Five years has passed since I last visited Pata Rat. If you find yourself wondering what I'm talking about, allow me to explain...
Pata Rât is a community of around one and a half thousand Roma living on the outskirts of the city of Cluj-Napoca in the Transylvanian region of Romania. I first visited in the winter of 2007 with a journailst, a film-maker and a musician. I think it's safe to say that we were all shocked by the levels of poverty we witnessed. Even having grown up for a while in East Africa, I found it difficult to accept that we were no longer in the '3rd world'.
The community of shacks is built in and around the city's rubbish dumps. Roma of all ages scavenge through the refuse collecting plastic, metal and anything else that may bring in a little income. As you may be able to imagine, there were mangy dogs skulking around, filthy children without shoes and human waste lying everywhere. Admittedly, there has been a little improvement in terms of housing. A few tiny shacks have been built for some families but here's where it gets complicated.
(above) One of the shacks built by the Pentecostal Church.
These shacks have been built by the Pentecostal Church who have now purchased the land, and in a perverted kind of way, it's people too. Nobody in the community seemed to be comfortable to talk to us until they knew that the priest had given consent. If this seems bad enough, there's more to this situation than meets the eye. In about 2010 I learned that the 'chief' of the community had somehow managed to pass all the electricity through his house, meaning that people had to pay him for the privilege. You can be rest assured that they paid extra. He is a shadowy gangster fellow and on my most recent visit (2012) there had been further developments with regard to extortion tactics. It's almost always true that whenever you find people living in deep poverty, there will be someone there to exploit them and Pata Rat is no exception. It seems that now there are three 'chefs' who have moved into the area. Now, as far as I understand, these 'chefs' own a shop and small restaurant business. They have a virtual monopoly on food and as a result there is some severe price-fixing going on. They now handle the recyclable materials on behalf of their customers, profiting off of their back-breaking labour. What this means effectively is that the Roma do hard labour in exchange for food, which begs the question - HOW DOES THIS DIFFER FROM SLAVERY? Besides the chains, I see no difference.
Recyclable materials. (above)
What we noticed when we arrived this time was that there were new signs that had been put up saying 'PRIVATE PROPERTY' and 'NO PHOTOS'. These had not been put up by the Roma community themselves. They'd been paid for and installed by the 'chefs' (a.k.a Gangsters). The extorters don't want the world to know what is going on. That's why I thought it was important to write this piece, to shed a little light on a sad situation with the ultimate goal that something can be done. When I arrived, the Municipality of Cluj Napoca had just evicted a huge Roma community to Pata Rat entirely on racist grounds. 207 men, women and children were given one nights notice before their houses were bulldozed. They were then moved into 40 tiny houses 500m from the toxic garbage dump.
The councilmen and women try to forget that it exists because it doesn't fit their aspirational view a European country. What they fail to realise is that progress must be for everyone. It should not be about big business, the financial elite, technology and consumerism. Roma rights are an issue that the Government just don't like to talk about or even acknowledge despite the fact that as many as 10% of the entire population of Romania are Roma. The situation here is so dire that even Amnesty International have sent investigators and journalists.
A couple of the kids and myself.
On a further note, we were subject to a great deal of hostility from a few select people when we visited. The Journalist I was with, Paula Boarta, had been many times and was friendly with a few of the familes. They were very welcoming but the trouble started when she took her camera out (to capture the images you see in this post). The so called 'chefs' were nowhere to be seen but Paula was physically attacked by one of their wives. It was pretty frightening as about 50 people crowded around us and we were violently thrown out of the village. I must clarify that 99% of the community were just watching the drama. It was only the wives of the gangsters (if we can even call them that) that gave us trouble.
It was really sad to see people being exploited in such a way. I just hope that we can raise awareness about Pata Rat and the problems that the people face there. It's a pretty remote place and I feel it's my duty to share my story with you. We must look towards the future with positivity, know that we are the 'good guys' and that our fight is justified. See you on the front-lines my friends!
All photos © Paula Boarta
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