Congrats, you finally adopted a law in June of 2009 after a veto and year-long delay.

http://romove.radio.cz/en/clanek/22523

Somehow that makes you a leader in the fight against discrimination against the Roma?

Everybody is a nationalist around here. Seems like the Greeks & Americans are the only ones with a sober and self-critical view of their own country. Glossing over and minimizing the historic and continued Czech repression of the Roma is really alarming, and belies your earlier contempt for our "friend" the German arch-nationalist Kaiser.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,786495,00.html

And the article was written three months after your law was passed, so obviously that means that the school segregation problem has been fixed via the law, magic-style.

I'm sorry, but the notion that the Roma had a swell time of it under Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact buddies is laughable.

Forced relocations, assimilation policies, and sterilization don't sound fun to me. Communist Bulgaria and Hungary banned Romani music, cultural traditions, and did their best to cull them.

Even in Soviet Russia, the Ruska Romani were routinely subjected to oppression and supression of their culture.

To be fair, Russian Romani have had it worse since the fall of the wall. Surprise! Russia sucks these days for non-Russians. But to correlate Soviet rule with tolerance is completely wrong mate. Try again please.

Friendly, you make some good points, do you come from Eastern Europe?

I would object to that statement that the Greeks and Americans are looking objectively and self-critically at their own countries. Certainly not the average person on the street. Many Americans still believe that they are the strongest, most important player in world politics as they always have been and always will be, oblivious to the fact that times have changed since the 1960s. In Greece, the people are vehemently opposed to the austerity measures being set in place to save their government from bankruptcy.

Any trite anti-communist remark, article, or book is automatically hailed as a 'good point/work', etc. Which is why lousy writers continue to win prizes for their ideological utility.

I was referring to the Greeks & Americans who post here, not Greeks & Americans generally. Although I think the people in the streets of Greece are absolutely correct and their economy has been targeted by a speculative attack. Austerity isn't going to save them from anything.

On the Roma in socialist countries, unfortunately not enough time to go into it. Will later. Suffice to say even this achievement will of course be ridiculed by knee-jerk anti-communists who can't give socialist countries credit for anything.

Putin: "Although I think the people in the streets of Greece are absolutely correct...Austerity isn't going to save them"
Correct. But the middle part "has been targeted by a speculative attack" is inaccurate.
Let's just say, the Greeks lied about their finances and used taxes to pay for patronage. And they won't pay their taxes because it's considered stupid. They brought this upon themselves.

I don't understand how any country that doesn't have to pay tax can be considered "socialist". TC must be off his tree.

They didn't lie about their finances any more than several other countries, and in terms of 'patronage', Greece has the smallest government workforce in the OECD. It's public sector workforce is lower than numerous other European countries and it's public spending as as a % of GDP was lower than the EU average, so where's the patronage?
Greeks work more hours per week (690 hours per year more than those hardworking Germans), get less vacation time (7 less days than the Germans per year), and have a higher retirement age than the Germans and the Eu average. All the crap said about the Greeks has turned out to be false.

The story of Greece is the story of bailing out and enriching central European banks and nothing else.

As for the Romany people in socialist countries, you cannot act as if though things were only marginally better - the post-communist period has been an absolute disaster for Romany people.

Under socialism, there was full employment with Roma working in regular jobs for decades. In post-communist utopias - Roma people 70-80% unemployment across eastern Europe, and in regions and in rural areas where they're the majority it's even higher than that. Under socialism, again Roma had jobs. In the post-communist era they have to rely on the limited benefits afforded by the welfare state. Consequently the overwhelming majority of Roma are impoverished thanks to the free market.

Under socialism, land was collectivized and Roma worked in cooperatives. With privatized land ownership in the post-communist era, they have nothing.

Under socialism, there were few incidents of hate crimes and racially motivated assaults. Since 1990, these have skyrocketed. Incidentally, *by far* the most attacks have occurred in the Czech Republic.
http://journals.ohiolink.edu.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/Barany_Zoltan.pdf?issn=08883254&issue=v15i0001&article=64_tsiorcegmit1

Under socialism, there were never public pronouncements by mainstream politicians of anti-Roma bigotry. Since 1990, racism on the part of public officials and the media is routine. Political parties have now formed with the explicit purpose of instigating hate and violence against the Roma, such as the Bulgarian "Attack" party. Large percentages of the populations want all Roma expelled from their country.

Under socialism, people were guaranteed access to healthcare, housing and education. Since 1990, Roma have been put in special schools for 'dysfunctional' children, housed in state-sponsored ghettos, and deprived of access to healthcare. In the post-communist era, the overwhelmingly majority of children in orphanages are Roma. They now live in places with no clean water, no sewage system, no garbage removal, and no access to medical facilities.

In socialist countries, Roma's educational achievement was higher than ever. States supported nurseries and kindergartens (post-1990 enrollment no longer was compulsory and they charged fees). Prior to 1990 between 85-90% of Roma children attended kindergarten, now in many socialist countries that figure is 0-15%. Roma children learned their own language, now support for Romany language programs is nil unless it's fought for by Roma activist groups and even then, not much. In post-communist countries, Roma families can not afford to send their children to school because of cost - textbooks and materials are no longer free. Food is no longer free. Transportation is no longer free. In the post-communist era, 50% of Roma children under 14 regularly attend school in Romania, 47% in Bulgaria, and 25% in Slovenia. Many drop out for good, and a sizable portion have never attended school at all.

Furthermore and this point should be emphasized - prior to socialism there was no development of the Romany language or literature, there was no state-led effort anywhere to encourage Romany national identify formation and instill a sense of national pride among Roma people. In the Soviet Union an All-Russian Union of Gypsies was formed, whose purpose was to - to unite the Roma, to draw them towards “socially useful labour”, to assist with the creation of co-operatives and communes, to organise itinerant Roma in their transition towards a settled way of life, to create evening classes and Sunday schools, clubs and libraries, to publish newspapers, books, textbooks and brochures in Romani, to combat drunkenness, begging, and fortune-telling. The Romany formed a Romen Theater in the 1930s, promoting the rich cultural traditions of the Romany in the arts.

The Soviet Union issued a decree on the formation of the Roma alphabet and concluded studies on the Romany language structure in the 1920s and 1930s. A flourishing of Romany literature occurred as a result, with a wide range of Roma publications like Roma Daybreak, New Way, Working Roma and others. Roma teachers were trained to increase literacy in the Roma language.

As for other countries, in Romania under Ceaucescu - The Romany were so 'persecuted' that Romanian nationalists accused him of being a closet Gypsy.

"Some gypsies, as Ceausescu and his wife, were part of the higher eshalon of the former Romanian Communist Party, and some of them still are in the higher eshalon of some of the Romanian parties."

http://romanianhistoryandculture.webs.com/gypsiesrromi.htm

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-07-11/news/mn-12064_1_gypsy-life/2

HANG ON. How did this turn to typical webdip communism/capitalism debate?

I suspect because Putin commented at some point :P

http://www.indymedia.org/or/2011/03/946952.shtml

R-wing vigilantes take over roma neighborhood