Jewish group urges Bulgarian president to withdraw prize to alleged anti-gypsy

SOFIA (AFP-EJP)---The Simon Wiesenthal Centre called Tuesday on Bulgaria's president to withdraw a journalism prize awarded to a columnist it says compared gypsies to animals.

A statement from the Jewish human rights organisation's director for international relations, Shimon Samuels, protested the country's choice of recipient for its 2008 Chernorizetz Hrabar journalistic award.

"The laureate, Kalin Rumenov, is reported to have written racist articles on a regular basis, attacking the Roma Gypsy community in the national newspaper Novinar," Samuels said, urging President Georgy Parvanov to withdraw the prize.

The newspaper was not immediately available to comment but Samuels quoted excerpts of articles where Rumenov compared the gypsies to "cattle" and said they were "multiplying like sheep."

"This language is so redolent of the 1930s and 1940s when both Jews and Gypsies were marked for Nazi extermination," Samuels said.

The award was received by Kalin Rumenov at an official ceremony in Sofia in May in the presence of leading politicians, members of Parliament and journalists.

Several Bulgarian professional groups set up a petition for the prize to be publicly withdrawn, calling on the President and the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, who were present at the ceremony, to make a public declaration that they do not share the values represented by the racist author.

An estimated 700,000 gypsies or Roma live in Bulgaria, forming nine percent of the country's population. The community is poverty-ridden and isolated in ghettos, largely illiterate and often discriminated.

Italy: Gov't rejects claims of police violence in Gypsy camps

Rome, 29 July (AKI) - Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has denied claims made by a top human rights watchdog that police forces carried out violent raids against Roma-Gypsy camps.

"I reject with indignance, the accusations by (Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights) Thomas Hammarberg. They assert that violent acts were perpetrated against Roma encampments without effective protection by the police forces, and that they carried out violent raids against the settlements." said Maroni on Tuesday, addressing the Lower House.

"These are outright lies, the police have never committed any act of violence of this nature. Commissioner Hammarberg, tell us what these acts are."

A note by Maroni's office, also rejected the claims by Hammarberg.

"It concerns us, the assertion that police authorities carried out violent raids against nomad (Roma-Gypsy) settlements," read the note from the Italian government.

"The Italian government has already answered the memorandum sent by The Council of Europe following the visit to Rome by the Commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, providing all the data that show how the worries about the lack of human rights are completely groundless."

The note is in response to an earlier report by The Council of Europe, published in full in the organisation's website, stating:

"The Commissioner is following closely and is deeply concerned at anti-Roma and anti-Sinti manifestations in Italy which have been occasionally extremely violent resulting into setting on fire Roma camps, reportedly without effective protection by the Police which has also carried out violent Roma camp raids," said the report.

Help Impeach him...

Like or hate Kucinich - he makes a good case for impeaching the President:

URGENT: need your help - Impeachment Petition Deadline Midnight Wednesday

Dear Friends,

Because of your vigilance and support for democracy, last Friday was a day of singular importance in Washington. The House Judiciary Committee met to discuss the Bush Administration's abuse of executive power and for the first time the case for Impeachment was discussed in front of a Congressional committee, in depth, at length and with authority.

Twenty members of the Judiciary Committee attended the six-hour hearing, during which twelve witnesses, including myself and four members of Congress testified. In this hearing I called for the Impeachment of the President for misrepresenting a case for war.

This week I will present members of Congress with Impeachment petitions submitted by those of you who have signed the on-line impeachment form.

I need your help. In the next few days we must redouble our efforts to get more signatures on the online petition at kucinich. us. I'm asking each of you to please contact at least ten of your friends to go to http://kucinich.us/now and sign the Impeachment petition that will be delivered by me. Wednesday night is the deadline.

Please send out an email to all your friends and family, post this link, http://kucinich.us/ to your blogs and make this effort count as this is the only petition that I will deliver.

Sign the petition. Thank you so very much.

Signature - Dennis J Kucinich

Dennis

Paid for by the Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee

PO Box 110475 Cleveland OH 44111 216-252-9000

Gypsy film gets European airing

Students from Monkton School have been showing off their film-making talents on a recent trip to the European Parliament in Brussels.

Hosted by Plaid MEP Jill Evans, the visit was made possible by the Priory Project, which provides education and support for secondary school-aged gypsy children.

"It is refreshing to see young people from Wales taking the lead with a groundbreaking project like this.”

Jill Evans MEPAn informative DVD in which the young people share their views and experiences, was made with support from the Welsh Assembly Government and Save the Children, which also helped fund the visit to Brussels.

The party was led by project leader Bev Stephens and headteacher William Rees. Children heard from Belgian MEP, Els de Groen; Caroline Mooney of the Welsh Assembly and Livia Jaroka, the first Romany gypsy MEP to be elected.

Presentations were made by Caroline Mooney, of the Assembly’s social inclusion department, and Ant Edwards, of Save The Children. Priory Project pupil, Kirby Jones, also spoke to the MEPs about the work being done in Pembrokeshire.

Jill Evans MEP said: “I learned a lot from meeting these young people. They were impressive advocates for the gypsy traveller community and presented first hand evidence of their experiences and the challenges they face.

“The European Union now has a Roma Inclusion Strategy, but there is still a lot of discrimination.

“These young people were very interested in the work of the European Parliament. It is refreshing to see young people from Wales taking the lead with a groundbreaking project like this.”

She added: "I have asked for a copy of the DVD and will show it to my colleagues. This project has my wholehearted support.”

Gypsy Queen Mable dies, 99

A gypsy queen has died in Wigan only a few months before her 100th birthday.
Great-grandmother Mable Knight died at Wigan Infirmary after becoming ill when she broke a hip.

The 99-year-old was a hugely respected member of the gipsy community and thousands of mourners from as far away as Italy, America, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland have been coming to Wigan to pay their respects.

Her granddaughter Margaret Peroni, of Collette Close, Scholes, said her grandmother was part of a disappearing way of life and, as a younger woman, had gone "duckering" – earning money by predicting the future.

Margaret, whose dad is a gypsy king, said: "We're all heartbroken. If I live to be as wise and as good-hearted as she was, I'll die happy. She was a true queen and an absolutely beautiful woman and a great grandparent.

"She always said she was waiting for her telegram from the Queen on her 100th birthday and she almost made it.
"She'd been given the last rites three times before she died, but she pulled through.

"She was born in a horse drawn wagon and had lived through some tough times. Some of the stories she used to tell us would make your hair stand on end."

Her funeral was held at St Edward's Church on Scott Lane yesterday.

Life at the Gypsy Jazz Camp (Part One)

When jazz.com’s Bill Barnes told me was running off to Gypsy jazz camp, I had visions of rugged but glamorous days spent in caravans and romantic evenings by the campfire listening to inspired string music. The camera pans back to show bow-top trailers and a dark woods in the background.

Okay, I admit it. I grew up near Hollywood, and it probably shaped my impressions of the life of the Romani people. As I later learned, Bill's Gypsy jazz gathering took place at Smith College, and there wasn't a single bow-top trailer anywhere in sight. But if it didn’t look like a scene from a movie, the music lived up to the highest expectations.

More interesting, this event is another sign of the remarkable resurgence of interest in the music of Django Reinhardt and his modern-day heirs. Make no mistake about it, Django is hot right now, and seems to be getting hotter all the time. Barnes tells us more about this fascinating subject below, and fills us in on the real happenings at a modern Gypsy jazz camp, in the first installment of his article below. T.G.

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URGENT: Release Dina Babbitt's original Gypsy portraits to her now

Dina Gottliebova Babbitt (aka Dinah), is the artist who was forced to paint and draw the horrible experiments of the Auschwitz doctor known as the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele. Mengele also commanded her to paint the watercolor portraits of several Gypsies, who were other Auschwitz inmates, in order to capture what he called gypsy skin coloration better than he could do it with his camera and the film of that time. Once the portraits were complete, to Dina's horror, Mengele sent the Gypsies to their death.

According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum's website, seven of the gypsy portraits were discovered after World War II outside the Auschwitz Death Camp, from which they were removed without legal permission, in the early 1970's and sold to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum by people who apparently did not know that the artist, Dina Babbitt, was still alive and living in California. (If this information has been removed from the Museum's website, I still have the save webpage. Contact me to see it on Museum letterhead.) The Museum asked Dina to come to Auschwitz in 1973 to identify her work. However, after she did, the Museum would not allow her to take her paintings home with her. The Museum's refusal to release the paintings to Dina began her re-incarceration as a spiritual hostage of the Auschwitz Death Camp.

Much disinformation has been spread about Dina's purpose in seeking to reclaim her original artwork. The truth is that she has no desire whatever to hide the Gypsy portraits from history. As a matter of fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Once she is in possession of her Gypsy portraits, she wishes to display them in Holocaust museums in the United States, in which she lives free, and around the world. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum displays only copies for security reasons.

The question has been asked "Why did Dina not take the paintings with her when she left?" The reason is that she was on a death march.

A letter was even sent to Dina once saying that if anyone had a right to the paintings it was Josef Mengele. That suggestion is nauseating. I am looking for the original letter and will post it on her website when I find it.

Dina is legally credited by the Museum as being the rightful owner of her artwork and must sign paperwork for the Museum each time it wants to reproduce her work. She has always accommodated the Museum and has never taken any monetary compensation, to which she is entitled, for the reproduction of her work. She has always asked the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum to give any monies earned through the reproductions of her watercolor portraits to go to causes supporting the Gypsy or Roma people. However, to date, the Museum claims that, because it purchased the paintings from other people, the Museum does not have to return Dina's original Gypsy portraits to her. International law has now established that possessing stolen artwork does not entitle the possessor to keep it. The Museum only displays copies of Dina's paintings for security reasons and could easily represent the tragedy of the Gypsies as it does now, with copies of Dina's portraits.

Not one, but two United States Acts of Congress have been written in support of Dina. One was authored by Congresswoman Shelley Berkley. The other was co-authored by Senators Barbara Boxer and Jesse Helms. Both became part of the Congressional Record in 2003. They passed unanimously.

Dina feels that neither, she nor her Gypsy subjects, will ever have their spiritual freedom from the Auschwitz Death Camp until the portraits are returned to her so she may display them in Holocaust museums in the United States and other free countries around the world.

Our mother and we, her family, have been trying to get these paintings returned to her since 1973. Dina, who is now 85, has just been diagnosed with an aggressive form of abdominal cancer and will have surgery on Wednesday, July 23, 2008. The surgery takes six hours and is very risky under the best of circumstances.

We pray to the Museum to return Dina's artwork to her now. We further implore the Museum to not prolong this struggle for years to come after Dina passes from this earth. In addition, we welcome the understanding and support of the Roma people, Dina's friends, in securing the spiritual release of the Roma victims of Auschwitz.

We implore anyone who reads this to support the efforts to get her paintings back now by signing in to her Facebook page and sending an e-mail of support for Dina to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum through the link on that page. In addition, please forward a link to http://www.dinababbitt.com or Dina's Facebook page to every good person that you know.

Thank you for your kindness, empathy, and support.

Michele Kane and Karin Babbitt
Dina's daughters
michele@dinababbitt.com

Community network sites honoured

BBC News

A social networking site for young gypsy travellers has won an award for the social use of technology.

The SavvyChavvy site was one of eight projects honoured in the UK's Catalyst Awards that recognise technology used to serve communities.

The site helps younger travellers stay in touch and post blogs and videos about their experiences.

Also honoured in the awards were a virtual nightclub for disabled people and a scheme to help people share cars.

Social action

The Catalyst Awards were set up to champion those using social media, such as the web, to keep communities together and tackle social challenges such as gang culture and poverty.

For its work helping young gypsy travellers communicate SavvyChavvy won the Community award. Chavvy is an old Romany word for "youth".

The site, which is closed to those who are not travellers, is credited with helping to gypsys change the way their community is seen.

Wheelies - a virtual nightclub hosted in Second Life - got the Revolutionary award. The David and Goliath award went to Liftshare - an online system that helps people with spare car seats find passengers.

Helen Anderson won an award for her work to bring broadband to South Witham in Lincolnshire. Ms Anderson was driven to get the project going after her community was ignored by large net suppliers.

The winners of the awards were presented with their trophies by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

He said the projects had huge potential to influence lives and communities.

"The worst of Britain can always be challenged by the best of Britain," he said.

The Community Awards for Social Technology (Catalyst) were sponsored by the Council on Social Action, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) and the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.

Helping to judge entries were the Make Your Mark campaign group; Unltd, which backs social entrepreneurs and Polecat which helps organisations measure their social impact.

Rome census reveals the hopes and fears of gypsies

by Emmanuelle Andreani

Italy's policy towards immigrants -- notably ethnic Romanians, many of them Roma -- has come under intense scrutiny since Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said last month that security forces would fingerprint gypsies.

About 50 people, mostly gypsies, or Roma, live in one camp outside Rome without water or electricity, among rats and in shocking hygiene conditions.

"Have you come to hunt us or help us?" asked Rogi when Red Cross volunteers arrived at his camp to conduct a census as part of the Berlusconi government's controversial crackdown on immigrants.

Like other inhabitants of the camp, Rogi, a member of the Roma minority from Romania, greeted the volunteers with suspicion.

The 10 volunteers made their way between the tents, shacks, bits of furniture and mattresses in the camp hidden among the tall grass and reeds between a road and railway track in southwest Rome.

While gypsies have been fingerprinted in Milan and Naples, authorities in Rome are opposed to the policy.

"Will you answer some questions?" a Red Cross worker asked Ramona Nae and her brother Remus, two Romanians aged in their thirties.

"No. Why have you come here? What we need is a better life and we aren't going to get that by filling in questionnaires," said Remus, throwing a suspicious glance at the Italian and foreign press covering the operation.

"Hang on," said another woman. "They are here to provide us with medical help, milk for the children, not turn us in to the police. Maybe we'll get a house through them."

Like her, most residents agree to answer the questions of the volunteers, who are not accompanied by police officers as they had expected.

"We ask them their name, age, nationality, if they have been vaccinated, if they have been sick, and if their children are going to school. They are not obliged to answer," said one young volunteer.

"Mostly they have worms, gastro-intestinal illnesses and bronchitis," said another worker, who was nursing a small boy with a fever. "Very few of the children have been vaccinated or enrolled in school."

A short distance away, other members of the Red Cross were taking the gypsies one by one into a truck. After being photographed, they are given a health card.

"With this document they can go to health centres. For our part, we build up a wealth of data that only the Red Cross can access. As for the authorities, we can provide them with anonymous information so that they are able to assess the camps, hygiene and health conditions," explained one of the workers.

Italian Red Cross President Massimo Barra said the census was "a way of getting to know the inhabitants of the camps better."

"It isn't a police operation," said Fernando Capuano, president of the Rome branch of the Red Cross. "In its decree ordering a census in the travellers' camps, the government left it up to the local authorities to decide whether to use a non-governmental organisation, and whether or not to take fingerprints.

"Unlike in Naples where it's the police doing the census and taking fingerprints, the Rome authorities called on the Red Cross because of its experience on the ground," he said.

Personal security was a top campaign issue in April's vote in the wake of several high-profile crimes implicating Romanian immigrants.

According to the Sant'Egidio lay Catholic charity, between 130,000 and 150,000 Roma live in Italy.

Many have Italian citizenship, while those of Romanian nationality have freedom of movement within the rest of the European Union.

The Red Cross estimates the census in Rome, which has 70 camps, will take until September.

Nomadic Beauty

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

By Yelena Shuster
Published: July 25, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From gypsy moths to the Roma

...Which is just fine, a biological method of eradicating gypsy moths. But why does it have to be gypsy moths? Why not some other regular moths. Gypsies are taking a beating this year. The people who go by the term Gypsies, who prefer the appellative Roma (yes, prepare for a non-sequitur)...

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Lolo Diklo : Roma Against Racism

Bookmark this blog - they (like myself) are trying to raise awareness about the Roma history, culture and worldwide racism.

http://www.lolodiklo.blogspot.com/

Thanks!
Allie :)

Insufficient Housing for the Gypsy Population in Sofia

The problem with the supply of housing for the gypsy population in Sofia is a hard one to solve because Sofia Municipality has no more than 50 apartments available while the applicants for housing are over thirty thousand.

The Secretary of Sofia Municipality Rossen Zheliazkov said at the Municipal Council after being asked what measure will be taken regarding the illegally inhabiting gypsies from the Batolova vodenitza district.

Zheliazkov stressed that the municipality must take the responsibility to provide terrains for gypsy housing while the State must have a national policy towards the minority.

Meanwhile the City Council decided to spend over 2 million on covering the damages in the vicinity around the exploded military storage facility in Chelopechene.

Italy scales back Gypsy fingerprinting campaign

ROME (AP) — Italian officials carrying out a survey of the country's Gypsy population will only fingerprint those who don't have a valid ID, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday, apparently dropping plans to fingerprint all Gypsies after critics called it discriminatory.

The ministry said the new guidelines were sent to local authorities in Rome, Milan and Naples, where tens of thousands of Gypsies live in hundreds of shabby encampments built on the cities' outskirts.

Officials in the cities had already begun taking information from the inhabitants with varying methods after the government ordered the census as part of a crack down on street crime, which Italians blame mostly on foreigners.

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Italy: Gypsy camp set on fire in Rome

Rome, 23 July (AKI) - Firefighters and police in the Italian capital Rome began investigating an attack on a Rome Gypsy camp in the city early on Wednesday.

The camp was set on fire by unknown assailants late on Tuesday. It is believe that the fire was started by young Italians.

The camp, called the Via Candoni camp, is considered a 'legal' camp and is located in the southwestern part of Rome.

Witnesses said a group of young Italians aboard three cars threw incendiary devices, and the fire quickly spread throughout the camp, reported Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

"We will bring to light what happened. If there is someone responsible for this, they will be severely punished," said Rome's mayor Gianni Alemanno, who visited the camp after the attack.

This attack on a Roma Gypsy camp comes a day after Italian authorities carried out the so-called 'census' in the camp to identify who lives there.

Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said last week that he would go ahead with the controversial 'census', which involves fingerprinting Roma Gypsies in Italy.

The procedure is already underway in Naples, Milan and Rome, despite criticism from international rights groups and the European Union.

In May, an Italian mob twice carried out arson attacks against a Gypsy camp outside the southern Italian city of Naples - incidents that drew criticism from rights groups, members of the Catholic church in Italy and the opposition.

The census of Italy's Gypsy population is part of the new Italian conservative government's promise to crackdown on illegal immigration.

Special Roma Gypsy commissioners have been appointed in several of the country's major cities.

Of the approximately 150,000 Roma-Gypsies in the country, 70,000 are Italian citizens, and many others come from European Union countries such as Romania, while others came from the countries that make up the former Yugoslavia.

Italian doctors refuse to treat a Romanian Gypsy suffering of cancer

de A.C. HotNews.ro
Miercuri, 23 iulie 2008, 13:47 English Regional Europe

A new shocking case in Italy: Italian doctors in Pesaro, East Italy refused on Tuesday morning to treat a Romanian Gypsy suffering of cancer. The main motivation was that she did not have a stable address, an association defending the rights of immigrants announced, quoted by Romanian news television Realitatea TV.

EveryOne association officials declared that Mia Copalea, of Gypsy origin, requested a medical examination and a treatment for her severe headaches. Apparently, her pain was caused by her breast cancer.

The woman's daughter declared that doctors refused to offer the woman medical attention because they do not reside in Pesaro. She added that doctors refused to give them a prescription for some pain killers.

EveryOne association urged the Italian Health minister Maurizio Sacconi to take urgent action so that the woman be treated in the hospital, like any other human being.

Congress Takes Horse Cruelty Head On!

For seven years now, you have helped us fight hard to protect America’s horses from the cruel and preventable practice of horse slaughter. Sadly, the few individuals profiting from this industry have spent vast sums of money to mislead some in the horse industry and US Congress. They have turned a serious animal cruelty issue into a political game. Despite all of this, support continues to grow for a ban because no false stories or fabricated tales of “unwanted horses” can derail the simple truth – horse slaughter is cruel.

As of today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) have taken up the reins of this cause and committed themselves to ending horse slaughter by sponsoring H.R. 6598, the Conyers-Burton "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act". This bill directly addresses the cruelty of horse slaughter – a consequence of the industry that even opponents of ending horse slaughter admit exists. This legislation is not new, as the original bill introduced in 2002 to end horse slaughter included enforcement language from Title 18 of the US Criminal Code for those found guilty of breaking the law. Chairman Conyers has simply removed the unnecessary language from the earlier versions to specifically target those causing the cruelty to horses.

Every five minutes, an American horse is brutally slaughtered for human consumption in plants in Mexico and Canada. Ironically, industry lobbyists admit to Congress that the foreign horse slaughter plants are cruel, yet the companies the lobbyists represent also own and operate these very plants across the border! Despite unsubstantiated claims of “unwanted” and “abandoned” horses, these foreign-owned plants and their killer-buyers continue to buy horses from all over America at an alarming rate to meet the demand for the animals’ flesh in fancy European restaurants.

Horse slaughter is a brutal process from beginning to end. Killer-buyers have no regard for the horses’ welfare; they just need to find as many of the animals as possible in order to fill a quota. Because the horses’ final destination is slaughter, no concern is paid to their treatment when they are collected, during transport, or in the slaughterhouse. A former equine investigator for the Pennsylvania state police summed this industry up perfectly when she said, “… horses were deprived of food and water because they were going to slaughter anyway. My conclusion is that the slaughter option encourages neglect…Money is the only objective of selling horses to slaughter. Those of us in the trenches have seen enough.”

Constituents concerned about the welfare of America’s horses must use this opportunity to speak up to their Members of Congress. The slaughterhouses, their lobbyists and the few pro-horse slaughter groups will be on Capitol Hill screaming loudly because they know support for ending horse slaughter is already strong. They know that if this issue is given a fair hearing and a fair vote, horse slaughter will end immediately.

Even though this fight has gone on for years, we must never forget that until Congress acts and passes a federal ban, horses are being hauled across the United States before being sent to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered under even worse conditions. The slaughterhouses and their supporters hope to wear down horse advocates by stalling the political process. We must send a message that we will not stop until ALL horses are protected from slaughter.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please call, write or email your Representative today, urging him or her to support H.R. 6598, the Conyers-Burton "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act". Chairman Conyers and Congressman Burton intend to do everything in their power to move this measure through Congress as soon as possible. Be sure to mention the facts above and those found here.

Many Members of Congress have already supported a similar measure, so this is not a new proposal; click here to see if your legislator cosponsored the original bill. If your Representative is on the Judiciary Committee, please urge him or her to attend any upcoming hearing and speak out on this important legislation as well.

To find your Representative and learn his or her stance on horse slaughter, please visit www.compassionindex.org. You can contact your legislators directly through the Compassion Index as well.

Write to:

The Honorable (name of US Representative)
US House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Please note: HR 6598, the Conyers-Burton "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act" is NOT the same as H.R. 503/S. 311, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA), but it will do the same thing – end horse slaughter. Many members already support the AHSPA, so garnering support should be straightforward.

Rescues/Organizations: The list of organizations and rescues supporting a ban on horse slaughter is tremendous, and we want to make sure your voice is heard on Capitol Hill, too. If you represent a rescue or organization, please take a minute to draft a letter of support for H.R. 6598, the Conyers-Burton "Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act" for us to share with the bill's sponsors and other Members of Congress. Give personal experiences, include photos and share your work with us. Opponents of horse slaughter are not working every day with horses -- you are. Please email your letters and some pictures to chris@awionline.org or fax them without a cover to (888) 260-2271. We will ensure that Congress hears your support!

No matter how you contact your legislator, please be sure to provide him or her with your name and mailing address, and as a constituent, request a response on this issue. Please also share our “Dear Humanitarian” eAlert with family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to contact their legislators, too. As always, thank you very much for your help.

Sincerely,

Cathy Liss
President
www.awionline.org
www.compassionindex.org

Italian media appalled by Neapolitan tragedy

(CNN) -- The Archbishop of Naples barely disguised his disgust: "Indifference is not an emotion for human beings." Cardinal Crecenzio Seppe wrote in his parish Web site blog Sunday that "to turn the other way or to mind your own business can sometimes be more devastating than the events that occur."

On a windy Saturday afternoon a group of Roma girls were selling trinkets on a beach outside of Naples. Sometime during lunch time, the girls set down their wares and ventured into a rough sea. Two of the Roma, cousins Violetta and Cristina, aged 12 and 13, according to Cardinal Sepe, struggled to stay afloat amid a strong rip tide.

Emergency services responded 10 minutes after a distress call was made from the beach and, according to local press accounts, two lifeguards attended the girls upon hearing their screams. But they were too late. Cristina and Violetta drowned.

Their bodies were pulled from the sea, covered with towels, feet exposed. Witnesses say they lay on the beach for hours -- and so did many of the sunbathers who allegedly watched the drowning and, according to some press accounts, did little but stare and carry on with their Saturday afternoon.

"Two Gypsy [Roma] girls drown in the midst of the indifference of bathers," shouted the headline of La Repubblica. "Children drown, their bodies amidst the bathers," read Corriere della Sera's first page. "Few left the beach or abandoned their sunbathing."

The coffins of the girls, carried on the shoulders of police, exited the beach "between bathers stretched out in the sun," it reported. It also pointed out that the drowning of an Italian man off the coast of northern Italy in 1997, prompted a similar reaction.

Pictures of bathers chatting on cellphones and taking in the rays just meters from the lifeless bodies were posted on dailies across Italy on Sunday. The photographer told CNN the atmosphere among the sunbathers was indeed indifferent -- but "what were they supposed to do?" he asked.

The girls were from one of the many Roma camps in Naples, part of a population of nearly 150,000 across Italy mainly in and around Naples, Rome and Milan. The group have long been considered a nuisance by many in Italy and frequently blamed for criminal activity.

In a recent government survey, nearly a quarter of Italians said they believed the Roma were thieves. More than 90 percent said the believed they exploit their children.

Under a new, controversial anti-crime measure, every Roma, including their children will be registered in a census and either photographed or fingerprinted -- a move condemned by the European parliament, the U.N., the Catholic Church and civil liberties groups as racial profiling.

The Berlusconi government says the initiative will help keep track of the group and better protect the rights of its children who under Italian law are entitled to free health care and education if they are documented.

Authorities who attended to the Roma girls at the beach last weekend said they did not have any identification and were not on any local records. Police left the girls' bodies on the beach until they had located their families.

Rome begins Gypsy census without fingerprints

By ARIEL DAVID – 2 days ago

ROME (AP) — City officials and Italian Red Cross workers began a census of Rome's Gypsy population but said Friday that they will not participate in a national push to fingerprint all Gypsies unless they encounter someone suspected of a crime.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government has drawn a stream of criticism from the European Union and human rights groups since announcing last month it wanted to fingerprint the tens of thousands of Gypsies, children and adults alike, who live in hundreds of encampments built mainly around Rome, Naples and Milan.

A government ordinance required a census of the camps but left authorities in each city leeway on how to identify the inhabitants. Rome Prefect Carlo Mosca, the government's top security official for the city, has been skeptical of mass fingerprinting.

Officials with the Italian Red Cross began the census at a camp on the outskirts of the city Thursday, taking down details on the health, education and family status of a few dozen inhabitants. Police didn't take part in the process, but stood by to provide security.

Mosca said at a news conference Friday said that Gypsies will not be fingerprinted unless there is suspicion they may have committed a crime, in which case police will carry out the process after approval by a magistrate.

"When there is suspicion of a crime ... fingerprints can be taken as for any Italian," he said on Friday.

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Congress Asks: Fat Cats or Polar Bears?

Wealthy speculators are driving up gas prices and fueling calls for harmful new drilling off our coasts and in pristine places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

It’s a classic match-up: Wall Street fat cats versus American families and the natural treasures we leave to our children. And in the next two weeks, Congress will vote to see who wins.

Help protect our polar bears from profit-hungry speculators and Big Oil. Urge Congress to pass legislation to address high gas prices by restoring accountability and transparency in the oil markets.

Speculation in the oil markets is a major factor in high gas prices.

Here’s how it works: Weak oversight and accountability in the oil market allows wealthy investors from around the world to drive up the price we pay for gas by purchasing oil that they have no intention of using.

According to Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management, who testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in June, “with greater regulation [of speculation], oil prices could drop to $65 or $70 a barrel within about 30 days.”[1]

Ask your Senators and Representative to pass legislation to address high gas prices and protect our polar bears and other wildlife from the oil speculators and Big Oil’s disastrous drilling plans.

Officials within the Bush Administration’s own Energy Information Agency estimate that oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge wouldn’t hit the market for several years and would only reduce gas by a few pennies. Similarly, the agency has said that offshore drilling would not significantly impact domestic production or prices before 2030.

But this drilling would come at a terrible cost to our wildlife and the environment. Arctic drilling activities would disturb the most important onshore denning habitat for America’s threatened polar bears -- potentially causing polar bear mothers to abandon their cubs.

Offshore drilling has its own problems: Each platform produces toxic discharges that can poison and kill marine wildlife and dumps tons of air pollutants into our atmosphere.

Please take a stand against irresponsible policies that hurt our families and put our wildlife at risk. Send your message now!

More drilling may benefit wealthy investors, Big Oil companies and their allies in Congress, but it won’t lower prices at the pump or end America’s oil addiction.

Respectfully,
Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

Greater Yellowstone in danger - act now!

A rugged land of sparkling lakes, 10,000-foot peaks and world-class wildlife habitat, Montana's stunning Lionhead Recommended Wilderness, just west of Yellowstone National Park, is a dazzling area of tranquility. The area is so rugged that the Forest Service proposed that it be off limits to all mechanized travel, including mountain bikes.

But the proposal to protect the rugged Lionhead area is in danger.

That's why Lionhead needs your help before July 18. Tell the Forest Service to do the right thing.

Mountain bike activists have mounted a campaign to convince the Forest Service to give in and give cyclists total access to wilderness quality lands.

Alternative trails – including many primitive roads outside recommended wilderness areas – are available for bike rides but no alternative will replace the Lionhead Wilderness.

Please urge Gallatin National Forest Supervisor Mary Erickson not to give in to proponents of mechanized trails.

Tell her to stand by her proposal to fully protect traditional hiking and pack trails and the Lionhead Recommended Wilderness.

Sincerely,
Kathy Kilmer
The Wilderness Society

Stop Plan to Kill America's Wild Horses

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior that administers America's public lands, including the animals who call this land home.

As part of its wild horse management program, the BLM has spent the past several years rounding up wild horses and keeping them in private, long-term holding facilities—which is expensive. Now, the agency wants to euthanize thousands of healthy horses, claiming it is too costly to feed and care for them.

The ASPCA encourages the BLM to explore other solutions, including but not limited to reopening additional land for the horses and increasing certain contraception programs that have already proven safe and effective.

What You Can Do

Please visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center to email a letter to your legislators in the U.S. Congress urging them to oppose the BLM’s plan to kill thousands of healthy wild horses.Thank you for taking action for America's animals.

UN independent experts criticize Italy's fingerprinting of Gypsies

ROME: Three U.N. experts accused Italy on Tuesday of discriminating against Gypsies by going ahead with a controversial plan to fingerprint them, saying that Italian politicians are creating a climate of anti-Gypsy sentiment.

The criticism by the independent U.N. experts in Geneva came as the EU chief, Jose Manuel Barroso, addressed the issue during talks in Rome with Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

Barroso said he was confident that Italy would comply with EU principles and treaties; Berlusconi defended the measure.

Italy has drawn widespread criticism this month as it began fingerprinting Gypsies, including children, as part of a crackdown on street crime.

The European Parliament called the measure a clear act of racial discrimination and urged Italian authorities to stop it, while many human rights groups criticized it as racist.

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Balkan folk, Romanian Gypsy, klezmer and more!

Contributed by: Laura McGaughey on 7/14/2008

On Friday, July 25 at 8 p.m., Swallow Hill is thrilled to present three amazing and diverse world fusion bands as they share one stage for an evening of unique music traversing the globe: Luminiscent Orchestrii, Los Lantzmun and Fishtank Ensemble.

The sounds of Luminescent Orchestrii range from Romanian Gypsy melodies, punk-inspired frenzy, salty tangos, hard-rocking klezmer, haunting Balkan harmony, hip hop beats, and Appalachian fiddle, all eaten and spit out by two violins, resophonic guitar, bullhorn harmonica, and bass. The members of the Orchestrii come from different scenes in New York City yet come together through their love of Balkan and Gypsy music. Sxip Shirey is an international circus composer, Sarah Alden is an old-time fiddle player, Rima Fand is an experimental theater composer and Benjy Fox-Rosen is a free-jazz bassist.

The band formed in 2002 as a quintet, and since that time, they have toured the East Coast of the U.S., England, Scotland, and Germany, as well as traveled to Romania, Macedonia, Turkey, and Serbia for inspiration. They've performed at international festivals from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (UK), to The Blue Note (Germany) and The Lake Eden Arts Festival (USA). The Skinny Magazine (UK) writes: "The music makes your skin tingle and your eyes water, and never before have metallers, hippies and divas enjoyed the same gig so equally."

Los Lantzmun describes their music as Jewish World Fusion, with songs derived from Eastern European, Sephardi, and Middle Eastern sources, performed in a contemporary style with a driving percussive backbeat. They sing in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), performing a fusion of material reflecting Jewish culture and history, from joyous klezmer tunes to haunting Spanish ballads and rhythmic Israeli and Yemenite melodies. The name, Los Lantzmun, is derived from a Yiddish word meaning "someone from your town," or "kinsman." The members of Los Lantzmun all hail from Colorado.

Fishtank Ensemble's cross-polinated Gypsy music offers a unique blend of Gypsy, Balkan, flamenco, klezmer and original tunes. With surprising arrangements and an assortment of tools and flavors: violin, accordion, gypsy jazz guitar, shamisen, bass, saw, voice and more, they evoke the spirit of a past age with the sounds of tomorrow. The LA Weekly says of them, "...we have a young band that is one of the most thrilling live acts on the planet."

A series of chance occurrences caused the members of what would become Fishtank Ensemble to meet in an Oakland, Calif. performance space called "The Fishtank" in the spring of 2005. The band formed around their star fiddler, Fabrice Martinez. Originally from France, he has spent the last seven years traveling around Europe in a mule-drawn caravan learning and playing folk music with the ensemble Croque Mule. Much of that time was spent living in Romania, often in Romani (Gypsy) villages.

Three weeks into their formation, they recorded their debut album, Super Raoul ("raoul" is a gypsy slang term for "cool"). The album was recorded live at "The Fishtank" and at The Cayuga Vault in Santa Cruz, and it showcases the band's diverse range of styles and influences. After a successful first tour that took them up and down the West Coast of the U.S. from Freight and Salvage in Berkeley to The Fiddlehaus in Seattle, the two band members who lived in Europe agreed to relocate to the States to focus on establishing the band as a unique force in the folk and world music scenes.

For tickets visit www.swallowhillmusic.org or call (303) 777-1003 x2. Discounts are available for Swallow Hill members. Buy in advance and save! Swallow Hill Music Association is located at 71 East Yale Avenue (just off Broadway) in Denver.

In need of Romani-English interpreters

With permission I am posting an email I received last night:

Hello Allie,

I saw your contact information on your website and thought that it might be a good idea to contact you. I am a recruiter for Lionbridge Federal and we are currently recruiting Romani-English interpreters in the United States. Lionbridge provides freelance interpretation for two federal contracts with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

There are a number of Romani speakers (55 cases) in the system waiting for their fair day in court. One respondent in the system has been waiting for his day in court since November 2006. Unfortunately, I am unable to help them until we are able to offer Romani interpreters.

In other cases, there are detainees who have been waiting for their trial since March and August of 2007. There exist numerous other instances and we are working extremely hard to provide detainees their right to a fair trial. We hope to be able to help EVERY person receive a fair trial when there day in court is upon them.

The are two preliminary requirements for becoming a Romani-English interpreter. The person must be a U.S. citizen or resident and lived in the US for 3 of the past 5 years. The interpreter must take a 30 minute over the phone language assessment and pass a basic background check.

We have waived the judicial interpreting experience for Romani speakers since its such a rare language. The hourly rates per case is $25 (depending on experience). Freelance interpreters work on a part-time need basis. If anyone is interested they should e-mail me a