Czech Republic: Media say another inter-ethnic incident occurred in Varnsdorf on New Year's Eve

This is not helpful at all

TV Nova reports that police in the Czech Republic are searching for a group of young Romani people who allegedly assaulted three non-Romani people in the town of Varnsdorf on New Year's Eve, shouting racist slurs at them during the attack. Police are saying the attack was not racially motivated. Two of the victims were hospitalized.

A series of anti-Roma demonstrations took place in Varnsdorf several months ago as a result of similar media reports interpreting incidents of assault in the area as ethnically motivated. According to the latest information, a brawl in the nearby town of Rumburk last summer now seems to have been motivated by other concerns. 

More on Romano Vod'i here...

If our People continue behaving in that way - and yes, I do know there is racism leveled against ours all the time - it is not helping the cause at all and that is what counts.

Veshengro

Do politicians intentionally keep Roma in ghettos to absorb EU funds?

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

“I am sick and tired of politicians who intentionally keep Roma in ghettos to absorb EU funds, use money for other purposes, and eventually blame failed integration on Roma's alleged laziness and criminal behavior ...” said Mihail Georgiev, Chair of Board of Directors, organization "Romani Baht" (Sofia, Bulgaria), recently. And he is not the only one.

Now, the question then must be as asked above: Do politicians intentionally keep the Romani People in ghettos to absorb EU funds? And the answer, I must say, seems to be self-explanatory and it just seems to be thus.

However, not only the politicians of the various countries have found the Gypsy People, the Romani, in the ghettos a nice little earner; the community leaders have too.

There is a veritable Gypsy Industry out there and everyone who is someone is feeding at the trough, while the poor Rom in the ghettos have to eek out a living on the rubbish tips.

One only has to look at the villas of the self-proclaimed voivodes, kings and emperors, to see where the money is in Romaniland and then ask as to how they came by that money.

The money that is meant to help the poor Rom, whether in towns or villages, in the former Iron Curtain countries – for Romani groups from the West need not apply – never reaches those in need but drains away in the endless sands of the politician and leader desert. The EU has had to admit more than once when parliamentarians asked questions that they knew how much money had gone to Roma projects but had no idea as to what actually had been done with the money.

The other part of the Gypsy Industry are those that make money one the back of the poor Rom in different ways, while equally keeping them in ignorance. Language course, and other such things, are a nice little earner, as is the “standardized Romanes”, no doubt, but what does it benefit the choro Rom, the poor Gypsy? Kek! Nothing.

The poor Rom does not need standardized Romanes which is claimed to be needed for all Gypsies to communicate with one another because he has no time to learn it. The only ones who need this – by now – made up – language are the academics who get the research funding and the money for the books and courses.

It is politicians, leaders of the community, as much as Gypsyologists, whether Gadje or Rom, that like to keep the Rom just where they are, namely in the ghettos and poor.

© 2011

A little personal and editorial note

Sometime on October 14, 2011 in the morning local British time someone or some entity tried to and managed to successfully attack and access my Blogger account and to disable and in fact close completely - though but temporarily - the O NEVO DROM Blog. 

The system, that is Blogger, detecting an intrusion, then disabled the entire account with all my Blogs. I managed to get the account reinstated, including O NEVO DROM.

It would appear that somewhere along the line someone or some entity does not appear to be happy with what I am writing and especially it would appear as far as the Romani-Gypsy cause is concerned. The  question is but who and why...

Don't be just bricks and mortar blinkered, says Minister

Housing Minister to give more powers for communities to choose boats on water alongside bricks and mortar

 

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Housing Minister Grant Shapps urged local authorities on August 27, 2011 not to become landlocked in their quest to meet local housing needs – but to consider how new powers restoring local control over housing provision and planning can enable people to choose boats on water alongside bricks and mortar. 

Mr. Shapps said that more people than ever are choosing to make a boat their home and that boats with residential moorings could be an example of how unconventional housing can allow people to live in areas of the country where perhaps they couldn't afford to do so otherwise. 

And as new moorings could be eligible for the New Homes Bonus, the Minister said that there was a strong incentive for councils and communities to grant planning permission for more residential moorings. The money that they receive could be invested in new marina facilities or waterside recreational activities that everyone could benefit from, as well as being used to attract further private investment and drive the regeneration of the often-Brownfield land around parts of the country's waterways. 

Half the population live within five miles one of Britain's waterways and so not just those living on the water could benefit from the fresh injection of funding; water based recreation and tourism is thought to generate over £1billion for local economies, and supports 24,000 jobs. 

Read more here. 

© 2011

Gypsies targeted in west German arson attack

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

An apartment block housing Sinti and Roma families was the target of an apparent racial arson attack in the west German city of Leverkusen in the last week of July 2011 and prosecutors have, in fact, put a 5,000 Euro bounty on any information leading to apprehension and conviction of perpetrator(s).

Unknown assailants threw several Molotov cocktails into the ground floor apartment of the building, where a well-known Gypsy family of Leverkusen had their home.  Luckily the occupants managed to escape unharmed.

Witnesses have spoken of four perpetrators who drove off in a car and minibus.

Police do 'not rule out a radical right-wing background' in the fire-bombing of the four-storey building.

The apartment was totally gutted by the flames, however fire-fighters were able to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the apartments.

Germany has time and again witnessed brutal racist and xenophobic attacks in recent years as the center-right government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has
tried to downplay the problem.

Most of the racial assaults are committed by mostly young-Neo-Nazis who live in what used to be formerly communist East Germany.

The German government has been under fire for not really cracking down on far-right violence which is targeting mostly foreigners and leftist activists.

Young neo-Nazis feel more and more emboldened to commit hate crimes, knowing that police won't charge them with an offense.

Most of the suspects implicated in far-right crimes are juveniles.

Hate crime experts and sociologists have repeatedly stressed that Germany's political leadership lacked a clear and effective strategy to really combat neo-Nazi crimes.

It has to be said that this is nothing new and has been going on for years and years though in recent years attacks seem to have gotten more severe. One can but wonder as to whether the Neo-Nazi groups are being emboldened by what is happening in Hungary in the way that the Jobik and other groups get away with attacking Gypsies.

I must say that I have been – unfortunately – predicting firebomb attacks to be headed the way of our People and have, more than once, suggested that people took precautions, including of anti-firebomb curtains and such like.

Other, more active defensive actions, obviously, are not something that we, the Gypsy community, would ever be allowed to consider, unlike the Jewish community who can have their own guards, armed ones even, protecting homes, businesses, schools, synagogues, and such like.

One rule for the Gypsy and one rule for others, as per usual...

© 2011

Gypsies to be pressed into forced slave labor gangs

Gypsies (and those receiving welfare) are to be pressed into forced labor gangs, supervised by police and militias

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Hungary, June 2011: According to information on the wires Gypsies are to be pressed into forced labor gangs in Hungary in the very near future. Those gangs will be supervised by police and militias and are “to ensure that Gypsies (and welfare recipients) do some work for their money.”

This is not very far removed from the way that the Nazis talked in the 1930s when Gypsies were rounded up and sent to labor camps.

In the next three years, the government of Hungary says, it will create employment for 100,000 Romani Gypsies in the country, the majority of which are welfare recipients, at least those that live in the countryside. They are to work in “charitable” and “community-based” projects in return for the payments that they receive.

The payment of any further welfare monies will be made dependent on people working in jobs in infrastructure-important building projects, as well as in agriculture and forestry.

Apparently those workers, who will be to 95% be Gypsy, who will be forced to partake in this so-called “charitable” labor program, will also be lent out to business against a fee, which the government will collect. It would appear that Gypsy slavery is back and by government decree.

Hungary claims, at the close of its EU presidency, that the program of integration of Romani People in Hungary has gone well during this period. How and where I would like to ask for all that happened was that the Orban government allowed the likes of Jobbik and others to intimidate Romani Gypsies in their villages with the police standing idly by. If that is Romani integration then I do not want to see anywhere where that is not being done.

It is quite difficult to believe that the government of Hungary could introduce something that so closely resembles forced labor camps or forced labor battalions of Jews and other undesirables in World War II.

However, at a press conference it was announced that “we don’t want to keep the workers under surveillance. …We are talking about instruction, direction, organization. Placing 300,000 people into work projects is a complicated affair that needs exactly the skills policemen have.” So, this is all true.

Police officers, obviously, according to Hungarian government understanding, well placed to instruct and direct those workers in the tasks that they are going to be assigned to. I find that hard to believe that they are capable of anything by way of instruction and direction but are indeed well placed to keep the workers “in line”, making sure that they do not run away.

What, we must ask, will happen if anyone does run? Will he (or she) be shot? It certainly would not surprise me if that would going to be the case.

Remember, everyone, that Hungary, the country who is intending such actions is, in fact, a European Union member state and it would appear that the EU will do nothing at all here. Thus I am starting very much to believe that the rumors we keep hearing as to talks between EU and Russia as to relocating (all) Gypsies in Central Europe to the Russian steppes are true.

© 2011

Poverty in Romani settlements to become a tourist attraction in Slovakia

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Speculation has been circulating for some time that tourism in Slovakia could be developed around organizing visits to Romani settlements.

Now Petr Duda, Mayor of Veµká Lomnice, a village in the Tatra mountains, is planning to turn local Romani settlements into a kind of tourist destination and attraction and his doing his best to push the plan through in the nearby settlement of Nový Dvùr, where 1,600 people are eking out a living in abject poverty in total substandard conditions, without clean water or sewerage.

“This would be an organized tour of the Romani settlements here in Veµká Lomnice,” Duda explained to the Czech Radio news server Rozhlas.cz. “The reason is to get people to realize what kinds of conditions Romani people live in here. On the other hand, it could motivate the Romani people to improve their living conditions on their own.”

In other words, they are doing this in order to shame the Romani residents in those areas who also may not have the means to improve their living conditions. Therefore, instead of helping them to help themselves the Romani People in those areas are now being turned into a circus attraction by idiotic politicians.

I guess that the mayor is trying to find a way of making money from the misery of the Romani residents in the area and the problem is that there will be enough idiotic tourists, especially from abroad, that would want to visit such Third World conditions in an EU member state in the same way that they would travel to places in the Third World for the very same reason.

The most important question that we must ask, I am sure, is what eh European Union and the European Commission are doing about this idea? Are they going to make any attempt to put a stop to such exploitation of the conditions of an entire people?

© 2011

Is the EU about to ship all Gypsies in member states to Russia?

By Michael Smith (Veshengro) 

According to reports that were being circulated in Spring 2011 by Russian news agencies the European Union is in discussion with the government of the Russian state to do just that.

According to Tolkovatel.ru, the possibility of an agreement by which Europe’s Roma will be dispatched to the Russian Federation and possibly Ukraine was going to be the subject of upcoming discussions between the EU and the Russian Federation, a step France and several East European countries support but the Germany reportedly opposes.

The first public mention of this, Tolkovatel.ru said, was a “Komsomolskaya Pravda” radio program on April 12 when Roman Grokholsky, a leader of the Roma community in the Russian Federation, said that in his view, “Russia for economic reasons could accept [Europe’s Roma]. It is an enormous land”

Apparently European governments have concluded that is “neither technically nor economically” feasible “to deport all the Roma to Romania or Bulgaria as was done in the past: the sizes of these countries do not allow that and local nationalists are protesting ever more loudly against” that idea.

So, it would appear if the Russian reports can be believed that “behind the scenes” discussions are taking place between the EU and the Russian Federation to relocate all European Roma (for that read Gypsies, in my book, probably including all Sinti and Kale as well) to Russia.

This smacks of the creation of a new Pale, as once existed for the Jews of Eastern Europe, in the steppes of Russian, the Ukraine and Poland and also of the once Gypsy enclave of Transnistria, the place where the SS had a field day rounding them all up, as well as in Bessarabia.

When I said years ago that I could see the writing on the wall as to the true aims of the EU's Gypsy policy I was being told that I was paranoid and that the EU and its aims were good for us, the Romani People. I am now beginning to think that I am about to be vindicated if the stories coming from Russian sources are to be believed.

When we have “leaders” such as Roman Grokholsky then we certainly do not need any enemies, that is for sure. How much money is he being paid to play right into the hands of the authorities with his statements?

Let us all be watchful and ready to fight this.

© 2011

Neo-Nazis take on police powers in Hungary

Romani settlement and inhabitants being threatened

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

While Gyöngyöspata in Hungary may only be a village and a relatively small village at that the truth remains that Neo-Nazis have usurped police powers and are terrorizing the local Roma (Gypsy) population because, so the organizers of this “militia”, the Gypsies terrorize all Hungary and Hungarians.

Local white Hungarians offer the militia personnel of the Jobbik organization free board and lodging and the authorities, what do they do? They let it all happen and do nothing. Is this the new “Roma policy” of the Hungarian government? It would appear to be just that. Worrying in the extreme for anyone who, like me, is of the ethnic groups of the Romani, the Gypsy. It should also be of concern of everyone who does not want to see a repetition of the 1930s and 1940s in Europe.

For weeks already black uniformed skinheads of the “Militia Beautiful Future” who call themselves “Gendarmerie” patrol the street of the area and threaten everyone who is not prepared to follow their rules.

They have told the local Roma population in no uncertain terms that they'd better pack up and leave Hungary if they wish to live.

Hungary is an EU member state and still this is going on and this, and call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish, seems to me that the policy of the European Union is one that wishes to get rid of the Gypsy and permits ethnic cleansing by proxy.

© 2011

Italy wants to expel Gypsies without housing and income

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

ROME: Italy wants to expel Gypsies who are citizens of other EU states who live solely off state benefits, the interior minister said recently, a move that would extend a crackdown on the Gypsy People criticised by rights groups as discriminatory.

France has sent masses of Roma on flights home to Romania in a mass repatriation that it says is voluntary, though some said they were coerced to leave. In fact, it is about as voluntary as were the round ups and deportations of the Nazi era.

Applauding France's move, Maroni, from the anti-immigrant Northern League party, said mandatory deportation of Roma who do not meet basic requirements should now be allowed.

The policy would apply to all non-Italian EU citizens who fail to meet certain criteria, not just Roma, said Maroni when asked if such a plan would be discriminatory.

"If anything, the problem is something else: unlike in France, many Roma and Sinti here have Italian citizenship. They have the right to remain here. Nothing can be done," said Maroni.

Maroni's comments were immediately denounced by the political opposition, including the Italy of Values party which said the plan smacked of racism.

What we can see is how the government of Italy thinks as regards to the Sinti and Roma in the country. If they could but find a way they would also consider throwing those Gypsies with Italian citizenship out of the country.

I am sure they will find a way soon; removing the citizenships off them is something that they, I am sure, are thinking about already.

At the same time Jobbik in Hungary is calling for all Gypsies in Hungary to be put into internment camps and if Jobbik can get the general public of Hungary behind it then the government of the country might just think of this too, I would not be surprised.

And while the European Commission may have spoken out rather strongly, finally, against the actions of the government of France with regards to their removal of Gypsies from their country. But, it would appear, France is going to take absolutely no notice of what they are told. Now let us see as to whether the Commission is prepared to go all the way and drag France before the court. I am not holding my breath.

All I am seeing is that the EU is permitting an ethnic cleansing by proxy...

© 2011

Sonia Meyer, Gypsy Activist, to Speak on KOGA Radio

Sonia Meyer, famed Gypsy activist and scholar will be appearing on the Josh Mackey radio program on KOGA (http://www.930koga.com) in Ogallala, Nebraska on February 22 2011 at 1:30 PM Mountain Time to talk about the oppression of Gypsies across Europe and the impact her book, Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies, has had on her battle for recognition of the rights of Gypsies all over the world.

Littleton, MA (PRWEB) February 19, 2011: Sonia Meyer, famed Gypsy activist and scholar will be appearing on the Josh Mackey radio program on KOGA (http://www.930koga.com) in Ogallala, Nebraska on February 22 2011 at 1:30 PM Mountain Time to talk about the oppression of Gypsies across Europe and the impact her book, Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies, has had on her battle for recognition of the rights of Gypsies all over the world.

Sonia Meyer (http://www.soniameyer.com) is renowned Gypsy (Romani) activist. She fled the Nazis with her parents when she was two years old to live in the woods of Germany and Poland among partisans and Gypsies. They lived in the woods, in abandon houses, and inns, always dodging the German and later Soviet armies who hunted them relentlessly. Her father taught her to throw hand grenades using a wooden darning egg. Just after the war Sonia and her family returned to Cologne Germany where she foraged for food with a band of Gypsies camped nearby.

Sonia Meyer is the author of the novel, “Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies.” The novel spans the early life of a Gypsy girl, from a childhood spent with partisans in the Polish forests to her defection to the West during Khrushchev’s visit to Helsinki.

Clarion Review said, “…Dosha: Flight of the Russian Gypsies tells the three-part story of a talented gypsy equestrian woman who gets drafted into the Soviet dressage team in Leningrad. Even as she is promoted as a star and given elevated status, Dosha’s only desire is to defect. Well-integrated into the book’s gripping plot are historical facts and vivid descriptions of the Russian gypsies and their role fighting the Nazi invasion during Stalin’s reign, followed by their oppression during Khrushchev’s Thaw in 1956, which instigated the Hungarian Revolution. Khrushchev’s first state visit to Helsinki, Finland, on June 6, 1957, plays a crucial part in this enthralling story.

“Edgy, entertaining, and filled with political stratagem, even a jaded fan of novels set during the Soviet era will not be disappointed. Indeed, Meyer’s knowledge and research shines on every page. At no point does she neglect her story to force sterile history on the reader, yet she manages to convey all essential information effortlessly. Her ability to capture the unique relationship between a sensitive rider and her dedicated horse is outstanding. This beautiful stallion is such an integral character in the book that his emotions can be felt during the hard training sessions and unexpected separations from Dosha.”

Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies

ISBN: 978-0-9827115-1-4

Available on Amazon as well as all fine book stores.

(http://www.wildernesshousepress.com)

Nicolas Sarkozy to target Muslim prayers

Is the man actually still sane? Don't answer that; it was a rhetorical question...

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has taken another lurch to the Right with a speech on New Year's Eve calling Muslim prayers in the street "unacceptable".

After his expulsions of Roma-Gypsies, predominately from Romania and Bulgaria and also an attack on the resident Romani with the reintroduction of the “Carnet de Circulation” and a crackdown on immigrant crime, the French President warns that the overflow of Muslim faithful on to the streets at prayer time when mosques are packed to capacity risks undermining the French secular tradition separating state and religion.

He will doubtless be accused of pandering to the far Right: the issue of Muslim prayers in the street has been brought to the fore by Marine Le Pen, the charismatic new figurehead of the National Front, who compared it to the wartime occupation of France.

Her words provoked uproar on the Left, whose commentators took them as evidence that far from being the gentler face of the far Right, Ms Le Pen, 42, is no different from Jean-Marie, 82, her father, who has been accused of racism and Holocaust denial.

According to his aide, Mr Sarkozy agrees with the junior Le Pen that the street cannot be allowed to become "an extension of the mosque" as it does in some parts of Paris, which are closed to traffic because of the overflow of the faithful. Local authorities have declined to intervene, despite public complaints, because they are afraid of sparking riots.

It is such a shame to see France head into such a right wing direction not that the country, in the way it is run, is not, theoretically, a fascist country, in the true sense of the word and term.

Gypsies have had a bad time always, and not just during the Vichy era, but to this very day, including French Manush and others, in that they are required to carry a special passport that identifies them – point blank – as Gypsy, the Carnet de Circulation.

While the use of this document was, supposedly, stopped in the 1980s it would appear from what we have learned from Rom in France that the use has been reinstated and that all must carry this and the requirements of registering with the police prefecture upon arrival, when on voyage, are still as strict as ever.

It can just be hoped that France will not become a leading light in this and that the rest of Europe will follow as to the treatment of Gypsies and other “outsiders”. I do, however, fear that that is exactly the very way that we are headed.

© 2011

The Government has adopted guidelines for the policy on Roma

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The Government of Finland has, on December 9, 2010, adopted a “Resolution on guidelines to promote Finland's policy on Roma.”

The Resolution, so say speakers for the government, is a strong message from the Government of Finland that it considers the policy on Roma important and is committed to the implementation of the National Policy on Roma.

The Government will initiate intensified measures to enhance the inclusion of the Roma population at local level and to investigate their housing conditions.

The Government also wants to improve the status of the Romani language and to increase the opportunities of the Roma children and adolescents for social participation and pursuing hobbies. Furthermore, an international strategy will be drawn up to influence policies on Roma.

According to the Resolution the Government Ministries will implement the measures that are assigned to them in the National Policy on Roma within the framework of the appropriations available to them.

The implementation of the measures will be monitored. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health will set up a monitoring group for the National Policy on Roma to evaluate the implementation of this cross-sectoral Policy. The first monitoring report will be submitted in 2013.

The Resolution is based on Finland's first National Policy on Roma that was published in December 2009. The objective is to promote the inclusion and equality of the Roma in various spheres of life. The National Policy on Roma comprises a total of 10 policy guidelines and 147 measures, which several administrative sectors are responsible for implementing.

The goal is that Finland will be a forerunner in promoting the equal treatment and inclusion of the Roma in Europe by 2017.

And while this sounds all very good, what really stands out in contrast to this is the recent policy of – basically – rounding up foreign Roma on the streets of Helsinki as unwanted beggars.

Does the inclusion, which we can but hope to just mean integration and not, like in France, more or less forced assimilation, only apply to the Finish Kaale or also to Romani from other countries who wish to make Finland their home, whether on a permanent or only temporary basis? This is a question that must be borne in mind and asked here.

Source: Press release 389/2010

© O NEVO DROM 2011

Guilty until Proven Innocent

Guilty until Proven Innocent is the 35th part of the award-winning news documentary series “Mundi Romani - the World through Roma Eyes” and was shot in September 2010 in France. Since July 2010, the French government's policies on the expulsion of Eastern European Roma have fed an unprecedented media frenzy in Europe and beyond. Rarely had the world heard so much about the Roma. Rarely had so many prejudices and oversimplifications been mirrored in public speech about the state of affairs. Mundi Romani uncovers the roots of the issues at stake, brings to light damning evidence of institutionalized racism in Europe and presents one of the biggest media stories of 2010 as seen through the eyes of the Roma.

New film available at: http://www.mundiromani.com/videos/?video[video][item]=80

Budapest, December 13, 2010.

Source: Romedia

Dosha - Book Review

“Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies”
A novel Sonia Meyer

“Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies”
Sonia Meyer
ISBN: 978-0-9827115-1-4
Published: November 1, 2010
Wilderness House Press
Price: $24.94 (hardcover) 6 x 9
First Edition: 386 pages

“Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies” begins and ends with Nikita s state visit to Helsinki on June 6, 1957. It begins with security and propaganda preparations for the State Visit and the uneasy wait for his arrival. The end unfolds during the arrival of the Soviet delegation and the motorcade that takes them from the train station to the Soviet Embassy. Within this frame the novel tells the story of the Gypsy girl Dosha; from her childhood spent with Russian partisans in Polish forests to her defection during Khrushchev’s visit.

After the wait for Khrushchev in Helsinki in the first chapter we are then led into the story fully and it begins with 1941 when Russian nomadic Gypsies answer Stalin’s call to sabotage areas already occupied by the advancing German army. They move into Poland where they join Russian partisans and fight for the country that for centuries has shown the Gypsy people love and acceptance.

After the war they return to Russia to resume their traditional nomadic life, only to find increased hostility toward traveling Gypsy people. Finally in l956, during the short-lived Cultural Thaw, while releasing millions of innocent victims of purges still languishing in gulags of Siberia and Russia’s High North, Khrushchev secretly clamps down on the freedom of the last Gypsy tribes still roaming free. So, as a reward for having helped the Soviet forces as partisans during the war they were forced to settle down, and that often in the very same gulags from which dissidents had been released.

The book also introduces the readers to the legend and ancient taboos, including the cult of the horse and others, as well as to some parts of the language.

There will, no doubt, be a fair number of those who will condemn this book and its author, as it seems to happen so often with such novels with a Gypsy theme regardless of how positive the authors may present the People.

Others will, in addition or especially, condemn the author for having revealed, as they would have it, secrets of the Rom too the Gadje, such as the notion of the “Cult of the Horse” and other practices of the People, as well as parts of the Romani Language. And that despite the fact that in the latter case some words have, in fact, come out wrong in the book, such as the word for horse, for instance.

I will say, however, that as an ethnic Romani-Gypsy myself, I have found the book extremely good and the history of the Russian Lovara, and that of the Ruska Rom and Ruska Roma per se, and their persecution by the Soviet state after the Great Patriotic War has been presented finally to the world.

The Soviet persecution of the Rom in the USSR is not well known in the West at all where people believe the Rom to have been treated very well by the state due to, more often than not, simply how the Theater Romen was promoted and presented. The picture of the Romani People having had a good life in the USSR having had a fairly good life is nothing but fiction conjured up by the Soviet propaganda machine and “Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies” presents this rather well to the world.

This book is very important and timely right now in the light of the way that the Rom are still be persecuted to this very day – in fact as you are reading this – in many countries of the European Union even, with Italy, France, Germany and Denmark, it would appear, in the very forefront. The persecution of the Romani People has, in fact, never ever stopped.

The author makes makes probably one of the most important points and observations in this book when she has Dosha, the heroine, realize that the fatal danger to all Rom lies not only in the external enemy that they share but in the deep-rooted divisions among themselves. It is this very division that makes too many of the People oblivious to the fate of other Rom and thus they even endanger themselves.

There is one final point that I think that must be mentioned though the fault does not lie with the author but with those that may have advised her and that is the term “Poriamos” for the Romani Holocaust. This very word is an invention of Prof. Ian Hancock and the International Roma(ni) Union and would not have existed and been used that shortly after the war. It also is created in a Romanian Romani dialect, with the ending of “-mos” being the dead giveaway. The older term of Samudaripen, as used by Sinti groups, may already have been in existence and use at that time but even of that we cannot be sure.

The author of “Dosha, flight of the Russian Gypsies”, Sonia Meyer fled the Nazis with her parents when she was 2 years old to live in the woods of Germany and Poland with partisans and Gypsies. There her father taught her to throw hand grenades using a wooden darning egg.

They lived in the woods, in abandoned houses, in isolated excursion inns, in fields and barns, always dodging the German and later Soviet armies who hunted them relentlessly.

Shortly after the war Sonia and her family returned to Cologne, Germany where she foraged for food with a band of Gypsies camped nearby. She now lives in Wellington, FL, USA.

In conclusion I would just like to say, aside from the fact that I have immensely enjoyed the book, that I am also very happy to recommend it.

© 2010

Paris: Fake Cops “raid” Gypsy Camp

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

France, October 30, 2010: Unknown perpetrators in the night from Friday 10/29/2010 to Saturday 10/30/2010 attacked a Roma camp in the small Parisian suburb of Triel-sur-Seine.

The masked attackers, armed with firearms and batons, entered the camp with a car fitted with a blue light.

The unknown perpetrators who, according to residents of the camp, were “dressed just like police officers” forced entry to the caravans of the Roma who originate from Romania. One woman claimed that she was forced to undress and many residents of the camp claim that those fake cops took their identity documents from them.

The perpetrators said to have discharged several rounds from their guns into the air and after about half an hour finally left the scene.

According to agency reports around thirty Roma families are living on a private piece of land for a number of years already under constant threat of forced removal on the plain of Triel-Chanteloup, an otherwise rather posh suburb of Paris, and have already for a long time requested from the authorities that they be given access to municipal water or alternative accommodation.

This story obviously has two rather sinister connotations. One is that probably right-wingers pretending to be police officers have attacked this camp or, two, that the attackers were, in fact, police officers and not fake cops at all.

Either way, this is a rather worrying state of affairs for any of us, whatever minority or race we may happen to be, other that white, and, probably, not just in France.

Acts such as those could happen anywhere and the reason that I am saying that there could be the possibility that those attackers were, in fact, real cops is that incidents like that have happened in Britain, in a particular South-Eastern county, at a more or less regular basis. On incident that I am aware of was perpetrated by officers on their way home from an exercise. Something that was vehemently denied by the chief of the county's police despite of evidence to the contrary.

Methinks that the Romani People in Europe have to be very much on their guard again, especially those of us that still travel, regardless from where in Europe we may come and where we may be.

© 2010

Dark Clouds Gather over Europe once again!

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The dark clouds of racism and xenophobia and of fascism, once again, gather over Europe and the actions against the Romani People in many countries of the European Union is ample proof of that.

We had hoped, like Viviane Reding of the Council of Europe said in her condemnation of the actions of the French government against Gypsies in its country, that those scenes would be a thing of the past; of the darkest times of the history of Europe.

But, alas, as I have been predicting for years, the past is coming back to haunt us because we never buried it properly.

When it comes to us, the Gypsy, all the legislations and all the talk of equality and all that jazz are nothing but empty words. To the powers that be and the majority of the Gadje per se we are and remain but the dirty Gypsy.

Now, in the economic climate of the Great Recession, the Gypsy is made to be the scapegoat for all of society's ills. The Gypsy takes away jobs, the Gypsy does this and the Gypsy does that. I am waiting when we are being accused, once again, of poisoning wells, carrying the Plague and being spies for the Turks or whoever.

While I am the first to admit that there are bad apples in the barrel of the Romani People that are involved in criminal activities, from low-level to very serious stuff, this does not mean that every Gypsy is a thief or even a child-trafficker.

However, the way the governments of many European Union member states behave it will be community punishments for those few that are involved in crimes. This is the same what happened under the Nazis in Germany and elsewhere. And the EU does what? Precisely...

In fact, to all intents and purposes, it is beginning to look as if we are seeing “ethnic cleansing by proxy” here in many of the EU member states on the European mainland. This is worrying and scary at the same time.

In Switzerland anti-Gypsy xenophobia is spreading too, but then again it was in Switzerland where Gypsy children were routinely stolen from their parents and placed in institutions and sold as slaves to farmers well into the second half of the twentieth century.

Is the entire European mainland about to go mentally deranged once again as far as the Gypsy is concerned? It would appear thus. And the world had thought that that was all behind us.

For years I have been saying that I could see the spectre of anti-Gypsyism of the Nazi kind rising in Europe again and that I could see the EU as, more than likely, having a part in such persecutions even and everyone thought me to be out of my mind. Looks like my fears are coming true, unfortunately.

And what do our “leaders? Where are the IRU and where is the ERTF? Conspicuous by their silence and this silence is really deafening and it proves where they really stand and what really counts for them; power and money. The People are but a means to an end for them.

The grassroots let it happen too and are lethargic as always. If we do not make a stand now then we deserve no better than to be seen as a People as scroungers and whatever else.

While we may be Stini or Cale and not Roma we are, nevertheless, all Romani and hence cousins and that alone should make us do something but...

So keren?

© 2010

Has the EU finally has decided to take France to task?

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Epsom, UK, 09/29/2010: In follow on to my previous article where Reuters had reported that the EU is dropping any action against France over the expulsions and forced deportations of Roma-Gypsies, it would appear that it is on again.

When the powers that be can work out whether they are in the potato field or out of it it would be nice if they could let us all know.

So, apparently, the European Commission, which to all intents and purposes is the real power behind the European Union, has now decided to start proceedings against France over the issue of deportations of Roma-Gypsies from its territory.

I must say that I am not going to hold my breath as blue does not suit me as a color in the face and I also don't have any intention of dying that way.

That is to say that I do not hold out any hopes that anything will come of all the talk and rhetoric and all the posturing.

France will, I am sure, just like Italy did last year, put two fingers up at the European Union legal bodies and decide to carry on with “business as usual”, especially as it would appear that there are a number of EU countries that, even if not all that publicly, actually have congratulated France on its actions.

There is one thing what they say in public, in the view of the world, and another what they say and do in private. While many of us have a beef with Israel, the Zionist entity in Palestine, at least the Zionists don't seem to say one thing to the world and do another. They just stick the two fingers up at world opinion, period.

I am waiting EU, but not holding my breath. Surprise me and my People.

© 2010

EU backs down on action against France over deportation of Roma

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Brussels, EU, 09/29/2010: An astonishing U-turn in the conflict in the European Union about France's mass deportation of Roma-Gypsies with EU citizenship (and even French citizenship?) has occurred.

The European Union is now, despite all the talk and rhetoric, after all not going to start legal proceedings against France, according to the Reuters news agency, who gives an EU-diplomat who is dealing with this case as source.

The European Commission will, instead, ask the French government in writing for further information on the issue, said the EU insider.

This decision comes as rather a surprise to many – though not me: Only a few days ago everything pointed to the European Commission taking action and bringing – or at least trying to – France before the European court.

I must say that, having been in Gypsy politics long enough and never trusted the European Union, it does come as no surprise to me. I would have been surprised had the EU via the Commission done something that really would give France a rap over the knuckles at least.

All the talk about freedom of movement of EU citizens does not, it would appear, apply to the Romani, the Gypsy, regardless as to whether he is a citizen of France, Italy or Romania.

France, so I understand, has even reinstated the travel pass for the Gypsies in France, the “Carnet de Circulation” (sp?), which supposedly had been abolished in the 1980s.

So much for the “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” of the French Republic. It applies to all as long as you are not Gypsy or immigrant, it would seem.

In Germany things are not much better either; I am well aware of that, and in many of the new EU member states, such as Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Even in the supposed bastions of freedom such as Denmark and Sweden things do not look rosy for the Gypsy.

Europe of the early 21st century very much looks like Europe 70 years ago, at least as far as the Gypsy is concerned, and a real sense of deja vu comes over me when I see what is happening all over the European Union on the mainland.

It would appear that the only one who can help the Gypsy is the Gypsy.

© 2010

Green Party conference passes Emergency Motion on Roma

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

September 2010: On the heels of French deportations of Roma that have hit international headlines in recent weeks, Green Party autumn conference has passed an emergency motion on the issue.

The emergency motion urged "all Green Party elected representatives in local, national and international governments apply maximum pressure toward improving equality and access to services for Roma people and asserting their human rights."

Keith Taylor, the proposer of the emergency conference motion, and the Green Party's MEP for South East England, said: "The Roma are European citizens, yet some of their most fundamental rights – including freedom of movement within the EU and access to services – have been abused. It's clear that the actions against them are driven by xenophobia, and represent a flouting of national obligations under international law."

The motion expresses "profound concerns over the recent treatment of Roma people in France and Italy. In particular, the mass deportations of Roma people which appear to have been made purely on the grounds of ethnicity." It also points out that similar actions by the governments of Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
There are an estimated 10-12 million Roma people in the EU, making them the EU's largest ethnic minority.

Full text of emergency resolution can be found below:-

This conference:

Notes
- that the Roma community is Europe's largest ethnic minority, at 10-12 million people, and trace their roots back to India in the Middle Ages

Expresses
- profound concerns over the recent treatment of Roma people in France and Italy. In particular, the mass deportations of Roma people which appear to have been made purely on the grounds of ethnicity
- concerns also about similar government actions in Germany, Denmark and Sweden
- support for the calls for legal action against the Member State governments for their deportation of Roma people

Believes
- that deportation on ethnicity is wholly wrong and immoral and cannot be tolerated
- that such deportations are illegal, run counter to the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights and infringe the freedom of movement to which all European citizens are entitled
- that travelling Roma people are entitled to suitable health, housing, education and social services in every EU Member State
- that this week's decision by the European Parliament to condemn the French government and demand an immediate halt to deportations is to be welcomed
- that UK national and local government must improve service provision for gypsies and travelling people

& Therefore Requests
- that all Green Party elected representatives in local, national and international governments apply maximum pressure toward improving equality and access to services for Roma people and asserting their human rights
- the European Commission to urgently develop a pan-European Roma integration strategy
- that GPEx communicates' members wishes

It is such a shame that the Green Party and the governments of most countries seem to have no idea as to the fact that not all Romani People, the real and true Gypsy, are Roma. There are in fact two if not three groups and those are the Sinti, the Roma and the Cale (Kale/Kaale), though the later group may, in fact be part of the Sinti People.

In addition there are certain groups that are called Roma, such as the Lovara, but which are honor-bound to the Sinti.

Therefore it is wrong to call all Romani Roma and the term Romani should be used. The Sinti, whatever some misguided people claim, are not part of the the Roma or a sub-tribe of the Roma but are Sinti and while Romani are NOT Roma.

Another thing that must be said is that the Green Party, unfortunately, also has not comprehension of ethnicity and that ethnic people's names, even though they may be terms the people may or may not use, are proper nouns and that Gypsy is written thus and not gypsy.

Some people appear to be educated beyond their capacity. But then again, that is nothing new. Most journalists who have spent years at university studying journalism also do not know that Gypsy is a noun.

© 2010