June 26, 2000 Mission: Implausible BY SETH ACKERMAN What the media didn't tell you about the Chinese embassy bombing Trading Places BY DAVID MOBERG China trade deals a blow to labor Africa in Agony BY G. PASCAL ZACHARY Can Africans solve their own problems? Radio Free Burundi BY G. PASCAL ZACHARY Germany's New Identity BY DAVID BACON For immigrants, there is power in a union News & Views Editorial BY PAT AUFDERHEIDE Open access or else Appall-O-Meter BY DAVID FUTRELLE A Terry Laban Cartoon Mr. Clean BY JANE SLAUGHTER Hoffa says its time tor the union to police itself Clash of the Titan BY DAVID MOBERG After two years on strike, Steelworkers keep fighting Roma Wrongs BY TONY WESOLOWSKY Czech Republic launches a campaign for racial tolerance The Flanders Files BY LAURA FLANDERS The new federalist revolution Culture Psychlo Babble BY SCOTT McLEMEE FILM: The metaphysics of Battlefield Earth All Things New BY EUGENE McCARRAHER BOOKS: Slavoj Zizek's The Fragile Absolute Summer Reading Some of our favorites.

Roma Wrongs By Tony Wesolowsky Prague Pavel Vondra stands motionless, his eyes intently scanning the captions accompanying a series of black-and-white photos and drawings. Under a Muj Svet (My World), an exhibition of photographs by Roma children living in the Czech Republic, was on display this spring at New York's Czech Center. This untitled portrait was taken by Daniel Horvath, age 11, from Chanov, a city in northern Bohemia. weather-worn tent tucked away on a quiet square, the 24-year-old Czech is getting his first lesson in Roma history, most of it a tragic tale spanning centuries. "I really like this exhibit a lot," he says of the "Seven Days of Roma Culture" display, part of the Czech government's new $250,000 campaign to counter prejudice against Roma. "It's too bad it wasn't here earlier, because we know very little about Roma history." Some of Vondra's compatriots don't exactly share his enthusiasm. "I know enough about them," snickers one woman, as she and a friend quickly make their way past the tent. A man in his mid-twenties scoffs at the notion of the Roma having a history at all. "I'm not interested in the Roma, Gypsy, whatever you want to call it, issue. O.K.?" Historically, the Roma have been Europe's most disadvantaged ethnic group. Five million Roma live in Central and Eastern Europe, where most of them settled after migrating from northeastern India about 1,000 years ago. A March report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) notes that discrimination and exclusion are fundamental aspects of the Roma experience. "Ten years after the Iron Curtain fell, Europe is at risk of being divided by new walls," warns Walter Kemp, author of the report. "Front and center among those persons being left outside Europe's new security and prosperity are the Roma."     TOP HOME SUBSCRIBE MAIL   In These Times © 2000 Vol. 24, No. 15