A Romea TV reportage of the funeral of the Roma activist Čeněk Růžička.
A very special comedy is coming to Murska Sobota, Slovenia, on the menu there will be a real ‘Gypsy roast’, a so-called ‘Ciganska pechenka’. On Wednesday, December 21, at 6 p.m., you will be able to taste a real gypsy roast next to the skating rink in Murska Sobota. It is also on stage and the comedy, with the same name is was prepared by well-known representatives of the Sobos Roma community.
The demolition of the former pigsty on the site of the Lety Roma concentration camp for Roma ended. The company is now statically securing two columns from the former pigsty hall, which will be part of the upcoming exhibition.
The Museum of Roma Culture in Lety wants to open the visitor centre in the second half of 2023, or at the beginning of 2024. There were three bids for the construction of the centre, but the museum has not yet chosen a winner. The museum calculated in the tender a price of 73.5 million crowns without VAT.
A discussion on German TV with Romani Rose on minorities in democracy.
A Greek court has decided to release from custody the police officer who shot and killed a 16-year-old Roma man in Thessaloniki on December 5 after a chase over an unpaid gas bill, Greek media reported.
The policeman has been banned from leaving the country. The court of first instance in Thessaloniki approved the proposal of the investigation to release the 34-year-old police officer, Kathimerini newspaper reports, despite the opinion of the prosecutor’s office.
Around two hundred Roma live in the municipality of Šentjernej in several settlements – on Trdinova cesta in Šentjernej, Mihovica, Draškovec, Roje and Drama. They were represented in the municipal council by Darka Brajdič for two terms, but this year she decided not to run for the post of Roma councillor.
She says without hesitation what bothers her about her work so far in the Šentjernej municipal council:
“I was not heard, much less considered. In the last mandate, the current mayor has never been among the Roma, he does not know how they live, what needs and opportunities they have. In our municipality, Roma families are not treated the same as others, they even oppose Roma if they want to do something themselves.”
The premiere of Stanisław Moniuszka’s “Jawnuta” took place Friday in Pozna. The opera is directed by the Italian director Ilaria Lanzino, who is known for her unconventional and innovative performance.
For her, “Jawnuta” is a story about Polish Roma with a difficult history, the power of prejudices and finding a way to avoid them. She thus invited artists of Roma origin to cooperate.
The opera can be watched on you tube:
There is a shortage of workers in Slovakia, while there are people who urgently need regular work, according to an article published last week by the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The integration of Roma would solve part of the problems of the Slovak labour market as there are around 500,000 Roma in Slovakia.
According to the statistics of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, in 2021 only 33% of Roma in Slovakia had a paid job, while 60% of young Roma between the ages of 16 and 24 were not looking for work, were not in education, or were part of any training program . “Humanly it is a drama, economically it is a burden for Slovakia,” writes the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in an article entitled Roma – a recognized workforce in Europe.
In Slovakia, as in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, there is a shortage of labour force, which will probably ease in the coming months due to the current negative economic development, but this problem is structural.
Another obituary of Čeněk Růžička, a Romano activist who fought his entire life for the closure of the pig farm on the site of the former concentration camp of Lety. He was buried yesterday.
May he rest in peace.
Véronique Le Goaziou, sociologist, has just published a latest book entitled “Démunis” [Destitute]. For two years, she investigated people in great precariousness in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône. Here we see one of the unfortunate trends, namely an implicit view that Roma are poor.
Other news are: In Uzès, a family is faced with expulsion. In Toulouse, the regional assembly supports the scholll inclusion od children. Also in Toulouse, on the riverbanks, a new camp is growing. In Nantes, a fire started in a camp. Finally, in the North of France, the prefect is pushing for more expulsions, something that has not been a solution for the last 20 years…
Between November 10-12, the Days of Sinti and Roma Culture took place in Bucharest. The event was organized by the Goethe-Institut Bucharest and the French Institute in Romania. The organizers invited musicians from Germany and France to support a musical program of Sinti and gypsy jazz, curated by music producer and journalist Liviu von Braha.
According to Liviu von Braha , the initiative took place with the aim of strengthening the representation of Roma in the public space, disseminating Roma culture to the widest possible public.
As part of the musicians’ event, an intensive workshop was organized at the National University of Music, in the Auditorium hall, held by Florin Niculescu and Christian Escoude, where the participants will familiarize themselves with the instrumental style on unique rhythms of Sinti and gypsy jazz from Germany and France.
The gentrification process hits Sinti and Roma twice as hard as other residents. Throughout Germany, they are evicted from their homes or forced to move into dilapidated houses or even construction containers.
Roksana’s family had twenty minutes to pack their things. Then they had to leave the apartment. Immediately. When the 17-year-old returned from school, her parents and six siblings were already on the street. They didn’t know where to go. The building supervision authority in Duisburg cleaned the entire apartment building. Reason: construction faults.
The newly formed Integrity Authority, which is supposed to investigate cases of corruption, has requested documents of the National Roma Self-Government’s Bridge to the World of Work program. This was announced by the chairman of the board in ATV after the NAV terminated the investigation into the catch-up program linked to the former Fidesz MP Flórián Farkas after 7 years.
The Hungarian National Roma Self Government has been engulfed in several controverses recently and been accused of mismanagement.
After 30 years of Slovakia’s independence, poverty in Roma settlements remains. According to statistics, the situation in settlements is improving – people in them have better access to drinking water and sewage than 20 years ago. However, the gap between the majority and the Roma is increasing.
The young 16 years-old Roma who was shot by the police in Thessaloniki died and was buried on Thursday in the presence of more than 1’500 mourners.
May he rest in peace.
With the so-called Auschwitz Decree issues 80 years ago, the Nazi regime ordered the deportation of Sinti and Roma from all over Europe to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp 80 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma fell victim to the genocide.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth and the chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, commemorated the Sinti and Roma murdered by the National Socialists at the Sachsenhausen Memorial on Thursday.
A commentary of Roma activists by Miroslav Brož. He says that Roma activism has a high price. Old activists are leaving, the younger generation is missing. It is not rewarding to be an activist in the Czech Republic.
Roma activists in Montenegro are pushing for a reduction of the census hurdle from 0.7% to 0.35% in order to be represented in parliament. Roma activists say that not one member of parliament proposed an amendment on the reduction of the census by affirmative action for the Roma which shows their interest in the community and the inclusion of Roma in Montenegro.
A long article about the shooting of a young Rom in Thessaloniki last week, and about the recurring police violence and racism against Roma and generally minorities in Greece, this with almost impunity.
It also highlights that the Roma are there since the Byzantine Empire (true, but most of the original Greek Roma are now in Turkey due to the population exchange in the 1920, and the current Roma are mostly Vach Roma who escaped the slavery), and it highlights the dire situation in which they are.
They are badly regarded in Greece and considered by many to be criminals.
This is bad.
The German Conference of Ministers of Education, together with the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Alliance for Solidarity with the Sinti and Roma of Europe, has passed a joint declaration on teaching the past and present of Sinti and Roma in schools.
With this declaration, the three participants want to work towards schools intensifying their involvement with the past and present of the Sinti and Roma in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. In a special way, as in teacher training, awareness of the topic of antigypsyism should be raised.
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