This was one of the most popular and controversial shows in the UK. It’s now on TLC. What a trip. Here’s a great place to talk and learn about the show. A lot of the forum members provide links so you can learn more about the Roma and Irish Traveller communities: Television without Pity: My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Forum
Roma and English/Irish Travellers have such interesting cultures. With the Travellers, the wedding and First Holy Communion dresses are over-the-top. Some of the wedding gowns weigh 70 lbs. They can hardly walk in them.
What struck me the most is their constant battle with the UK government. People don’t want gypsies living near their communities. When they find land, they buy it and set up their trailer camps. They live with fellow gypsies. They’re not allowed to build on this land, even though it’s theirs. They just settle in anyway and the fight to stay there goes on for years. Of course, the government wins. They refuse to go, and the bulldozers come and tear down their trailers. They’re evicted with no place to go.
If they buy the land, why can’t they stay and build? Just leave them alone. Outside of work, they are not into mixing with cultures outside their own. I don’t know. I hope the exposure they received through the show will help their fight to be able to stay on their own land. That doesn’t even sound right. Not being able to stay on the land you own.
May 30th, 2011 at 1:47 AM
i’ve never seen that show, so i can’t comment on that. however, i remember seeing a story years ago about travelers in the united states. they’re roving scam artists. they bilk people out of money by overcharging for things like roofing and other repairs. not only do they overcharge, but their work is shoddy (and calling it just shoddy is being kind). the men will travel to disaster sites and do repair work, collect lots of money for it, and then disappear before everything they did falls apart. the kids are taught to shoplift. you might remember a story a few years ago of the woman who was caught on tape hitting her daughter in a store’s parking lot. her name was madelyne toogood. she’s a traveler. you can read about her and the others here.
May 30th, 2011 at 2:05 PM
Yes, I remember the Disneyworld story! The scamming is just sickening – especially of the elderly.
I wonder if the Travellers are different in England and Ireland. Or do they make their money being con artists too? From that show, their “mating rituals” are a bit different. There aren’t the pageant type walks. Teenage Traveller girls in the UK attend many Traveller weddings because they’re open to all Travellers. I think that’s one place where they end up meeting their future husbands.
May 30th, 2011 at 5:25 PM
I don’t think it is a specific fear (crime, etc). I think most cultures fear and reject people who exhibit different life patterns than the norm for that culture. In nomadic cultures, people who settle down are considered the wrong/undesirable ones. In the Bible – the clashes between nomadic and static cultures frame many of the historic turns. Even Cain (a farmer) and Abel (a shepherd) represent the struggle between the two lifestyles.
May 30th, 2011 at 9:06 PM
Wow. I never thought of the connection between Cain and Abel. Talk about an old clash.
May 30th, 2011 at 10:17 PM
Cain was framed.
May 31st, 2011 at 2:27 PM
I wonder if they had conspiracy theories back in the day.
May 31st, 2011 at 7:35 PM
I think so.
May 31st, 2011 at 7:38 PM
Terrance – that was awesome. I want a “CAIN WAS FRAMED” bumper sticker really bad now…
June 1st, 2011 at 11:08 AM
Hahaha. In one of the forums I frequent, there is a sig line that always makes me laugh. “Humpty Dumpty was Pushed”
April 1st, 2012 at 2:04 PM
You actually make it seem really easy with your presentation however I to find this topic to be really one thing which I feel I would by no means understand. It sort of feels too complicated and very vast for me. I am having a look forward in your next publish, I’ll try to get the cling of it!
April 2nd, 2012 at 9:53 PM
I think it’s a very complex situation for you all in the UK. We Americans watch it here without much interaction with the gypsy community. I think you would all have more knowledge of it having lived besid them. Thank you for reading and commenting!