September 22, 2014
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NATO: Help Gypsies
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To the great nations of Europe and their leaders
and especially to the voters and good citizens
of all the nations of Europe, as well as the
United States and Canada:
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The Gypsies of Europe - also known as the Romany
or Romani or Roma people, or the Romany Chiv,
or the Tigan people,
have had a sad past and present.
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For example:
The Integration Centre in Dublin stated that Roma people were
"routinely demonized and dehumanised."
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Another report:
from one of the MOST ENGLIGHTENED COUNTRIES in Europe:
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(Vaclav Havel, one of the greatest men who ever lived,
said that the way any country treats the Gypsies is a
litmus test of the strength of its democracy.
How, then, does his own country measure up
to his own standards?  The answer is very sad.)

Roma make up 2–3% of population in the Czech Republic. 
According to Říčan (1998), Roma make up more than 60% of 
Czech prisoners and about 20–30% earn their livelihood in 
illegal ways, such as procuring prostitution, trafficking and 
other property crimes. Roma are thus more than 20 times 
overrepresented in Czech prisons than their population share 
would suggest.

According to 2010 survey, 83% of Czechs consider Roma 
asocial and 45% of Czechs would like to expel them from the 
Czech Republic. A 2011 poll, which followed after a number of 
brutal attacks by Romani perpetrators against majority population 
victims, revealed that 44% of Czechs are afraid of Roma people. 
The majority of the Czech people do not want to have Romanis 
as neighbours (almost 90%, more than any other group) seeing them 
as thieves and social parasites. In spite of long waiting time for
child adoption, Romani children from orphanages are almost 
never adopted by Czech couples. 

After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 the jobs traditionally employing 
Romanis either disappeared or were taken over by immigrant workers.

Among highly publicized cases was the Vítkov arson attack of 2009....

Moving further toward the other side of the fence:
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In 2009 a documentary by the BBC called Gypsy child thieves 
uncovered how Gypsy children were kidnapped and abused 
by Gypsy gangs from Romania. The children were often 
held locked in sheds during the nights and sent to steal 
during the days. In Milan, Italy, it is estimated that a single 
Gypsy child was able to steal as much as €12,000 in a month; 
there were as many as 50 of such abused Gypsy children 
operating in the city. Meanwhile, the Romani bosses of these 
child-gangs were building glossy villas back in Romania. 
The film went on to describe the link between poverty, 
discrimination, crime and exploitation.
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A United Nations study found that Romanis in European countries 
are arrested for robbery at a much higher rate than other groups.
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Also:
In 2009, the UN's anti-racism panel charged that "Gypsies suffer 
widespread racism in European Union." that 'Racially motivated crime 
is an everyday experience' for Roma people, says 
EU's Fundamental Rights Agency.'. 

  The EU has launched a program entitled 
Decade of Roma Inclusion (DORI) 
to combat this and other problems.*
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Europe, and NATO, in lecturing other countries on human
rights violations, is beginning to look just a little hypocritical.
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If the Holocaust ended for the rest of Europe in 1945, 
it has persisted to much more recent times throughout 
nearly the entirety of Europe, almost to this day.
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Mass relocations, shocking violence, forced sterilization
of young ladies, location of Gypsy housing projects on
top of contaminated landfills, and hate-speech by 
high officials and political leaders, all cloud the beauty
of Europe and unmask its own defense of human rights
situations outside NATO.  Today, we have a duty of conscience.
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It might be best if NATO nations would keep track of the
human rights records of other nations within NATO,
rather than look for trouble farther from home.  
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This is especially true in that
NATO must summon the United States to
improve its own record on human rights; to eliminate
the huge backlog of pardons (not only for crack cocaine
offenders, for whom the Obama-Holder administration 
seems to have such a soft spot in its thus far hard
heart toward victims of injustice, but across the board);
to eliminate the disproportionality in the prison population
of the United States, to restore the employability of
millions whose lives are ruined by relatively petty 
criminal convictions (many of which are unfair, or which
include forgeries of guilty pleas), to restore seized
homes to previous owners or compensate previous
owners for their losses, and to compensate victims
of malicious prosecutions and other Constitutional
violations perpetrated by Government; and to eliminate
the prison-for-profit system, to require prisons to allow
free phone calling access to prisoners, and to
end both judicial immunity and prosecutorial impunity.
Government in the United States will clearly refuse to
take care of these issues in a satisfactory way until
international pressure, including sanctions against the
US Government and the worst offending State governments
(such as now in power in Pennsylvania and Florida)
at least including the imposition of travel restrictions
on certain individuals who are the worst offenders
within Government and the American financial structure,
are brought to bear with sufficient persistence and force.

It is time to tighten up on this ethical gap; it is time for
people in glass houses to learn not to throw stones so easily.
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It is time to move toward a better future, and DORI seems to be
on the right track; or at least to be evidence of good intentions.
But we can do better.
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Here are some recommendations:
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1) There are a certain number of Gypsies in the 
United States and Canada - anywhere from 
100,000 to over one million.  
For certain reasons, the Gypsies in the
United States have not had the same history of
maltreatment as in other countries.  
The same may be true of Canada. 
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NATO has been a bureaucracy in search of a 
mission since the end of the Cold War, and 
has now already expanded to include almost
every country in Europe which has major Gypsy
populations (as well as including the USA and
Canada in its charter membership).
It is best that at this time, and without delay, a 
NATO Commission on Romany People 
can and should be established to ascertain
which countries have not inflicted horrors upon
Gypsies, and to figure out what these countries
are doing right, if anything.  Perhaps it is a matter
of geographic differences, or inexperience.  
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2) The NATO Commission on Romany People need
not be politically correct, and always side with
Gypsy complaints that all problems are due to 
discrimination and non-Gypsy racism, when this
clearly is not the case.  On the other hand, the
NATO Commission on Romany People also need
not always side with non-Gypsy societies in
defining the European majority as "always right"
and Gypsies as "always wrong" in their behavior -
with the ultimate remedy as unreciprocated 
Gypsy assimilation toward the majority societies.
Both Gypsies and the majority societies can
learn from each other, and both can unlearn
past patterns of mutual stigmatization against
each other.  
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3) The NATO Commission on Romany People
can also do an inquest, to determine both
non-Gypsy crimes and horrors against Gypsies,
including acts of genocide; and Gypsy crimes
against non-Gypsies.
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4) Legislation should be prepared, which makes
it a crime for anyone to influence a child to 
adopt a criminal lifestyle.  In the case of gangs
who are dedicated toward corrupting children,
Den Of Thieves clauses can be included in the
more serious felony categories of such new
legislation.
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5) Adult cultural exchanges can be managed
to facilitate mutual understanding between Gypsies
and non-Gypsies living in the same geographic area,
throughout Europe.  These cultural exchanges
can be made a condition of continued Government
assistance, whenever this conditionality is called for.
The aim of these adult cultural exchanges; perhaps
brought about or organized by the Gypsy college
in the making, should ideally be to intelligently and
constructively foster greater inter-ethnic empathy.
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6) Since there is a Gypsy population in Russia
amounting to hundreds of thousands of people,
NATO must keep the door open to greater Russian
participation in NATO, and to eventual full membership.
The New Cold War of the Obama era must be set
aside immediately, as described in this petition on
Change Dot Org:
<https://www.change.org/p/un-end-rus-ukr-war/>;
and
<https://www.change.org/p/bar-no-sanctions-on-vlad/>;
(If these links are not clickable, they can be accessed
by copying and pasting).
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7) A Gypsy college or university can be established
in a safe haven country, which is willing to host
such a college on a permanent basis.  Perhaps
there can be financial incentives included in the
structuring of such a college or university network.
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One obvious mission to which such a college can
and should be dedicated is human rights; because
Gypsies have always stood for a certain kind of
marginal freedom - and it is precisely at the 
margins of society where freedom is most
meaningfully preserved for the betterment of all.
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Another obvious mission is cultural preservation
and creation and marketing of Gypsy culture
de novo, especially in the area of music.
Few cultures are as gifted at the guitar
as the Gypsies.   This is worthy of honor
and respect, as Franz List insisted during
his entire career, in magnificent performances
more than words could adequately express.
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In these frightening times, it behooves all
enlightened and foresighted Governments to
recognize the fact that Gypsy culture, history
and religious practice has a great usefulness
in teaching tolerance and co-existence and
synthesis of faith-related matters.
At times like these, the last thing we should
be doing throughout the Western world and
the pan-European world, is cursing the Gypsies
with any continued stigma.  
We should be getting down on our knees
and thanking God that they exist, and we 
should all be learning something from them.
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The college can also include a Department
of Peace Studies.
The Gypsies may have caused or been known for
trouble in their history - but they have never
started a war.  There are few ethnic groups of
this size about which the same thing can 
truthfully be said.

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The college can include new departments of
psychological research which are dedicated to
determining the root causes of the historic pattern
of anti-Ziganism (anti-Gypsy activity and feeling).
The college can also include a department of
Gypsy pharmacological and folk-remedy research
to categorize and preserve the most useful 
herbal and other remedies of Gypsy culture.
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Furthermore, there can also be a department of
female rights issues.  It seems that feminism is
most predominant where it is least needed; but
in Gypsy culture, female advocacy has been 
almost completely out of the question, and it is 
in Gypsy culture where it is most critically needed.
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The college can also do research on educational
alternatives which reside somewhere between
segregated classrooms and non-segregation
which disregards the special education needs
of Romany children.
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A mathematical studies and research department
can also be included.  According to Business Week
magazine, Gypsies are an overlooked economic resource.  
The Gypsies are a mathematically
gifted people.  As Ben Franklin said, "Genius 
without education is like silver in the mine."
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An architectural department is also an urgent
necessity.  It may be that the typically squalid
living conditions of Gypsy communities can be
remedied with a scholarly academic research 
effort, in which Gypsies themselves take the lead.
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The college can also include a vocational-technical
division teaching skilled trades; especially those
skilled trades most closely related to public health,
sanitation, and municipal betterment.

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Considering the fact that the Gypsies are a people
with a rich history, we have here a gap in the
knowledge of that history; in some cases caused
by obliteration, and in other cases caused by
a tradition of illiteracy. 

Accordingly, the college can also include
not only a department of history but a department 
of historic research as well, which might do research 
into such questions as:  "Have there ever been
Continent-wide Gypsy gang wars in Europe?".
Or, alternately, "Has there been a Gypsy 
presence in Europe predating the fall of Rome?" .
I can see indications that there were - after all,
at a time when the entire population of Europe
was much more nomadic than it is today, Gypsies
would have been entirely inconspicuous as such;
they might have been regarded as an invading
tribe to watch out for, but not with the same stigma
as today.  For example, from what we
know of the Huns (who were most likely from Korea
or from Korean-speaking areas of Manchuria)
the possibility cannot be ruled out that Gypsies
and other nationalities such as the Avars and the
Magyaras led the Huns westward, or were with 
the Huns on their travels. There is also a possibility,
despite official denials from Romanian interests
and from Gypsies, that the name "Romania"
derives from the Gypsy language, as the name
"Romania" in the Gypsy tongue simply means
"the Gypsy world-view" - and the idea that the 
name "Romania" came from the Roman Empire
has to answer to major historical gaps and 
leaps of logic.  And there is another possibility
as intriguing as it is plainly obvious:  Since Italy,
from ancient times, attracted people from Albania
(the Etruscans, who are of the Tosk branch of the
Albanian nationality; hence, the name "Tuscany"
for modern Etruria), as well as from Greece and
Phoenecia, isn't it possible that the Roma people
founded Rome, (or Roma) about 2,800 years ago?
After all, the neighboring village of Rome at the
time of its founding was Alba Longa, a name which
could have been derived from the Gypsy words
for "Stop, Brother!  Gold!" (In modern form,
"Ach!  Phral Sunakaj.")  The ancient story that
the foundation of Rome was accompanied by the
capture of the Sabean women may also have roots
in Gypsy language:  the Gypsy word "chaven"
means "boyish"; and history shows that this is how
females of Gaulish or Celtic tribes were perceived
by others in Italy at the time.  This is confirmed
in that the Gypsy word "Roma" means "husband".
It is also confirmed in the fact that the Gypsy
words for the numbers "7, 8, 9" are all Greek
loan-words.  This indicates a contact between
Gypsies and Greeks which is very pre-modern,
and most likely prehistoric.  An early wave of
Gypsies could have built Rome; and a slightly
later wave of Gypsy exiles from India might 
have been led toward Europe at the time of
the Persians, or during the conquests of
Alexander.  There may have even been waves
of Gypsy migrations toward the Mediterranean
and Black Sea before Rome was founded:
after all, the name of one of the Sea Peoples
of Egypt (the Luweans) is almost identical to the
Chinese word for Gypsy: Luoli.  If the Luoli
had come to Egypt by way of China, this may
have been a "Sea People" migration by land,
rather than by sea; and Luoli wanderers from
the East may have brought with them, to Egypt,
knowledge enabling them to easily become a
priestly class: the Levites.  (The name "Aaron"
could very well be translatable from Hebrew
orthography from the orthography of the East,
as AaROM, in the same way as "Sumer" 
becomes "Shinar".)  Thus, there may be a major
element of truth, after all, in the ancient Gypsy
story that the European branches of the tribe
originated in Egypt - a tale which was denounced
as a hoax by the Catholic Church about 500 
years ago.  The Gypsies may even be the
connecting thread between the 25th chapter of
the Tao Te Ching and the first verses in the
Book of Genesis, which show striking similarities
to each other.  In fact, the name of the Egyptian
Pharaoh Raamses may be of Romany origin,
as well as the name of the Palestinian capital,
Ramallah.
Far from being an antisocial presence, the Gypsy
influence may have carried the torch of civilization
for thousands of years.  Its people must not be
cast aside as husks, but must be blended 
peacefully and with more dignity into the cultures
which they may have helped to found and to bring
into the world.  We must tolerate some things which
seem objectionable to us on a superficial level,
in order to fulfill all righteousness.
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After all, if the widespread phobia
against the Gypsies - that they are robbers - is
true, then this is also true, in the words of historian
Charles Beard: 
"The bee fertilizes the flower it robs".
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Scott Davis
Chairman
Committee of 37 Peace Initiative
PO Box 877
Edgmont,  PA  19028-0877
USA
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*Credit goes to Wikipedia for the
historical data between the rows of asterisks.