Monthly Archives: January 2023

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgarian Wedding

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A Roma wedding in the town of Smolyan in Southern Bulgaria, close to the Greek border. The bad thing is, the paper mentions the bride’s age: 14, and the fact that she was sold for BGN 5’000 (roughly EUR 2’500). This is not good as it perpetuates this stereotype. Brides are generally not sold, but among many Vlach groups, the groom’s family has to pay for the bride, a tradition most probably associated with the slavery in that region.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukrainian Activists

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Portraits and discussions with Ukrainian activists, among which Ruslana Polyanska, a Romni who studied at the Central European University. They speak also about sterotypes.

Germany News Western Europe

Germany and Hate Mails

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A man in Berlin has been sentenced to ten months in prison for sending hate mail containing racist abuse of Sinti and Roma. The district court in Tiergarten found the 56-year-old guilty of incitement to hatred and insult, the Berlin public prosecutor announced on Tuesday. He also had to pay 4,000 euros to the “HateAid” advice center for those affected by digital violence. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the sentence, which was suspended on probation, included an earlier fine for insult, incitement to hatred and the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations.

In the current case, the 56-year-old sent e-mails to the Central Council of Sinti and Roma seven times between October 2020 and July 2021.

Good!

Germany News Western Europe

Germany: Documentary

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The members of the Schwarz family sit on the couch or camping chairs and talk about the past and present of antiziganism. Many of her grandparents were deported under the Nazis. While the contemporary witnesses have already died or have not returned from the camps, the traumatic experiences live on in the stories and return in antiziganism insults and violence in German schoolyards.

Europe

Turkey, the Police, and Roma

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A Rom who filed a complaint against the police in Istanbul alleging they racially abused him, beat him and tortured him is facing charges of “insulting and resisting against the police officers”. He goes on trial today.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Poland and Roma

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An article about the life of Romnja in Poland and their constant fight against stereotypes. This is presented through interviews with two Polish Romnja, one who stile lives in a traditional way (whatever that may effectively mean) and one which doesn’t.

But the stereotypes are the same: Dirty thieves.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Elections

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79% of the Roma in a small closed village voted for Babiš in the first round of the presidential elections in the Czech Republic. Marco Cavali from Prague, the chairman of the Roma Luma (Roma World) party, which he founded in 2021, called on the Roma to vote for Andrej Babiš. “And the Roma also voted for Babiš in the first round. Only this candidate is a sure guarantee of a safe life in the Czech Republic for the Roma,” Cavali tells CNN Prima NEWS.

This is bad. Babiš is a populist, supported by the far-right Okamura’s party. This will not turn out good for the Roma.

France News Western Europe

French Chronicle …

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Still not much in the French press about Roma this last week. An initiative to play with Roma children in the North of France. Nice idea, but frankly, what does it bring? Also in the North, a camp got closed in Lille. Near Paris, in Bobigny, another camp was closed. Finally, near Nice in the South, a new camp was opened. This is the same game since nearly 20 years: Close a camp, the camp pops up somewhere else.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Vasilica

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Vasilica, sometimes also called Bango Vasil, is celebrated all over the Balkans by Roma, be they Christians or Moslems.

Vasilica has been celebrated for a long time, as it is the “Old New-Year” of the Christian Orthodox calendar.

Nebojša Demirović Zeka from Vranje, Serbia, says that his great-grandfather told me that once upon a time, the Čergari Roma crossed some water. Their boats began to sink, and the geese saved them. Since that day, Vasilica is celebrated, while the goose is sacrificed.

The holiday is celebrated for health and happiness. It starts between January 13 and 14, and is celebrated for the next three days.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and LGBT+ Roma

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A discussion with Daniel Bunda, a gay Rom. He says it clearly, prejudice against LGBT+ is also present in the Roma community. It is so doubly difficult for him.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia Mayor Elections

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The mayoral election in Kecerovce, in Eastern Slovakia, saw the re-election for the fourth time of the outgoing mayor Miroslav Galas-Zaufal of the SMER, the leftist populist party of the former prime-minister Fico. Only problem, the village is 90% Roma and they say they didn’t vote for him… The police is investigating.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: On the Murder

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An interview with the deputy and chairman of the Committee for Human Rights and National Minorities, Peter Pollák Jr. about the recent murder in Michalovce.

Some excerpts: I think that the local government failed when it did not use funds from European funds. Some mayors simply do not want money for Roma integration, because it is not a popular topic. I think that is also the case in Michaloviec.

One of the associated phenomena of poverty is also increased crime. If we manage to reduce poverty in these ghettos and settlements, I believe that the crime rate there would also decrease.

Germany News Western Europe Ukraine

Germany and Ukrainian Refugees

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A rochade among refugees in Germany. A group of Ukrainian refugees was moved away from their current home to make space for Hungarian speaking Roma refugees from Transcarpathian Ukraine who were in a temporary camp. The original refugees will be put in better homes, apparently, rather than in that particular large home they were in.

A bit of a mess, and the Germans admit their communication was not optimal.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Back and Forth

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František Tanko from the Slovak Roma Union stated that the actions of Marian Kotleba’s party directed against the Roma are unacceptable. “We are sorry for the incident in Michalovce, but we cannot throw all Roma into one bag. We are people who also obey the law,” Tanko said referring to the murder in that city.

Member of the National Council Marek Kotleba responded to Tank’s words by saying that their actions do not at all mean attacks directed at the Roma minority. “We did not go to the square in Michalovce to stir up any passions. We came to point out that such crime should be prevented,” explained Kotleba. He added further that the “People’s Party Our Slovakia will always stand on the side of decent people, whether they are white or black.”

That later statement is not really visible in the fact and actions of this party.

Italy News Western Europe

Turin: Coming Out

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A theatre play on coming out.

The show was born from the idea of five Roma boys and girls in search of their history and identity. Five young people who met during a memorial trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau on the occasion of the day of commemoration of the Roma genocide, on August 2, 2022. This trip allowed five young Roma to discover a chapter of history that they hadn’t been taught in school. Visiting the places where part of their families were exterminated forced them to confront the past and question their own identity as young Roma in Italy today.

Back from Poland, the Roma decided to tell their common story and to intertwine the narrative with some personal stories of today’s Roma. The show aims to keep alive the memory of the tens of thousands of men, women and children who were exterminated and were unable to make their voices heard.

At the same time, the protagonists recount the difficulties of coming out ethnically, that is, of “coming out” and declaring one’s ethnic belonging. Although Roma rationally know that they are not guilty of anything, it is difficult for them to be able to get rid of that sense of guilt that comes from growing up in an oppressive context in which one is considered “thieves”, “dirty”, “inferior”. In the Romani community, the majority of people hide their origins and make themselves invisible. This for fear of falling into a discriminatory limbo that denies the right to housing, health, work and education.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Disgusting

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The Czech comedian Štěpán Kozub, in his performance at the O2 arena on 29/12/2022 made a really bad joke disparaging Roma and Jews as well as the memory of the Holocaust. Roma and Jewish organisations are protesting.

Kozub told that sometime after the Second World War, a bus full of Roma people went to see the ghetto so that it would never happen again. The guide goes to announce that “a bus full of gypsies” has arrived, and the porter replies: “But we don’t do that here anymore”.

Bad, especially since everybody in the sold out arena laughed.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Enough!

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The gathering of the Marian Kotleba supporters in Michalovce will have an follow up: Roma in Slovakia are planning a series of protests against the former member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Marian Kotleba.

The marches will be held in larger cities and towns, they want to invite representatives of the European Commission to in addition to journalists. They will report them to the relevant authorities during this week. František Tanko, the chairman of the civic association Union of Roma in Slovakia, informed about this today at a briefing in front of the Presidential Palace.

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