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At the initiative of the Centre "Amalipe", a round table discussion on "Tolerance and Cultural Diversity" was held at the "Red House" Centre for Culture and Debate in Sofia. The discussion was organized on 15^th of November 2013, at 11 a.m., for the purpose to celebrate the International Day for Tolerance. The discussion was a part of the national campaign of the Center "Amalipe" with the motto "Youth is tolerance". Dimitar Bechev, the director of the European Council for Foreign Relations, was a moderator, other participants of the event were: representatives of different institutions and organizations, sociologists, school and university teachers, journalists, students, citizens and diplomacy representatives.  The special guests participated in the discussion: the Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of South Africa in Bulgaria, Mr BP Motloung, who delivered a lecture on "Cultural tolerance and South African perspective" and a sociologist, Alexey Pamporov, who presented the results of a national survey on young people's stereotypes concerning Roma people and other communities in Bulgaria.

The aim of the discussion was to attract the attention of the wide public to the issue of tolerance and cultural diversity. The main topics were anti-Roma attitudes and emerging xenophobic attitudes towards new migrants. An excerpt from the film "MiracleRising: SouthAfrica", was presented during the session, after which the Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of South Africa in Bulgaria gave his lecture. He presented the historical and political context of South Africa, at the time the rights of the people with different skin colour were not respected. Despite a large number of victims, South African revolution has achieved its goal - the respect of the right to be different. Finally Mr Motloung emphasized that there is a lot to learn from the experience of South Africa concerning the problems caused by intolerance. “I believe all people are tolerant by nature and there are only certain conditions that make them to act intolerant. The lack of acceptance of differences among us gives the opportunity to the intolerance and does not allow us to see the beauty of diversity”, Mr Motloung added.

Alexey Pamporov presented a study on tolerance and stereotypes concerning different ethnic groups that Center "Amalipe" carried out in the summer of 2013 as a part of the project "Youth is tolerance - overcoming anti-Roma stereotypes among young people". The study was made under the direction of Alexey Pamporovo and Team DG "Expert Analysis" and explores stereotypes of young people on different ethnic groups. The study is based on questionnaires that were filled by young people. According to Alexey Pamporov the stereotypes can be changed. The stereotypes concerning the Roma people are the same as those concerning poor and uneducated people. It is necessary to work on the issue in order to change the attitudes. That is the reason why Center "Amalipe" develop the project "Youth is tolerance - overcoming anti-Roma stereotypes among young people", which is carried out on different places of Bulgaria: Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv, Shumen, Blagoevgrad, Burgas and Vratsa. He stressed that Bulgaria can gain a lot of experience from South Africa's fight against Apartheid and especially from the policies applied in order to overcome the xenophobia and intolerance. Not accidentally a "Court of reconciliation" was created in 1990 in South Africa. It focuses on compromises and their development rather than on a simple searching for the culprits. Teodora Krumova briefly presented the activities that will follow the research because its purpose is not only to collect the facts and to provide baseline for the further action. She stressed that the efforts to overcome the anti-Roma attitudes can not be isolated and concentrated only on one ethnic group, as they can not be considered isolated from the attitudes against Arabs and other minorities and migrants. The study shows clearly how quickly attitudes can be changed as a result of the social influence and the media - according to the study (which was carried out in June 2013, just before the refugee crisis) the image of Arabs is mostly associated with the "rich", "oil "," camel" and "sheikhs ". If the research was held nowadays the results would be probably different.

During the discussion on the issue of tolerance all the participants showed their engagement and experience from their position. All of them said that there is a positive change in the issue and that the all society should work together to become tolerant: the citizens, the media, the state, the laws and the affected objects of intolerance-all have to fight for the respect of the right to be different.

For more information:

Momchil Baev

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