My Gypsy childhood

Roxy Freeman never went to school. But at the age of 22, she decided to get a formal education, forcing her to face up to the prejudices that blight her Gypsy community – and to shackle her wandering spirit.

Roxy Freeman
The Guardian, Monday 7 September 2009

The receptionist looked at me with disdain when I walked into Suffolk College asking to enrol. Their access course for mature students didn't have any entry requirements as such, but the receptionist warned me it was an advanced, intensive course, and there seemed to be a blank space under "educational history" on my application form. When I explained that I wasn't a dropout, I just hadn't gone to school, she looked even more scornful.

I was 22 and had never spent a day in a classroom in my life; an alien concept for many people but common in Gypsy and Traveller families. There are more than 100,000 nomadic Travellers and Gypsies in the UK, and 200,000 who live in permanent housing. Many, like me, never attend school, while others are illiterate because formal education is not a priority in our culture.

My upbringing was unusual, but not unique. Until I was eight my family lived on the road, travelling around Ireland by horsedrawn wagon. I was one of six children, with three more half-sisters, and our family was considered small. Having 12 or 13 children was common among Travellers in Ireland.

Marrying first cousins is also common among Gypsies (and a potential genetic timebomb), my parents come from very different backgrounds. My mother was born into an upper-class American family. On her gap year she literally ran away with a Gypsy – my father, who bred horses. Both are extremely intelligent and open-minded people who wanted to bring us up in a stimulating, free and fulfilling environment.

Instead of going to school, my siblings and I, like many children from travelling families, were taught about the arts, music and dance. Our education was learning about wildlife and nature, how to cook and how to survive. I didn't know my times tables but I could milk a goat and ride a horse. I could identify ink caps, puff balls and field mushrooms and knew where to find wild watercress and sorrel. By the age of eight or nine I could light a fire, cook dinner for a family of 10 and knew how to bake bread on an open fire.

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'Why should I live by Gypsies?'

By Helen Grady
Producer, Beyond Westminster

Every year millions of pounds are spent by local councils on evicting Gypsies and travellers from illegal camp sites. The government thinks the answer is to create more authorised sites, but who should decide where they go?

Len Gridley has some problems with his neighbours. The first is that there are 1,000 of them. The second is that they have set up what has become Europe's biggest illegal traveller site next to his back garden.

"All I want is for the council to clear the site," said Mr Gridley as he showed the 8ft fence he has fitted to separate his garden from his neighbours' homes.

"Who wants to live next to a Gypsy and traveller site? My house used to be worth £500,000 and now it's worth £150,000. No one wants to live here. People have sold up at a loss just to get away."

The site is in Cray's Hill, a picturesque village in the Essex countryside, which has become the focus of a planning row that is likely to cost the local council £3m.

Illegal settlement

The site backing onto Mr Gridley's bungalow is known as Dale Farm. It is owned by Gypsies and Irish Travellers, some of whom have been living there since the 1970s.

Grattan Puxon, a spokesman for the Dale Farm Residents, said the site expanded after some families bought an old scrap yard adjoining the original site. "As the families got bigger, they believed it was a quite a reasonable idea to clean up the old scrap yard and move onto it," he explained.

But only half of the Dale Farm site has planning permission and more than 400 people are facing eviction following a ruling by the Law Lords in May.

Basildon District Council, has spent almost £1m on the legal battle to evict the Travellers and set aside another £2m to pay for bailiffs to clear the illegal section of the site.

Council leader Tony Ball said it was worth the cost, adding "It's quite clear - they are living on green belt land without planning permission. UK law says that site has to be restored to green belt. What price upholding the law? The alternative is anarchy."

But families at Dale Farm claim they have nowhere else to go. And, although they are travellers by birth, they say they need a base.

"I don't know how to read or write," said Jean Sheridan, a mother-of-four. "I've been brung up like a proper traveller - travelling from site to site and on the roads constantly, so I never got the chance to go to school and get an education.

"This is somewhere for us to live, plus somewhere for us to get our kids looked after in the lines of doctors and dentists and education and things like that."

"I'd be happy to move if they could find us another site," added a neighbour, who asked not to be named. "But nobody wants us, so where are they going to put us?"

Political dilemma

That is a dilemma politicians have been grappling with for decades. So far, a solution seems elusive. Although most Gypsies and travellers live in authorised sites, it still costs councils in England at least £18m a year to evict people from illegal sites.

The government thinks the best way to cut these costs is to create more authorised sites and is offering councils £32m each year in grants for these sites.

There is some evidence to suggest this approach could work. Kent has 17 council-run sites across the county and has slashed its eviction costs by 80%.

But other local authorities have proved reluctant even to identify Gypsy and traveller sites, never mind creating council-run ones.

In England, each region must agree how many sites each local council will set aside for Gypsies and travellers in a document called the Regional Spatial Strategy.

However, some councils are threatening to take legal action rather than agreeing, even in principle, to provide what they see as "more than their fair share."

Candy Sheridan, a Liberal Democrat councillor in North Norfolk and a member of an Irish Traveller family, said a big part of the problem is that even authorised sites are unpopular with the settled community.

"There is no ideal site," said Ms Sheridan. "I sit on a planning committee and whenever the word Gypsy or traveller comes in, you get hundreds of people coming to public meetings and everybody is goaded up to say no to planning permission.

"Councillors who have signed up to creating new sites have lost their seats. What you have to do is take the responsibility away from local politicians."

At the moment, even though councils must assess the housing needs of Gypsies and travellers and have a strategy for meeting those needs, there is no legal duty to provide sites.

Labour MP Clive Betts, a member of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, thinks that should change.

He told the BBC: "I think a lot of local authorities would welcome a statutory duty to have to do something because at least then they can go to their residents and say, 'we have to do something, let's find the best sites'."

Extra sites

But shadow local government spokesman Bob Neil said such decisions should be made at a local level and that the Conservatives would scrap the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Meanwhile Basildon District Council is advertising for bailiffs to evict the illegal Dale Farm residents and councillors are resisting calls to provide an extra 60 Gypsy and traveller pitches as part of the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Said Coun Ball: "If every authority in the country took an additional seven pitches that would deal with the demand that's out there at the moment.

"We would take seven extra pitches. But it is inequitable that, while Basildon already provides a 100, some are not providing any."

is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 1 August at 1100 BST. Or listen again via the BBC
Or download the programme

Should Gypsies and travellers be housed on official sites funded by the taxpayer? Who should decide where they go - councils or Central Government? Are you a traveller? Do you live near an authorised site for travellers or an illegal camp? Send us your comments by filling in the form below.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8171273.stm

Published: 2009/08/01 01:26:51 GMT

Romania: Gypsies Celebrate Roma Day, Yet Fear Reigns

Written by Chuck Todaro
Thursday, 30 April 2009

April 8th marked the Twentieth International Roma Day since the Gypsies of Eastern Europe broke free of the communist’s amalgamated "national minority" status and began openly acknowledging their heritage. However, according to the US State Department 2007 Country Report on Human Rights, Romania, home to Europe’s largest Roma population, is the setting for some of the most pervasive societal violence and discrimination against Roma. "This day offers the press the chance to reverse the usual negative stereotypes," says Roma journalist Rudolf Moca during the ceremonies at the Apalina Public School in the Eastern Transylvania town of Reghin.

The day long celebration at Apalina begins in the school courtyard with speeches, the singing of the Roma National anthem Djelem Djelem, followed by a barefoot Roma dance performance, concluding with a skit portraying a confrontation between young Romani men being settled with a dance competition: the fastest dancer possessing the more complicated moves and greatest stamina exits the showdown with his head up and a woman under his arm.

Roma day has a special significance for the 4,000 Gypsies living along the two parallel roads at Apalina that bears the reputation as a den of thieves. "Whatever goes missing in town, I can guarantee you can find it at Apalina," comments Maria, a downtown barmaid.

"When I go on my jobs, my boss reminds me not to tell them that I am from Apalina, he says to say I’m from somewhere else, or else they wont have any work for me," says Dani Racz, who like many at the Roma of Apalina works the traditional trade of laying paving stones, a skill he learned from his father who learned from his father before him.

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Gov promises action on sea gypsy issues

PHUKET: Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop has promised to investigate and clear up issues faced by the impoverished sea gypsy community in Rawai.

The announcement came following a protest at Phuket Provincial Hall on April 7 by members of the ‘30 Communities Network’ who demanded the Governor take swift action to solve disputes over land ownership and issues over access to utilities.

About 300 sea gypsy families who currently occupy 200 rai of beachfront land in Rawai claim the right to occupy the area, saying the community has been established there for several generations.
However, a number of other people have come forward claiming ownership of different sections of the land around Rawai Pier.

The boundaries between private and state land in the area are yet to be clearly delineated.

As head of a newly-established committee on issues facing sea gypsy communities, Governor Wichai is scheduled to meet with provincial and municipal officers on April 21 in order to come up with solutions for the issue of access to electricity and water supply.

Those solutions will be announced soon after the April 21 meeting, it was reported.

Gypsies relocated by UN remain on toxic land

Refugees from Kosovo conflict have developed severe health problems after decade on contaminated land.

By J. Malcolm Garcia - Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Published: April 14, 2009 21:02 ET
Updated: April 14, 2009 22:21 ET-A

NORTH MITROVICA, Kosovo — Displaced by conflict and stranded by bureaucratic inertia, dozens of Roma families remain on toxic land 10 years after they were relocated there by the United Nations following the Kosovo war.

Osterrode Camp and Chesmin Lug Camp were established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1999 as a temporary measure, when the 9,000-member Roma or gypsy neighborhood on the southern shore of the Ibar River was burnt down by Albanians in the dying days of the Kosovo conflict. The Albanians had accused the Roma of collaborating with the Serb army, a charge the Roma dismiss as unfounded.

Whatever the truth behind the charges and denials, almost everyone agrees that moving Roma families near the now closed Trepca mining and smelting complex, onto land highly contaminated with lead, zinc, arsenic and other metals, has resulted in severe health problems in the community.

When the World Health Organization tested the Roma's blood for lead in 2004, the readings for 90 percent of the children were off the scale, higher than the medical equipment was capable of measuring. Such children fall into the category of "acute medical emergency" and require immediate hospitalization.

Instead they have remained in the camps, ingesting lead through the air, the dirt they play in and through their clothes dusted with lead tailings while drying on laundry lines. Even before their birth, lead enters their bodies from drinking water consumed by their mothers.

According to internationally accepted benchmarks drawn up by the United States Center for Disease Control, 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter causes the beginning of brain damage.

The measurements from the camps were much higher than in the surrounding population and at levels that exceeded any region WHO had previously studied. Twelve children had exceptionally high blood lead levels, greater than 45 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, more than four times the amount that causes brain damage.

"The Roma are victimized by lead," said Thomas Hammarberg, European commissioner for human rights. "It is sad the international community has not found a solution 10 years later. It is the single most major environmental disaster in Europe."

Zoran Savich, a pediatrician with the Health Center of Kosovo Mitrovica, saw more than 300 patients in Osterrode and Chesmin Lug between 2005 and 2008.

In that time, Savich said, 77 people died of lead poisoning, many of them children.

"I treated as many I could but they were living in the same conditions and absorbing lead,” Savich said. “When the treatments stopped, their levels went back up. It was useless."

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since June 1999, after the NATO bombing campaign on the troops of then-president Slobodan Milosevic, aimed at halting Belgrade's repression of the majority ethnic Albanian population seeking independence.

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Gypsy families squat in abandoned Mijas urbanisation

By h.b. - Apr 14, 2009 - 8:31 AM

The police are waiting for a judge's order to evict the 150 or so people in the Golden Hills development

Gypsy families have started squatting in an embargoed urbanisation in Mijas where they have justified the abandonment of the flats, said to be in a very poor condition, for their occupation saying otherwise they would be on the streets.

Some 150 people started to occupy the Golden Hills development of 34 apartments on Sunday. The building is owned by the bank after being embargoed from the developer, and there has been no work at the site for the past two years.

Most of those now occupying the abandoned building are young couples with children who have moved from social housing in Molino de Viento.

Local police and the Guardia Civil are now waiting for a decision from a judge regarding a possible eviction of the families.

Serbia Gypsies moved to sleep in the open

BELGRADE, Serbia, April 7 (UPI) -- The eviction of a small Romany community from their shanties Tuesday triggered outcries against Gypsy discrimination by Serbian officials, observers said.

About 40 Romanies have been sleeping in the open for four nights between Belgrade's high-rise apartment blocs after officials pulled down their sheds, the Serbian news agency Beta said Tuesday.

Belgrade officials evicted the Romany families from 28 tin-and-cardboard shanties erected on state land close to a newly built housing blocks in the New Belgrade district.

The authorities tried to move the Romany families to prefabricated apartments on the outskirts of Belgrade but local residents blocked the area, keeping the Romanies from settling in. Many of the Romanies returned to the New Belgrade district.

More than 43 non-governmental organizations asked the Serbian and Belgrade officials to provide proper housing for the Gypsy families that were forced out from their shanties.

On the eve of April 8, the International Day of the Romany, a number of European organizations warned that strong opposition to foreigners is on the rise amid the current economic crisis in some countries. These organizations said they are concerned over discriminatory attitudes towards the Romanies, particularly over recent escalation of incidents motivated by hatred and racial rhetoric.

Gypsy Louise given traditional send off

Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 09:30

HUNDREDS of mourners gave a "true Romany gypsy" a spectacular send off at the weekend.

Trucks and cars laden with flowers followed the horse-drawn hearse taking much-loved Louie Smith to her funeral on Saturday.

Roads on the route to Lingfield were closed to allow the cortege of nearly 300 mourners to pass.

They included Mrs Smith's seven children and more than 100 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The former caravan-dweller, of Packer Close, East Grinstead, died on March 11 aged 82 after a long battle with cancer.

"She was the kindest, gentlest, most trustworthy, hardest working, loving mum I could ever, ever have," her son Charlie told the Courier and Observer.

Born in Guildford, the daughter of well-known bare-knuckle prize fighter Frank Smith, Mrs Smith's family moved to the East Grinstead area when she was two and lived in a caravan in Felbridge.

Eventually, they were able to buy a bungalow but although it was the home of the rest of the family, Mrs Smith continued to live in the caravan at the rear.

Charlie said: "She was a true Romany gypsy.

"She made pegs, primrose baskets, wooden flowers and wicker baskets which she sold door to door."

She also caught the train from East Grinstead to Croydon where she sold baskets of lucky heather in the busy shopping streets.
"She always had to earn her bread before she could eat it," her son said.

Mrs Smith's husband, Albert, was a horse and scrap metal dealer.
When she died, the family followed the traditional gypsy rituals, Charlie said.

The caravan was burnt when she moved to East Grinstead and when she died, all her belongings were destroyed.

Four black-plumed horses and the hearse hired from Harrods took Mrs Smith from the chapel of rest at Queen Victoria Hospital to her home before the procession to the church of St Peter and St Paul at Lingfield.

The service was conducted by the Rev Michael Carter and the funeral arrangements were made by Alex Jones of Lingfield.

Romanian gypsy children become engaged aged six and four

A six-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl have become engaged to be married after a gypsy ceremony.

Victor Caldararu's grandfather and great uncle arranged the union with Maria Caldararu in the Sibiu region of Transylvania, Romania.

The children are Caldarari gypsies, who regularly become engaged and married while very young.

Every Caldarari has the surname Caldararu which means tin or coppersmith. Male Caldarari make their money from forging buckets, kettles, pots and boilers for distilling alcohol while the women are stay at home and look after the children.

While the tradition of childhood engagements is not illegal, it is mostly frowned upon in mainstream Romanian society.

The engagement ensures Victor and Maria remain in the Caldarari community and thousands of pounds exchanged hands between the families to confirm the deal.

Victor's great uncle Traian Caldararu, 47, said: "The arrangement and the celebration resemble a wedding.

"The difference is that we don't have a priest to bless the alliance. We spent 10,000 Lei (£2,286) for the event and all the Caldarari gypsies were present. They will marry by law as soon as Maria turns 16."

Once marriage arrangements are made it is very difficult for children to break the deal and choose another partner.

If a child decides to marry someone else then his or her family must pay back three times the dowry, accounting for inflation and banking interest rates.

"This outcome is very rare," said Traian, who mediates many marriages in the community. "Children are required to marry by their family. It is not really a child's choice."

Victor's family coughed up 50,000 Lei (£11,429) for Maria's hand, so if he changes his mind he'll financially cripple his father, Victor Caldarau, 26.

A split would also be considered a great dishonour for Maria who would have severe difficulty finding a new husband and could risk being outcast completely.

Traian said: "In our community girls are not disobeying. We don't let them out of the house and we don't let them go to school after fourth grade, they might get stolen away from us.

"We make sure that we give kids away to one of our lot, just like any other parent would do."

Victor and Maria have been raised together in the community and while they appear to enjoy playing together they're too young to understand their commitments.

Traian said: "The children didn't even know what was going on at the engagement ceremony. They thought it was just a usual party in the courtyard. Later they will be told and they will marry at 16 and 18-years-old."

In the Caldarari marriages are sometimes arranged before the child is even born.

Traian said: "My niece got engaged before the age of six to our friend's unborn child. Now the boy is 12 and our girl is 18. When the boy turns 16 he will marry her according to the deal."

Romania has the largest proportion of Gypsy people in the world. It's estimated that two million people or 5-10% of the population are Roma.

Romania joined the EU in 2007 but many gypsy customs are outside of EU regulations working on hundreds of years of tradition and ritual.

Times change even at the Gypsy bride market

Europe Features
By Elena Lalova Mar 12, 2009, 2:07 GMT

Mogila, Bulgaria - When a Roma from a southern Bulgarian clan is looking for a bride, he goes to the traditional gathering which his folk stage in Stara Zagora each year in late winter or early spring - though as of recently some brides want to dance more than to marry.

Gypsy families from the clan have for centuries presented their daughters for marriage at the so-called bride market in Mogila, a village 220 kilometres south-east of Sofia, on the first Saturday after Easter fasting begins.

Some 2,000 from far and near - from Bulgaria's second-largest city Plovidiv, from Yambol and Sliven - made the pilgrimage again last Saturday to eye would-be-brides in seductive dresses and plastic flowers in their hair.

'I came with my daughter, my friends with their son. They are to meet and fall in love,' Kalina, arriving from Kapitan Andreevo on the Turkish border, says without any beating around the bush.

A pretty bride does not come cheap - a family of a good-looking young woman would not give her away for marriage without compensation running into the 'thousands of euros,' a woman getting off a train at the nearby station says knowingly.

The festival, on a field in Mogila next to the cattle-and-poultry market, starts with an explosion of Oriental music streaming from speakers mounted on a centrally-parked car.

A 17-year-old girl in a bright-green dress and a 21-year-old trader from Haskovo jump on the roof of their Lada and start dancing, celebrating and announcing that they married 10 days before. As on cue, others send their daughters to dance on cars.

Soon many 17- and 18-year old girls are showing off their belly- dancing skills as entire families, many with small children in tow, mill about.

But not all dancers - as two sisters from Plovdiv, dressed in dark green and maroon gowns and with heavy golden necklaces - are in Mogila to find a husband. One of them, 18-year-old Darinka, says she is 'still too young.'

'Times have changed,' Kalina laments. Around 50, with a face deeply furrowed by hard life, she wears a long braid and a colourful headscarf - the traditional signs of a married woman.

When she was introduced to her husband at the same place many years ago, she was neither asked nor offered a chance to give an opinion about her own maturity for marriage.

The Roma who gathered in Mogila belong to one of the largest Christian-Orthodox clans, traditionally working as pewter craftsmen throughout southern Bulgaria.

'Before, the girls in our clan were wed at 15. Our young would meet here, because they were not going out to cafes and clubs,' says Mariyka, 76.

'We want to keep the tradition, despite all this novelty,' she says, cursing and pointing to a flashy mobile phone hanging around the neck of a young man and rows of gleaming, expensive cars lining the field.

On the market: Teenage Gypsy girls glam up for annual bride sale

By Caroline Graham
Last updated at 8:58 AM on 10th March 2009

Dressed in their finest clothes and gold jewellery, thousands of teenage Roma girls were paraded around by their parents this weekend - at an open-air brides market.

Wearing lots of make-up, the teenagers came to the traditional annual market in Bulgaria, hoping to find a husband - and preferably one willing to pay a large amount of money for his future spouse.

'We take our daughters to this gathering so they could get acquainted with boys, for we do not allow our children to go to discos,' explains Elena from Kapitan Andreevo.

At the market in the village of Mogila near Stara Zagora, the price of a beautiful young woman is said to be several thousand levs/euros.

Younger siblings came along too to play and eat sweets while one newly-wed couple bellydanced on top of an old car to show their happiness at finding a match.

Several wannabe-brides joined in, showing their eagerness to be married.

The event takes place on the first Saturday after the start of the orthodox Easter fast - the Day of Saint Todor, or Horse Easter.

This year the gathering attracted some 2,000 people who came from all over southern Bulgaria including Plovdiv, Pasardzhik, Sliven and Jambol.

Life with the Romanian gypsies for retired Hedingham teacher

Published Date: 03 March 2009

AFTER a long and demanding career teaching children from Romany and gypsy communities across Essex, you would expect Margaret Biddulph to take it easy once she retired.

But after a few months it was clear a comfortable life of coffee mornings in Castle Hedingham was not for her and she made a decision that would radically alter her life.

The grandmother put her house up for rent, packed a suitcase and jetted off to a far corner of Romania.

Mrs Biddulph, a 64-year-old divorcee, said: "I made lots of inquiries and found out about a gypsy community in Romania. In January, 2005, I decided to pack up and go. It was a just case of jumping into the unknown.

"It was quite a culture shock. Romania is a very poor country and the community I work with, who live on the edge of a village called Tileagd, experience tremendous prejudice and have become a convenient scapegoat for many of the problems blighting the country."

Mrs Biddulph, a committed Christian and member of the Sible Hedingham Baptist Church, now spends her days teaching people to read and write in their own unique language and how to live a more sustainable life through small business ventures.

"We have set up a craft programme where I buy hemp and linen for the women to stitch and embroider into bags and cushion covers," she said.

On her infrequent trips back to England she attempts to find outlets prepared to sell the products, with the proceeds being sent back directly to the community.

"It is hard for them to get jobs as the perception is they are nothing more than thieves. It's unfortunate but they have often been left with no choice but to steal to survive.

"Whatever time I have left working there my goal is to break this cycle through the craft project and education," she added.

Giving up her home and spending most of the year in a small house in Romania has resulted in an unusual lifestyle for a retiree.

She said: "It's quite strange really. When I come home I end up living out of a suitcase in spare rooms of various friends before flying back again.

"It means I keep my possessions to a minimum as well. I guess I've taken on a bit of a gypsy existence myself."

The programme Mrs Biddulph is working on is supported by the Smiles Foundation, a Christian organisation attempting to change lives in poorer countries.

The charity has already built a church and school in the village, which is open to both Romanians and gypsies in an attempt to bring the communities together.

She is appealing for any shops, museums, or tourist venues to step forward and start stocking the bags and cushion covers so the next phase of the project can go-ahead.

"I will happily meet or talk to anyone who is prepared to support this vital work.

"This is such a worthwhile project and will make a massive difference enabling the community to stand on their own feet and move forward," she added.

Anyone who wants to find out more about the Smiles Foundation should go to www.thesmilesfoundation.org

For more information on the products made by the gypsy community or to inquire about stocking the goods email m.rainbird@btinternet.com.

Hungary's Roma bury victims in emotional funeral

Tue Mar 3, 2009 12:08pm EST

By Marton Dunai

TATARSZENTGYORGY, Hungary (Reuters) - Thousands, mostly Roma, joined the funeral procession Tuesday of a young boy and his father who were shot dead last week in the latest in a series of attacks on Roma in Hungary.

A crowd of about 5,000, which also included politicians from parliamentary parties and civil rights activists, gathered around the graves of the two victims in the village of Tatarszentgyorgy, 65 km (40 miles) southeast of Budapest.

Black-clad mourners wept and when the coffin was lowered into the grave in the small hillside cemetery, the world-famous 100-member Gypsy Symphony Orchestra started to play.

"We seek the forgiveness of the mourning family and...our Gypsy brethren whom for 500 years we have owed an embrace," Hungarian Methodist pastor Gabor Ivanyi, who is not Roma, said in a speech. "We are deeply moved and ashamed people."

The killings last Monday were the latest in a series of more than a dozen attacks on Roma in Hungary in which 7 people have died over the past year.

Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom said Saturday economic crisis had created an urgent need for Hungary and other east European countries to show more understanding for Roma.

It was not known whether the attack was racially motivated and police have so far failed to track down the perpetrators, but Roma community leaders said it bore similarities to other attacks on Roma in other parts of the country.

The boy, who police say was 5 years old, and his father Robert Csorba were shot dead as they were trying to escape their house, which had been set on fire. Two other children were injured in the blaze.

The Roma community is Hungary's largest minority making up 5 to 7 percent of the population of 10 million.

PROTECTION

There is a growing resentment against the Roma, also known as gypsies, as the economic crisis deepens and jobs are lost. The Roma often remain on the margins, lacking jobs and proper education and living in deep poverty. Critics say they take advantage of the welfare state.

The strengthening of the far-right over the past two years, which fights what it says is a rise in "Roma crime," has also contributed to a rise in antagonism, activists say.

The village of Tatarszentgyorgy, which has about 1,900 residents, has been shocked by the attack.

"We still cannot comprehend what happened and this sentiment rules in the entire village," a Roma couple said.

Peter Ignacz, 50, who arrived from Szolnok in the east of Hungary with around 30 members of his family and is also of Roma origin, says Roma do not get any protection and are afraid.

"This (attack) is totally outrageous, and to be honest, Roma people are afraid," he said.

(Reporting by Marton Dunai, Writing by Krisztina Than)

Two die in attack on gypsy family

Published Date: 24 February 2009

A FATHER and his five-year-old son were shot dead in an attack on a Roma home in Hungary yesterday.

Two children were also injured when the house caught fire, local news MTI reported. The attack took place in Tatarszentgyorgy, 40 miles south-east of Budapest.

The full article contains 54 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.

Last Updated: 23 February 2009 11:39 PM
Source: The Scotsman
Location: Edinburgh

Exploring Bulgaria’s Minority Population: The Gypsies

Many people searching for property in Bulgaria are advised often by Bulgarian real estate agents to avoid villages with high gypsy populations. However many people who find themselves living in areas with many Roma residents have found that crime and social problems are low and no different to any other rural area in Bulgaria. In fact, many people have become firm friends with their gypsy neighbours and whilst it would be unwise if not impossible to move into a true gypsy ghetto, living in an area with a high ethnic population is not as detrimental as Bulgarians make out.

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Vatican Calls for Better Education for Gypsies

Also Decries Their Forced Sterilizations

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 2, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican is urging better treatment for Gypsies, particularly the end to "special schools" for the ethnic group and the forced sterilization of their women.

These are two of the exhortations found in the final document of 6th World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Gypsies. The conference was held Sept. 1-4 in Freising, Germany. The document was released today by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, which cosponsored the event with the German bishops' conference.

One hundred and fifty delegates participated in the conference, which was focused on "Gypsy Youth in the Church and Society."

The final document proposes that one of the key elements in ministry to Gypsies is the theme of education.

"Education is the fundamental process for the fulfillment of personal potential, and it is necessary for integration in society," a statement from the pontifical council affirmed. "It is necessary to prohibit the registration of Gypsies in 'special schools,' which generates humiliation.

"Education is a condition for participation in political, social and economic life, based on a position of equality with the others. It should, therefore, motivate rightly critical reflection and responsibility, which in turn, are needed to build up an ever more human society, based on the principles of justice, equality and fraternity."

Education for a career was one of the principal concerns expressed at the conference, given that "youth should overcome walls, created also because of weaknesses in the educational system, which are an obstacle to their access to the world of work."

Family life

The conference also decried "forced sterilizations and those campaigns that tend to destabilize the concept of family among the Gypsies."

"The education of women must be guaranteed among fundamental rights," the statement affirmed, "along with intercultural dialogue, the participation of the youth in democratic citizenship, social cohesion and the development of youth policies."

The document proposed that "it would be useful to ask humanitarian organizations and Caritas for the distribution of microcredits […] allotted to those families and communities that show greatest capacity to use them in favor of their ethnic group."

The conference participants called for support from the Church for gypsies, though it recognized the inherent difficulties in ministering to the group.

In ministry to Gypsies, the text affirmed, "ecclesial movements and the new communities that the Holy Spirit draws forth in the Church could carry out an important role."

"Excluded, confined to the margins of humanity, humiliated, the Gypsies need a living Church, a Church-communion, capable of forming and helping them to overcome difficulties that great policies do not manage to overcome," the document said. Nevertheless, "the act of presenting oneself lovingly and with the desire to proclaim the good news is not sufficient to create a trusting relationship among Gypsies […] given the weight of history and all of the wrongs they have suffered.

"The Gypsy population, therefore, is suspicious of the initiatives of all those who try to enter into their world. It is possible to rise above this initial attitude only with concrete gestures of solidarity, with life in common and with projects […] that favor the participation and acceptance of Gypsy youth."

© Innovative Media, Inc.

Pupils discover the gipsy lifestyle

ROBYN GREENACRE
23 September 2008 06:20

It is a culture laced with a rich history which for hundreds of years has fought prejudice and preconceptions.

Now, in a bid to combat the stereotype and ensure future generations can face a more tolerant attitude, gypsies are opening their caravan doors to the public.

Primary school children from across the county will be visiting Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, near Dereham, to meet travellers and explore their way of life past and present.

The initiative called Home on the Road, kicked off yesterday and was organised by the workhouse and Norfolk Traveller Education Service.

Learning manager at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, Jan Pitman, said: “This sort of thing is absolutely vital. We have to accept there is a very negative attitude about travellers in the region.

“So any contact where people can see the different sides to the culture is going to have a very positive effect.

“The children are engaged and it's a very good response. You're going to have to start young people so they see the reality of it, which will stay with them for the rest of their lives.”

Members of the gypsy and travelling community have set up a selection of mobile homes from the traditional Vardo to the modern caravan.

And for three days volunteer gypsy and travellers are holding a series of workshops introducing pupils to aspects of Romany life, including cooking, horse grooming, washing, and flower arranging.

Yesterday pupils from Scole primary school from Diss picked vegetables from the fields, made stew over an open fire, learnt how to plait horses' manes and tails, hand washed clothes and hung them out with gypsy pegs and on bushes, and saw how mobile homes had developed over the years.

Gypsy Mary Price said: “This is just a little taster for children. It would be nice if we could bring something out to educate everyone.

“I'm very keen on the idea of educating people. I'm from a large family and I'm aware of the problems children have when they go into mainstream schools.

“Everyday my children come home and have had something happen to them because of their heritage. Young children don't come across the words 'dirty pikey or gyppo' by themselves. They've learnt it from adults.

“Thieving, dirty, scoundrels is how we're seen. There's bad in everyone and if you look for the bad apples you'll find them. But we're not all like that, and there are bad apples in every culture.

“Years ago we were accepted because everyone was used to seeing caravans being pulled by horses along the road.

“Now because there are less and less places we can go, people don't see us.”

And at the end of the trip pupils opinions were transformed.

Scole pupil Jessica King-Fisher, nine, said: “It's interesting. I've had a fun day. I didn't know much about gypsies before and I thought they were horrible.

“But now I think they are very nice.”

Merriam native Julie Denesha photographs Gypsy life in Slovakia

By ALICE THORSON
The Kansas City Star

Within days of beginning work as a staff photographer at the Prague Post in the Czech Republic, Julie Denesha was warned by her colleagues: “You have to watch out for the Gypsies.”

“They’re criminals; they don’t want to work,” was the common refrain.

These stereotypes and the general feeling of resentment against the Roma, as many Gypsies call themselves, set off Denesha’s internal alarm.

“It was the same stuff you hear about any minority group,” the Merriam native said, surrounded by 45 photographs from her “Gypsies of Slovakia” exhibit, now at the Landon Gallery on Southwest Boulevard.

Slovakia’s half-million Roma are the country’s second largest minority after Hungarians.

Denesha’s images offer an intimate picture of Roma life.

Women prepare meals, children play, men weave baskets and chop wood in decrepit apartment buildings and dilapidated rural shacks without benefit of basic city services such as running water and garbage pickup.

“We all walk around with these ideas about other people,” Denesha (pronounced den-i-SHAY) said. “The truth is far more interesting.”

By 2003, when she began her Roma series, Denesha had covered the war in Kosovo and done extensive reporting on Central and Eastern Europe for The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, Newsweek and other publications. She also had gained some familiarity with Roma culture from freelance assignments.

Every couple of years a publication would send her to a Roma settlement for half a day to do a story on the life and conditions of these “outsiders,” who trace their origins to northwestern India and are darker skinned than ethnic Slovaks. Many were killed in Nazi concentration camps.

“I always felt I was missing something,” Denesha said.

She decided that the only way to get at the “truth” was to live among the Roma.

With a grant from the Puffin Foundation, she lived with Roma families for four months in 2003, when Slovakia was poised to join the European Union.

The goal, she said, was “to disappear into the rhythms of life and see the people rather than the poverty.”

Denesha held out hope that the requirements of EU membership would translate into better treatment and conditions for the Roma, but in 2007, when she returned for six more months with funding from a Fulbright and a Milena Jesenska Fellowship, she found little had changed.

Although her images do not ignore the hardships and squalor of the settlements, their focus is the close-knit Roma family.

“The family builds the home together,” Denesha said.

Typically a daughter-in-law moves in and learns from her husband’s mother.

What surprised her, Denesha said, was how much the woman’s role in the household is valued and respected in Roma culture.

An image of a little boy watching as his grandmother, mother and aunt prepare a meal captures a common domestic routine.

“They’re very interested in sharing recipes,” Denesha said. “They’d cook from scratch these amazing things.”

Another image shows a man chopping wood in the village of Rakusy, where wood-burning stoves are the only source of heat in the settlement’s log cabins.

In her months with the Roma, Denesha was keenly attuned to moments of joy. One striking image shows teenagers dancing on an apartment balcony strung with laundry. Another captures little boys swarming over an abandoned car that their parents would take apart and sell for metal.

One of the most captivating shots shows two little girls walking down a forest path with a bucket of kindling. The kerchiefs on their heads are actually “pants with zip-off legs that they made into cool hats,” Denesha said.

Outside the settlements, life is difficult for Roma children. They speak Roma at home but must learn to speak Slovak in the Slovak schools they attend. When the language barrier causes them to fall behind, they are placed in special schools for slow learners, where most of the children are Roma.

Denesha’s Roma images also provide a fascinating glimpse of life after communism in Eastern and Central Europe.

“I’m fascinated with the old communist empire,” she said. “I came of age in the 1980s when Russia was the Evil Empire. I’m always skeptical of what people say is bad.”

The story of Nicholas and Alexandra (Russia’s last imperial family, murdered by the Bolsheviks), fired Denesha’s imagination when she read it in junior high.

Her fascination with Russia continued at the University of Kansas, where she graduated in 1993 with degrees in journalism and Russian language and literature.

After graduation she worked as a staff photographer for The Kansas City Star for two years before moving to Prague.

With the collapse of the Communist regime and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the mid-’90s were a time of economic turmoil and widespread unemployment. The Roma were hit particularly hard, Denesha said.

Tough economic times heightened resentment of the Roma people. In the 1990s they frequently were targets of violence.

Denesha documented the bloody aftermath of one attack that took place in 2000 in a suburb of Zilina. A mother intervened — and subsequently died from her injuries — when two intruders broke into her home and began beating her daughters with baseball bats.

“There’s so much misunderstanding that they’re not really seeing each other,” she said of the relationship between ethnic Slovaks and the Roma. “I wanted to create a window.”

In each village Denesha would meet with the Gypsy mayor, or vajda, before she began taking photographs.

“I can do this project,” she would say.

“I can’t promise change, but this is my hope.”

ON EXHIBIT

The show: “Gypsies of Slovakia”: Documentary Photography by Julie Denesha

Where: Landon Gallery/Sabrina Staires Studio, 329 Southwest Blvd.

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday- Friday and by appoint- ment. The exhibit has been extended through Nov. 2.

How much: Free

For more information: 816-474-4771 or www.juliedenesha.com

Thousands lead invisible life in Italy

By ARIEL DAVID – 2 days ago

ROME (AP) — They speak Italian, eat Italian and cheer for Italy's soccer stars, but they are not Italian. In fact, it's hard to say what they are.

Thousands of people are living in Italy without citizenship or identity documents from any country. Most were citizens of countries that no longer exist, like Yugoslavia or the Soviet Union. But they never received citizenship from the new countries that replaced their broken-up nations, and they also fail to meet the requirements to become citizens of Italy.

It's hard to know how many there are because they survive on the margins of society, but the Sant'Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic organization, puts the number at about 10,000 to 15,000. They are often hunted by authorities, who try to deport them as illegal immigrants even though they have nowhere to go.

Life in limbo can be particularly harsh for those who were born and went to school in Italy. Once they turn 18, they become little more than illegal immigrants under the law.

"We are not Yugoslav, we are not Italian. We are like clouds," said Toma Halilovic, who lives with his parents, wife and children in two containers in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Rome.

(MORE)

Grappling with a Roma identity

By Steve Bradshaw
Executive Producer, Life on the Edge

It was just a passing remark, the first time I heard Arpad Bogdan talk about the Roma father who had left him in an orphanage, and wonder if he should try to find him.

We were drinking late at night in a semi-derelict house in a Budapest side street. We had skipped over bicycles and rubbish to make our way inside. I should say this was not a doss house but a trendy Urban Minimalism club.

"He doesn't have to tell you this you know," whispered our mutual friend, director Antonia Meszaros. And it was then that I realised how conflicted Arpad is - how much of a dilemma his Roma inheritance has created.

Arpad is a much-garlanded young film director, whose feature film Happy New Life has won many awards. It is about a young Roma man's unbearable childhood in an orphanage. In the end, he can't hack it - unlike Arpad who emerged from his own orphanage into the University of Pecs and a promising film career.

"My film," Arpad says, "is about the dilemmas of someone who realises that in order to face the future, he must come to terms with his past - and that's something that I still have to do in my own life."

Arpad was one of thousands of Roma - or gypsy - children who were taken into orphanages during Hungary's Communist years. The truth is cloudy here, but it seems that in some cases their parents wanted this, in many they didn't.

(MORE)

Nomadic Beauty

A new exhibition shows a life-long fascination with gypsies.

By Yelena Shuster
Published: July 25, 2008

Behind a stark background of a dilapidated shack and bare trees stands a dark-skinned gypsy in a white wedding dress. Her gaze is defiant as one hand holds up the lace dress and the other hand rests boldly on her hips.

This contrast between the lovely and the wretched has immortalized photographer Lyalya Kuznetsova since 1979, when she first began capturing intimate moments in black and white all over Eurasia.

Since then, her documentary style has won her exhibitions and medals all over Europe and the United States. The current "Gypsies" exhibition at the Pobeda Gallery has collected 47 of her photographs over a 19-year period in order to introduce these classics to younger generations.

"Non-conformist Soviet photographers like Lyalya fell in a temporary pothole because of what was going on in the country at the time," said curator Irina Meglinskaya. "They are all legends, of course, but they don't exist in the mainstream. It was very important for me to connect this generation with the past one."

Known for their exotic dress and nomadic habits, gypsies have always been considered second-class citizens in Russian culture. Stereotypes include their practice of black magic and their penchant for pick-pocketing and stealing children.

Kuznetsova depicts their life on the outskirts of society with an intimacy rarely achieved by the presence of a camera. Her decision to capture the gypsy way of life was a personal one.

The year was 1977 and Kuznetsova's husband passed away. She quit her job as an aviation engineer and picked up a camera. Without any technical training, the Kazakhstan native dug into her childhood and began capturing the bright necklaces and skirt rustles of the gypsies around Oral, with whom she grew up.

"When things are awful, we reach for the roots that previously gave us strength. Photography became my way of expressing my sorrow," she said.

Though her mother warned her that gypsies kidnap children who misbehave, Kuznetsova was entranced by the gypsies who came to buy milk from her aunt's cow in a nearby village. Kuznetsova remembers watching the gypsies and their bright bonfires from atop the roof of her aunt's house.

"In my childhood, gypsies were always surrounded by this mystery. It was some kind of fairytale," Kuznetsova said. "With them was connected the smell of sagebrush, the smell of the steppe and the sound of bitter gypsy songs."

Kuznetsova began her photography career with a five-year-old daughter in her arms, and a major motif of the exhibit is a mother's love for her child. Whether depicting an elderly gypsy from Oral sitting on a pile of bedding behind a carriage with two girls by her side or a Turkmen grandmother snuggling with a child concealed in her veil, Kuznetsova portrays the resilience of these women without bordering on kitsch.

Kuznetsova considers all of her photography self-portraits. Though she is already a grandmother, her spirit is in that gypsy girl with the wedding dress, her gaze defiant amidst the damage that surrounds her.

For her next project, Kuznetsova plans to return to her beloved subject and photograph gypsies in the 21st century in Moscow's surrounding regions. Though she has been photographing gypsies for almost two decades, Kuznetsova has no idea what to expect.

"I cannot predict what happens when I click the camera," Kuznetsova said. "When I photograph, I don't think about the spectator. In fact, I don't think at all. I search for the photos where I feel a snag in my heart."

"Gypsies" (Tsygane) runs to Aug. 31 at Pobeda Gallery in Winzavod Center of Contemporary Arts, located at 1 4th Syromyatnichesky Pereulok, Bldg. 6. Metro Kurskaya. Tel. 917-4646.

Twilight Zone / The Gypsies of Jerusalem

By Gideon Levy

A filthy yard, pungent cooking smells wafting out of the shabby dwelling, snot-nosed children, a one-legged man wandering aimlessly, flies everywhere - this is a Gypsy home in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem. It's the perfect setting for a Nissim Aloni play, but this is not "The Gypsies of Jaffa" by the renowned Israeli playwright. This home contains nothing of the mysterious, the romantic or the magical, no violin strings and no sorcery. It's just another rundown building in the Old City whose occupants, apart from one worker, are "Nawari," as the Gypsies of Jerusalem are called in Arabic.

There are 400 to 500 by one unofficial count, about 200 households by a different count, belonging to four clans - Sleem, Nimr, Shakr and Ba'rana. Until recently they married only within the community, but they have begun to open up to intermarrying with their Palestinian neighbors. Many are sanitation workers - this week one man rushed off to repair a blocked sewer drain; another was off to haul garbage for a municipal subcontractor.

Very little of the Gypsy cultural heritage has been preserved here, although one young woman is trying to salvage what she can. But she is shunned by the community, which is unwilling to accept activism on the part of a woman. We wandered for hours this week through the alleys of Bab al-Hutta, inside Herod's Gate, in search of the Gypsies of Jerusalem. Many people turned their backs on us, refusing to talk; others were stingy with their words, either largely ignorant of the Gypsies' fading identity or unwilling to divulge what they knew. In Cafe Karkour, a Nawar coffee shop adjacent to Herod's Gate, we asked a customer, a dignified-looking Palestinian named Taleb Ghit, whether he would let his daughter marry a Nawari. "No," he replied, "but I will not tell you why. There is a big difference between them and us. In ancient times they were nomads. They are not like us. But I do not want to insult them. I am forbidden to tell you what Nawar is, what Nawari is. I do not want to offend them."

Salame Shaker is a 50-year-old Gypsy who works for the municipal sanitation department. We met him in Bab al-Hutta, where he was born, though his family now lives in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz. Before 1967 most of the city's Gypsies lived in tents and lean-tos in Wadi Joz. During the Six-Day War many fled to Jordan, where they remained.

Shakr says community members of both sexes began marrying Palestinians three years ago. "We are more open-minded now," he says. One of his female relatives married a man from the distinguished Ja'abari family of Hebron, while another married into the Iskafi family, also from Hebron. He admits that "Nawari" still has pejorative connotations, like the word "Gypsy" in Europe, which has been replaced by "Roma" there. But there is no other word in Arabic for the community.

The association established by Amoun Sleem, the young woman activist, is The Domari Society of Gypsies in Israel (http://domarisociety.googlepages.com). "Dom" is the name of the community in its own, disappearing language, Domari. The language, an Indo-Aryan language closely related to Romany, Rajasthani and eastern Punjabi, originated in India.

What does it mean to be Nawar?

Shakr: "We are like anyone else. We are just a different family. The Palestinians came here at the time of wars in history; we were here before them. I have never felt different. Our food is the same as their food, we eat makluba and mansaf [traditional chicken and lamb dishes, respectively, of the Levant], just like the Palestinians. We do not have Gypsy music - our children listen to Arabic music - and we do not have [special] customs."

There is another Gypsy community in Gaza, whose women used to belly dance at family celebrations and whose men were wedding musicians. The Jerusalem Gypsies never danced. The first Intifada put an end to festivities in the Gaza Strip, and the Gypsies, who lived in lean-tos between Beit Lahia and Jabalya, apparently dispersed. The connection between the Jerusalem and Gaza communities has long since been severed, just like that between the Palestinians of the West Bank and of Gaza.

"I am 50 years old and have never been to Gaza," Shakr says. "The ties to the Gypsies in Jordan has also been lost. Those who are outside are outside and those who are inside are inside. I have cousins in Jordan. I went there and looked for them but did not find anyone. The old people have died and I could not find the young ones."

For 35 years the community was led by its mukhtar, Deeb Sleem, who worked as a scribe outside the East Jerusalem branch of the Interior Ministry, formulating requests. In the courtyard of the building in Bab al-Hutta, Shehadeh Nimr, a 43-year-old diabetic, hobbles around on his one leg. He too knows nothing about the community's cultural heritage or about his own ethnic identity. "I am Nawar," that's all.

"The Nawari are heroes," says Amar Ba'rana, his eyes lighting up with pride, as he sits in Cafe Karkour at midday. Not yet 28, he already has six children. "We marry young," he says - in his case, at 16. "I am not Nawar," he says in Hebrew, "I am Gypsy." Ba'rana's wife, Sharin Sleem, is also a Gypsy.

"Nawari is a name. I am a Muslim and my neighbor is a Muslim," he continues. "He is a human being and I am a human being. I read English and Hebrew, and I know where I come from - India - and there are Palestinians who do not know where they came from. The Gypsies of Jerusalem were here before everyone."

At the next table, Taleb Ghit describes his Gypsy neighbors: "They are people who live alone, a nation that lives alone. Who knows you? God and your neighbors. We, their neighbors, know them. They are refined, good people, but, you know, a group alone. Like the Bedouin, they do not let others come close."

Two Border Police officers, armed and in full gear from head to toe, sit on the stone steps leading to the cafe. No one inside has heard about the extermination of the Gypsies in the Holocaust. All they know is that the Gypsies of Europe are generous and donate to their small community.

The Gypsies of Europe, particularly in Finland, give to the Domari Society. Most of the Gypsies we met in the alleys of the Old City had nothing good to say about Sleem, its founding director. No one would help us to find her. Two days later we tracked her down in the small Gypsy center she runs in the north Jerusalem neighborhood of Shoafat, far from the wagging Gypsy tongues of the Old City.

Sleem, now in her thirties, seems to be a courageous woman who has decided to devote herself to preserving her community's heritage, in contravention of Gypsy expectations of a woman's role. She says most of her energies are focused on rescuing the unwritten language of the community, which only a few people can still speak. If nothing is done, she says, the language will become extinct within a decade, after the last of those who still speak are dead.

Sleem has devoted herself to the Domari Society for the past 12 years, working closely with the director of the Cyprus-based Dom Research Center, Dr. Allen Williams, with whom she has collaborated on two books on the subject. Next week she will be attending an international conference on Gypsies in Spain. Thrilled at the prospect, she says it will be the first time that Jerusalem's Gypsies will be represented in Europe. But more important to Sleem is that her community be accepted in Jerusalem as equals among equals.

Sleem's appearance does not disappoint: With her coal-black hair, giant hoop earrings, burning eyes and dark skin, she looks the Gypsy part. Visitors to the attractive apartment-turned-cultural center in Shoafat are welcomed by a receptionist from Poland. The place resembles an anthropoligical museum: photographs, traditional handcrafts, even a Gypsy cookbook published by Sleem. In it are recipes for lamb-filled pastries, date-filled cookies, a winter salad and potato salad. The cuisine is very similar to that of the Palestinians. Sleem says the Gypsies use more spices, with a nod to Indian food.

"I would like to be elected to the Palestinian parliament," says the Gypsy who is trying to raise her community's international visibility. Now she is working to create a dance company for Gypsy girls and to give crafts classes at the modest but impressive center that she established.

Films 'to shatter myths' surrounding Gypsy and Traveller communities

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Housing , Communities , Local Government on Monday 7th April 2008 - 9:26am

A unique set of films exploring views, myths and misconceptions about Gypsy and Traveller communities has been developed by four Regional Assemblies.

The films 'Somewhere to Live' were specially commissioned to support consultation on new Gypsy and Traveller caravan sites in the Regional Assembly areas covering East of England, South East, North West and West Midlands.

Each of the four Assemblies are updating their long term planning framework (Regional Spatial Strategy) to address Gypsy and Traveller needs, responding to concerns, that a shortage of permanent sites is increasing illegal camping.

It is the first time that Regional Assemblies across England have collaborated in this way, sharing costs and ideas to create an innovative approach to consultation. The films tackle controversial views upfront, giving an insight into both public perceptions and Gypsy and Traveller lifestyles.

East of England is the first region to launch its film as part of its public consultation which recommends 1,187 more Gypsy and Traveller caravan pitches by 2011.

East of England Regional Assembly Chairman Councillor John Reynolds said: "The film brings a human angle to the difficult and controversial issue of planning for Gypsies and Travellers.

"This is a unique way of informing the public, including hard to reach groups and facilitating engagement with council members, as Assemblies develop policy on addressing the shortage of legal stopping places for Gypsies and Travellers. It is important to improve access to services and facilities that most take for granted."

The films include region-specific views from members of the public, Gypsies, Travellers and their neighbours.

In addition, the films share interviews with Romany journalist Jake Bowers and Gypsy student Christina who explain myths, culture, public perceptions and the need for legal sites that give people access to education and healthcare.

The film has also been entered for a 2008 Royal Town Planning Institute award for Equality and Diversity.

Production of the film was managed by the South East England Regional Assembly and undertaken by production company @Voytek.

Different strokes, different folks

Tolerance is at the heart of equestrian troupe Zingaro's newest performance, 'Battuta,'which follows a day in the lives of gypsies with a crew from diverse backgrounds.

By Lynne O'Donnell
AFP, HONG KONG
Sunday, Mar 02, 2008, Page 19


Bartabas, enigmatic visionary behind one of the world's most spectacular circuses, says his latest equestrian extravaganza is a celebration of life that transcends nationality, religion and race.

The show - in which 36 horses and their riders gallop around an arena for 90 minutes of fast-paced, acrobatic and comic story-telling - is a showcase, he says, for his philosophy of tolerance.

The theme is in the show's name: Battuta - a term he created from a combination of words cherry-picked from his native French, Romanian and Romany which he says aims to convey the energy and beauty of Gypsy music.

"I went to Romania and I was very surprised to see how these people (Gypsies) are treated," said Bartabas, who is known only by his stage name.

"In Europe they are outsiders, even though more than 20 years ago, people in Europe were talking about open borders. But we don't accept that people live differently, because their values are different."

Sitting in the stalls of the four-pointed tent erected on the northern shore of Hong Kong harbor in which the show takes place, Bartabas said this latest production by his company Zingaro - Gypsy in Italian - continues a tradition of drawing inspiration from a variety of cultures and lifestyles.


"It is a very important idea for Zingaro, to be able to live with people of all religions, nationalities and philosophies," he said.

"They come and live with us," he says of Zingaro's performers and musicians who hail from across Europe.

"We live always in the theater - not because we are a family of gypsies, but because we need to live with the horses and live together. The idea is that we have to learn from one another."

Bartabas is regarded in Europe as an almost mythical figure because he insists on using his stage name only, and stories abound of his origins stretching from Romania to Rajasthan.

A day in the life of a gypsy family

But as he watches riders exercise two of the 38 horses who arrived in Hong Kong aboard two Boeing 747 jets, he says there is no mystery about him.

"I come from outside Paris, my father was an architect, I did not grow up riding, but I was always fascinated by horses and I followed many disciplines - racing, dressage, bullfighting, jumping - before I came to this."

From his base near Versailles, Bartabas has built an equestrian academy, with support from the French government, where he trains horses and riders and creates his narrative spectacles.

The current show, which has been thrilling Hong Kong audiences since early last month, took three years to perfect, he says.

It portrays a day in the life of a Gypsy community, beginning with the breaking of camp at dawn through a rambunctious series of events from women fighting over stolen washing, to a young bride eloping with her lover, being chased and brought home by her irate father and brothers - all on horseback.

Two Gypsy orchestras - a brass ensemble from Moldova and fiddlers from Transylvania - provide a jolly, pace-setting soundtrack to the breathtaking acrobatics.

Riders perform somersaults, headstands and stripteases on horseback; they dance, ride two horses at once and swap mounts mid-stride; one rider makes her horse skip in double-time; another leaps on and off a cantering draft horse.

A gang of youths show off to each other by throwing their hats on the ground and picking them up again, all the while maintaining a frenetic gallop, standing in their saddles, beating their chests and shouting at each other like young men hanging out on street corners the world over.

The pace never wanes - and Bartabas described Battuta as the most ambitious show he has produced since Zingaro was established in 1984.

"Now I'm working a lot on the energy and physical impact," he said. "It is not an intellectual show - it gets your heart first, and then your head. I have no text, there's no reason for me to use language."

"I don't make the performance to show the horses - I want to show the reaction and relationship between man and horse. The way you are with the horse is the way you are with others," he added.

"The horse gives you back what you give - like a Stradivarius," he said, referring to the rare violins made by the Italian Stradivari family in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

"If you teach him the language of love and sensuality and sensibility, you will get it back."

Spectacular acrobatics

The logistics of Battuta are head-spinning - the 38 horses, which include two standbys in case any are injured during training or performing, eat about 17kg of food each a day, or a daily total of around 640kg.

They follow a strict diet of straw and mixed cereals served at intervals, including a supper of hay after the show. They snack on a total of 25kg of carrots a day and bed down on wood shavings that over the course of their two months in Hong Kong will amount to 23,200kg.

They are exercised for at least an hour each day to make sure they stay in peak fitness for the furious pace of the show, are put to bed at 10pm each night and woken with breakfast at 7am.

Each horse performs for a total of about 15 minutes, appearing several times during the show - running free, performing acrobatics and pulling carts.

The show runs in Hong Kong until March 23. Bartabas said he plans to take Battuta to Moscow, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Brussels.