by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Jobbik, the more-or-less legal Nazi militia and party in Hungary, an EU member state, is now aiming, after having the Romani People made their first target, also for the Jewish population of the country (and elsewhere).
In the beginning, it would appear, the Jews took very little notice of the antics of the Jobbik group, seeing that their target were the Gypsy People and not the Jewish community. They should have known better.
The adage of “first they did come for... and I did not speak out”, etc. should have been a well-known factor and it was obvious that those people, whose aim is to create a Hungary for Hungarians and other ethnicities have no place in that scheme.
The interesting, almost laughable, part is that Hungarians are, in the main, a mixed groups of people anyway considering the fact that once they were part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire and thus most Hungarians not pure Magyars.
The same, in fact, is also true for the Romani People and anyone claiming to be pure Romani better checks once again. However, that is not the issue here.
It will be obvious that Jobbik's targets will also include ethnic Romanians on the Hungarian territory sooner or later and they might also go as far as wishing to take the areas of Transylvania and such “back into the Hungarian realm, as that area has a large population of Hungarians and was once part of the empire. It would not surprise me.
How it is possible for such racist fascist groupings to exist and operate in EU member states where, supposedly, beats me and the EU is not just failing the Romani People in its midst; it is failing all ethnic minorities.
Romani settlements and villages have been attacked, in Hungary, by Jobbik and its thugs and with local and state police looking on and doing absolutely nothing except, in a couple of cases, arresting Gypsies who decided to defend themselves against the fascist thugs.
It would appear that, when it comes to the Romani, the Gypsy, then the EU laws and conventions are not worth the paper that they are written upon and fascist thugs like Jobbik et al, and not just in Hungary, can do as they like.
There could be another explanation to this inaction by the authorities, whether in Budapest or in Brussels, and that is that those groups of fascist thugs are being used as a tool to enact etnic cleansing by proxy.
I rest my case and suggest, though, that the Rom and the Jew get together in this matter in order to defeat this menace...
© 2012
Showing posts with label Gypsies in EU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gypsies in EU. Show all posts
Who is killing Hungary's Gypsies?
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The recent fire bomb attacks against Gypsy homes and the murder of Gypsies in a number of towns and cities across Hungary seem to all be linked in some way.
This brings to mind the horrible of the Arrow Cross and groups of a similar nature that operated in that country and elsewhere during the time of the Third Reich. The Arrow Cross and its partners were more eager to destroy Gypsies then than were the most ardent Nazis elsewhere and they are thus again today.
Anti-Gypsyism is a scourge in Eastern Europe and here very much so in the countries that were the sphere of influence of the former Warsaw Pact and which are now European Union (EU) member states with the EU bodies making a few noises but that is about all.
Were we talking here about Jews I am sure things would be rather different, but all we are talking about, as far as they are concerned, is Dirty Gyppos who have less value to them than do cats and dogs, and in some quarters, such a in statements by right-wing parties and grouping the Czech and Slovak Repulics, the former CSSR, where Gypsies are being referred to as maggots or even as “worse than maggots”.
Europe, so it would seem, is sliding down a very slippery slope at present and that rather at a rate of knots.
The lack of action, aside from a few non-binding mumblings, by the EU, European Parliament and Council of Europe, could lead one to think, if one would be conspiracy theory inclined, that there could be an official anti-Gypsy agenda, despite all the rhetoric from the EU bodies.
The way things are people could be forgiven to believe that, for it sure does look like it. The sin of omission is here as great as the sin of commission.
Until we see, I think, some definite action against what is going on from the side of the European Union bodies, and not just empty talk, the suspicion must persist that there is more to see here than meets the eye.
For a long time it has been looking, to some of us at least, that the EU was up to something, something no good, as far as the Gypsy People, the Rom, are concerned and the writing was could be seen clearly on the wall.
It is now becoming clearer by the day that something is afoot and that this is an ethnic cleansing and genocide by proxy.
Now that the economy has gone south the Gypsy is once again being blamed for those problems too and made the scapegoat.
Neo-Nazis and the public in general in many places call for the extermination of the Rom because, so the Nazis and their sympathizers, the Gypsies are a drain on a country's resources and an adverse effect on the world economy. This must be because of all the banks that are Gypsy-owned, I guess.
The Gadje society needs a scapegoat and while the Jews are only being accorded this “honor” once in a while the Gypsy is always it.
The organs of the European Union are complicit in this anti-Gypsyism and those murders of Gypsies in that they make no (real) effort to stop it. Anti-Jewish sentiments are always dealt with immediately and promptly.
Time that the Romani People also realized that no help will ever come from the EU. The opposite rather!
Ourselves Alone!
© 2009
<>
The recent fire bomb attacks against Gypsy homes and the murder of Gypsies in a number of towns and cities across Hungary seem to all be linked in some way.
This brings to mind the horrible of the Arrow Cross and groups of a similar nature that operated in that country and elsewhere during the time of the Third Reich. The Arrow Cross and its partners were more eager to destroy Gypsies then than were the most ardent Nazis elsewhere and they are thus again today.
Anti-Gypsyism is a scourge in Eastern Europe and here very much so in the countries that were the sphere of influence of the former Warsaw Pact and which are now European Union (EU) member states with the EU bodies making a few noises but that is about all.
Were we talking here about Jews I am sure things would be rather different, but all we are talking about, as far as they are concerned, is Dirty Gyppos who have less value to them than do cats and dogs, and in some quarters, such a in statements by right-wing parties and grouping the Czech and Slovak Repulics, the former CSSR, where Gypsies are being referred to as maggots or even as “worse than maggots”.
Europe, so it would seem, is sliding down a very slippery slope at present and that rather at a rate of knots.
The lack of action, aside from a few non-binding mumblings, by the EU, European Parliament and Council of Europe, could lead one to think, if one would be conspiracy theory inclined, that there could be an official anti-Gypsy agenda, despite all the rhetoric from the EU bodies.
The way things are people could be forgiven to believe that, for it sure does look like it. The sin of omission is here as great as the sin of commission.
Until we see, I think, some definite action against what is going on from the side of the European Union bodies, and not just empty talk, the suspicion must persist that there is more to see here than meets the eye.
For a long time it has been looking, to some of us at least, that the EU was up to something, something no good, as far as the Gypsy People, the Rom, are concerned and the writing was could be seen clearly on the wall.
It is now becoming clearer by the day that something is afoot and that this is an ethnic cleansing and genocide by proxy.
Now that the economy has gone south the Gypsy is once again being blamed for those problems too and made the scapegoat.
Neo-Nazis and the public in general in many places call for the extermination of the Rom because, so the Nazis and their sympathizers, the Gypsies are a drain on a country's resources and an adverse effect on the world economy. This must be because of all the banks that are Gypsy-owned, I guess.
The Gadje society needs a scapegoat and while the Jews are only being accorded this “honor” once in a while the Gypsy is always it.
The organs of the European Union are complicit in this anti-Gypsyism and those murders of Gypsies in that they make no (real) effort to stop it. Anti-Jewish sentiments are always dealt with immediately and promptly.
Time that the Romani People also realized that no help will ever come from the EU. The opposite rather!
Ourselves Alone!
© 2009
<>
Decent work opportunities for Romanies not just a matter of education
by Michael Smith
On March 11, 2009 the European Parliament (EP) adopted Magda Kósáné Kovács' report on improving the labour market accession for the Roma. And once again, unless they are only talking about the Roma, the word Roma is, falsely and purposely as such, used as an all-encompassing term for all Romanies, which is incorrect. It would, obviously, not surprise me either if they would be talking here as regards to this report solely about the Roma, in the same way as the decade of inclusion is only for the Roma and only for those in Eastern Europe.
However, access to the labour market is the key to overturn the conditions of deprivation and segregation the Romani-Gypsy minority is experiencing throughout Europe, in the European Union member states as well as in some of those that are not part of the Union.
Despite the strong message coming from the EP report, education alone is not the panacea for accessing decent jobs.
While it is indeed clear that education is an essential part and may be the most important field for programs and policies to focus the Romani-Gypsy, these policies must ensure effective continuation into the labor market by eliminating barriers based on prejudices and racist attitudes.
Many times education and schooling programs for Gypsies fall short of their objective because, at the end of long school and training years, Romanies find it very hard to find a job due to the continued discrimination based on their ethnicity.
That is the reason why education alone will not solve the problem of the extremely high unemployment that Gypsies face unless there is not also a change in the racist attitude toward the Romani minority per se.
Maybe one should also add that the Romani Community itself can be seen to be at fault at times in that they (1) do not encourage the children to attend school and to do well there and (2) in that they do not encourage the aspiration many Gypsy children have of becoming this or that.
One must asks that the European, national and local policy-makers to build a strong link between the education of the Rom and their effective access to the the labour market.
If poor Romani families invest time and money in the education of their children, and also time, money and effort in the education of themselves as adults, but this does not, in the end, result in employment, then the Romani community everywhere will continue considering sending children to school as a loss of precious resources. So the problem here is not just the access to education but fair access to jobs. This can be only achieved by fighting against discrimination and stereotyping of the Gypsy.
According to various surveys conducted by recognised research institutes, European institutions, and human rights organisations, the Romani People face great disadvantages in the labour markets and in self-employment opportunities.
Very high rates of unemployment and under-employment, as well as unqualified and low-paid jobs, characterise the situation of the Romanies in the labour markets in both Member States and the Candidate Countries.
This situation is greatly the result of the low levels of education prevalent amongst Rom and the discrimination they face in the labour market. Romani unemployment rates can vary from 25% to 65%, according to the UNDP data. Many Roma perceive that the reason of their unemployment is their ethnicity, and many of them certainly would not be wrong at all in assuming this. Unemployment is double in the younger group age and is strictly linked to education. Nevertheless, Romanies with secondary school studies still have a high 25% unemployment rate, and therefore education certainly is not the main reason for unemployment amongst Gypsies. Racist attitudes by the general public and employers on the other hand is. How this can be overcome, however, is another question.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
On March 11, 2009 the European Parliament (EP) adopted Magda Kósáné Kovács' report on improving the labour market accession for the Roma. And once again, unless they are only talking about the Roma, the word Roma is, falsely and purposely as such, used as an all-encompassing term for all Romanies, which is incorrect. It would, obviously, not surprise me either if they would be talking here as regards to this report solely about the Roma, in the same way as the decade of inclusion is only for the Roma and only for those in Eastern Europe.
However, access to the labour market is the key to overturn the conditions of deprivation and segregation the Romani-Gypsy minority is experiencing throughout Europe, in the European Union member states as well as in some of those that are not part of the Union.
Despite the strong message coming from the EP report, education alone is not the panacea for accessing decent jobs.
While it is indeed clear that education is an essential part and may be the most important field for programs and policies to focus the Romani-Gypsy, these policies must ensure effective continuation into the labor market by eliminating barriers based on prejudices and racist attitudes.
Many times education and schooling programs for Gypsies fall short of their objective because, at the end of long school and training years, Romanies find it very hard to find a job due to the continued discrimination based on their ethnicity.
That is the reason why education alone will not solve the problem of the extremely high unemployment that Gypsies face unless there is not also a change in the racist attitude toward the Romani minority per se.
Maybe one should also add that the Romani Community itself can be seen to be at fault at times in that they (1) do not encourage the children to attend school and to do well there and (2) in that they do not encourage the aspiration many Gypsy children have of becoming this or that.
One must asks that the European, national and local policy-makers to build a strong link between the education of the Rom and their effective access to the the labour market.
If poor Romani families invest time and money in the education of their children, and also time, money and effort in the education of themselves as adults, but this does not, in the end, result in employment, then the Romani community everywhere will continue considering sending children to school as a loss of precious resources. So the problem here is not just the access to education but fair access to jobs. This can be only achieved by fighting against discrimination and stereotyping of the Gypsy.
According to various surveys conducted by recognised research institutes, European institutions, and human rights organisations, the Romani People face great disadvantages in the labour markets and in self-employment opportunities.
Very high rates of unemployment and under-employment, as well as unqualified and low-paid jobs, characterise the situation of the Romanies in the labour markets in both Member States and the Candidate Countries.
This situation is greatly the result of the low levels of education prevalent amongst Rom and the discrimination they face in the labour market. Romani unemployment rates can vary from 25% to 65%, according to the UNDP data. Many Roma perceive that the reason of their unemployment is their ethnicity, and many of them certainly would not be wrong at all in assuming this. Unemployment is double in the younger group age and is strictly linked to education. Nevertheless, Romanies with secondary school studies still have a high 25% unemployment rate, and therefore education certainly is not the main reason for unemployment amongst Gypsies. Racist attitudes by the general public and employers on the other hand is. How this can be overcome, however, is another question.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
Gypsies and Travellers experience racism, discrimination and inequality
by Michael Smith
A new research review that came out on March 18, 2009 shows that Gypsy and Traveller communities in Britain experience extensive inequalities, including pervasive racism and discrimination.
They are not, are they? I do not think it would have needed an expensive research to notice that. All one needs to do is open the red tops and there the anti-Gypsyism of the UK public comes to the forefront again and again. Worse still when one goes and has a look at those very same red tops' websites and at the comments that sare left there by readers.
It would have hardly required lots of research but nevertheless if this can highlight the problems and bring them to the attention of everyone it might get us somewhere. On the other hand, however, I can already hear the comments of the same kind of people that comment on the red tops' websites “another load of taxpayers money wasted on them dirty Gyppos” and such like. This always is a two-edged sword.
Some of the key findings of the report by Sarah Cemlyn from the University's School for Policy Studies, Margaret Greenfields from Buckinghamshire New University and the Friends, Families and Travellers organisation are that:
· The lack of suitable secure accommodation underpins many of the inequalities that Gypsy and Traveller communities experience
· Gypsies and Travellers die earlier than the rest of the population
· Gypsies and Travellers experience worse health, yet are less likely to receive effective, continuous healthcare
· Children's educational achievements are worse and declining (contrary to the national trend)
· Participation in secondary education is extremely low, with discrimination and abusive behaviour on the part of staff and students frequently cited as reasons for leaving education early
· Employment rates are low, and poverty high
· There is an increasing problem of substance abuse among unemployed and disaffected young people
· There are high suicide rates among the communities
· Children suffer psychological damage from repeated brutal evictions, tensions associated with insecure lifestyles, and hostility from the wider population
· Gypsies and Travellers who are forced to move into bricks-and-mortar housing can experience the worst housing conditions, combined with racist hostility from neighbours and isolation from their communities
· For some particularly excluded groups of young Gypsies and Travellers, there is a process of accelerated criminalisation, reflecting racism within the criminal justice system, and leading rapidly to custody
· Within prisons, the perpetuation of discrimination, disadvantage and cultural dislocation can lead to acute distress and frequently suicide
· There is a lack of access to culturally appropriate support services for people in the most vulnerable situations, such as women experiencing domestic violence
According to Sarah Cemlyn, the report's lead author:
'This review reveals severe and far-reaching inequalities and discrimination affecting Gypsies and Travellers. Underpinning many of these is the lack of appropriate accommodation for between a fifth and a quarter of caravan-dwelling Gypsies and Travellers, resulting in lack of basic facilities of water and sanitation, lack of security, and frequent and sometimes brutal evictions.
'However the report goes well beyond this in reviewing inequalities across multiple policy areas including education, health, social care, employment, criminal justice and community cohesion. It found that stereotyping and racism is pervasive and often overt, frequently fuelled by misleading media reporting. Children are particularly vulnerable to racism from people in authority, members of the public and other children.'
Margaret Greenfields added that:
'The review explores a range of issues which have so far been overshadowed by the necessity of providing adequate accommodation for marginalised members of these minority communities. We have welcomed the opportunity afforded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) commissioning this review to move beyond this and consider not only the prejudice and inequalities experienced by Gypsies and Travellers, but also good practice, especially that developed by Gypsies and Travellers themselves despite being faced with almost over-whelming odds.'
The research team highlighted that the review contains detailed recommendations for each policy area investigated, while highlighting the urgency of providing sufficient sites, the necessity for service providers to fulfil race equality duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 in providing culturally appropriate services, and the importance of developing solutions in consultation with Gypsy, Traveller and Showman communities.
The report, entitled Inequalities experienced by Gypsy and Traveller communities: a review, by Sarah Cemlyn et al, which reviewed existing research across a wide range of policy areas, was published by the EHRC.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
A new research review that came out on March 18, 2009 shows that Gypsy and Traveller communities in Britain experience extensive inequalities, including pervasive racism and discrimination.
They are not, are they? I do not think it would have needed an expensive research to notice that. All one needs to do is open the red tops and there the anti-Gypsyism of the UK public comes to the forefront again and again. Worse still when one goes and has a look at those very same red tops' websites and at the comments that sare left there by readers.
It would have hardly required lots of research but nevertheless if this can highlight the problems and bring them to the attention of everyone it might get us somewhere. On the other hand, however, I can already hear the comments of the same kind of people that comment on the red tops' websites “another load of taxpayers money wasted on them dirty Gyppos” and such like. This always is a two-edged sword.
Some of the key findings of the report by Sarah Cemlyn from the University's School for Policy Studies, Margaret Greenfields from Buckinghamshire New University and the Friends, Families and Travellers organisation are that:
· The lack of suitable secure accommodation underpins many of the inequalities that Gypsy and Traveller communities experience
· Gypsies and Travellers die earlier than the rest of the population
· Gypsies and Travellers experience worse health, yet are less likely to receive effective, continuous healthcare
· Children's educational achievements are worse and declining (contrary to the national trend)
· Participation in secondary education is extremely low, with discrimination and abusive behaviour on the part of staff and students frequently cited as reasons for leaving education early
· Employment rates are low, and poverty high
· There is an increasing problem of substance abuse among unemployed and disaffected young people
· There are high suicide rates among the communities
· Children suffer psychological damage from repeated brutal evictions, tensions associated with insecure lifestyles, and hostility from the wider population
· Gypsies and Travellers who are forced to move into bricks-and-mortar housing can experience the worst housing conditions, combined with racist hostility from neighbours and isolation from their communities
· For some particularly excluded groups of young Gypsies and Travellers, there is a process of accelerated criminalisation, reflecting racism within the criminal justice system, and leading rapidly to custody
· Within prisons, the perpetuation of discrimination, disadvantage and cultural dislocation can lead to acute distress and frequently suicide
· There is a lack of access to culturally appropriate support services for people in the most vulnerable situations, such as women experiencing domestic violence
According to Sarah Cemlyn, the report's lead author:
'This review reveals severe and far-reaching inequalities and discrimination affecting Gypsies and Travellers. Underpinning many of these is the lack of appropriate accommodation for between a fifth and a quarter of caravan-dwelling Gypsies and Travellers, resulting in lack of basic facilities of water and sanitation, lack of security, and frequent and sometimes brutal evictions.
'However the report goes well beyond this in reviewing inequalities across multiple policy areas including education, health, social care, employment, criminal justice and community cohesion. It found that stereotyping and racism is pervasive and often overt, frequently fuelled by misleading media reporting. Children are particularly vulnerable to racism from people in authority, members of the public and other children.'
Margaret Greenfields added that:
'The review explores a range of issues which have so far been overshadowed by the necessity of providing adequate accommodation for marginalised members of these minority communities. We have welcomed the opportunity afforded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) commissioning this review to move beyond this and consider not only the prejudice and inequalities experienced by Gypsies and Travellers, but also good practice, especially that developed by Gypsies and Travellers themselves despite being faced with almost over-whelming odds.'
The research team highlighted that the review contains detailed recommendations for each policy area investigated, while highlighting the urgency of providing sufficient sites, the necessity for service providers to fulfil race equality duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 in providing culturally appropriate services, and the importance of developing solutions in consultation with Gypsy, Traveller and Showman communities.
The report, entitled Inequalities experienced by Gypsy and Traveller communities: a review, by Sarah Cemlyn et al, which reviewed existing research across a wide range of policy areas, was published by the EHRC.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
Romani People in Italy - When Racism Kills!
The persecution of the Roma and Sinti in Italy has led to the deaths of four thousand innocent people over the last two years. A figure that greatly exceeds the statistics from the years of the racial laws and the Holocaust.
by EveryOne Group
April 7th, 2009. Before the long sequence of unjust camp clearances - carried out without the offer of alternative lodgings and assistance - there were about 160,000 Roma and Sinti living in Italy. Today, despite the reports and declarations dictated by political and other interests, only about 50-60,000 Roma and Sinti remain in our country. We recently read a report, compiled by an Italian association, according to which - in the city of Rome alone - there are 20,000 Roma, including 16,000 “beggars” and 2,000 “criminals”. These figures are greatly exaggerated, because not even in Bucharest are there this many mendicants. This number, on the other hand, can be found in Dakar, the city in Senegal known as “The City of Beggars”. We will not even comment on the “2,000 Roma criminals”: this is totally unfounded data that stems from atavistic prejudices.
The figures that leave us stunned and horrified, on the other hand, are those linked to the victims of the institutional persecution of the Roma and Sinti in Italy. If we consider the population of 160,000 individuals, before, during and after the tragic diaspora, it is estimated – and backed up by statistics – that the number of deaths due to social exclusion; camp clearances followed by “marches to nowhere”; by hardship and sanitary conditions; disease; child mortality; accidents in the settlements (particularly fires); and episodes of violence; we are talking about 2,000 deaths per year. The figure was calculated by taking into account the average life expectancy of the Roma and Sinti; (which is about 40 years old, compared to an average age of 75/80 for other citizens) the child mortality; and the known cases of violent death. These figures (that do not take into account the number of miscarriages due to camp clearances and purges) must not be underestimated, because they are far higher than the number of Roma and Sinti deaths in Italy during the years of Nazi-Fascism - with the racial laws and the Holocaust. It is an annual figure that compares with those of the horror that hit the Jewish people (again in Italy) during the years of the Shoah.
<>
by EveryOne Group
April 7th, 2009. Before the long sequence of unjust camp clearances - carried out without the offer of alternative lodgings and assistance - there were about 160,000 Roma and Sinti living in Italy. Today, despite the reports and declarations dictated by political and other interests, only about 50-60,000 Roma and Sinti remain in our country. We recently read a report, compiled by an Italian association, according to which - in the city of Rome alone - there are 20,000 Roma, including 16,000 “beggars” and 2,000 “criminals”. These figures are greatly exaggerated, because not even in Bucharest are there this many mendicants. This number, on the other hand, can be found in Dakar, the city in Senegal known as “The City of Beggars”. We will not even comment on the “2,000 Roma criminals”: this is totally unfounded data that stems from atavistic prejudices.
The figures that leave us stunned and horrified, on the other hand, are those linked to the victims of the institutional persecution of the Roma and Sinti in Italy. If we consider the population of 160,000 individuals, before, during and after the tragic diaspora, it is estimated – and backed up by statistics – that the number of deaths due to social exclusion; camp clearances followed by “marches to nowhere”; by hardship and sanitary conditions; disease; child mortality; accidents in the settlements (particularly fires); and episodes of violence; we are talking about 2,000 deaths per year. The figure was calculated by taking into account the average life expectancy of the Roma and Sinti; (which is about 40 years old, compared to an average age of 75/80 for other citizens) the child mortality; and the known cases of violent death. These figures (that do not take into account the number of miscarriages due to camp clearances and purges) must not be underestimated, because they are far higher than the number of Roma and Sinti deaths in Italy during the years of Nazi-Fascism - with the racial laws and the Holocaust. It is an annual figure that compares with those of the horror that hit the Jewish people (again in Italy) during the years of the Shoah.
<>
Italy and the Rom
by Michael Smith
The period of 2008-2009 will be remembered by Romani rights and human rights activists for the extremely troublesome situation of Romani-Gypsy communities in Italy.
Increasing racism and anti-Romani sentiment erupted in Naples and Milan in May 2008, culminating in firebomb attacks on Gypsy camps in the area. The camps were allowed to burn while the Carabinieri, so it is understood, even prevent firefighters from entering.
In addition to that, various legal measures and policies have been adopted by the public authorities, such as the ongoing “census” of the Romani population and the transportation of Roma to special camps even further from city centres in order to “sanitise” urban areas, are outright abuses of individual freedoms and rights. Those so-called “Solidarity Villages” are being guarded by special anti-terrorist units of the Carabinieri which, we must not forget, are not ordinari police but military police.
Growing fear and hatred of Gypsies among the general population on the one hand and the hostile approach of the national government and some local administrations on the other created a witch hunt atmosphere directed against even long-established Roma and Sinti Italian citizens as well as newly arriving Romani migrants.
Reports had it that even Roma and Sinti of Italian citizenship were fleeing from the Tyrolean areas into Austria. Not that they will be accepted as refugees now.
It is true that the problems of the Rom are not limited to Italy only. The Romani People are struggling to cope with physical violence, segregation and other forms of discrimination all over Europe. The uniqueness of the Italian case is that the Government at its highest levels has made a policy of promoting racial animosity and xenophobia, and even children have been indoctrinated against Gypsies in that they do not want to have them as classmates in schools and children as young as eight have been making comments to the media that Gypsies should be removed from Italy. Welcome to the New Europe!
And what are the Council of Europe and European Commission, who are basically the controllers of the European Union and the European Parliament, doing about this? Nothing, to be precise and as a Gypsy one can be but left wondering as to whether this is in fact a policy if the New Europe, namely to ethnically cleanse Europe of the Gypsy.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
The period of 2008-2009 will be remembered by Romani rights and human rights activists for the extremely troublesome situation of Romani-Gypsy communities in Italy.
Increasing racism and anti-Romani sentiment erupted in Naples and Milan in May 2008, culminating in firebomb attacks on Gypsy camps in the area. The camps were allowed to burn while the Carabinieri, so it is understood, even prevent firefighters from entering.
In addition to that, various legal measures and policies have been adopted by the public authorities, such as the ongoing “census” of the Romani population and the transportation of Roma to special camps even further from city centres in order to “sanitise” urban areas, are outright abuses of individual freedoms and rights. Those so-called “Solidarity Villages” are being guarded by special anti-terrorist units of the Carabinieri which, we must not forget, are not ordinari police but military police.
Growing fear and hatred of Gypsies among the general population on the one hand and the hostile approach of the national government and some local administrations on the other created a witch hunt atmosphere directed against even long-established Roma and Sinti Italian citizens as well as newly arriving Romani migrants.
Reports had it that even Roma and Sinti of Italian citizenship were fleeing from the Tyrolean areas into Austria. Not that they will be accepted as refugees now.
It is true that the problems of the Rom are not limited to Italy only. The Romani People are struggling to cope with physical violence, segregation and other forms of discrimination all over Europe. The uniqueness of the Italian case is that the Government at its highest levels has made a policy of promoting racial animosity and xenophobia, and even children have been indoctrinated against Gypsies in that they do not want to have them as classmates in schools and children as young as eight have been making comments to the media that Gypsies should be removed from Italy. Welcome to the New Europe!
And what are the Council of Europe and European Commission, who are basically the controllers of the European Union and the European Parliament, doing about this? Nothing, to be precise and as a Gypsy one can be but left wondering as to whether this is in fact a policy if the New Europe, namely to ethnically cleanse Europe of the Gypsy.
© M Smith (Veshengro), 2009
<>
Gypsies the new “untouchables” of Europe
by Michael Smith
The Romani-Gypsy, the Sinti, Cale and Roma, are not only becoming the new “untouchables” of the European Union. Nay. In fact it would appear that they – we – are becoming the new “Untermenschen”, yet again.
For the Romani People, the Gypsy, of Europe, to be honest, the Holocaust has never really ended. While the Jews were rehabilitated, so to speak, and even ended up with their own country, though whether or not it is legitimate is shall not be discussed here, the Gypsy was still treated in the same way after the Holocaust as before and the Gypsy People were persecuted and chased from pillar to post long after.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain things did not improve in this matter as far as the Gypsy are concerned. Rather the opposite is the case.
While it may be true that the behavior of some of the Eastern European Roma that arrived int eh West did not endear them to the Gadje and not even to the Sinti, and even Roma, in the Western European countries, it should not be used as an excuse to persecute the Gypsy People, but in many place it is. But then, it is just an excuse to justify their fascist and racist actions against our People.
But even the Sinti that have been in Western Europe, in Germany, Austria, Holland, France, and such, including the united Kingdom, also face the same kind of discrimination on a daily basis – to varying degrees, dependent on the area and circumstances. Whatever the degrees, the discrimination is still there, in one way or the other, also for the Sinti and Roma that have been, such as in Germany, for well over 600 years.
Now, in the last couple of years Gypsies are, once again, be made Europe-wide into scapegoats and the source of all ills. This is going to get worse even now in the economic meltdown that all countries seem to be undergoing.
Discrimination against Gypsies is widespread – yet again – in most countries of Europe and also in the Americas, and while this also holds true with regards to Britain there is, thanks be to the G-d, not much on direct violence against Gypsies in evidence as yet, as it is in other European countries, including and especially those of the European Union.
In Britain, so far, there is also no direct discrimination as yet towards Gypsies in the field of employment, even if one mentions one's Romani background. Then again legislations are in place to make any such direct discrimination an offense and hence things are still OK.
On the other hand the general public still perceives, in the main, the Gypsy as a parasite to society.
I personally have had an encounter a couple of years back when attending a computer trade show for the Gypsy Union and while talking with one of the attendees mentioned that I was Gypsy and was using Linux – the free Open Source computer operating system – this person turned on me calling all Gypsies parasites, referring to the fact that I was using a free operating system rather than paying for a Microsoft one. Guess he must have stakes in MS. But this is how easy things can turn and we can be assured – not that that is a nice kind of assurance – that in the financial crisis we seem to have entered and which could last a while things will get worse, elsewhere and also in Britain, as far as discrimination and other acts against the Romani are concerned, and not only as to the foreign Roma who have come to this country in the recent years.
While it is true that the behavior of some of them and even the behavior of some of our own homegrown Romani-Gypsy – and I do not even refer here to the Irish Travelers, who are not part of the People – does not help to endear ourselves to the settled population, the Gadje, this is not so much of an issue here.
The way it would appear is that we are back to the “good ol' days” of being held responsible for all manner of ills in this world. Not long, I guess, and they will blame the Gypsy for the financial crisis. Am I sarcastic? Only to an extent.
When our People first arrived in Europe, or to be more precise, when our People were first noticed to be in Europe, for we were here well before the time that the first official records mention us (see the Hildesheim one) we were claimed to be carriers of the Plague though ourselves, due to witchcraft, not affected by it (more like due to our cleanliness taboos), as well as agents of the Turks, etc.
No doubt soon we will be held responsible, yet again, for the ills befalling the economy of the various countries.
The fact that the UK government is earmarking money for the improvement of official Gypsy Caravan Sites and the building of new ones – in order to fulfill its own legal set target under the Housing Act – is already causing consternation, whipped up by the red top gutter press, like the Sun, the Mail and the Express.
Those papers use all manner of lies and half-truth to whip up the Gadje against any Gypsy Sites anywhere, and the Gypsy population as a whole, even claiming that government could compulsory purchase people's gardens to build such sites with the owners of such properties having no rights. This is, obviously, far from the truth but, alas, the uneducated masses believe such horror stories.
In other European countries things are worse, to a degree, with some putting the Rom back into ghettos and guarded camps. Oh, they say, but those guards are there to protect the residents against attacks by neo-Nazi elements. Yes, sure, and on an airfield nearby a squadron of fighter pigs is preparing for takeoff. We know what has happened in Italy.
So keren? What can we do and what are we to do?
First and foremost we must have – once again – pride in what we are, and even to the extent of using the words the Gadje use for us, be this Gypsy or Zigeuner. If we are proud of it what can they do?
Then we must ensure that our People, and not only the young ones, get an education. This does not mean that they have to – necessarily – attend a Gadje school, or as some would call it, state brainwashing institution; there are other ways.
This has then to be followed by going into trades and professions, including the likes of police, fire service, military, and others often claimed to be occupations that should not be done by Rom. Only if we can say that we are represented in such fields, as many of our People are in other countries – not that that has made the discrimination any less – as in the Czech Republic and Finland where there are police officers that are of the Romani People and who are proud to be both, Rom and cops.
As said, it may not reduce the discrimination but it is one of those positive aspects that could help our People in more than one way. Pride of being Romani, of being Gypsy, however, is the most important thing, but that does not mean that the bad ways and practices must be upheld.
While it once was acceptable, nay necessary, to not always tell the Gadje and especially the authorities the truth this is backfiring badly nowadays. Also the fact that some of ours, especially in Britain and the USA, are scamming when it comes to the work they do, be this knife-grinding or blacktopping, or property maintenance kind of work. This has been going on for a long while amongst the lazy ones and those that could not care but it has gotten also into the general stream. On top of that there are those that use the roofing jobs and such as a means of robbing people. No wonder we have a bad name in the general society.
While there once was no other way for our People to survive than to steal, mostly this was minor kind of theft and pickpocketing and not the kind of robberies conducted today, the distraction burglaries and the overcharging and then forcing people to pay well above what would be reasonable.
We, as a People, must improve, before we can demand that anyone gives us the due respect. We also must to have pride in what we are for if we do not respect ourselves and our background why then should anyone give us and the People respect.
The Romani are not and have never been, at least not the Sinti groups, untouchables as in the Indian sense, and the reason for the term of untouchables – Azigani – is from the fact that we did not want to be touched by outsiders because of ritual defilement resultant therefrom.
However, we are being made by the people of Europe, including some of the governments, into outcasts and untouchables, even sub-humans, once again, and some of those countries are even those of the European Union who have always a big mouth when it comes to human rights abuses elsewhere. It is easy for them to condemn Zimbabwe or China but rather not when it comes to our close neighbor state and even the actions of the powers in their individual states themselves.
The fact that the German police forces still use the racial profiling when it comes to us Gypsy, though no longer using the term “Zigeuner” and not even “Landfahrer” but “Angehoerige einer ethnichen mobilen Minderheit” (members of an ethnic mobile minority) or even, diectly, “Sinti and Roma”, often in such a wrong was as to refer to one single suspect as appearing to be a “Sinti and Roma”, does not surprise me as a Gypsy but according to all EU legislation such profiling is illegal. Nevertheless, it is common practice to this very day with the only exception that the words have been changed. The meaning is still the same and remains so whatever term they are going to use, from “mobile minority” to “Sinti & Roma”. Nothing has changed ever since the times of Hitler and before. The only difference is that things are more subtle nowadays.
So, in conclusion again, what can we do against this?
It is my belief that the only way to combat this is through Gypsy Pride and through positive actions and through solidarity.
© M Smith (Veshengro), January 2009
<>
The Romani-Gypsy, the Sinti, Cale and Roma, are not only becoming the new “untouchables” of the European Union. Nay. In fact it would appear that they – we – are becoming the new “Untermenschen”, yet again.
For the Romani People, the Gypsy, of Europe, to be honest, the Holocaust has never really ended. While the Jews were rehabilitated, so to speak, and even ended up with their own country, though whether or not it is legitimate is shall not be discussed here, the Gypsy was still treated in the same way after the Holocaust as before and the Gypsy People were persecuted and chased from pillar to post long after.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain things did not improve in this matter as far as the Gypsy are concerned. Rather the opposite is the case.
While it may be true that the behavior of some of the Eastern European Roma that arrived int eh West did not endear them to the Gadje and not even to the Sinti, and even Roma, in the Western European countries, it should not be used as an excuse to persecute the Gypsy People, but in many place it is. But then, it is just an excuse to justify their fascist and racist actions against our People.
But even the Sinti that have been in Western Europe, in Germany, Austria, Holland, France, and such, including the united Kingdom, also face the same kind of discrimination on a daily basis – to varying degrees, dependent on the area and circumstances. Whatever the degrees, the discrimination is still there, in one way or the other, also for the Sinti and Roma that have been, such as in Germany, for well over 600 years.
Now, in the last couple of years Gypsies are, once again, be made Europe-wide into scapegoats and the source of all ills. This is going to get worse even now in the economic meltdown that all countries seem to be undergoing.
Discrimination against Gypsies is widespread – yet again – in most countries of Europe and also in the Americas, and while this also holds true with regards to Britain there is, thanks be to the G-d, not much on direct violence against Gypsies in evidence as yet, as it is in other European countries, including and especially those of the European Union.
In Britain, so far, there is also no direct discrimination as yet towards Gypsies in the field of employment, even if one mentions one's Romani background. Then again legislations are in place to make any such direct discrimination an offense and hence things are still OK.
On the other hand the general public still perceives, in the main, the Gypsy as a parasite to society.
I personally have had an encounter a couple of years back when attending a computer trade show for the Gypsy Union and while talking with one of the attendees mentioned that I was Gypsy and was using Linux – the free Open Source computer operating system – this person turned on me calling all Gypsies parasites, referring to the fact that I was using a free operating system rather than paying for a Microsoft one. Guess he must have stakes in MS. But this is how easy things can turn and we can be assured – not that that is a nice kind of assurance – that in the financial crisis we seem to have entered and which could last a while things will get worse, elsewhere and also in Britain, as far as discrimination and other acts against the Romani are concerned, and not only as to the foreign Roma who have come to this country in the recent years.
While it is true that the behavior of some of them and even the behavior of some of our own homegrown Romani-Gypsy – and I do not even refer here to the Irish Travelers, who are not part of the People – does not help to endear ourselves to the settled population, the Gadje, this is not so much of an issue here.
The way it would appear is that we are back to the “good ol' days” of being held responsible for all manner of ills in this world. Not long, I guess, and they will blame the Gypsy for the financial crisis. Am I sarcastic? Only to an extent.
When our People first arrived in Europe, or to be more precise, when our People were first noticed to be in Europe, for we were here well before the time that the first official records mention us (see the Hildesheim one) we were claimed to be carriers of the Plague though ourselves, due to witchcraft, not affected by it (more like due to our cleanliness taboos), as well as agents of the Turks, etc.
No doubt soon we will be held responsible, yet again, for the ills befalling the economy of the various countries.
The fact that the UK government is earmarking money for the improvement of official Gypsy Caravan Sites and the building of new ones – in order to fulfill its own legal set target under the Housing Act – is already causing consternation, whipped up by the red top gutter press, like the Sun, the Mail and the Express.
Those papers use all manner of lies and half-truth to whip up the Gadje against any Gypsy Sites anywhere, and the Gypsy population as a whole, even claiming that government could compulsory purchase people's gardens to build such sites with the owners of such properties having no rights. This is, obviously, far from the truth but, alas, the uneducated masses believe such horror stories.
In other European countries things are worse, to a degree, with some putting the Rom back into ghettos and guarded camps. Oh, they say, but those guards are there to protect the residents against attacks by neo-Nazi elements. Yes, sure, and on an airfield nearby a squadron of fighter pigs is preparing for takeoff. We know what has happened in Italy.
So keren? What can we do and what are we to do?
First and foremost we must have – once again – pride in what we are, and even to the extent of using the words the Gadje use for us, be this Gypsy or Zigeuner. If we are proud of it what can they do?
Then we must ensure that our People, and not only the young ones, get an education. This does not mean that they have to – necessarily – attend a Gadje school, or as some would call it, state brainwashing institution; there are other ways.
This has then to be followed by going into trades and professions, including the likes of police, fire service, military, and others often claimed to be occupations that should not be done by Rom. Only if we can say that we are represented in such fields, as many of our People are in other countries – not that that has made the discrimination any less – as in the Czech Republic and Finland where there are police officers that are of the Romani People and who are proud to be both, Rom and cops.
As said, it may not reduce the discrimination but it is one of those positive aspects that could help our People in more than one way. Pride of being Romani, of being Gypsy, however, is the most important thing, but that does not mean that the bad ways and practices must be upheld.
While it once was acceptable, nay necessary, to not always tell the Gadje and especially the authorities the truth this is backfiring badly nowadays. Also the fact that some of ours, especially in Britain and the USA, are scamming when it comes to the work they do, be this knife-grinding or blacktopping, or property maintenance kind of work. This has been going on for a long while amongst the lazy ones and those that could not care but it has gotten also into the general stream. On top of that there are those that use the roofing jobs and such as a means of robbing people. No wonder we have a bad name in the general society.
While there once was no other way for our People to survive than to steal, mostly this was minor kind of theft and pickpocketing and not the kind of robberies conducted today, the distraction burglaries and the overcharging and then forcing people to pay well above what would be reasonable.
We, as a People, must improve, before we can demand that anyone gives us the due respect. We also must to have pride in what we are for if we do not respect ourselves and our background why then should anyone give us and the People respect.
The Romani are not and have never been, at least not the Sinti groups, untouchables as in the Indian sense, and the reason for the term of untouchables – Azigani – is from the fact that we did not want to be touched by outsiders because of ritual defilement resultant therefrom.
However, we are being made by the people of Europe, including some of the governments, into outcasts and untouchables, even sub-humans, once again, and some of those countries are even those of the European Union who have always a big mouth when it comes to human rights abuses elsewhere. It is easy for them to condemn Zimbabwe or China but rather not when it comes to our close neighbor state and even the actions of the powers in their individual states themselves.
The fact that the German police forces still use the racial profiling when it comes to us Gypsy, though no longer using the term “Zigeuner” and not even “Landfahrer” but “Angehoerige einer ethnichen mobilen Minderheit” (members of an ethnic mobile minority) or even, diectly, “Sinti and Roma”, often in such a wrong was as to refer to one single suspect as appearing to be a “Sinti and Roma”, does not surprise me as a Gypsy but according to all EU legislation such profiling is illegal. Nevertheless, it is common practice to this very day with the only exception that the words have been changed. The meaning is still the same and remains so whatever term they are going to use, from “mobile minority” to “Sinti & Roma”. Nothing has changed ever since the times of Hitler and before. The only difference is that things are more subtle nowadays.
So, in conclusion again, what can we do against this?
It is my belief that the only way to combat this is through Gypsy Pride and through positive actions and through solidarity.
© M Smith (Veshengro), January 2009
<>
European Commission OK's Italy's treatment of Gypsies
European Union gives blessing for Italy's Roma fingerprint scheme
by Michael Smith
The European Union has basically told the Berlusconi regime in Italy that their actions against the Roma (and Sinti), the Gypsies, in the camps in Italy is fine by them and Berlusconi states that he always was certain that the EU would clear his government's actions as regards the Gypsy menace.
A Commission spokesman said Brussels was satisified that in conducting a census of Roma gypsies in camps as part of its crackdown on street crime since coming to power in May, the Berlusconi Government was not seeking ''data based on ethnic origin or religion". The controversial fingerprinting programme had the sole aim of ''identifying persons who cannot be identified in any other way".
Well, did anyone think different? Yes, I know, the majority of the Rom in Europe and elsewhere had put their hopes in the EU and some, I guess, still do and I hate to say that I told you so, but I did. The European Union is the greatest danger befalling the Gypsy People in Europe since the Nazis.
This is making the fear that I have that this in Italy – and actions against Rom in other parts of the European Union – is a stalking horse as to what is in store for our People in Europe under the EU leadership at present.
The fingerprinting of minors was only being carried out ''in strictly necessary cases and as the ultimate possibility of identification,'' the statement from the Commission said. On press photos, however, that have been seen by this author and others the stains of the fingerprinting ink is clearly visible on the great majority of all children, including, so it would appear, toddlers.
Mr Berlusconi said the scheme was intended not only to stop gypsy children begging and stealing but also to help Roma people to integrate by drawing them into the Italian health and education systems. Mr Maroni said illegal Roma camps were being dismantled so that "those who have the right to stay here can live in decent conditions".
There are an estimated 160,000 Roma gipsies in Italy, nearly half of whom were born in Italy and have Italian citizenship. The rest are mainly illegal immigrants from the Balkans and Romania.
Obviously, because all of those actions by the new Duce's regime are so benign many Roma who are legal citizens of Italy have been forced to flee into Austria from the regions of South Tirol, for instance.
We are having a problem and no one wants to realize it and our problem as a People does not lie simply with one EU member state, in this case Italy, for it is not just in Italy that official anti-Gypsy actions are taking place. Our problem is with the European Union per se, as it would appear that those anti-Gypsy actions are the new policy coming our way.
I must say that I have been seeing this writing on the wall for a very long time and have written about it and issued warnings and everyone called me a scaremonger and worse even. What worries me most is that it would appear that my predictions have been right and in a way they are worse that what I thought.
The European Commission has now, basically, given the green light to all EU member states to enact their own anti-Gypsy measures under the various guises that they will be using. France is already playing with a number of ideas, as are the former Czechoslovakia and others.
Would this happen if those being the target of those measures would be Jews, whether or not involved in (small) criminal activities? It would not, of that we can all be more than certain. But, yet again, no one cares because the victims are but dirty Gyppos and as far as the great majority of EU member state citizens are concerned Gypsies are worth less than animals, even wild animals that might decimate flocks, such as wolves. While they will go to all lengths to protect such they are happy that Gypsies are being targeted by government and vigilante actions alike.
The fingerprinting and the other measures, such as the bulldozing of the “illegal” camps are 'not discriminatory' and the census is in line with European Union law, the EC said. Jesus wept! It is? What chance have our People got then for protection? None, let's face it.
We, the Rom, must learn to protect ourselves. But then again, the problem is that those in trouble there just could not possibly get off their butts to do anything themselves.
While I, in general, do not have much time for any of the churches it must be said though that, after initial silence, the Vatican seems to have found its voice.
The Vatican urged the EU to carry through on the public commitments they had made to safeguard ethnic minorities like Gypsies.
EU states should treat Gypsy communities as they would other institutions, Msgr Agostino Marchetto, head of the Vatican department that deals with migrant and traveler issues, told Vatican daily l'Osservatore Romano.
''This 'institutionalisation' brings with it the advantage of spurring EU states to become aware of the EU programmes that have been approved,'' Marchetto said at the end of the World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Gypsies in Freising, Germany.
While the Cardinal's statements are very heartening there is a problem with them and that is that the EU commitments are on paper only and they have no intention of honoring them as far as we, the Rom, the Gypsy, are concerned. In fact, everything points to just the opposite, namely that we are being targeted yet again for some assimilation program with which they hope to eliminate the “Gypsy menace”.
We would do well to remember that the police offices for the combating of the Gypsy menace still exist under a variety of guises in a number of European Union member police forces and also the over-regional and international units. Not much has changed in Europe for we, the Rom, since the time of German and Italian Fascism.
Time we did things ourselves.
AVA! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
<>
by Michael Smith
The European Union has basically told the Berlusconi regime in Italy that their actions against the Roma (and Sinti), the Gypsies, in the camps in Italy is fine by them and Berlusconi states that he always was certain that the EU would clear his government's actions as regards the Gypsy menace.
A Commission spokesman said Brussels was satisified that in conducting a census of Roma gypsies in camps as part of its crackdown on street crime since coming to power in May, the Berlusconi Government was not seeking ''data based on ethnic origin or religion". The controversial fingerprinting programme had the sole aim of ''identifying persons who cannot be identified in any other way".
Well, did anyone think different? Yes, I know, the majority of the Rom in Europe and elsewhere had put their hopes in the EU and some, I guess, still do and I hate to say that I told you so, but I did. The European Union is the greatest danger befalling the Gypsy People in Europe since the Nazis.
This is making the fear that I have that this in Italy – and actions against Rom in other parts of the European Union – is a stalking horse as to what is in store for our People in Europe under the EU leadership at present.
The fingerprinting of minors was only being carried out ''in strictly necessary cases and as the ultimate possibility of identification,'' the statement from the Commission said. On press photos, however, that have been seen by this author and others the stains of the fingerprinting ink is clearly visible on the great majority of all children, including, so it would appear, toddlers.
Mr Berlusconi said the scheme was intended not only to stop gypsy children begging and stealing but also to help Roma people to integrate by drawing them into the Italian health and education systems. Mr Maroni said illegal Roma camps were being dismantled so that "those who have the right to stay here can live in decent conditions".
There are an estimated 160,000 Roma gipsies in Italy, nearly half of whom were born in Italy and have Italian citizenship. The rest are mainly illegal immigrants from the Balkans and Romania.
Obviously, because all of those actions by the new Duce's regime are so benign many Roma who are legal citizens of Italy have been forced to flee into Austria from the regions of South Tirol, for instance.
We are having a problem and no one wants to realize it and our problem as a People does not lie simply with one EU member state, in this case Italy, for it is not just in Italy that official anti-Gypsy actions are taking place. Our problem is with the European Union per se, as it would appear that those anti-Gypsy actions are the new policy coming our way.
I must say that I have been seeing this writing on the wall for a very long time and have written about it and issued warnings and everyone called me a scaremonger and worse even. What worries me most is that it would appear that my predictions have been right and in a way they are worse that what I thought.
The European Commission has now, basically, given the green light to all EU member states to enact their own anti-Gypsy measures under the various guises that they will be using. France is already playing with a number of ideas, as are the former Czechoslovakia and others.
Would this happen if those being the target of those measures would be Jews, whether or not involved in (small) criminal activities? It would not, of that we can all be more than certain. But, yet again, no one cares because the victims are but dirty Gyppos and as far as the great majority of EU member state citizens are concerned Gypsies are worth less than animals, even wild animals that might decimate flocks, such as wolves. While they will go to all lengths to protect such they are happy that Gypsies are being targeted by government and vigilante actions alike.
The fingerprinting and the other measures, such as the bulldozing of the “illegal” camps are 'not discriminatory' and the census is in line with European Union law, the EC said. Jesus wept! It is? What chance have our People got then for protection? None, let's face it.
We, the Rom, must learn to protect ourselves. But then again, the problem is that those in trouble there just could not possibly get off their butts to do anything themselves.
While I, in general, do not have much time for any of the churches it must be said though that, after initial silence, the Vatican seems to have found its voice.
The Vatican urged the EU to carry through on the public commitments they had made to safeguard ethnic minorities like Gypsies.
EU states should treat Gypsy communities as they would other institutions, Msgr Agostino Marchetto, head of the Vatican department that deals with migrant and traveler issues, told Vatican daily l'Osservatore Romano.
''This 'institutionalisation' brings with it the advantage of spurring EU states to become aware of the EU programmes that have been approved,'' Marchetto said at the end of the World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Gypsies in Freising, Germany.
While the Cardinal's statements are very heartening there is a problem with them and that is that the EU commitments are on paper only and they have no intention of honoring them as far as we, the Rom, the Gypsy, are concerned. In fact, everything points to just the opposite, namely that we are being targeted yet again for some assimilation program with which they hope to eliminate the “Gypsy menace”.
We would do well to remember that the police offices for the combating of the Gypsy menace still exist under a variety of guises in a number of European Union member police forces and also the over-regional and international units. Not much has changed in Europe for we, the Rom, since the time of German and Italian Fascism.
Time we did things ourselves.
AVA! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
<>
Fingerprinting of Gypsies legal and not racist, says Italian government
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Italian government, despite mounting “pressure”, on an international level, has declared that the fingerprinting of all Roma and Sinti in the various camps in Italy is not racist and the it is well within the law.
Whatever the world opinion may be, as far as Italy and the Berlusconi regime are concerned they do no wrong.
What we must consider here is that, in all honesty, under the Italian laws it appears to be not illegal, nor racist, now, to do his fingerprinting of all Gypsies, as Italy's highest court has, on Berlusconi's behest, declared that all Roma and Sinti to be criminal elements, regardless of age, and has nigh on declared them “outlaws”, much as the German term of “vogelfrei”.
The Berlusconi government invokes that court decision and refers to it and stands by it, no matter what.
The Italian Red Cross continues with its cooperation in this fingerprinting and data collection exercise. Much akin to the actions of the German Red Cross in the time of the Third Reich.
The entire affair smacks so much of what the Nazis did to the German Gypsies, and those in the occupied territories, that it is extremely worrying, in such a way in that I, as a Veshtike Rom of whose family many members have been murdered in Auschwitz and other extermination camps, for no other reason than that of Race, of being Gypsy, am very concerned as to our People in the EU.
Are we headed in the same direction, yet again, in today's Europe, especially the Europe under the European Union “control”? It would appear to be so and no one really is going to do anything about it – so, at least it would appear – and this simply, as far as I see it, because it is “just” Gypsies that are the victims here. Were it Jews or Moslems I am certain things would have been done a long time ago.
Alas, we know anyway, we are but dirty Gyppos and according to the Italians (and other countries in the EU?) we are nothing but criminal elements, including the children, in the same way as our People were regarded by the fascist Germany. Obviously nothing has changed.
It is time that the Romani People worldwide realized that the Gadje bodies, in the main, are going to do nothing whatsoever that will really benefit us, as individuals and especially as a People, as a Nation. All they do is what will benefit them in controlling us. Time, and I know I keep saying this, that we did things for ourselves. Ourselves Alone!
Ava! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro)
<>
The Italian government, despite mounting “pressure”, on an international level, has declared that the fingerprinting of all Roma and Sinti in the various camps in Italy is not racist and the it is well within the law.
Whatever the world opinion may be, as far as Italy and the Berlusconi regime are concerned they do no wrong.
What we must consider here is that, in all honesty, under the Italian laws it appears to be not illegal, nor racist, now, to do his fingerprinting of all Gypsies, as Italy's highest court has, on Berlusconi's behest, declared that all Roma and Sinti to be criminal elements, regardless of age, and has nigh on declared them “outlaws”, much as the German term of “vogelfrei”.
The Berlusconi government invokes that court decision and refers to it and stands by it, no matter what.
The Italian Red Cross continues with its cooperation in this fingerprinting and data collection exercise. Much akin to the actions of the German Red Cross in the time of the Third Reich.
The entire affair smacks so much of what the Nazis did to the German Gypsies, and those in the occupied territories, that it is extremely worrying, in such a way in that I, as a Veshtike Rom of whose family many members have been murdered in Auschwitz and other extermination camps, for no other reason than that of Race, of being Gypsy, am very concerned as to our People in the EU.
Are we headed in the same direction, yet again, in today's Europe, especially the Europe under the European Union “control”? It would appear to be so and no one really is going to do anything about it – so, at least it would appear – and this simply, as far as I see it, because it is “just” Gypsies that are the victims here. Were it Jews or Moslems I am certain things would have been done a long time ago.
Alas, we know anyway, we are but dirty Gyppos and according to the Italians (and other countries in the EU?) we are nothing but criminal elements, including the children, in the same way as our People were regarded by the fascist Germany. Obviously nothing has changed.
It is time that the Romani People worldwide realized that the Gadje bodies, in the main, are going to do nothing whatsoever that will really benefit us, as individuals and especially as a People, as a Nation. All they do is what will benefit them in controlling us. Time, and I know I keep saying this, that we did things for ourselves. Ourselves Alone!
Ava! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro)
<>
European Parliamentarians give their fingerprints in protest of Italy's Anti-Gypsy crackdown
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
More than 100 members of the European Parliament - including party group leaders – added their own fingerprints to a petition protesting against Italy's policy against Gypsies.
While this may be a very nice gesture initiated by Italian Communist MEP Giusto Catania what does he and there others think to achieve with this. This is nothing, really, but a gimmick as most of those parliamentarians are not of the Romani People and it, therefore, is nothing but a publicity stunt to be seen to do something.
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution that asks the Italian government to halt its plans. Euro MPs say it is unacceptable "to violate fundamental rights of the Gypsy People and to criminalise them."
This resolution was, however, passed on such a small margin – with 52 to 48 votes, so we understand – that all it needs is some more EU states, and this surely is going to happen in the not too distant future, to swing to the right and the Romani are once again in real deep trouble.
While no one dares to speak against Jews anymore – and probably rightly so – the Gypsy is still free and fair game to the politicians of that persuasion and the general public at large, and not just in Italy.
Should, as I said, we get a swing of two or three more politicians in the European Parliament and – as that does not really count much – the parliament, I mean – more importantly in the European Commission, that unelected body which is the real power of the European Union and the Council of Europe, then things could really, once again, turn out nasty for the Romani-Gypsy of Europe.
We must prepare to stand against this as a Nation and to this end we must, properly, unite as a Nation, and the medium of the Internet and such can be out greatest asset here. And no, we do not need a standardized Romani Language for this.
Ava! Ame Shai! (Yes! We Can!)
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
More than 100 members of the European Parliament - including party group leaders – added their own fingerprints to a petition protesting against Italy's policy against Gypsies.
While this may be a very nice gesture initiated by Italian Communist MEP Giusto Catania what does he and there others think to achieve with this. This is nothing, really, but a gimmick as most of those parliamentarians are not of the Romani People and it, therefore, is nothing but a publicity stunt to be seen to do something.
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution that asks the Italian government to halt its plans. Euro MPs say it is unacceptable "to violate fundamental rights of the Gypsy People and to criminalise them."
This resolution was, however, passed on such a small margin – with 52 to 48 votes, so we understand – that all it needs is some more EU states, and this surely is going to happen in the not too distant future, to swing to the right and the Romani are once again in real deep trouble.
While no one dares to speak against Jews anymore – and probably rightly so – the Gypsy is still free and fair game to the politicians of that persuasion and the general public at large, and not just in Italy.
Should, as I said, we get a swing of two or three more politicians in the European Parliament and – as that does not really count much – the parliament, I mean – more importantly in the European Commission, that unelected body which is the real power of the European Union and the Council of Europe, then things could really, once again, turn out nasty for the Romani-Gypsy of Europe.
We must prepare to stand against this as a Nation and to this end we must, properly, unite as a Nation, and the medium of the Internet and such can be out greatest asset here. And no, we do not need a standardized Romani Language for this.
Ava! Ame Shai! (Yes! We Can!)
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Italy Passes Law To Fingerprint All Gypsies
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Racism and anti-immigrant hysteria have been increasing in Italy in recent years. Hate crimes have been on the rise with reports of gangs of right-wing youth attacking Gypsies in Rome, Genoa, Turin, Milan and other cities, and with the Carabinieri and other police units standing idly by and watching if not actually aiding and abetting the perpetrators of those attacks and crimes.
Seventy years ago this month, nearly to the day, Italy's Fascist regime pf the day published a "Manifesto of Race", which paved the way for its notorious racial laws persecuting Jews and members of other supposedly "inferior" minorities, which were directly based on the “Nuremberg Laws” of Hitler's Germany. Now, the country's right-wing government has again stepped up special measures against an entire ethnic group.
In their election campaign earlier this year, Berlusconi and his allies had already made clear their intention of deporting tens of thousands of Roma back to Romania and former Yugoslavia. In mid-June a March decisions by Italy's highest appeal court was released stating that "it is acceptable to discriminate against Roma" because the court found that "they are thieves", in other words the courts ruled in one foul stroke that an entire Race could be discriminated against as they are all regarded as criminals, criminalizing an entire People. Following the release of the court ruling, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, announced that a file is to be drawn up containing a DNA data base with digital fingerprints and photos of all Gypsies in Italy regardless of their citizenship. The target for the fingerprinting and such are here especially Gypsy children. Italy has now, so we understand, enacted a law that will require the taking of fingerprints and photos and other data of all Gypsies living in the country.
Unicef has protested that this is discriminatory and a violation of the UN's Declaration of the Rights of the Child but, on the other hand, works hand-in-glove with the Italian government as, as they say, it will be for the benefit of the children if they will be made to go to school and will get benefits. The Italian Red Cross, as we have reported already, also is deeply involved in this operation and all of it is very reminiscent of the 1930's. The Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana denounced the move as "an indecent and racist proposal" reminiscent of "when Jewish children were identified with a yellow star on their sleeves".
If the Church and his Holiness is so concerned maybe then He and his Church should issue a decree that would put any Catholic participating in this operation, whether police officer, soldier, or official, under the threat of excommunication. But we hear nothing of this sort being proposed even. Words and prayer do not help. They didn't in the Holocaust and they will not now either. Action is what is needed. When are priests going to be instructed to condemn this from their pulpits in their Sunday homilies? Shame we do not have the likes of the late Archbishop Romero in the leadership of the Holy See. The late Pope John II would not have been sitting idly by saying little.
Other churches are even quieter still than the Catholic Church as are the rest of Europe and the World.
The European Parliament voted July 10th to adopt a resolution calling on member states to "review and repeal laws and policies that discriminate against the Roma on the basis of race and ethnicity. The problem with this resolution though is that it is but a gimmick as it has no teeth whatsoever and is NOT binding in any way, shape or form, allowing the Berlusconi regime to give a two-finger salute to the European Parliament.
More and more it becomes evident that in this issue the European Union is either entirely powerless and a toothless paper tiger and Italy's fascists Il Duce II and his allies are thumbing their noses at the European lawmakers or, and this would appear to be more the case, what we are seeing here is, as I predicted several years ago, as I could see the writing on the wall, just the beginning of what the European Union is, in fact, planning for the Romani People of Europe.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Racism and anti-immigrant hysteria have been increasing in Italy in recent years. Hate crimes have been on the rise with reports of gangs of right-wing youth attacking Gypsies in Rome, Genoa, Turin, Milan and other cities, and with the Carabinieri and other police units standing idly by and watching if not actually aiding and abetting the perpetrators of those attacks and crimes.
Seventy years ago this month, nearly to the day, Italy's Fascist regime pf the day published a "Manifesto of Race", which paved the way for its notorious racial laws persecuting Jews and members of other supposedly "inferior" minorities, which were directly based on the “Nuremberg Laws” of Hitler's Germany. Now, the country's right-wing government has again stepped up special measures against an entire ethnic group.
In their election campaign earlier this year, Berlusconi and his allies had already made clear their intention of deporting tens of thousands of Roma back to Romania and former Yugoslavia. In mid-June a March decisions by Italy's highest appeal court was released stating that "it is acceptable to discriminate against Roma" because the court found that "they are thieves", in other words the courts ruled in one foul stroke that an entire Race could be discriminated against as they are all regarded as criminals, criminalizing an entire People. Following the release of the court ruling, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, announced that a file is to be drawn up containing a DNA data base with digital fingerprints and photos of all Gypsies in Italy regardless of their citizenship. The target for the fingerprinting and such are here especially Gypsy children. Italy has now, so we understand, enacted a law that will require the taking of fingerprints and photos and other data of all Gypsies living in the country.
Unicef has protested that this is discriminatory and a violation of the UN's Declaration of the Rights of the Child but, on the other hand, works hand-in-glove with the Italian government as, as they say, it will be for the benefit of the children if they will be made to go to school and will get benefits. The Italian Red Cross, as we have reported already, also is deeply involved in this operation and all of it is very reminiscent of the 1930's. The Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana denounced the move as "an indecent and racist proposal" reminiscent of "when Jewish children were identified with a yellow star on their sleeves".
If the Church and his Holiness is so concerned maybe then He and his Church should issue a decree that would put any Catholic participating in this operation, whether police officer, soldier, or official, under the threat of excommunication. But we hear nothing of this sort being proposed even. Words and prayer do not help. They didn't in the Holocaust and they will not now either. Action is what is needed. When are priests going to be instructed to condemn this from their pulpits in their Sunday homilies? Shame we do not have the likes of the late Archbishop Romero in the leadership of the Holy See. The late Pope John II would not have been sitting idly by saying little.
Other churches are even quieter still than the Catholic Church as are the rest of Europe and the World.
The European Parliament voted July 10th to adopt a resolution calling on member states to "review and repeal laws and policies that discriminate against the Roma on the basis of race and ethnicity. The problem with this resolution though is that it is but a gimmick as it has no teeth whatsoever and is NOT binding in any way, shape or form, allowing the Berlusconi regime to give a two-finger salute to the European Parliament.
More and more it becomes evident that in this issue the European Union is either entirely powerless and a toothless paper tiger and Italy's fascists Il Duce II and his allies are thumbing their noses at the European lawmakers or, and this would appear to be more the case, what we are seeing here is, as I predicted several years ago, as I could see the writing on the wall, just the beginning of what the European Union is, in fact, planning for the Romani People of Europe.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Italian Red Cross collaborates in ethnic profiling of Roma in Italy
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Massimo Barra, the head of the Italian Red Cross, insisted that the aim was to integrate Roma people into Italian society. If children were fingerprinted, it would be done "as a game", he said. Mr Barra said the Red Cross "always respects human rights. We are building bridges, not walls."
Who is he trying to kid. The Red Cross, now why should we not be surprised, helping yet another fascist regime.
Europe should but condemn in the strongest possible terms the involvement of the Italian Red Cross in assisting the Italian Government in the ethnic registration and profiling of Roma in Italy, as I do here and I am sure as will many of our readers. However, it is not going to make one iota of a difference to this. All I am seeing, I am afraid to say, is that my predictions and fears are becoming reality.
But then, as I indicated above, why precisely should that surprise us; the involvement of the Red Cross in this. Were they not culpable enough in the Third Reich. They indeed were.
Members of European Civil Society should condemn this action of the Italian Red Cross in the strongest possible terms and apply pressure on the ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross to demand that their Italian division withdraw from this involvement.
Not that this is going to happen but.. the inaction shows where they all really stand. As far as we, the Romani, the Gypsy, of Europe, and the world, are concerned, civil society and all its bodies always will stand against us.
The registration of minorities is contrary to European Data and Minority Protection legislation in Italy, and yesterday, the European Parliament itself passed a Resolution against the fingerprinting of Roma in Italy. The only problem with this resolution is that it is about as binding as a raft tied together with rotten ropes which will dissolve in the water.
The announcement that the Red Cross will assist the Italian police in the registration and fingerprinting of Roma in Rome, Naples and Milan was made by Massimo Barra, Head of the Italian Red Cross, in an interview published in The Times on July 5. This was confirmed in a statement by the Italian Minister of the Interior, Mr. Roberto Maroni, published in the Südtiroler Zeitung on July 10, that the government of Silvio Berlusconi is proud of the participation of the Red Cross in the ethnic registration and fingerprinting of Roma.
The fact of the Italian Red Cross assisting a neo-fascistic government in singling out the Romani-Gypsy, for it will not just remain with the Roma – the Sinti of Italy, I am sure, will be the next targets – for registration and profiling is chillingly reminiscent of Red Cross collaboration with the Hitler's Black Legions during WWII in the registration, deportations and destruction of Gypsy life.
The most chilling factor of this, undoubtedly, is that today these actions are being validated by the self-same arguments as those of Nazi Germany, namely that Sinti and Roma, that Romani-Gypsy People, need to be controlled as a measure of “crime-prevention”.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Massimo Barra, the head of the Italian Red Cross, insisted that the aim was to integrate Roma people into Italian society. If children were fingerprinted, it would be done "as a game", he said. Mr Barra said the Red Cross "always respects human rights. We are building bridges, not walls."
Who is he trying to kid. The Red Cross, now why should we not be surprised, helping yet another fascist regime.
Europe should but condemn in the strongest possible terms the involvement of the Italian Red Cross in assisting the Italian Government in the ethnic registration and profiling of Roma in Italy, as I do here and I am sure as will many of our readers. However, it is not going to make one iota of a difference to this. All I am seeing, I am afraid to say, is that my predictions and fears are becoming reality.
But then, as I indicated above, why precisely should that surprise us; the involvement of the Red Cross in this. Were they not culpable enough in the Third Reich. They indeed were.
Members of European Civil Society should condemn this action of the Italian Red Cross in the strongest possible terms and apply pressure on the ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross to demand that their Italian division withdraw from this involvement.
Not that this is going to happen but.. the inaction shows where they all really stand. As far as we, the Romani, the Gypsy, of Europe, and the world, are concerned, civil society and all its bodies always will stand against us.
The registration of minorities is contrary to European Data and Minority Protection legislation in Italy, and yesterday, the European Parliament itself passed a Resolution against the fingerprinting of Roma in Italy. The only problem with this resolution is that it is about as binding as a raft tied together with rotten ropes which will dissolve in the water.
The announcement that the Red Cross will assist the Italian police in the registration and fingerprinting of Roma in Rome, Naples and Milan was made by Massimo Barra, Head of the Italian Red Cross, in an interview published in The Times on July 5. This was confirmed in a statement by the Italian Minister of the Interior, Mr. Roberto Maroni, published in the Südtiroler Zeitung on July 10, that the government of Silvio Berlusconi is proud of the participation of the Red Cross in the ethnic registration and fingerprinting of Roma.
The fact of the Italian Red Cross assisting a neo-fascistic government in singling out the Romani-Gypsy, for it will not just remain with the Roma – the Sinti of Italy, I am sure, will be the next targets – for registration and profiling is chillingly reminiscent of Red Cross collaboration with the Hitler's Black Legions during WWII in the registration, deportations and destruction of Gypsy life.
The most chilling factor of this, undoubtedly, is that today these actions are being validated by the self-same arguments as those of Nazi Germany, namely that Sinti and Roma, that Romani-Gypsy People, need to be controlled as a measure of “crime-prevention”.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Gypsies in Italy forced to give fingerprints
Gypsy children dragged kicking and screaming to have their fingerprints (and other biometric data) taken.
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While the European Parliament has, very narrowly, adopted a resolution calling on Italy to halt its anti-Gypsy actions, the regime of Il Duce II, of PM Berlusconi, goes full steam ahead with the ethnic database on all Gypsies living in camps (I guess any that are known and live in houses will soon be dragged in as well).
While the European Parliament in its resolution called the actions of the Berlusconi regime racist it would appear that no one really intends to do anything about it. Not that I, as a Gypsy, am surprised by this.
While the European parliamentarians in word condemned the actions – as said, with a very narrow margin – of Berluscon's Italy and stated that those acts are against the European Convention on Human Rights it would appear that the Italian authorities are sticking up two fingers towards Brussels (Strasbourg) (always depending where the parliament was sitting at the time) and press on with what they have planned to do.
The database will include, so it is said, the racial/ethnic origin, e.g. which Gypsy group, the religious affiliation and beliefs, and also which school visited and which results reached on leaving school.
If this does not smack entirely of the same kind of registrations that were the precursor to the persecution of the Romani People under Hitler than I do not know.
While the parliamentarians of the European Parliament may make all those noises and pass those resolutions the European Commission and the Council of Europe, the real powers – unelected – behind the European Union, are not going to do anything at all, it would appear. And then again, why should they? Is it not, at least so it would appear to any that are not blind, the full intention of the European Union to act against the “Gypsy problem”, for it is not only in Italy where official anti-Gypsy pogroms and other such actions are taking place. The ghettoisation – forced – in the former Czechoslovakia is but another example, as are the actions, planned and already enacted, of the French government appertaining to the Gypsies in its country and those coming into the country especially.
It would appear to anyone not familiar with the current caleandar and its dates that we are in the Europe of 1938 rather than 2008. History is repeating itself and, because it is just Gypsies that are being rounded up, no one is actually going to do anything.
The problem is also that the resolution of the European Parliament, which calls for Italy to stop its anti-Gypsy actions, is not binding on the government of Italy. In other words, it is but rhetoric and words and the parliamentarians know and knew that full well when they went for this and the gimmick of giving their own fingerprints.
The Italian foreign minister and former EU justice minister, Franco Frattini,called the reactions of the EU as politically motivated.
There are currently some 700 Gypsy camps in Italy, the majority near Rome, Naples, or Milan and in those reside thousands of Sinti and Rom, and all of them will be the target for those anti-Gypsy measures of the regime of Berlusconi. Il Duce would be proud of him and Adolf Hitler even more so. I am sure Heinrich Himmler would have elevated him to a general in the SS.
If the Sinti of Italy think that they are safe and that this is only going to affect the Roma then they better think again. And if the rest of the Romani, in the EU and elsewhere, think that it may not happen to where they are, a rethink, I would advise, to be necessary too.
We are alone in this world as a People, and we ourselves alone can only do something. It is time that we did.
AVA! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While the European Parliament has, very narrowly, adopted a resolution calling on Italy to halt its anti-Gypsy actions, the regime of Il Duce II, of PM Berlusconi, goes full steam ahead with the ethnic database on all Gypsies living in camps (I guess any that are known and live in houses will soon be dragged in as well).
While the European Parliament in its resolution called the actions of the Berlusconi regime racist it would appear that no one really intends to do anything about it. Not that I, as a Gypsy, am surprised by this.
While the European parliamentarians in word condemned the actions – as said, with a very narrow margin – of Berluscon's Italy and stated that those acts are against the European Convention on Human Rights it would appear that the Italian authorities are sticking up two fingers towards Brussels (Strasbourg) (always depending where the parliament was sitting at the time) and press on with what they have planned to do.
The database will include, so it is said, the racial/ethnic origin, e.g. which Gypsy group, the religious affiliation and beliefs, and also which school visited and which results reached on leaving school.
If this does not smack entirely of the same kind of registrations that were the precursor to the persecution of the Romani People under Hitler than I do not know.
While the parliamentarians of the European Parliament may make all those noises and pass those resolutions the European Commission and the Council of Europe, the real powers – unelected – behind the European Union, are not going to do anything at all, it would appear. And then again, why should they? Is it not, at least so it would appear to any that are not blind, the full intention of the European Union to act against the “Gypsy problem”, for it is not only in Italy where official anti-Gypsy pogroms and other such actions are taking place. The ghettoisation – forced – in the former Czechoslovakia is but another example, as are the actions, planned and already enacted, of the French government appertaining to the Gypsies in its country and those coming into the country especially.
It would appear to anyone not familiar with the current caleandar and its dates that we are in the Europe of 1938 rather than 2008. History is repeating itself and, because it is just Gypsies that are being rounded up, no one is actually going to do anything.
The problem is also that the resolution of the European Parliament, which calls for Italy to stop its anti-Gypsy actions, is not binding on the government of Italy. In other words, it is but rhetoric and words and the parliamentarians know and knew that full well when they went for this and the gimmick of giving their own fingerprints.
The Italian foreign minister and former EU justice minister, Franco Frattini,called the reactions of the EU as politically motivated.
There are currently some 700 Gypsy camps in Italy, the majority near Rome, Naples, or Milan and in those reside thousands of Sinti and Rom, and all of them will be the target for those anti-Gypsy measures of the regime of Berlusconi. Il Duce would be proud of him and Adolf Hitler even more so. I am sure Heinrich Himmler would have elevated him to a general in the SS.
If the Sinti of Italy think that they are safe and that this is only going to affect the Roma then they better think again. And if the rest of the Romani, in the EU and elsewhere, think that it may not happen to where they are, a rethink, I would advise, to be necessary too.
We are alone in this world as a People, and we ourselves alone can only do something. It is time that we did.
AVA! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
European Union adopts resolution to call on Italy to stop Gypsy crackdown
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni argues that the measure is designed to 'prevent phenomena such as begging'.
But critics believe, rightly so, one can only add, that the Gypsy minority is being unfairly targeted by the new, right-wing government led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
On the other hand, as a Romani myself, I have to agree though that there is a problem with a number of Roma groups (and no, I am not having a go at the Roma again – only at laziness and such), in that the men idle doing nothing while the force the women and children to go out to beg and, also, dare I say, pickpocket, shoplift, etc. Though being Gypsy I cannot and will not ever condone such kind of behavior. I would only ever condone “theft” if it was for survival, and that then with reservations.
The European Commission has called for an investigation into the measures of the Italian government. So, I assume we shall hear from them in about four years time or so after millions of Euro have been wasted on such a study and report.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament has just adopted a resolution that asks the Italian government to halt its plans. Euro MPs say it is unacceptable "to violate Gypsies' fundamental rights and to criminalise them."
The Italian MEP Monica Frassoni of the Green Party believes the authorities have already begun creating files on Gypsies living in camps around major cities. She warns that this violates EU laws.
We all know, Miss Frassoni, that this violated EU law. What the Romani People would like to know is what actual steps of intervention – not just rhetoric – the European Union and its Commission and Parliament are actually going to take to stop this NOW.
"The point is that the Italian government has issued a decree obliging all people living in camps - so normally gypsies - to be filed and to say where they come from and what ethnic origin they have. Even which religion they have, which is absolutely forbidden normally by our laws.
It actually means you are creating a database based on ethnic origins. This is why we are putting so much focus on this: because there is a direct contradiction with European legislation."
How nice... we know that.
European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot stresses that Italy has promised to send a detailed report on its plans by the end of July.
"It's important for me that there is an extremely precise and clear investigation," he says. But the Commissioner also says he's been given assurances by minister Maroni that the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, backs the controversial plan.
That's because fingerprinting should help to make sure that Roma children go to school and receive social welfare.
If this is true, that is to say that UNICEF, a United Nations body, backing this action then we, the Rom, must come to realize that the UN nor the EU will ever be on the side of the Romani and that, as I have predicted already a number of years ago, we, the Gypsy People, the Romani, are again the target of actions against us by government decree, and in this case from on very high (no, o Devel has nothing to do with that).
Senior Juan de Dios Ramírez-Heredia, president of the Romani Union of neighbouring Spain and first ever Romani who served as a Member of the European Parliament, however, says the measures are first and foremost linked to promises to crack down on crime.
Those promises were a key element, he said, of the campaign that swept Mr Berlusconi back into power earlier this year. The Prime Minister even made an explicit connection between rising crime rates and the large number of Roma living in Italy.
"He won by exploiting public fears about the growing insecurity in Italy. This fear was channelled towards Gypsies, because we are an invisible minority."
Mr Heredia added that society's weakest always "end up paying the price of an extreme anti-immigration policy."
Ms Frassoni says that it is now the EU's duty to act.
"I am not even sure that will be enough, but the EU is a community of rights and values and we must do this or be shown to be totally useless."
Dear Miss Frassoni, what are you proposing the EU is going to do for they will do nothing. And we, the Romani, must have come to realize this by now.
In fact, the way it would appear, the EU will not act against Italy (except with a few little words to show the rest of the world) because the EU has plans for the Gypsy. Plans similar, it would appear, to those that Germany under Hitler and even before already had for the Romani. I leave the reader to come to his or her own conclusions from the historical data available.
Time, amare Rom, to do our own thing. Time to come to realize that none of the “white” man's organizations will do anything for us. Time to stand up and be counted (no, not by the Carabinieri) and stand against this as a Nation, as a People.
A People United Can Never Be Defeated!
AVA! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni argues that the measure is designed to 'prevent phenomena such as begging'.
But critics believe, rightly so, one can only add, that the Gypsy minority is being unfairly targeted by the new, right-wing government led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
On the other hand, as a Romani myself, I have to agree though that there is a problem with a number of Roma groups (and no, I am not having a go at the Roma again – only at laziness and such), in that the men idle doing nothing while the force the women and children to go out to beg and, also, dare I say, pickpocket, shoplift, etc. Though being Gypsy I cannot and will not ever condone such kind of behavior. I would only ever condone “theft” if it was for survival, and that then with reservations.
The European Commission has called for an investigation into the measures of the Italian government. So, I assume we shall hear from them in about four years time or so after millions of Euro have been wasted on such a study and report.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament has just adopted a resolution that asks the Italian government to halt its plans. Euro MPs say it is unacceptable "to violate Gypsies' fundamental rights and to criminalise them."
The Italian MEP Monica Frassoni of the Green Party believes the authorities have already begun creating files on Gypsies living in camps around major cities. She warns that this violates EU laws.
We all know, Miss Frassoni, that this violated EU law. What the Romani People would like to know is what actual steps of intervention – not just rhetoric – the European Union and its Commission and Parliament are actually going to take to stop this NOW.
"The point is that the Italian government has issued a decree obliging all people living in camps - so normally gypsies - to be filed and to say where they come from and what ethnic origin they have. Even which religion they have, which is absolutely forbidden normally by our laws.
It actually means you are creating a database based on ethnic origins. This is why we are putting so much focus on this: because there is a direct contradiction with European legislation."
How nice... we know that.
European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot stresses that Italy has promised to send a detailed report on its plans by the end of July.
"It's important for me that there is an extremely precise and clear investigation," he says. But the Commissioner also says he's been given assurances by minister Maroni that the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, backs the controversial plan.
That's because fingerprinting should help to make sure that Roma children go to school and receive social welfare.
If this is true, that is to say that UNICEF, a United Nations body, backing this action then we, the Rom, must come to realize that the UN nor the EU will ever be on the side of the Romani and that, as I have predicted already a number of years ago, we, the Gypsy People, the Romani, are again the target of actions against us by government decree, and in this case from on very high (no, o Devel has nothing to do with that).
Senior Juan de Dios Ramírez-Heredia, president of the Romani Union of neighbouring Spain and first ever Romani who served as a Member of the European Parliament, however, says the measures are first and foremost linked to promises to crack down on crime.
Those promises were a key element, he said, of the campaign that swept Mr Berlusconi back into power earlier this year. The Prime Minister even made an explicit connection between rising crime rates and the large number of Roma living in Italy.
"He won by exploiting public fears about the growing insecurity in Italy. This fear was channelled towards Gypsies, because we are an invisible minority."
Mr Heredia added that society's weakest always "end up paying the price of an extreme anti-immigration policy."
Ms Frassoni says that it is now the EU's duty to act.
"I am not even sure that will be enough, but the EU is a community of rights and values and we must do this or be shown to be totally useless."
Dear Miss Frassoni, what are you proposing the EU is going to do for they will do nothing. And we, the Romani, must have come to realize this by now.
In fact, the way it would appear, the EU will not act against Italy (except with a few little words to show the rest of the world) because the EU has plans for the Gypsy. Plans similar, it would appear, to those that Germany under Hitler and even before already had for the Romani. I leave the reader to come to his or her own conclusions from the historical data available.
Time, amare Rom, to do our own thing. Time to come to realize that none of the “white” man's organizations will do anything for us. Time to stand up and be counted (no, not by the Carabinieri) and stand against this as a Nation, as a People.
A People United Can Never Be Defeated!
AVA! Ame Shai!
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Roma Exodus from Italy
Italian Kalderash Roma crossing border into Austria fleeing pogroms
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Reports from Austria, such as from Tirol, suggest that large numbers of Kalderah Roma of Italian nationality are fleeing into Austria. They are being driving from the country of their birth by fascist thugs and by government degree nearly.
The Italian government, so reports suggest, has placed the Roma camps around Naples and Rome (and elsewhere?) under a State of Emergency, giving the security services and the governments, municipal and local complete control over the areas and sweeping powers.
Is this the Europe 2008 and of freedom and democracy or are have we, accidentally, entered a time warp and have ended up in the fascist 1938?
While it is indeed the year 2008 one could well believe that one be back in the times of Hitler and Mussolini. The European Union stands idly by while one of its member states expels citizens from another EU member state wholesale for no other reason than their ethnicity. In Bosnia and Kosovo they called that ethnic cleansing when it was, supposedly, done to the Muslims. Not than anyone even mentioned the displaced Romani-Gypsy on the Balkans, ethnically cleansed from their Mahalas in Kosovo by Kosovo-Albanian Muslim thugs, but then again... it was those that claimed to being ethnically cleansed.
When I basically, some years back, predicted this as going to be happening sooner or later, because I was able, then already, to see the writing on the wall, I was laughed at and this notion was considered by many an impossibility in the free and democratic European Union.
Now we are seeing the true face of the EU and that it is either entirely unable to do anything against this happening, whether in Italy or elsewhere, or, and this is what it really appears to me, a Gypsy, that they are entirely unwilling to do something to help the Romani People, despite their rhetoric to how they want to help the Roma(ni) and all that jazz.
What I can see here as well is now why they want every Gypsy, every Rom, to accept the term Roma, or just simply by them to be called Roma: They can lump all of us then together as “Roma” and do what they like then. Same why everyone in Britain is now called Gypsy, but one is only ethnically a Gypsy now, according to the laws in many areas, if one actually still travels; thereby all those Romani that have settled, either on Gypsy Caravan Sites, official or private, or in houses, are no longer, under those laws, considered “ethnic Gypsy”. Wait till they play a similar joke with the title of “Roma”.
Is there something afoot to ethnically cleanse all “Roma” out of Europe? Things seem to point into that direction for we can see that, when it comes to the Gypsy in the European Union to who this is happening, as we can see now in Italy, and now even Roma of Italian nationality are being hunted down and driven out, nothing is being done against it by neither the EU nor the UN.
The question too awful to contemplate and ask, but asking it one must and this is, whether Italy may in fact be the “stalking horse” for more of this to come for Gypsies throughout the European Union. One can but hope and pray that this is not the case.
However, the way things look this is what it is.
So, therefore, aside from praying that this may not be something that will soon sweep across the European Union, maybe it would be a good idea if we would prepare to fight it as well.
© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Reports from Austria, such as from Tirol, suggest that large numbers of Kalderah Roma of Italian nationality are fleeing into Austria. They are being driving from the country of their birth by fascist thugs and by government degree nearly.
The Italian government, so reports suggest, has placed the Roma camps around Naples and Rome (and elsewhere?) under a State of Emergency, giving the security services and the governments, municipal and local complete control over the areas and sweeping powers.
Is this the Europe 2008 and of freedom and democracy or are have we, accidentally, entered a time warp and have ended up in the fascist 1938?
While it is indeed the year 2008 one could well believe that one be back in the times of Hitler and Mussolini. The European Union stands idly by while one of its member states expels citizens from another EU member state wholesale for no other reason than their ethnicity. In Bosnia and Kosovo they called that ethnic cleansing when it was, supposedly, done to the Muslims. Not than anyone even mentioned the displaced Romani-Gypsy on the Balkans, ethnically cleansed from their Mahalas in Kosovo by Kosovo-Albanian Muslim thugs, but then again... it was those that claimed to being ethnically cleansed.
When I basically, some years back, predicted this as going to be happening sooner or later, because I was able, then already, to see the writing on the wall, I was laughed at and this notion was considered by many an impossibility in the free and democratic European Union.
Now we are seeing the true face of the EU and that it is either entirely unable to do anything against this happening, whether in Italy or elsewhere, or, and this is what it really appears to me, a Gypsy, that they are entirely unwilling to do something to help the Romani People, despite their rhetoric to how they want to help the Roma(ni) and all that jazz.
What I can see here as well is now why they want every Gypsy, every Rom, to accept the term Roma, or just simply by them to be called Roma: They can lump all of us then together as “Roma” and do what they like then. Same why everyone in Britain is now called Gypsy, but one is only ethnically a Gypsy now, according to the laws in many areas, if one actually still travels; thereby all those Romani that have settled, either on Gypsy Caravan Sites, official or private, or in houses, are no longer, under those laws, considered “ethnic Gypsy”. Wait till they play a similar joke with the title of “Roma”.
Is there something afoot to ethnically cleanse all “Roma” out of Europe? Things seem to point into that direction for we can see that, when it comes to the Gypsy in the European Union to who this is happening, as we can see now in Italy, and now even Roma of Italian nationality are being hunted down and driven out, nothing is being done against it by neither the EU nor the UN.
The question too awful to contemplate and ask, but asking it one must and this is, whether Italy may in fact be the “stalking horse” for more of this to come for Gypsies throughout the European Union. One can but hope and pray that this is not the case.
However, the way things look this is what it is.
So, therefore, aside from praying that this may not be something that will soon sweep across the European Union, maybe it would be a good idea if we would prepare to fight it as well.
© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008
Hate Crimes - The Italian way to create security?
The recently redeemed Italian government of Romano Prodi passed earlier this year an emergency decree that
- allows the deportation of migrants from other EU countries
- limiting procedural safeguards of deportations and
- introducing administrative detention for European citizens if they are considered a threat to public safety
The decree was issued after the alleged murder of an Italian woman by a Romanian of Roma origin. Mr. Frattini, ex Commissioner for Justice and Civil Liberties at the European Union declared: "What has to be done is simple. Go into a nomad camp in Rome for example, and ask them: 'Can you tell me where you live?' If they say they do not know, take them and send them home to Romania. This is how the European directive works. It is simple and safe. Romania cannot say they will not take them back, because it is an obligation that is part of being a member state of the EU".
On 13th April 2008 Silvio Berlusconi swept back to power for the third time, after the Italian general election gave him and his centre-right allies an overwhelming lead in the Senate as well as in the Chamber of Deputies. Immediately after his election victory he already warned Italians of tough times ahead and announced more hard-line policies and practices towards immigrants to combat associated crimes.
Yesterday, Thursday 15th May, the Italian police proudly broadcasted that they arrested nearly 400 people in a successful crack down on 'illegal immigration' throughout the whole country. This 'cleaning action' in mostly migrant shantytowns in major urban areas across the country can be seen as consequential result of Italia's backslide into the far right in its government. The main focus of Italian concern about immigrant crime lies with the Roma, general known as "nomads".
Mr. Berlusconi's party, The People of Freedom (Il Popolo della Libertà) party, promotes on their campaign homepage that they would empty illegal camps, and remove nomads who have no legal residence or means of subsistence.
During the 'anti-immigration' operation of the Italian police in 15 regions, from North-Italy to Naples, 383 persons were arrested, 268 of it were foreigners. 177 persons are accused of thievery, 111 are accused of illegal immigration, 92 are accused of drug trafficking and 3 are accused of prostitution. 53 of the arrested persons were deported immediately and 65 of them were transported to detention camps.
"The anti-immigrant sweep was a positive thing because that's what people want," said Umberto Bossi, the minister of institutional reforms and federalism. "People ask us for safety, and we must give it to them."
In Naples Roma camps had to be evacuated, because mobs of local people started to attack the camps after a 16-year-old Roma girl was accused of trying to kidnap a baby. From 14th to 15th May local vigilantes burned a Roma camp near Naples to the ground. It was the sad result of this week's constant assault of Roma camps around Naples, mostly by youths on scooters and motorbikes using iron bars and throwing Molotov cocktails.
These massive assaults against Roma people don't accrue coincidently, but are the devastating result of hate speeches of politicians, xenophobic media coverage and authorities and discriminative laws that are stigmatising an entire ethnic minority. For example Milan introduced a special commissary for the Roma issue creating the basis for a pogrom against the Roma and migrant communities in Italy - Rome and Naples aim to follow up on this policy. These alarming developments even activated the Council of Europe and Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights, came to the conclusion:
"The decision to institutionalise a body like the national commissary to control the Roma emergency is based on prejudices and it propagate these prejudices."
Source: UNITED
- allows the deportation of migrants from other EU countries
- limiting procedural safeguards of deportations and
- introducing administrative detention for European citizens if they are considered a threat to public safety
The decree was issued after the alleged murder of an Italian woman by a Romanian of Roma origin. Mr. Frattini, ex Commissioner for Justice and Civil Liberties at the European Union declared: "What has to be done is simple. Go into a nomad camp in Rome for example, and ask them: 'Can you tell me where you live?' If they say they do not know, take them and send them home to Romania. This is how the European directive works. It is simple and safe. Romania cannot say they will not take them back, because it is an obligation that is part of being a member state of the EU".
On 13th April 2008 Silvio Berlusconi swept back to power for the third time, after the Italian general election gave him and his centre-right allies an overwhelming lead in the Senate as well as in the Chamber of Deputies. Immediately after his election victory he already warned Italians of tough times ahead and announced more hard-line policies and practices towards immigrants to combat associated crimes.
Yesterday, Thursday 15th May, the Italian police proudly broadcasted that they arrested nearly 400 people in a successful crack down on 'illegal immigration' throughout the whole country. This 'cleaning action' in mostly migrant shantytowns in major urban areas across the country can be seen as consequential result of Italia's backslide into the far right in its government. The main focus of Italian concern about immigrant crime lies with the Roma, general known as "nomads".
Mr. Berlusconi's party, The People of Freedom (Il Popolo della Libertà) party, promotes on their campaign homepage that they would empty illegal camps, and remove nomads who have no legal residence or means of subsistence.
During the 'anti-immigration' operation of the Italian police in 15 regions, from North-Italy to Naples, 383 persons were arrested, 268 of it were foreigners. 177 persons are accused of thievery, 111 are accused of illegal immigration, 92 are accused of drug trafficking and 3 are accused of prostitution. 53 of the arrested persons were deported immediately and 65 of them were transported to detention camps.
"The anti-immigrant sweep was a positive thing because that's what people want," said Umberto Bossi, the minister of institutional reforms and federalism. "People ask us for safety, and we must give it to them."
In Naples Roma camps had to be evacuated, because mobs of local people started to attack the camps after a 16-year-old Roma girl was accused of trying to kidnap a baby. From 14th to 15th May local vigilantes burned a Roma camp near Naples to the ground. It was the sad result of this week's constant assault of Roma camps around Naples, mostly by youths on scooters and motorbikes using iron bars and throwing Molotov cocktails.
These massive assaults against Roma people don't accrue coincidently, but are the devastating result of hate speeches of politicians, xenophobic media coverage and authorities and discriminative laws that are stigmatising an entire ethnic minority. For example Milan introduced a special commissary for the Roma issue creating the basis for a pogrom against the Roma and migrant communities in Italy - Rome and Naples aim to follow up on this policy. These alarming developments even activated the Council of Europe and Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights, came to the conclusion:
"The decision to institutionalise a body like the national commissary to control the Roma emergency is based on prejudices and it propagate these prejudices."
Source: UNITED
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