Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Roma, and Poor Health

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Slovakia, Roma, and Poor Health

Anthropologist Andrej Belák from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) has published a scientific study in one of the most prestigious social science journals in the world. It is focused on the causes of the poor health status of excluded Roma in Slovakia.

The published work is mainly based on a series of in-depth field research carried out between 2004 and 2015. “These mapped in detail the daily practice of the excluded Roma themselves and then various professionals of the health system who worked with the excluded Roma on a daily basis,” the SAV spokeswoman explained. According to her, the work brings to the fore and vividly summarizes deeper connections that have been little known in the international context until now.

Well, you do not really need a PhD to understand that exclusion and poverty are not good for one’s health…

News Osteuropa Russland

Russia: Pogroms

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Russia: Pogroms

Finally, the news makes it to the West. We reported on it already.

Following the murder of a taxi driver by a Rom, a pogrom started in the town of Korkino, in the Cheliabinsk region. Subsequently after the riots, several Roma were summoned to serve in the army in the Ukraine, a certain death and definitively a punishment.

For the journalist: there are no Sinti in Russia …

News Osteuropa Serbien

Serbia: TV Series

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Serbia: TV Series

The first Roma-Serbian series in the region “Love in Silence”, which will soon start broadcasting on TV Pink, brings an exciting and deep story about the birth of love at the moment when two different worlds meet, but also about the challenges faced by Roma in Serbia and around the world and fight against prejudices and stereotypes that society is prone to. Among the fantastic cast that is part of this important project is the popular actor Saša Joksimović, who prepared for this role very thoroughly. Given that he plays Roma Danijel, Saša had to learn both Romani and Macedonian languages.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Bulgaria and Incitation to Hatred

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Bulgaria and Incitation to Hatred

An article which states that “Roma neighbourhoods in Petrich, and the neighbourhoods in Bulgaria in general, are a huge prerequisite for a threat to national security, since the state institutions have abdicated long ago from the problems of the neighbourhoods, relying mainly on mediators, and this creates a situation in which we do not know what and how exactly happens there.”

It adds that “Illegal buildings and electricity, accompanied by Roma raids and beatings with axes, knives, stones and wooden sticks, as well as lack of any kind of responsibility and integration, are only a small part of the words that can describe the illegal life of the Roma neighborhoods in Petrich.”

Bad.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Bulgaria: Girls with Dreams

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Bulgaria: Girls with Dreams

The Centre for Inter-Ethnic Dialogue and Tolerance “Amalipe” organizes the fourth National Roma Women’s Meeting “Girls with dreams – let’s be more than three!”, which was held on November 14-15, 2024 in Dryanovo.

The meeting was attended by women and girls from all over the country who are actively working to change the situation of Romnja. These are mostly female students, educational mediators, active girls and Romnja working to improve living and learning conditions in the Roma community.

  • “Момичета с мечти – нека сме повече от три!” – ромските жени и пътят към успеха. In: BNR. 14.11.2024. https://bnr.bg/varna/post/102074690
Ungarn News Osteuropa Polen

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.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czechia: Documentary

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Czechia: Documentary

The documentary Dajori [small mother in Romanes], which won the audience award at the Jihlava Film Festival, is now in theatres. The film is ostensibly a story about a Roma foster family, but it also reveals the housing crisis, the trade in poverty and racism rooted in society.

The foster mother, Dajori Marie Hučkova, in the movie says “Ravens are like Roma. There are many of them and they are roaring. People don’t mind, so shoot them. An animal can take care of its children, and my sister, the mother, cannot take care of her children.”

News Osteuropa North Macedonia

North Macedonia: Kindergarten

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North Macedonia: Kindergarten

350 Roma children will be able to attend kindergarten free of charge in Centar and Gazi Baba in the periphery of Skopje. This is part of a project for the inclusion of Roma children in municipal institutions.

Knowing how many Roma there are around Skopje, this is a drop of water on a hot stone. Almost an alibi exercise. And the user of “Roma Nationality” is very much reminiscent of the old socialist notion.

They are North Macedonians …

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia, Roma, and Employment

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Slovenia, Roma, and Employment

The employability of Roma in Slovenia remains a challenge, as they face high levels of unemployment and limited employment opportunities. According to data from 2002, about 15% of Roma were employed, while 85% were unemployed. They are for bright exceptions that prove that this is also possible. This is the case of Đani Stojanovič, who works at Komunala Novo mesto.
Why no journalist ask how one gets at such numbers if governments do admit they do not know how many Roma live in a country?

Bulgarien News Osteuropa Slowakei

Elena Marushiakova

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Elena Marushiakova

Prof. Elena Marushiaková-Popová received the Slovak Science and Technology Award 2024 in the category Personality of Science and Technology for international successful scientific research in the field of Roma studies, the history of Roma as an ethnic minority in Europe.

Shee is currently continuing his work at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The cooperation of Professor Elena Marushiaková-Popová with experts and institutions in Slovakia dealing mainly with Roma studies has been ongoing since the eighties. Its scientific contribution is considerable, it helps to get to know the Roma living in Slovakia and to understand them in a wider pan-European context.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Integration

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Slovakia and Integration

Ivan Mako is 48 years old and comes from Banská Bystrica. He studied Roma culture at the University of Konstantin Filozof in Nitra. He is married, has two sons and both are studying at universities. He works as a manager in a multifunctional community centre in Valaska near Brezno and manages the successful social enterprise Wasco, a cooperative in the same village. The company is a transfer station for standard employment and currently employs more than 50 hard-to-employ people. In ten years, around 450 people passed through it.

Well Done.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Everyday Racism

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Slovakia and Everyday Racism

Roma boys were supposed to enjoy a friendly football match, but instead received a welcome that hurt at the local school. “Yikes, gypsy team! Kill them!” one student shouted at them. “That was a welcome from a little girl from the local school, where we came with the students for a friendly football match. The boys were very much looking forward to the match. But the welcome hurt,” said teacher and education activist Juraj Hipš on Facebook, who published the sad experience of his students. There has now been a huge wave of support on social media.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Baruvas Meeting

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Baruvas Meeting

From November 1 to 3, the 24th BaruvaS meeting took place in Prague. It focused on connecting young Roma with literature and art. The participants took a thematic walk around Žižkov with journalist and writer Patrik Banga, experienced his author’s reading, and the climax of the program was a visit to the performance of Romeo and Juliet at the ABC Theatre in Prague.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Lety: Building of the Year

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Lety: Building of the Year

The newly opened Roma and Sinti Holocaust Memorial in Bohemia became one of the significant buildings of 2024. He received the Prize of the Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic for extraordinary societal contribution. The memorial, ceremonially opened in May of this year, was created on the site of a former concentration camp where Czech Roma and Sinti were imprisoned during the Nazi occupation.

Architects Jan Sulzer and studio Terra Florida signed the architectural design of the area. An interesting element of the space is the forest symbolizing the Roma community and the empty spaces commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. The memorial circle then marks the original site of the camp.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czechia and Racism

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Czechia and Racism

The 50 Shades of Anti-Roma Racism campaign draws attention to the long-lasting expressions of hate and discrimination. It brings awareness, specific stories, but also instructions on how to defend yourself. The details and goals of the campaign are described in an interview by its leader psychologist Monika Mihaličková from the RomanoNet organization. She says that “Most people imagine manifestations of racism and discrimination in connection with very explicit situations, but quite often they also have a more subtle form.”

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Police Abuse

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Slovakia: Police Abuse

The most well-known case of police brutality in Slovakia in the media is from Košice. It happened back in 2009. Ten Košice policemen forced Roma boys from the Luník IX housing estate to slap and kiss each other under the threat of a fight, ordered them to strip naked and stand with their hands above their heads, barked at them with unmuzzled dogs, and put a gun to one of their heads.

The police officers, who were recording everything on their mobile phones, were accused of harassing Roma between the ages of 11 and 17, who were suspected of robbing a pensioner. The case dragged on in court for years, they were convicted several times by the courts, eventually they were declared innocent and some of the dismissed policemen returned to the force. The final word is with the regional court, a hearing in this matter has not yet been scheduled.

News Osteuropa Polen Rumänien

Roma, Romanians, and Poland

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Roma, Romanians, and Poland

After the fall of communism, in the early 1990s, a significant number of Roma migrants from Romania appeared in Poland. According to this article, they engaged in organised begging (and other stereotypes). But the result was that for many Poles, Romanians and Roma were two interchangeable terms, i.e. all Roam are Romanians and all Romanians are Roma…

No comments.

News Osteuropa Polen Russland

Russia, Roma, and the War

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Russia, Roma, and the War

A pogrom against Roma happened recently in Korkino, in the Cheliabinsk region. It happened after the murder of a 40-year-old taxi driver. She was killed by a teenage Rom. He probably argued with the woman about the fare. After her death, riots broke out in the city.

Seven Roma from Korkino have received summonses to report to a military recruitment centre. This was reported by Igor Dongauzer, the prosecutor of the Chelyabinsk region, during a regular meeting with the residents of Korkino. This is probably a punishment that is supposed to help the authorities rebuild their authority in the city.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Lety Memorial

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The Museum of Roma Culture received a prestigious award in the Building of the Year 2024 competition for the newly opened Roma and Sinti Holocaust Memorial in Bohemia, located in Lety u Písek. The monument received the Award of the Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic for an extraordinary social contribution. The award is recognition for an important step in the commemoration of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust and an effort to bring the historical events associated with the Nazi genocide of the Roma and Sinti in our country closer to the general public.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia and Roma Workers

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Slovenia and Roma Workers

An article about Unemployment programs and their success in enrolling people in long term jobs. Well, for Roma it doesn’t seem to work. And in Slovenia, one often hears that Roma are not interested in working. Maybe it’s the employers who are not interested in Roma…

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