THE PERPETUAL DIASPORA

my dad and i, on the way back from the cottage, listened to an interview with livia jaroka, a 29 year old former radio host and anthropologist who was recently elected to the european parliament as its first gypsy member (and one of the first gypsy politicans in europe altogether). me and my dad had a discussion about gypsy culture (which is often called "roma" culture, even though their heritage has nothing to do with rome and everything to do with india).

he told me all kinds of things about gypsies and how they operate, what sort of lifestyle they live and how they're perceived in europe. my dad grew up in transylvania, where gypsies made up a significant portion of the population, and from our conversation i learned of the following:

gypsies are incredibly intelligent people despite huge disadvantages. they don't read or write for the most part, because of their traditionally nomadic lifestyle, but mainly due to the extreme discrimination they have to deal with if they ever do go to school. my dad remembers that in school, he had three or four gypsy students in his class, but they were never referred to by their first names when the student addressed them. they were simply called "cigajn" which means something like "swindler" or more closely, "haggler". that kind of systematic depersonalization really discouraged them from sending their kids to school, so as a result, they have their own kind of intelligence borne of a very raw and gritty existance.

for instacne, gypsies are incredible metal smiths. my dad used to go buy pots and pans that they would make from scrap on tiny little anvils with tiny little hammers, and they would do it with such skill that it eclipsed any government issue communist factory trash.

gypsies are amazing musicians. for the longest time, what people around the world once thought of as hungarian and rumanian folk music was actually of 100% gypsy origin. their music is immensely dark and complex. few people can master the technique. what makes it even more amazing is that gypsy music had never been notated or written down until the composer bela bartok and his colleague zoltan kodaly travelled the countryside of transylvania and rumania to study workable methods of defining gypsy music. i recommend you listen to bartok's six string quartets for a feel of what gypsy music is like. it will change your notions of how you listen to music. it is incredibly challenging stuff. much of my family's musical history can be traced back to gypsy influence, when my grandfather as a child and adolescent lived next to a family of gypsies who would play music well into the night and influence his violin playing...django reinhardt, one of the world's greatest guitarists of all time, was a gypsy, after all.

despite all of the beauty of gypsy culture, they're treated like dirt. there used to be an expression when my dad grew up that, according to livia jaroka, is still common in hungary: "if you don't behave, the gypsies will come and take you away!"

it's going to continue and possibly get worse unless someone does something about it. under communism, things were better for gypsies, as the laws put a stop to open racism. the gypsies still had it rought back then, but now that the wall has fallen, and open racism is once again de rigeur again throughout most of europe, gypsies are seeing a new age of disclusion. they are hated and reviled. i'll admit that one would expect such a thing. after all, gypsies live a totally different life from white europeans. but they are amazing people with an ongoing story, and something has to change in the near future.

"yes," says my dad, "they were smelly and dirty. yes, they were so good at negotiating that it was easy to think you got swindled if you did business with them. yes, they were nomadic and we were established. but they're incredible people who deserve to be treated like any other european group. we all started out like gypsies."

IT'S LIKE THAT ZAPPA SONG...

"why do we do it?" asked one of our instructors once asked us on the first few days of classes. "we do it for the money. we're only in it for the money," he answered himself.

at that moment i couldn't totally understand what he meant. in fact, i was slighlty put off by it. i hadn't expected the school to be so...industry driven? however, a few months down the road, i can totally sympathize with this sentiment. this guy has been a sound editor for years, but he hasn't worked on anything you'd call a masterpiece. he had a really good gig on a popular canadian show in the 80's, but nothing too special. a string of unglorious but steady work was his lot. does he care? no, because, in the end, he lives like the king of his own world. he's been nominated for awards and he's a pretty happy guy who hasn't lost interest in the work itself, no matter how ridiculous.

it takes a fair bit of optminism and faith in the wayward youth of today to do his teaching job. kids walk in there everyday with no fuckin clue what it takes to break yourself into this kind of a world. some of these kids have never tasted an ounce of professionalism in their lives and they come into the school expecting service instead of education. the school is run like a business, and it's as cold as one. some people are definitely not cut out for it. and those who can't make it are the ones who expect, rather than attempt, the most.

i too, had a lot of expectations when i started there, and as much as i like to think i'm above all this bullshit, i have to remind myself, always, that i 've been granted all kinds of social and economical advantages from the get go. most of these kids didn't get that. i cannot hold them up to the same standards as i hold myself, and i must give them a chance before i consider them all a bunch of starchasers with their chichen-heads cut off.

* * *

there's a possibility i'm heading to ottawa to anounce my rejection of the bush agenda, although not specifically as a protestor. i'll be on assignment with the paper, assisting the photo editor with her work and maybe doing some second unit stuf (do they call it a second unit in photography? i know that's the film term). i certainly don't intend to do much more than the work i need to do, but there's no doubt i'll be acting in the spirit of protest. i won't be on the front of the lines with bullhorns like i was in 2003, but i'm sure i'll be going through some of the same emotions.

i must go to bed, as i have a sharp pain going up my shin bone, which i suspect is the result of the splinter i stepped on today that so sneakily jutted from my floor, waiting in cruel anticipation as my foot hovered over it. i had no tweezers so i had to remove it with a variety of techniques and tools, which might have been a mistake.

i should sand my floor. or maybe i just walk too much and need better shoes.