Author: Workshop VLocation: EastWest Institute – PragueEva BajgerovaRomany Advisor, Usti nad LabemLocal Project Coordinator, Stories Exchange ProjectThere are problems communicating with — I don’t want to say working-class: with socially weak Roms. They look at us as having become too assimilated. They call me a coconut. That is, that I look like a Rom, I’m dark but inside I […]
Stories & Responses
Roma as a nation have a right to have our own representatives
Monika HorakovaMember of the Czech Parliamentin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirector, The Stories Exchange ProjectCzech Ministry of Foreign AffairsPrague1 December 2000Jack ErwinSo what about your story? How did you get to do what you’re doing? You’re a member of the Czch Parliament, a woman, a Rom, not too old: how did this come about?Monika HorakovaThank you […]
Unless you want to end up inside a horse
Hana KozurikováNymburkJuly 2000When I was a little girl, my Dad told me a drastic story someone had once told him.As a grown-up I heard it again. This time from a friend who didn’t see it himself either. Then, not long ago, I discovered that in the village of Ratenice in Nymburk County lives a Mr. […]
Who wouldn’t want to look nice
Author: Eva BajgerovaLocation: Usti nad LabemMy brothers and sisters and I are Romany, but we attended an elementary school. My mother knew all the teachers. My brothers and sisters were average students, and sometimes they were even naughty. But I was very obedient and studied well. When I became a seventh grader I was supposed […]
They don’t want to participate
Author: Workshop VLocation: EastWest Institute – PragueIvana SimikovaCounsellorDrom CenterBrnoThese people who live in the house where Drom is located: they expect a lot of help from us. And they expect it because they are not able to become active themselves. They are passively waiting for support and they want a finished product in their hands. They want […]
If we’re dissatisfied about something, we’ll complain
John ShattuckU.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republicin conversation withJohn W. ErwinDirectorThe Stories Exchange ProjectU.S. Ambassador’s ResidencePrague28 November 2000 John ErwinThe situations in the States and in the Czech Republic are of course very different. What’s been your experience of translating – and mediating, in a sense – between these two cultures?John ShattuckThe most important thing to do here, I’ve found, […]
Terezin was much worse than the wall in Maticni Street
David FerkoUsti nad LabemI’m in Terezin for the first time, and I have a very bad feeling being here. I’m frightened to stand here, because I can imagine all the people who were here and all the suffering they went through. Somebody told me that there were sixty women in this very, very small room. […]
I never saw such respect for old people
Tereza VrbováPragueBohous is my sister’s husband. At the moment he works as a bus driver, but when my sister first met him, Bohous drove an emergency ambulance. His encounter with a Romany family, described in the following story, took place in those days. I had to make quite an effort to get this story out […]
She took the picture from me
Author: Lucie ConkováLocation: Usti nad LabemUnfortunately I don’t know Denisaês last name. She is a student at the Faculty of Social Studies in Prague. I met her when she was doing her practical training in Maticní Street in Ustí."I will tell you a story that happened to me when I was a little girl. It […]
I was lucky it was a skinhead
Lubos DrslíkStudent, Vranovska SchoolBrnoI can’t stop being amazed at the things that are happening. It’s terrible: the anarchists are fighting the skinheads, and the skinheads are fighting the anarchists. And all around us are the victims of these senseless movements. One day I went to the supermarket and saw a skinhead. He was tall, like […]
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