After the big pop star Madonna was booed at a concert in Bucharest for giving an uniformed lecture about gipsies. Of course that created a cascade of equally uninformed reactions in the media all over the world and a storm of comments. But like any storms, it came and went away, people forgot about it.

Well, last week-end at ONGFest, the national festival for non-governmental organizations was a good opportunity for me to remember the Madonna incident: the most acclaimed artistic moment at the event (at least from what I have seen) was created by a gypsy organization, they danced, sang and people loved them. Yes, the same people who would have booed Madonna.

What’s the trick? They were bathed, wearing clean clothes, smelled good, had jobs, acted like people who attended school and their music was authentic, not manele. Is that too demanding?

Anyway, I enjoyed the moment and took a lot of photos.

At the end of their show, they started a “penguin dance” and everybody joined them. Is that racism? discrimination?

With this being said, I will reiterate: I have no sympathy for the smelly and dirty ones who refuse to get a job and instead send their children to beg and steal for them, milk the social security and use the school only as a source of food (the “corn cu lapte” program).

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