News

Commentary: If I were Romani, I'd go crazy

29.3.2015 20:25 "To be Romani all too frequently means living in an excluded locality. To live in a ghetto means being close to the drug mafia, loan sharks, and speculators in social housing, to be in the sights of those who traffic in poverty. It means to experience despair, frustration , hopelessness and resignation. In such a situation, merely finding the will to escape it is a minor miracle," writes commentator Martin Vrba in an article for the Czech online magazine A2larm.cz.  full story

Sweden: Lawsuit over police list of Romani people begins

28.3.2015 20:29 A Swedish nonprofit organization is suing the state over its police registry of Romani people, which contained the personal data of persons connected by nothing but their ethnicity. News server Newsweek.com reported on the case yesterday.
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Karel Holomek: Segregation is a source of crime, frustration and hatred

28.3.2015 19:45 I do not want to a priori suspect Mr Čunek of endeavoring to harm Romani people, even though he is succeeding exceptionally well at exactly that. He is being applauded on an open stage and people undoubtedly ultimately sent him back as Mayor of Vsetín and even as Senator for exactly that reason.  full story

videoRomea.cz interviews authors of the "official" version of the Romani anthem

28.3.2015 19:02, (ROMEA) Does there now finally exist an official, standardized form of the Romani anthem? Has the situation in which hundreds of various versions of the anthem were being played for different occasions at different places now been overcome?  full story

Czech Republic: Nonprofits help unemployed Roma, save the state millions

Prague, 27.3.2015 23:51, (ROMEA) Last year, within the framework of a project run by the ROMEA nonprofit (the publisher of news server Romea.cz) and the Slovo 21 NGO, 59 Romani clients in Prague succeeded in finding jobs, saving the state budget more than CZK 6 million (EUR 218 000). "We are glad that last year we succeeded in helping almost 60 Romani residents of Prague find work, and we managed to change their life situations. That is no easy task and I consider it a big success," said Jelena Silajdžić, director of Slovo 21.  full story

videoIs this the official version of the international Romani anthem?

27.3.2015 22:45, (ROMEA) The authors of the Rromaanthem.org website are claiming that for the first time in history, the international Romani anthem, "Gelem, gelem", now exists in an official, standardized form. The anthem has been recorded in three versions: A choral one, an instrumental one, and a solo vocal one.  full story

Czech Romani Studies scholar says that when Roma do well, so does all of society

27.3.2015 22:25 "The values held by Romani people are basically the same values as those held by the majority society," Mgr. Zbyněk Andrš, Ph.D., an ethnologist and Romani Studies scholar from the Social Sciences Department at the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Pardubice said in an interview for news server EuroZprávy.cz. Andrš says the reason that a large number of Romani people perform unskilled labor and enjoy lower standards of living is that their access to the authorities and to education is comparatively worse.  full story

Commentary: European Roma Institute will use the power of culture

27.3.2015 21:49, (Frankfurter Rundschau) The German Sinti and Roma can look back on some good weeks: Recently, Federal Supreme Court President Bettina Limperg signaled the readiness of the court for a historical investigation into its "unreasonable jurisdiction" concerning Sinti and Roma. As a result of a discriminatory Supreme Court ruling from 1956 victims of National Socialism had been denied the compensation of their suffering for decade  full story

Czech Republic: Residential hotel owner fined CZK 550 000 over shocking conditions

27.3.2015 21:31, (ROMEA) Pavel Mirga, the operator of a troubled residential hotel on Dluhonská Street in Přerov, has been fined CZK 550 00 (EUR 20 000) because his residential hotel facility was never properly registered. Kamila Navrátilová, spokesperson for the Regional Authority, told the Czech News Agency that the decision has yet to take effect and could be appealed.  full story

Why we are setting up a European Roma Institute

27.3.2015 20:23, (European Voice) For more than four decades Europe’s Roma community have wanted to establish an institution that would give their music, art and unique traditions their own stage. Across the continent, such bodies exist to celebrate an array of cultures, nationalities and identities. Yet, there is nothing of this kind for Roma. Many feel this absence, particularly among Romani campaigners, educators and intellectuals. It compounds a sense of exclusion and denies all of us the opportunity to celebrate the Roma influence on our shared cultural life. We are joining forces to help put this right.  full story

Czech ombud responds to critics about Romani discrimination findings: Test cases are a serious approach

27.3.2015 19:57, (ROMEA) The Czech Public Defender of Rights, Anna Šabatová, issued a press release about discrimination against prospective Romani tenants on 22 December 2014. There was no greater response to her findings at that time.  full story

Documentary shows Roma from Slovak settlements singing with non-Romani musicians

26.3.2015 19:41, (ROMEA) Hundreds of ancient Romani songs have been collected by the ethnomusicologist Jana Belišová during her long-term research in Slovakia. Her meetings with Romani musicians there inspired her to undertake a new project bringing non-Romani and Romani musicians together.  full story

Czech News Agency produces biased, stereotyping report about Janov housing estate

25.3.2015 20:51, (ROMEA) In its 24 March report about the events around the Janov housing estate in Litvínov, the Czech News Agency, an independent public wire service, has committed some serious infractions against the "objective" reporting that is its mission under the law. The criticism levied by media analyses showing that Romani people ("inadaptables") are depicted stereotypically by the Czech media applies to this wire service to a great extent .
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Czech ministers of human rights and labor to review situation at Janov housing estate

Litvínov, 25.3.2015 19:07, (ROMEA) The situation at the Janov housing estate in the town of Litvínov, according to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, will be reviewed by his fellow Social Democrats in the cabinet, Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier and Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová Tominová. The PM has written as much to the initiators of a petition who complained of their allegedly impossible coexistence at the housing estate with socially vulnerable residents, primarily Romani ones.
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Slovakia: Number of extremist crimes drops

Bratislava, Slovakia, 25.3.2015 18:55, (ROMEA) The number of crimes connected with extremism and racial motivation has fallen in Slovakia in recent years. The Slovak Interior Ministry announced these findings on 20 March.  full story

Internet discussions: To delete, or not to delete?

25.3.2015 17:23, (ROMEA) The vast majority of democrats are advocates of the broadest possible freedom of speech, because no democracy can exist without it. Those who back an absolute freedom of speech, however, are most frequently recruited, paradoxically, from the ranks of those who disseminate pornography or racism, people whom it may difficult for the rest of us to consider democrats.  full story

Greece: Neo-Nazi boss released from custody awaiting trial

Athens, 24.3.2015 18:34, (ROMEA) On Friday a Greek court decided to release Nikolaos Michaloliakos, the head of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, from custody. Greek media report that he has been transferred to house arrest.  full story

Czech Republic: 17.5 years for two counts of attempted murder of homeless people

Prague, 24.3.2015 18:04, (ROMEA) A court has sentenced Jan Mokrý, a college student, to 17.5 years in prison for two counts of attempted murder against homeless people in Prague. The young man told the court that he admires Adolf Hitler, confessed to the crimes, and said he regretted that his victims had survived.  full story

Czech Republic: NGO director says young educated Roma must enter politics

23.3.2015 23:15, (ROMEA) The main aim of the Roma Leadership Program of the nonprofit organization Slovo 21 is for 16 chosen young Romani people to learn how to become leadership figures and eventually get involved in local or even national politics. Educated Roma people who are currently studying or who have already graduated from college have been selected to participate.  full story

Karel Holomek: We cannot reconcile ourselves to segregation

23.3.2015 19:32, (ROMEA) The term "inclusive education" (inkluzívní vzdělávání) is turning up at a high frequency now and as a matter of course in all circles in the Czech Republic, both among experts and among lay people. We have all accepted it, whether we feel negatively or positively about it, without realizing that we have much more apposite, precise words already in Czech for what we might mean when we use this phrase.  full story