It's a great big world out there. Spectacular, frightening, new every time for each one of us. Our lives are an endless thread of small and big phenomena, spectacles and the times in-between. The thread that is passed from one captivating location to another, each one holding that part of our life-time as a child in the get-to-know-each-other games we all know so well, creating a bizarre and complex pattern. All the tensions and knots on our string add to this string-mosaic that is uniquely and distinctively ours. And yet, more and more people just recognize the first ‘pin’ holding our thread, immediately cast us in a stereotypical section and rob us of any future than the one provided by our categorization.
Last year, an event took place in Maribor’s high school II.gimnazija called V iskanju človečnosti, in search of humanity, where works of Slovene artist and her colleague were being presented. The art series was featuring refugees. Short stories, written down by Widad Tamimi and Nika Autor, accompanied by Vesna Bukovec’s illustrations. Of course, people can feel the foreshadowing of somewhat darker content. But the worst part? The stories they told were true. Among others, you could ‘hear’ the tale of a woman who witnessed the lynching of her husband and other relatives before her house was burned to the ground. She came all the way to Slovenian refugee camp seeking her children who managed to get away earlier, yearning to see them and still fearing their reunion as she would have to tell them what happened to their family and home. She was drowning in sorrow and saw no way out and still, being abroad, she at least had the chance of living another day and another life. This wasn’t the only person bearing the painful memories, guilt and misery from her homeland.
According to UNICEF, there are 34,000 people being forcibly displaced from their homes every day. In our country, you most often hear about Syrian refugees- there are 4.9 million of them right now. Could you bear hearing 4 900 000 heart-breaking stories, horrific enough that they forced a woman or a man to leave her/his home? What about living one of them?
Chances are, your answer to both questions is no. And yet, all of you excusing yourselves from this abominable burden, what stance did you take towards those same people, coming into your town? Express journal described a survey, conducted in some European countries. Answering to the question whether they thought that refugees were a burden, 64 % British people and 82% of Hungarians answered yes. 82%. To put it in context, approximately every fifth person you as a refugee would try to talk to would not think you have come to steal his/her job and flourish on the taxpayers’ money.
What happened? Why are we so unable to help the ones in need? The ones, struggling to survive? One year has passed from the event and the refugees have still not settled, stopped coming or found jobs (not true for all of them). Why are we, the people with the privilege of a safe country, standing in their way instead of cutting the thorny bushes out for them, tired travelers? Are we really that soaked in xenophobic hatred? My hope is, that we are not. It is not too late. We can help. You can.
Search for your community centre or charity station and bring that coat you’ve watched hanging in the closet for 2 years (wash it first), an extra blanket or some pasta from the local shop. Donate if you can. And if you cannot give or do anything, share. Share information, spread awareness, so that struggles of refugees reach the ones that can help them. The ones in power might hear you. The time to act is not in three weeks, but now. We are already running late. Let’s make up for it. Let’s join together, young people have discovered great platforms for that, why not use it for a greater cause. And if we do that, we just might say at the end of it all that the quest of finding humanity is not a lost cause.
Photo: Zala Šeško