ethnic minorities!!!

In Estonia there was the fourth Finno-Ugrian conference this August. It really got me thinking about my "tribal brothers" and their situation. I then, a few days later, saw a program relating to the conference showing the state of the Vadja people in the Russian Federation who are the closest people to us Estonians linguistically. That was the one show that nearly made me cry. The people who knew how to speak Vadja language were all senior people while the youngs were all Russian speakers and sending their kids into Russian speaking schools. When an elderly women walking in her ancestral graveyard started crying and damning the "young kids who will drag them to hell", meaning their kids who are losing an entire cultural heritage because they need to speak Russian to suceed in anything and that noone remains true to their roots. That struck my heart in two. Finno-Ugrians except Finnish, Estonians or Hungarians have it going bad. Russia keeps Russian as a main language in many areas where certain Finno-Ugrian tribes live and keep the newspapers Russian, schools Russian and have nearly no policies on the favor of the minorities. The minorities mostly live in a small area where they have little villages and their hunting or fishing grounds but Russia still has no mercy for them in any way, bringing Russians into their lands and assimilating them into their culture and language. Russiafication (which has been a Russian policy since the middle ages for nearly every minority) is going on in Russia and noone cares which is so damn sad. I don't know what to do for the minorities in Russia and that sucks.

Thats all i wanted to say, talk about minorities in your country or whatever you want. Assimilating an entire ethnical minority without trying to stop it is an atrocity.   

Yes it is really sad, many Ethinic minorites are dying in China too, few manchus can speak their old languages

The ethnic minorites in the americas are also in grave danger, although there has been a resurgence in intereest in Native Culture in the UNITED STATES.

Everyone should read Thomas Sowell, he is a black man not afraid to tell the truth.

What is a superior culture? The one which believes himself better of his neighbouring culture and has bigger guns and comforts to lure them into their way of living. I don't call Russians as superior cultural beings than the Komi, Neenets, Eenets or Mari peoples because they can bully them around. It seems that todays "superior" cultures are the ones who themselves have no culture left and have forgotten its importance. Money is becoming todays culture in those countries.

We have a Sami population of about 20,000 or so, they have a sort of "parliament" for themselves and - I think - have schools in their own language. They do teach it at least. Don't know very much about their situation, but them making ludicrous demands of land usage rights doesn't make it easier to go along with the about 800,000 ethnic Swedes who live in the same area.

 

Then there's a million and a half too, a lot of them Finns.

Edited by Styrbiorn

Almost one-half of Iran's population are the Persians and it can be said that the other half are the minorities!!

Edited by Cyrus Shahmiri

Temujin whats a Sinti?

 

On the minority situation in the US. I think that the policy of the US has been assimilation so racial minorities don't count since they are "americans". The closest thing I think are the mexican immigrants (legal or otherwise) that dot the US. They are a large population and as being the "newest" immigration they are most represented in popular culture. However I do think our chinese population should consist of a minority culture, I don't see many outside of chinese restaurants around me, and the one's in the resturaunts haven't been fully assimilated into "americans".

I'm against assimilation of cultures personally. However if your all ready assimilated i've come to realize its a farce to try and regain your roots since all your doing is created a new ethnic group. I feel that any Vadja youth that try to regain their heritage will really only be created a neo-Vadja culture.

 

  Down here in Mexico, 90% of the population is what the spaniards called Mestizo, but not only on the racial mix between native americans and Spaniards, but with negroes ( that�s the real word applied to the african slaves and not a racist term as feared to use in the USA ), chinese, jews and other middle eastern people.

  The other 10 percent is pure blood native.

  The spanish is the official language and the second official language is Nahuatl since 1989. I hope one day, the Mayan lanaguage will be considered as an official language as well. 

Got to agree with Tobo here.
Besides, assimilation is a two way street, the hosts may do their best to keep the culture 'pure', but there is always leakage.

Grrrr......, Tobodai. Everything in life doesn't have to be useful in western terms. Assimilation is an unstopable force, but you can't do it on purpose as it is happening with various Finno-Ugrian tribes. There are about 23 million Finno-Ugrians in existance. Nearly 90% of Finno-Ugrians compose the Finnish and Hungarian population who are OK, but just think of the other 10% who are losing their cultural heritage and i can't accept that as "process". The bleedin Russians piss me off with their superioroty politics. They have the entire chemical elements in the world right in Siberia and oil reserves up to their necks, but still they are one of the poorest people in Eurasia. And now they purposely assimilate my tribesmen, and you say its just a standby process. NO. ethnicities losing their heritage shouldn't be looked as an inevitable or unimportant process. So is falling of a nation an inevitable process, but that isn't a standby process.