Bilboard Introduction
For ONE, for education for all
Most respected,
Ahead of you there’s the new edition of the ONE magazine for 2010 that continues to inform, provoke, invite your suggestions, comments for improving the education among the Roma community.
I hope that the citizens of Macedonia know well the Roma people, that they are familiar with their history, their culture, development, problems in their everyday lives.
The memories for the Roma from the past should be seen as an additional motivation and energy for changing the current situation of the Roma community and the picture for Macedonia as a country. Do we all know that Macedonia is a pioneer in Europe in development of the Roma movement? The first grammar of Roma language is initiated in Macedonia, in the time of former Yugoslavia by the Roma intellectual Saip Jusuf, that has passed away recently. The informing about the Romani issues in the media was initiated by the journalist and illustrator Oskar Mamut, who left behind a clear and visible trace for the Roma identity. The real political movement of the Roma and their participation in the Government was started by Faik Abdi, the establisher of the first political party of the Roma people in Macedonia.
When I participate on many conferences out of the country, I state that the Roma are a treasure of Macedonia. The reality is visible. Macedonia has one Roma municipality that is well known all around the world, has Roma media, Roma intellectuals, political representatives, developed civil sector. But, still, why the Roma areas don’t have infrastructure, why the Roma people are the most unemployed, why they live in poverty, in substandard conditions, they have short life and many of them are still illiterate. The trend of the recession from one and the extreme poverty among the Roma people from other side are the biggest enemies of the progress for the Roma people. And we expect that they must go along with the all changes in the society. That’s absurd! Everyone of us can deny certain fact or cause, but if we do not make Roma to be visible, not only as a social problem, but as a members of the society, we must reconsider our knowledge about them as people and about their problems. It is necessary to change all the declarative statements and programs into reality. The treasure of Macedonia can be measured with all the steps that the country has done till now, but also we must see all the flaws and gaps that should be fulfilled. The hidden danger is to expect integration of the weakest chain in the society without additional support. But, without realistic improvement of the condition of the Roma people we could only expect new difficulties as they are now appearing. We all need a long period of establishing the direction of development and improvement for all of us, but one thing is sure – that all the obstacles can be solved if all the people are involved in solving the problems. The European integration, implementation of the Strategy, the Decade for Roma inclusion, along with the support by the international community will not have any effects for the Roma community if don’t understand that our reality is our responsibility.
The ONE magazine is expecting your efforts for the common perspective.
