And the story is the same in
Romania, Czech and Slovak Republic. In the Czech Republic they built a wall down
the middle of the street to keep the the Roma away from the good Czechs.
Reminds you of Alabama in the 1950s.
Budapest Sun
Roma Department Counter Prejudices
LJUBLJANA, Sep 6, 2000 -- (http://www.budapestsun.com/)
The Ministry
of Education is considering withdrawing textbooks that are claimed to house
racist information regarding the Roma community in Hungary.
One book claims that many Roma, "were unable to and did not
even want to adapt to a civilized European way of life," and, "the life of
Romany is marked by crime".
Education Ministry official Lajos Aary-Tam·s said, "The
Ministry might scrap such books from the official list of schools if they prove
to be prejudiced."
Material deemed to be racist is to be given to experts and
Roma organizations for examination. One such book was published two years ago
and the Ministry is worried that the literature perpetrates the prejudices
against Roma that have currently been cited in Hungary.
The Education Ministry is aware that the Hungarian public is
ill informed and uneducated in the culture of Hungarian Roma.
Zolt·n Pokorni, Minister of Education, said that
schoolteachers are not sufficiently aware of the Roma traditions and announced
that the college of Eger (Northeastern Hungary) will start a course in September
2001 that will specialize in Romany studies.
The Government recently drafted a Ft4 billion (USD 13.9
million) Roma program that included training and educational funds, but the
strong and often negative feelings towards Romany is widespread. PÈter Harrach,
Minister of Social and Family Affairs, recently said the Government had done
more to help the Roma than the Roma had done to help themselves.
Orb·n then added to Harrack's remarks, in relation to the
current exodus of Roma to France who say they are being politically persecuted,
by saying the Hungarian Roma should try to learn and work more.
According to the Educational Ministry, 30 percent of Roma
children remain in school until the age of 14 and every third Roma child at
school grows up in a home environment where both families are
unemployed.
On KrÛnika, a daily Hungarian news radio program, the
village of Bog·cs (northeastern Hungary) was cited as having a primary school
where Roma school children were opens discriminated against.
The Roma children were isolated from white Hungarian
children and were not allowed to drink water from the same glass, according to
the report.
The school's headmaster refused to confirm or deny the
broadcast.
(C) 2000 Budapest Sun
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