Last July I was in Córdoba, Spain doing research for a book I am writing about the relationship between Islam and Christianity. It was hot. The thermometer on a bank said 42 degrees Celsius, and I'm not sure how hot that is in Fahrenheit, but let's just call it "Africa hot." After almost two weeks away from my family on a journey that took me through Israel, France and Spain, I was feeling lonely. I was grateful for the adventure but missed my wife and kids.
As I walked on the ancient cobblestones of the city that once was a Muslim beacon of tolerance at a time when Christian Europe was getting ready to start up the Inquisition, a striking young woman with dark hair and skin stopped me and pressed a sprig of rosemary into my left hand.
"This is for good luck," she told me in exotically accented Spanish, "and now you must let me tell you your fortune."
We were standing in front of the main entrance to Córdoba's cathedral, once the most beautiful mosque in all of Islam. The only shade on the street was cast by the brim of my hat, and I was on my way to buy a pair of ladybug-patterned flamenco shoes for my six-year-old daughter. I wasn't really in the mood for a hustle.
I told the young woman that I didn't want to have my fortune told. But that didn't stop her. She just gave me my fortune in double time, something about me being kind and generous and, in the not too distant future, rich. It was four or five fortune cookies worth of soothsaying. I gave back the sprig of rosemary and tried to walk off in search of my daughter's shoes, but the woman did a nimble dance step and blocked my path.
"You have to pay for your fortune," she told me.
"But I didn't want the fortune in the first place," I reminded her.
"I gave you a fortune, now you must pay."
By this time the heat was starting to make me dizzy and sweat was running down my back. The elastic band on my boxer shorts was like a wet sponge. I needed to get out of the sun. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the only coin on me -- 2 Euros, it turns out -- which I handed over to the purveyor of cheap fortunes. Once more, I tried to walk away. Once more I got the dance step and my pathway was blocked once more.
"Not enough," she told me. "I gave you a good fortune."
I started to walk again, but this time I did a dance step to match hers and I was able to shake the skakedown in the narrow, crowded and sweltering medieval streets of Córdoba.
I've been thinking about that experience in Córdoba recently while considering the fact that Roma people (often, and erroneously, called "Gypsies") currently are victims of ethnic cleansing -- through forced evictions and deportations -- in France, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Kosovo, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. In the last month alone, Amnesty International has issued 14 policy statements calling on European governments to abide by international law and common decency while dealing with local Roma populations. I wonder why there is so little passion in America around defending the human and civil rights of the Roma people in Europe.
I went on Facebook and found a few sites dedicated to the Roma cause, but they weren't large, and most of fans on the page seemed to have Romani names. By contrast, pages dedicated to human rights in Darfur and Palestine have tens of thousands of fans from all over the world. News of the plight of Roma people in Europe is never to be found on the front pages, and I've yet to read an op-ed in my local newspaper calling on the world community to do more about defending the rights of the Roma.
How is it that the people of Europe and North America are so quick to forget? Just 70 years ago, Roma people in Europe were being sent to the gas chambers alongside Jews, gays, lesbians and persons with disabilities. In the years since the Holocaust, we've come a long way toward rejecting anti-Semitism, we're making some progress toward overcoming homophobia and the world is becoming more accommodating and accessible. But what about the Roma? How is it possible that we can remain so passive when modern, open, democratic countries such as France, Germany and Italy start deporting the Roma en masse?
My only answer brings me back to Córdoba. Most Americans who have traveled in Europe have some version of my story about having to fend off Roma hustlers or pickpockets on the streets or in the subways of Europe. Those American who haven't traveled to Europe certainly have heard the reports, and it's hard to get overly enthusiastic about coming to the defense of those who annoy us.
But think about that for a moment. Our better angels remind us that the entire Roma population is not represented or defined by a few street hustlers, and what kind of shallow people are we if we allow a few bad experiences to insulate us against a potential human rights disaster? In a worst case scenario, you might have your passport and credit cards nicked by a Roma child on the Ponte Vecchio, and so you'd have to spend the rest your Italian vacation figuring out how to pay for meals and how to get a replacement for your passport. Is that crime sufficient that we should countenance the collective punishment of all Italian Roma, or look the other way as Roma throughout Europe suffer indignity?
For years we've honored the victims of the Holocaust by promising never to forget and never to sit idly by while crimes against humanity are visited upon the less powerful people of the world. In the contemporary plight of Europe's Roma population, we have the opportunity to get make good on our promises.
Genocide of European Roma (Gypsies), 1939-1945
Roma 'Gypsies' Face Heightened Persecution In Italy
Stop this state persecution of Roma | Ethel Brooks | Comment is ...
Persecution of Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Germany, 1933-1939
Gypsy Persecution: From 12th Century Balkans to Conservative ...
Several million Romani people reside in Europe, where conditions have grown increasingly harsh. Many, particularly in France, have been deported. People in this ethnic group are commonly referred to as Gypsies. http://www.newslook.com/videos/267282-roma-struggle-to-survive-in-europe?autoplay=true
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/09/10yearold-mother-a-hoax-r_n_780845.html
I've been hustled by Gypsies in France, Italy, Germany, and even Turkey. If they want better PR, let them give up thievery and join the 21st century. As it is, I don't see much to respect in their culture.
I've been hustled by white men in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Jose, Seattle, Moab, Denver, Toronto, Mendocino, and on and on and on and on. Should white men change and reform ourselves? Are we all homeless panhandlers?
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Spain: Mother’s Love For a Mother at 10
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 3, 2010
A Romanian Gypsy woman whose 10-year-old daughter gave birth in Spain last week said she was delighted to have a new granddaughter and did not understand why the birth had shocked anyone. The girl’s mother, who identified herself only as Olimpia, said the baby’s father, 13, was still in Romania and was no longer seeing her daughter. The girl and her baby plan to stay in Lebrija, Spain, Olimpia said in comments published Wednesday. She said Roma, or Gypsy, girls customarily marry young. “That’s the way we get married,” she said.
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I challenge you to talk with any policeman in any European capital with a Gypsy population and ask them what they think of them. Report back how many admirers you find. I'm willing to bet you don't find any.
Americans have alot going on right now, and this situation occuring in Europe is off their radar. Most Americans haven't traveled Europe, so they may not even be familiar with this group. But I currently live in Europe, and can tell you that it is hard to gather sympathy for the Roma when your only interaction with them involves the loss of your money or property.
Because you don't doo-doo in someone else's house. Given the past and current dysfunction here in America, we can little afford to take care of our own, let alone another's. The only thing we can give away is what we have, and we can ill afford to give that at this time; besides given our dysfunction, why would they want it? Like attracts like? Freetrade agreements, the product of corrupt corporations of our nations and others, that we forced onto impoverished nations has wrecked havoc on the very nations we claimed we were helping.
Let me explain:
Matthew 15:11 What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'
What goes in the mouth goes out where?
My mother said it like this: "Don't sh*t where you eat." If I am an astute pupil, and have paid attention to my secualr education as well, I put 2+2 together and realize that this means; "and don't doo-doo where someone else eats."
Separation of church and state become separation of nation and nation. That doesn't mean that we can't visit our relatives, friends and strangers, with our loving generous selves, but take care of your doo-doo first.
The Roma need to assimilate if they want others to accommodate them. If they refuse: Out! Problem solved.
And not the Christian curse.
Ya, but not all Roma were deported either...so there ya go. I was lead to believe it had less to do with 'race' and more to do with if they were.....street hustlers
What exactly have European governments done to integrate the Roma population into mainstream society? The Czech government sends Roma children into schools for the mentally challenged, even when there is no evidence of any mental illness. The Czech government has built walls seperating Roma villages from the general population. To Sarko they're just excuses to divert attention from his own incompetance. In the middle ages they were chased out by different kingdoms. Today most laws do not enable the Roma to be integrated.
You realize of course that it was a "Muslim beacon of tolerance" was because Muslims captured the city in 711 AD.
Do you even see the absurdity of your position. Muslims stormed city after city capturing land and killing off inhabitants that didn't convert to Islam. The crusades were staged to take back land from Muslims.
You may feel the perverse need to defend the indefensible, and to try and justify the "Religion of Peace"... but your post, and I'm sure many more like it suggest that Islam is a victim to the "evil" Christian crusades.
Beginning in the 8th century Muslims stormed and conquered city after city after city. The Crusades were always about retaking the land that was conquered by Muslims.
To suggest otherwise, while ignoring the facts is childish. But then again, I'm sure that Islam always counted on a few appeasers who could spread their word.
Thanks for the great post!
I dunno. Two thoughts sprang to mind.
1. We teach people how to treat us. Maybe a couple dozen generations of hustling have diluted the empathy non-Roma have for the Roma people. After you rip me off a couple times, I'm not going to muster up much sympathy when the local authorities roust you out of town.
2. We reap what we sow. See also #1. I'm sorry but I cannot think of any other cultural subset of people who have a reputation for living on the fringe of society with the express purpose of maintaining a complete disdain for non-Roma culture all the while milking that non-Roma culture for the cash cow it appears to be. If you want people's sympathy or empathy maybe the first step is to not shake people down for bogus fortunes. Even if it is just a small minority of Roma who actually hustle and rip people off, then the Roma still have a terrible PR/image problem.