THE WORD "GYPSIES" MANIPULATES THE IMAGE OF THE ROMA
The negative inclinations against the Roma people in all ages, have been always connected with their folklore, culture and mentality. The Roma have been being reputed to be thieves, bullies, dirty, amoral, deceivers, antisocial and bummers. In the past people have said, that the Roma “propagated demonic things”, and their fortune-telling abilities attracted the attention as well as aroused fear at the same time. The lexis of the different languages reflects the entire negative inclination against the Roma people. For instance, in English, the jargon to gyp means: to cheat; zinganar means: to lie cunningly. A Spaniard would say the same in the following manner: embustero como un gitano, that matches the Bulgarian “lying like a gypsy”. In almost every country, the term gypsy is dyslogistic (e.g. has an offensive inclination). The list with the metaphors is as well endless. Let us see some of them: in the greek lexis: “gypsy house” means “a dirty and littered up house”; “gypsy work” means “heavy, dirty and hostile work”; “gypsy smell” means “bad smell”; “gypsy marriage” is being connected with something beautiful, but also shallow and not long lasting at the same time; “gypsy” means “a dirty human being, radiating an unpleasant odor”; the expression “you are a gypsy” is used for a miser or a greedy man. The expression “to swallow awry” in Hungarian means “I live like a gypsy”. The meaning of the term “gypsy” in the Romanian language means “idler and scoundrel”. In the Polish language the word “gypsy” means “a lie”. In Slovakian, one of the meanings of this expression also means “a lie”.
Similar expressions exist in almost every nation, to say nothing of the threats parents use for their children, from Malta to Ireland, that if their kids are not obedient, “the gypsies” will come and take them away. In Bulgaria, the word “gypsy” is being used in a very dyslogistic manner, as a synonym of dirty, false, lazy, criminal. The word “gypsy” is even showed in the Interpretation dictionaries, having as its second meaning the following: “dirty, false, evil”. During the ages, the gypsies have always been seen as “living beyond even the most elementary rules” (law). For the peasants they have always been nomads without ground; for the citizens – marginals from the end of the city; for the workers – vagabonds beyond remedy. All have considered the gypsies to be people without faith and law. The conclusions from all of the above lead us t the following issue: having such a political-social inclination towards a given ethnicity, can we be certain, that this ethnicity will be integrated in the European valuables? Looking at this from a historical perspective, Europe has always had a negative attitude towards the Roma people, because of their subculture. In the past, in order that the Roma people be changed and integrated in the then valuables of Europe, some extremely severe laws have been issued, that have forcifully tried, on one side to integrate, but on another, to marginalize the Roma community, which is a sign for social schizophrenia. Let us take Spain for example, where the Roma language was officially forbidden and if somebody spoke it, their natural tongues had been cut. With such severa measures, the Spaniards thought, that the Roma could be integrated in the society. Let us also look at Germany, where laws existed, which discriminated and terrorized completely the Roma ethnicity, one of the paradoxes being, that the Roma children were placed in schools for mentally handicapped people. We can see from this what the attitude of the Germans was with respect to the Roma, considering them as a very low level intellectual group of people. Today there is a law in Italy, that forbids the Roma to participate in the political-social life of the country. The inclination of almost all countries in Europe with respect to the Roma ethnicity continues to be only negative. The Roma are still being watched upon as nomads, going aimlessly to all ends of the Earth. It is critical for us to understand, that the course of the Roma integration is a responsibility not only of the Roma people themselves, but also of the European community as a whole. In order that the Roma ethnicity integrates, a change of mentality in the Roma community is needed, but also in the European nations, from a governmental level next to the average european citizen.
Ivo Koychev Used are sections from the book “Roma, Gypsies and Nomads” by Jan Pierre Lejoa
In the context of this article, we publish also part of a material, published in a BG newspaper: The Romanians want the Roma to are being called again “gypsies” The romanians fear that they be not confused with the Roma and want the members of this ethnicity to be called gypsies. The majority of the Romanians are in opinion, that the incidents in Italy of which the victims were Romanian citizens, have been the results of media publications and are associated with the mingling of the "Romanian" and "Roma" concepts. That’s why the Romanians want a returning to the classic title: "gypsies" when it comes to the Roma people. A young Roma with a Romanian citizenship was arrested in Rome in October in accusation that he had raped and killed a 47--year old Italian lady. After this crime the Italian government issued an urgently decree, easing the extradition of foreigners, citizens of EU countries, in the name of public security, and the prefects of different cities in Italia immediately started extraditing immigrants, predominantly Romanians. Meanwhile, several incidents with Romanian citizens attacked by Italians happened in Italy. An investigation of the public opinion, done by Galup Romania, ordered by the Agency for Governmental Strategies, shows that, according to 76% of the Romanians, the foreigners confuse the words: “Romanian and “Roma”. According to 52% of the asked people, using the word "gypsy" would be correct, even though the members to this ethnicity insist that they be called "Roma". 34% though, do not agree to the use of the word "gypsy". More than half of the Romanians that have relatives in Italy have spoke with them after the escalation of the tension between Rome and Bukurest on the subject of immigration. Listening to the short stories of their relatives, 44% of the asked have come to the deduction that the media have showed the situation as more dramatic than it really was. 91% of the people participating in the poll have announced that they would not go to work in Italy in the following six months, and 81% would not go to any of the EU countries. The presiding officer of the Agency for Governmental Strategies, Alfred Bulai, explained that those figures are not a result of the incidents in Italy, but a result of the fact that the "greatest part of the people that had reasons to leave, had done it already”. The immigration wave of the Romanian hardworking force towards the EU countries is declining also because "the big difference in the standard of the life has declined", at the words of Bulai.
CommentsPowered by Comment Script
|
