THE NEED FOR UNITY AMONGST OURSELVES

[cathay birch]

Prepared Statement From:
Cathay Birch and Gillian Green Face book.
The time has come for all organizations to come together in our fight for Equality, Dignity and Inclusion within the Societies of the Countries of Europe and the World.
We are a nation without a country a people without borders but we stand under one Flag , There are so many groups and organizations all fighting for the same thing but are not getting very far fast.
It is time to show the Governments of the world UNITY within the Roma, Romany Gypsy Romani, and Travellers communities, No matter what you call yourself or preferred to be called we are One and the Same. While we disagree about our name it is serving the Governments purpose to cause divides putting each group into a manageable number for the Government to handle.
If we UNITE together all groups and organizations we would be fighting side by side with all our brothers and Sisters through the one recognized Organization rather like the United Nations where each Country is represented , We would have a United Nation of Roma Gypsy and Travellers.
Every day we read of the ill treatment served up to the Roma of Europe, Forced evictions, Expulsions from the Country and homes destroyed leaving hundreds of families with nothing and while everyone voices their outrage NOTHING is being seen to be done as the evictions still go on.
However if we had our own U.N. we could fight and give our people a voice that will be heard and not dismissed with the usual lip service. 10 years of Roma inclusion and we are saying Where is it ?
The people of our own Government have never had a history lesson which includes the help the Romany Gypsies and Travellers gave during the Wars we have been the back bone of English farming for 100s of years. We fought and died in two world wars. We gave our expertise to the SAS in how to move undiscovered They were also a great source of intel to the allied forces, and helped within the resistance movements, They saved many a Jewish family by hiding them in compartments under their Vardas, All true but conveniently forgotten , Instead we are misrepresented in the media as thieves, trouble makers and even child Kidnapers all of which incites mistrust and hate for our people leading to persecution race hate and discrimination.
Our Ancestors did not go to those Gas chambers singing Gelem Gelem for our history traditions and culture to be obliterated by Governments so we must fight for what is ours in memory of all those who died in the Holocaust, Stand united under the flag they died for !!!! OPRE ROMANI NATION

[Miriam Ben-Dor]

I agree wholeheartedly, but there is so much in-fighting between groups!  just looking at facebook alone, if one person puts forth an opinion that another person does not agree with, they are called a 'gadje' and ostracized.  I find this tactic ridiculous, but again, there are those who want to argue about blood percentages, skin/hair/eye color, there are those college educated people who won't interact with the less formally educated, and vice versa...there are academics who refuse to acknowledge tarot readers, but use fortune-telling as a means to explain away stereotyping.  what are we to do?  how do we get people to understand that we need to put these differences away in order to work together?  that the drama and name-calling does Nothing to promote our positive world view?  who am I?  I am no one, not even raised with traditional values or language, but I know what I see, and it doesn't look good.  people would rather argue and name-call than put their differences aside to work towards a common goal...  tell me what you need, and I will do it - I am all in.  let's get it together.  Opre!

[Stoimen]

Divide and rule, that is how Romani people are being kept away from power. Twelve up to fifteen million are living in Europe. If they unite the way Jews orgabized themselves, the racist apartheid would come to an end. In every nation, people disagree among each other. That is human, that is normal and nothing to worry about. But one should, one MUST agree upon justice and equity!