The Canary In The Coal Mine

Laying At The Bottom Of The Cage
(Roma In Europe series)

In every society there is often one group of people whom the rest of society deems it acceptable for the rest of society to discriminate against. For the groups within that society which set just on the edge of the boundary between being acceptable targets of discrimination and not being on that same plane, these are the canaries. Their well being, or lack there of, acts as an indicator for what awaits the rest of society’s vulnerable minorities. If the accepted scapegoat is abused relentlessly the rest of society’s minorities can expect no better treatment in the near future. If however the said scapegoat is tolerated then the rest of society’s minorities can, within reason, expect to be tolerated as well.

In the Arakan state of Burma the canary has always been the Rohingya people. Their song as of late has been that of a warning of their impending death. Many have already passed away. Yet the world ignores their plight as the Kaman and other minority groups in Burma now suffer the same fate. The Rohingya are the scapegoat upon which the aggression, the hatred, and the blame for all of society’s ills can be placed. The sheer weight of this burden lends itself to their sad songs as their women, children, and elderly slip through the grate.

The reason groups like the Rohingya in Burma and the Romani in Europe spend so much time calling out warnings that no one hears is almost unexplainable. Their sorrow can be heard with every passing day if only the world had ears to listen and a heart with which to feel. And perhaps it is in that one aspect of our relationship with these groups that we can see just to what extent these groups are true canaries in the coal mine.

Europe’s Canary 

Prior to the rise of fascism in Germany in the mid 1920’s there was a silent battle that history has all but forgot. It was a struggle that society’s most neglected and abuses minority began on it’s own and would end with millions more by their side. It was a horrific fight for survival that was ignored by the very people who would later end up in the same camps. It was the beginning of the Romani peoples’ “devouring”.

In the early days of the Holocaust the Germans appeared at times pacified with their attempts to simply kill off the mentally handicapped and those deemed to be a drain upon civilized society. While it is debatable as to how the Germans viewed the Roma in regards to the race laws (mostly enacted against the Jews) the results of these actions is not. Soon after the first gassing of mentally handicapped and terminally ill patients the Germans began to clear Roma ghettos around major German cities. Some were moved to camps located near city dumps and other unsanitary locations in an attempt to lower the quality of life to a point where death and disease were inevitable. These smaller ghettos were designed to overcrowd the camps and create drastic shortages in food, water, and other basic necessities of daily life.

The most direct result to the German public however was the sudden disappearance of the “gypsy” community from many German cities. This minor reward to an ethnocentric and bigoted society was enough for most German citizens to overlook the mistreatment of the Roma themselves. Small incentives like this would only serve to prove to the German government that the citizens of their society were capable of being bought off when it came to their moral standards and the treatment of other human beings.

When Roma were soon driven out of camps in forests and community areas the German people nearly celebrated even more. There was little to no public response that would prove to be unfavorable to the deportation and cruel confinement of entire Roma families. The lack of dissension amongst society proved to the German government once again that the songs of Europe’s canary were falling upon deaf ears.

With the opening of Germany’s first concentration camps the only real sound of dissension came when Germans suddenly realized that these camps were not meant just for Jews and Roma. When the fear that they could be next finally arose the German people were awoken to the reality that it was already too late. German citizens, not of Jewish or Roma origin, who would join the minorities they had ignored were said to need reeducated on what being a “good German” really was. The songs the canary had sung for so long were already silent as many Roma already lay dead at the hands of the well rooted fascist regime.

Today in France and across the rest of Europe the song of Europe’s canary is approaching it’s last notes. Warning cries have been falling upon deaf ears for some time now as countries like France have continued to deport and cruelly detain entire Roma families. This has only been added to as countries like Sweden are added to the roster of fascists ready and willing to join the ranks of oppressors. A lesson that history so brutally taught Europe just a couple generations ago is now being drummed back up as these tyrants beat their chest and push their boots upon the Romas’ backs.

The bigotry that had been seen in Europe prior to the World War Two (though doubtful it ever really faded) is approaching the same levels today as it was back then. People who call themselves tolerant and open-minded when it comes to drugs, sex, and religion are now willing to sacrifice their morals when it comes to race. And with this one point, this one area of selling out to power hungry politicians, the liberties of Europe are pushed closer to the edge. For where they give an inch the governments to which they bow will take a mile.

"Stockholm City Kept Roma Registry Until 1996"

- The Local

"Majority Of French Believe Roma Should Leave France"

- France 24

"French Police Clear Roma Camp In Centre Of Roubaix"

- BBC News

"French Minister Calls For Roma To Be Sent Home"

- Irish Independent 

What is even more surprising however is the sheer rate of speed at which governments like France's have been able to capitalize upon their citizens' bigotry and callousness. Two short years ago the French government was risking everything when they sent wave after wave of Romani families off to Eastern Europe. Now the French public seems to be just as heartless as their government as they quickly begin to cheer the government on in it's new round of deportations. There is little to no empathy in the sounds of France's collective voice as it bids farewell to the Roma who have called France home for countless years.

So what lay ahead for France's remaining minorities now that the canary has been ignored?

Muslims in France, and rapidly across the rest of Europe, are filling in the role that the Jewish population had played during fascism's last march across the continent. In an eerie manner, the Muslim population has begun to feel the same level of discrimination that Jews had felt in the late 20's and early 30's. Where the Germans had created laws to increase the level of violent oppression the Jews had felt, France refuses to uphold laws. Where the Germans had forced the Jews to wear yellow stars, France strips the Muslims of their religious clothing. Yet no matter the small differences in the approach; society at large has vastly ignored the sudden increase in discrimination against a group they quietly deem to be the "new comers".

This of course is not factual since Mosques and Muslims have been part of Europe for countless generations. Yet it is the same bigoted response that Jews faced in Germany as their leaders and government encouraged the discrimination that these such accusations encourage. By clarifying the line of demarcation between "us verses them" the society takes the next step and government gets to increase it's control.

Where we should had seen this with the Roma over the past couple decades we are now approaching the point of being too late to see it with the rest of Europe's vulnerable minorities. By allowing the French (and other governments as well) to deport and harass Romani citizens we give the green light for those same leaders to do equally depraved acts to the rest of society. If a group can be singled out for unjust and inhumane acts of oppression and discrimination than any other group can be made the scapegoat as well.

If the portions of Europe's minorities that set on the fringe of society are to be spared, the rest of society must decide to take a stand against the oppressors. For it is in their silence that fascism is fed. It is in their ignorance that tyranny plants it's seed. And it is in their apathy that the roots of future dictatorships take hold.

One Step Ahead Of The Hounds

Rabid Racism and White Europe

(Image via AP/Vadim Ghirda)

When African American slaves were on the run they had to keep out of sight and hide from the white population of the American South. But it wasn't just the hate filled eyes of their would be masters that the runaway slaves had to avoid, they also had to cover up their scent and trail. Bounty hunters would often deploy dogs to chase down fugitive slaves. Their packs of foaming mouthed hounds could pick up the slightest smell of a fleeing slave without so ever being in sight of the fugitive. Once on the trail the dogs would release a call to their master. This baying tell the ruthless hunter that their human prey was just down the path a little ways. And once the dogs were on the heels of the fleeing slave the game was about up.

Extreme prejudice was used once a slave was taken back into custody. Whips, chains, and torture were all used to subdue the spirit of the victim. The desire to crush the "rebelliousness" of the victim was the main priority of the slave owner. It was the necessity to break the desire for freedom that kept the whip so close at hand. Yet it was that very same desire for freedom that led the slave to run away time and time again.

Mankind is made with a desire to live free. It is an intrinsic part of our natural state that no matter how grotesquely oppressed it may become the desire for freedom always finds an outlet. Against all odds, against all obstacles, the longing we have for liberty finds a path out of our minds and into reality.

For the Roma of Europe the desire to live in a land of liberty cannot be denied. For this desire they risk physical abuses of all sorts. For this desire they risk death at the hands of radical hate groups. For this desire they cross border after border as they flee the oppression that has long kept them captive in Eastern Europe. For the Roma this desire for freedom was stoked with the ascension of their respective homelands to the union with Western Europe. It was with this hope that many have moved Westward.

The migration of poor communities to countries where economic growth is taking place is not a new concept. It occurred in waves of immigration here in the United States. The Midwest was essentially built by the first waves of immigrants seeking the benefits of America's economic boom. Yet Western Europe, currently in a state of stagnation, seems to think it is somehow immune to this natural desire of all mankind.

Extreme poverty is a form of slavery in the aspect that it keeps a people in bondage to the monotony of simply surviving from one day to the next. Given a glimpse of hope, even if it is what we call poor in the West, those kept in the chains of such poverty will always take the chance at running. For these runaways the end reward is a better future for their children. For these runaways the light ahead is a life lived with less hunger and less want. Yet for these refugees the dogs don't seem to nip at their heels till they arrive at what they once viewed as freedom.

Roma have always lived in France, Germany, England, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe. Their numbers in these countries have increased with each economic downturn due to the need for cheap labor in semi-free markets. Agricultural outfits have for decades utilized the Roma community as near slave labor as they utilize the desperation of Europe's most discriminated against ethnic group. So it is unlikely that we can write-off the latest upward tick of xenophobic attitudes across Western Europe to a make-believe "influx" of Roma from the East.

Yet in places like France this portrayal of the Roma, as invading Mongol hordes, is catching traction amongst both politicians and hate groups alike. The dogs that the Roma have to run away from lay in wait in the National Front and amongst the right wing politicians. The rabid response to the propaganda these organizations create is an ever increasingly racist France. By telling the same lies that Hitler did over a long enough time without relent these politicians have garnered support amongst their rage filled base. And in addition they have planted the seeds of for their bitter harvest.

One politician in particular has done more to rally the dogs of France in recent days then MP Gilles Bourdouleix. While visiting a Roma encampment Mr Bourdouleix told a reporter in regards to the Romani, "Maybe Hitler didn't kill enough of them." It wasn't till the media took the story and ran with that Mr Bourdouleix decided that his words were perhaps "poorly chosen". And yet the French MP didn't redact his words, no; instead Mr Bourdouleix decided to blame the reporter for the story and claimed he had been "misquoted".

An American would expect that a politician who openly used such hate speech would be dragged out of office by his own party. But the French didn't seem too eager to bring out the guillotine. Instead they seemed reluctant to denounce Mr Bourdouleix. Some might say that the French politician is receiving a relative slap on the wrist for his statement. Even though Europeans will be commemorating the Porajmos (The Devouring or the Romani Holocaust) on August 2nd, Mr Bourdouleix's comment was then repeated as an opinion poll on a popular French news website. One can only guess from our side of the pond how the French voted in such a poll.

So lets take a moment and pretend that Mr Bourdouleix's view of the Roma is even remotely viable. Let us take a look at what the Romani people would be fleeing from in the East if they are really "invading" Europe....

In Slovakia the citizens of the town Kosice have erected walls to "keep the Roma out". However the concrete walls in effect have created a massive ghetto that confines the Roma within. The claimed purpose of the wall drastically contradicts the actual purpose it serves for the "settled" citizens of Kosice. And that is to keep the Roma in one place where they can easily be attacked or gathered. Either scenario is far more sinister than the purported goal of keeping the Roma segregated (an already devious objective).

Across the rest of Slovakia the more discrete methods of segregation are institutionalized. Slovakia does not allow Roma to be in the same schools (if in schools at all) as the non-Roma citizens. Roma are run out of cities and villages alike by Slovakian police. Politicians in Slovakia use even more racially tainted slurs than French politicians. And vigilantism amongst Slovakian civilians is far worse than in France (though in 2012 French citizens did take to burning out Roma camps).

Then you factor in the abuses Roma face from Slovakian government directly. In recent years the European Roma Rights Center has documented 200 cases of Romani women who were forcibly sterilized by the Slovak government. In many cases the Slovak government obtains coerced signatures of their victims by either sedating the victim or operating first and offering consent forms afterward. In most cases the government does not fully depict what has been done until the woman finds out in a later exam. This very tactic of abuse would in any government indicate a state sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing. Yet Slovakia denies every case due to the coerced signatures they obtain under duress.

"While I was on the operating table and under anesthesia, the doctor gave me some papers to sign. I asked what it was and he told me that it was 'something about the child'. I was not able to read what was on the paper because I was not fully conscious at the time. I only found out later that I had signed consent to be sterilised and now I cannot have any more children."

~Roma Woman Forcibly Sterilized in Slovakia

So lets take a moment and pretend that racist like Bourdouleix aren't spreading hate about the Roma. How can we blame a people for moving West when the East has offered them only unmitigated suffering? How can we blame the Roma for attempting to flee decades of abuse at the hands of civilians, governments, and brutal armies and militias? Should the Roma be expected to stay in countries like Slovakia where they are subjected to abuse without legal recourse? Should they be forced to have their basic human rights stripped from them while they live in hellish conditions? Or should the Roma be permitted to seek refuge in the West?

It is not hard to see that the Romani people have suffered for centuries at the hands of bigots like this French politician. They have endured more hardship than any other European minority of our time. They died in the camps alongside the Jews and yet they are widely forgotten. It was the Roma who bore the brunt of socialism's wrath. It was the Roma who were silently sacrificed to the purges of Communism. The other victims have had their names recorded. The other victims have had their stories told. Yet it is the Roma who are forgotten to history and forced to live beyond the realm of modern day Europe's prosperity. They are a people that have clung to existence by holding onto the fringe of Western society.

So why now that we have accepted the tolerance we so proudly boast about that the Roma still cling to the edge of our so called enlightened society? How can we, the Western world, accept this sort of deplorable segregation and institutionalized discrimination?

It is obvious when stepping away from the mainstream and looking in that the gap between the Roma and the rest of society has not shrank. Slurs for the Roma still are used like the word nigger was used in the dirty south. Portrayals of Roma in the media are still just as derogatory (if not more so) than they were during Hitler's reign. Pop culture has romanticized the Roma to the point that their image of the Roma is more vile than even some Medieval caricatures of the them.

If this gap is to be closed society must stop projecting upon the Roma what we would wish them to be and accept the Roma for who they truly are. We cannot expect the Roma to assimilate to the point of surrendering their culture (if at all). Instead our societies must take pride in the differences between us and celebrate the Roma culture for all it is and not just the parts we find favorable.

As for our governments, they must be forced to implement programs designed to integrate Roma into society. These programs must combat the segregation of Romani from schools (either forcibly or through "white flight"). They must combat hiring processes that would discriminate against the Romani in both Eastern and Western Europe. And they must desegregate housing across Europe and bring Roma out of ghettos and slums and offer humane living conditions for both Roma and non-Roma citizens.

These are not suggestions in all reality but rather demands for a civilized society. Without these the West cannot claim that we are free and open societies but rather repressive regimes in which "separate but equal" is accepted over "justice for all".

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Source Documents
(Note: not all sources listed)

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/world/europe/roma-children-kept-separate-and-unequal.html?_r=0

Eurasia Review
http://www.eurasiareview.com/13072013-hindus-want-end-to-walls-separating-roma-in-slovakia/

Mint Press News
http://www.mintpressnews.com/french-politicians-racist-remarks-tap-growing-xenophobic-sentiment-in-europe/165928/

Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/czech-republic-neo-nazis-attempt-pogrom-on-roma-commit-arson-nine-injured-28-arrests
-
http://www.romea.cz/en/news/czech/who-will-be-chosen-as-the-greatest-hero-fighting-injustice-unfair-treatment-and-wrongs-in-the-czech-republic-people-can

France 24
http://www.france24.com/en/20120928-marseille-residents-force-out-roma-gypsy-burn-camp-france-valls-sarkozy-repatriation

Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/gilles-bourdouleix_n_3639606.html

New Europe
http://www.neurope.eu/article/french-deputy-condemned-over-anti-roma-remarks

European Roma Rights Center
http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/file/slovakia-country-profile-2011-2012.pdf

What Is In A Name?

From The Romani To The Rohingya,
Ethnic Cleansing By Renaming.
(Part of The Darkness Visible series
& Roma In Europe series)

(Roma Face The PNL Party / Rohingya Face 969)

A name is in many aspects the very nature of who we are or who we consider ourselves to be. A person born and raised in France would not suddenly consider himself to be Mexican one day simply because it sounded right. A child born and raised in Yemen would not suddenly decide that he is Korean because somebody suggested it. We are raised to be proud of who we are. The nationality we are given from birth is that which we desire to keep as we age. It is funny in sense, yet we do not easily part from this seemingly arbitrary title. It is simply just too important for us to do without.

Americans are raised with a slightly different sense of what it means to be this or that. We add African, Asian, Latin, Hispanic, Native, and many other nationalities in front of American when we want to be rather specific about our origin. And for most of us, this is a welcome part of declaring our heritage to the world around us. It not offers us a sense of being distinguished in a country that melts our diversity to form a new culture of its own. Yet despite this, we still do much the same as a Parisian might do when we tell others who we are and where we come from... we give them a name that describes it.

For the Roma people of Romania the decision to proclaim their heritage by calling themselves "Roma" is under threat. National Liberal Party (PNL) deputies Mircea Dolha and Grigore Crăciunescu proposed an amendment to the Romanian constitution that would make it illegal for Roma to call themselves Roma. The wording is ambiguous enough to avoid outright rejection by other parties within Romania's government yet according to NGOs and activists clearly targets Romani people. And for the most part the amendment would serve to further alienate Roma living within Romania.

This issue of state sponsored discrimination against an ethnic minority places Romania in the same group as the genocidal government of Myanmar. By attempting to deprive the Roma of their natural right to claim their ethnicity and cultural heritage the government of Romania attempts to push a policy of ethnic cleansing through renaming of an ethnic minority. The parallel between Romania and Myanmar is only further constructed through Romania's PNL party's policy that ethnic minorities may not call themselves "Romanian" unless they can prove their ethnicity to the government. This policy mirrors the policy of Myanmar in it's devout dedication to a policy of denial as it continues to deny the existence of an indigenous Rohingya population within Burma.

In the case of the Roma people in Romania the only major difference is the fact that the PNL has not given them a name with which to scapegoat the Romani people. Though ethnic slurs and the stereotypical gypsy image is paraded readily by PNL party members, the Roma are simply going to face total ethnic cleansing in Romania. The Rohingya people of Burma on the other hand are being given a name to replace their own; Bengali. This form of ethnic cleansing allows Myanmar the opportunity to justify deportations while also revising the history of Burma... erasing Rohingya from history.

For both the Rohingya and the Roma, these attempts to commit ethnic cleansing are only partially masked by political language and platitudes. If allowed to stand these attacks will devastate entire ethnic groups while setting back their attempts to coexist with their neighboring ethnic groups. In the long run these moves also undercut the history and heritage of these two ethnic minorities. By making it illegal to register under their own ethnic name the governments force these groups to accept and adopt the ethnic heritage of groups to which they do not belong.

In the eyes of the world a name is a funny little thing. It seems somewhat odd to many just how important these simplistic titles seem to us. Yet if we were to take just a moment, a brief moment of meditation, we would find in our empathy the disturbing notion of what it would mean to be without our own name. It is in that little title we carry with us that we link ourselves to others within our culture, our beliefs, our heritage. In the eyes of those who realize this a name is not just a silly word but a treasured part of who we are.




An opportunity to scream:

You can help the Rohingya people hold onto their name by signing yours here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Allow_the_Rohingya_to_Register_Their_Name/ via +Jamila Hanan 

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Source Documents
(Note: not all sources listed)

Romania Insider
http://www.romania-insider.com/ngos-outraged-by-proposed-amendment-to-romanias-constitution-banning-roma-from-calling-themselves-romanians/101635/
-
http://www.romania-insider.com/amnesty-international-report-slams-romania-on-roma-rights-and-cia-prisons/99947/

SE Times
http://setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/articles/2013/06/10/reportage-01

Amnesty International Live Wire (blog)
http://livewire.amnesty.org/2013/06/13/you-cant-give-up-you-have-to-fight-for-your-rights/

Burma News International
http://www.bnionline.net/index.php/news/kaladan/15481-rohingya-village-is-uprooted-by-forced-registration-program.html

Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/why-myanmars-rohingya-forced-bengali-144444651.html

Separate Is Never Equal

European Roma Still Face Apartheid
(Roma In Europe series)

(European Union Member States Continue To Segregate Roma Children In The Classroom)

The foundation for a better future in any society is found through education. In a world where we are rapidly being reduced to the sum of what our degrees and diplomas say we have achieved there really is no other way forward. Regardless of our own determination and personal ingenuity the world around us views us through paper work. If an portion of our society is thus kept from having access to even the most basic levels of education they are therefore kept from the vast majority of what our society has to offer.

Would we elect government officials that were kept from graduating even the most preliminary levels of education? Would we trust a doctor to treat our ailments if he/she was never able to go to medical school? Would we believe a teacher if he/she had never even been to any form of upper level education?

It is a common trend amongst unskilled labor, the backbone to our economy, that many are placed in those roles due to a lack of education. We may rather enjoy believing that everybody has access to education at any level if they simply apply themselves. This provides us an excuse to look down upon the grocery clerk while ironically they make our daily lives possible. It gives us the ability to stare down our noses while the sun beats down upon the construction workers that slow us down in our daily commutes to our so called prestigious jobs. But what if we knew the stories of these people, if we knew what obstacles they had to overcome, we might look at the systems our society flaunts in a different light.

For some of the most neglected members of our society the story that they start with almost immediately erases the opportunities we take for granted. Personal choice becomes less of a reason for their place in society as society itself begins to hijack those said choices. In the case of the Roma in Europe this hijacking can be summed up as blatant discrimination on the part of governments, local communities, and the society in which the Roma live.

Centuries of looking down upon the Roma as a permanent underclass (or outsiders) has left a systemic discriminatory perception about who the Roma people are. It has left the very name Roma, or gypsy, a sort of slur in and of itself in European society. When someone feels cheated they say they have been "gypped". When a stranger appears to be poorly dressed and unkempt they are flat out referred to as a "gypsy". And then there is the romantic prejudices of the Roma as being fortune tellers, witches, and symbols of bad luck. All of this has left a barrier that Roma people have had to climb over to reach the world that has attempted to go forward while leaving them behind.

Roma children in Europe are the first to notice this when it comes to the hallmarks of childhood. Instead of being allowed into the same school systems that other European children get to go to many Roma children are forced to either attend schools designed solely for Roma or take classes designed for the mentally handicapped. In Greece this has been more evident than in other European states. When schools were built in Sofades (a town comprised of roughly half Roma citizens) the Roma who were closer to schools catering to "Greek" children were told they had to go to schools farther away. The reason: these children were Roma, and Roma children are not allowed to attend school with other children in Greece. Plain and simple discrimination on the basis of ethnicity.

“It’s shameful that, despite three separate European Court rulings now, Greece has failed to change its ongoing discrimination against Romani schoolchildren and the flagrant violation of their right to education,” said Jezerca Tigani, Deputy Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International. 

Last year countless European courts took up the issue of Roma children's rights to an equal education in European schools. These court decisions were considered historic since they for the first time addressed the long upheld discrimination by European society against the Romani people. In many ways these courts took upon the same fight that American schools had been forced to do when they desegregated schools and allowed black and white children to be educated side-by-side. Yet that is a point that European nations tend to avoid since they were supposed to be the leaders in ending slavery, segregation, and all that "old world" bigotry.

Some might ask why we should talk about segregation while Romani families face violent attacks by racists (both in politics and in racist extremist groups) in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Some might ask why we should worry about school while Roma are still facing deportations from France, Germany, Italy, and other "developed" European countries in the West. And while these concerns are very pressing indeed, the open hostility in society at large is the basis for why these conditions exist in the first place. If we are to accept that children can be introduced to the idea that they are less than human from the start of their "education" then we accept that other children can be taught that the prior are the "them" in an "us vs them" scenario. It allows for the effects of discrimination to be imprinted upon the next generation while the one in control allows the cycle to persist.

"What startled me most of all was the unbelievable aggression, the hateful speeches, and the openly racist positions occupied at certain points by the loudest participants, male and female, from the special schools. These are the same people who meet disadvantaged Romani children and their parents every day. They are the very people who educate those children, " said Michaela Marksová-Tominová, Czech Shadow Minister for Human Rights and Equal Opportunities.

When hate is allowed to be the first taste of what a society has to offer for a child it becomes a lens through which that child will view the world in which he/she lives. While many can overcome this discrimination through hard work on their own part, many others cannot. It is an obstacle that chips away at what our society can be and will become. It destroys the foundation of a society for generation to come. Thus permitting the instability we have lived with thus far to persist into the world we leave behind for our children and grandchildren.

When we deny education to a child we aren't telling that child he/she can be anything that they can dream of. We tell that child that they aren't valuable in our society. We tell them that for as long as they are alive they will always be outsiders in our community. The denial of education (full, equal, and integrated)  is a method of oppression and rejection. It forces upon the next generation the prejudices of the previous generation. And for this reason it denies society at large the hope for a better future.

If Europe is to continue forward in its progressive views on what it means to be European they will have to come to terms with their past. Either they fully integrate the Romani people into European (accepting the differences and not forcing assimilation) or Europe admits that they are a society that accepts apartheid. For in a world where we claim that "all men are created equal" we can never expect that being kept separate be viewed as equality.


























Source Documents
(Note: not all sources listed)

Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/european-court-again-chides-greece-over-discrimination-against-roma-schoolchildren-2013-05-30

Open Society Foundation
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/roma-education-2013-time-europe-remedy-its-democratic-deficit

Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/artur-conka/roma-families-in-europe_b_3253404.html

Prague Daily Monitor
http://praguemonitor.com/2013/05/24/%C4%8Dr-fails-deal-segregation-romani-students-ai-report-says

Be Happy, Sad Mother...

The Holocaust in Croatia

 

 Like heroes, like Croats,

They poured blood for homeland!

~ Lijepa nasa domovino ~

Croatian National Anthem

In September of 1939 Yugoslavia declared itself neutral in the new war that was sweeping across Europe. However the dogs of war had already been howling for sometime in Yugoslavia. After the last "Great War" the Powers of Europe had carved up the territories once held by the Ottomans and Austrians. The failure to take note of the ethnic and religious differences that officially demarcated the region of the now Yugoslav kingdom was coming back to haunt the region. Croatia was just the first dog to bite.

In March of 1941 the Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact sealing its desire to be left out of the war. Yet no matter how often Yugoslavia assured the Axis, Germany especially, that they would adhere to the treaty the Axis didn't seem to believe them. This suspicion was fueled in part by Yugoslavia's leadership at the time. It was also fueled by Croatia's flirtation with the Nazis.

Upon Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia on April 6th of 1941 the Croatian political class began to maneuver for an independent state within the Third Reich. Only four days later, on April 10th, the Croatian politicians got exactly what they wanted as Germany allowed Croatia to declare itself independent of Yugoslavia. However Croatia would be expected to fall in line with Hitler's Europe. A catch in the agreement that Croatia's Ustase party was far too willing to take part in.

The Ustaše were Croatia's ultra fascist political party that had come to power by taking advantage of the economic depression which hit small economies like Croatia's disproportionately. They had realized that without implementing extreme policies like those of Hitler's Croatia would not be able to recover. Thus Croatians across Yugoslavia began to flock to the party. After all, this was the party that was promising the moon (for Croats only) and linking the Croatians to Aryans.

For the Jews, Roma, Homosexuals, Handicapped, or Mentally Handicapped this call to arms was the sound of the clock striking midnight. The darkness of the Holocaust was now spreading across Croatia and over all the rest of Yugoslavia. There was nowhere left for Yugoslavian Jews to run. Europe had been devoured by Hitler's army. Croatia was simply driving the final nail into the coffin.

(Ustaše Murders Resorting to Axes At Jasenovac Death Camp)

In Croatia the Holocaust came in a unique manner. The German SS weren't the main presence at death camps like Jasenovac. Instead the Croatians, almost as a whole, were the leaders of the operations to slaughter the Croatian Jews and Romani. With their ruthless Ustaše, the Croatians employed massacres using axes, hammers, and at times their own hands. Many Ustaše leaders were known to grab children up by their legs and bash their heads against walls as a means of instilling fear among new inmates. In Croatia the Holocaust was almost more personal than it was ever meant to be. 

All across Europe Jewish businesses were confiscated and handed out to loyal Nazi party members. The Legal Decree on the Nationalization of Jewish Properties and Jewish Companies of October 10th, 1941 made it far to easy for any Croatian to claim ownership of their neighbors home or their competitor's business. The government of Croatia also stated that it would not prevent or prosecute the blatant murder of Jews and Roma within Croatia. Thus allowing even noncombatants to engage in the Holocaust in as much a role as the Gestapo of Germany. 

Across the border in Bosnia the Croatians lend Ustaše commanders to the "Grand Mufti's" Bosnian SS units. These Croats were eager to work toward the goal of cleansing not only Croatia of Serbs, Jews, and Roma but also wanted their borders cleared of any future resistance. The compromise here was simple, work with Muslims and Arabs or allow Bosnia to fall to the Yugoslav partisans. 

In further support of Hitler's goals the Ustaše and Croat politicians ordered the construction of Koprivnica, Pag Island, Jadovno, and Kruščica death camps. These camps were raised in the spring of 1941 and each would continue their industry of death and murder till October of 1942 when Jasenovac is fully operational. However unlike in Germany and Poland, the local politicians did not wait for the German Nazis to order the construction of the said camps. In Croatia it seemed to be a status symbol for the politicians in the new regime to have a concentration camp operating in their region of the state.

From August of 1941through February of 1942 the Ustaše established the Jasenovac camps: Krapje, Bročica, Ciglana, Kozara, and Stara Gradiška. This group of satellite camps would rival the horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau. And at its heart was the aim of killing all of Croatia's Romani community as well as importing Serbian and Bosnian Roma. The Jews of this area were often sent off to Auschwitz as the war came to a close so as to make room for Roma and Serbian prisoners. 

(Emaciated Child at Jasenovac Death Camp)

The Ustaše camp guards however did not readily send off their prisoners. Instead the Croatian SS were notorious for working for days on end as they carried out massive executions of prisoners to decrease the number of victims needed to be sent out to German concentration camps. Guards in Croatia were renowned for their lack of concern for the health of the inmates kept in their camps. Thus extraordinary cruelty, even by Nazi standards, was often overlooked by Ustaše SS units. 

It wasn't till September of 1941 that the Ustaše even began to admit that they could not kill all the Jews in Croatia without some form of help from Germany. Thus from September of 1941 through March of 1942 the Ustaše establishes the Ðakovo, Tenje, and Loborgrad camps. All three served as transit sites for Croat Jews whom Croatian authorities turned over to the Germans for deportation to Auschwitz. 

In many cases the Holocaust in Croatia was not stopped until Yugoslavian partisans under Tito were able to overrun the camps. In select cases the local Croatian authorities would dismantle the death camps and attempt to hide their crimes as the partisans approached. These cases were often induced by the sheer fear of reprisals that often marked the liberation of camps by Tito's militias. In most cases however the Croatian SS and Ustaše combatants would fight tooth and nail to keep hold of their villages and the camps they supported. 

(Tito's Army - Yugoslav Partisans)

The Yugoslav liberators were amongst the few groups of liberators that seemed to not be surprised by what they found upon entering Croat death camps. Tito's Army had been told what awaited them when pushing back the Mufti's SS and the Ustaše forces. In every village they entered the Croatian fascist had turned the basements and cellars into miniature death camps. Through the entire liberation of Croatia the Ustaše forces carried out a scorched earth campaign as they withdrew. And just as the Germans would do as the Russians approached Berlin, Croat forces would leave stragglers to "nip at the heels" of the "barbarians". 

Of the nearly 40,000 Jews that lived in Croatia at the outbreak of the Holocaust only around 9,000 would survive its rapid spread across the new state. For the Roma the Porajmos (the devouring) in Croatia was just as horrific. The land that many Croat Jews had loved and been loyal to had nearly erased three quarters of their community. And to make things worse, the Catholic Church (which remains a major part in Croatian politics) had played a major role in this horrific act of genocide. 

On May 5th, 1945 the Legal Decree of the Equalization of Members of the Independent State of Croatia Based on Racial Origin was passed and repealed the race laws imposed by the Ustaše. For many this was the sign that signified the end of the Holocaust in their homeland. It would, in a legal sense, insure at least some safety for the Jews still living in Yugoslavia. Yet the wounds inflicted upon the Yugoslavian community by the Ustaše would never truly heal. 

For forty years the Balkans remained the "powder keg" of Europe. The sins of the Ustaše remained like scars upon Croatia and its neighbors. And in 1995 the horrors carried out by the Mufti SS and Ustaše would come back to surface once more. Proving to the world once again that if we never learn from history we will always find a way to reenact our mistakes. Without addressing the sins of our fathers we will surely repeat their misdeeds.

Romani Of The Holy Land

The Fight For Citizenship In Israel

(Amoun Sleem, Romani woman in her home in Jerusalem)

Europe has long had an issue with the citizenship of the Roma within their countries. For France it has been an issue of where the Roma can be deported to. For Germany it is a historical soft spot in the nation's relationship with this minority. The further we venture east the worse the situation for the Roma gets. In Romania the Roma are culturally banned from calling themselves Roma and are forced to be called Gypsies. And in the Balkans the Roma are forced to live on the fringe of society while the rest of the population ostracizes the Roma amongst them. It is almost impossible to overlook the genocidal intentions of countries like Hungary and the Ukraine.

That is why I found it odd that the state of one of the world's most neglected people in my beloved Israel isn't much better than it is in France. An estimated 2,000 Roma live in Jerusalem alone. There they live in areas around The Lion's Gate area of the Old City. And for some time now the Roma in Israel has long been the most impoverished population in Israel. Even the Palestinians in Gaza have opportunities made possible to them that Israel's Roma do not.

In Israel the Romani people are predominately Muslim. However the Roma of Israel do not identify with the Arabs or the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank. This is in part due to the fact that Arabs throughout the Middle East do not treat the Roma as citizens or even human at times. The fact that the Roma in this region have taken on Islam as their religious identity does not separate them from the overt racism that plagues many of the surrounding nations. And that is why it is disheartening to see Israel still denying the Roma their citizenship rights.

(Barkat visiting the Roma in East Jerusalem)

In October the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, became the first Mayor of Jerusalem to step out in the public eye and visit the Romani community in East Jerusalem. Barkat has begun the process to integrate the Roma into Israeli society. These are the first steps to helping the Roma become a meaningful part of the Israeli community. It will help Jews and Arabs alike if they are able to see the Roma as more than just "Gypsies".

With the same rights as other Israeli citizens the Roma can get better jobs. The Roma could begin to move up in society and may even become vital members of the Israeli Defense Force. Their rich heritage, their language, their art, and their culture can all become enriching parts of Israeli society. But the Roma can't do any of these things without first being full citizens of Israel itself.

So while Israel may not be attempting to deport the Roma it is failing to do the right thing. After all, the Romani people suffered just the same as the Jews in Nazi Europe. Roma were targeted by the Iraqi's during the Nazi years just the same as the Jews of Iraq. The Roma were oppressed by the Communist even worse than our Refuseniks. Now Israel has to do what is needed... give the Roma equal rights and equal opportunities.




Source Documents
(Note Not All Sources Cited)

Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=289581

Al Monitor
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2012/11/the-gypsies-of-jerusalem-are-see.html

Left To The Wolves

Preparing for Porajmos
(Part of The Darkness Visible series)

As attacks on Roma continue to escalate in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Romania the rest of Europe seems complacent as they ramp up attempts to deport their Romani populations. In France it has become evident that the police are more like the SS than civil servants... no longer enlisted to protect and serve but rather harass and deport. In England the Roma live in constant fear that the government's bipolar disorder might switch for the worse. Yet now we watch the rest of the world begins to turn its back on the Roma once again.

Canada and the United States have both recently begun to take steps to deny entry and to deport Roma within their borders. Canada claims that the Roma who came to Canada to seek refuge from Hungarian pogroms no longer deserve to stay within Canada as refugees. In doing this the Canadians must first ignore the rise of violence against Roma communities throughout Eastern Europe, let alone within Hungary itself. Secondly the Canadian government will have to ignore the fact that the Hungarian government may not be willing to allow the Roma back into Hungary.

We are watching as the most abused and neglected people within Europe are once again facing ethnic cleansing. Pogroms have already begun to take shape in Hungary and the Czech Republic. These violent flash mobs are part of daily life for Roma within Romania, Bulgaria, and other Balkan states. Now we have the other hallmark of ethnic cleansing... deportations.

France has been the leader in this deplorable act of fascism. In France today the police wear jackboots and even strap on red armbands. The "democracy" of France no longer recognizes the civil liberties they claim to uphold as they now pick who has the right to live free and who must leave or die.

The bulldozing of camps, burning of caravans, and beatings of Roma citizens can not be overlooked. The bastions of freedom can not be allowed to operate in a manner that mirrors the crimes of their Nazi past. And with that I know I may be pushing the envelope with some...

But was it not the brown shirts in Washington who lobbied for our government to set on the sidelines while Hitler put Roma in the first concentration camps? Was it not the Vichy regime who helped the SS gather up France's Roma for the first Porajmos? And was it not Germany that gave us the horrors of the Holocaust in the first place?

All these governments have had their failures when it comes to the Roma. Now they are slipping into the darkness of their past failures once again. Over the past decade alone we have become apathetic when dealing with the right wing and their anti-Romani demands. We have watched as groups like Jobbik in Hungary have grown out of control. We have remained silent while French president after president has wrongfully deported French citizens....

Again, for those of you who disagree with me.... France's dragnet approach at rounding up Romani who have illegally immigrated to France has been used to deport Roma who have lived and were born in France. It was an inevitable consequence of actions that originated in the radical right wing of France's government. And it continues even as a left wing socialist rules as president.

None the less the West is setting up all the right conditions for another genocide of the Romani people. When we allow people to be loaded up on planes (or cattle cars) and be sent away we condone the first part of ethnic cleansing. When we allow politicians or political parties (Jobbik for example) to publicly push for violence in any manner against a group of people we condone the final solution.

This post isn't meant to blindly accuse any one government. It is meant to blame all the Western world of once again failing to uphold our pledge of "NEVER AGAIN". It is time to wake up. It is time to uphold the rights of all mankind; regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or livelihoods. It is time to start working to set right all the areas of civil rights in which our parents generation and their parents generation failed.

The Porajmos

Why Did God Even Create Us?

French Roma Going Into Hiding
(Part of the Screamers post)

Hollande has once again began to cleanse France of its "Gypsy question". Like the Vichy who came before, this socialist has plans to purify his country and rid it of the "undesirables". And oddly enough... he hasn't had to hide those evil intentions while running for office. And why should he? Sarkozy was allowed to drive the Roma out and even kill some without reprisal.

The simple fact is that there just isn't anywhere left for the Roma to go. France, Germany, Britain, and the rest of Western Europe have no tolerance for the Roma anymore (as if they ever have). The Roma who have lived amongst the Western Europeans for generations are being deported to Romania and Eastern Europe without a second thought. The Roma who have recently moved to the West have no intention of going back east. After all, times are tough back east and only going to get worst as global dept grows deeper.

But that hasn't stopped the socialist in Western Europe from grabbing their pitchforks and torches. Instead the French have shown that they are more than ready to take back up their 33rd SS mentality when the "Gypsy question" is brought up. Instead of tanks the new French socialist use bulldozers to wipe the Roma camps from the map of France. And once again the Romani take to the woods to hide until the coast is clear.

"Respect for human dignity is a constant imperative of all public action, but the difficulties and local health risks posed by the unsanitary camps needed to be addressed," the French Interior Ministry assures us. In the next breath the French government goes on to state, "In no case did the removals take the form of collective expulsion, which is forbidden by law."

And it is in that last statement that the French government admits where its crimes lay. The very act of demolishing the homes and evicting a people based upon the ethnicity of the targeted population is in fact "collective expulsion". But for the French the redemption for their actions is found in the fact that this time around they did not "expel" or deport the targeted population. Instead Hollande's regime has simply demolished their homes and burned what was left.

In essence the socialist are just trying to make life unbearable in France so that the Roma will leave on their own. After all, the Roma are not allowed citizenship or even to immigrate to France. They are not legally allowed to work due to being banned from obtaining proper identification. And without access to schools, medical attention, or proper employment... well life in France is just about as meaningful for the Roma as it would be in Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, or Croatia.

So why in hell would the Roma leave France and go clear across Europe just to suffer a little worse a life than they could have in Paris?

"Why did God even create us," a Romani man was quoted as the bulldozers moved into his camp on August 15Th, 2012. These few words epitomize the very essence of what it means to be a Romani in France today. When the government finds your home to be less than livable they don't just toss some money at it like they do with other French citizens... they bulldoze it. When the French government sees that there is no running water, electricity, or proper cooking areas in your living area they don't follow European Union laws stating that Roma and travelers must have access to camp sites with water and electrical hookups... they evict you and threaten deportation. When French authorities see that your elderly and children have no access to medical attention they don't let you go to free clinic or see a doctor for free like other French people... they tell you to leave and go back to where you came from (for many Roma France is where they came from).

In the past the French nearly solved their "Gypsy question". Under the socialist regimes of old France they sat up camps for the Roma. From these camps the Roma were treated with the same regard as was shown for the Jews, homosexuals, and mentally handicapped. Under old France the Roma had access to one form of medical treatment... euthanasia.

  

In the picture above these children that appear to be playing "Ring Around the Rosie" are Roma children playing in a French concentration camp called Jargeau. With the way the Europeans regard the Roma today it makes me wonder just how long it will be before images like this one reemerge in modern France. How long can the Western world tolerate the injustices we are seeing the Roma suffer under this new wave of socialism? How long can we stomach the inhumanity we have allowed the Roma to suffer in France and the rest of Europe? 

Some may say it is a far stretch to compare bulldozing flea infested camps to the likes of the Nazi Holocaust. In their minds it is to hard to imagine a civilized world being dragged into the darkness of socialist tyranny like that which Hitler unleashed. To these I say that you are only dreaming. With your eyes closed so tightly even the worst the world has to offer can feel as if it were just a dream. And in your sleep the nightmares socialism has to offer can be made a fantasy comparable to paradise itself if only in your dreams. 

For those of who are awake however... the familiar sounds of jackboots are tapping away the minutes. The familiar victims of socialist greed are already being offered to its flames. And the spread of a ever to conversant darkness has sprawled itself out before our eyes. We have seen this night for what it is once before. And seeing as how we did not learn from its mistakes it appears we are damned to repeat it again. 

No Rest for the Weary

Quislings and the Roma

For longer than any living person can recall there have been Roma in Europe. They came westward before we had any idea what laid east of Jerusalem. And they have continued to live amongst Europeans for hundreds of years. Yet in Norway the Populist would like you to believe that these are eastern invaders. That they are taking everything you own while doing nothing to benefit the society they wish to destroy. 

These same socialist parties were around when Adolf Hitler took power to the south in Germany. They have been around before World War One and every since the unification of Germany. And not surprisingly these socialist ideologues have not changed their message in all these years. They still want to kill the Jews and Gypsies no matter how polite they are forced to sound in public today.

Norway is no exception. One fifth of Norwegians voted for the populist (socialist) Progress Party. The shift toward fascism has been going on in Norway for some time now. And their "tolerant" society is starting to show just how intolerant Norwegians have become.

And as with any shift toward the "right" the climate in Oslo has become far less hospitable for the Romani. Stories in Norwegian newspapers have stretched every supposed fact almost paper thin to try and link all Norwegian Roma to Romanian immigrants. The xenophobic attitude is only bolstered by the Progress Party leader Siv Jensen as she calls for all Norwegian Roma to be deported.

The facts however point to the issue that most Romani in Norway today have lived in Western Europe for generations. These are the same families that were persecuted by the Nazis and Quislings in Norway 70+ years ago. They are the same families who suffered forced sterilization by Norwegian law right up till the 1980s and some as late as the 1990s. Yet the Norwegian socialist point to a small minority amongst the minority and claim that all of the Roma are Eastern Europeans (thus new arrivals).

Now, just one year after claiming Norway would not change due to one right-wing gunman, the Roma are faced with the threat of expulsion. Many Roma who stand to be deported have never been East of the German-Polish border. They and their ancestors have called Norway home no matter how hard it has been to do so. Yet this is what "tolerance" is to them... the Progress Party.

Roma however are not alone. Norway's Islamaphobic right wing also wishes to expel any Muslims they can get their hands on to. This means that any "asylum seekers" in Oslo are under threat to be sent back to countries either currently hostile to them or in a state of civil war. Muslims in Norway who would not be sent back are constantly waiting for a French style "burka ban" in which they loose their freedom to observe their religion. (In France Muslim women caught wearing a headscarf of any type can be detained by police. Depending on the officer they could face a fine.)

All that is left now is for the world to wait and watch to see if Norway will revert back to its Quisling past. Nazism took barely two weeks to capture Oslo. This time around it may take longer.... but it is still pressing along as the radical right rears its ugly head once again.

Flower Power?

Roma Showing Civility While Facing Ethnic Violence

"We are here to prove that stirring ethnic hatred makes no sense; let other people tell what should and should not be displayed in society," Mariana Vankova from the Bulgarian National Network for Children.

Despite being faced with violence the Roma of Sofia, Bulgaria are showing up for a "Roma Pride" parade. The event was planned long before the ethnic violence broke the peace in Bulgaria. But now it is being used to show that the "ethnics" and the Roma can exist side-by-side in peace.

At nearly every intersection in the capitol city, Sofia, young Roma children were seen handing out flowers and smiling at passersby. Their goal was simple. Heap kindness upon thine enemies' head.

It is to early to tell if the parade or the flowers helped in any way. It is clear however that at least some "ethnic" Bulgarians found repentance in the act of solidarity shown by the Roma. Large numbers of Bulgarians showed up to participate and show their hope for peace.

It is true however that many on both sides of the fight have refused to join in and drop their ethnic hatred. Protest organized around the said racial motives are still present in Bulgaria. However now the police are arresting many of those who cross the line from talk to violence. And the attacks on innocent Roma are finally being addressed by the politicians and police alike.


Elsewhere in Europe the Roma Pride demonstrations occurred without as much scrutiny. On Saturday, October Second, hundreds of Roma took to the streets in Paris to display the colorful Roma culture and to show how the French government has recently attacked it. In Romania's capitol of Bucharest around three hundred Roma turned out for celebrations of the Roma culture. And according to Agence-France Presse even more Roma Pride events occurred in Denmark, Italy, Norway, and Turkey.

"Many Roma are afraid or ashamed to openly recognize their ethnicity because they are concerned about discrimination," Marian Mandache of the Romani Criss organization told Agence-France Presse. The demonstrators in Bucharest wore t-shirts that said "I am Romani" in the Romani language.

So all this leaves me to ask why fight back with flowers and not guns? It is hard to imagine a life where a simple display of your music, language, and dance is considered historic... historic in a place you have called home for generations upon generations. How do they continue to smile?



Galina Trefil.
 
"When violence is directed against us, without exception, we are blamed for it. Why? We did not “assimilate.” My grandfather once taught at Karelova University in Prague. Most anyone would have considered that assimilated enough, but he was still a Rom and, thusly, he was shot at with a machine gun and saw his children butchered. His life was destroyed. Roma families all have slaughter stories from the war though. To be Romani, one expects and has to find a way to accept hatred from birth. So, from that perspective, that Neo-Nazis would march and cry for our murder yet again is a frontal assault; not a surprise at all.

Where my own family has felt intense betrayal is that so many were destroyed by the original Nazis that, collectively, many Holocaust-survivor families today say, “Things changed. They got better. And we can take comfort in that.” I and others in my family proudly display the photographs of the Romani-American soldiers of World War II—men who volunteered for the army, eager to be part of that change; eager to bring justice and freedom to their brethren and other ethnic groups besides across the ocean. Risking their lives, these men returned to America with medals, proving not just their valor in battle, but their commitment to the idea of genocide being wiped out.

In 1959, my father made a gesture of standing up to a government that does not protect its citizens, but instead forces them to suffer. He swam a river and risked his life in order, just for a moment, to stand in his father’s homeland with pride. Even if it was only a gesture, sometimes gesture are necessary.

My father, a retired psychiatrist and surgeon, still loves the Czech Republic. This is an all-encompassing and devoted love that will not, no matter how many vicious mobs arise, ever change. No matter how many police refuse to arrest citizens bent on murder, he will never blame the Czech people as a whole, but rather the government which is failing to protect its non-Czech citizens. He considers those who Czechs who did not stand up to and or prosecute the mob as shameful to their own race and sympathizes with the many decent, ethical Czechs who are shamed by the escalating violence that they did not take part in."

Take what you will from her story. An explanation? I don't know for sure. It seems impossible to explain the resolve of the Roma people. It is hard to understand from this American mind how they still want to be part of a place and people who continue to hate them. And how they assimilate only to be rejected.

As for the flowers and smiles... we here at Alder's Ledge applaud the Roma who took part in the Roma Pride activities throughout Europe. And we will continue to cover your attempts to live in peace by writing about them here on Alder's Ledge. G-d bless you all.

Want to contact Alder's Ledge?

Follow us on Twitter: @alders_ledge

Source Documents (note that not all sources are listed below)

noinvite.com
Sofia News Agency
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132582

Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2866

Infoshop News
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20111001151904175

Bulgarian Right Wing Rearing Its Ugly Head

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Roma Targeted Once Again.
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In much of the European Union it doesn't take much to spark an anti-Roma campaign. A civil feud can easily become a national debate. And in Bulgaria that means the neo-Nazis rise to power once again.
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Their goal is simple. Keep the hate flowing. Keep the people fixated upon the target. And keep the message loud and constant.
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Now that the jackboots have hit the pavement their isn't much stopping the Bulgarians from outright attacking Roma citizens. Their blood is boiling and the fascist are readily stoking the flames. The death of one "ethnic" Bulgarian could prove merit enough for countless Roma deaths.
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"The hate speech that has been fuelling the anti-Roma protests in Bulgaria is of great concern," Rupert Colville, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). "We call on Bulgarian authorities at the highest political level to publicly restate this principle of individual criminal responsibility."
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And yet the Bulgarian authorities are doing nothing. Instead they simply stand back and wait. Wait for the "ethnic" Bulgarians to take matters into their own hands. Then once the blood has been spilled and the good citizens of Bulgaria have had their fun... then Bulgarian authorities will have a reason to expel the countries Roma population.
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After all, France did it. Why wouldn't Bulgaria?
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They have already taken their aggression to a level not seen in France. The racist protesters have the backing of a national political party, Ataka. A common uniform is showing up amongst the hate filled "ethnics". All their missing is a short fat Austrian with a funny mustache.
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So where is the EU or the UN? Doing what they do best in this sort of situation. Waiting till the storm blows over and then apologizing afterward. They did it with the Czechs recently. They did it with the French for years now. So why should we trust them with a clearly Nazi style protest as this one?
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And if you watched both videos you can see that the "ethnics" can't even keep their stories straight. First it was a "Roma clan" in a "Roma van". Next it is a "Roma national leader" in a "Roma bus". The only fact they do have here is that a Bulgarian citizen ran over another Bulgarian citizen.
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In any case we here at Alder's Ledge will continue to follow this story and update you all as events occur.
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Source Documents. (Note that not all are listed below.)
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The Sofia Echoe
http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/10/05/1168911_un-human-rights-commission-speaks-out-against-targeting-of-roma-in-bulgaria
&
http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/10/07/1170776_extremists-in-bulgaria-trying-to-exploit-ethnic-tensions-after-katounitsa
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/europe/anti-roma-demonstrations-spread-across-bulgaria.html
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BBC World News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15093839
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Hungary and the Neo-Nazis

Jobbik, the legal arm of Nazism in Hungary.
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Jobbik should had been banned much like the neo-Nazi organization just banned in Germany today. Instead Jobbik continues to flourish as it spreads its messege of hate across Hungary and abroad. Instead Jobbik remains free to enlist more and more "stormtroopers" into its Nazi army. Instead it continues to attack and harrass a portion of Hungary's population that the government refuses to protect.
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Spread the word about Jobbik and help fight the spread of fascist groups like these. In doing this you help make it more and more difficult for groups like Jobbik to gain power by working under the radar. And in doing this you help put pressure on Hungary to stop supporting Jobbik and its Nazi scum.
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Educational Discrimination Against Romani Children Part of Czech Unrest

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Czech Television station ČT24 has posted an article to its website reporting on the connection between the current unrest in Šluknov district and discrimination against Romani people in the schools. Such discrimination has been linked for decades in the Czech Republic to the provision of special education.
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The unrest in Šluknov region is rooted in the ongoing discrimination being practiced against Romani children at elementary schools there. For decades, the state has permitted intellectually healthy Romani children to be educated at schools for the intellectually disabled. After the practice was criticized, the state renamed the schools concerned, changing "special" ("zvláštní") schools into "practical" ("praktické") ones. Irremediable harm has been done to these children, because without a normal education, Romani people have no chance on the labor market. Among Romani residents of the residential hotel in Varnsdorf which police officers have been protecting from attack by non-Romani locals recently, only half of the local children currently attend mainstream schools.
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A full 27 % of Romani children without intellectual disabilities are still attending the renamed "special" schools throughout the country. "Special schools are intended for the intellectually disabled. Tell me: Is it possible for such a high percentage of any population to be intellectually disabled?" asks Iveta Němečková, a special needs educator.
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There are 400 ghettos total in the Czech Republic where an estimated 30 000 children live. Just like their parents when they were of pre-school age, many of these children have small vocabularies in Czech, may not yet know the words for colors or shapes (or may not distinguish colors), and may not yet grasp certain concepts. However, they are not intellectually backward, just socially deprived. They therefore have even more of a need for a normal education. "That's how they become familiar with the majority society, how they establish relationships with other children and start perceiving social norms and values in a natural way," said Klára Fischerová, a special needs educator working at the Lyčkovo náměstí Elementary School in Karlín.
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In 2007, the Czech Republic lost a case at the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg, which found in favor of Romani citizens who complained they had been unjustifiably educated in special schools. The practice is continuing and has been criticized by the Czech School Inspectorate and the ombudsman.
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Segregated education has a sad tradition of devastating impacts among the Roma. Those living in the ghettos today are often graduates of the days when special education was developed in full in Czechoslovakia during the 1970s. "A disproportionate percentage of the Romani population were educated in special schools, as many as 70 % of Romani children at the height of the practice," Němečková pointed out.
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According to a World Bank study published last year, eight out of 10 Romani people currently of economically productive age have only ever completed an elementary education. If their children don't get a chance for a better education, they will end up on welfare. The situation is a vicious circle.
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"It's not true that information has not been available about this, but for some reason there has never been interest at the highest levels, such as the Czech Education Ministry, or even in regional government. If we don't address this now, it will catch up to us in time," said Ivan Gabal, a sociologist and author of several pieces of research into the unequal position of Romani children.
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The state already knows how to address the situation. One elementary school in Prague's Karlín neighborhood could serve as a model, where rich and successful people are neighbors with families living in existential deprivation and everyone sends their children to the same schools.
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"The children are satisfied, that's important. We are the clients of these children and their parents, so we want to guarantee education for all," school director Jan Korda said. The Romani population of the school is 10 %, or two or three pupils in each class. Class 6.B also includes a girl of Vietnamese origin and a hearing-disabled boy. They live on the same street and attend the same class.
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"We're all children and we should be friends, not be separated," said Anežka Novotná from class 6.B. Whether the situation will change in Šluknov district remains an open question.
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Romea.cz Article
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2813