‘Exploring Racial Capitalism: Critical Romani Studies in Central and Eastern Europe’ is the closing conference of the research project ‘Precarious labor and peripheral housing. The socio-economic practices of Romanian Roma in the context of changing industrial relations and uneven territorial development’ conducted at Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, between 2020-2023.
The conference takes place tomorrow, October 19th, and can be attended remotely if registered.
Petr and Jana Ščuka are married and Roma. They are exceedingly successful, are de facto billionaires but gave away 1/3 of their fortune to help others, be they Roma or non Roma.
Well done.
Representatives of the Ne davimo Beograd-Green Left Front party, the city of Belgrade and the Roma Forum of Serbia laid flowers in Beogradska Street, at the place where a 13-year-old Roma boy, Dušan Jovanović, was killed 26 years ago.
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.
Yet another article about the creation of a tent school in a Roma camp in Lviv. These Roma are IDPs and the catholic church created this school. Nice move but what about getting those people to live in decent quarters and also to go to regular schools?
Another article on the Slovenian village of Dobruška and its “Roma Problem”. According to the article, 350 Roma live there, and only two have work. Again, the question whether a Roma councillor would help.
In all these articles, the real question, i.e. why are all these Roma unemployed, is only addressed in a one way direction: Roma re not qualified, do not want to work, and so on, but never, that even with qualifications, nobody wants to give them work.
A critique of the Netflix series “Infamia” about a Roma family going back to Poland. Verdict here: A courageous attempt, but in the end, stereotypes.
In the Slovenian municipality of Škocjan, the population feels there is a real Roma “problem”. The question asked is whether a Roma councillor in the municipal council (OS) could help solve the problems? The municipality of Škocjan does not have one, because it is not a “Rom” municipality. About 350 Roma live there, which is 10 percent of the entire population, 20 percent of Roma children attend .
The preliminary results of the Hungarian 2022 census have been published. One astonishing fact is that according to the census, the Roma population decreased by more than a third, passing from 315’000 in 2011 to 209’000 now.
These numbers are totally out of whack with reality, as the estimated number of Roma in Hungary lies between 600 and 800’000… According to the Hungarian press, the decrease is due to people not stating their ethnicity in the census.
Bojan Kekecis a member of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia. Last week, he gave an interview about the changes to some laws that relate to the Roma issue. “Living with them is very difficult. I don’t know how they would look in Ljubljana or other places when a beehive or grain in a field is set on fire. Such actions are unacceptable. There is a lot of crime and misdemeanours.”
No comments …
Another one of these stories that make it always to the press and give the impression all Roma are like this: A fight between two Roma families in Razlog escalated terribly. A 20-year-old boy was stabbed in the stomach and hospitalized. The attacker with the knife fled and is currently being sought. The families are from different parts of the country, but work in Razlog. Last night they sat down to eat and drink at the hotel where they are staying in the city. They got drunk and fought, after which 50-year-old Zivko K. grabbed the knife and wounded 20-year-old Valentin. Seeing what he had done, he fled the scene of the crime.
In his last address to the management of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, the Ombudsman points out that the Roma settlement in Koszary, in the Limanowa commune, is inhabited by approximately 120 people. Many of them live in buildings arbitrarily built from random materials. These buildings are in poor technical condition – they are neither insulated nor plastered.
This is not new, and this discussion has been going on for years by now.
Bad.
The EQUAL CUP football tournament is taking place in Záhorí under the auspices of the Human in Danger organization, with the participation of students from Lozorn and Plavecký Štvrtek. As part of the Better Future for Young Roma project, which is financed by the Volkswagen Slovakia Foundation, the organization Human in Danger works with young people from marginalized Roma communities (MRK) in western Slovakia, primarily in Záhorí.
Another article in the Ukrainian press about the tent school set up in a Roma refugee camp by a catholic priest. There are quite a few photos that show the precarity of the camp. Maybe it would be better to lodge these IDPs correctly and send the children to a regular school…
Erik Žigmund is a successful Slovak musician, and a Rom. He says: “There are very few Roma in Trenčín, I was probably the only one in the whole school”. He also said he was bullied in school. He speaks about a friend who died and abot commemoration in this interview.
On October 9, the Roman Catholic Church organized a school where both children and adults can study in the Roma camp near the bypass road of Lviv.
This is good, but is also coupled with a strong push to convert, even though the vast majority of Roma there are Orthodox.
The Bulgarian press focuses on bad stories on Roma. Here, on a police operation in three Roma settlements in Kazanlak. This followed the stabbing of a policeman in the Roma settlement “Kazmera” by a 20-year-old criminal from the neighbourhood.
An interview with Matic Vidic who is employed by the Slovenian Army where he takes care of spiritual care in the Novo mesto and Cerklje ob Krka barracks. He is a permanent deacon in the diocese of Novo mesto, and he teaches religious education to children. He also does pastoral work with Roma and wants to help Roma to improve their lives and to improve the bad relations between the local population and Roma.
The Slovene Ombudsman Peter Svetina visited the municipalities of Škocjan, Sevnica and Radeče, where he met with mayors. In Škocjan, he was informed about the problems they have with individual Roma. At the same time, Svetina emphasized that positive discrimination against the Roma minority cannot discriminate against the rights of the majority population. After the meeting he clarified the statemen, saying Roma population have legislation which protects them, “but positive discrimination cannot discriminate against the rights of the majority population”, but the right balance must be found. “Also, protective legislation does not give the Roma population a free hand for criminal acts”.
An interview with Anna Maliszewska, the director and author of the series “Infamia”. She explains how difficult it was to give an objective portrait of Roma and how she did not manage to get any of them to come to the castings. She also spoke of Dr. Joanna Talewicz, who has been working for the Roma community for years and how she helped her in shaping the series.
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