tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88572426900887216052024-02-06T19:55:07.156-08:00Roma RightsAdvocating for equal opportunity and a life free of fear and discrimination for Europe's RomaTerezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-85161630168604064922012-03-11T18:03:00.014-07:002012-03-12T17:40:10.969-07:00Request to publish the logo for the International Romani Day on Google's main page<break><br /><break><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWLgF-D5-EUUeQ3O09hjjgKNg1ZClv8L2AZhgP6b0IQYiSXfnzGZyXUMyRHo8FVxbBU6xYhmgjB19uWRspxTJqAHSCqZXwdscl1soJgjmHYHhbMcTugylduoSEnxWU2dQgsXC3xFt0Ms/s1600/logo-mdr-google.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 221px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWLgF-D5-EUUeQ3O09hjjgKNg1ZClv8L2AZhgP6b0IQYiSXfnzGZyXUMyRHo8FVxbBU6xYhmgjB19uWRspxTJqAHSCqZXwdscl1soJgjmHYHhbMcTugylduoSEnxWU2dQgsXC3xFt0Ms/s400/logo-mdr-google.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5718811758849994322" /></a><br />Here is something simple, yet meaningful that could be done to raise awareness about the Romani people, their rich history, and their human rights struggles today. I invite you to please take a minute and join this effort by the civic organization, <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/">Romea</a>, to email Google to request the company post the logo for the International Romani Day on its main page on April 8 to honor that holiday. <br /><br />Below is the email I sent to proposals@google.com. Feel free to copy or write your own:<br /><br /><blockquote>I would like to request that you please publish the logo for the International Romani Day on your main page on April 8 to raise awareness about one of the largest minorities in Europe which has a rich history on the continent, but also experiences some of the most severe discrimination of all ethnic groups in areas of employment, housing, education and health care. Violence against Roma is also <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2012/03/never-again-apropos-motto-in-climate.html">on the rise</a> as economic strife across the EU deepens. Roma, of course, live all over the world, including <a href="http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pxrfh">in the US</a> where they have been called the <a href="http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pxrfh">"hidden Americans"</a> because they remain largely invisible. <br /> <br />International Romani Day was established in 1971, the year the Romani people themselves, representing communities from 14 different countries, organized the first-ever, historic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Romani_Congress">World Romani Congress</a> in London to discuss civil rights, cultural heritage, post-WWII reparations, and more. The Congress also agreed on the use of the word "Roma" as a self-identifier (instead of the pejorative term "Gypsy"), on the adoption of a Romani flag, and on the Romani national anthem, connecting Roma, whose heritage can be <a href="http://www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/victims/romaSinti/gypsies.html#origin">traced to India</a>, the world over.<br /> <br />Please post the International Romani Day logo on April 8 2012 to commemorate this day and to raise awareness about the <a href="http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/file/factsheet-roma-rights-record.pdf">human rights struggles</a> for Roma all across Europe and the world. <br /> <br />The logo designed by Laďa Gažiová, a Romani artist born in 1981 in Slovakia. She has based her design on the Roma flag and traditional Roma motifs.<br /><br />The logo URL: http://www.romea.cz/images/servis/logo-mdr-google.jpg</blockquote>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-30925446405016566582012-03-07T11:45:00.012-08:002012-03-07T13:14:24.929-08:00Czech neo-Nazis becoming more violent and sophisticated, report warns<break><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTIXC-CAgbx1fSpT6AhVpQ6bY0tIerdvFRwzQ4YprKXPzD-p0RUZVAU2dCuzdSoYvQG5Ogag4b3_k_YfUKHb1iQdYb6fvn4seqvtCEoSw-S6adcFcazUBApu1Vqk2ML4sOz-KAaciMqo/s1600/ministerstvo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 51px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTIXC-CAgbx1fSpT6AhVpQ6bY0tIerdvFRwzQ4YprKXPzD-p0RUZVAU2dCuzdSoYvQG5Ogag4b3_k_YfUKHb1iQdYb6fvn4seqvtCEoSw-S6adcFcazUBApu1Vqk2ML4sOz-KAaciMqo/s200/ministerstvo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717246922673534130" /><i>(Czech Ministry of Interior logo)</i></a><br /><break><br /><break><br /><break><br /><br />This very important piece, published on March 1, 2012, is reprinted from <a href="http://m.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/politics-policy/czech-neo-nazis-becoming-more-violent-and-sophisticated-report-warns">Czechposition.com</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Despite a fall in numbers compared to the 1990s, extreme right-wing movements in the Czech Republic are becoming more discreet and sophisticated and widening their range of targets, a <a href="http://www.romea.cz/dokumenty/ceske_militantni_neonacisticke_hnuti_aktualni_trendy.pdf">report</a> commissioned by the Czech Ministry of Interior says, warning that neo-Nazis and other groups may resort to terrorism.<br /><br />According to the 50-odd page report authored by political scientist Miroslav Mareš and several contributors, a rise in racially motivated attacks can be expected over the next five years. While the ethnic Romany population will continue to be the target of violence, the report says far-right groups are increasingly focusing their attention to resistance to multiculturalism and immigration to the Czech Republic.<br /><br />“Calls to form home defense units (which came from the [banned] Workers Party) against Vietnamese present a risk because they could lead to an escalation in ethnic violence,” the report published on Thursday states.<br /><br />Mareš says in the report an increase in violent attacks can be expected due to: worsening economic conditions; increasing social exclusion; mainstream political failure by extreme right-wing parties; and the influence of foreign white supremacist groups.<br /><br />There are currently around 4,000 extreme right-wing activists in the Czech Republic, the report says, with an especially active core of around 400 leaders and ideologists. The core of the movement is now formed by the free nationalist and autonomous nationalist movements, which operate in coordinated regional cells as opposed to adhering to a national leadership, the report says. <br /><br /><strong>‘The Russian way’ of terrorim</strong><br /><br />“Within the neo-Nazi scene, which is attempting to work out courses of action, terrorist concepts influenced in part from Russia (the so-called ‘Russian Way’), are being propagated,” the report states. It notes that numerous Russian judges who have sentenced neo-Nazi activists have been attacked — and several murdered (though no right-wing militants have been convicted for the homicides). <br /><br />“It’s necessary to monitor whether the Czech neo-Nazi scene will adopt similar tactics in reaction to a wave of controversial trials,” the report’s author recommends, pointing out that the Czech far-right movement has close ties with similar organizations in Russia.<br /><br />The Ministry of Interior last year published an instructional booklet intended primarily for police chiefs under the title Extremism as a Security Threat warning of right-wing extremists infiltrating police ranks. The new report likewise warns that Neo-Nazi activists are drawn to the police force: “We can expect more conspiracies in this area than there have been before.” <br /><br />Similarly, right-wing extremists are attracted to employment with private security firms, which is a way for them to get firearms licenses. Mareš also draws attention to potential problems arising from the increasing use of private security firms in conflict zones, warning that some extremists have gained conflict or combat experience in this way.<br /><br />Mareš and his colleagues also warn that some core members of extreme right-wing movements are attempting to influence public life, primarily on the local rather than national level. They do so by infiltrating mainstream politics by joining the major political parties, gaining positions in public organs other than the police, where “for the time being they covertly act in the interests of their ideological orientation.”<br /><br /><strong>Change of image</strong><br /><br />Czech extreme-right wing organizations are turning away from the skinhead image, which was widely adopted by its activists and sympathizers in the Czech Republic in the 1990s. As well as the changing tastes of the younger generation of right-wing extremists, many of the activists prefer not to wear the politics on their sleeves, so to speak. “The neo-Nazi scene is not as visible as in 2008, but the number of activists remains the same,” the report says.<br /><br />Further, it warns that in response to a shift in ideological outlook — and with their perceived war on multi-culturalism in Europe and protecting European traditions — neo-Nazi groups will likely try to recruit sympathizers and active supporters by exploiting populist issues and opposition by conservatives and traditionalists to “liberal” tendencies such as same-sex marriages, as well as some stereotypical perceptions. <br /><br />“Today they manage to blend in with larger mass protests as was the case in the Šluknov district last year, where it was very difficult to tell who belonged to the neo-Nazi scene, and who were ‘ordinary citizens,’” the report says, referring to the large protests against <a href="http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/society/police-send-reinforcements-north-bohemia-wake-racial-attacks">a wave of attacks and a rise in crime in the northern Bohemian district</a> last fall, which many local residents attributed exclusively to the growing Romany population.<br /><br /><strong>Italian professionalism</strong><br /><br />The report also notes the influence of the Italian neo-Fascist movement Casapound, which spurns identification with the traditional image of the far-right and presents itself as a mainstream political movement beyond the confines of traditional left- and right-wing politics — although the party is openly anti-immigration.<br /><br />“Professionalism is a key characteristic off the neo-Nazi movement of the new millennium. In the case of Casapound, there is a managerial leadership and managers are groomed for specific activities,” the report says, adding that the movement makes a point of appealing to university students. <br /><br />“A part of the Czech neo-Nazi scene views Casapound positively precisely because the movement has managed to penetrate into everyday public life. ... they view the concept positively because they themselves are attempting to find a form more acceptable to society, thus the collections for dog kennels, cleaning refuse from woods and forests, help in the wake of floods, etc.,” the report states.<br /><br />Mareš and colleagues say the best way to combat far-right extremism in the long-term is through educational programs. Also in cases where school pupils have become involved in extremist groups, patient persuasion as opposed to in-school punishments such as suspension or detention are far more effective, they conclude.<br /><br />The Czech Ministry of Interior has published a number of documents in English about the ministry’s “Fight against Extremism,” which are available <a href="http://www.mvcr.cz/mvcren/article/documents-on-the-fight-against-extremism.aspx">here</a>.</blockquote>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-92026830393597904672012-03-05T14:37:00.018-08:002012-03-08T22:06:50.511-08:00"Never Again," an apropos motto in a climate increasingly hostile to Roma<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70gxVxBM9Q_CqCzycTtnvwvjXOBb9WzrKGJ8Mf2Se_Cxc8xyClljVPf6odugiXf3txM_3uo-FPh7zR4eTRAJchvWE6n1HIL-kNJiM-PNGGHcZy3jJquJXIi2Pu9Qdsfc7uH4lUcmgzeo/s1600/neveragain.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 172px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70gxVxBM9Q_CqCzycTtnvwvjXOBb9WzrKGJ8Mf2Se_Cxc8xyClljVPf6odugiXf3txM_3uo-FPh7zR4eTRAJchvWE6n1HIL-kNJiM-PNGGHcZy3jJquJXIi2Pu9Qdsfc7uH4lUcmgzeo/s200/neveragain.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5716915543262161682" /></a><br /><br />Here is my piece for <a href="http://blog.culturaldetective.com/">Cultural Detective blog</a>: <br /><br />Two generations have not yet passed since ninety percent of Czech Roma, and between a half million and two million European <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2010/05/who-are-roma.html">Roma</a> in total perished at the hands of the Nazis in The Great Devouring, or Porrajmos, the Romani word for the Holocaust. Roma, also known by the pejorative term "Gypsies," make up the largest minority in Europe today with some 10 to 12 million members. Roma face fierce discrimination in accessing employment, education, health care, and public and social services. In spite of repetitious cases of racist violence and hate speech targeting Roma, the community continues its struggle for human rights all across the continent. <br /><br />Two years ago I paid my homage to those who died in <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/04/honoring-pain-and-loss-urging-vigilance-and-change-on-international-roma-holocaust-remembrance-day/">Auschwitz</a> and <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tags/blog/2010/08/23/oh-you-black-bird-%E2%80%A8carry-my-letter-czech-roma-holocaust-remembered/">Hodonín u Kunštátu</a>, a Czech concentration camp for Roma. “Tensions in society are heightening. Perhaps the time will come again when we are sent away to designated areas," were the words of the priest leading the commemoration service. <br /><br />Today, many in the Romani community echo these fears, afraid for their safety since numerous neo-Nazi-led marches have been taking place periodically across Europe, and several <a href="http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/file/attacks-list-in-czech-republic.pdf">arson attacks</a> at Romani residences have been perpetrated by white supremacists. Racial tensions have been growing more intense with the media <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3213">printing negative stereotypes</a>, <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3208">inventing damaging reports</a> and <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3221">spreading fabricated accounts</a> blaming criminal acts on members of the Romani community.<br /><br />In mid-February, the director of the European Roma Rights Center, at a hearing in Washington DC held by the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (US Helsinki Commission), <a href="http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=3968">testified</a> that violence against the Roma is on the rise.<br /><br />In the Czech Republic, where I was born and raised, a <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3200">study</a> on extremism commissioned by the Czech Interior Ministry states that there are currently about 4,000 militant neo-Nazi activists in the country. Experts warn that violent crimes committed by neo-Nazis against Romani people will likely rise. The <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3202">risk of race wars</a> in some regions of the country, specifically between gangs of white Czechs and groups of ethnic Roma, looms large, experts say.<br /><br />Today's <a href="http://m.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/politics-policy/czech-neo-nazis-becoming-more-violent-and-sophisticated-report-warns">white supremacist movement</a> is pan-European (with strong German and Italian influences), and international (namely US-inspired). Since the years 2008 and 2009 the movement has become more <a href="http://www.romea.cz/dokumenty/ceske_militantni_neonacisticke_hnuti_aktualni_trendy.pdf">radicalized</a> and organizationally <a href="http://m.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/politics-policy/czech-neo-nazis-becoming-more-violent-and-sophisticated-report-warns">sophisticated</a> in the Czech Republic, becoming more visible in the streets and <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2708">infiltrating</a> the <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3212">political scene</a>. <br /><br />In Hungary, an armed militia group has been <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/27/hungary-roma-living-in-fear">patrolling and terrorizing</a> a Romani village. This following a series of <a href="http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2012/02/17/u-s-pays-much-needed-attention-to-violence-against-roma/">racially motivated murders</a>. <br /><br />“Gypsy criminality” is one of the most prevalent anti-Roma stereotypes. It permeates all parts of central European life—and can be found as commonly in the media as the local pub. The Roma are also said to abuse welfare and to not want to work. The World Bank just <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3214">showed</a> the former was absolutely untrue in Slovakia. The latter is a also a damaging myth held by the white majority. These stereotypes are all the more exaggerated in light of the economic downturn and the scarcity thinking the crisis triggers in the white majority. <br /><br />What are the solutions? Many rights groups are pushing for economic betterment in the form of job creation and training. Organizations are active in producing independent media with a human rights bent, as well as waging campaigns pressuring mainstream media outlets to be accountable and responsible in their reporting. Key are also positive opportunities for cross-ethnic social interactions and <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2010/06/czechs-response-to-rising-extremism.html">education</a>. Those aware must remain vigilant and spread the word about the threat of extremism that exists in European societies. We must never again permit another Great Devouring.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-71648235334385615172012-03-02T21:56:00.005-08:002012-03-04T01:07:48.465-08:00First US state recommends redress for forced sterilizationSimilarly to the Czech Republic, state-enforced sterilization of those considered "undesirable" has also been practiced in the US. <br /> <br />Between the 1920s and 1970s, 60,000 Americans, many of them poor and black, were sterilized. The state of Georgia apologized for its role in the eugenics movement in a 2007 resolution by the General Assembly. <br /><br />More than 30 states drafted sterilization laws and created eugenics boards that passed judgment on inmates of mental institutions and also those on welfare rolls or those recommended by social workers. Children as young as 8 years old were sterilized.<br /><br />In January, North Carolina became the first of the 32 states with sterilization programs to <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-government/compensation-for-state-enforced-1313120.html">consider compensating</a> its victims. The redress amount would amount to $50,000 for each victim, but is still only a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/us/north-carolina-sterilization-victims-get-restitution-decision.html">recommendation</a> sent to lawmakers along with the Governor's budget proposal in time for the May legislative session.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-22245182371599376562012-02-21T15:19:00.003-08:002012-02-21T15:29:09.981-08:00Government of the Czech Republic’s Council for Human Rights recommends redress for illegally sterilized womenThe news server Romea <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3174">reports</a> that the Czech Government Human Rights Council has approved a resolution recommending the government provide one-time monetary compensation to all women who underwent forced sterilization by the State between the years 1972 and 1991when regulations from the Czechoslovak Labor and Social Affairs Ministry were in effect. <br /><br />Here is a powerful short film about the practice of sterilization of Czech Roma institutionalized during communism, but practiced into the 2000s:<br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4EYS9QO2YEE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-57673613153124371032012-02-21T15:05:00.003-08:002012-02-21T15:10:58.445-08:00Violence against Roma on the rise across EUThe director of the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) testified at a hearing in Washington DC on February 16, 2012 stating that violence against Roma is on the rise across Europe. <br /><br />This according to the ERRC: <br /><br /><blockquote>A recent European Union Survey on Minorities and Discrimination highlights that on average one in five Roma respondents were victims of racially motivated personal crime at least once in the previous 12 months. 81% of Roma who indicated they were victims of assault, threat or serious harassment considered that their victimisation was racially motivated.<br /><br />An ERRC report in 2011 found that the state rarely achieved successful prosecutions in cases of violence against Roma.</blockquote> <br /><br />Read more on the <a href="http://www.errc.org/article/violence-against-roma-on-the-rise-errc-testifies/3968">ERRC website</a>.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-88286255476867750032011-04-07T13:20:00.000-07:002011-04-08T01:07:57.537-07:00International Roma Day: A time to celebrate Roma heritage & condemn anti-gypsyism<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.romea.cz/images/servis/demo-janov-17.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 188px;" src="http://www.romea.cz/images/servis/demo-janov-17.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />April 8 is International Roma Day, an occasion when Romani culture and history are celebrated, but also when awareness of the issues facing the Roma people should be discussed. <br /><br />In the Czech Republic, where I was brought up, the Roma comprise the largest ethnic minority. Across Europe, there are an estimated 10 to 12 million Roma. University of Texas Professor, Romani scholar and advocate Ian Hancock estimates as many as one million Roma live in the America. <br /><br />As groups around the world honor the rich history and cultural heritage of the Roma communities, it must be emphasized that to this day, Roma all across Europe face intense discrimination and continue their struggle for human rights. <br /><br />As the economic downturn hits harder and causes insecurity and inter-group friction, disturbing trends are emerging. The far-right across the European Union continues to grow more powerful and inconspicuous as seen in both mainstream (no longer fringe) politics and in the streets, where neo-Nazis meet, march, intimidate and even attack Europeans of color and immigrants with intensifying frequency. <br /><br />Two years ago, a notable shift took place in European politics when during the biggest transnational vote in European history, the EU Parliament elections, far-right and anti-immigrant parties <a href="http://czechsinamerica.blogspot.com/2009/06/far-right-gains-in-eu-parliament.html">gained visibility and a significant amount of political power</a>.<br /><br />In Hungary, for instance, the far-right Jobbik ("For a Better Hungary") party performed stronger than expected. Jobbik, which blames the Roma, or Gypsies, for a perceived breakdown of law and order in the countryside, the BBC <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8088838.stm">reported</a>, took nearly 15%, giving it three seats in June, 2009.<br /><br />Incidentally, I met a Czech Jew with Hungarian citizenship who unabashedly admitted she voted for the Jobbik party despite their fascist doctrine. When asked why, she justified her vote by insisting that Jobbik promised to "create order" in her home country of Hungary, an insightful, albeit disturbing and paradoxical window into the mentality underlying the rise of the region's ultra-right.<br /><br />Nearby in the Czech Republic, controversial figures continue to be selected by policy makers as key advisers. One such person is Roman Joch, appointed human rights adviser to the Prime Minister. Joch is a <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2010/08/he-opposes-affirmative-action-because.html">neocon-Christian right ideologue</a>, who <a href="http://romove.radio.cz/en/article/23491">denies</a> that well-documented human rights violations against the Roma exist in the Czech Republic. <br /><br />More recently, Minister of Education appointed a former leading candidate of the extreme-right National Party to be his adviser. The party, which no longer exists, Romea.cz <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2306">reports</a>, "profiled itself as anti-foreigner and anti-Roma. In 2009 their video advertisement for the EP elections even included the words 'final solution to the Gypsy question' ('konečné řešení otázky cikánské')."<br /><br />In addition to ultra-right ideologues in key advising positions, blatantly racist policies from forced evacuations and raids to welfare reforms disproportionately affecting impoverished Roma communities are being proposed and implemented in towns and countries across Europe (in <a href="http://www.amnesty.eu/static/documents/2008/ERPCStatement_on_antiRoma_events_Italy.pdf">Italy</a>, France and <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2011/03/small-town-mayors-racist-rhetoric.html">elsewhere</a>). <br /><br />And in the streets, right-wing extremists continue to flex their power. In Hungary just last month, 1,000 black-uniformed neo-Nazi vigilantes surrounded a 450-strong Roma community, rolling out a "law and order" mission in Gyongyospata, a Hungarian village of 2,800 people 80km north-east of Budapest. Some, as Al Jazeera <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/2011328102243552176.html">reported</a>, were reportedly armed with dogs, whips and chains. The local Roma's crime? Two hens allegedly stollen by a Roma from a non-Roma neighbor. Supposedly, one elderly non-Roma man killed himself because he thought Roma neighbors might move in. And it is said that some Roma in Gyongyospata beat a young female school teacher. But there is no proof, according to Al Jazeera. <br /><br />It must be stressed that, as Al Jazeera reported, "there is <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/2011328102243552176.html">no evidence</a> that even petty crime has risen in Gyongyospata, but the financial crisis has driven up the significance of people's everyday possessions and the far right is only too happy for the chance to profit from the heightened sensitivity."<br /><br />Incidents of racially motivated violence, though underreported, have significantly impacted Roma communities throughout the EU. In Hungary, attacks on the homes of Roma people, planned and carried out <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2290">"with military precision</a>" by neo-Nazis, have <a href="http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/file/attacks-list-in-hungary.pdf">killed at least nine people</a> in recent years. In the Czech Republic, Roma have been <a href="http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/file/attacks-list-in-czech-republic.pdf">terrorized and injured</a> by Molotov cocktails thrown into their families' homes. <br /><br />Troubling is the reality that neo-Nazi groups cooperate across borders on recruitment, message crafting and political organizing strategies as is the case with <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_1312"> Czech neo-Nazis working with their German counterparts</a>. Just this spring, the international neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honor launched a new website in the Czech Republic.<br /><br />As Romea.cz <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2304">reports</a>, the designers of the new website have posted the information that C18, a militant white supremacist group the site is endorsing, "is doing its best to 'destabilize the system and unleash race war' in the Czech Republic. C18 is said to have been behind several actions in recent months 'and will commit many others again soon.'" <br /><br />Last fall, Ian Traynor of the Guardian wrote about the xenophobic tensions cropping up all over the EU in his article, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/17/far-right-growth-europe">Economic gloom fuels far-right growth in Europe</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>"The backdrop to the backlash is economic gloom, austerity packages, and public spending cuts, with voters worried about their jobs, living standards, and children. Mainstream leaders are desperate to shore up support, and extremist populist mavericks resort to scapegoating immigrants in a time of troubles on everything from lost jobs, soaring welfare bills, social housing, and crime rates. The far-right is benefiting from the failures of mainstream politics."</blockquote><br /><br />Although the Roma, whose ancestry is Indian, have called Europe their home for centuries, they are seen as the perpetual foreigners and scapegoated by whites. For further blatant examples of this we need to look no further than my country of birth last month when approximately 500 right-wing extremists <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2011/03/czechs-prepare-to-say-no-to-hate-this.html">marched</a> through the Czech town of Nový Bydžov, intimidating, even physically <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2257">attacking</a> members of the local Roma community, rendering one victim unconscious. <br /><br />The Workers' Social Justice Party, which organized the above march, says its mission is to stand up "against rising crime." The group's messages have consistently targeted and intimidated the Roma community, against whom the mayor and residents of Nový Bydžov unleashed what some have called "a war on Gypsies" by collectively libeling this ethnic group following a rape of a 21-year-old woman in November 2010 by a suspect who was allegedly a Roma.<br /><br />Another neo-Nazi march is expected in the Czech city of Brno on May Day and this Saturday in Krupka, a town with a sizable Roma community. Fears of a pogrom have led activists to call for a non-violent protest to come out against ultra-rightwing The Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS). <br /><br />The organizers of the counter-demonstration writer in their <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2319">press release</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>On the basis of similar marches held by the same groups..., it is our opinion that there is a risk of violence and that the entire action could culminate in a pogrom against the Roma people living in Krupka. This is unacceptable to us.<br /><br />Our Initiative will actively and non-violently come out against the DSSS march... We believe in the democratic principles of the Czech Republic, which include respect for dignity and human rights. These values are now in jeopardy. We have an opportunity, and essentially we also have the obligation, to stand up for the defense of these values, as indifference just gradually moves the boundaries of the permissible past the point of no return.</blockquote><br /><br />Human rights activists and organizations such as Amnesty International as well as the occasional politician warn that more needs to be done to protect the Roma and to ensure equal access to housing, education, health care and jobs. But to those from the Roma community whom I know, words are not enough. <br /><br />The pressing question is what needs to happen to ensure safety for the Roma communities in Europe? The European Roma Rights Center lists three demands in its <a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/errc">petition</a> urging for the protection of the Roma from racially motivated violence.<br /><br />They call the European Union and national governments to: <br /><br /><blockquote>• Swiftly and clearly condemn all acts of anti-Roma violence, recognising and denouncing their racial motivation;<br />• Ensure prompt State response to protect Romani European citizens against threats to their security and to conduct effective investigations and prosecutions to deliver justice to victims of violent attacks;<br />•Implement a “zero tolerance policy” for public officials engaged in hate speech or other violations of the rights of Roma.</blockquote><br /><br />The deeper question, perfect to pose on International Roma Day, is: what will it take for white Europeans to see the Roma as their fellow citizens; human beings who merit nothing short of a life of equal opportunity, and freedom from fear and discrimination? Part of the answer could be more opportunities for inter-group dialogue and programs (including affirmative action) which purposefully engage majority and minority group members in interactions and collaboration. As many European societies stand now, segregation is a reality for many Roma. This needs to change. <br /><br /><i>[Photo credit: <a href="http://www.romea.cz/images/servis/demo-janov-17.jpg">Romea.cz</a>. Image from protest against neo-Nazi march in the Czech town of Litvinov. The cardboard sign reads: "We must employ all possible strategies against Nazism" or in simpler terms, "Down with Nazism."]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-43676192411730476472011-03-18T13:44:00.000-07:002011-03-18T16:09:42.533-07:00Perpetrators of Racially Motivated Arson SentencedLast October I <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2010/10/racially-motivated-arson-tthe-verdict.html">wrote</a> about the trial of four Czech arsonists whose Molotov cocktail attack set fire to a house inhabited by a nine-member Roma family, injuring three and severely burning a two-year-old girl over 80% of her body. <br /><br />The arsonists appealed the verdict for their April 2009 attack, saying they had not realized the house was occupied and that they had no intention of murdering anyone. The court heard their appeals and doled out the perpetrators' sentences today. <br /><br />As the news service Romea.cz <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2269">reports</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>Today the High Court in (the Czech city of) Olomouc reduced the sentence handed down to defendant Ivo Müller for the 2009 commission of an arson attack on a Roma home in Vítkov from 22 to 20 years. The extraordinary sentences previously handed down by the Ostrava Regional Court of between 20 and 22 years for the other three extremists involved in the arson were upheld on appeal.<br /><br />David Vaculík and Jaromír Lukeš byli were sentenced to 22 years in prison, while Václav Cojocaru received a 20-year sentence. All four defendants were sentenced for multiple counts of racially motivated attempted murder and for destruction of property.</blockquote>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-46051811824553615242011-03-18T06:56:00.000-07:002011-03-18T07:24:41.629-07:00Whose Side Were They On?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlc09wfuZ5ibxmrMcotiQ1JcgmLhUiezfs5lzLFV3JMU4nyPCZFXLc0EHOVm_yqT_ENVmtX48dhyQBHpWGcREl4HuPcKlii3Hao_Bfq2gVOcsEdqJmS4jhM7EL9GKPdnzLwzrePIyXR0c/s1600/foto-7-bydzov.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlc09wfuZ5ibxmrMcotiQ1JcgmLhUiezfs5lzLFV3JMU4nyPCZFXLc0EHOVm_yqT_ENVmtX48dhyQBHpWGcREl4HuPcKlii3Hao_Bfq2gVOcsEdqJmS4jhM7EL9GKPdnzLwzrePIyXR0c/s320/foto-7-bydzov.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585425385804653890" /></a><br />On March 12, approximately 500 right-wing extremists and roughly 200 counter-demonstrators <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2011/03/czechs-prepare-to-say-no-to-hate-this.html">gathered</a> in the Czech town of Nový Bydžov. The police forced the counter-demonstrators out of the way of the march using horses, firecrackers and night sticks. According to the news service <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2257">Romea.cz</a>, one person suffered contusions to his foot during the intervention.<br /><br />The way Czech Police handled last week's far-right Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) party's <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2011/03/czechs-prepare-to-say-no-to-hate-this.html">march</a> has caused an outrcy from human rights activists and organizations. <br /><br />As Romea.cz <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2261">reports</a>, "Amnesty International is alarmed by the Police approach and calls for an investigation of the intervention." <br /><br />In sum: <br /><br /><blockquote>The Police of the Czech Republic failed to ensure protection for three Roma people who were attacked by supporters of the extreme right after a demonstration by the Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) in Nový Bydžov on 12 March. Police also used disproportionate force against counter-demonstrators gathered under the rubric of the Nový Bydžov is not alone! Initiative, which did its best to block the DSSS march. </blockquote><br /><br />The Romea civic association is <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2256">outraged</a> and demands that the police Inspectorate investigate the proportionality of the police intervention. The civil society members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs also <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2255">demand</a> a proper investigation.<br /><br />Police say they are reviewing video tapes of the demonstration and <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2257">still investigating</a> the attack on a Roma man who was allegedly waylaid by 13 right-wing extremists once the rally was over. The victim was rendered unconscious.<br /><br />(Photo credit: <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2245">Romea.cz</a>)Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-84143103644411207582011-03-10T11:09:00.000-08:002011-03-10T12:32:52.208-08:00Czechs Prepare to Say No to Hate this Saturday<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAaVXmf1oK7qLVedQ2PR78xo-VE_i1tWkGlfkr9-iG40ARgz_CvgiE-ohaUMFD9BUuCUN1FdTIS4pDWYY9Orac0KkI3pg3PESlFLcaUcAXEtOLSDj_Bwsw1RzrDu3hlkagR7ES_Y78Wu8/s1600/no%252Bracism%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 199px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAaVXmf1oK7qLVedQ2PR78xo-VE_i1tWkGlfkr9-iG40ARgz_CvgiE-ohaUMFD9BUuCUN1FdTIS4pDWYY9Orac0KkI3pg3PESlFLcaUcAXEtOLSDj_Bwsw1RzrDu3hlkagR7ES_Y78Wu8/s200/no%252Bracism%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582546792789959522" /></a><br />Czech Roma and human rights activists are gearing up to take a stand against racism and neo-Nazism at a demonstration many fear could turn chaotic, even violent. This coming Saturday, March 12, the Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) is scheduled to gather and march through the town of Nový Bydžov, the new <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2011/03/small-town-mayors-racist-rhetoric.html">epicenter of anti-Roma sentiment</a> in the Czech Republic. <br /><br />The Workers' Social Justice Party says its mission is to stand up "against rising crime." The group's messages have consistently targeted and intimidated the Roma community, against whom the mayor of Nový Bydžov unleashed what some have called "a war on Gypsies" by collectively <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2041">libeling</a> this ethnic group following a rape of a 21-year-old woman in November 2010 by a suspect who was allegedly a Roma.<br /><br />"The worst-case scenario," states a <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2236">press release</a> issued by Freedom Not Fear, a group which supports the counter-demonstration, "would be another attempt at a pogrom similar to the one that played itself out three years ago at the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSp5ebesjC8&feature=related">Janov housing estate in Litvínov</a>," a town in the north of the Czech Republic. <br /><br />Amnesty International, who plans to monitor the event, has just released a <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR71/001/2011/en/ca9dd505-5d20-4895-b7ba-2043bcc1e5f7/eur710012011en.html">public statement</a> urging "the Czech authorities to ensure protection of Roma in Nový Bydžov during a demonstration by the Workers’ Social Justice Party planned on 12 March."<br /><br />"Following the Mayor’s statement," explains the Amnesty International public statement, "the Workers’ Social Justice Party welcomed 'open and truthful naming of the problem' and announced its readiness to help, including by providing monitoring patrols to the municipality."<br /><br />The AI document also provides a bit of history on the Workers’ Social Justice Party (DSSS):<br /><br /><blockquote>The Worker’s Party, the predecessor to the Workers’ Social Justice Party, was dissolved by the Supreme Administrative Court in February 2010. The Court held that its programme led to incitement to national, racial, ethnic intolerance and amounted to an attempt to infringe the basic rights and freedoms of certain groups, in particular the minorities.</blockquote><br /><br />Young Greens (Mladí zelení) civic association is one of the groups actively opposing the Workers’ Social Justice Party's message and upcoming neo-Nazi demonstration. In their <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2216">statement</a> and invitation to all others to stand up against hate this Saturday, the Young Greens explain: <br /><br /><blockquote>This DSSS action has been convened under the guise of being "Against Rising Crime“. However, we believe, after this country's experiences with similar demonstrations in Litvínov-Janov and Přerov, that in reality this will be a hate gathering intended to exploit the anti-Roma mood in society in order to score more political points for the DSSS and the totalitarian, undemocratic ideas that party represents.<br /><br />As you all certainly know, a group of mayors recently met in Nový Bydžov and has started calling for the increased repression of people whom this society has learned to generally call the "inadaptable" (often as a front for racism, xenophobia and other generally asocial worldviews) - even though the sociologist Stöcklová asserts that "'Inadaptability' or resistance is essentially a positive value in society. Rejection of that value made it possible for Nazism to prevail in Germany during the 1930s."<br /><br />The official municipal web pages of the town of Nový Bydžov are shocking in the their anti-Gypsy content. There it is possible to read the completely open claim that "The Gypsies have committed rape!" The hatred against one group of the town's inhabitants culminated in the publication of a document entitled "The Town's Measures" on that website. This generalization about and condemnation of an entire ethnic group on the basis of legal violations committed by individuals is not only something completely unbelievable in the 21st century, but primarily borders itself on being a crime. We continue to believe in the democratic principles of the Czech Republic and in values such as a right to a fair trial, including the presumption of innocence, in respect for human dignity, and in human rights. The behavior represented by the leadership of Nový Bydžov seriously jeopardizes those values.<br /><br />The problem of ostracizing a certain section of the population, however, does not end in Nový Bydžov. The ideological prevalence of anti-Gypsyism, together with anti-humanism, Europhobia and Islamophobia, is becoming ever more clear in our republic. In addition to the mayors' conference in Nový Bydžov, another possible piece of evidence for this is the recent attempt by Czech Education Minister Dobeš to appoint Ladislav Bátora, a former candidate for the ultra-right National Party (Národní strana - NS), to the post of first deputy minister, as well as the hysterical defense of Bátora by Czech President Klaus, a defense such has never been seen not only in the history of the Czech Republic, but in the history of the state of Czechoslovakia. Thanks to these political attitudes and the often one-sided stereotyping of societal diversity by the most frequently-consumed Czech media, hatred of the Roma community achieved unbelievable dimensions by the end of last year. This must be prevented. It is not possible to just stand by as the internal societal mood of the Czech Republic comes closer and closer to that of 1930s Germany, where it resulted in something everyone is convinced should never be repeated.<br /><br />We have decided to call you to action, to call on us all and on all our friends to mobilize for active participation in the demonstration against the DSSS march and to express our emphatic disagreement with the growing right-wing extremism in the Czech Republic.</blockquote><br /><br />As the news server Romea <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2229">reports</a>, "strong tensions can be felt among residents of the town." <br /><br />Regional police <a href=http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2229">say</a> they will increase their patrols in the town in order to protect people's property and ensure order.<br /><br />The Nový Bydžov is not alone! Initiative, a group which is organizing the counter-demonstration, has <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2233">called on</a> the Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner to actively participate.<br /><br />The organizers write: "Our gathering is being organized under the rubric of the newly-created Nový Bydžov is not alone! Initiative, whose members include Roma people living in Nový Bydžov and activists who have long been involved in human rights, often working in NGOs focused on Roma rights or other human rights topics." They emphasize the non-violent nature of the planned counter-protest.<br /><br />If you are in the region, please join all those of good will and take a stand against hate this coming Saturday. More information on the protest <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2227">here</a>.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-14709793916919262932011-03-03T09:29:00.000-08:002011-03-03T23:45:20.724-08:00Small Town Mayor's Racist Rhetoric Ignites a Wildfire of Anti-Roma Mobilization in the Czech Republic<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7OUbOdSdffZqlCDVow9CMZWG31D4Idt-vuTkliB-SGFobXOqjhXxvkdLVyoK-WaypOdZGJjEBEimIQzlOPd2BRlb1T4CSLajvIN6OoGjghjKb3LnJcEgAOclYwW_AwLKN_50KQEPYPQ/s1600/184381_201601039855640_100000172373001_868805_7378832_s.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 188px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7OUbOdSdffZqlCDVow9CMZWG31D4Idt-vuTkliB-SGFobXOqjhXxvkdLVyoK-WaypOdZGJjEBEimIQzlOPd2BRlb1T4CSLajvIN6OoGjghjKb3LnJcEgAOclYwW_AwLKN_50KQEPYPQ/s400/184381_201601039855640_100000172373001_868805_7378832_s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579980120853894274" /></a><br /><br />My heart is with the Roma community in the Czech Republic. I say this in light of the recent alarming events I have been following from thousands of miles away. What has been happening in one small town has statewide implications.<br /><br />In November of last year, the Mayor of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nový_Bydžov">Nový Bydžov</a>, a Czech town of approximately <a href="http://www.novybydzov.cz/pocet-obyvatel-spravniho-uzemi-noveho-bydzova-se-zvysuje/d-2303">7,000 residents</a>, issued a <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2041">statement</a> in which he globally libeled all Roma people in the town; an event that was perceived by many as a declaration of a "war on Gypsies." <br /><br />In his <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2130">open letter</a>, Mayor Pavel Louda proclaimed the town is divided into one group of decent, working residents and the other, a group of those who "hang out on the benches on the town square" and "shout in the streets, threaten people, including with knives, and commit theft and rape."<br /><br />Louda's statement was a reaction to several assaults and the rape of a 21-year-old woman committed by perpetrators who were allegedly Roma. As a response to these crimes, the Mayor declared that he "will introduce repressive measures, even if my colleagues and I end up on trial because this absurd state of ours considers us to be discriminating against the poor Gypsies." <br /><br />A petition demanding better security was circulated by the locals and signed by 3,257 residents. The author of the petition, Petr Suchánek, thanked the signatories in his letter, published on the city hall's webpage, adding that the <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2102">criminal charges filed</a> against the Mayor, accusing him of being a racist, are nothing but "spit in the face of all decent people." <br /><br />Louda <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2084">appealed</a> to the State for help in beefing up the town's security. The Mayor has also hired a private security firm to provide law enforcement in the town. As of January 1, there are now 24 police officers instead of 15 available in the vicinity of the town. As of March 1, the town has increased the number of police officers on patrol by fifty percent from 4 officers to 6. The town has also begun raiding gambling businesses and publicizing the ethnicity of those found there along with information on whether these individuals are on welfare, implying that those caught gambling will be instantly barred from qualifying for social benefits, including unemployment, food and rental assistance.<br /><br />In late January, representatives of the Roma community met with the Mayor to offer cooperation in dissolving the racial tensions in the town. As the news servers Romea and Denik.cz <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2099">reported</a>, Josef Čureja, a Roma representative designated to be one of the Mayor's main contact persons in the community, stated: "We are doing everything we can so that everyone in Nový Bydžov can once again live contentedly and without concern - so that coexistence can again become normal. We simply want to put a stop to all of the goings-on that have taken place in town during the past few years."<br /><br />Čureja also added that it destructive for the majority population to see the Roma as incapable or unwilling to work or as people who only spend their money on video poker. "We are not all the same, and that's why we are glad we met the mayor," Čureja said. <br /><br />In early February, two human rights organizations, European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Equality, sent a <a href="http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/file/czech-novybydzovletter-4february2011.pdf">letter</a> to the Mayor of Nový Bydžov, urging him to discontinue his anti-Romani rhetoric and calling on him to support a peaceful resolution of interethnic conflict.<br /><br />"The situation between Roma and non-Roma in Nový Bydžov, triggered by a crime of rape that occurred at the end of 2010," states the ERRC letter, "is very tense and puts many individuals at a threat of verbal and physical violence."<br /><br />"Your recent statements and the measures you are proposing," the letter continues, "may be in violation of a number of national and international law provisions, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which bans racial discrimination by public authorities and the Czech Criminal Code which bans incitement to racial hatred at Article 356."<br /><br />Since the Mayor's statements have been made and widely publicized by the Czech media, neo-Nazi groups, with The Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) in the lead, have begun to plan and advertise a meeting and march through the town of Nový Bydžov on March 12. <br /><br />Louda was <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2204">quoted</a> in the Hradec Králové regional edition of the daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) as saying the event looks like it will become an organized war between all the anarchist and violent groups in the country. "Unfortunately they have made us their battleground," the mayor said. <br /><br />Clearly, there is great fear of the violence this March 12 could spark. A neo-Nazi march through a neighborhood with a large Romani population <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSp5ebesjC8&feature=related">turned ugly</a> two years ago in the town of Litvinov. To prevent the neo-Nazis from marching and intimidating local residents, <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2214">two peaceful protests</a> are planned on March 12.<br /><br />The Nový Bydžov is not alone! Initiative (Iniciativa Nový Bydžov není sám!) who are the organizers of the upcoming non-violent anti-racist rallies told Romeal.cz, "We condemn all criminal acts, but we reject the principle of collective guilt being exploited as part of anti-Roma rhetoric." <br /><br />The larger implication of what has been happening in Nový Bydžov has to do with a meeting which occurred on February 14. On that day, a group of 51 mayors from around the Czech Republic <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2204">convened</a> to demand greater powers from the government. A declaration released after the mayors' meeting was signed by a total of 61 representatives of towns and villages which allegedly have "difficulties with Roma people." <br /><br />As reported by <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2204">Romea</a>, "the declaration includes demands for the option of canceling people's social welfare benefits should they abuse them." <br /><br />"The municipal representatives," Romea reports, "are also demanding the government seriously concern itself with the powers available to towns and villages regarding the services they provide to citizens whose permanent residency is registered with a different municipality."<br /><br />The English version of the declaration can be found <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2155">here</a>.<br /><br />Roma and pro-Roma activists reacted to the declaration swiftly, circulating <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2168">a petition</a> opposing what they consider to be segregationist policies proposed by the mayors. The Czech version of the petition can be found <a href="http://petice.nazory.cz/petice/petice-detail.php?id=331">here</a>.<br /><br />"We, the Roma and citizens living in the Czech Republic are offended by the idea of the decision-making power of the state being transferred to towns and municipalities. The rights of the Constitution must be guaranteed to all citizens of this country regardless of our differences," the petition, which I helped translate into English, says.<br /><br />As Romea.cz <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2168">reports</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>The initiators of the petition are opposed to "the legislative anchoring of the option to subject the benefit of aid to those in material distress to attachment as if it were income (preserving minimum support). People should not be subjected to further social isolation." The next point stresses that they are against introducing the sanction of banning residency, as freedom of movement has been established as a principle throughout the EU.<br /><br />In the petition, Iveta Bílková, Ladislav Bílý, Ondřej Giňa and Miroslav Kováč also protest against the anchoring into legislation of the option of canceling welfare benefits. "We, the Roma and citizens, are fundamentally opposed to the government's tolerance of the segregationist proposals made by some heads of cities and municipalities, such as the policy of pushing members of minority groups out of municipalities or to their peripheries. We demand that the laws, rights and freedoms be upheld for all citizens regardless of their gender, race, skin color, language, creed or religion, political or other beliefs, national or social background, ethnic or minority status, wealth, ancestry or any other status. Municipal governments cannot be the guarantors of what the state by its very nature is meant to guarantee," the petition concludes.</blockquote><br /><br />In his <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2209">letter</a> to the Czech Prime Minister Nečas, Čeněk Růžička, Romani activist and chair of the Committee for the Redress of the Roma Holocaust in the Czech Republic (Výbor pro odškodnění romského holokaustu) bids the government to halt any discussion of proposals to cut social welfare benefits and introduce sanctions banning residency. <br /><br />He writes: "We, the surviving relatives of the Roma victims of Nazism, equipped with the experiences of our parents and of our other Roma relatives who were concentration camp prisoners . . . request . . that you stop any discussion of proposals to introduce these sanctions and anti-social measures."<br /><br />These policies, he writes, "would provoke tragic changes in the lives of impoverished Roma people and others who are socially deprived" as well as radicalize the Czech society against Roma people. <br /><br />Kováč, one of the initiators of the petition opposing the mayors' declaration, has called the proposal the "modern-day birth of the 'Final Solution' to the 'Gypsy' question." He calls on others to stand up against the racist policies targeting the Roma urging, "do not make <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porajmos">history</a> repeat itself. . . and join us!"Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-51331841676745977942010-10-20T01:49:00.000-07:002011-07-11T07:37:29.980-07:00Racially Motivated Arson: The Verdict Is HereIt was in the spring of 2009 when a group of far-right extremists threw a Molotov cocktail into the home of a Roma family, severely injuring three people, including two-year-old Natálie, who suffered third-degree burns over 80 % of her body. I remember the shock I felt upon hearing the news. I was living in the Czech Republic at the time.<br /><br />Today, the highly publicized trial of the four Czech extremists responsible for the racially motivated arson attack culminated with extraordinary sentences handed down by the Regional Court in Ostrava.<br /><br />As the Romani press agency, <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2010/09/romea-countering-stereotypes-and.html">Romea</a>, <a href="http://romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_1973">reports</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>David Vaculík, Ivo Müller and Jaromír Lukeš have been sentenced to 22-year prison sentences, Václav Cojocaru to 20 years. The court found them guilty of complicity in attempted murder and property damage. They will all serve their sentences in a maximum-security prison and will have to pay the victims millions of crowns in compensation.</blockquote><br /><br />The report continues: <br /><br /><blockquote>Today's verdict does not mean the case is over, however. Both the defendants and the state prosecutor may appeal. Attorneys for defendants Cojocaru, Lukeš, and Müller wanted milder punishments for the crimes of either reckless endangerment or grievous bodily harm and property damage. The attorney for Vaculík wanted acquittal.<br /><br />Three of those convicted (Cojocaru, Lukeš, and Müller) cooperated to a certain extent with both the police and the court. They confessed their participation in the crime, which according to the file was allegedly committed to celebrate the 120th birthday of Adolf Hitler. However, they all rejected the idea that the attack had intentionally targeted a house in which people were living, claiming they believed it was just a warehouse of stolen goods.</blockquote><br /><br />In May of last year, my family <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2009/05/enough-is-enough-3000-demonstrate.html">joined the ranks of about 3,000 protesters</a> coming together all across the Czech Republic to show solidarity with Natálie's family and to take a strong stand against neo-Nazism. <br /><br />CNN ran a front-page <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/25/roma.prejudice/index.html">story</a> last June about the arson attack. A video spotlight also aired: <br /><br /><object width="416" height="374" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="ep"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="movie" value="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=international/2010/06/24/wus.roma.parents.cnn" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><embed src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=international/2010/06/24/wus.roma.parents.cnn" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="416" wmode="transparent" height="374"></embed></object><br /><br />I visited and <a href="http://romarights.blogspot.com/2010/08/after-tragedy-community-finds-strength.html">wrote</a> about a community not too far from Natalka's during my fellowship in human rights journalism with the Advocacy Project last summer. <br /><br />Last March, another arson attack on a Romani family's home occurred in that area. This time, the perpetrator was a white neighbor from across the street. <br /><br />In my article, I wrote about meeting the family whose home was attacked: <br /><br /><blockquote>As we make our way down the road, we cross paths with a family leaving their home. "Four months ago a molotov cocktail was thrown inside this family's house," (activist Kumar) Vishwanathan relates. "Their teenage daughter put out the fire and saved her relatives' lives." <br /><br />"How is your daughter sleeping these days? Is she able to sleep?" Vishwanathan asks the mother. <br /><br />The mother looks down and timidly shakes her head from side to side. The truth is clear. The family is still experiencing trauma, months after the incident. </blockquote><br /><br />The psychological, not just the physical, toll following such an attack runs deep and the effects are long-lasting. That is why the tough sentence the court doled out to the attackers who nearly murdered Natalka is significant. The message condemning hate crimes must be strong. It is too soon to celebrate, however. The appeal process will determine the true consequences.Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-70037646857460507942010-09-07T02:29:00.000-07:002010-09-07T02:30:14.522-07:00Slovakia Urged to End School Segregation for Romani ChildrenAmnesty International is <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/slovak-government-urged-end-segregation-romani-children-2010-09-02">urging</a> the Slovak government to "immediately end the segregation of Romani children in the country's education system." <br /><br />The Amnesty International website states: <br /><br /><blockquote>This practice leaves thousands of Romani pupils in substandard education in schools and classes for pupils with "mild mental disabilities" or ethnically segregated mainstream schools and classes. <br /><br />In a briefing to the Slovak government, Steps to end segregation in education, Amnesty International points to serious gaps in the enforcement and monitoring of the ban on discrimination and segregation in the Slovak educational system. </blockquote><br /><br />More <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/slovak-government-urged-end-segregation-romani-children-2010-09-02">here</a>.<br /><br />A powerful video about school segregation for Romani children in Slovakia can be viewed here. The situation is comparable to that in the Czech Republic:<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ke6BwGrVsLI?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ke6BwGrVsLI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-67992551739090190972010-09-05T16:03:00.000-07:002010-09-05T19:51:58.436-07:00Romea: Countering Stereotypes and Building Bridges through Media and Education"Our colleagues in journalism, as much as we, are still looking for a way to write about the Roma and about Roma-related issues in a way that is not too ethnic; in a way that is not colored by various prejudices and stereotypes," says Jarmila Balážová, co-founder and chair of <a href="http://www.romea.cz/">Romea Civic Association</a>, a Romani media and education organization. <br /><br />"It is not at all easy to do," she elaborates. "It has only been since (the Velvet Revolution in) 1989 that Czech journalists have been writing about the minorities. Even we are guilty of stereotyping sometimes, for instance, when we want to balance out a negative image of the Romani minority that continues to prevail in the Czech media. So sometimes we emphasize the ethnicity of a personality when it should not be done. But we do it to spread the word that Roma exist who are not known, and who, for example, represent this country on a national level in sports."<br /><br />Jarmila Balážová is a woman in demand; a woman with charisma, vision and an uncanny amount of energy. She is an award-winning journalist and the driving force behind a number of programs and publications, including Czech Radio's Romani radio broadcast, "<a href="http://romove.radio.cz/cz/">O Roma vakeren</a>," which she founded and the Romani monthlies Amaro Gendalos and <a href="http://www.romanovodi.cz">Romano voďi</a>, of which she is editor-in-chief. Balážová is also a producer at <a href="http://www.rozhlas.cz/cro6/osoby/_zprava/189680">Czech Radio 6</a>, the former broadcasters of Radio Free Europe in Czech. <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/09/balazova-jarmila-studio.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/09/balazova-jarmila-studio-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-722" /></a><br /><i>[Jarmila Balážová, photo credit: <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_1722">Romea</a>]</i><br /><br />Balážová established Romea in 2002, along with a group of <a href="http://www.romea.cz/romea/english/index.php?id=lide">others</a>, following a training of young Romani journalists, offered by the Dženo Association. Zdeněk Ryšavý, who is now the executive director, was also one of the co-founders. <br /><br />Romea's <a href="http://www.equal.romea.cz/showpage.php?name=partneri">mission</a> is to "motivate and involve predominantly young Roma in civic life as well as to contribute to better relations between the minorities and the majority population in the Czech Republic." <br /><br />Romea runs a press service as well as an internet news server, which reports on events from the world of the Roma, and is, according to Romea's annual report, currently the country’s most-visited Romani server. The server regularly broadcasts TV news reports on ROMEA.tv in both, Romani and Czech language. The monthly Romano voďi, which Romea publishes, provides coverage of current events from the world of the Roma as well as articles on Romani literature, music, history, language. A portion of the magazine is directed at young Roma, who can find pages that profile active and successful Roma and a two-page section “Through Our Eyes” focusing on "youth" themes. Romea also produces “10 Minutes”, a talk show which profiles interesting Romani guests.<br /><br />I had the opportunity in late August to talk with Ryšavý and Balážová at their office about their work and Romea's role in the Czech media landscape.<br /><br />"I think that the vast majority of the media, in fact nearly all media, continue to reinforce various stereotypes concerning the minorities," maintains Balážová. "I must say that some media do it less, others more. A huge difference can be seen between those who have been dedicated to these issues long-term, using an analytical lens. The result depends on who is writing and who is in the leadership at the particular media outlet."<br /><br />When asked to discuss the mission of Romea, Balážová explains that providing information, but also monitoring the press for factual accuracy are some of the key roles her organization plays. <br /><br />"We bring information to the Roma themselves," Balážová says. "Our role rests in that we think that if the Romani community is not well informed, the members will not be very politically engaged; that they will not be able to defend themselves well. That is the reason we provide information. And we write about notable personalities for a more balanced (public image of the Roma)."<br /><br />"We also try to bring opinions of the Roma on the issues, because white Czech journalists never or seldom ask Roma for their opinions," continues Balážová. "If it weren't for us at Romea, who put in the effort and approach a number of Roma to obtain their commentary so that Czech News Agency and others can use them as sources, the angle would never change."<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://www.romea.cz/images/servis/romea-logo.jpg" class="alignnone" width="250" height="188" /><br /><br />"I get very upset," chimes in Ryšavý, "when we have to correct journalists when they write nonsense they don't doublecheck. They go somewhere where conflict is occurring and usually ask only those from the side of the white Czechs. That has happened to us many times. And the way the articles are framed because only the whites are asked, makes the Roma instantly into the perpetrators. Then when we collect quotes by the Roma and contact newspapers, asking them to include this information, they usually write us back that their organizations are objective, that they could not interview any Roma because they could not find any. That is absolute nonsense."<br /><br />When asked what he finds most rewarding about his work in Romani media, Ryšavý says he enjoys introducing successful Roma to the public. "It is interesting," he reflects, "that these types of articles are not of interest to majority media outlets. In general, the media write about what is wrong, not what is positive. We try to correct that by trying to place articles with a positive spin in mainstream media." <br /><br />Balážová says that occasionally positive coverage does appear, especially on Czech Television, and especially about children. She, however, points out that Roma-related topics are often viewed as their own separate domain. <br /><br />"Often both, the public and the journalists, understand Romani-themed issues to be separate from the rest," Balážová explains. "When the issue is something that has to do with discrimination, exclusion, stealing or looting, Roma will be written about. But when it is something that is unexpected, for instance help is provided to flooded communities by the Roma and not just along ethnic lines, there is not too much interest."<br /><br />"I think it is the main weakness of Czech media," Balážová asserts, "that they perceive the Roma divided from Czech society and not part of it. This idea tends to always be emphasized." <br /><br />Regarding dreams for the future, Balážová jokes: "World peace." But then gets more serious, describing how over the last eight years of its existence, Romea has always struggled with funding and has had to rely on volunteers, in addition to the core paid staff. <br /><br />Balážová explains that, even at the price of getting funding cut, her organization is critical. Because of that, she says, they have gotten "smacked across the fingers regarding taking on new projects," as she calls it.<br /><br />"The nonprofit sector is very much affected by this phenomenon," Balážová continues. The Romani organizations which are dependent on state funding, she says, "will not do anything that could go against the government or some politicians, who are offensive or anti-Roma. Our experience is that a whole lot of Romani nonprofit organizations, which are effective, which have lots of money, because they know how to apply for it, because they are well-established, will not ever join any demonstration or protest at all, even in support of Natalka (the two-year-old Romani victim of a molotov cocktail attack carried out by neo-Nazis last year)."<br /><br />"It would be great if we could work in a more or less stable atmosphere," she says. "It would be great to find partners in the media or other relevant institutions for our educational and media-related projects." <br /><br />Ryšavý agrees: "I would like Romea to become more financially stable. Another distant and more difficult-to-achieve goal is that of eventually cutting ourselves off from state finances, to obtain funding from other sources and not be dependent on grants, because that is very binding."<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/09/rysavy.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/09/rysavy.jpg" alt="" width="179" height="232" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-725" /></a><br /><i>[Zdeněk Ryšavý]</i><br /><br />As a white woman involved in advocating for equal rights for minorities, I was curious about how Ryšavý wrestles with the fact that he is white in an influential role in a minority organization. <br /><br />"I have an opinion about that," jumped in Balážová, who is a Roma. "He has been very active working on these issues, so he has already gone through a trial period when some people may have doubted his role here. I have to say that he has never tried to push himself to the foreground, only the last two years he has agreed to appear in the media, but only if I or another Roma from Romea is there." <br /><br />"It is exactly the same," she continues, "as when a Roma has to prove him- or herself in a non-Romani company. In the same manner, a non-Roma must prove himself in a Romani organization. But from the beginning, we have declared, and quite loudly, that we will have non-Roma working here as well. Our mission is to improve mutual relationships, so we have to build on the fact that we can work well together."<br /><br />As a white person, closely familiar with issues affecting the Roma, a person like Ryšavý has the unique position of serving as a bridge between the two groups. Ryšavý says he can influence the majority population's perceptions of the Roma by challenging his white friends when they say prejudicial things and engaging them in a conversation. <br /><br />"It does work," Ryšavý explains. "At most you can influence your circle of friends, which is maybe two hundred people. It is possible. But the media influence people's opinions more." That is why Romea's work of bringing information from the perspective of the Roma to the public is so crucial.<br /><br />***<br /><br /><i>[This article originally appeared on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/09/05/romea-countering-stereotypes-and-building-bridges-through-media-and-education/">blog</a>]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-35512326607786805412010-08-31T15:20:00.000-07:002010-09-04T07:29:24.046-07:00Gun Rampage in Slovakia Sends a Shock Wave of Fear through Central EuropeOn August 30, the day after I left the Czech Republic, mass murder, the largest in Czech and Slovak history since World War II, was committed by a machine gun-wielding man on a rampage in the Slovak capital of Bratislava. The armed man killed seven and wounded fifteen, including a small child, before fatally shooting himself. Six of those murdered were members of a Romani family. <br /><br />As the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/world/europe/31slovak.html?src=mv">reports</a>, "the killings shook the country and resonated with Europe’s growing xenophobia against Roma, or Gypsies."<br /><br />The motives behind the tragedy will take some time to investigate, but how the events continue unfolding, in particular the public discourse taking place, is as deeply troubling as was the attack itself. <br /><br />Countless contributors to public forums argue the horrific act was justified and "worthy of repetition." This is in line with the tone I have commonly found present in discussions of Roma-related news coverage on the internet where members of the majority often claim only negative experiences with the Roma and throw around racist stereotypes and slurs, sometimes even violent suggestions for how to deal with the "Romani problem." <br /><br />Some online discussion contributors have even expressed empathy for the murderer, "diagnosing" him as a man whose "nerves were shot" by too many bad experiences with his Romani neighbors. <br /><br />On the Slovak website, People Against Racism, Gregory Fabian, a New York-based human rights lawyer, <a href="http://www.rasizmus.sk/2010/08/31/gregory-fabian-–-bratislava-31-8-2010/">writes</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>Everybody in Slovakia should check his or her own reaction to yesterday's incident. Everyone should ask himself: Am I convinced that this attack can be justified? Do I think that it was not a case of a racially motivated attack without weighing all the evidence first? If the majority of non-Roma answer yes to one or both questions, the future for the Romani communities in Slovakia looks very bleak and the chance of reoccurrence of similar situations thus increases. </blockquote><br /><br />According to Peter Pollak, chief of staff of the Slovak Commission on Romani Affairs, the danger of violence between the majority and Romani minority looms large. "All responsible people must do everything in their power to make sure the situation does not worsen in the future," he <a href="http://www.romea.cz/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_8552">said</a>. <br /><br />Another blogger on Rasizmus.sk <a href="http://www.rasizmus.sk/2010/08/31/devinska-nova-ves-sledujte-incident-nazor-po-nazore/">warns about</a> the larger and dangerous societal aftermath of the massacre: <br /><br /><blockquote>Whether the attack was racially motivated will be decided based on a thorough police investigation. In this moment, racially motivated are namely the discussions taking place at Slovak computers. Ethnicity has become literally the justification for the murder, legitimizing any and all hateful or excessively and senselessly violent attacks against the Romani community. We thereby express our deep sympathy to all the victims regardless of their lifestyle or color of their skin.</blockquote><br /><br />Slovakia. I was just there recently, <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/13/when-you-write-about-us-a-dispatch-from-a-village-on-the-margins/">visiting</a> with the residents of a so-called "socially excluded" Romani community. Slovakia, where most of the Roma in the Czech Republic have their roots. Slovakia, which used to be part of Czechoslovakia until 1993. The shock wave, caused by this crime as well as the disturbing reaction of a portion of the public, knows no borders.<br /><br />***<br />September 3, 2010 update: Apparently, it has just surfaced that <a href="http://www.romea.cz/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_8572">only two</a> of the victims of the massacre were Romani. However, that still does not change the fact that the initial reaction to the mass murder, when most of the victims were assumed to be Romani, on public forums was so often that of empathy for the murderer & justification of violence against the Roma. Such responses should serve as impetus to remain vigilant about future violence and press for more proactive ways to combat poverty, social exclusion, segregation, unemployment, racism and extremism in the region.<br /><br />***<br /><br /><i>[Originally published on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/31/gun-rampage-in-slovakia-sends-a-shock-wave-of-fear-through-central-europe/">blog</a>.]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-39710766734493364092010-08-30T15:22:00.000-07:002010-09-04T07:34:32.172-07:00Speaking Truth to Power: A Conversation with Karel Holomek, a Vital Voice in the Roma Rights MovementEarlier this month, following the <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/23/oh-you-black-bird-%E2%80%A8carry-my-letter-czech-roma-holocaust-remembered/">Roma Holocaust commemoration ceremony</a> at the site of the former "Gypsy" concentration camp near the town of Hodonín u Kunštátu, I had the chance to sit down and talk with Karel Holomek, one of the most esteemed Czech Romani community leaders. <br /><br />He shared with me his concern about the recent political developments and their impact on his future cooperation with the Czech government as a human rights activist. <br /><br />"I will speak about politics now, because politics for me is a fundamental thing. Everything stems from there," said Mr. Holomek, sharing a table with me in the breezy, contemporary, urban, yet relaxed setting of the cafe at the <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/27/museum-of-romani-culture-paving-the-way-toward-opportunity-and-understanding/">Museum of Romani Culture</a>, an institution he co-founded nearly twenty years ago in the Czech city of Brno. <br /><br />Mr. Holomek is the son of the first Czech Romani university graduate and the father of the historian and Museum of Romani Culture director Dr. Jana Horváthová. He is a celebrated international human rights advocate, chairman of the <a href="http://www.srnm.cz/">Society of Roma in Moravia</a> and current Ambassador of the <a href="http://www.romadecade.org/">Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 - 2015</a>, an initiative that brings together the governments of twelve European countries and NGOs “to accelerate progress toward improving the welfare of Roma.“<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/Karel-Holomek.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/Karel-Holomek.jpg" alt="" width="203" height="216" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-672" /></a><br /><i>[Ing. Karel Holomek, photo by <a href="http://romarising.com/">Chad Evans Wyatt</a>]</i> <br /><br />"I reject the attitude politicians display toward the people who challenge them," Holomek continued, "in the vein of 'don't meddle in our dealings; we are now discussing culture, we are discussing language, we are discussing literature.' Politics doesn't belong in these types of conversations, they say. But, unfortunately, it does belong there, and in a very significant way."<br /><br />"My big topic at this time is this," said Holomek. "The government, after the (May Parliamentary) elections came out with its new policy outline. The administration announced, to the satisfaction of everyone with common sense, that it is an administration whose priority is a balanced budget."<br /><br />"We accept that," Mr. Holomek elaborated. "But I always add that government savings measures do not have to mean going broke."<br /><br />Holomek went on to criticize Prime MInister Petr Nečas' choices of staff: "The new administration took the next step of making changes in staffing. It nominated the ministers. Pavel Drobil, who was named the Minister of Environment, is a man who is dedicated to the industrial lobby. He does not even hide that fact. He says such nonsense as 'nature is there for the people, not people for nature,' which is a completely primitive slogan, almost as if meant for simpletons. The Minister of Environment is only proof of what the government plans to do regarding the environment. They don't have to play the charade that they will work for the people."<br /><br />"The second concern I have is the new advisor on human rights to the Prime Minister," Holomek went on. "I consider <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/18/american-neocon-christian-right-ideology-makes-inroads-into-czech-politics-with-pms-advisor-choice/">Roman Joch</a> to be on the borderline of acceptability. I would go as far as to say, and many would agree with me, that, opinion-wise, he is a neo-Nazi. His opinions include: the constitution is the only force needed to protect human rights; everyone is equal in the court of law; the courts should decide."<br /><br />Holomek asserted that Czech courts are often incapable of carrying out just judgements, because they are corrupt, a sentiment I have heard echoed from many activists, even a long-time human rights lawyer in this country. <br /><br />Regarding the lack of legitimacy of Czech courts, Holomek said: "In reality, we have a judicial mafia here. Some people do not realize this, but most of the nation understands that the highest posts are occupied by a judicial mafia."<br /><br />"All the people the Prime Minister has selected come from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Václav_Klaus">Václav Klaus</a> administration," observed Holomek. "And that epoch had a very negative effect on the cultivation of the society, morale, but even in economics. Nečas is probably, with these staffing choices, making deals or amends with Klaus's political party. That is his problem. But there is no reason we should tolerate this."<br /><br />Holomek was referring to the years, specifically the early to mid-90s, following the Velvet Revolution when the regime <a href="http://www.praguepost.com/business/2793-experts-recall-the-czech-miracle.html">shifted</a> practically over night from a centrally-planned socialist economy to "free-market" capitalism. The Czech government relatively quickly privatized the majority of state-run business, selling disproportionately large amounts of assets to foreign-owned entities. This transition resulted in significant job losses (in the Czech Republic namely in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors) and wage depression. What followed was a societal reorientation towards rampant consumerism and the general weakening of social safety nets. <br /><br />"My dilemma is now with this," confided Holomek. "On July 1, the Czech government took over the presidency of the Decade for Roma Inclusion. I was there in a meeting with still the previous Prime Minister and I was selected to be, so to speak, the face of the Decade. They even call me the Ambassador."<br /><br />Holomek's reaction was mixed. He said that he would be happy to represent the Decade if it had the power to bring about concrete change: "It makes me smile, because it is a highly honorable, but unfortunate function and, of course, without a crown. If I were an ambassador who could do something, who could be the person who receives and allocates the funds dedicated to the initiative, it would be a whole different thing."<br /><br />"There are two problems here," Holomek explained. "The decade is a completely 'sterile' project, which has so far taken only the form of international conferences. These are completely insignificant events, during which twenty, thirty or forty like-minded people get together and complain about how things are not working and how something should be done, and during which not a single government official ever participates, let alone to say: I acknowledge you and what should we do about it on our part?"<br /><br />"When I accepted my role as Ambassador," explained Holomek, "I said we have to do something concrete. There needs to be a shift forward. I don't think I will continue being the face of the initiative, if no development happens. I went to the administration and proposed some measures to be taken (toward Romani integration), but I was told immediately by the Office of the Government that there is no money for those efforts."<br /><br />Holomek said that the combination of a having a person in office with whom it is impossible to cooperate, and the prospect of no expected progress in sight, makes it so that he cannot possibly continue being the face of the Decade: "I would accept it all and continue to risk and move forward if there were at least someone in the administration who would be supportive."<br /><br />"With my years of experience," Holomek contended, "I am a trusted person and I am willing to do anything (to improve the situation for the Roma), but not with these people in the government." <br /><br />"Now I just have to wait and see whether the PM will grant me a meeting with him," Holomek concluded, "so I can tell him eye-to-eye, bluntly as is my style, how I see the situation and how angry he has made me."<br /><br />Karel Holomek is one of the signatories of <a href="http://www.proalt.cz/">ProAlt</a>, a <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/11/czechs-ban-together-to-oppose-incoming-governments-priorities/">grassroots initiative</a> opposing the new Czech government's priorities. I, too, have signed the initiative, which I hope will constitute a vital force that keeps in check the new conservative administration who, so far, seems deaf to the concerns of human rights and minority advocates.<br /><br />***<br /><i>[Originally posted on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/30/speaking-truth-to-power-a-conversation-with-karel-holomek-a-vital-voice-in-the-roma-rights-movement/">blog</a>.]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-70986937105551668002010-08-27T15:25:00.000-07:002010-08-31T15:26:49.391-07:00Museum of Romani Culture: Paving the Way Toward Opportunity and Understanding“We are a space where different cultures meet. We preserve examples of Romani cultural history as part of Europe´s heritage. We educate the younger generation to be tolerant and to appreciate other cultures,” proclaims the motto of the <a href="//www.rommuz.cz“">Museum of Romani Culture</a>, based in the Czech city of Brno. “We are committed to fighting xenophobia and racism. We are paving the way to a new understanding of the roots of Romani identity. All this we do in the name of mutual understanding. For a dialogue of cultures. For us.”<br /> <br />“A Romani museum of our scope does not exist anywhere else in the world,” explains Museum of Romani Culture director Dr. Jana Horváthová, who co-founded the institution in 1991 along with a group of scholars and community leaders, including the prominent Romani activist, current Ambassador of the <a href="http://www.romadecade.org/">Decade of Roma Inclusion</a>, and Horváthová’s father Karel Holomek.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-634" /></a><br /><i>[Museum of Romani Culture. Photo credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Muzeum_romske_kultury_brno.jpg">wikipedia</a>]</i><br /><br />The permanent exhibition traces Romani culture and history from the time of the Romani migration from India centuries ago up until present-day life in the Czech Republic.<br /> <br />“Our goal is to create the broadest possible collection of original documentation for the presentation of Romani history and culture,” says Horváthová.<br /><br />Particularly well-documented and moving is the section on the Roma Holocaust, which comprises scores of photographs, testimonies, newspaper articles, official documents and original correspondence. <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-inside-.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-inside--300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-637" /></a><br /><i>[Museum of Romani Culture Director. Photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />Other sections include artwork by Romani artists, cultural artifacts and descriptions of traditional customs and music. The exhibit also shows the history of Romani political activism in the Czech Republic as well as a collage of Roma-related press headlines collected over time and together forming a complex picture of the media coverage of Roma-related issues.<br /> <br />“Our museum is really an exemplar and a first of its kind,” Horváthová continues, “a fact which the Czech Republic perhaps does not value as much as it should.”<br /><br />“There aren’t many Romani museums, ” Horváthová says, listing all other Roma-themed museums and permanent exhibits around Europe, including the <a href="//www.snm-em.sk/zlozkymuzea/mkrs/mkrsindex.html”">Museum of Romani Culture in Slovakia</a>, part of the Slovakian National Museum, and the Tarnów Ethnographic Museum, which now houses Poland‘s first permanent <a href="//www.muzeum.tarnow.pl/cyganie/cyganie_prawyang.htm”">Roma-themed exhibition</a>. She also mentions <a href="//www.sacromontegranada.com/index.php?num=1”">The Interpretation Centre and Ethnographic Museum</a> in Granada, Spain, where an original Romani cave dwelling complex can be viewed.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-inside-II.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-inside-II-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-638" /></a><br /><i>[Museum of Romani Culture. Photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />In addition to the permanent exhibition, the Czech Museum of Romani Culture periodically presents temporary exhibitions of art and photography. The museum is also a Romani studies research center for all of Central Europe. It houses a Roma-themed library and bookstore as well as organizes lectures, concerts, panel debates and Romani language courses.<br /><br />“We always say that it is important for people to come the first time and then visitors tend to return,” says Horváthová. “There are many people who hear about us and think that it is terrible here, that we are located in a slum. They are afraid of coming to a Romani neighborhood, so this type of prejudice deters many potential customers.”<br /><br />“My wish,” Horváthová continues when asked about her vision for the future, “is for us, after so many years of effort, to be able to break the society-wide aversion toward the Roma.”<br /><br />The museum has worked intently to make this vision a reality. The institution’s scope extends to helping to give Romani children a fair chance at adequate and academically challenging education. <br /><br />In conjunction with the museum’s extensive afterschool education offerings for the neighborhood children, which include art, sports and performance classes as well as tutoring, a new program centered around integration of the <a href="http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/litigation/czechrepublic">chronically segregated Czech school system</a> is underway. <br /><br />As part of the program, a number of children have been identified by the museum’s educators for extra academic support and integration into schools with predominantly majority-population children in other areas of the city outside “the ghetto.” During the upcoming school year, the Romani children participating in this program will be accompanied by staff and bussed to new schools in order to improve their chances for a better education and future. <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/pani-dok-horvathova.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/pani-dok-horvathova-236x300.jpg" alt="" width="236" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-639" /></a><br /><i>[Dr. Jana Horváthová, Museum of Romani Culture Director. <br />Photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />“The segregated schools in this neighborhood,” explains Horváthová, “have a population of 90 to 100 percent Romani children. There the teachers cannot give extra attention to the more gifted students and the curricula are not the same as in mainstream schools. These students, even when gifted, have no chance of getting into secondary schools. We have already confirmed this over the years of running educational programs. And it makes us very sad when children that would do well in secondary school, even college, do not make it because their schools are so behind mainstream programs and the children find it impossible to catch up to the level required for entrance exams and education at the secondary level.”<br /><br />“These children will be pioneers,” says Horváthová. “The transition will be very difficult. The children are used to going to an all-Roma school, where it is, in a way an easier and more pleasant environment, because there they know the communication style and behavior of their classmates. When they begin in a classroom that is mostly non-Roma, it will be enormously stressful for them. They will need professional assistance. Without that, the transition is impossible to manage.”<br /><br />When asked whether the teachers in the mostly majority population schools are prepared for the integration efforts, Horváthová explains: “What is needed to make integration successful are smaller class sizes and an educational assistant, preferably a Roma from the community, in the room, together with the teacher.”<br /><br />She adds: “Very few teachers and classmates are aware of the reality of the child living in a ghetto and all the things the child has to deal with when entering the surrounding world.”<br /><br />“Teachers from the majority population have gaps in this area. One of the programs we provide are educational seminars for teachers, which acquaint them with Romani history and culture,” she continues. “We often advise teachers who write us and ask us what they should do, how they should work with their Romani students.” <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-r.k.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-r.k-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-652" /></a><br /><br />"I like the afterschool programs a lot," says a fifth-grader who attends English language lessons and tutoring sessions at the museum in the afternoons. She says she likes learning languages and would like to also study Latin. In school, her favorite subject is Math. She wants to be a nurse or police officer when she grows up.<br /><br />When asked whether she would be participating in the school integration program, she said she would very much like to, but that her mother is afraid: "My mom is scared because the other school is too far, that a tram could hit me or that I could get lost."<br /><br />"Family support is a substantial, if not key ingredient, along with the child's internal motivation, in determining which of the children are chosen for the program. If the parents did not understand or agree with the placement, it would be almost impossible to retain the child at a prestigious school," explains Horváthová. <br /><br />As far as a systemic change which would ensure all-around success on the school integration front, Horváthová believes much work has yet to be done. <br /><br />“Ever since the revolution in 1989,” says Horváthová, "our organization has been calling for systemic change in the arena of education, but each time a government is replaced following an election cycle, a new minister is put in place who must familiarize himself with the situation, which makes systemic reform very difficult.”<br /><br />Horváthová calls the museum’s school integration program daring and adventurous and says that even with all their effort, success is not guaranteed. <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-vnitrek.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/muzeum-vnitrek-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-645" /></a><br /><i>[Museum of Romani Culture, photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />“We have been observing a trend that shows that many Roma who do leave ‘the ghetto’ and do obtain higher education often have an interest in communicating with Roma from different groups inside the community which is very diverse, and in working in the non-profit sector and helping their community toward a common goal of uplifting our ethnic group.”<br /><br />Horváthová confides that the economic downturn has been difficult for her organization: “Today’s economic situation has been troubling for us and other museums, I am sure. Culture is probably, so to speak, our society’s Cinderella. So, we are afraid of how the future will pan out. I can imagine that currently even mainstream museums are having a difficult time sustaining themselves, but when we approach sponsors, they usually turn us down. The will to support any Roma-related activities is just not there.”<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/j.h..jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/j.h.-300x221.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="221" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-650" /></a><br /><i>[Dr. Jana Horváthová, photo credit: <a href="http://i.idnes.cz/10/072/gal/VES3476a1_28ONA13a.jpg">iDnes</a>]</i><br /><br />Horváthová’s vision for the museum is to grow and to continue expanding its collections.<br /><br />“Next year will mark twenty years of our museum's existence,” she concludes. “We have the spirit of a warrior, and we hope no one breaks that in us.”<br /><br />***<br /><i>[Originally published on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/27/museum-of-romani-culture-paving-the-way-toward-opportunity-and-understanding/">blog</a>.]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-89657440810985763412010-08-23T15:27:00.000-07:002010-08-31T15:29:32.030-07:00Oh, You Black Bird, Carry My Letter: Czech Roma Holocaust Remembered"Tensions in society are heightening. Perhaps the time will come again when we are sent away to designated areas. That is why during hardships we all must help one another." <br /><br />Such was the sentiment that resounded during Catholic Mass, which was part the commemoration of Roma Holocaust on August 22, held at the site of a former concentration camp for Roma near the Czech town of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camp_Hodonin">Hodonín u Kunštátu</a>. <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/mass.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/mass-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-597" /></a><br /><br />Approximately 1300 Roma were imprisoned in the Hodonín camp between the years of 1942 and 1944. More than 200 prisoners, many of them children, died at the camp of disease and malnutrition. The majority were deported to Auschwitz, where more than 90 percent of all Czech Roma died at the hands of the Nazis.<br /><br />"For the Roma gathered here, we ask for the strength to fight the evil marching along the same old tracks today," Father František Lízna said in his sermon. "We ask for blessings for the new generation." <br /><br />"For the non-Roma here," the priest continued, "we ask that they are able to accept those different from them, and that they be willing to die for them, thus repaying the debt of the hatred they have harbored against their neighbors."<br /><br />About 80 people attended the event, which consisted of a mass, commemoration ceremony at the mass gravesite of the Roma victims, and an opening of a Museum of Roma Culture exhibition entitled Roma Genocide, displayed inside the only original building left standing.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/gravesite.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/gravesite-300x229.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="229" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-598" /></a><br /><br />"We share the pain, injustice, and arbitrary treatment as well as the feeling of being excluded from society, occurring still today," said Pavel Fried, head of the Jewish Community in the city of Brno during his speech, drawing a parallel between the experience of the Roma in Czech society and that of the Jews.<br /><br />Fried said he hoped that the presence of the members of the Jewish community would help encourage the Romani community "to continue to find the strength to persevere in fighting discrimination."<br /><br />"The suffering that occurred seventy years ago is continuing today," said Jan Munk, director of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camp"> Terezín</a> concentration camp. "It connects us and creates for us a joint responsibility for things to come."<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/gravesiteII.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/gravesiteII-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-599" /></a><br /><br />Activist Karel Holomek of the Society of Roma in Moravia, who is the Ambassador for the Czech Presidency of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, expressed his disapproval and dismay at the political situation today. <br /><br />"I always speak at this ceremony about the present situation in relation to the past, and I am troubled by what is currently happening," Holomek said, criticizing the Prime Minister's new human rights advisor appointee, calling the choice "a danger to the development of democracy."<br /><br />Jana Horváthová, director of the Museum of Roma Culture, <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_1804">told the press</a> at the event that very few people are aware of the Roma Holocaust. For that reason, the Czech Ministry of Education plans to build an educational center at the former camp where researchers and schools can study the Roma Holocaust. Šimon Mastný of the ministry said that the project is important for the ministry and that he hoped the ministry will continue its support for the project.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/vystava.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/vystava-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-601" /></a><br /><br />Before the candles, flowers and, in the Jewish tradition, stones were ceremoniously laid on the mass grave memorial, moving many of those present to tears, singer Zlata Pouličková performed a song, <i>In Auschwitz there is a Great House</i>, written by Růžena Danielová, a Czech Romani Holocaust survivor. The first two stanza of the song are as follows: <br /><br /><i>In Auschwitz there is a great house <br />And there my husband is imprisoned <br />He sits and sits and laments <br />And thinks about me<br /><br />Oh, you black bird! <br />Carry my letter! <br />Carry it to my wife <br />For I am jailed in Auschwitz</i><br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/pomnik-1.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/pomnik-1-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-600" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/pomnik.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/pomnik-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-603" /></a><br /><br />*** <br /><br /><i>[Originally published on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/23/oh-you-black-bird-%E2%80%A8carry-my-letter-czech-roma-holocaust-remembered/">blog</a>]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-66621138603729642242010-08-18T15:30:00.000-07:002011-04-07T21:41:59.685-07:00American Neocon-Christian Right Ideology Makes Inroads into Czech Politics with PM’s Advisor ChoiceHe <a href="http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/210411058040813-interview-ct24/">opposes</a> affirmative action because it unfairly privileges those from "special" groups over others, and because, as he says, there is no need to rehash things for which we, alive today, are not responsible. He <a href="http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/210411058040813-interview-ct24/">claims</a> there is no systemic discrimination, and thus no need for corrective measures improving the lives of the marginalized, including the Roma, in the Czech Republic, even though scores of international studies have shown otherwise. He is not happy anti-discrimination legislation was instituted in this country, because it essentially "dictates how people in their private spheres should conduct themselves." He <a href="http://www.konzervativnistrana.cz/nazory/nazory-odjinud/odjinud/article/homosexualni-utok-proti-svobode-slova-a-mysleni.html">deems</a> homosexuality abnormal, likening gay people to pedophlies, zoophiles and necrophiles. He defends the use of <a href="http://www.tyden.cz/nazory/roman-joch-zachraneni-skrze-waterboarding_61153.html">torture, including waterboarding</a>, and is not opposed to the <a href="http://www.virtually.cz/?art=13355">installment of a right-wing, authoritarian regime</a> if Western civilization and liberty are under threat.<br /><br />Meet Roman Joch, director of the conservative think-tank <a href="http://www.obcinst.cz/">Civic Institute</a> (Občanský institut), and new advisor selected by Prime Minister Nečas for the area of human rights and foreign relations.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://joch.blog.idnes.cz/bloger/1367/bloger.jpg" class="alignnone" width="136" height="200" /><br /><br />What Joch's post as an advisor to the Prime Minister means is that, come September when he is slated to start, the American Neoconservative-Christian Right alliance, through its long-cultivated mouthpiece in the Czech Republic, will have a direct say in the formation of both, foreign and domestic policy. <br /><br />This is not a new phenomenon, as other CI personalities have been in advisory positions in the government <a href="http://www.obcinst.cz/design/img/download.pdf">before</a>. It is nonetheless an alarming turn of events for those concerned with the dire human rights situation of the marginalized groups, especially the Roma who face systemic discrimination in nearly every sector, including housing, labor, and education.<br /><br />This information is taken from Joch’s 2007 <a href="http://www.claremont.org/projects/pageid.2086/default.asp">bio</a> for his fellowship at the California-based Claremont Institute, a conservative think-tank whose mission is “to restore the principles of the American founding fathers to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life," and to establish a limited and accountable government that respects private property, promotes stable family life, and maintains a strong national defense:<br /><br /><blockquote>Joch lectures and writes on political philosophy, international relations, and national security issues in Czech and Slovak newspapers, magazines and electronic media. From 1994-1998, he was International Secretary of the Civic Democratic Alliance, a conservative political party in the Czech Republic. Joch was a member of the student movement during the Velvet Revolution in 1989, an international visitor to the Republican National Convention in 1996, and a delegate to the First International Conservative Congress in 1997. <br /><br />He is the author of two books, <i>Why Iraq? Causes and Consequences of the Conflict</i> and <i>The Revolt Against the Revolution of the Twentieth Century, an intellectual biography of American conservative</i>. He holds an M.D. from Charles University in Prague.</blockquote><br /><br />Evidently, Joch and his Civic Institute team have taken it upon themselves to, in concert with their ideological allies from abroad, cultivate contemporary Western society, to save it from <a href="http://www.virtually.cz/?art=13355">ignorance, poor taste and vulgarity</a>. <br /><br />He is a cultural warrior, fighting to bring back traditional family values and “objective“ morality rooted in Christian values. At the same time, his mission is to ensure the Czech Republic aligns itself completely with pro-US interests in the region. After all, his institute and publishing house are being <a href="http://www.blisty.cz/2010/8/10/art53897.html">bankrolled</a> largely by American neo-conservative and Christian Right foundations such as Earhart Foundation a William H. Donner Foundation in conjunction with right-wing Czech industrialists. The American defense contractor Lockheed Martin even <a href="http://www.blisty.cz/2010/8/10/art53897.html">financed</a> the Civic Institute, where Joch is director, during the time the US was negotiating a sale of F16 fighter jets to the Czech Republic. <br /><br />The CI Advisory Board boasts such personalities as neoconservative Michael Horowitz of the Hudson Institute, who served as general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Reagan Administration. Also on the Board is Michael Novak of the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute, whose scholars were considered to be some of the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801373.html">leading architects</a> of George W. Bush administration's public policy.<br /><br />According to the <a href="http://www.fundacionburke.org/wp-content/themes/big-blue-01/EC3.pdf">European Conservative</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>The roots of the CI can be traced back to the late 1970s and early 1980s when the dissidents met in their homes to discuss politics, philosophy, economics, theology, culture and international relations. After the fall of Communism, they decided to found an institute to carry on those discussions. (...)<br /><br />The founders of the CI intended it to be an institution dedicated to the advocacy and vindication of the moral conditions and philosophical foundations necessary for a free society. (...)<br /><br />Its first publication was a Czech translation of Friedrich Hayek’s <i>The Road to Serfdom</i>. (...)<br /> <br />The CI began cooperating and networking with many other pro-family and pro-life institutions around the world, publishing studies and policy papers. (...)<br /><br />After 11 September 2001, the CI preserved its pro-family orientation, though in less explicitly religious terms and added international relations, foreign affairs, security issues, Islamic terrorism and existential threats to the West to its portfolio of issues.<br /><br />The CI has published studies and organized dozens of conferences and seminars around issues like U.S. foreign policy, the role of America in the world, the war against Islamic terrorism, missile defense, Islam in Europe and demographic challenges in the West. </blockquote><br /><br />Joch and his colleagues have clearly set up a mini training laboratory from which they send out ordained warriors to spread their gospel-flavored cocktail of traditional Christian values and right-wing pro-American political agenda.<br /><br />The European Conservative continues: <br /><br /><blockquote>CI fellows serve as commentators in Czech media, contributing op-eds to newspapers and magazines or speaking out on political issues on radio and television. <br /><br />CI fellows serve as advisors to several Czech statesmen. The director of CI (was) a member of the Academic Council of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as advisor to the former Czech deputy prime minister for European affairs. (...)<br /><br />Many alumni of CI events have gone on to careers in media as columnists; in politics as aspiring politicians or staffers to senior politicians; or in academia as assistant professors or professors. <br /><br />(CI members) enjoy their position as a ‘happy warrior,' pushing the public and intellectual discourse – and the whole society – as far to the right as is reasonably possible. Born out of the resistance to Communist totalitarianism and having opposed socialism and moral relativism, the CI now fights against the ideologies of multiculturalism, radical feminism and political correctness. They fight for Western traditions and values and, above all, for ordered liberty. </blockquote><br /><br />Approximately a hundred protesters gathered this morning in front of the Office of the Government in Prague to <a href="“">protest</a> the appointment of Joch on the Prime Minister’s advisory team. The appointment has been criticized by leading Czech scholars and human rights activists, including Students Against Racism and the newly formed government opposition initiative, <a href="http://www.proalt.cz/">ProAlt</a>. <br /><br />"We are here to say we reject Mr. Joch, whose concept of human rights is, according to us gathered here, unfortunate,“ said one of the protesters. <br /><br />During the demonstration, a contest was held for the most ridiculous quote by Joch. The winner was this quote, endorsing the possibility of installing “a right-wing authoritative regime,“ if “Western civilization were threatened with destruction caused by the political and intellectual impotence of the Left,“ or “by the inner disintegration, or abandonment of civilized values and virtues in favor of the freely flourishing venting of lust and passion.“<br /><br />The intent and the connection between CI’s activities and those of their American counterparts are clear. It is up to the Prime Minister to decide whether he wants to continue to endorse this type of anti-democratic, bigoted, hegemonistic agenda despite the protests from human rights advocates and minority leaders. <br /><br />*** <br /><br />A petition against Joch's appointment as advisor to the Prime Minister has been initiated and can be found <a href="http://www.romea.cz/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_8483">here</a>.<br /><br />Also, to read about how neoconservatives secretly forged an alliance with the Christian Right during the Bush presidency, go to this 2007 <a href="http://www.alternet.org/world/68540/?page=1">interview</a> with investigative journalist Craig Unger by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.<br /><br />***<br /><br /><i>[This article originally appeared on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/18/american-neocon-christian-right-ideology-makes-inroads-into-czech-politics-with-pms-advisor-choice/">blog</a>.]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-32456406005187714022010-08-13T15:33:00.000-07:002010-08-31T15:34:08.487-07:00When You Write About Us: A Dispatch from a Village on the Margins"Me, me! Now it's my turn!" the local kids clamor to try my cell phone camera, taking pictures of each other, of me, of their fingers in front of the lens. <br /><br />"What's your name? Do you have kids? Is he your husband?" they ask, surrounding me and gesturing toward the man with whom I arrived here.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/big-group-of-kids.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/big-group-of-kids-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-507" /></a><br /><i>[children who greeted us upon our arrival in Letanovce]</i><br /><br />It's drizzling. The muddy ground throughout the village doesn't bother me. I have traveled more than ten hours to this place from Prague by bus and car, prepared, wearing my reliable pair of enclosed leather shoes. Meanwhile, the mud splatters all over my colleague's feet in sandals, reaching up between his toes. He mutters, admonishing himself for dressing as if this were his first time here.<br /><br />"To understand the Roma in the Czech Republic, you have to visit a Romani settlement in Slovakia," my fellowship colleague told me when he invited me along on his annual pilgrimage to the settlement of Letanovce to visit a family he befriended ten years ago when he began working in the arena of Roma rights. <br /><br />Many, if not the majority, of Romani families who live in the Czech Republic now, migrated there from rural Slovakia sometime between World War II and the present day. <br /><br />According to Czech Radio's <a href="http://romove.radio.cz/en/article/18913">article</a> on the history of the Roma minority, after the war, during which more than 90 percent of Czech Roma were killed by the Nazis, "Roma from settlements in Eastern Slovakia started to migrate to the evacuated Czech frontier regions and were dispersed as a light work force throughout the industrial areas of Bohemia and Moravia," the two regions that make up the Czech Republic.<br /><br />A 1958 law, the Czech Radio article continues, mandated migrating peoples to settle down permanently "where they were assigned as a work force, without regard to the separation of families. In 1965, another law was passed concerning the procedure of dispersing the gypsy population, through which Roma from eastern Slovakian Romani villages had to move to Bohemia to work."<br /><br />The migration to the Czech Republic continues today, tied to people's search for work, better living conditions, and reunification with families.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/kids-in-field.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/kids-in-field-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-508" /></a><br /><i>[Letanovce panorama]</i><br /><br />There are between <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/06/06/resilience-in-the-face-of-segregation-slovak-roma-settlements/">700 and 800 socially isolated Romani settlements in Slovakia</a>, which, together with the Czech Republic, made up Czechoslovakia until the peaceful split in 1993. These settlements tend to have disproportionately high unemployment rates of 90 to 100%, and lack basic services such as running water, sewers, electricity, gas or garbage collection. Letanovce, where I am visiting, fits this profile to a tee.<br /><br />The approximately 700 local residents live in one-room log cabins, burn wood for heat, carry their water in buckets from a well at the bottom of the hill, and use a latrine or the adjacent tall green weeds as bathrooms. <br /><br />We are invited in to the larger-than-the-local-norm two-room cabin of the family with whom we will be staying. They did not expect us. We had no way of contacting them, although several residents do have cell phones, some even with internet service. The challenge, I learn, is charging electronic items, as there is no electricity in this community. A few residents have small, six-inch televisions, which run on car batteries charged for a fee in town.<br /><br />We bring in our gifts: food, second-hand clothes, toys and some odd household items like wash basins and dishes. We sit and crack open the pear brandy we had brought, toasting with shot glasses. Then it is quiet. <br /><br />I feel awkward, my privilege so blatant here, wondering how to bridge the chasm between my life experience and that of the locals'. <br /><br />The family slowly begins to unravel old stories from my colleague's past visits, updating us on the changes in the community. <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/Magdas-family-et-al.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/Magdas-family-et-al-300x233.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="233" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-509" /></a><br /><i>[Magda's family and neighbors. We stayed at her sister's and mother's house.]</i><br /><br />Many families migrated to the UK for work, then after two or three years returned back, because even there, work was hard to come by.<br /><br />"After two years in England I honestly did not want to come back," one of the women whose house we are in tells me. True, her husband worked twelve-hour shifts six days a week at a sausage factory for very little pay, but it was work. And they had electricity and plumbing. But the bills kept coming and the work slowly dried up due to the recession.<br /><br />Before it gets dark, we decide to take a walk around the village.<br /><br />The residents come out into the rain to take a look at us. We greet everyone, the children forming our entourage. <br /><br />I ask the children what they do for fun. Some shrug their shoulders, others say they play with toys or go swimming in the nearby river. Some try out the English they learned while living abroad: "Do you speak English?" and "How are you?" <br /><br />Although Slovak and Czech are mutually intelligible, with some children there is a bit of a language barrier. The children all speak Romani at home, some of the younger ones don't even understand Slovak when they first start school, our host tells me. That is why bilingual Romani educational assistants are key to helping the students transition and be successful in school. However, these children have no such assistants where they go to school.<br /><br />Our host worked as a teacher's assistant for several months, but got paid very little, and still of her own initiative did extra work outside her working hours. For instance, she gathered the children in the village and personally walked them to school 3 kilometers from the settlement. Unfortunately, her contract was never signed, and, in the end, her social benefits were cut because she'd had an income, no matter how inadequate to sustain the family.<br /><br />"I would be so happy working as a classroom assistant. That work speaks to me," she said. "But when I have approached the school, which currently does not have any Roma working there, they have always told me they do not have any positions open."<br /><br />"The walk to town is about a half-hour and most mothers do not have money for the bus or for lunch. We don't have fridges here, so it is hard for us to give our kids snacks early in the morning because over night, the food would spoil," she says, describing the barriers that parents here face when it comes to their children's education. <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/boys.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/boys-300x240.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="240" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-510" /></a><br /><br />Most Romani children in the community attend a "practical," formerly special education school. Placement of Romani children, whether special needs or not, in such schools is common practice across Europe. Romani children, based on a psychological evaluation, are many more times likely to be placed in "practical schools" than white children and are overrepresented in such institutions, sometimes comprising the entire population of such schools. The results are segregation, lower-quality education and less opportunity for success in further schooling or employment. <br /><br />In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights <a href="http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/litigation/czechrepublic">ruled</a> that this pattern of segregation violated nondiscrimination protections in the European Convention on Human Rights. However, Roma continue to be assigned to these schools in disproportionate numbers.<br /><br />"What subjects do you like in school?" I ask. The children shout over each other with excitement: "Reading! Writing! Math! Social Studies!"<br /><br />As we chat while walking outside, I hear growling and yapping. Out of the corner of my eye I see a small dog charging at me, and before I know it, I feel it sinking its needly claws and teeth into the back of my thigh, ripping a large hole in my pants. The dog retreats as fast as it came.<br /><br />I'm bleeding, but no one seems concerned. Only my travel partner from my fellowship organization Dženo half-jokes: "Hope the dog wasn't rabid." <br /><br />The girls tell me the dog bites them too sometimes. Later that night, I sneakily dip my fingers into my shot glass and spread some pear brandy we are drinking onto the bite wound to disinfect it. <br /><br />"I am ashamed," our host confesses, half-whispering, when she shows me where I will be sleeping. It is the family bed, big enough for four or five people. I tell her she has nothing to be ashamed of, but her sentiment deepens the discomfort I already feel about invading the family's privacy. <br /><br />The bedroom is beautifully decorated with flowers, tapestries and chachkis lining the shelves. I will be sharing the big bed with the children, the parents unfold a mattress and place it on the floor where they will sleep.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/kids-Mary-Joseph.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/kids-Mary-Joseph-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-511" /></a><br /><br />In 2003, construction on a new apartment complex, financed by the town, state and European Union, began several kilometers from the current location of the settlement. The idea was moving the families to another location and leveling the place which many consider an eyesore in such a picturesque area favored by tourists. Families with permanent residency would be able to apply to relocate to the new apartment complex even more distant from the center of the town. No worries, the apartment complex would also have a school and a store on location. <br /><br />The protests from the neighboring majority community that this project unleashed ranged from petitions to threats to the mayor that if he proceeds with the plan, an anonymous, angry local would <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_463">poison the pristine rivers</a> in the area with mercury. A <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=aktuality_arch_2006-08">skull was even found</a> on the construction site with a letter threatening the mayor would be murdered for going through with this plan.<br /><br />As of today, new buildings have not yet been completed. When they are ready, the problem is that many of those in the settlement will not qualify to move in, because they lack permanent residency status in Letanovce. Also, the new living conditions will require paying for rent, electricity and water bills, a practice many families are not used to and for which they have very limited means, considering their prohibitively high unemployment rate.<br /><br />When the village wakes up the next day, we are all more comfortable with each other. I play and joke with the children, who teach me card games and sing, accompanied by a boy on a drum set in the wood shed. <br /><br />We take a walk in Slovakian Paradise, a mountainous, forested nature reserve nearby. The kids go swimming there. They pick wild raspberries along the way for me. <br /><br />"Do you ever fish in this river?" I ask the nine-year-old girl who has become my constant companion.<br /><br />"No, we are rich," she replies. "We have been to England. We <i>buy</i> smoked fish at the store." <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/sisters.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/sisters-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-512" /></a><br /><br />When we return, a dozen men from the settlement have their bags packed and are headed for the train. They found work all the way in Prague, ten hours away. Ten days in a row they will work construction, not knowing whether they will get paid. Temporary workers like these men, employed under the table so as not to lose their social benefits, are easy targets for companies that profit from their cheap labor. If the boss doesn't pay them, the laborers have almost no leverage to demand their salary.<br /><br />"We get visitors once in a while, from Brussels and such places. Whoever comes, always needs to write something about us, it seems," says the host as we gather in her kitchen. <br /><br />My colleague and I freeze up for a bit. We, too, are those visitors the woman had just described. Here one day, gone the next, and what remains are perhaps a few toys or items of clothing and an article about this community, floating about somewhere in ether.<br /><br />"When you write about us," our host tells me softly, "say that we want help. We don't want to live like this anymore." So I pass on her words, thankful for the locals' generosity and richer for all that they had taught me, so essential for the work still ahead.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/me-in-Letanovce.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/me-in-Letanovce-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-513" /></a><br /><i>[a picture the kids took during one of our cell phone photo sessions]</i><br /><br />***<br /><br /><i>[Originally published on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/13/when-you-write-about-us-a-dispatch-from-a-village-on-the-margins/">blog</a>.]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-13440335719252293572010-08-11T15:41:00.000-07:002010-08-31T15:42:54.266-07:00Czechs ban together to oppose incoming government's priorities, condemning planned social spending cuts"The biggest assault on the rights of the working people in the last twenty years." That is what the Czecho-Moravian Confederation of Labor Unions (ČMKOS) has <a href="http://www.ct24.cz/ekonomika/97774-odborari-kritizuji-skrty-a-hrozi-stavkami-necas-ustoupit-nehodla/">called</a> the policies the incoming Czech government plans to implement in its continuation of the neo-liberal reforms of the early 90s. <br /><br />The money saved on the outlined social spending cuts is "blood money, taken from the poorest people," <a href="http://www.ct24.cz/ekonomika/97774-odborari-kritizuji-skrty-a-hrozi-stavkami-necas-ustoupit-nehodla/">says</a> ČMKOS economist Martin Fassmann.<br /><br />In addition to labor unions, the newly elected right-wing government's priorities have been <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/07/15/the-newly-formed-czech-government-wages-a-war-on-welfare-while-state-run-energy-giant-profits-soar/">criticized</a> by a host of journalists, social critics, academics as well as activists. Many of them are now signatories of the newly formed citizen initiative, <a href="http://www.proalt.cz">ProAlt Initiative for the Critique of Reforms and Support for Alternatives</a>, which opposes the steps the government plans to implement in the areas of education, environmental protections, health care, retirement and social policy. One of the initial 100 signatories is the prominent Roma rights activist Karel Holomek, President of the <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/06/25/decade-of-roma-inclusion-2005-2015-words-and-more-words-but-where-is-the-action/">Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015</a>.<br /><br />According to the <a href="http://www.proalt.cz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48:spolenost-se-krtnout-neda-ika-nove-opozini-hnuti&catid=34:tiskove-zpravy&Itemid=56">press release</a>, ProAlt strives to "bring citizens together across professional and social groups and inspire the general public to defend their own interests more thoroughly. It will also organize protests against the prepared reforms with the aim of preventing them from taking effect."<br /><br />The main argument is that it is unacceptable for the state to "abandon responsibility for vital areas of public life, in particular education, health care and retirement insurance." <br /><br />"We do not consider the privatization of public services and public space to be the solution – on the contrary, we consider privatization to be the source of most of our current environmental and socioeconomic problems,” says ProAlt spokesperson Tereza Stöckelová. <br /><br />It was in September 1990, only ten months after the fall of communism, that the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly approved the "Scenario of the Economic Reform," the blueprint for trade liberalization and a massive-privatization scheme of state-owned enterprises. <br /><br />At the time of the vote, 97 percent of businesses were state-owned, the highest percentage of any Warsaw Pact country. Today, twenty years later, <a href="http://www.mpo.cz/dokument14357.html">87 percent</a> of all the state-owned enterprises have been privatized. Free trade enthusiasts laud the Czech Republic for making fine progress, though the more radical Friedmanite types would have preferred a more rapid process.<br /><br />The government, encouraged by its mandate from right-leaning voters who determined the right to be the winners in the May Parliamentary election by a narrow margin, is trying to shake off as many expenditures as it can, as quickly as possible, while playing into the hands of (largely foreign-owned) big business, in the form of outsourcing, tax breaks, etc. The Czech government is now focusing on the last and most guarded and controversial aspects of privatization: health care, education, worker benefits and protections, and social services. <br /><br />The ProAlt press release continues: <br /><br /><blockquote>“Under the slogan of ‘fiscal responsibility’, the government is preparing to be environmentally and socially irresponsible. The initiative intends to offer principled alternatives to this government policy,” <a href="http://romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_1759">says</a> movement initiator and one of ProAlt's spokespeople Jana Glivická.<br /><br />The overemphasis on economic growth and parameters creates the impression that other factors influencing quality of life are inconsequential. This leads to an under-appreciation of those areas of social life that are not easily quantifiable, such as culture, education and the environment. ProAlt considers evaluating any state purely through financial parameters to be unacceptable. <br /><br />ProAlt stresses that the current position of the Czech Republic with respect to its deficit is one of the best in Europe, propagandistic slogans about the “Greek threat” notwithstanding. Today the percentage of the Czech budget allocated for social expenditure is below the EU average. ProAlt believes the desirable goal of a balanced state budget must be achieved through re-evaluating the tax system in favor of significantly progressive taxation, transparent public administration, and the total elimination of corruption. “The aim of the planned reforms is not to pay off the debt, but to shift it from the public budget to individual households. People will be forced to go into debt for health care and tuition. For many, debt will become a necessary part of paying for their basic needs,” the declaration reads.</blockquote><br /><br />My hope is that this movement will become well-organized and powerful. It is about time that the Czechs across the spectrum come together to demand the state shift its priorities, putting people's social welfare and the environment first, well before megaprofits from which only a few can benefit.<br /><br />***<br /><i>[Originally appeared on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/11/czechs-ban-together-to-oppose-incoming-governments-priorities/">blog</a>.]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-24393120232897469522010-08-09T15:44:00.000-07:002010-12-13T13:26:47.529-08:00In the face of racial tensions, a community finds strength in unityIt's dusk. An unknown car pulls in to the neighborhood and slowly approaches our small group talking on a tree-lined street in a neighborhood of modest wooden family homes and neatly kept picket-fenced yards. The atmosphere tenses. <br /><br />"Why are they coming here?" one of the local men asks under his breath, his eyes never leaving the car coming toward us.<br /><br />Suddenly I remember a reality I had forgotten while drinking tea and visiting with the locals in one of the resident family's backyards. We are in Bedřiška, a "socially excluded community" in northeastern Czech Republic, not far from a place where last year a molotov cocktail, thrown by <a href="http://www.praguemonitor.com/2010/05/27/nazi-memorabilia-found-arsonists">neo-Nazis</a> out of a car into an open bedroom window, almost killed a two-year-old Romani girl in her sleep. <br /><br />The racially motivated <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/25/roma.prejudice/index.html">attack</a> left three of the house inhabitants injured and caused the little girl severe burns on 80 percent of her body. The attackers are currently on <a href="http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_1644">trial for attempted murder</a>.<br /><br />The car stops not more than five feet from us, the lights stay on, the engine idles for some time, clearly putting some in the group on alert. <br /><br />"They must be lost," guesses one of the men. <br /><br />Soon, a woman no one seems to know opens the car door and hurries past us without a greeting into a house a few doors down. The car drives away. Sense of relief.<br /><br />The evening sky has a pleasant, summer glow, the birds chirp. A small dog accompanies us, playing with a toy. A group of teens walking toward us greets community activist <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/tag/sri-kumar-vishwanathan/">Sri Kumar Vishwanathan</a>, whom I am accompanying on his trip to Bedřiška today, with smiles. <br /><br />They linger and exchange a few words about how they have been doing. Vishwanathan asks the youth if they would like a soccer field in their neighborhood, pointing at a large, lush green space on the other side of the road that could potentially be used for a field. The boys reply enthusiastically. <br /><br />Vishwanathan asks the girls if they would play soccer, or what they prefer to do in their free time. The girls are much more shy than the boys and don't provide any answers readily. But in less than a year's time, the neighborhood should have a community center, for which they have pressed the city, completed. <br /><br />The plans for the center are multifold. It would house afterschool activities for children, tutoring sessions, a meeting and performance space, and more.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/IMG_7170.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/IMG_7170-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-457" /></a><br /><i>[community activists in Bedřiška]</i><br /><br />As we continue our way down the street, the locals tell of a recent case when someone in the neighborhood got hurt and the police were phoned, however the phone call from "<i>that</i> notorious location" was dismissed as a prank call and help was not dispatched until multiple calls were placed. The ambulance did arrive on the scene, but was very delayed.<br /><br />My mind is still buzzing from the neighborhood association meeting I had just attended in Bedřiška. The group had been meeting for some time to advocate for the needs of the community's residents, but because they were not taken seriously by city hall, they decided to form an official association in May. Since then, their influence has grown, one of the members had told me. <br /><br />"Now that we are official, they can't just brush us aside. They have to listen to us," he said. <br /><br />"Bedřiška is an example of how a community can come together following a tragedy," Vishwanathan observed. "What happened could have taken on a negative path toward destruction, or gone in a positive direction toward cooperation."<br /><br />Clearly, the latter is the case.<br /><br />"We talk things through here," explains one of the association's leaders. "If there is a dispute among the neighbors, we try to sit down, talk and resolve it."<br /><br />"Not everyone is on board yet. But we're working on it," she adds.<br /><br />Deescalating conflict through mediation is a key strategy the association uses to build unity and prevent dangerous situations. The efforts are made all the more urgent, considering the wounds of racist violence in this community are still fresh. <br /><br />Last March, an arson <a href="http://romove.radio.cz/en/article/23127">attack</a> on a Romani family's home occurred in this very neighborhood. The perpetrator was a white neighbor from across the street. <br /><br />As we make our way down the road, we cross paths with a family leaving their home. "Four months ago a molotov cocktail was thrown inside this family's house," Vishwanathan relates. "Their teenage daughter put out the fire and saved her relatives' lives." <br /><br />"How is your daughter sleeping these days? Is she able to sleep?" Vishwanathan asks the mother. <br /><br />The mother looks down and timidly shakes her head from side to side. The truth is clear. The family is still experiencing trauma, months after the incident. <br /><br />"If the fire had spread, it could have burned a big part of the neighborhood down," says one of the local leaders. "People realized that what affects one family, affects us all. So we started working together."<br /><br />In addition to mediating conflicts and advocating for space, funding, staff and supplies for tutoring and afterschool children's activities, the association organizes weekly clean-ups of the neighborhood. The group plans community-wide events such as movie screenings, games for children and performances that bring the neighborhood together.<br /><br />The association also acts as a link between the residents and city hall when rental agreements or other legal documents and proceedings must be attended to. Sometimes archives have to be searched, letters written, errors exposed and fair treatment demanded.<br /><br />In one case, for example, the association helped when a resident, who had paid all his back rent in full, was later unexpectedly alerted that he had an exorbitant outstanding debt to the city with no clear explanation of why these charges had been incurred. <br /><br />The locals with whom I spent my evening also shared a story about taking a stand against a local drug dealer who ran a methamphetamine (or <i>pervitin</i> in Czech) lab in the neighborhood. As a result of their actions, the police arrested the drug dealer, making the neighborhood safer for the kids.<br /><br />The community has a vision of creating a historical display explicating and simultaneously commemorating the neighborhood's history, closely tied to the region's steel mill industry. Bedřiška's wooden homes were built in the 1950s for the steel mill workers who had moved to the area for work.<br /><br />Today, the unemployment rate among the Roma in the region is high, veering between 90 and 100 percent. One of the association's goals is to push for ways to employ the neighborhood's residents, for instance as construction workers or street cleaners, and while we were visiting Bedřiška, an arrangement was made to begin the process with an organization which Vishwanathan recommended. <br /><br />"I started activism because I have children and grandchildren here, and I want everyone here to have a good future," a white woman, who is one of the leaders in the neighborhood tells me. "I like the Roma. We are different culturally, but as long as we can accept our differences and talk with each other openly, we get along."<br /><br />Fighting for fair treatment and opportunity, however, does not come without a price, she says. <br /><br />"I have lost old friends of twenty-five to thirty years over this," the activist tells me, describing how explosive associating across racial lines in the Czech Republic can be. <br /><br />"When they said things like, 'You are betraying the white race,'" she continues, "that had to be the end of our friendship."<br /><br />By the time our visit wraps up, it is late and the sun has long gone down. I am full of impressions. Images of resigned, dark-skinned "ghetto" inhabitants in graffiti-covered, bleak city landscapes of half-dilapidated buildings flash through my mind. Mainstream media are the modern-day myth-makers. Over selectively crafted, cliched, mass-produced myths, I prefer true stories, told by the people in the real world and in their own words.<br /><br />***<br /><br /><i>[This article originally appeared on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/09/after-a-tragedy-a-community-finds-strength-in-unity/">blog</a>.]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-66879188779940910632010-08-07T15:47:00.000-07:002010-08-31T15:48:28.249-07:00For Romani families in poverty, threat of forced removal of children by the state looms largeMembers of nineteen families facing eviction file in to a small conference room. The multigenerational group listens intently as <a href="http://kumarvishwanathan2.tripod.com/">LifeTogether</a> director Sri Kumar Vishwanathan describes the situation: his organization, in partnership with several private firms, was, at the last minute, able to secure eighteen apartments on the outskirts of town for families who have defaulted on rent, and are thus being forced to move out of a building in one of the city's "socially excluded Romani locations." The apartments offered to those present contain only bare walls, no appliances and insufficient facilities--a sink, but no shower or tub.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/meeting2.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/meeting2-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-431" /></a><br /><i>[Sri Kumar Vishwanathan, head of LifeTogether, meets with families facing eviction]</i><br /><br />This particular community's <a href="http://www.esfcr.cz/mapa/int_ms14_10_6.html">unemployment rate</a> stands at a shocking 100 percent, a phenomenon that is common in many of the poor Czech Romani enclaves. In order to survive, families often rely on money lenders who use unethical practices, charging exorbitant amounts of interest, thus forcing families into vicious cycles of poverty which are difficult to break.<br /><br />As a result of their dire economic situation and deeply entrenched systemic discrimination, several families at the meeting have already had some of their children taken away by the state and at least four others are in danger of having their children placed into state care. <br /><br />"The mothers were ashamed to say their children are under the threat of being removed from the family," Vishwanathan, who founded LifeTogether in the northeastern Czech town of Ostrava thirteen years ago, related to me in private after the meeting. "They feel they have failed. But it's not their fault." <br /><br />"Czech Republic is number one in Europe," he continues, "in terms of having the highest rate of <a href="http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2290">forced removal of children from Romani families</a> and placed in state-run institutions."<br /><br />Indeed, Human Rights Watch has <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Czech.htm">found</a> that the Czech Republic has the highest number of infants under the age of three forced into institutional care of all EU countries.<br /><br />Vishwanathan's organization works to help prevent such practices, which have been criticized by the European Roma Rights Center and Amnesty International, among other human rights watchdogs. LifeTogether provides many services for the Romani community, including legal aid, counseling as well as help for children who run away from state foster care institutions.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/Kumar.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/Kumar-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-426" /></a><br /><i>[Sri Kumar Vishwanathan]</i><br /><br />To truly remediate the situation, however, a systemic overhaul is long overdue. In its Survey on Children in Alternative Care, Eurochild, a network of organizations and individuals working across Europe to improve the quality of life of children, outlines seven <a href="http://www.eurochild.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/Eurochild_Reports/FINAL_EXEC_SUMMARY.pdf">steps</a> by which European governments could prevent forced removal of children from families in poverty. Eurochild states: <br /><br /><blockquote>EU member states should invest more in moving away from a child care system based on large institutions and move towards the provision of a range of integrated, family-based and community-based services.</blockquote><br /><br />Another Eurochild recommendation suggests that "the involvement of children, young people and their families is crucial, both in the decision- making processes affecting them directly and in the development of alternative care policies and services. They should therefore be empowered to participate in all stages of the care process and the EU should encourage the development of peer led groups of children, young people and parents with experience of care."<br /><br />The European Roma Rights Center <a href="http://www.errc.org/cikk.php?cikk=2290">identifies</a> the role of the social worker as key in addressing systemic discrimination, as social workers are those who determine whether a family is "definitively incapable of caring for a child." This decision is often driven by preconceived conceptions and a social worker's view of the Romani community. The Bratinka Report, a study discussed in the ERRC document, found this to be the case: <br /><br /><blockquote>This report found that 38% of social workers felt that the main obstacle to better relationships were the "unsavoury characteristics of the Roma", that the Romani minority should attempt to adapt to the majority, that affirmative action programmes for the Roma were a waste of money and their influence negligible, and that it would be good to strike hard at Romany criminality and disregard for generally accepted norms. Forty-two percent of social workers felt that pro-active programmes for the Roma were an unfair privilege for one group of citizens. The ramifications of these perceptions may indeed correlate with the disproportionate representation of Roma children in institutions and necessarily question whether Romani families are given a just assessment of their rightful capacity to raise their own children.</blockquote><br /><br />Because social workers' prejudices can ultimately lead to the break-up of a family, it is crucial that, as the organization Eurochild <a href="http://www.eurochild.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/Eurochild_Reports/FINAL_EXEC_SUMMARY.pdf">asserts</a>, "all professionals working with and for children, including those in the education, health care, child protection and social work sectors, need high quality on-going training and supervision." <br /><br />Furthermore, Eurochild advocates that risks of social exclusion associated with poverty must be reduced: <br /><br /><blockquote>The fight against child poverty must remain a key political priority of the EU. Social inequality denies children equal access to services and perpetuates the cycle of poverty. A strong political framework is required at EU level to ensure all member states put in place the necessary structural reforms to ensure all families have access to a minimum income and adequate services.</blockquote><br /><br />This year happens to be the <a href="http://www.combatpoverty.ie/news/EY2010.html">EU Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion</a>, and in that regard, the Czech Republic has far to go. Considering the critical situation of the Romani population living in poverty, it is an abomination that the newly elected Czech government plans to cut social spending rather than invest in uplifting marginalized communities so they can live fearless, dignified lives. <br /><br />"That's very big of you. You are noble people," Vishwanathan responds to one mother's offer to forgo her chance to move into the apartment offered by LifeTogether before the meeting with the families concludes. The mother wants to give a preference to a family in danger of having its children removed by the state. She says, "There are nineteen families and eighteen apartments. Of course I will give a family that needs it more a chance first. We, who have kids, know how it is." <br /><br />Fortunately, following the eviction from an already long-neglected building for the poor, she and her children will be able to stay at her aunt's for now.<br /><br />***<br /><i>[This article originally appeared on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/07/for-romani-families-in-poverty-threat-of-forced-removal-of-children-by-the-state-looms-large/">bloge</a>]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-57556337786650207672010-08-04T15:51:00.000-07:002010-08-31T15:54:05.516-07:00Honoring Pain and Loss, Urging Vigilance and Change on International Roma Holocaust Remembrance DayOn August 2nd, representatives and friends of the Romani and Sinti communities from Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic gathered at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp">Auschwitz</a> to commemorate the International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day. <br /><br />The ceremony took place at the site of the so-called <a href="http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/h/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=3">Zigeunerlager</a>, or "Gypsy" Camp, where more than 23,000 Roma were imprisoned. The date marked the 66th anniversary of the liquidation of the "Gypsy Family Camp" at Auschwitz II-Birkenau on the night of August 2, 1944 when the Nazis killed 2,897 men, women, and children in the gas chambers. International Roma Holocaust (or, in Romani, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porajmos">Porajamos</a>) Remembrance Day has been observed since 1994.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/family.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/family.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="360" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-385" /></a><br /><i>[Family at the International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration at Auschwitz, photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />"I was a child when I visited this place for the first time," recalled Roman Kwiatkowski, Chairman of the Association of the Roma in Poland in his speech to the audience, which, aside from activists and Romani as well as majority community members, included religious figures and government officials. <br /><br />"I came here with my mother," continued Kwiatkowski, "and I can still remember two things: the crumbling monument and my mother sobbing uncontrollably. I understood very little back then, I could not comprehend the symbolism of this place and the magnitude of the tragedy and suffering connected with it. However, I subconsciously felt how important it was, and concluding from its condition, how forgotten it must have been. A sense of mission was born in me then. From the beginning of my activity as a grown-up man and an activist for the Romani community, my aim has been to refill this place with proper meaning and importance." <br /><br />The Monument of Roma and Sinti at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was <a href="http://www.heritageabroad.gov/reports/doc/Roma_Historical_and_Cultural_Sites_Poland.pdf">built in 1973 and renovated in 1994</a>. The plaque on the granite obelisk reads: <br /><br /><blockquote>“Memorial place of Roma of the concentration camp in Auschwitz - Birkenau. Thousands of men, women and children imprisoned, tortured victims of German Fascism, died in this concentration camp in Birkenau – cruelly tormented, murdered and gassed. Funded by the Roma Association in Germany 1973 Rose O. Bamberger”</blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/brezinka_pamatnik2.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/brezinka_pamatnik2.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="306" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-386" /></a><br /><i>[Monument of Roma and Sinti at Auschwitz-Birkenau, photo credit <a href="http://romove.radio.cz/cz/foto/20061/10">Czech Radio</a>]</i><br /><br />The exact number of Roma who perished in the Holocaust is unknown, but historians estimate it to be between half- and 1.5 million people. More than 90% of Czech Roma died at the hand of the Nazis. Over 62% of Romani prisoners at Auschwitz came from Germany and Austria, 22% were brought from the Czech Republic, and the rest came from Poland. <br /><br />To this day, Romani activists have been struggling to attain recognition and redress for the crimes committed by the Nazis against their community during WWII.<br /><br />"Unfortunately our organization has come to understand that the Roma are not honored equally to other victims of the Nazi era in compensation efforts," said Čeněk Růžička, Chairman of the Committee for Compensation of Romani Holocaust in the Czech Republic. "It seems unbelievable that up to the present moment, compensations have not been completed, and, in contrast to the redress process regarding the property claims of Jews, compensations for Romani properties have not yet been started." <br /><br />Růžička's organization is committed to continuing to advocate for Romani Holocaust victims. He says: "We will continue to ask for compensation of Romani assets and for the Roma to be present as equal partners in the dealings. The victims who remain alive have selected us to represent their rightful interests, and we want nothing more than to right this injustice." <br /><br />The community representatives and Polish government officials who spoke at the event urged everyone present to remain vigilant and to continue to support the plight of the Roma who, as Gejza Adam of the Slovak Roma Coalition Party said, "have been striving to become equal members" of societies across Europe.<br /><br />"Despite the fact that sixty years have passed since the tragedy," Adam said, "Romani communities in Europe have been suffering from the same negligence as always."<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/gate1.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/gate1-300x293.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="293" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-398" /></a><br /><i>[Auschwitz Gate, photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />Poverty, alarming environmental and social conditions, as well as low social status are just some of the issues the Roma face, Adam said, taking a moment to criticize the current situation: "Financial aid distributed by the European resources that is aimed at helping the Roma improve their social status hardly ever gets to its addressees, meaning the Romani people themselves."<br /><br />Drawing parallels between the importance of remembering the victims and the relevance of those memories today was a theme throughout the ceremony.<br /><br />"Sixty-five years ago the Nazi ideology was conquered," said Růžička. "But, unfortunately, not its ideas. They appear again and again. So let us be watchful and uncompromising so that we do not lose control over them."<br /><br />"It is our duty not only to inform and to spread the knowledge of these places and about the unimaginable crime committed on the Romani nation, a nation that was so categorically sentenced to death because of its race and ethnicity," said Kwiatkowski. "It would be tragic to belittle and forget the fact that Roma and Sinti were exterminated. We cannot allow such a situation to arise, because it is only one step from the consent for the repetition of the brutal practices that marked the history of Europe and the whole world in such a painful manner."<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/haunted1.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/haunted1-300x293.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="293" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-399" /></a><br /><i>["Haunted" -- Auschwitz-Birkenau, photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />Adam concluded his speech with these powerful words: <br /><br /><blockquote>"I am truly sorry to dare raise your awareness (about the problems today) at this particular place, but I hope the ashes and unmarked graves of the Holocaust victims can become the sacred ground from which human hope, tolerance and moral courage will rise in order to help us--Romani people--become valid members of societies that value human rights and equality above all."</blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/flowers3.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/flowers3-300x293.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="293" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-404" /></a><br /><i>[flowers to honor the victims, photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />***<br /><br />A slide show of the August 2, 2010 ceremony can be seen <a href="http://blog.panorama.it/foto/2010/08/02/ad-auschwitz-ii-birkenau-si-ricordano-i-rom-vittime-dellolocausto/commemoration_day5/#foto">here</a>.<br /><br />Those who understand Romani or Slovak can watch a short documentary by the Romani Press Agency about the Romani Holocaust <a href="http://www.mecem.sk/rpa/?id=media&lang=slovak&show=18697">here</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/boys-at-commemoration1.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/boys-at-commemoration1-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-400" /></a><br /><i>[Romani boys at the commemoration, photo by Tereza Bottman]</i><br /><br />More photos from the ceremony: <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/crowdIII.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/crowdIII-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-409" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/crowd.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/crowd-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-410" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/crowdII.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/08/crowdII-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-411" /></a><br /><br />***<br /><br /><i>[This article originally appeared on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/08/04/honoring-pain-and-loss-urging-vigilance-and-change-on-international-roma-holocaust-remembrance-day/">blog</a>]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8857242690088721605.post-60255356545303072032010-07-27T15:56:00.000-07:002010-08-31T15:58:38.931-07:00Seizing the Opportunity: An Interview with Romani News Anchor Richard Samko"My work has become my hobby,” says Richard Samko, the second ever Romani news anchor on <a href="http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/english/">Czech Television</a>. “The work is colorful and diverse. It’s also an adrenaline rush, and I like that.”<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://www.rozhlas.cz/_obrazek/00638810.jpeg" class="aligncenter" width="150" height="200" /><br /><i>[Richard Samko, photo credit <a href="http://www.rozhlas.cz/_obrazek/00638810.jpeg">Czech Radio</a>]</i><br /><br />Samko has worked in the field of journalism for eleven years as a reporter, news anchor and more recently host of <i><a href="”">Events and Commentary</a></i>, a nightly program featuring news analysis and political commentary. <br /><br />In the late 1990s, the <a href="http://www.advocacynet.org/page/dzeno">Dženo Association</a> introduced Samko to the world of journalism in a training designed to bring up a new generation of Romani reporters.<br /><br />Samko is a pioneer, with only <a href="http://romove.radio.cz/en/clanek/18330">Ondřej Giňa, Jr.</a>, the first news anchor of Romani background in the Czech Republic, having blazed the trail before him. Samko’s drive, energy and passion for his work in the news media underscore our conversation. <br /><br />“I stuck with it for years, working my way up, because I wanted to make it far," says Samko. "The opportunity was something a person gets only once in a lifetime. To get to work in Czech Television is huge; it’s power.”<br /><br />Samko has covered topics as wide-ranging as immigration, problems inside the police force, right-wing extremism, traffic law, housing issues and unemployment. He has also taken part in producing documentaries, an interest he would like to pursue in greater depth. <br /><br />One documentary on which Samko collaborated was The Saga of the Roma (Sága Romů), a film examining the changes in the Romani community and its relationship to the majority population during the second half of the 20th century. Samko confesses filmmaking is his dream.<br /><br />"When I worked on The Saga, filmmaking really grabbed me. I saw that the work was more creative," Samko recalls. "I then made a few short documentaries myself." <br /><br />"I would like to make a film that is Roma-themed,” Samko continues. “I can see that as the most realistic undertaking for me; a topic which I understand the best and can say the most about."<br /><br />One of the most powerful aspects of being so visible in the media is Samko’s ability to inspire Romani children, who look up to him as a role model from their own ranks. <br /><br />Whenever Samko’s hectic schedule allows it, Samko travels to Romani cultural festivals to act as master of ceremonies and to speak to the children. <br /><br />"I want the children to see a positive example of what is possible to achieve," says Samko.<br /><br />One of his projects is a program called <i>Fledglings (<a href="”">Ptáčata</a>)</i>, in which a television crew follows a group of second-graders, many of them Romani, as they learn to become camera operators, reporters and news anchors while documenting their own lives. <br /><br /><a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/07/ptacata1.jpg"><img src="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/files/2010/07/ptacata1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="230" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-374" /></a><br /><br />Samko is a visionary. He recognizes the potential in his community and advocates for the skills of those newly trained in his field to be harnessed. Once funding for Dženo’s Romani station <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/07/23/matters-of-the-heart-a-conversation-with-romani-radio-personality-iveta-demeterova/">Radio Rota</a> is renewed and the broadcast expanded via digital satellite technology, Samko, who would work with the station in advisory capacity, sees an enormous opportunity for a new generation of journalists.<br /><br />“Radio Rota should be funded,” asserts Samko, “because it would serve as a base for those who have started on a path towards a career in journalism. There is a potential here that should be developed further. In mainstream television, where I work, there is no time for on-the-job training or mentoring. New journalists have to be ready to start working at a professional level. That’s where media organizations such as Dženo and Radio Rota come in.”<br /><br />Another role that Radio Rota could fulfill is that of enabling journalists from the majority population to access experiences of the members of Romani community whose issues would be of interest because they ‘affect the entire country,’ as Samko says.<br /><br /> “Mainstream media could draw on the work of Romani journalists reporting for Radio Rota,” Samko continues, “because they tend to be the ones with access to the Romani community, something the average Czech reporter doesn’t have.”<br /><br />In addition to providing information mainstream journalists could draw on as well as hands-on experience to young Romani reporters, Radio Rota, because the Czech Republic is in the center of Europe, could serve as the heart of Romani newscasting, says Samko. <br /><br />“Radio Rota could broadcast news programming from around the world,” Samko envisions. “We know journalists in Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, Poland, etc. We know people everywhere. In all these places there are journalists who would contribute Romani-themed programs. The station could be a pan-European showcase.”<br /><br />To close, Samko urges: “I want my fellow Roma to persevere in doing what they enjoy despite obstacles they may encounter. The opportunities are there. It may take a few years. There will be a few years of waiting, but then the chance to get to a better place will arrive and they will be able to fulfill their dreams.”<br /><br />“And as far as the majority community is concerned,” Samko concludes, “more tolerance is necessary. There needs to be more room and less judgement of people based on their looks or minority status. Minorities must be given a chance.”<br /><br /><i>[This article originally appeared on Tereza Bottman's Advocacy Project <a href="http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/tbottman/2010/07/27/seizing-the-opportunity-an-interview-with-romani-news-anchor-richard-samko/">blog</a>]</i>Terezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01537776511607080977noreply@blogger.com0