Mars or Weimar?

The German government is on its way to close the position of a Commissioner on Anti-Gypsyism. In Slovakia, a former Roma MEP, Peter Pollak, has received threats that he and his children will be sent to Dachau. In Bulgaria, evicted Roma families from Sofia have spent a month and a half sleeping in tents in the open. All these are merely fragments of the alarming signals pouring in from across Europe in recent weeks.

It is difficult for news to pass through the sieve of the mainstream media which has clear guidelines on what to report and what not to. The European politicians do not care about Roma. There are no more Roma members of the EU Parliament, nor European Roma political parties. And this is where the role of European Roma organisations is key. What have they been doing in the meantime? 

It seems as if the ‘European Roma elite’ has long since lost touch with the earth and is heading for another planet. Perhaps their donors fund them precisely to send them faster among the clouds. On May 29, a Bulgarian mayor mocked the Roma with the demolished houses from ‘Zaharna Fabrika’ neighbourhood by submitting an official report to the Sofia City Council to buy them one-way tickets to Strasbourg. But soon Strasbourg may not be a safe destination either. Tomorrow, someone might suggest that the Roma collectively get one-way tickets to leave Europe. This idea is not from now, it has long existed.

With such ‘elites’ this is entirely possible, especially when they are so busy that they have no time to notice what is going on around them. Approximately 400 far-right activists from Europe and America gathered on 17 May in Gallarate, Italy for the first ‘Remigration Summit’ to discuss the deportation of foreigners and minorities. The newly adopted EU Internal Security Strategy omits the Roma, in contrast to other communities whose protection is explicitly included. The security of Roma is in question. But it seems the communication signal between Earth and space is broken. Maybe It’s time for those on earth to wish the cosmonauts safe journey and focus on solving their own problems. Because we can not all fly away, someone will have to stay down here and face the reality.

This thought-provoking painting by Norbert Olah says it all. He has painted several pictures in which the Roma colonize Mars and the moon. Ironically, they were featured on the website of a Berlin-based European ‘Roma-led’ organisation that refuses to take a stand on any of the urgent issues in Germany – even as Turkish organisations voice concern on the abolition of Anti-Gypsyism commissioner office. Shocking escapism into the world of art, cocktails, and concerts, at a time when your own people need help and protection. One senses something between Marie Antoinette’s attitude towards the destitute Parisians on the eve of the French revolution, and the Weimar intellectuals indulging in the Berlin cabarets while the Nazis marched in the streets. A profound decadence, one that, it seems, a part of the Roma elite intercepted as well. They were expected to follow their own path, not fall into this trap, and since they have lost the initial direction, now, the choice before them is between Mars and Weimar.