Nationalistic Editing on Wikipedia
Nationalistic Editing on Wikipedia is very much part of Wikipedia.
Wikipedia itself has over the years become a gathering place for individuals with extreme views when it comes to topics dealing with Nationalism.There is no other place this is more visible than in the Croatian articles on Wikipedia.
For many, Wikipedia has become the first port of call for information about anything and everything. With this in mind a crafty group of clever individuals can very easily manipulate historic information for their own Nationalistic agendas! Judging by the last year of edits on the articles about Croatia, they are pretty much written from a dated point of view of the former Communist Yugoslavia. If we are to go by the recent European Public Hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes"[1] the former Communist Yugoslavia after World War Two was a Stalinist State (in its first 20 years of rule). It has a history of executing a rule of terror and political repression on a grand scale[2][3] (please read Titoism and Totalitarianism).
After World War Two the Slavicisation of the Croatian region (a former republic of Yugoslavia) of Dalmatia was continued as government policy under the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. All cities, towns, villages, family and peoples surnames that are not of Slavic origin were being translated.[4] The policy was firstly implemented on a large scale with the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918.
Dalmatia is a region of Europe with a very multicultural and multiethnic history. The population of that region is predominately Croatian but there is a strong Latin historic tradition dating back to Roman times. The forceful translation of their cultural and even at times rewriting of history is what could be termed cultural genocide. Wikipedia with its current group of editors is participating in that process.
House of Bona
The best example of this is the article House of Bona.[5][6] The House of Bona was a noble family from the former state of the Republic of Ragusa (with its famous city called Dubrovnik). According to some Wikipedia Editors, it was the House of Bunić. The Bunic name is a Slavic translation and is hardly used even in today’s Croatia. There was an edited war over the whole matter and eventually with the strength of references it was changed.
Family Member Statement on Wikipedia
- "As a Croatian member of the de Bona family, I would like to remind everybody of the following:
- The Bona name already appears in a document dated from the 10th century - this document can be seen in Dubrovnik. All Croatian identity documents show de BONA (even during Yugoslavia) All family records show the name BONA, never Bunic Tombstones show Bona, never Bunic. Bunic predominantly appears in books written by Yugoslav authors or those using "Yugoslav" sources. Paintings in the Dubrovnik Museum show the name "de Bona" on all the paintings - description tags usually say Bunic and now also Bona in most cases (since Croatia's independence -- under Yugoslavia, nearly exclusively Bunic).
- In Dubrovnik the family is known as Bona, not Bunic. The aristocracy wanted to distinguish themselves from the rest of the population and did not Slavicize their names (except two families of Slavic origin)...in some cases some people who wrote in Croatian or a form of it also used a Slavic version of the name...Additional proof needed for the Bona name. So far none seen. In MHO, this page should be known as House of Bona (aka Bunic) and all the names in the Slavic version should appear in parentheses next to the Bona name. As far as I know, there are no historical records with these Slavic names. All family records, always show the name Bona even when the rest of the text is written in Croatian.
- A small clique is controlling all the info that goes into the Croatian pages. This is a fact. They are very determined that only info they accept can enter in Wikipedia. Otherwise, they do everything to make sure it's deleted -- often with no explanation --. If they don't like a user they will do everything to ban him.
- In MHO, Bunic is only used to say it's "Croatian" versus "Italian"... I don't recognise myself in the Bunic name. It doesn't mean anything to me...but Croatian people, who don't know anything about the family, are telling everybody it's the name...with no proof to back it up. You make up your mind what the name of the House is..."
- by Debona.michel (talk) 10:46, 28 January 2010
See also
- Top 10 Reasons Not to Donate to Wikipedia
- Criticism of Jimmy Wales
- Bleiburg Massacre and Wikipedia
- Josip Broz Tito, Titoism and Wikipedia
- Wikipedia’s Communist Propaganda Articles!
- Wikipedia & Political Agendas
- The Wikipedia Point of View
- History of the Balkan states
- Talk:Nationalistic Editing on Wikipedia
References
- ^ European Public Hearing on "Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes” Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission
- ^ Crimes Committed by
Totalitarian Regimes- Reports and proceedings of the 8 April European public hearing on “Crimes committed
by totalitarian regimes”, organised by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of
the European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission.
Page 197. Joze Dezman:
COMMUNIST REPRESSION AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN SLOVENIA
Chapter: COMMUNIST REPRESSION Of “INTERIOR ENEMIES” IN SLOVENIA
- In the greater part of this paper, the author deals with individual repressive measures that Communist rule imposed in Slovenia in the period from the end of the war in 1945 until the beginning of the 1950s. In this period, the Communist authorities in Slovenia implemented all the forms of repression that were typical of states with Stalinist regimes. In Slovenia, it was a time of mass killings without court trials, and of concentration and labour camps.
- Property was confiscated, inhabitants were expelled from Slovenia/Yugoslavia and their residences, political and show trials were carried out, religion was repressed and the Catholic Church and its clergy were persecuted. At the beginning of the 1950s, Communist rule in Slovenia abandoned these forms of repression but was ready to reapply them if it felt threatened.
- Thus the regime set up political and show trials against certain more visible opponents later. In the case of an “emergency situation”, even the establishment of concentration camps was planned in Slovenia in 1968, where around 1,000 persons, of whom 10 % were women, would be interned for political reasons. Page 161
- ^ www.jutarnji.hr U 581 Grobnici je 100.000 žrtava. English version-The Jutarnji newspaper reported on the 01/10/2009 commissions find, in all it is estimated that there are 100 000 victims in 581 mass graves
- ^ Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milosevic by Sabrina P. Ramet. Note: Croatisation is a form of Slavicisation.
- ^ Age, Marriage, and Politics in Fifteenth Century Ragusa by David Rheubottom. Book overview: This book combines the insights of history and anthropology with innovative techniques such as computer simulation to investigate the relationships between politics, kinship, and marriage in the late-medieval city-state of Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik). At its heart is a reconsideration of `office' and the ways in which ties of kinship and marriage were mobilised to build electoral success.
- ^ Our Kingdom Come The Counter-Reformation, the Republic of Dubrovnik by Zdenko Zlatar
External links
- Quote: Wikipedia has become the new battleground for Israel's PR image. The Yisrael Sheli (My Israel) movement and the Yesha Council, which represents Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, have joined together for a new public relations initiative. Together they will soon offer a special course for volunteers who wish to write and edit English entries on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. (Israel National News)
- House of Bona
- Link for Talk:House of Bona
- BEYOND NECESSITY-Francesco Patrizi: The case of Francesco Patrizi, the Venetian philosopher, is a fine illustration of the nationalistic warfare that infests Wikipedia, and the inaccuracy and distortion and bias that follows as a result.