Culture

Košice 29 April (RPA) – The Concert for Tolerance, which was organized by the Roma Media Center (MECEM) on 15th April and held at Košice’s House of Art, was attended by 700 spectators. "Košice is a multicultural city and art really does have a great power to bring people together. I consider it as a universal language and at the same time a good way to gain awareness about other cultures," said Košice mayor Richard Raši immediately after the concert.

Bratislava 10. december (RPA) - For a number of years now, on the initiative of the European Commission, a single common evening event called the Night of the Researcher has been held in all the countries of the European Union. In Slovakia it was carried out by the non-governmental organization Sova. In the scope of this event a number of different events take place whose goal was to show children and the broader public that science is actually a kind of amusement. One of these events is the competition Science in the Settlement, which is organized in cooperation with the civic association Equity.

Prague 22 June (RPA) - The Roma Media Center was yesterday finished in second place in the Erste Foundation Awards for Social Integration from among 1,850 evaluated projects from 12 European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Hungary, Moldavia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia). In addition MECEM also received a so-called Honorary Award, which the jury awarded to the overall 30 best organizations.  The ceremonial awarding of the prizes took place yesterday in Prague at the Barrandov film studios.

A graphic novel entitled "Des Nouvelles d'Alain" ("Alain's News"), the main heroes of which are the members of the Roma band Kesaj Tchave from Kežmarok, Slovakia, led by the Akimov family, has been released in France. The book is the work of renowned author and photographer Alain Keler, fine artist and screenwriter Emmanuel Guibert, and graphic designer Frédérique Lemercier.

"These gentlemen are leaders in their fields. Their interest in Roma people is admirable and an honor for us," Ivan Akimov of Kesaj Tchave told the Roma Press Agency (RPA).

Dear Prime Minister,

As you most certainly know, in the year 2008 the Romani language was ceremonially standardized in Slovakia. This was thus the completion of one stage of its development. The process of standardization of the language should have been an expression of its recognition as a language equal to other languages in Slovakia and thus a language which can be used in an ordinary way – in the media, in public, in state administration and in schools.

Following the conclusions about the Romani language, which originate from the 4th Congress of Roma (Warszawa, April, 1990) and the Charter 4 / 2000, which stems from recommendations made by the Council of Europe, and related to education of Roma in Europe, as well as the conclusions reached on the Regional meetings of »Sarajevo group" in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Murska Sobota, during the year 2010, we, the participants of the World Symposium on Romani language, reached the following conclusions:

Košice 20 September (RPA) – In just a few days the first European Roma Internet television station, DikTV, will launch its trial broadcast. This is an Internet television station which will broadcast only in the Romani language and will be produced for all Roma. The Internet television project is aimed primarily at those Roma who are fluent in their native language or who are currently learning it.

Osviecim 7, August (AMM) -  Ceremonies marking the Day of Remembrance for the Exterminaton of the Roma were held on the sixty-sixth anniversary of the liquidation of the Familienzigeunerlager, the so-called family camp for Sinti and Roma in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. The several hundred people in attendance included former prisoners of Auschwitz and other Nazi camps and ghettos, Roma from Poland and abroad, government officials including Minister Elżbieta Radziszewska as the representative of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, representatives of the European Commission, members of the diplomatic corps, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and members of the staff, and local officials.
In his remarks, Roman Kwiatkowski, President of the Association of Roma in Poland, noted that “for us Roma, this is a symbolic place. It was precisely here that the last surviving Roma prisoners in the so-called Familienzigeunerlager were put to death in the gas chamber. That is why I wish to express my satisfaction that, just here at this site of the tragedy of our people, which is sometimes referred to as the Roma Holocaust, there is permanent remembrance in the form of a plaque.