According to the EU Fundamental Right Agency (FRA) Report on Roma, Roma in the Czech Republic, poverty threatens 77 % of Romani people, a clear deterioration of the situation as compared to 2016, when poverty threatened 58 % of Roma.
Patrik Banga’s autobiographical book The Real Way Out was published. It tells the story of his life from his childhood in Žižkov in Prague to his journey into the journalistic world. The sometimes unbelievable stories describe in a raw way the discrimination and racism that Banga encounters already as a teenage boy.
An exceptional collections of Roma short stories depict struggles for a dignified life has been published in Prague by the Roma Literature publishing house “Kher”.
The books Samet Blues and Šude sámá krasa present the events of the last century, including the fall of communism, through the lens of Roma men and women. They capture the atmosphere in the Roma minority and the rise of racism in society. They are united by helplessness, existential uncertainty and sadness from social exclusion.
The new collaboration of Roma organisations from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary is well under way.
A new book, called “A starling pencil on the cuff. The story of Roma literature” by Karolína Ryvolová was just published. According to Romea’s Review, she is a strong storyteller, the book has an exciting plot and contains an incredible amount of previous research work. She succeeded in creating such a bridge between the narrative and the literary-scientific quest for Romani literature.
In recent years, the number of Roma candidates has increased with each election. This is most logically manifested in municipal elections. It is one of the key priorities of the current Roma Integration Strategy. And that at both the national and European level. In recent weeks, the news server Romea.cz has published a relatively comprehensive overview of Roma candidates for municipal elections in individual cities of the Czech Republic.
Roma run for various parties and movements across the political spectrum. Very often these are the Pirates, the ČSSD, the European Democrats and the Green Party. Many candidates also appear on the candidate lists of the newly founded Roma Luma party. But then we also have cities where our people appear on the candidate lists of populist and extremist parties such as SPD or Trikolora.
In Brno, 26 Romani men and women are running for the newly established union (according to the media, communists, neo-Nazis, the right-wing extremist movement Decent People and others). This does rase questions, as these parties are definitively not pro-Roma.
A Czech Mayor Jaroslav Červinka committed felony incitement to hate a group or limit its rights and freedoms when, during a local assembly session, he said it would be “better to shoot” RomaNews server Aktuálně.cz has reported that the local prosecutor has conditionally suspended pressing charges because the mayor has admitted his deeds and made a donation of CZK 30,000 [EUR 1,223] to a fund to aid crime victims.
This is not justice.
A Rom journalist, who participated in the preparation of national broadcasting for Roma in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Before that, he worked for several years in Praha TV news or as a presenter and DJ in the commercial media Color Music Radio, Hey or Sázava. He now heads an internet radio station that plays Balkan, Arab, Hungarian, Turkish, Roma and Ukrainian music, which has been remarkably well received even in the Czech Republic.
An article on a refugee “camp” for Roma from the Ukraine in Brno. It is a makeshift camp to say the least, is a makeshift one. They are confronted with racism and with the refusal from the Czech to help Roma from the Ukraine, claiming they have Hungarian citizenship. Racism can be seen from statements such as the ones of Jan Polák, head of the social welfare department: “They are used to living a nomadic way of life.” They say they don’t need anything, because “it suits them to be somewhere on the lawn”.
Roma television stations from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary presented a new program – Visegrad Roma magazine, which maps the life of Roma in the countries of the Visegrad Group.
The first Roma internet television station ROMEA TV from the Czech Republic, Slovakian Romana TV and Hungarian DIKH TV are collaborating on the production of the program. The representatives of the television stations informed the journalists on Wednesday.
Around 300 people attended the funerals of Jan Hauer, a prominent Czech Sinto who died last week.
Lukáš Pulko is a Roma activist and former football player from Ústí nad Labem. He figured out how to get kids off the streets from drugs and hanging out. He brought dozens of children from the excluded locations of Ústí nad Labem to football and regular training.
One of the last Czech Sinti – actually known as Kale – passed away. May he rest in peace.
Monika Šimůnková, the Czech Deputy Public Defender of Rights, has resigned. She has said she cannot continue to work with Public Defender of Rights Stanislav Křeček who has made several statements that can only be qualified as racist.
A Romano politician in the Czech Republic is compiling a list of Roma whom he deems to be traitors. He is mostly referring to Roma who collaborate with extreme rightist parties. In any case, this create quite an echo on social media.
The sad fate of the Roma from Bohemia and Moravia remains not only a tragic, but also a lesser-known chapter of our history. The Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civil Democrats) said on Thursday at the memorial for the Genocide of Roma and Sinti in Hodonín near Kunštát in Moravia. The 79th anniversary of the transport of 749 Roma to the Auschwitz concentration camp was commemorated there. On the territory of today’s Czech Republic there were two concentration camps for Roma – in Hodonín near Kunštát and in Lety near Písek. Fiala emphasized: “If we want to learn a lesson from history, it is necessary not only to know tragic events as sentences in textbooks, but also to be able to connect them to specific places and the fate of people.”
The Czech Prime Minister will be attending a ceremony honouring the Roma victims of the Holocaust at the Hodonin un Kunštatu Memorial on August 18th.
An article about a Roma wedding in the Czech town of Jirkov highlights the views of the majority on Roma and some of the stereotype: “A wedding that you don’t usually see. Romani brides and grooms Patrícia and Radek from the Czech town of Jirkov in the Chomutov district did not leave the preparation for the most beautiful day of their lives to chance and pulled out all the stops. Their wedding was exactly as it should be for Roma – luxurious and quite noisy!”
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On August 18th, the Roma Bašavel event will take place in Prague. Tickets are no longer available, but the event can be watched via live broadcast on social networks “Romany Bashavel 2022”. The live broadcast is provided by ROMEA TV.
Well, it is not good it you are a Rom. A reportage in the Czech Republic, in Moldova and in Romania. It is not better in Hungary, that we know…
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