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Deciphering the myth – Romanian Gypsies – Episode 1: A little history

In 2007 Romania entered in the European Union and with it, what seemed to be a big national issue “the gypsy (roma) situation” became a big European issue. Alongside millions of Romanian citizens (both Romanian and Gypsies) going to Italy, Spain or France for honest working in agriculture, housekeeping or construction (domains in which the exodus was so massive that the demand in Romania became hard to be filled) we witnessed also a large exodus of poverty and criminality (both Romanian and Gypsies). In these days, you will find the same kind of beggars, prostitutes or thieves in Rome, Paris, Madrid or Helsinki as we are so used to see in Bucharest.

And, instead of learning from our mistakes, the French, the Italians are making the same errors Romanians did in the past (and still doing today): turning their backs to the problem, saying it is a Romanian issue and not a European one.  In 2010, the Italians and the French started destroying the cottages built at town edges, started deporting EU citizens for the sole purpose of being gypsies or being poor, or started bribing them with some hundreds EUROs for the promise they would return to Romania and never come back.

Instead of long term thinking all taken measures are nothing but short term patches. It’s like taking a pill for healing a broken bone.

So, to help you see the bigger picture, today I am starting the first “series” with the subject being the Gypsies.

Gypsies – a little history

Gypsies are, by their nature, a nomadic society. They started their journey from Southern Asia and, in 300 years, they spread all over Europe – from Turkey and Russia to Spain and England. And, everywhere they went, they weren’t greeted with open hearts: in Greece, they were called atsingatoi (untouchables); in England they were expelled from local communities, in France they were branded and their heads were shaved, in Moravia and Bohemia the women were marked and, pretty much everywhere, they were enslaved (more details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people).

                                         Poster advertising a slave auction in Romania

In Romania the enslavement lasted till the middle of the 19^th century. Even after they were liberated, no actions were taken in order to integrate this important ethnic group in the society. Instead, the situation degraded again starting with the 1930s when the power was taken by totalitarian leaders. Similar to Jews in Germany or Poland, gypsies were deported in concentration camps outside Romania. After the war ended, the new, communist, regime started a large operation of registering and helping settle the gypsies in towns and villages. Also, by making school mandatory, the regime tried to fight the high rates of illiteracy within the ethnic group. After more than 40 years of communism the results were very poor.

                                                   Gypsies at work (Caldarari)
http://blog.razvan-voiculescu.ro

The main reasons include:

• The centralized system that was created in order to destroy all forms of private enterprise. The regime was intended to decide where you stay, what you study, what job you will have. For most of the gypsies, the regime decided the best job for them was in agriculture, perceived as the lowest link on the social chain and, an activity they wouldn’t choose if given an alternative (based on their culture and history, most gypsies thrived in other occupations like blacksmiths, stonemasons, traders or entertainers)
• Lack of Education – despite starting a national program for fighting illiteracy, on the countryside, the situation was very different from the cities. Children would have to walk several kilometers everyday just to go to school and, after, the domestic activities awaited them: working on the field, taking the animals to pastures etc. Given this very busy program, most of the children would quit school after just 1, 2, 3 or 4 classes

Update 1: as clau2002 points out the education issue was similar both for Gypsies and for Romanians. A correction that had to be made.

One shiny talent

Last week the first edition of “Romania has talent” had ended. Like everywhere, lots of singers and an extraordinary talent: Cosmin Agache the 14 year old beat-boxer.

Enjoy!

Starting the dialogue: Romanians vs Travelers

When deciding to travel to a country you start with expectations and return with impressions. When living in a country, we may tend to highlight our strong points and hide our weakest. In order to prevent that situation from happening, from today, I’ve created 2 new categories in the menu: Our thoughts and your thoughts. Here, I am hoping to attract both my countrymen and you, our visitors, to write about how you see Romania and its people.

From my citizens, I hope we will find first hand information about where to go, what to see, what to experience and what to avoid.

From you, the visitors, I hope you will share your experiences in our country / you will tell us about your expectations before arriving.

This way, I hope we can create a dialogue from which everybody will win.

Music – our history

This blog intends to familiarize you with the true Romanian culture so, aside from some links directing you to Youtube videos, here you will find also some relevant information about the artists and their times. From my point of view all this is necessary because only by analyzing the times you will better understand the evolution. If, for example, I’m traveling in Croatia, I’d certainly want to know why the heck 20.000 people are going to a concert of a local band and, as I don’t know a bit of Croatian, I would very much enjoy if somebody tells me a bit of history about that group.

Romanian music from the beginning of the 20^th Century.

The period between the two world wars is commonly regarded in Romania as a period of openness and modernism throughout our society. That was the period when big cities really started to modernize, when Bucharest was commonly referred as the Little Paris, when Romania was truly opened to Western influences.

All these factors mentioned, the cultural boom, the cosmopolitism of Romanian citizens in big cities, the spreading of different audio devices like radios or gramophones where the key for helping the first music stars emerge. From Zavaidoc who was the main exponent for traditional Romanian party music (muzica lautareasca) to  Jean Moscopol and Cristian Vasile who integrated in their songs influences from abroad, from foxtrot to tango . These period of flourishing entertainment lasted till the beginning of the Second World War.

Romanian music in the Communist Era.

After 1945, two iron curtains were drawn: one between the West and the East and one between Romania and culture. The new regime changed the direction from a true democracy to a highly centralized structure where every decision was taken from the center. The diversity, was oppressed; the culture took a change of direction, with the main intent being that all artistic endeavors (movies, songs, theater plays) must contain the masses and support the political regime. Every play, song, movie was checked before the launch so that it won’t contain any “politically incorrect” views and the artists that didn’t follow this line where oppressed.

A sample of this kiss ass  music can be found bellow:

The main lines are: Ceausescu reelected at the 14^th Congress

Starting with the 70s Cenaclul Flacara cultural movement was established. Even at this moment there are split opinions involving this movement: some people considered it a government tool to distract the masses from their daily problems, others saw it like a ray of light, a spot of color in an otherwise bleak life.

No matter where the truth resides, the movement produced some of the best Romanian voices. The best examples are Mircea Vintila, Florian Pittis or Valeriu Sterian. Eventually, they will become the promoters of freedom in the last days of the Communist Era and the first days of our Wild Capitalism.

song about the martirs of the Romanian Revolution

Romanian music after 1989

The first years after the Revolution in 1989, were in many ways, similar to the last years of communism: same faces, same songs as if we gained the freedom of speech but we didn’t know what to do with it. Nevertheless, changes started to appear. First of all, Romanians where finally able to see MTV! To see and interact with western culture and values. This culminated with the titanic Michael Jackson concert in 1992. In my opinion this was the start for the Romanian showbiz and all that involves it: from play writing to album launching to concerts and tours.

After a few years of tasting western dishes Romanian people started developing their own unique tastes and identities through the artistic currents arising: from rock and folk to hip-hop and underground.

The Rock area was covered by Iris – a band started before the fall of the communist regime that was and still is the main attraction for long-haired, leather wearing rockers both young and old. Another important band is Phoenix. As Iris, it was formed before 1989 but they went on a different way both artistically, by experimenting different sub-genres from etno-rock to psychedelic, beat or blues,  and politically by fleeing the country in 1977.

Hip Hop and underground genres started developing very rapidly in the 90s, mainly because of the harsh economic times. The main stars were BUG Mafia and Parazitii (still is). Their lyrics spoke about the hard life in the ghettos plagued by guns, drugs and violence.

Romanian music today

Today, as in every part of our society, music is also very segmented.

You will find here

Manele – a pseudo Greek / Turkish junk music.

Rock – from my point of view, here you will find one of the largest communities enjoying this kind of music

Pop / House / Urban – fast developing. Always easy when copying you (our western pals).

Hip Hop

Romanian Heritage.

This is a special chapter about a type of music that remains pretty much unknown to most young people in our country but ravages you when our artists travel abroad: our traditional music. From Grigore Lese to Gheorghe Zamfir (maybe you’ve seen Kill Bill – well, when Uma Thurman receives the sword, Gheorghe Zamfir is playing in the background). Bellow you will find several clips that will help you take a dive in our “forgotten culture”. Hope you will enjoy