THE FINNISH WAY

The City of Helsinki is to set up a two-person Romanian-speaking street patrol team. The purpose of the team is to reach out to Helsinki’s Roma beggars of Romanian origin. Originally the City of Helsinki had planned to establish a Romanian expert to patrol the streets. But, for the time being, they will buy the patrolling service the Helsinki Deaconess Institute. The institute’s workers will start patrolling the streets from the beginning of June. The Finnish want to investigate why the Roma leave Romania and go beg in Finland.
“We will ask them why they have arrived in Finland. Naturally it will also be interesting to find out they are genuinely victims of intimidation at home. And are the talks about their money lending and high interests true?” explained senior planning officer Johanna Seppälä from the City of Helsinki Safety and Preparedness Co-ordinating Division on Tuesday as quoted in the Helsingin Sanomat daily.
What complicates matters is the range and variety of beggars. There are peddlers of false gold and roses, those who stop cars, and petty thieves, but also women begging on their knees, who presumably have nothing to do with the previous. Some are street musicians. The usual stuff I might add.
The reason for the over-representation of Romania is the country’s sizeable Roma population, which is estimated at a minimum of two million people, the largest in Europe, the Finnish believe.
Several human rights organizations have reported on Romania’s systematic discrimination against its Roma minority.
So is putting pressure on the Romanian government through the EU one of the means toslove the problem? “Yes”, says a guy from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Definetly not, I'd say. I wonder how they will react when they really find out how complicated this whole thing is and how difficult it is to change the way people think. Try make these people stay off the streets and see what happens.

I once interviewed a Gypsy chief in a town called Tandarei in southern Romania. He had two huge houses, marble plated and was very proud of it. And proud of how he got the money for the two precious palaces.
"After the Revolution we put our children in the trunks and we went to Germany. We were hundreds of thousands. There was nothing here for us. The government wouldn't give us anything. So we left. People died then. Children suffocated in the trunks and the police at the borders had no idea. But it was worth the sacrifice. I made the money for these houses in two years. How? Social assistance. We had 10 children and we got lots of money for that. My people wouldn't steal. They are Christians." Traian Bulibasha is now a pentecostal pastor and forbids his people to lie and steal. But can he?