pavlovska, let me congratulate you on the first post in this diary, which is actually proposing a solution :)
There are small Roma parties in Bulgaria, but they are part of the MFR (the Movement for Freedoms and Rights), which is basically representing the Turk population. I see that the situation we are discussing here is better addressed in Macedonia, which is excellent. Do you have any idea what provoked the Roma to start creating NGO's to help the Roma population? Be careful! Is it classified?
Political reasons - they would never get representated in Parliament, unless they enter a coaltion with another party, the logical choice in this case being the MFR.
Economic reasons - with power comes money - and the MFR was one of the most influential parties on the last elections (I think they were first or second by number of votes). Be careful! Is it classified?
And there is nothing wrong with the constitution, it forbids ethnic separation of everyone holding a Bulgarian passport. The idea is to have parties focusing on political ideologies (and Turks, Roma and Bulgarians can be part of the party), not ethnic agenda. Be careful! Is it classified?
the gypsy community was strongly oppressed by the Todor Jivkov government. A good example of the time would be the city of Burgas, situated on the Black Sea coast. Gypsies were forced to live in ghettos located near the skirts of the cities and were used for low qualified jobs. At a certain point, gypsies were "encouraged" by the police (then "Milicia") not to leave their ghetto and enter the city as rarely as possible. Every morning several trucks would transport the gypsies in town, before anyone was awake, so they can clean the city, and then transport them back before they could disturb anyone. The Milicia were not very fond of gypsies either - any situation would be dealt with by starting with the individuals with the darkest complexion. It is important to note, that during those years, as well as today, all Bulgarian citizens (everyone with a Bulgarian residence - Bulgarians, Turks and gypsies) were legally required to go to grade school. Then the communist regime fell and oppressed gypsies, whose jobs were assured by the communist government, were left unemployed and uneducated. ...Aid workers estimate that 90-95 percent of Roma in Bulgaria are chronically unemployed, hampered by illiteracy and prejudice, and the overall economic slump.
Then the communist regime fell and oppressed gypsies, whose jobs were assured by the communist government, were left unemployed and uneducated. ...
Aid workers estimate that 90-95 percent of Roma in Bulgaria are chronically unemployed, hampered by illiteracy and prejudice, and the overall economic slump.
Interestingly enough, during communist time, there were houses built especially for the Roma (near the town of Rousse). They were quickly disassembled by the Roma, who took everything back to their houses in the ghetto.
So, would you say there is imposed "ghettoization"? I wouldn't. Would you say the Roma want to be part of the society? I wouldn't. Be careful! Is it classified?
Well, as most of them were shoved off to special schools, a form of discrimination thematised repeatedly both my me and Alexandra, this opportunity is none to most, so you shouldn't be surprised.
Facing contempt on a daily basis is another strong factor you seem to not even think of. This really seems a personal experience thing - those who got a taste of it themselves (like me and hitchhiker) do have a picture of what it means, those who didn't can continue to cling to illusions that everyone would have the same opportunities if only they tried.
Interestingly enough, during communist time, there were houses built especially for the Roma (near the town of Rousse).
This (and similar projects by the other 'communist' governments elsewhere) was not much of an intent at integration by the State, more like herding people like guinea pigs into cleaner, brighter ghettos (and tearing up family ties in the process). A later form of this, after 1989, was that some majors tried to segregate poor Romas living in social housing in their towns by building houses for them isolated somewhere outside of town, and then issued an eviction order.
What should be done instead? Some NGOs give help to Romas to renovate or build homes on their own. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
qika PR just posted a great diary thematising this in greater detail - everyone check it out! *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
This is quite true. Most of the time the Roma media is broadcasting some comic shows, films and lots of music.
Yet, I have to mention a trend that I have recently noticed on the Roma's TV stations (Shutel TV in particular). As of recently some of the major Roma TV stations started to air programs with more educational character. As for example last week I saw one show broadcasted on Shutel TV (roma TV station) where there were several Macedonian and several Roma teenagers engaged in a discussion on a very popular issue- the discrimination in the society. Then, I also saw one program directed to the youngest Roma audience which had the purpose to teach them to write, and the show was done in a very funny way, so no child can resist watching it. Even I regularly watch it. I also saw many documentaries which were synchronized in Roma language. So, this is positive step forward, though very limited, as there are only Shutel TV and the national TV station MRTV that broadcast this kind of programs.
I'm blushing ;-)
Thank you for your comments and insights! The TV program changes you describe are promissing. I would imagine that the more educational and, especially for children, educational & funny! programming may be more expensive to put together than music, films etc.. so perhaps TV stations have to grow to a certain size to be able to develop and provide that type of programming. The Bulgarian TVRoma, at least as described on their web site, seems to have a more community based approach with call in discussion shows as perhaps a more low budget way of doing some educational programming but it seems they are only on the air a few hours every day and trying to grow with the help of grant funding.
I quoted this earlier but it's relevant here too:
Because of the limited financial resources the programs of Roma TV has the look of neighborhood television, with elements of a regional program for the municipality of Vidin. We need more resources if we are going to enter in the national television market.
Macedonia is probably a best example of a country with the largest number of NGOs per capita and paradoxically with not so developed civil sector. However, among so many NGOs currently operating at the territory of Macedonia some of them have proven to be very successful in the promotion of the improvement of Roma's life by providing legal help, education, awareness campaigns, financial aid and so on. For example when I asked my friend Memet how he found out about this university (AUBG) and how he got the scholarship to study here his response was that the information and the scholarship were provided by Roma NGOs.
There are few Roma political parties but they haven't been very successful as the NGOs, mainly because the NGOs are giving direct help to Romas. There are some NGOs which have their own daily shelters for young Romas, where they have Roma schoolteachers who try to engage the street children in different activities like teaching them to read, reading them stories, showing them cartoons in roma language, than playing with them and giving them food and clothing, so these children start coming there more often because that place is more fun than begging on the streets. Apparently, this is carrot and stick game but it has proven to be successful.
I have few friends who work in the nongovernmental sector and some of them have been involved in some projects for the Roma minorities. Some of the projects included workshops and awareness campaign where Romas are given advices of how they can benefit by becoming involved in the civil society, how to set up their own NGO, how to make projects how to apply to different international organization for financial assistance and raise funds. So, this kind of workshops and seminars might have helped to the spread of the information and might have been interesting and promising to certain Romas to undertake such activity on their own. And, once one group starts the process than it is very likely that others will follow.
Still, I must say that there is a huge segmentation between the Romas themselves, which has prevented their integration in the society. Some of them are living on the fringes of the society with no interest whatsoever in any kind of activity and others becoming more aware of the benefits they can get by becoming more active and thus are becoming very active.
I believe in time all Roma will integrate in the society, even the ones that refuse to, because of the segmentation you mentioned. In fact, I think the time to act is now, because there are only one or two years before we join the European Union and the Roma population has the option to leave the country. Be careful! Is it classified?
Well, then Bulgaria's accession to EU might be ideal not just for the Bulgarians but for the Romas as well.
But (I tell this in reply to pavlovska) I meant to distinguish decisionmakers: it may well be that a bunch of European Parliament members and a number of bureaucrats working in the accession offices are fully aware of the issues involved, but the decisions will be made by higher-ups who don't read their reports and have other priorities. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
As Dodo mentioned the issue is whether this knowledge is used in decision making. In the meantime it does shine a light on the situation in Bulgaria and Romania (there is a similar report for Romania).
It might be that the recent ethnic conflict in Macedonia between the Albanians and Macedonians brought the issue of the respect of minority's rights not just to Albanians but to Roma's as well. I don't know how it is in other multiethnic societies, i.e. if there is ethnic tension between different minority and majority groups and if there is a tendency between different minority groups to stick together or not, but during the war in Macedonia it seemed that the Romas and Macedonians were more close together than Albanians and Romas. Probably that was because most of the Romas speak Macedonian and not Albanian.
This is my personal conclusion because I've read and heard of incidents between the Romas and the Albanians, and the news on some of the Roma TV stations during the war conflict more often resembled to the news of the Macedonian TV stations. Also, most of the Roma political parties tend to form coalitions with Macedonian parties than with Albanians. So this also can be a reason why it's been more easy and unproblematic to accept the Romas. In addition, the Romas have never been very vocal about their minority rights, and it was obvious that they were the most deprived group in the society, so this might have been a reason plus for people to become more engaged into improving their situation. Though as I said, the things have just started to get better, many other things regarding the Roma's situation need to be addressed.
In Macedonia there are no Romas that live by the roads in camps, and almost all of them have some kind of a house, very miserable though, and this was the first case to see wandering Romas in Macedonia. Macedonia was very criticized for not being able to find them accommodation. Fair enough, these people apparently needed support.
Yet, by then a country of 2 milion people had received over 200,000 refugees and the already fragile economy was overburdened with huge expenses for supporting the newly arrived refugees. I don't know how the whole situation with the Roma ended up, but I remember that it was a huge scandal. And, I found it really scandalous that no one criticized Kosovo or Greece, for it but only Macedonia ended up being harshly criticized.
It was also financially unsustainable.By the end of the war the only financial assistance that came from abroad were huge containers with water from USA, and all the rest was supposed to be provided by macedonia.
Still, as you said Macedonia accepted them and then it was supposed to help them, but I am not sure if they legally passed the border or not. Unlike the border between Macedonia and Bulgaria and Macedonia and Greece, the borders with Kosovo on the north and Albania on the west are very porous and not well protected. And in particularly during the war most of people fleeing from Kosovo were let pass the border, without taking in consideration if they have where to stay or not. And even during the ethnic conflict in Macedonia most of the weapon smuggled in Macedonia came from Kosovo, because the borders were not very controlled.
I also remember that there were appeals by some of those Romas for different European countries to take several families under their protection but their calls availed them nothing. So, the international community was very willing to criticise but not very willing to offer any help.
This seems to me like a very interesting approach. I had already noticed that several of the initiatives I looked at where grant funded by foundations. I went back and took a closer look at the Macedonia Romani NGO study:
and at some of the Bulgarian TVRoma funding:
It reminds me a bit (this is a gross over simplification I know) of the way regions in France gained a certain amount of "autonomy" to implement their own plans by being able to get European Union funding for initiatives and not having the French administration in Paris be the only source of project funding.
I noticed, for example, that the Soros foundation has a Roma Participation Program grant specifically designed to fund Roma initiatives and the European Commission has an internship program for young Roma university graduates from all new EU member states (excluding Cyprus and Malta), Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro (including Kosovo), and Turkey.
As for Bulgaria, in addition to the political participation in the MFR (the Movement for Freedoms and Rights) which Darin reports below it also seems there is also a small Roma media presence in Bulgaria including TVRoma (more on that in the boxquote below). For a list of periodicals which regularly publish articles about Roma (including several based in Bulgaria): http://www.osi.hu/rpp/biblio/roma2_2.html
Looking at the staff of the European Roma Rights Center, just as an example, it's also clear that Bulgarians are actively involved in efforts to improve the situation:
Staff include: Savelina Danova Russinova is Research and Policy Coordinator. She has a Masters degree in English Philology from the Sofia University, Bulgaria, and is an MA candidate in Human Rights from the Central European University in Budapest. Previously, she was the Director of the Sofia-based Roma rights organisation Human Rights Project.
Toni Tashev is Community and Litigation Development Officer. He holds a Master degree in Law from the Sofia University, Bulgaria, and a diploma for Professional Qualification in Political Management from the Balkans school of politics, Bulgaria. He also completed an International program in NGO Management, Advocacy and Public Campaign Facilitation at the International Peoples`College in Helzingor, Denmark. Since 1995 he has been involved in Romani issues, mainly in activities related to protection of human rights and non-discrimination, advocacy campaigns and community development. Previously, he was an International Advocacy and Legal Adviser of the ERRC. He was also the Legal Director and later the Executive Director of the Sofia-based Roma rights organisation Human Rights Project, an external lecturer in Human Rights and Conflict Resolution at the National Police Academy, Bulgaria, a Project Manager and Policy Coordinator of the Development of Initiatives for Local Alternatives Foundation (DILAF), Bulgaria.
The creators of TV Roma believe that is vital for Roma community to have a media presence, to advance the integration and emancipation of the Roma community. The development of Roma TV is guided by the social purpose of creating a voice and a media home for the Roma community and the other ethnic and cultural minorities. We believe in the need for intercultural communication between the majority and the minorities, a place for dialogue and mutual understanding of the ethnic groups in Bulgaria.
Audience and distribution:
The program is being distributed in Nov Put, the biggest Roma neighborhood in Vidin, with a population of about 17,000 people, as well is in towns around Vidin, such as Dunavtzi. Individual shows have been provided for distribution to cable operators in the rest of Vidin. Roma TV started in 1998 with a total of 150 subscribers, In 2000 we had 250 subscribers. Currently there are 100 regular subscribers paying their fees, due to the fact that the entire region is suffering a serious depression with high unemployment. The economic situation of the Roma people in Vidin has deteriorated in the last couple of years. Actually the program of TV Roma is watched from the whole neighborhood.30 % of the audience are the families and the relatives of the regular subscribers and there are 70 % of people who have connected illegally to the station.
The development of the Roma TV Program Concept has so far been defined by audience interests and by the availability of resources - financial, technical and professional skills. During the first two years the major pAt the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002 (after the introduction of modern equipment) a three-hour daily program was launched (four-hours during the weekend). We also produce a special show for the big holidays, such as New Year, Vasilovden and others. Every day we produce an average of one and a half to two hours of news and author shows or topical shows, with direct phone participation by the neighborhood audience. In addition we have two hours of educational, entertainment, children's and musical shows. The main topics of our programs are relevant local issues, including the Roma cultural heritage that aims to raise the self-esteem of the Roma people. The daily news includes 3 to 5 reports; the production quality has improved considerably according to our audience as well as by colleagues from other stations in the region.
Actually, while browsing the RomaTV website, I stumbled upon something funny:
The program is being distributed in Nov Put, the biggest Roma neighborhood in Vidin, with a population of about 17,000 people, as well is in towns around Vidin, such as Dunavtzi... Roma TV started in 1998 with a total of 150 subscribers, In 2000 we had 250 subscribers. Currently there are 100 regular subscribers paying their fees, due to the fact that the entire region is suffering a serious depression with high unemployment. The economic situation of the Roma people in Vidin has deteriorated in the last couple of years. Actually the program of TV Roma is watched from the whole neighborhood. 30% of the audience are the families and the relatives of the regular subscribers and there are 70 % of people who have connected illegally to the station.
A good example of Roma giving bad image to other Roma.
But I am actually impressed by the initiative. Be careful! Is it classified?
I agree TVRoma seems like an important initiative worth supporting. I'd like to know more about it.
I just wish you had done some of this research yourself earlier it's not that hard to find with a few key stokes and google.
About the research - I knew there were Roma organizations, so surely they provide some public service; this however doesn't reflect the argument of this diary (the cultural difference and attitude towards gypsies), but the solution of the problem (which is no way less important). Be careful! Is it classified?
This reminds me to note two smaller signs of change for the better in Hungary, too: both of them media that had favorble effect. One is Rádió C (C for cigány = Gypsy), a radio station mainly airing music, which proved a surprise success (e.g. it has a lot of non-Gypsie listeners). Another is that not all talent shows are evil (even if they are crappy): in the one titled Megasztár on a Hungarian TV channel, the second season was won by a Gypsy boy with a great voice (but crappy taste in music IMO), and as the show also followed the participants outside the studio, millions learnt to know a Gyspy life contrary to their stereotypes via their TV screens. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
This is very important in multicultural societies, where different ethnic groups have their own favourite pop singers or actors which are mainly from their ethnic group. I have noticed that even this kind of crappy shows can bring cohesiveness among different ethnic groups, because they don't focus on ethnicity but on the abilities that these teenagers possess.
