time to protest

Roma Civic Alliance of Romania's call for action that I fully support:

September 6th... The Infamous French Summit against Roma!

Stop the ethnic cleansing policy of the French government!

Roma brothers and sisters, friends of all ethnic groups, all those committed to the principles of equality and discrimination in our societies, we call to join our international protest series organized simultaneously on September 6th at 11:30 a.m. (Bucharest time). The protest is initiated and supported by the Roma Civic Alliance of Romania Roma community leaders from Bihor, Botosani, Braila, Brasov, Constanta, Dolj, Hunedoara, Iasi, Ilfov, Neamt, Salaj, Timisoara counties, in response to the summit organized by the French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Paris. 

This infamous summit is organized against all Roma ethnics everywhere. 

This summit proposes to stigmatize the entire Roma nation!

We call to join us and protest in front of the French Embassies wherever you are.

We all will protest:
- Against the ethnic cleansing policy carried out by the French government against Romanian and Bulgarian citizens of Roma origin,
- Against collective expulsion and repressive measures and victimization of an entire ethnic group,
- Against the abolition of the presumption of innocence as regards the Roma citizens as well as against the collectively criminalization of an entire ethnic group,
- Against the illegal fingerprinting of the French authorities.

The public calls of the international human rights organizations, those of the Catholic Church, and of the NGOs remained silent in the French cabinet.

Europe-wide boycott of French products and services 

We invite you all to disseminate the call for boycott of French products and services, in order to make the French rulers more aware of the fact that the fundamental rights are not subject to negotiation.

Join us!



via

a queer secret

I found this image on queer secrets and it explains a lot through an anonymous experience. I cannot believe the guts someone has to tell it loud that feminism is over and gender equality happened (especially in Eastern Europe). No respect indeed for such outrageous claims. 

Iggy Pop 1977

International Phone Call (1997)

director: Hanno Hofer

This Romanian short movie is one of the few that questions racism (even if in a subtle way, probably not even observed). In comparison to other Romanian movies of the period (like Occident, directed by Cristian Mungiu, 2002, where racism is openly used for comic relief), Hanno Hofer's short makes fun of the racist friend that verbally attacks a Roma passerby (calling him a cioara or crow, a very derogatory term in Romanian and asking rhetorically how the heck these folks come here, time 2:01). The irony is that the main character's son is also a foreigner in another country, while Roma people were enslaved for 500 years for being foreigners and are still treated as evil strangers. The question of being a foreigner reveals the double standard of Romanians that hate whom they perceive as non-Romanians (based on skin color, like in this case) and admire the condition of being a foreigner in US for example, where everything is fine. This short movie explodes two contradictory ideas: admiration for the Western acceptance of foreigners and acceptance of local forms of racial discrimination that transforms the Roma into an ultimate Other. And this contradiction can be an important source for humor and criticism.