Scream For Us...

Scream So That They Might Have A Voice.
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If these images can not get you to scream than nothing will. If these pictures can not stir your heart than there is no further hope for mankind. Scream for those who have perished. Scream for those who have no voice. Scream for those who are about to die... genocide does not go away. It is still alive and well today.
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Stepping Stones

To Hell.
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As tensions in the Northern part of the Czech Republic continues to build the violence continues to spark. Just recently we reported on how the Roma (a small segment of the Roma population that is) were beginning to push back. A few violent attempts as gaining the high ground have led to violence in return. And now it is the ethnic Czechs turn at dishing out more violence of its own.
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Recently four Czech men severely beat a Rom with baseball bats in an apparent retaliatory attack for the Romani youth who had attacked four Czechs. An eye for an eye is clearly the rule of Northern Bohemia these days. And the battle field is ripe with those willing to dish out its brutal law.
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Police have shown that they are either unwilling or incapable of stopping the violence. Riot police have been used only after the violence has begun. Parades by the neo-Nazis have been allowed to occur even when violent hate speech had preceded these displays of force. Mobs readily allowed to form while the authorities stood uninterested on the sidelines.
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In the town of Rumburk, Czech Republic, 1,500 ethnic Czechs took to the streets to "protest" the Roma population. Their bigoted message was amplified by the Czech Social Democrat Party who sponsored their "right" to such a hate filled cause. These fascist leaning citizens quickly turned from an organized rally to a flash mob of sorts.
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Seventeen minutes after the rally had begun a local citizen took the microphone and called upon his fellow mob members to take to the streets with pickaxes and pitchforks. The politicians claim this is when they called the "rally" off. But the actions they had set into motion would not stop just because the politicians wanted them to. This was now an officially sanctioned mob. This was an army raised by the Czech Social Democrat Party.
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Not waiting to gather the weapons of they had been called to use, the army of thugs and Nazis stormed the "Rumburk Triangle". This was a name given to a pair of apartment buildings occupied mainly by Roma families. It was there that the violence began. It was there that the far-right of the Czech Republic launched stones, rocks, and tree limbs into the homes of Roma families.
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The petrol bombs that the Czech Nazi movement had promised did not arrive, thankfully. However the screaming and beating on the doors lasted some time before the Czechs left. Their voice had been made known. Their threats had been heard. And now it was time for them to move on to their next target.
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Moving on to a single level home, occupied by one Roma family, the ethnic Czechs began to attack the home in any way they could. The first of the mob to reach the home began the attack by breaking out windows. For the rest of the attack the mob continued to threaten to "burn the Gypsies alive". Once again, thankfully the Nazi made petrol bombs never materialized.
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This is when the Czech police say that they began to "monitor" the attacks from a helicopter overhead. They also claim that the only reason the police did not stop the mob was because the presence of young children. In our opinion this excuse is an excellent reason to stop the attacks.
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Waiting for the mob at the next target, riot police stood aside as the attackers targeted another apartment building. It was there that the mob broke down a fence to get at the Roma families. And it was by this time that the mob showed real intent to cause actual harm. The rabid mode of the mob was in full swing.
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Breaking in windows, a few mob members began to show interest in getting in and personally attacking the Roma within. Finally the riot police began to step in. But the damage was done. The homes had been vandalized. The rule of law had shown its weakness... its lean toward the right.
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We know that if history is not learned from it than we are damned to repeat it. We know that the Czech Republic has shown in the past that it is willing to allow hate crimes to occur against Romani citizens. We have seen houses burned out and Roma shot in the back as they fled the attacks. These mobs are just another step toward the end goal of the Nazi movement... extermination.
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Will we be seeing this in the coming weeks? Another form of genocide... the pogroms of old Russia? Is the Czech Republic's ethnic tension just a stepping stone toward another pharrajimos (devouring)?
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Time will tell. But until we know for sure we can only scream so that the world might listen. We must call for an end to this that doesn't involve the deaths of even a few Roma, let alone hundreds, thousands, or millions.
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Source Documents, Note that not all sources are listed.
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2744
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2761
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2734
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2755
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2762
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2745
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Fighting Back

(Picture above is of a Romani girl who fled to Canada, the scars on her chest were put there during a racial attack she suffered in the Czech Republic)
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Tensions Rising in Czech Republic
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The old phrase "out of sight, out of mind" seems to be proving itself wrong once again in the Czech Republic. As the government encourages the forcible moving of Roma families from all over the country to the Sluknov foothills area. This move is just the start of a new wave of ghettoizing the Roma minority in the Czech Republic. A system of social exclusion that is now spawning the need for state intervention through violent reactions to a system the government created.
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But before I get at the reason for the violence let me first explain the attacks a little further.
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Tensions appear to have begun growing as the waves of new Roma families began to appear in the Sluknov area. Racial tensions then continued to grow as the "majority population" began to organize anti-Roma events in protest of the continued arrival of Roma (who didn't want to be in the Slukov area anyhow). And yet nothing was really going too awfully wrong till about a week ago.
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That is when the racial tensions flared up (literally) when Molotovs began to fly. Attacks on Roma families began to be reported as the far-right continued to organize. Families that had been removed from areas of the Czech Republic where they had been victimized were now being attacked in Northern Bohemia.
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However it wasn't till a couple days ago that the Roma began to fight back. That was when a racial attack surpassed all others in its shear brutality. A delivery van driver was reported to have rapidly accelerated as he drove over a five year old Roma boy. The majority population however seems to have united behind the delivery driver as they continue to blame the dead boy for the racial attack that ended his life.
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This is what led to the attacks on the "majority" by the minority population. Roma have finally stomached enough violence to be ready to unleash some of their own. And thus you end up with attacks like the one a day ago when twenty Roma attacked four "majority population" men.
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The attack was brutal in nature and ended up with one of the victims in the hospital with broken bones. The Romani had attacked the four men outside and then broken in their door to attack the four men in their home. They had even used clubs of some sort in the attack on the "majority".
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So how does this sort of issue arise so quickly?
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Well first of all it has been an issue that has been bubbling to the surface for some time now. It began way back in 1989 when the economy in the Czech Republic sort of crashed. Roma who had worked just like everyone else in the economy were the first to be given the pink slips. As a result they were forced out of the productive society and into the world of welfare.
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For two generations now the Roma have been doing anything they can to get back on their feet. This would have been easier had the Czech government not taken the actions it did earlier this year. Now we are witnessing how that second generation, a generation that no longer remembers what it is to work for a living, reacts to being forced into a ghetto lifestyle.
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Earlier this year the Czech government took actions it claims are to reduce the debt of government by cutting its expenditures. It is choosing to do this by cutting the Romani people out of the welfare state it created three decades ago. It is not however choosing to find ways to put these people back to work. It is not attempting to find ways to grow its taxable population by decreasing its welfare population through honest labor.
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Like the rioters in London these Romani are people who know a life that the state has provided for them. Every attempt to break free from this sort of indentured servitude proves unsuccessful for most Roma. Even a college education proves useless when the "majority population" seems unshakable in their resolve to exclude the Roma. They are after all the first to loose their jobs and the last to be hired back into the work force.
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Thus we have a situation that seems tailor made for the Czech government. A situation where only the strong arm of the law can solve the issue at hand. And that always makes people like me a little worried.
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In both the past and present the Czech government has shown an over willingness to ghettoize the Roma. The Czech government seems to have a love affair with forcing the Roma out of secular society. And this recent out break of racial violence (violence that the Czech government should had seen coming with the current rise of far-right rhetoric) forces a situation which only the law can handle.
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We will have to wait to see what happens but in my humble opinion this problem has no happy ending. Violence begets violence. And the result of this violent outbreak can only serve to fuel the flames of the fascist movement in Eastern Europe.
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Source Documents (Note that not all sources used are listed)
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Prague Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2011/08/22/romani-group-reportedly-attacks-four-men-north-bohemia
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2725
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2714
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2711
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2727
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2706
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CBC News Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2009/06/25/roma-czech-asylum062509.html

Not Allowed To Stay

Banned From Leaving?
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Macedonia appears to be the one and only European country that wants to keep its Roma population. So much so that they have banned their Roma citizens from leaving the country. But not everything is as it seems.
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Marseille, France has recently decided that it would like to force dozens of Roma families out of its city limits and further if allowed. These Roma were recently evicted from homes in the city and are now living on the streets due to Frances failed political leadership. The law in France states that any city over a set population limit is required to make arrangements for its "Gypsy" population or have set camp sites. Marseille is the second largest city in France... it has no camp sites or temporary housing for Roma families. It now has shown that it will also not tolerate them living on the streets... where the Mayor of Marseille had put them.
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So why is Macedonia so willing to keep its Roma population?
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Five families in Serbia were recently evicted from their homes without even a days notice. The Serbian government has been asked several times to stop this practice (partially because the EU doesn't want the evicted families moving West) and yet it continues to attack settled Roma communities. The number of uprooted Roma families is on the rise in Serbia despite the pleas of countless human rights organizations.
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So once again I asked myself why Macedonia of all places is so desperate to keep its Roma?
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It is simple really. Macedonia is a poor and ofter crime riddled nation. Its populace is constantly looking for ways out... and fleeing the country is just the ticket for many. But with the economies of Europe constantly dive bombing these days (Spain and Ireland recently proving that point) the West can't support the Balkan states any longer. And they most certainly aren't willing at all to accept the "excess population" (as Roma are repeatedly referred to) of a poor state like Macedonia.
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Thus Macedonia, holding out hope of becoming a EU welfare state, has placed a travel ban upon all Roma citizens. No excuse will be accepted and no second chances will be given. Macedonia must keep its nose clean if it wants to be accepted into the socialist collaboration that is the EU.
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Meanwhile the EU is taking every opportunity to "export" its population of Roma back out East to areas like the Balkans. Romanian Roma have been hardest hit by France's legalized racism. However those from the Balkans are being "exported" just as well. And those being sent to Macedonia are having their passports confiscated so as to prevent return to the West. Turning Macedonia into one giant ghetto.
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And that brings us to the final point of this post.
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In other areas of the Balkans the idea of Roma Ghettos is in full bloom. Many of the Balkan states have already forced their Romani citizens into select areas segregated from the rest of society. In despicable living conditions, often over crowded and far from common utilities their neighbors enjoy daily, the Balkans Roma population is forced into poverty worse than the rest of society.
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In a growing number of areas the local "civilized" society has gone as far as to erect fences, walls, and concrete barriers to keep the Roma separate or out of view. The result of these actions is the ghetto style that the Nazis used just a couple generations ago. And yet the locals feel it is better to resort to these sorts of openly racist actions than to tolerate their differences with their Roma neighbors.
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But I guess having your neighbors just not wanting to look at you is a tiny bit better than having them throw Molotov cocktails into you home? Possibly? Or is it that "separate but equal" never really works out? And is it that these ghettos are just the first step toward concentration camps?
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Source Documents (Note that not all documents used are shown)
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Public Service Europe
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/715/macedonia-has-no-legal-basis-for-roma-travel-bans
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RFI English
http://www.eglish.rfi.fr/france/20110810-marseille-evict-90-roma
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IBtimes
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/197269/20110812/roma-gypsie-serbia-eviction.htm
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2713
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The Good Fight

Summer Update
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And we are back. After a little interruption due to a "differing point of view" we have returned to the good fight. So here is what has happened since our last update.
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The United States has entered into the fight against the Romani people. Town ordinances, local laws, and even the state of New Jersey has been levied against the Roma along the east coast. The attempt here is to keep the Roma on the road and to keep them from entering into the community. Here at Alder's Ledge we find this practice deplorable.
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In the media we have watched as Kathy Lee Gifford (on the Today Shows fourth hour) maligned the entire Romani people by characterizing them as child abusers who exploit their children to rob and pillage unsuspecting white trash TV host.
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And in Europe, well that theater has remained the same all summer long. The Eastern Front (Romania, the Balkans, and Hungry) have continued to allow their local "civilized" citizens to attack and harass the Roma. While back West (France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Ireland, and many more) the Roma are now being forced back out onto the road. In London the fires were used not just to loot and rob but to mask the attacks on Romani camps (sites the government was legally responsible for). All the while the police were able to ignore the attacks on human life because their local children were out doing the very things the locals claim the Roma are responsible for.
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In Ireland (Northern Ireland to be exact) the Roma have suffered countless attacks in attempts to force the Roma out of the cities. In the country side they are outright savaged as the local "civilized" population is allowed to practice their hedonistic desires and racist prejudice.
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A few days ago in the Czech Republic yet another Molotov Cocktail was thrown into a Romani family's home. And yet the police seem incompetent in finding and arresting the attacker or attackers. However in a twinge of hope the locals have finally started to show that they have had enough. Apparently attacking a family that the locals know to have an infant inside the home is finally overstepping the bounds of "civilized society". It was not overstepping the bounds of Czech society when just a week prior a gang of white supremacist had broken into a Roma home and nearly beaten the father to death. Or when a few days earlier a racially motivated torch attack was carried out in a neighboring town.
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The Czech Republic has also recently decided that it will not allow local citizens to adopt children from abroad. It is however stepping up its attempts to "export" Romani children. This attempt plays into the appearance of preparing to or even carrying out genocidal acts.
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In Austria the rise of far-right extremism has now been recorded to have risen by 31% over 2009. Many of these new attacks have been coming from groups that have decided to target the Roma. And this makes sense for hate groups just starting out since the local police are less likely to enforce the law when it is Romani being attacked.
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Meanwhile in France old Saint Nich (Sarkozy) is loosing his fight with the French Roma population. They continue to run and hide as his hounds continue to nip at their heels. They have been encountering growing hunger and increasing poverty and yet they remain in France. Those who have been deported continue to find their way back into France. And those who were paid 300 dollars to leave are now taking another pay out to leave once again. But old Nich is still pushing his racist agenda as he steers France toward the nationalism that once conquered it by force.
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All this has happened in the month or so that I have been kept from posting. And now we are back. Now we will continue to be "the rust upon your gears, the insect in your ear". We will continue to fight and all you have to do is continue to read.
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Information is power. The power to resist. The power to fight. The power to win.
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Source Documents for this post... (Note that not all sources are listed)
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2683
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2691
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2707
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2686
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2679
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http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2671
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