Rühmkorf (2013) spoke with an engaged citizen from Budweis, who campaigns for a peaceful, non-violent co-existence of people in the Czech Republic. Tomáš Mařík lives in the housing estate Maj, where most of the 400 Rroma from Budweis, a city of about 20,000 inhabitants, live. Mařík regards the pogroms as absurd as residents finally all have the same problems: fear of the future, their job and their family. One problem however is that there is too little public places in the estate. Budweis only has one playground where therRromae was a dispute between children and parents, which caused the pogroms. Marik deems the residents’ representations which describes the quarter of Maj as being dangerous, to be exaggerated. These views are based on preconceptions that distort the view of the world: “To me it seems only absurd that people demonstrate here against Rroma or against police violence. They should rather demonstrate in front of the government headquarters in Prague, where many problems have their origins, instead leashing here at their neighbours.”

Source:

• Rühmkorf, Christian (2013) „Ich bin nur Fahrradmechaniker, aber mir kommt es absurd vor“ – Gespräch zu Anti-Roma-Protesten in Budweis. In: Radio Praha online vom 15.7.2013. 

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