Going to work

Some days going to work is like this. other days it being stuck in 160 km of traffic jams.







So I learned to be happy with both.: either the views or the radio and solitude before the rush of people

Capital punishment

Capital punishment is wrong. Living by the rule of 'an eye for eye' to me is barbaric. Thousands are on death row in the US. 130 people have been released from death row because they were found to be innocent after new evidence came to light. The ACLU and the people signing the petitions, writing letters to their newspapers have just, at least for now save Troy Davis' life. He is more than probably innocent and without people demanding justice for this man he would have been executed. Just two hours before his scheduled execution the United States Supreme Court saved Troy Davis’s life. The hope is that they will now hear his case. To me it is not about guilt or grace, atonement or innocence, we just should not have capital punishment. Killing is killing also when a justice system orders it. Lets have a moratorium on the death sentence.

Roma

It is one Rom, the people are Roma, just as the Sinti they are are gypsies. There are 10 million Roma, living all over Europa. They are as the Sami a people without state. The Sami are spread over 4 countries: Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. The Roma have to content with a lot of intolerance towards them even when they are citizens of the country they are living in, having the nationality of the state in which they live like Poland, Italy, Rumania, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro.
It has been proposed in Italy that if a person from a non EU country comits a crime that if that person is illegal or irrgular his/her punishment would be aggragavted because the illegality would constitute an aggravating circumstance. That seems wrong. We are all equal and the law should be just and the same for all.

The new camp

Here life is squeaky clean. The Rom gypsies are healthier, their feet are dry, the kids have a table and light and can do their homework.



There are house searches at night between 2 and 3. The kids wake up, are scared and cranky.



When asked whether they were happy the women acknowledged their better conditions but said they were like 'birds in a cage'. At midnight the gate is closed, if they need to go out early the have to ring and will be let out.



Cameras are every where. What is the balance between clean and free?

Roma camp

If you make it till 67, then you are old as Methuselah here in one of the nicest cities of Europe. The Roma people, specially the old, the young children and women in general have serious health problems.
This shed without windows is home to a family with 10 kids: no windows, a leaking roof, no water, no electricity.

This is the kitchen outside on an open porch. In winter they bring in a home made stove to keep them minimally warm.

People work, this man was doing some metalwork and was not disturbed by the visitors, the press or the rain.


In their best suits in front of their best home.

Give them back the water and electricity: they pay for their utilities. The 300 kids in the camp go to school but can't make their homework without light.

Quote

Some states have very sophisticated mechanisms and techniques (like NGO's, civil movements and elections) faking democracy.

You better start making a list now...

Late Summer

In my other life late summer is more like early autumn, nothing warm and Indian about it. Normalcy of work and paying the bills tries to settle in. Yet my desert wildness of tumbleweed and locoweed still lies in me.