Romani Diaspora under Italian duress

by tomeile Fri May 16, 2008 14:28

Rome police arrested 50 Roma as part of a crackdown on undocumented workers yesterday in which a total of over 400 were detained . The state raids on the most oppressed sections of Italian society and its indulgent attitude to the ethnic cleansing of the country’s gypsy population by mafia backed mobs come less than a month after Berlusconi’s fascist leaning government took office .

A “ decree law” reminiscent of the Mussolini era which will mean four years imprisonment for illegal immigrants before their expulsion from the country is currently being drafted and is expected to be put into force shortly. The ‘no more amnesty’ measure has understandably thrown hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrant workers into panic . see:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/italian-tolera....html

by Jean Fri May 16, 2008 19:06

The Roma and Sinti population in Italy is represented at all cultural levels.
Mr Burlusconi and his type are acting against the accepted rules and conventions on
rights which he has publically fought for with regard to his EU membership.

Given Ireland's close relation to Italy, It is beholden on the current Minister for
Foreign Affairs to make known to the Italian Authorities that this Human Rights
abuse is totally unacceptable:

http://www.ergonetwork.org/antigypsyism1.html
http://www.europeanfeministforum.org
(Roma Rubric is on left hand column on mainpage)

Other sources of information on human rights abuses and the Convention on Rights, which
we also are signed up to are available through education pages on equality through UN
and EU documents files ;and can be accessed through google.

Very sadly Tech that was designed for the examination of animal migration patterns is
now being used to chart Human Migrancy patterns as a result of Climate change,
as a result of first world abuses of indigenous community to increase unequal wealth
distributions - the result (demographically) is vastly increased ACP
Migration/ enforced repatriations and deportations (as In italy) and twisted politicians
hiding it all under a veil of propietary politic-speak.

Ireland must protest Burlusconi's Abuse of EU legislations.
(cf: Links above)

by Jean - Facism in Action, New Mayor promises Human rights abuse. Fri May 16, 2008 20:15

Burlusconi who relies on his good looks and ability to get laid (prob as a by-product of
chemical infusions) has termed the Roma and Sinti community 'An army of evil'

Interesting that his disclaimer involved the expression I can do anything I want really cos I got
this far- that can be translated as bullshit..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1915484/Rome's-new-mayor-promises-purge-of-migrants.html

and Burlusconi who has got squat and lost his neck:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7400460.stm

UK Indymedia.. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/05/398821.html

These political leaders, like our ex-taoiseach seek to go onto the Political stage
signed up to international rights and treaties whilst committing cultural genocide
and abuse for the sake of the right-wing people who voted them in.Theu have no clue
of the rights and treaties that they should be educated about, nor do they know
how to conduct themselves- but the Italians have chosen them as their representatives!!!

by The European Fri May 16, 2008 20:33

I am appalled by what is happening to the Rom in Italy but they are not the only foreigners who are subject to discrimination and harassment on grounds of nationality. See this article in the Tmes Educational Supplement

FROM http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?section...01783

Second-class colleagues
8 May 2008

Charles Lambert reflects on the struggle of foreign language teachers at Italian universities to attain respect and workers' rights

In December 2005, Sigrid Vesnaver committed suicide in Trieste. She had been born in Germany but had taught her language and literature at the University of Trieste for 12 years, was respected by her students, dedicated to her work and happily married to a colleague. Despite this, her husband is convinced that her suicide was at least partly a response to treatment she received from her employer and faculty colleagues. Sigrid was a lettore.

The category of lettore was invented in 1980 as part of a reform to streamline academic careers in Italy. Lettori were expected to teach their language and its literature, write and mark exams and assist students. What they weren't expected to do was claim the rights of their Italian colleagues. In practice, the reform excluded foreign-born language teachers from the benefits enjoyed by Italian academics. Lettori were paid substantially less than researchers or professors. They had no national insurance or pensions. They were hired on annual contracts, for a maximum of six years, after which they were said to have lost their "linguistic freshness" - as though lettori were a variety of salad leaf and language a vitamin.

When Sigrid began work, in 1992, the sell-by date had been defeated in the courts and lettori had tenure, albeit with the wages of a janitor. But in 1994 the situation took another turn for the worse. Anxious to sidestep a series of court judgments that had recognised lettori as university teachers, the Government redefined the category. The lettore was replaced by the collaboratore ed esperto linguistico (linguistic collaborator and expert, otherwise known as CEL), a job title that made no reference to teaching. What the CEL would do remained the same. Only the label changed.

Lettori were presented with a choice: to resign or to sign a contract that upped their wages (and hours) but relegated them to the category of technical-administrative workers. Many lettori chose a typically Italian solution: to accept and, simultaneously, deny the validity of the new contract. Following lawyers' advice, many lettori both signed and contested the contract. Thirteen years later, most of these cases are still in court.

I became a lettore in 1982, in Rome. The building I worked in was a box of concrete and rattling glass that would soon be declared unfit for purpose and abandoned. My first class, for beginners, had almost 100 students and was held in a room the shape of a boot. Standing at the toe, I watched what I taught being relayed to the hidden third of the class beyond the heel. Students would turn up hours before class began for a seat within sight and hearing of me. It didn't surprise me that only 10 per cent of Italian students graduated.

Twenty-five years later, I'm still a lettore. My salary hasn't increased since 1998 and is now just over half the national average. I now work a longer academic year and no longer teach people beyond pre-intermediate level; further university reform has increased the number of graduates but led to a precipitous drop in the standard of foreign languages required. I'm lucky. I'm paid when I'm sick and not expected to make up lessons "lost" through bank holidays. Numerous lettori, despite regular full-time contracts, are less fortunate.

During the past 25 years, like hundreds of colleagues, I've been sacked, redefined, demoted. I've been told by my direct superior that my category deserves to be "exterminated", and that I will be "made to pay" for arguing. I've been threatened with undefined "measures" for taking time off to attend my father's funeral. I've been promised publications that have failed to appear, through incompetence and malice, and had more prestigious publications outside Italy ignored. I'm strong, I've coped. Sigrid, finally, didn't.

In an open letter to Domenico Romeo, rector of the University of Trieste, Sigrid's husband wrote: "You have consciously exploited the lettori (...) Perhaps now, too late and in the light of two court decisions against you, you will decide to pay the lettori their dues. But my wife will no longer be able to benefit from this, now that she has been struck down by an illness greatly contributed to by your arrogance and your scorn for other people's rights."

There are two lettore battles to be fought. The most visible is for academic status and respect. But perhaps the most urgent is for basic workers' rights, routinely denied by a contemptuous academic hierarchy, and by ignorant and servile university administrations.

Postscript :

Charles Lambert is collaboratore ed esperto linguistico, ex-lettore di madre lingua straniera, Università di Roma Tre. His novel Little Monsters is published by Picador, £14.99. See readers comments at:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?section...01783

by Percentages Sat May 17, 2008 13:05

The Right-Wing government that incited hatred against gypsies has suceeded in polling
those who vote and found 68% of those people want Roma and Sinti expelled.

Thats amazing for a government who operates on dis-enfranchising the poor in order
to enrich an elite who lack basic education on responsibilities under international Law.

There are 150,000 Roma in italy.
70,000 are italian Passport Holders and entitled to citizenship.
30,000 come from a 15th Century migrancy ( where does Burlusconi come from?)
a Large % fled from the Balkan wars.
10,000 Roma fled Romania in 2007.

Italy is responsible under International Law for the health care and protection of
these people's ethnicity, language and culture. Not for media spin and Burlusconi's
plastic surgery or evident sexism. he has challenged Zapatero on the Make-up of the
Spanish Cabinet (which is largely female) while retaining a cabinet with only four women
in italy. He displays no knowledge or notion of UN/EU laws on gender represenation
or on Human Rights and is an elected leader-the man whom Italy chose to represent
them on the International Stage.

BBC is now reporting that the Romamians are involved in diplomatic exchange over
the treatment of these people and the use of govt and elected office to fomet
pogrom and hate crime.

Ireland should protest and be aware too of it's responsibility to traveller groups
with regard to health and education access, whilst maintaining the rights
of people to their ethnicity and language.

by tomeile Sat May 17, 2008 13:19

Romanian officials have sought to distinguish between Romanians and Romanian Gypsies entering Italy according to today's Guardian . It reminds me of the attitude that Silvia Davidoiu , the Romanian ambassador to Ireland ,took to the deportation of the Roma who were camped near the M50 last year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/17/italy

by percentages Sat May 17, 2008 13:33

How far back can Burlusconi trace is descendants that he would flaunt the rights of
indigenous community and call the Roma and Sinti ' an army of evil' ?

the Roma population is:

150,000
70,000 carry italian passport and citizenship.
30,000 came in a 15th century wave of migrancy.
the other 50,000 trace their descent to Romania and Balkans.

Mr Burlusconi has breached international human rights law of an indigenous community
by forcing a diaspora and inciting Pogrom. He is not aware of his history nor of his obligation
as a world leader.

The attacks on naples have stopped because the riot police were brought in to protect the
communities, a wave of revulsion has been caused by the abuse of media and office by
a man who has abused his position in Law.

Irish media have refused to cover the issue in any depth and there has been no
statment by Foreign affairs- do we just close our eyes to abuse of office and allow
pogrom and incitement transcend the rule of Law?

This is unprecedented since the Balkans and the end of WW2.

by Mel Lloyd - Hibernian Order Of Druids Wed May 28, 2008 15:31

12,000 families including children are moving north through Italy and facing summary expulsion.
Let me elucidate: their homes were firebombed with Molotov Coctails (Petrol in a glass bottle with a burning cloth at the end) when one of these hits a target, in this case a timber home it explodes and burns at 1,000 deg F.

You may never have experienced a house fire - I hope that you haven't however, if you were unlucky enough to have lost your home, then your local authorities would find for you temporary accommodation. It is likely that your home & contents would have been insured.

I doubt that the Police would have intimidated you with guns and forced you and your distraught family to wander the roads a long with your neighbours?

This is called a hate crime.

For three days in Naples, Shanties and encampments have been subject to mob violence.
This is after the media-owning Mr Burlusconi and his friends decided to abuse citizen rights in an act of expulsion
that has no precedent in Post WW2 European History.

I am not asking for money from you, what I am asking you to do is to sign the petition at
www.romapolicy.eu

Thank you.

by The European Wed May 28, 2008 21:58

Do you remember what happened at the G8 meeting in Genoa some years ago?
Do you know what is happening in Italy these days?

Another Rom/Sinti camp was torched in Naples. The Rom had abandoned the camp a few days ago after residents in the area had attacked them with iron bars and Molotov cocktails.

Shops owned by Bangladeshi were attacked in Rome a few days ago.

Kledi Kadiu, an Albanian dancer, star of a popular TV show was verbally attacked in his Dance Studio in the Colli Albani area of Rome.

A residence was closed in Chiuso a Bovezzo, Brescia and the 20 Singhalese who lived there were transferred to a Temporary Holding Centre. These centres, soon to be known as Centres for Identification and Deportation, will be set up throughout Italy in disused Army barracks.

IN CORTONA (Arezzo) Tuscany A monument to the victims of Nazi-fascism was torched.

Amnesty International expressed concerns about the "atmosphere of racism and xenophobia'' which is becoming widespread in Italy

In Italy a woman is killed every 3-4 days by her partner or ex partner

Since 1st January of this year there have been 428 workplace deaths . Yesterday a workman was killed by a mechanical digger which overturned on him. Today a 60 year old farm labourer was killed when the tractor he was driving overturned. A 46 year old farmer was killed when a plough reversed into him. A workman lost an arm in a sawmill in Florence . A 41 year old workman was minced up in a gravel extractor
(All news items from Corriere della Sera)