And people say we Gypsy around! LOL
Who are the gypsies? Well you can read the wikipedia article but it isn’t all that informative. If you’re going to visit Romania, you need to know who the gypsies are.
The legal, politically correct name is “romany” people (rromi in Romanian) which sounds almost exactly like “Romanian” (romani in Romanian) and confuses the hell out of everybody so everyone just calls them “gypsies”. Apparently the peasants in Europe a long time ago thought they were from Egypt (LOL!) so in almost all languages (including English and Romanian) the name “gypsy” comes from a contraction of the word “Egyptian”.
Gypsies are apparently all over the place in Europe (and the USA somewhat) but many thousands of years ago they decided Romania was the bestest and most funnest place to live so about 90% of them live here in Romania. Why? Nobody knows! Quit asking questions like that!
All throughout “Eastern” Europe and the Balkans there are many nationalities, ethnicities and sub-groups of ethnicities, many of whom you’ve never probably never even heard of. If you walk around with your ignorant, tourist eyes you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference between them.
EXCEPT for the gypsies. The gypsies always stand out because the gypsies are both a separate “ethnicity” and a separate culture. Gypsies have their own way of doing absolutely everything and I do mean everything. They live in their own special places and do things their own special way and dress in their own special way and that’s just how it is.
Note: During World War 2 both Hitler AND Stalin tried to completely kill every last gypsy. Didn’t work. All the other dictators in Europe tried it too. They’re unstoppable. Just accept it.
Even though I know almost nothing about gypsies, I’m going to give you a crash course in identifying gypsies. All terms are completely my own invention, btw, so don’t quote this in the footnotes of your scholarly paper or the teacher will bust you for being an idiot LOL
Westerners, particularly USAmericans, have a very bizarre notion of what gypsies are. For instance, if you’re vaguely into “hippy” or “New Age” things and are female, calling yourself (or being called) a gypsy is some kind of compliment. It means you’re free! You’re a noble spirit, floating on the wind, unchained by crass modern limitations! You look like this!
REAL gypsies are totally different LOL so pay attention.
Gypsies are organized into tribes and are usually identifiable at a distance by their dress:
Cowboy gypsies – Especially popular in Transylvania. They wear a lot of black leather vests and large, black leather gypsy hats. They don’t actually work with cows though so don’t get confused!
Note: For some reason, most male cowboy gypsies refuse to drive a car or a wagon or anything else. So the oldest and most powerful (male) cowboy gypsy rides up front in the passenger side.
Rainbow gypsies – If you’re a woman you must wear a super mega colorful skirt (never pants). You must wear an equally super mega colorful shirt. Third, you must wear a super mega colorful head scarf OR braid your incredibly long hair with mega colorful braids. ALL ITEMS MUST BE OF DIFFERENT COLORS. This is the law for rainbow gypsies!
Manelisti gypsies – These ones can confuse you if you’re not prepared. They are fans of manele music (see my post here) and therefore, by gypsy law, listen to it 24 hours a day. If they’re out and about in the streets, usually they have their telephone playing manele music through its one tinny speaker.
Male version – Dresses in track suits (if wealthier) or knock-off jeans. Usually has gel in the hair. A large thick gold chain around the neck is preferred.
Female version – Knock-off jeans and cheap Chinese shoes as well as a t-shirt or other shirt with incomprehensible English language words on it. Abundant (usually cheap) jewelry is preferred. Rarely wears skirts or dresses. If they’re indoors (aka at a club) listening to manele, their clothes must be as skin tight as possible.
Italian Mafia gypsies – They’re not actually Italian or in some kind of genuine “mafia” but they dress like they are. Cheap suits and overly tight shirts that barely restrain their beer bellies.
Note: All “Italian mafia” gypsy boys over the age of 8 wear the full regalia, the suit, the business shoes, etc.
Filthy Vagrant gypsies – Literally as filthy as possible, wearing any kind of ragged clothes, be it more traditional Romanian woolen clothes or else 1986 Superbowl Shuffle Chicago Bears t-shirts that even God himself doesn’t know how they got a hold of. Stains of all kinds are fine, both on clothes as well as on their face and/or body. Showers and washing are to be abstained from at ALL TIMES.
Ok now that you can identify the gypsies, time to know when and where you will encounter them.
First Iron Rule of Gypsies – they never work indoors. NEVER. As in never, ever, never. Therefore they will all be making their money in some kind of way where they don’t have to sit indoors inside a maze of cubicles and listen to soft jazz and type under fluorescent lights.
So how do gypsies survive? If you’re considering becoming a gypsy, what career options are option to you?
Flower seller – Gypsies pretty much have cornered the market on selling flowers. Sometimes they do this at an established spot (like in the market) or sometimes just on a random street corner. Sometimes the flowers are roses or other flowers you’d be happy to buy for your wife/girlfriend and other times the “flowers” are some kind of plant that looks like they just ripped it out of the dirt from alongside the train tracks two minutes ago.
Note: this job is mainly performed by female Rainbow or Filthy Vagrant gypsies.
Manual Labor – Anything from literally digging ditches to re-tiling your roof to cleaning gutters to paving streets to construction work. Sometimes it’s fairly skilled work but usually it’s not.
Note: this job is for male Filthy Vagrant gypsies only.
True fact: Nicolae Guta, before becoming the (ex) King of all Romanians, spent eight years digging ditches in Petrosani.
Spoon Carver – All traditional Romanian recipes can only be made with the use of a wooden spoon. True fact. And therefore there are people whose sole job is to sit at home and whittle spoons and then stuff them into a plastic bag and hawk them on the street. If you are a tourist in Romania, you really should buy one ;)
Note: selling wooden spoons is for male Filthy Vagrant or Manelisti gypsies only. I don’t know who carves them though.
Musician/Singer – This is the best-paying line of work for a gypsy (see my post on Nicolae Guta). You can form your own band and play either manele or muzica lautareasca and make tons of money singing at weddings, festivals or making videos for TV.
Note: you must be an Italian Mafia gypsy in good standing to be a manele musician/singer.
Note: while female Italian Mafia gypsies can become manele singers, only male gypsies can become manele musicians. Why? Quit asking questions, that’s why!
Fruit/Vegetable seller – You get to stand behind an enormous pile of vegetables and/or fruits at the market. The food you’re selling may or may not come from your own actual farm and be food you’ve grown.
Note: for female Filthy Vagrant gypsies only.
Note: Once a year when the watermelon harvest is in, sometimes you get to move to another town for a few weeks and sleep and live next to your enormous pile of watermelons as you desperately try to peddle them in the baking summer sun.
Gold dealer – Gypsies have been around forever so they don’t trust any modern currencies – only gold (just like these guys LOL). Therefore they’re always wheeling and dealing in gold, whether chains, necklaces, medallions or other sundry bits of jewelry. In any large town in Romania there’s usually a 24-hour non-stop gold dealer just for this very purpose.
Note: one of the few gypsy jobs where both male and females of every variety are involved with in some form or fashion.
Scrap metal recycler – Go around town from place to place, collecting old scrap metal of all kinds and then hauling it to the recycler for cash. Sometimes the metal isn’t quite “scrap” as you are allowed to pry metal off of just about everywhere, including manhole covers LOL
If you’re super poor, you have to do this by hauling a flimsy cart (or possibly a bicycle) around town, overburdened with too much scrap. If you’re a little richer, you can use your horse and wagon to do it.
Note: for male Filthy Vagrant gypsies only.
Leather coat peddler – Much like the flower seller above, you walk up and down the street, peddling leather coats (for men).
Note: this job is for female Rainbow gypsies only.
Rambo knife and/or fishing gear peddler – Same as above. Why only women sell these products is a mystery to one and all.
Perfume peddler – Same as above.
Note: sometimes the perfume is heavily watered down. Sometimes it’s a cheap Chinese knockoff. Good business though as Romanians LOVE perfume. Love, love, love it!
Pickpocket – A very, very skilled profession and you’re likely to never know it happened to you until after they’re long gone. I was pickpocketed once and it’s a funny story I wrote about here.
Note: this job is restricted to male Manelisti gypsies.
Note: Gypsies are champion thieves but never, ever robbers. What’s the difference? It means they’ll steal anything not tied down but never use force to rob you.
Beggar – Roam around the streets, begging and pleading for money. It requires extreme persistence and learning to “never say never”. If you can learn to never give up in the face of adversity, curses and occasional spitting, this might be the job for you!
Note: Mostly children have cornered this market but there are opportunities for adults as well, especially if you can feign or show some kind of hideous deformity. Available for Filthy Vagrant gypsies only, naturally.
Fortune Teller – Probably one of the few things “in the movies” they got right about actual, real gypsies. Only there’s not some nice, friendly lady with a neon sign of a palm hanging outside her window in her home. No way.
Real gypsy fortune tellers (Romanian: ghicitoara literally meaning “the guesser”) are creepy, eerily accurate women who stare into your soul and tell you things you don’t want to know. Really don’t want to know.
Note: this job is for female gypsies only.
Stolen electronics peddler – One of the few sales jobs open to male gypsies, particularly Cowboy gypsies. If someone tries to sell you a video camera for only 20 euros, you know where it came from! LOL
11 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT ROMANIANS AND GYPSIES
1- All Romanians hate gypsies, spit on them, never have anything nice to say about them at all and constantly pray they all die. Even the most tolerant Romanians are just that, barely tolerant of gypsies.
2- Even if you see a very beautiful Rainbow gypsy with lovely braided hair and a colorful skirt you must never, ever, ever compliment them to your Romanian friends. They (the Romanian friends) will hate you forever and ever.
3- Romanians who don’t know you will NEVER EVER talk to you or pass the time of day with you or otherwise act like you’re alive. Gypsies on the other hand are chatty, cheerful people and will be glad to talk to you. If you’re lost and need directions, ask a gypsy!
4- Romanians constantly bitch about how wealthy gypsy singers and musicians are but they simultaneously acknowledge their musical genius and hire them for weddings and festivals and pay them large sums of cash to do so LOL.
5- Gypsies (almost) never mind having their picture taken and will grin and mug for the camera with no problem. Romanians are surly and suspicious of such activity.
6- Rich Romanians live in beautiful houses. Rich gypsies live in bizarrely beautiful houses with ornate roofs and window holes but no glass in the windows. It’s like “semi-indoors” living LOL
7- Romanians constantly curse and bewail the fact that gypsies are thieves but then they (Romanians) will gladly buy stolen electronic goods from the self-same gypsies.
8- Romanians and gypsies share the same religion but nobody will ever tell you that or admit it could possibly be true.
9- Romanians are sometimes monolingual (speaking just one language). Gypsies on the other hand are masters of multiple languages (including their own gypsy language) and could probably kick Noam Chomsky’s ass in a linguistic showdown.
10- If you ever see a “Romanian” outside of Romania, ie in Italy or Spain or somewhere, chances are about 99% certain that they’re actually a gypsy (from Romania) rather than a Romanian (as in an ethnic non-gypsy Romanian).
11- Romanians can be loud at times but gypsies are ALWAYS louder. If it’s possible to shout out an entire conversation, they’ll do it. If the volume on the stereo goes to 11, it will be cranked to 11. Louder = better for gypsies.
AND NOW YOU KNOW!
All Things Romania 
and as for point 10, there are two milion romanian citizens that are residents in spain plus italy. so if 99% of them were gipsies, chances are there wouldn’t be any left in romania.
so now you know. about european demographics.
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90% of gipsies live in romania?! official data (self-declared gipsies in censuses) indicates that there were 535000 gipsies in romania(2002 census),13000 in the republic of moldova (2004 census),351000 in bulgaria(2001 census),54000 in macedonia(2002 census), 108000 in serbia(2002 census),3000 in montenegro(2003 census),9000 in croatia(2001 census),3000 in slovenia (2002 census),190000 in hungary (2001 census), 90000 in slovakia(2001 census),12000 in the czech republic (2001 census),13000 in poland(2002 census), 3000 in lithuania(2001 census),8000 in latvia(2000 census),less than 1000 in estonia (2000 census),10000 in belarus (1999 census), 48000 in ukraine (2001 census),183000 in russia(2002 census) and a few thousands in georgia,armenia and azerbaijan. so that’s over 1,6 milion self-identified gipsies in eastern europe (plus siberia), out of which less than 1/3 in romania. of course, in each of these countries there were many more gipsies that didn’t declare themselves as such. but i don’t think that their number relative to the number of those who said they were gipsies is higher in romania than in other eastern european countries. and even if there were around 1.500.000 gipsies in romania (which i think is the most likely approximate number), heck, even the highly improbable 3 milion figure, and in other countries only the self declard gipsies, there still would not be 90% of all gipsies living in romania.
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Hello … I m Roy from Asian French mixed … Live in Paris … I really like gypsies .. I don’t know why ,?? I m searching a gypsy girl for my life partner … If anybody like it .. Contact pls
Roy_malhothra@hotmail.com
Thx
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I’m kind of taking this personally. Surely, you don’t honestly think EVERY gypsy is like this. I was deprived of my culture for 15 years, now I’m a teenager and I’m finding out I’m a gypsy. I’m really upset my culture has such a bad rep. Isn’t there ANYTHING positive about being a gypsy? I don’t understand why the lifestyle choices are such a bad thing. Circle of life. There’s always going to be people who steal and whatnot, but I’m sure not every gypsy does it. And in that case, who cares if they’re nomadic and sell things on the street and play music for money and live in different sorts of houses and things like that? The things that make people different are the things that fuel society. If you’re saying that all gypsies are like this (in this particular scenario), you could also say all Romanians strive to be fascist fuckfaces. I live in the US and we have all sorts of people, the majority in my area are (from most to least) hispanic, black, caucasian, etc. We have homeless people, we have thieves, we have dangerous parts of the city, murders, gangs, blah blah blah all these bad things. I don’t think it’s gypsy-specific is my point. It varies person-to-person, not all gypsies are gonna steal your shit and then pawn it off. That’s just a fact. They’re just trying to get by, in their own way.
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There is nothing wrong with being a gypsy, we r normal people, why aren’t we accepted know like the african Americans r. We r still like slaves the way we get put down for being who we r.
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I think you are making a good point there, Lucy. And there are many romanians who have very good gipsy friends and good experiences with them. But unfortunately, there are part of the gipsies (mostly the beggars and the thieves) who are destroing the reputation of the entire ethnic group…
Anyway, generalisation is to be avoided because it can never represent reality.
As ironic as this may sound, coming from a romanian, the gipsies do not have the same religion as the majority of the romanians. They are not orthodox, they are not baptised. Most of them anyway :)
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officially they do. most of them have declared themselves orthodox.
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just an example from my own personal experience, apart from others that luckily have been only verbal abuses. the only person that has ever HIT me out of the blue on the street has been a gypsy. a ”cowboy” gypsy, 11 years ago. it was after dark, i was in town, buying a sandwich from a shop that was selling them out of a street window, when an angry(for whatever reason of his own) gypsy, just after coming out the door of a neighbouring store, punched me in the back of my neck as he went by. streets are safe in romania, but when gypsies appear you better be weary, because they’re unpredictable like stray dogs, luckily, i could walk for hours in my town and not see any of them, unlike in other places in romania. i see more of those stray dogs than gypsies.
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This is NOT all ture. Like all. Romanians hate gypsy, one of my best friend is a gypsy. And when you said we don’t like working inside. Also not ture. Some of us like working outside bu I know a lot of other Romanians that have good office jobs and I know someone that worked his but off for a company. And now he is soon to be the CEO. So Romanians and Romanian gypsy are hard workers. Some yes can be like what you said but now these days things have changed. I’m not trying to say your totally wrong, just in somethings you are. Speaking. As a ture ROMANIAN…
PS.Gypsy are some good pick-pocketers and Con-artist…lol Much luv.
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One thing you did leave out of your history of the Gypsies in Romania is the issue of slavery which was abolished only after 1855.
One of the reasons why Gypsies were kept as slaves was to provide music for the Boyars. The reason why so many famous musicians come from Clejani is because pre-abolition the local Boyar kept a lot of Gypsy slaves to provide him with music.
Gypsies also played an important role during the revolution, something that most ethnic Romanians choose to ignore.
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OK, Gipsy ass kisser can u please tell me that “important role” of these scums during the so-called revolution? Besides looting and stealing, of course.
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We couldn’t get money because everyone hated us, we would have died if we wouldn’t have stolen. If people would have let us be free we wouldn’t have stolen. XYZ we r not scums
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Stop being racist.You just know were better than you
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@tiffany
it’s not racism. coincidentally, crime rates are higher among these people than among their neighbours. it would be racist if someone said it was in their blood, no matter what. it’s not in their blood, it has to do with their culture and customs. so it’s not racism, it’s a social truth.
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Til u decide to reply, let me add smth more: the only ones who benefited from the Romanian Revolution, drowned in our youth’s blood, are the gypsies, sorry, the Rroma ppl. Politically corectness above all, right? They call thesemlves romi/rroma in order to compromise our nation, the Romanian nation, because foreigners dont bother to learn history and use their brain and for most of them real Romanians = gypsies/roma ppl. They are nothing benefit scroungers, criminals, mobsters, subhumans. By and large this is what they are and this is the truth. Just look around and if u have half a neuron, u will understand. But probably, dear Dan, u are one of them, who knows? Romanians are proof of how tolerance is strongly misunderstood. Rejoice, Dan, Romania is already seen as Rromania, so…
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Romanians think that equal human rights to the roma equals being a traitor to the country. That’s why you people will never ever evolve, gypsies got rid of aristocracy, I’ve seen a documentary, all revolutionaries were dark skinned. I worked in Romania for 6 years and the most honest and moral professionals are of gypsy descent, but the crude discriminatory actions against gypsies at the institutional level pushes gypsies in small petty crime in order to survive and as for gypsy mobsters, good for them.. their kids have a future now, your filthy corrupt nazi society would not help them(maybe actively stop them improving their life)or provide them an alternative to do anything legal anyway.Most few hundred gypsies immigrants do petty theft in big European capitals yes, but you white romanians are the ones that do the real bad stuff and try to convince people they were gypsies. You hate the romas because they succeed in life and become better than you in every profession, you filthy filthy pigs.You are scum and I began to hate Romanians, hypocrite hateful racist whores.
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I find Maria’s post very interesting. Her bigotry and ignorance is astounding..
You are the bigot, not us. You accuse a society of being nazi.. you don’t know us or anything about us. You have never experience fascism OR communism. If you did, you’d know how that is like.
Most gypsies prefer to live outside society. It’s a cultural thing. They marry very young, the girls aren’t allowed to go to school, stuff like that. If you’d studied them, you’d know. That’s why people don’t like them.
You assume that everyone wants what you want: a house, a car, a family, an education, a job. That’s not true. Some people don’t want a house.. don’t want an education, don’t want a job. That is the root of the problem, not bigotry or racism.
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maria del mar, you are a racist.
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I think Maria could actually benefit from three families of gypsies moving right next door or, rather in her house during her absence (as was the case in the UK with the lady coming back from vacation to find her house occupied and half-destroyed by gypsies). I really love it when a foreigner who hasn’t had to deal with the tribes tells me how unjust we Romanians are and how we persecute them. The French did it about ten years ago and now they’re sending the gypsies back, because they can’t handle it anymore. The Italians did it as well and now they’re setting fire to the gypsy camps. You call us uncivilized and Nazi, but then so’s the rest of Europe, because no government has ever been able to deal with them. For your information, I have two kinds of gypsy neighbors – ones that are clean, polite, nice and don’t cause any troubles and every neighbor of every descent likes them and respects them and ones that have a party with loud music, drunkenness and swearing every night and everybody hates them, because in the country where gypsies are oh-so-oppressed the police does nothing to them, not even a damn fine. Romanians don’t have a problem with all gypsies – only with those who don’t give a crap about anybody else but themselves and think they are superior to everybody else. So dear Maria, supporter of gypsy rights, I wish you to get to know gypsies as we know them and then, when you actually begin to change your tune, have people call you a racist. Of course, you already are a racist, so that would only be calling a spade by its true name.
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And one more thing, Ms Del Mar – me thinks that thou protest too much. Might it be that you are actually of gypsy descent yourself? Because otherwise I truly can’t see why you have this deep-seated hatred for Romanians and why you harbor the delusion that gypsies are better than Romanians at everything. I’m going to refute your points one by one, because a lot of people read this post and it would be a shame if they only got to read your side of the story (or rather your twisted interpretation of reality). Discrimination at institutional level – yes, there is a positive discrimination, because in every University there are places that are ONLY for gypsies, Romanians cannot apply. This is state-funded education, you don’t need to pay a dime, sometimes you don’t even need to pass an exam, all you have to do is be a gypsy AND be interested. There are a lot of NGOs trying to help gypsy children to go to school, only to be thwarted by the parents of said children, who claim that Romanians want to destroy their “cultural heritage”. When the state gets involved to prevent a minor from being forced into a marriage (and there were a few such cases), the families claim discrimination and blame the state for interfering in a “family matter”. Last New Year’s Eve all Romanian TV stations showed gypsy musicians (or rather manele musicians), including the publicly-funded TV station. Our society is indeed corrupt and I’m not gonna claim that we are saints – but the gypsies are the ones who profit most from the corruption, because the police wouldn’t touch them with a feather, even when they commit crimes. Why? Because the police (another state institution I might add) are in their pocket. Most organized crime (human trafficking, drugs, peddling) in Romania is organized by the gypsies. Romanians may take part in it (and I’m sure there are quite a few ethnic Romanians that are involved), but they are mostly henchmen, not the brains of the operation. Ethnic Romanians are usually involved in hacking, that seems to be the national claim to criminal fame. Gypsies are not discriminated against in Romania – certainly not at an institutional level. Before pointing the finger at a population with a history of tolerance, try looking in the mirror – maybe you’ll find it’s easier to blame everybody else than to take responsibility for your own life.
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Yes. Doing stuff like robing shops, breaking windows , running up and down the streets with TV’s and other shit like that. I believe that you did not see with your own eyes what you just claimed.
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For Maria.
I hope that a family of “tzigani” moves just right next to you. :))
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hello, LOL, so right on hypocrisy. your classification is probably the updated evolution, don’t be surprised if that’s so. the tribes used to be organized by the way they made their living – for instance ursari – rromii who danced the bear (urs in romanian, hence ursari) in the cities and passengers-by gave them money (just imagine that today), caldarari – romii who manufactured boilers or stuff like that (during ceausescu they were quite a hit, people used to buy the boilers and invent devices to get some heat), aurari – romii who manufactured jewelry, etc. romii who live at the outskirts of the cities are also hated by other romi, forgot how they called them, because they send their kids to beg, and do not observe the romani rules of living – getting married at early age, make your own living, never ever get ids, etc. however the romii who hate the poor romi are oftenly involved in somehow mafioso way of leaving, hand in hand with all sorts of authorities – name it – politicians, police, judiciary, etc. basically non-romii people hate them because they somehow manage to live a life free of norms. sadly life in the cities turned against these romi horribly. not all migrated to italy etc, some retreated in secluded places, life there is beyond the imagination of many of us. i call them romi because their language is romani, like you said. they were slaves on this land for some 600 years, until mid 1800. well, non-romii people somehow do not mention that. i do not wonder why. fun reading your piece of work. bafta.
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they were slaves in wallachia and moldavia, but not in transylvania. so not on all this land.
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It’s worth correcting a couple of things which are wrong:
– “Apparently the peasants in Europe a long time ago thought they were from Egypt (LOL!) so in almost all languages (including English and Romanian) the name “gypsy” comes from a contraction of the word “Egyptian”.”
In Romanian the term for gypsy is “tigan” and it is not a contraction of the word “Egyptian”. It’s a contraction of the word “atsinganoi”, meaning “untouchable” in Greek. This is due to the fact that at the time that the gypsies were making their way into Europe, they were not Christian and, therefore, considered “heathens”.
– “Gypsies are apparently all over the place in Europe (and the USA somewhat) but many thousands of years ago they decided Romania was the bestest and most funnest place to live so about 90% of them live here in Romania.”
Actually, that percentage is closer to 5%, rather than 90%. (BTW: Do you mean 0.6 thousand years ago? xD)
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Interesting um…observations. As the descendant of a family of proud Romanian gypsy immigrants I think your stereotypes, although amusing and somewhat accurate, need a bit of expansion and education. My great grandmother brought her four children from Romania (we’re not sure how…) in 1922. Two of those children went on to pursue higher education, one owned one of the premier linen shops in downtown Chicago, and the youngest, my grandmother, became one of the most admired milliners in the country. She married a Jewish man, not really caring about what religion he was, as she did not identify with any organized faith. She never knew her birthdate, and according to her, she never aged beyond 35, (although she died when my dad was in his 50’s lol.) No one was ever brave enough to dispute it. When she died, we tried to pinpoint where in Romania she was born and how old she was. We didn’t even know what to put on her headstone. My great grandmother made up their names when they came through Ellis Island based on French names she loved, so we never even knew their names. I don’t think they did either. One of my aunts finally was able to narrow her birth year within a span of two or three, and we discovered she didn’t even marry until well into her 40’s and had her children well after that, pretty unconvential for 1930’s midwestern culture. She was probably near 100 when she died, but we’ll never know.
I look just like her. There are photos of her at my age, people assume it’s me dressed “like a gypsy.” She was smart, colorful, and yes, she told fortunes and made hats. She wasn’t dirty, wasn’t particularly friendly (a little racist actually,) and wasn’t loud. She spoke only one language, having forgotten whatever native tongue was (as did her siblings, who all died before her.)
Hey hey I’m a gypsy and damn proud of it!
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great post, because we know almost nothing about the romanian, or eastern european in general, gypsies that live in north america and their descendants. too bad that not many more gypsies have followed suit in crossing the ocean :) but a more massive outflow beyond the ocean would have meant them having better chances to do so and they would not be the way they are if that had been the case.
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Your great-grandmother sounds like a force of nature! Good for her and good for you that you had the privilege of knowing her and benefiting from her experience. This just goes to show that generalization is never good – saying that all gypsies are bad is like saying that all Americans are stupid, all Romanians are scum or all French are cowards. And that’s just not true. We, in Romania, have a saying: “every forest has its dead trees”, meaning that every group is going to have “dead weight”, or people who bring shame to that particular group. The thing is that gypsies in other countries, particularly in the States, are completely different than what you can find in Romania (if you believe the movies, at least). 50 years of communism actually took a big toll on everybody and gypsies were no exception. They were oppressed during the communist times (nobody disputes that), so now they moved to the other extreme and claim oppression where there isn’t any. Because gypsies are smart and cunning (no disrespect intended) and they noticed that political correctness and claiming discrimination can bring them advantages, Romania is a very young and wild democracy – after being under the yoke of communism for so long, most of us took democracy to mean that we can do anything we want. All due respect to Sam, the American who claims to be more Romanian than a Romanian, I don’t think that you can actually understand the culture in its depth unless you have been living under a totalitarian regime for a number of years. Just look at what happened in North Korea recently. There can be understanding at an intellectual level, but not true understanding of the mindset of a people to whom basic human freedoms were denied for so long.
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Well, it’s a common mistake to believe that ALL the romanians hate ALL the gypsies… A lot of romanians behave far worst than gypsies do, and a lot of gypsies are honest people, who work indoors :) for their living and so on.
For example, have you ever met Lingurari – those who carve those wooden spoons? because they are the omes who usually carve them, and some peasants, usually the elders. They are very cleaN, polite, respectuful and so on.
And so are the ones who live on the line between Transilvania, Maramures and Bucovina. You have to have met them. The girls are almost all blonds, with loooong hair, usually beautiful, they have some colourful skirts, with flowers on the bottom, and mostly white in the upper part, and the men are all dar-haired, white skin, with hats. Those one, I LOVE!!! they respect their culture, they do NOT mock it by stealing and so on… but it is a pitty that they are the only ones… Anyway, if you havent met the, look them out, you wont be sorry :).
Every forest with its dead trees. the problem is that most of gypsies are loud, they like to steal, to cheat, to be lazy, etc. and they are the ones who always like to draw the attention of other, so that’s why they are so blamed.
The worse part is that a lot of them went to Italy, Spain, France, USA and so on, they behave like crap out there and just because they live like NOMADS in Roamania also, they are considered Romanians.
This is what bothers most of Romanians, including me. That no matter what extraordinary results you have as a romanian, we will always be treated like gypsies when abroad, This and the outrageous behavior of some gypsies…
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