Identified! Greece - LIVING 4 year old, with Roma couple, Oct'13 - #2

[greenpalm]

Maybe they can grow the potatoes? I have no clue just completely guessing.

 

[pieper4]

If they're eating potato soup they obviously have access to potatoes. Potatoes make vodka which means that what he is drinking may almost be free.

Sure, they may have tons of potatoes. But to use them for liquor instead of feeding those kids or trading them for items that are needed for the whole family would seem to be a less selfish alternative to alleged bio Roma Dad getting snokered. IMO.
Interesting read: http://www.euronews.com/2012/03/19/farmers-rise-up-in-greek-potato-revolution/ on potatoes and other staples in the severely depressed Greek economy. (I realize we're talking about Bulgaria, but still thought this article was interesting.) Potato growing is widespread in Bulgaria.

 

[pieper4]

Some new insights here... from neighbors of the family who raised Maria in Greece: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/24/world/europe/greece-roma-visit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
""Maria used to play here with the other children and go to the store with her mum. Maria was not hidden away," she explained.
"Her real mother gave her away, and Eleftheria was enchanted by Maria's beauty. She shared the food for her own children with Maria."
Among Greek Roma, a blue-eyed, blond child like Maria is a relative rarity. Those familiar with Roma customs here say having a fair-skinned child is seen as good luck.
In fact, Maria and her adoptive parents did not live in the metal huts partly funded by the European Union a decade ago. Their home was a few hundred meters away in a brick and concrete house." (and other tidbits)

 

[zwiebel]

I know there is another thread, but I really wanted to let everyone know this article says the Irish child was removed......on the basis of a Facebook post.

And another little blonde boy taken from his family has been returned.

Children's worlds are being turned upside down here. I hope all the media descending on that family in Bulgaria are donating some clothes and shoes and toys to the kids, at least.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/blonde-girl-roma-parents-returned-dna

 

[zwiebel]

Maybe they can grow the potatoes? I have no clue just completely guessing.

In a lot of the Eastern European countries that were formerly under communist rule, people tended ( and still do) to have little bits of land where they grew food and kept chickens etc. Very productively. Usually some distance from their home, as many of them were stuck in run-down apartments.

Potatoes, asparagus, pumpkins, beetroot, strawberries, every kind of fruit, etc.

Normally, they are rented from the authorities though, so I don't know if Roma citizens would have access.

 

[LadyL]

they're living on potatoes yet they keep on having kids ...

no sympathy here, except for the kids of course

 

[zwiebel]

Lol, I live on potatoes, just about! I thought they were good for you.

It's a sad story about Bulgaria and what happened to the land. The vast majority of the people, including the Roma, fed themselves by growing their own food on small plots of land. Then communism messed it all up, then had to return to the old system without admitting it because they couldn't feed the people.

Then after communism fell, they tried to give land back to people officially. They based it on family lineage and who had 'owned' the land. Often, people had worked the same bit of land for generations, but didn't own it. Roma completely lost out under this system, sadly, leaving them with very little means of survival. No one wants to give them jobs. Page 168 of this BIG document has a very interesting study on Bulgarian land distribution/grabs.

http://fian.at/assets/Uploads/land-in-europe-jun2013.pdf



There are lots of people in Bulgaria still getting by with this lifestyle in rural areas. Dietwise, I think it's quite healthy. I agree it would be ideal if people who don't have resources to care for their children, didn't have them. But people do, all over the world. You can't make them stop. The absolute only thing that consistently results in women having fewer children, is access to education and after that, employment. Populations just drop after that.

I can't help feeling it is little M who is going to bear the brunt of mistakes by adults and authorities and politics, in this case. She's going to be fought over, wherever she goes. She has become a political hot potato, ironically. I hope somehow, someone can find her a stable and loving home and keep her in touch with the siblings she knows and loves, if she can't be with them.

I fear it won't happen though. Poor little tot.

 

[21merc7]

It is sad and feels like these people are being exploited. I feel so bad for that oldest daughter.

I felt the same way when I first saw the photos. Then I realized that the family may get paid for the photos and interviews. If that money goes to food, clothing, medical care for the little ones, it would make it better. If the money is used wisely. Also could bring some donations of items needed.

Just trying to be hopeful. Also made me quit feeling sorry for myself, it may be hard to make it, but the photos reminded me how much better off we in the U.S. really are.

 

[Elley Mae]

There are tons of adoptable children waiting for forever homes. if you're here in the USA, the government will cover all adoption costs and most likely even pay you a subsidy every month to adopt a child languishing in foster care.



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bbm, the government? I'm sure you meant the taxpayers.

 

[MissMarple]

Wherever Maria ends, bio family or the other family, she will have the same destiny, married with at least two kids until age of 15, no educations, just poverty. I hope she will be adopted.

 

[Elley Mae]

Greek police arrest couple suspected of buying Roma baby

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/1...st-2-suspected-buying-baby/?intcmp=latestnews



Police arrested couple in Ano Liosia for illegal adoption

http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=536736

This is a new one.

 

[Linda7NJ]

bbm, the government? I'm sure you meant the taxpayers.

The checks are issued from the state government the child was adopted from.


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[Linda7NJ]

they're living on potatoes yet they keep on having kids ...

no sympathy here, except for the kids of course

If our ancestors shared that mindset none of us would be here. The human species would not have survived. It's a biological imperative.


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[Wanting2Help]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/25/21140677-mystery-girl-case-i-was-a-fool-to-give-up-maria-bulgarian-mother-of-nine-told-neighbors?lite&ocid=msnhp&=1

The matriarch of a Bulgarian Roma family told NBC News on Friday that she strongly believes the mystery girl known as "Maria" is her great-granddaughter.

Zineb Kasimova said her granddaughter Sasha Ruseva had left a child in Greece in the care of another Roma couple. When Ruseva saw the blond, blue-eyed Maria on television after she was removed from a Roma camp last week, the 35-year-old woman allegedly told neighbors she was the "fool" who had given the girl up.

 

[Elley Mae]

There are tons of adoptable children waiting for forever homes. if you're here in the USA, the government will cover all adoption costs and most likely even pay you a subsidy every month to adopt a child languishing in foster care.



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bbm, Here in the USA the money the Government spends is the money they collect in the form of taxes from the citizens. So if the Government is doling out money to people for adopting children then the taxpayers are paying people to adopt. I don't want people thinking that the Government is printing their own money to spend, I kinda think lots think that way already.

 

[jjenny]

She has been confirmed as the biological mother. I was seriously hoping she isn't, although of course it did seem rather likely that she was.

"Judicial records show that a Sasha Ruseva was arrested in early 2009 – the same period as Maria was handed to the gipsies in Greece – on suspicion of trying to sell a baby, but she skipped bail and escaped with the child."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...mother-blonde-haired-Maria.html#ixzz2ik0l485n
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[LaLaw2000]

Did anyone else hear that Maria was indeed the child of the Bulgarian woman? I was in the kitchen and thought I heard it announced on TV that the DNA was back.

If I heard wrong, I am so, so sorry. That is what I think I heard!

Never mind! I see jjenny has posted the news with a link!

 

[lisser]

She has been confirmed as the biological mother. I was seriously hoping she isn't, although of course it did seem rather likely that she was.

"Judicial records show that a Sasha Ruseva was arrested in early 2009 – the same period as Maria was handed to the gipsies in Greece – on suspicion of trying to sell a baby, but she skipped bail and escaped with the child."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...mother-blonde-haired-Maria.html#ixzz2ik0l485n
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

That same link says she was arrested in January this year with the same offense and that child was taken into care. It would be 10 months old now. I wonder if it was legally adopted out? If it was, they may allow Maria to be legally adopted too. I can not see them giving her back to this family.

 

[modesty blaise]

so what now for little maria?? the roma people are not (at least in this instance) running through Europe snatching little blonde blue eyed babies.
barring any kind of abuse (I don't think she was abuse) will she be given back to the adpotive people who are effectively her family?

 

[shefner]

I'm glad when any child is found....but I have to say I was certainly hoping this was one of the children missing from the US or Canada. Not because we are special in any way, but to give hope to so many parents here whose little ones went missing and have never been found.