or
When one of us bleeds we all do!
“When the Union's inspiration through the People's Blood shall run” would be the first line of the rewritten workers' song “Solidarity Forever”, to suit the Romani struggle, the refrain, the chorus, however, remaining the same, e.g. “Solidarity Forever” and it is this solidarity that we will have to learn, methinks, or relearn, to be more precise.
In truth, there was once a time when we seem to have had something of this solidarity, though never, it would appear, for the entire People. If we want to get anywhere in this world as a People, as a Nation proper, then this must change and we must find it in our hearts to have solidarity with our fellow Rom wherever on this planet that may be. If they hurt and are being attacked or discriminated against the n so is and should every one of us feel that hurt and we should fell righteous anger to speak out against such abuses, etc. But most of us, nowadays, just sit on our butts and hands and do nothing. The formula seems to be “I am all right Jack, what do I care”.
Or was this solidarity of the Romani People of old and the community spirit and the helping all Rom in need just something that everyone has imagined and is it but a myth. From what I am seeing in the last 20-30 years or so I must say it could appear to have been just so.
I do know that in fact that this solidarity did exist but that was before envy end jealousy began to rule our hearts and minds. It was, strangely enough, at a time when life was harder and money scarce and in very short supply often that the Rom shared with any Rom in need. Today, however, sadly, we are worse in that respect than the Gadsche.
We must, however, concentrate with this solidarity on our People, the Romani People and not support the wrong causes, such as illegal encampments by Irish Travellers, for instance, who in other instances will not hesitate to use even the force of arms to push Romanichal residents from official council Gypsy sites and then take those over, forcing the Rom to take to the drom again and then illegal encamp. No Irish Traveller has ever, as far as I know, come to the aid of a Romani family that was forced with eviction. Misplaced solidarity will not reciprocated.
Romani are Romani, as I have said before elsewhere, and Irish Travellers are Irish Travellers and while there are some Romani in Ireland, North and South, the majority of Irish Travellers are not Romani and do not share the same Culture and values. While they may lead a similar life to that what the Romani used to, and some still, do live that is about where the similarities end. While the Rom are a Race the Irish Travellers are nothing but Gohja in trailers, and let's not get fooled in believing the stories about them being an ancient pre-Celtic nomadic people of Eire. Those Irish Travellers that are in trailers (and in kennas) in Eire and in the UK (and those that went to the USA and elsewhere from Great Britain and Ireland) are no older as a travelling people than the potato famine and the great majority in the UK especially only came here during the wars and especially after World War II, the men first as laborers on the road build projects who then later brought their families over, having discovered that the British welfare state would give them anything they wanted without much of a question being asked unlike Ireland where no welfare state existed at that time. Am i being unfair? I do not think so.
When it comes to solidarity it is, as said, our race that comes first and must come first and all of us should feel and express a righteous indignation if but one member of our People is being discriminated against. Alas, however, this does not seem to be the case. Rather, it would appear, most are too busy hiding their ethnicity from the Gohja, who know anyway (I shall say again that no one will ever believe that Giovanni Mettbach is an Italian name), rather than standing up for our brothers and sisters so that they may see this solidarity and, should anyone else of us be in trouble, they are inspired to do the same for us.
One for all and all for one, so, apparently, was the motto of the French Musketeers and this is a motto that we, the Rom, in today's world, would do well to adopt.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Anti-Gypsy-ism is alive and well, unfortunately
While one might have hoped that Anti-Gypsy-ism would by now be a thing of the past this is, unfortunately, not so.
Anti-Gypsy-ism is alive and well in the European Union, and here not just in the new member states, as well as in the United States.
A child, for example, vanishes, while on vacation with her parents in Portugal, in May 2007, and immediately everyone, especially the media, and here especially the gutter press, accuses Gypsies of having abducted the little four-year-old blond girl from Britain.
Why? For what reason?
Well, because the Gadje actually do believe the concocted fairy stories that Gypsies steal children, that’s why. And doesn’t everyone – so at least the media presents the case – know that the favorite ones that Gypsies like to steal are little blond boys and girls?
It is and was exactly the same when the selfsame gutter press screams about hordes of Gypsies coming into the country, as soon as the countries of their residence would be member states of the European Union. Well, that did not actually happen. The gullible Gadje, however, do believe all those stories and many still believe that thousands upon thousands of Rom from Bulgaria, Romania, and such places have come to Britain. Well, there are a few here who, unfortunately, engage in begging and, possibly, pick pocketing, but as for thousands; well, no.
Attacks on Romani in Eastern Europe, even in European Union member states, are common place, with even politicians of such countries being involved in the attacks, on a verbal level at least, and the “crowning glory” must be Volen Siderov of Bulgaria, a presidential candidate apparently even no less, who openly called for Gypsies to me made into soap, in a style that smacked of Nazi extermination policies. One would have hoped that such sentiments and the like had disappeared with the demise of Hitler's Third Reich but, as we can all see, this is not the case, unfortunately, and was rather wishful thinking and no such thing has happened as far as the Gypsy, the Rom, are concerned.
In truth, despite of the very fact that Siderov made such statements, and that the official government of Bulgaria called for the sterilization of all Gypsy women, Bulgaria was still admitted into the folds of the European Union, no questions asked. This shows that the EU has the same disregard for the Rom, as all those other countries that breach the human rights of the Romani People, and pays nothing but lip service to equal rights for the Gypsy.
We, as a People, must stand up now against this trend of Anti-Gypsy-ism and be counted but I also know that I am wasting my breath to call for such a thing and action.
Why? Because most of our People fall into one of two categories: those that wish to hide their ethnicity, their origins, and then those who, while doing the first or not, could care less and could not be bothered as to what is happening to our People as long as it does not affect them and theirs.
Here we will do well to recall the words of the poem by Pastor Dietrich Bonnhoefer and heed the call that if we do not speak out now and stand up and be counted when they come for us there may be no one left to speak out and fight on our behalf.
Think about it...
© M V Smith, June 2007
Anti-Gypsy-ism is alive and well in the European Union, and here not just in the new member states, as well as in the United States.
A child, for example, vanishes, while on vacation with her parents in Portugal, in May 2007, and immediately everyone, especially the media, and here especially the gutter press, accuses Gypsies of having abducted the little four-year-old blond girl from Britain.
Why? For what reason?
Well, because the Gadje actually do believe the concocted fairy stories that Gypsies steal children, that’s why. And doesn’t everyone – so at least the media presents the case – know that the favorite ones that Gypsies like to steal are little blond boys and girls?
It is and was exactly the same when the selfsame gutter press screams about hordes of Gypsies coming into the country, as soon as the countries of their residence would be member states of the European Union. Well, that did not actually happen. The gullible Gadje, however, do believe all those stories and many still believe that thousands upon thousands of Rom from Bulgaria, Romania, and such places have come to Britain. Well, there are a few here who, unfortunately, engage in begging and, possibly, pick pocketing, but as for thousands; well, no.
Attacks on Romani in Eastern Europe, even in European Union member states, are common place, with even politicians of such countries being involved in the attacks, on a verbal level at least, and the “crowning glory” must be Volen Siderov of Bulgaria, a presidential candidate apparently even no less, who openly called for Gypsies to me made into soap, in a style that smacked of Nazi extermination policies. One would have hoped that such sentiments and the like had disappeared with the demise of Hitler's Third Reich but, as we can all see, this is not the case, unfortunately, and was rather wishful thinking and no such thing has happened as far as the Gypsy, the Rom, are concerned.
In truth, despite of the very fact that Siderov made such statements, and that the official government of Bulgaria called for the sterilization of all Gypsy women, Bulgaria was still admitted into the folds of the European Union, no questions asked. This shows that the EU has the same disregard for the Rom, as all those other countries that breach the human rights of the Romani People, and pays nothing but lip service to equal rights for the Gypsy.
We, as a People, must stand up now against this trend of Anti-Gypsy-ism and be counted but I also know that I am wasting my breath to call for such a thing and action.
Why? Because most of our People fall into one of two categories: those that wish to hide their ethnicity, their origins, and then those who, while doing the first or not, could care less and could not be bothered as to what is happening to our People as long as it does not affect them and theirs.
Here we will do well to recall the words of the poem by Pastor Dietrich Bonnhoefer and heed the call that if we do not speak out now and stand up and be counted when they come for us there may be no one left to speak out and fight on our behalf.
Think about it...
© M V Smith, June 2007
Hiding our Gypsy Ethnicity – Does that protect us?
The simple answer would be NO.
It has been going on for ages already, but seems to have really only been done since after World War II whether in places such as Germany or Austria or in the UK. While it is understandable for Sinti and Roma in Germany, especially, to have gone more or less into hiding and denying their ethnicity, especially those that have moved into houses and more or less “ordinary” jobs or into trade, such as scrap yards, and claiming to be of Italian extraction or other southern such but it makes no difference. In the UK one nowadays hears the comments from Romanichals when asked whether they be Gypsy, People with names like Brazil (find me a non-Rom by that name), and the answer more often then not will be, “our grandparents were Gypsies but we are not, we live in a house”. Is that, though, a deliberate hiding of their ancestry? In fact in most cases it is not but just a lack of understanding of the fact that being Gypsy is not a lifestyle but that we are a People and a Race.
However, it would appear that here, but especially in places such as Germany, Austria, France, etc. one might find the Sinti and Roma pretending to be somethings else than what they are and are in fact, at least to outsiders, hiding their ethnicity. It is also my belief that for that very reason many give their children Italian, Spanish or Greek sounding names, such as Marco, Sandro, Pedro, Massimo, Giovanni, and such, in order so that they can claim that they are of Italian or other such Mediterranean ancestry; anything but Sinti or Roma.
Methinks we have a problem and unless we all get away from pretending to be something that we are not and be in fact proud, also to the outside, that we are Sinti or Roma, that we are Gypsy, Zigeuner, with basically the attitude “I am Gypsy and proud of it” (“and if you have a problem with that so be it” - as an undertone).
We can never fight racism and discrimination against us as a People when the majority of our People hide and while wishing to have the discriminations and such go away, without in fact doing anything about it, not even joining an organization as a passive supporting member. Well, we all have to work for it; probably visibly, and I know that at times that will not be easy, but...
© M V Smith, June 2007
It has been going on for ages already, but seems to have really only been done since after World War II whether in places such as Germany or Austria or in the UK. While it is understandable for Sinti and Roma in Germany, especially, to have gone more or less into hiding and denying their ethnicity, especially those that have moved into houses and more or less “ordinary” jobs or into trade, such as scrap yards, and claiming to be of Italian extraction or other southern such but it makes no difference. In the UK one nowadays hears the comments from Romanichals when asked whether they be Gypsy, People with names like Brazil (find me a non-Rom by that name), and the answer more often then not will be, “our grandparents were Gypsies but we are not, we live in a house”. Is that, though, a deliberate hiding of their ancestry? In fact in most cases it is not but just a lack of understanding of the fact that being Gypsy is not a lifestyle but that we are a People and a Race.
However, it would appear that here, but especially in places such as Germany, Austria, France, etc. one might find the Sinti and Roma pretending to be somethings else than what they are and are in fact, at least to outsiders, hiding their ethnicity. It is also my belief that for that very reason many give their children Italian, Spanish or Greek sounding names, such as Marco, Sandro, Pedro, Massimo, Giovanni, and such, in order so that they can claim that they are of Italian or other such Mediterranean ancestry; anything but Sinti or Roma.
Methinks we have a problem and unless we all get away from pretending to be something that we are not and be in fact proud, also to the outside, that we are Sinti or Roma, that we are Gypsy, Zigeuner, with basically the attitude “I am Gypsy and proud of it” (“and if you have a problem with that so be it” - as an undertone).
We can never fight racism and discrimination against us as a People when the majority of our People hide and while wishing to have the discriminations and such go away, without in fact doing anything about it, not even joining an organization as a passive supporting member. Well, we all have to work for it; probably visibly, and I know that at times that will not be easy, but...
© M V Smith, June 2007
Italy's final solution for Gypsies
Italy, as the first – but will it be the last – European Union county, has begun setting up what can only be described as Concentration Camps for Gypsies.
This all in a supposed effort to turn Gypsies, who are often foreign Rom from the former Yugoslavia and Romania as well as Bulgaria, and, as it is claimed especially for their wellbeing and that of their children. The Nazis told similar stories to the Rom during their reign, when they forced them to settle, took away their horses and wheels from the wagons and then when they moved them into the once Jewish ghettos.
In Rome the Prefect will identify new areas for the nomads' camps (nomads?). Those settlements will be called “villages of solidarity” (dordi, what an interesting term for a ghetto or KZ). The “villages” will be controlled by a special public security police force of a minimum of 100 men; this means that the Romani situation will be managed a a problem of public security. It looks as if Gypsies in some EU countries are now being seen similar to terrorists. What next?
Each of those villages, as the authorities say, will give “hospitality” to 1000 to 1500 Rom and will be additionally controlled by security forces and associations.
All those “villages” will be more than 18 miles (30km) away from the center of Rome and well away from any services.
This makes, and one cannot say it any other way, Italy the first EU member state that is openly creating new concentration camps for Gypsies.
And what is Brussels doing? Well, nothing. It is the controlling center of the EU after all. This proves yet again that it is all but lip service when they talk about equal human rights for Gypsies in the EU and elsewhere. Let us not forget either that Germany is the true power behind the EU and that Anti-Gypsy-ism has been big always and is on the rise more and more again in that country. The rest of the wold also says nothing, nor do the organizations that claim to be representing the Rom, like the ERTF which is claimed to be the government of all Rom in Europe. It is obvious that it cannot attack its own paymaster.
Food for thought to us all, I hope...
Freedom is not free. It is very costly and sometimes has to be paid for in blood. If we do not fight for it now we may all end up rather unfree in such camps.
© M V Smith, June 2007
This all in a supposed effort to turn Gypsies, who are often foreign Rom from the former Yugoslavia and Romania as well as Bulgaria, and, as it is claimed especially for their wellbeing and that of their children. The Nazis told similar stories to the Rom during their reign, when they forced them to settle, took away their horses and wheels from the wagons and then when they moved them into the once Jewish ghettos.
In Rome the Prefect will identify new areas for the nomads' camps (nomads?). Those settlements will be called “villages of solidarity” (dordi, what an interesting term for a ghetto or KZ). The “villages” will be controlled by a special public security police force of a minimum of 100 men; this means that the Romani situation will be managed a a problem of public security. It looks as if Gypsies in some EU countries are now being seen similar to terrorists. What next?
Each of those villages, as the authorities say, will give “hospitality” to 1000 to 1500 Rom and will be additionally controlled by security forces and associations.
All those “villages” will be more than 18 miles (30km) away from the center of Rome and well away from any services.
This makes, and one cannot say it any other way, Italy the first EU member state that is openly creating new concentration camps for Gypsies.
And what is Brussels doing? Well, nothing. It is the controlling center of the EU after all. This proves yet again that it is all but lip service when they talk about equal human rights for Gypsies in the EU and elsewhere. Let us not forget either that Germany is the true power behind the EU and that Anti-Gypsy-ism has been big always and is on the rise more and more again in that country. The rest of the wold also says nothing, nor do the organizations that claim to be representing the Rom, like the ERTF which is claimed to be the government of all Rom in Europe. It is obvious that it cannot attack its own paymaster.
Food for thought to us all, I hope...
Freedom is not free. It is very costly and sometimes has to be paid for in blood. If we do not fight for it now we may all end up rather unfree in such camps.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Let's face the future
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past, that is the only way that we can advance. It does not help us one bit to remain buried in nostalgia about the good ol' days of the grai and the wooden vardo. They weren't all that good days really, if we all be honest with one another. Yes, they may have been days of some kind of freedom of being able to move as and when... and the days of when you could pull onto the common without anyone bothering you... but... does anyone now living in a kenna really want to be out in a vardo in winter in real frost (we haven't had frost proper in this country for years now) and deep snow, especially as chavies with bare feet and but rags for clothes? Surely not. Anyone who is trying to claim thus, I am afraid, must think us all dinlos.
Anyone who tells me that he or she is harking back to the time of the vardo and the grai is, I am afraid to say, not be able to convince me.
While we must learn from the past, especially as regards to combating racism against us, and while the lessons of the martyrs of the Holocaust must teach us to beware of the rising tide of Anti-Gypsy-ism and neo-Nazism again, we must move forward for the betterment of the Romani-Gypsy in the world. This is not to say that we should assimilate to the style of life of the Gohja and live like they do, with djuks and matchkas ano kher, and the like, nor should we give up our old beliefs and practices. Nay, in fact the latter we should reinstitute and even add some new cultural celebrations to them, but we must not get stuck in the past. That also means that we must, in some things, adapt. Be this with regards to having (some of) our folks be working “proper” jobs, so to speak, even in law enforcement and medicine. Yes, I am aware that the so-called Rechtssprecher will now scream blue murder. So be it. Those truth-speakers who also keep women downtrodden in a way that was never the way of the People. Truth-speakers indeed. The same “truth-speakers” who will keep women down forever, given the chance, claiming that women must be subject to the men. Dordi! Dordi! What a load of trash that is. Those “leaders” of the People have no knowledge of the way our People used to work, it would appear. We never were patriarchal. Matriarchal rather, we were, though giving outwardly an appearance to the Gohja, in countries where the man ruled, that the men were in charge. That too shows how much those “leaders” know. The women, too, must be allowed to lead the way they always were involved.
Therefore, let us move forward together with the lessons learned from the past to a new future for the Romani Race. Forward to a new dawn of the Romani.
© M Veshengro Smith, June 2007
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past, that is the only way that we can advance. It does not help us one bit to remain buried in nostalgia about the good ol' days of the grai and the wooden vardo. They weren't all that good days really, if we all be honest with one another. Yes, they may have been days of some kind of freedom of being able to move as and when... and the days of when you could pull onto the common without anyone bothering you... but... does anyone now living in a kenna really want to be out in a vardo in winter in real frost (we haven't had frost proper in this country for years now) and deep snow, especially as chavies with bare feet and but rags for clothes? Surely not. Anyone who is trying to claim thus, I am afraid, must think us all dinlos.
Anyone who tells me that he or she is harking back to the time of the vardo and the grai is, I am afraid to say, not be able to convince me.
While we must learn from the past, especially as regards to combating racism against us, and while the lessons of the martyrs of the Holocaust must teach us to beware of the rising tide of Anti-Gypsy-ism and neo-Nazism again, we must move forward for the betterment of the Romani-Gypsy in the world. This is not to say that we should assimilate to the style of life of the Gohja and live like they do, with djuks and matchkas ano kher, and the like, nor should we give up our old beliefs and practices. Nay, in fact the latter we should reinstitute and even add some new cultural celebrations to them, but we must not get stuck in the past. That also means that we must, in some things, adapt. Be this with regards to having (some of) our folks be working “proper” jobs, so to speak, even in law enforcement and medicine. Yes, I am aware that the so-called Rechtssprecher will now scream blue murder. So be it. Those truth-speakers who also keep women downtrodden in a way that was never the way of the People. Truth-speakers indeed. The same “truth-speakers” who will keep women down forever, given the chance, claiming that women must be subject to the men. Dordi! Dordi! What a load of trash that is. Those “leaders” of the People have no knowledge of the way our People used to work, it would appear. We never were patriarchal. Matriarchal rather, we were, though giving outwardly an appearance to the Gohja, in countries where the man ruled, that the men were in charge. That too shows how much those “leaders” know. The women, too, must be allowed to lead the way they always were involved.
Therefore, let us move forward together with the lessons learned from the past to a new future for the Romani Race. Forward to a new dawn of the Romani.
© M Veshengro Smith, June 2007
Gas Bomb Barricade at Dale Farm
With people like that sailing under the false flag of “Gypsy” we, the Romani-Gypsy certainly do not need any enemies.
Royal Mail has suspended delivery to this illegal settlement of Irish Travellers, falsely referred to as “Gypsies”, for fear of an explosion.
Dozens of 4ft-high Calor gas bottles, some wrapped in barbed wire, have been assembled in recent months at the entrance to the Crays Hill site in Essex.
The canisters surround a large gantry, recently erected after the council decided to evict the 1,000 mostly-Irish illegally-camped Travellers. Crays Hill Travellers have refused to explain the gas bottles. People living in Billericay, however, are convinced the gas bottles are there as a barricade if police, council officials or bailiffs attempt to enter the site.
A spokesman for Essex Fire Services said the canisters were a “threat and danger”, which if involved in a fire would be “just like a bomb”.
I ask now, as a Romani, what would happen if any Romani camp would do just that? I can tell you what would happen... armed police would already be there and everyone, including kids, would be arrested under the “Prevention of terrorism Act”. What are the police afraid of as regards to the Irish Travellers of Dale Farm, Crays Hill?
With people like this aided and abetted by certain do-gooders the real Gypsy needs no further enemy for those Travellers are being portrayed by said do-gooders as Gypsy, which they are not. The do-gooders know that but the general public does not and therefore the Rom are equated with the ITs and thereby seen by the Gohja as scroungers and whatever else.
How long will the Rom in the UK stand by and let their cause be hijacked by the likes of those that now make the Gypsies look like terrorists in the eyes of the Gohja with what they are doing. The Gohja per se, as can be seen in the comments sent in to the media like the Daily Express and Mail and such in reply to articles about the Crays Hills site, do not see any difference and do not understand any difference between Romani and Irish when the media insist on calling them “Gypsies” and not the media alone but people like their spokesperson and agitator, Mr Puxon.
Irish Travellers are Irish Travellers and Romani alone have the right to be referred to as Gypsy. The media, it would seem, does not understand that or does not want to understand that. The law in the UK has been, for a long time, clear about this by mentioning Gypsies & Travellers. While there maybe amongst the Irish Travellers some that have Romani blood in them the majority, 99% of them, do not and are nothing but, whatever they may claim, Irish Gohja who live in trailers because they find that convenient.
Dosta penauas!
© M V Smith, June 2007
Dale Farm - Britain's biggest Gypsy community
How long will this sham have to go on? Dale Farm is NOT Britain's biggest Gypsy community. It is an illegal Irish Traveller settlement and that's it. It does not matter how many times Grattan Puxon is going to claim it to be otherwise. It is a shame that the Romanichals in the UK do not have enough strength of character to stand up against such claptrap and lies as calling Dale Farm Britain's biggest Gypsy community. However, as someone has to do it I/we shall state again that Dale Farm is NOT Britain's biggest Gypsy community but an illegal Irish Traveller settlement, established against all laws. Irish Travellers are NOT Gypsies and will never be. Gypsy is only applicable to those of Romani origin, as per the Oxford Dictionary that states “Gypsy – one of a wandering (sic) race, originally from Northern India”, and however much the majority of ITTs will try, they are not Romani... Dosta.
Dale Farm is an illegal settlement by Irish Travellers and its development has broken all planning rules and laws, has been dragged, at great expense to the tax payer through the court system, including, I understand, Europe, and still they will not give in and understand that the laws apply equally to them as to the rest of UK society. Not a word is said by the likes of Mr Puxon on behalf of true Romani – with the exception where he can make political capital for himself out of any such issue – who have a planning matter before the courts.
Then again Mr Puxon, regardless of the fact that he got himself into the then World Gypsy Congress never had any other group in mind to help bar the Irish Travellers. Why beats me but that is the case.
Now, while we are at the subject of Gohja in leadership, let me say that it beats me again and again why we, the Romani-Gypsy, are so stupid to always allow such Gohja do-gooders to run things “on our behalf”. They don't do it for us. They only do it for their own interests and benefit, most of this in the field of politics or academia or just for pure vain glory to get their name in the papers all the time. Already allowing them into our ranks, into our organizations, is a mistake that many organizations have come to regret. Their ultimate aim always, it would seem, is to get into leadership positions and then to turn the organizations to suit them and their agendas.
Dosta, Phralale te Pheniale! We must do it for ourselves. We must not have any Gohja in our organizations, bar as supporters without vote.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Decade of Roma Inclusion
Any results? No.
One thing this “Decade of Roma Inclusion” has done is excluding the Sinti and other Romani from the process, in word, by referring only to “Roma”, and in deed by only making this “Decade of Roma Inclusion” valid for Eastern European Roma. Regardless of what the EU and others have been saying as to it being all-inclusive; it is not. All funds and help has only been given to Roma groups and mush of the funds have, it would appear, once again disappeared into the pockets of the Roma kings, buli bashas and emperors. The poor Rom have no improvement in their situations and still have to eek a living from scavenging on rubbish tips and such like. We don't even want to mention other activities such as begging and even more unsavoury ones.
© M V Smith, June 2007
One thing this “Decade of Roma Inclusion” has done is excluding the Sinti and other Romani from the process, in word, by referring only to “Roma”, and in deed by only making this “Decade of Roma Inclusion” valid for Eastern European Roma. Regardless of what the EU and others have been saying as to it being all-inclusive; it is not. All funds and help has only been given to Roma groups and mush of the funds have, it would appear, once again disappeared into the pockets of the Roma kings, buli bashas and emperors. The poor Rom have no improvement in their situations and still have to eek a living from scavenging on rubbish tips and such like. We don't even want to mention other activities such as begging and even more unsavoury ones.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Rushdie Knighthood enough reason for suicide bombers - Pakistani minister
A Pakistani minister stated on Monday, June 18, 2007 that the British government’s decision to confer a knighthood on Salman Rushdie, the author of “Satanic Verses” is good enough reason and justification for suicide bombers to attack targets in Britain.
The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, provoked the ire of many Muslims and led to the issuing of a fatwa in 1989 by the then Iranian leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini.
However, this is neither here nor there, We do have, at least we still had, last time I checked, freedom of speech in the UK and the USA and no one can therefore, though they will try, Muslims and Jews alike, silence a writer. To, however, state that Rushdie's knighthood could justify suicide bombings is tantamount to a declaration of war. If that is so then maybe the British forces need to leave Iraq and have a little word in the ear of the Pakistani forces.
It beats me again and again that the so-called Muslims who espouse such violence and venom and who dare to call for a fatwa on a citizen of a free country and to state that the knighthood given to that author mentioned could be justification get away with such statements and, more often than not, the governments of the free world cave in to their demands.
Are we, as a people of a free country, willing to allow ourselves to be told who can and cannot receive an honor and decoration by other countries that have no freedom in their countries, threatening us with terrorist attacks if we do not take away the honor given to a person those governments disagree with?
I have nothing against Muslims nor any other faith and religion per se as long as they do not wish to impose their rule on others that are not of their beliefs. I have the same problem with the (fundamental) Christians who claim that they must covert everyone to their brand of religion, like those that destroy the Culture of the Romani People and Romani families by their actions. This, however, is another subject.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Gypsies claim site choice is 'illegal'
The Gypsy Council has heavily criticized South Holland District Council's methodology to find suitable sites for Gypsies and Travellers, saying it is discriminatory and illegal.
The council has responded to the district's public consultation on the matter and says the methods proposed will identify sites, which are unhealthy, unsafe, and in places that Gypsies will not want to live.
A letter from Ann Bagehote, the Gypsy Council secretary, says: "We have to object in the strongest possible terms.
"Your criteria deliberately ensures Gypsy caravan sites are treated less favorably than houses for non-Gypsy people.
"In our view that is not only offensive but also illegal. You need to re-write the criteria to say that both Gypsy and non-Gypsy families need decent accommodation.
"There is absolutely no point building a site where no-one wants to live."
The letter is appended to a report by council leader Gary Porter and corporate director Tim Leader due to be discussed by the cabinet on Tuesday, which says that the Gypsy Council's criticisms are not accepted by the district council.
The report will update members on the consultation phase but states there has been limited response.
No councillors made comments, while Weston and Cowbit parish councils replied saying that they were unable to identify suitable sites in their areas.
Two members of the public suggested locations and these will be fed into the formal site selection process and evaluated using the criteria adopted by the cabinet.
The report asks councillors to approve a modification of the site search method to include all land within one mile of a bus route and/or a major arterial road running through the district.
If the criteria is approved the council will then set about constructing a sieve map and creating a long list by the end of July.
The council needs to find land to accommodate two residential gypsy sites and a stopping place for up to ten caravans. It launched a public consultation this year after protests against its three preferred sites.
When one looks at where Gypsy Caravan sites are located one can well understand what the Gypsy Council spokesperson is on about. Anyone wanting to see what the conditions are like where Gypsy sites are generally placed should take a look at some of them, such as like the one in Earlsfield, South London, or the one under the Westway in West London.
In most cases Gypsy Caravan Sites are placed in entirely unsuitable locations, such as next to sewerage works, on former rubbish tips, right slap bang onto industrial estates next to cement works, such as in Earlfield, and so on. No non-Gypsy person would be asked to live there but Rom and Travellers in the UK are forced onto such sites.
When, on the other hand, Gypsies and Travellers purchase land themselves where they wish to live and even if the go through the planning process properly they are denied permission to set up their own site or settlements, often with the comments that the location, even if this is an old farm, is too far away from the local schools, amenities, etc.
When official sites, however, are established on sites next to sewerage works, cement works, etc., they are also far away from the local amenities but then that does not seem to matter.
M V Smith, June 17, 2007
The council has responded to the district's public consultation on the matter and says the methods proposed will identify sites, which are unhealthy, unsafe, and in places that Gypsies will not want to live.
A letter from Ann Bagehote, the Gypsy Council secretary, says: "We have to object in the strongest possible terms.
"Your criteria deliberately ensures Gypsy caravan sites are treated less favorably than houses for non-Gypsy people.
"In our view that is not only offensive but also illegal. You need to re-write the criteria to say that both Gypsy and non-Gypsy families need decent accommodation.
"There is absolutely no point building a site where no-one wants to live."
The letter is appended to a report by council leader Gary Porter and corporate director Tim Leader due to be discussed by the cabinet on Tuesday, which says that the Gypsy Council's criticisms are not accepted by the district council.
The report will update members on the consultation phase but states there has been limited response.
No councillors made comments, while Weston and Cowbit parish councils replied saying that they were unable to identify suitable sites in their areas.
Two members of the public suggested locations and these will be fed into the formal site selection process and evaluated using the criteria adopted by the cabinet.
The report asks councillors to approve a modification of the site search method to include all land within one mile of a bus route and/or a major arterial road running through the district.
If the criteria is approved the council will then set about constructing a sieve map and creating a long list by the end of July.
The council needs to find land to accommodate two residential gypsy sites and a stopping place for up to ten caravans. It launched a public consultation this year after protests against its three preferred sites.
When one looks at where Gypsy Caravan sites are located one can well understand what the Gypsy Council spokesperson is on about. Anyone wanting to see what the conditions are like where Gypsy sites are generally placed should take a look at some of them, such as like the one in Earlsfield, South London, or the one under the Westway in West London.
In most cases Gypsy Caravan Sites are placed in entirely unsuitable locations, such as next to sewerage works, on former rubbish tips, right slap bang onto industrial estates next to cement works, such as in Earlfield, and so on. No non-Gypsy person would be asked to live there but Rom and Travellers in the UK are forced onto such sites.
When, on the other hand, Gypsies and Travellers purchase land themselves where they wish to live and even if the go through the planning process properly they are denied permission to set up their own site or settlements, often with the comments that the location, even if this is an old farm, is too far away from the local schools, amenities, etc.
When official sites, however, are established on sites next to sewerage works, cement works, etc., they are also far away from the local amenities but then that does not seem to matter.
M V Smith, June 17, 2007
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND?
Tom Odley
Kent, England, June 10, 2007
Today's news, in England, highlights the report from the Farmers' Union, that very many thousands of pounds worth of soft fruits, mainly strawberries, may well be left to rot, due to the shortage of available fruit-pickers, despite the fact that very many pickers are coming from foreign countries to do this work?
As most of us will be aware, the Romany, the Gypsy-people of this country, were once deeply involved in this fruit-picking and other harvest work.
For very many Gypsy families the harvesting of fruit, hops, etc., occupied an important place in the Familial calendar, even affecting the setting of our annual horse-fairs and the like.
Fruit picking, apart from providing the means for many Gypsy families to earn an honest crust of bread, with the chance to put a little lova by for dealing or for harder times, afforded opportunities for Nidi Fohki to meet friends and relations that would arrive from other parts of the country to join in the harvesting of fruit.
Among the most important considerations for any Gypsy family contemplating the fruit and hop-picking seasons, was the availability and suitability of atchen-tans/stopping places during the picking.
Most fruit and hop farmers, especially during World War 2 and the early post-wars years, relying/depending so heavily on the speed, skills and hard work of the Gypsy fruit-pickers, for whom this was a way of life, would willingly set aside a small area for the tents, wagons and trailers of the Romani Fohki. At no major expense to themselves, the farmers would organize the provision of water along with the wood for the fires of this transient but reliable work-force of Romani.
Practically all of this work would be done on a "Piece-work" basis rather than on an hourly basis, with the result that; "If you didn't work hard, you earned little or no money!".
However.... subsequent to the arrival of "Peace-time" Britain and the gradual absorption of England and the other countries of the UK into Europe, along with the mass immigration of ex-colonial peoples, the early initiators of the Big-Brother system recognized the perceived threat, to them, of the Nidi Fohki as a result of the Romani tradition of "Independence", as the Gohja saw it, all though, in reality, there has always been a considerable inter-dependence between Rom and Gohja for practical purposes.
The arrival of the early Big Brother movement saw a gradual deterioration in civil freedoms, particular in the enforcement of land-planning controls. Many of these restrictions were aimed directly at the perceived, Gypsy "Freedom of movement", by both local and central government, with variable support from 'ordinary' citizens. Some among us can easily understand the emotions rising within some Gohja mush or housewife, locked in a hum-drum lifestyle and frustrated by their circumstances, happening to witness the passing of some "Gypsy" family lot, the Romani transients apparently "Laughing at Life"?
The envy, the jealousy that arose, therefrom, within many a Gohja onlooker, must have been nigh on explosive? "Bloody Gyppos!", why should THEY be allowed to live like that?
The overall tightening of planning laws along with the covert aim of "Big Brother" (via The Powers that Be.), to remove or severely restrict the individuality of the Gypsy, resulted in considerable pressures being put on farmers to deny or curtail the availability of stopping places to the Gypsy work-force that would have, in the past, played an important part in the harvesting of fruit and other crops, as well as availing labour for other farm-work such as beet-hoeing, hop-dressing, hop-training, hop-stringing, ditch-clearing and hedge-brishing, etc. Though a fair number of farmers, being almost totally dependant on their own Gypsy-work-force families, did their best to evade or ignore the "Anti-Gypsy planning laws", the end result was, eventually, a serious shortage of available harvest labour.
Farmers did their best to make up for this labour-shortage by way of mechanization, this proved fairly successful with some crops, such as hops, but entirely unsatisfactory with delicate crops, such as strawberries, apples, pears and the like.
With the opening up of the vast labour-force of Europe, the potential was there to satisfy fruit-farming requirements, but, as has been demonstrated and now acknowledged by the National Farmers Union on today's TV., the potential has NOT been fulfilled?
As I've said:
"What goes around, comes around?"
Amare Devel amensa!
Tom O
The Lord Ramh said:
"And the greatest of these, my gifts, is Understanding!"
© O Tom Odley, June 2007
Kent, England, June 10, 2007
Today's news, in England, highlights the report from the Farmers' Union, that very many thousands of pounds worth of soft fruits, mainly strawberries, may well be left to rot, due to the shortage of available fruit-pickers, despite the fact that very many pickers are coming from foreign countries to do this work?
As most of us will be aware, the Romany, the Gypsy-people of this country, were once deeply involved in this fruit-picking and other harvest work.
For very many Gypsy families the harvesting of fruit, hops, etc., occupied an important place in the Familial calendar, even affecting the setting of our annual horse-fairs and the like.
Fruit picking, apart from providing the means for many Gypsy families to earn an honest crust of bread, with the chance to put a little lova by for dealing or for harder times, afforded opportunities for Nidi Fohki to meet friends and relations that would arrive from other parts of the country to join in the harvesting of fruit.
Among the most important considerations for any Gypsy family contemplating the fruit and hop-picking seasons, was the availability and suitability of atchen-tans/stopping places during the picking.
Most fruit and hop farmers, especially during World War 2 and the early post-wars years, relying/depending so heavily on the speed, skills and hard work of the Gypsy fruit-pickers, for whom this was a way of life, would willingly set aside a small area for the tents, wagons and trailers of the Romani Fohki. At no major expense to themselves, the farmers would organize the provision of water along with the wood for the fires of this transient but reliable work-force of Romani.
Practically all of this work would be done on a "Piece-work" basis rather than on an hourly basis, with the result that; "If you didn't work hard, you earned little or no money!".
However.... subsequent to the arrival of "Peace-time" Britain and the gradual absorption of England and the other countries of the UK into Europe, along with the mass immigration of ex-colonial peoples, the early initiators of the Big-Brother system recognized the perceived threat, to them, of the Nidi Fohki as a result of the Romani tradition of "Independence", as the Gohja saw it, all though, in reality, there has always been a considerable inter-dependence between Rom and Gohja for practical purposes.
The arrival of the early Big Brother movement saw a gradual deterioration in civil freedoms, particular in the enforcement of land-planning controls. Many of these restrictions were aimed directly at the perceived, Gypsy "Freedom of movement", by both local and central government, with variable support from 'ordinary' citizens. Some among us can easily understand the emotions rising within some Gohja mush or housewife, locked in a hum-drum lifestyle and frustrated by their circumstances, happening to witness the passing of some "Gypsy" family lot, the Romani transients apparently "Laughing at Life"?
The envy, the jealousy that arose, therefrom, within many a Gohja onlooker, must have been nigh on explosive? "Bloody Gyppos!", why should THEY be allowed to live like that?
The overall tightening of planning laws along with the covert aim of "Big Brother" (via The Powers that Be.), to remove or severely restrict the individuality of the Gypsy, resulted in considerable pressures being put on farmers to deny or curtail the availability of stopping places to the Gypsy work-force that would have, in the past, played an important part in the harvesting of fruit and other crops, as well as availing labour for other farm-work such as beet-hoeing, hop-dressing, hop-training, hop-stringing, ditch-clearing and hedge-brishing, etc. Though a fair number of farmers, being almost totally dependant on their own Gypsy-work-force families, did their best to evade or ignore the "Anti-Gypsy planning laws", the end result was, eventually, a serious shortage of available harvest labour.
Farmers did their best to make up for this labour-shortage by way of mechanization, this proved fairly successful with some crops, such as hops, but entirely unsatisfactory with delicate crops, such as strawberries, apples, pears and the like.
With the opening up of the vast labour-force of Europe, the potential was there to satisfy fruit-farming requirements, but, as has been demonstrated and now acknowledged by the National Farmers Union on today's TV., the potential has NOT been fulfilled?
As I've said:
"What goes around, comes around?"
Amare Devel amensa!
Tom O
The Lord Ramh said:
"And the greatest of these, my gifts, is Understanding!"
© O Tom Odley, June 2007
Obituary - Vania de-Gila (Jan Kochanowski)
Vania de-Gila (Jan Kochanowski)
August 6, 1920 – May 18, 2007
It is with great sadness that we acknowledge that our dear brother “Kako” Vania de-Gila Kochanowski departed this world on Friday, May 18, 2007, at the age of 86.
This is indeed a great loss to all of us for he was one of the greatest Rom that was; unassuming and humble throughout. Those of us who have had the privilege and pleasure, for indeed it was both for sure, will, I am sure, never forget him. I certainly won't.
May the Gods of our Ancestors grant him the rest and peace he so rightly deserves. Our prayers and thoughts are with his family and friends.
Jan Kochanowski (Vania de-Gila) was born on August 6th 1920 in the forest surrounding the city of Krakow (Poland). His motherly clan came from Latvia and had a nomadic lifestyle wandering from Poland to Bielorussia. So he used to live in tents among horses until the age of nine. His father belonged to a traditional military clan and was an officer in the Red Army, he died while defending the city of Smolensk in 1942.
Vania studied at the Catholic Lyceum of Aglona and passed his final secondary examination in Riga where he also attended his first year university course before the invasion of his country by the Nazi troops. During the war, more than half of his family members were exterminated, he was twice deported and he also escaped twice. He was transferred to France in order to build the Atlantic Wall. From there he joined the Resistance forces in the north of Paris. He received the War Medal 1939-45 of the British Army. Then he chose France, the Human Rights country, as his new fatherland.
Vania was the first Rom in the world and maybe is still the only one to have brilliantly upheld two doctorate theses : the first one in linguistics at the Sorbonne in 1960, the second in ethno-sociology at Toulouse university in 1984. Having to pay for his studies, his exceptional career was accomplished in extremely difficult and precarious financial conditions. He unceasingly kept on informing the civil society about the charity organizations who were supposed to act for the benefit of his People. He was an activist, fighting against the international corruption. He struggled for the recognition of the huge Roma genocide during the Second World War and for the creation of an International Indo-Romani Cultural Center (CICR) in France.
Fighting intensely for his People’s rights, he practically attended every Romani world congress as a member of the Praesidium. He was one of the first researchers to launch interdisciplinary field investigations through the Balkans with his friend Dr Bernard Ely, and also in India, the Roma’s mother country. There, he was invited by the most famous universities and the most well known pundits. He was the only western scholar to attend the official meeting when Hindi was adopted as the national language of the Indian Union. All over the world he was appreciated and recognised by every ethnic group : Gitanos-Kale, Sinte-Manush, Le Roms, Banjaras from India... etc.
He was a member of the Paris Linguistics Society (1955), as well as of the National Council for the Regional Languages (1988), member of the Latvian union in France (2002) and Transparency International (1998), President of Romano Yekhipe France and he had been appointed Plenipotentiary of the Romani Union at UNESCO in 1984.
© M V Smith, May 2007
Biography excerpt © Jean- Claude Megret (Balval)
Photo © Jean-Claude Megret (Balval)
Ronnie Wood given a Romany gypsy caravan for birthday
Ronnie Wood has been given a Romany gypsy caravan for his 60th birthday.
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie woke up to find the $79,000 traditional painted caravan parked in his drive, left there as a surprise from his wife Jo.
A source told Britain's The Sun newspaper, "Ronnie rolled out of the house in the morning and burst out laughing when he saw it. He's delighted with the caravan.
"He has Romany gypsy roots and always said he wanted one."
The ageing rocker joked he might even take the caravan on tour this summer. The source added, "The Stones are playing the Isle of Wight Festival in the summer so he'll have a perfect chance to give it a good road test."
Ronnie, who turns 60 on June 1, was born to Romany gypsy parents and spent some of his childhood living on tugboats.
Former model Jo married Ronnie in 1985. The couple have two children together - Leah and Tyrone - and both have one child from previous relationships.
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie woke up to find the $79,000 traditional painted caravan parked in his drive, left there as a surprise from his wife Jo.
A source told Britain's The Sun newspaper, "Ronnie rolled out of the house in the morning and burst out laughing when he saw it. He's delighted with the caravan.
"He has Romany gypsy roots and always said he wanted one."
The ageing rocker joked he might even take the caravan on tour this summer. The source added, "The Stones are playing the Isle of Wight Festival in the summer so he'll have a perfect chance to give it a good road test."
Ronnie, who turns 60 on June 1, was born to Romany gypsy parents and spent some of his childhood living on tugboats.
Former model Jo married Ronnie in 1985. The couple have two children together - Leah and Tyrone - and both have one child from previous relationships.
Maro Temm goes ahead, finally.
After a battle of four long years against the authorities, local and federal, and do-gooders, the first Romani settlement in Western Europe and the probably first ever Romani settlement by Romani for Romani is finally going ahead. The foundation stone for the buildings was finally laid on May 24, 2007, and could there have been a better day for this. May 24 is the central day of the festival of Kali Sara, the “patron saint” of the Romani People.
Maro Temm is a project of 13 homes built by Sinti for Sinti and this settlement at the end of the Diedrichstrasse in Kiel, Germany, will be one were Sinti children can grow up within the Culture and Traditions, without too much interference with the non-Romani world.
“We do not want to hide and isolate ourselves”, said Matthaeus Weiss, the leader of the local organization of Sinti and Roma in Schleswig-Holstein of which Kiel is the state capital. In other words he said that the Sinti who are establishing Maro Temm are not out to create a Ghetto.
What, however, is wrong with a ghetto that we, the People, make for ourselves. When the Jews in North London created an Eruf, a virtual Ghetto, everyone applauded but when the Rom ask to do the same and have their own settlements that they own and build and run they are being told that they cannot be allowed to do so because they would be creating a ghetto and people like Brother Weiss have to stand up and say that they are not trying to create a ghetto.
At least the precedence has now been set in an EU country of Rom having won the fight and the right to set up their own settlements. Maybe we can get down to being given such rights also in other EU countries, such as the UK, where we are still being told that we cannot have our own sites as and where we like, with all the excuses of the settlement being too far away from the local town or village or local schools, shops, etc., often even if we are talking of just say a mile or so away from local shops and schools.
The going ahead of the Maro Temm project should give us all a little more impetus to, maybe, just maybe, (continue) to battle for our own settlements elsewhere. It would appear that it can be done.
All one can do now is wish the Maro Temm project all the best and maybe everyone could get together and pool ideas so that such settlements can become reality in others countries.
© M V Smith, May 2007
Maro Temm is a project of 13 homes built by Sinti for Sinti and this settlement at the end of the Diedrichstrasse in Kiel, Germany, will be one were Sinti children can grow up within the Culture and Traditions, without too much interference with the non-Romani world.
“We do not want to hide and isolate ourselves”, said Matthaeus Weiss, the leader of the local organization of Sinti and Roma in Schleswig-Holstein of which Kiel is the state capital. In other words he said that the Sinti who are establishing Maro Temm are not out to create a Ghetto.
What, however, is wrong with a ghetto that we, the People, make for ourselves. When the Jews in North London created an Eruf, a virtual Ghetto, everyone applauded but when the Rom ask to do the same and have their own settlements that they own and build and run they are being told that they cannot be allowed to do so because they would be creating a ghetto and people like Brother Weiss have to stand up and say that they are not trying to create a ghetto.
At least the precedence has now been set in an EU country of Rom having won the fight and the right to set up their own settlements. Maybe we can get down to being given such rights also in other EU countries, such as the UK, where we are still being told that we cannot have our own sites as and where we like, with all the excuses of the settlement being too far away from the local town or village or local schools, shops, etc., often even if we are talking of just say a mile or so away from local shops and schools.
The going ahead of the Maro Temm project should give us all a little more impetus to, maybe, just maybe, (continue) to battle for our own settlements elsewhere. It would appear that it can be done.
All one can do now is wish the Maro Temm project all the best and maybe everyone could get together and pool ideas so that such settlements can become reality in others countries.
© M V Smith, May 2007
First EU country sets up concentration camps for Gypsies in modern times
It could not be long that this would start all over again and while all the Rom in Germany are hiding their ethnicity thinking that that will save them this menace is on the march again.
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Gypsies to be housed outside of Rome
By Stephen Brown
Rome will build four "solidarity villages" for gypsies outside the city, patrolled by police and equipped with welfare facilities, the government said on Friday, as part of a package of measures to allay concern about crime.
Gypsies - or Roma as they prefer to be known - from Italy and eastern Europe, and illegal immigrants, have been broadly accused in the Italian media of responsibility for a spate of violent crimes.
The media attention paid to the subject prompted one leftist cabinet minister to caution that the country that invented the Mafia should not be too quick to blame foreigners for crime.
City authorities have in the past tried to house Roma in settlements made of prefabricated material or in disused barracks, but many more Roma set up makeshift settlements by the river or beside motorways that local residents say are dens of criminality.
Attempts by Italy's previous conservative government to move them outside Rome's city limits met protests from human rights groups, but the current centre-left mayor, Walter Veltroni, said the new camps would give Roma better access to welfare.
"The new camps will be controlled by police, meaning local authorities will guarantee the camps get the resources they need," said Veltroni.
The European Roma Rights Centre told Reuters that "at first glance, segregating or building special facilities for Roma does not sound like a good idea at all."
"It sounds pretty much in line with what Italian authorities have been doing so far, like building camps around the country for Roma, or "nomads" as they call them," said Savelina Danova of the Budapest-based Centre, which has previously made legal complaints against Italy regarding housing for Roma.
City authorities will take three months to choose sites for the Roma villages and a further nine months to build them.
The security package will provide Rome with 200 more police officers and Milan, the northern city where locals led by the mayor have taken to the streets to protest against crime, with 600 more.
Milan also plans to install video cameras to check vehicle registration numbers and help police track criminals.
Interior Minister Giuliano Amato linked the "security pact", to be extended to other cities soon, to plans to boost social housing that Prime Minister Romano Prodi will detail next week.
"How are we supposed to help the Roma integrate if we don't have houses for them?" said Amato, who recently presented data showing immigrants were responsible for one third of the crimes in Italy while making up only four percent of the population.
<<><><>>
Those “settlements” are nothing else but ghettos or concentration camps, by whichever name one might like to call them, and how long before there will be gates that are manned by police officers – and we must remember that most of Italy’s police are “Carabinieri” which are military police – and fence topped with razor wire and watch towers, if they will not be there to start with.
Italy is starting it and, we must also not forget that the “official Gypsy Sites” in the UK could also, under the guise of protecting the residents, be rather quickly converted into concentration camps of sorts (and who was the inventor of concentrations camps after all) and that may also be the reason that they will not allow Rom to create their own settlements. They want everyone to go into the ones that they, the powers that be, can control.
The incident in the Midlands where the Gypsy families were forced to sell the land and site they had set up to the council and then were asked back in as rent paying residents points to the fact that the governments want to control sites.
Italy is, as said, starting it. Italy, one of the founder members of the then European Economic Community which became the European Community and then the European Union. It is also most amazing that it is find when the government wishes to establish ghettos for Gypsies, for those settlements are nothing but; but when Gypsies want to establish their own settlements for their own People then they are told that that would be creating ghettos and cannot be allowed.
Gypsies of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!
M V Smith, May 2007
Gypsy Union
Eastern European Roma and South African Blacks - What do they have in common?
No, I am not talking of genes, LOL, for it is not genes that they have in common. However both have the “the government has to do this and that for me” attitude, in exactly the same manner, be this in regards to housing and when there is a leaky roof or such, or in regards to finding employment and helping with setting up business.
Only a few weeks ago I was listening to BBC Radio 4 on the wireless, as they say here, and heard South African Blacks complaining that the ANC government is not sorting out their housing problems: “Look how the water comes into my home through the roof”, said one of the interviewees, and he said that because of those unsolved issues he would not vote for the ANC again.
So, the party and the government get the blame for a leaky roof and such. Here is what they, the South African Blacks and the Eastern European Roma have in common. The Eastern European Roma, especially in countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, have the same attitude. The government or charities should repair their leaky roof, their bad windows, clean up the litter, garbage and trash that they, the Rom, leave strewn around their villages and homes, help them set up business, etc.
What is wrong with those people, whether Rom or South African Blacks? The Rom, I even have the feeling, are even worse in this entire aspect than the Southern African Blacks. Have they no pride in themselves? It would appear not.
A leaky roof of the kinds that are on the homes of the South African Blacks and especially on the shacks and bit upmarket homes of eastern European Rom do not require the municipality to come and fix it. All it requires is a hammer, some roofing felt and some felt nails and, maybe, some hot tar to seal the edges. The refuse which the Rom think has to be collected by the municipality from around their homes and neighborhoods, considering especially that, in the majority, many of those Rom refuse to pay charges for such services to the municipality. Why should the municipality bother if the residents cannot be bothered to keep the area clean. No wonder the Gohja have a bad impression of the Rom, of the Gypsy. The majority of our own do not help in that matter one iota. In places like the UK and most western countries per se the Rom are slightly more “civilized” but then again those Rom in most of those countries are not actually Roma but are of Sinti origin and that may account for some of it. Only in recent years have the Romanichals in Britain started to do the same thing, e.g. leaving mess around where they live or have camped; apparently following the bad example of the Irish Travellers, as regards to the rubbish laying about and also they go and fly tip, but the fact that the Irish behave in such a manner is no excuse in my eyes and those misbehaving in such a way must be dealt with severely and ideally this should be by a Romani court.
© M V Smith, May 2007
Mogati Paradoxes
Often, so I have been told, members of the Romani community do not want to wash mens/boys and womens/girls gear in the same washing machine at home and want two machines. So at least, as I say, I have been told. Some people have told me that they want or that they even have two machines so as not to wash the clothes of men/boys and women/girls in the same machine. I must say that I have only been told this; I have not actually seen the homes of those claiming thus.
Obviously there must be separate loads for men/boys and women/girls and also the clothes for the top half and those for the bottom half of the body must be washed separately but to demand and/or have two machines for the purpose is going a little too far – or is it a case of trying to be more Gypsy than others, which I think is more the case, by those that claim to use two machines or wanting two. If they want to be really separating that much then really they would need four machines.
For, nothing seems to be thought of though by going to a laundromat and using machines that have previously had Gohja clothes in them, of all kinds, top and bottom clothes often together. This is rather a paradox to me.
Then there is the issue about medical profession and medical professionals of our own People. It is claimed that we cannot, for reasons of taboo, have our own nurses, doctors, dentists, etc, and that it is against the mogati (marime) taboo.
But then we moan when the Gohja doctors, medics, nurses, health visitors, etc. don't treat us according to our Culture. They do not know our Culture in those aspects and therefore we either need to teach them – O Del forbid – or have our own medical personnel, and the latter is the only thing that makes sense to me in this case.
Many Rom, it would appear, have the same problem as regards to, it would appear, dealing with litter and garbage around the homes and settlements and bags of trash on the balconies, as they see it and claim it to be unclean to handle it and they would get defiled by doing so, while at the same time women and children are sent by many groups to scavenge on landfill sites and rubbish tips. The truth is in this instance that the men are simply to bone idle and lazy to clean up their own trash and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the mogati taboo.
Many could not possibly, so they say, eat food cooked and served by Gohja when they happen to visit there, or the chavies at school, but then they all quite happily, it would appear, traipse of to McDonald's, Burger King, Tapas Bars and other general restaurants not run by Rom, get pizza delivered, etc. without even thinking that that food has been prepared and cooked by Gohja hands and is, therefore, theoretically, ritually unclean, that is to say mogati/marime.
Let's stop being and acting dinlo and let's look at it all from the right angle.
© Veshengro, May 2007
Obviously there must be separate loads for men/boys and women/girls and also the clothes for the top half and those for the bottom half of the body must be washed separately but to demand and/or have two machines for the purpose is going a little too far – or is it a case of trying to be more Gypsy than others, which I think is more the case, by those that claim to use two machines or wanting two. If they want to be really separating that much then really they would need four machines.
For, nothing seems to be thought of though by going to a laundromat and using machines that have previously had Gohja clothes in them, of all kinds, top and bottom clothes often together. This is rather a paradox to me.
Then there is the issue about medical profession and medical professionals of our own People. It is claimed that we cannot, for reasons of taboo, have our own nurses, doctors, dentists, etc, and that it is against the mogati (marime) taboo.
But then we moan when the Gohja doctors, medics, nurses, health visitors, etc. don't treat us according to our Culture. They do not know our Culture in those aspects and therefore we either need to teach them – O Del forbid – or have our own medical personnel, and the latter is the only thing that makes sense to me in this case.
Many Rom, it would appear, have the same problem as regards to, it would appear, dealing with litter and garbage around the homes and settlements and bags of trash on the balconies, as they see it and claim it to be unclean to handle it and they would get defiled by doing so, while at the same time women and children are sent by many groups to scavenge on landfill sites and rubbish tips. The truth is in this instance that the men are simply to bone idle and lazy to clean up their own trash and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the mogati taboo.
Many could not possibly, so they say, eat food cooked and served by Gohja when they happen to visit there, or the chavies at school, but then they all quite happily, it would appear, traipse of to McDonald's, Burger King, Tapas Bars and other general restaurants not run by Rom, get pizza delivered, etc. without even thinking that that food has been prepared and cooked by Gohja hands and is, therefore, theoretically, ritually unclean, that is to say mogati/marime.
Let's stop being and acting dinlo and let's look at it all from the right angle.
© Veshengro, May 2007
Sharia Law compliable Bonds
London, April 23, 2007
The British government considers issuing bonds that are compliable with Sharia Law so that Muslim interested in investing can do so without qualms, as, under Sharia Law, interest is illegal.
While I can understand this to some degree (and could someone please tell me how the Arab banks work) I am afraid that I feel that this is yet another concession to the militant Muslims in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe). The UK and the EU are being held to ransom by terrorists and this from people who claim that they do not negotiate with terrorists. If this is not basically the same, and we must not forget that, as far as this author is aware, there are already twelve Sharia Law courts in this country while I do not know of any Jewish courts (aside from the fact that most law officers in the UK appear to be Jewish) and when the Rom want courts of their own, and that only in order to settle matters of the Culture, then they are told that they cannot.
As I have said before in some articles on this subject I am afraid to say that I can see the vision of the late Enoch Powell come true in the not so distant future if the authorities in the UK and the EU do not get some – and pardon my language – balls and put a stop to this pandering to terrorists.
© M V Smith, April 2007
The British government considers issuing bonds that are compliable with Sharia Law so that Muslim interested in investing can do so without qualms, as, under Sharia Law, interest is illegal.
While I can understand this to some degree (and could someone please tell me how the Arab banks work) I am afraid that I feel that this is yet another concession to the militant Muslims in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe). The UK and the EU are being held to ransom by terrorists and this from people who claim that they do not negotiate with terrorists. If this is not basically the same, and we must not forget that, as far as this author is aware, there are already twelve Sharia Law courts in this country while I do not know of any Jewish courts (aside from the fact that most law officers in the UK appear to be Jewish) and when the Rom want courts of their own, and that only in order to settle matters of the Culture, then they are told that they cannot.
As I have said before in some articles on this subject I am afraid to say that I can see the vision of the late Enoch Powell come true in the not so distant future if the authorities in the UK and the EU do not get some – and pardon my language – balls and put a stop to this pandering to terrorists.
© M V Smith, April 2007
Microsoft releases new security patches
Microsoft released last week urgent security patches for all it's still supported operating systems, including Vista, the latest operating system from the Microsoft stable, and the one which was tauted as the most safe and secure operating system ever. If this is the most secure ever then g-d help the world of ICT.
Can we really trust the claims and security of Vista and other Windows operating systems? Probably not and the price tags also do not help. With Vista there is still the rumor that if you install/reinstall the OS more than three times you have to purchase a new license. Sorry, pardon me again? So, if I have a PC and install it on there and have to reinstall it and then also own, say a laptop and install it on there and then buy a new PC, say, without an OS or say an older version of Windows and want to install Vista on it it would not work because I would have to have a new license. No wonder Bill Gates is a Billionaire and the likes of you and me are not, dear reader.
Vista OS and IE7 (IE = Internet Explorer) both are “persona non grata” at all government departments and their computers in both UK and USA. Wonder why? I guess because there are too many problems that those IT departments have already discovered.
So much, therefore, for all this tauting of what a great OS this Vista was going to be, all singing and all dancing and no more problems: it was going to be the bee's knee's of operating systems, so they claimed.
Well, I, like the FBI, MI5 and others, shall stick with XP Pro on the Windows PC and in mys case Firefox as the browser instead of IE6.
As I am well aware, Vista is meant to replace XP Pro entirely so I am sure that we will be told in about a year or three that there will be no more support fo XP and we MUST therefore switch all to Vista. I, for my part, hopefully, will by then have migrated completely and entirely over to Linux with its various distros.
© M Veshengro Smith, April 2007
Can we really trust the claims and security of Vista and other Windows operating systems? Probably not and the price tags also do not help. With Vista there is still the rumor that if you install/reinstall the OS more than three times you have to purchase a new license. Sorry, pardon me again? So, if I have a PC and install it on there and have to reinstall it and then also own, say a laptop and install it on there and then buy a new PC, say, without an OS or say an older version of Windows and want to install Vista on it it would not work because I would have to have a new license. No wonder Bill Gates is a Billionaire and the likes of you and me are not, dear reader.
Vista OS and IE7 (IE = Internet Explorer) both are “persona non grata” at all government departments and their computers in both UK and USA. Wonder why? I guess because there are too many problems that those IT departments have already discovered.
So much, therefore, for all this tauting of what a great OS this Vista was going to be, all singing and all dancing and no more problems: it was going to be the bee's knee's of operating systems, so they claimed.
Well, I, like the FBI, MI5 and others, shall stick with XP Pro on the Windows PC and in mys case Firefox as the browser instead of IE6.
As I am well aware, Vista is meant to replace XP Pro entirely so I am sure that we will be told in about a year or three that there will be no more support fo XP and we MUST therefore switch all to Vista. I, for my part, hopefully, will by then have migrated completely and entirely over to Linux with its various distros.
© M Veshengro Smith, April 2007
Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims
According to the Daily Mail (UK newspaper) of April 1, 2007 (in the hope that this was no April Fools) a government study has revealed that schools in the UK are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons (I must say here that most schools never really taught it properly anyway) to avoid offending Muslim pupils.
The study found that teachers are reluctant to cover the Holocaust and the Nazi atrocities against Gypsies and Jews, and other groups of people, for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include the denial of the Holocaust. Oh dear! Poor darlings. In many EU countries the denial of the Holocaust is a crime. Maybe it should be made thus in the UK.
In addition to this it would appear that schools are also afraid to teach about the 11th century Crusades because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques about this subject.
I must say that I am having rather a hard time with this. I hate to admit this but I do.
Chris McGovern, History Education adviser to the to the former Tory government is right, in my opinion, when he said: “History is not a vehicle for promoting political correctness. Children must have access to knowledge of the controversial subjects, whether palatable or unpalatable.”
It is, and I have said this in a previous article already, high time that the British government and those of other EU countries stood up and said “Dosta!”, as we would say, that is to say; “Enough is enough!” and make is crystal clear to those who was to impose their views and laws onto other people in the countries where they have chose to live that this is not the way. If they are so eager to live under Sharia Law then what are they doing here in countries where there is another set of values in operation, be this in the EU, the USA, Canada or Australia/New Zealand? No one is forcing them to be here.
I am not saying that they mus assimilate, g-d forbid, and give up their beliefs and customs in the same way that we, the Rom, wish to be able to retain and maintain our Culture and Traditions and as I call for us, the Rom, to be allowed to live according to our ways and customs but without imposing that on the non-Romani society. The UK and the USA, for instance, are not Muslim countries. They have to come to understand that while they may not believe in the Holocaust or that the Holocaust has happened as it is being taught the Holocaust is nevertheless a fact of history and that not only Jews (which they seem to hate with a vengeance) were murdered by the Nazi extermination machinery but also other races, including and especially our Race, the Rom. (My apologies to all the Jews, but the Holocaust is not uniquely Jewish, however much their leadership may with to make it thus and neither were/are pogroms only something that has been/is committed against Jews; Gypsies too suffered many pogroms in the same way as Gypsies were part of the Holocaust – and no, we do not defile the memory of the Holocaust by wishing to be associated with it – and for the same reason as the Jews, namely that of Race).
The Crusades too are a fact and a part of history and must be according to the truth and if that offends some Muslims because, maybe, it shows, Saladin or whoever, in a less favorable light that he is portrayed by the local mosques then so be it and it is neither here nor there. The truth must be taught.
It is time for a resounding “Dosta!” from the governments and time to stop pandering to them out of fear; the fear of violent demonstrations, riots and attacks because they have been offended, like over the cartoons in the Danish newspapers. That is giving in to terror and then the governments might as well straight away surrender and let those people set up their laws and courts (some Muslim courts already exist in the UK). But when the Rom ask to be allowed to administer their own systems, even only in a small way, they they are told that this cannot be done. The Rom probably are too peaceful?
© M Veshengro Smith, April 2007
The study found that teachers are reluctant to cover the Holocaust and the Nazi atrocities against Gypsies and Jews, and other groups of people, for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include the denial of the Holocaust. Oh dear! Poor darlings. In many EU countries the denial of the Holocaust is a crime. Maybe it should be made thus in the UK.
In addition to this it would appear that schools are also afraid to teach about the 11th century Crusades because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques about this subject.
I must say that I am having rather a hard time with this. I hate to admit this but I do.
Chris McGovern, History Education adviser to the to the former Tory government is right, in my opinion, when he said: “History is not a vehicle for promoting political correctness. Children must have access to knowledge of the controversial subjects, whether palatable or unpalatable.”
It is, and I have said this in a previous article already, high time that the British government and those of other EU countries stood up and said “Dosta!”, as we would say, that is to say; “Enough is enough!” and make is crystal clear to those who was to impose their views and laws onto other people in the countries where they have chose to live that this is not the way. If they are so eager to live under Sharia Law then what are they doing here in countries where there is another set of values in operation, be this in the EU, the USA, Canada or Australia/New Zealand? No one is forcing them to be here.
I am not saying that they mus assimilate, g-d forbid, and give up their beliefs and customs in the same way that we, the Rom, wish to be able to retain and maintain our Culture and Traditions and as I call for us, the Rom, to be allowed to live according to our ways and customs but without imposing that on the non-Romani society. The UK and the USA, for instance, are not Muslim countries. They have to come to understand that while they may not believe in the Holocaust or that the Holocaust has happened as it is being taught the Holocaust is nevertheless a fact of history and that not only Jews (which they seem to hate with a vengeance) were murdered by the Nazi extermination machinery but also other races, including and especially our Race, the Rom. (My apologies to all the Jews, but the Holocaust is not uniquely Jewish, however much their leadership may with to make it thus and neither were/are pogroms only something that has been/is committed against Jews; Gypsies too suffered many pogroms in the same way as Gypsies were part of the Holocaust – and no, we do not defile the memory of the Holocaust by wishing to be associated with it – and for the same reason as the Jews, namely that of Race).
The Crusades too are a fact and a part of history and must be according to the truth and if that offends some Muslims because, maybe, it shows, Saladin or whoever, in a less favorable light that he is portrayed by the local mosques then so be it and it is neither here nor there. The truth must be taught.
It is time for a resounding “Dosta!” from the governments and time to stop pandering to them out of fear; the fear of violent demonstrations, riots and attacks because they have been offended, like over the cartoons in the Danish newspapers. That is giving in to terror and then the governments might as well straight away surrender and let those people set up their laws and courts (some Muslim courts already exist in the UK). But when the Rom ask to be allowed to administer their own systems, even only in a small way, they they are told that this cannot be done. The Rom probably are too peaceful?
© M Veshengro Smith, April 2007
Lessons to learn from the Dutch 'Riots' of March 2007
It is time, I am afraid to say, that the governments of the European Union had the same kind of courage as the government of Australia and woke up to the fact that while equality is indeed the aim to go for one cannot give one group more rights than other ones.
Recently whites in Holland, as much as in the UK, perceive, rightly or wrongly (but rightly more like) that, for instance, Muslims are being treated with kid gloves in everything and are being pandered to their demands whether this is with regards to dress, e.g. the Hijab, the full face veil, etc. or as regards to Christian festivals such as Christmas where this is now being basically banned as far as mentioning the word Christmas goes by the pc crowd, the wearing of the symbol of the cross, etc., lest it offend someone.
My own community, the Rom, on the other hand, are never given any sort of a 'break' like that and there are many Rom in the UK, for instance, who begin to think like the BNP in these matters in that they too reckon that the Muslims, for example, are given preference above all other ethnic groups.
Personally I must say that I do not blame them one bit for thinking in such a way.
All our politicians, unless they want to see a backlash happen, must take a leaf or ten out of the book of the Australian government under John Howard and be prepared to tell those Muslims that demand Sharia law, et al, to, if they don't like living in a democratic and free country to hop it and leave to a country there there is Sharia law. Shouldn't be too difficult to find one.
I am sorry, but if in Rome then do as the Romans do. I doubt that we could not demand in Saudi Arabia, for instance, be treated different because we are not Muslims. The fact is that I know that we cannot demand to be treated differently. In this country they can chose not to drink alcohol; no one forces them to drink it. However, if a non-Muslim is in those Muslim countries he cannot – often not even in private in his own home – consume alcohol for it is illegal in those countries. So, there are no special rules in Saudi Arabia or Iran or such for non-Muslims. Why then should we make allowances in this country for them.
I do not have a problem with Muslims or any other religion or group. I am of an ethnic minority myself, namely of the Romani People, but I cannot see why any country should kowtow to one group and be dictated to under the treat of terror.
The Gypsy and the Jew have lived in this country and elsewhere for centuries and have never ever demanded this or that and they have lived their culture and religion alongside the general (British) public while the Muslims, especially the more-or-less 'radicalized' ones, want to make the UK and other (EU) countries where they live into countries with Sharia law. I have yet to hear a Jew complain about Christmas and the symbols. They just generally ignore them and get on with their own faith. Shame others cannot do the same. The Hindus and Sikhs neither have such attitudes. Only the Muslims, it would appear, have this problem.
If the Muslims in the UK, Australia, etc. want to live under Sharia law then, like PM Howard told them, they have the freedom to leave the country and move to one which has the law they desire. But the truth is that they do not want to live under the version of Sharia that has been set up by other countries; they wish to impose their version of Sharia law on other people, especially those that they consider infidels. This does not compute.
© M V Smith, March 2007
Recently whites in Holland, as much as in the UK, perceive, rightly or wrongly (but rightly more like) that, for instance, Muslims are being treated with kid gloves in everything and are being pandered to their demands whether this is with regards to dress, e.g. the Hijab, the full face veil, etc. or as regards to Christian festivals such as Christmas where this is now being basically banned as far as mentioning the word Christmas goes by the pc crowd, the wearing of the symbol of the cross, etc., lest it offend someone.
My own community, the Rom, on the other hand, are never given any sort of a 'break' like that and there are many Rom in the UK, for instance, who begin to think like the BNP in these matters in that they too reckon that the Muslims, for example, are given preference above all other ethnic groups.
Personally I must say that I do not blame them one bit for thinking in such a way.
All our politicians, unless they want to see a backlash happen, must take a leaf or ten out of the book of the Australian government under John Howard and be prepared to tell those Muslims that demand Sharia law, et al, to, if they don't like living in a democratic and free country to hop it and leave to a country there there is Sharia law. Shouldn't be too difficult to find one.
I am sorry, but if in Rome then do as the Romans do. I doubt that we could not demand in Saudi Arabia, for instance, be treated different because we are not Muslims. The fact is that I know that we cannot demand to be treated differently. In this country they can chose not to drink alcohol; no one forces them to drink it. However, if a non-Muslim is in those Muslim countries he cannot – often not even in private in his own home – consume alcohol for it is illegal in those countries. So, there are no special rules in Saudi Arabia or Iran or such for non-Muslims. Why then should we make allowances in this country for them.
I do not have a problem with Muslims or any other religion or group. I am of an ethnic minority myself, namely of the Romani People, but I cannot see why any country should kowtow to one group and be dictated to under the treat of terror.
The Gypsy and the Jew have lived in this country and elsewhere for centuries and have never ever demanded this or that and they have lived their culture and religion alongside the general (British) public while the Muslims, especially the more-or-less 'radicalized' ones, want to make the UK and other (EU) countries where they live into countries with Sharia law. I have yet to hear a Jew complain about Christmas and the symbols. They just generally ignore them and get on with their own faith. Shame others cannot do the same. The Hindus and Sikhs neither have such attitudes. Only the Muslims, it would appear, have this problem.
If the Muslims in the UK, Australia, etc. want to live under Sharia law then, like PM Howard told them, they have the freedom to leave the country and move to one which has the law they desire. But the truth is that they do not want to live under the version of Sharia that has been set up by other countries; they wish to impose their version of Sharia law on other people, especially those that they consider infidels. This does not compute.
© M V Smith, March 2007
International Roma Day – April 8
Everywhere on the Roma(ni) networks there is the talk about the International Roma Day (April 8) that is being celebrated. However, does it not, calling it the “International Roma Day” thereby, as far as I see, purposely, exclude Sinti and Cale?
If I am not mistaken it all started as the International Romani Day and in the last couple of years, like with the International Romani Union itself, who is but the inventor of the International Roma Day, the word Romani has been replaced by the word Roma. This was all done rather incremental and no one seems to have noticed and slowly but surely all those that think the big boys know better have begun calling themselves Roma even when they are Sinti (though the majority of them still resist) and the Romanichals and Cale. Many of the British Rom call themselves now Roma and it really makes me laugh, though at the same time I want to hit them with something heavy po shero, for the only Roma in the UK are those that have come over here in the last decades as asylum seekers from the former Yugoslavia, Romani and Bulgaria and the former Czechoslovakia.
As they have the now the International Roma Day and thereby exclude, on purpose until such a time that the Sinti and others bow down to the altar of “Roma”, the Sinti and others, maybe we should start an International Romani Day or should we do an International Gypsy Day, LOL.
It does appear, to me at least, as if the PTB amongst the Roma(ni) “leadership” who run with the EU and such places will remove all Romani references soon and will try to force media, etc. to adopt the term Roma when referring to Gypsies (and Travellers). Yes, they will make it inclusive of the Travellers, for they already have included the Irish Travellers in the Roma and soon others will be added officially too. Then the word Roma will become synonymous with today's usage of Gypsy in the government circles such as in the UK and with the stroke of the pen, as it has been done here, all those Roma, then, that do not travel, with traveling in trailers being outlawed – wait for it, it is sooner or later going to happen – will no longer qualify for recognition as an ethnic group.
© M Veshengro Smith, April 2007
If I am not mistaken it all started as the International Romani Day and in the last couple of years, like with the International Romani Union itself, who is but the inventor of the International Roma Day, the word Romani has been replaced by the word Roma. This was all done rather incremental and no one seems to have noticed and slowly but surely all those that think the big boys know better have begun calling themselves Roma even when they are Sinti (though the majority of them still resist) and the Romanichals and Cale. Many of the British Rom call themselves now Roma and it really makes me laugh, though at the same time I want to hit them with something heavy po shero, for the only Roma in the UK are those that have come over here in the last decades as asylum seekers from the former Yugoslavia, Romani and Bulgaria and the former Czechoslovakia.
As they have the now the International Roma Day and thereby exclude, on purpose until such a time that the Sinti and others bow down to the altar of “Roma”, the Sinti and others, maybe we should start an International Romani Day or should we do an International Gypsy Day, LOL.
It does appear, to me at least, as if the PTB amongst the Roma(ni) “leadership” who run with the EU and such places will remove all Romani references soon and will try to force media, etc. to adopt the term Roma when referring to Gypsies (and Travellers). Yes, they will make it inclusive of the Travellers, for they already have included the Irish Travellers in the Roma and soon others will be added officially too. Then the word Roma will become synonymous with today's usage of Gypsy in the government circles such as in the UK and with the stroke of the pen, as it has been done here, all those Roma, then, that do not travel, with traveling in trailers being outlawed – wait for it, it is sooner or later going to happen – will no longer qualify for recognition as an ethnic group.
© M Veshengro Smith, April 2007
BOOK REVIEW - Torn Away, Forever
Torn Away, Forever
Yvonne Slee
Australia
downloadable as a PDF from website
www.geocities.com/daveauss/
Reviewed by M Veshengro Smith
While this book may work as a piece of badly researched romantic fiction on the Gypsy People, presenting us still in an entirely silly image to the Gohja eyes and minds, it does not work as a piece of factual history/family history of a Sinti family, not even by the farthest stretch of imagination.
Already in the introduction of the book, the author, claiming to be a Sintizza from Germany, now living in Australia, describes Gypsy caravans that are supposed to have been in Germany and encountered by her Grandmother as a child, but her description, in fact, of such caravans are that of Romanichal vardos in England. No Gypsy caravan in Germany - the ones called by some people “Holzrotell” - do ever have carvings of vines and the like, nor have they ever had. While there may have been some kind of painting or the other, most decorations were in the form of color outlines of windows, doors, and the like. The description she gives of the wagons her grandmother supposedly encountered does not tally with Gypsy wagons in Germany of that time or later.
We then, after the introduction, get treated to an even more imaginary story in the form of August's story who, as a baby, basically, was taken away to be fostered by Germans, does, so it claims, know Romanes. Not only is it claimed that he understands the Chib; nay, he even, so it says, is able to rokker it, to speak it, though not all that fluent. Rather strange, one can only say. I presume the author would claim that this be due to the Race Memory of the Gypsy People. While I strongly believe in the Race Memory it does not make it feasible though for someone who was torn away from his family while being a less than a year old babe in arms and not have heard the language around him nor grown up with it to be able to understand and speak it. It is a shame that people cannot keep a straight story.
Who is the writer trying to con?
In the part of the story where she is talking about Elsa's childhood she is mentioning an incident where a fellow girl at the school cut off Elsa's plait and the story continues with the child, supposedly, having been suspended from school for four weeks. While suspensions may have happened in schools in England and in Australia they did not, in those days, happen in German schools. Research goes a very long way when one is trying to tell tales that are to be believed. This is nearly as bad as when in the film Rambo III Apache helicopters and Cobras were used instead of Mil 24 Soviet ones.
I personally am having problems understanding why someone would concoct such a story but concocted it certainly is, as far as I as can be seen, for this author knows a thing or two about how things are as regards to Germany and its Gypsies, after WWII and also before and also as to the school system and other ways. Maybe the write of the book did not think that someone with such knowledge would encounter her book.
I would just like to add that I would not appreciate any threats by the author or her husband as happened before because of imaginary “attacks” upon her person by this author and our esteemed Kako Tom Odley. There is a rule amongst Rom and that is to speak the truth amongst one another. I do not care if a Romani fortune teller is trying to con the Gohja with whatever story but... amongst Rom Tatchipen should rule.
© M V Smith, 2007
Yvonne Slee
Australia
downloadable as a PDF from website
www.geocities.com/daveauss/
Reviewed by M Veshengro Smith
While this book may work as a piece of badly researched romantic fiction on the Gypsy People, presenting us still in an entirely silly image to the Gohja eyes and minds, it does not work as a piece of factual history/family history of a Sinti family, not even by the farthest stretch of imagination.
Already in the introduction of the book, the author, claiming to be a Sintizza from Germany, now living in Australia, describes Gypsy caravans that are supposed to have been in Germany and encountered by her Grandmother as a child, but her description, in fact, of such caravans are that of Romanichal vardos in England. No Gypsy caravan in Germany - the ones called by some people “Holzrotell” - do ever have carvings of vines and the like, nor have they ever had. While there may have been some kind of painting or the other, most decorations were in the form of color outlines of windows, doors, and the like. The description she gives of the wagons her grandmother supposedly encountered does not tally with Gypsy wagons in Germany of that time or later.
We then, after the introduction, get treated to an even more imaginary story in the form of August's story who, as a baby, basically, was taken away to be fostered by Germans, does, so it claims, know Romanes. Not only is it claimed that he understands the Chib; nay, he even, so it says, is able to rokker it, to speak it, though not all that fluent. Rather strange, one can only say. I presume the author would claim that this be due to the Race Memory of the Gypsy People. While I strongly believe in the Race Memory it does not make it feasible though for someone who was torn away from his family while being a less than a year old babe in arms and not have heard the language around him nor grown up with it to be able to understand and speak it. It is a shame that people cannot keep a straight story.
Who is the writer trying to con?
In the part of the story where she is talking about Elsa's childhood she is mentioning an incident where a fellow girl at the school cut off Elsa's plait and the story continues with the child, supposedly, having been suspended from school for four weeks. While suspensions may have happened in schools in England and in Australia they did not, in those days, happen in German schools. Research goes a very long way when one is trying to tell tales that are to be believed. This is nearly as bad as when in the film Rambo III Apache helicopters and Cobras were used instead of Mil 24 Soviet ones.
I personally am having problems understanding why someone would concoct such a story but concocted it certainly is, as far as I as can be seen, for this author knows a thing or two about how things are as regards to Germany and its Gypsies, after WWII and also before and also as to the school system and other ways. Maybe the write of the book did not think that someone with such knowledge would encounter her book.
I would just like to add that I would not appreciate any threats by the author or her husband as happened before because of imaginary “attacks” upon her person by this author and our esteemed Kako Tom Odley. There is a rule amongst Rom and that is to speak the truth amongst one another. I do not care if a Romani fortune teller is trying to con the Gohja with whatever story but... amongst Rom Tatchipen should rule.
© M V Smith, 2007
Abolition of Slavery Commemorated
London, England, March 26, 2007
For well over a week or so by now we are being bombarded, and I am sure this will be going on for the rest of the year, with commemorative programs on radio and television about Wilberforce and his fight to abolish slavery in the British Empire and the talk returns to the need for the British to apologize in their part in this dastardly trade and such. While we can all sympathize with that, I am sure, it is been basically negated that, in fact, had it not been for the Ashanti and such tribes, and for the Arabs in East Africa, the trade of Black African slaves may not even have happened to the Islands of the Caribbeans. There seems to be so much “White Man Guilt” that anyone bringing up the fact that the Blacks preyed upon each other and sold each other, especially the warrior tribes upon the pasturealists and such like, is being silenced. Obviously, amongst all this clamour of the Blacks demanding apologies and reparations from Britain the first slaves that were sent to the sugar and tobacco plantations of the Caribbeans and the New England Colonies are being forgotten, namely those that were referred to as “white slaves” but who were, in fact, Romanichals from the British Isles and Ireland. Byt the thousands they were rounded up, men, women and especially children, and in chains transported to the Caribbean islands and the colonies in the New World. Not a word is being mentioned about the Gypsy slaves. Why not? Because we are just, still to this very day, to government and church, dirty Gyppos and no more.
Other nations aside from Britain also shipped their unwanted Gypsy population to the colonies as slaves, namely Spain, Portugal and France. But also German Sinti arrived in the New World to be sold as slaves. Again, however, not a mention anywhere.
Then again, why should I be surprised. Is it not the same with the Holocaust where the powers that be want to have it as a uniquely Jewish even, colonial slavery cannot have been perpetrated upon any other than the African Blacks now, can it. The Gypsies defile the memory of this all by wishing to be associated with it; that is, I am sure, the reasoning of those that leave our memory out of it.
Am I being sarcastic? Probably, but then again, it is the truth after all. Again and again Gypsy Holocaust survivors and their decedents are being told that the Jews were sent to the camps because of their race while, and they say this even openly to the Gypsy, the Jews that is, it is said that the Gypsy only was sent to the camps because they were asocial. That despite all the proof in the records of the German Reich that show this bluntly and openly that the Gypsy People were treated even worse than the Jews in racial regards.
But I digressed.
The first slaves in the cane fields of the Caribbean Islands, folks, were not Blacks from Africa or elsewhere, but they were Gypsy, Romanichals, from the British Isles and Ireland and sent their in chains, not for any crime but simply for being Romani. But then, that was crime enough in those days.
Let us, while others commemorate the Blacks openly and publicly commemorate our Gypsy slaves.
© M V Smith, March 2007
PARAMISHI - The Eagle Who Believed He Was A Chicken
The Eagle Who Believed He Was A Chicken
One day a farmer went out hunting to look for any interesting birds that he could find and he saw an eagle chick and he took it home. He brought this baby eagle up to believe that it was a chicken. He placed the eagle amongst the chickens and fed him the same food as he fed the chickens. One day a naturalist came along and saw this eagle, which had by then grown to his full size, and said, “Why is that eagle there doing amongst the chickens? It is an eagle. It needs to fly and soar in the wide open spaces.” And the farmer said, “I taught him to believe that he is a chicken and he will not fly”. Then the naturalist said: “Can I just have a go and see whether I can get him to fly?” He took the eagle and he looked at the eagle and he said, “Eagle! You are the king of the birds with a wingspan of over six feet. Stretch out your wings and fly.” And the eagle looked this way and he looked that way and then he looked down at the chickens. He saw the chickens and the chicken food and he jumped down and he scratched around again with the chickens. The farmer said, “See! What did I tell you? I taught him to be a chicken. He believes he is a chicken and therefore he is a chicken”. The naturalist replied, “This is not right. Give me one more chance.” The farmer agreed. So early the next morning the naturalist took the eagle to a high mountain. The sun was just rising and every boulder sparkled and he looked at the eagle sternly with all his might and he repeated, “Eagle! You are the king of the birds with a wingspan of over six feet. Stretch out your wings and fly.” And the eagle looked this way and he looked that way, he looked down and then he looked up at o Kham, the Sun, and he stretched out his wings and flew away and never returned.
And the moral of this story is: Children of the Rom, of the Romane Chave, of the Sons of Rama; you have been made in the image of O Del and you are of proud warrior stock, but some people want you to believe that you are khanies, that you are chickens. Throw off your chains of slavery that bind you, stretch out your wings and fly.
© Veshengro, 2007
Romani Self-Help
or maybe better “Gypsy Self-Reliance”
Well, I am going to talk today about DIY, yes, you heard me right: do it yourself is the theme for today. I know that now everyone is going to think that I have gone bonkers but I don't think so for we are not going to be talking – at least not directly – about the making of furniture or other such tasks on the DIY scale. What I am primarily on about here today is about doing things for ourselves.
Yes! I did say “doing things for ourselves”, as in SELF-RELIANCE.
It really gets under my skin -when the Rom, and not only in Eastern Europe, complain about their living conditions when, especially in Eastern Europe Romani men appear to have more spare time on their hands than seems to be good for them. Some, it would appear are just too proud to work and rather send their women and especially chavies out to mang from the Gadje in the streets of the towns and cities, while they sit around in the coffee houses and tavernas drinking and playing dominoes or cards. At the same time their houses are all in a bad state of repair and there is litter and trash and garbage strewn everywhere.
Not only does this litter and garbage problem exist in the rural areas. Far from it. It is even more pronounced in the more urban areas, on and around housing estates occupied by Rom. There we can find garbage being, literally, thrown out of windows and it is a nigh “gar de loo” situation around the housing estates of the Rom for such matter too may find it self flying out of windows or raining down from balconies. There is also trash and garbage of all sorts piled high on balconies, in communal walkways and other common areas, as well as all around the blocks of flats. What a way to life is all I can say to that. No wonder, therefore, that some people want to have walls build around Romani settlements, and understandable even, when one sees those condition.
As a Rom of integrity, I must say, that I could not even think of visiting with those for I would be afraid of becoming ritually defiled.
This situation exists while the men do nothing all day and are idle. No, they say, however, the rubbish is not our responsibility. The municipality does not send refuse collection. Sorry folks, but if you do not pay for it then you cannot expect such services. Alas, but they do, for too long have they lived under communism where they got everything provided. They also claim that they could not possibly be able to pick up the litter and garbage themselves and dispose of it because to touch the litter would marime.
While they claim it to be marime for them to go and pick up the litter from around their houses and neighborhood and to dispose of it in a proper manner no qualms seems to be had when they send their women and children out to scavenge on the refuse tips and landfill sites, even for food for the chavies. Give me a break! Laziness is all that it is. They are so accustomed to sitting on their butts doing nothing that they just do not want it any other way and all manner of excuses are found rather than to do things.
Oh, you think I am having a got at the Roma again because I am Sinto. I am having a go at the “no can do” attitude of all the Rom per se, and I include in that Sinti as well as Kale (Cale) and others, and not just the Roma. I even include the Romanichals in this; those that, for instance, in the UK, have begun to behave, as and when still po drom ap i reisa like the Irish Trailer Trash in that they leave garbage strewn around the site where they camped and even body waste.
Unfortunately, it must be said that this malaise is not only one of the E. European Rom. Some Sinti, so it would appear, can also keep up with those in the East with rubbish piling on the balcony of their apartments simply because they are too lazy to take it to the refuse chute in their block and with dirt and filthy linen all over the apartments. I must say I personally have seen the apartments of Rom in Germany many years back and have been unable to believe my eyes what I saw in some of those places and the vermin that was running about. It is such as those that give the entire Romani People a bad name, as being dirty and lazy.
Yes, I do know that one could find nigh on the same situations with the so-called “Trailer Trash” in the USA. But they are Gadje and we are Rom. No comparison there, is there now. We have rules and taboos but may no longer seem to remember those. Well, they do but only when it suits them, like to say that they cannot move the garbage because they would become marime or magerdo from doing so. Now that is bull dust and we all do know that.
Another favorite is complaining about the fact that, and I am getting sick and tired of that, as victims and People persecuted by the Nazis, our People (with that they mean themselves) have not received any reparation payments for the atrocities of the Holocaust from the German and other culpable governments, as did the Jews. OK, so Germany refuses to acknowledge its guilt properly and pay lova. Let me ask you a question: Do you really want blood money? Do you want money that is tainted by the blood of our Martyrs? They cannot pay us for our losses, ever; and certainly not with the paltry sums they have paid to the one or two which were in the region of, I believe, 1,000 Euro or such derisory amount.
Same as when the “German” Sinti demand that the German government build a memorial to the Gypsies lost in the Holocaust. Why? Could we not do such ourselves?
“Oh, no”, they say, “they owe us and they did build one for the Jews, so we demand one too.” Why demand one (or anything for that matter) from the German government? The Sinti and Roma in the Netherlands got together, raised money, petitioned the municipality for a location and set there own, small but very nice, memorial to the Sinti and Roma from the Netherlands murdered by the black legions.
It seems that a great many Rom just love to demand from the Gadje and the governments “because they owe us”. They OWE us kek.
Same as someone translated the proverp “Nay avlom ke tumende o maro te mangel, me avlom ke tumende te man pative te den” into “I did not come to you to beg for bread but I came to you to demand respect”. Duh? Demand what? We cannot DEMAND respect. We, just like others, have to earn it. Stop demanding and start doing things for yourself. The proverb, in fact, does nowhere mention “demanding respect”. It talks of trust. In other words it states “I came to you so you would trust me”. That, at least, is the way I would understand it.
It really does seem to be well beyond the capacity of a great majority of the Rom to think and to do things for themselves and those that set out to do things alone on behalf of the People get shot down and blacklisted. We are a strange People indeed. Always do you ask for others to do things for us and mostly the others that you demand to do things for us are invariably Gadje. Have you no pride whatsoever in yourself and in the People? Obviously not! It is time you got off their behinds and did things for themselves. “Ourselves Alone” is the old meaning of the Irish word “Sin Fein” (pronounced “Shin Fein”) (and which is also the name of the Republican Party of Ulster/Ireland) and the same also does and must apply to the Gypsy People – “amare kethane kolkoro” (ourselves together alone). We can never be really free as a People as long as we keep wanting and demanding handouts in whatever shape or form. Have some pride, People! Do you want the Gadje to continuously do things for us and fund projects for us and then have them go home and say that the stereotype of the lazy, good for nothing, Gypsy is true? Those that behave as described, from among all of our groups, do indeed aid and abet that stereotypical image that the Gadje behold of us. This is, however, exactly what the majority of especially Eastern European Rom seen to want. Their behavior is living proof to that fact.
It has been said that the Gypsy can turn his hand to anything and make money from other people's discards. This may be true for the Romanichals and such but does not appear to hold any water when it comes to the Rom from Eastern Europe. Not all of them, I know; the great majority, however, or so it would appear. Also the Romanichals never were afraid to touch scrap and even other discards from which to produce stuff for sale. Looks like the majority of eastern European Roma never have had such an ability or they simply have had it too good with handouts under communism.
We must move over to a “can do” attitude and finally do things for ourselves instead of demanding that the Gadje do it for us, and relying on outsiders. Are we infants who cannot do things for ourselves? Many of ours, Roma and Sinti alike, sure behave like that. No wonder the Gadje treat the Romani People like children, like minors, like children who have no say in things and who can do nothing for themselves and have to have everything done for them.
© M Veshengro Smith, February 2007
Well, I am going to talk today about DIY, yes, you heard me right: do it yourself is the theme for today. I know that now everyone is going to think that I have gone bonkers but I don't think so for we are not going to be talking – at least not directly – about the making of furniture or other such tasks on the DIY scale. What I am primarily on about here today is about doing things for ourselves.
Yes! I did say “doing things for ourselves”, as in SELF-RELIANCE.
It really gets under my skin -when the Rom, and not only in Eastern Europe, complain about their living conditions when, especially in Eastern Europe Romani men appear to have more spare time on their hands than seems to be good for them. Some, it would appear are just too proud to work and rather send their women and especially chavies out to mang from the Gadje in the streets of the towns and cities, while they sit around in the coffee houses and tavernas drinking and playing dominoes or cards. At the same time their houses are all in a bad state of repair and there is litter and trash and garbage strewn everywhere.
Not only does this litter and garbage problem exist in the rural areas. Far from it. It is even more pronounced in the more urban areas, on and around housing estates occupied by Rom. There we can find garbage being, literally, thrown out of windows and it is a nigh “gar de loo” situation around the housing estates of the Rom for such matter too may find it self flying out of windows or raining down from balconies. There is also trash and garbage of all sorts piled high on balconies, in communal walkways and other common areas, as well as all around the blocks of flats. What a way to life is all I can say to that. No wonder, therefore, that some people want to have walls build around Romani settlements, and understandable even, when one sees those condition.
As a Rom of integrity, I must say, that I could not even think of visiting with those for I would be afraid of becoming ritually defiled.
This situation exists while the men do nothing all day and are idle. No, they say, however, the rubbish is not our responsibility. The municipality does not send refuse collection. Sorry folks, but if you do not pay for it then you cannot expect such services. Alas, but they do, for too long have they lived under communism where they got everything provided. They also claim that they could not possibly be able to pick up the litter and garbage themselves and dispose of it because to touch the litter would marime.
While they claim it to be marime for them to go and pick up the litter from around their houses and neighborhood and to dispose of it in a proper manner no qualms seems to be had when they send their women and children out to scavenge on the refuse tips and landfill sites, even for food for the chavies. Give me a break! Laziness is all that it is. They are so accustomed to sitting on their butts doing nothing that they just do not want it any other way and all manner of excuses are found rather than to do things.
Oh, you think I am having a got at the Roma again because I am Sinto. I am having a go at the “no can do” attitude of all the Rom per se, and I include in that Sinti as well as Kale (Cale) and others, and not just the Roma. I even include the Romanichals in this; those that, for instance, in the UK, have begun to behave, as and when still po drom ap i reisa like the Irish Trailer Trash in that they leave garbage strewn around the site where they camped and even body waste.
Unfortunately, it must be said that this malaise is not only one of the E. European Rom. Some Sinti, so it would appear, can also keep up with those in the East with rubbish piling on the balcony of their apartments simply because they are too lazy to take it to the refuse chute in their block and with dirt and filthy linen all over the apartments. I must say I personally have seen the apartments of Rom in Germany many years back and have been unable to believe my eyes what I saw in some of those places and the vermin that was running about. It is such as those that give the entire Romani People a bad name, as being dirty and lazy.
Yes, I do know that one could find nigh on the same situations with the so-called “Trailer Trash” in the USA. But they are Gadje and we are Rom. No comparison there, is there now. We have rules and taboos but may no longer seem to remember those. Well, they do but only when it suits them, like to say that they cannot move the garbage because they would become marime or magerdo from doing so. Now that is bull dust and we all do know that.
Another favorite is complaining about the fact that, and I am getting sick and tired of that, as victims and People persecuted by the Nazis, our People (with that they mean themselves) have not received any reparation payments for the atrocities of the Holocaust from the German and other culpable governments, as did the Jews. OK, so Germany refuses to acknowledge its guilt properly and pay lova. Let me ask you a question: Do you really want blood money? Do you want money that is tainted by the blood of our Martyrs? They cannot pay us for our losses, ever; and certainly not with the paltry sums they have paid to the one or two which were in the region of, I believe, 1,000 Euro or such derisory amount.
Same as when the “German” Sinti demand that the German government build a memorial to the Gypsies lost in the Holocaust. Why? Could we not do such ourselves?
“Oh, no”, they say, “they owe us and they did build one for the Jews, so we demand one too.” Why demand one (or anything for that matter) from the German government? The Sinti and Roma in the Netherlands got together, raised money, petitioned the municipality for a location and set there own, small but very nice, memorial to the Sinti and Roma from the Netherlands murdered by the black legions.
It seems that a great many Rom just love to demand from the Gadje and the governments “because they owe us”. They OWE us kek.
Same as someone translated the proverp “Nay avlom ke tumende o maro te mangel, me avlom ke tumende te man pative te den” into “I did not come to you to beg for bread but I came to you to demand respect”. Duh? Demand what? We cannot DEMAND respect. We, just like others, have to earn it. Stop demanding and start doing things for yourself. The proverb, in fact, does nowhere mention “demanding respect”. It talks of trust. In other words it states “I came to you so you would trust me”. That, at least, is the way I would understand it.
It really does seem to be well beyond the capacity of a great majority of the Rom to think and to do things for themselves and those that set out to do things alone on behalf of the People get shot down and blacklisted. We are a strange People indeed. Always do you ask for others to do things for us and mostly the others that you demand to do things for us are invariably Gadje. Have you no pride whatsoever in yourself and in the People? Obviously not! It is time you got off their behinds and did things for themselves. “Ourselves Alone” is the old meaning of the Irish word “Sin Fein” (pronounced “Shin Fein”) (and which is also the name of the Republican Party of Ulster/Ireland) and the same also does and must apply to the Gypsy People – “amare kethane kolkoro” (ourselves together alone). We can never be really free as a People as long as we keep wanting and demanding handouts in whatever shape or form. Have some pride, People! Do you want the Gadje to continuously do things for us and fund projects for us and then have them go home and say that the stereotype of the lazy, good for nothing, Gypsy is true? Those that behave as described, from among all of our groups, do indeed aid and abet that stereotypical image that the Gadje behold of us. This is, however, exactly what the majority of especially Eastern European Rom seen to want. Their behavior is living proof to that fact.
It has been said that the Gypsy can turn his hand to anything and make money from other people's discards. This may be true for the Romanichals and such but does not appear to hold any water when it comes to the Rom from Eastern Europe. Not all of them, I know; the great majority, however, or so it would appear. Also the Romanichals never were afraid to touch scrap and even other discards from which to produce stuff for sale. Looks like the majority of eastern European Roma never have had such an ability or they simply have had it too good with handouts under communism.
We must move over to a “can do” attitude and finally do things for ourselves instead of demanding that the Gadje do it for us, and relying on outsiders. Are we infants who cannot do things for ourselves? Many of ours, Roma and Sinti alike, sure behave like that. No wonder the Gadje treat the Romani People like children, like minors, like children who have no say in things and who can do nothing for themselves and have to have everything done for them.
© M Veshengro Smith, February 2007
UK plans to put X-ray cameras on lampposts
Airport-style x-ray cameras, which can see through clothes, could be installed on street lampposts in a bid to combat terrorism, it was claimed on January 29, 2007.
The measure was, apparently, suggested in a memo sent to one of Tony Blair's working groups at the Cabinet Office, so the Sun “newspaper” has reported.
This move comes amid growing concern about Britain's "surveillance society" and I think one can only ask “What next?”.
The Home Office memo, to the Prime Minister's working group on security, crime and justice, reportedly said: "Street furniture could routinely house detection systems that would indicate the likely presence of a gun, for example.'”
The Government is increasingly finding new ways of using “street furniture” for security.
“Architectural security improvements have been designed carefully on the basis of specific architectural advice to improve security measures in a widespread way,” the Cabinet Office admitted last week.
So, in other words, we must assume that all lampposts, benches, litter bins (where there are any), and probably even walls, etc. could have “security implements” embedded.
Apparently both the Cabinet Office and the Home Office refused to comment on the memo. Surprise, not.
Whether the “X-ray” they are talking about is actual “X-ray” but more like so-called “back scatter”, of the same kind that is being used on airports and even on many of the mainline railroad stations in the UK nowadays.
People who walk about with open eyes can see the devices that are already found on lampposts, from rather sophisticated and concealed CCTV surveillance cameras, microphones, and other gadgets attached. All that is left to ask is, as I already did “what next?”.
M V Smith, January 30, 2007
What is Germany up to?
Germany wants to change term of presidency of EU
by M Veshengro Smith January 16, 2007
Germany, which today has taken over the rotating presidency of the European Union, besides “urging” (I see there more than urging) all member states to adopt the European Constitution in the next couple of years, tries to change the length of time of the presidency of the EU that is held by individual countries from the current six months to a much longer period. The reason given for this desire is that not enough can be achieved in six months and one would need a longer timespan to make a real impact.
Is that the really the true reason? The desire to be able to archive more for the good of the EU?
As someone who is rather viewing Germany with different eyes and a healthy suspicion I would say we are headed again for something else with Germany and I would like to issue here a “severe weather warning”. For very good reason the EU presidency was laid out in such a way of a six-monthly rotating term, namely in order to prevent any one country being able to go too far in what they want to archive and put upon the EU, in the same way as the Swiss president only serves for one year, thereby avoiding crony-ism and such like and the accumulation of power in someone's – or in the case of the EU, some country's – hands.
What is Germany's true intention, I ask, and this makes my hackles stand up in concern. I fear Germany has never given up the ideas and ambitions of the Third Reich after the defeat through the Allied Powers in WWII. All that has been done was to put things into hibernation. Now it seems the time has come for them to reanimate them and for this they need a longer EU presidency.
With the Constitution the rotating presidency will be, so I understand, done away with altogether and there will be an elected president (by whom, I would like to ask, for I doubt that we all get a shot at electing this all-European president) and a all-European government (in the end).
We must be ever vigilant, Gypsies and all Anti-Fascists, to the rise of the new Nazis (which are but the young guard of the old Nazis) in Europe, and especially we will have to watch Germany. We cannot and must not trust the government of that nation that cause two world wars and the destruction of over a million of our Gypsy People, and countless others.
© M V Smith, January 2007
by M Veshengro Smith January 16, 2007
Germany, which today has taken over the rotating presidency of the European Union, besides “urging” (I see there more than urging) all member states to adopt the European Constitution in the next couple of years, tries to change the length of time of the presidency of the EU that is held by individual countries from the current six months to a much longer period. The reason given for this desire is that not enough can be achieved in six months and one would need a longer timespan to make a real impact.
Is that the really the true reason? The desire to be able to archive more for the good of the EU?
As someone who is rather viewing Germany with different eyes and a healthy suspicion I would say we are headed again for something else with Germany and I would like to issue here a “severe weather warning”. For very good reason the EU presidency was laid out in such a way of a six-monthly rotating term, namely in order to prevent any one country being able to go too far in what they want to archive and put upon the EU, in the same way as the Swiss president only serves for one year, thereby avoiding crony-ism and such like and the accumulation of power in someone's – or in the case of the EU, some country's – hands.
What is Germany's true intention, I ask, and this makes my hackles stand up in concern. I fear Germany has never given up the ideas and ambitions of the Third Reich after the defeat through the Allied Powers in WWII. All that has been done was to put things into hibernation. Now it seems the time has come for them to reanimate them and for this they need a longer EU presidency.
With the Constitution the rotating presidency will be, so I understand, done away with altogether and there will be an elected president (by whom, I would like to ask, for I doubt that we all get a shot at electing this all-European president) and a all-European government (in the end).
We must be ever vigilant, Gypsies and all Anti-Fascists, to the rise of the new Nazis (which are but the young guard of the old Nazis) in Europe, and especially we will have to watch Germany. We cannot and must not trust the government of that nation that cause two world wars and the destruction of over a million of our Gypsy People, and countless others.
© M V Smith, January 2007
“No Cold calling!” Areas. What to do?
More and more “no cold calling” areas appear all over the place here in the UK (and I assume other places are no different) making the obtaining of jobs, the “calling” (or manging, as the Sinti in Germany call it) a difficult undertaking but...
In the age of the personal computer, be this desktop or laptop/notebook and so-called desktop publishing (DTP) and mobile phones the fact of “No Cold Calling” areas does not need to stop and/or deter us from pursuing our business, say, as knife grinder. This may be different for those of us that actually wish to sell goods, such as pegs, wooden flowers, and such. But, maybe, it is time to sell those latter crafts via a different channel and outlet.
No one stops anyone, generally, from leafleting an area so, instead of knocking at doors, that is to say “cold calling”, all that is needed is a flyer or small brochure put thru the door, or even just a business card. Those too can be produced cheaply by means of desktop publishing. Should the recipient of such a flyer or brochure then be interested in the service(s) offered, then, hopefully, he/she will call and, as it is then “by arrangement” the business transaction is not one of “cold calling” and therefore no law has been breached and also no hawker's license is required.
As a final word I would like to say one important thing and that is that, in order to be able to continue plying our trade of whatever kind we must be honest in our dealings. Yes, honest even, if some would say, with the Gohja. We must remember that they ARE our customers and without their custom we could not follow our trades. Quality work given will result in more calls with the people calling you, the tradesman and no need for “cold calling” which may be illegal somewhere. Shamming does not make for great customer relations when people find out that has been done. Many of us, I am sure, know the tales of the churimengro who fakes just because a pair of garden shears that he has been given to sharpen by the owner is still sharp by using a bit of emery cloth to just make the edge (and blade shiny) as if it had been sharpened. No pair of shears is that sharp that a few strokes, done correctly, with a fine mill bastard file could not improve upon it. So, remember, “don't sham” and people will call you instead of you having to go out and find work.
© M Veshengro Smith, December 2006
N.B. The International Gypsy Union is prepared to advise and assist any Romani-Gypsy who would like to have such flyers and brochures designed and printed for his or her business. Please contact us via the website at http://gypsyunion.tripod.com.
Please note that you can also advertise your business on the blogs and websites and in the newsletters and magazines produced by us. Please contact the editor via the email link provided.
Surveillance State UK
by M V Smith
The citizens of the United Kingdom, the always supposed mother of democracy and freedom – well, the people of America in the 1760's would think differently for sure and because they thought differently they had a revolution – are, it is said, the western world's most observed people. Government surveillance cameras are all over the place and there is something like one camera for every 14 people or something like that and each one of us, so it is said, is being observed by cameras several hundred times during the day.
Now the police demand that the government go further still and that CCTV cameras be all fitted with sensitive microphones so that they can record conversations in open spaces between “possible terrorist suspects”. Oh, sure, it is all in order to fight terrorism. What terrorism? The concocted terrorism? The fake terror that we are being presented with?
“But”, say the sheeple, “those cameras make us feel safer because the police monitors them and can be on site immediately when something happens”. Yeah, right, like in one town not far from where I live where even microphones are already on some cameras in the city center a market stall was broken into right next, well nearly, one of those cameras, with a racket made by the burglars smashing their way into the said market stall. Did the police come out? No, obviously not and did anyone see anything on the camera? While the operator heard the noise he kept the camera trained into an alleyway observing, as it appeared, a homeless man siting there drinking.
What it is all about it so that they can completely control the British people and I am convinced that the UK is being used by the Powers That Be as a stalking horse to see how those things will work in the real world before they will be, no doubt, be, to begin with, introduced throughout the European Union countries.
Talk also is about of them wanting to have CCTV cameras at all official Gypsy Caravan Sites in order to make it safer for the residents and so they can keep an eye on any racists wanting to attack the sites. Right! Sure! It is all for the best of the people. The microphones on such cameras as well, I guess. And why is it, so it can be seen from drawings, that such cameras, same as the points of the fences that are being built around the sites, pointing to the inside and not to the outside? Attacks on the sites would come from the outside and not the inside.
In addition to that now motorcars shall be fitted with a kind of “black box” that will be used for charging drivers by the mile and according which roads they drive and where and when. This also will mean that, if you use the motorcar, the govt will know at any time day or night where you or your vehicle is at any given time.
The more I personally see of this the more I am being reminded of George Orwell's book “1984” and also of the TV series from the 1960's “The Prisoner” and other similar sci-fi (well, they were then but no longer) films and TV programs. Who could have thought then that this could once all become reality and that in fact the government would inflict that on all citizens (or better “subjects of Her Majesty”, as it still really is in the UK) who have not committed any crimes whatsoever. It would appear that everyone; man woman or child, is being regarded by the PTB as a criminal until proven otherwise and then the surveillance still will continue – just to make sure. Welcome to the Fourth Reich. In fact Hitler and Stalin are nothing in surveillance compared with the so-called free and democratic governments such as the UK and others.
Wake up, people, wake up!
© M V Smith & O NEVO DROM
Dangerous Dreamers
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible”, writes T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) in the Introductory Chapter of his book “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”.
And how right he is.
Those of us who dream our dream during the day with open eyes are indeed dangerous in the eyes of those in power for our dreams often are the dreams of freedom for our People.
Let us therefore dream our dreams by day and act upon them and ignore the dreams of the night.
© M V Smith, November 2006
European Roma and Traveller Forum - The Government of all Gypsy People?
London, November 20, 2006
by M Veshengro Smith
On Sunday November 19, 2006 on Rokker Radio, with Jake Bowers, Cliff Cordona, the British representative(?) to the ERTF, stated that “the Gypsy People (of the world) now have our own proper government (in the European Roma & Traveller Forum)”. We do? Honest? Is that really the case? I would like to ask who elected them?
Who, of the grassroots of the Romani People cast the votes for any those members on that forum and for the president, Mr. Rudko Kawczynski. I am also sure that I am not the only one who would like to ask that very question.
The truth is that none of the grassroots Roma, Sinti and Cale in Europe have cast their votes for any of them and the majority of them have never even as much heard of the likes of Rudko Kawczynski, Miranda Volusranta, etc. and the ERTF.
However, it would be the likes of those people who play at parliaments and even Gypsy world government are the very same who, with others, would and indeed do accuse the International Gypsy Union as being an undemocratic organization because of the fact that the International Gypsy Union's presidium, the Trishul, who are three founder members that are the executive for life.
The IGU, however, does not claim to represent the Gypsies of the World. All the IGU does is represent its members, even though at the same time the IGU fights for the whole of the Romani People, even though they may not indeed all be members or the organization.
How can any organization, however, make the claim to be the GOVERNMENT OF ALL GYPSY PEOPLE especially as there have been no elections to any kind of GYPSY WORLD GOVERNMENT? Either I have missed something with regards to this worldwide election of a Government of ALL Gypsy People or those people are NOT a government of the Gypsy People... dosta!
Think on.. and think well...
© M Veshengro Smith/IGU, November 2006
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