A reportage on the celebrations of the International Romanes Day in Brno on November 5th. It took place in the former Penitentiary is a walled creative centre that served as a prison in the second half of the 20th century and was organised by the organisation IQ Roma servis.
The Roma government representative Lucie Fuková says she is not a superwoman and cannot change the sometimes unfair system in a few days. She gets dozens of messages a day, requests for help with processing a request for compensation for illegal sterilization, with finding an apartment, requests for intervention in criminal proceedings, but also unconstructive insults and insults. Often shouts like: No one from the Roma voted for you, step down. And quite often, on the contrary, words of understanding and support.
An article about the Museum of Roma Culture in Brno, Czech Republic.
Prosecutors finally indicted a Ukrainian national today for committing bodily harm and murder in the case of the young Roma man who died at the Brno Reservoir this summer. The June case led to tensions between Romani people and Ukrainians in the Czech Republic.
Surprise: Roma face discrimination and negative portraying in the media in the Czech Republic…
The Romani singer and activist Ida Kelarová eceived from the hands of Czech President Petr Pavel the state award, the Medal for services to the state in the field of culture, education and education.
She is the first Romni to get this award and only the third person of Romani heritage to do so.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=6652216778232623
Stanislav Tomáš, who died two years ago in the summer after an intervention by the police, has a new tombstone at the Teplice cemetery. The police was exonerated, a conclusion that many did not accept. On his tomb, there is simply the word “Pativ”, here standing for respect.
On Saturday, Czech President Petr Pavel will award state honours to more than 60 personalities. The Castle does not want to publish the specific names of the awardees until the ceremonyAccording to information from Lidové noviny, singer and guitarist Vladimír Mišík or Romani singer Ida Kelarová could be the next awardees.
Ida Kelarovà would thus be the third person of Romani origin and the first Romni to receive this distinction.
On Friday, October 20, 2023, the Museum of Roma Culture in Brno hosted the award ceremony of the Museum of Roma Culture Award, which is awarded annually by the museum to personalities who have contributed to the development and preservation of Roma culture. This year, the prize was awarded in memoriam to Robin Strio, director, cameraman, Roma activist and former curator of the museum’s video collection, who died in the spring at the premature age of 33.
This settlement houses a yearly festival over the summer, the Varvy Bedřiška which helps providing support the unique Ostrava community. Just like the first two years, the 2023 edition combined musical and other cultural performances with current topics in the area of housing and the future of the locality.
This festival is key to helping this settlement as there are big plans for the restoration of Bedřiška but they are currently only on paper. Local residents are the biggest drivers of change.
A new magazine has been launched in the Czech Republic: Romano vod’i. In this first edition, an article on Jan Cibula, first Rom medical doctor and one of the original founders of the International Romani Union, Jan Ort, a Rom and activist, and Lucie Fuková, a Roma representative.
An interview with the Roma writer Michal Šamko. He published his first Roma-Czech poem at the end of the nineties in the magazine Mladý svět. He returned to it fully only after meeting the Romani writer Milena Hübschmannová, who made him write in Romanes as well. Since then, Michal Šamko (56) has published not only in the journal of Romani studies Romano džaniben, but also in the monthly magazine for world literature PLAV.
He says “They yelled ‘gypsy filth’ at me at school. What’s worse is that they scold my granddaughter in the same way.”
Sad.
The new centre for Roma is scheduled to open in Prague in November 2024. It is set up in the Dejvice district in a villa from the times of the First Czechoslovak Republic by the Museum of Roma Culture (MRK). The keys were handed over to the construction company on Wednesday, which is now starting the renovation. This was announced by the director of the MRK, Jana Horváthová, to the ČTK press agency.
The Czech Roma actor Zdeněk Godla has announced he will quit acting. He got into acting by accident: He worked as a public works worker in Chomutov, where the audition was taking place. He participated, won, and since then has been an actor who often appears in films and series. His most famous works include, for example, the character František from the series Most.
Apparently, he is also in financial trouble, something that may have to do with his current decision.
Czech extremists, whose target are both Roma and Ukrainians, took advantage of the murder of a Rom in Bron in June and are systematically inciting Roma against Ukrainians, whose relations were not ideal even before the crime.
This is really bad.
A long article on the Genocide of the Roma during the Holocaust and a new database “Testimony of Roma and Sinti,” devoted to an expanded understanding of the Roma genocide of World War II.
On Friday, people gathered at the Brno crematorium to say their last farewell to the co-founder of the Museum of Roma Culture, Karel Holomek. Holomek died on the twenty-seventh of August. The Brno native was an important Roma activist, publicist and politician.
During a debate between Roma and ministers of the Czech government organised by Romea on Wednesday in Brno, Minister of Justice Pavel Blažek (ODS) assured representatives of the Roma community that there is no such thing as racial justice in the Czech Republic. He thus rejected some of the statements of Roma that the courts judge cases when the perpetrators are Roma and differently when others. He considers the release from custody of a man who is suspected of the June murder near the Brno Dam to be a standard procedure. Blažek described the debate, which was organized by the organizations ROMEA and Romodrom and filmed by ROMEA TV, as beneficial.
Some Czech Roma are protesting about the release of the Ukrainian who killed a Rom in Brno recently. He is no longer in jail but on bail. The release of the murderer from the Brno case is a slap in the face of the Roma. “One less gypsy, so what?” according to Romani leader Tancoš.
These confrontations between Ukrainian refugees and Roma have not been good. Some Roma sided with some extreme right parties to complain about Ukrainian refugees. Our attitude is: Let’s see what justice says about this case. It is definitively bad that the suspect was released on bail, with the judge expressing doubt about this being a murder.
Roma are mostly presented negatively in the media, they still face discrimination! This follows from a survey by Romea. Respondents to the survey had the opportunity to choose Roma personalities, who were then invited by the first Roma internet television to the Desetiminutovka Plus program. “Some mentioned specific names, others just fields from which Roma should be invited to our program. Some of the names of Romany personalities that appeared in the poll, we have already had as guests on the show.
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