Monthly Archives: November 2024

News Osteuropa Slowakei

A Young Talent

Published by:

Last spring, only his classmates from the conservatory in Rimavská Sobota and friends from Detva in Slovakia knew him. But then in May he published a song with a video clip on the Internet and everything changed.

He is Rom, queer, and sings about the difficulties he is facing in a small Slovak town.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Segregated Schools

Published by:

Slovakia and Segregated Schools

The elementary school on Krčméryho Street in Nitra is now attended exclusively by Roma children, but several Ukrainian students have also joined. Years ago, it was a mixed school, but parents of non-Roma children withdrew their children. A view of what this means first hand

Italien News Westeuropa

Italy and Genocide

Published by:

Italy and Genocide

A Seminar to remember the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti will be held on November 22 in Agnone on and aims to shed light on a dark chapter in European history, too often forgotten: the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti. Agnone is the town where from 1941 to 1943 Roma and Sinti were interned in the San Bernardino concentration camp

The program of the seminar includes a series of events ranging from visits to historical sites to conferences held by experts in the field. It will start on November 22 with a visit to the former Convent of San Bernardino, a place of memory that during the Second World War saw the internment of 150 Roma and Sinti. In the afternoon, at the Municipality of Agnone, a conference will be held with the participation of historians, activists and representatives of the Roma and Sinti communities.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Bulgaria: Arrest

Published by:

Bulgaria: Arrest

The police searched the properties of Kiril Kirov, nicknamed the Japanese. The police presence in the capital’s “Faculty” Roma district was increased since early in the morning.

At this point, official information on the case is scarce. The Ministry of the Interior only confirms that there were searches. The reason for them, however, remains unclear. It’s not about drug crimes.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Roma, and Work

Published by:

Slovakia, Roma, and Work

Often called an “Ambitious fool,” Ivan Mak came up with the idea that he would employ Roma, the disabled, the long-term unemployed, single mothers, people without education and difficult to place on the labour market. For 10 years, Ivan has been giving work in the laundry and ironing shop in Horehroní, regardless of the colour of the skin or the disability of the people. It is said that people used to look at him like a UFO.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Roma and the Velvet Revolution

Published by:

Roma and the Velvet Revolution

On November 25, 1989, Emil Ščuka and Jan Rusenko spoke to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Letná in Prague. They also reached most households through television cameras. At the same time, a Roma group unfurled the Roma flag on the Letne plain, and a huge crowd chanted “Long live the Roma”.

Prior to that, Czech Roma dissidents were practically inexistant. The only notable exception was Karel Holomek, a signatory of the Movement for Civil Liberties (HOS), established in 1988. Holomek, expelled from the military college after 1968 and expelled from the Communist Party of the Czech Republic, was detained and interrogated as early as 1981 for “subversion of the republic.”

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Roma, and Poor Health

Published by:

Slovakia, Roma, and Poor Health

Anthropologist Andrej Belák from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) has published a scientific study in one of the most prestigious social science journals in the world. It is focused on the causes of the poor health status of excluded Roma in Slovakia.

The published work is mainly based on a series of in-depth field research carried out between 2004 and 2015. “These mapped in detail the daily practice of the excluded Roma themselves and then various professionals of the health system who worked with the excluded Roma on a daily basis,” the SAV spokeswoman explained. According to her, the work brings to the fore and vividly summarizes deeper connections that have been little known in the international context until now.

Well, you do not really need a PhD to understand that exclusion and poverty are not good for one’s health…

Italien News Westeuropa

Rome – A Police Raid

Published by:

Rome – A Police Raid

A major police control operation was carried out at dawn by the Rome’s Carabinieri, with the support of the Dog Unit and a helicopter. This control focused on the Roma Camp in Via Candoni, which, according to the article is notoriously known as one of the hotbeds of crime in the capital. The intervention is part of a broader context of the fight against illegal activities, aiming to restore perceived and real security in the surrounding community. The operation involved an important identification action, during which 184 people of Romanian and Bosnian origin were registered, including 42 minors.

When you know that these camps are generally enclosed, and that you need to show you papers entering and leaving, you wonder …

News Osteuropa Russland

Russia: Pogroms

Published by:

Russia: Pogroms

Finally, the news makes it to the West. We reported on it already.

Following the murder of a taxi driver by a Rom, a pogrom started in the town of Korkino, in the Cheliabinsk region. Subsequently after the riots, several Roma were summoned to serve in the army in the Ukraine, a certain death and definitively a punishment.

For the journalist: there are no Sinti in Russia …

News Osteuropa Serbien

Serbia: TV Series

Published by:

Serbia: TV Series

The first Roma-Serbian series in the region “Love in Silence”, which will soon start broadcasting on TV Pink, brings an exciting and deep story about the birth of love at the moment when two different worlds meet, but also about the challenges faced by Roma in Serbia and around the world and fight against prejudices and stereotypes that society is prone to. Among the fantastic cast that is part of this important project is the popular actor Saša Joksimović, who prepared for this role very thoroughly. Given that he plays Roma Danijel, Saša had to learn both Romani and Macedonian languages.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Bulgaria and Incitation to Hatred

Published by:

Bulgaria and Incitation to Hatred

An article which states that “Roma neighbourhoods in Petrich, and the neighbourhoods in Bulgaria in general, are a huge prerequisite for a threat to national security, since the state institutions have abdicated long ago from the problems of the neighbourhoods, relying mainly on mediators, and this creates a situation in which we do not know what and how exactly happens there.”

It adds that “Illegal buildings and electricity, accompanied by Roma raids and beatings with axes, knives, stones and wooden sticks, as well as lack of any kind of responsibility and integration, are only a small part of the words that can describe the illegal life of the Roma neighborhoods in Petrich.”

Bad.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Bulgaria: Girls with Dreams

Published by:

Bulgaria: Girls with Dreams

The Centre for Inter-Ethnic Dialogue and Tolerance “Amalipe” organizes the fourth National Roma Women’s Meeting “Girls with dreams – let’s be more than three!”, which was held on November 14-15, 2024 in Dryanovo.

The meeting was attended by women and girls from all over the country who are actively working to change the situation of Romnja. These are mostly female students, educational mediators, active girls and Romnja working to improve living and learning conditions in the Roma community.

  • “Момичета с мечти – нека сме повече от три!” – ромските жени и пътят към успеха. In: BNR. 14.11.2024. https://bnr.bg/varna/post/102074690
Ungarn News Osteuropa Polen

Roma Baker

Published by:

Roma Baker

Alex Galamb has been nominated for the I Came Volunteer Award, established with the support of the Center for Family-Friendly Hungary.

The young baker was asked how he was spending the day before the holidays and what activities he planned to implement within the framework of his foundation.

Alex told that in the coming weeks he would accompany his students on a professional visit to Slovakia as part of the Erasmus programme, but when he was at home, he usually baked with the children from Sütni jó alapítvány on Sundays, and they also organised trips. They went out for hamburgers, to the cinema, and since Alex has twenty-five young bakers, they baked delicacies in the foundation bakery in three groups.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czechia: Documentary

Published by:

Czechia: Documentary

The documentary Dajori [small mother in Romanes], which won the audience award at the Jihlava Film Festival, is now in theatres. The film is ostensibly a story about a Roma foster family, but it also reveals the housing crisis, the trade in poverty and racism rooted in society.

The foster mother, Dajori Marie Hučkova, in the movie says “Ravens are like Roma. There are many of them and they are roaring. People don’t mind, so shoot them. An animal can take care of its children, and my sister, the mother, cannot take care of her children.”

News Osteuropa North Macedonia

North Macedonia: Kindergarten

Published by:

North Macedonia: Kindergarten

350 Roma children will be able to attend kindergarten free of charge in Centar and Gazi Baba in the periphery of Skopje. This is part of a project for the inclusion of Roma children in municipal institutions.

Knowing how many Roma there are around Skopje, this is a drop of water on a hot stone. Almost an alibi exercise. And the user of “Roma Nationality” is very much reminiscent of the old socialist notion.

They are North Macedonians …

Frankreich News Westeuropa

French Chronicle …

Published by:

French Chronicle …

A TV reportage in one of the largest Roma camps in France near Nantes in Western France. What is good, is that they say that these Roma only make about 20’000 people in the entire France, and that they are an essential pool of workers for the French agriculture… This is a real change of tone.

Other news are more of the usual: The government policies on Roma are being criticised (the news is that there seems to be one); the month for Roma action with a few events; a camp near Paris near a waste treatment centre; a project of a new site for Roma abandoned in Western France; and near Marseilles, some politics regarding drugs and Roma camps.

News Schweiz

Switzerland and Roma

Published by:

Switzerland and Roma

Another article, this time in the TV news about the formal complaint against a Bernese politician for racism. Since he sits in the government from the canton, the prosecutor had to ask for lifting his immunity. The decision will be taken on November 25th, but according to the article, the article, it seems he has little to fear.

Switzerland has a long way to go on racism …

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia, Roma, and Employment

Published by:

Slovenia, Roma, and Employment

The employability of Roma in Slovenia remains a challenge, as they face high levels of unemployment and limited employment opportunities. According to data from 2002, about 15% of Roma were employed, while 85% were unemployed. They are for bright exceptions that prove that this is also possible. This is the case of Đani Stojanovič, who works at Komunala Novo mesto.
Why no journalist ask how one gets at such numbers if governments do admit they do not know how many Roma live in a country?

rroma.org
de_DEDE
en_GBEN fr_FRFR de_DEDE