Beyond delusions: A 21st Century Manifesto
20 October 2014
Valeriu Nicolae, We are the Roma! One thousand years of discrimination, Seagull Books, 2013
Valeriu Nicolae packs one thousand years into one hundred pages in this bracing manifesto for the 21st Century, covering racism, identity, mass media, slavery, ghetto life, affirmative action, social inclusion and much more.
This entire text is an urgent, forcefully-argued polemic from Nicolae who has long since abandoned the international Roma conference and advocacy circuit to dedicate his waking hours to working with children and young people in Ferentari, one of the worst ghettos in Bucharest. And some of the most compelling pages in this book are those which describe, in direct and unadorned prose, the utter desperation and bleak poverty that disfigures the lives of so many of the European Union's youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
The acute deprivation in Ferentari and other ghettos no doubt fuels Nicolae’s outrage at the vast sums unwisely spent to little effect on short-term projects, trainings and conferences. And
neither is there any doubt that his broadsides aimed at sclerotic ethnic elites, uncaring governments, obtuse bureaucrats, and myopic funders will ruffle feathers. So be it - Nicolae makes the convincing case that after ‘one thousand years of discrimination,’ our Roma fellow-citizens simply deserve better when it comes to respect, dignity and inclusion, and duty-bearers who fail to fulfil their duties need to be called to account.
In response to the question 'Where do we go from here?' Nicolae has plenty to say that makes much sense, but his quote from Lilian Ignat, a Roma from Caransebes, should be nailed to the door of every mayor, every bureaucrat and every Eurocrat's office:
"We are the ones who have to go through schools where teachers and pupils think we are scum; we are the ones who have to deal with anti-Gypsyism and self-loathing as children and adults alike. We have to try out our ideas and practice ways to deal with multiple conflicts from within and outside our communities ..... All of us need to change, not only us, the Roma. We want help but this help should be on our terms and not focused as it is now on assimilation."
