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diaryofaromanifilmmaker:

Pipopotamus: Sun, Sex and Gypsy Hookers

Here we are in May in a supposed drought, the weather is cold, dull and depressing and we are counting down the months, weeks and days until that holiday abroad. We booked it twelve months ago and have since spent countless hours on Google, looking for reviews of the resort we paid so much to visit. Mr and Mrs Smith have just got back after a wonderful week in the sun. The alcohol was cheap, the food was great but ‘watch out for those gypsy beggars’.  Dave and co have had an insane fortnight partying hard. The best clubs in the world, sun, sea, sand and a lot of shagging but guys, ‘beware of the gypsy hookers’.  

Take, for instance, the Sunny Beach resort in Bulgaria. A quick Google search provided me with the following reviews:

“…those gipsies are to be found on the central alley of Sunny Beach…they run to you offering you sex, and by the time you realize it, your wallet is gone”

 “The cheapest prostitutes are on the road to Sunny beach (mostly young gypsies girls)”

Indeed, 70 per cent of Bulgaria’s prostitutes are reportedly Roma, which is hardly surprising giving that 84 per cent of Bulgaria’s Roma population live in poverty.  Yet to me, a Romany boy brought up in the UK, I do find it shocking.  You would be hard pressed to find a British Romany prostitute, as sex before marriage and extramarital sex are so deeply frowned upon, however while Britain’s Romany population are the victims of social exclusion, their situation in no way mirrors the distressing situation of the Roma across Europe. 

Driving through Bulgaria last Christmas, it saddened me to see Roma girls lining the side of the motorway waiting for clients. To me it is a sad reflection of the deep and historic hatred for the Romani people, which has ultimately triggered the extreme poverty and exclusion which leads to prostitution. Yet, when we look at reviews for ‘Sunny Beach’, or indeed any other resort across Europe, does anyone stop to think why these ‘gypsy hookers’ are ‘harassing’ tourists?  

The majority of these girls will have been forced into prostitution. In Bulgaria, they are more than likely under the control of criminal gangs composed largely of ethnic Bulgarians, rather than Roma men. Not only are Roma girls subjected to forced prostitution within Bulgaria itself, but are often trafficked to countries such as the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands. Indeed, the trafficking of Roma woman is an international problem, with girls being lured from deprived areas with the promise of employment or marriage abroad, only to be forced into prostitution upon their arrival. 

The sexual exploitation of Roma woman goes greatly unreported, and the plight of these young women appears to go unnoticed, but is this because these women are Roma or because they are prostitutes? I argue that these women suffer not only from the stigma of being prostitutes, but of being Roma as well. Instead of being outraged at those who traffic them, people show disgust at the ‘dirty gypsies’ - an ethnic group who are being persecuted and abused. If we take a look at the video ‘Bulgarian gipsy hookers hunting down victims’, there are very little if any comments about the trafficking of Roma woman, but many showing their repulsion: 

“i think they are even worser then black ppl. Atleast black ppl do something for the world. What did a gipsy EVER did for the world”

“You can smell their filthy disgusting cunts just walking by.. I wouldnt fuck them if you paid me.”

“Those fuckin foreigners should go to live to Stolipinovo or gypsis ghettos. FUCK GYPSIES!!FUCK “HUMAN RIGHTS” ORGANISATIONS!!”

Still, despite the lack of compassion for these victims of sexual exploitation, there is something that goes even more unreported – the prostitution of Roma males.  In astudy of Romanian and Bulgarian male prostitutes working in Germany, it was reported that Romani males were over represented. Indeed, the 2012 documentary ‘Die Jungs vom Bahnhof Zoo’, features three heterosexual Roma men working as prostitutes in Berlin, in order to provide for their families in Romania. What is more, there have been cases of underage Roma boys being forced into prostitution. 

Sadly, there has been very little research into the sexual exploitation of Roma men, thus what we do know is likely only to be the tip of the iceberg.  This reflects a worrying yet widespread tendency for society to overlook and disregard the sexual abuse of men.  When we talk about human trafficking, sexual exploitation and rape, it seems that attention is focused almost exclusively on women. Patriarchal culture has appeared to make us almost unwilling to see men as ‘victims’, and only as perpetrators. The consequences of such attitudes are hugely damaging, with the majority of sexual assaults against men going unreported. 

Out of 135 organisations for survivor s of sexual abuse and rape in the UK, just 7 provide services specifically for men.  Duncan Craig, founder and Service Director forSurvivors Manchester, and a survivor himself, said:

“The sexual exploitation and abuse of boys and men is so often ignored, it’s like society doesn’t want to accept that it happens. When we have a government that focuses on the ‘Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) agenda, it negates the harm caused to boys and men which silences the issue even more”

 “Survivors Manchester is committed to breaking the silence of the sexual abuse and rape of boys and men. By providing a safe space, we work to help males be empowered to work through the legacy issues and begin making positive and healthy choices based on the present and not the past”

“Since we started in 2009, we have struggled to secure funding from local and central government. The sexual exploitation and rape of males is an issue that not many people want to be associated with, which makes fundraising increasingly difficult too. We’ve even been accused of trying to take money away from women’s services!”

The lack of support, for male survivors of sexual abuse and rape, in a so called equal and pioneering British society, brings very little promise for the Roma men enduring sexual exploitation across Europe. The portrayal of Romany men in the media has been somewhat unfavourable. We are portrayed as misogynists, fighters, criminals, con men, slave masters and pimps. While Romany woman have their gender on their side, Romany men have to contend with chauvinist stereotypes which do very little to highlight the plight of those who are trafficked and exploited.  

The exploitation of any group of society is unethical, yet it seems unjust that the Roma, who are already the most deprived ethnic minority in Europe, are being abused in such inconceivable ways. While there are organisations campaigning for the rights of exploited Roma woman and children, I fear the exploitation of Roma males, and indeed all males, will remain hidden and unchallenged. We are fortunate that, in the UK, there are services, such as Survivors Manchester, who are dedicating their time to helping men who have survived sexual abuse.  My only hope is that these services can be amplified, both nationally and internationally and that all survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation, whether male, female, Roma or non Roma, can have equal access, and equal chances of regaining control of their lives.

Christos Tsaprounis is running the Bupa Great Manchester Run for Survivors Manchester. Every donation, whether a penny or a pound, can change the life of a male survivor. Please help Survivors Manchester keep their vital services running and donate today! Thank you.

whooda-thunkit:

http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1757331-bleak-horizon

I am posting the link instead of text because, while it is vile, it is nothing new, unique, or different, sad to say.  It is very sad and frightening when someone can state that this article is nothing new, unique, different, or shocking.

I am posting it to highlight a paragraph three down from the top:

 Ethnic tensions are on the rise. In 2008, Roma camps came under attack in Italy, intimidation by racist parliamentarians is the norm in Hungary, and in September of last year thousands of Bulgarians took to the streets to chant such slogans as ‘Turn the gypsies into soap’.

This is nothing new, I have seen such things out of Romania, Hungary, and others for years, but it shows how prevalent this is and .  As I said in another post from today, politicians from some of these nations include things like sending us all to “internment camps.”

I wish that those who called me paranoid 4-5 years ago had been correct.  This is something I would love desperately to be wrong about.

amantes-amentes:

It drives me mad that one of my long-time friends is an incorrigible anti-ziganist. She is so intelligent otherwise, why the fuck does she buy into that? She just made a comment on Facebook that she was more upset about being called a “gypsy” than the fact that her car got smashed, because “gypsies” don’t go to private school and get PhDs.

It’s true that many don’t because the marginalization of various peoples termed “gypsy” - Romanichal, Rroma, Kalderash, Sinti, Pavee, Ursari, what have you - has made it difficult for them to combat their oppression by us, gadje.

And I just so badly want to point out the existence of Drs. Petra Gelbart and Ian Hancock, and even people like Qristina whom I have followed for a while on Tumblr who is brilliant and as far as I know is working on a Master’s degree, and also tell her why so many of these people (but not all! not all!) do not succeed, and that it’s because of people who look and think like HER, people who look like ME, who make this happen.

But I know it will fall on deaf ears. And that is terrible. Because when we politely point out people’s errors and ignorance they should graciously accept the new knowledge they’ve been given and use it to make themselves better, more tolerant and accepting and helpful and kind people. And they don’t. They would rather strive to generalize than to just come to terms with the fact that they are racist and rely too heavily on discriminatory and hateful preconceptions.

^^^THIS, SO MUCH THIS.

(And yes, I am working on a Master’s degree, but it has NOT BEEN EASY and I still struggle.. and that struggle is why I am not getting my PhD… most likely. That struggle is why it has taken me SO LONG to actually graduate with a BA in anything…. and why I am still here, still going to school, still trying to “get with the (white) program”….)

The Greek neo-Nazis who won almost 7 % of the vote in early parliamentary elections last weekend and who are now represented by 20 MPs have been boisterously celebrating their unheard-of success. The chair of their Golden Dawn organization, Nikos Michaloliakos, has said of their victory: “Veni, vidi, vici [I came, I saw, I conquered].”

“I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of Greeks who voted for us,” 55-year-old Michaloliakos said. He made no secret of his satisfaction over the fact that his party, which scored points with its anti-European, anti-immigrant rhetoric in a country beaten down by a deep economic and social crisis, far exceeded the results of the many other groups who criticized its extremism.

“The hour of fear for the traitors of the homeland has arrived,” Michaloliakos thundered at the party’s press conference. The online news server of the daily To Vima reported that he had several journalists ejected from the conference because they did not stand up when he entered the room. Agence-France Presse reported him as ominously saying, “This is just the beginning” to the foreign correspondents whom his movement has charged with spreading lies about his ideology.

However, Golden Dawn had already demonstrated prior to the elections that its critics were correct. “We want to expel all illegal immigrants. We want to get their stench out of here,” party representative Frangiskos Porichis told dozens of adherents during a rally at Athen’s port of Piraeus. He then promised that deportations would start immediately after the elections, should his party win, to be followed by the deportation even of those immigrants who have legalized their residency.

A selection of the European countries with right-wing extremists in parliament:

BULGARIA

In 2005, the extreme-right nationalist party Attack, which agitates against Jewish, Romani and Turkish people, declaims against Bulgaria’s membership in the EU and NATO, and rages against international institutions “sucking Bulgaria dry”, surprised everyone by scoring seats in parliament. The party’s main slogan is “Bulgaria for the Bulgarians”. The party earned electoral success in the most recent parliamentary elections in 2009 as well. It also drew attention last year when its adherents attacked Bulgarian Turkish Muslims during prayer in the capital, Sofia.

FINLAND

The Finnish party Real Finns is becoming more and more popular. The party first got into parliament in 1999 when it won a single seat. Last year it won 39. The party is classified as a nationalist, populist formation. It lobbies against the EU and the euro, declaims against the instruction of the Swedish language in the schools, and calls for stricter immigration policies and harsher punishments for serious felonies. Unlike similar parties, it does not have a neo-Nazi past to contend with.

HUNGARY

In the most recent parliamentary elections, the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) party got into parliament for the first time. The party is classified as an ultra-right movement. It declaims against immigrants and Romani people and has also made anti-Semitic declarations. It also wants to introduce a ban on “the promotion of sexual deviancy”, which commentators say is aimed at homosexuals. The existence of the extremist National Guard in Hungary is linked to Jobbik. This court-banned paramilitary group has won favor for its fight against “gypsy crime”, among other things.

NETHERLANDS

In the lower house, the Party for Freedom (PVV) is now represented and is leading a massive campaign against the “Islamization of the country”, calling for restricting immigration and “defense of Judeo-Christian traditions”. The founder of the party, Geert Wilders, left the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in 2004, in part because he disagreed with its support for the entry of Turkey into the EU. He then founded the PVV. Wilders recently caused a sensation and prompted criticism by calling on all Dutch people to report to the authorities any “iniquities” committed by people from Central and Eastern Europe. In the past he has also been charged with instigating hatred against Muslims after he publicly compared the Koran to Mein Kampf, the book by the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, and labeled Islam a fascist ideology held by terrorists. In his short film “Fitna” (Disruption) he overlaid footage from terrorist attacks with the recitation of verses from the Koran. Due to the collapse of negotiations on budget cuts within the minority cabinet, which included the PVV, the government of the Netherlands fell in April.

RUSSIA

In the Russian parliamentary elections, the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia regularly scores points. The party is popular among extremists and people who believe Russia has lost its position as a world superpower. It lobbies against minorities and all non-Russian elements in society. It was established in 1989. One year later, Vladimir Zhirinovsky took the party helm and has been its chair ever since. His indiscriminate attacks on his opponents, his nationalist statements, and his rioting have added their notorious colors to the Russian political scene.

GREECE

In Sunday’s parliamentary elections, the radical nationalist ultra-right party Golden Dawn made it into parliament for the first time. The party’s significant theme is its loathing of immigrants. The party attracted voters with a program that includes the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants and the installation of landmines along the Greek border with neighboring states through which immigrants most often access Greece. Some members of the party are suspected of having committed violence against immigrants. The roots of the party extend as far back as 1980, but it was not officially registered until 1993.

SWEDEN

In the elections of 2010, the Swedish Democrats got into parliament for the first time. This party, which calls itself nationalist, is demanding a halt to immigration and has labeled Islam as the greatest threat to Sweden since the end of WWII. The party succeeded in getting attention with a campaign advertisement in which a group of Muslim women wearing burkas and pushing baby carriages cuts into a welfare line in front of a Swedish pensioner with white skin. The party also lobbies against homosexuals and is famous for its euroskepticism. Analysts have labeled the party ultra-right. Human rights defenders and left-wing formations have labeled it a neo-Nazi party. The party is now doing its best to rid itself of the image of an extremist party.

GERMANY

In Germany, extremists are not represented at the national level. The neo-Nazi, populist NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands - National Democratic Party) is, however, represented in the state assemblies in Mecklenburg-Lower Pomerania and Saxony. In the Czech Republic, the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) closely collaborates with the German NPD. For the time being, the DSSS has won only one political office in the Czech Republic, a town council seat in Krupka.

[Source: ROMEA.cz]

whooda-thunkit:

… against my advice.  It did not work out very well.  Here is what happened along with a bit about me and work:

It has been part of my personal activism to tell the truth and face the consequences.  Of course, being 3/4 blooded, if someone knows what we look like, they know what I am so often lying would just not work.  Even if the interviewer does not know, someone at work will.  I am old enough now that I am, if I need another job, probably going to try the “I am misc. Native American” thing.

I was contacted by this fellow a few years ago.  He had discovered that he was 1/4 Rroma by blood, that his family had hid it from him.

As we know, this is not uncommon.

He asked me all sorts of things, I answered and directed him to better sources than myself.  I did my best to dispel the stereotypes, both “positive” and negative, supplanting them with the truth.

One day he said that he was proud of his heritage, that he was going to tell people at work what he was.  I wrote back as fast as I could to warn him to NOT do that.  Be proud of your heritage, I told him, but think HARD before you tell anyone, especially at work.

I told him what I have faced at work, after I manage to get a job… which is not easy.  I can always tell when I say “what” I am exactly why I did not get the job because their faces go cold and untrusting.  I told him of the constant accusations of thievery, snarks and jabs, and having been driven off the job by various means.  I told him to just don’t do it.

He was insistent that he was going to do this.

A couple of days later he told me that, indeed, he had done this.  That day his boss doubled his workload, the next day tripled it until he could no longer keep up… then fired him.  A friend of his stood up for him, was told that she could follow her filthy gyppo friend, then got the triple workload treatment and fired.

He said he no longer was proud of being part Rroma, that he wants nothing more to do with it EVER and ended communication.

I guess he had not been paying attention to the “its not cool and romantic to be Rroma” that I had been telling him, rather glomming onto the glamorous stereotype he found elsewhere.  Well, he got a taste of our reality.

selchieproductions:

The reason why? He was apparently wearing a Saami hat that his attackers didn’t like. 

The fuck?

This is the shit people who dare to publicly ‘out’ themselves as Saami in Sweden have to deal with on a regular basis. 

:(

I am Roma. 

I am Gypsy.

Many think that this is enough to hate me; to want me dead; to celebrate the deaths of those I love.

Am I not human?

Some people say no, gypsies are not human, they are less than dogs. They are not worth the land on which they are forced to squat. We heard this before—many years ago when the Nazi party came to power.

Why are we still hearing it every day of our lives?

My people are the strongest people on Earth. We have suffered much but yet we remain, we survive, we thrive. One day, and soon, we will have the same rights and privileges that others do.

There is a revolution coming. It won’t be violent; it won’t involve protest marches or occupations.

We’ll sing our own salvation.

The hatred I receive does not make me angry… it makes me very upset. I am sad that there are people who hate me simply because of my ethnicity. Sad that these people walk around so full of anger and rage and blackness that they fail to see the beauty of the world around them.

I am afraid for my brothers and sisters in Europe who must deal with such anger in their lives much more frequently. I am blessed and privileged to have the opportunity to HAVE a voice… I came to the US to flee such violence and to be able to speak freely—but I have found that even here, people would wish me dead.

But, I am not about to let anyone silence me now. So many of my people do not have this privilege. I have fought hard to get into and through university and I want to use the things I’ve learned to help those who have not been able to have such privilege.

You call me a gypsy, spitting the word as if it is on fire. You use it to hurt me because you were told it was a slur against me. But, I smile when you use it. I smile because for hundreds of years people like you have been hurling that word at people like me,

and guess what?

We’re still here. We’re still proud.

and we’re still singing.

Call me

Roma 

or call me

Gypsy

It doesn’t matter. I know who and what I am. I know the beauty and richness of my culture. I know the love held between the words of our language. I know the feelings trapped in the silence. I know the steps of the dances that set free the soul…

The hatred I receive only reminds me of these things.

In the eyes of such people I may be worth nothing and I may deserve to die, but these people know nothing but their own anger,

and for that I pity them.

mandapolos:

Socialist Assassin Pony: mohandasgandhi: I’m a little too tired to get into it but as of right…

anticapitalist:

mohandasgandhi:

I’m a little too tired to get into it but as of right now, I plan on handing this Tumblr over to someone else tomorrow and I’ve already shut down all of my other blogs.

Perhaps I need an extended break or perhaps my intuitions are correct and Tumblr has become a truly toxic atmosphere. It’s tiring to come to a site and have sexist, racist, and antisemitic comments thrown at you day in and day out between violent threats because a select few people happen to disagree with you. Tumblr’s “block” feature is largely useless and e-mailing support is ineffective. I’m at a loss as to what to do aside from leaving. Saying “it’s just the internet” is a reactionary response.

I really do enjoy the community here and I’ve met a number of very wonderful people on this site. Unfortunately, as other bloggers have found out, when one writes about certain topics, the atmosphere can turn unsafe rather quickly. Tumblr is more of a hobby for me, blogging isn’t my job, so this has been something I’ve had fun with. That’s not quite the case anymore and until the Tumblr staff cares to address their horribly ineffective block feature, I don’t think I’ll be here.

Thanks for being wonderful.

Tumblr is full of reactionary assholes.

Everyone who is being an asshole to Anna (or anyone else for that matter) should go fuck themselves.

I’ve considered leaving here multiple times recently. I don’t need to place myself in the way of antizigane/anti-gypsy racism and bigotry. I get enough of that bullshit in my daily life. 

My only reason for staying is that the chance of changing even just one person’s mind about Roma is something that means a lot to me. If I let anger take hold or self-defeat I am not helping anyone. Sure, sometimes it’s hard and for many the best option is not to stay.

But, for now I will be staying on tumblr. Reactionary racist bullshit and threats against my life are not new things…but

it’s truly saddening that tumblr has become a place of such hatred and distrust. 

whooda-thunkit:

I wish to give you some advice yet again gleamed from being an old coot.

YOU are not the trash, THEY are.  They want to beat you down, to shut you up.  They want you to hate yourself for who and “what” you are.

Do not internalize what they are saying.  They do not know you and they do not know our folki.  What they DO know is exactly what to say to hurt a Rroma.  What sort of person would willingly do this?  Do you value the opinions of such a creature?

If you have to stop fighting, stop fighting.  If you have to leave tumblr leave tumblr.  However, do not accept the khul they are foisting on you.

No, you should not die, you and our people are not trash, or anything else these morons spout.  When you start internalizing their words, remember exactly what they are as I described above.  Then work on eradicating their words by talking to your kumpaniya, your familiya, listen to some sukar gili, remember our history and strength without which you and I would not be here today.

How many of these people would be able to take what we take and keep going?

Please listen to some hard earned experience from this old codger.

Phral~ but najis tuke.

I appreciate your words more than you’ll ever know. It means a lot that you took the time to write this and post it with me in mind. We are a strong people and I won’t let anyone defeat me.

Lately, I’ve truly been amazed by the support I’ve received from other Roma. You and a new Phenjora~ 

I feel blessed and supported. 

Me sem Romni and no one can take that away from me…

And you’re right—they’re not worth the effort it takes me to be upset!