A new music festival brought Roma and non-Roma musicians to the stage this summer in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The “Roma Song Day” aims not only to celebrate the music of the minority, but also aims to create a connection between cultures.
Roma have been participating in this pilgrimage in Brezje, Slovenia for a century. Usually set a week before Mary’s Assumption day, during the festivities, they help carry the image of Mary from the church to a nearby park and back to church, a trip symbolizing the search for an abode that Mary and Josef had to do.
After two years where the feast was cancelled because of Corona, it takes place again. But the local authorities do not want to provide a place where the Roma could stay during the pilgrimage, in fact, preventing them from attending. This is bad, but in view of the general view of Roma in Slovenia, not surprising.
An editorial by Juan de Dios Ramirez Heredia, a lawyer, former EU MP, and a Rom activist on the unbearable situation of Roma in the Ukraine. He states: “It is dramatic to know that the situation of the Roma people in Ukraine is unbearable and that the war has greatly increased their exclusion. Conditions in the settlements are unacceptable and Roma are being discriminated against during aid distribution in the context of war.”
A huge wedding gathered the eyes of passers-by on the capital’s Vitosha Boulevard this afternoon. About hundred wedding guests sang and danced to the sounds of an orchestra in the centre of Sofia. Foreign tourists were apparently amazed and took photographs of the celebration. Strolling residents of the capital spontaneously join the party, and so the guests, although uninvited, became hundreds.
Apparently dozens of calls to the police were made and the noise of the celebration echoed throughout the centre, but the police never responded or intervened.
Hungary’s only Roma arts festival, TeatRom, closed with a deficit of about HUF two million. However, the series of cultural events – aimed at the Roma communities living in the segregated communities in Cserehát, a region in Northeastern Hungary close to the Slovak border – lasted only three days instead of the planned eight.
It took place in the village of Csenyéte, a village at the end or a desolate road. Life in Csenyeté is a dead end in many ways. There is nothing there. No shop, no clinic, no school, no pub, no bank, no post office. Even the mayor comes here only to go home after his work is done. Five hundred and fifty people live here today, almost exclusively Roma. Sixty percent of them are children.
Whether a festival in such a place, and whether the “romantic” view of Roma it presents are a good idea remain to be seen. But the problem of these isolated god-forsaken Roma communities in the poorest region of Hungary remains.
The “Gypsy Fest” Festival will take place on September 4th in the Lithuanian capital.
What happened to the infamous Roma settlement of Lunik IX in Košice, one year after the visit of the pope? Not much, but nevertheless, the life there has progressively gotten better. Gone is the large garbage dump, replaced by a children playing ground, buildings are not as dilapidated as they used to.
This is not only due to the pope’s visit, as this transformation started before and is continuing. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done as unemployment is still rampant. Education is still sup-par for Roma too.
Another article about Roma thieves in the Ukrainian press. This time in the Volyn region of Western Ukraine. On the pretext of telling fortune, Romnja walked into a home for the elderly and stole cash and jewellery.
This is bad on both sides: On the Romani side for stealing, as it reflects on the entire community, and on the Ukrainian side, because they fail to say that this is the consequence of utter poverty and exclusion, especially among Carpathian Roma.
An article about a fight involving pitchforks and axes between Roma in the Bulgarian city of Lom. As usual, this casts a bad light on Roma, and fails to mention the issues faced by Roma in theses Mahalas.
A reportage on an exhibition in Żagan, in Western Poland, about the Romani Poetess Papusza. She lived there before moving to Gorzów Wielkopolski. She came from a group of Polish Roma. There were many artists in her family, playing at weddings or in taverns. She learned to read and write on her own. Her enormous talent was discovered by Jerzy Ficowski, supported by Julian Tuwim.
Another article on the situation of Ukrainian Roma IDPs and refugees, based on the visit of the German Federal Commissioner for Sinti and Roma in the Ukraine.
An overview of the major Roma Music groups in Hungary with the somewhat surprising addition of Esma Redzepova who was from North Macedonia. Please bear in mind that this style of music is exclusively part of the Hungarian Vlach tradition, and not the original music of the Carpathian Roma.
Siniša Senad Musić, the vice-president of the Roma Youth Organization of Croatia stated that the Roma civil society has a committee to monitor the implementation of the National Plan for the inclusion of Roma, but these, while Roma, are financed by the state, and therefore it is very difficult for other Roma to criticize them.
This is a common pattern in many countries.
Well, it is not good it you are a Rom. A reportage in the Czech Republic, in Moldova and in Romania. It is not better in Hungary, that we know…
On Friday, the Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka disclosed he will not submit a proposal to dissolve the ĽSNS. The spokesperson of the Prosecutor General’s Office Skladan stated that “The Prosecutor General of the Slovak Republic has not yet found the conditions for filing a lawsuit for the dissolution of the political Kotleba’s party – Ľudová strana Naše Slovensko according to section 384 et seq. of the Administrative Court Code.”
It seems that questioning the Holocaust, insulting and threatening all minorities, pledging allegiance to the fascist Slovak state, yelling, using the greeting “On guard!”, handing out checks with Nazi symbols, wearing tattooed swastikas and marching in guardsmen’s suits are not a threat to democracy.
The embassies of almost all EU countries in Budapest – with the exception of Cyprus, Croatia and Malta -, several European countries outside the EU, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico signed a joint statement published on the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.
The message obviously refers to the recent Orban speech and criticises it implicitly.
“On August 2, on the occasion of the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember with sadness the tragic genocide that caused the death of hundreds of thousands of European Roma. Unfortunately, the seeds of racist ideology still exist and thrive in 2022. However, these ideologies are not only incorrect, they are also dangerous: they must be eradicated so that a culture based on equality and respect for human dignity can take their place. Diversity is not just an attribute to be tolerated, but a cause to be celebrated, as it brings strength and benefit to all of us. We join the voices of all those who condemn xenophobia, discrimination and all forms of racism, and we stand together with the individuals and communities who have suffered the ideologies of hatred and division.”
Germany’s top official for antiziganism criticizes “unacceptable conditions” in settlements for refugees and report discrimination against Ukrainian Roma in the distribution of relief supplies.
More help needs to reach Roma in the Ukraine. Germany’s top official for antiziganism says Roma face structural discrimination in Ukraine.
An exhibition on the Roma Holocaust can be seen in Prague on the Vitkov.
“Today we pay a pious tribute to the memory of the Roma, the almost 500,000 children, women and men victims of the Holocaust. Entire families perished in this genocide, being subjected to horrific brutalities. Our thoughts also go out to those who survived the horrors and their descendants. This year, in Romania, we commemorate 80 years since the first deportations of Roma to Transnistria by the Antonescu regime. About 25,000 Roma were deported to Transnistria and condemned to live in inhuman and unsanitary conditions, deprived of food and forced to do forced labour. Of these, not more than half had the strength to survive. The Romanian state has assumed responsibility for this crime, a dark episode of our history,” states a message sent by President Klaus Iohannis.
Bravo, that is a real first.
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