"Šuto Orizari, one of Skopje’s (capital of Macedonia) ten municipalities and home to one of the largest Roma communities in Europe: of the approximately 25,000 inhabitants in the district, 80% are Roma. Šutka is a city inside a city; it has its own Romani Mayor, Romani representatives in Parliament and Romany as one of its official languages."
*My full article about Šutka: http://politicalcritique.org/archive/2014/skopjes-forgotten/
"In Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, renovations are well underway. The restoration of the city, labelled ‘Skopje 2014’, is supposed to foster an image of the ‘Holy Macedonia’ as a rich and bountiful state with a proud history — estimates put the cost of the project at between 200 and 500 million euros."
"(...) There are no monuments in this part of town, no grand facades or Ionic columns, and no sign of the noble capital just a short walk away. Here is the reality of life for the Romani in Skopje, and the consequence of a government that spends more on building statues to people that died centuries ago than on the poor in its own capita that are still living."
"I stepped nervously over the invisible threshold and into streets that felt distrustful. Šutka has a reputation as a dangerous neighbourhood and I had been warned by several people to avoid it. The danger was made more poignant by my situation: I am a young woman, a foreigner and I do not know the Macedonian or the Roma language."
"The majority of Šutka’s inhabitants live in abandoned, unsafe looking buildings that mostly have not had running water or electricity for years. Most lack windows, are covered in graffiti and dirt and lack all the trappings of conventional living. Fires stoked on the guts of a nearby landfill heat the home and provide the hot water used to soak dirty clothes in great iron pans."
"Despite this, there is prosperity amongst the poverty. Occasionally large, Roman-style villas, clean and festooned with gold stucco, rise above the squalor like an iceberg floating in water."
"(...) Some children also attend ‘night school’ where, regardless of age, they are taught primary level education, including learning to read, write and use a computer — though how the children are expected to use a computer at home without electricity is unclear. For many the daily struggle to put food on the table does not permit time for school."
My full article about Šutka: http://politicalcritique.org/archive/2014/skopjes-forgotten/
