In Case You Didn't Bother With Church On Sunday

Oh, how I long for the days when Italy and Greece actually shipped the more vocal of these people off to the arena to try their luck with hungry lions.

Update On Little Girl Found with Gypsies

 

Little Maria's biological parents were found! She is, to the surprise of many, actually Roma, but from Bulgaria, not Greece. In a chain of events that moved quickly enough to raise questions about lingering unsolved missing persons cases everywhere.....ahem......Maria's parents were located, along with a number of lookalike siblings, and her DNA matches.

 

A lot of people from around the world are upset at the amount of attention this case attracted, stating that if the girl was not white, specifically blond and fair, no one would have cared. While those observations are probably, to an extent, true; there is another side to the coin. Suppose little Maria had not stood out in her crowd, and had gone unnoticed? There is a whole range of issues here that contribute to the unfavorable conditions that lead to generation after generation of poverty and crime. The family in Greece with whom Maria was found committed identity theft, the European version of welfare fraud, and informal, or ILLEGAL adoptions. Not that this illegal adoption was terrible, in an of itself; it probably was a lot better than being a Roma child in an orphanage, where one's only personal value arises upon being found compatible when an order for an organ transplant comes in. No kidding. It would come as no surprise to this blogger if missing foster children from Kansas turned up in Eastern European orphanages, for this very purpose. Would Kansas sell foster children by the pound, or by the dozen? Still, illegal adoption is a worldwide human trafficking problem, and that, combined with false ID's and birth certificates for multiple children who belong elsewhere is ultimately a disservice to the illegally "adopted" child, to the community, and to the world. It needs to stop, and Maria's case, which would never have become a "case" had she been olive enough to blend in with the rest of her community, has given this problem long overdue attention from the world. 

 

The best action the European Union could probably take, after thousands of years of discriminating mercilessly against the Roma population, would be to insist upon education for all Roma children, and be just and equal about it. Getting everyone involved to come into compliance would not be easy, and it would seem to be another attack on Roma culture; can anyone remember when Nelson Mandela insisted that education become a priority, even for tribes, such as the Zulu, who felt that it was a cultural conflict? At this point, even those who opposed Mandela realize that this was insight on his part, not an attempt to dissolve cultures or destroy the identities of individual tribes. The Roma could best improve their destiny through education.

 

Meanwhile, Maria's real parents in Bulgaria and her not-so-real parents in Greece are under investigation. Her path is not yet determined, but she has a biological sister who appears to want very much to see her again. The task of finding Maria's biological parents first seemed like finding a needle in a haystack, but less than a week after Maria surfaced in the Greek Gypsy camp, her parents were found. Twenty years ago, this would not have happened so quickly, if at all. This leaves all of us to wonder why so many missing persons cases are still open in the United States, and if the United States actually tries to solve the missing persons cases that do not get solved by accident.

 

 

 

Your Story Still Doesn't Add Up, Debbie Bradley

Debbie Bradley wants the world to think that the little girl found in Greece with a Roma family is her daughter, Lisa Irwin, who disappeared in October of 2011, at the age of ten months. Lisa would be three years old, almost, and this little girl was estimated, initially, to be around four. A dental examination places her age at closer to five or six years of age. So Debbie's numbers, along with her story, do not add up any better now than they did back in 2011.

How would Gypsies have gotten hold of Baby Lisa, anyway? Would they have targeted a mother who drank a lot and did not watch her children? Do either of those Gypsy parents look like they could fit through the window Debbie says was used for the "kidnapping"? In addition to her inability to add, it looks as if Debbie Bradley doesn't understand simple geometry!

Other numbers involved here which will one day be determined: the number of stories Debbie Bradley told authorities about her daughter's disappearance, and the number of stories the Gypsy couple told Greek authorities about their victim's appearance! Some day, perhaps the number of different stories told by both parties will be compared. Some day, maybe Debbie will learn the three "r's", and, some day, maybe Debbie will pass a polygraph.

 

On the left is an age progressed picture of how Lisa Irwin might look now.

 

This Child Is Obviously Not A Gyspy

 

If you have blue eyes and blond hair, yet your so called parents are both Roma, otherwise known as Gypsies, you might not really belong to them. If you have so called brothers and sisters who not only do not resemble you in any way, but also do not resemble each other, they might not actually be related to each other, or related to you. Or; if your birthday falls within a month or two of your brother or sister's birthday, and your "mom" claims to have had five of you during the same calendar month of the same year, your genetic connection to your "family" might be rather shaky. This, apparently, is the sad case for this little girl. She was found in Greece, living in a Roma family, and while the parents claimed that she is theirs, they also claimed numerous other children as theirs, giving multiple and changing stories about how the little girl came to live with them. She has been removed from the Roma community and has been found, by DNA testing, to have no connection to them. Greek authorities have nicknamed her "Maria".

The imposters claiming to be this little girl's parents have been arrested and charged with kidnapping, but in the mean time, no one has gotten the facts and the actual story of little Maria's true identity. Greece has put together posters in several languages and would like everyone to share her picture, in hopes of finding her real family.