Features and Commentary

16 May 1944: Romani Resistance Day

Prague, 9.5.2014 0:15, (ROMEA) It seems that the denial of genocide and the denial of racism are communicating vessels. An ethnic group whose genocide is denied continues to be targeted with racism.  full story

Pitomio Bandas Manic of the Workers' Dawn of Healthy Imprudence: Eradicate inadaptability from the EU!

Czech Republic, European Union, 8.5.2014 0:35, (ROMEA) Pitomio Bandas Manic, the chair of the Workers' Dawn of Healthy Imprudence (Dělnický úsvit zdravého nerozumu - DÚZN), who is its leading candidate for the EP race, would like to enforce the abolition of the European Union. Before he succeeds with that, he will fight for reduced unemployment and restrictions on immigration.  full story

Bartoloměj Oláh: We can't have educated Roma running around here

Prague, 7.5.2014 0:39, (ROMEA) Ever since I was a child, I have often encountered people here who "mean well". These are people who have thought about my needs, who didn't want to hold me back, who didn't want me to live on the fringes of society, or to be come a "classic aggressor" because, as a Romani child, that might be the only way for me to excel.  full story

Are these "gypsies" or Roma, rumors vs. real life?

Brno, 16.4.2014 21:09, (ROMEA) You can tell a public discussion in the Czech Republic is about Romani people by one particular feature: There are always more "experts" sitting in the hall than on the panel, and they unfortunately never have enough of an opportunity to speak. All of their time is usurped by the "pseudo-humanists" who are invited to address them.  full story

videoJovanovic: This is a constant battle for self-definition and we are resolved to win it, as long as we live

Budapest, 10.4.2014 22:11, (ROMEA) Forty-three years ago, the founding fathers of April 8th, gave answers to fundamental questions every nation faces at a certain point. They knew that answers they gave will not be obligatory to anyone. They knew that the answers they gave will not be imposed on us by any governmental decrees, history classes, monuments, museums, memorials, or military parades. And they also knew that these answers must be given by Roma instead of being given by somebody else.  full story

George Soros: Three Ways to Build Upon Roma Progress

Brussels, 9.4.2014 0:30, (ROMEA) Some years ago, I visited a village in Romania, and saw the seeds of a crisis at hand. The area was home to the Roma, an ethnic minority of 10 to 12 million people scattered across Europe who face discrimination and persecution on a daily basis. In this village, the Roma were scavenging on a garbage dump. Without help, I realized, sons would join their fathers on the dump; daughters could only hope to be married off. There was no clear way to escape their fate.  full story

Maja Saitovic: To Achieve Roma Equality, Europe Must Address Health Disparities

EU, 28.3.2014 10:22, (ROMEA) Like all Europeans, we represent the patients, caregivers, and families—as well as the doctors, nurses, and paramedics—who make up Europe’s health systems.   full story

A Roma Reality Check for the UK

London, 27.3.2014 10:19, (ROMEA) Recent months have seen politicians and the media in the UK predicting an influx of Roma migrants from Bulgaria and Romania. Roma have been portrayed as a threat to British society in the form of welfare tourists and beggars. The reality is rather different. The UK is not among the preferred destinations of Roma from other EU countries, and the small number of Roma who have arrived in the UK have much to offer.  full story

Jan Josef Rosenberg: Roma are now doctors and teachers, but we can't forget about morality

Prague, 20.3.2014 22:03, (ROMEA) Jan Josef Rosenberg is a journalist and photographer who works in film, radio and theater. On 8 April 2014, International Romani Day, the public will once again have the opportunity to see one of his unique exhibitions, "Roma Today as They Were Centuries Ago" ("Romové dnes jako před staletími").  full story

Valeriu Nicolae: Avoiding failing again -The EU Roma Summit – problems and solutions

Bucharest, 20.3.2014 11:57, (ROMEA) The biggest problems in the Roma Social Inclusion process are related to the inability, incompetence and lack of political will at the level of the national governments. There are ways to address these problems but due to strong anti-Gypsyism and corruption addressing these problems is a much more complicated process than solving the existing problems within the European Commission (EC).  The EC  needs to pressure states into reform but has no legitimacy to do so if it doesn’t first change itself.  full story

Commentary: The Roma and the Vietnamese, or the "evil" and the "good" aliens

Prague, 19.3.2014 19:39, (ROMEA) Opinions on the so-called "Roma question" are encoded in the generally popular comparisons of Romani and Vietnamese people that we hear being made in the Czech Republic. In these figures of speech, where Vietnamese people play a purely rhetorical role, the "Roma question" is actually the main topic of discussion; such tropes are essentially just a more sophisticated form of "cursing the Gypsies" here.  full story

Repairing the Damage of a Roma Eviction

Bucharest, 19.3.2014 10:15, (ROMEA) In early December 2010, over 70 Roma families lived on Coastei Street in downtown Cluj-Napoca, Romania’s second biggest city. Many had been in this long-established community for years.  full story

Cyril Koky: Ukraine, where are you heading?

Prague, 18.3.2014 23:36, (ROMEA) Everyone is closely watching what is happening in Ukraine today with horror and an appropriate dose of fear. Ukraine has been seething since November, when its government halted preparations for signing an association agreement with the EU and called for expanding economic cooperation with Russia.  full story

Hungarian filmmaker: Attacks persist, Roma live in fear

Prague, 18.3.2014 20:27, (ROMEA) Starting in March 2011, documentary filmmaker Eszter Hajdú spent more than 170 days in a courtroom filming what would become the documentary "Judgment in Hungary", which tells the story of the trial of four right-wing extremists charged with murdering six Romani people. During that time, she said the hardest thing was to see how the relatives of the victims who testified in court were suffering.  full story

Gabriela Hrabaňová: Third EU Roma summit once more "about Roma without Roma"

Brussels, 18.3.2014 17:41, (ROMEA) The European Commission (EC) is convening its third European Roma Summit. With not quite three weeks to go before 4 April, the program of the summit remains unknown and invitations were only just now sent out to Romani organizations.  full story

Commentary: The new era of the Czech tabloid martyr

Prague, 17.3.2014 19:04, (ROMEA) During the past two weeks the Czech tabloid daily Blesk has undertaken a new practice that might be increasing its readership, but is also contributing to worsening the already bad relations between the majority society and the Romani minority. The editors at Blesk have published two articles in a brief space of time featuring detailed photographs of the faces of assault victims.  full story

Commentary: The mythical "decent gypsies" of the Czech Republic

Prague, 14.3.2014 17:39, (ROMEA) Everyone who isn't a racist knows a few decent gypsies - at least, that's what I read in internet discussions and that's what I hear from friends and strangers alike: "I'm not a racist, I even know a couple of decent gypsies..." I hear and read this so often that it has led me to reflect on who this mythical "couple of gypsies" really are, these people who are mentioned by anyone and everyone who is just about to pronounce some more racist nonsense.  full story

Commentary: Czech media exaggerate significance of crimes involving Roma

Prague, 14.3.2014 2:58, (ROMEA) Hundreds of serious violent crimes, including murders, are committed annually in the Czech Republic, but during the past few months no other case has received as much media coverage as that of a nighttime conflict between several drunken citizens in the small northern town of Duchcov. Everyone involved in the incident, including the state prosecutor, agrees that the conflict resulted not just in grave physical harm but, as both the state prosecutor and the attorney for the victims agree, it resulted in grave psychological harm to one of the victims, who has been prevented from returning to normal life for some time now.  full story

Czech human rights record poor on minorities

Prague, 5.3.2014 20:34, (ROMEA) As news server Romea.cz reported last week, the annual human rights report by the US State Department says societal discrimination and violence against Romani people were a serious problem in the Czech Republic last year. Below is the section of the report entitled "National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities":  full story

videoValeriu Nicoalea: About “normal life” and scapegoating…

Bucharest, 25.2.2014 15:17, (ROMEA) On January 16, 2014 the European Commissioner for Justice and Fundamental Rights said in an interview for Euronews that Roma communities need “to be willing to integrate and to be willing to have a normal life”. See the video here from minute 2.00.  full story