Posted on 01/17/2005 12:38:11 AM PST by nickcarraway
LONDON: Europe may be forced into considering a continent-wide ban on the swastika, one of the oldest, most globally recognized but also most reviled Sanskrit symbols in the West, in an anguished response to 'party prince' Harry's choice of Nazi uniform, swastika and SS badge as fancy dress.
On Sunday, German politicians mooted discussing a ban at the next meeting of justice ministers from the 25 European Union (EU) member states. But Indophiles said it was a sad commentary on the swastika, which is translated from the Sanskrit to mean "it is well", even though Hitler's hijacking made it a symbol of evil.
The swastika is already banned under German law. Its link, since the 1930s, with Hitler and the Nazi Party has turned it into an irresistibly rebellious, underground symbol for white Western supremacists and separatist hate groups across Europe. But Harry's casual use of the symbol prompted senior German politicians to insist it was time all of Europe banned a display of the swastika and Nazi signs because all of Europe suffered from the crimes of the Nazis.
Wolfgang Bosback, vice-president of the Christian Democratic group and Silvana Koch-Merin, vice-president of the Liberal group in the European parliament are quoted to say it would be "logical" for a new ban on the swastika.
Michael Muller, vice-president of the parliament's Social Democratic group, went even further to say that Europe should consider a German-style anti-Nazi law.
German anguish at the British prince's unthinking appropriation of symbols of their shame came amid reports that Harry and his elder brother William were part of a "social scene that thinks racism and bigotry quite funny."
According to a front-page splash in The Independent on Sunday, the boys' father, Prince Charles has been warned by senior aides urgently to separate his sons from an exclusivist set of upper-class young people who see nothing wrong in hosting parties with politically incorrect themes such as 'natives and colonials'.
Harry, who has been seen publicly to step out with a 19-year-old blonde, white Zimbabwean Chelsy Davy, was recently reported to have replied to a question about his girlfriend with the clanger: "She's not black or anything."
On Sunday, the 20-year-old prince was said to be quietly preparing for a private apology and history lesson on the holocaust with Britain's chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Meanwhile, the Jewish leader of Britain's main opposition party Michael Howard stuck to his guns in calling for a personal public apology from Harry for insensitively sporting the swastika and Nazi uniform.
But Indologists said the swastika's bad press flies in the face of its respectability elsewhere in the world. Indians anoint their homes, cows and shrines with the swastika, they pointed out, while Tibetan monks are tattooed with it and the Dalai Lama's throne is always decorated with four swastikas.
There is some historical dispute about how Hitler's Nazi party came to use the symbol, but it is believed a dentist, Dr Friedrich Krohn, designed the classic Nazi swastika in 1919.
Nearly 70 years ago, soon after Hitler won a landslide election and came to power in Germany, the swastika flag flew side by side with the German national colours. But for the decade from 1935, the swastika flag was the Third Reich's official flag.
There's at least one disadvantage to banning symbols: it becomes more difficult to perceive the people to whom the symbols appeal.
We could outlaw the donkey here but we'd still have to see Hillary's face. I'd rather mandate a paper bag for her head. A 1st Amend. case of artistic expression.
The Swastika is a sacred religious symbol of the Hindus. The Hindu Swastika is actually the reverse orientation of the Nazi Swastika. Those not knowing the difference mightly easily overlook the subtle difference between the two and often mistake it for the Nazi symbol. It happened recently in Isreal when the Hindu community form India had built a temple there and had a Swastika symbol on the walls.
The story I heard (me being a Hindu) about the Swastika was (as given in the Vedic sanskrit text) that about 10,000 years ago a phenomenon occured in the night sky which resembled the shape of the Swastika. This phenomenon was witnessed by the Aryan tribes who made it the symbol of their tribe. It was about the time the two strands of Aryan race divided and one of them went to Europe and other headed to India carry their sacred symbol with them.
Even today in India "Aryan" and "Swastika" are commonly kept names for boys and girls respectively and it has nothing to do with Nazism and racial superiority as commonly belived in the west.
Post #6 was also for you.
There has been no escape, from Zimbabwe, by that family.
Her father Charles, who is a millionaire safari-hunt mogul of Zimbabwe, has been boycotted by New Zealand, a member of British Commonwealth, for having close ties with the nation's racist ruler Robert Mugabe. Basically, they are friends.
Charles has survived and thrived, by giving in to the demands of Mugabe through a local warlord.
And of course, in America there's the First Amendment. Which shows the gulf between our conceptualization of the relationship of citizen and government and the Old World one.
There'd never be any question of the Dalai Lama's being able to display his swastika-decorated throne here. Everyone would understand.
Prince Harry displayed amazing bad taste (Nazi fliers bombed Buckingham Palace, for one thing) that Queen Mum would have jerked him up straight about, but making too big a deal about it tends to give the symbol more cachet for the rebelliously-minded.
Or Amateurs!
This story continues to grow in the telling. Harry actually wore an Afrika Corps uniform, with a swastika armband. There was no SS symbology at all.
Only these European socialists could show their contempt for the system of a fascist dictator by passing a law that is fully commesurate with a fascist dictatorship. For crying out loud--this is why Europe is dying. As an Orthodox Jew, I am offended that Europe would ban free speech and prevent the swastika from being displayed.
And the biggest irony--REAL LIVE JEWS are being killed in Israel daily thanks to EU money funding terrorism. REAL LIVE JEWS are being stabbed in the streets of the cities of Europe. REAL LIVE JEWS are seeing their synagogues burned to the ground. Instead of arresting the perpetrators, discontinuing funding to the Palestinian authority, and backing off on pressuring Israel to sign its own death warrant, the EU decides to ban the swastika. The swastika is only a symbol--the attitudes of Hitler in the totalitarianism, socialism, and anti-semitism are alive in the leaders of Europe today without the need for the swastika.
Now if they would just ban the star and crescent moon symbol of Islam.
I think they are referring to the fact the Prince first considered wearing an SS uniform, then switched to the Afrika Corps unimform.
The story I heard (me being a Hindu) about the Swastika was (as given in the Vedic sanskrit text) that about 10,000 years ago a phenomenon occured in the night sky which resembled the shape of the Swastika.
Is that in the Gita? I'd be interested in seeing an English translation of the text to which you refer, if there is one.
The distinction between the clockwise swastika (co-opted by the Nazis) and the counterclockwise swastika (Hindu, etc.) does seem to have some basis in historical usage of the symbol. But the Greek potters who decorated their urns and vases with swastikas apparently didn't distinguish between the two orientations.
Harry handed the nannystaters a golden opportunity to impose a new law. I'm sure that Jesse Jackson is considering inviting him to a costume party here, provided that he wears a Confederate battle flag shoulder patch.
Is that in the Gita? I'd be interested in seeing an English translation of the text to which you refer, if there is one.
The distinction between the clockwise swastika (co-opted by the Nazis) and the counterclockwise swastika (Hindu, etc.) does seem to have some basis in historical usage of the symbol.
No, its not The Gita. The Vedic text I am talking about is much much older. The book is called Rig Veda. It is the first of the Vedic literature. There are a few more Vedic text (most notably AyurVeda or the book of medicine). The Rig Veda is probably the first book of the Aryans. It was written in Sanskrit (a primitive version of Sanskrit might have been the language of the Aryans) anywhere between 10,000 to 7,000 BC.
While The Gita is more of a metaphysical reasoning or philosophical argument given to a warrior about to fight his brothers in the battle (The Gita is actually a conversation that took place while the two armies were arranged in battle formations), the Rig Veda is book which chronicled various historic events in the early life of the Aryans. It has some details about the way of life of primitive Aryans. The book has mostly descriptions of the religious rituals and practices followed by the Aryans. For most historical and archeological purposes the books is obscure about aspects relating to origins of those customs and rituals and aspects relating to their accuracy. The book also gives very little details if any about where the Aryans came from or where and when the book (Rig Veda) was written. And surprisingly it makes no mention of the mass exodus or invasion of the Aryans as so commonly believed by historians.
The night sky phenomenon related to the Swastika which I mentioned in my previous post was only from hearsay (which in this case is pretty reliable). I do not have an English translation of the Rig Veda (or for that matter even a Sanskrit version). However I would be happy to pass onto you any stuff that I come across relating to that subject.
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