Lucie ConkováDoubravka Training CenterJune 2000My friend and I went to a discotheque. The bouncer told us he would not let us in. Since I worked as an office assistant, I knew what to do.The owner of the place told us: "I don´t let Gypsies in.” He told us to open our own discotheque, turned away […]
John Erwin
I did not keep my promise
Dezidor Lacko [written by Hana Kozuriková]Jarovnice, Slovakia August 2000My daughter Darina was very pretty. She had long wavy hair and full lips. She had her first baby when she was sixteen, and by the time she was thirty she had eight children. She looked after them all. She was also a good housekeeper and a […]
Mind your own business, nigger!
Michal BasikRoztoky, near PragueJuly 2000The story I’m about to tell you isn’t very nice, even though it’s about me.It happened one summer about twelve years ago. My father, my stepmother, my sisters and I used to go every year to Mostek, in eastern Bohemia. There wasn’t anything unique about it. We would go mushroom-picking, look […]
You can always count on us
Zdenek Ridaj Nove Straseci July 2000 I come from a Romany family. We’re seven brothers and sisters. I’m the eldest. These days, children and young people are in danger of drugs. Unfortunately, it struck our family, too. I was trying to decided whether I should write about this and finally decided that I would: it’s an important […]
Guess what I have in my backpack, mate!
Zdenka ŠímováNymburkAugust 2000Mrs. Vejtrubová works in the social department of our district council. Through her work she often meets Romanies and she has told me a few stories drawing on her practical experience with them. I probed further, wanting to know whether she had also had some experience with skinheads. In response to that question […]
People can’t look down from the heights
People Can’t Look Down from the HeightsInterviewer: Kveta ConkováSpeaker: AnonymousPragueJune 2000 It all started in 1997 when I was eighteen. I had a job that I really liked. I worked as a clerk in a small electronics store. I would go to work each morning, and was happy all day long. When I came home […]
The Change
Emilie HorackovaMimonWaist-long golden hair and eyes like the sky: I longed for this beauty. I wanted people’s hearts to melt the moment they saw me. I wanted to change at any cost.I wanted to change, and change I would!I invoked both God and the devil to come and grant me what I asked."I want to […]
Cheerio!
Olga FecovaPragueAugust 2000One day an old Romany village woman decided to get some shopping done in the nearby town. She got in the bus and a few minutes later she was downtown shopping. Excited by the traffic and lively atmosphere, she bought just about anything that attracted her attention. After an hour’s shopping spree the […]
Roma are free people
ROMA ARE FREE PEOPLEZdenka SimovaNymburkAugust 2000 The following story was told to me by Mrs. Vejtrubova, an officer at the Social Affairs Department in the Nymburk City Hall . She was very kind and told me about experiences that she has had working there. “I met a very interesting man at a training session recently. […]
I told him that I know them
Author: Ivana Simikova, BrnoLocation: EastWest Institute – PragueI just successfully completed an international project.We had eight young Germans from Leipzig come to our Center in Brno. Four of them were Russian Germans, immigrants from Russia, and three – and the leader – were Germans. They met with our Romany kids and also with Czech students. We spent four days together. We […]
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