We went on a bike ride yesterday through western Bohemia, from Tepla to Karlovy Vary (holy cow, like 40 miles!) stopped at a French Trappist Monestary for cookies and mustard and biked through little villages without even a pub to show for themselves. The region of Touzimsko is one of the poorest in CZ, we passed through several small towns with burned out houses, bricks crumbling, dogs barking, and little kids pushing even littler kids in strollers in the brisk spring air. Cars were propped on tree stumps, mid-fix, and toy lawnmowers and dirty diapers filled the drainage ditches. It was another world, and not an uncommon one in CZ or in Europe for that matter. The Roma are forever a controversy, a people who the EU wants to spend little money on helping, and a people who probably prefer their way of life anyway.
Fences, Roma and Europe via NY Times
All things Roma in CZ: Roma Radio
No comments:
Post a Comment