Commentary

Ivanka Mariposa Čonková: The international protest against neo-Fascism

Prague, 28.12.2013 19:42, (ROMEA) The Slovak region of Bánská Bystrica has undergone a shock. Neo-Fascist Marián Kotleba was elected Regional Governor in last month's direct elections there.  full story

Karel Holomek: Some Czech senators know not what they do

Brno, 27.12.2013 17:56, (ROMEA) Our senators have distinguished themselves once again. About a week ago they adopted a resolution by a large majority in response to recommendations from the Council of the EU on the matter of discrimination against Romani people.  full story

Commentary: Czech social housing concept needs a total rewrite

Prague, 24.12.2013 0:21, (ROMEA) It seems the outgoing Rusnok cabinet wanted to manage the production of as many conceptual materials as possible before leaving office. Fortunately, they have resisted pressure to make a decision on whether to breach existing environmental protection limits on mining.  full story

Commentary: Czech Senator says Romanes language lacks future tense

Prague, 6.12.2013 23:11, (ROMEA) Edward Said, the renowned post-colonial critical theorist, once said that the Roma are the only group about which anything can be said "without challenge or demurral". Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the founders of modern linguistics, noted that few other subjects have sparked as much fantasy, illusion or prejudice as language.  full story

Commentary: Senator Doubrava the Czech equivalent of Kotleba in Slovakia

Prague, 4.12.2013 16:16, (ROMEA) I am convinced that every social group, including senators, includes a few cunning hucksters. Czech Senator Doubrava (Severočeši.cz) definitely belongs to that category.  full story

Czech Social Democratic shadow minister: D.H. judgment key to desegregating schools

Prague, 25.11.2013 15:42, (ROMEA) This month marks six years since the groundbreaking judgment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of D.H. and Others vs. the Czech Republic. That judgment confirmed that the Czech Republic discriminates against Romani children by disproportionately sending them to what were once called the "special schools" and today are called "practical schools."  full story

Karel Holomek: What democracy and freedom mean to me

Brno, 17.11.2013 15:29, (ROMEA) For me, democracy and freedom mean the opportunity to express my opinions on public affairs and to participate in them. When I express my opinions to the public, I don't feel restricted by anything other than the accuracy of my statements, which can be critical of abuses in society and eventually of those who personify those abuses, such as people in politics, including at the highest levels, and in public offices.  full story

Time to renew the meaning of 17 November

Prague, 14.11.2013 2:08, (ROMEA) The anniversary of 17 November is over-saturated with historical content in the Czech Republic. Two milestones in the grand story of the history of the Czech nation happened on that day.  full story

Join the open letter to the Board of Czech Television on the depiction of Romani people

Prague, 9.11.2013 19:07, (ROMEA) Documentary filmmaker Lukáš Senft, who has previously written an open letter to the creators of the "Sanitka 2" television serial, has decided to contact the Board of Czech Television about his concerns. "I would like to know: Will Czech Television soon be taking a clear, decisive step toward more fair and socially sensitive productions that will present the complexity of our world through the language of images in a way that does not simplify or trivialize it, but that reveals contexts, carefully making and analyzing important connections?" Senft writes in his open letter.  full story

Commentary: No surprise Czech MP Schwarz is being called a racist

Lom, 8.11.2013 21:50, (ROMEA) Who is newly-elected Czech MP Bronislav Schwarz? He is the director of the municipal police force in Most, a regional representative, and a councilor in the town of Lom who has loaned his name to the ANO 2011 political party which, as he has said, paid for his recent election campaign in exchange for his devotion and loyalty.  full story

Commentary: Romani actors play only primitive criminals in Czech tv serial

Prague, 8.11.2013 20:31, (ROMEA) A few days ago, Lukáš Senft, a documentary filmmaker and student at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, published an open letter to screenwriter Ivan Hubač and director Filip Renč, the creators of the tv serial "Sanitka 2", which is known to everyone from the time of the previous regime. In his letter, the author criticizes primarily the eighth episode of this serial and its depiction of the Romani minority as a dangerous, foreign, and incomprehensible group.  full story

Čeněk Růžička: We can fight back if necessary, but what about our children? Go vote!

Prague, 23.10.2013 0:05, (ROMEA) Romale, I presume you are all noticing how a large proportion of the political candidates are speaking about us in the television debates, how so-called experts on Romani people are proposing solutions for our lives. Notice how almost all of those solutions call for forceful measures - we're going to increase the numbers of police officers in the streets, hire police assistants, introduce CCTV systems in troubled localities.  full story

Commentary: In the Czech Republic, the Roma's image could get them killed

Prague, 21.10.2013 16:38, (ROMEA) This past spring the third - and so far the greatest - wave of anti-Romani protests has risen up in the Czech Republic. The first such wave, from 2007-2009, resulted in what was the most serious arson attack to date on a Romani family here in the town of Vítkov, and in the arrest of the perpetrators in August 2009. The second such wave, from 2011-2012, ended with a march by 2 000 people through the town of Břeclav, where locals and out-of-towners passionately protested an alleged attack by Romani people on a 15-year-old boy. One month later, it was proven that he had invented the entire story.  full story

Commentary: DSSS "keeping order on the streets" in Duchcov

Duchcov, 19.10.2013 0:53, (ROMEA) Convicted criminals and Nazis are maintaining order on the streets of a town. That sentence sounds like it describes 1930s Germany, but it is neither the first nor the last parallel that can be drawn between today, the interwar era, and the course of daily life during both totalitarian periods in Central Europe.  full story

Jarmila Balážová: Czech Green Party bravely runs Romani candidates despite social atmosphere

Prague, 14.10.2013 19:39, (ROMEA) In recent days one of the most significant political events in the post-1989 era ever to concern Romani people and their participation in real decision-making (i.e., not just "advising" the authorities) about matters that influence hundreds of thousands of citizens of this country has taken place. A great deal has already being written here about Romani education, inclusion, integration, segregation, the "special" schools and the inability of Romani people to become more involved in designing the politics and strategies that influence their lives.  full story

Commentary: Romani unemployment endangers the Czech economy

13.10.2013 21:56, (ROMEA) According to estimates by the Czech Labor Office, the number of unemployed Romani people has significantly grown in recent years. While official statistics are not kept about the ethnicity of the unemployed, the Labor Office has produced its estimate for the Office of the Government to use as part of its reporting on how it is fulfilling its obligations as part of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015.  full story

Patrik Banga: Counting Romani children in the schools? Yes!

Prague, 27.9.2013 1:07, (ROMEA) The Czech School Inspectorate has asked school directors to count the number of Romani pupils with light mental disability in their schools. The Czech Education Ministry needs this data in order to demonstrate to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that the number of Romani children ending up with the "light mental disability" label because of prejudice has been decreasing in the Czech Republic.  full story

Lukáš Houdek: When Romani people don't speak "gypsy" right

Prague, 26.9.2013 22:44, (ROMEA) Here it is! Romani people causing problems once more!  full story

David Beňák: Affordable housing policy would eliminate need for special welfare

Prague, 25.9.2013 17:55, (ROMEA) The general affordability of housing in the Czech Republic varies widely. There are also many problems on the housing market, including discrimination.  full story

Commentary: Neo-Nazis don't belong in Kraslice, they just want money and violence

Kraslice, 7.9.2013 0:00, (ROMEA) Tomorrow a hate march will be held in the town of Kraslice in the Karlovy Vary region. Under the pretext of an election rally, the march is being convened by the neo-Nazi DSSS party, led by Tomáš Vandas.  full story