PoissonRouge

What about the word gypsy is derogatory? I have never seen these people; I am simply using the word that was used by the upperclassmen who told me about them.

PalenQ

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-says-gypsy-is-a-racist-word-says-comic-1792428.html>

It is considered a pejorative word by many, including the BBC - and many gypsies themselves.

Pegontheroad

Money belt under your clothes.

bilboburgler

Had to look up "upperclassmen" on google, seems to be some sort of school kid two years above you. Live and learn.

Romani is better than Roma

PalenQ

And again it is not only 'gypsies' who pickpocket naive tourists in Rome - immigrants, mainly, from other countries who I guess may be lumped as 'gypsies' also perpetrate these things.

flpab

Just reading the UK papers and there are thousands of Romanians coming into the UK today without jobs. Bad situation and they have no place to even sleep or go to the bathroom. It has the UK in an uproar so London is going to be listed with Rome and Paris. I don't even carry a purse anymore, I get a bag from the grocery and use it for purchases and stick my money in an inside jacket pocket.

PalenQ

so those Romanians flooding to Britain are going to end up pickpocketing y'all?

Wow - like the Polish plumbers before them unfairly tainting hard-working folks who are coming to do the dirty work Brits may be aloof to do?

Why don't the UK just get out of the EU if they will not abide by EU rules on cross-border movements of workers?

and if those Romanians who I guess you call gypsies because this thread title says Gypsies (no most of the Romanians 'flooding' into the IK are not Romani (gypsies) but Romanians - if they all do not find work they will simply go back home.

Many will find work - either above or below the table and that is why they are coming - work Brits will not stoop to do or would not work hard enough at - very similar to us Yanks and Hispanics we exploit for low wages and hard work - same ole arguments based on hysteria not fact - most of them will probably end up good workers, paying taxes, etc.

Myopic is at best your take IMO - the Irish before were the same and what are they now - some of the UK's hardest workers and most productive folk.

flpab

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-services.html

In Key West many of the servers in restaurants are being brought in from Romania. They are hard workers but will live in very crowded conditions to work here. It is expensive for people to work and live in KW. But, they have a job and are brought here to work. The people and I never typed Gypsy that entered the UK today do not have jobs and from that one picture look very old. Where are they going to live and work?

We have a huge new VA hospital being built but is way behind schedule because the contractors had so many illegals working on the project and were caught. Jobs that I know many people in our community would have done but when you are paying five bucks an hour under the table they have no chance. It is now being completed by legal tradesmen.

flpab

I totally am on board with something has to be done just don't want to hijack the thread but know for a fact we would have no grapes picked for wine if the Mexicans did not do it for us. Ga is suffering now because they have moved on and there in no one to dig those vadallia onions out of the ground. I came to my house one day while it was being built and there were so many Mexicans hanging my drywall I could not count them. Great job but my contractor hires a sub and he hires them and pays them under the table. That money is being taxed when he gets the big check but those people get nothing. It has to change. They are decent hard working people. ok, sorry, back to pick pockets.

zoobiechick

What makes me sad is to hear of women and girls being thrown out there for theft and prostitution by organized crime bosses in Romania. Never heard of this till I started doing research for an upcoming trip to Paris. Is anyone trying to crack these crime rings and rescue the victims? I will protect myself as much as possible, but I do feel compassion for those forced into a life of crime and abuse.

Josser

The tabloids have been having hysterics about the invasion from Bulgaria and Romania.
Here is another take http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...-uk?CMP=twt_gu

The facts are that we don't know how many will come and in fact most of them are already here.
When I was last in Rome, I saw several old women lying face downwards with begging cups by their heads. There were also young women with suspiciously placid children sitting outside churches.
Mrs J. Worried about what would happen to those women if they went home with insufficient "earnings"

flpab

Josser, my friend was appalled by the beggars outside the Vatican. She also worried and gave them money. I think seeing the wealth of the Vatican and then seeing the beggars really did her in. It is the biggest impression she took away from Rome. I am a little more hard hearted. Now if there was dog next to them I would be sad for the dog and worry about its treatment. I learned the baby trick many years ago.

PalenQ

Josser presents a calm view of the situation but flpab only inflames the hysteria without any real thing to go on except British tabloids, as usual, raising fears without any substance - projections - and again if the UK don't want to abide by EU rules that countries facing similar problems seem to be able to cope with - France, Italy, etc why not just get out?

Then Brits can eat chips out of paper cones again I presume.

PalenQ

Oops I meant eat chips out of wrapped tabloid newspapers, abut the best use for these sensational loving rags.

bvlenci

[[ I don't stop for anyone, no petition signing, no "did you drop this", and especially those offering unsolicited help (especially in train stations). ]]

I once *did* drop my wallet on a crowded train platform in Bologna, and didn't realize I had done so because I had my arms full of water bottles and snacks I had just bought. Fortunately, a young Italian called after me to tell me I had dropped something. If I had followed the above advice, I would have lost it. Probably I would have been sure that a pickpocket had nabbed it. In fact, I often wonder how many of the people who report being pickpocketed have in fact lost their wallets by chance or carelessness.

Not everyone who offers help is out to rob you. I always offer to help mothers with strollers, elderly people with heavy bags, and anyone else who seems to be struggling. When someone offers me help, even if I'm suspicious, I try to turn down the offer politely, and I get forceful only if the person persists after I've said "no".

flpab

I live in Fl, Spanish is the first language of my state. You can be standing in Target and the announcements are not in English. You have to be bi-lingual to get a job in south Florida. But if you are from the UK and have a great job already and are very secure then I am sure a few thousand more unemployed in your city will be fine by you.

bilboburgler

"Josser, my friend was appalled by the beggars outside the Vatican"

Well given that it is the church of the poor and most of the religious houses that surround the Vatican give them food, shelter and washing facilities every evening it makes a lot of sense that the beggars whould end up there. I was moved at how charity was working.

bilboburgler

Just a thought though, I have on five occasions met people on holiday in the street who have shown me their town/city off their own bat and just because they had nothing else to do that day. So strangers can be the friends you have not yet met.

bvlenci

My husband, and many other Italians, regard the UK as a classic case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too, with regard to the EU. I'm fairly sure that a good many people in the UK would vote to leave the EU. This would be a disaster for the EU, so no responsible UK government would voluntarily put it to the vote.

There are lots of Rumanians in Italy, mostly hard working people. I know Rumanian construction workers, shop keepers, factory workers, and shop clerks. Many of the "badanti" taking care of the elderly and small children are Rumanian. The non-pegorative Italian word for "gypsies" is "Rom", and many of them are from Rumania, but some are native Italians. There are many organized criminal groups in eastern Europe, and not just in Rumania, who run gangs of very well-trained thieves and also prostitutes, housebreakers, and other criminal gangs. The actual small fry thieves have often been lured into the criminal activities by deception, usually the promise of a real job. The gangs are moved from place to place by the leaders so that as soon as the police begin to have a lead on a particular gang, they disappear and a new group takes their place.

PoissonRouge

PalenQ: Your web link unfortunately didn't work.

In your reply an explanation was not provided; you again only pointed to the fact that someone else says it's offensive. If one follows everything that the media tells us, questioning nothing, one will find himself repeating things that he doesn't understand and can't defend himself, of course, because he failed to use his own rational mind.

Now, the word "gypsy" according to the Online Etymology Dictionary(http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gypsy) dates back to the 17th century, and comes from the word "Egyptian." Perhaps, since this word refers to Egyptians, when we aren't speaking of Egyptians, is and incorrect word to use, but I don't see how it is malicious.

I don't mean to stir any bad feelings, but I am simply requesting that you give reasons for you're claim that "gypsy" is a "pejorative" word.