Commentary

Valeriu Nicolae: Why I quit

Bucharest, 14.2.2013 10:11, (ROMEA) The main focus of most of the important donors, governments and intergovernmental organisations when it comes to the Roma inclusion field is to find positive practices and replicate such positive practices.  full story

Commentary: Dilemma of the "decent Gypsy"

Prague, 13.2.2013 17:58, (ROMEA) Consensus-building and efforts at dialogue are part of democracy. On the other hand, we cannot completely smooth over any conflict ongoing in society. Which is better: To soften your formulations when conversing with someone whose opinions contradict yours, or to go into conflict with them?  full story

Commentary: Czech residential hotels now worse than refugee camps used to be

Prague/Ostrava, 12.2.2013 16:16, (ROMEA) It's Wednesday, 6 February 2013 and we're in Prague at a large roundtable - police officers, psychotherapists, social workers, child welfare department staffers, employees of civic associations in the helping professions. All together we are doing our best to resolve the complex medical, relational and social problem of a single family that resulted in domestic violence recently.  full story

Commentary: Slovakia's TV Markíza misinforms viewers about "activation jobs"

Detva, Slovensko, 9.2.2013 19:22, (ROMEA) In the Czech Republic they've elected a president. Lawsuits are being planned against the Slovak President. In Syria the murder continues. In Somalia 29 000 children have died of hunger, while another 300 000 are expected to die there soon. The world is spinning in a crazy dance and the economic crisis is conducting the music, but Slovakia lives for its own domestic problems. No one here is much interested in the war in Syria or famine somewhere in Africa.  full story

Analysis: High emotions no help in housing drama

Ústí nad Labem, 6.2.2013 19:03, (ROMEA) The recently resolved case of the residential hotel occupants in the Krásné Březno quarter of Ústí nad Labem is a clear example of something we are all aware of: The dismissive approach taken toward Romani people in this country is often based on the social positions of those involved and the sense of superiority felt by those who are better off. During this recent scandal, the situation of people who are some of the very poorest in this country was spun by the Romani owner of the building in the Předlice quarter which they had to evacuate, by the town government (in the hands of the Czech Social Democrats - ČSSD), by the Romani operator of the residential hotel, and by the firm owning the building in which it was located. Unfortunately, some NGOs also spun their story as well.  full story

Commentary: Czech Residency Bans will solve nothing

Litvínov, 29.1.2013 0:43, (ROMEA) Almost anything at all can be imagined as falling under the concept of democracy, and many of us are somehow prevented from understanding what kind of power we all acquired here in November 1989. Most of us have a basic problem with the very definition of democracy. It is, therefore, easily understandable why today's functionaries do not have to distance themselves from previous totalitarian practices, which seem democratic and excusable to us today, at least under their definition of democracy. The truth is that the achievement of real democracy is very complex, and navigating it is too complicated. Our society is not prepared for complications - or better said, it is not capable of compromise.  full story

Jarmila Balážová: I will vote for Karel Schwarzenberg

Prague, 24.1.2013 17:14, (ROMEA) It has been interesting to see what the first direct presidential election in the Czech Republic has unleashed and shown us. Even though some of this all could have been predicted, I really did not expect some of the responses I have seen, just as I did not expect certain people active in cultural and public life to back the candidates they are now backing.  full story

2012 in the Czech Republic: The Romani point of view

Prague, 29.12.2012 22:42, (ROMEA) It's the custom at this time of year to take stock of the failures, possibilities, and successes of the year that has passed. I will, therefore, briefly reflect on the matters that drew my attention this year. There were rather a lot of them, but nothing much that was positive, and that's why in closing I have to dig deep and look closer to hand so as not to succumb to skepticism during this holiday period. I will even talk a bit about my own work.  full story

Karel Holomek: 2012 brought us decline - but also hope

Brno, 28.12.2012 17:59, (Romano vod'i) It's usually a good rule to reflect at the end of each year on what the year was like, what happened that was bad and good, and to try to predict on that basis whether the year to come and the years after that will be better or worse. There is probably nothing more we can do, because our personal desires and wishes are hard to fulfill through just our efforts alone, given the broader context in which they take place.  full story

On transforming the Czech "practical primary schools"

Prague, 27.12.2012 17:37, (Romano vod'i) Iveta Němečková is the coordinator of the Together to School coalition and has worked as a special educator, a director, a lecturer in education programs, a coordinator and a specialist in education methods for the Step by Step program. She has implemented a project aimed at integrating Romani pupils into primary education and has participated in designing an international education program focusing on working with prejudices and stereotypes. She has long been an advocate of inclusive education and has worked as the coordinator of early childhood care projects. She is a lecturer in adult education and a coordinator and organizer of educational events. She contributed the following commentary to the latest issue of Romano voďi.  full story

Norman L. Eisen: 2012 Human Rights Award Ceremony Remarks

Praha, 13.12.2012 6:30, (ROMEA) Ladies and Gentlemen, I am honored to welcome you to the Human Rights Award Ceremony at the US Embassy in Prague.  full story

Czech Senator Gajdůšková: Everyone must receive the same opportunity!

Prague, 28.11.2012 17:16, (ROMEA) I recently convened a round table in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the European Court of Human Rights handing down its judgment in the case of D.H. and others versus the Czech Republic. In November 2007, the court ruled that the "practical primary schools" (previously called the "special schools") in our country were disadvantaging Romani children.  full story

Commentary: "Yuck, the gypsies touched that!"

Prague, 27.11.2012 0:31, (ROMEA) "Yuck, the gypsies touched that!“ The cry came from the mother of a two-year-old infant. Startled, he burst into tears. He had taken an interest in something on top of a concrete trashcan on the square of a North Bohemian town. The first instruction to leave the trashcan alone didn't end his fascination - he seemed not to have understood it.  full story

Commentary: Sleeping Czech HR Commissioner wakes up too late

Prague, 23.11.2012 22:16, (ROMEA) In the most recent issue of the Insider weekly, Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková has overcome her own limits and decided to take the unusual step of publicly speaking out against planned cuts to the state administration. Surprisingly, what is at issue is criticism of the Human Rights Section, which the Commissioner manages, not a more systemic critique of the mindless cuts across the entire public sphere, as one might expect.  full story

Czech tabloid's skewed reporting almost launches anti-Romani protests

Prague, 20.11.2012 16:57, (ROMEA) The Prostějovský Večerník, a real local tabloid, has published a news item that manipulates its facts so as to instigate anti-Romani sentiment as much as possible. According to the report, Romani assailants allegedly attacked Robert Jedlička, a hockey player for the Prostějov team (the Jestřáby) near the Varna discotheque in the town of Olomouc. Jedlička ended up with a broken nose and brain concussion. The brawl was allegedly preceded by several Romani people shouting foul insults and making vulgar gestures at Jedlička's girlfriend and an acquaintance of hers.  full story

Nils Muižnieks: States must take resolute measures to end school segregation of Roma

Strasbourg , 16.11.2012 10:31, (ROMEA) Roma children are experiencing segregated and substandard education in the school systems in the majority of the 47 Council of Europe member states. The consequences are devastating. It makes it very hard for these children to escape poverty and marginalisation later on in life. Non-integration also generates large – and unnecessary – costs for society at large.  full story

Marksová-Tominová: Czech PM, let human rights alone!

Prague, 14.11.2012 23:53, (ROMEA) The Czech Government is quietly preparing a plan to disperse its human rights agenda among various ministries under the pretext of saving money. It is absurd to even consider cutting the state's budget for human rights. Right now there are already a bare minimum of bureaucrats working on that agenda, most of them at the Agency for Social Inclusion. While the Agency's activities can be criticized, we do not for the time being have a better institution attempting to resolve the desperate situation of people in excluded localities and those living in their vicinity.  full story

Commentary: How to learn hatred for poor Romani people

Prague, 1.11.2012 18:04, (ROMEA) The title of this article might make some readers angry. Why not - for years we have been hearing all around us how Romani people drive their Mercedes to get their welfare money - which can be any amount they like, as much as they are able to shout down the authorities for - how their purchases in pharmacies are free of charge, how non-Romani people who commit the same crimes get stricter punishments than Romani people do, etc. Imagination knows no limits.  full story

Commentary: Czech domestic intelligence reports short on intelligence

Prague, 1.11.2012 0:50, (ROMEA) The activities of the Security Information Services (Bezpečnostní informační služby - BIS) here in the Czech Republic and their reports to the public are truly amazing. More than once, without exaggeration, I have compared their "reports" on extremism to ninth-grade composition exercises. The "information" their latest report provides us about developments on the extremist scene during the third quarter of 2012 unfortunately just confirms my previous descriptions (the report is available in Czech only at http://bis.cz/2012-3q-zprava-extremismus.html).  full story

Commentary: How should Romani representatives be appointed?

Prague, 29.10.2012 21:42, (ROMEA/Romano hangos) During discussions on the website of the Romea news server (www.romea.cz), the debates between pro-Romani and Romani activists have often returned on various occasions to the topic of legitimacy - who can and should "speak on behalf of Romani people" or "represent Romani people" in the Czech Republic? The Editor-in-Chief of the Romano hangos periodical, Pavel Pečínka, has reached out to a circle of his regular contributors with questions that can all be summarized under the basic question of: Who can speak "for Romani people"? News server Romea.cz is gradually publishing the responses submitted to him by selected authors. Below is the translation of the response submitted by Ondřej Klípa, who has been entrusted with representing the management of the Office of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs.  full story