My Big Fat Gypsy Poem.

[Swampy Bob]

Good evening all,

Well it would seem that reviews are like buses here on GW eh?
Firstly,thank you all for taking the time to read and comment.
Secondly,to those of you that I have offended,the apology is pre written in to the poem.Thirdly,I have already explained how and why my own experiances have lead to my own opinions on "travellers".Lastly,it would seem that my ignorance has made me guilty of mistaking "travellers" or tinkers, or didicoys,(not heard that expression for years Keith ),with "Gypsies".Maybe my opions may change when I meet the real Mccoy?

However,I have taken myself off to my garden shed,and have beaten my bare back with birch fifty times.

Again thank you for your comments,I shall take them away with me and be all the more wiser for them.I wrote this over two weeks ago,I have moved on.

S.B

[Keith exD]

Every time I read your GW signature I keep meaning to ask you if you look anything like Samuel L. Jackson?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGiQsM2x ... re=related

[Swampy Bob]

Keith,
No! I don't, but one of my favourite movies, and the soundtracks are great.....Son of a preacher man is a Tuuuuuuuuuuuuune!

[Keith exD]

Mine to! Jules is my favourite. I often wonder why Tarentino never did a follow up on him after he quit 'The life.'
Did you ever read the series of stories I posted on GW1 called Peter and the Wolf? (Wolf as in Winston Wolf). I never finished the series, but I had fun writing them.

[Swampy Bob]

Hi Keith,

No,I have looked for them but you must have removed them,I would be interested to read....repost please?

I have writers block at the moment, but given the interest in this piece,I am thinking of a sequel.......My Big Fat Rose Tinted spectacles?

S.B

[Lordspudz]

As a whole, I liked it as most of it rings true. There are a lot of despicable characters amongst the "gypsy" community; an example being those who con the life savings out of pensioners in return for doing shoddy work on their driveways/roofs etc which probably didn't need doing in the first place!
Over the New Year period in 1999/2000, a traveller community descended on Great Yarmouth and setup camp on the seafront. Because of their presence, the towns millennium celebrations had to be cancelled and, when they were finally moved on, the bill for clearing up after them was well over £100,000!! Did they contribute anything? You know the answer.
I think the problem with Swampies poem is in the use of the word Gypsy. Old school gypsies, although a little roguish, (some call it streetwise nowadays) are nothing like the 'new age travellers' who have dragged the Gypsy name and all they stand for to an all time low.
Would the comments have been the same if Swampy had used the term travellers instead of Gypsy?

[SylvesterG]

Deleted

[Swampy Bob]

[Phil]

Sometimes the views have to come before the writing, so I'll comment in that order.

This is my personal view. It's a poorly disguised rant that many other people have jumped on to express their own prejudices. Just what GW was designed for? There are bastards of every nature in every walk of life. I suppose we fear most those who interact with us most directly. I wonder how many pykies, Gypsies, travellers - whatever - were involved in robbing our pension funds; in selling the country's assets to the highest bidder; in sending young men off to fight old men's wars; in buying weapons instead of medical equipment; in funding education in countries like India while their government develops nuclear weapons; in misselling of financial products to those who can not afford them and walking away with enormous profits while the rest of us suffer because 'we're all in this together'? I'd have thought they were bastards of a pretty high order too. The problem for me is that a piece of writing like this identifies a whole community as worthless scum - and that's just not true. There is scum and goodness everywhere.

As for the writing, it's poorly executed, scans badly, is punctuated badly, suffers poor grammar - I could go on. As has been commented on before, writing satire, if that is what this is meant to be (I hope to Christ it is, but reading the comments that follow, I doubt it), takes great skill - that is just not demonstrated here. It's a clumsy, lazy, lousy piece.

The 'apology' contained in the piece is no excuse. If I were to write: sorry to offend you, but all niggers should be gassed - it wouldn't make it right. It's still an appalling thing to say.

For the record, this has nothing to do with political correctness. This to do with lazy thinking and bad writing.

Phil

[Swampy Bob]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your input,and on the whole I agree with you. I realise that this is not a great piece of writing,and is littered with bad punctuation and grammar.
However this was not inted to be a rant, I wrote this while watching "My big fat gypsy wedding"on TV, and was meant to be a tongue in cheek view,fair to say my own bigoted view on the travelling community as a whole as I have experienced them. Lets face it the TV programme does them no favours.
I feel that some people have read far more in to this "piece of writing",then was ever intended.
Of course I realise that there are far worst people in the world,But THIS WAS INTENDED TO BE HUMOUROUS.

So I am guilty of being ignorant, have a warped sense of humour,and need to educate myself with grammar spelling, and punctuation .I am now going to steer away from any topic that may land me in deeper water, and concentrate on nice fluffy things like spring meadows and butterflies.

Cheers

S.B