We are in the grips of control by 'shock'. For which see Naomi Klein: http://books.guardian.co.uk/video/2007/sep/07/naomiklein.

We are returning to the partnered tactics of Hitler and Mussolini. The use of a scapegoat.

I speak for the Human - and the European - Rights of the Roma. And in particular for the European Rights of the Roma from Romania.

The Roma from Romania are Christian, Romanian Orthodox. They were the slaves of the monasteries from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. They reached Europe from India centuries ago. Their language is Indo-European.

For seven years (2001-2008), I have worked with families of Romanian Roma who attend the Mass for the Poor established by Giorgio La Pira, the saintly Mayor of Florence, and continued by his saintly friend Fioretta Mazzei in the Badia of Florence. I visited these families to whom I listened and whom I have come to know and love in Romania at the end of July 2008. I met there also with Gruia Bumbu, President, and his Roma associates, of the Romanian Government's National Agency for the Roma in Bucharest. They spoke of the need for housing, education, medical care for their people. All of these needs can be met themselves by the Roma themselves - if they can be allowed legally to work here in Italy, there in Romania. To be allowed legally to work they must legally be allowed an address. Something that seems so simple. But which we found to be almost impossible the prejudice and discrimination against them being so very intense.

I believe our fear of the Roma, and especially of those of Romania, is because we have not understood their culture. And that we are afraid that their poverty might be our own future.



The Roma are matriarchal, based on the family. They have no country, no army. Their flag, modeled on India's, is of the blue sky, the green land, and the red wagon wheel, the Wheel of Life. Their criminality is the same as for other groups, but they are at the margins of society, their children starving. They are not allowed an official address. A baracca they build themselves

A five room baracca built by a Romanian Roma family of seven persons that was then bulldozed three times by the Italian police. It was constructed from materials no one else wanted, on land that was not being used. Both these sisters, when clearly pregnant were threatened by the police for living here and both consequently gave birth prematurely. In Romania this family sleeps twelve, children and adults together, in one room next to a horse's stall.

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On the other:

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Seeing Karen Graffeo's photograph exhibition, 'Now Let Us Praise the Roma', in the Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei'. Their marbled paper.

With Jill Hammer's finished drawing

 
Building book shelves for the Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei' and a cradle for their brother's baby.

Familia, Familie, Famiglia, Family

Gajo                                         Lomni                       C

     Sapa                     

  

                       

Acoperişos Acoperiş Tetto Roof Sanzi Scandură Trave Plank                  Tiglá Ţiglă Tegola Tile Carfi Cui Chiodo Nail

Fereastra Fereastră Finestra Window Grinda Grindă Asse Rafter Bolţari Bolţar Blocco Block made from earth and cement Cimentos Ciment Cemento Cement

We find it is crucial in dealings with the Roma to centre on the women, on the family, remembering they are a matriarchy. At the same time taking away from the men that despair that commonly drives oppressed males in minorities to selfish anodynes like cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, cars (Native Americans, Blacks, Aborigine, Irish, etc.). We stress economies like breast-feeding, cloth diapers, bicycles and home schooling. The Roma want to work. But are forbidden by law to have work unless they have a legal address and sufficient literacy. The Roma marry very young in arranged marriages and are faithful to their spouses. That faithfulness is enforced by internal tribunals among their people. I have seen excellent, loving marriages among them and the joint caring for their babies who never cry, being always held and nursed, rocked in their cradles and swaddled, therefore beginning their lives with a sense of great security and of being loved. Our first Roma mother's ninna nana, her lullaby to her baby, was 'Alleluia'. I recorded it and it was played during the RAI 1 Easter Sunday 2008 broadcast on hermits as background to the Mass for the Poor at the Florentine Badia this mother attended. Our own children no longer receive that child-rearing. We can learn from them and they can teach us.

In the midst of Daniel's work in our 'English' Cemetery I visited the Roma families that we know in Florence in Romania. I discovered that Vandana and Daniel when in Romania sleep with other members of their family in one small room, twelve people all told, children and grown ups together next to a stall with a horse in it. This is why this couple works so hard here to build their own house there for their three daughters. Another family is headed by a widow with her four children, one adopted, their three spouses, and her four grandchildren, their house having a leaking roof with holes in it. We are helping them repair their roof and the adopted eighteen-year-old son is now studying in a six-month programme for his diploma. He had been first in his class the one year he had in school, his family being too poor to continue his schooling. The family that restored the dry walls seven years ago is now prosperous from having earned the house to replace their baracca where twelve had been sleeping. Schooling is said by the government to be free but the parents are billed for heating, books, and must buy clothing which they cannot afford. Medical care must be paid for after 18 by those who do not have work, particularly the grandparents caring for grandchildren. Relatives visiting hospitals must pay to enter. Water even from a tap a distance down the road is billed highly, failure to pay carrying a prison sentence. The families go hungry and lack clothing. I saw our family cook in a pot on an open fire outdoors their lunch of just potatoes. We have found that when we pay money in Florence it is immediately sent back to Romania to feed the children. I found in these families that despite their great poverty they generously adopt orphaned Roma babies or unwanted Romanian babies.

My first Romanian Roma mother, who is illiterate, one day told the story of 'Cristos who was so poor he was born in a baracca with the animals, the horses. And the people were hungry so he gave them bread and fish and potatoes. And then the envious killed him'. I came to understood her telling more truly when I saw the animals' rooms beside the humans' room and the cooking of a pot of potatoes over an open fire outdoors in Romania. Families cannot afford to send their daughters to school when everyone is hungry. They can barely send the boys and for a few years only, not to the level of the diploma which is needed for work.

We suggest to our families that they work together in solidarity, helping each other rebuild their roofs. When they help each other in Romania we are more willing to reward them with seasonal work in Florence. We suggest these families come together as a building and learning association, the families together thus strengthening each family within it. The name in Romany for the Association, 'Agrustic Somnacuni', is the same as ours, 'Aureo Anello', 'Golden Ring'. This is a part of our project to be submitted to the European Union called 'From Graves to Cradles'.


Daniel, Giovanna, Gabriela, Vandana in the Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei'

The answer to the problem of the poverty of the Roma is to permit them a legal address so they can have legal work. Italian Roma, Romanian Roma all should have this right to exist. The Romanian Roma only ask for seasonal work here in Italy, for labour-intensive work Italians no longer want. They can rebuild dry walls, they can gather the olives, the grapes. They can garden expertly.