Here in the UK this weekend preparations are being made to evict around 90 traveller families from their legal home, Dale Farm in Essex. They have been there since at least 1987, they bought the land and 50 children have been born and attend local schools there. No provision for an alternative site has been made by Basildon Council, and the plans to rehouse them into permanent flats and houses will break up families and scatter the community. The main argument is that Dale Farm is on greenbelt land, but it comprised areas of hardstanding and was actually a scrapyard before the travellers moved there. Local schools and faith communities such as C of E and Catholic churches have expressed their regret at the prospective loss of this traveller community. Pictures show clearly that Dale Farm is clean and well-managed, unlike many council-owned housing estates in the UK. The children are educated at local schools and get healthcare locally too. Roma people and Irish travellers do not want to “settle” in towns and cities and live that way- they want to keep their tradition and culture, as is their right. Historically, they have had a hard time- look at the persecution and “ethnic cleansing” they endured under the Nazis. Now the Dale Farm community is facing more hardship at the hands of a society which uses hate,  prejudice and the delusion of the false ego to inform its actions. Why do other “ethnic” communities have social advice centres and community-building initiatives funded by local councils yet the Roma do not? It is the children, the sick and the elderly of Dale Farm who will be hurt the most. This kind of outrage- and worse-  towards Roma and travelling people is going on throughout Europe right now, from France to Romania. Why must we see other people as being from different cultures instead of as spirit-souls like ourselves? Have we lost all compassion? 

If you care about the human rights to preserve your own cultural heritage, have somewhere to call home, live without fear of hate crimes and receive an education and equal opportunities, then think seriously about what is happening and remember Dale Farm and all victims of prejudice all over the world in your prayers. 

“First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Please chant:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama 

Rama Rama Hare Hsre

for world peace.

The only thing we can change is our own consciousness, but if enough of us do it…..