About 2 weeks, ago, there were some violent demonstrations in Slovakia by Roma over welfare cutbacks.
That probably prompted this editorial by an online news group, TOL, that covers Central and Eastern Europe:
Equal but still separate
The editorial compares the plight of the Roma (a.k.a. Gypsies) to Black Americans before Civil Rights. Apparently, this follows remarks by Jack Greenberg in Budapest last year comparing "black and Romani movements." Greenberg was one of the attorneys who argued for the plaintiff in Brown v. Bd.
The editorial suggests that Roma need their version of Brown v. Bd, and describes the poor education situation that Romani kids suffer (despite western funding of the schools).
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It's interesting that a U.S. Civil Rights struggle strategy might be adopted by a minority group in Eastern Europe.
I'm thinking about visiting a bit of the Czech Republic, so I wonder about minority affairs there and Eastern Europe.
I'd certainly expect matters to be a bit diffferent than here in the States.
I tried to explore the difference between Western Europe and the U.S. during one of my trips to Germany. About a year-and-a-half ago, I visited the state of Nordrhein Westfalen (NRW). In surfing the web, before my trip, I discovered that there was this state government bureau called the Landeszentrum fuer Zuwanderung (Center for Immigration Affairs).
So I popped by for a visit, since I was in the area. I guess you could say that it's similar to the US Civil Rights Commission. (perhaps without the bickering that's plagued the commission in the past)
Posted by raacluse at March 5, 2004 06:16 PM