Ambassador

Roma Drom: Roma art exhibit opening

June 20, 2007

I am very pleased to welcome you to a special occasion at the American Embassy: the announcement of a new website dedicated to achievements of Slovak-Roma people. And the opening of a new exhibit of photographs and art by and about the Roma.

Since I began to make the acquaintance of Roma citizens in Slovakia - in their communities, schools, homes and workplaces - I always hoped that more people could see what I have seen. Yes, I have seen great poverty in those communities. And I have witnessed the effects of generations of discrimination.

But I have also met Roma individuals and groups who are changing their world for the better:

- I have met Stefan Radic, mayor of Hubice, reelected as a Romanian in a non-Roma town. He is also a painter, and his art hangs in my residence.

- Or Jozef Patkan, entrepeneur owner of the firm Obnova in Bardejov, providing job opportunities in the woodworking industry to Roma in the region.

- Or Peter Pollak, who has never given up on politics despite coming within just a few votes of being the first Roma elected to the regional parliament.

- Or Ondrej Berki, mayor of Hostice, a tireless activist for improving housing for his community.

And of course the Roma students at Nitra University, Zuzana Klementova and Ivana Poljakova, who published AMENCA, a Roma news magazine, whose interview with me included some of the toughest questions I have faced - like, why doesn't the U.S. Embassy employ Roma? And it is people like these who will provide the content for a new website, "Roma Drom" -- the "Roma Way."

So today, I have the pleasure to announce a grant of $15,000 from the U.S. Embassy to the Roma Press Agency to fund the creation and maintenance for one year of their website, "Roma Drom."

The talented journalists of the Roma Press Agency are committed to creating a place on the Internet for Roma in all parts of Slovakia and in all professions to tell their own story - in their own language as well as Slovak, in pictures and in video.

This website will not only serve as a way to document for the world the successes and challenges of Roma throughout Slovakia. It will also serve as a means to unite the Roma community through the Internet - to other Roma in Slovakia and the region, and to the majority community. The Roma Press Agency plans to encourage the active use of this site in schools, in libraries and with community organizations -- as a way to promote a positive conversation among young people especially about how to shape their future.

And now we move on to the second special occasion, the opening of the exhibit, also called "Roma Drom." You have already seen some of these wonderful photos of Slovak Roma life as you entered. Please look at the children's drawings in the Consular Waiting Room, from the First Elementary School of Jarovnice.

We are very fortunate to have two sets of complementary photos, taken at different times and in different places, by American photographers who worked and lived with Slovak Roma. In this room are the photos of Michael Robinson Chavez, who works for The Washington Post. He has documented tragedies and joys of the human experience in 40 countries and has been named "Photographer of the Year" in the United States two times. His exhibit, "Gelem, gelem" - which you see here in the Pell Room - has toured many parts of Slovakia.

In the corridor are the photos of Julie Denesha, a Fulbright Researcher and photojournalist. Ms Denesha has covered Central and Eastern Europe for many years, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, The Economist and The Christian Science Monitor. Thank you, Ms Denesha, for your contribution to mutual understanding between the Roma and the rest of the world.

I hope that this exhibit will motivate all of you, and those who will see it this summer, to take another look at the Roma people - the culture and traditions they represent, their contribution to Slovak life, their need for meaningful work and their need to integrate more closely into the economic and social life of this country. The Roma people are Slovakia's second-largest minority population, and they deserve our attention and understanding.

Thank you.