People at the social and economic fringes of socieity are also those most vulnerable to the hazards of environmental degradation
Text and photos by Richard Filchak
People at the social and economic fringes of society are also those most vulnerable to the hazards of environmental degradation, and Rudnany, Slovakia's Roma population is no exception.
Social and economic conditions are forcing many of Europe's Roma population to the fringes of society. Roma are often born separately, live separately-and, as a graveyard in the east Slovakian village of Rudnany reveals, even buried separately. In addition to facing an array of socio-economic woes, the collapse of Rudnany's mining economy has also left the local Roma population to bear an unequal share of environmental stress.
Rudnany was undoubtedly divided along ethnic lines in the past, but former employment opportunities at the now defunct mining company had at least allowed for multiple interactions between the majority and minority populations; current conditions, however, also expose the magnitude of inequality that many of the world's most disadvantaged people suffer as a result of environmental degradation.
As a graduate student at Central European University, I witnessed such conditions while performing field work in eastern Slovakia from 2002-2005. In Patoracke, just outside Rudnany, I visited cellars in which up to 10 family members slept on sinking concrete floors in structures that threatened to collapse at any moment. Rudnany's municipal government is trying to work closely with NGOs and international organisations to address these social and environmental threats, but it will be difficult to solve anything quickly unless the state gets more involved.
