by Micheal Smith (Veshengro)
Arise from the low status where you are being kept by the Gadje but also by exploiters within our own ranks and by laziness, as in the case of some, and made-up laws, as is the case with other.
“Yes! We Can!” shall and must be our slogan and our watchword
“Ava! Ame Shai!” Let nothing prevent us from achieving full potential as a Nation, as a People, as families and as individuals.
Far too many, not to say the great majority, of Amare have the “No Can Do” attitude and sometimes it would seem as if it be actually a “Don't Want To Do” attitude.
Others seem to make it their life's work to work the welfare system wherever it can be done. If they would but expend that time, energy and skills on “proper” work they'd really be able to liberate themselves and would not need state assistance; crumbs, like an Uncle Tom, from the White slave master's table.
So many also work the system while doing their own “self-employed” work of whatever kind. They steal from others doing than and it is not only Gadje they steal from but also from those of the People that do work within the system and pay their way.
We must have a new approach to living in this world and while we may want to be apart – something that I completely am in agreement with – we also have to follow the laws of the countries that we live in and if that means paying taxes then so be it. No one likes paying taxes, neither the Rom nor the Gadje but... the accusation from the Gadje to the Rom is always that we, the Rom, steal from the system and that we do not pay taxes – even if we do. We must not give them more ammunition still.
Back to the attitude and to liberation.
Ava! Ame Shai! We can do it. We can help ourselves. We can have our own co-operatives and our own livelihood projects, our own schools and homeschool circles, to raise ourselves up.
But this will only ever work if our People change their attitude. The attitude of “the world owes us a living”, as well as that of “no can do”.
I see too many of ours, especially those in the former Irin Curtain countries, but not only there, where the men sit around all day drinking, smoking and playing cards, while the women and children are sent out begging or stealing or scavenging on the refuse tips. This cannot and must not continue.
Also, the settlements must be cleaned up and made respectable, this also applies to the railer sites in Britain and the USA, even to the official government operated ones in the UK, if we want to be able to advance ourselves. Always there is the talk about how great our laws are as to cleanliness, which they indeed are, but should they not also translate at least to some degree to our immediate surroundings outside out kenna or trailer. A little garden, even in containers, can go a long way, also on government sites.
But, then again, it would appear that the majority do not want to do anything else really – despite the stories the tell the media – and do not want to better themselves. All they seem to want is to be idle and have the welfare state take care of them. Some are so lazy – yes, lazy – that they have leaky roofs at the houses with water coming through everywhere but they cannot, possibly, get up onto that roof and fix it. They wait for some Charity to come along and fix their roofs, their guttering, their drainage, and everything else. Self reliance; what is that? That at least seems to be their attitude.
This attitude is not only found, I would hasten to add, amongst the Roma in the East. Nay, such laziness and dirtiness can also be found, and here I feel physically sick for I have seen some of it, amongst the Sinti and the Romanichals, the latter here in the UK as well as, and especially, in the USA.
We can do it. Honestly, we can. All we need to have is the will and the wish to do it. The wish, the desire and the will to help ourselves and the will to raise ourselves up, as individuals and also and especially as a People.
Dosta penauas!
Ava! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Showing posts with label romani advancement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label romani advancement. Show all posts
Clear & Present Danger
“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service to their country(*); but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1780
(*) For country it would do us well to substitute “Nation” or “People” as we are here referring to the Romani People or – Nation.
We too live in trying times and so far our soldiers are missing or very few and far between, like partisans rather than an army.
While our enemies plot and scheme, our People remain unready and even unwilling to fight – hiding seems the preferred option – and many, if not indeed most, of our “leaders” - now there is a joke, “leaders” - are worse even than the enemies “outside the gates”. Our People are under grave threat, physical and otherwise, to be wiped out as a People, as a Race, and what do those so-called “leaders” do? Nothing. Nothing to help, that is for sure.
If they are not simply interested in lording it over the “ordinary” grassroots Rom they are after money from the very enemies who, at this very moment, are, once again, plotting to put Rom into concentration camps (Italy – under the guise of “solidarity villages) and ghettos (Czech Republic, etc.), with all those being European Union member countries. The money from the EU is the very reason they are so silent and permit all mention of this to be spiked by the editors of the media in the countries of the new Europe. The European Union is talking big as to what they want to do for the Romani and about integration for our People while behind the scenes something entirely different is going on and they prepare, once again, to incarcerate our Race in camps with barbed wire surrounds and in ghettos with high walls topped with razor wire. Rome burns while Nero fiddles.
Awake Romale – your very leaders, your “kings”, “emperors”, “tsars” and “judges”, the latter who would not be able to judge a beauty contest or an allotment garden produce show, are selling you out to the enemy while feathering their own nests with money that should be for the People.
© Michael Smith (Veshengro), January 2008
This is the first page of an 8-page essay. The essay in its entirety is found in the next issue of the O NEVO DROM Journal. To read this essay complete and other articles, please take out a subscription to the O NEVO DROM journal. Subscription is free and the magazine is paper-less and mailed out as an email attachment. To subscribe send an email to churimengro1-at-yahoo-cot-com with “I wish to subscribe to O NEVO DROM” in the subject line.
(*) For country it would do us well to substitute “Nation” or “People” as we are here referring to the Romani People or – Nation.
We too live in trying times and so far our soldiers are missing or very few and far between, like partisans rather than an army.
While our enemies plot and scheme, our People remain unready and even unwilling to fight – hiding seems the preferred option – and many, if not indeed most, of our “leaders” - now there is a joke, “leaders” - are worse even than the enemies “outside the gates”. Our People are under grave threat, physical and otherwise, to be wiped out as a People, as a Race, and what do those so-called “leaders” do? Nothing. Nothing to help, that is for sure.
If they are not simply interested in lording it over the “ordinary” grassroots Rom they are after money from the very enemies who, at this very moment, are, once again, plotting to put Rom into concentration camps (Italy – under the guise of “solidarity villages) and ghettos (Czech Republic, etc.), with all those being European Union member countries. The money from the EU is the very reason they are so silent and permit all mention of this to be spiked by the editors of the media in the countries of the new Europe. The European Union is talking big as to what they want to do for the Romani and about integration for our People while behind the scenes something entirely different is going on and they prepare, once again, to incarcerate our Race in camps with barbed wire surrounds and in ghettos with high walls topped with razor wire. Rome burns while Nero fiddles.
Awake Romale – your very leaders, your “kings”, “emperors”, “tsars” and “judges”, the latter who would not be able to judge a beauty contest or an allotment garden produce show, are selling you out to the enemy while feathering their own nests with money that should be for the People.
© Michael Smith (Veshengro), January 2008
This is the first page of an 8-page essay. The essay in its entirety is found in the next issue of the O NEVO DROM Journal. To read this essay complete and other articles, please take out a subscription to the O NEVO DROM journal. Subscription is free and the magazine is paper-less and mailed out as an email attachment. To subscribe send an email to churimengro1-at-yahoo-cot-com with “I wish to subscribe to O NEVO DROM” in the subject line.
The Rom have no Lobby
We, the Rom, have one major problem – aside from the profound lethargy of our own People as regards to politics and auto-emancipation – and that is the fact that we are not Jews. Maybe that is the reason why some misguided individuals amongst the Rom would like to make us thus, namely part of the Jewish Diaspora.
We have no lobby and no homeland and we are, in fact – why, beats me – more hared, feared and despised (as competition?) than the Jews are and probably ever have been.
Read on...
We have no lobby and no homeland and we are, in fact – why, beats me – more hared, feared and despised (as competition?) than the Jews are and probably ever have been.
Read on...
Romani Solidarity
or
When one of us bleeds we all do!
“When the Union's inspiration through the People's Blood shall run” would be the first line of the rewritten workers' song “Solidarity Forever”, to suit the Romani struggle, the refrain, the chorus, however, remaining the same, e.g. “Solidarity Forever” and it is this solidarity that we will have to learn, methinks, or relearn, to be more precise.
In truth, there was once a time when we seem to have had something of this solidarity, though never, it would appear, for the entire People. If we want to get anywhere in this world as a People, as a Nation proper, then this must change and we must find it in our hearts to have solidarity with our fellow Rom wherever on this planet that may be. If they hurt and are being attacked or discriminated against the n so is and should every one of us feel that hurt and we should fell righteous anger to speak out against such abuses, etc. But most of us, nowadays, just sit on our butts and hands and do nothing. The formula seems to be “I am all right Jack, what do I care”.
Or was this solidarity of the Romani People of old and the community spirit and the helping all Rom in need just something that everyone has imagined and is it but a myth. From what I am seeing in the last 20-30 years or so I must say it could appear to have been just so.
I do know that in fact that this solidarity did exist but that was before envy end jealousy began to rule our hearts and minds. It was, strangely enough, at a time when life was harder and money scarce and in very short supply often that the Rom shared with any Rom in need. Today, however, sadly, we are worse in that respect than the Gadsche.
We must, however, concentrate with this solidarity on our People, the Romani People and not support the wrong causes, such as illegal encampments by Irish Travellers, for instance, who in other instances will not hesitate to use even the force of arms to push Romanichal residents from official council Gypsy sites and then take those over, forcing the Rom to take to the drom again and then illegal encamp. No Irish Traveller has ever, as far as I know, come to the aid of a Romani family that was forced with eviction. Misplaced solidarity will not reciprocated.
Romani are Romani, as I have said before elsewhere, and Irish Travellers are Irish Travellers and while there are some Romani in Ireland, North and South, the majority of Irish Travellers are not Romani and do not share the same Culture and values. While they may lead a similar life to that what the Romani used to, and some still, do live that is about where the similarities end. While the Rom are a Race the Irish Travellers are nothing but Gohja in trailers, and let's not get fooled in believing the stories about them being an ancient pre-Celtic nomadic people of Eire. Those Irish Travellers that are in trailers (and in kennas) in Eire and in the UK (and those that went to the USA and elsewhere from Great Britain and Ireland) are no older as a travelling people than the potato famine and the great majority in the UK especially only came here during the wars and especially after World War II, the men first as laborers on the road build projects who then later brought their families over, having discovered that the British welfare state would give them anything they wanted without much of a question being asked unlike Ireland where no welfare state existed at that time. Am i being unfair? I do not think so.
When it comes to solidarity it is, as said, our race that comes first and must come first and all of us should feel and express a righteous indignation if but one member of our People is being discriminated against. Alas, however, this does not seem to be the case. Rather, it would appear, most are too busy hiding their ethnicity from the Gohja, who know anyway (I shall say again that no one will ever believe that Giovanni Mettbach is an Italian name), rather than standing up for our brothers and sisters so that they may see this solidarity and, should anyone else of us be in trouble, they are inspired to do the same for us.
One for all and all for one, so, apparently, was the motto of the French Musketeers and this is a motto that we, the Rom, in today's world, would do well to adopt.
© M V Smith, June 2007
When one of us bleeds we all do!
“When the Union's inspiration through the People's Blood shall run” would be the first line of the rewritten workers' song “Solidarity Forever”, to suit the Romani struggle, the refrain, the chorus, however, remaining the same, e.g. “Solidarity Forever” and it is this solidarity that we will have to learn, methinks, or relearn, to be more precise.
In truth, there was once a time when we seem to have had something of this solidarity, though never, it would appear, for the entire People. If we want to get anywhere in this world as a People, as a Nation proper, then this must change and we must find it in our hearts to have solidarity with our fellow Rom wherever on this planet that may be. If they hurt and are being attacked or discriminated against the n so is and should every one of us feel that hurt and we should fell righteous anger to speak out against such abuses, etc. But most of us, nowadays, just sit on our butts and hands and do nothing. The formula seems to be “I am all right Jack, what do I care”.
Or was this solidarity of the Romani People of old and the community spirit and the helping all Rom in need just something that everyone has imagined and is it but a myth. From what I am seeing in the last 20-30 years or so I must say it could appear to have been just so.
I do know that in fact that this solidarity did exist but that was before envy end jealousy began to rule our hearts and minds. It was, strangely enough, at a time when life was harder and money scarce and in very short supply often that the Rom shared with any Rom in need. Today, however, sadly, we are worse in that respect than the Gadsche.
We must, however, concentrate with this solidarity on our People, the Romani People and not support the wrong causes, such as illegal encampments by Irish Travellers, for instance, who in other instances will not hesitate to use even the force of arms to push Romanichal residents from official council Gypsy sites and then take those over, forcing the Rom to take to the drom again and then illegal encamp. No Irish Traveller has ever, as far as I know, come to the aid of a Romani family that was forced with eviction. Misplaced solidarity will not reciprocated.
Romani are Romani, as I have said before elsewhere, and Irish Travellers are Irish Travellers and while there are some Romani in Ireland, North and South, the majority of Irish Travellers are not Romani and do not share the same Culture and values. While they may lead a similar life to that what the Romani used to, and some still, do live that is about where the similarities end. While the Rom are a Race the Irish Travellers are nothing but Gohja in trailers, and let's not get fooled in believing the stories about them being an ancient pre-Celtic nomadic people of Eire. Those Irish Travellers that are in trailers (and in kennas) in Eire and in the UK (and those that went to the USA and elsewhere from Great Britain and Ireland) are no older as a travelling people than the potato famine and the great majority in the UK especially only came here during the wars and especially after World War II, the men first as laborers on the road build projects who then later brought their families over, having discovered that the British welfare state would give them anything they wanted without much of a question being asked unlike Ireland where no welfare state existed at that time. Am i being unfair? I do not think so.
When it comes to solidarity it is, as said, our race that comes first and must come first and all of us should feel and express a righteous indignation if but one member of our People is being discriminated against. Alas, however, this does not seem to be the case. Rather, it would appear, most are too busy hiding their ethnicity from the Gohja, who know anyway (I shall say again that no one will ever believe that Giovanni Mettbach is an Italian name), rather than standing up for our brothers and sisters so that they may see this solidarity and, should anyone else of us be in trouble, they are inspired to do the same for us.
One for all and all for one, so, apparently, was the motto of the French Musketeers and this is a motto that we, the Rom, in today's world, would do well to adopt.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Hiding our Gypsy Ethnicity – Does that protect us?
The simple answer would be NO.
It has been going on for ages already, but seems to have really only been done since after World War II whether in places such as Germany or Austria or in the UK. While it is understandable for Sinti and Roma in Germany, especially, to have gone more or less into hiding and denying their ethnicity, especially those that have moved into houses and more or less “ordinary” jobs or into trade, such as scrap yards, and claiming to be of Italian extraction or other southern such but it makes no difference. In the UK one nowadays hears the comments from Romanichals when asked whether they be Gypsy, People with names like Brazil (find me a non-Rom by that name), and the answer more often then not will be, “our grandparents were Gypsies but we are not, we live in a house”. Is that, though, a deliberate hiding of their ancestry? In fact in most cases it is not but just a lack of understanding of the fact that being Gypsy is not a lifestyle but that we are a People and a Race.
However, it would appear that here, but especially in places such as Germany, Austria, France, etc. one might find the Sinti and Roma pretending to be somethings else than what they are and are in fact, at least to outsiders, hiding their ethnicity. It is also my belief that for that very reason many give their children Italian, Spanish or Greek sounding names, such as Marco, Sandro, Pedro, Massimo, Giovanni, and such, in order so that they can claim that they are of Italian or other such Mediterranean ancestry; anything but Sinti or Roma.
Methinks we have a problem and unless we all get away from pretending to be something that we are not and be in fact proud, also to the outside, that we are Sinti or Roma, that we are Gypsy, Zigeuner, with basically the attitude “I am Gypsy and proud of it” (“and if you have a problem with that so be it” - as an undertone).
We can never fight racism and discrimination against us as a People when the majority of our People hide and while wishing to have the discriminations and such go away, without in fact doing anything about it, not even joining an organization as a passive supporting member. Well, we all have to work for it; probably visibly, and I know that at times that will not be easy, but...
© M V Smith, June 2007
It has been going on for ages already, but seems to have really only been done since after World War II whether in places such as Germany or Austria or in the UK. While it is understandable for Sinti and Roma in Germany, especially, to have gone more or less into hiding and denying their ethnicity, especially those that have moved into houses and more or less “ordinary” jobs or into trade, such as scrap yards, and claiming to be of Italian extraction or other southern such but it makes no difference. In the UK one nowadays hears the comments from Romanichals when asked whether they be Gypsy, People with names like Brazil (find me a non-Rom by that name), and the answer more often then not will be, “our grandparents were Gypsies but we are not, we live in a house”. Is that, though, a deliberate hiding of their ancestry? In fact in most cases it is not but just a lack of understanding of the fact that being Gypsy is not a lifestyle but that we are a People and a Race.
However, it would appear that here, but especially in places such as Germany, Austria, France, etc. one might find the Sinti and Roma pretending to be somethings else than what they are and are in fact, at least to outsiders, hiding their ethnicity. It is also my belief that for that very reason many give their children Italian, Spanish or Greek sounding names, such as Marco, Sandro, Pedro, Massimo, Giovanni, and such, in order so that they can claim that they are of Italian or other such Mediterranean ancestry; anything but Sinti or Roma.
Methinks we have a problem and unless we all get away from pretending to be something that we are not and be in fact proud, also to the outside, that we are Sinti or Roma, that we are Gypsy, Zigeuner, with basically the attitude “I am Gypsy and proud of it” (“and if you have a problem with that so be it” - as an undertone).
We can never fight racism and discrimination against us as a People when the majority of our People hide and while wishing to have the discriminations and such go away, without in fact doing anything about it, not even joining an organization as a passive supporting member. Well, we all have to work for it; probably visibly, and I know that at times that will not be easy, but...
© M V Smith, June 2007
Let's face the future
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past, that is the only way that we can advance. It does not help us one bit to remain buried in nostalgia about the good ol' days of the grai and the wooden vardo. They weren't all that good days really, if we all be honest with one another. Yes, they may have been days of some kind of freedom of being able to move as and when... and the days of when you could pull onto the common without anyone bothering you... but... does anyone now living in a kenna really want to be out in a vardo in winter in real frost (we haven't had frost proper in this country for years now) and deep snow, especially as chavies with bare feet and but rags for clothes? Surely not. Anyone who is trying to claim thus, I am afraid, must think us all dinlos.
Anyone who tells me that he or she is harking back to the time of the vardo and the grai is, I am afraid to say, not be able to convince me.
While we must learn from the past, especially as regards to combating racism against us, and while the lessons of the martyrs of the Holocaust must teach us to beware of the rising tide of Anti-Gypsy-ism and neo-Nazism again, we must move forward for the betterment of the Romani-Gypsy in the world. This is not to say that we should assimilate to the style of life of the Gohja and live like they do, with djuks and matchkas ano kher, and the like, nor should we give up our old beliefs and practices. Nay, in fact the latter we should reinstitute and even add some new cultural celebrations to them, but we must not get stuck in the past. That also means that we must, in some things, adapt. Be this with regards to having (some of) our folks be working “proper” jobs, so to speak, even in law enforcement and medicine. Yes, I am aware that the so-called Rechtssprecher will now scream blue murder. So be it. Those truth-speakers who also keep women downtrodden in a way that was never the way of the People. Truth-speakers indeed. The same “truth-speakers” who will keep women down forever, given the chance, claiming that women must be subject to the men. Dordi! Dordi! What a load of trash that is. Those “leaders” of the People have no knowledge of the way our People used to work, it would appear. We never were patriarchal. Matriarchal rather, we were, though giving outwardly an appearance to the Gohja, in countries where the man ruled, that the men were in charge. That too shows how much those “leaders” know. The women, too, must be allowed to lead the way they always were involved.
Therefore, let us move forward together with the lessons learned from the past to a new future for the Romani Race. Forward to a new dawn of the Romani.
© M Veshengro Smith, June 2007
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past, that is the only way that we can advance. It does not help us one bit to remain buried in nostalgia about the good ol' days of the grai and the wooden vardo. They weren't all that good days really, if we all be honest with one another. Yes, they may have been days of some kind of freedom of being able to move as and when... and the days of when you could pull onto the common without anyone bothering you... but... does anyone now living in a kenna really want to be out in a vardo in winter in real frost (we haven't had frost proper in this country for years now) and deep snow, especially as chavies with bare feet and but rags for clothes? Surely not. Anyone who is trying to claim thus, I am afraid, must think us all dinlos.
Anyone who tells me that he or she is harking back to the time of the vardo and the grai is, I am afraid to say, not be able to convince me.
While we must learn from the past, especially as regards to combating racism against us, and while the lessons of the martyrs of the Holocaust must teach us to beware of the rising tide of Anti-Gypsy-ism and neo-Nazism again, we must move forward for the betterment of the Romani-Gypsy in the world. This is not to say that we should assimilate to the style of life of the Gohja and live like they do, with djuks and matchkas ano kher, and the like, nor should we give up our old beliefs and practices. Nay, in fact the latter we should reinstitute and even add some new cultural celebrations to them, but we must not get stuck in the past. That also means that we must, in some things, adapt. Be this with regards to having (some of) our folks be working “proper” jobs, so to speak, even in law enforcement and medicine. Yes, I am aware that the so-called Rechtssprecher will now scream blue murder. So be it. Those truth-speakers who also keep women downtrodden in a way that was never the way of the People. Truth-speakers indeed. The same “truth-speakers” who will keep women down forever, given the chance, claiming that women must be subject to the men. Dordi! Dordi! What a load of trash that is. Those “leaders” of the People have no knowledge of the way our People used to work, it would appear. We never were patriarchal. Matriarchal rather, we were, though giving outwardly an appearance to the Gohja, in countries where the man ruled, that the men were in charge. That too shows how much those “leaders” know. The women, too, must be allowed to lead the way they always were involved.
Therefore, let us move forward together with the lessons learned from the past to a new future for the Romani Race. Forward to a new dawn of the Romani.
© M Veshengro Smith, June 2007
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