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Below
news server Romea.cz presents the story of Jozef Miker.
Jozef Miker: Hate is No Solution
There
is enormous unrest in the country, intolerance is spreading like an insidious
virus, and the radical right has scored a clear victory in the elections. Romani
people are being shoved onto trains heading for the death camps, the Nazis are
taking children away from their parents, and the political parties are calling
for “Gypsies to the gas chambers!” That sad part of European history is the
nightmare that terrifies Romani activist Jozef Miker of the North Bohemian town
of Krupka. He still believes, however, that humanity can learn from its past
mistakes.
Miker’s
first activism started 20 years ago. "When the Fascists started to show
their teeth once more and marched through Teplice, I knew I couldn’t let things
be,” recalls the history enthusiast. Ever since then he has been offered
memberships in various Romani initiatives and political parties, but he soon
learned that he didn’t want to have anything to do with them.
"Those
people were interested only in their own personal gain, not in the interests of
Romani communities,” Miker explains. He and his friend Míra Brož then
established their own initiatives – Hate is No Solution (Nenávist není řešení)
and Konexe.
A wave
of hatred is rising
Miker
evaluates the work of his organizations as positive so far. They do their best
to help Romani families at the very bottom of society. However, even Romani people
from Krupka don’t like the groups much, as they believe Miker should restrict
his work exclusively to the Romani community.
Even
Miker’s family doesn’t understand him. "I have three small children and I
am on disability, so we don’t have much money. They are constantly telling me
at home that others should be helping us instead,” he said.
By
all indications, life in Krupka is not the easiest. Most people have no work
and no promising probability of any.
“Some
people are on unemployment and work under the table, it doesn’t matter whether
they are black or white,” the activist notes. He worked his entire life as a
miner until he was laid low by spinal arthritis. As a miner he followed in the
footsteps of his father, who moved to the Teplice area from Slovakia for work
with his family when Jozef was 13 years old.
In
2011, anti-Romani hatred was buttressed by several ultra-right extremist
demonstrations, predominantly in the Šluknov foothills. Miker participates in
blockades of all neo-Nazi marches, but that year one came directly to his home
town in Krupka. Even though the mayor banned the demonstration, a court
overruled the ban and permitted it.
Many
people were standing behind Miker against the neo-Nazis on that day, waiting to
hear what he had to say. "The police called on us to get out of the way,
but I don’t go to demonstrations to take cover. It’s better to get your head
beaten in and preserve your pride than to bow down and give in to the Fascists,”
Miker said.
He
has not chosen those words at random. A paving stone thrown by the ultra-right
extremists at one blockade left him with a sad souvenir on his head.
You can’t force a Romani man to sit at
home
Miker
did not just become an authority figure in Krupka overnight. People greet him on
the street, children call him “uncle”, and everyone knows he is a man of his
word. He has also arranged for improvements to a local housing estate, including
new sidewalks and most recently, benches.
The
Workers’ Party (Dělnická strana – DS) had proposed a municipal decree that
would have banned sitting outdoors on corner stones, staircases – basically anywhere
except on a bench, even though there wasn’t a public bench to be found in
Krupka. "You can’t force a Romani man to sit at home. Even Hitler didn’t
manage that. I fought and won at least two benches," the activist said.
Miker
is currently planning to get a children’s playground installed. He is investing
all of his hope in the younger generation and devotes a great deal of time to
those at the housing estate, leading rap and soccer groups for them. He is
planning to start a dance group as well.
"I
am doing this to get them out of this housing estate. Sometimes we are invited
to go somewhere, for friendly matches, and the boys come back with completely
different ideas,” Miker says.
The
17 boys in the soccer club recently visited Prague for the first time, while
other local children first visited the capital to participate in the Roma Pride
march. "I also invited their parents to go to Roma Pride, but they were
only interested in whether I would pay for their travel and what they might get
out of it. They want money for everything. That’s why I’m focusing on the
children, so I can make something better of them," the Romani activist
laughs.
Miker
considers the poor nurturing of children to be one of the crucial obstacles to
Romani people escaping the vicious cycle of poverty. He says there are many
children in Krupka who only attain a primary education even though they could
go on to academic high school. Many of them are not permitted by their parents
to continue their educations, even though they would take place in the same
building as the primary school. Such parents often do not have jobs and spend
their time doing drugs or playing the slot machines.
"I
am doing my best to re-educate the children and to lead them somewhere else
than the unemployment line. Just last year I got six of them back to school,”
the activist says.
Miker
has clear plans for his own children. They will either go to college or
technical training. For the time being, Miker’s daughter from his first
marriage is the first to have made it through primary school; today she is
studying economics and international law in Iceland.
