A Sarkozy-turned-Borat says: “Gîve me your tears, le Gypsy!”
Posted on 08. Oct, 2010 by Hichem in Geography, History, News, People, Vocabulary
If Borat takes some time these days to leave the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan for a voyage éclair to the Glorious Nation of France, he may have the luck of his life to finally get a Gypsy to “give him tears“—Well, that is, if there are still at this point some Gypsies left in France to shed him any… tears.
Just when you thought that everyone in the world was angry with the decision of the French Government regarding Gypsies? Borat begs to differ: ”I come all way to your country to enjoy our new common national k’hobby: Gypsy hunting, c’est nîîîce!”
Why aren’t there many Gypsies around in France anymore, you may ask?
If you are still not au courant (aware) of the latest issue surrounding les Gitans in France, then here’s the update:
The Gypsies living in France, as they are also known under the names of ”les Tsiganes“, “les Romanichels“, “les Roms“, or perhaps the more recent and ”proper” term, “les Gens du Voyage” (“The Travel People”), have in fact been part of the French paysage (landscape) for centuries. Until very recently, there has been nearly half a million of them.
But how many of these so-called ”Travel People” are actually… “trouble people“?
Fumer des gitanes dans un espace publique est illégal en France… mais qu’en est-il de leur déportation forcée?
(Smoking “Gitanes” (Gypsies) in public space is illegal in France—But how about forcibly deporting them?)
According to some estimates, at least 3% of them live illegally in France, the majority of which hails from the Eastern European countries of la Bulgarie and la Roumanie.
Since these two countries now belong to l’Union Européenne (The European Union, or the “EU”), shouldn’t any of their citizens be entitled to remain in France as long as they please?
The answer is non. And the reason being that Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, though having become since not too long ago European citizens, still need to acquire a carte de séjour (a resident permit) or un permis de travail (a work permit) in order to stay longer than the allowed period of three months.
So, back to the previous question: Out of the said 3% of Gypsies in France standing in illegal status, how many are actually “trouble”?
Malheureusement (unfortunately), the statistical figures don’t clearly say.
The newspapers, however, report that a few days after le 14 juillet, “Bastille Day”, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, reacting to an incident that involved a Gitan suspect who was subsequently shot dead by a law officer, vowed to tackle the “Gypsies problem”, whose nomadic lifestyle, he said, “leaves them with no assimilation into the French communities they settle in.”
That being admittedly true, there is, however, a perfectly logical reason to explain why they have failed to “assimilate into the French communities they settle in.”
The law officer who fatally shot trois fois (three times) the Gypsy suspect was found “not guilty”
By French law, all towns with a minimum of 5000 residents which receive visiting Gypsy communities are in the obligation to allocate sufficient space to their campements. Hélas (alas), this law is more often than not completely discarded by many French towns, -at the expense of the other few French towns that follow the law- who would rather keep a “cordon sanitaire” between themselves and the poor nomads.
En fin de compte (in the end), what tends to happen as a result of this disregard of the French law by the majority of French towns, which is clearly la racine du problème (the root of the problem), is a complete segregation of this community from the outside world, taking ultimately the form of ”Gypsy ghettos”, within which life conditions of thousands of crowded Gypsies are, as you can imagine, barely sustainable. A fact which, naturellement, will turn those indésirables into des misérables, who often have little choice to subsist other than by a life of crime and theft.
But doesn’t that, in fact, have a bit of a familiar echo to it?
Maybe the “Gypsy issue“, after all, is simply a condense micro-scale version of the so-called “problème des banlieues,” those other ghettos in the suburbs full of all kinds of French minorities?
The parallel between the two may not be perfectly accurate, but the many similarities of social segregation are painfully disturbing.
En conclusion: If the root cause is not taken care of, namely the general disregard of the French law by French towns, the ensuing problems will remain unsolved.
And entre temps (in the meantime), if the infamously anti-Gypsy Borat personnage (character) comes to France these days for a little “Gypsy hunting”, he will very much start feeling “just like home”—”Great success! High fîîîve, Nicolas!”
Of course, there is always a bit more to the story that once known allows for a less emotionally-based, but more reasoned basis on which to draw one’s own conclusion.
In France these past few months a passionate debate has been raging over the government’s expelling of Roma (Gypsies). The expulsions are in response to two events that occurred this summer. The first was rioting that happened near Tours in response to the killing of a “Gens du voyage.” The second was violence in Grenoble in a Cité (public housing). The violence in Grenoble included shooting at police officers, something almost unheard of in France.
In response to these two events French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivered a hard-line law and order speech in Grenoble. Sarkozy suggested that some violent crimes committed by naturalized citizens could lead to revoking their nationality. A law along these lines recently passed in the National Assembly and will be voted on in the Senate soon. Such a law could be found unconstitutional. But if not, the chances are it won’t be used very often, if ever. The law if enacted is more symbolic than substantive. But nevertheless it’s a hard right turn for Sarkozy.
Also part of the government’s new hard-line law and order policies was a crackdown on Roma. Sarkozy said he wanted to dismantle 300 illegal Roma camps and expel whoever wasn’t French. Roma, have the right to be in France (as European Union citizens), but not indefinitely (somewhat like other EU nationals) unless they find work. The government is using the pretext that if any Roma are living in illegal camps, they are breaking the law and can be expelled. At least one French court ruled that living in an illegal camp is not grounds for being expelled.
Gens du voyage and Roma are two different groups who can be confused for each other. Gens du voyage are travelers or nomads and are French. They live in campers and travel around the country. Roma are from Eastern Europe (or descendants) and have similar lifestyle as Gens du voyage.
The EU and other nations criticized France’s actions. After denying for months, allegations that Roma were not racially targeted as a group, illegal under EU law, a memorandum was found by the press stating exactly that. The memo directed police to go after Roma camps explicitly. The government then did an about-face and had to amend the memo.
The general conclusion by pundits is that Sarkozy will base his reelection in 2012 on being tough on crime and a law and order candidate. This may be a risky move, that could help the far right National Front (FN). Sarkozy was elected in 2007, in part because he was able to marginalize the FN but also appealed to those in the center. The expelling of Roma, a group vilified for centuries, and not involved in the Tours rioting or the violence in Grenoble, may offend centrists. Centrist voters are key to Sarkozy’s reelection.