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by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Over 250 people packed a public meeting regarding plans for a caravan site for Gypsies.
The open meeting at Wybunbury Village Hall followed concern over a scheme for a five-acre caravan site in Wybunbury Lane at Stapeley, Nantwich.
The meeting was set up by residents who have formed the “Wybunbury and Stapeley Caravan Park Action Group” in a bid to fight the plans.
The group are objecting, saying the site has only ever been used for agriculture. They add there is a Site of Special Scientific Interest on the lane and nearby ponds have been noted as being the habitat of protected great crested newts.
I do not know why the worry as to the great crested newt. Gypsies never have been known for eating them; now hedgehogs, that is a different story.
During the public meeting, questions and views were offered from the Gypsy community as well as residents.
Romany-Gypsy told to “go back to where you belong”
Action group chairman Jimmy Rowlinson was challenged over the use of the word ‘Gypsy’ on flyers advertising the meeting by Romany Joe Smith, of Hunsterson.
Mr Smith said: “The meeting opened a lot of people’s eyes. I was asked to leave the floor after just one question and I was hissed and booed at.
“The fact they use the word ‘Gypsy’ just infuriates people. There were definitely undertones surfacing at this meeting as I was told to go back to where I belong. Well, I’ve lived in Hunsterson for 32 years and people like me and the residents there know who I am and where I came from and there isn’t a problem.”
Mr Rowlinson said: “The word ‘Gypsy’ was used on the flyers because the planning application referred to a ‘Gypsy Caravan Park’.
“The action group would be opposed to any application for development which affects the rural character of Wybunbury Lane.”
There are definite undertones in Britain now as well, in some areas at least, that see Romany-Gypsies as people who should go back to where they belong. Now someone please tell us where that be. We do NOT have a homeland but if someone would b e good enough to give up a piece – or should we cease some land like the Jews did? - we'd probably be happy enough to settle there. Then again, why should we and why should we even have to consider that?
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Once again Europe sees more or less organized Gypsy Hunts where members of the Romani People are being hunted like wild animals. This time in Italy and by fascist thugs with the authorities turning a blind eye. Or even, it might appear to, aiding and abetting the situation.
Once again, during an economic downturn, the Gypsy is seen as, and made to be, the scapegoat for the nation's ills and Berlusconi is exploiting it for all it is worth.
Italians still believe the myths of Gypsies stealing children and, it should not surprise me, as being the carriers of the plague, in the same way as they still believe, so I understand, the myths of Jews drinking blood, ideally the blood of Christian children. And this is Europe in the 21st century. One could be forgiven to think that we'd be in the Dark Ages still.
While so-called ethnic cleansing was supposedly going on in Kosovo against Albanians – and no such thing ever really happened, as the shoe was rather on the other foot – the European Union immediately had a rather big mouth and in the end intervened militarily.
When, however, there is real ethnic cleansing going on in an EU member state against the Gypsy minority, regardless of whether or not they are citizens of that particular country – they are citizens of one of the EU states – just some hot air is being waffled from one or the other special rapporteur and such kind of figure.
Then again, we must not forget that, aside from the fact that Italy is the father, basically, of fascism, it is one of the founders of the EU when it was still called the EEC, this same country also is advocating – with, it must be assumed, approval from Brussels, the erection of “solidarity villages” for Gypsy People well outside Rome, to enable the children to go to school and all that nice stuff, while at the same time the camps will be guarded by special anti-terrorist carabinieri and the “villages” are a minimum of, so I understand, 30km away from the nearest school.
What Italy is proposing there is concentration camps and nothing else, in the same way as the Czech Republic is, with Brussels not batting an eyelid, erecting Gypsy Ghettos. Welcome to the European Union, where all citizens are supposed to be free, as long as they are not Romani-Gypsy.
When will the time come that the Romani will understand that the European Union and its bodies is not the best thing since sliced bread for the Gypsy but is nothing but serious trouble.
The Gypsy Hunts that we are seeing presently in Italy could, unless the European bodies really are serious and do something about it, spread like wildfire through the countries of the EU, as anti-Gypsyism is rather rife in the great majority of countries, with the likes of Italy and Germany, not counting the new arrivals from the East, in the lead.
Then again, surprise? Not really, seeing that Italy and Germany both are the same countries where fascism had a very fertile ground, with Austria and Hungary, as well as Romania in addition to it.
Time for the Rom to wake up and to be prepared to defend themselves against such attacks, whether they be perpetrated against them by “just” thugs or with the express silent consent of the authorities, as it seems to be the case in Italy.
However, I assume that for simply suggesting a Romani Defense body of sorts I could be called up for incitement of violence while the real perpetrators would never be called. Therefore, I leave it to everyone's own decision.
Romani Nation Arise! You have nothing to lose but your chains!
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
New Pogroms against Gypsies in Italy (and soon elsewhere in the European Union?)
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
When I suggested that I was seeing the writing on the wall and could see new pogroms again Gypsies coming in the new Europe everyone told me I was being silly and that everything was so nice for us now and the EU was going to look after us having made us “ethnic” and protected.
Can you all see how well they protect our People?
I have heard Sinti in Italy saying, such as some of the Piedmontese, that the Sinti have nothing to worry about as this is only against the “bad” Roma, and all I can say to that is that they'd better have a close read of the poem by Pastor Niemoeller as to “first they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist”, etc. for if we do not act now and I do mean ACT now against the attacks by whoever then Sinti will be next.
As to the protection of our People by the EU – all I am seeing is that rather anyone doing anything they all remain rather silent and that silence shouts to heaven.
We all know that while the Molotov cocktails were thrown at the camp in Naples the very Carabinieri stood by and watched. Surprise – NOT!
If Europe does not control the fascism in Italy NOW it will continue to spread across the entire region. When it comes to the Gypsy, Europe has not yet learned the lesson of fascism and anti-Gypsyism is rife all over the place without anyone in authority doing anything about it. The next destination is Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, and then, and believe me it will happen, the rest of the European Union.
Let us not forget that in Hungary, one of the newer EU member states, the Arrow Cross has, basically, been resurrected and what does the rest of the European Union have to say about that? Very little to nothing.
One or the other more or less left-wing anti-fascist paper or broadcast channel speaks out against such happening but that is about it.
We must learn from others to fight for our rights and to stand up for them, rather than to go into hiding pretending to be Turks, or whatever; anything else but Gypsy. Anything else but Romani.
However, until the Romani People can stop fighting amongst themselves and the Roma stop thinking that they are better, which they are not, then we may get somewhere. Otherwise, maybe, the different groups have to go their own way and the Sinti groups, including the Romanichal and the Cale, all of which are NOT Roma, might have to do things for themselves alone. Not that that would be a bad idea, I am sure. None of the Sinti groups that I know, and none of their People, with the exception of some misguided souls, would ever wish to be addressed as “Roma”. They'd rather be called Gypsyp, Gitan, Cygan, or what-have-you; anything else but Roma.
While we are all Romani we are not all Roma and once we have actually gotten to that point then, maybe, we can actually get somewhere as to working together.
Mind you, we then would still have to overcome the latent laziness of the great majority of Roma in places such as Romania and Bulgaria, and the fact that they think that everything has to be done for them.
Until such a time that we can stand together in a proper way as Romani People, as the Romani Nation – and not the Roma Nation – then, and only then, will we be able to combat those attacks against us.
One thing we should not and cannot rely on and that is support from the Gadje. They never – with the exception of a small minority – have ever gotten over the anti-Gypsyism that is so ingrained in the psyche of the European person, and also those that went from Europe to other countries, such as the USA, Canada and even South America and other countries.
While Europe is more a problem as far as pogroms against Gypsy are concerned and, as I had predicted, they have started again and the USA and Canada may not be affected that way (who knows though if it may not spread to even there), the situation in the USA and Canada for the Romani People is not without problems either, and every time some scams are going around somewhere the warning by police that are issued will warn of “Gypsies”, at times even going so far as to say that, at other times such people are known as Romani or Traveller or Roma. And such things in this great country of freedom, as it likes to see itself.
Therefore, we the Romani People, must be aware and wary as to what is going on and we must be ready to act, but not to hide our ethnicity. If we keep hiding then we will never ever reach emancipation. We will remain marginalized and stigmatized, and also we will continue to be discriminated against.
We can do it but... first of all we need leaders that are prepared to lead without looking for financial, political or any other sort of gain and then... where are the soldiers...
I rest my case...
Until we, the People are prepared to stand up for ourselves and to do things for ourselves we are nothing and will never be nothing.
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Would the Roma movement disappear after George Soros? Is there someone else who will continue his mission? Have Roma organizations across the region understood the point?
The above are questions that have been raised recently by a Rom on some other place on the Web. And he continued to say that in his opinion, if we need to announce the messiah in the Roma movement that should be the initiator George Soros.
And the mission, he says, is passed on to Roma generations who continue their studies thanks to the scholarships, conferences, and seminars and the small fees they receive from projects.
The latter is more or less poppycock, in my view, as the seminars and conferences certainly have not and will not help the Romani cause one little bit.
However to the rest of what he said one can only say that, far from thinking Mr Soros to be the messiah of the Romani Movement and the saviour of the Romani People, would it not be a good idea if we, first of all, had a very close look as to who and what George Soros is. He is not, regardless what he and the OSI may claim, doing this out of the goodness of his heart. That is absolute bull dust, as the Australians would say. George Soros is a very shrewd operator and knows exactly what he is doing and he is using the Roman(ni) and the Decade of Roma Inclusion as a cover for other activities. When we uncover those we know what he is up to.
It is hard to believe, said the author of the open letter, the Rom mentioned, that the Roma movement is going to continue in the same manner after Soros, because an initiative needs self-sustaining internal initiatives. We neglect that because we are satisfied with what we have and what they give to us a good trait but not for a longer time.
This is where he has great insight and is saying what I have been saying for a long time, namely that the Eastern European Roma, especially the Vlax and the Balkan ones, (still) have a slave mentality, the “Uncle Tom” mentality that Ian Hancock once mentioned and that we have discussed previously. The attitude of being satisfied with the crumbs from the rich man's table and with the slave existence rather than to work themselves out of the quagmire.
But they are not prepared to do that and until they do so they are not worth even given any money or any other help to get on in the world. The problem is the People and their very attitude. They are not willing to get off their hands and get the finger out that is so deep inside themselves that their hands are nearly buried too, but they expect funds from European sources, from the UN, and from the likes of Soros for their self-advancement projects. More like money to be put into the pockets of the already filthy rich Buli Bahas, those self-made kings and emperors and tsars and exploiters of the People. Oh yes, and the Sinti in the West, such as in Germany and Austria have such exploiters too only they call them “judges”.
It is not just the Roma that sit on their behinds and nurse their fat bodies. No, the Sinti do the same, especially the so-called leaders, the “judges”, who hold sway in the same way as they be kings or emperors.
Those leaders talk big talk to the leaders of Europe as to this project for the advancement of the People and that, but very little if anything ever happens, whether among the Sinti in the West or the Roma in the East, not even with the Decade of Roma Integration. We are now many years into that decade and what has been achieved. I mean what has been achieved in real terms. I do not mean how much money has been wasted on stupid language projects and the establishment of the Romani Esperanto and such like. I mean what has been done to get the Roma, and Sinti, but then again the latter were never in the equation as the decade was ONLY for the Roma and then only for the Roma in Eastern Europe.
Still no one cottoning on as to what Papa Soros is doing. He is working, purportedly, for the Roma in the countries of the former Soviet Bloc – with the exception, as I can see it in Russia itself – and is getting very strong political influence in those countries, such as in Romania, Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia, and other former USSR satellites, as all his money for projects – which is, basically, given to the state where the project is, comes with strings attached. Strings that give Soros influence, political influence and power, in those countries. So, ask yourselves, “what is Papa Soros up to?” While he may be pretending to help the Roma he is, in fact, working on something entirely different, all the while using the Romani People as a front.
Can we ever get the Romani to do things for themselves and the answer here is that while this may be possible for those in the West, but even there it seems to be a very limited affair as they seem to be hellbent on calling Gadje do-gooders in again and again who usurp everything and then try to channel things the way they, the Gadje, think things should be, it seems to be very impossible with regards to the Rom in the East.
Self-help groups and livelihood projects are not rocket science and do not need people with degrees in writing and degrees in business studies. It needs members of the People who know what's what and what's needed and some of the People with vision. The only visions the majority, however, seem to have, are those induced by substance abuse, whether alcohol, drugs or the sniffing of glue. Even when someone from the People comes along and makes suggestions for self-help, even if this be only that they look after their homes better and fix leaking roofs themselves rather than getting everything wet and waiting for this or that charity to come along, no one wants to listen and has every excuse under the sun. And I am not just referring to Roma in the eastern European nations.
Then we have the great majority who, while being well aware of the fact that they are Romani will hide under different ethnicities, as I have said already so many times, and then those that, while they could get involved in assisting in self-help and livelihood projects as they have some spare cash or such, they also deny their ancestry in such instances.
The most important part of the Romani self-emancipation is learning from those who have done it, be those the American Blacks or the Native Americans or the Aborigines of Australia or the Maori of Aotore, and as they have done, remembering that they are Gadje, and do it without the White Man, without the Gadjo.
Human rights in Europe, thousands of strategies, documents and hundreds of Roma Decades are only slogans if you do not understand that you will need to learn to articulate yourself and especially no just use your voice but your own hands and heads to do the work instead of sitting their demanding this and that to be done for you.
Not only the Roma are at fault in this. No, the Sinti too, and the Romanichals in the UK too.
Therefore, instead of celebrating April 8, Roma Day, and to have all those lovely congresses and other gabfests, and to play this “Roma, Gypsy and Traveller History Month” in the UK – how can you in the first place do that as at least one of the groups mentioned there has not the same history and culture and do the Rom, the Gypsy? – the so-called leaders should work with the people and teach them how to raise their voices high enough when presenting their opinion for integration and against discrimination against Rom in Europe and elsewhere.
Then again, as I have said before, I someone of the People comes along with a vision or more than one vision as to way of emancipating ourselves and getting our own representation working he or she gets shot down in flames by the leaders and also by many of the People because that would be work to do things for themselves. They demand that the Gadje give them this, that or the other, but never seem to be able and prepared to do things for themselves. Even if you, as a Rom, do things for them; things that you have laid out money for and offer it to them, basically, for free they still are not prepared to take it up for, as I have been told myself on more that one occasion, they cannot believe that someone would be prepared to do this or that without expecting to be paid for it somehow. Therefore they always believe that somewhere, while one says that one does it for free, one gets money for it. I assume they do thus believe for they would never be prepared to do anything for the People for nothing.
No document, strategy, or policy is not a purpose of its own if its background does not represent the politics of power and might, supported by the voice of the PEOPLE.
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
News Release
Recently founded, IRMA, the International Romani Media Association is open to all Romani People working in the Media, whether in print, digital print or other.
IRMA is intended as an accredited body for those Romani journalists who do not get their primary income from their writing/media activities; those that other organizations refuse to accept into membership, and here especially the Bloggers of Romani origin.
Membership is open to all journalists. Editors, and other working in the Media who are of Romani origin/ancestry, be they full-blood, poshrat or didikai.
There is no joining fee and there are also no membership dues to pay though any donations are most welcome to help with the administration costs and the issuance of the photo ID cards.
IRMA aims, over time if not before, to be/become the NUJ equivalent for Romani journalists and other media personnel though the publications the individuals are writing for/working on do not – necessarily – have to Romani related or Romani owned.
Applications for membership in International Romani Media Association can be made via the web presence of the organization on MEDIA ASSOCIATION FOR ROMANI JOURNALISTS
News Release
Recently founded, IRMA, the International Romani Media Association is open to all Romani People working in the Media, whether in print, digital print or other.
IRMA is intended as an accredited body for those Romani journalists who do not get their primary income from their writing/media activities; those that other organizations refuse to accept into membership, and here especially the Bloggers of Romani origin.
Membership is open to all journalists. Editors, and other working in the Media who are of Romani origin/ancestry, be they full-blood, poshrat or didikai.
There is no joining fee and there are also no membership dues to pay though any donations are most welcome to help with the administration costs and the issuance of the photo ID cards.
IRMA aims, over time if not before, to be/become the NUJ equivalent for Romani journalists and other media personnel though the publications the individuals are writing for/working on do not – necessarily – have to Romani related or Romani owned.
Applications for membership in International Romani Media Association can be made via the web presence of the organization on http://rom-media.blogspot.com via the comments facilities, which are not public.
© International Romani Media Assoc – May 2008
Bluetooth leaves you open to intercept by anyone
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
If you are concerned about your civil liberties and privacy then it may come as a shock to you to discover that you may have, unwittingly, been allowing your phone to signal your every move to the great wide world, including your communications.
Bluetooth, which is, as most will know, a wireless link built into many mobile telephones, makes our movements trackable by anyone equipped with a PC and an appropriate receiver. And this means ANYONE, not just the security services and the police, if that would not already be bad enough. Anyone, as the word says, can listen in and track where you are if they have the right equipment.
Vassilis Kostakos at the University of Bath in the UK placed four Bluetooth receivers in the city's centre. Over four months, his team tracked 10,000 Bluetooth phones and was able to "capture and analyse people's encounters" in pubs, streets and shops.
Bluetooth is now more of a privacy threat than the more frequently publicised RFID chips, Kostakos says. "If people are worried, they should turn off the Bluetooth function on their mobile phones."
Not everything, as we can, yet again see, that is supposedly good for us, is so.
“Oh, but without my 'Bluetooth' I cannot make phone calls on the move”, I hear some complain. “Can we not just make those things safer?”
Well, we probably could and could add encryption, if you, the consumer, is willing to pay the high costs then.
What is wrong with safely stopping your car, motorbike or your bicycle, to take or make that call? Also, no call is that important that it cannot wait until you get to a safe location where to return the call or make a call.
If you are concerned about your privacy, as said, turn the Bluetooth function off. While it may be something that can and does make life easier it also, yet again, is something that can be used to invade our privacy and to spy on us.
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In my opinion, but then most of your regular readers will know that already, practical recycling, that is to say, turning items of “trash”, whether discarded by yourself or by others, into usable goods, must come well before the commercial recycling.
Then again this kind of recycling also can make for the creation of, hopefully, saleable items, thereby becoming commercial, but not in the way of the commercial grand scale recycling of the reclaiming secondary raw materials is.
Champagne Cork Peg Board (Coat Rack).
This is a project that happened to result out of the fact that I once worked in a catering establishment where such corks were in abundance and they ended up thrown away after events and functions and, thinking that there might be a use for them though which I did not know at the particular time, I took a number of them with me to see what might come to mind some day.
One day then, without much thinking about it, a peg board come coat rack came to mind as I wanted to make one for some reason and I remembered the champagne corks. Having a board to hand it took but a few minutes, literally, to have a working peg board/coat rack to go onto the wall.
Ingredients:
- A number of champagne corks (real cork or pressed cork)
- Equal number of long wood screws (normal slot is better than Phillips)
- A nice wooden plank as a back board (this could be salvaged skirting, floorboard or from a pallet)
First of prepare the back board. This may mean, if need and you wish to do so, sanding and oiling (using vegetable oil), after having drilled the two holes that will be used as to wherewith to affix the board to the wall by means of screws. The rest, then, is a simple as ABC. Screw screw into cork slowly and precise into the previously marked peg locations and once they have all been screwed in – voila – one peg board or coat rack.
Apart from the screws (unless they be salvaged too – and this is possible) there should be no financial layout for this project. However, properly promoted, this could be something that a livelihood project could make.
Idea & Design © Michael Smith (Veshengro), 2001-2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Warwickshire County Councillor recently stated on the radio that, while the county was in need of more Gypsy site that those need to be properly built and properly controlled by the Council.
In other words, what the councillor is saying is “no Gypsy-owned and Gypsy-run private caravan sites”, as the one recently attempted near the former home of government minister Tessa Jowell.
While I would not condone the actions taken by the, apparently, Romany who have set up camp there and are building a caravan site it would appear that time and again this seems to be the message that is being sent out. If Gypsies (and Travellers) want to make their own provisions for sites of their own, even to such an extent of purchasing a proper caravan site as was, as I understand, the case with the Cordona family some years back in Bedfordshire, the authorities then go to all lengths to stop such private sites, even by claiming that a once 24/7 all year round residential trailer park becomes a “change of use” if it is turned into a Gypsy Caravan Site. Duh? So, in other words, when is a residential caravan site not a residential caravan site? When it is turned into a Gypsy Site, apparently. A brilliant excuse and move of goalpost.
The reasons behind this here appears to be to fulfill a quota now, once again, set by central government, namely to put up that and that many pitches for Gypsies and Travellers in an area, as now housing provisions for Gypsies and Travellers seem to have been made a requirement for councils again.
This means that council must provide a set number of plots and obviously do not want interference by the Gyppo here and do not want the people to set up their own sites. Where would we come to if we would allow that now? We would have no control of who lives there and we would get no rent income.
On a private site the council has very little, if anything, to say about who lives there, unlike on an official council site and, as I said, they have also no income from such as site by way of rent; only council tax. It is, however, in the main, I am convinced, a case of wanting to have control over the wayward Gyppo. Gyppo can't be allowed to do his own thing now. What would the world be coming to if that would be allowed.
A privately owned Gypsy site could, for instance, exclude Irish Travellers and therefore prevent the enforced mixing of the groups in an attempt to promote the false idea of a common traveller culture. There is no such things as anything in common as far as Culture goes between the Romani and the Irish Traveller. But this “common traveller culture” is all part of the bigger plan to remove the ethnic Gypsy from the statute book.
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
Livelihood Projects for the Romani People
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Before, and I know I have said that many times already, we even think of recycling, even practical recycling, that is to say making something “new” out of an item of “trash” we must think “reduce” and before that even “reduce”.
However, practical recycling should be something that should be thought about before we even go and put something into the recycling bin to be then going through a process of reprocessing and such.
Such practical recycling can be a possible source of income for the unwaged – the jobless – and kids even.
This kind of works has, in time past, always been a source – and the stress here is firmly on the letter “a” – source of income for Gypsy families.
Entire (Community) Livelihood Projects and Programs have been and are being set up around direct practical recycling, making goods for sale from discarded materials and items.
When we speak here of “practical recycling” we are not talking about gathering recyclables for resale to reprocessors and such nor of reprocessing recyclables into secondary raw materials but we are talking about using the refuse from which to make useful goods, for personal use, as gifts, or even, and especially so, for sale, like done by livelihood projects in a variety of countries.
While the majority of such livelihood projects are found in the developing world, that part of the world that, until not so long ago, was called the “Third World”, I can see no reason why something like that could not also work say in the UK, the USA, or such.
When, for instance, it comes to recycling advertising tarpaulin banners and such those too can be found in our countries and I am almost certain that here they go landfill site route and are not recycled.
Therefore, while there may not be such an ample supply of such tarps as there may be in the Philippines where Trashe Bolsas operates and maybe not of the same or similar large sizes, it would still be possible to work projects around reworking such tarps as are found in countries such as the UK into new goods, like it is done by Trashe Bolsas, but possibly smaller items, such as belt pouches, cellphone pouches, business card wallets, etc. The list, I am sure, is limited only by our imagination.
This is, I am sure, also one of many otherwise discarded materials that can be reworked in such and similar ways and manners and again it is only our imagination or lack of same that may restrict as to what can be reworked and how.
I am certain that, if we all look at trash in a different way and with different eyes as the majority of the population does then we could get a number of little industries started making goods that people will want to buy. Firstly, they want to buy those goods because of the fact that they are recycled and that they come from a self-help group but they should also want to do so because, especially, those goods are of high quality and are made locally.
For the Romani practical recycling such as this give the opportunity for many small industries where they can work for themselves and it is something where the entire family can get involved.
The making of bags and such from tarps, as done by Trashe Bolsas, for instance, is but an example. There are many other things that too can be recycled into saleable goods, from wire, over leather, to what-have-you.
As previously said, the only limit, I am sure, that will be there will be set by our imagination or the lack of it, whichever the case may be.
Now, let's open our eyes and our minds and get some self-help work started and let us, by such means, get away from the dependency culture and trap that seems to be surrounding the Romani.
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
What surprises me time and again the the fact that the Rom, and I do include in the term Rom all Romani Groups, do not appear to be willing, in the great majority, to help themselves; whether economically nor in any other way.
Other groups of people, whether the Native Americans, poor people in South Africa, the Philippines and others, everywhere establish co-ops and (community) livelihood projects, while most Romanies, especially the Roma in Eastern Europe, sit on their backsides and women and children beg and steal and scavenge, for food even, on the municipal rubbish tips. It would appear that they simply have no pride and no self-respect whatsoever.
But we have trodden this path before and berated them by means of articles and essays and I very much doubt that there is much more that can be said on this matter to get them motivated.
So, let us, therefore, concentrate on looking at some ideas for self-help projects for those that might want to make a change in and to their lives and that of their families and clans and seek some solutions that may fit.
There is not going to be one solution that is going to fit all situations and circumstances, but I am sure that there is at least one solution for every problems and then some. Such solutions, however, do not drop, as by parachute, from the sky. Thinking, lateral thinking often, is required in order to come up with such ideas or to adapt existing solutions and then to implement them.
There are some, it would appear, though, that have to have every idea handed to them on a plate and then they still will reject each and every one of them with comments such as that the solutions are not properly tailored for the needs of the Romani People or have not been discussed with the People, etc. Excuses, always excuses, and more often than not the same excuses and made by the same so-called “leaders”.
There are ideas for livelihood projects and such like that can be found in various places and countries and it should be possible and will be possible to adapt and adjust most of them to, in one way or another, fit a situation and circumstances in which Romani find themselves and from which they seek an escape. While the example of Trashe Bolsas from the Philippines is one that could, I am sure be adapted, it may not necessarily will be or even have to be in using tarpaulins such as those used by this group. However, many Rom in Eastern Europe, as I said, scavenge, or at least their women and children, for it would appear that the men are just too proud and lazy to do such menial work, on the refuse dumps and I am sure that that is where some such recycling projects could be brought to life.
When I was a youngster we did a lot of such kind of work, that is to say, recycling. Not that the word had even been invented then. We made things from discarded fence wire, for instance, such as BBQ forks, toasting forks, and other things; from old nails, from old knives; everything we made, basically, went for sale door-to-door or and especially on local markets.
Others made pegs, clothespins and tent pegs, etc. while we also recycled old leather goods into new stuff and and uncle of mine, for instance, and his group, made a living, and a good living, of picking up other people's cast offs, such as furniture items, and restoring them for sale.
Those are a few examples from those days which still can have a value today. Yes, even the making of pegs, for on the right kind of markets they, yet again, fetch good prices.
When it comes to the “green” sector, especially, that is to say the recycling and refurbishing of stuff, the possibilities are there to do it and to make money from it. Versatility is also a requirement, which is to say to be able to do more than one thing in such ventures.
Presently we are told that plastic bags will soon be a thing of the past and the things of the past need to come out again when we go shopping. That is to say that we – and not just we but everyone – will need to have “cloth” shopping bags again and many places now sell the cotton, fair trade cotton even at times, tote bags. However, they are newly manufactured and whether fair trade cotton or not, it still is a drain on the natural resources. There we come again to the recycling co-ops of, maybe, Romani groups. The material could be old clothes, such as jeans, and other cotton or even synthetic material – we are recycling after all – that can be recycled into a variety of shopping bags, totes and others. The only limitation is set my the mind and to a small degree by the material(s).
The possibilities for the Romani to help themselves though their own co-ops and livelihood projects is there and I have tried to present a few small ideas here without actually writing the blueprint for such projects. There is no “one solutions fits all” and therefore there is scope for everyone to come up with ideas. So, let's do it!
© M Smith (Veshengro), April 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The entire world, especially, but not only, the countries of the developed world, are on about the need for everyone to recycle.
Before the word “recycling” (and those related to it) was ever even invented it was the Gypsy who was doing just that, namely recycling and such. Reclaiming materials, and not just metals, was a main activity for many Gypsy families and clans. Who were the majority of those that went about with horse and cart or even handcart calling “any old iron” and calling for rags and old bones even, the so-called “rag and bone men” or the “totters”. They were of Romani origin in the great majority and it was not only the menfolks that did this tasks.
Then this trade was stopped; the calling around the country was basically outlawed. The picking on the municipal dumps was outlawed and handed to the “professional pickers”. What was the result? Guess what? Suddenly we have a problem. What a surprise – NOT! And now everyone is clamouring for it. Recycling is the slogan everywhere. It was the Gypsy who first took scrap, took other people's trash, and turned it into resalable items again, whether the knives that many made from old knives or other things. More often than not it was not just “reclaiming” the metals and other items; often it was restoring and refurbishing the items for resale. This was anything from furniture to machinery, and many other items in between and later up to electrical goods. Fence wire was turned into the likes of toasting forks, barbecue forks, and many other items. Old knives were reworked into new ones, blade grade steel was made into knives and other cutting tools, and we could get on and on.
Now everyone is trying to do the same and then again it is not the same. While the practical recycling that was done by the Gypsy the industrial recycling, to some degree, to me at least, seems to be less good for the Planet. The impact of energy and factories and such is adding to the environmental footprint of us and those companies. Then again, rather have the material, obviously, recycled in such a fashion instead of it going into landfills.
But there are many aspects of recycling that could be done, yet again, in the way the old Gypsy did. All we need to do is to adapt to the materials. Entire community livelihood projects and programs could be set up for Romani communities to do recycling and there is a market out there for the right quality of recycled goods, made in a way as it was done before.
I know that there are some modern “totters” out there of the Romani community but most of them are only looking to pick up and carry scrap metal to this or that dealer. If we talk scrap metal then we should take it all the way.
What do I mean with taking it all the way? I mean that we should disassemble, say, vehicles and ourselves sell the parts reclaimed as secondhand spares. However, my real issue in this article is for ours to return to doing “recycling crafts” that can be sold locally and further afield. Many families and clans could be gainfully employed – by themselves – in recycling and refurbishing those things that others, especially the general public, throw out. There is also commercial waste available that could be used in such ventures, such as canvass and tarpaulin from manufacturers that use such materials, as well as, and especially, the material that has been used and would, otherwise, end up in the landfill. Time we got and did it again; we did it before. The only difference, nowadays, would be that the materials are different.
© M Smith (Veshengro), April 2008
Dogs and cats do not belong in kitchen and bedroom
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
British veterinary scientists have told the general public in a report of April 2008 that they should not allow dogs and cats into kitchens, as dogs and cats carry food poison bacteria, and many other pathogens, including the MRSA virus, the often called “super bug”.
Now who would have thought that, after all, the Rom, who have had it as part of their cleanliness rules, their Mokadi Law, for ever and day that dogs and cats have no place inside the home and cited was always contamination, would be proven right. And yes, I am sarcastic here. We, the Rom, and our Elders and our Ancestors from ages past, have know well before the Gadje that dogs and cats carry diseases. While the Gadje had all their livestock and dogs and cats in their homes during the pestilences in the middle ages the Rom, in their wagon and tents never allowed dogs (and other livestock) inside and hence never seem to succumb to the plagues and pestilences. Hence the claim by the powers that be, in order to have a reason to act again the Gypsy that the Gypsy were in league with the devil (and our name for God sure did not help their one bit) and that the Gypsy were spreading the diseases while they themselves were not affected by them. The simple fact, however, is that the fleas, which carry the plague, for instance, did not have time to get too close to the Rom.
This is, yet again, more proof that rather than superstition and such the Law of Mokadi are well thought out and we would do well to adhere to them, still and especially in this day and age. The MRSA virus, as we keep hearing, for instance, because of so many people catching it in hospitals, is basically resistant to most antibiotics and could, therefore, be fatal. Best to go back to the Old Ways and definitely keep the furry pets outside, where they, after all, belong.
The Mokadi Law still is as valid, as said before, as it was in the old days though there are some aspects that are claimed to be part of this ancient Law by some that I am beginning to doubt that they ever were part of it, such as the ban on our People becoming medical practitioners of all kinds. We do need doctors, nurses, dentists, paramedics and others of Gypsy origin simply because only our own can treat those of the Rom with the respect demanded by our Culture and Traditions and as we do not want to teach those to medical staff we simply must have our own. Ideally, we need more than just our own doctors here and there and in hospitals but that is still some way off.
While there are some things that are claimed to be part of the Mokadi Law that may have been added to it at some stage for reasons unknown the points that make lots of sense, and that proven again and again must remain for sure.
It would seem that it might be a good idea for the Rom to look at the Mokadi Law with new eyes in the realization that medical science now realizes those things that our Ancient Ones knew ages ago.
While it may be, in today's age where we have the likes of chlorine bleach and other such chemicals for sterilizing, that the time may be passed to having to throw away and break a cup or a plate that has fallen onto the floor in the house or trailer (strangely enough often items fallen onto the earth were not regarded as defiled). But then again, I don't know. It is so ingrained with me that I still do such things and I do not think that that will change.
© M Smith (Veshengro), April 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While Europe may not be the Philippines and we may not have those advertising tarpaulins available for making bags and such like as are being used by Trashe Bolsas (we shall be hearing lots more about that project in due course in the pages of this journal and others of Tatchipen Media), for instance, many Rom do scavenge on the rubbish tips, mostly and especially in Eastern Europe.
Nowhere, however, do there seem to be any recycling community livelihood projects – or other community livelihood projects – by Rom for Rom in existence. It would appear, as far as most of the Roma, at least, are concerned self-help and work is not on the agenda and both would appear to be dirty words in their vocabulary. They rather like to have women and children beg and steal on the streets and worse even, it would appear; e.g. have little boys and girls “sold” for sordid activities. This is no imagination for we have encountered those acts now even in the West.
The Gypsy Union and especially the Romani Institute are currently studying feasibilities as to what could be suggested by way of such projects to the greater community and one that could loosely be termed to be one is the recently launched and founded organization “IRMA”, the International Romani Media Association. This organization is for all Romani writers and journalists who may find it difficult to get accredited by and for professional bodies as they do not make their primary income from their writing or journalistic/media activities. While IRMA does not provide work nor promise and guarantee work for members, and therefore, probably, could not be seen as a community livelihood project per se it is also not claimed to be one. All the International Romani Media Association – IRMA – does is try to become a recognized professional body of journalists, other writers and other media personnel of Romani origin, and is intended as a definite self-help project, in the same way as is the RFA, the Romani Foresters' Association.
We have to help ourselves and do things and provide things for ourselves and this must include community livelihood projects and co-ops.
We cannot and must not just sit back and hope that someone will come along and do this and that for us like I have seen it with the Rom in the countries of Eastern Europe and yes, predominately amongst Roma, where the men sit about all day long, mostly, with a few exceptions, play cards, drink coffee and whatever else, and the women and children are our begging, choring and/or scavenging on the rubbish tips and such. They even did not get up and repair a leaky roof or a tumbledown wall, or whatever such on their own dwellings. Their excuse was that the authorities had to do that for them or they were waiting for this or that charity to come and do it. Or like those where the entire neighborhood around their houses was strewn with garbage and litter which they simply threw out of the windows and off the balconies of their apartments and they demanded that the municipality came to collect this rubbish, while they never thought that they would have to pay for the service.
When it comes to “job creation” the story also is always the same: we want this or that NGO – like Open Society Institute, as example here for many – to some and do this or that for us, and the same with community centers, etc. Why do we need to have some Gadje organization do it for us?
The problem would appear that the majority of Rom, especially the mushes, do not even want to do any work, and particular not, it would appear, with their hands. Yes, I do know that there are exceptions, but...
Am I the only one who is getting fed up with the mentality of the great majority of our Romanies – and I do include all of our People here now, including Sinti, Cale, Romanichals, Manush, the lot – of wanting things done for them and ideally for nothing. When are ours going to get their finger out of the orifice where they seem to have parked it and actually do things for themselves, Rom for Rom, by Rom for Rom and not done for us by the Gadje who then want to keep control over what we do.
Also for other reasons we must do things for ourselves, and we must work for ourselves, to bring in a living for ourselves and our families. Community Livelihood Projects, set us as co-operatives by Rom for Rom can be a help there in areas where there is no other means of earning a livelihood. We must get away from the slave mentality of dependency on handouts. That dependency can also be found amongst Romanies in countries other than those of Eastern Europe even, unfortunately.
Time for a change, a major change, methinks. There have always been those groups that earned a more or less honest living with their own hands and then, it would appear, there have always been those amongst the Romani, who appear to be in the majority in the countries of the former Com-Bloc, who rather send their women and chavies to mong and chor rather than themselves doing an honest day's work.
We all know the excuse they will throw about amongst them the favorite and much recycled one about Rom not (being allowed to) work for employers and also that Rom are not allowed to employ other Rom and all such, for lack of a better word, garbage. Therefore, they probably also would not be able to do any work in such “Community Livelihood Projects” even if they fell out of the sky with all the ideas and all that. They might be working (for a Rom) despite the fact that most should really be working for themselves and their families in a co-operative.
The dependency culture of the Romani People, that of the great majority, has to be put a stop to. It is, as I already said, not just present in the countries of the former Com-Bloc – though it seems to be rather deep seated there and I know that some would like to put it down to the fact that the Roma were slaves until the late 19th century in countries such as Romania – but it can also be found in other countries with a well-developed welfare system, such as Germany, the UK, and others. While it is no less better in countries such as the USA where such state welfare is not, necessarily, as easily available. Too many just sit there and expect things to happen. Life does not work like that and scam jobs too have no future. They should never ever have had a past either. I was taught by my Elders to give high quality and value for many service so that we would be welcomed back again and again in those villages and neighborhoods. Scamming does no one any good, least of all the one who perpetrates such scams.
Dosta penauas again, mandi djins... just to add a “let's get up and do it”...
© M Smith (Veshengro) & Tatchipen Media, April 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Kings of all Gypsies, such as Cioba, Kwiek, et al - Emperor of all Gypsies, such as Cioba's relation, and others - Judges who oppress the People rather than know anything about the Romani Laws and last, but not least, Pastors (shepherds – I think not) of the Pentecostalist and other “Christian” Missions - All do their part in damaging the Romani People.
We do not have Kings and such lord it over us, used to be the great scream amongst the People to those that would claim that this or that person was a Gypsy King or a Gypsy Queen with power over the People and, truthfully, we, at least the Sinti and Cale, have NEVER ever have had Kings, Emperors and such like. We have had Judges, the Rakepaskros, the Rechtsprecher, and Shero Roms, but none of those of today even deserve the name and title of either of those, with the exception, maybe, of one or the other Sherengro, or Shero Rom. They make judgments based on anything but the Romani Laws, for most would not know the Romani Laws even if they bit them; they turn women into slaves, which our women never were (in fact the women ruled rather more than did the men), and keep the People in total ignorance.
Rom Society once was, in the background, matriarchal and while the men led as Shero Roms or Judges, the old mother, the Puri Deia held the true reigns and it was her word that was law in the end and not that of Judges and Shero Roms. Women (and children) in many groups were the main breadwinners, as it was the women and the children who went into the streets, door-to-door, or onto the markets to hawk the goods produced, whether wooden pegs of all kinds, wooden flowers, lace, knives, and others.
The only men who worked the “calling circuits” were the knife grinders and the rag and bone men, and the tinkers.
Not only the men did made the wooden crafts, such as clothespins, tent pegs, wooded flowers, etc.; the majority of our womenfolk and children did too.
In the 20th century, however, and here especially after WWII, it would seem, this was turned upside down in mainland Europe, and here especially amongst the Sinti groups in Germany, Austria, France, and the Cale in Spain. The Roma, it has to be noted, always seem to have had this male dominated attitude.
The Catalan Gypsies, probably due to the influences of the Mediterranean “culture” also have this attitude of suppressing and oppressing their women. I actually assume that this may also be the reason for that attitude also amongst the Cale of Spain, e.g. the culture of male domination of Catholicism and the Mediterranean per se.
With friends like these, who needs enemies.
Kings, Emperors & Tsars
Roma Leader predicts crime wave to swamp EU
In a statement of August 7, 2006 the head of Bulgaria's Roma community Tsar Kiro has warned a crime wave will sweep Great Britain and the rest of EU member states, when the country joins the union.
The Rom certainly need no enemies when they have “leaders” such as this and while “Tsar” Kiro may be right as to a great number of his “folks” being involved in crime – and what precisely is he doing about it – this immediately says, once again, to the outside world that Roma = Gypsy = criminal.
What we were seeing here, however, was a rather blatant attempt in blackmail. Namely saying to the EU, though not in exactly those selfsame words, “give me money and I will ensure that my people will not flood your countries”.
The truth is that while some Bulgarian, Romanian and other East European Roma have ended up on the British streets and, I should assume, the streets of other EU member states, it was hardly a flood as predicted by the likes of Tsar Kiro or the British gutter press.
In addition to this we have things like this below, again in a short extract from a media report:
Romanian Gypsy royalty embroiled in leadership struggle
It is in Romania that you will meet the Gypsy elite, like Florin Cioaba. He is a politician, a businessman, a preacher - and wait there's more - because he is also His Royal Highness, the King of the Roma.
But the King of the Roma is not the only monarch in the neighbourhood.
Just around the corner, barely half a kilometre down the road, there is another ruler to meet, a man who claims to be the real leader of the Gypsies.
He is the self-declared Emperor of all Roma Everywhere - Iulian Radulescu.
Oh dear! Now the Romanian Roma have two buli bashas pretending to be their “leader” and being their slave masters, for that, for sure, is what those are, slave masters, keeping the grassroots of the Rom in bondage. “King” Cioba on one side and “Emperor” Radulescu on the other, the latter claiming to be the “emperor of all Roma everywhere”. Both the “king” and the “emperor” are only after filling their pockets on the back of the poor Roma who they think are their subjects, their serfs, by exploiting them through loan sharkery and by applying for EU (and other funding) for mostly non-existent Roma projects. We all know how good “king” Ion was in all this and I doubt that “king” Florin is any worse in soliciting funds this way. Nice to live in a palace while one's “subjects” have to make do with cardboard shacks on refuse tips.
The Romanian Roma have but exchanged slavery to Church and feudal lords to slavery to the buli bashas, the likes of the Ciobas. The communist governments in both Romania and Bulgaria used and aided and abetted the buli basha system as a means of controlling the Roma and was but a follow on to the Roma being serfs after slavery and the Roma, so used to being oppressed and told what to do just exchanged this for the modern slavery to the buli bashas, the kings and emperors of all Gypsies. The Black slaves in America also needed someone like ML King to come along before they came out of their “Uncle Tom” attitude and do something in order to liberate themselves.
While some of us keep preaching, though not being in Church, this writer definitely not, of a dream for the Romani, much like ML King had for the Blacks in America, the People, unlike the American Blacks, seem to, in the majority, rather content to moan and groan but still allow those leaches to suck their blood. And those leaches are not Gadje, are not the “Whites”; no, those leaches are Rom themselves.
Time to rise up and throw off the fetters that bind us, Brothers and Sisters and leave those royals (lol) to fend for themselves. What have you got to lose but your chains of slavery. Yes, Roma of the East and Sinti in Germany, you still are slaves to your various kings, emperors and judges.
Pastors
Worst of all, and I will touch on this here but briefly, is the slavery that so many of ours have put themselves into more or less voluntarily, namely that of the “evangelical” churches and the Pentecostal missions. This is all but a delusion. But willingly they allow the pastors and elders, the latter who are often younger than many of them members of the congregation, to lord it over them and tel them who they can associate with and who not. And this from a people who always claim to have Freedom as their Religion.
I rest my case...
© M Smith (Veshengro), April 2008
“Ueber die Sprache der Zigeuner – Eine grammatische Skizze” (“About the Language of the Gypsies – A Grammatical Sketch”) is the title of a book from the early 19th century by Alfred Graffunder, who was a School Inspector. The book was published in 1835 and proves that Sinti never saw the language as secret and having to be kept away from others, as is claimed now by the so-called “judges” and “elders”. Another way of making oneself a laughingstock is all I can say to that. The posting of a link to this book, provided as a facsimile by Google, has already caused controversy on a forum for and by Sinti in Germany where the moderators removed both the link to the downloadable book and also the comment of the poster and the one by this writer.
With material like this in the public realm, material that was, like in the same time in the UK, freely given to researchers, Gadje researchers – everyone knew they were Gadje – how can the Sinti “judges” in Germany and such places continue to claim that the language was secret and was always guarded, on pain of expulsion, and never ever transmitted to outsiders. This is sheer and absolute stupidity in the same was as the “Dadeske vast” garbage that denies so many of our People their Birthright. Let's stop being stupid just for once.
This probably was/is not the first book on the language of the Sinti in Germany, and those were Sinti for the “me hom” is Sintitikes and not Romanes from the Roma, and this was neither the last book on the Chib, with information freely given by clans far and wide. During the time of this book and also in later times it was common for researchers to be given access to the language by Sinti in Germany and elsewhere on the European and Romanichals in Britain alike and many books were written on the “Language of the Gypsies” and this includes the famous “Sampson” study on the language on the Romanichal/Kale in Wales. Notwithstanding that a lot of what Sampson did conclude is utter baloney, e.g. the origin of words, it proves that here no one had an attitude of secrecy of the language and that was the same case, so it would appear from books that were published about the Sinti language, amongst the Sinti in Germany and other parts. So, from whence cometh the notion of the secrecy of the Chib and also the other notions that those “judges” (those who are not fit to even bear such a title) come up with? It is all something in order for them to appear big and something to lord over the People.
The truth will out, as they say, and it is no good, for instance, to remove links to such information posted by a well-known Sinto in Germany and any comments to such links and informations. The longer we perpetuate those lies that this or that was this or that when it was not the longer we will be perceived as liars and cheats by the general public.
While such forum moderators, hiding behind their web anonymity, and so-called “judges” have statements put out to which, when one asks questions as to who they are and such, one gets short and shrift and have one's questions removed from such forums, our People, and especially here the Sinti of Germany (and Austria) can never be seen as honest and open. In the same way when they want to declare someone as outcast because he has the title doctor, under which they immediately accuse him of being a doctor of medicine. And even if it were so; we need our own medical doctors, instead of going to Gadje doctors who then do not know how to treat us, in regards to our cultural aspects, and we then moan because they do not treat us right in that respect. While, at the same time, we are also, those Sinti “judges”, not prepared to let the medical profession (and others) know of any special requirements that we have as regards Culture. Oh no, it is said, we could not possibly do that. Well, then you have to suffer the con sequences and cannot complain, whether you are not treated with respect as far as our Culture is concerned and our Traditions and also as regards to other aspects. You cannot have it both ways. Better get used to it.
This book is available, as said, as a facsimile, from Google but, due to the fact that someone so nicely removed the link I could not even, if I wanted to, make it available as a link to anyone. However, because has been photographed rather than retyped, as would have been done by Project Gutenberg, some of the writing is not too easy to read either. Therefore it is also not possible to reproduce it as a text file.
Tatchipen Media shall, however, in due course, attempt rework this into typeface proper and then turn it into an e-book. A translation from the German into English shall also be done in due course, which shall be an exact translation, with all the bias of the time that we also find in the original German.
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) © April 2008
Open racist stereotyping in the media, denial of ethnic minority rights and political scapegoating – those are all rather far too common experiences of Gypsies and Travellers across Britain today, according to a meeting between MPs and community members on Tuesday 18th March 2008.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gypsy and Traveller Law Reform (APPG) met with members and partners of the National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups (NFGLG) on Tuesday morning at the House of Commons. The meeting was co-organised by NFGLG, the charity European Dialogue, and representatives from key government departments were also present.
Underpinning the policy debate was the recognition that Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers continue to face open and severe discrimination in Britain today. At a time when such a strong focus lies on building a cohesive society to integrate all of the diverse communities which make up Britain, it appears that the Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers – communities who have been living here for centuries – are still being left aside. They continue to face a barrier of racism which British multi-cultural society has yet to tackle effectively.
Community representatives pointed out that negative stereotyping of Gypsies and Travellers is frequent in the media, particularly in the local press. It is also not uncommon for politicians to use local Traveller issues in order to gain leverage with local voters – a practice which would be considered unacceptable in relation to any other ethnic group. The Chairman of the Local Government Association Gypsy and Traveller Task Group, Councillor Richard Bennett suggested that an all-party concordat be drawn up to ensure that local elections would never be fought on these issues in the future.
Several members of the community called for a clear message to be sent 'from the top' stating clearly that, as for any other community, racism directed at Gypsies and Travellers will not be tolerated. The DCSF announced that the first Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month will take place in June 2008 to promote the culture and the positive role of Gypsies and Travellers in Britain society. This will be an opportunity for British society to celebrate the forgotten history and misrepresented culture of Gypsies and Travellers.
The NFGLG/APPG meeting put the question of Gypsy ethnicity and rights under the spotlight through a robust debate. The participants were reminded about the breakthrough in the recognition of Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller rights as distinct `ethnic groups', equal to any other, brought about by the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000.
For the purposes of planning law however, Romany Gypsies still do not have rights associated with their ethnic status. Planning law bases the right to have access to planning permission for a trailer or caravan on a plot of land (known as 'gypsy status'), on whether an applicant has a nomadic lifestyle, "whatever their race or origin".
The community groups are fighting to have the planning definition altered so that 'gypsy status' is based on ethnicity too. It was pointed out that under the current framework a number of Gypsies who no longer travel have found their 'gypsy status' removed– even if this is due to ill health or old age, whilst relatives of theirs retain their 'status'!
Finally, the patchy delivery of services for Gypsies and Travellers by local authorities was also identified as a serious problem for many people. There was a call by community members for greater accountability over local spending, to challenge the 'slum-like' conditions of some Gypsy/Traveller sites. Across all the range of issues, better consultation with local Gypsy and Traveller groups was also an apparent need.
Despite the range of serious issues put on the table at the NFGLG/APPG meeting, this meeting made a significant contribution to the debates about the rights of Gypsies and Travellers in Britain today.
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Editorial comment:
The press statement above mentions that Irish Travellers have been in Britain for centuries. Is this really so? How many centuries, for if the truth be told, it may be less than one century. This is yet again an attempt to put the Irish Travellers a par with the Romany Gypsy population in the United Kingdom but this will not wash and cannot be allowed to stand in such a way.
Irish Travellers, while, maybe, just about, could qualify as an “ethnic group”, if ethnicity is also made as including lifestyle and such like, which really it should not, but they cannot be ever seen as a Race, unlike the Romany who are a Race and a Race apart.
The discrimination faced by the Irish Travellers is NOT, therefore, for reasons of race but for reasons of their way of life and especially for reasons of how so many of their community, if you like, behave when they travel. This also, in return, causes problems for Romany Gypsy, and even well-behaved Irish Travellers. Something that the people themselves should police and the bad apples should be rooted out. How that is done should be left to the individual communities, for there are also rotten apples in the Romany community and we should deal with those. Maybe, and just maybe, we can then get a better reception by the Gohja when we come to a place, like it used to be in the old days. I remember always being welcome in the villages when I was younger, but then that was before certain elements destroyed it all by the way they behaved or should we better say misbehaved.
I would like to stress again, and I know it really bothers people that I do, that while the Romany are facing racial discrimination, this is not and cannot ever be termed like that as regards to the Irish Travellers. I do not care who is going to have a go again as to what I am writing here but the truth is the truth. Romany Gypsies (the only group to who the term “Gypsy” anyway applies) are a Race while the Irish Travellers simply are a group, a minority of maybe a rather ancient European nomadic people, like some of the Jenisch, but they are not Gypsy and they are not therefore of a different race. I know that is very difficult to understand to many of those do-gooders and hangers on, those that want to make political capital out of the issue, but the truth is different than they wish to portray it.
How can you have a Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month? This is merging the two, for the Gypsy are Romani like the Roma, into one and this just cannot and must not be. There is NO common history bar, maybe, the history of being moved on from stopping places. But we, the Romany Gypsy, have the Irish Travellers and their behavior or misbehavior to thank for in the main for the closure of all the once common and accepted stopping places that were used by the Romany Gypsy in this country, and elsewhere, for the influence of the misbehavior of the Irish travellers is now reaching as far and wide as Scandinavia, Germany, France, Holland, and other such places.
Instead of allowing ourselves to be, basically, pushed into this false cooperation with the Irish Travellers, the majority of which do not like the Romany Gypsy, we, the Romany should separate ourselves and our work, political and cultural, from that done with, about and for the Irish Travellers and do our own thing and also have the governments accept the differences, including the overbearing and knowing all better European Union. For far too long have we been the play thing of the politicos that only really work for the Irish Travellers.
We have allowed ourselves to be steamrollered into this combined operations thing by those that accused us of being this that and the other for excluding the Irish Travellers, to the extent of calling those who advocated the separateness racist even.
We have allowed ourselves to be pushed into the use of the term “Traveller” instead of “Gypsy” and with that made a rod for our own back for as soon as the Gohja in Britain hear Travellers they think Gypsy and we all get included in the perception of those that live on a what ends up looking like a rubbish tip in some third world country.
I myself have seen Irish Travellers encamped in municipal parks performing their bodily functions, both male and female, and not just the children, in public with people passing by. Is it then any wonder that there is a problem with the general public's perception of the Gypsy? It is not. That is why we, the Romany, must separate ourselves from the entire claptrap of common Traveller culture. There is no such thing as a common culture between the Travellers and the Romany. None whatsoever and anyone claiming differently djins kek.
While the Irish Travellers may be a distinct “ethnic” group under the Race Relations Act 2000 it does NOT make them a Race.
The “Gypsy status” definition does need to be changed but it MUST NOT include the Irish Travellers in this. Gypsy is Romany and nothing more. All else are Travellers.
Personally, and I have stated that before, I do not think that Gypsies and/or Travellers should have any special treatment, nor be given any, as regards to the planning laws. Why not? Because it would then make us even more a target of the gutter press and the right wing, whether media or politicians, and of the general public and, I would add, maybe rightly so. The law should look at all people equally regardless of their ethnicity or racial background, and this should and must include the Romany and the Travellers.
Michael Smith (Veshengro), April 2008
While the Western World was being conned by the Kosovo Albanians into believing that there was an ethnic cleansing being perpetrated by Serbs against Albanian Muslims the true Ethnic Cleansing and the only one that was going on, was not seen, namely the one committed by the Kosovo Albanians, via the KLA and others, was against the Gypsy population (and also against Serbs). All the Serbs ever did was to defend themselves and their people against attacks by the Kosovo Albanians.
The Gypsies that were driven out from their neighborhoods, from their Mahalas, by the actions of the Kosovo Albanians fled into Serbia, in the main, where they ended up forced to live, forced by the UN bodies, in makeshift camps which are, mostly, on grounds that are contaminated with various dangerous chemicals and substances at levels often 10x sometimes 100's of times above the safe levels.
A commander of KFOR troops expressed it very adequately when he said: “We have come out in the defense of the wrong people!”
Ethnic cleansing was, in the case of Kosovo at least, not committed by Serbs against others, such as the Kosovo Albanian, the Muslim, population but in fact by the boot was on the other foot. Those that were the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing at a tremendous scale were those that claimed to be the victims. It was, and still is, the Muslim Albanians of Kosovo who are doing all the ethnic cleansing and even Gypsies that dare to return to their Mahalas and wish to reclaim their homes are threatened, driven away again or, in many cases, so we have heard, even murdered. By who you ask: by the very same people that claim that they are being ethnically cleansed.
The Albanians in Kosovo only have one aim; they want a Kosovo free of Serbs and Gypsies and then join Kosovo to Albania to fulfill the long-held dream of a “Greater Albania”... and the Gods help us!
Who will then be the next on the list of the Albanians to be added to this “Greater Albania” that is envisaged? Think of another Balkan country with a large Muslim and Albanian population: yes, Macedonia; at least the part of it – for starters – which is closest to Kosovo, with centers such as Kumanovo.
Kumanovo is another city that has, like Prizren and Pristina, has a large population of Gypsies within its walls. The Gypsy community of Kumanovo, while not as large as that of Skopie, e.g. Shutka, it probably the largest in that area. While the great majority of Gypsies in Macedonia are, nominally at least, of the Muslim faith ethnically they are not Albanians and I, for one, can see the same happening in the Kumanovo area as has happened in Pristina and Prizren and other places in Kosovo with Gypsy neighborhoods. And no doubt I have either that it will be again the Albanians that will claim that it is they that are the victims. No one will notice the Gypsy victims who are only always seen as economic migrants, even when they come from such trouble spots and claim persecution, and not as “proper” refugees.
Every time, regardless of whatever trouble, Gypsy refugees are not granted proper refugee status under the Geneva Convention and others and are, again and again, claimed to be nothing more than economic migrants who will be shipped back to the countries whence they came regardless of threat to limb and life. But then, it is the most convenient way for Western governments as they then do not have to explain to their racist population, racist always when it comes to Gypsies, that those people are coming in to stay.
We all are always seen and portrayed as nothing but liars – economic migrants – they only want a better life – cheats and criminals and as “dirty Gyppos”. Never as real refugees in need of help.
Kosovo is not going to get better. It is going to get worse down there, folks. Mark my words.
© Michael Smith (Veshengro), April 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
At the beginning of April the news reached us that the BBC was intending to cut broadcasting to the Gypsy and Traveller community.
Rokker Radio, the two-hour radio programme established two years ago by BBC for the Gypsy and Traveller community was to be axed at the end of April. As the show prepared to celebrate two years of broadcasting across local BBC radio in the East of England and across the world on the internet, the BBC had decided not to fund the programme beyond the end of April.
Each Sunday night, between 1900 hours and 2100 hours, that is to say, between 7pm and 9pm, Rokker Radio broadcasts to Britain’s Gypsies and Travellers, many of whom must drive long distances to hear it because they cannot receive it in their own area nor are able to listen to it on the internet. Not every Gypsy in this country has got a computer as yet, though there are more and more nowadays, and also not all areas are covered by broadband connections. Broadcast streaming is only a real feasibility with broadband. Others that can, obviously, do listen to Rokker Radio on the Internet, and not only in Britain alone. Rokker Radio is listened to by many an English-speaking Gypsy abroad as well.
Over the last two years, BBC Rokker Radio has attempted to address the lack of proper representation of Europe’s largest ethnic minority community in the media in Britain. It has raised issues of importance to the community whilst literally providing a common wavelength through which Gypsy and settled communities can begin to understand one another.”
Because of the unfortunate reduction in the BBC licence fee, regional management in the BBC have decided that it was too expensive to maintain. The £800 it costs each week to staff this vital service may well be in excess of the average cost of regional programming, but it remains the BBC’s only real commitment to date to the Gypsy and Traveller community. It is also insignificant compared to the financial commitment the BBC rightly gives to other linguistic, national and ethnic minorities across the UK.
With just one month before Gypsy and Traveller broadcasting is silenced in Britain, Gypsy and Traveller journalists, campaigners and Traveller education advocates launched a campaign to save and expand the programme. In an open letter to BBC Director General Mark Thompson, members of the European Romani Journalists Federation have started to campaign for equal representation on and within the BBC.
“The BBC should begin the process of dedicating the same level of resources to the Gypsy and Traveller community as it does to other ethnic and linguistic minorities in Britain. If it is right that the BBC broadcasts in Welsh and Gaelic and provides an entire network to the Asian community, it is also right that it provide the same commitment to Europe’s largest ethnic minority community, the Romany people.” said veteran Kosovan Roma Journalist Orhan Galjus.
He added: “Services in the Romani language are also badly needed to support and inform those communities who currently have no access to independent broadcasting. Across many parts of Europe a de facto apartheid blights the Romany community and it’s prospects. We urgently need the BBC’s help to inform and educate our 12 million strong European nation.”
While I agree with Brother Orhan as regards to the need for a radio service for the Romani People in the UK, the Gypsy People, and also for the Traveller community as a whole, in Britain we certainly, as a whole, do NOT need a Romani language service. However, a Romani language service on the BBC World Service might be nice for the Romani more outside the UK where Romanes in on or the other dialect is indeed spoken.
On April 5 what appears to be a victory had been won as, apparently, the BBC, under pressure from all those campaigning for Rokker Radio to remain (and be expanded), the BBC, apparently, backed down over it’s plans to end the only programme it has ever provided for Britain ’s Gypsies and Travellers. But I would suggest that we do not, as yet, count the chickens already for they are in fact not hatched as yet.
After a concerted lobbying campaign, by community members, as well as activists, journalists, writers, academics and teachers from the settled community, the BBC seem to have changed it’s mind.
I may be a cynic, that I for sure, but I will not believe it that they have backed down, on a permanent basis, until I see it in action and Rokker Radio remaining on air for years and years to come. We mist, however, be vigilant for they could just as easily axe it from on eweek to the next or curtail the broadcast times.
A statement from the BBC Press Office reads:
“There is no intention to close Rokker Radio. It is true that we have had discussions with the presenter about a range of options for the programme, including whether there might be potential for expanding the range and scope of programming covering these issues – for example by offering programming to other radio stations across the BBC local radio family.”
“We will continue to look at how best we can refresh our coverage and to ensure that we are achieving best value for our listeners, but we can reassure listeners that there is no plan to close the programme down at this time.”
“We are, however, keen to find new ways of reaching underserved communities, including the travelling community. It's important to explore options to provide wider and better coverage of the issues and concerns of this community across the whole of England, not just the East.”
“Technology is delivering a wide variety of new ways to deliver content to audiences and we will continue to explore a number of innovative ideas to help give the travelling community a voice and to improve understanding with the settled community of their issues.”
But while technology may be delivering a wide variety of new ways not all from the Gypsy and Traveller communities have access to computers and broadband I n order to listen, for instance, on the Internet.
This does go to show what people power can do. But it’s now time to meet constructively with the BBC at a senior level to discuss it’s overall representation of the Gypsy, Roma and Travelling community. Never again must we have to fight for our right to fair representation within the world’s largest media organization.
But, we must also remember that they, and the organization they represent, are Gadje (Gohja) and it is not the interest of the “dirty Gyppo” they intend to serve. They will only serve our interests if we stay on their backs. Is that the answer though?
Does this, however, prove, yet again, that only “Sin Fein”, that is to say, “ourselves alone” will work in anything we do. We cannot and must not rely on outsiders. They will as easy withdraw their supports, and they will do that faster than they ever gave it.
Maybe it is time that we, the Romani of the UK (and elsewhere in the English-speaking world) looked at an alternative radio medium to get a program such like Rokker Radio, or even Rokker Radio itself, out.
Shortwave radio is an option that, so it would appear, no one has looked at, actually, as yet, or AM radio even. A much greater coverage of the country could already be achieved on a medium wave channels while shortwave would make the program receivable, basically and practically, around the globe ON RADIO, depending on the person's receiver, though.
Campaigners will still be marking Romany Nation Day as planned by gathering outside Broadcasting House in London at 12:00 noon on April the 8th to hand in petitions in support of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller broadcasting before marking Romany Nation Day with flowers, music and food in Regents Park.
Broadcasting House is located at:
BBC Broadcasting House
Portland Place ,
London , W1A 1AA
