by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A row has broken out over Huddersfield University’s choice of speaker on Gypsies and Travelers.
Hughie Smith, president of The Gypsy Council, said the university has caused a “great deal of unrest” in the Romany community, including Huddersfield’s large population of settled gypsies, after it invited Jake Bowers to be a guest speaker.
Jake Bowers, who edits Travelers Times Online, contributes to The Guardian and presented a BBC radio program for the traveling community, which has ceased, so we understand, operating.
Mr. Bowers is due to lecture students in the School of Human and Health Sciences on ‘Britishness, Roma, Gypsies and Travellers’ as part of their studies on citizenship on October 22.
But the invitation has angered The Gypsy Council, a group formed in 1973, who say they are the only authentic Gypsy organization in the UK and do not acknowledge Mr. Bowers as one of their own.
Mr. Smith said extensive research among the Gypsy and traveler community nationwide had failed to produce any evidence that Mr Bowers had any Romany heritage and that he was purely a member of the relatively unknown National Romany Rights Association.
A spokeswoman for The University of Huddersfield said they were aware of Mr Smith’s concerns but said the lecture would still go ahead.
The problem, it has to be said, with The Gypsy Council and Hughie Smith is that they think they are the only ones that should be allowed to represent the Gypsy community in Britain and secondly it is bad blood because it was not they, or better Hughie Smith, that were asked to do the lecture.
It might be a good idea if Mr. Smith would get glasses if he cannot find any Romani connections as regards to Jake Bowers. Any tatcho Rom would recognize Mr. Bowers as one of the People; it definitely is not difficult.
What this shows, yet again, is that there is no unity amongst the Romanichals even in this small country of ours; so how does anyone expect unity to be possible amongst the wider Gypsy community. It shows how much clannishness and jealousy there is.
It is strange that The Gypsy Council and Mr. Smith never had a problem with Jake Bowers when Jake had him on the shows at the BBC Rokker Radio but suddenly...
Anyone who cannot see what this issue is all about will need to have their sense and not just their eyes examined.
Where the choice of speaker by the Huddersfield University can have caused “a 'great deal of unrest' in the Romani community, including Huddersfield’s large population of settled Gypsies”, is entirely beyond the comprehension of this writer for the majority of Gypsies in this country, the great majority of the Romani community, could hardly care less who gives the talk, of that we can all be assured.
This is yet another illusion of grandeur by Mr. Smith in the same way that his claim that The Gypsy Council is the only true representative of the Gypsies in the UK is also rather null and void as most of the Romani People here have no interest in that organization and its self-centered attitude, especially of its Fuehrer.
This is as much a void claim as that of some of the Roma groups that they are the only true Rom.
Is it not time that we learned to work together, at least the Sinti-based groups, such as the Romanichals, the Manush, and others?
© 2009
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BBC Program “This World” - “Child Thieves”
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While this program has come under attack, some rather severe, from several quarters, especially from academics in the field of Romani Studies in the West, including Romani People amongst them, and also some Romani activists, it is time that we, the Rom, the Romani People, firstly admitted to ourselves and amongst ourselves that this problem exists and then admitted it also to the outside world; and secondly that we, as a People, did something about stopping this practice.
We have out own system of justice but maybe we have to get an international version of this sorted out and then proceed against those criminal elements amongst our People at speed.
As long, however, that we are in total denial of this, publicly and as a people then it will continue and programs of this nature will be broadcast.
Why suppress the truth, as some of the “leaders” seem to wish to do? If we do that we, that is to say those that try to do so, are as guilty as those who perpetrate those things.
This is the same with the issue of Gypsy children being trafficked for this purpose and other more sordid things even and the sale of children by some Roma groups from Eastern Europe to others simply for gain. The same comments are made as to that not being the case and it all having been made up by the media in racist attempts to smear the name of the Romani People.
The fact is that all of this is happening and that some groups are even proud of doing what they are doing, whether it is living of begging and stealing and such or the sale of children for this or that purpose.
The cases in the UK that have been uncovered where Gypsy boys and girls, some as young as four and five, had been trafficked by Rom from Eastern Europe to places such as Glasgow for sordid exploitation and the rings that were smashed by the police are then, I should assume, also made up by the authorities; if one would go with the logic of those “leaders”.
Many of the “leaders”, it would appear, have no interest in accepting the truth and in actually doing anything against those activities. Instead they are employing the “Ostrich Syndrome” and try to claim that this is not happening.
One can but wonder why this denial in the face of the facts?
We must not try to shoot the messenger just because he carries a truth that is somewhat unpalatable to us and we do not like the taste of it. Instead we must try to discover more and then try to put a stop to it.
We must accept the truth of this and not just because the Fagins that were in the documentary openly admitted it and I also personally have experience with Rom from the former Yugoslavia whose children were proud to go out pickpocketing and stealing from shops and parents of those kids who were proud of what they stole.
It happens. So let's face it! And then, deal with it! But do not shoot the messenger.
© 2009
<>
While this program has come under attack, some rather severe, from several quarters, especially from academics in the field of Romani Studies in the West, including Romani People amongst them, and also some Romani activists, it is time that we, the Rom, the Romani People, firstly admitted to ourselves and amongst ourselves that this problem exists and then admitted it also to the outside world; and secondly that we, as a People, did something about stopping this practice.
We have out own system of justice but maybe we have to get an international version of this sorted out and then proceed against those criminal elements amongst our People at speed.
As long, however, that we are in total denial of this, publicly and as a people then it will continue and programs of this nature will be broadcast.
Why suppress the truth, as some of the “leaders” seem to wish to do? If we do that we, that is to say those that try to do so, are as guilty as those who perpetrate those things.
This is the same with the issue of Gypsy children being trafficked for this purpose and other more sordid things even and the sale of children by some Roma groups from Eastern Europe to others simply for gain. The same comments are made as to that not being the case and it all having been made up by the media in racist attempts to smear the name of the Romani People.
The fact is that all of this is happening and that some groups are even proud of doing what they are doing, whether it is living of begging and stealing and such or the sale of children for this or that purpose.
The cases in the UK that have been uncovered where Gypsy boys and girls, some as young as four and five, had been trafficked by Rom from Eastern Europe to places such as Glasgow for sordid exploitation and the rings that were smashed by the police are then, I should assume, also made up by the authorities; if one would go with the logic of those “leaders”.
Many of the “leaders”, it would appear, have no interest in accepting the truth and in actually doing anything against those activities. Instead they are employing the “Ostrich Syndrome” and try to claim that this is not happening.
One can but wonder why this denial in the face of the facts?
We must not try to shoot the messenger just because he carries a truth that is somewhat unpalatable to us and we do not like the taste of it. Instead we must try to discover more and then try to put a stop to it.
We must accept the truth of this and not just because the Fagins that were in the documentary openly admitted it and I also personally have experience with Rom from the former Yugoslavia whose children were proud to go out pickpocketing and stealing from shops and parents of those kids who were proud of what they stole.
It happens. So let's face it! And then, deal with it! But do not shoot the messenger.
© 2009
<>
Fingerprinting of Italy’s Gypsies wins EU approval
Fingerprinting of Romani Gypsies in Italy has been given the blessing of the European Commission
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A spokesman for Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said co-operation between the center-right government of Silvio Berlusconi and Brussels had made this possible.
Critics of the plan said it was a violation of fundamental human rights. Yet Barrot’s spokesman said fingerprinting will not be systematic and that strict conditions will be applied.
The EU had questioned Italy’s ‘crackdown on crime’ initiative which the government said would improve information about the circumstances under which an estimated 160,000 Roma live in Italy.
The government insisted the plan is not ethnic discrimination, and claimed Brussels had fully-vindicated the Italian authorities’ intentions. Ministers said critics of fingerprinting had stoked anti-immigrant feeling.
So, instead of actually condemning the actions of the Italian the European Union goes along sanctioning those acts.
The words of the spokesman for Jacques Barrot that “fingerprinting will not be systematic and that strict conditions will be applied” is a joke and everyone must realize that.
What strict conditions? We now have badges added to the fingerprints. All we now need is ghettos with barbed wire and watchtowers but I am sure they are on their way and, the g-ds forbid, probably not just in Italy.
Are there still some that think that my predictions of while back that this is the new Europe that we are seeing here, one that is as fascist as far as the Gypsy People are concerned as was Hitler and his predecessors?
We have been seeing for some time now an “ethnic cleansing by proxy” with the EU bodies allowing things to happen and now we are seeing that the EU bodies will sanction such things without an qualms.
How long will it be before the Romani People in Europe wake up and understand that the European Union and its various bodies are not at all benignly inclined towards them but rather the opposite.
We hear lots of nice words as to integration and all that but that is but window dressing.
We, the People, must do something against this.
© 2009
<>
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A spokesman for Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said co-operation between the center-right government of Silvio Berlusconi and Brussels had made this possible.
Critics of the plan said it was a violation of fundamental human rights. Yet Barrot’s spokesman said fingerprinting will not be systematic and that strict conditions will be applied.
The EU had questioned Italy’s ‘crackdown on crime’ initiative which the government said would improve information about the circumstances under which an estimated 160,000 Roma live in Italy.
The government insisted the plan is not ethnic discrimination, and claimed Brussels had fully-vindicated the Italian authorities’ intentions. Ministers said critics of fingerprinting had stoked anti-immigrant feeling.
So, instead of actually condemning the actions of the Italian the European Union goes along sanctioning those acts.
The words of the spokesman for Jacques Barrot that “fingerprinting will not be systematic and that strict conditions will be applied” is a joke and everyone must realize that.
What strict conditions? We now have badges added to the fingerprints. All we now need is ghettos with barbed wire and watchtowers but I am sure they are on their way and, the g-ds forbid, probably not just in Italy.
Are there still some that think that my predictions of while back that this is the new Europe that we are seeing here, one that is as fascist as far as the Gypsy People are concerned as was Hitler and his predecessors?
We have been seeing for some time now an “ethnic cleansing by proxy” with the EU bodies allowing things to happen and now we are seeing that the EU bodies will sanction such things without an qualms.
How long will it be before the Romani People in Europe wake up and understand that the European Union and its various bodies are not at all benignly inclined towards them but rather the opposite.
We hear lots of nice words as to integration and all that but that is but window dressing.
We, the People, must do something against this.
© 2009
<>
Shame on Italy
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Italian Council of State has approved finger printing and special badges for Gypsy children
This is the worst most discriminative and blatantly barefaced racist decision taken by a Country in the EU since the reign of Hitler and Mussolini.
On August 28, an amazing decision was taken by Italy's Council of State, Consiglio di Stato.
In spite of all protests against finger printing of Romani-Gypsies in Italy, whether immigrants or not, the Council of State has approved this procedure.
But not only that.
The Consiglio di Stato also finds it admissible that the Roma must w special badges on their clothes when leaving their camps. Does anyone remember the Star of David, that Jews had to carry in Nazi times? Most reminiscent of the era of Hitler and Mussolini for sure.
It was not only the Jews, though, that had to wear a badge during the Nazi era. Nay! Gypsies too had to wear a badge identifying their ethnicity and that badge was a brown triangle; and the practice of particular minorities forced to wear badges depicting their ethnicity is one of the most poignant reminders of the Holocaust.
Who would have thought that now, more than sixty years after the end of the Nazi regime, such policies, that we thought and were told would never again be used against our fellow man, would be getting a new airing in Italy.
Every Government in the so-called “free Europe”, and indeed the so-called “free world”, should, nay must, if they have any real sense of the horror of what was the Holocaust, condemn Italy and call for it's immediate expulsion from the European Union – at least from all of its bodies, including the Council of Europe and the European Parliament – especially when, measures of this nature are about to be implemented against a particular minority.
But, seeing that Italy is one of the founders of the European Union this is not going to happen; that we can be sure about.
However, the world should sanction and boycott that country until such a time that they reverse the policies and apologize publicly to the Romani People as a whole.
The call must go out for every NGO and individual around the world to write to their government to ask them to condemn Italy, and if they do not give rise to its condemnation then, please ask your government how they will have the gall to hold one more Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Day while, happy to have an EU partner with such disgusting and dehumanizing policies in force against a particular minority in 2009.
Europe more and more, to me as a Gypsy at least, begins to look like Europe 70 years ago, namely 1939. The Anti-Gypsy policies alone are one thing and the surveillance of every individual in most countries another.
While Italy is presently the worst perpetrator as to officially sanctioned Anti-Gypsyism France is beginning to follow suit with an action recently where the police “branded” Roma during some checks as to identity and resident status in France with a stamp on the arm. This too being most reminiscent of the days of the Holocaust and of time before when Gypsies were branded on the arm or the face.
One really could be mistaken to think that one has gone back in time accidentally to the 1930s.
How can the leaders of the nations and especially the Romani leaders, for instance, remain so silent?
Maybe the People can come to their own conclusions here and maybe, just maybe, they come to understand that many of those leaders are not in fact interested in their affairs but in their pockets.
© 2009
<>
The Italian Council of State has approved finger printing and special badges for Gypsy children
This is the worst most discriminative and blatantly barefaced racist decision taken by a Country in the EU since the reign of Hitler and Mussolini.
On August 28, an amazing decision was taken by Italy's Council of State, Consiglio di Stato.
In spite of all protests against finger printing of Romani-Gypsies in Italy, whether immigrants or not, the Council of State has approved this procedure.
But not only that.
The Consiglio di Stato also finds it admissible that the Roma must w special badges on their clothes when leaving their camps. Does anyone remember the Star of David, that Jews had to carry in Nazi times? Most reminiscent of the era of Hitler and Mussolini for sure.
It was not only the Jews, though, that had to wear a badge during the Nazi era. Nay! Gypsies too had to wear a badge identifying their ethnicity and that badge was a brown triangle; and the practice of particular minorities forced to wear badges depicting their ethnicity is one of the most poignant reminders of the Holocaust.
Who would have thought that now, more than sixty years after the end of the Nazi regime, such policies, that we thought and were told would never again be used against our fellow man, would be getting a new airing in Italy.
Every Government in the so-called “free Europe”, and indeed the so-called “free world”, should, nay must, if they have any real sense of the horror of what was the Holocaust, condemn Italy and call for it's immediate expulsion from the European Union – at least from all of its bodies, including the Council of Europe and the European Parliament – especially when, measures of this nature are about to be implemented against a particular minority.
But, seeing that Italy is one of the founders of the European Union this is not going to happen; that we can be sure about.
However, the world should sanction and boycott that country until such a time that they reverse the policies and apologize publicly to the Romani People as a whole.
The call must go out for every NGO and individual around the world to write to their government to ask them to condemn Italy, and if they do not give rise to its condemnation then, please ask your government how they will have the gall to hold one more Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Day while, happy to have an EU partner with such disgusting and dehumanizing policies in force against a particular minority in 2009.
Europe more and more, to me as a Gypsy at least, begins to look like Europe 70 years ago, namely 1939. The Anti-Gypsy policies alone are one thing and the surveillance of every individual in most countries another.
While Italy is presently the worst perpetrator as to officially sanctioned Anti-Gypsyism France is beginning to follow suit with an action recently where the police “branded” Roma during some checks as to identity and resident status in France with a stamp on the arm. This too being most reminiscent of the days of the Holocaust and of time before when Gypsies were branded on the arm or the face.
One really could be mistaken to think that one has gone back in time accidentally to the 1930s.
How can the leaders of the nations and especially the Romani leaders, for instance, remain so silent?
Maybe the People can come to their own conclusions here and maybe, just maybe, they come to understand that many of those leaders are not in fact interested in their affairs but in their pockets.
© 2009
<>
Further attacks against Gypsies in EU countries
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In Eastern Slovakia Roma fled city
The extreme right organization “Slovenská pospolitost” was holding another apparently unauthorized Anti-Roma-Rally in the small Eastern Slovakian town of Krompachy in order to demonstrate against the so-called “Gypsy criminality”.
According to media reports the majority of the Gypsies living in the municipality left town out of fear of attacks and many fled already in the early hours of the morning into the forests. Many of the Slovak residents of the town, on the other hand, welcomed the Neo-Nazi Rally with open arms, so reports the Slovak news agency TASR. A large contingent of riot police prevented the feared attacks against Gypsies of the town. For Tuesday, August 25, a further rally is expected in the town of Nové Zámky.
Hungarian right-wing calling for solidarity against Roma
The Hungarian right-wing extremist are calling on neighboring countries of the Hungarian and Slovaks peoples to stand with them in “solidarity” against the Roma minority.
Both countries, they say, have to battle the same problems, and here especially the “Roma Problem”, said Csanád Szegedi, the Vice-President of the right-wing Jobbik party.
In previous months there have been a number of of racists demonstrations in the Gypsy quarters by the Hungarian right-wing extremists, primarily of the “Hungarian Guard” that have caused great concern amongst the Romani People in Hungary and abroad.
Despite the fact that the “Guard” has been officially banned by the authorities they continue to operate and have even meanwhile change the name thus trying to thwart the authorities' attempt to disband them.
It has been officially disbanded by court order but nevertheless the paramilitary organization of the “Hungarian Guard” continues to operate.
And where are the bodies of the European Union? Nowhere to be seen or heard and then again, it is all hot air and talk anyway even if they do say something. Action is what is needed.
© 2009
<>
In Eastern Slovakia Roma fled city
The extreme right organization “Slovenská pospolitost” was holding another apparently unauthorized Anti-Roma-Rally in the small Eastern Slovakian town of Krompachy in order to demonstrate against the so-called “Gypsy criminality”.
According to media reports the majority of the Gypsies living in the municipality left town out of fear of attacks and many fled already in the early hours of the morning into the forests. Many of the Slovak residents of the town, on the other hand, welcomed the Neo-Nazi Rally with open arms, so reports the Slovak news agency TASR. A large contingent of riot police prevented the feared attacks against Gypsies of the town. For Tuesday, August 25, a further rally is expected in the town of Nové Zámky.
Hungarian right-wing calling for solidarity against Roma
The Hungarian right-wing extremist are calling on neighboring countries of the Hungarian and Slovaks peoples to stand with them in “solidarity” against the Roma minority.
Both countries, they say, have to battle the same problems, and here especially the “Roma Problem”, said Csanád Szegedi, the Vice-President of the right-wing Jobbik party.
In previous months there have been a number of of racists demonstrations in the Gypsy quarters by the Hungarian right-wing extremists, primarily of the “Hungarian Guard” that have caused great concern amongst the Romani People in Hungary and abroad.
Despite the fact that the “Guard” has been officially banned by the authorities they continue to operate and have even meanwhile change the name thus trying to thwart the authorities' attempt to disband them.
It has been officially disbanded by court order but nevertheless the paramilitary organization of the “Hungarian Guard” continues to operate.
And where are the bodies of the European Union? Nowhere to be seen or heard and then again, it is all hot air and talk anyway even if they do say something. Action is what is needed.
© 2009
<>
Anti-Gypsyism in Nottinghamshire
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
RAG - RESIDENTS AGAINST GYPSIES
Dear Editor,
You will be pleased to know that we are recruiting to rid our area of gypsies once and for all. Our members will be armed with catapults (fifteen and counting), to pepper their beloved caravans. We are sick to the back teeth of filth they leave and the thieving they do from our properties. Police seem reluctant to move them on. This we will do. Our aim is not to injure - only to cause havoc. New members welcome.
Yours Sec.
RAG.
The above is a letter received by the Editor of the Worksop Guardian and even though – or maybe because – the writer of the letter chose to stay anonymous this letter smacks of incitement not just to racial hatred but in fact of incitement to violence against property and persons based on Race.
It must be noted that the writer, who remained so nicely anonymous, stated that “our members will be armed with catapults (fifteen and counting), to pepper their beloved caravans” and the claim that their aim is not to cause injury but only havoc is a load of something not to be named, and it is hard to think that they actually believe their own words.
While we have so far only seen actions like that in countries of the former Soviet Bloc that are now part of the European Union this ugly specter of Nazism now seems to be arriving in the Yorshire Dales even and certainly is rather a worrying thing.
Only recently did we have issues of Anti-Gypsyism in Belfast, in Ulster (aka Northern Ireland) against families of the Romani Roma Gypsy community and while that could have, to some degree, have been attributed to the sectarianism that used to be prevalent in Ulster, to find this in small market towns in the Yorkshire Dales is rather a different kettle of fish altogether and should open the eyes of all those people that do not wish to see this kind of violence in Britain.
I have said many a times that I will be the first to admit that some of our community and especially many of those falsely called Gypsies though who are really not but live a life on the road, do leave rubbish and other things not to be mentioned not all of our community are the same and we, like the non-Gypsy community have good and bad people.
Europe, including the UK now, if would seem, is beginning more and more to look like Europe of 1939 than of 2009 with the way that Anti-Gypsyism is on the rise. Nazi-Fascism is rearing its ugly head once again an no one seems prepared to stand up against it.
Then again, we, the Gypsy, are used to this for we are not Jews or Blacks and hence no one cares. All the authorities do, in Britain and abroad, is to talk a lot and issue this and that statement against such racial violence; statements they often do not seem to believe in themselves. This could not and would not happen were it Jews or others thus threatened. Alas, it is just, as many see it, Dirty Gyppos, and hence the silence.
Now is the time for all to stand against this ugly specter of Nazism once again so that never again will things that haunted Europe in the 1930s and 1940s do so again.
We, the Romani-Gypsy, too, must stand up together and fight this menace, though not necessarily with their own weapons but on a different level and the best level is to educate the Gadje that we are decent peoples, despite what they think and believe. It takes two to tango, as they say, and maybe it is time we, as a People, as a Community, were prepared to address the concerns of the Gadje. What say you?
Ourselves Alone!
© 2009
<>
RAG - RESIDENTS AGAINST GYPSIES
Dear Editor,
You will be pleased to know that we are recruiting to rid our area of gypsies once and for all. Our members will be armed with catapults (fifteen and counting), to pepper their beloved caravans. We are sick to the back teeth of filth they leave and the thieving they do from our properties. Police seem reluctant to move them on. This we will do. Our aim is not to injure - only to cause havoc. New members welcome.
Yours Sec.
RAG.
The above is a letter received by the Editor of the Worksop Guardian and even though – or maybe because – the writer of the letter chose to stay anonymous this letter smacks of incitement not just to racial hatred but in fact of incitement to violence against property and persons based on Race.
It must be noted that the writer, who remained so nicely anonymous, stated that “our members will be armed with catapults (fifteen and counting), to pepper their beloved caravans” and the claim that their aim is not to cause injury but only havoc is a load of something not to be named, and it is hard to think that they actually believe their own words.
While we have so far only seen actions like that in countries of the former Soviet Bloc that are now part of the European Union this ugly specter of Nazism now seems to be arriving in the Yorshire Dales even and certainly is rather a worrying thing.
Only recently did we have issues of Anti-Gypsyism in Belfast, in Ulster (aka Northern Ireland) against families of the Romani Roma Gypsy community and while that could have, to some degree, have been attributed to the sectarianism that used to be prevalent in Ulster, to find this in small market towns in the Yorkshire Dales is rather a different kettle of fish altogether and should open the eyes of all those people that do not wish to see this kind of violence in Britain.
I have said many a times that I will be the first to admit that some of our community and especially many of those falsely called Gypsies though who are really not but live a life on the road, do leave rubbish and other things not to be mentioned not all of our community are the same and we, like the non-Gypsy community have good and bad people.
Europe, including the UK now, if would seem, is beginning more and more to look like Europe of 1939 than of 2009 with the way that Anti-Gypsyism is on the rise. Nazi-Fascism is rearing its ugly head once again an no one seems prepared to stand up against it.
Then again, we, the Gypsy, are used to this for we are not Jews or Blacks and hence no one cares. All the authorities do, in Britain and abroad, is to talk a lot and issue this and that statement against such racial violence; statements they often do not seem to believe in themselves. This could not and would not happen were it Jews or others thus threatened. Alas, it is just, as many see it, Dirty Gyppos, and hence the silence.
Now is the time for all to stand against this ugly specter of Nazism once again so that never again will things that haunted Europe in the 1930s and 1940s do so again.
We, the Romani-Gypsy, too, must stand up together and fight this menace, though not necessarily with their own weapons but on a different level and the best level is to educate the Gadje that we are decent peoples, despite what they think and believe. It takes two to tango, as they say, and maybe it is time we, as a People, as a Community, were prepared to address the concerns of the Gadje. What say you?
Ourselves Alone!
© 2009
<>
Gypsy woman shot dead in North-East Hungary
One day after the 65th anniversary of the extermination of the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz murder on another Gypsy committed in Hungary
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Budapest, August 3, 2009 – A Romani woman was shot dead and her 13-year-old daughter was seriously injured in Kisleta in North-Eastern Hungary early on Monday, August 3, 2009, just one day after the 65th anniversary of the Romani Holocaust, according to information from the town's local government.
The two Gypsy women were attacked in a house on the outskirts of the town, said a spokesman from the municipality.
Police are investigating the scene, said local police spokeswoman Rita Fedor.
Thugs are running riot in so many countries of the European Union against Gypsies and murder, brutal attacks and intimidations are a daily occurrences with the EU parliament and the Council of Europe just giving lip service and doing nothing.
It seems to be time that we, the Romani People, did something ourselves and while I know that we are then going to be held up as the villains it would appear there to be no other choice.
We get the nice talk from many of the agencies that are supposedly by the People for the People but in fact seem to be doing nothing either when it comes to real action. Hunger strikes don't get us nowhere, I would like to add, and neither did it get the Macedonian Roma in Northrhine-Westfalia anywhere in the 1990s. Talking shops do not get us anywhere either. What we need is grassroots organizations of grassroots Rom, and when I say here Rom I refer to Sinti, Roma, Kale; all those that are Romani. But that is what we sorely lack.
So, what now? Where do we go form here? Answers on a postcard please...
© 2009
<>
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Budapest, August 3, 2009 – A Romani woman was shot dead and her 13-year-old daughter was seriously injured in Kisleta in North-Eastern Hungary early on Monday, August 3, 2009, just one day after the 65th anniversary of the Romani Holocaust, according to information from the town's local government.
The two Gypsy women were attacked in a house on the outskirts of the town, said a spokesman from the municipality.
Police are investigating the scene, said local police spokeswoman Rita Fedor.
Thugs are running riot in so many countries of the European Union against Gypsies and murder, brutal attacks and intimidations are a daily occurrences with the EU parliament and the Council of Europe just giving lip service and doing nothing.
It seems to be time that we, the Romani People, did something ourselves and while I know that we are then going to be held up as the villains it would appear there to be no other choice.
We get the nice talk from many of the agencies that are supposedly by the People for the People but in fact seem to be doing nothing either when it comes to real action. Hunger strikes don't get us nowhere, I would like to add, and neither did it get the Macedonian Roma in Northrhine-Westfalia anywhere in the 1990s. Talking shops do not get us anywhere either. What we need is grassroots organizations of grassroots Rom, and when I say here Rom I refer to Sinti, Roma, Kale; all those that are Romani. But that is what we sorely lack.
So, what now? Where do we go form here? Answers on a postcard please...
© 2009
<>
Anti-Gypsyism – the specter that is haunting Europe
Genocide by proxy!?
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Anti-Gypsyism in Europe certainly is not new. Far from it. It has been about ever since around the 15th century in one form or another, sometimes mild sometimes very harsh and found its vilest expression in the Nazi actions against Gypsies for reasons of race.
Now, and especially after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe this vile phenomenon is once again really raising its ugly head and is on the rise, and that not just, I hasten to add, in Eastern Europe. This vile specter has even reached the shores of Britain and Ireland by now, as in the case in Northern Ireland in early summer 2009.
Attacks of various kinds all the way to arson and murder have been perpetrated against Gypsies in a variety of European Union member states by thugs with the governments of the countries and the European Union bodies doing nothing.
Are we witnessing genocide by proxy? It would appear to be thus.
The year 2009, on August 2nd, sees the 65th anniversary of the destruction of the Gypsy Camp at Auschwitz-Bikenau where at that one night from the 1st to the 2nd of August 1944 thousands of Gypsies, predominately women and children, were gassed and then burned, and this year, 2009, and the previous one, have seen the greatest escalations in Anti-Gypsyism and Anti-Gypsy violence in recent times and also the most serious of attacks.
While the perpetrators more often than not get away scot-free even if they are found out by the police, Gypsies who are defending themselves, their families and community are charged with affray and other crimes.
Gypsies who have mentioned about organizing self-defense groups have been told that they could be charged under terrorism laws, while fascist thugs can organize all they want and threaten all they want and nothing is done.
It is, once again, becoming more than obvious that, as far as most of the governments in the European Union member states are concerned, as well as the EU bodies themselves, the Gyppo counts for nothing and if he intends to defend himself against attacks then he is the criminal and not the attackers.
That is the way that the law always has been bent against the Gyppo and I guess we should by now have understood, though I know many have not as yet, that the European Union bodies are going to do nothing as far as Anti-Gypsyism is and neither will most EU governments. They are quite happy with this ethnic cleansing and genocide by proxy, it would appear.
© 2009
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by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Anti-Gypsyism in Europe certainly is not new. Far from it. It has been about ever since around the 15th century in one form or another, sometimes mild sometimes very harsh and found its vilest expression in the Nazi actions against Gypsies for reasons of race.
Now, and especially after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe this vile phenomenon is once again really raising its ugly head and is on the rise, and that not just, I hasten to add, in Eastern Europe. This vile specter has even reached the shores of Britain and Ireland by now, as in the case in Northern Ireland in early summer 2009.
Attacks of various kinds all the way to arson and murder have been perpetrated against Gypsies in a variety of European Union member states by thugs with the governments of the countries and the European Union bodies doing nothing.
Are we witnessing genocide by proxy? It would appear to be thus.
The year 2009, on August 2nd, sees the 65th anniversary of the destruction of the Gypsy Camp at Auschwitz-Bikenau where at that one night from the 1st to the 2nd of August 1944 thousands of Gypsies, predominately women and children, were gassed and then burned, and this year, 2009, and the previous one, have seen the greatest escalations in Anti-Gypsyism and Anti-Gypsy violence in recent times and also the most serious of attacks.
While the perpetrators more often than not get away scot-free even if they are found out by the police, Gypsies who are defending themselves, their families and community are charged with affray and other crimes.
Gypsies who have mentioned about organizing self-defense groups have been told that they could be charged under terrorism laws, while fascist thugs can organize all they want and threaten all they want and nothing is done.
It is, once again, becoming more than obvious that, as far as most of the governments in the European Union member states are concerned, as well as the EU bodies themselves, the Gyppo counts for nothing and if he intends to defend himself against attacks then he is the criminal and not the attackers.
That is the way that the law always has been bent against the Gyppo and I guess we should by now have understood, though I know many have not as yet, that the European Union bodies are going to do nothing as far as Anti-Gypsyism is and neither will most EU governments. They are quite happy with this ethnic cleansing and genocide by proxy, it would appear.
© 2009
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NONE IS TOO MANY!
Asylum in Canada necessary until European Union can guarantee safety for Romanies
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In a statement released the Roma Community Center in Toronto stated that it is very concerned about Canada’s recent decision to shut the door on Czech Romanies and Mexican refugees. Immigration Minister Jason Kenny thinks that Roma don’t face state-sanctioned persecution in the Czech Republic.
While it may be true that the Czech Republic (or any other countries in Eastern Europe from where Rom flee to the West) does not directly, per government decree, persecute the Rom the Czech Republic does so by proxy in that it allows others to do the dirty work for it..
As a signatory to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Canada has now taken a decision that both flouts international law and the documented reports of systemic persecution of Roma in Czech Republic. Yet Amnesty International stated in April that Gypsies in the Czech Republic “continue to suffer discrimination at the hands of both public officials and private individuals, including in the areas of housing, education, health care and employment. Not only do they face forced evictions, segregation in education and racially motivated violence, but they have been denied justice when seeking redress for the abuses against them”.
And it would appear that Amnesty International forgot the fact that Gypsy children routinely are sent – for their entire school life often – to special schools that once upon a time had the title – roughly translated – and you would find the same schools in many countries of mainland Europe and the same policy as regards to Gypsy children – of “special school for the educational subnormal”.
Human Rights Watch reported that since 1989, “Czech authorities have failed to adequately protect Gypsies from the ever-increasing danger of racist attacks. When attacks do occur, Gypsies are often denied equal treatment before the law, a direct violation of both Czech and international law”.
Minister Kenney states that claimants from the Czech Republic and Mexico are clogging the system, are preventing “legitimate” claimants from getting in to Canada, and that an overhaul of the system is necessary because it is overburdened. Yet the total number of refugee claimants arriving in Canada has decreased from 45,000 in 2001 to approximately 36,000 in 2008. The total number of refugees accepted annually in Canada has been cut in half, compared to the 1980s. The system isn’t working because of inadequate resources. Imposing visas on visitors from these two countries will not increase the number of claimants accepted from totalitarian regimes as the Minister implies, especially when those countries already have visa restrictions in place.
Minister Kenney calls Czech Roma refugee claims fraudulent. When the independent adjudicators of the IRB accepted 85% of their claims during the last 18 months, why did he say this? Neither Canada nor the EU has used this opportunity to criticize the Czech government and shame it into improving the human rights situation of this persecuted minority. This government is saying, “None is too many, we don’t want the Gypsies either.”
The IRB recently released its own report on conditions of the Romanies in the Czech Republic – yet it has no mandate to issue reports on overall country conditions and has never done so except in the case of the Rom. This is a breach of due process and taints the impartiality of IRB panelists who will be deciding hundreds of still-pending Romani-Gypsy claims.
The real reason, and this is blatantly obvious, for Canada to try to block Gypsy refugees from the Czech Republic (and elsewhere) is none of the reasons given but the very fact that they happen to be Romani, to be Gypsy, in the very same way as Gypsy from the Czech Republic, so years ago, were being turned away from even getting onto planes in Prague, for instance, by British Immigration official stationed there and working with the Czech authorities hand in glove.
The case of a Gypsy journalist is the prime example who, together with the Gadjo colleague, was on the way to London for an assignment but who was turned away at the airport by British officials who had him pointed out by Czech police as a Gypsy, while his colleague was permitted to continue and the Roma was not permitted to board the plane despite his Gadjo colleague's remonstrations even.
We now appear to see a similar situation in Canada and, I must say, it does not surprise me at all seeing the way that Canada has been going in the last couple of days, not just as far as Gypsies are concerned.
Anyone who waits for the EU to do anything will also wait a very long time indeed. We have seen this in the case of Italy, and elsewhere. The EU says a lot but does nothing, especially not when it comes to matters Gypsy.
© 2009
<>
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In a statement released the Roma Community Center in Toronto stated that it is very concerned about Canada’s recent decision to shut the door on Czech Romanies and Mexican refugees. Immigration Minister Jason Kenny thinks that Roma don’t face state-sanctioned persecution in the Czech Republic.
While it may be true that the Czech Republic (or any other countries in Eastern Europe from where Rom flee to the West) does not directly, per government decree, persecute the Rom the Czech Republic does so by proxy in that it allows others to do the dirty work for it..
As a signatory to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Canada has now taken a decision that both flouts international law and the documented reports of systemic persecution of Roma in Czech Republic. Yet Amnesty International stated in April that Gypsies in the Czech Republic “continue to suffer discrimination at the hands of both public officials and private individuals, including in the areas of housing, education, health care and employment. Not only do they face forced evictions, segregation in education and racially motivated violence, but they have been denied justice when seeking redress for the abuses against them”.
And it would appear that Amnesty International forgot the fact that Gypsy children routinely are sent – for their entire school life often – to special schools that once upon a time had the title – roughly translated – and you would find the same schools in many countries of mainland Europe and the same policy as regards to Gypsy children – of “special school for the educational subnormal”.
Human Rights Watch reported that since 1989, “Czech authorities have failed to adequately protect Gypsies from the ever-increasing danger of racist attacks. When attacks do occur, Gypsies are often denied equal treatment before the law, a direct violation of both Czech and international law”.
Minister Kenney states that claimants from the Czech Republic and Mexico are clogging the system, are preventing “legitimate” claimants from getting in to Canada, and that an overhaul of the system is necessary because it is overburdened. Yet the total number of refugee claimants arriving in Canada has decreased from 45,000 in 2001 to approximately 36,000 in 2008. The total number of refugees accepted annually in Canada has been cut in half, compared to the 1980s. The system isn’t working because of inadequate resources. Imposing visas on visitors from these two countries will not increase the number of claimants accepted from totalitarian regimes as the Minister implies, especially when those countries already have visa restrictions in place.
Minister Kenney calls Czech Roma refugee claims fraudulent. When the independent adjudicators of the IRB accepted 85% of their claims during the last 18 months, why did he say this? Neither Canada nor the EU has used this opportunity to criticize the Czech government and shame it into improving the human rights situation of this persecuted minority. This government is saying, “None is too many, we don’t want the Gypsies either.”
The IRB recently released its own report on conditions of the Romanies in the Czech Republic – yet it has no mandate to issue reports on overall country conditions and has never done so except in the case of the Rom. This is a breach of due process and taints the impartiality of IRB panelists who will be deciding hundreds of still-pending Romani-Gypsy claims.
The real reason, and this is blatantly obvious, for Canada to try to block Gypsy refugees from the Czech Republic (and elsewhere) is none of the reasons given but the very fact that they happen to be Romani, to be Gypsy, in the very same way as Gypsy from the Czech Republic, so years ago, were being turned away from even getting onto planes in Prague, for instance, by British Immigration official stationed there and working with the Czech authorities hand in glove.
The case of a Gypsy journalist is the prime example who, together with the Gadjo colleague, was on the way to London for an assignment but who was turned away at the airport by British officials who had him pointed out by Czech police as a Gypsy, while his colleague was permitted to continue and the Roma was not permitted to board the plane despite his Gadjo colleague's remonstrations even.
We now appear to see a similar situation in Canada and, I must say, it does not surprise me at all seeing the way that Canada has been going in the last couple of days, not just as far as Gypsies are concerned.
Anyone who waits for the EU to do anything will also wait a very long time indeed. We have seen this in the case of Italy, and elsewhere. The EU says a lot but does nothing, especially not when it comes to matters Gypsy.
© 2009
<>
The FSG presents in the United Nations the shadow report on “Discrimination against Roma women in Spain”
Madrid, July 2009 - The Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) will present on July 22, 2009 a shadow report on the discrimination faced by Roma women in Spain during the 44th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, at the Office of the High Commissioner of the UN in New York.
The fact of presenting such a specific shadow report on Roma women in Spain constitutes in itself a milestone as it will be the first time in UN history that such a hearing will take place, and furthermore by a Roma woman, Tamara Carrasco. Tamara Carrasco, Head of Gender Equality Area of the FSG, will raise her voice at the UN High Commissioner’s Office to highlight the discrimination faced by Roma women in our country.
Spain has ratified six of the seven major international human rights texts including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). These treaties are binding and therefore enforceable by the Spanish State.
Spain signed the CEDAW in 1980, which came into force on January 5, 1984. Since that date and at least every four years Spain is obliged to submit a report on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures taken to give effect to the provisions of the Convention, as provided in Section 18 for consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, comprised by 23 experts in the field.
The Convention requests governments to assess on their own efforts to comply with the Treaty. This governmental point of view is complemented by civil society’s reports. For that reason, in the past (and to this day), the Committee has requested the input of NGOs in the form of parallel or independent reports, and informal oral presentations.
The last recommendations of the Committee to the Spanish government emphasised that national reports provided little data on Roma women and girls. Therefore the FSG has developed a shadow report to the 44th Session of CEDAW to be held next July 22 at the UN headquarters in New York. Tamara Carrasco responsible for the Gender Equality Area and Inés Cedrón, representing the International Department of the FSG, will present the Organization’s perspective on the specific discrimination suffered by Roma women in Spain.
The report itself can be downloaded in Spanish at:
http://www.gitanos.org/servicios/prensa/noticias/38410.html
and in Spanish and English at: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/cedaws44.htm
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The fact of presenting such a specific shadow report on Roma women in Spain constitutes in itself a milestone as it will be the first time in UN history that such a hearing will take place, and furthermore by a Roma woman, Tamara Carrasco. Tamara Carrasco, Head of Gender Equality Area of the FSG, will raise her voice at the UN High Commissioner’s Office to highlight the discrimination faced by Roma women in our country.
Spain has ratified six of the seven major international human rights texts including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). These treaties are binding and therefore enforceable by the Spanish State.
Spain signed the CEDAW in 1980, which came into force on January 5, 1984. Since that date and at least every four years Spain is obliged to submit a report on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures taken to give effect to the provisions of the Convention, as provided in Section 18 for consideration by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, comprised by 23 experts in the field.
The Convention requests governments to assess on their own efforts to comply with the Treaty. This governmental point of view is complemented by civil society’s reports. For that reason, in the past (and to this day), the Committee has requested the input of NGOs in the form of parallel or independent reports, and informal oral presentations.
The last recommendations of the Committee to the Spanish government emphasised that national reports provided little data on Roma women and girls. Therefore the FSG has developed a shadow report to the 44th Session of CEDAW to be held next July 22 at the UN headquarters in New York. Tamara Carrasco responsible for the Gender Equality Area and Inés Cedrón, representing the International Department of the FSG, will present the Organization’s perspective on the specific discrimination suffered by Roma women in Spain.
The report itself can be downloaded in Spanish at:
http://www.gitanos.org/servicios/prensa/noticias/38410.html
and in Spanish and English at: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/cedaws44.htm
<>
Gypsy Basket-makers are leaving their trade
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Aydin, Turkey, July 2009 - The basket-makers living in Ilicabasi in Aydin, pointed out that they are being forced to leave their trade as they cannot compete against baskets and plastic products from China and elsewhere.
The Romanies living in Ilicabasi, explained that they have competed against plastic products before to trying to keep their trade alive, but now, as the Chinese products are commonly sold in all bazaars, their basket-making trade is being all but destroyed.
The basket-maker Rom are extremely concerned that can no longer even earn enough money to live let alone make some profit.
The basketry is the most popular characteristic trade of the Gipsies in that region, but now it is being destroyed by the introduction of cheap and nasty Chinese products, including woven baskets and not just plastic products.
First it was the advent of the use of the plastic baskets that began forving the basket-maker Rom out of the market and now all of it is being displaced by the cheap and nasty Chinese products. The basket-makers cannot compete even if all of them work all day every day.
One of the basket-makers, Ceylan Aydeniz, explained that formerly they were only making baskets to earn their living and it was enough for them but now, even they have to have lots of different trades and jobs besides making baskets, they are at the point of losing their traditional life and trades.
He said : “People used to buy handmade baskets before, but now they are preferring cheap and nasty Chinese plastic baskets. As you know, plastics are either very harmful for human health or dangerous for environment.”
And one must say that he is not wrong there in his assumption as to plastics, especially when they come from China and that also might apply to woven baskets that are imported from that country. The manufacturing process in China use stuffs that would not be permitted in Europe, for instance, as we have seen with the lead in paints on toys, etc.
Maybe, just maybe, there could be a field here for a Fairtrade operation, bringing such Romani produced handmade wares out of Turkey to the rest of the world.
It is clear also that the Romani folks over there in Turkey – as everywhere – cannot always think that they can continue with their old ways in this modern world. Adaption is necessary, and this includes education in many areas. However, such crafts, made from natural materials, should be encouraged and supported and ways should – nay must – be found to do just that. It is being done for Africans and other peoples; why not for the Gypsy and his crafts and trades?
© 2009
<>
Aydin, Turkey, July 2009 - The basket-makers living in Ilicabasi in Aydin, pointed out that they are being forced to leave their trade as they cannot compete against baskets and plastic products from China and elsewhere.
The Romanies living in Ilicabasi, explained that they have competed against plastic products before to trying to keep their trade alive, but now, as the Chinese products are commonly sold in all bazaars, their basket-making trade is being all but destroyed.
The basket-maker Rom are extremely concerned that can no longer even earn enough money to live let alone make some profit.
The basketry is the most popular characteristic trade of the Gipsies in that region, but now it is being destroyed by the introduction of cheap and nasty Chinese products, including woven baskets and not just plastic products.
First it was the advent of the use of the plastic baskets that began forving the basket-maker Rom out of the market and now all of it is being displaced by the cheap and nasty Chinese products. The basket-makers cannot compete even if all of them work all day every day.
One of the basket-makers, Ceylan Aydeniz, explained that formerly they were only making baskets to earn their living and it was enough for them but now, even they have to have lots of different trades and jobs besides making baskets, they are at the point of losing their traditional life and trades.
He said : “People used to buy handmade baskets before, but now they are preferring cheap and nasty Chinese plastic baskets. As you know, plastics are either very harmful for human health or dangerous for environment.”
And one must say that he is not wrong there in his assumption as to plastics, especially when they come from China and that also might apply to woven baskets that are imported from that country. The manufacturing process in China use stuffs that would not be permitted in Europe, for instance, as we have seen with the lead in paints on toys, etc.
Maybe, just maybe, there could be a field here for a Fairtrade operation, bringing such Romani produced handmade wares out of Turkey to the rest of the world.
It is clear also that the Romani folks over there in Turkey – as everywhere – cannot always think that they can continue with their old ways in this modern world. Adaption is necessary, and this includes education in many areas. However, such crafts, made from natural materials, should be encouraged and supported and ways should – nay must – be found to do just that. It is being done for Africans and other peoples; why not for the Gypsy and his crafts and trades?
© 2009
<>
Village prepares for fight against Gypsy site
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Residents are preparing to fight a new application to create a gypsy caravan site on the outskirts of their village.
An application has been made to site 10 mobile homes, 10 utility dayrooms and 10 touring caravans for “nomadic use” on a piece of land off Lower Howsell Road in Leigh Sinton.
The site has been the subject of similar development proposals before. The first, for 50 pitches, was made in 1992. This went to public appeal and was rejected because it would be harmful to the character of the area and would impact on the local community.
In 2003 there was an application for holiday log cabins. This was thrown out on similar grounds.
On both occasions residents have campaigned strongly against the plans, holding crowded public meetings, raising “fighting funds” and writing dozens of letters of objection.
They say that the development would be on a greenfield site and would harm the amenity of neighbors and the village as a whole, as well as being contrary to the local plan.
One resident who lives near to the proposed site said she expected the village to unite against plans once again.
“This is the essentially exactly the same thing they wanted to do before, and the same reasons not to allow it should apply,” she added. “Obviously house prices will go down as soon as a big gypsy camp is created, and it does appear that some of these sites are not that well run. You cannot rely on what is said now as a benchmark for what it will be like over the next few years.”
Another resident, who has lived in the village for more than 20 years, said: “We have been waiting for it, but we have fought it before and will do so strongly again.
“This affects everybody in the village and I don’t think there is going to be anyone in favour of it.”
Maggie Smith-Bendell, liaison officer with the Romani Gypsy Advisory Group, believes the fears are unfounded.
She said: “These people are in desperate need of somewhere to live.
“The land is owned by the family and they are doing everything the right way. They haven’t just pulled up on the site. If, and when, they get planning permission it will be a beautiful site funded by them. They are not asking anything from the taxpayer.”
Leigh and Bransford Parish Council will discuss the application at a planning meeting in the village hall at 7.30pm on Tuesday (July 7) and residents are encouraged to attend.
“It is a sensitive subject, and we are expecting to see a few people,” said chairman Martin Gloster.
What amazes me again and again is that anything that is for Gypsies will faught tooth and nail by residents on grounds that “ it would be harmful to the character of the area and would impact on the local community” while, when the land, as has happened in some instances, is sold off to developers who then wish to build a housing estate there the planning permission is, in a great number of cases, granted.
When it is Gypsies who wish to create a “housing estate”, albeit a caravan site, it is in issue of “would be harmful to the character of the area and would impact on the local community” but that seems to change when it is houses for Gohja (non-Gypsies) that are being built. What a load of £*&^!
It does not matter, we can see, yet again, whether Gypsies go about it the proper way or not. They will be refused planning and that despite the fact that, so it was said, they should be able to make provisions for their own housing. Dordi! One rule for the Gohja and one for the Gyppo. Still the same as always.
Instead of fighting against the development why don't the people actually get together with the Gypsy? In the same way I would like to suggest to the Gypsy families to try and invite the locals over for a BBQ or such and maybe that way prejudiced can be overcome and things worked out. I am not holding out much hope from what I see of the behavior of the locals but... in my view worth a try.
© 2009
<>
Residents are preparing to fight a new application to create a gypsy caravan site on the outskirts of their village.
An application has been made to site 10 mobile homes, 10 utility dayrooms and 10 touring caravans for “nomadic use” on a piece of land off Lower Howsell Road in Leigh Sinton.
The site has been the subject of similar development proposals before. The first, for 50 pitches, was made in 1992. This went to public appeal and was rejected because it would be harmful to the character of the area and would impact on the local community.
In 2003 there was an application for holiday log cabins. This was thrown out on similar grounds.
On both occasions residents have campaigned strongly against the plans, holding crowded public meetings, raising “fighting funds” and writing dozens of letters of objection.
They say that the development would be on a greenfield site and would harm the amenity of neighbors and the village as a whole, as well as being contrary to the local plan.
One resident who lives near to the proposed site said she expected the village to unite against plans once again.
“This is the essentially exactly the same thing they wanted to do before, and the same reasons not to allow it should apply,” she added. “Obviously house prices will go down as soon as a big gypsy camp is created, and it does appear that some of these sites are not that well run. You cannot rely on what is said now as a benchmark for what it will be like over the next few years.”
Another resident, who has lived in the village for more than 20 years, said: “We have been waiting for it, but we have fought it before and will do so strongly again.
“This affects everybody in the village and I don’t think there is going to be anyone in favour of it.”
Maggie Smith-Bendell, liaison officer with the Romani Gypsy Advisory Group, believes the fears are unfounded.
She said: “These people are in desperate need of somewhere to live.
“The land is owned by the family and they are doing everything the right way. They haven’t just pulled up on the site. If, and when, they get planning permission it will be a beautiful site funded by them. They are not asking anything from the taxpayer.”
Leigh and Bransford Parish Council will discuss the application at a planning meeting in the village hall at 7.30pm on Tuesday (July 7) and residents are encouraged to attend.
“It is a sensitive subject, and we are expecting to see a few people,” said chairman Martin Gloster.
What amazes me again and again is that anything that is for Gypsies will faught tooth and nail by residents on grounds that “ it would be harmful to the character of the area and would impact on the local community” while, when the land, as has happened in some instances, is sold off to developers who then wish to build a housing estate there the planning permission is, in a great number of cases, granted.
When it is Gypsies who wish to create a “housing estate”, albeit a caravan site, it is in issue of “would be harmful to the character of the area and would impact on the local community” but that seems to change when it is houses for Gohja (non-Gypsies) that are being built. What a load of £*&^!
It does not matter, we can see, yet again, whether Gypsies go about it the proper way or not. They will be refused planning and that despite the fact that, so it was said, they should be able to make provisions for their own housing. Dordi! One rule for the Gohja and one for the Gyppo. Still the same as always.
Instead of fighting against the development why don't the people actually get together with the Gypsy? In the same way I would like to suggest to the Gypsy families to try and invite the locals over for a BBQ or such and maybe that way prejudiced can be overcome and things worked out. I am not holding out much hope from what I see of the behavior of the locals but... in my view worth a try.
© 2009
<>
In the face of Anti-Gypsyism a framework agreement for the Romani People in the EU is required NOW
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Pogroms in Italy, "final solution" proposed in electoral campaigns in the Czech Republic, Romani-Gypsy children placed in schools for mentally handicapped across Central and Eastern Europe, including Germany and Austria, ripped tents in France, where the Romani families are thrown on the street, and now the turn of Northern Ireland, part of Britain, where recently, extremist groups have been targeting Gypsy families originating from Romania.
Where on Earth is Europe and the European Union headed? Adolf Hitler had a European project. In the immediate aftermath of World War II the UN was launched to a project such as that and the European Union, which emerged out of the European Economic Community, swore, on paper, to also prevent such happening from ever occurring again. The truth appear to be a different one and it would appear as if the EU in fact is aiding and abetting the self-same action perpetrated against the Romani People, if not by direct commission than by commission and inaction. Nice words, probably just intended for the media and the world at large, are just not good enough.
Association "La voix des Rroms", “The Voice of Rom” (http://www.lavoixdesrroms.org) has been calling on the European institutions to rapidly adopt the framework agreement for the Romani People in the European Union, as has been proposed by the Rromani Activists’ Network on Legal and Policy issues (RANELPI)*. The immediate adoption of this framework agreement and its immediate implementation of this Frame-Statute is now a most urgent case and, in fact, an emergency.
* The proposal of this framework agreement is available online in English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Romanian on the website http://www.rroma-europa.eu
However, I do not think that we should be holding our breath here for I am sure that we'd all be well expired before if we'd do be fore we'd see any action.
The problem is the European Union itself for, it would appear there is more to the silence and inaction as to the happenings that does meet the eye.
To me, as a Rom and someone who has been watching this for many, many years, it would appear that there is an agenda here and that this is “ethnic cleansing by proxy”.
It should have become quite clear by now to all but the truly blind that something is not right here and that there is too much waffle going on and no action and that it would appear that the EU's true aim is to make the Gypsy disappear and, while they cannot do that directly, they allow others to do it for them.
Let the reader think for him- or herself as to whether or not this may be so.
© 2009
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Pogroms in Italy, "final solution" proposed in electoral campaigns in the Czech Republic, Romani-Gypsy children placed in schools for mentally handicapped across Central and Eastern Europe, including Germany and Austria, ripped tents in France, where the Romani families are thrown on the street, and now the turn of Northern Ireland, part of Britain, where recently, extremist groups have been targeting Gypsy families originating from Romania.
Where on Earth is Europe and the European Union headed? Adolf Hitler had a European project. In the immediate aftermath of World War II the UN was launched to a project such as that and the European Union, which emerged out of the European Economic Community, swore, on paper, to also prevent such happening from ever occurring again. The truth appear to be a different one and it would appear as if the EU in fact is aiding and abetting the self-same action perpetrated against the Romani People, if not by direct commission than by commission and inaction. Nice words, probably just intended for the media and the world at large, are just not good enough.
Association "La voix des Rroms", “The Voice of Rom” (http://www.lavoixdesrroms.org) has been calling on the European institutions to rapidly adopt the framework agreement for the Romani People in the European Union, as has been proposed by the Rromani Activists’ Network on Legal and Policy issues (RANELPI)*. The immediate adoption of this framework agreement and its immediate implementation of this Frame-Statute is now a most urgent case and, in fact, an emergency.
* The proposal of this framework agreement is available online in English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Romanian on the website http://www.rroma-europa.eu
However, I do not think that we should be holding our breath here for I am sure that we'd all be well expired before if we'd do be fore we'd see any action.
The problem is the European Union itself for, it would appear there is more to the silence and inaction as to the happenings that does meet the eye.
To me, as a Rom and someone who has been watching this for many, many years, it would appear that there is an agenda here and that this is “ethnic cleansing by proxy”.
It should have become quite clear by now to all but the truly blind that something is not right here and that there is too much waffle going on and no action and that it would appear that the EU's true aim is to make the Gypsy disappear and, while they cannot do that directly, they allow others to do it for them.
Let the reader think for him- or herself as to whether or not this may be so.
© 2009
<>
Half of all first-graders in Belogradchik municipality are of Roma origin
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Belogradchik, Bulgaria: Vasil Levski primary school in the northwestern town of Belogradchik expects 50 first-graders for the new school year.
Principal Svetla Tabakova says that the number of first-graders for this new school year equals last year's number, half of who are of the Romani minority.
At a meeting the parents have been presented with the organization of the teaching process.
Apart from the obligatory classes, first-graders have to choose optional courses in Bulgarian, mathematics and sports.
Parents have to choose a foreign language their children will study after finishing first grade.
In the school English is preferred to German.
We have an individual approach to the parents of first-graders, which produces results.
The Roma parents are told that their children will live better if they are educated, Svetla Tabakova said.
While we have to agree that education is the way forward and, yes, also for the children of the Romani minority, and that is the same for not just in Bulgaria but also elsewhere in the world, the question remains as to how this education process is structured.
Also, will they be allowed to remain in the ordinary school system or will they be, as is the common practice in so many countries, and not just in Eastern Europe, be herded into schools “for the educationally subnormal” as they were once called though given different titles today.
Hilfsschule they used to call it in Germany and many a Gypsy child was forced into those schools for no other reasons that for being Gypsy. Chances of a decent job, even if they'd finish that kind of school, were non-existent aside from, maybe, laboring ones.
Was this done on purpose, and is it still done for the very same reason? You bet it is. This was done in order to keep Gypsy children from actually making use of any decent education.
Some succeeded, especially those that many not have been pushed into those “special schools”, against all odds, such as Police Inspector Guenther Weiss of Kehl, but many did not.
© 2009
<>
Belogradchik, Bulgaria: Vasil Levski primary school in the northwestern town of Belogradchik expects 50 first-graders for the new school year.
Principal Svetla Tabakova says that the number of first-graders for this new school year equals last year's number, half of who are of the Romani minority.
At a meeting the parents have been presented with the organization of the teaching process.
Apart from the obligatory classes, first-graders have to choose optional courses in Bulgarian, mathematics and sports.
Parents have to choose a foreign language their children will study after finishing first grade.
In the school English is preferred to German.
We have an individual approach to the parents of first-graders, which produces results.
The Roma parents are told that their children will live better if they are educated, Svetla Tabakova said.
While we have to agree that education is the way forward and, yes, also for the children of the Romani minority, and that is the same for not just in Bulgaria but also elsewhere in the world, the question remains as to how this education process is structured.
Also, will they be allowed to remain in the ordinary school system or will they be, as is the common practice in so many countries, and not just in Eastern Europe, be herded into schools “for the educationally subnormal” as they were once called though given different titles today.
Hilfsschule they used to call it in Germany and many a Gypsy child was forced into those schools for no other reasons that for being Gypsy. Chances of a decent job, even if they'd finish that kind of school, were non-existent aside from, maybe, laboring ones.
Was this done on purpose, and is it still done for the very same reason? You bet it is. This was done in order to keep Gypsy children from actually making use of any decent education.
Some succeeded, especially those that many not have been pushed into those “special schools”, against all odds, such as Police Inspector Guenther Weiss of Kehl, but many did not.
© 2009
<>
Romanian Gypsy families determined to leave Ulster
Roma families determined to leave Northern Ireland
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Roma families that have been forced from their homes as a result of racist attacks in Belfast have their minds set to leave Northern Ireland. This despite the political and public sympathy and support that has been shown to them after the events.
Two teenage boys have appeared in court on Monday, June 22. 2009, charged in connection with the attacks which resulted in 115 Romanians Gypsies seeking refuge in a city centre Belfast church last Tuesday night.
A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old are each being charged with provocative conduct while the 15-year-old is also charged with intimidation.
The outcome of this, probably, will be nothing but a dressing down by a judge and then sending them home.
Notwithstanding the arrests and an anti-racism rally in Belfast on behalf of the 22 families, all of whom are members of the Roma community, they are still anxious to return to Romania.
They say that they have no jobs, no homes, no money and feel they may as well go home. Some, apparently, have said that it is better for them in Romani than in Britain.
There was still a lot of confusion over whether there was any statutory provision that would allow money to be provided to repatriate the families. Last week Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said if money were required it would be found.
However, it is understood there is official concern about what precedents might be created if public money was provided to pay for the flights. Belfast City Council said that it is checking if they can find the money. If not it may be a matter for the churches or the voluntary organisations to get them home.
Temporary accommodation was found for the families by Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie, although that is due to end on Wednesday. The Minister has indicated that they can stay longer if that is necessary.
Church representatives, trade unionists, politicians, members of Amnesty International and the Traveller community were among those who attended the rally in support of the families.
Barbara Muldoon of the Anti-Racism Network said that if any of the families wanted to stay the local community must stand shoulder to shoulder with them. There must also be a concerted effort to stop the racist attacks.
“There are no excuses, and no arguments that can justify what happened,” said Ms Muldoon.
“Immigrants are welcome here, they bring a wealth of culture to Northern Ireland and they bring their ability to contribute to our society. They are not separate from it but part of it,” she added.
While the spokesperson of the Anti-Racism Network may have state that immigrants are welcome in Northern Ireland it always becomes a different matter in the eyes of the great majority when those immigrant happen to be member of the Gypsy Nation.
While this has happened in an area that was always a trouble spot as far as outsiders are concerned one can but wonder how long before things like that will happen all over Britain (and elsewhere in the EU) as far as Gypsy People are concerned, and how long before it will move from the foreign ones to include also the “indigenous” ones.
All one can say that this is a shame as far as the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union is concerned.
In addition to this it is actually fact that by the time of writing on June 23, 2009, many of the Romanian Gypsies have already gone back to Romani, others are about to follow. Only fourteen of them intend to, probably, remain in Northern Ireland.
If they feel safer in Romania where there itself are lots of problems then it shows how bad it is getting in Britain.
Also, on the night from June 22 to June 23, 2009 the Church that gave refuge to those Romanian Gypsies has been attacked and a number of windows smashed and the dook kicked in.
This also means that the juveniles that have been charged with the attacks on the Romanian Gypsies the other day have not been acting alone and it may be proof that groups such as Combat 18 are involved and even thugs of the British National Party.
© 2009
<>
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Roma families that have been forced from their homes as a result of racist attacks in Belfast have their minds set to leave Northern Ireland. This despite the political and public sympathy and support that has been shown to them after the events.
Two teenage boys have appeared in court on Monday, June 22. 2009, charged in connection with the attacks which resulted in 115 Romanians Gypsies seeking refuge in a city centre Belfast church last Tuesday night.
A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old are each being charged with provocative conduct while the 15-year-old is also charged with intimidation.
The outcome of this, probably, will be nothing but a dressing down by a judge and then sending them home.
Notwithstanding the arrests and an anti-racism rally in Belfast on behalf of the 22 families, all of whom are members of the Roma community, they are still anxious to return to Romania.
They say that they have no jobs, no homes, no money and feel they may as well go home. Some, apparently, have said that it is better for them in Romani than in Britain.
There was still a lot of confusion over whether there was any statutory provision that would allow money to be provided to repatriate the families. Last week Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said if money were required it would be found.
However, it is understood there is official concern about what precedents might be created if public money was provided to pay for the flights. Belfast City Council said that it is checking if they can find the money. If not it may be a matter for the churches or the voluntary organisations to get them home.
Temporary accommodation was found for the families by Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie, although that is due to end on Wednesday. The Minister has indicated that they can stay longer if that is necessary.
Church representatives, trade unionists, politicians, members of Amnesty International and the Traveller community were among those who attended the rally in support of the families.
Barbara Muldoon of the Anti-Racism Network said that if any of the families wanted to stay the local community must stand shoulder to shoulder with them. There must also be a concerted effort to stop the racist attacks.
“There are no excuses, and no arguments that can justify what happened,” said Ms Muldoon.
“Immigrants are welcome here, they bring a wealth of culture to Northern Ireland and they bring their ability to contribute to our society. They are not separate from it but part of it,” she added.
While the spokesperson of the Anti-Racism Network may have state that immigrants are welcome in Northern Ireland it always becomes a different matter in the eyes of the great majority when those immigrant happen to be member of the Gypsy Nation.
While this has happened in an area that was always a trouble spot as far as outsiders are concerned one can but wonder how long before things like that will happen all over Britain (and elsewhere in the EU) as far as Gypsy People are concerned, and how long before it will move from the foreign ones to include also the “indigenous” ones.
All one can say that this is a shame as far as the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union is concerned.
In addition to this it is actually fact that by the time of writing on June 23, 2009, many of the Romanian Gypsies have already gone back to Romani, others are about to follow. Only fourteen of them intend to, probably, remain in Northern Ireland.
If they feel safer in Romania where there itself are lots of problems then it shows how bad it is getting in Britain.
Also, on the night from June 22 to June 23, 2009 the Church that gave refuge to those Romanian Gypsies has been attacked and a number of windows smashed and the dook kicked in.
This also means that the juveniles that have been charged with the attacks on the Romanian Gypsies the other day have not been acting alone and it may be proof that groups such as Combat 18 are involved and even thugs of the British National Party.
© 2009
<>
Romanian Roma attacked in Ulster
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
If we, the Romani in Britain, did not know it already the British National Party (BNP) and others of a similar nature do not mean us well.
In Belfast, Northern Ireland (Ulster), the attacks of recent days on Romanian Roma immigrants have shown this with renewed vigor.
And where was the Police, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (what a mouth full), once known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and still as prejudiced as ever?
They took ages to come to the aid of those Romanian Gypsy families. CHIEF CONSTABLE of the PSNI, Sir Hugh Orde, however, has rejected any claims his officers were slow to react to the needs of Romanians suffering racist attacks in south Belfast.
In the same way, as I am sure, every CC is claiming that he or she and his or her officers would not be prejudiced towards the Romani community, whether indigenous, so to speak, or immigrant. The truth is an entirely different one though.
Sir Hugh claims those whose homes were attacked in the loyalist Village area of the city would have been properly protected by the PSNI had they decided to remain in their homes. His officers had done their best in what was a difficult situation, he said. And pigs certainly do fly as well.
While it has to be said that, in the end, the police did put the families, at new temporary housing, under protection this shows, yet again, what it takes before police will respond to calls for help from the Gypsy community to alleged racist attacks.
The attitudes of years gone by are still prevalent and nothing has change in the police services in the various countries of the United Kingdom.
Romanian gypsies beware beware. Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear
In a rather menacing message the racist group calling itself Combat 18, believed to be affiliated to the BNP, made it rather clear how they view things as far as Romanian Gypsies, and no doubt other Gypsies, are concerned.
The message broadcast by text and email all over Northern Ireland is hate-filled and and full of menace:
“Romanian gypsies beware beware.
Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear.
Stay out of South Belfast and stay out of sight
And then youse will be alright
Get the boat and don't come back
There is no black in the Union Jack
Loyalist C18 'whatever it takes'.”
This rhyming racist warning has been picked up on mobile phones and computers all across loyalist areas of the north of Ireland and, no doubt, some will want to act on such ideas, and not just the thugs of C18 and such like.
So-called newspapers, such as the Daily Mail, Daily Express and Mirror also do not help in the way they time and again create a false image of the perceived “Gypsy problem”.
The houses from which the Romanian Roma fled are boarded up and evidence as to why they fled is all around, with Swastikas daubed on doors and walls.
Many of the Romani families affected have said that they'd rather go back home to Romania where the problems are less, as regards to racism, than in Britain.
This certainly is not a very good showing for the country that prides itself to be the bastion and mother of democracy and a real multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially when it comes to the Gypsy People, regardless whether “English” Romani or foreign.
Time we, the Rom in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe), considered what to do as to this.
© 2009
<>
If we, the Romani in Britain, did not know it already the British National Party (BNP) and others of a similar nature do not mean us well.
In Belfast, Northern Ireland (Ulster), the attacks of recent days on Romanian Roma immigrants have shown this with renewed vigor.
And where was the Police, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (what a mouth full), once known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and still as prejudiced as ever?
They took ages to come to the aid of those Romanian Gypsy families. CHIEF CONSTABLE of the PSNI, Sir Hugh Orde, however, has rejected any claims his officers were slow to react to the needs of Romanians suffering racist attacks in south Belfast.
In the same way, as I am sure, every CC is claiming that he or she and his or her officers would not be prejudiced towards the Romani community, whether indigenous, so to speak, or immigrant. The truth is an entirely different one though.
Sir Hugh claims those whose homes were attacked in the loyalist Village area of the city would have been properly protected by the PSNI had they decided to remain in their homes. His officers had done their best in what was a difficult situation, he said. And pigs certainly do fly as well.
While it has to be said that, in the end, the police did put the families, at new temporary housing, under protection this shows, yet again, what it takes before police will respond to calls for help from the Gypsy community to alleged racist attacks.
The attitudes of years gone by are still prevalent and nothing has change in the police services in the various countries of the United Kingdom.
Romanian gypsies beware beware. Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear
In a rather menacing message the racist group calling itself Combat 18, believed to be affiliated to the BNP, made it rather clear how they view things as far as Romanian Gypsies, and no doubt other Gypsies, are concerned.
The message broadcast by text and email all over Northern Ireland is hate-filled and and full of menace:
“Romanian gypsies beware beware.
Loyalist C18 are coming to beat you like a baiting bear.
Stay out of South Belfast and stay out of sight
And then youse will be alright
Get the boat and don't come back
There is no black in the Union Jack
Loyalist C18 'whatever it takes'.”
This rhyming racist warning has been picked up on mobile phones and computers all across loyalist areas of the north of Ireland and, no doubt, some will want to act on such ideas, and not just the thugs of C18 and such like.
So-called newspapers, such as the Daily Mail, Daily Express and Mirror also do not help in the way they time and again create a false image of the perceived “Gypsy problem”.
The houses from which the Romanian Roma fled are boarded up and evidence as to why they fled is all around, with Swastikas daubed on doors and walls.
Many of the Romani families affected have said that they'd rather go back home to Romania where the problems are less, as regards to racism, than in Britain.
This certainly is not a very good showing for the country that prides itself to be the bastion and mother of democracy and a real multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially when it comes to the Gypsy People, regardless whether “English” Romani or foreign.
Time we, the Rom in the UK (and elsewhere in Europe), considered what to do as to this.
© 2009
<>
President of the European Union?
Please click on picture for larger view
This about sums it up, and not just as far as Italy is concerned, but as far as the entire European Union.
Homeschooling soon to be considered “child abuse”?
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
In Britain, the country with probably the world's most liberal education system as regards to homeschooling, government think tanks now push for registration and inspections of homeschooled children in case homeschooling might be a cover for “child abuse”.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. We will soon find, I am sure, that homeschooling in itself will be considered “child abuse”. I am also sure that all over this idea we would find the fingerprints of the European Union where in most countries it is illegal to homeschool. Germany only not so many months ago in a legal judgment made the final statement, as far as Germany is concerned, that educating children at home is and will remain against the law in Germany and in France and other affairs things are about the same.
Read on: http://tinyurl.com/m3odjp
In Britain, the country with probably the world's most liberal education system as regards to homeschooling, government think tanks now push for registration and inspections of homeschooled children in case homeschooling might be a cover for “child abuse”.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. We will soon find, I am sure, that homeschooling in itself will be considered “child abuse”. I am also sure that all over this idea we would find the fingerprints of the European Union where in most countries it is illegal to homeschool. Germany only not so many months ago in a legal judgment made the final statement, as far as Germany is concerned, that educating children at home is and will remain against the law in Germany and in France and other affairs things are about the same.
Read on: http://tinyurl.com/m3odjp
New York legislator says Holocaust memorial only for Jews
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
A state assemblyman from New York, USA, has stated on record that a Brooklyn Holocaust memorial should only be for Jews.
Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn Democrat, said the memorial should not recognize the other victims of the Nazis, according to a report by the New York Post. The memorial in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood was erected by the City of New York.
"These people are not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the Holocaust," said Hikind, an Orthodox Jew whose district includes the heavily Chasidic section Borough Park. "It is so vastly different. You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims."
Along with 6 million Jewish victims, millions of gays, disabled people and Roma also were persecuted by the Nazis -- a fact that several city officials played up in their defense of a plan to recognize those groups at the memorial.
"It wasn't only the Jews that were massacred," said the city's Jewish mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
"There's no doubt that most of the atrocities at the Holocaust were done upon Jewish people," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "But it goes against history and their memory to not commemorate all groups that were persecuted by the Nazis."
Hikind, who speaks out frequently on Jewish issues, made the comments at a news conference attended by his 89-year-old mother, Frieda, a survivor of Auschwitz.
Not that this is really anything new as far as the Jews' take on the Holocaust is concerned. To them it was only they that suffered and “Gypsies defile the memory of the Holocaust by wishing to be associated with it” as it was stated some years back by some Jewish dignitaries, including a Mayor in Germany and member of the Board.
When the listings are given Gypsies, anyway, run basically on the bottom rung, well below the gays and lesbians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others. This despite the fact that Gypsies are the only Race, aside from the Jews, who were, in fact, persecuted and gassed for reasons of race.
“ You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims” Hikind said but Gypsies were not “political prisoners” but imprisoned and gassed for the selfsame reasons, namely that of sare, and it should be remembered that some of the extermination methods were first “tried out” on Gypsy victims, such as Zyklon B on 200+ Gypsy children from Czechoslovakia, the so-called “Protektorat Boehmen und Maeren”.
But those Jews have but one thing in their mind and that is to have the Holocaust to be a uniquely Jewish event and no others have a right to be involved – according to them – regardless of whether or not they were persecuted for the selfsame reasons. They were not Jews and hence they have no right here.
Sorry Mr. Hikind, personally I do not care what you, or others of your kind, say as to this. In fact I think that Gypsies have more right on a Holocaust memorial than the Jews if we want to play on percentages murdered. Our Romani People lost more that seventy-five percent of our People to the Nazi extermination apparatus which means that a genocide was near complete here, as far as Europe is concerned.
Then again, do the Jews care? I don't think so.
© 2009
<>
A state assemblyman from New York, USA, has stated on record that a Brooklyn Holocaust memorial should only be for Jews.
Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn Democrat, said the memorial should not recognize the other victims of the Nazis, according to a report by the New York Post. The memorial in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood was erected by the City of New York.
"These people are not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the Holocaust," said Hikind, an Orthodox Jew whose district includes the heavily Chasidic section Borough Park. "It is so vastly different. You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims."
Along with 6 million Jewish victims, millions of gays, disabled people and Roma also were persecuted by the Nazis -- a fact that several city officials played up in their defense of a plan to recognize those groups at the memorial.
"It wasn't only the Jews that were massacred," said the city's Jewish mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
"There's no doubt that most of the atrocities at the Holocaust were done upon Jewish people," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "But it goes against history and their memory to not commemorate all groups that were persecuted by the Nazis."
Hikind, who speaks out frequently on Jewish issues, made the comments at a news conference attended by his 89-year-old mother, Frieda, a survivor of Auschwitz.
Not that this is really anything new as far as the Jews' take on the Holocaust is concerned. To them it was only they that suffered and “Gypsies defile the memory of the Holocaust by wishing to be associated with it” as it was stated some years back by some Jewish dignitaries, including a Mayor in Germany and member of the Board.
When the listings are given Gypsies, anyway, run basically on the bottom rung, well below the gays and lesbians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others. This despite the fact that Gypsies are the only Race, aside from the Jews, who were, in fact, persecuted and gassed for reasons of race.
“ You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims” Hikind said but Gypsies were not “political prisoners” but imprisoned and gassed for the selfsame reasons, namely that of sare, and it should be remembered that some of the extermination methods were first “tried out” on Gypsy victims, such as Zyklon B on 200+ Gypsy children from Czechoslovakia, the so-called “Protektorat Boehmen und Maeren”.
But those Jews have but one thing in their mind and that is to have the Holocaust to be a uniquely Jewish event and no others have a right to be involved – according to them – regardless of whether or not they were persecuted for the selfsame reasons. They were not Jews and hence they have no right here.
Sorry Mr. Hikind, personally I do not care what you, or others of your kind, say as to this. In fact I think that Gypsies have more right on a Holocaust memorial than the Jews if we want to play on percentages murdered. Our Romani People lost more that seventy-five percent of our People to the Nazi extermination apparatus which means that a genocide was near complete here, as far as Europe is concerned.
Then again, do the Jews care? I don't think so.
© 2009
<>
Natascha Winter & the Sinti men
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The problem, and this is rather self evident, that the Sinti Rechtsprecher and other Sinti men has as regards to Natascha Winter, the head of the Sinti Allianz, is the fact that Mrs Winter is more of a man than they will ever be. This is the fact and truth; plain and simple.
The men often rant and rave saying that a Sintizza should not (be allowed) to run an organization but they are really nothing but jealous and their jealousy makes them look rather silly.
While Natascha Winter has gone and started something to help the People the others just talk, talk, talk and then talk a lot more.
Firstly their claims as to Sinti women not being allowed too run such affairs have no substance seeing that our People originally were ruled, on clan level, by the old women. Secondly it shows that those men who just rant and rave against Mrs Winter have in fact no backbone for, otherwise, instead of all the talk they would do things themselves.
But this they do not. They rely on others. Often they reply primarily on Gadje, on non-Gypsies, to set up and run organization that are – supposed – to help our People. Anyone can have a big mouth but to actually do something, however little, takes initiative, inspiration and intelligence, as well as get up and go power and staying power. Something those ranting and raving men do not have, it would seem and so they feel rather put out when a woman does it instead.
Why the German Sinti men from certain quarters seem to have a problem with Mrs. Winter when they seem to have nothing to say against Lalla Weiss who runs a Dutch Sinti Organization.
Would I be too much off the mark if I would suggest that in Germany it has to do with monies from the government, that is to say the “reparations” and such like; something that does not enter the equation in the Netherlands? I think I would not and that is “where the hare lies buried”, as one would say in Germany, here translated.
Such a shame that because of such infighting the Sinti get not very far while the Gadje and especially the governments sit and laugh.
© 2009
<>
The problem, and this is rather self evident, that the Sinti Rechtsprecher and other Sinti men has as regards to Natascha Winter, the head of the Sinti Allianz, is the fact that Mrs Winter is more of a man than they will ever be. This is the fact and truth; plain and simple.
The men often rant and rave saying that a Sintizza should not (be allowed) to run an organization but they are really nothing but jealous and their jealousy makes them look rather silly.
While Natascha Winter has gone and started something to help the People the others just talk, talk, talk and then talk a lot more.
Firstly their claims as to Sinti women not being allowed too run such affairs have no substance seeing that our People originally were ruled, on clan level, by the old women. Secondly it shows that those men who just rant and rave against Mrs Winter have in fact no backbone for, otherwise, instead of all the talk they would do things themselves.
But this they do not. They rely on others. Often they reply primarily on Gadje, on non-Gypsies, to set up and run organization that are – supposed – to help our People. Anyone can have a big mouth but to actually do something, however little, takes initiative, inspiration and intelligence, as well as get up and go power and staying power. Something those ranting and raving men do not have, it would seem and so they feel rather put out when a woman does it instead.
Why the German Sinti men from certain quarters seem to have a problem with Mrs. Winter when they seem to have nothing to say against Lalla Weiss who runs a Dutch Sinti Organization.
Would I be too much off the mark if I would suggest that in Germany it has to do with monies from the government, that is to say the “reparations” and such like; something that does not enter the equation in the Netherlands? I think I would not and that is “where the hare lies buried”, as one would say in Germany, here translated.
Such a shame that because of such infighting the Sinti get not very far while the Gadje and especially the governments sit and laugh.
© 2009
<>
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