A bridge in Patras, Greece, partially collapsed, killing one person and wounding another one. The victims are Roma who lived in a camp below the overpass.
Not much this week in France. The French prefect of the Herault, in the South of France, known for his hard stance against Roma camps is on the go. Near Paris, a new camp has been dismantled. And near Nantes two caravans took fire.
The Slovak Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport published a call for proposals entitled “Support for the provision of early care and early intervention to children aged 0 to 6 years from the environment marginalized Roma communities and from an environment of generational poverty”.
Let’s see …
The position of Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs was established by the government in December 2022 and is independent of political parties. Lucie Fuková, a Romni, is the first one. There are already voices in the Roma community who say “We didn’t vote for you, don’t speak for the Roma! You won’t do anything anyway!”
Her answer is: “So I am the very first person in the Czech Republic to take on this position. In contrast, in Slovakia, the Roma government representative has been operating for many years. I’m only a few months in and I’m building my entire office from scratch – in every way. I have nothing to follow up on. That’s why I spend a lot of time setting up the functioning of the office (people, processes…) and unfortunately I can’t be everywhere.”
On August 2nd, a memorial plaque for the Sinti and Roma deported from Koblenz by the National Socialists will be unveiled at the Ravensbrück Memorial in Brandenburg. The occasion is the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the National Socialist Genocide of the Sinti and Roma.
From 1 August, the Małopolskie Voivodeship will take over the Museum of Remembrance of Oświęcim from the Oświęcim District and will co-run it together with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
As explained by the Marshal of Małopolska, Witold Kozłowski, after signing the document, the change of the museum’s organizer is aimed at expanding the scope of its activities. In that context, a Centre for Roma History and Culture will be established.
Further commemorations planned on August 2nd in Darmstadt and in Ravensbrück.
Several articles in the Italian press about the arrests of a gang Sinti responsible for over 30 burglaries since December, and for theft of over 200’000 euros. They also had a collection of false license plates, radios, wigs, etc.
The extreme right weekly “Die Weltwoche” puts up a title stating “Fake Ukrainians flock to Switzerland: Roma with purchased passports demand protection status. A community in Bern raises the alarm. She feels let down by the State Secretariat for Migration”.
Well, there are not that many Roma refugees from the Ukraine here. As usual, when this paper “reports” on Roma, they are all thieves, profiteers, and organised criminal beggars.
Journalist and presenter Alica Sigmund Heráková is the co-founder of Internet television Tuke TV. She says that “The mainstream media only shows Roma people when there is a problem. We have created our own media world,”
Local civil and preventive services (MOPS) were still functioning until recently. However, the funding for this activity has been slowly depleted. The Slovak government is planning to restore the service. “Eligible applicants are municipalities with the presence of a marginalized Roma community, which are listed in the Atlas of Roma Communities 2019, and which have at least 80 inhabitants of this community,” explained Ján Hero, the government representative for Roma communities.
The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities will allocate financial aid from the subsidy scheme for emergency situations to the fire-stricken village of Telgárt, where more than half of the huts in the local settlement burned down.
Agátka Berková is a twelve years old Romni from Slovakia who grew up in a Roma settlement. She is an already well-known chess champion and she represents Slovakia at prestigious international chess events with excellent results. The media write about her as a unique chess phenomenon, because not everyone can boast of a draw with chess grandmaster and world chess champion Anatoly Karpov.
Her father Milan, an excellent Romano poet, external editor of the national broadcaster RTVS and chess coach, known for founding and leading the Romani chess club Hrochoťský jazci, took care of her. It is he who has a large share in the fact that his daughter has become a passionate chess player who defeats much older opponents.
On the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day for Sinti and Roma on August 2nd, the Diocese of Eisenstadt invites to a commemoration ceremony in Oberwart. Of the approximately 12,000 Austrian Roma and Sinti, only around 1,500 survived the Nazi terror. Of the approx. 8,000 Burgenland Roma, only 900 people, i.e. almost 11 percent, survived the Nazi terror system.
According to Daniel Strauss, chairman of the State Association of Sinti and Roma in Baden-Württemberg, Roma were discriminated against in Ukraine, a discrimination which continued after fleeing the war zone to Germany.
Posts on social media in Plovdiv, Bulgaria showed the same photo of a car was with a warning that it was driving around neighbourhoods in the district and stealing children. In the last 24 hours alone, more than 50 reports have been received from worried people who thought their families were in danger. The police categorically denied these rumours. At an extraordinary press conference, they clarified that the car filmed belongs to a 53-year-old man from Plovdiv, who has no criminal record.
This was disinformation against Roma.
The Language Centre of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Pristina is planning to open a course where basic Romani language will be taught for the first time, the Kosovo media reports.
On August 8, the International Roma Song Day will be held for the second time. The organizer of the initiative is Mihály “Mazsi” Rostás, who, in addition to active musicianship (Romengo, MazsiMó–GipsyMó), is the artistic manager of the formations of Mónika Lakatos, winner of the Kossuth Prize and Womex Lifetime Achievement Award. A well-known representative of gypsy music told our newspaper that the idea of a day related to Roma musical culture came to mind already in 2008, on the occasion of Hungarian Song Day, but the idea turned into action the previous year.
In addition to several Hungarian locations, the event will also be held in Parkany, Slovakia, and in Krakow, Poland.
A first in Switzerland: an article highlighting the longstanding hostility and persecution of Roma in Switzerland. What is worse, it continues. The country recognised Yenische, Sinti and Manouches but not Roma as a national minority.
A video purposedly showing three Roma beating a Ukrainian in Brno, is a total fake. Yesterday, it came out that the person beaten up was not a Ukrainian, but today, the Brno police confirmed that neither Roma nor Ukrainians were involved.
Total disinformation.
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