INTERVIEW with M V Smith – International Gypsy Union

OND: The executives of the International Union, e.g. the General-Secretary and the other two, are in their positions for life!

1. Is that true?
2. If so, is that not rather undemocratic?


MVS: I would have to say yes to that on both counts.

1. The founder members of the International Gypsy Union/Internationale Zigeuner Union do hold their positions for life. That is correct.

2. While this may indeed be undemocratic it has to be said that:

ONE; we have never made any pretence of being a democratic organization and that is plainly laid out in the statutes of the Union, when it was founded in the first days of March 2006, under the original name, which was then stolen, and:

TWO; the reason that the founder members are executives for life is so that we and the Union can get on with working for the good of our members and the Gypsy People as a whole without infighting (no elections). Democracy is in truth nothing but mob rule and has caused many problems in Rom-Gypsy organizations in the past (and still does).

As stated previously; the statutes of the Union, when it was originally founded under the original name, the “World Gypsy Union”, in the beginning of March 2006, clearly stated that the Union’s executives, who are the founder members, would hold their positions of leadership for life.

The Gypsy Union does not make and never has made any pretence of being a democracy.

No one forces anyone to become a member and our work is not funded from any source other than the pockets of the founders.

It is the aim of the International Gypsy Union to unite all true Gypsy People and we do not think that democracy is needed for that. What is needed are people in leadership who are willing to work for the people without asking how much they can gain from it.

We aim to facilitate networking for members and also and especially ways of mutual support for members (and even Gypsy People who are not members but are in need of help) as, when, where and how possible. It has to be remembered that we are not funded and therefore our finances are rather limited.

OND: Should a Union of any kind not be run on democratic principles with all leadership positions, etc. being open to election?

MVS: Why? There are some Unions that are democratic and some, even trade unions, that are not. The idea of the work counts and what is proposed, and carried out, and being done and a Union should not be measured as to whether it is democratic or not.

OND: But your members pay membership fees and, therefore, should they not have a say on how the Union is run and by whom?

MVS: All membership dues are actually voluntary and will remain so. It is up to each and every individual member whether or not to contribute the suggested minimum donation (membership fee); he or she may give more or less, as they see fit and according to their own wishes. It is up to the person. We will not enforce any payment of such dues and membership is not dependent as to whether membership dues are paid or not. Membership is voluntary, as is the payment of dues and as is also the level of activity and involvement in the work of the Union a member wants to be.

May I stress that, while there are and will be no elections to the Union’s “presidium”, a democratic process shall be in place for other affairs of the Union, such as the decisions as to what to do with funds – as and when they arrive (ever) – which projects to pursue, etc.

OND: But how can you make yourself “leader” for life?

MVS: Why not? The founder of any successful company usually is and remains chief executive for life.

At least the International Gypsy Union makes no pretence, as I have reiterated several times, of involving ‘democracy’ with regards to its leadership. We’ve all seen the ways whereby “Democracy”, can be and is abused and misused.

Other organizations have clamoured for “Democracy”, and then scheme to flood meetings with their cronies in order to ensure that leadership and important offices are filled by persons of favour, rather than best for the organization.

Other examples too could be mentioned of people who, though deposed through democratic elections, still claim to be in charge. There are even people who, though never having been in charge, claim that they were and are still!

Though stated several times already, I will say this again; we do not make any pretence to democracy, this is largely because the world of Gypsy politics is full of rogues, it would seem, who are quite prepared to do whatever it takes to seize control of something good that others have set up, in order to use it for their own ends. This we have seen more than once.

I sincerely hope that this explains things a little more clearly maybe, and that readers of this will now come to understand why we at the International Gypsy Union work the way we do.

Disclaimer:

Yes, this is no real interview but it was considered that the interview style might aid better understanding as to why we have chosen a mixed approach to the work of the International Gypsy Union.

Ma Bister! August 1 - 2, 1944

Remember and Never Forget

Remember and never forget
The injustices done
To the Romani Race
Remember the camps
And recall their names
Remember Auschwitz, Treblinka,
Dachau, Maidanek, Sobibor,
And others
Too many to name.
Where more than a million
Of Gypsies all told
Were murdered
Because they were born
Romani.
But the Gadje
They say that this is not true
That this is all lies
And that it was only the Jew
Who for reasons of Race
Was sent to the gas.
Then also remember the many unborn
The Romani chavies that might have been
Be it not for the fact of the many that died
And those of that were maimed and destroyed
In body and mind.

Veshengro

No feeding of homeless (in parks)

Orlando, FL, USA

Officials of the city of Orlando, Florida, USA, have banned charitable groups from feeding the homeless in parks downtown, arguing that transients who gather for weekly meals create safety and sanitary problems for businesses.

The measure approved Monday prevents serving large groups in parks and other public property within 2 miles of City Hall without a one-time permit. The American Civil Liberties Union vowed to sue, saying it's a superficial fix that ignores the city's homeless problem.

A group called Food Not Bombs, which has served weekly vegetarian meals there for the homeless for more than a year, said it would continue illegally.

One can now, obviously, only wonder where they will stop in enforcing this and whether they will not suddenly make the feeding of the homeless anywhere a felony. A surprise this would surely not be, neither in the USA nor in the UK, for instance. Once one city plays around with such legislation then one can only wonder which one will follow suit next and where this will end. In the same way as when some local authorities in the UK have decided that any Gypsy no longer traveling g is no longer ethnic Gypsy and therefore no longer has any redress under the race relations legislations and in the same time making the traveling with trailer an felony thereby, with one stroke, solving the problem of ethnic Gypsies. If they can’t travel they no longer are and if they no longer are then the problem is solved.

The same can be seen with the homeless. Those that cannot get any work have to starve or steal or, and that could be another reason why the city official of Orlando went that route, have to leave the area.

M V Smith, July 28, 2006

Remember the Gypsy Martyrs of the Holocaust

The time is upon us, yet again, of the anniversary of the most horrid part in our People’s history; the destruction of the “Gypsy Camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Where in the night of August 1 – August 2, 1944 – 62 years ago on that day – thousands of Gypsy men, women and children were brutally murdered in the name of Nazi racial purity.

Let us remember our People’s Martyrs of that time, as well as of times that were before and after, by wearing a brown ribbon in their honor and let us keep alive their memory for ever and ever.

To this end, while the German authorities and Gypsy groups still wrangle about the physical memorial to our Martyrs the World Gypsy Union has set up a virtual memorial; one to which anyone can come to remember our dead of the Holocaust and pogroms.

MA BISTER!

Ma Bister is also the name of the Memorial website and maybe we can all come to that place in our own way and lay some flowers, even though they may be flowers in the mind only, to remember those that were murdered simple because they were Gypsy, Romani, Zigeuner.

At the rising of the sun and at the going down of the same – we will remember them!

Ushti opre Romane! In they memory for a better future of our People.

© M V Smith, July 28, 2006

An Insult to the Romani Victims of the Holocaust

<><><>

Press Release:

GYPSY CAMP MASSACRE:
FINAL DALE FARM APPEAL

Contact: Grattan Puxon
01206 523528

PROTEST

Travellers and supporters will rally outside the Basildon Centre,
St Martin's Square, Basildon, at 11 am on Tuesday, 1 August, to make
a final appeal to Malcolcm Buckley, council leader, to drop his £3 million
plan to bulldoze 86 homes at Dale Farm, Crays Hill, Essex.

PETITION

A Petition with 2,000 names collected from around the world
will be delivered to Basildon Council on a 32-foot banner.

Remembering the
GYPSY CAMP MASSACRE

The rally will recall the Gypsy Camp Massacre that occurred in Auschwitz
concentration camp on 2 August 1944

The events mark the opening of the Public Enquiry (10.30 am) at Basildon Centre
into 40 Planning Appeals - and will be followed in the afternoon by a Street Party
on Camilla Drive, Dale Farm.

<<><><>>

It is an outright insult that is perpetrated by the likes of the Dale Farm Campaign and its leaders, most who are Gohja or Irish Travellers, trying to equate whatever is going on with that illegal encampment in Essex, with the Romani Holocaust. Irish Travellers are not and have never been part of the Romani People nor have had they anything to do with the Holocaust suffered by Sinti, Jenisch and Roma in Europe under the Black Legions of the Nazis.

Those who do this should be ashamed of themselves and apologize to the People. Any Rom associated with that affair can only be regarded as magerdo and palechido and should no longer be regarded as one of the People and the Gohja, like the Irish Travellers, who are but Gohja in trailers, well, what about them. They can be ignored to some degree. They are wannabe Gypsies and nothing more. Wishing to be regarded as "ethnic Gypsies" in order to scam even more from the British government and Europe.

Everyone should boycott the Holocaust event that is to be staged by those people who thus insult the murder of thousands of Gypsy men, women and children on that horrible night in the camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Ma Bister!

© M V Smith, July 2006

Virtual Gypsy Holocaust Memorial

As of June 16, 2006, the first ever online Memorial commemorating the Gypsy Holocaust of the Nazi era and also commemorating those killed for being Gypsy before and after, has been established. "Ma Bister!" http://mabister.tripod.com/ is, I am sure the first, and so far only, of its kind. It is presently still a work in progress but the work is under way for sure. The ideas are there, implementing them and finding the means to do so is something else.

"Ma Bister!" was set up for a number of reasons. Firstly because of the ongoing row over the Holocaust Memorial for those persecuted as Gypsy by the Nazis in Germany where they want to exclude, for instance, the Jenisch People. Secondly because many of our People do not live anywhere near a "real" memorial and therefore an online one simply is one where they can go and reflect.

The idea is to have something like a guestbook (having still to find the source code or add on for the website that can be thus configured) that is like a memorial wall and that can be used by those that wish to commemorate their relatives or friends murdered by the Nazis for being Gypsy, Zigeuner, and also a kind of "book of condolences" where visitors can leave messages. The "wall of remembrance" may have to be done a little different. We shall see however.

Veshengro

We haven't got a clue, says the E.U.

European Union admits to have no idea how funds for Roma(ni) are being spent.

The European Union and the Council of Europe have admitted that aside from the amount of money that has been given to Roma(ni) projects in Europe, especially in the East, over the period 2000-2005, an estimated amount of over €275 million was allocated to projects specifically targeting Roma . This figure rises to an estimated amount of over €750 million when mainstreamed funding benefiting Roma alongside other target groups is taken into account. Surprise? No!

It is just unbelievable that no check whatsoever seems to be kept on the money thus doled to those projects and as there is very little to show for the money that had been thus spent one can only assume that the money somehow suffered severe seepage along the way. In fact most of the money and other donations via the European bodies and other sources never ever reach the grassroots of the People and many of the projects appear to be nothing but scams by certain Roma "leaders" to line their own pockets instead of giving succor to they grassroots Romani People as a whole.

What is going on in the Council of Europe and the European Union bodies as regards to funding Roma(ni) projects? Is it total and utter incompetence in regards to monitoring finances or is there more behind it? Such as actual payment to government agents in the form of certain Roma(ni) leaders; some who call themselves kings and even emperors? One can only wonder, it would appear.

© M V Smith, May 26, 2006

WILL THEY STILL INSIST THAT THE EARTH REVOLVES AROUND THE SUN?

Tom O. (Romanichal)

The discovery of Romani DNA in a skeleton that dates back to the 11th Century, unearthed from a Norwich (England) mulpuv (graveyard), must surely have the "Gypsy Experts", and other professionals in the Gypsy Industry, quaking with alarm and apprehension at this threat to their standing and careers. The established dogma is blown sky high with this conclusive, scientific proof that the "Gypsy", the Romani(y) was in Merry England as early, at least, as the Eleventh Century.

Have no doubt, the "experts" will attempt to find ways of circumventing the validity of this evidence. Already the point has been made that the presence of the Romani DNA could be explained by a mixing between Romani and Anglo-Saxons, in the 10th Century, in Byzantium, but, weak as this supposition is, it does not change the fact that, the Romani was here in England, centuries prior to the theoretical timing of the Gypsyologists?

Recalling the gullibility, for something like half a century, of the scientific establishment, with the Piltdown-Man escapade, I wonder whether we shall be hearing suggestions that the particular Romani DNA was planted in Norwich by Gypsies using a, Dr. Who style, time machine?

The loss of 'Face', and reduction of profits, by the Gypsyologists, is likely to be as great as that suffered as a result of Piltdown-Man?

In the unlikely event that the "experts" were able to rid themselves of the dogma that has, so far, prevailed, there is every possibility that likely evidence, such as that offered in the (Romani?) craftsmanship involved with the Gundestrup Cauldron, recovered from a Jutland bog, and possibly dating to circa, 150BC, would open their minds to other anomalies arising from the existing, dogmatic timing of when "The Gypsy first came to Europe."

Gypsyologists are renowned for their willingness to pick and choose from the evidence that exists; selecting that which fits their theory but totally disregarding that which raises doubts or indicates a differing reality of Gypsy history. For example; much credence is given to philological evidence, with the language masters basing their estimates of the where and when of Gypsy migrations solely on linguistic peculiarities. However, they appear to use the same "Pick & Choose" methods even in this research. I have never yet encountered a philologist that is willing to explain and give account for the existence in the English language of Romani-sourced words, e.g. rig, (the Romani verb to bear or carry), as used in English for exactly the same purpose, and many other similar words. No-one has ever been able to explain the true etymology of the word "mushroom", despite the suggestion that it arises via the French 'mousseron' from the Latin, when anyone with a slight knowledge of Romanes can see the practical link with the Romani words "mush" and "rom"?

The tradition of 'Gypsyology', till now promoted by academics, with very few exceptions, has been dogmatic in its insistence that the Romani(y), (otherwise known as "Gypsy" from the understanding that many of them came from, rather than via, Egypt; similarly the Romani were frequently known as "Bohemians" from the fact that many did, indeed, travel through Europe via the once, large kingdom of Bohemia.), did not arrive, and could not have arrived in England until as late as the Fifteenth Century.

The, now shattered, dogma of mainstream Gypsyology is based largely on the premise, that the forebears of the Romani People were displaced from their earlier homelands as a result of incursive raids by Muslim forces under the leadership of Sultan Mahmud of Gahzni, circa 1018 AD, with such displacement leading to their eventual arriving in Europe. This "evidence" completely ignores Muslim claims that, the life of the holy Prophet was saved, when he lay dying of a deadly fever, by Gypsies that introduced him to the herb Rue, accounting for the fact that Rue is the only herb to have been blessed by the Prophet.

We, the Romani, the Gypsy, the Scapegoat of Gohja society, should be well aware of the Gohja ability, and willingness, to pervert and falsify history to suit their needs; Waht oprey!

Amare Devel amensa!

Tom Odley

-------------------

EXPERTS FIND RARE ROMANI DNA IN NORWICH ANGLO SAXON SKELETON

By Sarah Morley
12/05/2006

The recent discovery of Romani DNA in an Anglo Saxon skeleton has made experts re-think the nature of the city's early population.

Experts from Norfolk Archaeology Unit based at Norwich Castle have discovered a rare form of mitochondrial DNA identified as Romani in a skeleton discovered during excavations in a large area of Norwich for the expansion of the castle mall.

The DNA was found in an 11th century young adult male skeleton, and with the first recorded arrival of the Romani gene in this country put at 500 years later, historians may need to re-think the ethnic mix of the city's early population.

Norfolk Archaeological Unit's lead archaeologist on the dig was Brian Ayres. He told the 24 Hour Museum: "The bones were of a late Saxon Christian. We know this because it was found in a graveyard associated with the church."

Brian was on the scene when they discovered the DNA in the bones of the young Saxon male - out of the 59 skeletons sampled. Though the excavation was done around the early 90's the results of the DNA testing has only recently been published to a specialist audience.

DNA testing is a completely revolutionary way of testing and dating bones to find out their origins. Modern methods only recently discovered allow for lots of new links to be made, such as finding where an individual originated from through their genes.

Extracting DNA from ancient bones is a complicated procedure involving removing the DNA from the tooth pulp as the hard tooth enamel preserves the gene. This form of mitochondrial DNA is passed down the female line and the identified gene is only found in the descendants of Romani. According to DNA records the first recorded Romani Gene found in England was in the 16th Century.

Extensive archaeological excavations have unearthed both Roman and Anglo-Saxon finds in and around Norwich.

The find is exciting because it paints a more diverse picture of ancient Norwich. Although Norwich has a rich history of cultural diversity, the discovery of first recorded Romani Gene in the country points to new levels of diversity.

"This exciting find emphasises a more cosmopolitan Anglo-Scandinavian society," explained Brian who went on to say not only does this find show Norwich as an early multi-ethnic society but it gives a wider indication of a more fluid world in the 11th Century, where humans were constantly moving from country to country.

Romani people have a bloody history of persecution, murder and banishment in almost every country they entered. They were accused of witchcraft and almost every crime imaginable. They originated from the ancient warrior classes of North India and are closely linked to the culture of the Punjabi people, also of North India.

The Romani people are known to have been in Byzantine Empire in the 10th century, so it is thought that the only way the Romani Gene could be found in this country so early is if the previous historical records are mistaken.

Another possibility is that if the Anglo-Saxons were also in Byzantium in the 10th century, relations between the Anglo Saxons and the Romani people may have led to the spread of the Romani Gene to Norwich, England.

-------------------

Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norwich, NR1 3JQ, Norfolk, England. T: 01603 493636

Open: Mon-Fri 10.00-16.30, Sat 10.00 - 17.00, Sun 13.00-17.00 Easter, Half Term & School Summer Holidays: Mon-Sat 10.00-17.30, Sun 13.00-17.00.

Closed: 24-27 December 2005 & 1 January 2006

-------------------

Veshengro comments; "One can only wonder what the experts are going to make of this now, LOL."

Gypsy Holocaust Martyrs insulted

The political-correct gang of history revisionists has now finally managed to insult the memory of the Gypsy Martyrs of the Holocaust in that they will only permit the memorial for the Gypsies (Zigeuner) murdered by the Nazis to be erected with the inscription "Roma" claiming this name to be representative for all of the Gypsy victims of the Holocaust. Apparently a deal has been struck between the German government and the chair of the Central Council of German Sinti & Roma to use ONLY the term "Roma" in the inscription. This is a travesty as we are not all Roma and it makes a mockery of the suffering and sacrifice of our People who were not persecuted as "Roma" or even as "Sinti" nor as "Sinti & Roma" but were persecuted as an inferior race to the Germans, one called "Zigeuner". The text that was originally suggested, and based on the citation of the German President Herzog, would have been much more appropriate as it referred to "all those that were persecuted as "Zigeuner" by the Third Reich". Not every Gypsy in Germany and other countries from whence the victims came are happy to be called and referred to as "Roma". It is therefore an insult of the highest order to the Sinti and Yenisch (and Roma) who were persecuted by the Nazis under the title of "Zigeuner" (Gypsy) or "Zigeunermischling" (mixed-blood Gypsy) to be thus referred to as "Roma" or is this a deliberate fact to diminish the sufferings of the Yenish who too were rounded up and sent to the camps for reasons of being "Zigeuner" by excluding them from this by not using the term "Zigeuner".

Most of our People in those days, and not only when speaking to Gohja, would call themselves "Zigeuner" (the equivalent of what the Romanichals in the UK and in other English-speaking countries did by calling themselves "Gypsies") but neither that fact, nor the fact that we did call ourselves "Zigeuner" (and there are documents to prove that) in the German areas ever since our arrival is not what is to discussion here. What is subject to the discussion though is the fact that in this case the ongoing attempt to make all Gypsies "Roma" regardless to whether or not they thus regard themselves and also to include those that have no right to be called "Gypsies" even, such as the Irish Travellers, in the term "Roma" is being continued and made worse by in this instance by using the term "Roma" yet again without it being representative of the entire group of people that were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis as "Zigeuner". Who cares what has been decided by people not representative for the whole and especially in conjunction with Gohja administrators. One can only as on whose side those supposed representatives of the People stand. Not on the side of the People, that is for sure. It was not the German government that decided to use the term "Roma" thus, by word at least, excluding all other Gypsy groups from the memorial and thereby insulting their victims, but one who supposedly is a representative of the People.

How can the People permit this to happen? Our People were persecuted as "Zigeuner" and as "Zigeuner" they were dragged off to the camps to be sterilized, to be experimented upon, to be tortured and in the end to be murdered and burned. And then those people come along and declare that the word "Zigeuner" is an insult and such. The insult is the fact that the word "Zigeuner" is being made into a dirty word by those self-same people who supposedly are the representatives of the People. Not only is this an attempt to falsify history; it is a disgrace of the highest order. Those who have done this and are doing this should hang their heads in shame and disgrace and leave the scene. We should honor the word "Zigeuner" and wear it as a badge of honor because it was under that name "Zigeuner" that our ancestors were persecuted and murdered.

Dosta penesas!

Zigeuner (Gypsy) and proud of it!

© M V Smith, May 13, 2006

Mitochondrial DNA Diversity in the Polish Roma

A recently published report from the Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Russian Academy of Sciences, Portovaya str. 18, 685000 Magadan, Russia, by;

Malyarchuk BA, Grzybowski T, Derenko MV, Czarny J, Miscicka-Sliwka D., offers weighty, scientific support for the contention that not all Romani are Roma/Rroma and that, whilst all the various Nation Tribes and groups may have similarities sufficient to class us all as one People, the Romani or 'Gypsy', we are not, all of the Nation Tribe "Roma".

Although the study itself persists in the erroneous use of the style "Roma" as a generic name for all Romani People, it does, nevertheless, reveal important DNA variations among some 'Polish' Romani groups.

Although the report is given in technical, scientific language, it is quite clear that findings of the research point to definite ancestral differences among groups of the Polish Romani population.

"The results of complete mtDNA sequencing clearly indicate that the Romani M*-lineage belongs to the Indian-specific haplogroup M5, which is characterized by three transitions in the coding region, at sites 12477, 3921 and 709. Molecular variance analysis inferred from mtDNA data reveals that genetic distances between the Roma groups are considerably larger than those between the surrounding European populations. Also, there are significant differences between the Bulgarian Roma (Balkan and Vlax groups) and West European Roma (Polish, Lithuanian and Spanish groups). Comparative analysis ofmtDNA haplotypes in the Roma populations shows that different haplotypes appear to demonstrate impressive founder effects: M5 and H (16261-16304) in all Romani groups; U3, I and J1 in some Romani groups.

Interestingly, haplogroup K (with HVS I motif 16224-16234-16311) found in the Polish Roma sample seems to be specific for Ashkenazi Jewish populations.

............................................

Whilst I'm no scientist, nor have I any expertise in the area of DNA studies, I am well aware of the reliance placed upon DNA evidence; I would therefore, offer the results of this research as yet further 'proof', (If such were needed?), of the erroneous attempts by some Gohja politicians and 'Gypsy exploiteers', with European support, to have all "Romani" classed as "Roma/Rroma".

My own view, shared by others in this group, is that the Roma were among the last of all Romani groups to make their way into Europe, most of them destined to endure outright slavery for many generations and, as a direct consequence, suffer unusual changes to the more traditional Romipen in ways not experienced among the earlier-arriving Sinti and Kale. Such 'unusual changes' may be seen in the consumption of horse flesh, and the practice of 'child-marriage', things that were not and are not in mainstream tatcho Romipen?

Tom O (Romanichal)

The Half-breed in Injun & Gypsy Society

While the half-breed in the societies of the Native Americans, the Injuns, was - apparently - and still is always fully accepted as a "paid up" member of the Tribe and People, the same, it seems, unfortunately, cannot be said as regards the standing and the acceptance of the Poshrat or Didikai within the Romani-Gypsy Society. That, I think, personally, is a shame in general and a shame on us as a People. While I understand the mistrust towards anything that is Gohja because of the way we have been treated by them thru the ages the poshrat or didikai should be made welcome, however, and given a place at the yag.

It also appears that the half-breed more often than not donned war paint and took up arms in the defense of his Injun tribe, and this sometimes even if and when they lived very much like whites in cabins and were trappers and traders. Fair enough, there were also half-breeds that worked for the whites and even those that "betrayed" other Injuns but often those were members of an enemy tribe, theoretically. When, however, really pushed by the white man and the Indians came together the Injun half-breed in the main stood side-by-side with his full-blooded Injun brothers and also died alongside them. In the same way as the Injun half-breed suffered prejudice from the whites, despite the fact that he was half-white the Gypsy and poshrat does, more often than not, if he announces his Gypsy ancestry to the world and therefore he should be accepted by us as one of us. The poshrat, especially if his ancestry is known, should never be, unless for reasons of having misbehaved towards the People, shunned by us just for the fact that he is poshrat. However, to our great shame this is very often done. I know personally of some young Sinti mushes in Germany, who are half-Sinti, and, aside from the fact that the clans know their Sinti ancestry to be tatcho, are not being accepted, mainly, because they have not been raised well in the Culture and they do not rokker the Chib or because it was the mother who was Sintizza and the father either Jenisch or Gohjo. No such distinction was made by the Nazis when people who were but 1/16th Gypsy were dragged to the concentration camps and ultimately to the deaths in the gas chambers. If it was good enough for those to be murdered as Zigeuner, as Gypsies, then we have no right whatsoever to deny them.

© M Veshengro Smith, April 2006

The Settled Modern Gypsy

Does it make me more a Gypsy if I live in a trailer, best still a wooden vardo, as the romantics would like to see, with the blazing yog outside? Does it make me less a Gypsy if I live in a house? The answer to both is NO.

Does it make me less a Gypsy if I work an ordinary job? Does it make me more a Gypsy if I live by the old ways and trades? Again the answer has to be and is, NO. Neither living in a kenna or in a trailer makes one more or less a Gypsy, a Romani, nor does it matter little what kind of occupation one follows. Being Romani, being Gypsy, has nothing to do with traveling, with an itinerant way of life (I hate the illogical and false use of the word 'nomadic' as we are NOT nomadic) but has everything to do with out ethnicity based on our ancestry and our Racial Origins.

While the Romanichals in the UK and Sinti and Roma in some other countries may, until recently, have traveled all the year or for most of the year in pursuit of work on farms, in the hop fields in Kent or for other work, many Sinti and Roma on the European mainland have been living in houses and flats, even their own farms, for generations, and only traveled, maybe, during the summer months. Many still had door-to-door trades such as knifegrinder or sales person with cutlery, linen, basket ware, etc. and some where horse traders but they all had a fixed base, be this a house, an apartment, or even farm, while some had just their own land where they stationed the caravans for when they did not travel and where they resided.

The East European Roma & Sinti, in the main, have been settled for many, many years, some in slavery, in Romani, for instance. In many cases they settled in wholly Gypsy settlements, whether they were of the Sinti groups that make up the Rom Polska, often falsely and deliberately thus, called Polska Roma, such as the Veshtike, Feldtike, Bergtike and Fortike Rom, who settled in small Gypsy enclaves in villages in Poland such as in Silesia, Galicia, the Carpathians, etc. and many of them never traveled far from their settlements in pursuit of trade. Many of the knifemakers, basket weavers, etc. made use of middlemen to sell their wares or did a circuit of fairs and markets during the seasons. Others in fact worked as farm laborers, forest workers, as outworkers for the cutlery manufacturing companies in the various Silesian towns, and various other tasks. Even rat catching is being mentioned as a profession amongst those in Poland. None, whoever, because gadjekane for being settled or shunned by other Rom (generally) and all retained their Traditions and their Culture, as well as Language. This shows that it makes not an iota of difference whether one travels or whether one is settled as to being Gypsy.

© M Veshengro Smith, April 2006

"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are just a normal family...

...says 15-year-old mother of two who had her fist child at age 12. She either does not know who the father is of either of her children or does not want to disclose the name or names.

They go on about Gypsy child marriages and while personally I think that our People should discard the idea of child marriages when one sees Gohja like that then how can they even dare to talk. At least Gypsy girls do not get pregnant at twelve, generally, without knowing who the father of the child is. If a 12-year-old Gypsy girl would get pregnant then she would be a bride and would have a husband and all that. But it is Gypsies who are always portrayed as being in the wrong and without morals. Without wishing to sound pompous things like that do not happen amongst our People and it is therefore no wonder that the Gypsy People regard non-Gypsies, which they call Gohja, as being less then them. We only need to look around us in general and see the deterioration of Gohja society - not that that leaves Gypsy society unaffected; far from it - with respect for anyone older having gone out of the window, and I have to admit that the influence from the outside society is having and adverse effect also on the Romani-Gypsy, with all the other problems going on to see that there is nothing to aspire to for Gypsies in Gohja society and that we must remain apart, as a People and Nation separate.

While we, as a People, will need to learn to integrate we must never allow ourselves to become like them by assimilating. Too many of ours in some countries are, unfortunately, headed that way however. We must show the Gohja that we are proud of what we are and who we are and that we are different to them and showing them the better ways of our Culture.

© M V Smith, March 2006

The Vatican and the Roma politician

In an article in the Dzeno Association website yet again an author, in this instance Valeriu Nicolae, is trying to tell the world that the word "Gypsy" is basically a dirty and politically incorrect word for the Romani People, who he insists, like so many other professional Roma politicians, to lump together into "Roma", which they are not. While those outside the realm of the Roma, such as Sinti and others, wish not to be called Roma and rather, in some places, refer to themselves as Cygany, for instance, or as Gypsies, thereby making it acceptable terms. Why do some Roma politicians think that they have to lord it over the People with their paternalistic attitudes, not unlike the Holy See in Rome, and in many aspects even worse. Not all Romani are Roma; is that so difficult to understand and yes, and maybe the author has not noticed, in many parts of Western Europe, the Gypsy People, are still quite a mobile population.

While I rather do disagree with the term of the Vatican that states "Gypsies are also known as Roma…" because this, yet again, makes the false claims that all Gypsies, all Romani, are Roma, I do not disagree one bit with the use of the all-embracing title of "Gypsy" or "Gypsies" for our People. I also have to say that while I am not very keen on the idea of the Vatican and the Roman Church having a evangelization drive aimed at the Gypsy People in Europe, I rather have the Catholic Church involve themselves in such a manner than the holy roller kind of tent missions and the like who destroy the very Culture and fabric of our Society by targeting our People.

However, the reason our People fall prey to such missions is the fact that we have lost the cohesion of society amongst us and the mutual support "organizations" (though they never were organizations per se) and it is for those reasons more than anything that so many of our People fall into the trap of the so-called Christian faith and believe themselves to be saved and born-again.

How, by the way, dare Roma politicians, like the author of the article on the Dzeno Association website, entitled "International Herald Tribune and Vatican 's paternalistic blunder" to claim that the term Gypsy has a strong pejorative connotation for Roma and non-Roma and is considered as politically incorrect when he, I am sure, has never asked the People themselves, and definitely not those that tare NOT of the Roma how they feel about it. The older Romanichals have used Gypsy always and most Romani in the USA, except maybe some of the Kalderash and such, also refer to themselves, especially when dealing with outsiders and being truthful as "Gypsy". So does the author of this article and he does it with pride. The term Gypsy is neutral in the same way as is the term Zigeuner and many German Sinti have no problem either with the latter if they'd be honest. In fact the same can be said for the N-word that, as politically incorrect as it is supposedly, the author of the article in the Dzeno pages uses. The American Blacks use it to address each other with. It is amazing though that, as soon as it is used by someone else, it immediately becomes a racist slur. But that is neither here nor there. The fact is that many of the People have no problem being called, as long as it is not with racists or other kind of undertones, Gypsy or Zigeuner. Also the spurious claims of the word "Zigeuner" do not hold any water whatsoever, whatever new ideas some "exerts" in Romani Studies wish to come up with. While, yes, we do know, Gypsy is derived from Egyptians it does not make it a word like the "N-word" the writer of the article used. It has not been assumed that Gypsies can from Egypt; it has something to do with the fact that our People upon being noticed in Europe denoted as their origins, or better as the place whence they had come, regardless of whether they may have called it "Little Egypt". That is why in English they were called "Egyptians" and then "Gyptians" and later simply "Gypsies" and they themselves ascribed this mane to themselves when talking amongst others not of their own groups or when talking to outsiders, while amongst themselves they may have used "Kale" or being "Black Bloods" or indeed, whence the term "Romanichal" comes, "Romane Chave" which, when spoken, to the untrained ear, especially with the "e" in chave being often silent and the "v" becoming a "u" sound at times, with the word then, reading "chau", sounding like "Romanichal". However, when using the English language the words "Gypsy" invariable has been used, while some, after interference from some self-styled experts came to use the term "Traveller" for themselves. The vast majority of the Romani in the UK and those hailing from the British Isles do not have problems with the word Gypsy so, therefore, dear Roma politicians and "experts", do not tell the world that we have. None of us have elected or appointed any of you to be our representatives therefore do not claim to be thus. Given a chance I am rather sure that the People can speak for themselves and do not need people whose only interest has been and still is not the People but how much political mileage they can get out of the People.

It also must be said that it makes no difference what word is being used when used in the wrong attitude. We now see the use of "Sinti & Roma" more and more when news media and police reports deal with supposedly Gypsy perpetrators of crimes, real or imagined (not the crimes but the ethnicity of the perpetrators) with statements such as "an olive complexion, as found amongst the peoples of the Sinti and Roma", and such like. The tone makes the music and in more ways than one. The words are all neutral, whether they are Gypsy, Zigeuner, Sinti & Roma, but the way they are being used and the context in which they are used are not.

I am Gypsy and proud of it!

© M V Smith, March 2006

World Gypsy Union - a new concept

The beginning of March 2006 saw the foundations being laid for the first ever organization for the worldwide Gypsy People with an individual membership policy and ensuing out of this the World Gypsy Union was born.

Now, for the first time in the history of their own political organizations do the Gypsy People of the world have a body where the ordinary grassroots Rom and Romni, and also the Chavale as well, have a voice, and a say, as individuals, by being represented directly by being members, instead of by spokespeople of this or that national Gypsy or Traveller organization insisting on speaking on their behalf whether or not they, the People, have had any say in the appointment as such a spokespeople.

The World Gypsy Union (WGU) will unite the Gypsies of the world as individuals, a prerequisite for nationhood, giving them a worldwide body where they can have a voice and a say where before they have had none.

The World Gypsy Union welcomes into membership all those that are ethnic Gypsies, including, amongst others, the Jenisch and the Domari; so often neglected by the other political Gypsy organizations (they do not like the name Gypsy though; those organizations, that is) but membership is not open, and no excuses are made for this, to people such as the Irish Travellers and others who are of a different culture entirely; most Irish Travellers being nothing else than Irish Gohja in trailers and are not ethnically Gypsy whatsoever.

The World Gypsy Union does not, unlike, as apparently some other Gypsy organizations do, play at being a Racial Hygiene Institute, and the WGU, therefore, accepts into membership all that do have a true Gypsy Bloodline regardless whether this comes from the father's or the mother's side as Blood is regarded to be thicker than water and if it was "good enough" for a small amount of Gypsy Blood to have one under the Nazis sentenced to the concentration camps and eventual death then it must be good enough for a political and cultural organization for the People. A didikai or a poshrat are as welcome as a member of the WGU as is the full-blooded Gypsy.

For further information contact:

churimengro1@yahoo.com

O NEVO DROM Blog - changes

Dear Readers,

Well, it's been a while. Some may have noticed that there has not been much updating happening with news and views as there used to be. This is due to two things. One that there has not been much interesting Gypsy news around really and two that I am moving the news and views from media sources and the like to our yahoo groups companion.
Therefore, if you wish to continue to receive and read all those news and views from the Gypsy world with comments by yours truly I urge you to subscribe to the O NEVO DROM @ yahoo groups. Please click on the box on the left hand side column and you will be taken to the correct area.
The O NEVO DROM Blog will from now on, in the same way as the ROMANI FIRST Blog, feature only articles written by us of the editorial staff. I believe this will give you all a much better service and it will allow me (and the other writers) to actually write informative articles for you all to read.

Veshengro (Editor-in-Chief)

Web to preserve Romani heritage

A delegation of Romani gypsy families are to attend the launch of the latest phase of a project to increase awareness of their culture.

The families will be visiting a team at the University of Manchester which is launching a website on Monday as part of research into the Romani language.

The project will codify the language to agree on how words are spelt, which should make it easier to teach.

Web visitors can find different dialects on a map and listen to them.

Romani is the second most commonly spoken minority language in the European Union.

Oral tradition

Professor Yaron Matras, who is heading the project team at the university, said: "Romani doesn't really have a literary tradition and is primarily an oral language.

"The codification of this language will be of great benefit to this community, who have suffered discrimination and misunderstanding across Europe.

"For the first time, this information will give the Roma (Gypsies) an easy way to find out about where they came from."

"The work will be of interest to linguists, historians and ethnographers."

The team has also been involved with drafting Romani language policy for the Council of Europe.

EDITORIAL COMMENT:
However nice the picture is being painted here it has nothing whatsoever to do with preserving the Romani Chib, the Romani language. That is a matter for the families and clans NOT the University of Manchester and Gohjo Professor Yaron Matras. All Professor Matras is interested in is gaining a "reputation" as a linguist and Gypsyologist and nothing more. Many Romani groups will think the fact that the Chib is being made available to all and sundry an abomination and it is a shame that some Romanichal families (I presume this "delegation of Romani gypsy families" referred to to be thus but then it could be those that have no link to the Romani whatsoever but are always being put forward as "Gypsies", e.g. Irish Trailer Trash, a.k.a. Irish Travellers) go along with such a farce and disgrace as the publicizing of the Romani Language in such a manner. Beware of wolves in sheep clothing is an old adage that is of great value here.
Romani People wake! You are being taken for a ride by people such as Prof. Matras and his ilk.

Poverty and fear dominate life for Iraq's Gypsies

By Deepa Babington

HADID, Iraq, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Among the millions of impoverished Iraqis, Jameel Mahmoud Hassan has the dubious distinction of being among the poorest of all.

One of a group of Iraqi Gypsies who have squatted for years on a fetid patch of land in a village north of Baghdad, he has spent his life in squalor, and now fear.

Home is nothing more than a leaky tent strung up with sticks and torn carpet on a plot strewn with dirty plastic bags, rusted cans and broken bottles.

A stack of kerosene cans with mud on top serves as a makeshift oven. Flies swirl everywhere -- on garbage, on the giggling children, on a dog tethered to a tree.

Inside the tent, his wife and five children, their ragged clothes caked with dirt, crowd on to carpets and a small cot. A kerosene lamp is the only source of warmth on a chilly winter morning.

A meal of tomatoes, cucumbers and beans is the typical fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Meat is a rare treat every few weeks.

More recently, Hassan has worried about being rounded up and forced to move elsewhere by religious militia.

"We have nothing," he says. "We are poor. We're just looking for a safe place to hide."

Scorned by religious Muslims and barely tolerated by the rest of society, Iraq's Gypsies have a precarious existence. Lacking education or skills, they form one of the lower rungs of Iraq's social system.

Yet the Gypsies of Hadid village near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, may be among the luckier ones in Iraq. Other Gypsy tribes have been hunted down and attacked by increasingly powerful Islamist militias who see them as a blot on society.

Under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, Gypsies had some protection from persecution -- partly in exchange for supplying dancers, alcohol and prostitutes, Iraqis say. The safety net disappeared with Saddam's overthrow, leaving them open to the whims of religious militia groups contemptuous of their freewheeling ways.

VILLAGE ATTACKED

A tribe of about 250 Gypsy families living in a village near the southern city of Diwaniya was one of many that learned about the wrath of religious groups at first hand.

On New Year's Day last year, mortar rounds landed on their village of mud and reed huts, killing a woman and wounding three others.

Convinced they were being attacked by the powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army, they fled at night before seeking help from religious leaders.

They returned after aides to Sadr and Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, promised they would no longer be bothered, only to find their village had been ransacked.

The primary school and clinic built by Saddam's government had been rendered useless. Their houses were wrecked.

The poverty they believed was behind them had returned.

"The religious parties have tortured us," said Bizai al- Baroodi, the tribe's sheikh. "We had reached a decent stage of living but after the last attack, we've had to start from scratch."

The pain of the assault still rankles with Maiyada al-Tamimi, a 20-year old Gypsy woman. A mortar hit her house, killing her mother, and breaking her arm which she says has yet to be treated.

"If I get a clean and honest job, I will not hesitate to leave this tomb and live like any other girl my age," al-Tamimi said.

Like other Iraqi Gypsies, many in her tribe are angry they are being forced to live as fugitives in their own land.

The tribe says it traces its roots to Spain and made Iraq its home more than 150 years ago. Most of Iraq's Gypsies originated in India, while a few came from other Middle Eastern countries.

Although they speak Arabic and profess belief in Islam, their dark complexions and sharp facial features are distinctive and they complain of racial persecution:

"We are Muslims and humans; we have Iraqi citizenship," al-Baroodi said. "We just want to live in peace."

(Additional reporting by Imad al-Kuzai in Diwaniya and Aseel Kami in Baghdad)

EDITORIAL COMMENT:
Surprise, surprise - NOT! Oh, the West has helped the Iraqi people so much with that war against Saddam Hussein and they are now so free and all that. In the West's dreams, that's about all. Then again the powers that be with Pres. Bush in the lead know exactly what's what. It never had anything to do with liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein's oppression. Not one little bit. All it had to do with was removing the one obstacle that was there to getting their hands on the Iraqi oil. With Saddam Hussein out of the way - dead or alive - and a regime put in by the West, ideally a pliable one, the supply of Iraqi oil to the West was secure, as the sanctions are gone and trading in oil could resume. Strange that still there seems to be a price hike of oil and gas. The removal of Saddam Hussein and his clique has not liberated the poorest of the Iraqi people one bit and especially not minorities such as the Gypsy People in that country.

Cops: Robbery nets $100G

By JOE D'AQUILA
Staff Writer

HAMILTON -- A 99-year-old woman and her 82-year-old son were the victims of a home invasion-type robbery in the Yardville section of the township yesterday afternoon.

No one was injured and no weapons were used, but the attack turned out to be a big score for the robbers who made off with over $100,000, according to police.

The home-invasion occurred after 3 p.m. on the first block of Soden Drive. The names of the victims are being withheld for their protection.

Police said the mother and son, who live together in the home, were working with investigators last night. The victims described their attackers as three males, possibly Hispanic or gypsies, who arrived on the scene in a white pick-up truck with a yellow ladder in a rack.

Hamilton Det. Sgt. Anthony Recine was on the scene and recreated the events of the robbery according to the victims' account.

He said the thieves first approached the son, supposedly inquiring about three tires he had for sale on the front lawn. One of the men started talking to the son and brought him out into the backyard.

He said the thief told the son they were in the area because they were going to be doing some work along a neighbor's fence line there.

The robber-to-be then told the homeowner he noticed there was a problem with his air conditioning unit, acting as though he was looking for more work, while he actually had another motive in mind, Recine said.

And while the son was occupied in the backyard, Recine said, another man entered the house. This man began speaking to the mother, who was sitting on the couch.

While mother and son were distracted, a third man, Recine said, slipped in through the back and made his way into the bedrooms. The third man then found a safe in one of the rooms and dragged it out into the hallway.

He said the men in the house first told the mother to open the safe, but she said she didn't know the combination.

By this time the first robber came into the house bringing the son with him and ordered him to open the safe.

Recine said the victim told investigators that the thieves had no weapons but that there was an implied threat of violence throughout the ordeal.

"The one guy says to him (the son), 'you better do what he says, he's crazy,'" Recine said the victims told him.

The threat of violence was then realized as Recine said the men pushed the mother and shoved the son to the ground in their attempts to get them to open the safe.

But through all this, the quick-thinking 99-year-old, who neighbors described as "sharp," was the one who called 911 herself from an unlikely place.

"The mother stated she had to go to the bathroom, and says, 'I'm going to pee right here if you don't let me go to the bathroom,' because she knew there was phone in the bathroom," Recine said.

He said the robbers let the mother go into the bathroom, but her fight to call for help wasn't over.

"He wouldn't shut the door, and she says, 'I can't pee in front of you,' and then she forced the door shut," he said.

He said the mother was then able to call the police from inside the bathroom, but the safe had already been opened and the thieves were soon on their way out the door.

"The son opened it because he didn't want them to hurt the mother," he said.

Recine said the cash amount taken from the safe could possibly be over $100,000. An unknown value amount of jewelry was also taken and that the thieves took the three tires from the lawn that had given them access to the house in the first place.

While he said the case was still under investigation, Recine said the job looked professional and that he's seen it all before.

"They're probably more than likely gypsies, and they do this constantly," he said. "They have a set routine, they know what houses to look for."

He said professional thieves in a robbery like yesterday's will look for the simplest things to tip them off to an easier target.

And while no one was hurt in the incident, an ambulance was sent to the scene following the robbery.

EDITORIAL COMMENT:
This is yet another case about "gypsies" being accused of something of which, so far, there is no proof as to whether any Gypsy was involved at all. Furthermore, though not being a trained criminologist, something does not ring true with this story. The making of the 911 call from the lavatory is just a little strange.