I guess talking about “persecution” of Gypsies by Romanians must be exageration nowadays. Persecution must have happened but I hope it is over now. I prefer thinking there is some sort of social exclusion phenomenon happening (as with other minorities in other countries): as you suggest in your post, many non-educated, non-gypsy Romanians may feel offended when people ask them if they are gypsies because gypsies are often considered are thieves. The same thing would happen in France where older people may sometimes use the work “gitan” (gypsy) as an insult. And I assume that some Romanian gypsies themselves must try to differentiate themselves from the rest of the Romanian population, including for cultural or lifestyle reasons. Well, there must be some double-sided exclusion happening there. A similar phenomenon exists in France for French gypsies, French arabs and other minorities. My hope is that tolerance and education can spread across Europe and that people will learn and enjoy living together while keeping their ethnical and cultural wealth and differences.

Regarding the Le Petit Robert thing (happened in the 2002 version, right?), I can feel “the consternation and indignation” you describe in your post. What a shame for such a dictionary to make such a stupid confusion! This reminds me of debates about the value of the wikipedia compared to traditional encyclopedic dictionaries. Such a confusion would not last many days on the wikipedia.

I have French friends from France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec/Canada and I know their intentions are good when they speak about helping Romanians in need. However, while I also see in these comments some misconceptions about the “persecution” of Gypsies by Romanians, I’m wondering if there is a lack of understanding or just the pure hypocrisy I described in http://right-behind.blogspot.com/2007/07/romanians-and-gypsies-two-worlds-apart.html - Romanians and Gypsies - Two Worlds Apart.

I’d truly like to hear what do you say about the portray Le Petit Robert gave to our nation. “By mistake”, they later said…

A bon entendeur et meilleurs voeux,
Christian

I have some doubts that it will be really “europe” for poorest people… We know, for example in Netherlands, that people with social revenues have many difficulties to go and find job outside the country… A rest of Middle-Age where the poor were linked to their native village…