Аttitude Comments
In the benefit of our own loss!
Help your self, so that you can help others!
This old wisdom never seems to get settled among the Roma, who although never have learned their lesson from the past, thus they are acting surprisingly inert towards the community, but towards them selves too. Almost 40 years after the First World Roma Congress in London 1971, an event that was supposed to be a turning point in the sense of how the other nations and communities will look at the Roma, but also, how the Roma will look and act towards them selves. And, the day when the Congress was held is exactly the day which is the main reason for celebrating 8 of April – the International Roma Day.
Undoubtedly, there are a lot of positive changes in the past almost 40 years. Especially in the sense of lowering the prejudices and the discrimination towards the Roma, starting from the usage of the term Roma itself, instead of the terms Gypsies, Tsigans…the recognition of the status minority in many countries, where it wasn’t the case before, increased literacy, participation in governments in many countries…
However even after almost 40 years, the Roma people are still living at the margins of the society.
Only in Macedonia, more than 70 percent of the workable population among the Roma is jobless, and 24 percent of the people older than 15 years is illiterate. The poverty is present in the vast majority of the Roma families, which are still living excluded from the rest of the world, mostly in temporary objects, illegal buildings, cardboard houses or without any kind of home in many cases. The Roma don’t even have ID documents which are necessary for getting social help, health insurance, nor education. The ones that do have personal documents mostly live on social help which varies between 1.000 and 4.000 Denars.
In this constellation, the prejudices and the discrimination which are still very present, only make the things worse for those that even have higher education and the skills required to get some job. Although, according to the Ohrid Framework Agreement, there were supposed to be employed 1.200 Roma in the Public Administration only.
The discrimination is present everywhere, especially in the rural areas, where often happens that children from other ethnic nationality refuse to go to school in the same classes along with Roma children. This is nothing more than obtained knowledge from their parents, who obviously don’t care about showing clear discrimination and prejudices towards the Roma, which in most cases comes because of lack of knowledge and education.
And the situation is far worse in other countries than in Macedonia, because the Roma don’t have even basic rights as minorities.
An old saying goes – the lack of knowledge is the mother of all evil on the planet!
Therefore, it is clear that it is no ones fault for this situation as it is on the Roma themselves. One of the most famous political philosophers of the 20th Century, Hanna Arendt has a theory according to which: no one can make some one else a victim, if there is no clear acceptance from the other side.
In the Roma community, we the Roma are mostly responsible for the marginalization and the discrimination. Firstly, because of the lack of organization and will power to fight for our rights and secondly because of our mentality to easily accept the processes of assimilation and ghettoization. Many Roma would gladly accept declaring them selves as member of other nationality or community, thus forgetting the language and the culture on their native community, hoping that this will be the easy way for their integration in the society. However, nobody likes people without integrity!
Additional problem is the fact that we not only that we don’t fight for our identity, but it seems like we don’t even try trough presentation of our rich culture and uniqueness to secure the sympathies of the other communities. In absence of knowledge about the Roma, it is far easier for the other communities, Governments, authorities to continue with the discrimination and the marginalization, to continue with the declarative support or with the introduction of a Decade for Roma inclusion, in both cases the benefits end up not at the Roma people’s address.
In the international diplomacy there is an often used phrase that goes – no one will come and clean up you own back yard if you don’t clean it up your self!
So, in that sense, the Roma must seriously to start working on themselves. To invest in themselves. The fight begins at the smallest form of social organization – the families, and therefore the parents must start to think on long terms, not for tomorrow only. The Roma must understand that they can integrate in the society only trough education. And only trough education they can get a better job, higher living standard, better and happier life!
When the basic cell in a community (the family) will be strong, the organization in the fight for the community will not only get a structure and quality, but power too.
That is in fact the only way that the Roma can be accepted by equal, special, different, as they really are!
Then, there won’t be a single state or international organization that will be able to look aside of the Roma, especially knowing and respecting our difference, culture, but knowledge and skills too.
Live like it is your last day, but learn as if you are to live forever! – Mahatma Gandhi
Ashmet Elezovski
Sebihana Skenderovska
