Category Archives: Hungary

Council of Europe, Hungary, and Roma

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Council of Europe, Hungary, and Roma

From 10 to 13 December 2024, the Roma and Travellers Division of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the Agent of the Hungarian Government before the ECHR and the Hungarian police authorities, organised a training of trainers based on the toolkit for police officers, focusing on the Council of Europe standards on racially motivated crimes and non-discrimination.

Well… Discrimination in Hungary is rampant. And the government has done nothing in the last 20 years against it…

Roma Baker

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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.

Music in Budapest

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For four Sundays, we will be able to listen to Open Mic performers in the he Városháza pop-up park.

There will be a Gypsy Jazz Band concert with Roby Lakatos, and unmissable house and disco parties courtesy of the Turbina Cultural Center.

Ukrainian Roma and Hungary

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Even though Hungary claims that Transcarpathian Ukraine is Hungarian (one has to agree that historically this was the case), and even though Prime Minister Orban is granting citizenship to “all” Hungarian speakers outside of Hungary, it sems that this does not extend to Roma from Transcarpathian Ukraine. They mostly speak Hungarian, but Orban has now decreed that they are not from war regions and no asylum is required.

Do you spot the issue? Orban claims Transcarpathian Ukraine are Hungarian lands, but he doesn’t want the Hungarian speaking Roma from there in Hungary …

  • Les Roms d’Ukraine ne sont pas les bienvenus en Hongrie. In: La Libre. 27.08.2024. https://www.lalibre.be/international/europe/guerre-ukraine-russie/2024/08/27/les-roms-dukraine-ne-sont-pas-les-bienvenus-en-hongrie-FEZGIXY6LZBKLPAAM5OLEEWW6A/

A Baker in Hungary

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Hungary’s favourite Roma baker has been nominated for a prestigious award. Alex Galamb, a Roma baker from Borsod, has chosen a new direction: he will work as a vocational teacher at his former school, the Márton Agricultural and Geographical Vocational School in Debrecen.

Hungary and Ukrainian Refugees

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Hungarian Prime Minister Orban had a new decree issued removing the refugee status of Ukrainian in “safe” counties. As a result, quite a few refugees found themselves on the street… Sot this issue? They are all Roma from Transcarpathia, a region Orban claims as his, and they all speak Hungarian.

But are not Hungarian in his view.
Bad and sad.

https://youtu.be/3_jLntdu-us In: Telex. 22.08.2024.

Hungary: International “Gypsy” Song Day

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On August 8, 2024 – the birthday of the legendary North Macedonian singer Esma Redžepova – the International “Gypsy” Song Day will be held for the third time. This year, 15 venues in six countries will participate in the event series and 50 bands will perform at home and abroad on the initiative of Mihály “Mazsi” Rostás. The face of the series of events is Mónika Lakatos, a Romani singer who won the Kossuth and WOMEX Lifetime Achievement Awards. The International Gypsy Song Day celebrates diversity with the participation of legendary Gypsy and non-Gypsy artists with a range of venues and programs that expand every year.

Hungarian Pilgrimage

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Nearly 800 pilgrims from about 30 towns will arrive on Saturday to Mátraverebély-Szentkút, for the national Roma pilgrimage, headed by Bishop János Székely, chairman of the Pastoral Committee for the Roma.

Nice headline, but reality is somewhat different: there are more than 800 Roma in most villages around this part of Hungary. So frankly, this is not a Roma pilgrimage, but a showcase.

Lego and Roma

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Lego published a set titled: Cigánytelep. This means Roma settlement, the settlements where Roma were forced to live outside the villages.

And this set is pretty much racist, showing all stereotypes that one can imagine.

Write to LEGO.

Kamill Erdős

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A travelling exhibition called “I’ll find you with God, my brother!” with the subtitle “Gypsy Stories” elaborates and presents to the public the Erdős Kamill legacy preserved in the collection of the Erkel Ferenc Museum in Gyula, i.e. the results of the research conducted among the Roma in Hungary in the 20th century – this time in Kápolnásnyé, at the Halász Gedeon Event Center.

InDaHouse: A project in Hungary

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Fruzsina Benkő founded InDaHouse in the most disadvantaged area of Borsod, one of the poorest Hungarian Counties in 2014, driven by her own resources, her frustration with the child protection system, her personal desire to do something and, as she says in the interview, some naivety.

The aim is to show the Roma children that the majority society can believe in them.

Difficult in Hungary …

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A reportage in a Budapest district that is going to be displaced for building the National University of Public Service’s teacher training school. Where’s the catch: Well, 80% of the residents are Roma. And they fear that they will be relocated to nowhere, in the countryside.

Clearly, the buildings are in need of repairs, but many residents invested and renovated their flats by themselves. Now, they are being expropriated by the state.

International Roma Song Day

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The Benczúr House will host the events of the 3rd International Gypsy Song Day in Budapest on August 8. The program series is opened by three concerts in the spring and early summer.

The first performer on March 8 is Mónika Lakatos and the Cigány Hangok, whose aim is to present and keep alive the purest traditions of the Oláh Gypsy culture.

Hungary, Roma, and the Police

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Hungary is increasing the stipends of Roma students studying for becoming policemen. That many Roma want to be members of the Hungarian police can be doubted, and anyhow, the stipends are ridiculous. Around 10’000 HUF for an average grade student. Per month. This amounts to 25 euros per months. And with the current inflation …

Hungary: Success Story

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Tímea Somogyi, a Romni from Kecskemet, Hungary completed he high school and university as an adult by the time she had 6 children. She now works as a social care worker.

Hungarian Census

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Another article on the recent Hungarian Census. The overall population decreased by 3.4%, and, more astonishingly, the number of Roma passed from 300’000 to 200’000. All other “ethnic” minorities, Germans, Slovaks, etc. also decreased but not by as much as in the case of Roma.

The 300’000 number was anyhow a fallacy, as the government itself acknowledges more than half a million. So simply, Roma did not declare themselves as such …

Hungary and the War

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Shortly before the end of the war, Hungarians committed mass murder against Hungarians: At the beginning of February 1945, snipers and gendarmes gathered local Roma at the border of Várpalota, dug a pit with them, and then shot them: one hundred and eighteen people were murdered, while another five victims were executed in the main square of the city.

Despite this, plans for a memorial to the victims of the Roma Holocaust were prepared in Hungary early in 1974, even by international comparison: the sculptor was György Jovánovics, an outstanding figure of the neo-avant-garde generation of artists. The sculptor was interviewed by art historian Dániel Véri.

Exhibition on Roma and the Holocaust

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In the gallery of the City History Museum in Fiľakovo, Slovakia, visitors will be able to view the exhibition of the Dutch photographer Jutka Rona entitled Hungarian Gypsies – Survivors’ Testimony dedicated to the memory of the Hungarian Roma holocaust.

Hungarian-born photographer Jutka Rona was two years old when her parents immigrated to the Netherlands.

Hungary: Special Exhibition

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On November 5, the World Day of the Romani Language, the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest invites for a temporary exhibition on Roma stories. The foundation of the exhibition, which opened on May 23 this year, is quite extraordinary: the Kamill Erdős legacy has been preserved in the collection of the Ferenc Erkel Museum in Gyula. For the first time, the interested public can see the results of the research conducted among Roma in Hungary in the 19th century.

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