Michael Smith
Stolen Children: Ethnocide against the Romani People
Removal and forced adoption of Romane Chave
The removal of Romani-Gypsy children from their families, and thereby from the Romani culture, by the state and its agencies and the forced adoption of those children into Gadje (non-Romani) families has, unfortunately, once again, become a common occurrence all across Europe and that predominately in EU member countries, and countries affiliated to the EU, such as Norway.
The concerns and reasons for such forces removals are always given as the same”safety”, “health”, “living conditions”, “child neglect”, “physical abuse”, “child sexual exploitation”, and similar. The truth, however, plain to see for anyone willing to look, is an attempt of genocide without the killing, that is to say ethnocide.
In most cases, it would appear, Chave are removed in dawn raids, whisked away to undisclosed locations, then sent to “foster homes” (Gadje) and then disappear in the murky waters of forced adoption. The parents being denied to know where their children are and no contact is permitted.
Switzerland was infamous for this well until the middle of the 1970s which Yenish and Sinti children being taken by the organization Pro Juventute and placed into institutions or sold – and they really were being sold – to farmers as slaves. This was in order to cure them from the disease of “vagabondage”. The true aim was ethnocide and this is the aim today with the removal and forced adoption of Romani children.
Time and again in this context, as well as with so many other issues concerning Amare Chel, we hear that we must petition the governments to stop those arbitrary and discriminatory acts. Really? We should ask the very perpetrators to become saints? Are those people making such statements just dreaming, in the wrong film, or are they themselves agents of the enemy?
We, ourselves, must find ways, on a grassroots level, to combat this and combating this requires direct action and intervention. No petitions to the government and its agencies after the event. Those will fall on deaf ears and, more than likely, also in the waste paper bin, be it a real one or an electronic one, or even the shredder. We must react and act before wherever and whenever this is possible.
2018 © Michael Smith
Chib vs. Romanipen
Language or Romanipen, Romani Culture and Traditions; which one is more important? In my opinion it would be Romanipen that has precedence over Chib.
The reason for the Chib having been given such a high status of importance over everything else is because of an agenda by some people, that is to say those that make money from books, lessons, and such, on the Romani Chib, but also and especially those where Romanipen is sadly lacking and has gone out of the proverbial window altogether.
There is also much more to Romanipen than what most, even Romani who grew up with it, know today. Very few know the religions practices and the reasons for certain festivals and days that are still celebrated today. St. George's Day (Ederdelzi) is one of them, and is actually a day and festival dedicated to Indra. The celebrations of Sara Kali at St Marie de la Mer is yet another, which is, in fact, the celebration of Kali.
Mention some of those practices of Romanipen that have gone lost, however, even if you have learned them and grown up in them, the self-proclaimed experts and those who did not learn them accuse you of making things up.
While one can still, to this day, observe some of those practices in some Romani households and communities, whether it be the family altar, or others, the great majority, even those who practice some of those aspects (because their parents and grandparents did), have lost all connection to the ancient spirituality and thus flock to the wolves in shepherd's cloaks.
Flocking to the wolves in shepherd's cloaks, however, is undermining Romanipen even more and makes Amare Chel more and more slaves to those institutions, an institution that kept Roma as literal slaves for centuries, and to the Gadje system. The only reason this institution ever was established was, and still is, to keep people subject to the “authorities” and slaves to the system.
A great many of those wolves in shepherd's cloaks are interested in only one thing and that is exercising power over people, and if they cannot be “king of all Gypsies in the world everywhere” they become “shepherds of the flock.”
While it is true that the institution to which I am referring is not the main cause for many of Amare to have lost (much of) Romanipen it is, nevertheless, one that today causes much of the loss, especially as far as the spirituality is concerned. The latter is due to the fact that the institution claims all those practices to be satanic.
For many, also aided and abetted by the self-proclaimed experts and apostles, the Chib thus has become the main importance and indication of being tatcho Rom, and Romanipen has been relegated to a lower status (because it has been lost by so many). Especially the proponents of Chib above all, whose lead others are following, are the very ones who have very little, if any, Romanipen left and thus take “refuge” in the Chib and promote the Chib as the be all and end all of being Rom. Well, how could they talk about and promote Romanipen is they, themselves, don't have it. I could “name and shame” those who are behind this but I won't.
So, now let me be very crass to close here. I do not give a cent (don't want to use foul language now, do I) whether you rokker the Chib like a “native”. If you have no Romanipen then you may as well be a Gadjo. In fact you might be for all we know. If there is a matchka walking around your kher and all over the kitchen area, or a juk, or if you talk woman’s things as a man, or the other way round, in mixed company, but rokker the Chib then my doubts would firmly remain in place.
2018 © Michael Smith