Traveller
25-05-2005, 14:37
Here's another hot thread, where we can flame, blame and lame. And here's the "inspiration" that made me create it:
Yesterday, I was watching the news. It was 24th of May - The Holiday of the Bulgarian (some call it Slavic) Alphabet and Culture, the Holiday of St. Cyril and St. Methodius. This is one of the big Bulgarian holidays and ofcourse was a "not-working" and "not-studying" day. And after all the pleasant news of the celebrations in different places, there came one that really angered me. 10 people had gathered in a cafe for a private party to celebrate the school-leaving ball of the owner's son. Everything was going peaceful, until all of a sudden an inadequate gypsy (drunk or "high", I don't know) came, striking at the door and shouting he wants a drink. When the owner told him it's closed for a private party, the gypsy shouted (Sorry that I'll quote him exactly, but the truth is a truth! Not for little kids): "I'll f*ck your Bulgarian dirty mothers! I'm going to gather the neighbourhood and you'll see who's who!" Recently, a large group of gypsies had illegaly placed themselves in the neighbourhood and had created something like a "getto". In 10 minutes 60 gypsies came armed with stones, pipes and knives and attacked everybody in the cafe. The fight lasted for more than half an hour. One of the professors, that was in the cafe, was dragged by a group of the gypsies to the street and has been seriously beaten. Now he's in a coma with his life in danger. Soon after some policemen came, but the gypsies attacked them, too. Two hours after the start of the "battle" they were dispersed and only two of them had been arrested. The investigation of the reporters team showed that recently one man has been killed in a robbery act and three 15-year old girls had been raped by men from those same "contingent", but were too afraid to report to the police. Unfortunately, it's true that there's no use to call the police, because the police can't do anything to them. And so can't the government. I'll give some more examples to show the helplesness of the authorities and the insolence of the "minority":
1. One recent example from the last two weeks: In the city of Yambol, the government had given rental appartments to the homeless gypsies in the city. Ofcourse, they had to pay a rent for their new home, as the government land is not free. But for the last 5 years none of the gypsy families had paid even a small sum of their debt. Seeing that they aren't capable or, actually, won't pay, the municipality decided to forgive them their debts, but the gypsies had to leave their appartments. And instead of thanking for the remission, they protested that they're being kicked out of their homes (that, to remind you, they hadn't paid a cent for).
2. Second example, that comes to my mind: Some time ago two forest-guards (rangers) encountered a whole family from the so called "wooden mafia" (gypsy families that illegaly cut down and sell trees in very large numbers). When they asked for an explanation the whole group suddenly attacked them with their axes and whatever they had nearby. They even managed to take the gun of one of the surprised rangers and shoot him down. Like a real miracle both the guards survived, but ofcourse could no longer serve their duty.
3. Third example from an year or two ago: Location: The gypsy district of Stolipinovo in the city of Plovdiv. An inspector from the electrity company had came to shut down the electricity of the whole district, as the majority of the local gyspies hadn't paid their bills for more than 8 years. Ofcourse, the company could no longer tolerate such a behaviour and the following expenses. And guess what? The whole district gathered and beated the poor man. But that's nothing unusual! Reports of beaten citizens and especially inspectors or government employees are so frequent, that nobody pays attention to them anymore (which is a sad note). But then when another inspector came, guarded with a small police escort, the gypsies gathered again, attacked and chased away the policemen and then the whole district rebelled, demanding that the government remission their debts. Ofcourse, the government couldn't do that directly, as it doesn't control the whole of the electric company, so they sent more policemen, together with armoured vehicles to cool things down. As a result, the district became like a battle zone, with the only difference that only one side was fighting, because the police wasn't allowed to use weapons, only some gas and water, that didn't have almost any effect. At the end, the company was forced to remission their debts as this happened to become a frequent practice.
Many more examples can be given: the so called "beggar's mafia" - beggar families that have created a whole unofficial organization that allows only gypsies to beg at the streets, as it seems to be a profitable business; ofcourse, some of the beggars only pretend to be crippled, but there are reports that little children and even babies had their arms cut in order to provoke pity, and there is also the common practice to drug the babies, so that they don't cry and look more "miserable". Also there is a huge ammount of pickpocketeers, so if you happen to come to Bulgaria, don't be surprised most of the women keep their handbags closely tight in front of them. I won't mention all the other cases of rapings, robberies, murders and such other non-organized crimes, that are frequent cases in this minority's "dossier".
And the worst thing is that nobody can do anything about it! If someone complains, he is first threatened (and then the threats are being realised, ofcourse) and then the gypsies say: "Oh, they have put their aim on us, because we are a minority and we can't protect ourselves!" and then they sue the country in Strassbourg. The government can't handle them either, because of the same reasons. And it is even increasing their rights to a stage that they now have more rights than us. F.e. they recently accepted that every gypsy kid that has in school more than 4,50 (from maximum 6) as a sum of the marks will receive a scholarship of 100 levs. The absurd thing is that the Bulgarian kids must have 5,50 in order to receive... 20 levs. Another common practice is, as I've already mentioned, that the gypsies massively don't pay any kinds of bills, be it rent, electricity, telephones, water, public transport or whatever. And they hide behind the fact they're a minority and then the government gives them even more rights! I think there's a term, pretty popular in the States, which is something like "reversed-rasism", a rasism towards the majority. And so, my question is: Do you have or have had some problems of this sort (ofcourse, not in such size) in your country and how are or have you solved it?
P.S. As most of you people live to the west, in west Europe or America, and have a different idea of the gypsy ethnos, I must add that most of the "old-style gypsies" that live in the west are not the same type of gypsies as ours. In movies you'll usually see fun-and-dance loving, free minded, mysterious, nomadic people that travel with their gypsy tents to different fairs and usually predict the future through hieromanty or Taro cards. The gypsies here (or Roma as they call themselves) are different. The only common thing with the above description is that some do "predict the future" through hieromanty, but usually only to distract you, so that the kids could pick-pocket you easily.
Edit: And another bad thing about this is that many of the gypsies are migrating to you, to the more developed countries, in hope to take use of the new situation and the not so cautious people there. Ofcourse, they're quickly extradited, but the image of Bulgaria is still being hurt. Some of you when thinking of Bulgaria and Bulgarians, might be picturing exactly this - pickpocketeers, prostitutes and all kinds of criminals. I've even saw in some tourist sites about Bulgaria pictures of gypsies in their dirty gettos and a sign under "Bulgarians", which IMO is outrageous! So, what do you think? Can overextented civil rights be a real menace or is it just us and our incapability to deal with our internal ethnical problems?
Yesterday, I was watching the news. It was 24th of May - The Holiday of the Bulgarian (some call it Slavic) Alphabet and Culture, the Holiday of St. Cyril and St. Methodius. This is one of the big Bulgarian holidays and ofcourse was a "not-working" and "not-studying" day. And after all the pleasant news of the celebrations in different places, there came one that really angered me. 10 people had gathered in a cafe for a private party to celebrate the school-leaving ball of the owner's son. Everything was going peaceful, until all of a sudden an inadequate gypsy (drunk or "high", I don't know) came, striking at the door and shouting he wants a drink. When the owner told him it's closed for a private party, the gypsy shouted (Sorry that I'll quote him exactly, but the truth is a truth! Not for little kids): "I'll f*ck your Bulgarian dirty mothers! I'm going to gather the neighbourhood and you'll see who's who!" Recently, a large group of gypsies had illegaly placed themselves in the neighbourhood and had created something like a "getto". In 10 minutes 60 gypsies came armed with stones, pipes and knives and attacked everybody in the cafe. The fight lasted for more than half an hour. One of the professors, that was in the cafe, was dragged by a group of the gypsies to the street and has been seriously beaten. Now he's in a coma with his life in danger. Soon after some policemen came, but the gypsies attacked them, too. Two hours after the start of the "battle" they were dispersed and only two of them had been arrested. The investigation of the reporters team showed that recently one man has been killed in a robbery act and three 15-year old girls had been raped by men from those same "contingent", but were too afraid to report to the police. Unfortunately, it's true that there's no use to call the police, because the police can't do anything to them. And so can't the government. I'll give some more examples to show the helplesness of the authorities and the insolence of the "minority":
1. One recent example from the last two weeks: In the city of Yambol, the government had given rental appartments to the homeless gypsies in the city. Ofcourse, they had to pay a rent for their new home, as the government land is not free. But for the last 5 years none of the gypsy families had paid even a small sum of their debt. Seeing that they aren't capable or, actually, won't pay, the municipality decided to forgive them their debts, but the gypsies had to leave their appartments. And instead of thanking for the remission, they protested that they're being kicked out of their homes (that, to remind you, they hadn't paid a cent for).
2. Second example, that comes to my mind: Some time ago two forest-guards (rangers) encountered a whole family from the so called "wooden mafia" (gypsy families that illegaly cut down and sell trees in very large numbers). When they asked for an explanation the whole group suddenly attacked them with their axes and whatever they had nearby. They even managed to take the gun of one of the surprised rangers and shoot him down. Like a real miracle both the guards survived, but ofcourse could no longer serve their duty.
3. Third example from an year or two ago: Location: The gypsy district of Stolipinovo in the city of Plovdiv. An inspector from the electrity company had came to shut down the electricity of the whole district, as the majority of the local gyspies hadn't paid their bills for more than 8 years. Ofcourse, the company could no longer tolerate such a behaviour and the following expenses. And guess what? The whole district gathered and beated the poor man. But that's nothing unusual! Reports of beaten citizens and especially inspectors or government employees are so frequent, that nobody pays attention to them anymore (which is a sad note). But then when another inspector came, guarded with a small police escort, the gypsies gathered again, attacked and chased away the policemen and then the whole district rebelled, demanding that the government remission their debts. Ofcourse, the government couldn't do that directly, as it doesn't control the whole of the electric company, so they sent more policemen, together with armoured vehicles to cool things down. As a result, the district became like a battle zone, with the only difference that only one side was fighting, because the police wasn't allowed to use weapons, only some gas and water, that didn't have almost any effect. At the end, the company was forced to remission their debts as this happened to become a frequent practice.
Many more examples can be given: the so called "beggar's mafia" - beggar families that have created a whole unofficial organization that allows only gypsies to beg at the streets, as it seems to be a profitable business; ofcourse, some of the beggars only pretend to be crippled, but there are reports that little children and even babies had their arms cut in order to provoke pity, and there is also the common practice to drug the babies, so that they don't cry and look more "miserable". Also there is a huge ammount of pickpocketeers, so if you happen to come to Bulgaria, don't be surprised most of the women keep their handbags closely tight in front of them. I won't mention all the other cases of rapings, robberies, murders and such other non-organized crimes, that are frequent cases in this minority's "dossier".
And the worst thing is that nobody can do anything about it! If someone complains, he is first threatened (and then the threats are being realised, ofcourse) and then the gypsies say: "Oh, they have put their aim on us, because we are a minority and we can't protect ourselves!" and then they sue the country in Strassbourg. The government can't handle them either, because of the same reasons. And it is even increasing their rights to a stage that they now have more rights than us. F.e. they recently accepted that every gypsy kid that has in school more than 4,50 (from maximum 6) as a sum of the marks will receive a scholarship of 100 levs. The absurd thing is that the Bulgarian kids must have 5,50 in order to receive... 20 levs. Another common practice is, as I've already mentioned, that the gypsies massively don't pay any kinds of bills, be it rent, electricity, telephones, water, public transport or whatever. And they hide behind the fact they're a minority and then the government gives them even more rights! I think there's a term, pretty popular in the States, which is something like "reversed-rasism", a rasism towards the majority. And so, my question is: Do you have or have had some problems of this sort (ofcourse, not in such size) in your country and how are or have you solved it?
P.S. As most of you people live to the west, in west Europe or America, and have a different idea of the gypsy ethnos, I must add that most of the "old-style gypsies" that live in the west are not the same type of gypsies as ours. In movies you'll usually see fun-and-dance loving, free minded, mysterious, nomadic people that travel with their gypsy tents to different fairs and usually predict the future through hieromanty or Taro cards. The gypsies here (or Roma as they call themselves) are different. The only common thing with the above description is that some do "predict the future" through hieromanty, but usually only to distract you, so that the kids could pick-pocket you easily.
Edit: And another bad thing about this is that many of the gypsies are migrating to you, to the more developed countries, in hope to take use of the new situation and the not so cautious people there. Ofcourse, they're quickly extradited, but the image of Bulgaria is still being hurt. Some of you when thinking of Bulgaria and Bulgarians, might be picturing exactly this - pickpocketeers, prostitutes and all kinds of criminals. I've even saw in some tourist sites about Bulgaria pictures of gypsies in their dirty gettos and a sign under "Bulgarians", which IMO is outrageous! So, what do you think? Can overextented civil rights be a real menace or is it just us and our incapability to deal with our internal ethnical problems?