On August 18th, the Roma Bašavel event will take place in Prague. Tickets are no longer available, but the event can be watched via live broadcast on social networks “Romany Bashavel 2022”. The live broadcast is provided by ROMEA TV.
A new music festival brought Roma and non-Roma musicians to the stage this summer in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The “Roma Song Day” aims not only to celebrate the music of the minority, but also aims to create a connection between cultures.
Roma have been participating in this pilgrimage in Brezje, Slovenia for a century. Usually set a week before Mary’s Assumption day, during the festivities, they help carry the image of Mary from the church to a nearby park and back to church, a trip symbolizing the search for an abode that Mary and Josef had to do.
After two years where the feast was cancelled because of Corona, it takes place again. But the local authorities do not want to provide a place where the Roma could stay during the pilgrimage, in fact, preventing them from attending. This is bad, but in view of the general view of Roma in Slovenia, not surprising.
Dr. Paul Isaac Hagouel, president of the Roma Genocide Committee at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) spoke to APE-MPE on the occasion of the Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day on August 2nd. Himself the son of an Auschwitz survivor, explained that “the oblivion of the Roma and Sinti Genocide perpetuated prejudices and stereotypes about the Roma which, in turn, fostered discrimination and unfounded and at the same time harmful hatred of the ‘other’ – Anti-Gypsyism”.
Thus, the IHRA, a transnational organization, constituted by a combination of experts and top diplomats from the member states, recommended the creation of the Commission on the Genocide of the Roma in 2007. This interdisciplinary IHRA Committee aims to raise awareness of prejudice against Roma and Sinti and highlight the link between the history of persecution and the current situation in Roma communities which, continue to experience the manifestations of stereotypes, prejudices and, quite often, (racial) hatred.
An editorial by Juan de Dios Ramirez Heredia, a lawyer, former EU MP, and a Rom activist on the unbearable situation of Roma in the Ukraine. He states: “It is dramatic to know that the situation of the Roma people in Ukraine is unbearable and that the war has greatly increased their exclusion. Conditions in the settlements are unacceptable and Roma are being discriminated against during aid distribution in the context of war.”
The little Catalan town of la Seu d’Urgell was the scene of racist incident between a group of local residents who wanted to dance a Sardana on a square and a group of Roma evangelical Christians. The municipality apparently had made an error and scheduled both events on the same square on the same day. The result was that Roma were insulted and confronted with racist shouts and were asked to leave.
The municipality excused itself and deplored the racist overtones of its residents.
After a week without news on Roma in France, they are back in the news. An interview and overview of the travels of a French Gitan in Europe to preserve the memory of those who were killed during the Holocaust. A book and a movie will apparently follow. Other than that, a major fire started in Nantes, in Western France, in the vicinity of a Roma camp. Apparently, several caravans were burnt, and the Roma were evacuated. Finally, a new camp in the South East will be closed, as it is situated in a forest that could easily burn.
A huge wedding gathered the eyes of passers-by on the capital’s Vitosha Boulevard this afternoon. About hundred wedding guests sang and danced to the sounds of an orchestra in the centre of Sofia. Foreign tourists were apparently amazed and took photographs of the celebration. Strolling residents of the capital spontaneously join the party, and so the guests, although uninvited, became hundreds.
Apparently dozens of calls to the police were made and the noise of the celebration echoed throughout the centre, but the police never responded or intervened.
A video has been circulating on social media since July 31. It is shared with the claim: “150 extended Roma families from Ukraine are given apartments in Sömmerda, Thuringia and the shops have been informed not to call the police for every crime.”
Well, nothing is true here. The only truth is that this is racist propaganda.
Their literature is almost unknown: Only in 2019 for the first time were Sinti and Roma represented with their own stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time. A look at literary alternatives to a world of intolerance and ignorance. This give a nice overview of Roma literature.
Hungary’s only Roma arts festival, TeatRom, closed with a deficit of about HUF two million. However, the series of cultural events – aimed at the Roma communities living in the segregated communities in Cserehát, a region in Northeastern Hungary close to the Slovak border – lasted only three days instead of the planned eight.
It took place in the village of Csenyéte, a village at the end or a desolate road. Life in Csenyeté is a dead end in many ways. There is nothing there. No shop, no clinic, no school, no pub, no bank, no post office. Even the mayor comes here only to go home after his work is done. Five hundred and fifty people live here today, almost exclusively Roma. Sixty percent of them are children.
Whether a festival in such a place, and whether the “romantic” view of Roma it presents are a good idea remain to be seen. But the problem of these isolated god-forsaken Roma communities in the poorest region of Hungary remains.
The “Gypsy Fest” Festival will take place on September 4th in the Lithuanian capital.
What happened to the infamous Roma settlement of Lunik IX in Košice, one year after the visit of the pope? Not much, but nevertheless, the life there has progressively gotten better. Gone is the large garbage dump, replaced by a children playing ground, buildings are not as dilapidated as they used to.
This is not only due to the pope’s visit, as this transformation started before and is continuing. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done as unemployment is still rampant. Education is still sup-par for Roma too.
Another article about Roma thieves in the Ukrainian press. This time in the Volyn region of Western Ukraine. On the pretext of telling fortune, Romnja walked into a home for the elderly and stole cash and jewellery.
This is bad on both sides: On the Romani side for stealing, as it reflects on the entire community, and on the Ukrainian side, because they fail to say that this is the consequence of utter poverty and exclusion, especially among Carpathian Roma.
An article about a fight involving pitchforks and axes between Roma in the Bulgarian city of Lom. As usual, this casts a bad light on Roma, and fails to mention the issues faced by Roma in theses Mahalas.
A reportage on an exhibition in Żagan, in Western Poland, about the Romani Poetess Papusza. She lived there before moving to Gorzów Wielkopolski. She came from a group of Polish Roma. There were many artists in her family, playing at weddings or in taverns. She learned to read and write on her own. Her enormous talent was discovered by Jerzy Ficowski, supported by Julian Tuwim.
Another article on the situation of Ukrainian Roma IDPs and refugees, based on the visit of the German Federal Commissioner for Sinti and Roma in the Ukraine.
An overview of the major Roma Music groups in Hungary with the somewhat surprising addition of Esma Redzepova who was from North Macedonia. Please bear in mind that this style of music is exclusively part of the Hungarian Vlach tradition, and not the original music of the Carpathian Roma.
Siniša Senad Musić, the vice-president of the Roma Youth Organization of Croatia stated that the Roma civil society has a committee to monitor the implementation of the National Plan for the inclusion of Roma, but these, while Roma, are financed by the state, and therefore it is very difficult for other Roma to criticize them.
This is a common pattern in many countries.
Well, it is not good it you are a Rom. A reportage in the Czech Republic, in Moldova and in Romania. It is not better in Hungary, that we know…
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