Stop Wasting Another Generation
“They should send their kids to school”…When racists talk to you about their God sent inspiration on what romas should do to please the majority of the population, you either get that or something even worse – “they shouldn’t have so many kids”.
At the beginning of the twenties century most of the romanians where peasants, fighting and usually dying for a piece of land. My grandfather had four children. Like him most of the romanians had many kids. If we consider the lack of medication and the effects of both WW, we have to admit that we are here today only because our grandparents didn’t stop having kids, and just fulfilling their ploughing careers. The romanians where indeed peasants but not stupid, so they quickly realized, without the help of any NGO’s that it’s not a bad idea to send the kids to school.But sending kids to school it’s not an easy job and it doesn’t come cheap. Actually, if you think that many of them had to give up a cow or a pice of land, it was quite expensive. Because it was so expensive, most of them had to evaluate their offsprings and decide send to school only the smartest of them. The rest had to wait…For many of them their turn never came.
One hundred years later, all sorts of NGO’s and international organizations, on a patronizing tone, preach the importance of schooling to romanians living below poverty line. Many of these romanians are of roma origins. Like our grandparents, romas today are the only citizens in this country with sometimes five, eight or even more kids.
Most of these NGO’s representatives, with their full bellies and their squeamish nature to the site of the poor conditions these people live in, spend just a few minutes passing down their wisdom and than they move on. According to them, if you tell someone unemployed, hungry, without running water or electricity to send their eight children to school, you’ve done God’s work on this earth and you can go home and be proud till you burst.
It puzzles me how we can’t learn from our past. Millions of Romanians don’t have the proper conditions to send one kid to school, not to mention eight. Unlike one hundred years ago, these people have nothing to sell, but more importantly the discrimination made it impossible for many of them to find a decent job. Marginalization took an extreme toll on them and miss-shaped their life expectations.
When I look at Canuta’s kids going to school regularly it fills my heart with joy. For I know that we only need twenty years to change the destiny of this country for the better. When I know they go to school in the same clothes they slept in, it blows me away. Without running water they bath now and then. In the winter they can’t read after four in the afternoon. To them, breakfast holds almost no meaning. Unless they have some leftovers from the night before or if you count the milk and the bread they get at school. That milk and bread it’s the only social program I truly respect for many romanians send their kids to school just because they get something to eat. But that is not enough. Our kids, this nation’s future need electricity, running water, clothing and school supplies.
We’ve exploited romas for centuries. Our racism and in the best cases indifference put a gap between romas and non-romas that will soon threaten our own existence.
We are loosing precious time debating whether to call them romas or gypsies. We believe that if we call them gypsies and blame them for all the wrongs in this country we will be beyond moral scrutiny. I am amazed how in a country where we all pray for our neighbour’s goat to die we all look for scapegoats. We are still victims of communist mentalities. We still want to believe that we live in a country ‘free‘ of homosexuals, sex workers and drug addicts. Now, by leading the romas to declare themselves non-romas during population census we prefer to lie to ourselves rather than face the truth. The truth is that in probably less that one hundred years from now, the romas will represent The majority of the population in this country. So the question is not if education will benefit the romas but if we like to live in a country where the majority of the population is educated or not.
I would love to see the day we realize that we have to start paying for our mistakes. The sooner we realize that, the better. For the price increases with time.
The romas need no convincing that school it’s important for their kids future. They need support. For 62 years we only talked about integration and look where that got us. We, as a nation have to admit failure and start paying for our mistakes. It’s time we learn discrimination and indifference doesn’t come cheap.
I am talking about this price we have to pay and I am afraid many of you might think I am just talking about ‘mea cupla’/my bad…I hate to break it to you but I am talking about money…Let me give you an example…In each house there is a kid we so much want in school, there should be one lightbulb we all pay for. And make the parents responsible for the help they get.
We failed many generations of romas…For the mature ones is little we can still do. Let’s not wait and waste another generation.
Let’s pick up the check and change our future for the better.
Mugur Varzariu
With a very successful career in strategic marketing and brand management, working for some of the most important companies in Romania, in 2010 Mugur decided it was time for a change in order to find more than just professional accomplishments.
He chose photography and due to his ambition and dedication in less than a year his work has been internationally recognized and he became a stringer for some of the most important press agencies (Associated Press, Mediafax, IntactImages and recently invited as a contributor on Getty).
Photography became a new means of expressing his social artistry. Therefore in his projects he approached some of the intriguing aspects of living in today’s Romania, in an attempt to raise awareness and increase social responsibility among institutions and individuals. He believes that we are way beyond the point where a true documentary photographer simply just shows us the reality as they see it. While being objective, he believes that photographers should continue their work and attempt to help way pass their assignments. And that is because they have or should have a better understanding of the situation than anybody else.
He is especially attached to the roma people’s cause and he hopes that one day, his work, from images to public speeches and presentations will help end the plight of the roma people. UNHCR, UNICEF (Romania and Switzerland), Open Society and Amnesty International already used and commissioned his work on roma people.
He did two stories for Le Monde des Religions (part of Le Monde Group) – 2010 (pogrom survivors in Romania) and 2011 (hindu-muslim reconciliation). In april 2012 he had an assignment for WIRED Magazine in Glasgow, Scotland.
Mugur’s images have been published by Le Monde des Religions, The Economist, The New York times, Welt, Los Angeles Times, etc. He exhibited for UNHCR, marking the WRD and the 60th Anniversary of UNHCR and his work on recent uprising events in Syria was screened at Visa Pour l’Image 2011. On september 4, 2012, he had another screening ‘Romania’ at Visa Pour l’Image 2012.
Even though he only started as a photographer in 2010, he won the iReport CNN award 2010, he had his images selected among the favorites of Daphne Angles in 2010, Alexia Singh (7 images), Renata Ferri (winner), Paul Romer (6 images), Rebecca McClelland, and an awarded image in the “Editor’s Choice 3 Favorite Overall Image” competition at CPN (Canon Professional Network), 2011.
On December 20, 2011, he received a ‘Honorable Mentions’ distinction – UNICEF ‘Photo of the Year’ 2011.
“A newcomer to the ever growing numbers of photojournalists, Mugur has made himself known very rapidly, covering a variety of subjects in different countries for extended periods of time. He produced a large body of work over a very short time span. He has all the resources required to be a recognized member of the present time photojournalism community, as well as the drive to invest every effort in this endeavor. I wish him good light inside the soul and outside in his photographs and hope that his images will highlight important human issues and persuade the viewers to step in and offer practical help to those in need.
To Mugur, and hopefully for all photographers, making a practical difference for the better for those in need through his pictures is the main target, the highest and only truly meaningful reward for his work”.
