Rom and Sinti, Pagano: Linguistic rights for the people who never declared war.

Statement of Giorgio Pagano.

 “It is time that the State recognizes the linguistic rights of the people who never declared war”. This is the comment of the Secretary of Esperanto Radical Association after the press conference at the Chamber of Deputy held by the Rom and Sinti Italian Federation after the national demonstration in front of Montecitorio this morning.

 “Rom, Sinti and Caminanti were excluded from the law n. 482 on protection of historical linguistic minorities, and also the possible way of the Italian ratification of the European Charter of regional and minority languages seems very far. Article 6 of our Constitution states explicitly that “the Republic protects with provided norms the linguistic minorities”, and yet there is no intention to give justice to one of the oldest minority of the country, with the scandal of European funds on assignment to them but without understanding where these funds end”, added Pagano.

 “Now that Rom and Sinti demonstrated that they could be together in requesting to the Parliament the right of being recognized as minority, the institutions have to answer, otherwise all Italians will lose a great chance of civility.

As Esperanto Radical Association we consider that also the Minister for Equal Opportunities should take into great consideration this event and the issues brought out today, also given the Research Report of the Human Right Commission of Senate that, as remembered by the Secretary of the Commission, the radical senator Marco Perduca, highlights a reality which cannot be ignored by a democratic country, given the new persecutions of which these people are victims in other European countries”, concluded Pagano.

Rome, the 9^th November 2011

Culture, today took place the presentation by ERA of Masquerade and Crusoes in Siberia by T. Soros.

Today at 2.15 pm the presentation by Esperanto Radical Association of Masquerade and Crusoes in Siberia by Tivadar Soros concluded in the venue of Via di Torre Argentina 76 in Rome. After the projection of a video intervention of the son of the author, George Soros, the Secretary of the Association Giorgio Pagano, the Rector emeritus of Hartford University Humphrey Tonkinand the academic and esperantist Carlo Minnaja debated about it.

In his intervention George Soros reminded how, when he arrived to London escaping from Hungary, first thing he called for help at the Esperanto Club in Park Avenue. Soros said that he is happy and proud about the diffusion and translation from Esperanto of his father's book, and he expanded on the role of Tivadar in publishing the most important esperantist literary review of that time, "Literatura Mondo".

«The presentation of these two books made today, in the Day of Military, takes a significance of peace and nonviolence. Since the present setting of european crisis, we as Radicals hope furthermore that the governments look concretely to the establishment of a european army», declared Pagano opening the presentation. After the intervention of Carlo Minnaja, who explained that Masquerade, written in Esperanto, is a story of survival in a place where Hebraism was persecuted, the Secretary of ERA added: «Too often we forget the role and the historical dimension of Esperanto, which had been at the same time object of persecution and way of escape from totalitarian regimes of the XXth century».

«Masquerade is the main work of Tivadar Soros, the story of the flight from a concentration camp to reach the West, through the words of a father who was trying to save his family», explained Humphrey Tonkin. «The Radical Party is one of the few who takes care of linguistic democracy: Unfortunately in USA nobody understands its importance. If an american meets up with a stranger who can't understand his language, he speaks English louder, because he thinks the other cannot hear well or that he is an idiot», with this joke Tonkin concluded his intervention, making so an example of the common perception of linguistic diversity in USA.

«About misinformation on Esperanto, the books we present today are a new case, after the English translations made by Tonkin, of how literature in Esperanto today is, after 124 years, an original production representing a transnational culture of democracy and peace, from which translate into national languages», concluded Giorgio Pagano.

Rome, the 4th of november 2001