Archive: Society | Minorities Minorities
"A Vanished World" provides unique glimpse of Romani and Sinti life destroyed by Holocaust
This week saw the opening of "A Vanished World" a unique photo
exhibition at the National Gallery's Veletrzni Palac in Prague. The show is
based solely on never before publicly viewed photographs of Roma and Sinti
families who once lived in the Czech lands. The show represents lives and a
way of life, destroyed in the Romani Holocaust.
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Monkey chants and Nazi salutes: Czech football at a crossroads
Czech football has seen some great results in recent years. The Czech
national team has been doing fairly well on the international scene and
Slavia Prague made it into the prestigious Champions League this year. But
all this could fade into the background if one issue is not addressed. In
this week's Panorama, we look at the problem of racism at Czech football
stadiums. More
African refugee camp comes to Prague
You might be familiar with touring photo exhibitions like 'the Earth from
the Air' pitching up in your town, but what about a touring refugee-camp?
On Tuesday, Prague's Namesti Miru was transformed into a tent city as
Medecins Sans Frontieres came to town. The humanitarian organization is in
Prague until Sunday, exhibiting a model replica of an African refugee
camp.
On display are typical living quarters, hospital tents, a communal
kitchen,
and latrines. More
Czechs and Faust: A continuing affair
The story of Faust, the doctor who makes a pact with the devil in his
pursuit of knowledge, has captured the imagination of some of the great
Czech dramatists. In 1985, Vaclav Havel tackled the legend in his play
Temptation, or Pokouseni, as it is known in Czech. Just under a decade
later, animator Jan Svankmajer tried his hand at the story, producing a
grotesque feature-film called Lekce Faust.
More
Celebrating ethnic diversity at Nations of River Dyje festival
In this week's Panorama, we visit the South Moravian town of Mikulov, which
from July 27th - 29th hosted the eighth annual Nations of the River Dyje
Festival, a unique celebration of ethnic and cultural diversity.
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Hip-hop musician Gipsy appointed ambassador for minorities
The singer for the popular Czech Roma band Gipsy.cz, which plays an
explosive mixture of hip-hop and traditional Romany music, has taken on a
new - for his fans perhaps somewhat surprising - role. This week the
minister in charge of human rights, Dzamila Stehlikova, appointed
Gipsy.cz's Radoslav "Gipsy" Banga ambassador for minorities as
part of the European Year of Equal Opportunities.
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New proposals to compensate Roma women sterilized involuntarily
Reports of the sterilization of Romany women stretch back to the 1970s.
Experts suspect that there could be up to 2000 women in the Czech
Republic, who have been sterilized against their will. Since 1991 at least
85 women and one man have lodged complaints with the Czech ombudsman,
claiming to have been sterilized involuntarily. The Vybor pro lidska prava
a biomedecinu (the Commission for biomedicine and human rights), a
government advisory committee, this week suggested that the state should
create a fund to compensate these women. The suggested pay-out is around
CZK 200,000, or USD 10,000, per victim. But the minister responsible has
rejected this idea, while Romany rights groups have deemed the measures
insufficient. Kumar Vishvanathan is a Romany rights worker in Ostrava:
More
Senator in hot water after secret recording captures racist remarks
A popular senator and local mayor from the north Moravian city of Ostrava
is fighting accusations of racism, following the release on Tuesday of a
recording of a local housing committee meeting. Senator Liana Janackova is
apparently heard making derogatory and threatening remarks about Romanies
in her ward, remarks which she says have been taken out of context.
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Magazine
The very first pub on wheels in the Czech Republic! Czech hunters have held
their annual "elk bugling" contest - and, who says fishing in
Prague is no fun? An Australian angler lands the biggest fish ever to come
out of the Vltava River. Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
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Business News
In Business News this week: the Czech Republic posts record export figures;
the country is set to produce a million cars a year, says an industry
leader; the Czech economy continues to grow at over 6 percent;
unemployment falls further to 6.4 percent; Czech firms are among Europe's
worst when it comes to paying their debts on time; and Czech female
managers make half as much as their male counterparts.
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