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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Diversity roadshow grinds to a halt

Rather surreal story just in from EUpolitix:

Employment commissioner Vladimir Spidla has hit out after the EU’s so-called diversity truck was prevented from visiting Lithuania. The truck – a giant 30-tonne vehicle with an in-built 50 square metre stage – is touring 19 EU countries until the end of the year in a bid to raise awareness about discrimination…

The truck, which set off from Strasbourg on 25 April and was en-route from Estonia, was scheduled to spend 2-3 days in Vilnius as part of the commission’s efforts to mark the year of equal opportunities for all. It was due to host an exhibition on one particular form of discrimination – homophobia - organised by a Lithuanian NGO in the city’s market square…

A commission spokeswoman said, ‘Apparently, the mayor of Vilnius took particular objection to this and said the truck would not be allowed into the city.’

‘Our position is that the non-discrimination message the truck is carrying around Europe is essential,’ she said.”


Interestingly, it was planned right from the start that the truck would not stop in Romania or Poland, on account the recent flare-ups in homophobic sentiment in these countries. Apparently the diversity-awareness-enhancing-power of the truck just isn’t strong enough to break local resistance in these places…

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