A Rom was murdered yesterday near Athens following a fight in a Roma camp. This time it was not the police and is unrelated to the latest protests.
But it is not good for the Roma community to have these kind of headlines.
The winners of the Roma Spirit 2022 contest were unveiled yesterday in Prešov, Slovakia. Roma Spirit celebrates exceptional people, inspiring activities, great artists, who help on the integration and acceptance of Roma.
The award in the Non-Governmental Organization category went to Cesta von civic association for timely early care in an environment of generational poverty, and in the Company and Employer category the award went to Tesco Stores SR, a.s. The municipality of Varhaňovce was the winner in the category Village and city. Roman Čonka received an award in the Media category for his more than twenty years of activities. Community leader Marián Bubenčík received the award in the Personality category, and in the Culture category the author and protagonist of the author’s monodrama František Balog.
In the Action of the Year category, the award for defending the rights of children from Hermanovec during the legal process of illegal segregation in education went to the Counseling Centre for Civil and Human Rights.
“All three nominations deserve great admiration and recognition for their work, determination and the help they provide,” declared the member of the Action of the Year Jury and RomaSpirit laureate Martina Horňáková.
Roma leaders in Greece have appealed to calm following riots in major cities in Greece following the shooting of a young Roma in Thessaloniki. At least 10 police officers were injured during the riots in Athens with protester also commemorating another fatal shooting by the police in 2008.
Ištvan Kwik, a well-known Rom in Lithuania, the leader of the band “Sare Roma” and the owner of a Restaurant “Gypsy Lounge and Grill” in the capital has launched an exhibition in his restaurant highlighting the Roma origins of several well-known persons such as Charlie Chaplin. The aim of this exhibition is for as many people as possible to learn about the roots of the Roma nationality and its spread in the world. And the most important thing is to break stereotypes.
Kwik stated tat “Employers are still afraid to hire Roma because they are guided by various stereotypes that arise from fear or ignorance. It is also the case when Roma are looking for a house to rent, Roma children are still bullied in schools and are often ostracized by their peere”.
An article about the InDaHouse association which teaches young children from poor families, mostly Roma. Kinga Tillmann has been working for the InDaHouse association for six years and today coordinates the early education program. She believes her work has the greatest impact at this stage of life: “There are families where there are no developmental toys at home, no books, and no knowledge of how to play with a six-month-old. We want to compensate for this so that there are no backlogs that could lead to school failure.”
“It’s mainly urban, academic volunteers who come to the villages and take care of the children and assure them of their love and trust. These children will still experience racism on a daily basis, but because they get a lot of positive reinforcement from us, we believe that they will be able to function as equal partners, as citizens in society,” explains InDaHouse President Fruzsina Benkő.
There were manifestations in Athens, Thessaloniki, and other Greek cities following the shooting of Kostas Frangoulis, a 16-year-old Roma in Thessaloniki. He was severely wounded by the Police after allegedly failing to pay a €20 (£17) fuel bill at a petrol station. These manifestations took place on the eve of the commemoration of another shooting of another teenager killed on Decembe 6th, 2008 by an officer in Athens’ Exarchia district. Last year, another young Rom Nikos Sampanis was fatally shot in a car chase near Athens. There is a clear pattern of violence here.
The protesters shouted slogans such as “Stop the murderous police”.
A 16-year-old Roma boy was shot by the police in Thessaloniki, Greece, after he allegedly filled his vehicle at a fuel station and drove off without paying. The young man is in hospital in critical condition and the policeman sho shot him has been suspended.
There was a protest march in the city, organised by leftists and anarchists which degenerated with some of the protesters smashing shop windows and throwing Molotov cocktails at the police. This is not good.
The shooting of a Rom by the police is not the first case in Greece unfortunately.
The French city of Montpellier is carrying out an unprecedented experiment to try to integrate the Roma. The City evacuated the slum of Celleneuve, one of the largest in France, in favour of a “transition village”. Those who have agreed to go there benefit from intensive follow-up.
In April 2022, the slum in the Celleneuve district, west of Montpellier, was emptied and then destroyed after 10 years of existence. It was one of the biggest in France with 250 people. While slum dwellers are usually purely and simply expelled in France, without any alternative solution, the city of Montpellier and the prefecture of Hérault have opted for a different method. Thus, about fifty families agreed to be housed in a transitional village, on the edge of the highway, in a series of spartan but healthy bungalows equipped with water and electricity.
The numbers are interesting here: 250 people in a slum for 10 years … And 50 families for 250 people means that families have on average 5 people. Not really the very large families that are reported to by the press.
Well, if you are Rom, you will be confronted in racism in the administration, or at least to discrimination. Milena Ademović can come up with a long list: unnecessary documents that are required, letters that get lost in the administration or child benefit applications that the parents who come to her have to wait a year for to be processed. “That’s why we’re here,” says Ademović, who, as a social worker at the Kulturen im Kiez advice centre in Wedding, also supports Sinti and Roma in their dealings with the authorities.
Not the usual lecture in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung – an article about Roma. And for once not that negative. It speaks of the Roma in Slovakia and how the lack of workers in that country is pushing companies to start hiring Slovak Roma instead of importing workers from the Balkans (who are often Roma by the way) or even further.
Better late than never.
The journalist Pavol Lacko (35) has created an online magazine called “Romano Forum” with the ambition to make it the first opportunity to find relevant information about Roma in Slovakia. He is helped by cooperation with the local N, which is a partner website of the magazine. Lacko, an investigative journalist, brought high standards to the magazine and has also expanded the focus on LGBTI+ people. For more than a year of operation, Romano forum brought 100 articles and does not avoid criticism inside the community.
According to Amnesty International, the new Serbian law on the social card is an intrusive surveillance system that risks harming the most marginalized members of the company, in particular to the Roma communities. Amnesty is submitting a legal opinion in the framework of the examination of the constitutionality of this law.
Coming into force on March 1, this law authorizes the creation of a centralized government database which processes 130 data categories concerning people who request social security in order to assess their eligibility. The Serbian authorities affirm that this procedure allows a more equitable distribution of funds intended for socially disadvantaged persons, but it is in reality an intrusive digital surveillance system which threatens the right to equality.
The United Nations is concerned about “the racist political discourse held by political leaders”, as well as the proliferation of hateful and discriminating words in the media in France. This is not new if one think what Manuel Valls, a former Prime Minister said about Roma while in power. But it is good that it is being highlighted.
Other news are more usual: A group of Roma and volunteers cleaned the garbage in a wood. Police arrested Bosnian Roma specialised in stealing power tools.
An impressive interview with Jana Zacharová, a Romni who grew up in an Osada, a Roma settlement. Thanks to her own efforts and small support from her teachers and the non-profit organization Divé maky, she managed to study, later even abroad. Today, she finances her studies of medical pedagogy herself.
She says:
I mainly remember the social side, which was very difficult. In the settlement, there were not many opportunities for development or people I could perceive as a role model. And my parents had problems with alcohol.
So I know what it’s like to have absolutely nothing. What is it like to be hungry because there is no money for food. Or not being able to go to school because there is no money for the trip. These are things I will remember for the rest of my life. The poverty was very crushing.
An article that is not about Roma, but is a reminder of what the truth about Hitler and his racial policies are. This is addressed to Ye (formerly Kayne West) who repeatedly has been praising Hitler.
Well, he, like many of the Nazis admirers, should better inform themselves first.
The Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in a speech on Portugal’s Independence Day commemorated the contribution of Roma who fought for Portugal’s independence. Bruno Gonçalves, the vice president of the Roma organisation “Letras Nómadas” said that “for the first time in five centuries someone has had the courage to remember that the Portuguese are also Roma, who fought, who were also in historical records that often do not appear in textbooks or educational programmes”.
A Romani organisation organised a conference on hate speech in North Macedonia and worked on a project on the more general topic of Hate Speech in the Western Balkans.
The Council of Europe published the information yesterday.
The exhibition of Małgorzata Mirgi-Tas’ works, entitled “Wędrujemy images”, will be open to visitors from December 2nd at the International Cultural Centre in Krakow. This is the first exhibition of a Roma artist after her success at this year’s 59th Venice Biennale.
A book on Polish racism has been published and is reviewed in the Polish edition of Vogue. The book, called „Odejdź” [Leave] authored by Agnieszka Kościańska and Michał Petryk is insightful, written with exposing passion, painfully interesting and just as necessary. Because Poland is not a tolerant country, but rather a structurally racist one, and has been for many decades. Contempt for the Other is part of our culture.
Polish racism is doing well. It peeks out from almost every corner and withered bush. It is clearly visible on our border with Belarus, where people are dying as a result of the illegal decisions of the Polish government and the joyful consent of many Poles. It can even be seen in relation to some Ukrainians (it is not – so far – fashionable, but who knows what will happen in a moment)
On German Television, Andreas Bönte talks with his guests about how Sinti and Roma live in Europe today, how prejudices can be broken down and how fairer coexistence can be shaped in the future. Among the prominent ones: Romani Rose, Dotschy Rienhardt, Mehmet Daimagüler.
They said it: The largest transnational minority in Europe.
BUT: Again, they speak of 600 years in Europe, forgetting that Bulgaria, Thrakia, Constantinople, and all the Balkan and Carpaths were and are also part of Europe and that Roma arrived there earlier. When will this stop.
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