Roma meet in Brno to find ways of escaping isolation
21.5.2004 - Dita Asiedu

To find ways of escaping isolation, representatives of Central Europe's Roma communities met in the Czech Republic this week to exchange ideas and experiences. The two-day conference, which was held in the Moravian capital Brno, was part of a four-year programme in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, aimed at increasing Roma integration and participation in all levels of civil society, such as access to health, justice, education, and business opportunities.

Brad Heckman, is the regional director for Partners for Democratic Change, an international non-profit organisation that focuses on conflict resolution, and one of the organisations involved in the four-year programme:

"We had a strong desire to see what would happen if we would bring together the local change agents in the communities across borders to learn from one another. The people we are working with at the community level are just regular folks. They are teachers, social workers, labourers, entrepreneurs; they are Roma folks who are doing their part to make a difference. As much great work as they are doing, they are very often doing this in isolation. Many of them have not visited neighbouring villages, let alone other countries. So, we wanted to bring some of the people together, who have been most active in our programme in our nine target communities in the three countries, and give them the opportunity to share their stories and their experiences, to learn from one another and to hopefully build long-term relations across communities and across borders."

It's been fifteen years since the fall of communism and we're still solving the question of how to integrate the Roma into the rest of society. What's the problem? Why is it taking so long?

"Well, I think one of the challenges is to overcome the understandable cynicism that we all feel, having spent the last fifteen years waiting for something to happen on the integration front. On the positive side, for the first time since the fall of communism, the prime ministers of each of the countries we are working in, as well as other countries throughout the region, have publicly declared that they are committed to Roma integration - they are on record as saying that - and they are committed to putting together action plans for dealing with all of these issues. A pre-condition for joining the EU for all of these countries was to demonstrate due diligence towards integration and towards anti-discrimination. So, it seems like we're headed in the right direction and I would like to believe that our programme is part of the critical mass of attention to these kinds of issues. I think one of the challenges will be taking some of these ideas that exist on the policy level and national government level and making sure that they are vibrant and real locally. So, it involves transforming an ambitious document on multi-culturalism and on integration and giving it real life in the communities. What I'm hoping is that what we're doing through our programmes, through the conciliation commissions, the co-operative planning, our school programmes, and so on, is a way of breathing life into some of these public policies and making some of these declarations by the governments come to fruition."

You work with the Roma in the Czech Republic but also in Slovakia and in Hungary. In what country are the Roma integrated the most?

"Very often, it depends on the community but it seems to me that Hungary probably has the highest number of integrated Roma in its population. That's partially due to some specific structures that have been set up in Hungary, in which Roma have something called minority self-governments, which allow them to interface with the majority population and give them a voice.

"But there are communities throughout all three countries where there are examples of Roma integrating at all levels of society. Unfortunately, there are also examples of Roma living in completely separate conditions in settlements outside the city with very little access to medical care or normal schools or justice, or any of these things. So, while some communities are better than others, it's definitely a challenge across the board in all these three countries and, frankly, throughout Europe."

Should boarding schools help integrate Roma children into society?
21.5.2004 - Anca Dragu

The sound of a school yard isn't very familiar to many Roma children in Slovakia simply because many of them do not spend much time in school. Social assistants involved in different projects in Roma communities say that many families are so poor that buying clothes or textbooks for school will never be among their priorities. Under these circumstances the recent statements of the EU Ambassador to Slovakia, Erik van der Linden, who said that Roma children should be sent to boarding schools, provoked mixed reactions.

The European Roma Information Office, an organization based in Brussels, criticized the proposal as a plan for forced assimilation of Roma minority. They even said that Mr van der Linden's head should roll, while the spokesperson of the European Commission, Reijo Kemppinen, banned the Ambassador from making any statements on the topic.

"His words were not chosen too carefully and we regret this incident."

But in Bratislava, van der Linden's comments didn't stir the same emotional reaction. The leaders of two prominent Roma organisations even expressed their support for sending Roma children to boarding schools. Alexander Patkolo, the Head of Roma Initiative says the idea is neither new nor bad.

"This could be the first step toward improving the education level of Roma people. There is nothing wrong with this idea. All we have to do is to go out in communities and explain to people that nobody plans to take their children by force and send them to boarding schools. We should explain to parents that their children will spend only 5 days per week there and we'll have better conditions there - better food, and clothes and more favourable conditions for learning something that will bring them a job and a better life in the future."

Two special boarding schools for Roma children have already begun working in Kosice in the Eastern part of the country. Another will be soon opened in Zvolen in Central Slovakia. Some of their staff are of Roma origin and pupils have in their curriculum subjects related to the history and culture of Roma. These schools have received financial support from the European Union which has already invested more than 100 million euro in a wide range of programmes aimed at improving the situation of Roma communities in Slovakia. Alexander Patkolo has nothing against using financial incentives to persuade parents to send their children to boarding schools.

"The media put it in such a way that everything is about money in the end. Well, some financial help is always welcome but I am sure that many parents can be also motivated by the idea that their children will live a better life than them. I think this is more appealing than money."

Gdansk Airport named after Lech Walesa
21.5.2004 - Michal Kubicki

Poland's Solidarity hero Lech Walesa made history again, this time by lending his name to the airport in the Baltic port city of Gdansk:

It was in Gdansk that Lech Walesa led the historic shipyard strike which led to the formation of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. In 1981 it grew into a social movement of almost ten million Poles, a unique self-limiting revolution which brought political freedom to Poland 15 years ago, and became a catalyst for reform in the whole of central Europe.

A few months ago the local authorities hit up on the idea of naming the city's airport after Walesa to honour him and the Solidarity movement, and as a result to boost the city's international standing. During the ceremony Lech Walesa was evidently moved, having unveiled a huge sign bearing his signature and name.

"I have collected various honours and distinctions and even though, on this occasion too, this looks like a mark of appreciation for me personally in fact it honours all those who fought under the Solidarity banner for Poland's freedom since the 1970s."

Naturally the ceremony brought together all top ranking regional officials. The governor of Gdansk province, Jan Kozlowski, said that Lech Walesa was an obvious choice for the airport's patron.

"Lech Walesa is a legendary founder of Solidarity, a politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner. He has his place in Poland's history, epitomizing the strivings for freedom realized in a peaceful way."

Polish journalist Robert Strybel agrees that it was a good decision to name Gdansk airport after Lech Walesa. He explains why:

"Because, next to the Pope, Lech Walesa is the most widely known and widely recognized Pole in the world today. Whether someone likes Mr. Walesa or not, or agrees with his former policies, but this is a fact, and it's regrettable that Walesa's assets were not tapped by Poland. He should have been named an ambassador of good will or given some type of thing. Even if people have many misgivings about the way he handled the presidency and his personality problems, but still he is the symbol, and nothing can change that."

At 60, Walesa currently remains on the sidelines of political life. But the political tradition in his family is likely to be followed by one of his eight children. 28 year old Jaroslaw Walesa is running for a seat in the European Parliament next month. If elected, he'll be shuttling to Strasbourg from an airport named after his father.

Hungary celebrates first Opportunity Day
21.5.2004 - Petra Hajdu

A new tradition was born on Friday in Hungary where from now on, May 21st shall be known as Opportunity Day. The first official celebration of the day took place on Friday in a Budapest park, where you could enjoy performances by a variety of minority groups, but where the audience also had the opportunity to find out more about equal opportunities in today's Hungary.

Petra Hajdu of Radio Budapest talked to the main patron of the festival, Minister of Equal Opportunities, Katalin Lévai:

"We want to focus attention on this very important issue and that's why we decided to make May 21 an equal opportunity day in Hungary. We would like to create traditions with that and we hope that every year on this day there will be a celebration and there will be programmes to attract attention on equal opportunity issues."

Who is the festival for, who should know most about Equal Opportunity Day in Hungary?

"Practically everyone. We invite families with children and there will be lots of musical events and dancing. It's for everyone who would like to have a good time during a nice weekend. The target audience is the whole population of Budapest and those who happen to be in the capital on that day."

When you want to promote something like equal opportunities, you surely have someone in mind. Is there any kind of group that you want to focus on, a layer of society or a minority that needs to get some attention?

"Yes, of course. If you have a look at the programme, you see that Roma dance and music groups will perform and even some groups who represent people with disabilities. This means that we want to address children, the Roma living with disabilities, and women as well. So, they are all the groups that may have disadvantages or may be discriminated in Hungary."

When I hear the word equality, I always think of the book Animal Farm where some animals were equal and some were even more equal. In Hungary, who would you call equal and who are less equal these days?

"Those who are less equal are the people who have less opportunities to get to good schools, those who were born in the countryside in the underdeveloped region, the women, for example, who are in their forties and may have many obstacles if they want to get into the labour market or want to go up the hierarchy in the labour market. Even less equal may be those Roma groups, who have to face discrimination and prejudices every day and those who are uneducated. So, I have a long list of the social groups that are less equal than the others and our aim is to fight against discrimination and segregation and to achieve a much more just situation."

Now that Hungary just joined the European Union, do you think that the situation is about to improve in any way, any time soon?

"I hope so because on the agenda of the European Union, these are priorities - to fight against discrimination and against poverty. These are the main issues when we speak about social policy even if there is not a common social policy in the European Union, the priorities in the 'social Europe' suggest that these issues cannot be forgotten and that equality is a value that is highly appreciated by all the countries."

Unique early Slovene manuscripts put on show in Ljubljana
21.5.2004 - Ksenija Samardzija-Matul

The Freising Manuscripts are the earliest text in any Slavic language written in Roman as opposed to Cyrillic script. They consist of three texts in old Slovene, bound into a Latin codex from Freising in Bavaria which was once the centre of a diocese. The precise date of the Freising Manuscripts cannot be exactly determined; the original text was probably written between 972 and 1093. For the first time these manuscripts are on display in Slovenia - a historic moment not only for Lenart Setinc, director of the National and University Library in Ljubljana:

"The exhibition, called 'The Birth Certificate of Slovenian Culture', is a historic event, because for the first time ever, the four oldest existing original documents in the Slovenian language are presented to the public in one place: The Freising Manuscripts, the Klagenfurt manuscript, the Sticna manuscript and the Cividale manuscript. By presenting the roots of the Slovenian nation we want to stress that the Slovene written word has been contributing to European culture for over 1000 years."

Only one of the four manuscripts is usually kept in Slovenia; the other three are in Austria, Bavaria and Italy, where Slovenes used to live. Due to various historical events and changes of borders, Slovenes in those areas now represent only a national minority.

The Freising Manuscripts are preserved at the Bavarian State Library in Munich and this is why Edmund Stoiber the Premier of the state of Bavaria opened the exhibition of the earliest written records of the Slovenian languague together with Slovenian Prime Minister Anton Rop:

"The Freising manuscripts represent a very close tie between Slovenia and Bavaria."

The exhibition is of great importance to Slovenia at a time when Slovenia is trying to strenghten its identity as Prime Minister Anton Rop stressed:

"There is a lot of symbolism in the fact that we have organized the exhibition - The Birth Certificate of Slovenian Culture - at a time when we have become part of the European Union, symbolism because we've organized it with European friends and because the exhibition helps us understand the meaning of the contemporary time."

The exhibition can be visited until the 20th of June in the National and University Library in Ljubljana.

Central European football competition was forerunner of Champions League
21.5.2004 - Ian Willoughby

Sports fans will no doubt be aware that the final of football's Champions League is on Wednesday. What you may not know is that Europe's first such international competition was formed in this part of the world, way back in the late 1920s.

On Wednesday night millions of football fans around Europe will watch the final of the Champions League, the biggest, most glamorous club competition in the history of the game. Few of them will know the story of Europe's first ever international club competition, and the forerunner of the Champions League, the Mitropa Cup.

It was first held in 1927, and featured teams from different parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Here's Horst Hirch from the Austrian magazine Sportzeitung.

"In the first two seasons of the Mitropa Cup, two teams from four countries - Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia entered. There were some reforms and in 1929 Yugoslavia was replaced by Italian teams.

"The high time of the Mitropa Cup was from 1927 to '39, when it was abandoned due to World War II. It was re-established in the '50s but it never had the importance of the '20s and '30s again, because the European Cup was established."

The Mitropa Cup was set up by a remarkable man: Hugo Meisl was a Jew with football in his veins who wanted to revive sporting ties sundered with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Horst Hirch has his story

"He was born in 1881 in Ostrava, which is in today's Czech Republic. He moved to Vienna when he was just six years old; that was about the time when football came to Austria.

"He joined one of the first two clubs in Vienna, the Cricketa but he didn't really become a football legend because of his footballing skills. But in 1905 he had already made a name as a referee."

In an age when football players get paid astronomical sums it's hard to imagine a time when all footballers were amateurs. As well as starting the Mitropa Cup, Hugo Meisl played a major part in making the game the huge industry it is today.

"In 1924 he established the first professional football league on the European continent. The first professional champion of Austria was Hakauer, a Jewish club. In 1927, as we said, he established the Mitropa Cup, and he also had a part in founding the World Cup, which was played in 1930 for the first time."