Wednesday, May 30, 2012

"Liberté, égalité, fraternité" on trial

I come from Romania. Leaving my affection for that place aside, I have to understand that first things you associate with that beautiful corner of the world are : Gypsies, Transylvania, Dracula, Ceausescu, Housemaids, Beggars, Petty Crime and Corruption, widely spread corruption, melted in the administration with a thick layer of bureaucracy on top of everything, and encouraged (many times in the open) by whoever won the elections (it doesn't even matter from which political spectrum they come from). Some, they make me smile, but many scare  me to death.
Gypsies, for example, are just like any other ethnic group in Europe, some integrated in society, some...not, some addicted to petty crime, some rich, some poor, some educated, some not so very nice... just like any other group of people. Xenophobic tendencies in us all made them representatives of a despicable way of life, by throwing, wrongfully, upon them all the guilt of being... different, of having crime in their culture. I bet, many of us don't know that many of their family names are associated with trades: Geambasu (traders of horses), Lautaru (musicians), Rudaru (gold workers, jewelers and wood workers), Fieraru (metal workers) and many more. Its very wrong to label them all as people of crime, and what is even worse (for me personally), that many times my nationality is associated with that education in the spirit of crime and begging. It is wrong also for Europe to point finger at Romania claiming that we are not doing enough to help them integrate, while Europe itself discriminates against them (best example of that is France, the place of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité"; They didn't even try to find viable solutions with long lasting effects, the first initiative was expulsion.)

Which brings me to the point I am trying to make: wherever I go, I wear those labels stamped on my forehead, in my ID; the only way to get them of is with deeds. Nobody gives me credit, based on my national identity (fair or not), the only credit I get lays in my deeds. I don't even ask any more, I got so used with it.



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