AIBU to find it disgusting that gypsies have taken over a school playground

[Adizzylass2014]

whilst attending my best friends wedding today in a little village I was horrified to see that gypsies had taken over the school playground. There was rubbish all over the floor, children and dogs running all over the place and scantily clad women puffing away.
why a school playground, these people have no morals. The poor caretaker is going to have his work cut out for him as there was at least 15 caravans!

Congratulations on your degree. I see the snark ...

Hello pot, meet kettle ...

One of my oldest relatives told me that the reason gypsies used to give the rest of society as to why their dc left school was a load of rubbish.
They said it was because they didn't want them to mix with other children and gain their culture and bad habits.

It was basically to get the boys working asap and to stop the girls from gaining any knowledge that might help them get away, better themselves, or gaining employment. People think our culture is patriarchal, you would never believe it.

I have a cousin on the run atm with her children. She was helped by her family members to escape. She can never be seen by anybody who knows her xp and if he ever found her she would be killed/ or badly beaten and her children taken.

I really don't think everyone is demonising here. I posted about the awful experience my DD was subjected to by a group of female travellers and how it affected her.

If this had happened on the tube with some random females and the thread title was 'Disgusting behaviour on the tube', I would be posting the same. This can't be called bigotry (especially as I prefaced my post with the fact there are bad 'uns in all walks of life.)

On a forum, posters bring their experiences to a thread, good and bad. The fact this is about gypsies/travellers is somewhat irrelevant. Are we not allowed to talk about how travellers have directly affected us? Free speech and all of that...

Although i have spoke out in favor of the traveller's and said our local legal site is not a problem i don't doubt people have had bad experiences and i don't think to say so is racist either, it's relaying an event which has happened and therefor gave a bad impression, it happens in all walks of life. You wouldn't really know if you had met someone under positive circumstances if they were a traveler or not unless you asked or they stated they were so the bad experiences far outweigh the good but you can't say my only experience is bad so they are all like this and shoulnd't be allowed to have legal sites. Its the land which seems to be the problem but on looking at our local sites and planned sites many have gone ahead on sites which are out the way and next to an old industrial site. In some other areas these plans are being rejected by local opposition for whatever reason. The cost of clearing Dale Farm was 7M, the cost of improving and allocating more than 15 sites in the North East has a price tag of 4M. So every time a site on non green belt is successfully opposed they still have a set of people who have to go somewhere resulting in them parking up on village greens etc, maybe this is a F you actions, i have no idea but then these sites then need cleared and they move on and on all the while planned sites to stop this happening are being opposed because no one want's them in their back yard. I suspect if half of the planned sites went ahead on ex industrial zone's like our's a designated family would be responsible for the site and things would settle down as facilities went in establishing the site and giving people a bit pride in their site. As it is unless people accept they need somewhere ton live and it might have to be near them then they will have to deal with temp, litter strewn encampments.

Someone said something along the lines of make them live in a house, which house's? there are non and the one's there are have huge waiting lists, you couldn't possibly house the whole traveler community in social housing, it is just not available or an option, where would you house the people on the waiting lists who have waited years for a house unless you build more housing on land so which land do you build on. Building a site i'm sure would cost a lot less than building a new council estate for them and imagine the outrage if they did build them, Its just a no win situation which is going to go on and on unless people accept they need sites and the sites might be next to their village.

Someone said up-thread that many travellers own their own homes in England or Ireland and only travel in the summer months, Rathkeale in ROL is essentially a traveller town now, are their any stats on this?

I read a few year back there was a whole estate being built for travelers, i have no idea if this went ahead or if it did go ahead what it was like when they moved in as i cant even remember where it was planned now

Someone said up thread that if this was any other minority group this thread would be unacceptable... I can only assume you haven't seen the many threads discussing Islam recently.

I'm interested in the many suggestions that homes should be provided for those travellers who want to settle - social housing has been mentioned several times as the preferred option

For those with the means, what's wrong with simply buying a house?

For those with the means, what's wrong with simply buying a house?

I don't think many of them want a house be it social housing or a bought one as they want to remain travelers living within their local communities, anyway although im sure there are many who probably have gave up their way of life and bought a house or moved into council housing depending on their income.

Sorry if I didn't spend time reading the heaps of posts on here. I don't mind travellers parking where they like but not school property & please FGS why can't they clear up their own mess?

We did have a group on our school field & they left sh@t all over the hedges around the playground. Not a good example to their own kids, let alone the implications for our put upon caretaker who had to clean it up. I'm all for freedom to choose your lifestyle but not at the cost of the lifestyle of the vast majority.

WindYourBobbinUp, fair play to you then.

But I still think, until more travellers and gypsies speak out against those who behave badly, others will assume that there is an acceptance of it.

Similar to when ISIS started to take hold in Iraq and British Muslim groups were slow to denounce the violence. That doesn't mean that they agreed with it but that's what others start to question. Since then there has been more vocal opposition which I think has helped to silence some of the critics.

Regarding education, my sister's friends' dad is a gypsy. The daughter has a degree and good job but her immediate family now live in houses - as I suspect many with a better education and more tolerant attitudes do.

I guess it's harder to get a good education if you're frequently on the move and perhaps those who live in houses integrate more with the settled community. I wonder though if those travellers who travel but do so between legal sites just go unnoticed because they cause no trouble and that it is the groups such as the one who came to our village who sadly have a much higher profile in the minds of the non traveller community because of the havoc they wreak.

I think that's the point I'm trying to make, albeit not very well at times: we're a very diverse group amongst ourselves. I can only speak about Romany but for example I've been lucky to have a family that encourage education amongst females, probably partly because we've been in the UK for centuries. I know of others that have recently come here from eastern European countries that aren't so tolerant e.g. until last year (or very recently in any case) a Romany in the Czech Republic could only attend special needs school.
Time changes things as well. My Nan wasn't educated much but she could add up and would spot someone trying to con her out of her change a mile off, she had a very clever business sense. She was married young as were my mum and dad - not necessarily a bad thing but that was how it was, you'd be married as a teen. I was in my 30s by choice even though some were a bit about it.
So with my upbringing I have no excuses for not doing the best I can education wise and in my life. I have suffered racism but I do try to challenge it when it crops up. I don't know why but being accused of not being able to read is the one I hate the most!
Do I wish I was travelling like my great grandparents? In a way, I do feel trapped - I move house very often, that part is certainly there but I know I need an address to make things easier for my DS when he starts school and for continuity of his healthcare (he was premature) so like everyone from all cultures I guess I strike a balance between what I want to do and what works best for our lives. DH is gorger so I don't think he'd be impressed if we took to the road anyway

Anyway, I hope that explains about me a little. We're honestly not all bad, it's a very rich and ancient culture and language. In fact it's world Romany day on the 8th, I live in hope of some balanced news coverage but instead I think its 'big fat gypsy grand national' oh dear.

In my family my generation were the first to finish school, the generation before mainly left after junior school.
Obviously not speaking for all here, but for many the problem seems to be the lack of importance of education.
We have H.ed our dd for the past 3 years, nothing to do with culture gypsy or otherwise. it was just right at that time.
There is a difference between this and parents not believing education to be important, both gypsy and gorger.

WindYourBobbinUp

Kushti Bokt to you, I don't know much yet as I'm just learning.
Did you see my link to Manchester Uni upthread. May be of interest to you.

WindYourBobbin

Can I ask you a question about language ?

Our neighbours, a young couple, are settled travellers and live in a mobile park (they own the whole site). He is British & has no accent etc. TBH I didn't know he was a traveller / gypsy when he first moved in last year - that emerged later via other neighbours.

Today I came home to find a teenage boy chopping down trees on our border. The neighbour himself was out, so couldn't ask him directly what was happening.

On questioning the young boy, it transpired that he doesn't speak any English but his female companion said in broken English that they 'are all family i.e. related to the couple' and are Romanian (or maybe she was just saying they are Roma). Young boy lives in an adjacent caravan.

Do all Roma gypsies speak the same language and are all gypsies Roma gypsies ?

BTW this thread has been absolutely fascinating.

romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/

I'm sure Bobbin can answer but this will give a good insight too.

Does anyone know why Channel 4 called it 'My big fat Gypsy..' When the programme is about Irish Travellers? I didn't realise before this thread that there was a distinction between the two.

I'm watching it now on Ch4 (Paddy Doherty is in it and I think he always comes across really well).

I knew there was difference between Gypsies & Travellers, but don't know how to tell the difference between the two.

My neighbour was apparently a champion boxer in his community - would that be a Traveller or Gypsy or either ?

I read a book once on this young boys experiences where he recounted about being forced from literally toddlerhood to go round the country and fight. If he didn't he'd get the s**t beaten out of him anyway. Also the 'training' involved being smacked around by his dad. Does this still go on ?

I'm not watching it with a view that it's a documentary Coconutty I think it's about as representative as Jeremy Kyle is. I just like the outfits.

I have been studying gypsy history, mainly romanie for a few years now. just for my own interest.
I will see if I can link to some specific pages of great interest, well to me anyway

www.gypsyjib.com/
romanygenes.com/#/romany-language/4523705749

Not sure which will work.

We speak English in the home, I know the odd bit but am quite rubbish on the language front I'm afraid. I think the language has common roots but an English Romany would probably speak a slightly different dialect than a Hungarian Romany. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though anyone

Differences between the groups (again anyone from the other groups feel free to correct)

• the Romany people came from what is now modern day India. No one really knows why they started travelling bit there's various legends about it. The English thought we'd come from Egypt because I guess that was the only dark people they'd heard of hence at the time the term gypsy.
• Irish travellers - not sure on the history but they are a different group. They're from Ireland and Romanies are from what's now India!
• New age travellers - I think they just felt like joining in?

I forgot to say that Romania does have a sizeable Romany population which can be very confusing as a Romanian isn't a Romany, but you could be a Romanian Romany!