The MacDougall report: in search of paedophiles, devil-worshippers and other minorities in Greece
John Akritas
March 06, 2009
I've just read Gay MacDougall´s staggeringly crass and banal report on the Protection of Human Rights and blah, blah, blah in our revered country, Greece. I'm not going to write a detailed response because life is short and I've got better things to do. I hope the Greek government follows my example and treats this report by the UN´s so-called expert on minority issues with the contempt it deserves. I will, however, make a few points:
The report starts with this astonishingly thick statement:
1. 'The decision that a certain group should receive the protections due to minorities does not have implications for inter-State relations.'
To assert this, you would have to have absolutely no knowledge of human history and, in fact, be totally ignorant of current conflicts and fault lines all over the world and especially the Greek part of it.
2. ´Minorities are constituent groups of Greek society, not a foreign element.´
What minorities? I guess if you search hard enough for a minority, then you can find one. The definition of a minority the report provides – ´a group of people united in a sentiment of solidarity´ – could apply to paedophiles or devil-worshippers.
And who is this Gay MacDougall, from Atlanta, Georgia, to judge who is and who is not a 'constituent group of Greek society' and who is and who is not a foreigner. I am a Greek and it is my 'right' to decide who is a constituent group of Greek society and it is my right to define foreignness. Turks are not part of Greek society, and Skopjo-Bulgarians are foreigners. End of story.
3. 'The independent expert [sic] urges the Government of Greece to withdraw from the dispute over whether there is a Macedonian or a Turkish minority in Greece and focus on protecting the rights to self-identification, freedom of expression and blah, blah, blah.´
The right to self-identification? What right? Who grants this right? In Gogol's Diary of a Madman, the protagonist decides he's the rightful heir to the throne of Spain and demands that everyone refer to him as the King of Spain. In Gogol, the poor wretch is carted off to the asylum, but in MacDougall's world the madman is entitled not to treatment but to his madness.
MacDougall is not interested in judging whether claims to a distinctive Slav Macedonian ethnicity are the absurd myths of a demented few; but that these demented few are afforded the right to subscribe to their fantasies and to live them out. In other words, there is no truth regarding who is and who is not Macedonian, whose version – the Greek or the Skopjan – of Macedonian history and culture is authentic, since there are many truths, all equally valid, and there are no facts only competing narratives.
No truths, no facts, no authenticity – no Greco-Western civilisation; just a rapid descent into nihilism and barbarism.
4. ´Many consider that their [the Muslim minority] claims are misunderstood by the government as reflecting an irredentist movement under the political influence of Turkey.´
This has to be a joke. Greeks just 'misunderstand' what the Turk-speakers are up to in Thrace when they say they want to elevate themselves to a national minority? I wonder what could have brought this 'misunderstanding' about? Maybe it's the Turks' centuries-long campaign to wipe out Hellenism in Anatolia, Asia Minor, Pontos, Constantinople and Eastern Thrace; or the way Turkey manipulated and radicalised the Turk minority in Cyprus to conduct jihad and destroy 3,500 years of Greek history and culture.
In fact, you would have to be an utter moron or malicious not to recognise that Turkey is actively encouraging Turk speakers in Thrace to follow the example of the Turkish minority in Cyprus and the Albanians in Kosovo.
5. ´The history of the Greek state and the majority conception of "the national identity" are tightly intertwined with the Greek Orthodox religion. Minority religions therefore have had to struggle to establish and maintain sufficient space for the full exercise of their identities in the civic sphere´.
Why is national identity in inverted commas, as if it was something spurious or unsubstantiated?
And who is Gay MacDougall to tell us what Greek national identity consists of? Greek national identity may or may not be 'tightly intertwined' with Greek Orthodoxy; but it is also intertwined with a myriad of other historical events and cultural artifacts and institutions, most of which MacDougall, undoubtedly, has no idea about.
And what a travesty to claim that in Greece minority religions have had to´ struggle for space´ and blah, blah, blah; when the truth is that it is Greeks who have had to struggle long and hard 'to establish and maintain sufficient space' for our freedom from any number of foreign oppressors and malevolent foreign influences. A struggle that, by the way, continues, as do the malevolent foreign influences.
6. ´One also senses an interest in promoting a singular national identity. This approach may leave little room for diversity´.
Mrs MacDougall: It all depends on what your interpretation of diversity is. For me, Greece is full of diversity. Each region of Greece has its own magnificently rich history and culture. There's so much diversity in the Greek tradition that you would need several lifetimes to even come close to comprehending it all.
Not that there is any intrinsic merit to 'diversity'. Sometimes, that which is diverse or different is inferior, irrelevant and unworthy and deserves to die out – like the Slavic idiom a few families still speak around Florina. You admit as much yourself when you complain about the Greek state´s negligence in allowing sharia law to take root in Thrace and curtail the lives of Muslim women. Diversity can be counterproductive and inhibiting, can´t it? And it´s up to the majority in society to decide what it can tolerate and what it finds conducive to its continuing cohesion and security, isn´t it?
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/
The report starts with this astonishingly thick statement:
1. 'The decision that a certain group should receive the protections due to minorities does not have implications for inter-State relations.'
To assert this, you would have to have absolutely no knowledge of human history and, in fact, be totally ignorant of current conflicts and fault lines all over the world and especially the Greek part of it.
2. ´Minorities are constituent groups of Greek society, not a foreign element.´
What minorities? I guess if you search hard enough for a minority, then you can find one. The definition of a minority the report provides – ´a group of people united in a sentiment of solidarity´ – could apply to paedophiles or devil-worshippers.
And who is this Gay MacDougall, from Atlanta, Georgia, to judge who is and who is not a 'constituent group of Greek society' and who is and who is not a foreigner. I am a Greek and it is my 'right' to decide who is a constituent group of Greek society and it is my right to define foreignness. Turks are not part of Greek society, and Skopjo-Bulgarians are foreigners. End of story.
3. 'The independent expert [sic] urges the Government of Greece to withdraw from the dispute over whether there is a Macedonian or a Turkish minority in Greece and focus on protecting the rights to self-identification, freedom of expression and blah, blah, blah.´
The right to self-identification? What right? Who grants this right? In Gogol's Diary of a Madman, the protagonist decides he's the rightful heir to the throne of Spain and demands that everyone refer to him as the King of Spain. In Gogol, the poor wretch is carted off to the asylum, but in MacDougall's world the madman is entitled not to treatment but to his madness.
MacDougall is not interested in judging whether claims to a distinctive Slav Macedonian ethnicity are the absurd myths of a demented few; but that these demented few are afforded the right to subscribe to their fantasies and to live them out. In other words, there is no truth regarding who is and who is not Macedonian, whose version – the Greek or the Skopjan – of Macedonian history and culture is authentic, since there are many truths, all equally valid, and there are no facts only competing narratives.
No truths, no facts, no authenticity – no Greco-Western civilisation; just a rapid descent into nihilism and barbarism.
4. ´Many consider that their [the Muslim minority] claims are misunderstood by the government as reflecting an irredentist movement under the political influence of Turkey.´
This has to be a joke. Greeks just 'misunderstand' what the Turk-speakers are up to in Thrace when they say they want to elevate themselves to a national minority? I wonder what could have brought this 'misunderstanding' about? Maybe it's the Turks' centuries-long campaign to wipe out Hellenism in Anatolia, Asia Minor, Pontos, Constantinople and Eastern Thrace; or the way Turkey manipulated and radicalised the Turk minority in Cyprus to conduct jihad and destroy 3,500 years of Greek history and culture.
In fact, you would have to be an utter moron or malicious not to recognise that Turkey is actively encouraging Turk speakers in Thrace to follow the example of the Turkish minority in Cyprus and the Albanians in Kosovo.
5. ´The history of the Greek state and the majority conception of "the national identity" are tightly intertwined with the Greek Orthodox religion. Minority religions therefore have had to struggle to establish and maintain sufficient space for the full exercise of their identities in the civic sphere´.
Why is national identity in inverted commas, as if it was something spurious or unsubstantiated?
And who is Gay MacDougall to tell us what Greek national identity consists of? Greek national identity may or may not be 'tightly intertwined' with Greek Orthodoxy; but it is also intertwined with a myriad of other historical events and cultural artifacts and institutions, most of which MacDougall, undoubtedly, has no idea about.
And what a travesty to claim that in Greece minority religions have had to´ struggle for space´ and blah, blah, blah; when the truth is that it is Greeks who have had to struggle long and hard 'to establish and maintain sufficient space' for our freedom from any number of foreign oppressors and malevolent foreign influences. A struggle that, by the way, continues, as do the malevolent foreign influences.
6. ´One also senses an interest in promoting a singular national identity. This approach may leave little room for diversity´.
Mrs MacDougall: It all depends on what your interpretation of diversity is. For me, Greece is full of diversity. Each region of Greece has its own magnificently rich history and culture. There's so much diversity in the Greek tradition that you would need several lifetimes to even come close to comprehending it all.
Not that there is any intrinsic merit to 'diversity'. Sometimes, that which is diverse or different is inferior, irrelevant and unworthy and deserves to die out – like the Slavic idiom a few families still speak around Florina. You admit as much yourself when you complain about the Greek state´s negligence in allowing sharia law to take root in Thrace and curtail the lives of Muslim women. Diversity can be counterproductive and inhibiting, can´t it? And it´s up to the majority in society to decide what it can tolerate and what it finds conducive to its continuing cohesion and security, isn´t it?
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/