Bachtaľi Karačoňa! Merry Christmas!

The Association of Romani Entrepreneurs and Guilds (Asociace romských podnikatelů a spolků) has offered to provide 1 000 laborers who have long been registered with the Czech Labor Office for work in forests to combat bark beetle, sending an open letter making the offer to Czech Environment Minister Richard Brabec (ANO) and Czech Agriculture Minister Jiří Milek (for ANO). Czech firms are complaining that they do not have enough laborers for forestry work and that they are understaffed by thousands.

The memorial to the genocide of the Roma at Lety u Písku has been desecrated with insulting anti-Roma messages on several signs posted there by the nationalist group "Us Against All" (My proti všem). According to the police who have begun to investigate the incident it could be one of felony disorderly conduct.

In recent years, in connection with commemorations of the tragic fate of Romani people during the Second World War and the expansion of our awareness of the Holocaust and its Romani victims, a breakthrough event has been in the making. Apparently the most recent example of this in the Czech Republic is the state buyout of the pig farm located on the site of former so-called "Gypsy Camp" at Lety u Písku, which was preceded by years of relentless pressure on the highest state representatives by the relatives of the victims, activists, and experts.