CzEcH * RoMa
I went, I went on long roads
I met happy Roma
O Roma where do you come from,
With tents on happy roads?
O Roma, O fellow Roma
I once had a great family,
The Black Legions murdered them
Come with me Roma from all the world
For the Romani roads have opened
Now is the time, rise up Roma now,
We will rise high if we act
O Roma, O fellow Roma
The Roma can trace their origin to India, which they left in the 8th century CE, having reached the Czech lands by the 14th century CE. Like the Czechs, the Roma also speak an Indo-Aryan language and with them, they brought many needed skills to the Czech lands such as superb metalworking skills. Due to this the newcomers were welcomed and became an integral part of the population. However by the 17th century CE with the advent of Austrian rule, the Roma became a target of discrimination simply for the reason of not being Christian, in the late 17th century CE things got so bad that it was legal to kill Roma. It was not until the reign of Marie Teresie and Joseph II in the 18th century that this law was done away with. After 1918 with the advent of independence and the Republic of Czechoslovakia the Roma were completely ignored, from 1919 up to 1945 the Roma were less than second class citizens, living in abject poverty. The Roma were kept nomadic as they could not find employment in any settled area, were denied all access to schools, medical treatment, and could not be issued passports as they were not considered full citizens. This institutionalised discrimination was emphasised among common people as the corrupt regime of those days spread anti-Roma propaganda and fostered hate among the Czech people. It was not until 1945 with the advent of the Communist Party and the presidency of Klement Gottwald that things changed for the better. Between 1945 and 1989 the Czech Roma became full citizens, and had all the priveleges which all human beings deserve, the right to equal employment, education, housing, the right to express and be proud of their culture. Under the Communists, illiteracy was all but done away with among the Roma and unemployment was non-existent. In November 1989 things changed dramatically for the entire nation as foreign instigators paved the way for the ascension to power of the traitor Vaclav Havel. Western imperialism and its corrupting influence became victorious and the Roma once again became the victims of a form of institutionalised racism no different from the apartheid system of South Africa not so long ago. Roma children have been forced into schools for the mentally retarded and have been denied university access. The Roma have been forced out of their homes and into ghettos on the outskirts of cities, some cities have gone as far as to construct walls or fences around Roma residences. Violence against Roma is at an all time high. Unemployment continues to grow as Roma are denied access to improving their skills and employers will simply not hire them. The solution to the social illness of institutionalised racism in the Czech Republic is quite simple, what our nation needs is a return to days when traitors were not in the castle and all citizens were equal.
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