T
Tetro
Гостин
Спор Цигани наспрема Роми во Романија
2010-12-17
Блогерите во Романија разговараат за предлог-законот кој има за цел промена на името на етничката заедница.
Romania's Roma are up in arms over a draft law forwarded byDemocrat-Liberal lawmaker Silviu Prigoana, asking for the official name of the ethnic group to be changed from Roma back to gypsy. Prigoana argues the name Roma confuses people, especially foreigners, and thus many tend to take Roma for Romanians.
"Hundreds of million people on this planet don't have philological and etymological studies. They thus make a natural association, and think Romania is the Roma's country. Which is a false direction," Prigoana said.
The Romanian government said it would support Prigoana's initiative, based on a recommendation from the Romanian Academy, which argued the gypsy designation is used in many European countries, such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
But the ministry of culture and foreign affairs, the National Agency for Roma, the Inter-ethnic Relations Department and the National Antidiscrimination Council oppose the draft law. President Traian Basescu joined the latter and called the bill a mistake.
On November 30th, hundreds of Roma gathered in front of the government building and the Romanian Academy in a protest symbolically called "Me sem rom" (I am a Roma). The community's leaders warn the draft law encroaches upon human rights and pointed out that the term gypsy was used in the Middle Ages to refer not to this ethnic community, but to slaves.
The debate among bloggers flared. "We are already used to the social progress which goes by the pattern 'two steps forward, one step backward', but this time … sounds like backwardness," the Agentia Impreuna blog says, criticising the move.
It adds, for the government, "it doesn't matter that internationally they use and will keep using the terms Roma and Romani to refer to the Roma people. It doesn't matter the Roma bearing a Romanian passport will travel abroad from now on, too, and their association with Romania will still take place, as it is normal."
Victor Bucur offers practical advice for the authorities. "The success of this initiative resides in the ability with which the government plays the card on the prejudice inflicted on Romania's image and, most important, in a very solid argument about the term gypsy not having anything derogatory and discriminating."
"I am here referring to a wrong worldwide opinion about our national identity. There's nothing bad in having nomad ethnical roots, but we just don't have them, and the world has to know that", he added.
Sebastian Bodu, a Democrat-Liberal European lawmaker, welcomes Prigoana's bill. "Returning to the term gypsy or, at least, finding another [term for] Roma, is necessary to clarify a problem of perception and it doesn't at all represent discrimination against these ethnics."
"Moreover, eliminating the confusion which is now in Europe between the terms Roma and Romanian is necessary both to Romanians and gypsies whose identity, tradition and culture are indissolubly related to the word gypsy. … returning to the term gypsy doesn't affect in any circumstances either the social inclusion programmes of the gypsies or their intensification within the European strategies," Bodu writes.
Dan reminds readers that the term Roma was only introduced in 2000 through a memorandum at the behest of community leaders. "This is how they understood to integrate in the society, in Europe and in the civilised world in general, by getting in through the window and not through the door, by creating confusion so that the Roma shall be considered Romanians," he says.
"The honour, quality, value and other attributes of the term gypsy can only be achieved by the gypsies themselves through their behaviour, traditions and thinking."
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/mk/features/setimes/blogreview/2010/12/17/blog-02
2010-12-17
Блогерите во Романија разговараат за предлог-законот кој има за цел промена на името на етничката заедница.
Romania's Roma are up in arms over a draft law forwarded byDemocrat-Liberal lawmaker Silviu Prigoana, asking for the official name of the ethnic group to be changed from Roma back to gypsy. Prigoana argues the name Roma confuses people, especially foreigners, and thus many tend to take Roma for Romanians.
"Hundreds of million people on this planet don't have philological and etymological studies. They thus make a natural association, and think Romania is the Roma's country. Which is a false direction," Prigoana said.
The Romanian government said it would support Prigoana's initiative, based on a recommendation from the Romanian Academy, which argued the gypsy designation is used in many European countries, such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
But the ministry of culture and foreign affairs, the National Agency for Roma, the Inter-ethnic Relations Department and the National Antidiscrimination Council oppose the draft law. President Traian Basescu joined the latter and called the bill a mistake.
On November 30th, hundreds of Roma gathered in front of the government building and the Romanian Academy in a protest symbolically called "Me sem rom" (I am a Roma). The community's leaders warn the draft law encroaches upon human rights and pointed out that the term gypsy was used in the Middle Ages to refer not to this ethnic community, but to slaves.
The debate among bloggers flared. "We are already used to the social progress which goes by the pattern 'two steps forward, one step backward', but this time … sounds like backwardness," the Agentia Impreuna blog says, criticising the move.
It adds, for the government, "it doesn't matter that internationally they use and will keep using the terms Roma and Romani to refer to the Roma people. It doesn't matter the Roma bearing a Romanian passport will travel abroad from now on, too, and their association with Romania will still take place, as it is normal."
Victor Bucur offers practical advice for the authorities. "The success of this initiative resides in the ability with which the government plays the card on the prejudice inflicted on Romania's image and, most important, in a very solid argument about the term gypsy not having anything derogatory and discriminating."
"I am here referring to a wrong worldwide opinion about our national identity. There's nothing bad in having nomad ethnical roots, but we just don't have them, and the world has to know that", he added.
Sebastian Bodu, a Democrat-Liberal European lawmaker, welcomes Prigoana's bill. "Returning to the term gypsy or, at least, finding another [term for] Roma, is necessary to clarify a problem of perception and it doesn't at all represent discrimination against these ethnics."
"Moreover, eliminating the confusion which is now in Europe between the terms Roma and Romanian is necessary both to Romanians and gypsies whose identity, tradition and culture are indissolubly related to the word gypsy. … returning to the term gypsy doesn't affect in any circumstances either the social inclusion programmes of the gypsies or their intensification within the European strategies," Bodu writes.
Dan reminds readers that the term Roma was only introduced in 2000 through a memorandum at the behest of community leaders. "This is how they understood to integrate in the society, in Europe and in the civilised world in general, by getting in through the window and not through the door, by creating confusion so that the Roma shall be considered Romanians," he says.
"The honour, quality, value and other attributes of the term gypsy can only be achieved by the gypsies themselves through their behaviour, traditions and thinking."
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/mk/features/setimes/blogreview/2010/12/17/blog-02
![Google [BoT]](/data/avatars/m/45/45271.jpg?1306674207){kind=avatar}
