One of the last Czech Sinti – actually known as Kale – passed away. May he rest in peace.
After a one-year corona break, Gypsy Fest brings exclusive concerts of top Roma artists to the capital again. The 14th edition of the international festival will take place from September 2 to 3 on the Main Square in Bratislava.
Next weekend, September 4., Vilnius will be rocked by the most colourful music event – the Roma culture festival “Gypsy fest 2022”. The organizer of the event, a well-known Lithuanian Rom, head of the ensemble “Sare roma”, Ištvans Kvik says that this year’s festival, invites us to forget about the differences between nations and to remember respect for each other.
Testimonies from Ukrainian Roma refugees in Europe. The article focuses on Moldova and Romania. What is good, is that this is being reported in the Ukrainian press, which usually tends only to report on stealing and begging Roma. Hope this will continue.
Today, in Bucharest, from 20:30 – 21:30 – the projection of “The best child in the world” by Alina Șerban and projection of the short film Ticket of Forgiveness.
German and Ukrainian Sinti and Roma of different generations spoke about the Holocaust and the Russian aggression war at the virtual commemoration of the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma.
The movie “How I Became a Partisan” directed by Vera Lacková will be broadcast by RTVS on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising. The film will remind viewers that Roma also joined the uprising. For years, speaking about Nazi persecutions of the Roma minority was taboo. Concentration camps, houses burnt down, murder of families… Communists did not want to have Roma heroes or victims of Nazism. History has forgotten them. “It’s as if we Roma don’t count. At the same time, Roma culture influences and enriches the cultures of the countries where Roma live. A good example is Spain and flamenco dance. Hardly anyone knows that it comes from the Roma,” said the author of the film, Vera Lacková.
The king of Romane song in Slovakia, Kamil Polakovič, passed away on August 16th at the age of 47 after a long illness.
May he rest in peace.
An interview with Monika Lakatos. The singer, who in 2020 received the Womex Lifetime Achievement Award as the first artist of Roma origin, was described by a contemporary who also works in classical music as follows: a fragile, modest, non-marketing performer.
Mónika Lakatos grew up in a family with seven children, she has one daughter, she became a grandmother at the age of 41. His parents were engaged in horse trading, and he fondly remembers the horse fairs from his childhood.
Some of the statements in the interview will certainly reinforce some of the prevalent stereotypes about Roma, with, for example arranged marriages.
The Bulgarian press seems obsessed by Roma weddings. This time, the story of a couple who have a restaurant in Plovdiv close to a Mahala – a Roma neighbourhood – and who complain about the noise from the celebrations in the Roma Mahala. They say they call the police regularly, to no avail.
North Macedonia has a serious problem of police brutality against Roma.
Bad.
The mayor of the town of Poprad, in Slovakia, when asked why the city is and thus they would not build them. The mayor claims he did not refer to Roma.
No comments…
Monika Šimůnková, the Czech Deputy Public Defender of Rights, has resigned. She has said she cannot continue to work with Public Defender of Rights Stanislav Křeček who has made several statements that can only be qualified as racist.
A Romano politician in the Czech Republic is compiling a list of Roma whom he deems to be traitors. He is mostly referring to Roma who collaborate with extreme rightist parties. In any case, this create quite an echo on social media.
The sad fate of the Roma from Bohemia and Moravia remains not only a tragic, but also a lesser-known chapter of our history. The Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civil Democrats) said on Thursday at the memorial for the Genocide of Roma and Sinti in Hodonín near Kunštát in Moravia. The 79th anniversary of the transport of 749 Roma to the Auschwitz concentration camp was commemorated there. On the territory of today’s Czech Republic there were two concentration camps for Roma – in Hodonín near Kunštát and in Lety near Písek. Fiala emphasized: “If we want to learn a lesson from history, it is necessary not only to know tragic events as sentences in textbooks, but also to be able to connect them to specific places and the fate of people.”
The Czech Prime Minister will be attending a ceremony honouring the Roma victims of the Holocaust at the Hodonin un Kunštatu Memorial on August 18th.
An article in Spanish on the situation of Roma in the Ukraine. It is based on the visit of the Sinto MEP Romeo Franz in the Ukraine. “The situation of Roma in Ukraine is unbearable, I couldn’t believe that Roma live in such conditions in Europe,” said German Roma MEP Romeo Franz, one of the participants in the delegation that visited Ukraine, at a press conference. It is possible that soe of the Roma IDPs will suffer hunger this winter in the Ukraine.
In a town near Leskovac, Serbia, Roma mostly speak Serbian, and they have a humorous explanation for that in a video.
This is to be contracted to the general situation in Serbia where, according to a UNESCO report, almost 60 percent of Roma children in the Balkans do not attend secondary school, and many do not know any other language than Romanes.
An article about a Roma wedding in the Czech town of Jirkov highlights the views of the majority on Roma and some of the stereotype: “A wedding that you don’t usually see. Romani brides and grooms Patrícia and Radek from the Czech town of Jirkov in the Chomutov district did not leave the preparation for the most beautiful day of their lives to chance and pulled out all the stops. Their wedding was exactly as it should be for Roma – luxurious and quite noisy!”
No comments.
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.
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