Essex: chapel, community centre opened at beleaguered Gypsy camp

A small community centre and chapel was officially opened at Dale Farm Traveller and Gypsy camp near Crays Hill in Essex on Saturday.

The log cabin, which has been named after St Christopher, one of the patron saints of travelling people, will be used for community meetings, health projects, IT and literacy for children and a chapel for the site's Catholics. It was built with a £9,894 government youth grant fund from the Equality Council

The building was blessed by Father John Glynn of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, Wickford. There were also speeches by Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury, Clive Mardner, director of the Equality Council, who sponsored the project, and site spokesman Richard Sheridan, Gypsy Council president.

The opening of the community centre has aroused controversy locally, and a hostile campaign in the Daily Mail. While the Gypsies and Travellers have bought the agricultural land at Dale Farm, and lived there for many years, Secretary of State Ruth Kelly has upheld Basildon's decision to evict the community. This Friday (9 May) Judge Collins is to issue his long delayed ruling in the judicial review in the British High Court into Basildon's policy towards some two hundred "illegal" families which it refuses to accommodate.

Eviction specialists Constant & Co., whose bailiffs have been accused of 'wanton destruction,' including the burning and looting of caravans during removal operations, are already believed to be planning to bid for the £2 million demolition of the Dale Farm township.

Lord Avebury said: "The bulldozing of Dale Farm would be a disaster." Richard Sheridan said: "If we are evicted it will be a traumatic experience for all the families who have nowhere to go."

Billericay MP John Baron has urged the National Lottery to stop funding the equality council because he claims it is "biased to travellers".

Essex Racial Equality Council, which sponsored the centre, has been threatened with a cut off of funding by Lord Haddingfield. His opposite number on Basildon council, Malcolm Buckley, has already ended ties with racial equality workers whom he accuses of a bias in favour of Gypsies.

Their leader, Clive Marden, said at the ceremony that he did not care what Tory MP John Baron said, he was proud to be involved with the Dale Farm project, which was going to benefit so many children and young people. "I'm happy to take the flak," Marden commented.

Next week, the Bishop of Brentwood, the Bishop of Chelmsford, and other Catholic and Church of England clergy will be paying their own visit to Saint Christopher's.

Source: Roma News Service

© Independent Catholic News 2008

Roma MEP on her people’s plight in EU

Written by Robert Hodgson

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

The right fight

International Roma Day last Tuesday saw celebrations of Roma culture around the world. At the same time, many NGOs, politicians and representatives of Roma communities across Europe discussed what is being done to address the seemingly intractable problems of social exclusion and racism. The Budapest Times spoke to Lívia Járóka, who in 2004 became only the second Roma to be elected to the European Parliament.


The situation

The plight of the Roma people in Central Europe deteriorated rapidly after the change of system in 1989-90, when 50% of Hungarian Roma lost their jobs. Estimates of the number of Roma in the European Union vary from nine to fifteen million, but it is generally accepted that there are at least ten million. It is difficult to get a precise figure as people often do not declare their ethnicity. In Hungary the 2001 census suggested 190,000; the real figure is believed to be over half a million, or at least 5% of the population.

Many of Hungary’s Roma live in ghettos on the edge of towns and villages, and the level of segregation has – in some places – reached that of a sort of apartheid. Many communities lack even basic utilities such as sewerage and electricity. Unemployment among the Roma is estimated to be around 80%. Life expectancy for Roma is ten years lower than the Hungarian average.

Fight from within

Lívia Járóka, 33, grew up in Sopron near the Austrian border. After studying sociology on a Soros Foundation scholarship, she turned to politics and has made it her mission to push for reintegration of Roma into mainstream society. She became Hungary’s first Roma MEP in 2004 on a centre-right Fidesz party ticket.

Járóka said she found most European politicians to be ignorant of the issues affecting the EU’s Roma citizens when she arrived Brussels. Since the accession of 12 new member states in 2004 and 2007, the minority has increased such that it is now larger than the population of each of the EU’s 14 smallest countries – too large to be ignored.

“I knew I had to bring the Roma issue to the European agenda. I wanted to demystify what it means to be Roma,” said Járóka. She was aware of a paternalistic attitude to Roma during the pre-2004 accession talks. “Many people had a very prejudiced idea about how they live and what they want,” she said, adding that there had been very little real research into the situation. “Politicians were not ready to see this issue as a complex question. They try to change living conditions, or education, or healthcare, but they never see that it is a complex combination of all these, especially in totally segregated areas.”

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'Racist' slurs mar gypsy consultation

Published Date: 27 March 2008
Location: Bedford

By Paul Fisher

Council says it can't publish more than 3,000 responses to a document seeking views on where to put new traveller caravan pitches in Mid Beds.

'Racist' comments from more than 3,000 residents have overshadowed a public consultation on plans to provide new pitches for travellers in Mid Bedfordshire.

Mid Beds District Council asked its taxpayers' for their views late last year – but of the 3,500 responses received, only 400 can be published.

The overwhelming majority refer to criminal activity or feature other racist remarks, the authority has said.

The council, which needs to find 25 more caravan pitches for travellers under the Government's Local Development Framework, has now been forced to extend the consultation period until May, to allow residents to submit revised opinions.

Cliff Codona, chairman of the National Travellers Action Group, said the consultation just proved the type of racism the gypsy community regularly faces.

He said: "There is racism against travellers and I think you could not have picked a better area of the country to prove that fact. It is nothing to do with gypsies or travellers, it is just everyone jumping on the bandwagon. However it should not stop the council following through Government legislation that says traveller sites should be provided. They should get on with it and provide sites that are desperately needed. Every time plans are put on hold it gives people time to put the boot in."

Mid Beds District Council is now writing to the 3,100 people who submitted unacceptable comments to ask whether they would like to resubmit their views, but based on planning issues and not stereotypes.
Mark Hustwitt, spokesman for the council, said: "It would not be responsible for us to publish any racist responses.

"If someone objects because of a planning reason, like being against a development because it is on a greenfield site, then we will publish it, but we cannot discriminate against any group because of stereotypes.

"No-one would now say someone should not get planning permission because they are black or gay; this applies equally to gypsies and travellers.

"I must say we were very surprised at the response. I think it is one of those areas where people find it acceptable to be racist and they are wrong."

The 400 comments that are acceptable will be published on the council's website this week.

The council will look at the preferred sites for development in May.

Mr Hustwitt added: "There are already many gypsy families living quietly in Mid Beds who are part of their communities. We are obliged to find 25 sites in Mid Beds to help control unauthorised encampments."

Bedford Borough Council is is under the same Government obligation to provide between ten and 15 new pitches for travellers across the borough. It expects to announce a consultation period soon.

The full article contains 479 words and appears in n/a newspaper.

Last Updated: 27 March 2008 3:01 PM

'No legal status' for Scotland's gypsies

UK, 17.3.2008, 11:11, (The Scotsman )

SCOTTISH gypsy travellers are not a separate ethnic group under the Race Relations Act and therefore not entitled to make racial-discrimination claims, a tribunal has ruled. Kenneth MacLennan, of Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, had complained of racial discrimination, alleging he was victimised by being dismissed for "taking a stance on behalf of gypsy travellers".

But employment judge Nicol Hosie rejected his complaint. In his written judgment he said: "While there may be a body of opinion that Scottish gypsy travellers should be treated as an ethnic group and should enjoy the protection of the 1976 act, there is no legislation, as yet, which affords them such protection. "Although under the 1976 act, (as amended in 2000) English Romany gypsies and Irish travellers are protected as ethnic groups, Scottish gypsy travellers are not protected in the same way.''

A knock-out blow for British racism?

Thought Leader
Tony Jackman

The word is not as incendiary as “kaffir”. It does not offend the ear as would “nigger” or “jewboy”. It is, in fact, a rather beautiful word. But in the United Kingdom, utter the word “gypsy” and rooms go quiet; looks are exchanged, brows furrowed and lips pursed. And arguments rage.

A gypsy is to many an Englishman or -woman what a “kaffir” was to many a white South African or a “nigger” to a Southern plantation owner: one to be marginalised, one presumed lesser than oneself, one who could not be trusted, one best not associated with.

The country that (correctly) had so much to say to South Africans about racism in the apartheid years is yet to address its own attitudes to a marginalised people on its own doorstep: Romany gypsies, more often euphemistically referred to as “travellers”. This moniker will bring an ironic smile to the lips of South Africans who remember how the Nats, in the Eighties, came up with the idiotic “plurals” and the even dafter Afrikaans equivalent, “plurales“, for black South Africans.

Every fight worth fighting needs a catalyst, and the gypsy community in the UK has been presented with the perfect trigger, on a golden platter, for highlighting its own marginalism within that country: a young Romany gypsy boxer, Billy Joe Saunders, has been selected for the British team to the Beijing Olympics. His trainer is Terry Edwards, who guided Amir Khan to his own Olympic glory earlier in the decade.

And he’s apparently a true Romany gypsy, rather than a “diddicoy“, the (offensive?) term used for people in that part of the world who live as gypsies without necessarily being true Romany gypsies.

What a name the lad has. He sounds as though he’s stepped right out of an American trailer park, or he could be the star turn at the Grand Ole Opry. In fact, a trailer park isn’t far from the truth, for many gypsies in the UK live in prefabricated homes set up, often illegally, on informal land. The old, romantic image of gypsies clad in scarves and much jewellery and living in wooden caravans in sylvan glades, treading toadstools underfoot, is only the stuff of fairy tales today.

Billy Joe Saunders now bears on his young shoulders the chance to bring pride and glory to arguably Britain’s most sidelined community, shunned by “proper” Brits as a bunch of inveterate rubbishes, criminals and worse.

When I lived in the south of England, in West Sussex, a clan of travelling gypsies set up camp on a farm near our small town. I’m not going to argue the appropriateness of them settling on land they may not own. What interested me, however, was the reactions of locals to this unwanted community on their doorstep. Their attitudes reminded me so much of racist white South Africans’ attitudes to other races.

They were “those people”, “them”, “not like us”. I remonstrated with a newspaper colleague at the time. But they’re just people, I said. I mean, if you passed a Romany gypsy in the street, you wouldn’t even know it. They aren’t even recognisable by physical characteristics. They’re just people with their own traditions and ways.

Not at all. I was given a stern lecture on why these people were not to be regarded as you would ordinary people. They were morally corrupt, useless, good-for-nothing thieves. To a man, woman and child. And as a group.

I pointed out that to classify an entire group in such terms was virtually the definition of prejudice, but was met with derision. Obviously I had no experience of the gypsy community or I wouldn’t say that, she told me.

Now imagine if you or I were to say the same things about “blacks” or “Jews”? The same people would instantly chide us and correct our racist attitudes. But many Britons simply do not see it in the same way.

Here and there while in the UK I brought up the subject of gypsies with other people, and always I was met with a similar response.

The support of many Britons for the anti-apartheid cause was a superb and hugely helpful thing, and I treasure it, but isn’t it about time that nation addressed its own prejudices towards Romany gypsies? And, for that matter, for “diddicoys“?

Go to the blog entry and comment:
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/tonyjackman/2008/03/12/a-knock-out-blow-for-british-racism/

Flamenco dancer is appointed Roma's ambassador to the EU

By Graham Keeley in Barcelona
Published: 09 February 2007

In the stuffy confines of the European Parliament, he cut an unlikely figure. A strutting peacock of a man, Joaquin Cortes is normally to be found stripped to the waist, dancing Flamenco in front of thousands of mostly female devotees.

This is the dancer who almost single-handedly used his talent - not to mention his looks - to make Spain's most famous art form a must-see among the fashionable classes. But, though more used to hearing excited female fans shouting guapo (handsome), the one-time model for Giorgio Armani now wants to use his fame for a very different end.

Roma by birth, Cortes has become the new European Union ambassador for his people, in an effort to end decades of discrimination and xenophobia.

Dressed in more sober attire than normal, the dancer recently addressed MEPs in Brussels. "The main reason for my presence here is that I am of Roma origin and I understand that this institution is known as the champion of human rights in the EU," he said.

"I am one of the rare European Roma to whom fortune has been kind, as I am able to proudly assert my identity without fear of being persecuted, humiliated or being made a scapegoat." He added: "We all have to fight for the integration of the Roma nation, and hope that in the near future a new generation will live a better life."

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Germany pledges racism crackdown

Sports Illustrated
SI.com
Posted: Monday December 11, 2006 11:42AM; Updated: Monday December 11, 2006 11:42AM

HEIDELBERG, Germany (AP) -- German soccer president Theo Zwanziger promised Holocaust survivors a crackdown on the surge of racism in the country's stadiums.

Zwanziger said Monday that a new task force will use the Internet to track incidents, with offending clubs facing the threat of fines, point penalties and playing in empty stadiums if they can't control their fans.

"With a new tracking system we want to know every weekend where there were problems with fans at the 80,000 matches, and which clubs have to be held responsible for the unbearable and sometimes open racism," Zwanziger said.

Zwanziger met with the Central Council of Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg -- which included Holocaust survivors -- after racist chanting was heard recently at nearby stadiums in Ulm, Kaiserslautern and Karlsruhe.

Since hosting the World Cup in June, Germany has been alarmed series of violent incidents, from the professional level down to youth and amateur matches played each weekend.

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