My post about the Roma sparked a good debate and I think all of us, together, are much more aware of the realities surrounding this particular group of people (call it nation, tribes, whatever…) than many EU leaders. In order to show in images what I was talking about in the beginning of my first post, I followed Ruth’s suggestion and I ventured into the two Roma camps next to Cluj, together with Vlad and Sergiu, two photographers and friends.
You can see what came out at the end of the text. I filmed everything with my Canon PowerShot A710 camera. As you will see, the quality of the images is not the best. I added some clumsy subtitles using Windows Movie Maker (for the first time), to explain some of the images. Sometimes I’m speaking while recording, but it’s not that clear what I’m saying, so I added subtitles for that too. Also, especially in the end, I made a summary of the dialog rather than trying to translate each word.
There are two Roma camps next to Cluj. The first one is on Cantonului street and the second one is next to Pata Rat, the garbage dump. The camp at Pata Rat is better known, but the one on Cantonului is a bit more dangerous and gets less attention from the authorities. Pata Rat is a rather special case nowadays, because the EU - God bless its soul! - is forcing the local authorities to close the dump in 2010 and the authorities are now starting to find solutions to relocate the families. Many of them already left, especially if they were coming from somewhere else than Cluj. Those who are still there would like the dump to stay open, as you will see towards the end of the video.
Initially, I would have liked to talk more with people in the camps. However, it became quite dangerous right after we started filming and taking pictures. These people are fed up with the media. Journalists come there weekly and treat them as if they are some kind of exhibition items. One guy even told us “You’re making money on our backs…” These are the most recorded and photographed people in town, yet their lives didn’t change at all. However, I think we still managed to capture the essence of these places. Even if this meant running away from wild dogs, going on the roof of a 4 flours building (and almost up on a crane) or walking in mud up to our knees.
At the end of the video, there are awesome pictures taken by Vlad Gherman. It’s worth going through my clumsy video just to see those great pictures. Almost all the people appearing in the video can be seen in the pictures at the end. If you want to, I can upload the pictures separately in this post for better quality.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1614921761890832160
(48 votes, average: 4.69 out of 5)
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George, that’s another great post. I was wondering: when the guy in the second camp asked you for the money you said that the municipality should help them. I totally agree and was thinking if you could get an interview with someone from the local authorities who can comment their role in resolving these terrible conditions in which people in both camps live. Is any kind of public discussion about Roma situation in Cluj or even better on the state level going on?
Tanja, the situation of these Roma people in Cluj is well known for years. The local authorities know it better than anyone else, because representatives of these people went to the municipality or to the County Council many times. Plus, as I was saying, the media in Cluj publishes a lot about them.
However, I can’t say there is a public discussion. The local authorities refrain from putting forward a solution for several reasons. Many of these people don’t have any official papers. Legally, they don’t exist, so they can’t receive land or rooms or houses in a legal way. Many of them are not from Cluj, they came here in time to beg or live next to the dump, so the town hall tried several times to send them back where they came from, but the people keep returning. Many of these people actually refuse to be taken away from where they are now, as you could see in the video. I would say they don’t even know what they want. And also very important, these Roma are controlled by local crooks, who own small bussinesses around the dump - recycling plastic or scrap iron. I myself, as a journalist, dealt with some of the famillies at Pata Rat who had to destroy their shacks because they entered into conflict with on former drug dealer who had a small bussiness there and claimed he gained that land where the shacks are in court (this was in November 2007, it was a very complicated case and i never got to the end, but those famillies were not there anymore yesterday). So the situation is complicated for local authorities and whenever you talk to them about this they say they are trying to find solutions. This is why I don’t think there’s any point in having an interview with someone from the townhall, cause what they would say is less than what I’m telling you know. The only recent development is the one I mentioned in the post. Since last week there is a commission trying to find land to move those famillies after the dump closes.
What bothers me is the fact that they treat the problem as a dirt under the carpet. The town is booming, it’s very nice in the inside, we have strong univiersities etc and the local patriotism is everywhere. But when it comes to finding some kind of local strategy, they are left speechless.
What can I say..impressive work, impressive images, impressive post….
What really made me almost crying was the view of kids living in those conditions. That is absolutely horrible. It’s like they are doomed to poverty, isolation and hard to imagine or discibe living standards…
But it’s really good that you brought to light these images….I feel however that this post should be somehow sent to the Romanian government as well….especially now, since the former mayor of Cluj (where these images were being taken)is now the Romanian PM.
In any case, well done George!Great job as always!
Bravo!
Thnx for the explanation. What does it mean that they don’t have any official papers? Are they considered under category of stateless or illegals? It’s a big shame that authorities put everything under the carpet and great that you are showing and explaining the situation! I was thinking that local authorities would have nothing to say :D, but it might be good to provoke them. If nothing else, people from other countries read this too (even though I am aware that it can cause you more problems than giving positive results - that’s just a monologue now).
unfortunately i cannot watch the video (bad internet connection), but i am deeply impressed by your enthusiasm.
could you, please, upload pictures separately, so i could see them at least and show them to my friend, who is a human rights activist, interested in the Roma issue among other things.
Adriana, thanks!
Tanja, not having official papers means that they have never been registered in any official document. They did not have birth certificates from the beginning and adults don’t have ID cards now. That’s why I’m saying that legally they don’t exist.
Veverita, for now I’ll send you an e-mail with the pictures taken by Vlad. I might upload the pictures straight in the post later.
shorten that film, man!
all the rest: whose fault is it for the fact that they dont have any documents? is it perhaps mine, i should have went there and made them birth certificates and stuff? is it the sanitaries that didnt let the women give birth in the hospital?
and so on. u can’t help them if they dont want to, and usually they just won’t collaborate.
i’m tired of everybody claiming the State’s fault for this situation.
Prodan: I can’t really comment whose fault is that they don’t have documents and any status-I simply don’t know enough about Roma situation in Romania. I asked the question because of the Slovenian situation with the Erased (people from ex-Yu, Roma and even Slovenes) who are basically stateless-more in a great post here:
http://www.drfilomena.com/2009/02/the-erased-for-dummies/#comment-2482
My big wonder is: can so called democratic, EU state permits that a group of people phisically exist, but isn’t register under any category-so basically they have no obligations and rights inside of the state. No matter, or Slovenia or Romania or someone else…I think that’s simply disgrace!
mihai (prodan), i admit it’s a bit long, but i shortened it alot compared with everything i recorded.
you’re right in essence, it’s difficult to communicate with the roma there, but i think you would agree that the level of discrimination they face just because they are roma and live in those conditions does not help at all our communication with them.
tanja, such situations should not be permitted anywhere in the world, but i’m afraid they are quite common, especially with the roma. hence the problems we debate here.
Yes! Yes! Wonderful! I’m so happy to see this on here - this is EXACTLY what we’re aiming for. Inspired, personal coverage of local events. You’ve used media, you’ve written very well. This is wonderful. Keep it up!
This is a really interesting topic also from a European perspective. Next time you could maybe have a closer look at the “Roma strategy of the EU” which has been debated lately. What difference would it make and is it needed?
Another interesting aspect would be what the MEP candidates from Cluj think about the whole topic.
Andreas, I think I mentioned the Roma strategy of the EU in my first post about the Roma (http://elections.thinkaboutit.eu/2009/03/getting-sensitive-part-i-is-the-eu-capable-of-dealing-with-the-problems-of-the-roma/).
Of course a strategy would be needed, this is what my point in the first post was, but the this strategy is coming from a group of NGO’s and not from the EU directly.
The candidates from Cluj are not known yet, so far there is one guy who is now an MEP and he seems to be sure of getting a new elegible place on the democrat-liberal list. Politicians are usually active in the Roma camps around the elections, but nothing more. What would be more interesting I think is to ask the people living in these camps if they have any understanding about the EP elections, once they are approaching.
good stuff! was hoping you’d interview one of the roma a bit more in-depth, did you consider exchaninging an interview for some cash or other stuff they needed? I can’t really blame the old lady for asking you guys, after all; you want to film them, then in exchange it seems fair to give them a little something..
Simon, it was my initial intention to talk a bit more with these people, but it’s quite difficult to get close to them. I managed to enter their houses only once and that was when I was with a large group of journalists. They open up then. But when there are just a few of us, they are quite reluctant.
Paying them may have been an option, but the reason we refused to give money to the woman and to others who passed us by was that once you pay one of them, more come and ask.
Ok, I see.. It wouldn’t have worked to tell her “alright, I’ll pay you - if you will let me interview you in your home for half an hour..”?
Buna George,
I just found about thinkaboutit.eu thing and read your posts. I really appreciate your interest in this issue of Roma population both at a local level and in the European context. I believe you went to those communities with good intentions and this is a nice exercise however … please tell me how exactly are you different from the journalists that people in that community run from? You say that you “managed to capture the essence of these places” without talking in depth with anybody from there. Can you really do that? Or is it maybe just showing some images and letting people take what they like and what they feel comfortable handling? I know you went there before and you have a sense of the place but please don’t assume that people watching the video have it too.
You also state things like “Most of the Roma live in those shacks in the back”(your video 6:58)…Well, you manage to have a video by visiting just two locations where Roma people live. Please be more considerate because, just as not all Romanians in Italy are thieves, not all of Roma people in Cluj live in those conditions.
It is always tricky to superficially present a single case and use it as a show case for a whole population. So please use more caution when you do this in the future.
(An idea of how to better present your case is to use the Movie Maker more and add time, location, acknowledges s.o. on the video so that it cannot be even more separated from the context).
Hope you don’t mind my notes here. I really feel you are working on an interesting subject but I think you can do a better job that this.
I can assure you that if you spend a day and not a couple of hours in Cantonului or Pata Rat or if you go and ask the same 2-3 questions to a number of people there you will discover interesting essences that those places have in spite of the garbage dump they grow on. I know it’s not as comfortable as watching from above… but some of us think it voices out more.