Italy: Court inflames Roma discrimination row

John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian, Tuesday July 1, 2008

Italy's highest appeal court has ruled that it is acceptable to discriminate against Roma on the grounds that they are thieves.

The judgment, made public yesterday, comes amid a nationwide clampdown on the Roma community by Silvio Berlusconi's government. Last week his interior minister, Roberto Maroni, announced plans to fingerprint all of Italy's Roma, including children.

The ruling by the court of cassation, which appears to provide judicial backing for the government's policies, was handed down in March, but reported only yesterday. The judges overthrew the conviction of six defendants who signed a leaflet demanding the expulsion of Verona's Gypsies in 2001.

Among those convicted of racially discriminatory propaganda was Flavio Tosi, an official of the anti-immigrant Northern League, who has since become Verona's mayor. He was quoted by a witness at his trial as having said afterwards: "The Gypsies must be ordered out because, wherever they arrive, there are robberies."

The court of cassation decided this did not show Tosi was a racist, but that he had "a deep aversion [to Roma] that was not determined by the Gypsy nature of the people discriminated against, but by the fact that all the Gypsies were thieves". His dislike of them was "not therefore based on a notion of superiority or racial hatred, but on racial prejudice". The judges scrapped the two-month jail sentences and ordered that the case be reheard.

Their ruling was published hours before police in Verona arrested eight Roma of Croatian origin accused of having induced minors to carry out burglaries in northern Italy. The arrests were co-ordinated by the prosecutor who charged Tosi and the others seven years ago.

Franco Frattini, the foreign minister, who until earlier this year was the European commissioner for justice and human rights, applauded the fingerprinting initiative, saying: "These things are done in many other European countries." He and other government supporters said the main beneficiaries would be Roma children at risk of being forced to break the law.

But an opposition MP, Gian Claudio Bressa, said the government was enacting measures "that increasingly resemble those of an authoritarian regime". On Sunday Maroni's top aide was reported to have imposed a vow of silence on three special commissioners appointed to deal with what the Italian media calls "the Roma emergency".

Anti-gypsy view cruel

The coverage of the protests about the proposed gypsy sites makes very disturbing reading and I would appeal to everyone involved in this process to think very carefully and sincerely about what they are saying.

While I understand the worries of the protesters, I am very upset by the sentiments some have expressed. While it is entirely appropriate to say: "I am worried that having a site near my home/school might lead to problems with noise, I am afraid it will appear unsightly, and I am concerned the comings and goings might cause problems and disturbance" it is another matter entirely to say, as one Calne mother you quoted did: "I want the councillors to look into my baby's eyes and tell her she will be growing up next to gypsies."

The gypsies are an ethnic and cultural group. They are human beings and this attitude towards them is racist and very cruel. How would this quote read if the word Jews' or Somalis' replaced the word gypsy?

Half a million gypsies were slaughtered by Hitler during the Holocaust. We think it is appalling how one group of people could dehumanise another group in such a way that it extends to genocide - but consider how dehumanising this comment is? How would a gypsy child feel, reading that a mother wouldn't want her child to grow up alongside him or her? Are gypsies worth less than non-gypsies?

I trust the Gazette, as a bastion of fairness and a promoter of racial equality and human rights, will not let such views and expressions go unchallenged.

Sarah Singleton, Patterdown, Chippenham

Italian plan to fingerprint Roma gypsy children in bid to end begging sparks uproar

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:57 PM on 26th June 2008

Italy has announced controversial plans to fingerprint thousands of Roma gipsy children in a bid to clamp down on street begging.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said mass fingerprinting by police would allow them to identify those caught begging instead of going to school.

Their parents would then be questioned and risk losing custody of them.

Mr Maroni said this would protect the children by deterring families who sent them out to accost passers-by. But the scheme, which will also involve fingerprinting all adult Roma, was immediately criticised as unacceptable discrimination and 'ethnic screening'.

In recent months, there has been an angry backlash against Roma in Italy, with petrol bombs thrown at a camp in Naples and sporadic vigilante attacks.

Many Italians blame gipsies for the rising crime rate and Silvio Berlusconi's new government has launched a tough crackdown on crime and immigration.

There are estimated to be around 160,000 Roma gipsies in Italy, often living in appalling conditions in makeshift camps with little basic sanitation.

Officials plan to bulldoze all illegal camps and a recent opinion poll found that 68 per cent of Italians want all gipsies expelled.

Vincenzo Spadafora, of the UN children's organisation Unicef, said of the fingerprints plan: 'If this is being brought in to protect the rights of Roma children, Italian children should also be fingerprinted to protect them as well.

'Most importantly, children should not be treated as adults.' Opposition MP Rosa Bindi said: 'The minister may deny it's ethnic screening, but it is frankly unacceptable.'

Jewish groups also attacked the plan. Amos Luzzarto, a former leader of Italy's Jewish community, said: 'There is a latent form of racism which manifests itself in cycles in Italian culture.

'I remember as a child being stamped and tagged as a Jew and as such could not be trusted.

'I think Italy is forgetting its past here. The racism of this initiative is evident and unacceptable. This is not a new form of fascism - this is racism.'

John Jorgenson plays Gypsy jazz in Truro

By Melora B. North

TRURO -

Back in the ’30s, French Sinto Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt made music that would change the course of history. Brought up in Gypsy encampments around Paris, he intertwined the cultures of his environment to create a musical genre reminiscent of a dance on the strings with heated abandon.

The sounds are light and frothy, deep and throaty, a contradiction that perfectly melds together to move the spirit and ignite a passion for a romp on the guitar a la Roma music. It is the flight of Reinhardt’s pick that has captured the heart of guitarist John Jorgenson, who will be performing a concert of American Gypsy jazz with his quintet at the Payomet Performing Arts Center, Highlands Center, Truro, for Gypsy Weekend.

The concert is at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 28. Admission is $20-$25. Call (508) 487-5400 for tickets.

A native of Southern California, Jorgenson got his degree in woodwinds from University of Redlands, a liberal arts college in his hometown which he says was small, “only about 35,000 people, a good place to grow up.”

It was as a child that he learned to play piano and dabbled in clarinet, but it was at age 12 that he got his first guitar, and that was just the beginning. Today Jorgenson says he can play several instruments, but the public will get to see him shine on the clarinet and guitar this time around.

“I can play about 10 instruments, though my levels of proficiency differ,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t have the sports gene. When the other kids were out playing sports I guess I was practicing. I used to ski but that ended when I broke my shoulder three weeks before my first tour with Elton John. We had to cut a guitar part.” But that didn’t end things for Jorgenson with the famed singer-pianist; it was actually the start of something quite good.

“I was originally signed up to tour with Elton John for 18 months. It turned out to be six years,” says Jorgenson. “He first heard me when I was playing with the Desert Rose Band, a band I co-founded with Chris Hillman from the Byrds. Six years later he asked me to tour with him. He’s fantastic, funny, very smart and very respectful of other musicians. It was a good job.” And it opened a lot of doors.

Through John, Jorgenson got to meet the late opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.

“They were doing a duet,” says Jorgenson. “It was the coolest thing being backstage in Italy when he came backstage and all of a sudden you heard this voice. Elton was teaching him a song!”

Over the course of his career, Jorgenson has performed with other notables such as K.D. Lang, Roy Orbison, Barbra Streisand, Bonnie Raitt, Earl Scruggs and Benny Goodman, an eclectic assortment of talent to be sure. He has collaborated with Billy Joel and Sting, and three times he has won the American Country Music award for Guitarist of the Year. He even has a Grammy with Peter Frampton. But it is his affinity for Reinhardt that seems to keep coming to the forefront.

“Django is the godfather of my style,” says Jorgenson, who was asked to re-create Reinhardt’s music for film. He did the music for “Gattica” and “Head in the Clouds.” In fact, he played Reinhardt in “Clouds,” which starred Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz.

“They asked me to re-create a couple of pieces from an old score,” says Jorgenson. “The director wanted to show the guitarist on stage. They cut my hair and dyed it black. I had a mustache and they did make-up on my hands to make them look burned and scarred.” (At age 18 Reinhardt was rescued from a terrible fire that ravaged the caravan he was living in at the time with his first wife. He would later learn to play guitar with just two fingers despite the doctor’s declaration that he would never play again.) “I played with my two fingers. The film is a period piece, great fun. I did my best.” And his best was convincing.

“I’m Scandinavian, Scotch and Irish,” says the blonde with a laugh. “They did such a good job on the make-up, my wife Dixie [Gamble] didn’t even recognize me.”

(MORE)

Gypsy band Gogol Bordello supports Sulukule

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

A Gypsy punk band touring Turkey broke away from its formal schedule yesterday to stage a surprise appearance at Sulukule, the embattled Istanbul neighborhood that is the oldest Roma settlement in the world.Gogol Bordello, a band originally from Ukraine but including members from a host of countries, visited Sulukule in a show of support against an urban transformation project underway that is blamed for ignoring the current Roma inhabitants of the area and threatening them with homelessness.

Sulukule is being demolished since February. Fatih Municipality continues the transformation project despite the objections of many. Sulukule Platform, an organization working to save the quarter, contacted the band long before it arrived in Turkey. One of the platform's representatives Neşe Ozan said Gogol Bordello's members and their families had once been in the same situation as Sulukule residents. “The band is here to show Roma people they are not alone and they want to support the act to save the gypsy culture and the district.”

Gogol Bordello's soloist Eugene Hutz, in the Sunday concert, said, “The incidents happening in Sulukule happen in many places around the world. Do people want more McDonalds' and hotel chains? Or is it more logical to protect a country's culture and historical structures? The choice is yours.”

There were many people, including locals, journalists, tourists and municipality authorities waiting in Sulukule for the world famous band yesterday.

One of them, a 55-year-old woman, born and raised in Sulukule, Gülsüm, a little chubby and talkative, has even attended TV shows to save her homeland. “I won't leave my house no matter what the municipality offers me, I don't even want a palace,” she said. According to her, Roma people won't be able to assimilate if they move to another place.

Austrian Astrid Heubrandtner was among the audience waiting to see Gogol Bordello. Heubrandtner came to Istanbul in January to shoot a documentary film about Sulukule. “Istanbul is one of the most interesting cities in the world, but having Sulukule as one of its districts makes it even more attractive,” she said and added, “I think people should feel proud of having a district like Sulukule.”

Soloist Hutz complained that nobody really knows what is happening in Sulukule. “I spoke to many people about the district during my trips to Turkey and I understood that people don't know much about the history of the district,” said Hutz. According to the band members, the right move would be “to protect” not “to destroy.” Hutz stated that it is sad to decide upon annihilating a historic place and culture.

Sulukule Mayor İsmail Altıntoprak emphasized that there should be a carnival organized to promote Sulukule's culture and music. “This way the gypsy culture can be promoted to the whole world and we can protect the population,” said Altıntoprak. Gogol Bordello promised to take part in the carnival as long as such an event is achievable.

Who is the band?

Formed in 1999 Gogol Bordello comes from New York's Lower East Side. The band is known for its theatrical shows, inspired by gypsy music. The core members are immigrants from eastern Europe. The band's name comes from Nikolai Gogol, who "smuggled" Ukrainian culture into Russian society. The band released its first single in 1999, followed by four albums so far. Last weekend was the band's third visit to Turkey, where it is admired and has a number of fans.

Keep guns out of national parks!

The Bush administration has proposed a rule that would allow
visitors to carry loaded firearms in every one of our national
parks, posing a grave threat to our nation's wildlife.

Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
today and tell the Bush administration to reject this outrageous
proposal.

Under pressure from a group of senators, the Bush administration
would weaken the current rule, which requires that firearms be
unloaded and stored to prevent their ready use. This
long-standing precaution has been crucial in controlling
poachers within our nation's national parks and protecting
certain species from extinction -- in particular, Yellowstone's
grizzly bear population.

If passed, the new rule would likely increase poaching of
imperiled species, such as Greater Yellowstone's grizzlies and
wolves. In Wyoming -- where state officials have already begun
gunning down wolves -- the wolf population is especially
vulnerable.

Allowing visitors to carry loaded weapons would also pose a
safety risk to millions of Americans who use our national parks
every year.

Our national parks should be a safe haven for all wildlife and
citizens. Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
right away and tell the Bush administration you won't stand for
loaded guns in our national parks!

Thank you again for taking action on behalf of our parks and
wildlife.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

Twilight Zone / The Gypsies of Jerusalem

By Gideon Levy

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

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

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

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

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

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

What does it mean to be Nawar?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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