Gypsies

Fran used to tell me about when she did something that was not looked on with approval by her mother, sometimes her mother would warn her to be careful, as the Gypsies might come through Dunkirk and steal her, because they apparently liked bad little girls. I even remember my mother telling me that Gypsies had a reputation for stealing children, but they only did that in Europe.

I also remember all wanderers being called gypsies, and often it would be the gypsies who were blamed when someone was sold a driveway coating that turned out to be little more than diluted black paint. Folks in rural New York sometimes had a hard time believing that you could not get something for nothing, so they tried.

In terms of remembrance, I also remember when I first started working in Fulton, and one of my fellow administrators bought a new car. He told me about how he had 'jewed down' the price. When I looked at him askance, as I was not used to hearing that particular antisemetic phrase, he apologized, saying that he had nothing against the Jews, only that he did not want to be gypped. I again looked at him askance, and asked him why he assumed I was not a gypsy.

All of these memories came back to me yesterday, as I read the news from Italy. I subscribe to e mail Italian news service in English. There were two articles about gypsies yesterday. The first reported that after extensive research and the culling of records of missing children over the last thirty five years, there have been no known instances of the gypsies stealing children in Italy. This despite the fact that since I have lived here, there have been three children who have gone missing, and the papers reported that they 'were probably taken by gypsies', and indeed, there were supposed sitings of the children in gypsy camps. One siting was made just a day before the little girl's body was found in a well, which she had fallen into when she was playing. The article noted that the newspapers often loudly proclaimed that gypsies were responsible, and then hid the stories about the gypsies not being responsible on the back pages.

I should note that gypsies continue to be wanderers in much of Europe. They seem to have left the old wooden wagons behind, and are now using 'Caravans', which are like our old Winnebago's. I have seen gypsy encampments in Rome, Paris, and Agrigento.

Anyway, and coincident with the exculpation of the gypsies for the disappearance of little children, the Minister of the Interior has appointed three 'extraordinary commissioners for gypsies' in Milan, Rome, and Naples. The brief article did not say what the aim of these extraordinary commissioners would be, but they were appointed with the consultation of the Romanian Ambassador. Could it be that these extraordinary commissioners were appointed to help clear the name of the much maligned gypsies.

I think not. The day after the appointments were made public, by the new Berlusconi right wing government (it is indeed hard for me to call it center right, when it includes a former fascist as the president of what is similar to our House of Representatives, and several other former fascists or people who express fascist views in several of the ministries), there was a huge raid on the gypsy camps in Rome, Milan and Naples. Over 500 gypsies (and 'wanderers') were arrested for drug dealing, prostitution, fraud, and robbery. They were not all Romanian, indeed a large number were from northern Africa, but the headlines all read that they were Romi, or gypsies, and you had to read into the second page of the article to get the ethnic break down.

And no, they did not find any missing children, however I think the work that they have done to research the myth of gypsy child stealing was very nicely undone by the raid and arrests. And of course, many of the people were legal immigrants to Italy, but could not find jobs, and were not allowed to search for jobs, and had to make a living somehow. It all sounds just too familiar.