I just actually dislike opinions that easily fall into stereotypes…expecially if they come from people I suppose to be “better informed” or with a higher level of knowledge.

Said that, as I mentioned in the first post, I accept every kind of criticism about Italy and Roma or whatelse, as long as they are clever, based on facts, able to develop a positive changing!

Hope to read new opinions over that issue…

G.

The situation is much worse in Eastern Europe. I am a Bulgarian, from the town with the largest Roma ghetto in Europe. I, too, feel sorry, especially for the children. Mind you, all babies and toddlers you see begging in the cold streets of Brussels every day are Bulgarian and Romanian Roma.
However, there is no way for fixing this problem. There is, in fact, discrimination against them, but the main problem is that they simply refuse to work. Bulgaria, for example, has spent hundreds of millions of Euro in the past 20 years, to create jobs and housing for them. Nothing works! They give them free housing, and in a week everything except the concrete is gone. Cables are torn from the walls to be sold, doors and windows are burned for heating! If you live close to the ghetto and you leave your house for a few days, upon your return everything will be gone. There are hundreds of small villages that have been completely taken over by the Roma, the police has no resource to stop them, and when they do they are often sued by various NGOs for discrimination.

I’m not sure what the solution is, and I very much doubt that a solution will be found (I don’t consider Berlusconi’s actions a solution).

Cheers!

I would like to say something, expecially referred to some details given by Dániel Fehér.

First of all I must say I lived in Roma for a few years (4 years), and I exactly know many of its main problems, and i could also say I am generally very polemic about how that city it has always been managed (in a very bad way).

What i need to say has relation with:

1) Life expectancy: It has been written that “Their life expectancy is about 20-30 years below EU average”.
I should invite to have just a look over here http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=30. Italy has one of the highest life exp. in EU (es. more than UK; Germany; Austria; Spain; Netherland and going on..); Data are confirmed.

2) Healthcare: It has been written: “no access to healthcare”;
Well, as far as health care is concerned, Italy ranks No. 2 on the World Health Organization’s list of top countries for quality health care services (by contrast, the U.S. only holds 37th place, despite being the highest spender).

Have a look at http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/docs_e.htm

More over..In Italy EVERYONE has the right to have access to every medical care, that’s also why our first public issue is the high level of medical expenditure.

3) Job Market: Have a look here:

http://www.indexmundi.com/italy/unemployment_rate.html

Italy as a whole have a very low avarage rate of unemployement.

Before posting superficial data, please be informed!

Dr. Giovanni M. Ferente

Great that you went back with your camera to document it, why not try to hook up with some of the Italian bloggers on this topic, ex. Francesco Federico – http://www.francescofederico.net/ , who is also in the Think About It competition?

I think the worst thing that could have happened to you had you chosen to stay would have been an invitation for dinner… My experience with Roma is that they are by far friendlier than most of the EU crowd in Brussels you have to deal with each day…

What you have seen does indeed exist in many of the EU’s member states (see here or here), especially in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain and Italy… But neither in France, nor in Germany, nor in Britain, for example, do these people (called ‘Travellers’ in some countries) have it easy to live their style of life without being harassed by state authorities.

In many parts of the EU, Roma live in conditions worse than in sub-Saharan Africa. Their life expectancy is about 20-30 years below EU average. Their chances to break out from the vicious circle of not having proper housing, no education, no chances on the job market and no access to healthcare (not mentioning issues of discrimination that can go as far as the pogroms against Roma in Italy last year) are bleak. And still, in the year 2008, European governments pay little more than lip service to improving their situation.