We often say for everything which is arguable, when it is dirty, complicated, something promised and not fulfilled, is Gypsy business. I try to understand that stereotype, where does it come from, and yet it is very often used. The Gypsies I know call themselves Roma. They call them selves Roma community and not drifters and huts, they call them selves the only municipality in Europe,although in short we call it Sutka. Movies, stories, they are sung by many … oh to have, like I don’t have, to by myself … stories with a lot of honesty, a lot of love, a lot of smiles, joy, passion, to like, to love, to sing, to fight with all its hart… NO, this is not gypsy business! It is not them. And who are they …!? I am trying constantly to enter in the subtext of the contempt “Gypsy business”. I know that no one can tell them that they are a lazy people, they are being born to run on the streets and dark skinned as they are with a smile, naked without hidden thought, they reach out their hands, pull you on the pants… Have you ever considered that they just want to be noticed, to be in the same line as you are who with the head in the clouds can not willingly step on them? Does the reached out hand means only charity, begging or just honesty and trust. The people I know and respect are classic Roma, joyful, hard working, honest and above all persistent. They will not scorn you, order you around, they will offer their help to you – of course that is far more than the others can, and they are not even asking you questions, or noticing you… The Roma can talk too much, they can argue, to burst in flames when they are cheering in their traditional geese fights, to pull hairs – as an image for their openness and repulsion towards injustice… and forgive each other in the end. They are here, but because of our gypsy business are somewhere on the cross road, sending you with their look, hanging on the rear view mirror… seeing you off without getting angry at you for leaving them, whether there is son or rain or snow, they will forgive you and wait for you the next day with a smile on their face. The Roma are the most tolerant creatures who always reach out, but no one reaches them back. That is the gypsy business, to have them beside you and not treat them like equals, taking that as normal, putting the blame on them or the government. You have them in the education, and you do not care about their social condition, you not employ them and carelessly leave them, and then you drive them off the street. They do not finish more then the 5th grade and that concerns no one. Why don’t they learn on their own mother tongue? Do you know that they have their own grammar? Have you ever heard about Saip Jusuf? He wrote it in 1980, and he does not give in, he is old in a wheel chair, and he still promotes it. And what is the gypsy business, not one page of Romany history in the school books, and we say that we have reformed education – well where the Roma are? Does the Minister Polozani think that only Macedonians and Albanians deserve to learn their history and the Roma are without one. Does the government consider that they have fallen from the sky or maybe Vardar, Serava brought them… or they rode on the not bought horse Vlatko Stefanovski talks about… How many are there, that is not, in fact it is our gypsy business if that thing we understand as a distance or obscurity. The people, the Roma I know, the courageous one who step forward in front of others are great friends, authors, explorers are open and really prepared to share their knowledge of their profession with everyone. They know that if we are more honest, the injustice which is always inflicted on them will be overcome, without favorizing of other ethnical communities like the Albanians. The Roma can equally carry and contribute for everyone and not just for them selves. Education is the key, conclude my dark skinned friends, we have are own day, we have proclaimed a decade, but we want a life. The stereotypes and our gypsy business can be a past if under a synonym for ethical minorities, for learning of a mother language or second rate citizens, do not apply only for the Albanians. Elementary education is obligatory for everyone, Mr. Buckovski! The ministers need to insist to respect the laws and to enable the Roma to go to school. Education can not be a privilege, but an obligation, and not declarative of the state. And for the paradox of every day life and the title that is more often used …… business, I do not know where the gypsies have gone, but the Roma want education is a better title!

Dragan Antonovski