Project Description
Floarea-Maria Zoltan
Floarea-Maria Zoltan, also known as Florina she is an academic and activist. Florina is a survivor of the Hadareni pogrom 1993 where her husband and two brothers were murdered. Since 1993 she has dedicated her life to human rights and believes in equal access to equal rights. Persecuted by the Romanian Government after leading the Hadareni Case to the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights, she has settled in the UK as a political refugee. After 13 years of unbelievable fights – her continuing battle for justice in the Hadareni Case showed the results: In August 2005 Romania was found guilty of racist treatment to Florina’s family and 20 other families from the Hadareni Case. With a rebellious mind, at 14 she started to describe in poems her feelings about her tradition and the society she lived in, without being able to escape the wrongs of the school system and the discriminatory attitudes of the teachers towards minority children. Later on, she burned her feelings of leaving in a unjust world in poems addressing the fights of persecuted people and claiming justice and equality
for all of them without regards to gender, ethnicity and religion.
A WISH, A DREAM OR PRAYER
The day of freedom’s coming –
A bright new day
When forgotten tears
Will shine – crystals of happiness.
I wish ! I long for a day
Of childlike innocence –
When, and this I must believe,
there will be no hatred
Only love and play.
When everything will be
Beautiful!… wonderful!…
And I will feel like the emperor’s child.
There will be no stereotypes like;
” – I know you, Conman!
You’re a common black bird
And you don’t even know that
We don’t want you, we will never
Accept you as our equal…
You were once a slave under
The command of my ancestors.
And if they so desired
They would torture you and beat you,
And take your life if they wished.
What do you want now?…
To be like me ?…
Gypsy, sit in your place! That’s better!
If you are our equal
Where will we find another nation
To torture in your place
To murder if we want?
Because, Gypsy you see…
History repeats itself;
Your freedom today is …
…pure illusion.
You have always been
…a common slave
without rights or liberty…
But you just don’t know …”
………………………………….
It’s hard…it’s very hard to say
If this is a wish, a dream or a prayer!
Or maybe the enraged howling
Of an abased soul
Of a sentenced nation
Throughout the tortured centuries.
Reason who cries out for justice!
And for rights and for equality!
For the future of our little kids
And presents for all who want them !
……………………………………….
But…ah it’s a dream ?!…it’s a wish ?!…it’s a prayer…?
It’s hard…It’s very hard to say !
But really much harder to change.
We have to start immediately!
To change the dream into reality
And let all the prayers be heard.
May racism, prejudice, discrimination…
Be found only in old books,
Let’s build TOGETHER immortality
Of the world’s nation – HUMANITY !