Monthly Archives: September 2023

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary and the Extreme Right

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A special two-hour long debate between LL junior (László Lesi), a well-known musician-performer and László Toroczkai, president of Mi Hazánk, a extreme right party in Hungary.

The use of by the party of Roma for political purposes, citing demographic issues, gypsy crime as a perceived or real concept were discussed. Of course, Trianon was also mentioned …

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary, Roma, Health and Contraception

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An article about underprivileged youth in Hungary, about their health, their knowledge thereof, teenage pregnancies, and contraception.

Scary as most of the youngsters have a very limited knowledge of how their body works. Also, it seems that Hungary has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the EU. The article highlights, that it is not all Roma, and definitively not a Roma trait, but rather an issue of poverty and education.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Roma and Poland

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A meeting will focus about the situation and challenges of the Roma community in Radom and Masovia. The activities of the Central Council of the Roma in Poland will be presented.Its activities focus on the Roma minority and counteracting the exclusion of Roma on economic, social, educational and health grounds.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Politics, and Roma Education

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Every day there are more schools in the east of Slovakia with up to 50 percent of Roma pupils.  Non-Roma Slovak parents take their children out of school and look for other options for them. They are said to be afraid of infectious diseases, bullying and fights. Why do all solutions fail? An interview with education expert Martin Šmilňák (KDH).

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Activists, and Stereotypes

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Bogdan Miklič, a journalist and Romano activist who has been fighting against stereotypes and prejudice against Roma is being accused of having built a house on municipal land. The tone of the article is very much “see I told you …”.

Bad for all.

Germany News Western Europe

Trollman and Remembrance

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Almost five years ago, the Dresden city council decided to create a monument to the Sinti boxing legend Johann Wilhelm Trollmann so that it would receive more attention. He was killed by the Nazis.

To this date ,nothing has happened.

Surprised?

Germany News Western Europe

Germany and “Traditions”

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Well, another old German crooner sings songs that at best can be described as out of fashion, and at worst, borderline racist. In this case, one example is the song “Lustig ist das Zigeunerleben” [Gypsy life is funny].

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Svi Uglas

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The Svi uglas choir, which gathers Roma children and young people, as well as all others interested in learning about Roma culture and getting to know the Roma community through music, will hold a big concert on Saturday in the Youth Center, and as special guests they will be joined by Konstrakt, the first female Roma hip-hop band Pretty Loud, and the choir of the First Belgrade High School.

Europe News Eastern Europe Slovenia

International Roma Conference

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On Thursday, September 21, an international Roma conference was held in Radenci, Slovenia. Representatives of the Roma community from 15 countries discussed several topics important to Roma with representatives of national and European institutions. In the foreground were the implementation of the European Commission’s ten-year plan for supporting Roma in the EU and the presentation of good practices for solving the problems of the Roma community.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Relocation

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Roma from the settlement near the ecoduct of the D3 highway in Kysuck, near the border crossing in Svrčinovec, were to be moved by the end of March. It only succeeded six months after the deadline. Petitions, filed criminal reports and dissatisfaction of people in places where an external company provided them with accommodation did not help either.

Part of the Roma were relocated to a house in Lupušné Pažiaty in the district of Kysucké Nové Mesto, and another family found a new home in a property in Rakova on Zákopecká cesta. Even the house in Čadc – Podzávoz, where the settlers were moved by a truck of the National Highway Company in the early evening of Wednesday, September 13, is no longer abandoned. The rest of the inhabitants of the settlement were moved to the customs building in Makovo, where they found temporary accommodation.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Novi Sad: Roma Bal

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The Novi Sad Roma Ball will be held on Friday, September 29, starting at 7 p.m., in Villa Moskva, Novi Sad.

Visitors can expect a rich program, a game competition and a contest for Miss Evening. Guests will be entertained by Milan Dimić’s orchestra with guest Roxana Chirit from Romania and other singers.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Racist Attacks

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MP Jozef Pročko (OĽaNO) has a sprained cervical spine and a bruised head after Monday’s incident in Lučenec where he was attacked. At the press conference, he appeared with a fixation collar and announced that he had filed a criminal complaint in connection with the physical attacks on his person.

Pročko, but also OĽaNO candidates Peter Pollák and Viliam Tankó talked about the escalating attacks at their meetings. “We are the target of verbal and physical attacks. Their reason is our Roma origin,” added Pollák.

It was a group of Roma candidates who led the election campaign on Monday in Lučenec, where Prochko also came to support them. “Unknown people started disrupting our event. They shouted at us that we are gypsies, parasites,” Pollák told journalists, adding that after the verbal attacks, there were also physical attacks on Proček.

  • Poslanec Jozef Pročko (OĽaNO) má po pondelkovom incidente v Lučenci podvrtnutú krčnú chrbticu a pomliaždenú hlavu. In: Dennik N. 19.09.2023. https://dennikn.sk/minuta/3577168/
Germany News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Ukraine

Roma Refugees

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Apparently, there is a recent influx in Germany of Roma with brand new Ukrainian passports but who also have Hungarian passports asking for asylum. No one seems to know whether they are Ukrainian or Hungarian, and they speak Hungarian.

The most prosaic answer to this is that they are most probably from Transcarpathian Ukraine, and that thanks to the Hungarian Prime Minister, they were able to get a Hungarian passport as Hungarian speakers living abroad. Orban did grant Hungarian citizenship to Hungarian speakers outside of the country since quite a while.

Lithuania News Eastern Europe

Vilnius: Gypsy Fest

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Another article on the Gypsy Fest festival in Vilnius. It includes an annual Roma march through the city

This Roma procession was promoted by, among others, Isztwan Kwik, musician and leader of the band Sare Roma – a multi-generational band whose over 70-year history was highlighted by Honorata Adamowicz in the article “Three generations of Sare Roma. The Kwiks and the band revitalize the community” published in November last year.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbia, Roma, and Music

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The big autumn concert of the Svi UGLAS choir will be held on September 23. at 6 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Youth Center in Belgrade.

The SVI UGLAS choir is not quite an ordinary choir. It gathers Roma children and young people, as well as all other people who want to learn about Roma culture and get to know the Roma community through music. The choir was started in 2016 by the association Art Aparat headed by Maja Ćurčić, a music teacher and composer from Belgrade, and so far over 400 participants of all ages have sung in it.

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia and Segregation

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After a two-month summer break in the Croatian Parliament, the fall session began today with a “topical morning” during which MPs will ask questions to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and members of the Government. The session began violently, with the distribution of warnings due to objections by deputies to the order in which questions were asked.

Veljko Kajtazi, deputy from the Roma minority, asked why there is segregation of Roma children in Croatia, who are separated into special classes, and the Minister of Education Radovan Fuhs says that there are “pure Roma classes”, mostly in Međimurje County.

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