#1
Been thinking a lot about the construct of race in Europe compared to the USA, and with the fact that a blonde Swede is gonna get treated hell of a lot different compared to a blonde Serb its got me thinking about the amount of open putrid hatred of Irish Travellers and Roma within Europe and the vastly poor life expectancies they have.

Irish Travellers are pretty white as are English Romany skin colour wise, while for Roma it really depends cause humans tend to be complex as fuck and come in a wide variety of shades and tones.

Antiziganism is so widespread and I do not understand how supposed Euro leftists can be so vile regarding Roma/Travellers. Its estimated that 220,000 to 500,000 Romani were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators, or 25% to over 50% of the slightly fewer than 1 million Roma in Europe at the time.

One of the main complaints I have seen time and time again towards Roma/Travellers is that they are "predators" because they tend to marry so young as teenagers, but they seem to forget that the life expectancy is so low for them that few of them make it their 50s. Not to excuse for child marriage but there is some reasoning for it behind the low life expectancy there.

And in recent years there have been huge efforts by various police forces east and west to take Roma/Traveller children into care and accusations that these children have been "stolen" due to them being blond/having blue eyes, but DNA tests proving that their parents are actually the people raising them if the first place.

Also what the fuck the lovely term "chav" comes fron originally 'Romanichal boy'
#2
Sad truth revealed about Travellers' life expectancy


TRAVELLERS have the same life expectancy as people living in the Ireland of the 1940s, with half dying before reaching the age of 39.

Death rates among the community are completely out of line with the rest of the population and there has been no improvement in life expectancy for travellers in 20 years.

A stark new report shows that seven in 10 members of the 30,000-strong community die before reaching their 59th birthday, and that one in 10 children die before reaching the age of two - compared to just 1pc in the general population.

And Travellers are 10 times more likely to die in road accidents, and three times more likely to take their own lives than members of the settled community.

The report also found:

* Traveller infants aged under two are 10 times more likely to die from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) or congenital diseases than the settled community.

* Perversely, Travellers are less likely to die from a stroke, heart attack or cancer because they are unlikely to reach ages where these conditions occur.

* In the total population, 2.6pc of all deaths are for people aged under 25 years. The figure for the Travelling community is 32pc.

Yesterday Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said longevity was a 'joy' denied to the community, with many Travellers living in 'third world' conditions.

"Anyone reading this will be moved to sadness, and indeed even to anger, to see just how deep that disadvantage reaches into the most fundamental elements of human dignity," he said.

"One can truly say that God has gifted the generations of our times with the gift of longevity. . . it is a joy that eludes the Traveller community.."

The findings are contained in a new book, 'Travellers' Last Rights: Responding to Death in a Cultural Context', compiled by the Parish of the Travelling People from data related to 255 people and collated between 1995 and 2004 in the Dublin area.

It shows that the most common cause of death among males was roadtraffic accidents (22pc), with young men aged less than 39 years of age accounting for all suicide deaths.

Common

Coronary illness (16pc) and road traffic accidents (16pc) were the most common forms of death for the Traveller population as a whole. Cancer kills 25pc of women.

"While providing pastoral care services to Travellers at times of death and bereavement we were increasingly concerned about the age profile and cause of death," co-author Fr Stephen Monaghan said.

The study recommends that diversity policies be adopted by service providers including the Gardai, hospitals, clergy, undertakers and prison service and that anti-racism training be provided.

#3
Roma children taken away by Irish police 'suffering nightmares' after ordeal


The families of two Roma children who were removed from their parents in the Republic amid probes into their identity have told how they woke up distressed and crying in the night.

Iancu Muntean, who lives in Athlone, Co Westmeath, told how both his son Iancu Jnr (2) and the boy's mother, Loredaiva Sava (23), had been having difficulty sleeping after the incident.

And the mother of a seven-year-old girl taken from her Co Dublin home for two nights said she hopes her child will forget the saga over time.

After the little girl was returned to her arms in Tallaght late on Wednesday, the family told how she had woken up crying and calling for her "mama" during her first night home.

The mother said she was reluctant to question the little girl, who cannot be identified, about her time away from her siblings. "I don't want to ask her anything," she said, as she just wanted her to forget the entire thing.

"She is in school now," said the mother, as the family welcomed friends to their house to congratulate them on the outcome. "I feel really tired after this situation – but happy."

Mr Muntean (22) told how both his son and girlfriend from Bucharest, Romania, had been having difficulty sleeping and were still unaware where their son had been taken for the night.

Ms Sava said her son had been "crying" and was scared, and had told her "the garda, she come to take me back" after waking up.

Mr Muntean said he did not believe this would happen to an Irish family and believed it was a type of discrimination against the Roma community.

#4
From 1993: End of Communism Worsens Anti-Gypsy Racism

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia— The millions of Gypsies of Eastern Europe have emerged as great losers from the overthrow of Communism and the end of the rigid controls that it imposed on daily life.

Many of the economic and social protections that Gypsies enjoyed in Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia collapsed, permitting a revival of the open prejudice and persecution that have marked the history of the Roma, as Gypsies prefer to call themselves, since they first reached Europe in the 11th century after a long migration from the Indian subcontinent.

The transition from state-run economies that provided full, even compulsory, employment has closed many of the unprofitable factories, mines and construction projects that provided work for most Gypsies, even if at the most menial jobs.

"Nostalgia for the old regime is strongest among Gypsies," said Gabor Havas, a Hungarian sociologist and Member of Parliament for the Free Democrats. "They lost almost everything they had and gained nothing." Nostalgia May Mean Votes

Two social workers who work among the Roma hesitated when asked in Prague, the Czech capital, whether many Gypsies would vote for the neo-Communist Party. Finally one, Bozena Viragova, replied, "They would tend to vote for it because it represents a more secure social order."

Jan Kompus, a Gypsy in the eastern Slovak village of Medzev, said: "They would vote Communist because in Communist days they had jobs and apartments and didn't have to pay for schoolbooks. We lived in better social conditions."

Mr. Kompus, a former factory mechanic, said he has been unemployed since he was dismissed in 1990 for demanding equal pay and social conditions for Gypsies in a farm-implement factory. Despite a favorable court ruling, he said, he has not been reinstated.

Max van der Stoel, high commissioner on national minorities for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 53-nation organization, is forthright: "The vast majority of Roma face extraordinarily difficult circumstances in their everyday lives -- poverty, discrimination and the lack of full participation in mainstream society." A Convenient Target

Thus Mr. van der Stoel, a former Dutch Foreign Minister, depicts the grim reality encountered in four weeks of travel through Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. (Population figures are imprecise because Gypsies are suspicious of outside authority and reluctant to take part in censuses.)

"Stigmatized minorities always become scapegoats," said Prof. Milena Hubschmannova, a philologist at Charles University in Prague whose 40 years of study of the Romany language led her to involvement in Roma issues. She says that in the general disappointment that followed initial euphoria after the collapse of Communism, Gypsies have become the targets of blame.

In many interviews with officials and others in Bucharest, Budapest, Prague and Bratislava, as well as with local authorities, the dominant note was accusatory. Complaints about the Gypsies' alleged laziness, uncleanliness, dishonesty and criminality were far more common than plans to relieve their plight. The Stigma of the Stereotype

Jan Vik, 24, the parliamentary deputy of the right-wing Republican Party in the Czech Republic, said he saw the problem as one of criminality.

"We can't wait for the country to be flooded by crime," he said. "At age 3, a Gypsy will see his drunk father, his prostitute mother, and all we try to do for him will prove in vain. His parents tell him the best way of life is stealing."

Such attitudes support the view of many Roma leaders that unless serious efforts are quickly undertaken to end such stereotypes, the current violence against Gypsies -- mainly small-scale village attacks and skinhead assaults -- might expand greatly.

At best, most officials acknowledged a serious social problem, but said that in the current economic crisis, no funds were available to relieve it.

But other suggestions were less charitable. Jozef Pacai, the Mayor of Medzev, said selective killing of Gypsies was the only solution.

Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar of Slovakia said in a speech on Sept. 3 that Gypsies constituted a "socially unadaptable population" with a high birth rate of "children who are poorly adaptable mentally, poorly adaptable socially, children with serious health disorders, children, simply, who are a great burden on this society." The Anonymous Racist

In one interview, a senior counselor in Slovakia who insisted he not be named because "my words would be taken as racist," volunteered views that seem typical: "Under socialism, we said that two species were overprotected -- bears and Roma. They didn't have to work. They had many children and received a lot of welfare.

"Today, too, they get a lot. A family with two children that works hard gets as much as a Roma family with a lot of children without work. They spend it in a few days, then go back to stealing.

"The state tried to solve the problem by putting Gypsies in state housing. An apartment was assigned to a family of four or five, then 15 or 20 moved in. They ripped up the floorboards and made a fire in the middle of the room. There are exceptions who work, of course, but that is one out of 15.

"These are not my opinions," the official concluded. "I am giving you an objective picture." A Chilling Suggestion

Such opinions are not found only in official circles. The Bucharest daily Curierul National published last month, without comment, a survey of interviews with what it described as ordinary citizens. One typical comment came from Olivia D., identified as a worker, who said, "I'm sorry I don't have the power -- I would exterminate them all."

Such violent expressions directed against Gypsies, ethnic Hungarians and Jews are common in Romania, and President Ion Iliescu, with a closely divided Parliament, depends on extreme nationalist parties for his Government's survival.

"The Government is indifferent," said Nicolae Gheorghe, a sociologist and a spokesman for Romania's two million Roma. "It tolerates and justifies violence."

Smaranda Enache, one of the small band of human-rights campaigners in Romania, said Gypsies "are generally persecuted by the police, humiliated by local authorities and made to live on the margin."

"There is a large campaign to present Gypsies all the time as criminals, in the press and television, and this is perpetuated by teachers," she said. "This is a tragedy of our schools." The Failure of the Schools

Education is a root problem. Roma children tend to get little encouragement from their families or from teachers to attend school.

In the nearby village of Raznany, Rudolf Duda, the only Gypsy on the village soccer team, said: "If a Roma child is not very good in his first year in school, he is immediately sent to the school for the mentally retarded. The school director tries to get rid of all the Roma children."

But Prof. Jan Podolak, an anthropologist on the staff of President Michal Kovac of Slovakia dealing with minority problems, denied that accusation.

"They are not sent to special schools because they are retarded," he said of the Roma children. "They don't speak Slovak, and sending them to segregated schools would mean isolating them. The problem is the irresponsible attitude of parents. They feel no need for education. The educational system must work on the parents."

In the Communist period, said Gheorghe Radicanu, son of a fortune-teller, who represents Romania's Gypsies in Parliament, Gypsy education was a sham. "Our children had no background for education," he said. "They got into difficulty in school but got their certificates anyway." Illiteracy Rules

One result, said Nicolae Gheorghe, the sociologist, is that literacy is "dramatically low" -- less than half the Romany population.

Agnes Daroczy, a Roma leader who produces Gypsy programs on Hungarian state television, adds, "Roma need affirmative action, but no Government offers it."

Commenting on the television programs and other encouragement of Roma culture, which is a post-Communist development, Peter Weiss, chairman of the Party of the Democratic Left in Slovakia, said: "Now Gypsies are allowed to have cultural groups. But not all Gypsies know how to play the fiddle."

Photo: The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, and the rigid controls it imposed on its subjects, have permitted a revival of the traditional persecution of Gypsies. Prejudice, both private and official, is directed against Gypsies, like these residents of a ghetto near Bucharest. (Antonin Kratochvil/Dot Pictures) Map: "Where the Gypsies Are" shows estimates of the number of Gypsies currently in European countries. Macedonia has a large number of Gypsies, but an accurate number is not available. (Source: Prof. Ian F. Hancock, President of the International Roma Federation)

#5
I once was in an anarchist squat for some shitty zine workshop (literally I would have organised one better with only an orange and a sewing needle, it was that fucking bad) and there was a Slovakian guy there who went on a tangent about Roma marrying so young and how they just live off the state, even though this guy was fucking living in an anarchist squat and I was able to get the giant hypocrite that he was to shut the fuck up after I told him off and asked if he had any similar views on Jewish people (reader, later it was revealed that yes he did amoungst other racist and sexist views and the other anarchists he was living with banished him from living there)
#6
#7
As far as road accidents, the eastern European city I'm most familiar with ended up installing speed bumps on the major traffic artery through the largest Roma ghetto, thanks to neo-Nazis' habit of barreling through at top speed looking to run random Roma over like a goddamn GTA game.

I remember once I was there attending a lecture/discussion about Palestine put on by an autonomist org, at one point someone brought up the Roma (in the context of municipal separation barriers IIRC) and all but two or three of the dozen or so people in the otherwise lively discussion got noticeably quiet and stone-faced until the subject was changed. Nothing explicit, but you could hear the air immediately being sucked out of the room.
#8
Reminder that zizek on roma is fucking charming

There was, in Slovenia, around a year ago, a big problem with a Roma (Gipsy) family which camped close to a small town. When a man was killed in the camp, the people in the town started to protest against the Roma, demanding that they be moved from the camp (which they occupied illegally) to another location, organizing vigilante groups, etc. As expected, all liberals condemned them as racists, locating racism into this isolated small village, while none of the liberals, living comfortably in the big cities, had any everyday contact with the Roma (except for meeting their representatives in front of the TV cameras when they supported them). When the TV interviewed the “racists” from the town, they were clearly seen to be a group of people frightened by the constant fighting and shooting in the Roma camp, by the constant theft of animals from their farms, and by other forms of small harassments from the Roma. It is all too easy to say (as the liberals did) that the Roma way of life is (also) a consequence of the centuries of their exclusion and mistreatment, that the people in the nearby town should also open themselves more to the Roma, etc. – nobody clearly answered the local “racists” what they should concretely do to solve the very real problems the Roma camp evidently was for them.


"This was actually a response to a pogrom which observers compared to Kristallnacht."

#9
Growing up I lived in a small southern France village for a while where white men would form bands to go beat up Roma at night (and probably worse), and the next morning they would blame the commotion and destruction on a fight between the Arabs and the Roma.
#10
[account deactivated]
#11
It's because most Europeans are hideously racist
#12
A friend of mine his father is Turkish and his mother Irish and his father always has so much respect for Irish Travellers cause "they pay their debts and are good solid families" but he hates English Romany and Roma which is weird

he owns a chipper and once told me about how he does food for Traveller weddings and how they always respect him so much and tip him loads

Then his wife always says that they can be dangerous and she gets scared hes gonna be involved with some "traveller gang feud" and be murdered for merely cooking roast chicken and drinking a few free drinks and maybe dancing a bit to wham at some wedding in a community hall in north london

but she never tells him to turn them down funny that

and they all know that his wife is irish but due to how settled irish people are with irish travellers i can most likely imagine them never asking about her directly unless he brings her up and where hes been in Ireland

AND its interesting in Hibernian English that the term "settled" is used to refer to non-travellers and yeah ok its cause "settled" people are living in "settled" homes etc but the idea of being settled is subjective? tbh think comparisons could be made with how the term savages and natives and how negative stereotypes can arise with those words for minorities
#13
readsettlers.org