The year 2014 was, from my perspective, a test for the "maturity" of Romani people in the Czech Republic, their ability to adapt to today’s conditions and take advantage of the options offered by democracy to improve their position. A quarter of a century is enough time for us to start drawing on those experiences.
With regret, I must state that 25 years of life in a democracy, with all of its opportunities, has taken a great deal away from us and significantly worsened our position. In the beginning we were excluded from the labor process and were unable to respond flexibly to the labor market, we did not take advantage of opportunities for self-realization, and many of us lacked financial literacy and basic knowledge of the law.
We became satisfied with poverty and learned how to survive in it – naturally, I do not mean most Roma here. This fact, of course, has contributed to the grudges everyone else holds against us and has reduced Romani individuals’ opportunities to find better jobs.
The ongoing low level of educational achievement and lack of interest in education, among other things, disqualifies us from the life of society and pushes us to its outskirts. Recently the situation has been changing thanks to various support programs, but the growth in Romani high school and college students is not so significant as to push the boundaries of society.
I see a better future for our Romani families in education, and today’s families are aware of this. Despite this awareness, however, parents are still not motivating or supervising their children – they’re not seeking a better future for them, and what’s worse, they’re not even thinking about it.
What’s more, most educated Romani people here no longer feel Romani, or are ashamed of their ethnic affiliation, which means they stop being a motivational element in the emancipation of less-educated Romani people – this creates a gap between what society’s positive image of the Romani national minority should be and those of us who are doing our best to achieve "integration" (in employment, housing, etc.). Lastly, the position of Romani people has especially significantly deteriorated since 2008, when extremists began to hold anti-Romani demonstrations and conduct disinformation campaigns.
With the significant aid and support of the Czech media, the extremists have incited the public to hate us Roma. Demonstrations have been held more and more frequently and the hatred has escalated, for various reasons, even among people who find the Nazi ideology, societal division and racism abhorrent.
Anti-Romani rhetoric has influenced all of society and recently became the main theme of the elections. The well-understood "Romani" brand guaranteed success to politicians and parties, even those who had no program at all.
Czech MP Okamura and his party have been riding this wave. On the other hand, neither fears nor threats to their very lives, regular intimidation or lynching attempts (such as those faced for almost one year by the Romani residents of Duchcov, for example) have forced the Roma to re-evaluate their attitudes about life – these pressures have not prompted them to take an interest in getting involved in decision-making, together with the rest of society, about their needs, or in improving their lives, making them better.
Cases have even come to light of Romani people selling their votes and their own futures for a few coins to parties who have gone on to make their lives harder through various restrictions. It is interesting to note that Nazis from the ultra-right DSSS party have succeeded in the municipal elections despite the party’s criminal past, and that this has happened precisely in those localities where the Konexe association has been working intensively for some time (Duchcov and Krupka), communities where the Roma have significant voting potential and have long faced anti-Romani demonstrations.
Where this all will lead can be inferred from the past. From this example, it can be predicted that if associations working locally do not disseminate a basic awareness of the law among Romani people, do not identify local leaders, do not work with communities and do not support their emancipation, then the money spent on their activity is wasted, because the basic aim of such an association’s activity should be to eliminate these problems, to resolve them, not to keep them going so that they can be seen to be active.
From current events it clearly follows that Romani people have not realized their options here even after 25 years of democracy. Again, I am not writing about all Romani people here – indeed, I am not even writing about most of them.
However, there are localities where more Romani people are concentrated who have resigned themselves to their fates, or who believe they don’t have what it takes for self-realization, – they have no one to motivate them to work on growing their intellectual capacity. Usually these are localities with high overall unemployment and few employment opportunities.
It is precisely in these localities that the "municipality" also fails, either by stifling development or not knowing how to undertake it so as to create new jobs that would then contribute money to the municipal coffers (through increased tax revenues and purchasing power). For Romani people, this fact results in the loss of an entitlement to any disability or old age pensions, which in the event of illness or old age affects them significantly, as they will be condemned to receiving just the bare minimum of welfare support.
I wish all Romani people health, love and success in 2015, but I also hope parents take to heart the idea that through education, they are building a better future for their children so that when they eventually become elderly or ill, they will reap the rewards of a better future. They will also be contributing to a better image for all of us and relieve the shame that today’s educated Romani people feel about their ethnic affiliation.
This piece is from our Romani Blog section. Send us your opinion!
