PRESS RELEASE

KOSOVO ROMA REFUGEE FOUNDATION

Pristina (Kosovo)-

Who says you can't trace the origins of the Roma (Gypsies) back to their precise tribes in India? Linguists have tried for centuries to pinpoint the origins of Roma without much success. But in his new book GYPSY TAXI, American author and history Paul Polansky does just that, using their own traditions to identify with tribes in present day India and Pakistan.

Polansky's new book is a collection of journalistic poems (240 pages) relating his experiences of living for eight years with the Kosovo Roma, the most traditional Gypsies of the Balkans. Shortly after the 1999 war in Kosovo, Polansky volunteered to live in a Gypsy refugee camp to advise the UN on their ever-growing number of homeless. Lacking freedom of movement, Polansky drove Gypsies not only to hospital, but to reunite families separated during the war. These poems mainly tell the story of his trips during the summer of 2001. Each poem reflects on Romani traditions and customs, and especially their origins as seen from their traditions.

Miradija Gidzic, a Kosovo Rom, whose home was burned down during the war and who is now president of the Kosovo Roma Refugee Foundation has written the introduction to GYPSY TAXI. She wrote: "Most of Paul's trips in his Chevy Astro were to take women and children to hospital. He saved many lives since no Roma in our village had a car at that time. Paul kept a diary, writing down each trip and who he took where. Not long ago I found his diaries and counted more than 400 trips he made from June to August transporting 1,084 Roma. Several times a day for three months he drove Roma to hospitals, fortune-tellers, Muslim clerics, and to rejoin families separated by the war� During those trips Paul would interview the people about their origins, traditions and customs. But because he also lived with us, he witnessed many of our traditions and customs first hand. He not only transported Roma to weddings, engagements, but also even to recapture stolen brides.

Polansky pulls no punches with his poetry. Not all Gypsy traditions are good ones. But as Ms. Gidzic writes in her introduction. � hope these poems will give you an idea about the lives of my people in Kosovo. Some of our traditions are outdated and need to be changed, especially for Romani women. But as Paul's poems reveal, our traditions are the only real thing we have left after the wars in the Balkans.

Here are two of Polansky's poems with footnotes that show how Gypsy traditions can reveal their origins:

GRAVE STONES*

a year after Shemo's death

his wife asked me to get

two large stones

from a clean river

in the mountains

for her husband's grave

according to Romani tradition

the dead have no water in heaven

unless someone puts

two large river stones

on their grave

without stones

they have to beg for water

which is okay on earth

but not in heaven.

* An old custom of the Gond tribe of central India. The Gond are closely associated with the Lohar, the blacksmith caste. Most Kosovo Gypsies say their ancestors were blacksmiths.

WORMS*

one Saturday Hasan and his wife

had me take them

to the worm woman

their one-year-old daughter

was having ear aches

crying all night

I tried to get them

to a doctor instead

Hasan refused

said his relatives

swore this woman

was better than any doctor

contrary to Romani custom

the worm woman's home

wasn't very clean

after she left the room

to prepare the operation

Hasan whispered in my ear,

"They're very poor,

but very honest."

woman returned

carrying a straw

inserted it into one

of the child's ears

sucked

few seconds later

the woman

spat out a handful

of tiny, motionless

white worms

did the other ear

same results

when I reached out

for one of the worms

she scooped them up

asked Hasan for 50 euro

he offered 10

she accused him

of not caring

about his daughter

knowing this was going

to last a long time

I went out to the van

sent a half-naked kid

to buy me a beer

hour later

we left

without paying

Hasan said: "Our relatives

will sort it out

some day."

* Women of the Sansia-Kikan tribe of Punjab still practice this sorcery of taking "worms" from the nose and ears of sick children and adults.

GYPSY TAXI, 240 pages, bi-lingual English and Serbian, ISBN 1879457687 can be ordered at www.paulpolansky.com.