Sometimes it is easy to live near a palace

Palaces further away from my window

When I look out my window I see two palaces.  The next street holds several such structures as well. When you drive through Romanian cities (and I have read Moldova is the same) you see these huge buildings that could belong to the royal family, but they do not. They do not belong to a king or to any princes. Palaces in Romania are owned by Roma families (also known as gypsies), who live in them for short periods every year. Some use them for a month. Some are empty and others yet are lucky enough to have family members living in them. The one across the street was unused for a few years because the father of the family was in jail in Germany. Rumor has it the charge was human trafficking and that he was supposed to be released last year, but another victim came forward (they said a husband told the police 'he took my wife'; so trafficking of women) and the sentence was prolonged a bit.

In May he was released from jail and mentioned there are some restrictions. He cannot immediately return to Germany.   His family chose to stay with him. His sons drive large vans with dark windows in which they fit two relatively crappy mattresses that are in contrast to everything else they own. They say they use them for sleep across long trips. We've discussed owning houses abroad. They said there they would have to justify the money for the purchase, but here there are no such issues or rules. So, they celebrated his return from jail by buying another house in an even more central location. The house is now getting a makeover so that it will look more like a palace. They can also afford expensive looking finishes and furniture.

In the German jail my neighbor had full health insurance and had gone through cardiac surgery. After some time here, he started having breathing problems and went back to Germany, where he had another surgery to facilitate blood flow in his leg. He must have ignored the restrictions. They performed the surgery,  but sent them back to Romania just before Xmas. They hope to return soon.

The palace dwellers don't appear to have many skills or formal education that would enable them to earn money beyond a fierce support of each other. The men do drive cars, which means they have passed driver license tests somehow and do not seem to have many accidents with their vehicles. They also buy property and redesign it. They thus invest some of their money wisely. The main thing they lack is education. They have the palaces, but they do not have the royal gardens. They cut all trees and have paved hot yards (with statues) that overheat in summer, but many other rich people do the same. Jail time seems to be reserved for older members of the family -- usually, the father figure; he is the one who can hold his temper in check, speaks languages poorly, and is likely to receive shorter sentences due to age and potential health issues. The Roma palace next to our house in Timisoara is empty because its owner is in jail in Austria - perhaps for drug trafficking but nobody knows for sure.

The owners of the other palace from across the road  (from my grandparents house in Lugoj) are more careful. They spent no time in jail and bought two houses this year.  My favorite from their clan is their grandmother.  She is a dear old lady in her eighties who married into the powerful clan many years ago. All her life she cleaned houses for a family of doctors. After she retired with a very small pension, she started working to maintain the big houses for her grandchildren who are abroad. She is close to the end of her life now, but she always has a kind word for me, and is happier working for her `own' people. Since her pension is small, she worries about what she spends, and about not having enough money even when surrounded by extreme luxury. Since she dresses in gypsy attire, Andy says she looks like a character out of a movie, but I love her. She gives me second hand clothes, and even food sometimes, and I take them to avoid offending her, and because reusing things makes sense. Her generosity reminds me that whatever their exploits her grandchildren are human with more than one facet of personality and whatever they've done there is this sweet old lady who loves them regardless and works hard to keep the palace ready for the one month they come home to it.

The Lugoj police protecting clans from shooting each other

 It is, however, important to understand that only a very small fraction of the Roma population live in palaces. Each city in Romania has a host of Roma families who are related to each other and who own and build these places. Their legality or how and where they get the money to build and maintain them is unclear. Only a chosen few join these families. The older members of the clan own some guns to protect themselves, and the police is so far only involved to record/resolve shootings/arguments between clans. Since they happen rarely, I have never seen such a shooting, but newspapers in Lugoj recorded one (see picture).

I would like to remind my readers that the aim of my post is not to increase their bias against the gypsies/Roma population, who have already suffered from a history of slavery and abuse. My writing is just an observation of what goes on around me, and I never want it to became a source of blame or hate. The palace dwellers are not representative of Roma/gypsies as a whole just like the top fraction of a percent are not representative of white people. My facebook-friend Alina Serban is Roma and is a tremendous force of good in the world. She is many people's hero including mine. She struggles to educate people through plays with social justice messages, against sexism, racism, homophobia and various other forms of discrimination. She held the leading role in "Singura la nunta mea", which one of the best movies I have seen to date. Another person who fought for their rights is my mother, who is a gynecologist. Throughout her career she struggled to treat Roma women to the best of her ability and repeatedly fought social injustice to help them.

The palace dwellers are powerful, but still uneducated. So, perhaps if the next generation goes to school (some do and some do not) this trend might not continue, but then fewer palaces will be built. And it's not just Eastern Europe - only here we have the palace landmark and one cannot hide from them or not notice since they exist on almost every city street.

So, is Romania unique? Other countries do not have palaces on every street, but are not doing that much better in terms of criminality rate, and ability to stop crime and corruption.  The crimes my neighbors commit (one was in prison for traffic of women) appear to be perpetuated in Western Europe. They do not traffic women or children from their house. If they traffic them, they take them directly across the border AND across the border there is a market for whatever they do. The Roma money is made abroad and now so is their jail time. If they are criminals for hire, they are hired abroad by people who afford to pay them AND don't get caught.

 It is sad that being powerful is not correlated to being talented or educated or to understanding the world, but it is more about being clannish enough and being born into the right clan whether one is Roma or of other origin. The Roma, the white, the Asian and the black, all give so much power to a few. These few represent us and may destroy our world yet again.