Commentary

Commentary: Hitler was the biggest optimist

27.1.2015 17:17, (ROMEA) Within the framework of all of the pathetic, militant, moving, well-intentioned, sincere, intelligent, deep and perhaps even hypocritical and populist theses about the Holocaust, I believe it does no arm to also present ideas that are outrageous - outrageously funny. For example: At the end of last year a book was published here in the Czech Republic by Shalom Auslander called Hope: A Tragedy (Naděje: Tragédie - Argo 2014).  full story

Commentary: Where does "The Way Out" lead if almost no one cares?

Prague, 26.1.2015 19:41, (ROMEA) The success of the film "The Way Out" (Cesta ven) may be having a paradoxical impact. Petr Václav's movie about the life of Romani people in a ghetto has won the Czech Film Critics Award and was selected to represent Czech cinematography at last year's Cannes Film Festival.  full story

Commentary: France is going crazy with the fight against terrorism - what next?

Prague, 25.1.2015 5:03, (ROMEA) "We aren't Charlie and we never will be, you band of whores. You reap what you sow," is what one of four underage students in France posted to Facebook, according to the Czech News Agency, before they were arrested on 22 January by French Police.  full story

Commentary: Disabled children don't have to sit in the corner

Prague, 19.1.2015 18:05, (ROMEA) The recent remarks by Czech President Miloš Zeman about inclusion have sparked a stormy discussion here. "I am not an advocate of the opinion that children who are handicapped in a certain way should be placed into classrooms with non-handicapped pupils, because that is unfortunate for both," the President said at the Rehabilitation Institute in Brandýs nad Orlicí as part of his visit to the Pardubice Region  full story

Commentary: Czech President's remarks supported discrimination against Romani children

Prague, 17.1.2015 23:28, (ROMEA) "Handicapped children should not attend classes together with non-handicapped children" - that is approximately what Czech President Miloš Zeman said last Wednesday during a visit to a Rehabilitation Institute in Brandýs nad Orlicí. His words have sparked a firestorm of criticism from experts and politicians.  full story

Commentary: Multiculturalism has succeeded and is our greatest chance for peaceful coexistence

Prague, 14.1.2015 20:33, (ROMEA) Multiculturalism has succeeded and continues to be our greatest chance for peaceful coexistence, not only in the Euro-Atlantic world, but for the whole planet. Never before has the civilized world, led by intellectual elites of all faiths, been so united in condemning radical Islamists.
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Commentary: European demonstrations for unity give us hope, demagogues take it away

Paris/Prague, 13.1.2015 19:24, (ROMEA) On Sunday 11 January, millions demonstrated in Paris for social unity, with French citizens across all of society taking up a common cause. "We must not create amalgams," the French are saying.  full story

Can Europe maintain hope of a free, open society? Nous sommes Charlie!

Prague, 8.1.2015 19:08, (ROMEA) The aim of the Islamist terrorists who committed murder yesterday in Paris is clear: This is their attempt to contribute toward the introduction of a regime that will decide what we can laugh at, what we must believe, how we are to behave, how we are to dress... and what we are to hate. Such a regime is based on contempt for minorities, on fear, inequality, and punishment.  full story

Commentary: Does Okamura have a future?

Prague, 6.1.2015 21:27, (ROMEA) There would be no point in returning to the hateful and stupid remarks by Tomio Okamura about Muslims and no point in covering them at all if a basic question were not hanging in the air: Does this indicate the future of our public discourse and politics? Unfortunately, such a future cannot be ruled out.  full story

Commentary: When judges go in-depth

Kynšperk, 22.12.2014 22:13, (ROMEA) There are many cases of controversial police violence resulting in death, and not only in the Czech Republic. All we have to do is recall the recent, only partly violent, powerful protests by civil society in the United States about black youth shot dead by police officers.
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Commentary: When socialists give up on equality

Prague, 25.11.2014 18:54, (ROMEA) The Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) is sitting in a Government that has now frozen welfare, supports discrimination against Romani children and refuses to address a local coalition with the extreme-right DSSS. In this context, it is understandable that people are now tending to vote for parties outside the system.  full story

Does the new Czech reality TV show frame Romani children as ineducable?

Prague, 21.11.2014 18:06, (ROMEA) A new reality show called "Class 8 A" (Třída 8. A) has just been through its fifth Thursday episode before 10 PM on Czech Television's channel 1. The show is a spinoff of the very successful Swedish program "Klass 9 A", where several charismatic teachers arrive to teach a class of immigrants and, after roughly half a year of duelling with cultural models and their pupils' personal deficiencies, reach a happy ending as girls in headscarves and black guys with the crotches of their pants down by their knees fall into the arms of the Nordic-looking intellectuals/teachers.  full story

Michal Miko: Czech Deputy Ombud's remarks on Roma in the schools reflect his incompetence

Prague, 20.11.2014 23:31, (ROMEA) According to a statement by Deputy Ombud Stanislav Křeček broadcast on the TV Prima news on 8 November, the level of the entire Czech school system would be lowered if what he called the "special" schools are abolished. What's more, the Deputy Ombud said that this society is "traumatized" by being labeled racist because of this issue.  full story

Why Kristallnacht matters to European Roma today

Budapest, 18.11.2014 16:57, (ROMEA) We have just marked the 76th anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht or Novemberpogrom). In different cities across Germany and Austria a series of pogroms were perpetrated against Jewish civilians, stores and synagogues on the night between the 9th and the 10th of November while German authorities did nothing to prevent them. Those attacks were the prelude to the criminal racial policy that led to the Holocaust, in which six million Jews and five hundred thousand Roma were murdered.  full story

Štefan Horvát: Should Romani residents of Duchcov be afraid now?

Duchcov, 12.11.2014 22:18, (ROMEA) As everyone has probably noticed, the town of Duchcov is now a hot topic. Television news has reported on the local government coalition formed by the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and the Workers' Social Justice Party (DSSS) here.  full story

Commentary: What Roma Pride is about, and why it's not working

Prague, 29.10.2014 19:03, (ROMEA) At the start of this month, the third annual Roma Pride took place in the Czech Republic and many other European countries. This event is coordinated by the European Grassroots Anti-Racist Movement (EGAM) as an attempt to create a Europe-wide platform for civil rights on the model of the North American civil rights movement once led by figures such as Martin Luther King.  full story

Commentary: Zeman, consciously dividing Czech society, is no President

Prague, 29.10.2014 18:13, (ROMEA) We Czechs always manage to find something that will reliably divide us and invoke our emotions - and with them, our intransigence full of resentment towards others. Let's recall the presidential elections, when one camp attacked and the other counter-attacked.  full story

Breaking News No More: Life for Roma in Greece a Year after “Maria”

Greece, 27.10.2014 23:50, (ROMEA) For Lefteris Konstantinidis, a 34-year-old lawyer, a normal day in his new office is busy. The phone rings often; he runs around printing new case files and continues to take on new clients. His schedule is exhausting, but he still enjoys his work.  full story

Commentary: Fascist pixies, come out of the Czech moss!

Czech Republic, 24.10.2014 23:50, (ROMEA) Fascist rhetoric was used by candidates from various groups during this year's municipal and Senate elections in the Czech Republic. To what degree was it ultimately successful?  full story

Commentary: Guide to the discussion of the Czech children's groups law

Prague, 23.10.2014 22:52, (ROMEA) Discussion of the law on children's groups that has been vetoed by Czech President Miloš Zeman is continuing. According to some professionals and those who work with such groups, the various conditions of that law posed a threat to some clubs, nature preschools and organizations.  full story