Representation - politics Political misrepresentational hoaxes Return to the Representation list Source: see footnote Misrepresentation of the Roma by national politicians and governmental representations, even those procuring funds to "assist the Roma", is normally based on a set of hoaxes (a hoax being a process of deceiving, taking in or misleading the listener). These hoaxes are discussed in this section. An understanding of these hoaxes is important for those who do not have direct experience with the Roma to be able to detect them. Some 16 of the principal hoaxes are discussed below, unfortunately there are more. Hoax 1: All Roma speak Romani and have difficulty with mainstream languages Most, if not all, Roma speak the mainstream language. In Hungary, for example, the Romungro speak only Hungarian and they make up 78% of the Roma population. Amongst the rest most have some notions of Romani but all speak the mainstream language. Beashi, a tiny group in Hungary, do not speak Romani but a specific dialect of Romanian. Hoax 2: The Roma do not value education The Roma do value education. Threats and removal of parental choice end up with local authorities succeeding in forcing their children into Special Schools and some 12 years of educational denial. Hoax 3: Roma children have high percentage of mental defectives This old neo-Nazi belief has no statistical foundation. Roma children have the same range of capabilities as mainstream children. This becomes evident when they are provided with appropriate opportunities. Hoax 4: Roma child assessments are correct, they are undertaken by experts Broadly speaking this seems to the the Czech approach (total denial that their educational psychologists are racist or that their mind set is neo Nazi). Hungarians and Slovaks are less insistent, but, depending upon who is listening they will vary the degree to which the completely exaggerate the professionalism of these racists fanatic assessors. This is a classic example of denial. Hoax 5: Some mistaken classification of children have been made On the statistics available the difference of what is to be expected and what is registered represents mistaken classification in the case of almost 100% of rural Roma children. Some mistake! This softy, softly approach is used often by Hungarians and Slovaks. Hoax 6: Roma statistics are ill-defined because of data protection so the number of Roma in Special Schools is unknown This is just a pack of lies. It is a favourite Czech excuse. 98% of the children in rural Special Schools are Roma, that is why they are there; the local teachers know the families and who is and who is not Roma. The governments have accurate records of the normative funding transfers to each local authority made according to the number of children in Special Schools. They know exactly how many Roma children are in Special Schools. Hoax 7: Roma, and all others in the country, apply self-allocation to ethnicity classes in the Census so we do not know accurately how many Roma children are in Special Schools This is just a pack of lies on the same basis as above. It was a favourite Hungarian and Slovak excuse but ECRE blew it wide open. As above 98% of the children in rural Special Schools are Roma, that is why they are there; the local teachers know the families and who is and who is not Roma. The governments have accurate records of the normative funding transfers to each local authority made according to the number of children in Special Schools. They know exactly how many Roma children are in Special Schools. Hoax 8: Roma children have no right to the Normative funding, the local authorities are not breaking the law by not spending it on the Roma children's needs By law normative funding can indeed be used on anything. However normal people in government faced with normative finance justifications, simply prepare these as "paper" justifications. In other words the paper justification is something written down in the knowledge that when the finance is received the money will not go to that application; this is why it is a paper or theoretical justification. However, these governments do not do this. The apply an elaborately run fraudulent classifications of the Roma children as being in need of Special education based on "professional assessment" (typical Nazi model). They actually go through a theatrical assessment process so as to formalise their "justification" of the normative finance for the Special Schools. Normal practice would be to leave this as a "paper" justification to be discarded later. Normal practice would be to leave these normal children in the normal schools. But this elaborate classification fraud (theatre) becomes more macabre because it is actually followed up by local authority education department staff forcing these children physically into these schools to segregate them and deny them education for the whole of their school life. There is indeed no "legal" connection between the normative funding, Special Schools and these Roma children. This is why what these governments do is both criminal and fraudulent. They use normative finance as the excuse for a cruel and macabre theatre with these children as the main and unwilling cast. Unwilling because this fraudulent racist sham designed to harm the children. The fact that the local authorities can use the funds for "anything" does not remove the reality that the whole justification is a fraud, a more damaging fraud because it directly and measurably harms these children by segregating them and denying them education for the whole of their school life. This process is repeated year on year out. Where this happens in local authorities it is because these are well-defined activities which use the funds. Therefore it would be easier simply to say where the money is in be used and not even use or mention the Special School "justification". It is clear that this is not done because the local authority officials, local mayor, educationalists and several central government politicians (especially the Special School lobbyists) do not want "tags" on this money, they do not want it to be traced. Massive financial corruption is suspected. In any case the method as applied provides an "excuse" to segregate Roma children and pro actively harm them for the rest of their school lives. This is exactly what these governments want to achieve; if they did not want this, why do they do it? Hoax 9: Roma children have difficulty socialising and communicating Roma children normally come from larger families and are used to trusting multi-sibling family relations. Many mainstream children come from single child families and are sometimes more self-centred. School environments are somewhat stark so time is required, by all children, to build up trust in strangers, including a teacher. Children normally settle down when treated on an equitable basis within a few weeks. Communication is linked to the teacher's approach and consistency in conveying the meaning of words to all children. Depending on the teacher, most children can adapt to the "class communication" within a month or so. Hoax 10: Roma culture is unhygienic and unhealthy Roma culture is well structured in terms of personal and family health and hygiene. Educational and economic deprivation often removes the physical and/or financial resources making their normal practice extremely difficult or impossible. Hoax 11: Roma do not wash frequently enough Where they have available fresh water and personal hygiene materials the Roma are normally cleaner than the mainstream. Hoax 12: Roma genotypes contain a high percentage of mental defects This is a totally baseless random statement with no evidence to support it. This was and is a popular Nazi myth. Hoax 13: Roma genotypes explain their relatively short life span The short life span of Roma is the interaction of their genotype with an environment (phenotype) of enforced poverty, often resulting from their depreciated educational status (resulting from government policy). This creates a situation where they are unable to purchase healthy food and medicines. They suffer from an overall intensive emotional stress associated with trying to raise a family and witnessing the ongoing negative impact of the treatment of family members by the sustained denial of just about everything. Increasing number of Roma die of the direct or side effects of stress, very often coronaries. Although statistics suggest that the life expectancy of male Roma (in Hungary for example) is 60, point samples taken by ECRE show that increasing numbers are dying at around 50-55 years of age. According to medical authorities this phenotypic outcome is identical for non-Roma mainstream individuals subjected to the same levels of institutional and inter-personal deprivation. Environmental factors account for at least 60% of phenotypic expression, including logevity. There is no known association between the Roma genotype and their shorter life spans. Hoax 14: The Roma are well-represented and even have self governments So-called self governments receive something like a 20% turnout in a small number of communities. Even the national representation does not amount to more than 5% of the Roma "electorate". Totally under-funded, this system is a political sham. It is a useful stage piece for governments to show what they are "doing". Used by the Hungarian government to an exaggerated extent as propaganda in boistering their "human rights" credentials. Unfortunately some of these Roma "leaders" are used quite often by national governments to do things which even harm the Roma on the basis of "cash in hand" diplomacy. For example Florian Farkas a past Roma "leader" was paid by the Hungarian government to provide "evidence" against Hungarian Roma asylum seekers, in a court in Canada. On the other hand, the Hungarian government, when it suits them, will blame the self-government for anything that goes wrong because of "poor Roma leadership". There is in fact no Roma "leadership" in the democratic and fully representative sense. The biggest problem with self-government is that full members of parliament seldom take their Roma constituents seriously because they "have their own self-government". This is a complete abandonment of duty of MPs but is widely practiced. The same MPs vote in Special Schools budgets and systems when required. Self-governments have no say in the matter. Hoax 15: Roma "leaders/representatives" agreed to and support all existing arrangements, programmes and or projects This one litters reports and proposals everywhere. Invariably this is presented by institutions issuing a proposal, be they governments, ministries, international agencies, NGOs or private sector. The tend to couch this element in terms of "leaders/representatives" who have been "consulted" or who "contributed" to the "formulation" of a proposal or policy. When asked just who these "Roma leaders/representatives" are , such institutions either do not respond (for example in the case of Gunter Verhuegen of the European Commission) or they come up with an assortment of people none of whom are leaders or representatives. Variously the named individuals include non-Roma consultants, self-appointed "young leaders" or some NGO managers, none of which has any legitimacy to be described as a Roma "leader/representative". Hoax 16: Roma don't understand money or can't handle money Traditionally Roma were sound self-employed craftsmen and tradesmen and quite able to manage financial affairs. Under Communist rule self-employment was replaced by state employment in manual labour. Today (2003) many product and service market segments are characterised by various forms of denial of trade with the Roma both in the input markets and produce markets. Also the majority of projects designed to "assist" the Roma do not generate income but normally reinforce dependency or have emphasised subsistence or extremely low income earning activities. As a result there has been very little opportunity for Roma to regain their former status making up a proficient part of the self-employed and growing sector of the economy to the benefit of society as a whole. Source: ECRE second Special Schools Report to be published October 2003