|
Recently channel 4 made a report on immigration from Romania to Great Britain. Although the documentation is based on facts and complies with standards of fair journalism it has been subject to criticism on the side of Romanian high ranking officials, such as the Romanian Ambassador in England and the prime minister of Romania Mr Ponta. Well even angry Romanians protested in front of the channel 4 building and demanded a stop to discrimination.
I was flabbergasted by this lack of self - criticism of Romanian society. Therefore I would like to share my experiences as a European citizen living in Romania. I live and work in Romania for two years. In contrary to my fellow Dutchmen I was happy when Romania joined the European Union in 2007, because I expected that Romania would be transformed in a rule of law state where I could benefit from my rights as an European citizen to work and to life in Romania.
Doing the same work I did in the Netherlands was quite problematic in Romania, since I had been beaten by the police in Marosvásárhely ( Romanian : Tirgu Mures ) after I tried to meet my contractual obligations, namely interpreting from Dutch in the Co-official Hungarian language, because a Dutch Journalist requested my interpreting services, since he couldnt be helped in English, German or French. Instead of helping me and allow me to do my job, the police dragged me in a blinded room and beated me. They obviously thought that I was a local.
Only after being beaten they asked me for my identification. As a reaction to this the police officer became emotional and asked me - while being outraged - " how it is possible that a Dutch persons speaks Hungarians ? " He was angry and very upset. After giving a very detailed description of what happened to the Dutch ambassador I filled an official charge. The trail is still going on and the racist and illegal (making false official reports ) behaviour of the Politia locala in Târgu Mures has been reported in the Dutch press in detail.
In the village I lived in ( Tordaszentlászló Romanian : Savadisla ) all demands for authorizations and basic information about live in Romania have been denied to me, no one helps me, even a simple request for a free course of Romanian is left unanswered. I had to filled charges of discrimination with the Romanian anti-discrimination council. They acknowledge that I have been discriminated by the authorities, however nothing happens.
Well the authorities are not only corrupt and incompetent, but they also frustrate the work of NGO charity organizations. It is a Dutch organizations which cares for Roma people, who life under inhumane circumstances, with the help of Dutch taxpayers they provide housing, education and medical services for autonomous Roma people. Isn't it an outrage that Dutch taxpayers have to take care for what the public administration of a country which wants to belongs to the Schengen zone can't do ?
Another Dutch NGO I'm affiliated with won a trail to place multilingual signs at the entrance of Cluj-Napoca ( Hungarian: Kolozsvár ) However the city council and the major did everything to annul the act. This kind of intolerance is without precedent for autonomous ethnic minorities in the European Union, such as Frisians in the Netherlands or Welsh in England. I would even call it a betrayal of what the European Union is all about , since Romania owes Europe peace and ethnical stability.
Back home, in the Netherlands Romanian crime is skyrocketing, if I mention the word Romania I get negative reactions. My insurance company complained about Romania, my bank refused transfers to Romania, and there are daily reports of heavy crime, such as ram raiding, robbery of elderly, skimming or burglary. Some of my colleagues have been the victim of Romanian crime in the Netherlands. In front of stores you are welcomed by Romanian beggars. Dutch jails are full with Romanians. How many Dutch are jailed in Romania ?
Migration is a totally one sided thing from Romania, since it is clearly not working the other way around. Many leaves Romania, but few go there. There are almost no Dutchmen, English, German or French living In Romania. In the Netherlands there are over 30 000 Romanians, but only around 1000 Dutch living in Romania, which is a ratio of 1 to 30. The Ratio for French. German and English is probably even worse !
Well I shouldn't even mention the quality of public services, such as justice, health and infrastructure, since they are below the standards that we take for granted in western Europe. Although European citizen rights exist on paper, in practice they don't, due to the unique Romanian blend of corruption, chauvinism, ethnic hate, nationalism and political instability. Romania is an over centralized and corrupt state.
Ethnic Hungarians and Roma are segregated from public administration and treated as de facto second rang citizens, the Jewish and German community of Transylvania complety disappeared during the Ceausescu dictatorship. The kind of political correctness I was raised with is unknown in Romania. The European Commission against racism and intolerance even reported the case of the Romanian teenager Sabrina who refused to take of her headband with the national colours of Romania in school and even became a national hero on Romanian TV by declaring that she hates ethnic Hungarians.
Consequently the Romanian ambassador in England and the prime mister of Romania, totally lack any moral ground to complain about the alleged discrimination of Romanians in England. They should have a look in the mirror before lecturing the British on discrimination.
Drs. G. Landman
European Citizen.
Sworn Interpreter Dutch -Hungarian for the Dutch Police, Entrepreneur and Consultant , Chairman of Foundation European Language Rights
Living in Tordaszentlászló Romania |
|
1 Romanians protesting against Discrimination in EU member state England |
|
2. Aggression and Racism by the Authorities A falsified report made by the politialocala, signed by a witness I never saw or heard of. "How is it possible that a Dutchmen speaks Hungarian ? " Source www.politialocala.eu |
|
4. Language Rights are not respected in Savadisla, where 52 % of the population is ethnic Hungarian ( Tordaszentlaszló ) , consequently Europeans are discriminated by the local authorities. Source www.tordaszentlaszlo.eu; |
|
5. Romanian nationalists protesting for the annexation of Transnistria in a city where even symbolic language rights are denied since 1996 ! Romania has an obligation towards the NATO to comply with the Strasbourg treaty. ; 6. Xenophobia, Chauvinism and ethnic hate. Romania's contribution to the European Dream. Source www.visitcluj.eu; |
|
7. The major Of Cluj did everything to prevent a free Multilanguage sign paid for by Dutch taxpayers and obligatory according to Romania law. Source www.language-rights.eu; |
|
8. Monolingual Romanians in the Netherlands are free to benefit from their EU citizen Rights. Educated Romanian professionals profit from the fact that all public authorities in the Netherlands are able to communicate in English. |
|
9. Romanian criminality is daily news in the Netherlands The Romanian language is more often used in criminal proceedings than the official Frisian Language. ( 2013 5810 Suspects from Romania in the Netherlands ! Source www.cbs.nl ) |
|
10 Romanian is not a Schengen member since 2011. On the one hand Romania demands membership to the Schengen zone on the other hand it is discriminating Europeans in Romania and failing to comply with basic language rights |
|
11. Ljouwert. European Capital of culture 2018. Both the Netherlands and England broke op with their colonial past. ( Political Correctness ). The regional Charta for autonomous languages has been ratified for the Frisian and the Welsh language as well. The hostility towards the Hungarian autonomous language is without precedent in the European Union. |