LOLO DIKLO

We are phasing out this blog.  For reviews please visit
http://www.lolodiklo.blogspot.com/

Reviews will be interspersed with other entries.

RABBIT STEW AND A PENNY OR TWO

I've finally tracked down a copy of RABBIT STEW AND A PENNY OR TWO, the latest book by MAGGIE BLENDEL-SMITH.


I hope to review it shortly after I receive it.

But realistically, I have not yet reviewed DOSHA, the wonderful novel by SONIA MEYER, and many others on my list.

I am considering closing down this blog and committing to doing a review a week on the Lolo Diklo blog.  Somehow this seems like a time to consolidate.

If anyone has an opinion or comment please leave it on this blog or email me directly at
www. punkaheron@yahoo.

PAUL POLANSKY

Paul Polansky generously donated his three latest books to the Romani Museum.

Two are books of poetry--
UN-LEADED BLOOD
and
GYPSY TAXI  CIGANSKI TAXI

Both of these books are beautiful and tragic and both set in Kosovo where Paul continues to do amazing work with the Romani living on lead mines.

I love the photos in UN-LEADED BLOOD, but was completely captivated by the paintings in GYPSY TAXI,  by a Romani man living in the camps, Bajram Mehmeti and his sister Farija Mehmeti.  They are stunning and emotional.

Here is a poem from GYPSY TAXI

REVENGE
anound two o'clock in the morning
I heard an animal howling.
when the village dogs didn't answer back
knew it was a call from the wild.

asked Ali about it over morning coffee
he said Kosovo was now a UN protectorate
since no one could have a gun
wolves were coming after the village hens.

if Lassie wasn't byt he front door
sleeping on our shoes
Ali told me not to go out at night to pee
wolves would be strolling the streets.

I thought my only problem
going out at night
was a landmine, a sniper
a terrorist throwing a grenade

now I know
nature
wanted her revenge
too.

The third book is titled
THE KOSOVO ANI-HEROES AWARDS FOR DEADLY NEGLECT
I think that title speaks for itself.

I highly recommend all of Paul's books and thank him for the work he has done for years, and continues to do, for the Romani of Kosovo.

To learn more about the Romani of Kosovo, please visit
KOSOVO ROMANI REFUGGE FOUNDATION
http://www.krrf.tripod.com/.

To order Paul's books
http://www.paulpolansky.com/
pipusa50401@yahoo.com

TONY GATLIF

FROM EURONEWS
Tony Gatlif: Chain reaction fear over Roma expulsions
Friday, October 15, 2010 12:30 PM

Tony Gatlif is a man with a mission. For 35 years, Gatlif who is half Kabil (Algerian), half Gypsy, has produced and directed films about the Roma people in Europe, a people who he says are often misunderstood and discriminated against.

His latest film, KORKORO, released this year, is about the estimated 30,000 French Roma or Gypsies who were detained and deported during World War II.

Although Gatlif is angry about President Sarkozy’s expulsions and the dismantling of illegal Roma camps, he insists that what is happening today can in no way be compared to the deportations of the Second World War.

But he warns it is an uncomfortable reminder of what happens when a whole race of people are targeted.

Valerie Zabriskie of euronews caught up with the film director in Lyon.

“Tony Gatlif, you are firmly against the dismantling of Roma camps, although opinion polls suggest 60 percent of French people support this ‘dismantling’ policy. Does that surprise you?”

Tony Gatlif:

“There’s nothing I can do about that. The only thing I can do, is to explain to all those who don’t understand this problem about the travelling people – that’s the administrative term. They are the Roma people, Gypsies who have been in France for a very, very long time, since King Francois the first, these Gypsies, who are in the South of France and Spain. That’s it. And these people who have been here in Europe since the Middle Ages, they have contributed to Europe, to its culture, to all that is European. And now today, we want them to become invisible. We don’t want them to exist. But how can a people of 10 million just stop existing all of a sudden? Because European heads of state decided to pass laws against them so they can’t move (travel) anymore. This means that when you don’t want a people to move, you confine them. This is what they did during the war.”

euronews


“But now that Romania and Bulgaria are part of the European Union, you can’t do this anymore. They have the right to travel to other European countries but if after three months, they don’t have work or are said to be a social burden, they can be expelled.”

Tony Gatlif:

“This law was created for them but it’s not for everyone. Next to where I live in Paris, there’s a German homeless person. He’s been there for three years. Has anyone told him he has to return to Germany? He’s homeless, he’s German, he told me. So these laws are designed for certain people, for the ‘second class’ citizens and then there are laws for the ‘real’ citizens. That’s it. And so I believe these laws were created solely for the Gypsies to say, “look out, if we open Europe’s borders we’ll have all the Gypsies who will want to leave.” They know that’s what the Gypsies always do. So they say we’ll make these laws to block them and send them home after three months.”

euronews

“But don’t you think with what happened last month at the EU summit, with President Sarkozy and the European Commissioner, shows the European Commission is starting to pay attention to what we call the Roma problem in Europe?”

Tony Gatlif:

“They are shocked, I think, these countries are shocked because Spain doesn’t do this, there are EU countries which don’t do this. Greece doesn’t either. Greece likes its Gypsies. So France, all of a sudden, with these laws they introduced, wants to uproot these people, these Roma who have been here for I don’t know how long, maybe three or four years. And they round them up and expel them from their shacks, from their cardboard houses, in the woods, under the bridges, by the motorways. And they move them out in numbers, en masse. And this reminds us of a trauma. There are children who are half-naked, in their mothers’ arms. There is panic everywhere. They don’t have time to take their belongings. It’s panic. Of course it isn’t as bad as the round-ups, the (World War II deportations of 1940 but it’s still, let’s say, the thin end of the wedge.”

euronews

“People complain about seeing the Roma, the Gypsies with their big caravans, their beautiful cars and at the same time they portray themselves as victims, the women begging on the streets with their babies…”

Tony Gatlif:


“Here at the train station in Lyon when I arrived, there was a woman who stopped me at the station. She had blue eyes, didn’t look at all like a foreigner. She was French and she asked me for money for her children. She put her misery right in front of me because she was poor and miserable and I didn’t cover my eyes. But that the Gypsies beg, that bothers everyone. Why does that bother everyone? Because it reminds them of their own insecurity? Maybe they feel they’re being harassed? But I feel harassed as well by the homeless. But it’s normal that I’m harassed. That would be the last straw, that they just die in front of us without asking for anything. But this is what the new world is like today. The modern world.”

euronews


“But with all the media coverage of the expulsions this summer, maybe you are, perhaps not optimistic, but don’t you hope there is now more pressure on Europe’s heads of state to address this problem which is European?”

Tony Gatlif:

“I’m not scared of the European heads of state. I’m not scared of those who govern Europe. I am scared of the European people. Once a government like France – which is a country all of Europe looked up to during the communist era because it was the country of human rights – once France, the country of human rights, starts pointing its finger at a people who are fragile, I’m worried this will trigger a chain reaction. I’m worried that people in other countries will say we can do the same thing because these Roma aren’t good. That’s what the French government said, the French president said, well, he didn’t say they weren’t good, but he said they were problematic. So from that point of view, in countries such as Romania, or Bulgaria or Hungary and elsewhere, they can also say, ‘Yes we have a problem with these people (the Roma).’”

euronews


“There is a summit this month in Bucharest on the integration of the Roma people in Europe. What are you expecting will come out of this type of summit? What are you hoping for?”

Tony Gatlif:

“That they just leave these people alone. These Roma didn’t ask for anything. They’ve never made wars, never armed themselves, never used bombs. These people just want to live. So let’s just let them live and find the means to help them do that, like everyone else in Europe. And that we stop sticking labels on their backs, or creating laws that go against the way they live.”

LINK: http://www.euronews.net/2010/10/14/tony-gatlif-chain-reaction-fear-over-roma-expulsions/

______________________________________________
Tony Gatlif has given us many wonderful films including LATCHO DROM, MONDO and GADJE DIKLO.  He is the first Gypsy to produce movies about Gypsies.

THE GOEBBLES EXPERIMENT

I watched this movie together with SOPHIE SCHOLL, THE FINAL DAYS, which is the following review.
If I had not watched SOPHIE's movie I don't think I would have had the stomach for the GOEBBLES EXPERIMENT, based on the diaries of Joseph Goebbles, Director of Propaganda under the Nazi Regime.

THE GOEBBLES EXPERIMENT is diametrically opposed to the sentiments of Sophie Scholl's story. This film , narratted by Kevin Branaugh exposes this highly influencial director of nazi propaganda as a self indulgent pitiful man. Talk about the banality of evil......
His whinings and complaints are especially interesting considering the backdrop of the Holocaust. 


I  recommend this film because of its revelations about the "real" lives of men with no conscience.

SOPHIE SCHOLL THE FINAL DAYS.

I have been so absorbed with writing grants for Lolo Diklo that I have not finished reading the wonderful books I have intended to review.

I have been contacted by some book clubs requesting suggestions for readings on the Romani people. Anyone who wants such recommendations should contact us either through comments on this page or at
mailto:www.punkaheron@yahoo.com

I apologize for not reviewing the wonderful books, including Dosha and the poetry books of Paul Polansky. I will review these books and many others including Zoli and Bury Me Standing in the upcoming weeks.

SOPHIE SCHOLL, THE FINAL DAYS and THE GOEBBLES EXPERIMENT are two movies I've watched in the past weeks.

SOPHIE SCHOLL, one of my heros, is excellently portrayed in the movie SOPHIE SCHOLL THE FINAL DAYS. The courage and committment of this young woman in fighting the nazis is an amazing statement.

Scholl, and her brother Hans, were both members of the WHITE ROSE a group dedicated to bringing down the nazi regime. To that end they wrote, printed and distributed leaflets condemming the nazis and calling the German people to action. I recommend this movie to anyone interested in social justice.

BRONISLAWA WAJS PAPUSZA

I am going to print a wonderful poem by Papusza. 
She is the foremost Romani poet.

This poem was published in the early 1950's

TEARS OF BLOOD
(How we suffered under the Germans in 1943-1944)

In the woods.  No water, no fire--great hunger.
Where could the children sleep? No tent.
We could not light the fire at night.
By day, the smoke would alert the Germans.
How to live with children in the cold of winter?
All are barefoot......
When they wanted to murder us,
first they forced us to hard labor.
A German came to see us.
--I have bad news for you.
They want to kill you tonight.
Don't tell anybody.
I too am a dark Gypsy,
of your blood--a true one.
God help you
in the black forest...
Having said these words,
he embraced us all...

For three days no food.
All go to sleep hungry.
Unable to sleep,
they stare at the stars...
God, how beautiful it is to live!
The Germans will not let us...

Ah, you, my little star!
At dawn you are large!
Blind the Germans!
Confuse them,
lead them astray,
so the Jewish and Gypsy child can live!

When big winter comes,
what will the Gypsy woman with a small child do?
Where will she find clothing?
Everything is turning to rags.
One wants to die.
No one knows, only the sky,
only the river hears our lament.
Whose eyes saw us as enemies?
Whose mouth cursed us?
Do not hear them God.
Hear us!
A cold night came,
The old Gypsy woman sang
A Gypsy fairy tale:
Golden winter will come,
snow, like little stars,
will cover the earth, the hands.
The black eyes will freeze,
the hearts will die.

So much snow fell,
it covered the road.
One could only see the Milky Way in the sky.

On such night of frost
a little daughter dies,
and in four days,
mothers bury in the snow
four little sons.
Sun, without you,
see how a little Gypsy is dying from cold
in the big forest.

Once, at home, the moon stood in the window,
didn't let me sleep.  Someone looked inside.
I asked--who is there?
--Open the door, my dark Gypsy.
I saw a beautiful young Jewish girl,
shivering from cold,
asking for food.
You poor thing, my little one.
I gave her bread, whatever I had, a shirt.
We both forgot that not far away
were the police.
But they didn't come that night.

All the birds
are praying for our children,
so the evil people, vipers, will not kill them.
Ah fate!
My unlucky luck!

Snow fell as thick as leaves,
barred our way,
such heavy snow, it buried the cartwheels.
One had to trample a track,
push the carts behind the horses.

How many miseries and hungers!
How many sorrows and roads!
How many sharp stones pierced our feet!
How many bullets flew by our ears!


Translated from Polish by Yala Korwin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soon to be reviewed
Paul Polansky's three latest books
Dosha by Sonia Meyer
Movies---
Sophie Sholl, the Last Days
The Goebbles Experiment.