Friday, August 03, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A blog on Bosnia, the Balkans, and other random thoughts.
Blogroll
- A Fist Full of Euros
- Americans For Bosnia
- Balkan Analysis
- Balkan Anarchist
- Balkan Baby
- Balkan Break
- Balkan Witness
- Balkanology
- Belgrade 2.0
- Beyond Sarajevo
- Bieber Blog
- Cista Namjera
- Croatian Nauseous News
- East Ethnia Blog
- Finding Karadzic
- Genocide in Bosnia Blog
- Halfway down the Danube
- Illyrian Gazette
- Jasmina Tesanovic
- Neretva River
- New Eurasia
- Olli in Munich
- Our Man in Tirana
- Random Bosnian Thoughts
- Reluctant Dragon
- Sarajevo Blog
- Sarajevo Photoblog
- Srebrenica Genocide Blog
- Stepping Stone Blog
- The Glory of Carniola
- Tuzla Photoblog
- Yakima Gulag Literary Gazett Blog
Press Links
- B92
- BH Dani
- BIRN
- Bosnia Report
- Dnevni avaz
- Fena News Agency
- H-Alter
- IWPR
- National Public Radio
- Nezavisne novine
- Oslobodjenje
- Puls Demokratije
- Radio & Television of Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Radio Slobodna Evropa
- Sarajevo-x
- Sense News Agency
- Slobodna Bosna
- Slobodna Dalmacija
- Start
- Tirana Times
- Transitions Online
- Vreme
- Zamisli Srbiju
Posts
5 comments:
Most Roma people identify with Bosniaks (or I assume, with other ethnic groups they live in). Roma and their culture needs to be strengthened and protected. They remind me of Bosniaks under Yugoslav state who were "irrelevant" and pushed into assimilation; and the problems that Bosniaks faced during Yugoslav days were regularly pushed under the carpet. That's why I feel sorry for Roma, because they are still vulnerable and need to be protected.
Do the Roma in Bosnia really identify with Bosniaks? My experience with the Roma in Bulgaria is that they tend to live rather segregated lives. How much of this is due to cultural and institutional discrimination versus how much of it is voluntary, I have no idea.
I think just based on what I've read and not based on any first hand knowledge, that most Roma do identify as Roma, but religious wise, like much of the Balkans there is a great deal of diversity within the Roma community. In the Balkans there are Muslim Roma, Orthodox Christan Roma and even an increase of Romani belonging to various Protestant denominations.
Therefore, I think ethnic wise most Roma identify very strongly as Roma; and not as other ethnic groups but when it comes to religion, there is a great deal of diversity as there is diversity in the religion. From the article I got the impression that during the war the Muslim Roma identified with the Bosniaks, especially in areas of eastern Bosnia where both Bosniaks and Muslim Roma were being expelled /killed by the same forces.
Anyways, it is a very interesting subject and of course I'm sure that there is a great deal of diversity of opinion on it.
ETA: By identify with I don't necessarily mean that they consider themselves to be Bosniak, Serbs, Croats.
The article mentions the lack of an accurate demographic count of the number of Roma in Bosnia, and a high number of Roma who declared themselves members of other ethnic groups; mostly seemingly as a result of fear of discrimination.
i'm not sure if the Roma feel affiliated with any side as they rather stay away from the mainstream society. i live in the czech republic now and can see that the people's disdain attitude to them is almost the same as in croatia and bosnia.
I got into an argument with a friend of mine (czech) about behavior/manner/culture sensitivity. When he yelled at me that I should travel more to learn about culture, I yelled right back "What do you know, I know more about culture than you nationalist European and gypsy hater." (:-). Later I asked him if he was mad, but he said, "No I'm not b/c it is true." ;-D
Post a Comment