Several articles in the Slovak press commemorate the singer L’jubo Virág who died at the age of 68.
“Every teacher should teach at least one year at a special school. It will significantly affect his life both personally and professionally. It will acquire important values.” This is the advice for all teachers from the Slovak woman of the year 2021 in the field of education and the director of a unique school in Kežmark.
Unfortunately, this is a segegrated Roma school, and a pilot in Slovakia. This is not how integration is done.
“Slovak singer, musician, composer and lyricist Ľubo Virág died yesterday,” reports Roma television TV Romana. The singer has been struggling with serious health problems for the last few years. Ernest Šarközi from Gypsy Devils sent him a message to heaven: “Ľubka, rest in peace.”
Te ovel o drom anda leste puterdo.
For the last twenty years, the Slovak National Museum in Martin has been dedicated to the second most numerous Slovak national minority through the Museum of Roma Culture in Slovakia.
A new exhibition “Hin amen museum! / We have a museum!” maps the activities of this specialized museum, which has been actively involved in research, documentation and presentation of the rich cultural heritage of the Roma since 2004.
The Žilina State Chamber Orchestra led by conductor Adrian Kokoš, the Sendreiovci band and the Čerchenóra choir will meet on stage in the program Sláva Solovica: Roma Songs. This is a mix of classical music and Roma tunes and improvisations.
Extremist ideologies mostly consider Jews, Roma, liberals and LGBTI people to be enemies. This is highlighted in the Report on monitoring on the state of extremism in the Slovak Republic for the period of 2022 and 2023, which the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) of the Slovak Republic submitted to the interdepartmental comment procedure.
The successful Slovak series Iveta was among the selected film productions at the well-known international Roma festival Ake Dikhea?, which takes place every year in Berlin. This festival, which has been appealing to a wide international community for several years with its uniqueness and cultural significance, focuses on the presentation of Roma films that reflect the diverse stories, lives and perspectives of Roma around the world.
Roma MP Viliam Tankó, a defector from Matovič’s Slovensko movement, joins the Progressive Slovakia parliamentary club. The progressives will thus have 33 deputies in the parliament. The leader of the progressives, Michal Šimečka, presented Tankó on the press as a “long-term sports representative of Slovakia in Olympic boxing”.This prompted discussions as to whether Matovič’s movement is merging with the progressive.
All politics …
An article about the issue of seggregated schools versus the right to being taucht in one’s language. Background is the current drive by the Fico government to set up a school in Eastern Slovakia where teaching will be done in Romanes.
This is a false debate. All Roma who speak Romanes are dual language speakers. They speak the local language and Romanes. Desegregation is thus the key here, together with some courses about Romanes. Segregation and Romanes only schools will certainly no solve any issue.
On her debut album, Slovak R&B and pop singer Erika Rein teamed up with producer Jonatan Pastirčák (Isama Zing, Pjoni). The Kamibe album features thirteen songs in three languages – English, Roanes and Slovak – and combines experimentation with global pop, soul or R&B. The release of the album Kamibe introduces the single Toxic on 9/13, the entire collection is then released on Friday 27 September in cooperation with the labels Full Moon Forum and Ruka Hore.
Rudolf Huliak was responsible for a recent vulgar incident that outraged a large number of Slovaks. At Wednesday’s (September 25) session of the parliament, the vice-chairman of the National Council, Andrej Danek (SNS), was bothered by the fact that deputy Lucia Plaváková (PS) had stickers on her computer. He was bothered by the fact that these were stickers with an LGBTI motif. Plaváková did not respond to calls to remove them and objected that she did not violate the rules of procedure.
Danko kicked her out of the hall. Huliak subsequently called Plaváková a “bitch who he does not consider a woman” at a press conference.
He also took the opportunity to insult Roma …
Another article about Roma being refused services in a café. The cafe in the Mlyny shopping center in Nitra made a very bad headline a few days ago. A video on social networks captured the discrimination “live”. The author of the video was Marcel, whom the waitress refused to serve because he is Rom.
He came to the cafe with his friends, but they refused to let them in and order. As the waitress also said on camera, Roma are not allowed to enter the cafe because they “shout and don’t pay”.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi commemorated the 83rd anniversary of the massacre of more than 30,000 Jews by the Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators in the Babyn Jar gorge near Kyiv in 1941.
“Babyn Jar is a terrifying symbol that shows that the most heinous crimes occur when the world chooses to ignore, remain silent, be indifferent and lacks the determination to stand up to evil,” Zelensky, who is of Jewish descent himself, said on the X social network.
According to official data, 100,000 – 150,000 people were killed in the Babyn Jar gorge in 1941 and 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. The primany targets were Jews and Roma.
The Documentation and Information Center of Roma Culture (DICRK) of the State Science Library (ŠVK) in Prešov has made available an extended virtual gallery of Roma fine art. Visitors can meet 40 personalities from the fields of literature, visual arts, film and music. The resources can be accessed via mobile phone, tablet or computer.
In Nitra, Slovakia, a group of young Roma, including a well-known activist and athlete, experienced being refused entry to a cafe just because they are Roma. One of the men shared his experience on social media, detailing what happened, adding videos and later a photo of another encounter.
When they arrived at the cafe, the waitress warned them that Roma were not allowed to enter. The young man expressed his shock and disappointment at this approach. He stated that he did not understand why all Roma should be judged by the behavior of a few individuals.
He has known success, fame and admiration, but also a rough fall to the bottom. Slovak bodybuilder of Roma origin and five-time European champion Adam Cibuľa will celebrate his 60th birthday today in the street.
“You walk around the city, sometimes people give you one or two euros for food. Then you look for a place to sleep. And the next day it’s the same all over again,” Cibuľa described to the Slovak newspaper MY Novohrad in an interview in August.
On her debut album called Kamibe (Love), Slovak R&B and pop singer Erika Rein teamed up with producer Jonatán Pastirčák (Isama Zing, Pjoni). It brings thirteen songs in three languages – English, Romanes, and Slovak – and combines experimentation with global pop, soul or R&B.
The Slovak Minister of Education Tomáš Drucker is accusing MP for Progressive Slovakia Ingrid Kosová of making inappropriate statements about Roma at a meeting of the NR SR Committee for Human Rights and National Minorities.
He published a video of the committee meeting on the social network. In it, Kosová first asks whether they compare Hungarian and Ruthenian schools with Roma schools. “It would be nice if there was a Roma national school, like the one in Budapest, for example, where there is a middle Roma class, where those people really have a Roma identity, like me for example, and I went to such a school, why not?” says the deputy in the video . “But here we’re talking about excluded communities, people who mostly don’t even have a basic education, who will tell you they’re from Mars, whatever,” she continued. At this point, one of those present tried to interrupt her, but Kosová continued. “But they are such people that they simply do not have sufficient cognitive ability to be able to evaluate whether it is really in the best interest of the child. We will not lie to ourselves. It’s just the way it is,” she said.
Viliam Tankó (29) won last year’s election to the parliament for the Slovakia movement, also thanks to the fact that he is a Roma. He is not ashamed of his origin. However, he recently left the party and admits that he faces accusations and criticism after leaving Igor Matovič’s movement. He stated that “I left because the relations between us became dull and the cooperation with, for example, older colleagues in the movement was not always ideal.”
In a small room above the police station, right in the center of the colony on Coburgova Street in greater Trnava, two young people are trying to fight windmills. Despite all the hardships that work with Roma bring, Juraj Štofej and Jana Martinkovičová claim that they enjoy it.
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