Tuesday 17 November 2015

The Growing Roma Conflict In Paris


Being a Parisian who returns back to Paris every summer, the Roma crisis is a very true problem that is recognised by many people. I have decided to write this as Sarkozy’s policies on Roma's in Paris directly affect me and my family in numerous amounts of ways.

France is known for being a country with the harshest policy towards immigrants, especially Roma ones. The 2010, New York Times article “Dispute Grows Over France’s Removal of Roma Camps” by Stephen Castle and Katrin Bennhold gives an overview on the growing pressure from the European Union about their harsh policies and how French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, was unswayed by the demands. Sarkozy’s policy is to dismantle all illegal immigrant camps in France, as “Europe cannot close its eyes to illegal camps”(NYT). There’s around an estimated 400,000 Romani living in established French communities(BBC), it is fair to say that it is a growing concern that cannot be simply dismissed in France. The main reason why France has adopted this policy is because, according to France’s Prime Minister - Manuel Valls, Roma’s are branded as foreigners and who do not ‘integrate’ with the French way of life(Daily Mail). Hence battling the argument of French authorities being racist and deliberately targeting Roma camps, as mentioned in the New York Times article. Most Romas travel to countries such as France in hope to find jobs, to send their kids to school, but to ultimately improve their living standards. One of the most common examples of Romas not being able to integrate into the French community is shown through the rejection from the educational system. Generally, schools do not allow Romas into the educational system as local authorities are ‘reluctant to recognise them as residents’(BBC). As they are not officially residents, they cannot acquire social benefits that residents are normally entitled to. Referring back to the New York Times article, Sarkozy came under fire when removing Roma camps as it was seen as contradictory to the Lisbon Treaty passed in 2010, which its main goal is to provide social protection and support  non discrimination, which was strongly back by the French. Building on to this, ever since the birth of European integration, the right of freedom of movement between internal borders, also known as the Schengen Area was considered as a fundamental right. But, although part of the EU, Romania and Bulgaria are outside this passport-free travel area(NYT), the two countries where
Romas are portrayed to be from. According to Hugo Brady, the senior researcher at the Center of European Reform, when the laws of movement were developed, “it was assumed that this would be about highly qualified, multi-lingual, economically mobile workforce moving across borders - not about Roma”(NYT). Romas have a very negative social stigma in Europe, as they portrayed as people who are mischievous, targeting tourists and stealing, as well as forcing their children to elicit sympathy when begging for money.

One of the reasons why Sarkozy is following the deportation policy is because he is aiming to create a new image for himself in France by receiving strong support from the conservative right winged voters. At the same time, Sarkozy is a G-20 president, although his goals to deport Romas from France may be a sustainable or developing goal, it is certainly not for the G-20. Dominique Moisi, from the French Institute for International Relations, perfectly sums up Sarkozy’s stance in 2010, “He should have realised that he can’t do both at the same time.”(NYT)Another issue that circles the deportation of Roma’s is, where do they go? By definition, Romas don’t belong to one particular country, they’re a ethnic group that originated in Europe. According to Manuel Valls, France’s interior minister, the Roma people’s ‘destiny is to return to Romania or Bulgaria’(BBC). This may seem as unfair as Roma’s do not belong to a nation, and this does not exactly solve the problem, as life in Romania and Bulgaria is much worse for the Roma people, they may feel that they have to return to Europe, hence starting a cycle.

In my opinion, coming from a Parisian view, the Roma’s are a very noticeable group of people in Paris especially. Because of their lack of integration, in a way, they stand out, putting more attention on them than needed. I can also say that the negative stigmatisation of the Roma people is very true. You are not given a racist perception towards Roma’s, but only to be careful around them as you may be subjected to theft etc..You hear stories of Roma’s getting together in classes which teach how to steal off tourists mainly, they have their own version of organised theft in groups. People start to spread the word in order to raise awareness and protect others, and this is where the racial stigmatisation of Roma’s may start. In terms of my opinion on the deportation of Roma’s, I have two opinions. One being for, as Roma’s in France do not hold any political, economical or social benefits and are frowned upon way to heavily to successfully integrate. The second being that it is not entirely fair that they are being deported as they have made such a long journey to be here, and deporting simply does not solve the problem.

Monday 25 February 2013

Understanding of "What is the What" Issue #6


So far I am pretty confortable with What is the What, I think that it is a well detailed book and very interesting. I really enjoy the parts when Valentino is talking about his time in Sudan and Ethiopia, but I tend to find that when he is talking about what he is doing in America is a bit boring as others may say. I think this because he really goes over every detail and sometimes talks about things that are not relevant to the topic. He really makes extends the story to a point that bores the reader, but on the other hand when he talks about his time in Africa is very interesting. I find it interesting because I have never been to Africa, and he really talks about the place very well. And his stories for example how Valentino's friend Moses talks about how he was abducted and made into a slave and had to go to an Arabic school. So this is what I think of What is the What so far. 

Monday 4 February 2013

Blogging is important part of English Class Issue #5



Im not quite sure about blogging, I'm not for or against it. I dont think that it is very important. I dont think that it's about the quantity of post's you have, but the quality. Something that I learnt from my father, if you take a look at my blog I have not done much. The reason is that I have never done blogging until now, blogging can be a useful tool at times. For example you can write about your day in English class, what you learned etc.., and later you can go back to that post and recap on the skill you learned. To be honest I will tend to go against blogging because I personally think it is a waste of time, you already share what you have done in class with your friends, talking about if it was boring or confusing. So why go write about it? I think some people are a bit shy about the whole "blogging" idea. To let anyone read your posts, if I had to write a blog post for homework I would do it. But if Mr. Raisdana said it was optional I would not do it as I said above. So to me blogging is not that important, but this is my opinion. Blogging is an idea that vaguely swims in the corners of my brain, with my not really taking note of it.

Stereotypical Paragraph on France Issue #4



Stereotypical Paragraph on France

France, a place where men wear black and white shirts, black pants, a red beret on their heads. Walking down the dirty streets of France, showing-off their huge, thick mustaches and carrying a bottle of premium wine in their left hand and two warm baguettes in the right hand. People do say that the French woman don’t shave their underarms. In France everything has to be a love story, dining in-front of the Eiffel tower eating an expensive dinner covered by cheese then gorging down a gourmet dessert and to top it all of with a huge slimy French kiss. 

Sunday 23 September 2012

Science Chemical Reaction Reflection Issue #3

In this Chemistry Unit that we have been doing for the past month or so, I have learned lots of things on the Periodic Table, Elements, Atoms and lots of other things!. I will probably never forget the Periodic Table and how informational it really is but at the same time how complicated it is. I wont forget some of the important vocabulary that we have been studying and learning about. One of the other things that  I wont let go of is Atoms and how they are made, what they are made out of.

The most interesting part of this unit is when we learned about Atoms, because I really learned something. I never did anything like this before and thats why I was so interested, everything was new to me, I did not know about electrons, neutrons and protons before this unit. It was difficult at first but during the second week I got the hang of  it.

I am still curious about endothermic and exothermic reactions, I would of liked to go into more depth in this because I think that this is pretty important and interesting. But I did learn the basic meaning of these two words.  

Wednesday 5 September 2012

English Class Review Issue #2

So far English class has been one of my favorite classes because of the atmosphere and the spirit of the class. So far in English class I have learnt countless things,  for example I have learnt new words such as metacognition and other words too. I really liked when we did the free-writing because I havent done a lot of free-writing in a long time but this activity also opened me up. At first I was stuck but once I got the hang of it I could not stop!. I personally adored when Mr. Raisdana compared the free-writing to the searching of gold, because I really felt that, that made sense to me.
 I enjoyed creating my blog because I had never owned a blog. When Mr. Raisdana talked about the blog idea I did not feel very excited because I thought that blogs were boring and not fun. But I soon realized that I was wrong and that a blog is one of the most interesting things on the internet, you can share ideas, talk about your life, and say all sorts of things!. I also really like the spirit of this English, you can always sense that there is a happy feeling that is going around the class.
I would really like this class to talk more, when we are on the table. Because, I think that it is good to speak out and share your ideas with your friends so they can expand on it or something.

Monday 3 September 2012

Welcome

Dear fellow students of RKe,
Welcome to "My Blog #1"
Hope you people like my posts

Sincerely Yours,

Gaspard