cafebabel.com

'Our School' documentary: segregated Roma schools despite EU funds

('Linda Krajcso',) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:40:25 -0000

When directors and producers Mona Nicoară and Miruna Coca-Cozma followed three Roma children in a small Romanian village for four years, their film initially about a success story of integration became one about the realities of ethnic segregation. Interview

Roma and Hungary’s extreme right: the hunt in Gyöngyöspata

('Annie Rutherford',) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:08:30 -0000

In Hungary, a village of 2, 500 inhabitants outside Budapest embodies tensions between the Roma (gypsy) community and the extreme right. Since March, paramilitary militia have been arriving in Gyöngyöspata to march the town's streets. On top of that, Oszkár Juhász, a member of the extreme right-wing party Jobbik, has been elected as mayor

The hills are alive with the sound of Viviane Reding

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:00:00 -0000

The EU commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship ‘comes from the heart of Europe,’ insists former EC president Jacques Delors, as he introduces her to French students at Paris’ political institute Sciences Po. Meanwhile, Reding goes all out to be less bureaucratic than she is

Roma deportations: Europeans offer alternative punishments for France

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:41:43 -0000

On 29 September, the European commission reneged on a threat to sue the member state for its actions against an ethnic group. If the EU commission is lacking in inspiration (for controversy), here are some ideas

Viviane Reding vs Europe’s macho club?

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:00:00 -0000

When the EU justice minister compared France's expulsions of essentially Romanian and Bulgarian citizens to nazi deportation acts in world war two in mid-September, she apparently crossed the line for Paris and Rome...and their male politicians

Esma Redzepova: 'Roma are cosmopolitan'

('Annie Rutherford',) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:30:00 -0000

A mother of 47, a career spanning 20 albums and 40 years and songs in Serbian, Macedonian and Romany. At the Sin Fronteras festival in France, the Macedonian 'gypsy music queen' brings a bit of Roma culture to a country which is planning to export large numbers of its gypsy population 'back' to Romania and Bulgaria by the end of the month

France's 'war on criminality' aside, focus on Parisian Roma in 'social insertion villages'

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:19:08 -0000

Four years after their creation in Europe, 'social integration villages' are being presented as a 'Roma paradise'. European associations for minority protection expose some of the difficulties facing the most discriminated community in the EU. Meanwhile, the French government has since planned to dissolve 300 Roma settlements, whilst the UK is seeing its biggest Romany gypsy site, Dale Farm in Essex, bulldozed

Alessandro Mannarino: 'Italian brains have been infantilised by television'

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:00:00 -0000

An emerging talent on the Italian scene, the 30-year-old Roman combines poetry with sounds from around the world, shoots music videos in Roma camps and slams the way of thinking in his country

Young, Roma and European: 'my children's lives will be better than mine'

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:06:53 -0000

While the problems of Europe’s biggest minority seem endless, the EU aims to offer some hope despite ‘much talk and little action.’ Testimonies from Roma Europeans, European Roma

Lívia Járóka: female, Roma and Euro MP

('rhiannon_nicolson',) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:33:52 -0000

The first female Roma member of the European parliament takes stock of her first term in office and announces that she will run in this year’s European elections in June. We talk women, Roma statistics and the EU institutions

Roma in the Ponticelli district, Naples, speak after the fire

('Mary Maistrello',) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:41:18 -0000

The intolerance of the population towards the nomads, who had been living for years on the periphery of the city, has become ever violent, supported by the popular and racist propaganda of the Lega Nord (northern league) political party. We try to understand what is left after the lynchings, the fires, the vigilantes and forced evictions

Photos: hanging out with four Roma communities in the French Auvergne

('Astrid vW',) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:00:41 -0000

Generalise all you want; Europe's largest minority are comprised of innumerable different groups - the gypsies, the Sinti, the Manouche, the Calés, the Zíngaro, the Yeniche...snapshot from one camp central France

In Buzescu, Roma architecture is surreal real estate

('Annie Rutherford',) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:00:00 -0000

We clatter by train through Romania to the small village where the former nomadic Roma are building palaces they design themselves in the middle of Wallachia – with neither consent nor plans. Feature

Tomás de Perrate: 'I don’t know a single gypsy family that feels discriminated against in Andalucia'

('Kate Stansfield',) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:43:43 -0000

The 43-year-old started singing in 1999, after ten years as a hairdresser. Inspired by America's Tom Waits, he says that Balkan gypsy music does not belong to the flamenco family

'Savvy Chavvy': Romani Facebook in the UK

('Sarah Meleleu',) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:25:41 -0000

The virtual social network was created with and for the young members of the Roma community in England in January. A social media project and web 2.0 which already allow more than 1000 people to communicate, exchange videos and news on the internet and, of course, flirt

12:08 - East of Pristina

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

In the Serb enclave of Gracanica, young people are becoming aware that a good future involves teenage crushes, good friends and weekends

Far right Bulgarian is youngest MEP

('Ed Saunders',) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The recent accession of Bulgaria and Romania was the pill that the ultra nationalists in the European Parliament took, doubling their superpower forces

Gypsy king: 'The EU offers new hope for the Roma'

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Florin Cioaba, 'Roma King,' wants to unify the fragmented ethnic gypsy tribes and represent them politically

Gypsy in the mix

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 02:00:00 -0000

Dispelling stereotypes of gypsy music being about old men singing in restaurants, today’s DJs are showing that it remains a vibrant and powerful form of music

The ‘Golden Trumpet’ of Guca

Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:00:00 -0000

Three hours from Belgrade, an unusual festival that brings together the brass bands of an entire country is held: the Assembly of Trumpet Players of Guca.

East-West divide

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:00:00 -0000

Since the Roma are legally defined as a minority in Europe, officially they benefit from a protection of their rights. However, the way that laws are applied varies within the Union