flanders and Brussels needed to be in Dutch (Flemish if you'd like) or bilingual. Brussels still is, more or less a French speaking majority surrounded by Flanders where some French speaking actually look down upon Dutch speaking and refuse to adjust. Screw French cultural imperialism!
Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago
I find it hard to believe that any country could compete with Britain in the way they virtually eradicated use of the Irish language. They were almost completely successful. They did a pretty good job in attacking the Catholic faith too. But . . . . . I bear no grudges, it was a different time.
#20
Georgia. State of LGBT rights. They are non-existent, you can easily get killed by religious people and nobody will give a sh*t.
Stannous Flouride 3 years ago
I know they meant the b\nation but sadly, this could almost have applied to the American state as well.
John Spookey 3 years ago
That’s a huge problem in all post soviet republics,muslim countries and actually like 70 % of the world.
H Edwards 3 years ago
The original question was on the subreddit r/AskEurope, so it's safe to say that it's the country of Georgia.
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#21
France. I'd say war against colonised Algeria. It is really a shameful thing involving war crimes, torture, ... A lot of veterans won't talk about it because of how ashamed they feel.
Look it up.
ZAPanda 3 years ago
But yeah, keep complaining about immigrants from Africa when they come to france to live somewhere that ISNT a mess as a result of colonial violence? Irony abounds.
Strahd Ivarius 3 years ago
Especially since in French law people from the colonies didn't need any visa to go and work in France until the '80, because of the needs of the industry in the glorious '60 (after we let them go their own way, but supervision, they were only big children after all).
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Kiki 3 years ago
My four grandparents came from Algeria to France back to when they needed people to rebuild the country. France was not expecting them to stay but the situation in Algeria was catastrophic (still is; a lot of corruption and misuse of money) so they did stay to give their children a better future. My parents are born in France and we still feel fully French despite the fact that we sometimes feel torn between our feeling of belonging to the only country we ever know as home and our ancestor land that was destroyed and is still occupied by French companies. I feel for that land which could have been my home but unfortunately a lot of Algerians did not mentioned it to their kids because they wanted to help them to blend in and so two generations later we almost have no attachment left to Algeria...I feel sad that I don't know anything about my roots or its language...My hope is to one day make a road-trip and see the beauties of Algeria! I will never forget where my blood is from :)
Uber Mensch 3 years ago
France, don't forget about trying to re-colonialiise Viet Nam after WWII - you know, after that big fight so YOU could be an independent nation. The U.S. stupidly stepped in to help back you up, and we all know where THAT got us.
Kimi Tomminello 3 years ago
"The American war" 😉 that's what my Vietnamese war bride mother calls it.
Load More Replies... Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago
And people talk about the negative aspects of British colonialism?
julien 3 years ago
the other side was no better, look it up : "The Oran massacre of 1962 (5 July – 7 July 1962) was the mass killing of Pied-Noir and European expatriates living in Algeria by members of the Algerian National Liberation Army. It took place in Oran beginning on the date of Algerian independence, and ended on 7 July 1962. Estimates of the casualties vary from a low of 95 (twenty of whom were European) to 365 deaths in a report by a group of historians sent to the French government in 2006".
julien 3 years ago
true but the National Liberation Front was no better : "HARKIS : is the generic term for native Muslim French who served as auxiliaries in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence from 1954 to 1962. It is estimated that the National Liberation Front (FLN) or lynch mobs in Algeria killed at least 30,000 and possibly as many as 150,000 Harkis and their dependents, sometimes in circumstances of extreme cruelty.[13] In A Savage War Of Peace, Alistair Horne wrote: Hundreds died when put to work clearing the minefields along the Morice Line, or were shot out of hand. Others were tortured atrociously; army veterans were made to dig their own tombs, then swallow their decorations before being killed; they were burned alive, or castrated, or dragged behind trucks, or cut to pieces and their flesh fed to dogs. Many were put to death with their entire families, including young children.— Alistair Horne "
Nadine 3 years ago
In France you can nude sun bath but you can't wear a burkini and be covered.
Nadine Debard 3 years ago
In France you can sunbathe nude in the very few nudist beaches. Just try anywhere else and you will go to jail. In France you can wear a burkini on any beach you want. In France, many public and private pools forbid large swimsuits like bermuda shorts because of hygiene (that's what they say and they already did it before I was born). So does burkini. In France in some public pools there are some time slots dedicated to women. So please be more precise if you want to bash a whole country.
Load More Replies... TeaDude 3 years ago
Also consider that until the early 19th century the Barbary Pirates (Algeria) were regularly raiding the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Netherlands, Irish and UK coasts to capture Christian populations as slaves. They were only stopped after the French colonised the country. Small mercies perhaps
#22
Lithuania often ranks among the top countries by suicide rates. It's like ~1/4000 lithunians is gonna kill themselves.
Firstname Lastname 3 years ago
Population as of 2020 was 2.795 million according to google, so that's nearly 700 lives voluntarily lost.
Clan Leader 3 years ago
Suicide is never actually voluntary and if you’d lost a loved one like myself has to suicide you wouldn’t be using that term
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ZAPanda 3 years ago
I wonder why they have such a high suicide rate. Is it the weather? as in "SAD"?
Jovita A 3 years ago
The way mental illness is perceived (depression often goes untreated), alcoholism and substance abuse, the influence of wars and occupation and etc... I hope things are better now there, for my lil sis ❤
Load More Replies... #23
United Kingdom. King Edward VIII was a Nazi sympathiser; he and his wife visited Germany in the 30s to have dinner with Hitler and inspect SS troops. In the 60s, he is believed to have said to a friend: "I never thought Hitler was such a bad chap."
Angelar 3 years ago
Everybody knows that Wallis Simpson and her husband were Nazi sympathizers, lol
ADHORTATOR 3 years ago
technically he wasn't king when he did that.... but he was in fact a Nazi sympathiser
Agnes Jekyll 3 years ago
He wanted the Nazis to invade England so they would put Wallis on the throne.
Load More Replies... Okokok! 3 years ago
That applies to almost every western country with a decent running economy. In the 20s and early 30s lots of politicians, entrepreneurs and members of royal families were extremely open minded towards racism and anti-Semitism. The overall appeal to ill-fated nationalism skyrocketed after WW I, and with this mix AH and his party quite quickly found supports of all kind, especially rich families, so he could start his rally for chancellor with huge donations in his pockets. That only slowly changed with the introduction of the Nuremberg laws but for EU-countries it was already too late... either you were riding along with the Nazis or found yourself on the other side of the battlefield.
adiiantryx 3 years ago
in fact a lot of people supported hitler throughout the world before he went to war with czechoslovakia and began really oppressing the jews. most of these people chose to be wilfully blind to his true self and that was their downfall
#24
Romania. A few years back there was a scandal of a pediatric doctor that did extremely painful medical experiments on children he was supposed to be treating, such as putting a metal rod near their backs and putting screws into their spines to "fix" scoliosis or something similar with bones he considered weren't growing properly. He mostly targeted poor families, or families with kids with weird conditions because he figured they wouldn't be able to or have the power to question his practices.
Also the fact that it's been revealed several orphanages drug the kids there and tie them to their beds to keep them compliant.
I've also read a religious article of an "exorcism" that was performed on a little kid they called posessed because "he would suddenly go very still and start shaking violently" (to anyone with a brain it's obvious he was just seizing). Instead of following the procedure for a seizure, which is making sure he isn't in danger of hurting himself by bashing his head or something, they rushed him to a church and placed him on the floor there (and it wasn't a soft floor by any means).
Or the fact that we've had gay people thrown in prison for being gay several years after communism fell (I think either late 90's or even early 00's).
Or, not that sinister but just plain stupid and more recent: the church brought "moase" (aka remains of "saints") during the current pandemic and hundreds of people just lined up to kiss them, all on the same spot too :) (it's a /s smile, don't get me wrong).
UpupaEpops 3 years ago
According to the Romanian Orthodox Church, epilepsy is considered a demonic possession and depression is a sign of lack of faith.
George C.P. 3 years ago
Church controls weak people and in Romania there're a lot
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Cold Contagious 3 years ago
Just a note on OP's comments about rods placed in the back and screws in the spine, for treatment of scoliosis, are ongoing treatments here in the US that happen everyday. Without which, my daughter would be crippled and have lung damage by now, at 30 yrs old. OP acts if though this is a barbaric act by a doctor there. I can't speak to those specific circumstances, but we are eternally grateful for the placement of Harrington rods along our daughter's spine. She had a 73 degree curve when surgery was done because it was progressing quickly. While the procedure is very in depth, painful, and serious, the specialists we dealt with were phenomenal and do this regularly. She received amazing care and results. There wasn't really a choice to make in the situation, severe disability,lung damage from ribs crushing it, potential death, or endure this medical procedure. She chose surgery. It sounds like people may be misinformed about this process in OP's area.
Xandra 3 years ago
As far as I remember, the doctor OP is talking about used some unapproved techniques and/or materials for the otherwise normal procedure.
Load More Replies... Jihana 3 years ago
Oh yeah, I saw a documentary about the last one. Apparently the older Romanian generation just LOVES their pilgrimages. It's a whole industry to put the elderly in busses and drive them to some churches. Where they then kiss relics and share the chalice during mass. During a pandemic of a disease that is especially dangerous to the elderly.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Through work, know a guy who had to flee Romania b/c, as a medical doctor, he didn't condone what they did.... couldn't even go home for funerals, or to be buried there. His stories... *shiver*
Sandra Charlot 3 years ago
Also Romania has a huge number of street children. Something pratically not existing in Europe.
UpupaEpops 3 years ago
Ethnic Roma, the most disadvantaged ethnic group in Europe, along the Sinti.
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Picu Elena 3 years ago
In fact, they are called "relics" and yes, in the middle of the pandemic, they were taken out so that people could come to pray and kiss the relic in which they are kept (there were mutes who contested this practice, but they were not taken into account... ). As Romanians, we are a very welcoming people, Romania is a very beautiful country, but corruption reaches alarming levels, those in charge of the country are incompetent and the country is unfortunately going backwards...
#25
Switzerland. "Verdingkinder" basically orphans used as slavelabor. They were often mistreated. There is a movie about it if anyone is intrested
Q B F T 3 years ago
Nothing about Switzerland being built on the money of drug dealers, despots, warlords, fraudsters, - and going further back - Nazis? Switzerland: the streets are clean but the money is filthy.
SykesDaMan 3 years ago
I think it's a thread about dark facts. Dark as horrible, but as unknown also, IMO. The facts that you are citing tend to be recognized by a lot of people.
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Claudia Schmid 3 years ago
Not just orphans. Also kids of unmarried women or people the government thought were unfit to raise their kids for one reason or another. I think the movie is called "der Verdingbub" and is really good
julien 3 years ago
" Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) : Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors. The United States has signed but not ratified the CRC. As a result, children's rights have not been systematically implemented in the U.S."
nini 3 years ago
My grandmother found out that she had an unknown sister just a few years ago and managed to actually find and meet her. She was taken away from their mother because she had several children with different men (while refusing to marry any of them, because she didn't want to be a housewife) and they claimed she was "emotionally unfit" to be a mother. According to my grandma, she was in fact not the greatest mother, but she tried. My grandma was so young when they took her sister away, she didn't even remember her. But her brother did. The whole family, including her mother, kept it a secret. I wonder if there were even more siblings that my grandma doesn't know about...
#26
In Ireland homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1993, after a 16 year legal battle which ended up in the European Court of Human Rights in 1988 (it took 5 years to implement the courts ruling).
John Carr 3 years ago
On the upside, we were the first country to legalise same sex marriage by public vote
APL 3 years ago
Shows how far removed the Catholic theocracy is from the people of Ireland.
Load More Replies... Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago
They've been an example to the rest of the world in recent years . . . . . now that they have thrown off the shackles of the Catholic church.
julien 3 years ago
"American Baptist Churches USA : In 1992, the General Board adopted a resolution that stated, “We affirm that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” The ABCUSA General Board voted in 2005 to amend the declaration We are American Baptists to define marriage as "between one man and one woman" and maintain that "the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Biblical teaching."
Amy Pattie 3 years ago
Similar years to Australia, but only in Tassie, and no one counts Tassie
#27
I guess colonization is a dark time for many countries, in Denmark is was no different, but often you talk about the islands is the Caribbean or Africa, but the treatment of Greenlandic people has been absolutely horrible in Denmark. They have been treated 2. rank citizens, and everything was dictated from Denmark and they had little to no say in it. Still I have heard that higher education in Greenland is taught in Danish not Greenlandic, but they might have changed that?
#28
Turkey. The years 1980-1983 were very dark years for Turkey - a paranoid nationalist military junta coupled with guerilla warfare in the countryside and massive political repression. Add torture in military prisons, kangaroo courts, and state-funded assassinations to that.
Pardon my French, but the bastard who caused all that died before his jail sentence was approved.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
And that's why I don't trust him to do a thing for NATO vs Russia. Birds of fascist feathers...
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Gata Nick 3 years ago
It is not that different today, is it? One of the worst countries for freedom of speech and press freedom. They can now jail you for 'blasphemy against the president' and anything can be labeled blasphemy. Only propaganda spewing TV channels are allowed to operate. Erdogan is just another Putin. Those of us who live next to Turkey have known this for over a decade.
Madeleine Flowers 3 years ago
...Kangaroo courts? Do they have koala courts as well? Joke aside, what are kangaroo courts?
Marlowe Fitzpatrik 3 years ago
A kangaroo court is a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice, carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides, and is typically convened ad hoc and often doesn't follow due process and comes to a pre-determined conclusion (taken from wiki bcause the Harvard Law paper was too long and this sums it up quite nicely https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_court )
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#29
Greece. We are the only country in EU where the Sharia law is still legal.
anarkzie 3 years ago
I'm not saying this is not true, as I do not know the facts but this really sounds like b.s. Sharia law is not even 100% practiced in most majority Islamic countries. The far right in the UK makes the same claims over here and what it actually amounts to is Islamic courts of arbitration dealing with Muslims weddings, which are not recognised by UK law on account of a marriage being between 2 people over here, not 1 man and 4 women.
Geralt of Rivia 3 years ago
Sheria courts and judges who think beating your wife to despite her is perfectly legal and won't report the issue to the police or help the woman seek divorce. Yeah bring up Islamophobia and the far right every time something is said about Islam. I am an ex Muslim and the Sheria has no place in the western liberal democracies.
Load More Replies... Kesam 3 years ago
This seems to be incorrect: https://www.euronews.com/amp/2018/01/10/greece-no-longer-requires-muslims-to-use-sharia-law
Donkey boi 3 years ago
It's still legal, they just have an option to 'opt in' to a secular court system to resolve disputes.
Load More Replies... Trevor Nicholson 3 years ago
The first official mosque in modern Athens just opened in November 2020. Also, there's actually no reason to ban Sharia law because it's literally not the law and bans are done by xenophobia governments to stir up Islamophobia, by creating the notion in the public that Muslims are threatening to overtake Europe. Sharia is not "legal" in Greece, it's just not been banned because there's no reason to.
Geralt of Rivia 3 years ago
Sheria law should be banned full period. It has no place in western liberal values. Doesn't matter whether it's family court or not. I don't know why a religion that thinks it's perfectly fine for a husband to beat his wife should have any business running family matters.
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julien 3 years ago
USA : 7 States Still Have Bans on Atheists Holding Office : Maryland, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. To many Americans, beliefs in God and Americanism has become synonymous. A 2015 survey found that 69% of respondents thought it was important to believe in God to be truly American. And Americans are expected to embrace national slogans such as In God We Trust and one nation, under God.
Bubbles and sparks 3 years ago
The issue stems from treaties drafted between Greece and Turkey following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne stipulated that Islamic customs and religious law would apply to the thousands of Muslims who became Greek citizens. After initially winning an appeal to Greece's secular justice, the supreme court ruled in 2013 that only a mufti had the power to rule over matters of inheritance involving members of the Muslim minority. Copied from an article from 10/01/2018 https://www.euronews.com/2018/01/10/greece-no-longer-requires-muslims-to-use-sharia-law
#30
Italy, as many by now know, is a f****d up burocratical nightmare. Until 1981 there was a law called "Delitto D'Onore" (= Crime in name of someones honor) that stated that people found guilty of kiling someone to maintain the familys reputation would be given a lesser conviction than someone found guilty for the same crime but for other reasons. If a woman was found committing adultery, it was "legal" to kill her (and her lover in some instances). Of course no one batted an eye when the cheater was the husband. It was extended to families too, the brother or the father could kill a sister/daughter they found out she had an unwedded sexual relationship (EVEN IF SHE WAS SINGLE). The most (yeah, even more) messed up part was that until 1930 (yeah they realised this was not a top notch idea earlier but still) the husband could kill the children if he knew they weren't his. (there was a weird legal part where they could be killed only if they were less than 5 days old or wasn't registred by the state Register... like AH WELL THAT MAKES IT REASONABLE) I repeat, the law for Honors Killing was in place until 1981!! And some people still act as if it was reasonable. No wonders we struggle to eradicate what we call "femminicidio" (=femalemurder, is a term used for the death of women that could be prevented if laws against abuse in marriages/relationship was taken seriously and action taken promptly) to this day.
Final score:
78points
AnnaBanana 3 years ago
I never knew this was a thing in Italy. Middle East and south east Asia, yes. Italy...no.
Emmydearest 3 years ago
Again, it was not legal to kill your cheating spouse. You "just" got reduced sentences. Which is messed up anyway, but... Yes, the act of rape was not considered a very serious offence, especially if the victim was married to the perpetrator or she "deserved" it in some kind of way (like she was a prostitute or she wore provocative clothes, etc). There's a famous verdict of 1999 in which a rapist was found not guilty because the victim was wearing jeans and, for the judge, jeans can be "notoriously" stripped away only by the person wearing them (😵) so that proved she was consenting... 🤦. Yep, that happened...
L.A. Trefry 3 years ago
I kept trying to tell people this back when too many people seemed to believe this was exclusively a Muslim thing.
Marco Conti 3 years ago
I remember that well. I spent the 70s going to demonstrations for the rights of women and other oppressed groups.
Carl 3 years ago
in Colombia members of the military had poor or mentally impaired civilians lured to remote parts of the country with offers of work, killed them, and presented them to authorities as guerrilleros killed in battle, in an effort to inflate body counts and receive promotions or other benefits. This happened during the presidency or Uribe and was brushed off by the government as part of the armed conflict between the government of guerilla groups FARC and ELN. Also many mayors and members of congress who spoke up about this were assassinated or died under mysterious circumstances. you can google "false positives Colombia" if you'd like to learn more about this.
#31
I don't know if it's not known but Italy passed racial laws during WWII.
More recent: the "trattativa stato mafia" aka "state-mafia negotiations" in 1993 and 1994.
Essentially it was a secret negotiation between very high government figures and Sicilian Mafia chiefs, at the end of the "massacre season" in which Mafia carried out literal terrorist attacks, since there was a very strong battle against them carried out by the Palermo group (pool di Palermo).
The prosecutors Falcone and Borsellino died at the end of the massacre season, after they hit hard the Sicilians with the Maxiprocesso (aka Mega-Trial)
Beans 3 years ago
The story of Falcone and Borsellino is super famous in Italy, and incredibly tragic. They were heroes who fought at risk of their own lives to take down systemic corruption in the government and to eradicate the Sicilian Mafia. The mafia blew up an entire f-king bridge to get Falcone and killed his wife and bodyguards too. Borsellino was assassinated two months later. He kept fighting even after his friend had died and he knew they were out to get him too. I can't imagine living like that and still trying to take down the mafia. They achieved a lot but it's never enough. Even now there is mafia roots in the Italian government. People say Berlusconi has ties to it and a lot of right-wing government. Surprise surprise. It's a big dirty secret even now.
Beans 3 years ago
Also, in his last interview, Borsellino spoke of presumed ties with rich businessmen in Italy and the mafia, including ties Berlusconi may have had. Mysteriously, that interview has been surpressed numerous times and has aired only once. Apart from being the former prime minister, Berlusconi owns a lot of media avenues in Italy. It's actually crazy how far mafia ties go in Italy, even today, with no reckoning for these corrupt a-holes.
Load More Replies... SykesDaMan 3 years ago
I think the Falcone story is known, even if it's only by name by a lot of people around the world.
Beans 3 years ago
It's worth reading the Falcone/Borsellino story, though its incredibly sad. The mafia blew up a whole bridge to get to Falcone, killing him, his wife, and 3 other people. In the Borsellino case they got him and 5 members of his police escort, and they did it outside his mothers house knowing he'd visit her.
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Peter Jamson 3 years ago
Diago Garcia. We, the UK, deported an entire people so that the USAF could have a convenient landing strip. We have repeatedly resisted their calls to be allowed to return to their home country https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia it is a shocking stain on us as human beings
M M 3 years ago
How about doing genicide over Slavic inhabitants on their eastern border... forbidding slovene language, italianising names in the 1920. they were using pictures of fashist violence over Slovene population as pictures of the partisan violence on innocent Italians during 2.WW on TV max. 5 years ago. They show no remorse and are actively trying to revrite history as them being victims of the fashists. Not them being the fashists.
#32
Canada- same colonization rape and pillaging of the natives as most places colonized by the British. Compounded with the forcibly removing native children from their families and putting them into horrifically abusive residential schools (the last of which only closed in the 1990s) and which in the last few years mass unmarked graves have been rediscovered. The loss of languages, the alcoholism, the ‘choose to be status or not’ b******t that gives rights in exchange for culture loss. Canada is seen as a peace touting loving country but it has an awful recent history. And that’s only their treatment of the indigenous. Each ethnic minority has a history of racism and ‘other’ treatment regardless of when in history they/their family immigrated.
Final score:
33points
LOttawa 3 years ago
As a native, I have to say that yes, many, many natives have been treated horribly by the church but I think it's important to know that not all of them were. My great grand-mother was placed in a residential school and I was told that she said the nuns were nice and fair to all the children (they were never beaten). They ate well, learned and played. As for the unmarked graves, there's no proof that the children were murdered. The "schools" started in the 1800's, and they could have passed away from diseases (the Spanish flu for example). In addition, many of them had cemeteries but they were unregistered. I do hope the parents were contacted, there's no record if they were or not. All the natives I know, feel like this.
Notnotable 3 years ago
Everyone had their own experiences true. I do believe your g-g-grandmother was a part of a small and fortune few. My grandfather was in a residential school and he ran away to survive. There is significant proof and witnesses to the murders at residential schools. I know the province of BC is doing thorough investigations and interviewing witnesses who are able to share what happened. Also the residential schools were closed in 1996 I don't think Spanish flu was an issue for almost 100 years. I am 30 and know people who are still living that were taken from their families and forced to attend residential schools in BC and Alberta. It was a nothing short of a horrific experience. There are many amazing Indigenous based resources on what has happened to individuals, families, and communities I recommend taking time and reading the stories of Indigenous people from across the country.
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LynzCatastrophe 3 years ago
I'm 35 years old, I remember being taught about native treatment and residential schools in elementary school. I cannot believe my school was trying to teach us that it was a GOOD thing. I can still remember those lessons. I had to learn myself as an adult the truth of this, because even as a kid I thought something was wrong. That it didn't sound right. We aren't great to most minorities. Wanna come to British Columbia? I can take you to abandoned towns that are filled with Japanese interment camps. Also taught in school as a good thing. My own school was trying to teach us to hate others. Sometimes I can't believe I turned out the way I did. I had to leave my hometown to learn.
Agnes Jekyll 3 years ago
The mass, unmarked graves were found last year, and 23 new, unmarked graves were found last month. The church is refusing and stalling to provide records. Indigenous people in Canada are more likely to not have access to clean drinking water (some reservations haven't had clean water for 27 years), and in some provinces, they are 87% more likely to be incarcerated. In Montreal, Indigenous women are 11 times more likely to be carded by police. When settlers first arrived in Canada, some groups of Indigenous people were the healthiest, and the tallest, in the world.
MyOpinionHasBeenServed 3 years ago
We only started learning about it a couple years after the last residential school closed. But that could be a school by school basis, depending on location. We were taught quite a bit about Louis Riel being a hero to the Metis, as were in the vicinity of his childhood home.
Notnotable 3 years ago
??? What a horribly unfactual comment. Please educate yourself from sources that are not rooted in white supremacy propaganda. An example of a dictator is Putin. You know the one currently killing innocent people and brainwashing his country.
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#33
In Crete most if not all people have at least one kind of gun in their house (anything from a hunting rifle to the latest fully automatic rifle) and some time ago (maybe even now I have no idea) the rest are Vendettas where families (by families I mean a group of people that have the same surname) would go into all out war between each other for any kind of reason
I'm from Crete but I Grew up in Attica and my family used to be in a Vendetta when someone was operating my Great Grandfathers excavator and he rolled over and died and his family blamed my great grandpa and I don't know how that ended
Gata Nick 3 years ago (edited)
Ah yes, Crete, also the land of animal abusers and killers.... The rest of Greece is ashamed of you.
face be drawn lmao 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 3 years ago
alot of places have those things, nick.
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#34
Northern Marianas. After WW2, the islands was occupied and controlled by the US government. Our culture and language is dying. We’ve been whitewashed and just accepted that after the older generation dies the language and cultural practices will die with them.
Final score:
31points
Bex 3 years ago
I'm from the US, lived here my whole life, have 2 college degrees from here, and have never heard about this until now. Definitely something that needs to be talked about and taught in this country so our younger generations can (hopefully) stop this and prevent it from happening elsewhere.
#35
Romania. In the early 70s, our fabulous dictator banned abortions because he wanted a baby boom. For Romanian women. Gypsy women were allowed to get abortions. Some doctors would recommend gypsy women to get abortions even if they were not necessary. Secrete police/party members would actually be in for some gynecological exams and make recommendations.
Sam 3 years ago
The US didn't even bother to ask when if sterilized Native women up through the 1970s
Cold Contagious 3 years ago
I felt deeply sorry for all the women who had to have been devastated by all the hysterectomies performed on them while they were in custody of ICE or border patrol, locked up in cages like animals, with their other children taken away, also living in cages like animals. It's vile and disgusting. Charges should be filed against the monsters that facilitated these procedures, from the bottom to the top. Performing unethical procedures on illegal immigrants is barbaric, and anyone involved deserves prosecution to the fullest extent of the law. It has to be a crime.
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#36
Finland had concentration camps after the Finnish civil war, holding some 80000 "reds"
#37
Australia. Our attitude to asylum seekers who arrive by boat is really heartless. Automatically they are sent to immigration detention for indefinite periods of time and treated like criminals. It is a cruel, inhuman system and the immigration system has very poor accountability.
Final score:
29points
Wayne Lee 3 years ago
You need to be aware of the unreported people that it affects. Example 1: A good friend of mine from Indonesia applied for residential status in 1996. He was already legally in Australia and wanted to settle here. He was granted his visa which allowed him to apply for his wife to join him. During this process his wife found that she was pregnant. ( I really hope that I don't have to explain how his wife fell pregnant & birthed their child). Her visa was granted but guess what? The date that she was meant to fly to Australia to begin their new life here kept getting delayed, time after time. This continued for 5 years. This meant that my friend did not see his daughter until she was 4 years old. Do you know why his wife's visa kept getting delayed? Because of "queue jumpers"-read "illegal immigrants". So the people who do the right thing, go through the proper channels, are persecuted via delay after delay to cater for queue jumpers. This is why the crackdown on illegal immigrants began
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
They are not 'illegal immigrants' they are asylum seekers! They are not 'queue jumpers' they are people doing whatever they have to to get away from horrific situations in their own companies. Plus, they are then often punished for it by being locked up indefinitely or by being sent back, where they are likely to be killed. People who are seeking asylum are not to blame for delays in other people's immigration status, governments are.
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Kirsti Murch 3 years ago (edited)
Totally agree. Most Australians hate this cruel act by our government. I wish people would demonstrate against it with the same passion they did when tennis player , Djokovic was "detained" recently.
Libstak 3 years ago
To be clear this incarceration is for many years, sometimes well beyond decades, it's inhumane.
Load More Replies... #38
Belgium. Colonised the Congo and exterminated about 11 million Africans. King Leopold II took the Congo as his personal estate. Villagers were herded into barns and a grenade thrown in. Children who didn't produce enough rubber had their hands amputated by soldiers. Belgium has MUCH to answer for. TAKE DOWN LEOPOLD'S STATUES AND PAY REPARATIONS !!!
Final score:
28points
Agnes Jekyll 3 years ago
I only recently learned about the horrors perpetrated by Belgium. The documentary "Exterminate All the Brutes"--explains how colonialism and genocide work....we've got to stop this.
Melia Janssen 3 years ago
There were widespread protests against his statues and some of them have been taken down. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53017188
Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago
What happened in the Belgian Congo would have shamed even the Khmer Rouge.
#39
South Africa had a inter-tribal genocide between 1815 and 1840 resulting in the death of between 1 - 2 million people.
The genocide, called the Mfecane, or the crushing in Zulu, was perpitrated by Shaka Zulu, and the Zulus, as he was establishing his kingdom. This lead to the depopulation of the interior which created room for the white boer settlers (voortrekkers) to move in and settle the area from 1836, basically uncontested in unclaimed territories.
XenoMurph 3 years ago
Hmm, not sure that "unclaimed territory" is that accurate. Boers were moving in from the 18th century, long before that massacre. Let's not pretend that Dutch or British East India company were peaceful settlements. Empire building is a lethal business.
Lady Cadaver 3 years ago
Not to mention our current and by current I mean 2021/2022 rape, murder, gender based violence statistics. The rampant corruption and the crime and unemployment rates are insane.
Grace Barclay 3 years ago
The British created the Union of South Africa in 1910. There was no law, however Blacks and Whites were seperated. And when the Afrikaners got into power - Nationalist Party - they implemented full scale Apartheid. I am a white woman who still lives in this country. From a young age I knew there was something very wrong with the life we led. I hated what was happening. I remember the 1976 Soweto School Children uprising and whatching police and army shooting indiscrimianlly. I believe that the "Civilized Western Nations" owe it to those whom they obviously hated just because they were "different".
Mattewis88 3 years ago
Ah, the one part of history South Africans conveniently forget when they blame everything from the death of the dinosaurs to WW3 on poor ol' Jan van Riebeeck and the settlers.
Mattewis88 3 years ago
Just because a guy is Afrikaans doesn't mean he's an FF+ supporter etc. What a prejudiced comment. This comment tells us a lot more about you than it does about him. If I had that same way of thinking, I'd immediately assume you're an EFF supporter who sings "Kill the boer" with that war-mongering racist imbecile Malema. You understand how stupid that sounds? Dont talk kak here.
Load More Replies... #40
Denmark. How horribly we treated Germans after WW2. This is a subject we aren't being taught about in school since we trying to let it slide past as something that happened but doesn't happen anymore (which is true though).
Emmydearest 3 years ago
Unfortunately it's pretty common in countries who suffered nazi invasion. In Italy, after the war, people who used to collaborate (at various degrees) with fascists and nazis were beaten, humiliated, killed... Women who were rumored to collaborate (=sleep with) with them were publicly shaven and humiliated. I get that people were extremely angry and vindictive after years of dictatorship and war but... I don't know, it's kind of shameful if you think about it, to be honest...
Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago
Same in France. Women (of course) suffered the most.
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#41
Well, interwar Poland had a prison, or concentration camp, for political opponets, 3,000 imprisoned, 7-15 died
#42
Spain. How we left behind West Sahara and Equatorial Guinea people in the 70s, who spoke Spanish and held Spanish IDs at the time. I’m not very familiar with the root causes and would like to read more about it though. Political turmoil caused by the imminent Franco’s death played a major role though.
It became a tradition among some people here to bring in West Sahara children over for summer holidays every year.
ZAPanda 3 years ago
Interesting fact: there are some cities still held by spain in north africa: Spanish North Africa, five small areas, in special relationship with the Spanish government, on and off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. They are Alhucemas, Ceuta, the Chafarinas Islands, Melilla (qq. v.), and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, with a combined area of about 12 square miles (31 square km).
#43
During wwII Sweden helped the Nazis by letting German soldiers and weapons be transported by train back and forth through Sweden to then occupied Norway.
Guy MacGregor 3 years ago
Though you are factually right, I must remind you that Sweden is a neutral country, like Swiss. Neutrality doesn't means "no implication"; it means "equal treatment of belligerents". Neutral countries are allowed to commerce with anyone, let a foreign nation cross etc. Please do not forget that Sweden took Jew refugees, military and financially helped Finland. That kind of hate mostly come from Norwegians who didn't get much help from Sweden, but from the UK.
ZAPanda 3 years ago
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” - Desmond Tutu.
Load More Replies... Guy MacGregor 3 years ago
Which is totally fine with the definition of neutrality and the laws going with it.
Load More Replies... Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago
Many, many Swedish people did many, many heroic and admirable things during WWII.
#44
Bulgaria. The mass exodus of Turks. In an attempt for our government to "unite" the nation in 1984 they forced all Bulgarian Turks (total about 10% of Bulgarian population) to change their names to Bulgarian-sounding one, they forbid traditional clothing and public muslim rituals. Imagine your government forcing you to change your own name you've had all your life. Of course, as a direct result many Bulgarian Turks left en masse - about 300 000 (out of 800 000) left for Turkey. Maybe half of them returned later but those are impossible to estimate correctly. It was a human rights and a demographic catastrophe.
Lyuben Petkov 3 years ago
there was ongoing terorrism in Bulgaria - bombs blown up few hotels and train wagons, including wagon for mothers with children. Try to guess who did support those terrorists attacks and what is the connection of what happened to Cyprus.
#45
Britain "ended the slave trade" by paying off all the slave owners - the amount of money that cost was only fully paid off in the last couple of decades.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
And that money in all likelihood funded the industrial revolution. Our infrastructure and privilege is in no doubt built on the back of slaves. That said, agreeing to pay out to slave owners undoubtedly sped up the abolition of slavery. It was a decision based on practicalities. It's worth noting that by that point there were very ordinary people in Britain who invested a tiny bit of money they had in a part share of a slave, so some of these recipients of the pay out were just bog standard lower middle class citizens.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
Thankfully the one fact that I have found during my reading (yes, before anyone asks, written by people of colour) is that ordinary Brits seemed to genuinely believe that the slaves were sub-human, and when they met them they treated them like any other person. A slave brought to Britain that ran away often succeeded, and this could only happen because the working class people they ended up amongst kept them safe. The wealthy, on the other hand, were already well versed in thinking of most people as inferior, so treating the black people in their employ appallingly (i.e when they stopped being cute children sending them back to die on the plantations) came naturally.
Load More Replies... Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago
Britain's decision to outlaw slavery - and to empower it's then all powerful navy to enforce that decision was perhaps the key factor in the massive reduction in slavery in the nineteenth in the northern hemisphere. Yes, the British were slavers for a long time (like the rest) but they are redeemed, to an extent at least, by the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The compensation that was paid to slave owners was the price that had to be paid to get the abolitionist laws through parliament and, of course, though distasteful in the extreme it was nevertheless a price worth paying.
#46
Some families are so poor in central Portugal that the husband often takes his wife out and leaves her on the road so she can prostitute herself for the day and then picks her up in the evening. Hp+e fully by that stage they have enough for them to buy something to eat
Marcelo Anjos 3 years ago (edited)
Portuguese here, that is not true, it may happen, but not definitly a thing
ADHD 3 years ago
the wives send out the husbands to prostitute?? sorry bro, the internet has ruined me and i could not resist lol
Load More Replies... #47
In 1994 on the only fair elections the Belarusians really chose Lukashenka.
GenericPanda09 3 years ago
It's sickening just how easy it is for people to be brainwashed into following someone who normally you wouldn't listen to if you weren't in a huge baying mob. I consider myself a pretty intelligent guy, and yet I still have a couple of Coldplay albums because I got caught up in the moment.
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Marek Slabenak 3 years ago
And he ensured that, while he is alive, there would never be another fair election again!!
#48
Well talking about slavery, Denmark was the 7th largest slavery(supporting??) country. I believe it was mainly export, but still we contributed enough to land ourselves a spot, as nr 7. But we don't really have dark secrets, as a country. Just like Germany with WW2, we make sure to educate the young people, about all the good and all the bad we've done(Im part of that youth). But like either the slavery part, or being at fault for making the majority of Greenland's older generation alcoholics. It's a couple of years ago, but if anyone from Greenland could tell me how they are coming along with their alcoholism, that would be great
Hugh Willie Mungous 3 years ago
And don't forget the Scottish contribution to the early KKK.
Load More Replies... #49
There is general compulsion for military service for all adult males defined in Constitution of Finland. Military service period is 165 to 347 days depending on rank and duties but it can be replaced with civilian service which is always 12 months. If you refuse to perform either military or civilian service you will face a penalty in prison although nowadays it's usually replaced with house arrest. Amnesty classifies "total objectors" as prisoners of conscience.
Amy Pattie 3 years ago
It sounds more like a sexist inconvenience, but neither dark nor secret
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seba mil 3 years ago
Wtf..just do social Service.. it is a good thing...we had the same in germany..people are so f*****g selfish nowadays, that they go to jail..instead of working in a retirement home..Holz go and f**k yourself
Kevin Corcoran 3 years ago
Possibly an unpopular opinion.. But if a country is going to have an armed force, isn't it good if that force is a democratic cross-section of society? As opposed to the 'type' of person that the armed forces might attract, or those that have no other choice?
#50
South Africa. I am not a Boer (Dutch descendant). And the Boers stole our indigenous land (Along with the British) by means of colonial violence and brainwashing with the Missionaries and their "christianity". That is well-known. However, what is less-well known, is that the British instituted concentration camps against the Boers in the 1800s. It wasn't Hitler that started that. It was the British.
Final score:
8points
APL 3 years ago
Nope. Invented by the Spanish in 1896 to house Cubans. Second Boer War didn't start till 1899.
Kevin Corcoran 3 years ago
Something tells me humans have ALWAYS been good at rounding up other humans and putting them in cages. I'd bet this practice goes back thousands of years.
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Ian Webling 3 years ago
Many people read "concentration camps" and think Nazi Germany. The subject is more complicated than that. The British adopted a dreadful scorched earth policy to destroy the Boer farms that were supplying the commandos in the field. This left the Boer women and children to starve. This seemed too harsh even for the British to stomach, so they "concentrated" these people in camps where they could be housed and fed. Situations in some camps were, at first, extremely dire resulting in deaths from disease and starvation. This was mostly due to the corruption and ineptitude of the people running the camps. After the arrival of Emily Hobhouse, things began to improve. Death rates in the camps at the time were lower than those in Glasgow - which was not in the middle of a war. At least not a military war - I've heard that Glaswegians are always at war. It is telling that, after the Boer War, the Boer leader, General Louis Botha, said: "Thank God for the concentration camps."
T'Mar of Vulcan 3 years ago
Would it matter if the person was Afrikaans ("Boer" means farmer, and lots of Afrikaans people aren't farmers) or not? It doesn't change the facts. White people in Mzansi are still descendants of citizens of countries that colonized it. If I had a time machine, I'd go back in time and tell the indigenous people to go all Sentinel Island on the European's arses. And I wouldn't be born, but so what? That alternate timeline would have to be better than 370 years of colonization.
UpupaEpops 3 years ago
This is probably going to be a very controversial comment but in a European context, colonisation works in a pretty interesting way. I'm from Eastern Europe, my country used to be a colony of 3 different superpowers, for most of our history. This isn't unique at all in the region. Many Eastern Europeans have ended up as slaves during history. Look up Florence Baker for example. Some of the poorest countries today have all been parts of the Ottoman Empire, while former German/Austrian colonies are typically richer. Hungary for example, while considered poor in a European context, is a hell of a lot better off than Bulgaria.
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#51
Most of the peopl in the romanian parliment are stupid,or corrupt.usually both
What do you think ?
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
I don't know how well known the recent Windrush scandal is outside of the UK, but this was the first time I felt an actual burning shame for being British. After the second world war we *begged* people from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, that were part of the Empire, to come over to the UK and fill all the many vacancies we needed, from bus drivers to nurses. They were told that they were legally British citizens and that as such they didn't need to have passports to live in Britain. The famous ship that brought in a large group was called the Windrush. Then a handful of years ago the government decided that the descendants of the Windrush generation needed to prove their right to remain or else they'd be deported. After all Jamaica is a separate country, right? Some people actually did get deported. They were dumped in a country that they had no more connection to than I do, with no job, no friends, and no family that they knew of. Absolutely disgraceful and shameful.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
I saw at my dining table with a friend that was thanking God that her grandmother was a bit paranoid and had arranged documents for that side of the family, even though everyone told her she was wasting her time and not to bother.
Load More Replies... Elliot Fowler 3 years ago
In Saudi Arabia, the treatment of foreign workers (especially those from south Asia) is inhuman and degrading. It is common for people to be cursed, shouted at and even physically beaten for almost no reason at all.
Queen fhk 3 years ago
As shared by experienced victim of racism, the racism towards east Asians and Africans are worst . Tbh Arabs can be more racist than whites
Load More Replies...
UpupaEpops 3 years ago
Europe is an incredibly diverse place. Unfortunately, most (if not all) countries are named after the ethnic majority of the given country and most (if not all) treat their indigenous minorities like garbage. This is rarely if ever discussed because most discussions about racism revolve around the black-white divide. People can't seem to wrap their heads around the idea that white people can be victims of systemic oppression from other whites.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I was told in the UK to avoid speaking Polish in some areas, and my in-laws do not view me as "really white" b/c my mother is Polish. So, yeah. I can grasp that.
Load More Replies...
Katherine Boag 3 years ago
NZ: until the 1990s it was illegal to speak Maori (one of our official languages) in prison. Note: due to inherent racism in the legal and justice system, Maori people are imprisoned at a much higher rate than their representation in the general population.
B-b-bird 3 years ago (edited)
How about The Norwegian child protection service Barnevernet? Children of expats are MASSIVELY kidnapped from their families (on false pretenses of abuse) and placed in Norwegian families, scattered around foster care/houses. And it is reality today, not some ghost from the past. How much longer it will be going on? Among population of 5 mln, Barnevernet has 400 offices across all Norway, billions and billions of dollars are being put into this. Pure child trafficking. Disgusting!
MimSorensson 3 years ago (edited)
I’m sorry, what? Where on earth did this information come from? It wouldn’t be a part of the massive hate attack on child protection services that has plagued parts of scandinavia for a while now, perhaps? Norway isn’t trafficking any damned children, stop it.
Load More Replies...
Vanessa 3 years ago
Why is Canada not on this list?! The atrocities committed against Indigenous people that continues to this day. So far, only 10 residential schools have been searched and the number of unmarked Indigenous children's graves are up to 10,028! There was more than 130 "schools" in Canada. There is also the high rate of Indigenous women and girls who go missing or murdered, and rcmp don't do a GD thing. Then there is the lack of clean water to more than 70 Indigenous reservations. Access to clean drinking water is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT, not a privilege. But out PM is out in the world, committing 100's of millions to Ukraine in light of their crisis (don't get me wrong, I support the effort.) Our government needs to fix our own problems and start rectifying these issues.
Patrick O'Harris 3 years ago
Germany has not one but two genocides on their record. The shoa is the better know one, but during colonialism germans killed around 60.000 of the 80.000 Herero and Nama in "German South West Africa".
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
I don't know how well known the recent Windrush scandal is outside of the UK, but this was the first time I felt an actual burning shame for being British. After the second world war we *begged* people from the Caribbean, especially Jamaica, that were part of the Empire, to come over to the UK and fill all the many vacancies we needed, from bus drivers to nurses. They were told that they were legally British citizens and that as such they didn't need to have passports to live in Britain. The famous ship that brought in a large group was called the Windrush. Then a handful of years ago the government decided that the descendants of the Windrush generation needed to prove their right to remain or else they'd be deported. After all Jamaica is a separate country, right? Some people actually did get deported. They were dumped in a country that they had no more connection to than I do, with no job, no friends, and no family that they knew of. Absolutely disgraceful and shameful.
Roxy Eastland 3 years ago
I saw at my dining table with a friend that was thanking God that her grandmother was a bit paranoid and had arranged documents for that side of the family, even though everyone told her she was wasting her time and not to bother.
Load More Replies... Elliot Fowler 3 years ago
In Saudi Arabia, the treatment of foreign workers (especially those from south Asia) is inhuman and degrading. It is common for people to be cursed, shouted at and even physically beaten for almost no reason at all.
Queen fhk 3 years ago
As shared by experienced victim of racism, the racism towards east Asians and Africans are worst . Tbh Arabs can be more racist than whites
Load More Replies... UpupaEpops 3 years ago
Europe is an incredibly diverse place. Unfortunately, most (if not all) countries are named after the ethnic majority of the given country and most (if not all) treat their indigenous minorities like garbage. This is rarely if ever discussed because most discussions about racism revolve around the black-white divide. People can't seem to wrap their heads around the idea that white people can be victims of systemic oppression from other whites.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I was told in the UK to avoid speaking Polish in some areas, and my in-laws do not view me as "really white" b/c my mother is Polish. So, yeah. I can grasp that.
Load More Replies... Katherine Boag 3 years ago
NZ: until the 1990s it was illegal to speak Maori (one of our official languages) in prison. Note: due to inherent racism in the legal and justice system, Maori people are imprisoned at a much higher rate than their representation in the general population.
B-b-bird 3 years ago (edited)
How about The Norwegian child protection service Barnevernet? Children of expats are MASSIVELY kidnapped from their families (on false pretenses of abuse) and placed in Norwegian families, scattered around foster care/houses. And it is reality today, not some ghost from the past. How much longer it will be going on? Among population of 5 mln, Barnevernet has 400 offices across all Norway, billions and billions of dollars are being put into this. Pure child trafficking. Disgusting!
MimSorensson 3 years ago (edited)
I’m sorry, what? Where on earth did this information come from? It wouldn’t be a part of the massive hate attack on child protection services that has plagued parts of scandinavia for a while now, perhaps? Norway isn’t trafficking any damned children, stop it.
Load More Replies... Vanessa 3 years ago
Why is Canada not on this list?! The atrocities committed against Indigenous people that continues to this day. So far, only 10 residential schools have been searched and the number of unmarked Indigenous children's graves are up to 10,028! There was more than 130 "schools" in Canada. There is also the high rate of Indigenous women and girls who go missing or murdered, and rcmp don't do a GD thing. Then there is the lack of clean water to more than 70 Indigenous reservations. Access to clean drinking water is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT, not a privilege. But out PM is out in the world, committing 100's of millions to Ukraine in light of their crisis (don't get me wrong, I support the effort.) Our government needs to fix our own problems and start rectifying these issues.
Patrick O'Harris 3 years ago
Germany has not one but two genocides on their record. The shoa is the better know one, but during colonialism germans killed around 60.000 of the 80.000 Herero and Nama in "German South West Africa".
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