Thursday, April 9, 2009

Poor Getting Poorer

On the outskirts of Podgorica there is a refugee camp. It is filled with displaced Roma ("gypsies") from Kosovo. Even though they have been living there for ten years, there still doesn't seem to be a plan for "bettering" their situation. While there are a few concrete apartment buildings, most of the living quarters are little more than shanties, hastily errected out of whatever materials could be found.

The Roma come to the city in very inovative "vehicles" such as tractor or lawn mower engines used to power a small cart. They also have carts powered by bike and of course horses or mules.

Children are sent to stand in the middle of busy intersections and beg from cars at stop lights. You see many rooting through the garbage containers looking for some edible scraps. They come to open air restaurants and apartment doors asking for 50 cents or some bread and fruit.

It is heartbreaking. And the worst part is, there doesn't seem to be a simple or quick way to end this cycle.

1 comment:

Luis Portugal said...

Hello
It has a nice blog.
Sorry not write more, but my English is bad writing.
A hug from my country, Portugal