Taboos remain entrenched on both sides
Sexuality remains taboo in Roma culture
By Irma Stenbäck
Roma have lived in Finland since the 16th century. About 10,000 are believed to live in Finland now - most of them in the cities of Southern Finland. The Roma remain among the poorest citizens, both in Finland and in other Nordic Countries.
The Finnish constitution bans racial discrimination. However, in everyday life it still exists. A memo put out by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health a couple of years ago said that the Roma experience discrimination in everyday life situations.
Roma women endure a double discrimination, based on their gender, their ethnicity, and their clothing. Roma children are doing better in school now, and the language of the Roma has been taught at Finnish schools in 1989.
There are a few roma in local councils and municipal boards. About ten study at university. Top musicians among the group include Anneli Saritsa as well as last year's "Tango King" Saska Helmikallio.
Finland currently has only two Roma authors - Veijo Baltzar and Kiba Lumberg.
So what do the authors say? Do the doors open for the Roma more easily than they used to?
"Yes, they do", insist Kiba Lumberg, 49, and Veijo Baltzar, 63. However, in a number of other basic questions of gipsy culture, the two are very different.
Like Baltzar, pictorial artist Kiba Lumberg has broken the ancient taboo of their tribe - the law of silence.
Lumberg's first novel, Musta perhonen ("Black Butterfly"), which appeared in 2004, was the first story in Finnish literature about the Roma community written from the point of view of the community itself. The novel's separate sequel, Repaleiset siivet ("Tattered Wings") is scheduled for publication next autumn.
"There is discrimination from both sides. Gipsies are always discriminated against regardless of culture. We do not have a country of our own. Finalnd is my country."
Taboos remain entrenched in Roma culture. Lumberg says that attitudes change slowly, and in the Roma world, the family and parents continue to make the decisions on behalf of their youth.
"The roles of men and women are restricted. Customs are a taboo the younger generation understands that if you want to make it in Finland, you need to change with society. And this is not possible without an education. Very few rise up. To do that you need both perseverance, and enlightened parents."
Lumberg plans to run for Parliament in next year's elections as an independent on the ticket of the Left Alliance.
"When we have a dark-skinned woman president, we will have gone pretty far", says Lumberg, who has her own art gallery in Kallio in Helsinki.
Veijo Baltzar, who was born in a sauna near Kuopio has a long literary career behind him, ranging from novels to plays, poetry to film scripts. This colourful personality will not soon run out of opinions. He recalls 1968, when his first novel Polttava tie ("Burning Road") appeared. At that time Gipsies were not even allowed into restaurants.
"Now it is a completely different world. In spite of hidden racism, the doors are open now, if you have enough money. The lower classes discriminate against the Roma, and each other. Young people feel malaise. People were stunned by the fire at the railway warehouses."
Baltzar is proud of his strong Roma identity. He does not want to forget his childhood as a wandering gipsy travelling in horse-drawn wagons, even though his life has brought him into the fine salons of the majority population. Genuine roma culture includes a strict code of manners, in which elders are respected.
"Gypsies have taboos, and people do not talk about them, even though roles are changing. The family, the greater family, and sexuality are taboo, as are the roles of men and women. People do not talk about divorce."
In Roma culture marriage is a drama between men and women, which others do not understand. The same applies to the concept of blood revenge, which has been misrepresented in the mainstream media.
For Baltzar, vendettas are an aspect of Western criminal activitiy. For the Roma he sees the vendetta as the a manifestation of a wrong kind of concept of nonour - a deterrent to protect the family, and defence of victims of discrimination.
"We Gypsies are doing just as well as the population at large we reflect their well-being and their malaise."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.5.2006
More on this subject:
 Why do the doors stay closed to us?
IRMA STENBÄCK / Helsingin Sanomat
irma.stenback@hs.fi
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