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.
Commemorations of the 1992 pogrom in the East German city of Rostock have taken place on Thursday.
“Many don’t want to talk about it anymore, don’t want any more events, just want to forget,” says Stephanie Nelles, Rostock’s integration officer. This opinion is widespread in the city, including in the migrant community. “But there are also many, especially younger people, who don’t want to forget that.” They were never properly informed about the 1992 pogrom in Lichtenhagen and are now asking the parents’ generation, the contemporary witnesses, to talk about it. With this, Nelles outlines the division of remembrance in Rostock’s urban society. The integration officer positions herself clearly: “You can only change if you remember.”
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.
A movie on the archaeological work which allowed to reconstruct the events in the extermination camp of Sobibor in Poland. The camp was destroyed by the Germans in 1943 to cover up for their crimes.
Many of the artefacts discovered during the archaeological work are now on display at the Sobibor museum.
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.
The Sevilla Flamenco Biennale will start next week. It had not taken place dur to the covid pandemic for a long while.
Here’s the program and all the information.
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 National Human Rights Platform, the Faith and Hope Religious Congregation and the Esperanza Gitana Union for Humanity, together with relatives of the alleged murderer of the 19-year-old who died in Íllora (Granada), have filed a letter with the Government Subdelegation to denounce “racist and xenophobic acts” for the assaults against some Roma homes and vehicles following the murder of the 19-year-old.
Sad story.
The Spanish Ombudsman will study the attacks that occurred against the homes and property of Roma families that occurred in Íllora, in the Poniente region of Granada, in response to a crime allegedly committed by a 23-year-old Rom this past Monday, for which a 19-year-old died.
Representatives of the Spanish Gitana Society met this Friday with members of the Ombudsman’s office to demand protection from the attacks, which occurred this week after a demonstration to demand justice for the murder. After that protest, a group of people went to the houses of relatives of the alleged murderer, who was on the run at that time and who turned himself in the next day, and vandalized them.
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.
Thirty years ago, a massive racist pogrom took place in Rostock Lichtenhagen. It was mostly directed at Vietnamese immigrants but also touched a few Roma.
It highlighted the existent of violent racism in Germany, something that has unfortunately continued. Other lessons, such as how the police should intervene have been learnt.
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.
According to the police, Roma families constitute the bulk of begging with children in the capital. Five years ago, the police identified ten to fifteen active families near the Grand-Place and Rue Neuve. At the beginning of 2022, it counted six times more.
Begging with minors was forbidden, then the law was suspended, and if finally again forbidden, with fines of up to 350 EUR. The discussion whether this interdiction is the right solution are ongoing.
Romeo Tiberiade, a contemporary witness of the anti-foreigner pogrom in Rostock in 1992 speaks for the first time. Tiberiade came to Germany with his family from Romania in 1992. In conversation with his daughter, Izabela Tiberiade, he reports on the flight to Germany, the pogrom and his family’s life after the pogrom.
Romeo Tiberiade is chairman of the Roma party “Pro Europa” in Dolj and adviser to the Mayor of Craiova on Roma issues. He lives with his family in Craiova.
Izabela Tiberiade is a law graduate from Malmö University and active in the Europe-wide network “Dikh He Na Bister” in memory of the Porajmos. She lives in Malmo.
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.
Unfortunately, more news on Roma this week in France. Near Nantes, Romanian Roma families who were expulsed twice in 24 hours on July 6 and 7th have finally found a place where they can stay. The town of Rezé together with the city of Nantes has set a location aside where the Roma can put up their camp. Also In Nantes, Roma lost everything last week in a fire and the commune is appealing for help. Other news are a fire in a garbage dump in a Roma camp in Marseilles; a squat closed near Paris; and finally, two young Roma arrested near Paris for burglary in several houses.
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…
DE 
EN 
FR