Czech Romani Hip Hop singer Radek Banga from the famous Gipsy.cz group received threatening phone calls and SMS messages from Czech Rom after his strong statements about people who do not work.
"Kick the bucket if you don't want to do anything," Banga said in an interview on the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) website iDnes.cz, referring to people who do not try to get from a bad social situation by their own effort.
Police are not investigating the threats and Banga has not asked for any protection. "This would be no solution. Nothing would be revealed anyway. And first of all, I don't want to act against my own people," Banga told the media.
Many Romany activists understand Banga's views, but they resent his vocabulary, it is said.
However, all one can say to that is that the truth sometimes hurts and at times it is only harsh words and a good kick up the backside that will get people off their butts.
It would appear as if what Banga said hit a raw nerve with some people and got under the skin of those Roma that are simply too lazy and do not like the idea of working for a living, which, I am afraid to say, seem to be a great number of them in the East. They threaten rather being prepared to change their ways. This is what gives our People a bad name as well.
Opportunities are provided in a great number of Czech municipalities for Roma to work and to better their situation, often in service of the municipality itself, but in one case recently only five, I believe, came forward to a program that had many more places for paid employment and training available. Proof, if any were needed, that too many Eastern European Roma brethren of ours are too lazy and too “proud” to help themselves.
Such attitudes must change and to threaten the messenger of such truths is not the way to go about things.
When one sees the state of the settlements of the Roma in Eastern Europe, with the men doing nothing but sitting idly about smoking and drinking and talking while the women and children are either out begging (or worse) or scavenging for resalable items and food even on the refuse tips, then it proves what Banga said. A strange pride those people have. Too proud to go out to work and earn a living but not too proud to take stuff from the rubbish dumps, even food.
Banga may have used some harsh language but, I assume, he, like many other Rom who do try to make it in this world while still remaining true to their roots, has gotten fed up to the back teeth with such attitudes of those lazy bums who need someone to do everything for them while their settlements drown in litter and they just sit about.
Earlier this year, Gipsy.cz's CD Romano Hip Hop advanced to the European world music top ten. The band is very popular in the Czech Republic among young people.
M V Smith, August 2007
