The Roma Cafe

Istvan Pogany

Description

The plight of Eastern Europe's Roma is one of the greatest challenges facing the continent. Largely hidden, this book offers an eye-opening, poignant and intriguing analysis of the diverse problems facing Central and Eastern Europe's gypsy populations, including the largely unacknowledged legacy of the Roma Holocaust.



Engaging with a broad range of issues including racism, stereotyping, and political and economic transition in ex-Communist states, Istvan Pogany challenges the most common preconceptions about the Roma. He looks at the specifics of indiviual Romani lives, particularly in Hungary and Romania.



Highlighting the difficulties that all marginal peoples face, Pogany explains how the Roma have been devastated by the economic transition from Communism to open markets since 1989. Poverty, lack of education, as well as widespread anti-Roma discrimination and inadequate legal protection, have left the Roma facing intense hardship since the collapse of welfare states. However, this book is not just a catalogue of the challenges that the Roma face -- it is also a celebration of Roma cultures and of the acceptance of difference -- something that is more important than ever in our multicultural societies.
Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. The Hairy Thing that Bites, or why Gypsies shun Gadje

2. The Devouring

3. Maybe Tomorrow there Won't even be Bread

4. The Czardas

5. Nomads

6. Aniko

7. The Lambada

8. The Roma Cafe

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Human Rights
• Political Science
• Romany

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 avril 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783715657
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Roma Café
 
 
The Roma Café
Human Rights and the Plight of the Romani People
István Pogány
 
 
 
 
 
 
First published 2004 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © István Pogány 2004
The right of István Pogány to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN    0 7453 2052 X    hardback
ISBN    0 7453 2051 1    paperback
ISBN    978 1 7837 1565 7    ePub
ISBN    978 1 7837 1566 4    Mobi
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pogany, Istvan S.
    The Roma Café / Istvan Pogany.
        p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
    ISBN 0–7453–2052–X (cloth) — ISBN 0–7453–2051–1 (pbk.)
 1. Romanies—Europe, Eastern. 2. Europe, Eastern—Ethnic relations.
I. Title.
    DX210.P64 2004
    305.891’49704—dc22
2003023261
10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Printed and bound in the European Union by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England
 
 
 
Contents
Acknowledgements
1
Introduction
2
The Hairy Thing that Bites, or why Gypsies shun Gadje
3
The Devouring
4
Maybe Tomorrow there Won’t even be Bread
5
The Czardas
6
Nomads
7
Anikó
8
The Lambada
9
The Roma Café
Notes
Bibliography
Index
 
 
 
Acknowledgements
Research grants from several bodies enabled me to familiarise myself with the conditions in which many Roma live in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, to conduct lengthy, semi-structured interviews and to work in specialist libraries. I should like to thank, in particular, the Airey Neave Trust, which awarded me a fellowship to work on the minorities problems that have arisen in Central and Eastern Europe since the end of Communism, the British Academy, the Nuffield Foundation, the University of Warwick’s Research and Teaching Development Fund, and its Legal Research Institute.
This book could not have been written without the help and encouragement of numerous friends and colleagues. Dr Péter Szuhay of Budapest’s Museum of Ethnography patiently instructed me in ethnographic techniques. He also shared with me his vast knowledge of the Roma of Hungary and Romania. Péter and Bea’s hospitality, at their house in Tök, has been extraordinary. Suppers (and breakfasts) at their village home have been some of the most memorable, if girth expanding, experiences I can recall. The distinguished film-maker Edit Kőszegi, who has directed several highly regarded films and documentaries on Roma themes, helped me in innumerable ways. Chapter 4 draws on a documentary that she is making with Péter Szuhay about Roma naive artists in Hungary. Dr Zoe Waxman, Lecturer in Modern European History at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, deepened my understanding of oral history and kindly read a draft of my chapter on the Roma Holocaust. She helped me to appreciate both the potentialities and pitfalls of oral history as a medium of historical inquiry. Dr Paul Gready of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, kindly discussed with me the use of personal testimonies in socio-scientific research. Professor Judith Okely of the University of Hull gave me invaluable advice on a range of topics. Professor Harry Arthurs of Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Ontario, Canada, challenged my sometimes excessive enthusiasm for rights and for the judicial process as a means of helping disadvantaged groups.
In Romania, I benefited from the help, kindness and hospitality of a wide range of people, not all of whom can be named. I should like to thank, in particular, Dr Eugen Baican, Dr Levente Salat and Dr Virgiliu Târău, of the University of Babeş-Bolyai, Áron and Kati Balló, Maria Cheregi, Dan Doghi and his family, István Haller of Liga Pro Europa, Florin Moisa, Alex Negrea, Géza Ötvös, Andrei Szantó and the staff of Wassdas, Marius Titi and his family, Julia Todea, Levente Tolas, as well as my indefatigable research assistants, Mihaela Chiorean and Alina Ghergha.
In addition to Edit Kőszegi and Dr Péter Szuhay, I relied on assistance and support from the following in Hungary: Jean Garland, Jim Goldston, Ioana Banu and other past and present staff at the European Roma Rights Center, Aladár Horváth and colleagues at the Romani Civil Rights Foundation, Dr Gábor Halmai of the Human Rights Information Center, Dr Gábor Kardos of the Eötvos Loránd University, Budapest, and Dr Szilveszter Pócsik of the National Institute of Criminology. Attila Hunyádi, Adél Pomázi, Gabriella Szabó and Judit Szabó variously collected Hungarian-language research materials, transcribed tapes of interviews and provided other forms of research assistance. Miklós Mádl took the photographs included in Chapters 2 , 7 and 8 of this book. I am grateful to him for allowing me to reproduce them. Dr Éva Horváth not only contributed to this project in countless ways but also eased my (re)entry into Hungarian life, helping me navigate various bureaucratic obstacles when I decided to purchase a small apartment in Budapest. This book is dedicated to her in appreciation of her warm and unstinting friendship.
At the University of Warwick, I benefited from research assistance by Oby Agu and Thérèse Lepicard, and good-humoured secretarial support from June Green and, latterly, Aileen Stockham. Irene Blood and her colleagues in the University’s Finance Department have had to deal with a bewildering array of invoices, including one for the hire of a horse and cart – literally the only way to reach an isolated Romani farmstead several kilometres from the nearest surfaced road at a season of the year when the ground was treacherous with thigh-deep mud.
Several friends and colleagues have been kind enough to read one or more chapters in draft and to offer their comments. I should like to thank, in particular, Professor Upendra Baxi and Dr Andrew Williams of the Department of Law, University of Warwick, Professor Robert Fine of the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Dr Erika Harris of the Department of Politics, University of Leeds, Dr Eric Heinze of the School of Law, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, Dr Boldizsár Nagy of the Faculty of Law, Eötvos Loránd University, Budapest, and Dr Marcia Rooker, formerly of the Faculty of Law, University of Nijmegen. My wife, Ruth Pogány, a practising lawyer who also holds an MA in English Language and Literature, read various chapters in draft and offered valuable legal and editorial advice. I should also like to thank the anonymous academic referees who reviewed my manuscript for Pluto and who made several very helpful suggestions. However, my greatest debt is to the hundreds of Roma whom I met, especially in Romania and Hungary, while researching this book. In particular, I should like to express my appreciation to the Romani families who accepted me into their homes, whenever I called, and who conveyed to me some sense of their lives and concerns at this critical juncture in the history of the Roma. If any readers would like to support Wassdas, an NGO that has been working with the destitute Roma of the Pata Rât settlement in Romania, funds can be sent to the following accounts:

(in EUROS) SV 9499501300
(in US $) SV 6734671300
SWIFT: BRDROBU
Banca Romania de Dezvoltare, Sucursala Cluj,
B-dul 21 decembrie 1989, Nr. 81–83, Romania.
Wassdas, Str. Tipografiei Nr. 28, 3400 Chij-Napoca, Romania
An extract from Chapter 6 was published on 11 June 2001 in Szabadság , a Hungarian-language daily newspaper in Transylvanian Romania. An earlier and shorter version of Chapter 3 was published as ‘Memory and forgetting: The Roma Holocaust’ in Paul Gready (ed.), Political Transition (London: Pluto, 2003), Chapter 5 . An article, ‘Refashioning rights in Central and Eastern Europe: Some implications for the region’s Roma’, was published in March 2004 in European Public Law (Vol. 10, No. 1), incorporating extracts from Chapters 1 , 5 , 6 and 8 .
István Pogány
Warwickshire and Budapest, September 2003
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For Éva
 
 
 
1
Introduction
THE TRANSITION FROM COMMUNISM
Since the collapse of Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) the region’s 6 million Roma, or Gypsies, have rarely been out of the news. 1 There has been a disturbing pattern of unprovoked assaults on Roma, of severe beatings inflicted on Romani suspects in police stations – several of which have resulted in fatalities – and of ‘pogroms’ in which Romani-owned houses have been set on fire and their inhabitants variously beaten, lynched or chased from villages in which they were settled, sometimes for generations. 2
The squalor and destitution in which a large proportion of the Roma have lived in the CEE countries, particularly since the end of state socialism, has also attracted attention. 3 All too often Gypsies are to be found in overcrowded tenements in the poorer parts of towns and cities across Central and Eastern Europe. In rural areas, Gypsies frequently occupy substandard houses many of which are located, pariah-like, at the edge of villages.
Hundreds of thousands of Roma, particularly in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and in parts of the former Yugoslavia, live in settlements with limited access to clean water, sanitation or basic medical care. 4 Many of these settlements, like the one at Pata Rât on the outskirts of the city of Cluj-Napoca, in Romania, pose additional health hazards for the Gypsies living there. Known as ‘Dallas’ by its residents, who have evidently not lost their sense of humour, P