The author of a book on the Roma believes that stigmatisation is the main obstacle to intercultural dialogue. "Speaking up in public as a representative of an ethnic community should be a positive value, it should not put the speaker in danger of being stigmatised," Vera Klopcic told Wednesday's panel on intercultural dialogue.
Klopcic says there is a big difference between expressing views in public or in private. "In public it seems there is a certain discomfort in the expression of differentness," said the author of "Polozaj Romov v Sloveniji" (The Situation of Roma in the Slovenia).
Stane Baluh, the head of the government Office for Nationalities, said that intercultural dialogue was not sufficiently developed and that Slovenia had failed to take advantage of the ongoing Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
"If we made better use of it, Slovenes could learn new things through intercultural dialogue," said Baloh, convinced that this is exactly what people need. It is also necessary to boost intercultural dialogue at the local level, he said.
Cirila Toplak, the head of the Institute for Ethnic Studies, meanwhile pointed out that the Roma were a key component of Europe's tragic history and a precious part of the continent's cultural mosaic. "The Roma can be a mirror of a nation."
Toplak also sees double standards in the value system. "It seems we have declarative values on which the EU project is ostensibly based, and on the other hand internalised values which actually guide us," Toplak noted.
The editor of the Roma radio show on public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, Enisa Brizani, meanwhile said that the main problem the Roma face were education and housing, yet improvements are a double-edged sword.
The Roma need better living conditions, but as they become wealthier and stop living in the Roma community their customs and language are gradually lost, she said.
The panel was organised by the Institute for Ethnic Studies and the Ljubljana Information Office of the Council of Europe.
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