A survey of Roma living conditions in 11 EU member states by the European Commission found that around 90 per cent of Roma live below national poverty lines; fewer than one in three are in paid employment; half reported suffering discrimination in the past year and 45 per cent live in households lacking either an indoor kitchen, a toilet, bathroom or electricity. Bulgarian Roma live, on average, 10 years less than the rest of the population. In Italy, the gap is 20 years. One in four Roma children in Romania make it through high school.
Gypsies, or Roma, are the most mysterious - and reviled - people in Europe. This is an interesting and balanced article from Prospect.
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/why-we-should-be-alarmed-about-the-roma/#.Uua9iWTFIlI
Tuesday 28 January 2014
Sunday 26 January 2014
Democratic deficit
The next eighteen months could be a textbook case in political history - when democracy becomes almost ridiculous in its possible outcome. I...
Sunday 19 January 2014
In the blink of an eye
How fast do we blink? It feels pretty fast doesn't it? It's actually 0.3 mph: no wonder the fly always gets away. We do blink a lot ...
Saturday 18 January 2014
New words
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or chan...
Friday 17 January 2014
Embarrassing moment (2)
The conversation got onto embarrassing moments in life; not minor red-faced incidents but the ones that are so bad that you’ve blanked them....
Lies
My brother-in-law thinks that truth trumps everything – that no relationship can be worthy of that name without both parties being completel...
Wednesday 8 January 2014
The War and class
The world of my childhood was on my mind this Christmas. We were with my mother in the house in which I was born and photographs of my fathe...
Thursday 2 January 2014
Property taxation
High-end property is a tempting target for any cash-strapped chancellor confronted with a struggling economy: it can’t move to Monaco and it...