Monthly Archives: juin 2024

French Chronicle …

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Well, when there is other news, such as the French elections, Roma vanish from the media. Except in some rightist paper such as the notorious Breizh info.

Besides the title about wasting money on Roma, France has spent a huge amount of money not integrating around 20’000 Roma over the last 20 years. Integration would have been by now much cheaper.

Sachsenhausen Camp

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The district court in Hanau, Hesse, has refused to open a trial against a 99-year-old alleged former guard at the Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp for health reasons.

Too bad.

Tomáš Kačo

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An interview with the Romano pianist and composer Tomáš Kačo. He is now well established in many countries of the world after his studies at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston. After fulfilling his dream – concerts in the Rudolfinum and Carnegie Hall – he has other goals ahead of him and he wants to be a role model for Roma.

Germany and Racism

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The current German ruling coalition proposed the creation of a commission on racism. The SPD parliamentary group and its chairman Raed Saleh in particular have been a strong advocate for the project. “The Enquete Commission will be tasked with drawing up recommendations on how to strengthen social cohesion and counter anti-Semitism, racism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination.”

Racism against Sinti and Roma will also be included.

Slovakia, Covid-19 and Roma

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Some Roma communities in Slovakia were placed in absolute isolation during the Covid 19 pandemic, which nowadays thought to have been an overly restrictive measure which possibly violated the basic human rights of the inhabitants of the affected Roma communities.

Czechia: Scholarships

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Roma students of secondary and higher professional schools as well as university students can apply for a scholarship from the ROMEA organization for the school and academic year 2024/2025 from Monday 17 June to Monday 22 July. The scholarship program of the ROMEA organization was launched in 2016, and since then a total of 605 scholarships worth 10.025 million crowns have been distributed to 301 students. ROMEA will support 20 more students this year than last year. A total of one hundred Roma students will be able to receive a scholarship.

Bulgaria, Roma, Beggars, and Switzerland

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Due to the presence of s few Roma beggars from Bulgaria in Bern, members of the police in charge of foreigners went to Burgas, Bulgaria, together with journalists from the Tages-Anzeiger.

They do report on the poverty, precarity, and dreadful living conditions, but also speak (rather lest someone speak) about Roma chiefs, who, when owed money that is not repaid, “forces” people to work, “for example as a beggar” in Switzerland. They also say that begging is an important source of income.

Not when the average income of a beggar is less than 20 francs. There are other means that are way more lucrative.

Czechia, Work, and Roma

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Roma in the Czech Republic are much more likely to receive a fixed-term (limited duration) contract at work. In the whole of the Czech Republic, about seven percent of employed people have it, half of Roma workers. Roughly every ninth Roma then works without a contract. This was shown by research on the socio-economic situation of the Roma population in the Czech Republic for last year and this year. The report with the results was published by the Research Institute of Labor and Social Affairs (RILSA).

This result has been interpreted somewhat differently in the Czech press, for example in the IDnes paper, which states in its title “Even if they work, they have no security. Half of the Roma have a contract only for a fixed period”.

The generalization of half of the people in Czechia who have fixed terms contracts doesn’t mean that half the Roma do.

Roma and Czech Schools

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A dreadful reportage in a segregated school in the Czech Republic. Karel Rajchl, the director of the Vojanova Elementary School in Děčín says that getting children and their families to cooperate is often almost impossible.

“Shh, they’re writing a test,” she warns, upon entering the seventh-grade physics class. The teacher replies “It doesn’t matter, they can’t do anything anyway”. In the last pews, two boys don’t even bother to have an open notebook in which to calculate the task entered on the blackboard, they just giggle. “These boys are one step away from raping our young female teachers,” states principal Rajchl dryly as he leaves the class again.

No Comments…

French Chronicle …

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Not much this week in France, most probably due to the upcoming elections.

An article about Angela Rostas, a 40 years old pregnant Romni who was killed recently in Savoie, near Geneva, victim of a racist murder. The other article is about Roma who are squatting in a stadium near Nates, after having been evicted from their previous camp.

Bratislava: Exhibition

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An exhibition of drawings by children on the theme of Roma personalities has opened in Bratislava in the baroque courtyard of the university. “Especially for Roma children, this topic was very inspiring, encouraging and instilling pride. For children from the majority society, such a topic is an opportunity to get to know successful Roma,” explained Agnes Horváthová, founder of the civil association Romano kher – Rómsky dom, which organizes the competition.

Slovakia and Poverty

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An article on the improvements in terms of work and poverty in the town of Rimavská Sobota, in South Central Slovakia. There, the unemployment has been the highest in Slovakia for a long time, but it has fallen sharply over the last 10 years. In addition, a large investment is planned for the district, the German company Winkelmann will build a plant there, which will create 450 jobs.

At the exit meeting on Wednesday, the government distributed approximately two million euros to various projects in the districts of Rimavská Sobota and Poltár.

What benefit will come to Roma still needs to be seen.

European Elections and Roma

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The news server Romea.cz provided a detailed analysis of the results of the European Parliament elections from the point of view of the Roma minority through a special podcast. Journalists, political analysts and representatives of the Roma community took part in the discussion.

The results of the EP elections from the point of view of the Roma were evaluated on Wednesday evening by: journalist Jarmila Balážová, political scientist Edita Stejskalová, former social worker Jan Houška and founder of the Be Heard initiative Petr Banda. The podcast was presented by Zdeněk Ryšavý, editor-in-chief of the news server Romea.cz.

Slovenia and Roma

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There was an altercation between Roma and non-Roma in an elementary school in the municipality of Brežice, Slovenia. This made the news in the country, and a controversy arose as the mayor of Brežice wrote in social media “a Roma student attacked an eighth-grader in class.” The question raised whether this is an incitation to racial hatred or not.

rroma.org
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