The Romani love pawning their valuables

Or what does it mean to truly "own" a thing

Weighing gold at the pawnshop | Picture by Martina Petkova

Within our Roma community, it is very common to see someone with a smartphone today and with an old Nokia 3310 tomorrow.

“Where’s your smartphone?” you ask.

“In prison,” they answer.

Prison is the pawn shop.

In a week or two, they’ll have the smartphone again. For a while, until it’s sent to prison again. And on and on it goes.

To an outside observer, this is a meaningless process that only ends up costing more because of the interest rate owed to release the phone.

But to the Roma community, the sentiment above is petty nickel-and-diming that misses the entire point.

Your daughter’s golden bracelet

“You gave our daughter a golden bracelet,” Martina said to Pepi. “To me, she should hold onto it for the rest of her life. The value of the bracelet having been gifted to her by her father far exceeds its value in cash.”

“Yes,” Pepi said, “but one day she will grow up. She will have a family of her own, children of her own. We will not alway…