What discrimination?
Published 1 year, 5 months ago in My life.
The owners of the short-lived Romanian restaurant in Bridge Road, Richmond, are making an interesting accusation about the reasons for their eatery’s closure. It is a matter of “reverse discrimination” alleges gypsy Yvonne Slee in a romany newspaper published in the UK. Ms Slee had intended to use the restaurant to promote the romany heritage and culture.
In recent days, flyers have appeared on the deserted cafe’s window announcing the advent of Sintezza’s - another romany-themed restuarant - and promoting two lurid romance novels written by Ms Slee. It seems she has recovered from the alleged discrimination and is about to take another crack at tempting locals’ tastebuds.
20 Responses to “What discrimination?”
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It’s a change to see another culture outside the Jewish, Islamic and Black African alleging discrimination….
I was told a story yesterday of a woman, together with her mother, who’d gone to a chemist shop for her daily dose of methadone. Waiting until after three customers had been served before her daughter’s request had been provided, the mother complained that they’d been waiting some time for the service. The shop assistant responded saying that “if the mother had done her job properly, her daughter wouldn’t be sick and need the medication anyhow!”
Now that is discrimination!
Firstly, let me tell you, wild horses couldn’t drag me back to Bridge Road to try and open the cafe again. Why on earth would I after being called trailer trash, and comments such as “What’s in your food. Is it safe to eat?” “Gypsies are happy living in their own dirt”, “Do you tell dodgy fortunes?” “Typical Gypsy, Here today, gone tomorrow.” “Where’s your caravan. Have you got your hubbly-bubbly out the back?” “I wouldn’t eat here if you paid me,” and the list goes on. Secondly, it was a Romani cafe, not Romanian. And as for the flyers appearing on the window, some happy customer out there who would like to see the cafe open again must have obtained some flyers from somewhere, because I certainly wouldn’t travel 5kms to that area, let alone the 1500 kms I live from there to post some flyers. I’m not surprised the place is still empty as the street reeks of racism!
Yeah, your right Gypsies have been subjected to hate and ridicule for many years, and to open a restaurant in that red necked, backwards part of town many have been a stupid idea.
Yvonne, sorry to learn of your sad tale. It is a story which needs wider prominence. The flyers are a puzzle as they are INSIDE the window and even suggest a new restaurant along similar lines to your own is opening soon - and this long after you departed.
Dreamer, what makes you see Bridge Road as a “red-necked, backwards part of town” when it has long been a rich mix of many enthnicities way ahead of many other suburbs one could think of? And why should it be a “stupid” idea - brave, maybe, in commercial terms considering the competition already there, but stupid? No more stupid surely than the Indian, Greek, Japanese, Nepalese, Burmese, Thai etc etc already there.
On second thoughts, perhaps this was nothing whatsoever to do with discrimination but lack of business acumen. Anyone opening a cafe/restaurant in Bridge Road must have rocks in their head considering the existing level of competition. Ms Slee’s place lacked visual appeal to the drop-in trade. It was a small, almost homely cafe but looked almost amateurish - and diners these days are somewhat picky and discriminating in selecting the ambience for their wining and dining. The menu was similarly bereft of appeal, especially when considering the existing competition. There have been numerous cafes which have opened on Bridge Road with high expectations and which have closed or passed on to other operators within a short time of opening. It has nothing to do with discrimination but a lot to do with public taste - and with foodservice operators knowing their market. It was a bad business decision, Yvonne, not discrimination against gypsies or romanys or anyone else. Perhaps you need to get that chip off your shoulder.
What a complete turn around from your last post, Bromo. After admonishing Dreamer about “the idea being a stupid one” and telling him it was “brave”, you have now decided that we had “rocks in our heads” to open the cafe. Sure there have been numerous cafes which have opened on Bridge Road with high expectations and which have closed or passed on to other operators within a short time of opening, but I wonder how many of those experienced the hurtful comments and remarks that we did? Sure, if the food’s bad maybe, but personal remarks about your race…No, I don’t think so. And as for diners being picky and discriminating in selecting their venue, well, the ones in Bridge Rd. were not adventurous in their eating habits. The same faces in the same places, day after day, week after week. Creatures of habit. We weren’t offering the romantic stereotyped image that the public has been fed by the entertainment industry for donkey’s years, nor were we serving the common food that most of the eating places had on offer that is so familiar to the Bridge Rd. lot. With their mediocre tastes, I reckon a licenced KFC or Hungry Jacks outlet would do well there. We are planning to open another cafe some time in the near future, but I can assure you, it will be well north of the Mexican border, where people have more adventurous taste buds and open minds.
Common food, Dave? It goes from Italian to Indian, from Vietnamese to Greek, embracing Afghan, Lebanese, Malaysian, Chinese, vegetarian, Mexican, seafood, Japanese and numerous places covering the broad field of “international” cuisine. That’s reasonably broad and “adventurous”, whatever adventurous might mean. People dine to feed an appetite and engage socially - not to be force fed what someone thinks they should be eating or to be educated in someone’s culture. If you seek foodservice success, give the public what they want, not what you think they should have. Slick burger bars aren’t doing all that well, nor are franchise joints. Good luck north of the bornder, biut I think you’ll find them even more fickle in their loyalties there and even more resistant to being told what they should be eating. Even altruists have to make a profit.
Hi Bromo! Show your face! So I know you! Don’t hide! I don’t!!!!
What do you know anyway!
Read this! By the way, I’m an immigrant as well!!
Yvonne
A VANDAL armed with a sledgehammer has badly damaged an important tribute to immigrants on Melbourne’s historic Sandridge Bridge.
The tribute, a series of glass panels detailing information about immigrant nations, was installed last year as part of the redeveloped Sandridge rail bridge. Behind the panels are giant metal sculptures that represent different stages of Melbourne’s history.
In the early hours of Monday, more than 40 of the 128 glass panels were destroyed by the vandal in what Lord Mayor John So described as “senseless and un-Melburnian” behaviour.
The glass panels provide details about Victoria’s indigenous inhabitants and information on migration from specific nations ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. The damage is expected to cost about $250,000, Mr So said.
He said councillors were already discussing more durable materials to replace the panels so the tribute would not be vandalised again.
Les Erdi, the Polish-migrant philanthropist who put $2 million towards the Sandridge Bridge project, and who is planning a “cultural harmony” project on the north bank, said yesterday: “This is a most disheartening, unbelievable, idiotic act, but it is not characteristic of Melbourne or this country. We are not vandals. I can’t understand how someone could do all this damage. Either they escaped from an asylum or they should be locked up forever.
“Forty-six of the 128 panels have been damaged, and you would need a huge sledgehammer to do this. It was randomly done, not targeted. It will cost about $200,000 or $300,000 to repair.”
Meanwhile, more than 30 refugees and artists yesterday crossed the Sandridge Bridge to mark the beginning of Melbourne’s Emerge festival. The festival celebrates the arts and cultures of refugee and emerging multicultural communities.
Mr So said yesterday’s festivities were not marred by the vandalism. “Melbourne is known for welcoming people from all over the world,” he said.
http://www.multiculturalarts.com.au
Dave, I have now twice attempted to post a reasoned and non-inflammatory reply, largely agreeing with your disgust at the Sandridge Bridge desecration. However, neither have appeared and I can only assume they have been inexplicably and unjustly censored.
Go on put the last post in. It’s gone all across the world anyway! So you might as well!
I tried to, twice, and each time it has failed to appear - which suggests censorship is alive and well. There was nothing in it which could be considered personally, racially, ethnically or anything else wrong. As I said, it was a reasoned, even supportive so far as your remarks re Sandridge were concerned - yet it has been monitored out.
I’ve tried yet again. I am being censored. So much for free speech - even when one’s comments are mild, non-racial, non-inflammatory and conciliatory
Here we go again - one more attempt to reply to Dave and Yvonne Slee. Folks, I share your presumed horror and disgust at the vandalism which occurred on Sandridge Bridge. I don’t know why you would assume I would think otherwise. Such acts cannot be condoned or supported in any way. However, I don’t quite see what the relevance of that is to our earlier discussion. Sadly, all restaurants get the occasional abusive, ignorant customer. That does not mean there is wholesale racism affecting an entire suburb. There are also restaurants which fail to meet customers’ expectations, which fail to undertake a proper study of the market and demographics. Thus they fail - and the customers cannot be blamed for that. I maintain you are probably apportioning blame in the wrong direction otherwise so many other ethnic restaurants and cafes along Bridge Rd would liong ago have disappeared.
I wish you well north of the border - and hope your market research is this time somewhat more accurate.
Dear Sir:
As an author who has read Ms. Slee’s books, I can assure you, they are not ‘lurid’. They are passionate and loving descriptions of her family heritage - that is the Roma culture. Your descriptions of her books are without a doubt completely uncalled for and disrespectful. I doubt you have even read them and if you did, you missed the point.
As to the issue of the cafe, perhaps you’re unaware that the people of the Roma culture face widespread discrimination. That is a fact which has been documented around the world by numerous credible international organizations including the U.N. and the European Union. Please, take the time to learn your facts before you post inflammatory, rude and disrespectful comments about people which could possibly leave you open to slanderous charges. Finally, Ms. Slee has no intention of re-opening her restaurant. Why would she do so after her first experience was so negative?
I have traveled widely in Australia and met wonderful people. Yet, I am distressed to see that a few Australians still practice discrimination against others.
Whatever happened on the cafe window is someone’s idea of a stupid, insensitive prank. And it’s right what Ilanna said about Yvonne’s Romani book, Torn Away Forever. It is a book that is, as Ilanna described, written from the heart for her people. Also the magazines, calendar and booklets were put together to help her people.
Ilanna I am well aware of the discrimination against the Roma people (I’ve seen it in the UK) and reject your allegations of making inflammatory, rude or disrectful comments - especially on the basis of the Slees ethnicity. My comments are based on what I see and the evidence presented. The book being promoted in the window of their former restaurant is “Sharon Sins Again” by Yvonne Slee and the cover blurb suggests it is akin to a Mills & Boom lurid bodice-ripper.
We have no access to the premises anymore and whatever was left behind poster or literature wise etc became the property of the landlord and the agents who manage the place.
We have nothing to do with the place anymore and left 10 months ago. Ilanna thought Yvonne’s Romani family biography, Torn Away Forever was also in the window.
Yvonne writes fiction and non fiction books as well to make a living as a writer. This thread is going nowhere and isn’t achieving anything and all you are doing now Bromo is using this blog to have a stab at Yvonne and have the last word.
I have no wish whatsoever to have a stab at Yvonne or anyone else. I am merely informing you what has led me into making some of the opinions offered here. They have obviously been based on misinformation and for that I apologise. There is no mention of Torn Away Forever.
There is censorship on the Nook
An Update on the Romanies that left Melbourne!
See how you didn’t give a culture a go by not listening.
Check what happened next, in North Qld. What lovely people we met and they gave us a fair go.
Yvonne