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The DVD was filmed as part of the project "I am Roma: Changing Mindsets"
The project contributes to the development of European society
based on respect of fundamental human rights.
The main goal is to fight against discrimination,
racism and xenophobia of the society against Roma minority.
The activities of the project aim to change
the perception of Roma minority by majority society;
strive for peaceful coexistence between majority society and Roma people;
and the protection of children´s rights.
The project is implemented on a local level in Prague.
The project was implemented thanks to a grant from European Commission programme -
Fundamental rights and Citizenship.
European development agency collaborates on the project
with top experts, NGOs (Nova skola, RomPraha)
and with representatives of the public sector -
The Prague City Hall, City District Prague 5
and The House of National Minorities.
A program, which focused on security,
was prepared for children from primary schools.
Children could directly discuss the topic with representatives of police.
During the day, the children learned how to act in dangerous situations.
Policemen showed them basic defensive positions in practice.
Part of the program of the second day
was screening of the movie "Who's Afraid, runs" directed by Dušan Klein.
The movie tells a story of a young teacher in a small village in the border area
who is trying to introduce teaching in primary school
and to include the Roma children in it.
The movie nicely shows the life of the Roma in the postwar era,
elements of their culture and traditions.
A part of project was an exhibition.
The exhibition consisted of 29 black and white photographs
from the cycle of "Good times" which show Roma life in the late 19th century.
Part of the exhibition were traditional Roma clothing -
Finnish group Kale, Roma women clothing from Russia and clothes,
which belonged to Princess Luminita Cioaba from Romania.
The exhibits were loaned by the Museum of Roma Culture in Brno.
Children participated in the project interactively.
An art competition was announced for children.
83 pictures competed in the competition.
The non-Roma society doesn´t know the mentality of Roma,
their history and other facts at all.
The society perceives only negative things.
For example, there are around 200 000 Roma people in Czech Republic
and less than half of them are dependent on social benefits.
Why are they dependent on social benefits?
It is because they do not get a job.
The racism is present here like everywhere in Europe -
I don't say whether it is bigger or smaller.
The problem of the Czech Republic is that we are interested in
Brazilian tribes and many other things,
but we do not know the people who live with us here.
If Roma children know more about Roma history,
it contributes definitely to the feeling of being proud of their nationality.
For example, lately we visited the House of National Minorities several times -
wonderful events, children were active, they painted pictures.
One of the topics was the Roma history.
Roma children suddenly realised, that they have to go and
ask their parents: "how was it?
Where are we from? What were we doing?"
The parents started to talk with them.
I do not think that this happens spontaneously in families -
talking about Roma history.
Roma people are proud of themselves.
But it would be better for them, if they realised their own history,
their compactness, their common roots.
It would shift their self-confidence, their opportunities
for better inclusion in the society.
I think, nowadays some children do not know where they belong.
Roma people knew more about their history before.
People talked more. There was no TV and no computers.
Roma talked a lot in families. I remember, that children from this school
used to know more about Roma history and
they could speak better Romani.
Romani was spoken a lot in the school.
Current generation does not know much about history.
Romani can be hardly heard at school except for the classic characteristic words.
For this reason, I think, that visits of the House of National Minorities,
where we go now often, are beneficial.
Children return to the Roma culture and Roma history.
It is better for them, for their integration, pride and knowledge.
From which century do the first references about Roma people living in Prague date?
First references about Roma people are from the 15th century.
They came from India and they lived in Smíchov, I guess.
Do you know in which crafts they excelled?
They wove baskets. They smithed.
They read cards and they were fortune tellers.
They made troughs.
A trough is a thing in which you put water inside.
Something like a small bath-tub.
Before they worked with wood and
today they are bricklayers, cooks, car mechanics.
I do not know. For example they are garbage men,
do different crafts.
My father cleans in an English school and my mum works in Tesco.
There are various Roma clubs, where children can go in the afternoons.
I think that a lot of children visit them.
Here, children can dance, sing, play a keyboard
or play some games for younger children.
Or there are children - not many - who visit leisure -
time activities paid by their parents.
It is mainly boys who play football.
Roma people are incredibly motion-talented.
There is a potential that is necessary to emphasize.
It needs to be developed,
supported and promoted.
Roma children are so much talented manually and motionally.
They really use their talents.
Dance, music and sport are things
which they were born for… all of them.
I would say without exception.
I have not met any Roma who would not be.
When I see them to turn on the music
and they start dancing, I just stare and I say to myself:
"if I would practise for a week,
I could manage three steps." (laugh) It is in them.
What do I think of the Roma?
I think that everything begins in family.
Everyone, who wants to live and survive,
needs education, work and housing.
If somebody does not have an education,
it will be hard for him to get a job.
If he has the job finally,
it is very hard to work on himself to keep the job.
And of course housing.
If he does not have a job, he has the housing for a while.
After a while it can happen that he will not have money for housing.
You can be homeless from one day to another.
Nowadays, a Roma person, who applies several times for a job and
has the necessary education and documents and he is rejected:
"No, you do not fulfil...", he will reason it for himself:
"It is because I am Roma".
The reason does not have to be that,
but he will leave with this experience.
This is an example of an educated person.
There are people who have only elementary education and
these people have big problem to succeed on labour market.
When they are rejected few times in a row,
what are they reliant for?
I understand those people when they have nothing to eat and
have children, that they go and steal iron.
It is because they have to give something to eat to their children.
Everything is about job, housing and education.
I think these 3 themes are the basis of everything.
How do you choose your friends?
I choose friends so that they are good and nice.
I choose friends who do not take drugs,
who are not rude or who do not steal.
It does not matter what race they are.
According to their behaviour.
Whether they pay attention.
According to their style.
Whether they are good friends.
The age is important, because
the older they are the more important they behave.
When they are older, they are nicer to us.
For example, they give us cookies and so on.
It does not matter whether
I am friends with gadjos (non-Roma) or with gypsies.
I do not care at all.
The main thing is that they are nice to me
and how they behave to me.
When they are nice to me, I am nice to them, too.
Roma children are communicative.
They talk to anybody without a problem.
They do not keep distance.
I think that children from the majority society
put on trial at first.
They are influenced by their families:
"Be careful, he could this", "she could that".
Non-Roma children are more cautions because of this.
Roma children are open.
If you offer them a hand, they will accept it.
They will not examine what clothes you have on,
what is your character and what not,
what kind of snack you have.
They do not care.
You are a friend.
Anybody from majority group, who would like to
be friends with a Roma, will be accepted.
The groups of children are mixed, certainly.
Which words from Romani do you know?
"Dilini" is disabled.
"Love" is money.
"Chalovat" is to eat.
"More" is a boy.
"Caje" is a woman.
Children do not meet with each other in ordinary life.
This is a big problem for the future, because it means,
that they know only the bad things about the other.
They are watching TV, reading news,
where good news is no news.
So, they are not in contact with Roma people in their everyday life.
They know them only through intermediary - media reality.
The media reality is, I think,
significantly worse than true reality.
For example they told me:
"We get on the tram and suddenly all people grab their bags.
Are we going to chor (steal) them?
They are right.
That a priori mistrust towards Roma is wrong.
I think that media do not look for any peaceful topics.
On contrary. They need humbug.
They need a headline which catches peoples eye or ear.
For example when there was a demonstration in Varnsdorf against Roma,
the headlines wrote: "Decent citizens - fight against Roma".
The Roma can not be decent citizens?
At the demonstration gathered a group of people
who disagreed with something.
Maybe, if I lived in Varnsdorf, I would agree with something
and disagree with something else.
But the media search for tension.
And so, with their work they support the negative stereotypes,
which are in the society.
When you look on the internet at various comments under Roma scandals,
it makes you feel sick and you do not even want to read it.
The reading of these comments
supports other readers to think, that it is true without being there.
The media are extremely powerful
to dig someone six feet under.
Another brilliant example:
a fictive Roma political party, a fictive cashier, a fictive theft.
It got attention of all media.
And then the Roma server Romea.cz investigated it...
Of course, it was found out that
member of the Parliamentary journal was one person,
who was or still is active in the Worker's Party.
When the Czech Radio prepared
a reportage about it with the Parliamentary journal,
they told us that they had information only from that one person.
And if we look at journalism ethics,
a journalist can not verify information from only one person.
I need at least three independent sources.
There may not be my subjective opinion in the reportage.
And this fiction about the theft and political party
was taken over by the Czech News Agency and many other Czech media.
And the fact that there was afterwards a small supplement of apology
from Parliament Journal will not erase
the negative stereotypes of majority society.
I think that all these things support
a lot the negative mood in majority society.
When the social benefits are discussed on TV,
why there are not showed illustrative shots of majority society?
There are, of course, used automatically illustrative shots with Roma people.
How would you like it, if someone examined your bag
every time you were shopping?
If someone examined my bag every time I was shopping,
I would not like it, because they do not do it to everybody.
They do it only to gypsies.
It would humble us.
I rather would not like it.
If I had something important in my bag,
I would not like it really.
If they would it to everybody, I would agree,
but if they would do it only to gypsies, it would not be fair.
You can change your clothes,
you can change your hairstyle,
but you can not change the colour of your skin.
I would not want to change the colour of my skin.
I like it that I am gypsy.
No, I would want to stay the way I am. I am proud of it.
People denounce everybody
If someone is decent and someone is not,
people think about the decent person that he is not decent.
Because he is a gypsy and they think that all gypsies are the same.
Most Roma children behave decently...
when an old man or woman gets in a public transport vehicle,
Roma children immediately leave the seat and let them sit.
They respect older people.
I would say that they have better example from their families
than children from majority society.
I have never heard about Roma family,
that they would send their old relative to a nursing home.
They help them until their death.
And it is worth following.
I have never heard about a Roma stealing grandmother's pension,
as it happens by non-Roma.
It never happened.
I work here a long time and it has never happened.
They care about each other.
They would rather live ten in one room,
but they will care about their old people.
The oldest ones have the most important word in the family.
They are still honoured and
respected.
We can not re-educate adults.
A proverb says, bend tree while it is young.
What other than education from school years
can change mindsets?
We can not change adults and old people,
because it is embedded in them.
The fear exists in both nationalities.
What is done in schools is very important.
I think it has a future and these activities should be intensified.
The cultures should meet,
children should know each other.
The children are the same.
It does not matter if the children are black, yellow or blue, they are the same.
They are equally naughty or understanding.
There is still a big fight by adults between majority and minority.
Pictures which children sent to the competition were very creative.
An expert jury, which had the duty to select
only a couple of award-winning pictures, had a very hard work.
Even the children had the opportunity to choose the price of audience.
They chose a picture with an apposite name,
guess how it is called?