Roma or Gypsy - the Romanians' problem

Image via Wikipedia/Meeting between the Romanian president (middle, left) and representatives of Roma organisations

A new round in the semantic clash from Romania regarding the Roma minority, was consumed a couple of days ago after the Government from Bucharest asked the MPs to accept changing the name of the community from Roma to Gypsy/Țigan. For the main Roma organizations, the name is having depreciative connotations. Other representatives of the community might consider it "normal". The main reason for the change - introduced in Romania at the beginning of 90s - is the possibility of a confusion between the name of the country - Romania - and the name of the community - Roma. (What about the capital city of Italy? Did anybody ask Berlusconi? Maybe not.) At the level of the authorities, the confusion was considered having negative impact on the country's image abroad, as the Roma are associated with a high level of infractionality. This linguistic make-up, dictated from up, will not change anything. At the end of the day, all are citizens of the same country, Romania. And not the name will change the image, but the behavior and the coherence in actions and the respect towards the international obligations assumed.

The Roma issue

An interesting testimony regarding the recent issue on Roma from a representative of the Roma community from Romania, studying now in the United States. Romani/Gypsy heritage is part of the European culture and history and we, Westerners have to be fully aware of their importance and value. Everybody is talking extensively about the problems with the Muslim communities, or the situation of religious minorities and so on. But, wait! For centuries, an important Roma community is living in Europe and we are too blind to see it but when there are becoming too visible for our diffuse view.

A proof that we, as Europeans, are self-centered not only in relation with the overseas worlds, but also in relation with our closed neighbours.

Related articles

• Romania is shirking its Roma responsibilities | Nicolae Gheorghe (guardian.co.uk)
• EU suspends Roma complaint against France (foxnews.com)
• Q+A: Who are Europe's Roma? (reuters.com)

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