Every time, so it would see, that anywhere and any time Anti-Gypsy-ism by the State is mentioned, our People, especially those Romani not directly affected, instead of standing up in righteous indignation turn into ostriches and bury their heads in the sand. That way they hope that no one notices what they are, e.g. Gypsies, so it would appear.
Pastor Niemoeller of Germany put it ever so well in his poem which starts, if I recall properly, “First they came for the communists but I did not speak out because I was not a communist” and ends with, “When they came for me there was no one left to speak out”.
So, presently they come, maybe, for the Machwaya and other Roma in the East and many of ours here in the West seem to think that it has nothing to do with them because, for one, they are not Machwaya, and often not even Roma, and two, because it does not actually affect them and their families. We have indeed become that narrow minded in our “solidarity”.
There are what amounts to basically nothing else but concentration camps for Rom being planned and constructed under the guise of “solidarity villages” in Italy which is meant to house up to 1500 Rom each and where they are to be placed under the watchful eye of armed – obviously, we are talking about Italy – Ministry of the Interior Anti-Terrorist Police, and the media everywhere, but especially in the EU, is silent – bar one little voice like “O Nevo Drom” – and our People, in general and especially our so-called “leaders” are silent; the ordinary Gypsy goes into hiding and the “leaders” are too much in the pockets of the paymasters of the EU in order to be able to complain against such actions as this might lose their funding.
In the Czech Republic, we hear, the authorities propose to surround Gypsy quarters in towns and Gypsy villages and enclaves with up to eight foot high brick walls topped with razor wire and one entry-exit gate that will be guarded by police “in order to protect the Gypsies from attacks by skinheads and other fascist elements”. Yes, sure! And on an airfield nearby a squadron of pigs is preparing for take-off”. It was the same kind of lies that were believed by Sinti and Roma under Nazi occupation when they were forced into fixed camps and then ghettos.
Also here, in those instances as to yet another EU state, the media is silent as the so-called “leaders” of the People and the People bury their heads still deeper in the sand.
No good doing that, folks! Everyone can see your Gypsy behinds sticking up and that way it is so much easier to kick you.
We should have a definite “No Ostriches Allowed!” policy.
While there may not be much that we can do in practice in way of something practical. We hardly have an army or police force that can intervene there nor do we, as yet, have the political clout – not even as an entire People – to have some serious words with the countries that are (proposing) to do all those things but... In any such case we, as a People, can at least make the world take note that we, the People, are aware of what is going on and are watching them and that way they may just take notice of us as a “force2 to be reckoned with. We have millions of People worldwide and I am sure that we could achieve something together.
But nothing will ever be achieved if the “I am all right, Jack” attitude persists in which others of our People and their situation and plight remains ignored.
I must say that I am not about to help any of ours who have no wish to make any efforts of helping themselves. Like so many of the poor Rom in Eastern Europe who would not need to be thus if they would but be prepared to get the finger out. But we must stand with those, even if we cannot physically do that, that are under those threats as mentioned and others.
Anti-Gypsy-ism is on the rise again and in Bulgaria right-wing parties, are, again, calling for organized Gypsy Hunts. In Hungary a successor organization of the Arrow Cross has been set up and it is using, so it is said, that old insignia.
All this, in this writer's view, is becoming more significant ever since the new EU Constitution is being played with.
What place is there for the Rom in this New Europe? The way things are looking they do not want there to be a place for the Rom in this new entity whatever lip service they are paying to Roma(ni) Rights and all that.
And all our People do – the great majority – is to pretend that it is not happening, to pretend that they are not Rom – like the Sinti in Germany, and simply hide like ostriches hoping that it will all just pass them and their families by.
Get you heads out of the sand and let's do something together for the future of the Romani People as a People. The time is NOW, not next week or next year.
Forwards together for the People.
© M V Smith, August 2007
Slavery Museum opens in Liverpool, England
UNESCO’s designated International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade has been marked by the opening of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool - the first museum of its type to open in the UK.
The museum features dynamic, powerful and moving displays about the story of the transatlantic slave trade, uncovering the largely hidden account of the exploitation of Africa and Africans.
Displays address the legacy of transatlantic slavery, both contemporary as well as historic, reflecting issues that are relevant to Britain today, as well as Western Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa.
One can, however, safely assume, though this writer has not seen the museum as yet, safely from press releases and such, that not a single word will be mentioned in the entire museum about the first slaves that were sent to the Caribbeans and the Colonies, well, before any African Blacks, namely the Romani, the Gypsy, the the British Isles.
Well before any African Blacks were ever sent as slaves to the sugar estates of Barbados or elsewhere in the English-occupied Caribbean Islands, Romani, Gypsy, were sent there as slaves; men, women and children, snatched from the streets and byways of the British Isles. Many a British trading house became rich from this Gypsy slave trade because the government of the day paid them for hunting down and rounding up the Gypsies, they also paid them to ship them out to the colonies and then the traders were paid yet again by the planters for the slaves that were bought by them. Nice little earner, for sure. But this is not a story ever mentioned.
Slavery can obviously only be a Black thing, with all the political correct pressure groups, in the same way as the Holocaust can only be a Jewish thing. No place for the Gypsy in either despite the fact that in both cases Gypsies were the first to suffer.
But in each case the fate of the Gypsy is suppressed and those that wish to mention it are ridiculed or silenced in that there material will not be published; definitely not when it comes to the slavery of Romanichals from England, Manush from France and Gitanos and Ciganos from Spain and Portugal respectively. There is a lobby out there, mush as with regards to the Romani Holocaust, that want to keep slavery a uniquely Black African thing in the same way as another lobby pushes all the time in keeping the Holocaust and Pogroms a uniquely Jewish thing.
Well, I am sorry to upset the applecart here but neither even is uniquely to those groups; the Gypsy has a part in it.
What was the reason for Romanichals from the British Isles being sold into slavery? The same reason why the Rom went to the Nazi concentration camps; it was ethnic cleansing and ultimately it was intended to destroy the Romani People.
Maybe some people would like to think about that but, alas, I doubt it; we are only dirty Gyppos in their eyes.
© M V Smith, August 2007
The museum features dynamic, powerful and moving displays about the story of the transatlantic slave trade, uncovering the largely hidden account of the exploitation of Africa and Africans.
Displays address the legacy of transatlantic slavery, both contemporary as well as historic, reflecting issues that are relevant to Britain today, as well as Western Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa.
One can, however, safely assume, though this writer has not seen the museum as yet, safely from press releases and such, that not a single word will be mentioned in the entire museum about the first slaves that were sent to the Caribbeans and the Colonies, well, before any African Blacks, namely the Romani, the Gypsy, the the British Isles.
Well before any African Blacks were ever sent as slaves to the sugar estates of Barbados or elsewhere in the English-occupied Caribbean Islands, Romani, Gypsy, were sent there as slaves; men, women and children, snatched from the streets and byways of the British Isles. Many a British trading house became rich from this Gypsy slave trade because the government of the day paid them for hunting down and rounding up the Gypsies, they also paid them to ship them out to the colonies and then the traders were paid yet again by the planters for the slaves that were bought by them. Nice little earner, for sure. But this is not a story ever mentioned.
Slavery can obviously only be a Black thing, with all the political correct pressure groups, in the same way as the Holocaust can only be a Jewish thing. No place for the Gypsy in either despite the fact that in both cases Gypsies were the first to suffer.
But in each case the fate of the Gypsy is suppressed and those that wish to mention it are ridiculed or silenced in that there material will not be published; definitely not when it comes to the slavery of Romanichals from England, Manush from France and Gitanos and Ciganos from Spain and Portugal respectively. There is a lobby out there, mush as with regards to the Romani Holocaust, that want to keep slavery a uniquely Black African thing in the same way as another lobby pushes all the time in keeping the Holocaust and Pogroms a uniquely Jewish thing.
Well, I am sorry to upset the applecart here but neither even is uniquely to those groups; the Gypsy has a part in it.
What was the reason for Romanichals from the British Isles being sold into slavery? The same reason why the Rom went to the Nazi concentration camps; it was ethnic cleansing and ultimately it was intended to destroy the Romani People.
Maybe some people would like to think about that but, alas, I doubt it; we are only dirty Gyppos in their eyes.
© M V Smith, August 2007
One Roma killed in bloody racial clashes in Sofia
Sofia, 15.08.2007 10:59
At least one man was killed late on Tuesday night when a huge mob of Roma people gathered in the Sofia district of Krasna Polyana for a revenge of Monday night's mass brawl in the district between Roma and skinheads.
The mob, consisting of around 400 Roma, armed with axes, cudgels and stones, gathered in the Sofia's district where a Vietnamese community lives, demolishing everything that crossed their path.
The police are still investigating the circumstances of the Monday's brawl, but Roma witnesses claimed it was retaliation for an assault the previous night, when 30 skinheads reportedly attacked three Roma teenagers, one of whom was badly beaten.
Between 20 and 30 people were involved in the brawl, although witnesses' reports are contradictory, the police said.
The racial dimension of the clashes is somewhat fueled up by some local media by attaching the derogatory terms "Gypsies" for the Roma involved and claiming that they had chanted "Death for Bulgarians".
Editorial Comment:
If it should indeed be true that the Roma involved had chanted "Death for Bulgarians" then they are no better than those who have been perpetrating the acts against them. We cannot and must not allow ourselves to get down to the same level as those Nazis. While we must fight them we must do this in a different and measured way. It is us who will be made out to look the criminals when such slogans are being chanted. This is like the Rom going and chanting “death to the Gadje”. We cannot and must not stoop that low.
M V Smith, August 18, 2007
At least one man was killed late on Tuesday night when a huge mob of Roma people gathered in the Sofia district of Krasna Polyana for a revenge of Monday night's mass brawl in the district between Roma and skinheads.
The mob, consisting of around 400 Roma, armed with axes, cudgels and stones, gathered in the Sofia's district where a Vietnamese community lives, demolishing everything that crossed their path.
The police are still investigating the circumstances of the Monday's brawl, but Roma witnesses claimed it was retaliation for an assault the previous night, when 30 skinheads reportedly attacked three Roma teenagers, one of whom was badly beaten.
Between 20 and 30 people were involved in the brawl, although witnesses' reports are contradictory, the police said.
The racial dimension of the clashes is somewhat fueled up by some local media by attaching the derogatory terms "Gypsies" for the Roma involved and claiming that they had chanted "Death for Bulgarians".
Editorial Comment:
If it should indeed be true that the Roma involved had chanted "Death for Bulgarians" then they are no better than those who have been perpetrating the acts against them. We cannot and must not allow ourselves to get down to the same level as those Nazis. While we must fight them we must do this in a different and measured way. It is us who will be made out to look the criminals when such slogans are being chanted. This is like the Rom going and chanting “death to the Gadje”. We cannot and must not stoop that low.
M V Smith, August 18, 2007
Romani Hip Hop singer receives threats from Czech Roma
Czech Romani Hip Hop singer Radek Banga from the famous Gipsy.cz group received threatening phone calls and SMS messages from Czech Rom after his strong statements about people who do not work.
"Kick the bucket if you don't want to do anything," Banga said in an interview on the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) website iDnes.cz, referring to people who do not try to get from a bad social situation by their own effort.
Police are not investigating the threats and Banga has not asked for any protection. "This would be no solution. Nothing would be revealed anyway. And first of all, I don't want to act against my own people," Banga told the media.
Many Romany activists understand Banga's views, but they resent his vocabulary, it is said.
However, all one can say to that is that the truth sometimes hurts and at times it is only harsh words and a good kick up the backside that will get people off their butts.
It would appear as if what Banga said hit a raw nerve with some people and got under the skin of those Roma that are simply too lazy and do not like the idea of working for a living, which, I am afraid to say, seem to be a great number of them in the East. They threaten rather being prepared to change their ways. This is what gives our People a bad name as well.
Opportunities are provided in a great number of Czech municipalities for Roma to work and to better their situation, often in service of the municipality itself, but in one case recently only five, I believe, came forward to a program that had many more places for paid employment and training available. Proof, if any were needed, that too many Eastern European Roma brethren of ours are too lazy and too “proud” to help themselves.
Such attitudes must change and to threaten the messenger of such truths is not the way to go about things.
When one sees the state of the settlements of the Roma in Eastern Europe, with the men doing nothing but sitting idly about smoking and drinking and talking while the women and children are either out begging (or worse) or scavenging for resalable items and food even on the refuse tips, then it proves what Banga said. A strange pride those people have. Too proud to go out to work and earn a living but not too proud to take stuff from the rubbish dumps, even food.
Banga may have used some harsh language but, I assume, he, like many other Rom who do try to make it in this world while still remaining true to their roots, has gotten fed up to the back teeth with such attitudes of those lazy bums who need someone to do everything for them while their settlements drown in litter and they just sit about.
Earlier this year, Gipsy.cz's CD Romano Hip Hop advanced to the European world music top ten. The band is very popular in the Czech Republic among young people.
M V Smith, August 2007
"Kick the bucket if you don't want to do anything," Banga said in an interview on the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) website iDnes.cz, referring to people who do not try to get from a bad social situation by their own effort.
Police are not investigating the threats and Banga has not asked for any protection. "This would be no solution. Nothing would be revealed anyway. And first of all, I don't want to act against my own people," Banga told the media.
Many Romany activists understand Banga's views, but they resent his vocabulary, it is said.
However, all one can say to that is that the truth sometimes hurts and at times it is only harsh words and a good kick up the backside that will get people off their butts.
It would appear as if what Banga said hit a raw nerve with some people and got under the skin of those Roma that are simply too lazy and do not like the idea of working for a living, which, I am afraid to say, seem to be a great number of them in the East. They threaten rather being prepared to change their ways. This is what gives our People a bad name as well.
Opportunities are provided in a great number of Czech municipalities for Roma to work and to better their situation, often in service of the municipality itself, but in one case recently only five, I believe, came forward to a program that had many more places for paid employment and training available. Proof, if any were needed, that too many Eastern European Roma brethren of ours are too lazy and too “proud” to help themselves.
Such attitudes must change and to threaten the messenger of such truths is not the way to go about things.
When one sees the state of the settlements of the Roma in Eastern Europe, with the men doing nothing but sitting idly about smoking and drinking and talking while the women and children are either out begging (or worse) or scavenging for resalable items and food even on the refuse tips, then it proves what Banga said. A strange pride those people have. Too proud to go out to work and earn a living but not too proud to take stuff from the rubbish dumps, even food.
Banga may have used some harsh language but, I assume, he, like many other Rom who do try to make it in this world while still remaining true to their roots, has gotten fed up to the back teeth with such attitudes of those lazy bums who need someone to do everything for them while their settlements drown in litter and they just sit about.
Earlier this year, Gipsy.cz's CD Romano Hip Hop advanced to the European world music top ten. The band is very popular in the Czech Republic among young people.
M V Smith, August 2007
Online Conferencing for Romani Organizations
Every year thousands upon thousands of Euros are being wasted and squandered on gabfests by Romani organizations or other such events on Romani matters, such as the Romani Chib, and others, with no benefit whatsoever for the Rom at a grassroots level.
Much could be achieved with the money in the right hands that is thus wasted on those so-called conferences, congresses and gatherings that are often held in obscure locations. Sometimes one has to wonder as to whether the reason to hold those events in such locations or making them that costly for participants is so that only certain privileged ones are able to attend and the cronies of those who are organizing the events in the particular countries and locations.
Aside from the costs of actually holding such events, such congresses, such as hiring locations and venues, etc. there are all the other costs to the “delegates” and others have to pay in order to attend – one of the reasons why Rom from other countries and from less well-endowed organizations cannot attend – as well as the environmental impact and cost, such as the cost of printing all the various things, the security, the travel, etc.
There is a much better alternative, but will the “baros” ever accept it?
The alternative is the Internet and Online Conference Services. Those cost very little money compared to conferences and congresses held in the real world.
Those services can be small ones like the various Instant Messenger services and programs, such as MSN, Yahoo, AOL, etc. (or others), which permit type, voice and video conferencing with a number of people, or they can be other services, some free, some – most in fact – to be paid for hosted services.
It is possible to hire such services from a variety of hosts and providers, such as WebEx Communications Inc. and many others.
Online collaboration and online meeting and conference services can bring people together from anywhere in the world; dissolve geographical boundaries by enabling people to work together in real-time on the Web – as if they were sitting next to each other.
By using online conferencing services much money can be saved on all sides and a virtual carbon neutral congress can be organized and held for little in the way of monetary outlay. The costs are minimal, especially for the participants as all they need it a PC, whether desktop or notebook, and the environmental impact – something we must consider nowadays as well – is very low. Documents can be sent from one PC to all the others as PDF files with no need for printing and producing. Event security – not cheap either – is not required as there is not physical location where the event takes place.
So, all in favor of online meetings and congresses say “aye”...
Aye!!!
© M V Smith, August 2007
Much could be achieved with the money in the right hands that is thus wasted on those so-called conferences, congresses and gatherings that are often held in obscure locations. Sometimes one has to wonder as to whether the reason to hold those events in such locations or making them that costly for participants is so that only certain privileged ones are able to attend and the cronies of those who are organizing the events in the particular countries and locations.
Aside from the costs of actually holding such events, such congresses, such as hiring locations and venues, etc. there are all the other costs to the “delegates” and others have to pay in order to attend – one of the reasons why Rom from other countries and from less well-endowed organizations cannot attend – as well as the environmental impact and cost, such as the cost of printing all the various things, the security, the travel, etc.
There is a much better alternative, but will the “baros” ever accept it?
The alternative is the Internet and Online Conference Services. Those cost very little money compared to conferences and congresses held in the real world.
Those services can be small ones like the various Instant Messenger services and programs, such as MSN, Yahoo, AOL, etc. (or others), which permit type, voice and video conferencing with a number of people, or they can be other services, some free, some – most in fact – to be paid for hosted services.
It is possible to hire such services from a variety of hosts and providers, such as WebEx Communications Inc. and many others.
Online collaboration and online meeting and conference services can bring people together from anywhere in the world; dissolve geographical boundaries by enabling people to work together in real-time on the Web – as if they were sitting next to each other.
By using online conferencing services much money can be saved on all sides and a virtual carbon neutral congress can be organized and held for little in the way of monetary outlay. The costs are minimal, especially for the participants as all they need it a PC, whether desktop or notebook, and the environmental impact – something we must consider nowadays as well – is very low. Documents can be sent from one PC to all the others as PDF files with no need for printing and producing. Event security – not cheap either – is not required as there is not physical location where the event takes place.
So, all in favor of online meetings and congresses say “aye”...
Aye!!!
© M V Smith, August 2007
Police call for return of Internment
One of Britain's most senior police officers has, so it is reported, demanded a return to a form of internment; with a power for police to lock up suspected terrorist indefinitely without charge while investigations are going on.
Police officers on the ground, so are we told, are asking for this, to enable them to investigate everything properly and without a rush. Right, sure they are. And on an airfield nearby a squadron of pigs is preparing for take off.
It is NOT the police services, I am sure, that are asking for this per se but it is the leaders of those police services being stooges for the powers that be who want a means of detaining anyone who they deem to be a danger to society – for that read also a danger to them and their agenda – without charge, trial and evidence.
Most British MPs would never go along with this if the demand would come from government directly whether from the Home Secretary or the Secretary responsible for Homeland Security. However, if they can be made to believe that the police, and especially the investigating officers, are asking for this then it will be much easier for the MPs to be swayed towards such a move.
Once those powers are granted to police (and other agencies) to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely in interment what is to say that those are not applied also to anyone else the powers that be deem to be a danger; a danger more to them and their shenanigans than to any member of the public. Who after all decides who is a terrorist and who not? What is the determination of a terrorist? They say that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Internment could also, I am sure, in the end be applied to all those that simply speak out against the doings of the government and its agencies. Free speech, we have been told only some months back by a minister of the Home Office is NOT an unalienable right but just a privilege granted to the British subjects and that it could be suspended or withdrawn at any time. We must remember that the UK does not have a written constitution where such rights are enshrined and that the often cited Magna Carta and the Bill of Right does not, actually, have any bearing on the rights of the ordinary subjects of Her Britannic Majesty; none whatsoever. Those rights were and still are, in truth, for the aristocracy and the King's and Queen's liege lords only.
Things are afoot in the European Union and the UK here especially that can only be seen as worrying and when viewed through the eyes of a Rom, a Gypsy, like myself then all those things are very reminiscent of the times of the Nazis and National-Socialism and the era of Stalinism. Both were and are but opposite sides of the same coin. The West is heading currently very much down the slippery slope of fascism yet again, fuelled by the fear of Muslim terrorists and also, for some reason the Gypsy is in the firing line.
All I am seeing is that the EU and not just the EU alone in headed down into dangerous waters that will entirely undermine all personal freedoms to the extent of turning all of its “citizens” into numbers.
I assume the reason they now are therefore also going after the Gypsy is because the Gypsy lives still outside the control of the state to some degree.
We, those of the Rom, and others that may be concerned, must keep a watchful eye on all those developments, especially those that are not paraded that openly. The freedom of all of us is under threat and it is not threatened by a handful of militants and such like but by our very governments.
© M V Smith, July 2007
Police officers on the ground, so are we told, are asking for this, to enable them to investigate everything properly and without a rush. Right, sure they are. And on an airfield nearby a squadron of pigs is preparing for take off.
It is NOT the police services, I am sure, that are asking for this per se but it is the leaders of those police services being stooges for the powers that be who want a means of detaining anyone who they deem to be a danger to society – for that read also a danger to them and their agenda – without charge, trial and evidence.
Most British MPs would never go along with this if the demand would come from government directly whether from the Home Secretary or the Secretary responsible for Homeland Security. However, if they can be made to believe that the police, and especially the investigating officers, are asking for this then it will be much easier for the MPs to be swayed towards such a move.
Once those powers are granted to police (and other agencies) to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely in interment what is to say that those are not applied also to anyone else the powers that be deem to be a danger; a danger more to them and their shenanigans than to any member of the public. Who after all decides who is a terrorist and who not? What is the determination of a terrorist? They say that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Internment could also, I am sure, in the end be applied to all those that simply speak out against the doings of the government and its agencies. Free speech, we have been told only some months back by a minister of the Home Office is NOT an unalienable right but just a privilege granted to the British subjects and that it could be suspended or withdrawn at any time. We must remember that the UK does not have a written constitution where such rights are enshrined and that the often cited Magna Carta and the Bill of Right does not, actually, have any bearing on the rights of the ordinary subjects of Her Britannic Majesty; none whatsoever. Those rights were and still are, in truth, for the aristocracy and the King's and Queen's liege lords only.
Things are afoot in the European Union and the UK here especially that can only be seen as worrying and when viewed through the eyes of a Rom, a Gypsy, like myself then all those things are very reminiscent of the times of the Nazis and National-Socialism and the era of Stalinism. Both were and are but opposite sides of the same coin. The West is heading currently very much down the slippery slope of fascism yet again, fuelled by the fear of Muslim terrorists and also, for some reason the Gypsy is in the firing line.
All I am seeing is that the EU and not just the EU alone in headed down into dangerous waters that will entirely undermine all personal freedoms to the extent of turning all of its “citizens” into numbers.
I assume the reason they now are therefore also going after the Gypsy is because the Gypsy lives still outside the control of the state to some degree.
We, those of the Rom, and others that may be concerned, must keep a watchful eye on all those developments, especially those that are not paraded that openly. The freedom of all of us is under threat and it is not threatened by a handful of militants and such like but by our very governments.
© M V Smith, July 2007
Brutal Police Raid on Sinti Camp in Brabant
Although informations on this incident are rather sketchy the gist of is that sometime at the end of June 2007 the Dutch Police carried out a raid on a Sinti Camp, a residential trailer park for Sinti, in the province of Branbant, with such heavy handedness, force and brutality that catapulted some of the old folk on that site back in time causing them to believe that the SS and the Gestapo had arrived again.
Every home and every resident on that site was searched; men, women and children, and every person was given a number, written upon their forearm or the hand, reminiscent to the tattoos of the Nazi era.
A great number of the residents of this Gypsy Site are indeed survivors of the Romani Holocaust and were left rather traumatized by this.
No apparent reason seems to have been given for this raid and obviously no apologies offered for the behavior of the police officers involved either.
Should we be surprised that this has been happening now, at the same time while other EU member states also seem to act like the SS towards our People? Probably not, though it does come as somewhat a surprise that such a thing has happened in the Netherlands, a country that has a fairly good record as far as the treatment of the Romani People is concerned, perpetrated by Dutch police officers during an official action. This, in fact, should make us all rather concerned.
Can you all hear the Nazi Jackboots marching under the banner of the EU? I certainly can.
Time for us Rom to stand up and be counted and to prepare to fight for our freedom. The time to hide is gone. It is time to be highly visible and ready to act.
© M V Smith, July 2007
Every home and every resident on that site was searched; men, women and children, and every person was given a number, written upon their forearm or the hand, reminiscent to the tattoos of the Nazi era.
A great number of the residents of this Gypsy Site are indeed survivors of the Romani Holocaust and were left rather traumatized by this.
No apparent reason seems to have been given for this raid and obviously no apologies offered for the behavior of the police officers involved either.
Should we be surprised that this has been happening now, at the same time while other EU member states also seem to act like the SS towards our People? Probably not, though it does come as somewhat a surprise that such a thing has happened in the Netherlands, a country that has a fairly good record as far as the treatment of the Romani People is concerned, perpetrated by Dutch police officers during an official action. This, in fact, should make us all rather concerned.
Can you all hear the Nazi Jackboots marching under the banner of the EU? I certainly can.
Time for us Rom to stand up and be counted and to prepare to fight for our freedom. The time to hide is gone. It is time to be highly visible and ready to act.
© M V Smith, July 2007
“If I had Dynamite I would just blow them all up”
Czech Senator Liana Janackova advocates blowing up Gypsies or would like them locked up in ghettos behind high walls, barbed wire and gates.
It would appear that nothing is new in the EU as to how Romani-Gypsies are going to be treated despite all the good talk which is nothing but hot air.
There are already concentration camps being contemplated or even being set up as we speak in on EU country – under the guise of so-called “solidarity villages”, actual ghettos proposed that will be settlements with high walls, barbed wire and gates (to protect the Rom from attacks by Nazis they claim – now don't make me laugh) in another, forced integration – for that read “assimilation” - in yet another, and the wholesale sterilization of Gypsy girls and women in some other EU member states; and still they dare to talk about how good the EU is for us, the Rom.
Yes, sure, I guess, in the same was a work made our People free in places such as Auschwitz.
The organization that claims to be the representative of all Rom (and Travellers) in Europe also is rather conspicuous by its silence. When will the People wake up to the fact that the Gadje governments and organizations cannot be trusted when it comes to the affairs of the Romani People, our People, and that neither can Rom organizations that have Gadje amongst their leadership, that are funded by Gadje government bodies, such as the Council of Europe. Any organization that has any of them basically as paymasters bankrolling its operations is hardly going to speak out against what they do. They do not bite the hand that feeds them.
While the claims are always made that the Council of Europe does not equal European Union, in reality, things do look rather different and somehow, so it seems to me at least, the Council of Europe is a or even the major string puller and controlling body of the EU and the Euro-Parliament. Why, if it be not so, are the Commissioners of the Council of Europe/the European Commission so powerful? It is all one entity, divided into little bits so as to appear different to the outsiders.
In order to live as a People the Rom have only one chance and that is to stop letting groups funded by such sources speak for us and we must fund our own organizations – only in this way can we ever hope to achieve independence from the Gadje.
I do know that the likes of RK and others try to claim that the Gadje owe us funding and all that for the mistreatment we have received as a People at their hands over the centuries. Be that as it may and they may indeed owe us, but not in the way of lova. Or can you be bought? Me and my Gypsy Pride are not for sale.
The fact is, in all honesty, that no one owes us anything – we have to fight for it. Freedom is NOT given, it has to be fought for, and often paid for with the highest price. We can, however, never ever hope to achieve freedom as long as our organizations and the “leaders” are in the pockets of Gadje paymasters.
So far the ERTF has made no statement with regards to the concentration camps for Rom well outside Rome, away from schools, etc. but apparently so Gypsy kids can get an education (how please?) but had lots to say in response to a report that claimed that the majority of child beggars in Italy are Eastern European Roma. It would appear that it is more important to the ERTF to counter such a report than to speak out and do something about those camps, those so-called “solidarity villages”. Solidarity, my a**!
Awake Romani People, Arise! Throw of the fetters of slavery!
© M V Smith, July 17, 2007
It would appear that nothing is new in the EU as to how Romani-Gypsies are going to be treated despite all the good talk which is nothing but hot air.
There are already concentration camps being contemplated or even being set up as we speak in on EU country – under the guise of so-called “solidarity villages”, actual ghettos proposed that will be settlements with high walls, barbed wire and gates (to protect the Rom from attacks by Nazis they claim – now don't make me laugh) in another, forced integration – for that read “assimilation” - in yet another, and the wholesale sterilization of Gypsy girls and women in some other EU member states; and still they dare to talk about how good the EU is for us, the Rom.
Yes, sure, I guess, in the same was a work made our People free in places such as Auschwitz.
The organization that claims to be the representative of all Rom (and Travellers) in Europe also is rather conspicuous by its silence. When will the People wake up to the fact that the Gadje governments and organizations cannot be trusted when it comes to the affairs of the Romani People, our People, and that neither can Rom organizations that have Gadje amongst their leadership, that are funded by Gadje government bodies, such as the Council of Europe. Any organization that has any of them basically as paymasters bankrolling its operations is hardly going to speak out against what they do. They do not bite the hand that feeds them.
While the claims are always made that the Council of Europe does not equal European Union, in reality, things do look rather different and somehow, so it seems to me at least, the Council of Europe is a or even the major string puller and controlling body of the EU and the Euro-Parliament. Why, if it be not so, are the Commissioners of the Council of Europe/the European Commission so powerful? It is all one entity, divided into little bits so as to appear different to the outsiders.
In order to live as a People the Rom have only one chance and that is to stop letting groups funded by such sources speak for us and we must fund our own organizations – only in this way can we ever hope to achieve independence from the Gadje.
I do know that the likes of RK and others try to claim that the Gadje owe us funding and all that for the mistreatment we have received as a People at their hands over the centuries. Be that as it may and they may indeed owe us, but not in the way of lova. Or can you be bought? Me and my Gypsy Pride are not for sale.
The fact is, in all honesty, that no one owes us anything – we have to fight for it. Freedom is NOT given, it has to be fought for, and often paid for with the highest price. We can, however, never ever hope to achieve freedom as long as our organizations and the “leaders” are in the pockets of Gadje paymasters.
So far the ERTF has made no statement with regards to the concentration camps for Rom well outside Rome, away from schools, etc. but apparently so Gypsy kids can get an education (how please?) but had lots to say in response to a report that claimed that the majority of child beggars in Italy are Eastern European Roma. It would appear that it is more important to the ERTF to counter such a report than to speak out and do something about those camps, those so-called “solidarity villages”. Solidarity, my a**!
Awake Romani People, Arise! Throw of the fetters of slavery!
© M V Smith, July 17, 2007
Czech state to start collecting statistical data on Romanies
The Czech state will start gathering exact and precise statistical data on Romanies in the Czech Republic, such as the number of unemployed Rom and their level of education, Minister Dzamila Stechlikova said.
She said that the state needs such statistics on the Romani People to efficiently solve the problems related to the Romani community.
Also collected will be the data of which schools which Romani children attend, and other data.
This data, so the government of the Czech Republic states, will be done in order to prevent the people's exclusion and discrimination. According to the minster the European Commission shares her government's opinion.
Considering that the EU also says nothing about other actions against Romani-Gypsies in other EU member states it is hardly surprising that it agrees with the Czech government on the need to collect such “statistical data” on the Romani People in the Czech Republic.
People, you can bet your life that this this kind of exercise is not just going to be conducted in the former Czechoslovakia but other EU member states will follow suit with this.
And, once again, the reason given for the need to get all such data is humanitarian, in the same way as the planned concentration camps for Rom outside the city of Rome, Italy, are also humanitarian and are, therefore, called “Solidarity Villages”. What, with armed troops of the interior security police guarding the gates?
Apparently, another EU member state is working on a compulsory program of “Romani integration” - read for that “forced assimilation” - and, it would appear from what has come to my attention, that similar camps may be envisaged to those in Italy.
Furthermore it seems that, even though they vehemently deny this, the Czech and the Slovak governments are both working on the implementation of Gypsy Ghettos outside some of the towns and cities; and yes, they will have walls around them. Oh, and yes, it is for their protection against racist elements.
We saw all those acts before, and all of those were then for our own good, so our People were told, such as to get them into work, into school, to give them health care (some health care that was and some kind of employment). Will our People once again sit there and allow this to happen? Where are the supposed representatives – not that I voted for any of them (I was not asked not were the other millions of grassroots Rom) – such as the ERTF and the IRU? They are very silent as to this matter. Well, not surprising really; they can hardly attack their paymasters.
Romale, Sintiale, don't just sit there and let it happen again. If the “big boys” won't do it join people who are willing to speak out. It must not be allowed to happen again but I certainly can hear the jackboots marching again. Can you?
© M V Smith, July 2007
She said that the state needs such statistics on the Romani People to efficiently solve the problems related to the Romani community.
Also collected will be the data of which schools which Romani children attend, and other data.
This data, so the government of the Czech Republic states, will be done in order to prevent the people's exclusion and discrimination. According to the minster the European Commission shares her government's opinion.
Considering that the EU also says nothing about other actions against Romani-Gypsies in other EU member states it is hardly surprising that it agrees with the Czech government on the need to collect such “statistical data” on the Romani People in the Czech Republic.
People, you can bet your life that this this kind of exercise is not just going to be conducted in the former Czechoslovakia but other EU member states will follow suit with this.
And, once again, the reason given for the need to get all such data is humanitarian, in the same way as the planned concentration camps for Rom outside the city of Rome, Italy, are also humanitarian and are, therefore, called “Solidarity Villages”. What, with armed troops of the interior security police guarding the gates?
Apparently, another EU member state is working on a compulsory program of “Romani integration” - read for that “forced assimilation” - and, it would appear from what has come to my attention, that similar camps may be envisaged to those in Italy.
Furthermore it seems that, even though they vehemently deny this, the Czech and the Slovak governments are both working on the implementation of Gypsy Ghettos outside some of the towns and cities; and yes, they will have walls around them. Oh, and yes, it is for their protection against racist elements.
We saw all those acts before, and all of those were then for our own good, so our People were told, such as to get them into work, into school, to give them health care (some health care that was and some kind of employment). Will our People once again sit there and allow this to happen? Where are the supposed representatives – not that I voted for any of them (I was not asked not were the other millions of grassroots Rom) – such as the ERTF and the IRU? They are very silent as to this matter. Well, not surprising really; they can hardly attack their paymasters.
Romale, Sintiale, don't just sit there and let it happen again. If the “big boys” won't do it join people who are willing to speak out. It must not be allowed to happen again but I certainly can hear the jackboots marching again. Can you?
© M V Smith, July 2007
Romani Solidarity
or
When one of us bleeds we all do!
“When the Union's inspiration through the People's Blood shall run” would be the first line of the rewritten workers' song “Solidarity Forever”, to suit the Romani struggle, the refrain, the chorus, however, remaining the same, e.g. “Solidarity Forever” and it is this solidarity that we will have to learn, methinks, or relearn, to be more precise.
In truth, there was once a time when we seem to have had something of this solidarity, though never, it would appear, for the entire People. If we want to get anywhere in this world as a People, as a Nation proper, then this must change and we must find it in our hearts to have solidarity with our fellow Rom wherever on this planet that may be. If they hurt and are being attacked or discriminated against the n so is and should every one of us feel that hurt and we should fell righteous anger to speak out against such abuses, etc. But most of us, nowadays, just sit on our butts and hands and do nothing. The formula seems to be “I am all right Jack, what do I care”.
Or was this solidarity of the Romani People of old and the community spirit and the helping all Rom in need just something that everyone has imagined and is it but a myth. From what I am seeing in the last 20-30 years or so I must say it could appear to have been just so.
I do know that in fact that this solidarity did exist but that was before envy end jealousy began to rule our hearts and minds. It was, strangely enough, at a time when life was harder and money scarce and in very short supply often that the Rom shared with any Rom in need. Today, however, sadly, we are worse in that respect than the Gadsche.
We must, however, concentrate with this solidarity on our People, the Romani People and not support the wrong causes, such as illegal encampments by Irish Travellers, for instance, who in other instances will not hesitate to use even the force of arms to push Romanichal residents from official council Gypsy sites and then take those over, forcing the Rom to take to the drom again and then illegal encamp. No Irish Traveller has ever, as far as I know, come to the aid of a Romani family that was forced with eviction. Misplaced solidarity will not reciprocated.
Romani are Romani, as I have said before elsewhere, and Irish Travellers are Irish Travellers and while there are some Romani in Ireland, North and South, the majority of Irish Travellers are not Romani and do not share the same Culture and values. While they may lead a similar life to that what the Romani used to, and some still, do live that is about where the similarities end. While the Rom are a Race the Irish Travellers are nothing but Gohja in trailers, and let's not get fooled in believing the stories about them being an ancient pre-Celtic nomadic people of Eire. Those Irish Travellers that are in trailers (and in kennas) in Eire and in the UK (and those that went to the USA and elsewhere from Great Britain and Ireland) are no older as a travelling people than the potato famine and the great majority in the UK especially only came here during the wars and especially after World War II, the men first as laborers on the road build projects who then later brought their families over, having discovered that the British welfare state would give them anything they wanted without much of a question being asked unlike Ireland where no welfare state existed at that time. Am i being unfair? I do not think so.
When it comes to solidarity it is, as said, our race that comes first and must come first and all of us should feel and express a righteous indignation if but one member of our People is being discriminated against. Alas, however, this does not seem to be the case. Rather, it would appear, most are too busy hiding their ethnicity from the Gohja, who know anyway (I shall say again that no one will ever believe that Giovanni Mettbach is an Italian name), rather than standing up for our brothers and sisters so that they may see this solidarity and, should anyone else of us be in trouble, they are inspired to do the same for us.
One for all and all for one, so, apparently, was the motto of the French Musketeers and this is a motto that we, the Rom, in today's world, would do well to adopt.
© M V Smith, June 2007
When one of us bleeds we all do!
“When the Union's inspiration through the People's Blood shall run” would be the first line of the rewritten workers' song “Solidarity Forever”, to suit the Romani struggle, the refrain, the chorus, however, remaining the same, e.g. “Solidarity Forever” and it is this solidarity that we will have to learn, methinks, or relearn, to be more precise.
In truth, there was once a time when we seem to have had something of this solidarity, though never, it would appear, for the entire People. If we want to get anywhere in this world as a People, as a Nation proper, then this must change and we must find it in our hearts to have solidarity with our fellow Rom wherever on this planet that may be. If they hurt and are being attacked or discriminated against the n so is and should every one of us feel that hurt and we should fell righteous anger to speak out against such abuses, etc. But most of us, nowadays, just sit on our butts and hands and do nothing. The formula seems to be “I am all right Jack, what do I care”.
Or was this solidarity of the Romani People of old and the community spirit and the helping all Rom in need just something that everyone has imagined and is it but a myth. From what I am seeing in the last 20-30 years or so I must say it could appear to have been just so.
I do know that in fact that this solidarity did exist but that was before envy end jealousy began to rule our hearts and minds. It was, strangely enough, at a time when life was harder and money scarce and in very short supply often that the Rom shared with any Rom in need. Today, however, sadly, we are worse in that respect than the Gadsche.
We must, however, concentrate with this solidarity on our People, the Romani People and not support the wrong causes, such as illegal encampments by Irish Travellers, for instance, who in other instances will not hesitate to use even the force of arms to push Romanichal residents from official council Gypsy sites and then take those over, forcing the Rom to take to the drom again and then illegal encamp. No Irish Traveller has ever, as far as I know, come to the aid of a Romani family that was forced with eviction. Misplaced solidarity will not reciprocated.
Romani are Romani, as I have said before elsewhere, and Irish Travellers are Irish Travellers and while there are some Romani in Ireland, North and South, the majority of Irish Travellers are not Romani and do not share the same Culture and values. While they may lead a similar life to that what the Romani used to, and some still, do live that is about where the similarities end. While the Rom are a Race the Irish Travellers are nothing but Gohja in trailers, and let's not get fooled in believing the stories about them being an ancient pre-Celtic nomadic people of Eire. Those Irish Travellers that are in trailers (and in kennas) in Eire and in the UK (and those that went to the USA and elsewhere from Great Britain and Ireland) are no older as a travelling people than the potato famine and the great majority in the UK especially only came here during the wars and especially after World War II, the men first as laborers on the road build projects who then later brought their families over, having discovered that the British welfare state would give them anything they wanted without much of a question being asked unlike Ireland where no welfare state existed at that time. Am i being unfair? I do not think so.
When it comes to solidarity it is, as said, our race that comes first and must come first and all of us should feel and express a righteous indignation if but one member of our People is being discriminated against. Alas, however, this does not seem to be the case. Rather, it would appear, most are too busy hiding their ethnicity from the Gohja, who know anyway (I shall say again that no one will ever believe that Giovanni Mettbach is an Italian name), rather than standing up for our brothers and sisters so that they may see this solidarity and, should anyone else of us be in trouble, they are inspired to do the same for us.
One for all and all for one, so, apparently, was the motto of the French Musketeers and this is a motto that we, the Rom, in today's world, would do well to adopt.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Anti-Gypsy-ism is alive and well, unfortunately
While one might have hoped that Anti-Gypsy-ism would by now be a thing of the past this is, unfortunately, not so.
Anti-Gypsy-ism is alive and well in the European Union, and here not just in the new member states, as well as in the United States.
A child, for example, vanishes, while on vacation with her parents in Portugal, in May 2007, and immediately everyone, especially the media, and here especially the gutter press, accuses Gypsies of having abducted the little four-year-old blond girl from Britain.
Why? For what reason?
Well, because the Gadje actually do believe the concocted fairy stories that Gypsies steal children, that’s why. And doesn’t everyone – so at least the media presents the case – know that the favorite ones that Gypsies like to steal are little blond boys and girls?
It is and was exactly the same when the selfsame gutter press screams about hordes of Gypsies coming into the country, as soon as the countries of their residence would be member states of the European Union. Well, that did not actually happen. The gullible Gadje, however, do believe all those stories and many still believe that thousands upon thousands of Rom from Bulgaria, Romania, and such places have come to Britain. Well, there are a few here who, unfortunately, engage in begging and, possibly, pick pocketing, but as for thousands; well, no.
Attacks on Romani in Eastern Europe, even in European Union member states, are common place, with even politicians of such countries being involved in the attacks, on a verbal level at least, and the “crowning glory” must be Volen Siderov of Bulgaria, a presidential candidate apparently even no less, who openly called for Gypsies to me made into soap, in a style that smacked of Nazi extermination policies. One would have hoped that such sentiments and the like had disappeared with the demise of Hitler's Third Reich but, as we can all see, this is not the case, unfortunately, and was rather wishful thinking and no such thing has happened as far as the Gypsy, the Rom, are concerned.
In truth, despite of the very fact that Siderov made such statements, and that the official government of Bulgaria called for the sterilization of all Gypsy women, Bulgaria was still admitted into the folds of the European Union, no questions asked. This shows that the EU has the same disregard for the Rom, as all those other countries that breach the human rights of the Romani People, and pays nothing but lip service to equal rights for the Gypsy.
We, as a People, must stand up now against this trend of Anti-Gypsy-ism and be counted but I also know that I am wasting my breath to call for such a thing and action.
Why? Because most of our People fall into one of two categories: those that wish to hide their ethnicity, their origins, and then those who, while doing the first or not, could care less and could not be bothered as to what is happening to our People as long as it does not affect them and theirs.
Here we will do well to recall the words of the poem by Pastor Dietrich Bonnhoefer and heed the call that if we do not speak out now and stand up and be counted when they come for us there may be no one left to speak out and fight on our behalf.
Think about it...
© M V Smith, June 2007
Anti-Gypsy-ism is alive and well in the European Union, and here not just in the new member states, as well as in the United States.
A child, for example, vanishes, while on vacation with her parents in Portugal, in May 2007, and immediately everyone, especially the media, and here especially the gutter press, accuses Gypsies of having abducted the little four-year-old blond girl from Britain.
Why? For what reason?
Well, because the Gadje actually do believe the concocted fairy stories that Gypsies steal children, that’s why. And doesn’t everyone – so at least the media presents the case – know that the favorite ones that Gypsies like to steal are little blond boys and girls?
It is and was exactly the same when the selfsame gutter press screams about hordes of Gypsies coming into the country, as soon as the countries of their residence would be member states of the European Union. Well, that did not actually happen. The gullible Gadje, however, do believe all those stories and many still believe that thousands upon thousands of Rom from Bulgaria, Romania, and such places have come to Britain. Well, there are a few here who, unfortunately, engage in begging and, possibly, pick pocketing, but as for thousands; well, no.
Attacks on Romani in Eastern Europe, even in European Union member states, are common place, with even politicians of such countries being involved in the attacks, on a verbal level at least, and the “crowning glory” must be Volen Siderov of Bulgaria, a presidential candidate apparently even no less, who openly called for Gypsies to me made into soap, in a style that smacked of Nazi extermination policies. One would have hoped that such sentiments and the like had disappeared with the demise of Hitler's Third Reich but, as we can all see, this is not the case, unfortunately, and was rather wishful thinking and no such thing has happened as far as the Gypsy, the Rom, are concerned.
In truth, despite of the very fact that Siderov made such statements, and that the official government of Bulgaria called for the sterilization of all Gypsy women, Bulgaria was still admitted into the folds of the European Union, no questions asked. This shows that the EU has the same disregard for the Rom, as all those other countries that breach the human rights of the Romani People, and pays nothing but lip service to equal rights for the Gypsy.
We, as a People, must stand up now against this trend of Anti-Gypsy-ism and be counted but I also know that I am wasting my breath to call for such a thing and action.
Why? Because most of our People fall into one of two categories: those that wish to hide their ethnicity, their origins, and then those who, while doing the first or not, could care less and could not be bothered as to what is happening to our People as long as it does not affect them and theirs.
Here we will do well to recall the words of the poem by Pastor Dietrich Bonnhoefer and heed the call that if we do not speak out now and stand up and be counted when they come for us there may be no one left to speak out and fight on our behalf.
Think about it...
© M V Smith, June 2007
Hiding our Gypsy Ethnicity – Does that protect us?
The simple answer would be NO.
It has been going on for ages already, but seems to have really only been done since after World War II whether in places such as Germany or Austria or in the UK. While it is understandable for Sinti and Roma in Germany, especially, to have gone more or less into hiding and denying their ethnicity, especially those that have moved into houses and more or less “ordinary” jobs or into trade, such as scrap yards, and claiming to be of Italian extraction or other southern such but it makes no difference. In the UK one nowadays hears the comments from Romanichals when asked whether they be Gypsy, People with names like Brazil (find me a non-Rom by that name), and the answer more often then not will be, “our grandparents were Gypsies but we are not, we live in a house”. Is that, though, a deliberate hiding of their ancestry? In fact in most cases it is not but just a lack of understanding of the fact that being Gypsy is not a lifestyle but that we are a People and a Race.
However, it would appear that here, but especially in places such as Germany, Austria, France, etc. one might find the Sinti and Roma pretending to be somethings else than what they are and are in fact, at least to outsiders, hiding their ethnicity. It is also my belief that for that very reason many give their children Italian, Spanish or Greek sounding names, such as Marco, Sandro, Pedro, Massimo, Giovanni, and such, in order so that they can claim that they are of Italian or other such Mediterranean ancestry; anything but Sinti or Roma.
Methinks we have a problem and unless we all get away from pretending to be something that we are not and be in fact proud, also to the outside, that we are Sinti or Roma, that we are Gypsy, Zigeuner, with basically the attitude “I am Gypsy and proud of it” (“and if you have a problem with that so be it” - as an undertone).
We can never fight racism and discrimination against us as a People when the majority of our People hide and while wishing to have the discriminations and such go away, without in fact doing anything about it, not even joining an organization as a passive supporting member. Well, we all have to work for it; probably visibly, and I know that at times that will not be easy, but...
© M V Smith, June 2007
It has been going on for ages already, but seems to have really only been done since after World War II whether in places such as Germany or Austria or in the UK. While it is understandable for Sinti and Roma in Germany, especially, to have gone more or less into hiding and denying their ethnicity, especially those that have moved into houses and more or less “ordinary” jobs or into trade, such as scrap yards, and claiming to be of Italian extraction or other southern such but it makes no difference. In the UK one nowadays hears the comments from Romanichals when asked whether they be Gypsy, People with names like Brazil (find me a non-Rom by that name), and the answer more often then not will be, “our grandparents were Gypsies but we are not, we live in a house”. Is that, though, a deliberate hiding of their ancestry? In fact in most cases it is not but just a lack of understanding of the fact that being Gypsy is not a lifestyle but that we are a People and a Race.
However, it would appear that here, but especially in places such as Germany, Austria, France, etc. one might find the Sinti and Roma pretending to be somethings else than what they are and are in fact, at least to outsiders, hiding their ethnicity. It is also my belief that for that very reason many give their children Italian, Spanish or Greek sounding names, such as Marco, Sandro, Pedro, Massimo, Giovanni, and such, in order so that they can claim that they are of Italian or other such Mediterranean ancestry; anything but Sinti or Roma.
Methinks we have a problem and unless we all get away from pretending to be something that we are not and be in fact proud, also to the outside, that we are Sinti or Roma, that we are Gypsy, Zigeuner, with basically the attitude “I am Gypsy and proud of it” (“and if you have a problem with that so be it” - as an undertone).
We can never fight racism and discrimination against us as a People when the majority of our People hide and while wishing to have the discriminations and such go away, without in fact doing anything about it, not even joining an organization as a passive supporting member. Well, we all have to work for it; probably visibly, and I know that at times that will not be easy, but...
© M V Smith, June 2007
Italy's final solution for Gypsies
Italy, as the first – but will it be the last – European Union county, has begun setting up what can only be described as Concentration Camps for Gypsies.
This all in a supposed effort to turn Gypsies, who are often foreign Rom from the former Yugoslavia and Romania as well as Bulgaria, and, as it is claimed especially for their wellbeing and that of their children. The Nazis told similar stories to the Rom during their reign, when they forced them to settle, took away their horses and wheels from the wagons and then when they moved them into the once Jewish ghettos.
In Rome the Prefect will identify new areas for the nomads' camps (nomads?). Those settlements will be called “villages of solidarity” (dordi, what an interesting term for a ghetto or KZ). The “villages” will be controlled by a special public security police force of a minimum of 100 men; this means that the Romani situation will be managed a a problem of public security. It looks as if Gypsies in some EU countries are now being seen similar to terrorists. What next?
Each of those villages, as the authorities say, will give “hospitality” to 1000 to 1500 Rom and will be additionally controlled by security forces and associations.
All those “villages” will be more than 18 miles (30km) away from the center of Rome and well away from any services.
This makes, and one cannot say it any other way, Italy the first EU member state that is openly creating new concentration camps for Gypsies.
And what is Brussels doing? Well, nothing. It is the controlling center of the EU after all. This proves yet again that it is all but lip service when they talk about equal human rights for Gypsies in the EU and elsewhere. Let us not forget either that Germany is the true power behind the EU and that Anti-Gypsy-ism has been big always and is on the rise more and more again in that country. The rest of the wold also says nothing, nor do the organizations that claim to be representing the Rom, like the ERTF which is claimed to be the government of all Rom in Europe. It is obvious that it cannot attack its own paymaster.
Food for thought to us all, I hope...
Freedom is not free. It is very costly and sometimes has to be paid for in blood. If we do not fight for it now we may all end up rather unfree in such camps.
© M V Smith, June 2007
This all in a supposed effort to turn Gypsies, who are often foreign Rom from the former Yugoslavia and Romania as well as Bulgaria, and, as it is claimed especially for their wellbeing and that of their children. The Nazis told similar stories to the Rom during their reign, when they forced them to settle, took away their horses and wheels from the wagons and then when they moved them into the once Jewish ghettos.
In Rome the Prefect will identify new areas for the nomads' camps (nomads?). Those settlements will be called “villages of solidarity” (dordi, what an interesting term for a ghetto or KZ). The “villages” will be controlled by a special public security police force of a minimum of 100 men; this means that the Romani situation will be managed a a problem of public security. It looks as if Gypsies in some EU countries are now being seen similar to terrorists. What next?
Each of those villages, as the authorities say, will give “hospitality” to 1000 to 1500 Rom and will be additionally controlled by security forces and associations.
All those “villages” will be more than 18 miles (30km) away from the center of Rome and well away from any services.
This makes, and one cannot say it any other way, Italy the first EU member state that is openly creating new concentration camps for Gypsies.
And what is Brussels doing? Well, nothing. It is the controlling center of the EU after all. This proves yet again that it is all but lip service when they talk about equal human rights for Gypsies in the EU and elsewhere. Let us not forget either that Germany is the true power behind the EU and that Anti-Gypsy-ism has been big always and is on the rise more and more again in that country. The rest of the wold also says nothing, nor do the organizations that claim to be representing the Rom, like the ERTF which is claimed to be the government of all Rom in Europe. It is obvious that it cannot attack its own paymaster.
Food for thought to us all, I hope...
Freedom is not free. It is very costly and sometimes has to be paid for in blood. If we do not fight for it now we may all end up rather unfree in such camps.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Let's face the future
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past, that is the only way that we can advance. It does not help us one bit to remain buried in nostalgia about the good ol' days of the grai and the wooden vardo. They weren't all that good days really, if we all be honest with one another. Yes, they may have been days of some kind of freedom of being able to move as and when... and the days of when you could pull onto the common without anyone bothering you... but... does anyone now living in a kenna really want to be out in a vardo in winter in real frost (we haven't had frost proper in this country for years now) and deep snow, especially as chavies with bare feet and but rags for clothes? Surely not. Anyone who is trying to claim thus, I am afraid, must think us all dinlos.
Anyone who tells me that he or she is harking back to the time of the vardo and the grai is, I am afraid to say, not be able to convince me.
While we must learn from the past, especially as regards to combating racism against us, and while the lessons of the martyrs of the Holocaust must teach us to beware of the rising tide of Anti-Gypsy-ism and neo-Nazism again, we must move forward for the betterment of the Romani-Gypsy in the world. This is not to say that we should assimilate to the style of life of the Gohja and live like they do, with djuks and matchkas ano kher, and the like, nor should we give up our old beliefs and practices. Nay, in fact the latter we should reinstitute and even add some new cultural celebrations to them, but we must not get stuck in the past. That also means that we must, in some things, adapt. Be this with regards to having (some of) our folks be working “proper” jobs, so to speak, even in law enforcement and medicine. Yes, I am aware that the so-called Rechtssprecher will now scream blue murder. So be it. Those truth-speakers who also keep women downtrodden in a way that was never the way of the People. Truth-speakers indeed. The same “truth-speakers” who will keep women down forever, given the chance, claiming that women must be subject to the men. Dordi! Dordi! What a load of trash that is. Those “leaders” of the People have no knowledge of the way our People used to work, it would appear. We never were patriarchal. Matriarchal rather, we were, though giving outwardly an appearance to the Gohja, in countries where the man ruled, that the men were in charge. That too shows how much those “leaders” know. The women, too, must be allowed to lead the way they always were involved.
Therefore, let us move forward together with the lessons learned from the past to a new future for the Romani Race. Forward to a new dawn of the Romani.
© M Veshengro Smith, June 2007
Moving forward with the lessons learned from the past, that is the only way that we can advance. It does not help us one bit to remain buried in nostalgia about the good ol' days of the grai and the wooden vardo. They weren't all that good days really, if we all be honest with one another. Yes, they may have been days of some kind of freedom of being able to move as and when... and the days of when you could pull onto the common without anyone bothering you... but... does anyone now living in a kenna really want to be out in a vardo in winter in real frost (we haven't had frost proper in this country for years now) and deep snow, especially as chavies with bare feet and but rags for clothes? Surely not. Anyone who is trying to claim thus, I am afraid, must think us all dinlos.
Anyone who tells me that he or she is harking back to the time of the vardo and the grai is, I am afraid to say, not be able to convince me.
While we must learn from the past, especially as regards to combating racism against us, and while the lessons of the martyrs of the Holocaust must teach us to beware of the rising tide of Anti-Gypsy-ism and neo-Nazism again, we must move forward for the betterment of the Romani-Gypsy in the world. This is not to say that we should assimilate to the style of life of the Gohja and live like they do, with djuks and matchkas ano kher, and the like, nor should we give up our old beliefs and practices. Nay, in fact the latter we should reinstitute and even add some new cultural celebrations to them, but we must not get stuck in the past. That also means that we must, in some things, adapt. Be this with regards to having (some of) our folks be working “proper” jobs, so to speak, even in law enforcement and medicine. Yes, I am aware that the so-called Rechtssprecher will now scream blue murder. So be it. Those truth-speakers who also keep women downtrodden in a way that was never the way of the People. Truth-speakers indeed. The same “truth-speakers” who will keep women down forever, given the chance, claiming that women must be subject to the men. Dordi! Dordi! What a load of trash that is. Those “leaders” of the People have no knowledge of the way our People used to work, it would appear. We never were patriarchal. Matriarchal rather, we were, though giving outwardly an appearance to the Gohja, in countries where the man ruled, that the men were in charge. That too shows how much those “leaders” know. The women, too, must be allowed to lead the way they always were involved.
Therefore, let us move forward together with the lessons learned from the past to a new future for the Romani Race. Forward to a new dawn of the Romani.
© M Veshengro Smith, June 2007
Gas Bomb Barricade at Dale Farm
With people like that sailing under the false flag of “Gypsy” we, the Romani-Gypsy certainly do not need any enemies.
Royal Mail has suspended delivery to this illegal settlement of Irish Travellers, falsely referred to as “Gypsies”, for fear of an explosion.
Dozens of 4ft-high Calor gas bottles, some wrapped in barbed wire, have been assembled in recent months at the entrance to the Crays Hill site in Essex.
The canisters surround a large gantry, recently erected after the council decided to evict the 1,000 mostly-Irish illegally-camped Travellers. Crays Hill Travellers have refused to explain the gas bottles. People living in Billericay, however, are convinced the gas bottles are there as a barricade if police, council officials or bailiffs attempt to enter the site.
A spokesman for Essex Fire Services said the canisters were a “threat and danger”, which if involved in a fire would be “just like a bomb”.
I ask now, as a Romani, what would happen if any Romani camp would do just that? I can tell you what would happen... armed police would already be there and everyone, including kids, would be arrested under the “Prevention of terrorism Act”. What are the police afraid of as regards to the Irish Travellers of Dale Farm, Crays Hill?
With people like this aided and abetted by certain do-gooders the real Gypsy needs no further enemy for those Travellers are being portrayed by said do-gooders as Gypsy, which they are not. The do-gooders know that but the general public does not and therefore the Rom are equated with the ITs and thereby seen by the Gohja as scroungers and whatever else.
How long will the Rom in the UK stand by and let their cause be hijacked by the likes of those that now make the Gypsies look like terrorists in the eyes of the Gohja with what they are doing. The Gohja per se, as can be seen in the comments sent in to the media like the Daily Express and Mail and such in reply to articles about the Crays Hills site, do not see any difference and do not understand any difference between Romani and Irish when the media insist on calling them “Gypsies” and not the media alone but people like their spokesperson and agitator, Mr Puxon.
Irish Travellers are Irish Travellers and Romani alone have the right to be referred to as Gypsy. The media, it would seem, does not understand that or does not want to understand that. The law in the UK has been, for a long time, clear about this by mentioning Gypsies & Travellers. While there maybe amongst the Irish Travellers some that have Romani blood in them the majority, 99% of them, do not and are nothing but, whatever they may claim, Irish Gohja who live in trailers because they find that convenient.
Dosta penauas!
© M V Smith, June 2007
Dale Farm - Britain's biggest Gypsy community
How long will this sham have to go on? Dale Farm is NOT Britain's biggest Gypsy community. It is an illegal Irish Traveller settlement and that's it. It does not matter how many times Grattan Puxon is going to claim it to be otherwise. It is a shame that the Romanichals in the UK do not have enough strength of character to stand up against such claptrap and lies as calling Dale Farm Britain's biggest Gypsy community. However, as someone has to do it I/we shall state again that Dale Farm is NOT Britain's biggest Gypsy community but an illegal Irish Traveller settlement, established against all laws. Irish Travellers are NOT Gypsies and will never be. Gypsy is only applicable to those of Romani origin, as per the Oxford Dictionary that states “Gypsy – one of a wandering (sic) race, originally from Northern India”, and however much the majority of ITTs will try, they are not Romani... Dosta.
Dale Farm is an illegal settlement by Irish Travellers and its development has broken all planning rules and laws, has been dragged, at great expense to the tax payer through the court system, including, I understand, Europe, and still they will not give in and understand that the laws apply equally to them as to the rest of UK society. Not a word is said by the likes of Mr Puxon on behalf of true Romani – with the exception where he can make political capital for himself out of any such issue – who have a planning matter before the courts.
Then again Mr Puxon, regardless of the fact that he got himself into the then World Gypsy Congress never had any other group in mind to help bar the Irish Travellers. Why beats me but that is the case.
Now, while we are at the subject of Gohja in leadership, let me say that it beats me again and again why we, the Romani-Gypsy, are so stupid to always allow such Gohja do-gooders to run things “on our behalf”. They don't do it for us. They only do it for their own interests and benefit, most of this in the field of politics or academia or just for pure vain glory to get their name in the papers all the time. Already allowing them into our ranks, into our organizations, is a mistake that many organizations have come to regret. Their ultimate aim always, it would seem, is to get into leadership positions and then to turn the organizations to suit them and their agendas.
Dosta, Phralale te Pheniale! We must do it for ourselves. We must not have any Gohja in our organizations, bar as supporters without vote.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Decade of Roma Inclusion
Any results? No.
One thing this “Decade of Roma Inclusion” has done is excluding the Sinti and other Romani from the process, in word, by referring only to “Roma”, and in deed by only making this “Decade of Roma Inclusion” valid for Eastern European Roma. Regardless of what the EU and others have been saying as to it being all-inclusive; it is not. All funds and help has only been given to Roma groups and mush of the funds have, it would appear, once again disappeared into the pockets of the Roma kings, buli bashas and emperors. The poor Rom have no improvement in their situations and still have to eek a living from scavenging on rubbish tips and such like. We don't even want to mention other activities such as begging and even more unsavoury ones.
© M V Smith, June 2007
One thing this “Decade of Roma Inclusion” has done is excluding the Sinti and other Romani from the process, in word, by referring only to “Roma”, and in deed by only making this “Decade of Roma Inclusion” valid for Eastern European Roma. Regardless of what the EU and others have been saying as to it being all-inclusive; it is not. All funds and help has only been given to Roma groups and mush of the funds have, it would appear, once again disappeared into the pockets of the Roma kings, buli bashas and emperors. The poor Rom have no improvement in their situations and still have to eek a living from scavenging on rubbish tips and such like. We don't even want to mention other activities such as begging and even more unsavoury ones.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Rushdie Knighthood enough reason for suicide bombers - Pakistani minister
A Pakistani minister stated on Monday, June 18, 2007 that the British government’s decision to confer a knighthood on Salman Rushdie, the author of “Satanic Verses” is good enough reason and justification for suicide bombers to attack targets in Britain.
The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, provoked the ire of many Muslims and led to the issuing of a fatwa in 1989 by the then Iranian leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini.
However, this is neither here nor there, We do have, at least we still had, last time I checked, freedom of speech in the UK and the USA and no one can therefore, though they will try, Muslims and Jews alike, silence a writer. To, however, state that Rushdie's knighthood could justify suicide bombings is tantamount to a declaration of war. If that is so then maybe the British forces need to leave Iraq and have a little word in the ear of the Pakistani forces.
It beats me again and again that the so-called Muslims who espouse such violence and venom and who dare to call for a fatwa on a citizen of a free country and to state that the knighthood given to that author mentioned could be justification get away with such statements and, more often than not, the governments of the free world cave in to their demands.
Are we, as a people of a free country, willing to allow ourselves to be told who can and cannot receive an honor and decoration by other countries that have no freedom in their countries, threatening us with terrorist attacks if we do not take away the honor given to a person those governments disagree with?
I have nothing against Muslims nor any other faith and religion per se as long as they do not wish to impose their rule on others that are not of their beliefs. I have the same problem with the (fundamental) Christians who claim that they must covert everyone to their brand of religion, like those that destroy the Culture of the Romani People and Romani families by their actions. This, however, is another subject.
© M V Smith, June 2007
Gypsies claim site choice is 'illegal'
The Gypsy Council has heavily criticized South Holland District Council's methodology to find suitable sites for Gypsies and Travellers, saying it is discriminatory and illegal.
The council has responded to the district's public consultation on the matter and says the methods proposed will identify sites, which are unhealthy, unsafe, and in places that Gypsies will not want to live.
A letter from Ann Bagehote, the Gypsy Council secretary, says: "We have to object in the strongest possible terms.
"Your criteria deliberately ensures Gypsy caravan sites are treated less favorably than houses for non-Gypsy people.
"In our view that is not only offensive but also illegal. You need to re-write the criteria to say that both Gypsy and non-Gypsy families need decent accommodation.
"There is absolutely no point building a site where no-one wants to live."
The letter is appended to a report by council leader Gary Porter and corporate director Tim Leader due to be discussed by the cabinet on Tuesday, which says that the Gypsy Council's criticisms are not accepted by the district council.
The report will update members on the consultation phase but states there has been limited response.
No councillors made comments, while Weston and Cowbit parish councils replied saying that they were unable to identify suitable sites in their areas.
Two members of the public suggested locations and these will be fed into the formal site selection process and evaluated using the criteria adopted by the cabinet.
The report asks councillors to approve a modification of the site search method to include all land within one mile of a bus route and/or a major arterial road running through the district.
If the criteria is approved the council will then set about constructing a sieve map and creating a long list by the end of July.
The council needs to find land to accommodate two residential gypsy sites and a stopping place for up to ten caravans. It launched a public consultation this year after protests against its three preferred sites.
When one looks at where Gypsy Caravan sites are located one can well understand what the Gypsy Council spokesperson is on about. Anyone wanting to see what the conditions are like where Gypsy sites are generally placed should take a look at some of them, such as like the one in Earlsfield, South London, or the one under the Westway in West London.
In most cases Gypsy Caravan Sites are placed in entirely unsuitable locations, such as next to sewerage works, on former rubbish tips, right slap bang onto industrial estates next to cement works, such as in Earlfield, and so on. No non-Gypsy person would be asked to live there but Rom and Travellers in the UK are forced onto such sites.
When, on the other hand, Gypsies and Travellers purchase land themselves where they wish to live and even if the go through the planning process properly they are denied permission to set up their own site or settlements, often with the comments that the location, even if this is an old farm, is too far away from the local schools, amenities, etc.
When official sites, however, are established on sites next to sewerage works, cement works, etc., they are also far away from the local amenities but then that does not seem to matter.
M V Smith, June 17, 2007
The council has responded to the district's public consultation on the matter and says the methods proposed will identify sites, which are unhealthy, unsafe, and in places that Gypsies will not want to live.
A letter from Ann Bagehote, the Gypsy Council secretary, says: "We have to object in the strongest possible terms.
"Your criteria deliberately ensures Gypsy caravan sites are treated less favorably than houses for non-Gypsy people.
"In our view that is not only offensive but also illegal. You need to re-write the criteria to say that both Gypsy and non-Gypsy families need decent accommodation.
"There is absolutely no point building a site where no-one wants to live."
The letter is appended to a report by council leader Gary Porter and corporate director Tim Leader due to be discussed by the cabinet on Tuesday, which says that the Gypsy Council's criticisms are not accepted by the district council.
The report will update members on the consultation phase but states there has been limited response.
No councillors made comments, while Weston and Cowbit parish councils replied saying that they were unable to identify suitable sites in their areas.
Two members of the public suggested locations and these will be fed into the formal site selection process and evaluated using the criteria adopted by the cabinet.
The report asks councillors to approve a modification of the site search method to include all land within one mile of a bus route and/or a major arterial road running through the district.
If the criteria is approved the council will then set about constructing a sieve map and creating a long list by the end of July.
The council needs to find land to accommodate two residential gypsy sites and a stopping place for up to ten caravans. It launched a public consultation this year after protests against its three preferred sites.
When one looks at where Gypsy Caravan sites are located one can well understand what the Gypsy Council spokesperson is on about. Anyone wanting to see what the conditions are like where Gypsy sites are generally placed should take a look at some of them, such as like the one in Earlsfield, South London, or the one under the Westway in West London.
In most cases Gypsy Caravan Sites are placed in entirely unsuitable locations, such as next to sewerage works, on former rubbish tips, right slap bang onto industrial estates next to cement works, such as in Earlfield, and so on. No non-Gypsy person would be asked to live there but Rom and Travellers in the UK are forced onto such sites.
When, on the other hand, Gypsies and Travellers purchase land themselves where they wish to live and even if the go through the planning process properly they are denied permission to set up their own site or settlements, often with the comments that the location, even if this is an old farm, is too far away from the local schools, amenities, etc.
When official sites, however, are established on sites next to sewerage works, cement works, etc., they are also far away from the local amenities but then that does not seem to matter.
M V Smith, June 17, 2007
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND?
Tom Odley
Kent, England, June 10, 2007
Today's news, in England, highlights the report from the Farmers' Union, that very many thousands of pounds worth of soft fruits, mainly strawberries, may well be left to rot, due to the shortage of available fruit-pickers, despite the fact that very many pickers are coming from foreign countries to do this work?
As most of us will be aware, the Romany, the Gypsy-people of this country, were once deeply involved in this fruit-picking and other harvest work.
For very many Gypsy families the harvesting of fruit, hops, etc., occupied an important place in the Familial calendar, even affecting the setting of our annual horse-fairs and the like.
Fruit picking, apart from providing the means for many Gypsy families to earn an honest crust of bread, with the chance to put a little lova by for dealing or for harder times, afforded opportunities for Nidi Fohki to meet friends and relations that would arrive from other parts of the country to join in the harvesting of fruit.
Among the most important considerations for any Gypsy family contemplating the fruit and hop-picking seasons, was the availability and suitability of atchen-tans/stopping places during the picking.
Most fruit and hop farmers, especially during World War 2 and the early post-wars years, relying/depending so heavily on the speed, skills and hard work of the Gypsy fruit-pickers, for whom this was a way of life, would willingly set aside a small area for the tents, wagons and trailers of the Romani Fohki. At no major expense to themselves, the farmers would organize the provision of water along with the wood for the fires of this transient but reliable work-force of Romani.
Practically all of this work would be done on a "Piece-work" basis rather than on an hourly basis, with the result that; "If you didn't work hard, you earned little or no money!".
However.... subsequent to the arrival of "Peace-time" Britain and the gradual absorption of England and the other countries of the UK into Europe, along with the mass immigration of ex-colonial peoples, the early initiators of the Big-Brother system recognized the perceived threat, to them, of the Nidi Fohki as a result of the Romani tradition of "Independence", as the Gohja saw it, all though, in reality, there has always been a considerable inter-dependence between Rom and Gohja for practical purposes.
The arrival of the early Big Brother movement saw a gradual deterioration in civil freedoms, particular in the enforcement of land-planning controls. Many of these restrictions were aimed directly at the perceived, Gypsy "Freedom of movement", by both local and central government, with variable support from 'ordinary' citizens. Some among us can easily understand the emotions rising within some Gohja mush or housewife, locked in a hum-drum lifestyle and frustrated by their circumstances, happening to witness the passing of some "Gypsy" family lot, the Romani transients apparently "Laughing at Life"?
The envy, the jealousy that arose, therefrom, within many a Gohja onlooker, must have been nigh on explosive? "Bloody Gyppos!", why should THEY be allowed to live like that?
The overall tightening of planning laws along with the covert aim of "Big Brother" (via The Powers that Be.), to remove or severely restrict the individuality of the Gypsy, resulted in considerable pressures being put on farmers to deny or curtail the availability of stopping places to the Gypsy work-force that would have, in the past, played an important part in the harvesting of fruit and other crops, as well as availing labour for other farm-work such as beet-hoeing, hop-dressing, hop-training, hop-stringing, ditch-clearing and hedge-brishing, etc. Though a fair number of farmers, being almost totally dependant on their own Gypsy-work-force families, did their best to evade or ignore the "Anti-Gypsy planning laws", the end result was, eventually, a serious shortage of available harvest labour.
Farmers did their best to make up for this labour-shortage by way of mechanization, this proved fairly successful with some crops, such as hops, but entirely unsatisfactory with delicate crops, such as strawberries, apples, pears and the like.
With the opening up of the vast labour-force of Europe, the potential was there to satisfy fruit-farming requirements, but, as has been demonstrated and now acknowledged by the National Farmers Union on today's TV., the potential has NOT been fulfilled?
As I've said:
"What goes around, comes around?"
Amare Devel amensa!
Tom O
The Lord Ramh said:
"And the greatest of these, my gifts, is Understanding!"
© O Tom Odley, June 2007
Kent, England, June 10, 2007
Today's news, in England, highlights the report from the Farmers' Union, that very many thousands of pounds worth of soft fruits, mainly strawberries, may well be left to rot, due to the shortage of available fruit-pickers, despite the fact that very many pickers are coming from foreign countries to do this work?
As most of us will be aware, the Romany, the Gypsy-people of this country, were once deeply involved in this fruit-picking and other harvest work.
For very many Gypsy families the harvesting of fruit, hops, etc., occupied an important place in the Familial calendar, even affecting the setting of our annual horse-fairs and the like.
Fruit picking, apart from providing the means for many Gypsy families to earn an honest crust of bread, with the chance to put a little lova by for dealing or for harder times, afforded opportunities for Nidi Fohki to meet friends and relations that would arrive from other parts of the country to join in the harvesting of fruit.
Among the most important considerations for any Gypsy family contemplating the fruit and hop-picking seasons, was the availability and suitability of atchen-tans/stopping places during the picking.
Most fruit and hop farmers, especially during World War 2 and the early post-wars years, relying/depending so heavily on the speed, skills and hard work of the Gypsy fruit-pickers, for whom this was a way of life, would willingly set aside a small area for the tents, wagons and trailers of the Romani Fohki. At no major expense to themselves, the farmers would organize the provision of water along with the wood for the fires of this transient but reliable work-force of Romani.
Practically all of this work would be done on a "Piece-work" basis rather than on an hourly basis, with the result that; "If you didn't work hard, you earned little or no money!".
However.... subsequent to the arrival of "Peace-time" Britain and the gradual absorption of England and the other countries of the UK into Europe, along with the mass immigration of ex-colonial peoples, the early initiators of the Big-Brother system recognized the perceived threat, to them, of the Nidi Fohki as a result of the Romani tradition of "Independence", as the Gohja saw it, all though, in reality, there has always been a considerable inter-dependence between Rom and Gohja for practical purposes.
The arrival of the early Big Brother movement saw a gradual deterioration in civil freedoms, particular in the enforcement of land-planning controls. Many of these restrictions were aimed directly at the perceived, Gypsy "Freedom of movement", by both local and central government, with variable support from 'ordinary' citizens. Some among us can easily understand the emotions rising within some Gohja mush or housewife, locked in a hum-drum lifestyle and frustrated by their circumstances, happening to witness the passing of some "Gypsy" family lot, the Romani transients apparently "Laughing at Life"?
The envy, the jealousy that arose, therefrom, within many a Gohja onlooker, must have been nigh on explosive? "Bloody Gyppos!", why should THEY be allowed to live like that?
The overall tightening of planning laws along with the covert aim of "Big Brother" (via The Powers that Be.), to remove or severely restrict the individuality of the Gypsy, resulted in considerable pressures being put on farmers to deny or curtail the availability of stopping places to the Gypsy work-force that would have, in the past, played an important part in the harvesting of fruit and other crops, as well as availing labour for other farm-work such as beet-hoeing, hop-dressing, hop-training, hop-stringing, ditch-clearing and hedge-brishing, etc. Though a fair number of farmers, being almost totally dependant on their own Gypsy-work-force families, did their best to evade or ignore the "Anti-Gypsy planning laws", the end result was, eventually, a serious shortage of available harvest labour.
Farmers did their best to make up for this labour-shortage by way of mechanization, this proved fairly successful with some crops, such as hops, but entirely unsatisfactory with delicate crops, such as strawberries, apples, pears and the like.
With the opening up of the vast labour-force of Europe, the potential was there to satisfy fruit-farming requirements, but, as has been demonstrated and now acknowledged by the National Farmers Union on today's TV., the potential has NOT been fulfilled?
As I've said:
"What goes around, comes around?"
Amare Devel amensa!
Tom O
The Lord Ramh said:
"And the greatest of these, my gifts, is Understanding!"
© O Tom Odley, June 2007
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