[WSMDiscuss] Coronavirus Pandemic- The Plight of Roma People in Europe

Fri May 15 20:30:51 CEST 2020

Dear Jai Greetings! Thanks a lot for your kind response and also the request for a post on Roma Musicians and Singers. I shall certainly try and get back soon. 

With Regards Umakant, Ph. D Independent Scholar New Delhi 

My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can lose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality. 
B.R.Ambedkar 

    On Friday, 15 May, 2020, 11:27:57 pm IST, Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net> wrote:  

Friday, May 15, 2020

Greetings, Umakant !

            *Thank youfor doing this post here on WSMDiscuss on the Roma, and for pointing out that theyare the untouchables of Europe.  How true!   And how important.  If only Europeans would see things this way… thatthis exists, and they have created this, right within their own midst, and that untouchability is notonly ‘out there’, in India….

            May I ask something?  If I’m not wrong, you had once done apost – a very interesting post - on the WSMDiscuss list on, I think, newprotest songs emerging from within the Dalit world.  To my knowledge, not only are the Roma verymusical (music is an intrinsic part of their life) but they have created somewonderful music, and produced have some wonderful musicians.  And where, since they live in so many parts ofEurope and right across to India, they also produce music of different genres.  In short, it would be great if you could collecttogether some of their work and do one of these wonderful compilations that isyour trade mark, as a post !  No hurry; as and when you can.

            With thanksas always for contributing so much to this list,

            Jai
 PS I’m also copying this reply on some other lists,where I know that there are people wo who would like to see your post.    

On May 15, 2020, at 10:43 AM, Umakant via WSM-Discuss <wsm-discuss at lists.openspaceforum.net> wrote:

Dear Friends

Greetings! Roma people, who are ‘untouchables’of European countries face discrimination, exclusion and violence based on workand descent day-in and day-out. Their plight has been further aggravated by thecoronavirus pandemic. The State and the society at large are complicit in ill-treatingRoma people thereby denying them a life of dignity, equality and justice. 

Do pass it on to others in yourcircle/network. 

Police areusing the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to abuse Roma

Jonathan Lee, Al Jazeera, May 14,2020 

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/police-covid-19-pandemic-excuse-abuse-roma-200511134616420.html

The coronavirus pandemicexacerbated the ugly, systematic state violence against Romani people. 

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Europe's marginalisedRoma people hit hard by coronavirus

Shaun Walker, The Guardian, Budapest, May 11, 2020 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/11/europes-marginalised-roma-people-hit-hard-by-coronavirus

Pandemic has increased deprivation and stigmatisation of continent’slargest minority

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ROMA CAMP ATTACKED AND TENTS BURNED DOWN BY UNKNOWNASSAILANTS IN UKRAINE

Jonathan Lee, EuropeanRoma Rights Centre (ERRC) May 04, 2020 

http://www.errc.org/news/roma-camp-attacked-and-tents-burned-down-by-unknown-assailants-in-ukraine 

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Pandemic:Roma at receiving end of racist policing

Bernard Rorke,Budapest, EU Observer, May 04, 2020  

https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/148229

More and more casesof police brutality against Roma are surfacing amidst quarantines, lockdownsand emergency measures across central and eastern Europe. 

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Hungary's Roma facing economic disaster as COVID restrictionslifted

Marton Dunai and BalazsKaufmann, Reuters, May 04, 2020 

Hungary’s Roma facing economic disaster as COVID restrictions lifted 

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Hungary’s Roma facing economic disaster as COVID restrictions lifted
MISKOLC — Robert Filep eyes his prepaid electricity meter anxiously: he has 28.9 kilowatt-hours left. When that ... |

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With Regards and InSolidarity 

Umakant, Ph. D 

New Delhi 

My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can lose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality. 
B.R.Ambedkar
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____________________________

Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa

jai.sen at cacim.net

Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

CURRENT / RECENT publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press

Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN, MOM1Flipkart, and MOM1AUpFront

Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press

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