Far-right Hungary mayor imposes tough conditions on Gypsies

[webfact]

Far-right Hungary mayor imposes tough conditions on Gypsies
PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press

OZD, Hungary (AP) — The workers wake up in the middle of the night and walk miles to get to their jobs by 6 a.m. Taking up hoes and rakes, they toil for hours with little chance of rest. Soon surveillance cameras shaped like eyeglasses will track their every move.

The workers are mostly Gypsy men and women, and their boss is a new far-right mayor who is cracking down on a group his Jobbik party often casts as an enemy. David Janiczak's leaderhip in Ozd gives clues into what Hungary might feel like if the surging Jobbik managed to unseat Prime Minister Viktor Orban's conservative Fidesz party — which is slumping in popularity.

Jobbik now runs about a dozen Hungarian towns and holds 12 percent of the seats in the national parliament. It is also the most popular party with young voters. If the trend continues, the party could pose a serious challenge to Fidesz in 2018 parliamentary elections.

Since Janiczak won power in Ozd — whose population of 34,000 is about one-third Gypsy — members of the minority who work on city-run farmland and other public projects have seen their work conditions get much harsher. The mayor has imposed longer hours, fewer breaks and soon the introduction of surveillance cameras to ensure that they don't slack off.

Janiczak, 28, suggested that the tough work conditions were at least in part intended to drive Roma away. "Every person in Ozd has two options — they either live in order and integrity and build the city, or they destroy it," Janiczak told The Associated Press. "The majority of these destructive people are Gypsies, without whom ... it would be easier for the city to develop."

With fewer Roma, Janiczak said, the city would spend less on social benefits and people would feel safer. Jobbik often uses the term "Gypsy crimes" to refer to petty thefts and other law-breaking rarely investigated by police. If efforts to integrate the "destroyers" are unsuccessful, he added, "authorities will use the full force of the law."

Jobbik is using Ozd as a "laboratory of government," experimenting with policies and ideas at the municipal level as its support grows across the country, said Peter Kreko, director of the Political Capital Institute, which has been closely following Jobbik for years.

While Jobbik's electoral campaigns last year presented candidates with their families or pets — and downplayed the party's radical views — Kreko said that Ozd showed that beneath the surface Jobbik has not really changed.

"The intentions and plans of Jobbik and its treatment of the public works employees clearly refute its efforts to soften its image," Kreko said. "What is functioning is a very ideological, discriminative racism."

During the communist era, Ozd, 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, had a steel mill which employed some 14,000 people. After the mill and a coal mine closed in the 1990s, the unemployment rate jumped to over 20 percent and unskilled Roma were among the most affected.

Roma laborers make up the bulk of 1,300 Ozd residents taking part in a public employment program that was introduced across Hungary in late 2013 by the Orban government. After Janiczak took office last year he enforced the rules in a stricter way and implemented new ones, such as the use of surveillance cameras. Net pay for unskilled workers is around 51,000 forints ($180, 165 euros) per month, and many are glad to take it as the government has also greatly cut unemployment benefits, which are now called "work search allowances."

On a recent spring day, a crew of about a dozen laborers was preparing some farmland for planting on the outskirts of town. Rakes and hoes in hand, their complaints ranged from getting only one 5-minute break an hour to a lack of drinking water and toilet facilities. Their work day now starts as much as two hours earlier than before Janiczak took over, meaning many need to walk to work because there are few public transportation options so early in the day.

Indignation was strongest over a clause in the new work contract allowing officials to take video and photos of their work performance.

"This is only about intimidation," said Bela Biro, a Roma former steel mill worker who works on the city-run farming project. "We don't dare sit down for five minutes. They said we can't, even if blood is running from our nose."

Janiczak said he is only carrying out existing laws. "We want nothing else but to enforce order, enforce employment regulations and educate these people to work," he said. "I think their issue is not with walking, but with ... having to do actual work instead of just showing up."

As for the surveillance, Janiczak said the city had spent 340,000 forints ($1,260; 1,100 euros) on eight video cameras, including two which look like eyeglasses, not just to oversee workers but also to protect supervisors from threats and attacks.

"This is going to clear up many disputes," said the mayor. "In the developed, civilized world every workplace has cameras. Why should the public workers be exempt from this?" Those in the public employment program, he said, should "get used to being observed."

Janiczak said the surveillance plan had been cleared by an official investigation, and that recordings would be made on "exceptional occasions."

Human rights activists said the measures amounted to harassment.

"To burden the already defenseless public works employees with the issue of surveillance is unacceptable and embitters their lives," said Mate Szabo, a director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. "It would be more justified to keep the job inspectors under surveillance instead and monitor their treatment of the workers."

Kriszta Bodis, a rights advocate who has been working with the Roma in Ozd for many years, said the mood in the community had deteriorated since Janiczak's victory.

"I think the humiliation is what is much stronger now than before," Bodis said.

The new mayor said he his job-creation plans would potentially draw back many of the 15,000 Ozd residents who left over the past two decades. As part of that plan, Janiczak has nominated Ozd as the location for one of several new prisons being built by the government by 2019, which could add 250 jobs. A prison "also deters criminals," the mayor said.

Many of the local Roma live in dire poverty in slums where they lack running water and where the city does not come to remove their garbage. They share a communal water pump and burn garbage nearby.

Bodis, who runs the Your Place foundation which mentors disadvantaged Roma students, argued for a more compassionate approach.

"Discipline and order are important," Bodis said. "But it is more important to provide opportunities."


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-27

[BKKBobby]

The attitudes towards the Romani people are horrible all over Europe right now. Its shameful.

[catterwell]

The Roma culture in Hungary is the Hungarian culture. Go to the Hungarian national dance any time, and every excellent performance celebrates the Roma. Goulash is the rough stuff the cowboys (goulash) ate as they (the Roma) roamed on their horses from country to country.

[NeverSure]

I don't know why the Roma don't just waltz on into England and set up housekeeping. After all, England wanted to be part of the EU and the EU has so much more "advanced thinking" than the neanderthals from the rest of the world. Why would these Roma stay in Hungary and suffer when England awaits with smiles and open arms?

Cheers.

[samran]

I don't know why the Roma don't just waltz on into England and set up housekeeping. After all, England wanted to be part of the EU and the EU has so much more "advanced thinking" than the neanderthals from the rest of the world. Why would these Roma stay in Hungary and suffer when England awaits with smiles and open arms?

Cheers.

You've clearly never heard of Pikey's...

[sdanielmcev]

Interesting. They're complaining about not getting breaks every hour. It's called work for a reason.

[manarak]

I'm always surprised by how the authors of these articles only present facts that support one side of the argument and do not do the research to debunk false claims or confirm them correct:

- gypsy crimes : what are the police statistics saying about their number and who commits these crimes?

- "We don't dare sit down for five minutes. They said we can't, even if blood is running from our nose." *** really? what are the labor laws saying ?

Journalism is something else.

[Barin]

The attitudes towards the Romani people are horrible all over Europe right now. Its shameful.

They certainly do deserve it

[NeverSure]

The only time in my entire life that someone has tried to commit a crime against me in my presence I was standing looking at the Coliseum in Rome. A group of Gypsies tried to distract me and pick my pocket. They were all women with a few kids standing around too. I didn't realize it until I felt someone try to pull my wallet and I lashed out and knocked a woman to the ground with my elbow before she could get a good grip. I had been warned about pickpockets and Gypsies in particular by a cab driver.

That's my life's experience with those people.

[CMNightRider]

The only time in my entire life that someone has tried to commit a crime against me in my presence I was standing looking at the Coliseum in Rome. A group of Gypsies tried to distract me and pick my pocket. They were all women with a few kids standing around too. I didn't realize it until I felt someone try to pull my wallet and I lashed out and knocked a woman to the ground with my elbow before she could get a good grip. I had been warned about pickpockets and Gypsies in particular by a cab driver.

That's my life's experience with those people.

Paris is plagued by these people too.

[user82374298374]

Bleeding hearts like BKKBobby who have such sympathy for the 'Roma' (aka gypsies) obviously haven't spent any time around them. Pace catterwell, their entire culture is built around scams and petty crime.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

[BKKBobby]

Bleeding hearts like BKKBobby who have such sympathy for the 'Roma' (aka gypsies) obviously haven't spent any time around them. Pace catterwell, their entire culture is built around scams and petty crime.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

What are you talking about? My condo in my home country is in the heart of downtown Stockholm, theres a Roma (travellers) sitting on the pavement every 200 meter there.

Sweden has a big native Roma population also in relation to the countrys population.

Edited July 28, 2015 by BKKBobby

[Baerboxer]

The only time in my entire life that someone has tried to commit a crime against me in my presence I was standing looking at the Coliseum in Rome. A group of Gypsies tried to distract me and pick my pocket. They were all women with a few kids standing around too. I didn't realize it until I felt someone try to pull my wallet and I lashed out and knocked a woman to the ground with my elbow before she could get a good grip. I had been warned about pickpockets and Gypsies in particular by a cab driver.

That's my life's experience with those people.

Paris is plagued by these people too.

And the Netherlands. I was in a bar in Roermond with a colleague. He insisted on talking with a group of gypsies. He thought he was jack the lad, winding them up, playing pool, and flirting with a couple of their women. He felt safe because the bar was full of British off duty military from a base just over in Germany. Left him to it.

Apparently the gypsies left about 30 mins after me; and so did his wallet! The hugs and kisses with the two women improved his vanity, but cost him his wallet!

In the UK we had trouble with a mob of gypsies at a martial arts contest. The wouldn't accept that one of their guys lost and started a massive brawl. Police told us that they'd apparently been betting heavily among themselves and the ones who lost caused the trouble. Another lot tried to scam a friend's business of some tarmac work. Threatened all sorts of violence in trying to intimidate a massively over inflated payment from him.

Scoundrels and never heard any good stories about them.

[Jingthing]

Never heard any good stories about them?

OK, now you will.

My Dad used to hire a few of them regularly for odd jobs and he always satisfied with the work.

There was never any problem at all with thievery or violence or even poor workmanship.

He even took me as a boy to visit with them in their neighborhood.

I have fond memories of that as the way of life was so exotic.

Yes, I have also been surrounded by aggressive Roma theives on the streets of Europe. But you knew about that.

We called them Gypsies then but isn't that now a derogatory term?

Edited July 28, 2015 by Jingthing

[Saradoc1972]

Never heard any good stories about them?

OK, now you will.

My Dad used to hire a few of them regularly for odd jobs and he always satisfied with the work.

There was never any problem at all with thievery or violence or even poor workmanship.

He even took me as a boy to visit with them in their neighborhood.

I have fond memories of that as the way of life was so exotic.

Yes, I have also been surrounded by aggressive Roma theives on the streets of Europe. But you knew about that.

We called them Gypsies then but isn't that now a derogatory term?

Those are the Roma you never hear about because they don't create the slightest problem. Or not more than anyone else.

It is good to remember that they are not all the same and the well-adapted group is not that small.

What you usually refer to as gypsies is the group among them that are not at all adapted to civilized life.

In the German town of Leverkusen one family that had steadily grown from 40 people in the late 60ies to now over 130 has wrecked a whole town quarter.

In Duisburg there was the "problem highrise" (real term was Gypsy-highrise, but that apparently was not PC) where over 1500 of them moved in when the building

could reasonably only house 400 (greedy landlord) and things almost exploded before authorities closed the whole thing down.

Unbelievable circumstances in the surrounding streets, total loss of any living-quality for the house-owners in the vicinity.

Using the terms Gypsy or "tink" would be derogatory and at least in the UK can get you a court hearing for hate-speech.

But that is just how leftist cloud-cuckoo-land politics work. They try to block any discussion not going their way by tabooing words useful to describe a situation

or facts and then replace it with some politically-correct new-speak. Discussion will then die down in a flurry of racist and Nazi denigrations.

Couple of years later that new term has also attracted a negative connotation, rinse, repeat.

[HerbalEd]

The only time in my entire life that someone has tried to commit a crime against me in my presence I was standing looking at the Coliseum in Rome. A group of Gypsies tried to distract me and pick my pocket. They were all women with a few kids standing around too. I didn't realize it until I felt someone try to pull my wallet and I lashed out and knocked a woman to the ground with my elbow before she could get a good grip. I had been warned about pickpockets and Gypsies in particular by a cab driver.

That's my life's experience with those people.

So does that "one" experience tell you everything you need to know about the Roma people?

[bangon04]

Bleeding hearts like BKKBobby who have such sympathy for the 'Roma' (aka gypsies) obviously haven't spent any time around them. Pace catterwell, their entire culture is built around scams and petty crime.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

What are you talking about? My condo in my home country is in the heart of downtown Stockholm, theres a Roma (travellers) sitting on the pavement every 200 meter there.

Sweden has a big native Roma population also in relation to the countrys population.

sitting on the pavement making a substantial contribution to the Swedish economy?

[NeverSure]

The only time in my entire life that someone has tried to commit a crime against me in my presence I was standing looking at the Coliseum in Rome. A group of Gypsies tried to distract me and pick my pocket. They were all women with a few kids standing around too. I didn't realize it until I felt someone try to pull my wallet and I lashed out and knocked a woman to the ground with my elbow before she could get a good grip. I had been warned about pickpockets and Gypsies in particular by a cab driver.

That's my life's experience with those people.

So does that "one" experience tell you everything you need to know about the Roma people?

No, It's how some of them introduced themselves to me. It's also something that a cab driver seemed to think was worth warning me about.

It's not everything I need to know but rather the only thing I do know.

[Saradoc1972]

The only time in my entire life that someone has tried to commit a crime against me in my presence I was standing looking at the Coliseum in Rome. A group of Gypsies tried to distract me and pick my pocket. They were all women with a few kids standing around too. I didn't realize it until I felt someone try to pull my wallet and I lashed out and knocked a woman to the ground with my elbow before she could get a good grip. I had been warned about pickpockets and Gypsies in particular by a cab driver.

That's my life's experience with those people.

So does that "one" experience tell you everything you need to know about the Roma people?

No, It's how some of them introduced themselves to me. It's also something that a cab driver seemed to think was worth warning me about.

It's not everything I need to know but rather the only thing I do know.

There is a BBC documentary out on Youtube on how Gypsies send their children to steal in European cities. It's bordering on organized crime.

In Switzerland the Kanton Bern is now more or less "safe" from those traveling band of thieves and burglars (link, in German).

They have built a closed facility for delinquent children, so they no longer let 10-14 y-olds go even if caught red-handed.

And some people apparently stay longer 13 than others, they are abusing western states pedagogic views on child delinquency.

In the UK Gypsies make up 5% of prison population, and as criminal liability starts with 12, or 10 in Scotland, up to 22% of inmates in youth detention centres (link).

This is a good thing, as I think those children have no hopes of leading a normal life unless the state (whichever) steps in and gets them to school.

Can be a "tough" line with prisons, can be a bit more co-operative like in Italy (see the BBC documentary), in Germany the Catholic church has stepped in, as far they can.

It's no use going on about them as a poor persecuted minority partly because in WW II they went after them, you need to realize that normal people cannot live along with the part of them that behave in totally uncivilized ways.

The EU has invested huge sums in Bulgaria and Rumania to get them integrate those minorities, but they have failed to implement meaningful programs to do so.

There has to be some social work with the families AND pressure to co-operate. Just letting them have free school-books they then use for starting the oven does not work.

Those states are dreadfully poor, should have waited some 5 more years more before letting them in the EU.

The other side of the medal is that those groups get exploited by western societies in under-the-table work and by greedy landlords and, in the present system have little choice other

than going to richer countries (even as far down as Spain) and go begging and become criminal. Staying in their home-countries is not so much an option.

They are not all criminals, far from it, but they are too splintered to get organized and draw on the funds set aside to help them, so you either hear from the criminals or the settled Roma

who already are organized and actually don't need that funding. Those are just your ordinary citizens you'd never hear from.

[JemJem]

Bring it on ! Such fascists just make us socialists and all other anti-fascists to want to fight them more.

The Islamic fascist scum and nationalist (White pride etc) fascist scum will be defeated. Yes; at a price; but they will be defeated.

Edited July 30, 2015 by JemJem