NYTIMES/ Slovakia has an estimated 380,000 Roma, aka Gypsies. Culturally, the Roma are poor, suffer alcoholism, unemployment levels of 80%, and lack basic skills from poor education. They are also resented and feared by many. In the eastern town of Ostrovany, the city has actually built a 500-foot-long, 7-foot-high concrete wall separating a Roma ghetto from the homes of gadzos, or white people. “Slovaks perceive the Roma as a kind of natural disaster from which they must protect themselves,” said Roma Klara Orgovanova. “That is why they built that wall.”
