Heritage, perhaps. Candidate Romney: Immigration Policy of Interest

Update Romney roots 2012.  Romney Anglo-Saxon?  A Rumney?
It is as likely as not that Mitt Romney's roots are Rumnichal, Romanichal.
Look at the history.  DNA?  Would that narrow the choices?
Small swab, please, Mitt. 


Then who pays for it?  The ones who did the DNA on the Obamas?
And who was that? But I digress....

Rumneys, Rumneys everywhere.  That appears to be the old spelling of the family Romney, as in Mitt. The Rumneys of Appleby.  Rumneys of Dalston.  Where else?  The more I look into the history of this family, the bits I have found, the more interested I get in the context of the time:  persecutions of Roma in England, and what might make a group that had to hide, blend, in order to survive, so open to preachers from America with a message of acceptance, a new religion, a new life, Mormonism.  See the chronology at a site with some similarities to this, but a timeline to make sense of it:  FodderSight, Romneys--Rumneys.  Records of St. Mary's, and references in a timeline to the annihilations and absolute rejection of Roma on the Continent, that followed Roma to the UK.

Early, early George Rumneys. Most everybody's geneology starts with Miles and calls him Romney, born 1806 in Dalton. See http://danallen46.homeunix.org/DKAAhnentafel.htm. Go back further than that to find ethnicity. Do we trust the Miles Romney Family Organization? Is an alternate early spelling Rumley? see interchangeable Rumley Romney Rumney at http://www.baxgen.com/webtrees/individual.php?pid=I1729&ged=Baxgen.com.ged.

Even this site calls Miles "English" -- see http://www.wargs.com/political/romney.html.  Not necessarily so.  Look at the St. Mary's records -- and the spelling Rumney, etc. etc.  The name of Mitt's ancestor George Rumley, who married Jane Burrow, given there as Rumley, should be George Rumney, ancestor to Mitt #256 ["George Rumley, b. Colby near Appleby, co. Westmorland, ... 1642, d. Dalton-in-Furness, co. Lancaster, 17 Jan. 1737/8
m. Dalton, co. Lancaster, 11 Oct. 1702"].  Is that so? 

1.  George Rumney, b.1547 Dalston. Wife Ella. Parents of Thomas Rumney born1572, Cumberland, who married Margaret Harrinson 1598. Was he baptized? children: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/m/a/r/Robert-Donald-Martindale/GENE3-0041.html  Mitt Romney's ancestors -- all Rumneys, no Romneys, Dalton-in-Furness.

The first believed forbear, a George Rumney (name recurs), the one who moved to Dalton, was from Appleby, Westmorland, England.

2.   George Rumney, born 1642, died 1738, http://www.baxgen.com/webtrees/individual.php?pid=I512&ged=Baxgen.com.ged.  Two early Georges and a William are listed at http://www.jaash.com.au/genealogy/nindex.html but there the links break.  Can't access the information. This looks Australian?

Rumney, Rumnichal, Rumneys as a common name for an ethnic group, large population in Appleby then and now .  It is also used in place names:  Rumney Marsh, Romney Marsh; Rumney, Wales. FN 1


Roots of American candidates.  Does it affect policy, should it, how to tell.  Or is it just the olde curiosity shoppe.  It is easy to see if emigrant-immigrant roots are "landed" people.  They own land, there are deeds, and they were probably enrolled at a parish for birth and death records.  Anyone who claims landed lineage, not just the working poor, would be able to show that.  Roma were not landowners traditionally, and would not be on such rolls. On the other hand, Rumneys in Appleby were described (or is that a later revision, now?) as yeomen, farmers. See family members researched at   http://hellofodderhellobuyer.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-romneys-rumneys-of-dalton-romney.html

Then, in addition to whether forbears are landed, is ethnicity.  Romneys raise both questions. Were they landed, with the first recorded person in 1750, that should show in land records.

Are Mitt Romney's roots Anglo-Saxon, as touted by an aide (does Romney state that himself?); or are the roots elsewhere in England, with stems from other places Roma Romany.

It should be easy to find out -- birth and death records pre-1850 or the date of the Romney immigration to America, perhaps 1848?  That would work, unless the family were, as true of so many, the industrial fungible worker-poverty class, no records.  Just clear the air, someone, and find out.

We have found, we think, Romney ancestors in Cumbria, England, Dalton and surrounds, and place of the Appleby Horse Fair and many Travelers for centuries. See http://www.hellofodderhellobuyer.blogspot.com/#!/2011/12/candidates-and-their-own-minority-roots.html.  The Horse Fair is a large gathering of people stemming from or who are Roma.

Are or were any of those forebears of Mitt Romney: Roma, Romani. Gypy.  Travelers.  Roma did serve the Mormon cause in America, with the Perpetual Emigrating Fund using farms to raise funds to bring more people here, and one is shown at Gypsy Sky in Utah, see "Gretchen" who wrote a small blog with photos about such a farm, at this URL: http://monkeyfeet5.blogspot.com/2000/03/sheep-ranch_17.html

• This is a matter of curiosity about anyone's lineage (ours is fully contorted) as well as seeking to find why he has such bias toward favoring Anglo-Saxon heritage.  Is it his own, or his adopted heritage?  Anglo-Saxon or Norman or Other? Somebody can easily find out by going there.  Land records. If none, then itinerant or worker or what, like the rest of us.  The issue of Anglo-Saxon -- Mitt Romney and the microphone -- See http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/romney-aides-cite-anglo-saxon-heritage/story?id=16853252#.UBAleqP7TV8

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We learn that Roma indeed converted to Christianity along the way, some, among other religions adopted or into which some assimilated, see http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_romanireligion&lang=en&articles=true.

History of Mormonism.  Mormon missionaries to England apparently were the triggers for the Romney ancestor conversion, but cannot verify the nature of the background of any of the claimed ancestors.

A name alone does not prove or even suggest ethnicity without more. Would someone over there look up and document the birth registers, where the graves are, and report if there is an early Romany root? early Romneys, back to (is this so?) 1700's. 
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Does connection, even a remote one, with a beleaguered immigrant group, lead to increased sensitivity to their issues.
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Ask Mitt Romney

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A.  Mitt Romney.  Roma roots suggested by surname
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1. Mitt Romney has a surname, "Romney," with traceable Gypsy-Roma-Romani roots for many families (someone could research his).  See idea threads at Roots of Romney.  See the look into connections between Roma and Mormonism, ongoing, at http://hellofodderhellobuyer.blogspot.com/#!/.  If you have information, or relatives that converted and you can document that, let us know.  It is a fascinating web.
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This presents a recurrent issue in American politics.
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 If someone has ancestral ties to a group of immigrants, or non-immigrants, in disfavor here by prejudice based on history, color or ethnicity, what does that person do to get elected. If desires to help are transparent, is that a problem.  If background is denied, is that a problem.  Mr. Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and a man of vision who enacted universal-type health care insurance coverage there, is a Mormon (always?) and the Mormons are known for their geneological research.  Enter the Mitt Romney dates at Mormon Genealogy Dot Com  and see where it leads.  Will the Mormons include Roma Romani Gypsy roots for one of their shining lights, or is there no Roma connection to this Rom'ne at all. Go vet.


If there is Gypsy-Roma heritage involved, it would make a great PBS documentary of the variety and brilliance in every ethnic group, if access to a ladder with rungs is within reach.  The choices for individuals seeking public office, however, are not so clear where racism and anti-immigration is involved.

We presuppose for our purposes here that there is a Roots of Romney.  Roma connection to Romney. Implications for immigration attitudes.  Do people change religion to avoid stigma? 

B.  Choices for Mr. Romney and any immigrant-descendant:  If he has no Romnie roots, apply anyway as a politician representing government of all the people, by all the people for all the people.

1.  Deny thine ancestors and refuse thy name's roots. Please the angry ones. Live a lie.

2.  Embrace thine ancestors, and see the unique opportunity that thee has to foster good will and understanding about them.  Look how far you, as an individual, came. If you are not a threat because of your origins, need others be.

3.  Duck and hope the issue goes away.  Count on the hidden spinners to spin castigations to silence those who speak in ways that foster rights of all people.

4.  Pretend that the immigration position is solely related to whether the person entered this country legally (that does not mean by invitation implicit in open borders and free employment practices until recently)

Romney and the broad reach of Roma roots becomes more complex in current global and local power struggles, seen in one of America's groups, the Melungeons. away from them in order to be more pleasing to the angry ones.

Does Mitt Romney have the courage and intelligence to Cross the Tea's? Go ahead. Cross the Teas. Cross the T's.

While he is at it, will be dot the i's -  in Immigration, that means applying equity to the legalisms, see below.

For an idea of the complexity of our immigrant background, here is an Islamic site tracing the Islamic origins of a particular group we addressed earlier in the context of a mix of darker skinned settlers in the south:  the Melungeons.   See Islamic origins of "Melungeon" - possibly.

C.  And Mitt Romney CHOSE...

(drum roll, for the big reveal)

1. In 2007, the legality route, exclude the equity balancers to legalism, that make our legal system great, or used to.

  Hard on the undocumented ones. Mitt Romney on immigration in 2007   Let's hear it for national ID cards (and how would that foster participation by Roma, even though legally here);  and no amnesty as the code for ignoring the responsibility for leaving the doors wide open, an open invitation implicit, for entry by anyone, and employers hiring and rentings and licenses granted without a lot of scrutiny regardless, and all the other equities involved)

2.  In 2008, again the legality route sans equity. Pedigree of Mitt Romney, and Legalism Without Equity on Immigration

He specifically fears jihadists (but [pick the terms] Christian evangelical ethnic cleansing militia doctor-killing groups or however those who fear others' ideas, are excluded). Here we particularly welcome research into the Moorish roots of some Melungeons, see again the Islamic site, re Moorish roots of American Melungeons

3.  In 2010 -- where is the equity side, Mr. Romney?  Mitt Romney in Immigration. Legalism without Equity Balance.  Legality without equity balance distorts our legal framework.  Law and equity were blended here, one court able to hear both:  but that is under attack, as equity itself is under attack.

Is Mr. Romney toadying right along with the bury-equity movement? See it at ://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/110409/  No equity in this system, folks, see? No equity!  Mr. Romney at least should know better. Law and equity each have valid remedies, despite efforts of some to ignore the equitable and hope it will go away, or the efforts to use it are underfunded, see Law and Equity: Both Remain  






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FN 1


Everyman's starting point for issues is an encyclopedia: and, if the source is a Wiki, vet carefully. Content can be changed by persons with agendas other than objectivity.  That said, start on the United Kingdom and its ethnic groups, here, Travelers, or Gypsies, at http://uk.ask.com/wiki/Romanichal.  Romanichal, Romnichal, Rumneys, Rumanichal, spellings differ.  But surnames can derive from ethnic designations, so the exploration begins as to Rumney-Romnney.  It is common lore that one Miles Romney converted to Mormonism, and emigrated to America in the mid-19th Century.  But who was he?  His forbears?  When did his family arrive in a traditional English church.  We know of St. Mary's in Dalton;  George Romney the 19th Century painter's wife lived, after his travels, George joined her in Kendal, archives at http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/archives/recordoffices/knrec.asp.

Rumney.  Romney Marsh. Rumney Marsh.  A locale in England, at Kent. A place of many Travelers,  but not exclusively, of course. Find one George Rumney Marsh who married a Native American here in the 17th Century, a/k/a Sagamore George or Wenepoykin, who died in 1684, see  Winchester MA info at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~raymondfamily/wiser/wisfeb06.pdf



 Rumney is also a place in Cardiff, Wales. See http://googlemapsuk.com/wales/Cardiff/Rumney.



4.  In 2011. I searched and got a virus warning, so am signing off to fix it. 

A Pay-Attention List. Arts and Roma, Politics, Updated. Romany Fashion Cycle Returns

Roma in the imagination.  Many think of costume, mannerism, dance, song, traditional settings. Idealizing aspects of a cultural or ethnic group serves a useful purpose if it helps defuse fears of the different, but not if the inquiry and interest stop there. 

The New York Times featured a "Romany aesthetic" in its Styles section, July 12, 2012.  See Joining the Gypsy Caravan.  Apparently, the enthusiasm is not just fanned by outsiders. There is a "youthful cohort" exploring the heritage and joining in its morph into a commodity. There are blogs and posts, in a culture otherwise largely elusive.

I.  Roma in politics.

• Jimmy Marks has just died, see his story as a "gypsy leader" in Spokane, Washington, see http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=197123, an advocate for family and culture.
• In 2002, there were  Senate Special Committee on Aging, hearings on predators attacking the elderly, including Roma and Travelers, see http://aging.senate.gov/hearing_detail.cfm?id=272113&
• Reference:  Politics in America, 1990: 1347; Steven V. Roberts, “G.O.P. ‘Gypsy Mothers’ Test Their Wings,” 26 July 1981, New York Times: E4.

Is there any interest in the political among emerging and established Roma in the arts.

The Times article is not a political one, but there should have been some reference to the larger community perhaps:  its needs, the relationship of those now in the public view to their roots, or a statement that the community wishes to remain as it is, as they all may differ.  Question remains: what is the political life or concerns as to these people in the arts, film, and fashion spheres. If it is peripheral, that is their choice. I am asking only for information.

• The State Department publicizes Assistance for Roma at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/04/139844.htm. Those, however, focus only on Roma overseas.  What about in-house?
• A Yahoo community-forum site is not often updated, is that so, at http://voices.yahoo.com/a-brief-look-roma-gypsies-america-4212919.html. 
• The Smithsonian presents them as museum pieces.  See http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/migrations/gyp/gypstart.html

Considerations:  fear of having to register to vote, locate oneself in the larger land, desire to stay autonomous, an individual difficult to find by any outsider? 

• Romania. That appears to be the case in Romania, see http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/europe/romania/gypsies-text/3.  Fear of authorities leads many to subsist without identification.

Still, votes count. So does privacy, and keeping under the radar for safety and cohesion.  How to ensure the meeting of basic needs without intruding into culture.

• Is there any movement among Roma elsewhere to have a voice in government. The European Roma Rights Center recognizes the issues, see http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=1274.  The 2006 Roma Political Leadership Academy report is not found at the site cited.

II.  Meanwhile, A Roma Pay-Attention List

In hopes that the issue of Roma voice and influence in government may also be important to the already successful and trending, here is a compendium of some current Roma-heritage interested or descended here in the United States arts scene.  Source:  New York Times article, here summarized and highlighted by names.  Anyone who crosses their pathways, perhaps mention?


Roma in Fashion:

• Peter Dundas, Gucci;
• Massimiliano Giornetti, Ferragamo;
• Joseph Altuzarra with his Balkan slant, acknowledging that the insipiriation is aesthetic, interpretive.  Add
• Riccardo Tisci, Givenchy;
• Giambattista Valle, for Margherita Missoni.
• Catherine Moellering, with Tobe Report;
• Stephanie Solomon, Bloomingdale's.  Then visit the more accessible chains offering what we used to call peasant tops and embroideries:
• Patti Hansen, Vogue. Then
• Estrella Martinez at Electric Feathers line;
• Pamela Love's jewelry;
• Audrey Louise Reynolds in art and design,

Roma Websites, Roma Books: 

• Gypsy Lore Society, by Matt Salo.  Going there: first to the book, http://www.gypsyloresociety.org/gypsy-lore-society-publications/books; and then to the papers of the organization's meetings at http://www.gypsyloresociety.org/gypsy-lore-society-publications/books/papers-from-the-meetings. 
• Another book:  Gypsy Boy by Mikey Walsh (pen name), about English Gypsies.  Would that include the Romneys' forbears?  Somebody go check Kent.
• Oksana Marafiota, American Gypsy: A Memoir, at http://www.harvard.com/book/american_gypsy_a_memoir/.

Roma in Music

• Angelina Roz incorporates her Roma heritage, Russian, in her pop, rock music. See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diG7A9WKkVA. That is more than "rock".  Repeat the run.  More Russian Roma heritage --
•  Gogol Bordello, punk band at http://www.gogolbordello.com/news/; features Ukrainian-American Eugene Hutz.

Roma in Film:

•  Gypsy, showing now in New York, Romany village in Eastern Slovakia. Review at http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/movies/gypsy-by-martin-sulik-fictional-portrait-of-the-roma.html

Roma in Photography: 

• Gilles Larrain, showing flamenco musicians from the 1970's, and other subjects;  recently shown in Granada, Spain.  See http://www.flamenco-world.com/magazine/fotos/gilles/home.htm;  see also http://www.gilleslarrain.com/
• Alen MacWeeney, showing Irish Travellers from the 1960's, see http://www.alenmacweeney.com/  These are black and white and riveting.

Around the world:  See Hungary, where Roma are some 10% of the population. See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/arts/design/06roma.html.  No change in acceptance as separate, or in offering benefits from assimilation (into what?) --

Literature: Fires in the Dark. An Editor Betrays the Essence

Roma in WWII.  What countries.  

What untrumpeted devastation. 

For a variety of reasons, I am interested in Slovakia, a smaller country in Central Europe, but one with an important history:  how do ethnic controls, exterminations, proceed, become "accepted."  See overview at http://hitlernews.cloudworth.com/roma-gypsy.php./  I am continuing my interest in Slovakia in particular at Slovakia Road Ways.

Has the devastation of this ethnic group, guilty only of its difference from regimentation as the West saw was virtuous (themselves), been appreciated.

• Update:  Forced sterilization of Romany women.  Letter to editor, New York Times today July 5, 2012.  " *** Romany women in Slovakia are forcibly sterilized for racist reasons. *** Letter triggered by forced abortions in China reports, letter by Nancy Northrup, who identifies herself as President and  Chief Executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, New York. Find the organization at http://reproductiverights.org/en/about-us

1.  Awareness rising, but deflected.
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A fine novel for the beginner in learning about Roma culture, including me, is Fires in the Dark, by Louise Doughty, see http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/307210.Fires_in_the_Dark. 

Hwaet.  The cover there online, is not the cover on my library book, 2004, Harper Collins.  The library book I have shows a tall Aryan looking woman, even with the coins in her braids, with all the features of, say, fair skinned as in Norway; not dark-skinned.  The man looks more ethnically accurate: the man with her less Aryan, and even non-Aryan as in Hispanic or South American.  Why the culture blending, or culture-avoidance?

 Did someone approach an editor after seeing the odd couple, and request, and get, the new cover -- copping out of ethnicity entirely, and showing only a Roma wagon on the horizon.  I would have preferred the change to be this:  a Roma woman, dark-skinned and tall and proud, as in the book.

Fair use: small portion of cover -- commentary on the use of light skin instead of the dark skinned woman in the book. 

Fires in the Dark, fair use portion of cover for commentary, novel by Louise Doughty

2.  Read the book.  Learn what it was like in the years leading up to WWII in the Czech Republic, Slovakia.  And during WWII.  Not to be a spoiler, but the day-to-day accounts of life in the camps is overwhelming.

3.  Point remains.  People with dark skin, for those of us with light skin, are fully human and deserve to be represented as such -- with all the human loves, betrayals, tragedies. What is it to have to "pass" as Aryan in order to survive.   What essential values separate the ethnicities -- and where do the whites fall far short.  Think of that.  Who cuts the corners, is far less "clean", who remains complicit in the name of profit.  On the other hand, do both groups abuse women. Orthodox Jewish scholars may justify their lack of employment, working for others, on religious ground.  Is the Roma refusal, or at least reluctance, to work for others, but to be self-sufficient, admirable? Of course.  How do we "frame" the other.

4.  Enjoy, then report what other covers you find. I understand from the book jacket that Louise Doughty has Roma in her family ancestry.  Editors betray with their covers. What editors do may not reflect the author's preferences for integrity, but only profit.

5.  What European countries also foster human trafficking, including of Roma.  I saw the sign, in English, in one of Slovakia's rural areas, for a farm for such activities.  What persons of Slavic-non-Slavic ethnic origin are kept there. What are the roots of our religious and cultural customs that promote that. See also http://www.slovakiaroadway.blogspot.com

Rom: Survival, role of secrecy, surname adoption

Provided: cross-index of topics relevant to Roma, particularly in Britain.
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This focus on Britain stems from an interest in the immigrant roots of our American politicians, and noting the similarity of Mitt Romney the Candidate and England Road Ways  Romneys in Cumbria, were they also from the town in Kent, and Romany Roma Romanichal, etc.  If there is a connection, how might knowledge of those backgrounds aid the originating groups, in a transparent, common-good way. See also England Road Ways' Roma in Leeds, England.  

For modern  Romneys, the name "Rumney" is consistently used in earlier days, part of the Rumnichal heritage.  For a start, see Wiki and then vet sources, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanichal . Wiki as a start is fine, not for conclusions without vetting.
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Tracking the Romney name, was it Romany at one time (surnames were often adopted in the locality for protection), or will anyone ever know as to this family.  Our conclusion so far is that no clear connection has shown yet; but the search for surname roots opened other historical, ethnic interests that have overflowed from this site, Gypsies Roma, to others.
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With an election season in the United States, and a Romney, who is also a Mormon, we looked at who converted to Mormonism from England -- its most fruitful source.  And explored possible roots of Romney to Romany, nothing conclusive from what we have seen.
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Timeline for the name Romney so far, Rumenea, Rominel: sites listed below; and for other concepts relevant to the Roma experience:
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Celts, others in Britain, 600 BC- 50AD http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Celtic_Britain.htm; re Britons, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/peoples_01.shtml

Romans invade Britain 43AD, including at Kent, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/1000piece-puzzle-may-unlock-secrets-to-the-roman-conquest-of-britain-6287730.html.  Thereafter, Angles and Saxons and Jutes also move over the channel to Britain, during Roman times http://www.btinternet.com/~timeref/saxons1.htm
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Romans leave Britain 410 AD http://www.historyonthenet.com/Chronology/timelineroman.htm
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1.  600's -- Romney, town and Marsh, Kent, southern England, tip toward France.  This area was called Rumenea, Saxon fold. See http://www.uk-genealogy.org.uk/england/Kent/towns/Romney.html
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2.  1000-1100 -- Area became known as Romanel, after the Norman conquest, from France into England 1066 (William the Conqueror; Romanel from the name of one such invader).  Or is it earlier, before the Saxons even, derived from the Romans at Romanel Marsh, all preceding by centuries and millennia the arrival of gypsy Romanichal, Romany.
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3.  1500's -- first Roma arrive in Britain, Gypsies from mistaken understanding that they were from Egypt. Origin? perhaps Spain, Ireland where they had entered earlier?  There were already nomadic groups in Kent, see http://www.kent.gov.uk/community_and_living/gypsies_and_travellers/history_of_gypsies.aspx.  Thereafter, influx and events, http://www.grthm.co.uk/timeline.php
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4.  1530 -- Act of Parliament requiring all gypsies to leave -- immediately. Many went into the New Forest, Hampshire, http://www.newforestromanygypsytraveller.co.uk/history1.html
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5.  Policies of policing, how the mindset spreads, see concept at http://www.sassafrastree.blogspot.com/#!http://sassafrastree.blogspot.com/2011/03/domestic-gendarmism-gendarmes-over.html
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6.  Role of perpetuating dependency, particularly where a people value their autonomy so highly, http://www.plainmeaning.blogspot.com/#!http://plainmeaning.blogspot.com/2012/01/dependency-is-humiliating.html
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7.  Assuming local names, other secrecy steps needed for survival, identity; this site re Scotland examples, http://gypsyjib.wetpaint.com/page/Scottish+Gypsies.  English Romanies also traveled to Scotland. See photos and surnames at that site.  Names remaining Gypsy (not names of those originally Gypsy who adopted local names instead), see Romany Routes, Journal of the Romany and Traveller Family History Society,  http://website.lineone.net/~rtfhs/journal.html
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8.  1840's -- Mormon missionaries arrive in Britain, the new religion having been founded in 1830 and met with persecution in America, see business model for processing converts, http://martinlutherstove.blogspot.com/#!/2012/01/mormon-converts-19th-c-owned-by-company.html

1850's -- Romanichals, English gypsies, start coming to America, see http://gypsyjib.wetpaint.com/page/Arrival+of+Gypsies+in+America.  

Assimilate or stay distinct? 
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9.  Candidates and minority roots: an exploration (we find no clear Romney-Romany connection from sites or records), http://hellofodderhellobuyer.blogspot.com/2011/12/candidates-and-their-own-minority-roots.html#!/2011/12/candidates-and-their-own-minority-roots.html

As with any ancestor-activity, much occurred outside the record books. But as a surname, Romney itself is not seen as a "gypsy" surname but instead references the locale. No way to track who assumed the locale name, as the poll-tax of Henry II in 1377 (predating arrival of Roma) required a surname and many simply took the locale.
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10.  Continuing hold of origins, lessons learned perpetuate, http://sassafrasthicket.blogspot.com/2012/01/steered-by-navels-and-surnames-what-if.html#!/2012/01/steered-by-navels-and-surnames-what-if.html
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11.   Ethnic origins and politics.  Romney-Roma-Romany will remain elusive, and there are roots to Saxons and Normans in similar sounding names.  Romney as town, Romney as whatever. Was there the survival blending of surnames? No way to know.  Still, topic is of interest, see http://www.joyofequivocating.blogspot.com/#!http://joyofequivocating.blogspot.com/2011/10/deny-thy-father-romney-as-roma-other.html

WWII Roma persecution. History. Bergen Belsen. Roma, Sinti, Zigeun, Gypsy Groups

At Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp near Celle, Germany (near Hannover) there are prominent and multiple memorials for Jewish victims of the Holocaust.  There also is, however, if you look closely, a specific memorial to all those others murdered in such masses:

• Bergen Belsen:  Germany permitted the tearing down of all the original structures, or was it done so fast that no active "choice" was made?  Instead of seeing what it was like, however, it is a huge memorial park with a perimeter pathway, leading around, and around and pathways across, easy to get lost. 
• There is a Documentation Center of photos, films, exhibits. 
• Then, after following markers on relief maps that say, "You are here," there may be -- finally finally - large markers, an Obelisk, a tall Cross, and buildings nearby signifying the Documentation Center and a religious center.

Here is one we nearly missed, a memorial flush to the ground:  the main site for Bergen Belsen is at Germany Road Ways, Bergen Belsen.  These markers are worth repeating here:  Memorialized are the Jews, the Sinti, the Roma, the Zigeun, the Homosexuelle, the Jehovah's Witnesses.  Try to make out the groups:

The Remembrance stones are on most every marker at Bergen Belsen.

Memorial Marker, Sinti, Roma, Zigeun, Homosexuelle, Jehovas, Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp

There was an entire Gypsy Camp, Zigeunerlager, at Bergen Belsen, see photo at http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Database/CampAreaPhotographs.asp?CampAreaID=23&PhotographsID=652/.  

 .

The photograph, aerial, was taken in 1944.  There is no trace we could see of the Zigeunerlager now, as all was razed and the Bergen Belsen area is now a nature-type walk, with memorials and huge burial mounds, pits beneath, filled. 

.

See the photos also at the American Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224/; 

See also http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Camp%20Development/ASP/CampAreas/DevelopmentCampAreaPhotographs1945_1949.asp?CampAreaID=23&index=1/  Click on the sequential photos, a series of photos.

There are also testimonies and videos, this from Yale: http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/excerpts/annaw.html

Overall, some 5,000,000 non-Jews were killed, says this site, including some 500,000 or about half the Eastern European population of Gypsies were killed, because of their ethnicity, see Holocaust Non-Jewish Victims, http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/romgypsies.htm/  The site also refers to this book, not read by me yet, see The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, by Guenter Lewy 2001.

Too hard to read? Try a close-up:

Bergen-Belsen, Close-up, Memorial to Gypsy Groups,  Celle, Germany (near Hanover)

Resources:

Have to get back to read these, but here is a beginning list:

• Gypsies, Second World War, at http://books.google.com/books?id=5U_Auv-u0PIC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=Bergen+Belsen+gypsy+camp&source=bl&ots=BfSNVlHp2r&sig=6Aw_8g_5_IY0vqk-V67my6Ci-M4&hl=en&ei=64I7Te-VCYiq8AaXnOHECg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Bergen%20Belsen%20gypsy%20camp&f=false/
• A researcher blog, Joedresch's Blog, see it, at http://joedresch.wordpress.com/category/bergen-belsen/

Roma integration. Spain's Successes: Better Integration of Gitano in Housing, Schools, Jobs

 Roma Integration.

Spain.

 .
At last: we find an optimistic headline regarding integration of gypsies, or Roma, in housing, employment, schools at least at the lover levels. Title -- "In Spain, Gypsies Find Easier Path to Integration" -- see
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/europe/06gypsy.html/

Gypsies, known as "Gitano" in Spain, are enjoying higher degrees of education and employability (50%) than elsewhere. Gitano children are in elementary school, the same neighborhood schools as other children and not shunted off to facilities for the mentally handicapped, as we understand has been the case in much of Europe. Mediators at the schools help with relationship issues. The article says that over 50% of those children's parents are homeowners. About 92% are in housing that is considered "standard".

They are moving into areas of work that are not the traditional dealing in cattle or selling goods.

What did Spain do right, beginning some 30 years ago. Spain focused on housing and jobs, not so much on prejudice-correction, or civil rights. Jobs and housing first, let the rest follow, and it has. Direct "attacks" on forcing integration fail in other countries. Go to the basics.

Ongoing problems: huge dropout rate from the schools, once out of the elementary levels. Some 4% of gypsy people live in shacks. There is prejudice -- hard to get a taxi if you are in traditional gypsy dress,
for example.

Government: the constitution, a democratic one, requires police protection for gypsies. Past Gardia Civil abuses have been reduced. The policy is to provide housing among others, not just among fellow gypsies.

Can those policies work elsewhere: it takes funding for administration, and places with substantially larger gypsy populations in even more entrenched poverty may be insurmountable in the short term.

Still, the point is made in Spain: focus on housing and jobs. To aim at prejudice first is not as effective. "Acceder" is the group that facilitates improvements, and has been effective.

Roma arts. Our Culture Blindness. Gypsies in Romantic Lit, and the NYT - Hans Christian Andersen

Roma in Arts and Culture.
Our Defensive Culture Blindness

Where it Leads the Willing Duped

Hans Christian Andersen, Odense, DK

1.  First question.  Who cares about minorities without clout.  No-one. Fantasy enables us to say, they are fine, they don't need us, they are on their own.

2. Even the New York Times ignores the most important factor in the well-being history of Roma - the forced halts to caravan migrations, movement in the nomadic, seasonal, sense.  See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/world/europe/17union.html?_r=1&ref=gypsies/.

To us, it appears that the well-being of the Roma culture to an important degree for many who were, indeed, Travelers, was the movement.  Any inconvenience to communities was mitigated because the newcomers, moved. In time.  Cultures accommodated each other.  Force migratory population into high-rises without income, without traditional occupations, trouble.

3. Origins of cultural blindness to real hardship.

See how the great storyteller, the originator -- not a mere re-teller -- of tales that enabled children to face their nameless fears through fantasy -- himself was deluded. Hans Christian Andersen.  Childhood's greatest unspoken fears, address them through lives imagined in others.  But not so for reality.

The accounts of Hans Christian Andersen as to Gypsy populations he found in northern Jutland, further the romantic notion that people are fine without a place to stay.

Gypsies in Jutland?  Denmark? Gypsies in 19th Century Jutland.  Seen but not seen. The 19th Century Jutland and Gypsies.  What?  Is Mitt Romney a Roma, Romani, Rom'nie by heritage?  Does background, if demonstrated, affect attitudes toward the downtrodden. Should it>

"I was approaching Viborg in a heavy downpour when, along a bumpy land, I came across a tinker family; the woman carried an infant on her back and had another child by the hand, the man had knapsacks slung over his shoulders, they wished me good day in a friendly fashion and went on their way, for there was nowhere for them to find shelter.  When my man told me who they were I grew quite blissful; this truly poetic people live in our Denmark; they have their own language, own customs, live the life of nomads and wed their own kind with their own ceremonies, without the interference of the clergy."

Fair use quote from Hans Christian Andersen, the Life of a Storyteller, Knopf 2001, by Jackie Wullschlager at page 94.

Compensation Sought, IBM Cards. WWII Roma Persecution. Romani and the Holocaust. Update and Topic Review

Reparations. Persecution.
Roma in the Holocaust
Update, and topic review
GIRCA v IBM

Records and Courts Fail to Compensate.
Too Late. Sorry.  Now, Go Away.

Gypsies Sue IBM
IBM wins.


Next step:  Put online all the pleadings, arguments, evidence. 
For educational purposes.

A.  Procedural setting

The Roma case is dismissed in 2006, for not having been filed in the "time limit".  See Holocaust suit.  See Swiss High Court Rejects Gypsy Holocaust Suit Versus IBM, Cites Time Limit, at http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Swiss-high-court-rejects-Gypsy-Holocaust-suit-versus-IBM-cites-time-limit/2006/08/19/1155408031630.html

Read about the lawsuit.  Try Gypsies vs. IBM. But there must be a more formal docket name, for IBM facilitating the holocaust by providing the punch cards and other expertise for the holocaust.  Go instead to http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/07/08/ramasastry.holocaust.ibm/index.html. I have not read or followed up on it yet.

War compensation has been provided to other target groups, but has been far less to Gypsy groups.  Action is moving in that direction, says site.  What does Mitt Romney say? Romney Roma Romani Rom'nie?  Or is later success enough to disavow earlier ancestral connections in persecution.

See suit filed in Geneva in 2002 by the Gypsy International Recognition and Compensation Action Association (GIRCA) http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Lawlawsuits/Lawsuitsregulatoryaction/LawsuitsSelectedcases/IBMlawsuitHolocaustclaimbyGypsies

It had been progressing.  See http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/jun/23/secondworldwar.internationalnews

But who can sue IBM and win anyway? There will always be a way to put equity last, and technicality first where money is involved.
.

B.  Review:  Did the Roma have a case? 
The Gypsy - Roma Experience

1.  Gypsies at Lodz, or Litzmannstadt, Ghetto. Poland.

There is now a "ghetto route" that interested persons may walk in the old ghetto at Lodz, with sites marked and events or inhabitants described. The annual commemoration is pending, see see http://www.ghetto.lodz.pl/index.php/.  At 83 Wojska Polskiego Street, for example, stop number 34, where Gypsies were processed, and transported to their deaths.  Fair use quote from the brochure:

"At this site, German authorities established a camp for Gypsies (Zigeunerlager) in the area boarded by Sulzfelder Str. (Wojska Polskiego), Kondradstr. (Głowackiego), Kriminalstr. (Starosikawską) i  Blechgasse (obrońców Westerplatte) Streets. Of the 5000 Roma men, women and children deported from Austria and incrarcerated here between November 5, 1941 and January 12, 1942, over 600 died from diseases or were murdered in the camp; The remaining were gassed in the death camp at Kulmhof am Ner (Chełmno-Upon-Ner) during the week of January 5 to 12, 1942."

Fair use.  See http://www.ghetto.lodz.pl/index.php/en/memorial

2.  Gypsies at Buchenwald

Roma at Buchenwald. Find this memorial and account at The Nizkor Project, Germany's Romany and Sinti People, Commemoration of Buchenwald, Germany, see ://ftp.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/buchenwald/press/reuters-040395b.html/  There is a new memorial for the group, that prefers the Romany and Sinti designation, and testimonials as to the brutality there.

Find this appalling statement at the Nizkor.org site,  that the Camp remained open for business after the War and 10,000 people died in it under the administration of the Soviets: Fair use --

It will also acknowledge another fact hushed up under communism -- that for five years after World War Two, Buchenwald remained in use as an internment camp run by Soviet occupation forces. Around 10,000 inmates, mostly Germans, died. Here is Buchenwald, in Germany. See Germany Road Ways, Buchenwald. Read the buildup to the WWII holocaust at http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistBeforeHitler. Census, registries, forced photographs, fingerprinting, surveillance, restrictions on travel, imposed detention.

Holocaust. Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany.

3.  No individual victims' names equivalent for Yad Vashem for Roma found to date

Records for individuals such as Jews in the Holocaust have been consolidated, as part of an ongoing effort to collect, coordinate, report.  See http://ww/yadvashem.org, and the online victims' names list.

That takes money and influence, as well as perseverance.  But perseverance gets nowhere without money and influence, is that so?

Read about the Holocaust, its events and Nazi-Fascist country-city laws leading up to it in Europe, and more low-key everyday persecutions, and the horrendous results, at http://www.holocaust-trc.org/sinti.htm

Estimates of Gypsy deaths alone run from 300,000 to 1,000,000 - these were largely illiterate people, without the birth or other records of other groups like the Jews, so the numbers range, and are derived from other information -- see http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/07/08/ramasastry.holocaust.ibm/index.
.
However, there are other sites with collected testimonials and information about groups, and anecdotes , see http://remember.org/witness/wit.vic.gyp1.html/  That site points out the German dilemma -- that Roma were Aryans, but did not fit the German ideal.

Nonetheless, Roma deportation and execution was put under Himmler's control, and he carried on. The remember.org site includes information and anecdotes as to Treblinka, that also received and executed Jews.

A history of Roma history of persecution, and the Holocaust, is rather in narrative form, the group experience; not individual records or testimonials as to those individuals.

Search each concentration camp, roma in ________, gypsies in ____________/

And the history is expressed in creative arts.  See Site: The Hungarian Quarterly, Vol. XLII , No. 162, Summer 2001. This is "The Holocaust in Gypsy Folk Poetry," by Karoli Bari. http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no162/064.html.

As in the Buchenwald site, above, designating certain groups as expendable, such as Roma even in concentration camps, is a global human failing.  See  The Common Good, Who Speaks for It, fodder post.

4.  Gypsies in Auschwitz - Birkenau

Roma were designated as enemies of the Third Reich, see http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/h/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=3/  As such, they could be isolated and exterminated, and were. As were the Jews, Gypsies were identified as racially inferior, thus not eligible for the privileges of others. A special Gypsy family camp at Auschwitz was set up to receive what appears to be most all of the Roma population, excluding the thousands at Lodz who had already been killed there or at Kulmhof, and then dispose of them.

See Auschwitz, in Poland, at Poland Road Ways, Auschwitz, an extermination camp.

See also Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, Places of Petr Ginz.

The German action was extreme, but unique in degree, not concept. Many cultures designate certain groups as dispensable, despicable, unworthy, deserving of what they get - usually a back of the hand, and even genocide. See the fodder concept for people who are attacked, open to targeting, with corresponding belief systems justifying it, the expendables.

In modern times, or among the more affluent, this can include even people with money who are fed bad food, expensive medicines, sold ideas that are not supported by a religious founder. Watch who gets a profit at the expense of the others. Treated as fodder.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp, crematory

These are the ovens, the crematoria with the chimney, at Auschwitz, Poland, that borders Slovakia, see Poland Road Ways, Auschwitz.

There was a special "family" camp at Auschwitz for gypsies, where entire families were imprisoned together. Read the US Holocaust Museum accounts at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005219.

That source says that, of the million gypsies in Europe before the killings, some 220,000 were killed, many were killed by mobile killing units, especially in Russia and Ukraine, without records. See Babi Yar, Kiev, Ukraine, gypsies, Jews, others, at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/babiyar.html; and at http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/babi_yar.htm

5.  Roma in Theresienstadt



Theresienstadt, Terezin, Train transport, loading, unloading area CZ

Here is the station area at Theresienstadt CZ, where the trains brought in the Jews, Gypsies and other targeted persons during WWII. This was an old garrison town in the Czech Republic, turned ghetto and way-station to extermination and labor camps. Tens of thousands also died here.

Were there Gypsies in Terezin.

There were hierarchies even among undesirables, that shunted the bottom people mostly elsewhere, see Places of Petr Ginz; and the Terezin Study Guide, developed to teach students the history and issues.  See http://www.american.edu/cas/terezin/upload/Terezin-study-guide.pdf/

It appears that Theresienstadt was originally designated as a destination for "privileged" Jews, those in bureaucratic positions, or otherwise in some position of influence. Is that so?  Read the history at the study guide. From Terezin, however, where people also died from the conditions, they were transported to further camps for execution or slave labor.

6. Roma at Jasenovac, Croatia



Hear and see this memorial at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4317038589131761601#Ustaški zločin nad civilima - Jasenovac.  Croatian Death Camp. This site is in Croatian, but it takes no translating. Holocaust footage. More graphic than you probably have ever seen.  Ever.
.
Numbers vary wildly - no one appears willing to dig up and count, lest the results support the other side, but we have seen 85,000 to 600,000 killed, and it is difficult to find for the different groups killed here, but gypsies are included specifically.  See http://www.vosizneias.com/60743/2010/07/25/jasenovac-croatia-peres-croatian-wwii-camp-was-a-show-of-sadism/

Jasenovac's artifacts were sent mostly to the Holocaust Memorial Center in Washington DC.

Transport train, boxcars, Jasenovac Concentration Camp, Croatia

See Jasenovac at Croatia Road Ways.

The transport train on display at Jasenovac is riddled. We cannot tell if the bullet-type holes are vandalism from later, or original.

The museum building at Jasenovac is locked and broken. Not even a rest room. I don't think they want you there. The area's walkway is used as a bike path.

7.  Roma at Mauthausen


See Roma, Gypsies at Mauthausen, Austria; and Austria Road Ways, Mauthausen KZ Konzentrationslager.

C.  Roma Experience of the Holocaust in Literature 

 
1.  "Zoli" by Colum McCann, see http://www.amazon.com/Zoli-Novel-Colum-McCann/dp/1400063728

"Zoli" at 47-48: Slovakian Gypsies were sent mostly to work camps, beaten, tortured, jailed, curfews, spitting, badges, barbed wire. In other countries, the focus was on extermination - but Slovakia was a satellite state. Some reprieve, not much.

After Hitler came to power, read about the events at http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistHitlerPower. Laws against intermarriage, transports to Dachau and Buchenwald (see photo), registrations, differential passes, Auschwitz, and continuing throughout WWII, see http://www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistGermanOccupat.

2. Poetry:  See FN 1; and a search for holocaust in literature

D.  Why the surprise at Roma invisibility?

1.  Gypsy illiteracy reduces their visibility.

The literate ones also are remembered because they wrote, or others wrote of them, like Ann Frank in Amsterdam, or Petr Ginz in Prague. See Netherlands Road Ways, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum, diarists. Gypsies often died unknown.

Some expressions survive. See FN 1.

2.   Impact of Holocaust, Gypsies and Roma Populations, News, research

The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, see site at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005219, provides the history and photos. Still, there may be an agenda there, to present what is sought to be presented.

Need more emphasis on the impact of Nazi policy on this group.

The Holocaust Museum site gives this information about Reynhard Heidrich (a/k/a Heydrich), a high-ranking Nazi officer who was assassinated by Czech resistance in Prague, see Places of Petr Ginz, Occupation. Heidrich had big plans for deporting 30,000 gypsies to the camps, but was persuaded to focus instead on the Jews, reducing the numbers of deportations at that time.

Zoli, in the novel of the same name, speaks of the mass killing of Gypsies at Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, at p. ___.  Author:  please provide more.

..................................................

FN 1

Fair use quote from a long article, here believed to be an unknown author, a Gypsy poem in experiencing the holocaust.  From this Hungarian site, a journal in English  http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no162/064.html, now at http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/index.shtml (but we cannot locate the poem - have emailed to confirm fair use, and do hope acceptable)

"Little bird, o little birdie,
Fly far away, carry the news,
Tell how I'm in constant terror,
tell how I'm in constant terror!
German lager, how hard it is,
German lager, how hard it is,
The prison guards are so evil,
The prison guards are so evil!

"Hey there, Hitler, curses on you.
May God trample upon your face
like people walk upon the streets,
like people walk upon the streets.

"Machine guns are barking away,
Machine guns are barking away,
My pursuers are getting close,
My pursuers are getting close.

"God, give me some of your fortune,
Give a little bit of your own,
Help me get onto trackless tracks,
Help me pass along trackless tracks.

"God, send me a drop of rainfall,
God, send me a drop of rainfall,
Mingle it up well with snowflakes,
Mingle it up well with snowflakes!

"Mingle it up with snowflakes,
Mingle it up with snowflakes,
So the green shoots of grass may grow,
So the green shoots of grass may grow!

"Cover the trail of my footprints,
Cover the trail of my footprints,
So I may find tranquillity,
So I may find tranquillity!

"God, oh God! How you have thrashed me,
God, oh God! How you have thrashed me,
Perhaps nobody more than me,
Perhaps nobody more than me!

"German lager, German lager,
There a gun was always barking,
All my family was wiped out,
All my family was wiped out!

"I've lost all my family,
I've lost all my family,
Oh, what can I do, all alone,
Oh, what can I do, all alone!"

Romani in Film; Topics

 Update:

1. EMIR KUSTURICA:

Try director Emir Kusturica's groundbreaking 1988 film The Time of the Gypsies., This clue from the National Geographic site, ://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/genre/content.genre/roma__gypsy__music_778/  He was born in Sarajevo, not of gypsy parents, but has found an affinity with them.  See 2005 NYT at ://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/magazine/08EMIR.html

Then Black Cat, White Cat - see review of this film and other works in the New York Times, Sunday, September 5, 1999.  See videos related, on YouTube, at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBbzcj1t2WY&feature=related/; and at  ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdRPRvhXSCo&NR=1/.  Enjoy the music. Mr. Kusturica characterizes the music as Unca-Unca, or oontsa-oontsa, a 2/4 beat, combining rock 'n roll, reggae and elements from times gone by - "a mess,  but a nice mess."

And find, in Images for Black Cat, White Cat, even more fun.

He is the only child of Muslim parents, but apparently they were not practicing Muslims. See article. By 1999, he lived in Normandy with his family.

2. JASMINE DELLAL.

PBS has this: "American Gypsy: Stranger in Everybody's Land," film by Jasmine Dellal, at ://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2000/americangypsy/index.html. The estimate there is about 1,000,000 Gypsies in America. See review at ://www.americangypsy.com/the_film/full_description.html

 
....................................................
Cross reference to another of our sites - see comment there about Roma in Cesky Krumlov - populations living well together - Roma in Czech city, Cesky Krumlov

We have no ethnic connection to Roma, but a deep interest in why humans need to scapegoat others. We also have no information on dialects, but would like to know more.

Desegregation, Civil Rights, Self-Determination Issues. Roma Leaders, News. Updating Coming.

Conferences, Refugee Camp Issues, Schools Desegregation Progress;
issues pending; or otherwise to be discussed. *

Alarms.  Hopes.  Despairs. Cheers.  Steps ahead and back. Ongoing research for progress.

1.  Conferences.  From 2002. Lodz, Poland. Romany National Congress.  Site of largest ghetto for Jews and Gypsies in WWII, at the Marysin district.

• Populations compressed, deprived. Racial bias. Chairman Rudko Kawczynski.  Issue:  He warned that the Roma face a "demographic time bomb" -- that the populations are growing so rapidly that a Palestinian problem, of others keeping Romany people in the equivalent of camps, may result. The young people will not be quiescent during that process, and the numbers of Roma may approach 20 million in Europe and Eastern Europe.  He sees parallels between anti-Gypsy sentiment and anti-Semitic sentiments, both primarily a European phenomenon.  "We will face a Palestinian problem in Europe." See NYT 5/10/2002.  How many are there?  Western Europe 7-15 million -- nobody knows, see Pohl NYT article below. Add 5-10% more for Eastern Europe.

• Disparate groups. Romany Civil Rights Foundation, Hungary. Agnes Daroczi, a leader. Issue:   Need for unity.  Without unified voice, she suggests, how to pressure nations to improve Romany life. See Lodz conference, NYT 5/10/2002. Example of the diversity:  a memorial service was held at Lodz for victims of the Holocause, officiating:  "a Romany mullah from Macedonia, an evangelical Romany pastor from Sweden, and the rabbi of Lodz." Needed, says Pohl NYT article #3 below, is a unifying figure: so far the Roma have no equivalent of a Martin Luther King or Malcolm X or Rosa Parks (who sat on the bus, as a black, in the forbidden white area, sparking a decade of protests) to carry on the Roma cause.

• Holocaust compensation. Further from Agnes Daroczi:  This has been uneven.  Romany prisoners in Austrian camps received both reparations and pensions.  Those imprisoned in Hungary have received nothing even though the funds have been set aside (is this too broad? examples were given).

• Rom exclusion from post-communist era prosperity in western Europe, shunted aside into refugee camps, discriminated against, attacked.

•  Children segregated, sent out of mainstream to schools for the "learning disabled", perpetuating underclass.  School desegregation lawsuits were planned in other news accounts, see Lawsuits, at #2.
  

• Refugee camps.  Wars in Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo. Squalor. Cut off from traditional homes, sources of income.

• Assimilation - pressed by most nations - at the cost of Roma identity.  This from Nicolae Gheorghe, a delegate. Is self-determination the best way.

2.  Lawsuits.  

• Service and hiring.  Anti-discrimination. Many modeling after USA civil rights issues (as in Brown v. Board of Education). From 2002:  The Romani Baht Foundation, founded in Bulgaria in 1995, see ://baht2000.free.bg/en.html/.  This organization  filed a lawsuit against a Bulgarian coffee shop in Stara Zagorra for refusing to serve a Roma. Dimitrina Petrova. Mikolsc, Hungary, Dateline. This one won.  Bulgarian Court, Sofia District. Further actions in the pipeline about hospitals, hiring by nightclub owners, etc.  See NYT 5/7/2006, article, Gypsies Gain a Legal Tool in Rights Fight, by Otto Pohl NYT.  An appeal was pending, but already changes had been made at state policy levels.

• European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).  This was founded in 1959, and is located at Strasbourg, France. It upholds the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is different from Court of Justice of the European Communities, that deals with the European Union, or the judicial arm of the UN, the International Court of Justice at the Hague.  This , See ://www.echr.coe.int/ECHR/SiteMap.aspx Spotty record.  Case protesting shunting of Roma children to schools for lesser-abled failed, is being resubmitted.  See School Segregation below.  This from the Otto Pohl article, NYT, below.

Note, in lawsuits, that a decision does not automatically mean change.  Civil law may remain in place for a long time. 

• Desegregation. School segregation.  Roma Anti-Discrimination lawsuits. Otto Pohl NYT article notes Strasbourg Court, European Court of Human Rights (see site above at ECHR), "rejected a case about 18 non-handicapped Czech Roma children allowed to enroll only in schools for the handicapped..."  Why? Estimates:  75% of Roma children are so shunted to the special schools. 
• How can that be?  Look again at the European Court of Human Rights above.  What is going on?

3.  Salute to Special Supporters.  This from NYT 5/7/2006, article, Gypsies Gain a Legal Tool in Rights Front", article by Otto Pohl.  Then we add our own updates.

• George Soros - a supporter of Roma groups, among other causes. He is "global financier and philanthropist," see bio at ://www.soros.org/about/bios/a_soros/  Named at Otto Pohl NYT article.  See this site, Roma Initiatives, at ://www.soros.org/initiatives/roma/  See the broad range of Soros Foundations at ://www.soros.org/about/foundations/ at the Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations Network, "Building Vibrant and Tolerant Democracies".  We need you in the US, also, Mr. Soros.  Thank you.  Search that site by country to see opportunities, activity there.

• Panayote Dimitras - This (in 2002) was the "executive director of the Greek branch of Helsinki Monitor (Finland had sponsored the conference at #1), a human rights group that also operates in the Balkans", had cited cases from Eastern Europe in Greek matters.

• Roma Police Association, Budapest.  Look again at the American model.  This is framed like the National Black Police Association in Illinois, founded in 1972, to foster race-neutral and ethnic-neutral police enforcement practices. 

• Chance for Children Foundation, Hungary, Andras Ujlaky, President (as of 2006),  focusing on desegregation for  Roma children

4.  Formal representation - Progress

• European Union, Brussels. Hungary was elected to the EU in 2004, and elected two Roma to the Parliament there.  This from the Otto Pohl NYT article, in #3.

To be continued. 
..........................................................
* 

For those who have asked, we in our family have no known connection to any Roma ethnic group.  But we are all minorities in some way or another.  Here, this writer in particular feels  a) a kinship,  b) selfish gratitude that I have not been targeted as others, but c) concerned that the discrimination, supremacy issues that underlie any Perceived-Weaker target, can - if hidden as it operates against any group - be used against anyone.  Targeting one, for purposes of advantage, targets us all. Is that so?