Category Archives: Slovakia

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Babyn Yar

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Babyn Yar

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi commemorated the 83rd anniversary of the massacre of more than 30,000 Jews by the Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators in the Babyn Jar gorge near Kyiv in 1941.

“Babyn Jar is a terrifying symbol that shows that the most heinous crimes occur when the world chooses to ignore, remain silent, be indifferent and lacks the determination to stand up to evil,” Zelensky, who is of Jewish descent himself, said on the X social network.

According to official data, 100,000 – 150,000 people were killed in the Babyn Jar gorge in 1941 and 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. The primany targets were Jews and Roma.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma Culture

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Slovakia and Roma Culture

The Documentation and Information Center of Roma Culture (DICRK) of the State Science Library (ŠVK) in Prešov has made available an extended virtual gallery of Roma fine art. Visitors can meet 40 personalities from the fields of literature, visual arts, film and music. The resources can be accessed via mobile phone, tablet or computer.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Racism

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Slovakia and Racism

In Nitra, Slovakia, a group of young Roma, including a well-known activist and athlete, experienced being refused entry to a cafe just because they are Roma. One of the men shared his experience on social media, detailing what happened, adding videos and later a photo of another encounter.

When they arrived at the cafe, the waitress warned them that Roma were not allowed to enter. The young man expressed his shock and disappointment at this approach. He stated that he did not understand why all Roma should be judged by the behavior of a few individuals.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

A Sad Story

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A Sad Story

He has known success, fame and admiration, but also a rough fall to the bottom. Slovak bodybuilder of Roma origin and five-time European champion Adam Cibuľa will celebrate his 60th birthday today in the street.

“You walk around the city, sometimes people give you one or two euros for food. Then you look for a place to sleep. And the next day it’s the same all over again,” Cibuľa described to the Slovak newspaper MY Novohrad in an interview in August.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovak Music

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Slovak Music

On her debut album called Kamibe (Love), Slovak R&B and pop singer Erika Rein teamed up with producer Jonatán Pastirčák (Isama Zing, Pjoni). It brings thirteen songs in three languages ​​– English, Romanes, and Slovak – and combines experimentation with global pop, soul or R&B.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Politicians, and Roma

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Slovakia, Politicians, and Roma

The Slovak Minister of Education Tomáš Drucker is accusing MP for Progressive Slovakia Ingrid Kosová of making inappropriate statements about Roma at a meeting of the NR SR Committee for Human Rights and National Minorities.

He published a video of the committee meeting on the social network. In it, Kosová first asks whether they compare Hungarian and Ruthenian schools with Roma schools. “It would be nice if there was a Roma national school, like the one in Budapest, for example, where there is a middle Roma class, where those people really have a Roma identity, like me for example, and I went to such a school, why not?” says the deputy in the video . “But here we’re talking about excluded communities, people who mostly don’t even have a basic education, who will tell you they’re from Mars, whatever,” she continued. At this point, one of those present tried to interrupt her, but Kosová continued. “But they are such people that they simply do not have sufficient cognitive ability to be able to evaluate whether it is really in the best interest of the child. We will not lie to ourselves. It’s just the way it is,” she said.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Politics

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Slovakia and Politics

Viliam Tankó (29) won last year’s election to the parliament for the Slovakia movement, also thanks to the fact that he is a Roma. He is not ashamed of his origin. However, he recently left the party and admits that he faces accusations and criticism after leaving Igor Matovič’s movement. He stated that “I left because the relations between us became dull and the cooperation with, for example, older colleagues in the movement was not always ideal.”

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Evictions, and Roma

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Slovakia, Evictions, and Roma

In a small room above the police station, right in the center of the colony on Coburgova Street in greater Trnava, two young people are trying to fight windmills. Despite all the hardships that work with Roma bring, Juraj Štofej and Jana Martinkovičová claim that they enjoy it.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Schools in Slovakia

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Schools in Slovakia

With a camera, the staff of Slovak Television went to the village of Rakúsy in the Kežmar district to see the beginning of the school year. In the Osada (the Roma settlement), the number of pupils is increasing. Due to limited capacity, the school has two-shift teaching.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Jobs, and Roma

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Slovakia, Jobs, and Roma

A Roma NGO tested the anti-Roma racism in the Slovak labour market. They created 4 CVs (2 men, 2 women one of each being Rom), and sent these applications for 100 open jobs available in various platforms.

Well, Roma got a much lower response rate than non-Roma. Non-Roma man: 92% response; non-Roma woman: 89%. Rom: 68%; Romni: 62%.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma Literature

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Slovakia and Roma Literature

In Slovakia, along Elena Lacková, the pioneer of Roma literature, one finds also Dezider Banga. Several Romane authors have an informal group RÓMSKY LITERÁRNY KLUB (ROLIK), where they have the opportunity to develop their work more intensively and publish it regularly. The documentary film SONG ON THE WIND captures the historical process of the establishment of Romani literature in our society in the form of small portraits of Romani poets and writers.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Work instead of Benefits

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Slovakia: Work instead of Benefits

The project of the current Slovak government to cut benefits of people who refuse job offers, clearly aimed at Roma, is receiving praise in some of the country’s press. Much is done of the “collaboration” and “approval” of the plenipotentiary for Roma.

Fact is, this is very much inspired from neighbouring Hungary where the so-called közmunka – communal work – sees people enrolled in 19th century type of work with 19th century results.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Roma, and Social Benefits

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Slovakia, Roma, and Social Benefits

Another article in the Slovak press about a survey on social benefits that dismantles the misconception that financial support for Roma is the main cause of high taxes and public finance deficits in Slovakia. This is a widespread myth in that country.

The survey checked that tamilies with more than three children receive 45 million euros a year through child allowance and parental allowance, which is just a drop in the ocean compared to total public spending. The number of children was chosen as a proxy, as ethnicity is not recorded in the statistics. The reasoning is that while not all families with more than three children are Roma, this will contain many of them.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma from Brekov, Slovakia

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Roma from Brekov, Slovakia

Roma from the village of Brekov in the Humen district in Eastern Slovakia became famous in the region for the production of fired bricks. They were the only ones, and the construction boom in the interwar period guaranteed them sales. They spoke little about the Holocaust.

Today, all these activities remain only in the memories of the oldest inhabitants of the village. Their conversation were captured by Elena Cinová, born Gunárová, whose parents come from Brekov.

A qualified teacher with a focus on Roma culture, she works at the Methodological and Pedagogical Centre in Prešov. She supplemented the audio recordings with photographs from the albums of the families of Martina Petrova, Etela Kirvejová, Magda Tokárová and the Gunár family and exhibited them in the hall of the cultural centre.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Schools, and Roma

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Slovakia, Schools, and Roma

Two teachers from Dobšina found a way to attract children from poor Roma families. In four years in their experimental class, not a single student failed. Another 85 children will start school in the fall, who have the chance to experience a different approach.

The problem are textbooks. They cannot yet be purchased from a state grant. So these teachers started a fundraiser.

Good.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Unemployment, and Roma

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Slovakia, Unemployment, and Roma

Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family Erik Tomáš received the Government Plenipotentiary for Roma communities Alexander Daško. The subject of the labour negotiations on projects aiming to create job positions for low-skilled and long-term unemployed people, as well as a legislative proposal to withdraw or reduce benefits in material need for those unemployed who can work, but refuse a suitable job offer.

Daško doesn’t see anything discriminatory in those measures.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Roma, and State Finances

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Slovakia, Roma, and State Finances

A new study in Slovakia dispels the myth that the social benefits that Roma get is one of the main burden of the state and that this is the reason for high taxes. According to the study, families with more than three children, which often include Roma families, receive approximately 27 million euros per year in benefits in material need and additional payments. “This is the same amount that the government allocated for the construction of the National Football Stadium,” the report said.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Wild Poppies

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Slovakia: Wild Poppies

The association Divé maky [Wild Poppies] wants to bring the beauty of Roma art closer to the residents, contribute to breaking down stereotypes and prejudices against Roma, increase tolerance and give space for gifted Roma children to present their skills together with professional Roma artists.

Well, nice aims, but what they present reinforces stereotypes…

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Google Translate

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Google Translate

In June, Google announced that it had expanded the language palette of Google Translate by 110 languages. One of them is Romanes. According to linguist Viktor Elšík, it is good that the Romani language is represented in a virtual public space. However, Elšík adds that it is necessary to take into account the fact that the translations are not according to the north-central Romani language, which is used in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Well, in fact, the Romanes used in Google translate does not correspond to any single dialect of Romanes. It is a mix of all dialects.

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