I guess it’s says a lot both about Germany and the opinion of the “general public”, if, when 6,000 people peacefully ignore “stay off the grass” and “no trespassing” signs, this gets more attention and people wondering about the costs of repairing the lawn, then the costs of human lives of Fortress Europe.
“Menschen sterben und ihr schweigt. Der Rasen ist kaputt und ihr schreit.”
(warning… long read ahead… just have to get this off my chest.. and yah, I’m secretly a hippie or an emo or something)
In one week, the lawn in front of Kanzleramt and Reichstag will look like nothing ever happened & there will be happy grilling with the family. The uproar will be forgotten. At the most, there will be some radical artists still congratulating each other in a back-office.
And people will still die trying to get to safety. And those who make it, will still be treated like criminals, be subject to racist attacks or be declared “illegal” and left to charity. And the EU will still be more concerned with how to make it as impossible as possible for people to reach Europe (or at least make sure they die outside of our sight), than with rescue or doing something against the reasons why people flee their homes.
Weapons will still be exported. Our consumer “needs” will still ruin the environment “over there”. Dictatorships and “regional conflicts” will still be condoned or even supported if this will benefit profit, create a false sense of security, or opposing the violation of human rights just might insult an “ally”.
And that’s just the “humanity” factor. Completing the picture with what happens to all the other species on this planet doesn’t make it any better.
It all feels so cynical. So futile. “Stop this world, I wanna get off”.. Close my eyes, & bury myself under the blankets / find distraction in music, parties & gigs… Just “blame the system” and live your own small life. Where there’s enough to cope with anyway, the day-to-day small-scale problems, from dealing with workstress or health problems to life-shattering events such as losing someone dear or something important. When being concerned about the large-scale issues seems like a luxury problem.
Everything you can do, from protesting, supporting those refugees that made it with food or clothing, or trying to live a lifestyle which does not burden the environment that badly, it all seems futile in the light of frikkin 50 million refugees worldwide, abandoning their homes, their lives, because they fear for their lives and those of their children or because their environment simply has become unlivable.
The pics of the refugees on the border between Turkey & Syria… or of the bodies of those who didn’t make it stashed in garbage bags in southern europe…
No, the “masses” won’t “rise”. The “99%” will at the most push another online petition or Like button. I’m no different. There won’t be a revolution, and as history taught us, if, most of those revolutions resulted in just another reinstating of the status quo. There only will be individuals banging their head frustrated against a wall, and be called “do-gooder” or “Mr Know-it-all” or “you think you’re so much better huh?”.
It’s so easy to see what’s wrong. And what is so hard to change.
Repeating myself, again, I guess.
- Look at the amount of food which is thrown away, and of which “foodsavers” collect so little. It could feed so many.
- Look at all the empty office buildings in this city.. which are not allowed to be squatted (anymore). It could house so many.
- Look at the fact that in the giveaway shop, we often have to turn people down bringing stuff, since we simply don’t have the space. And the stuff that ends up at the giveaway shop is such a small part of what ends up as waste… Where one of my biggest confrontations was, walking towards the shop to do my shift, a few people walked past with huge Primark bags, the result of just one shopping spree, an amount we would have trouble finding room for. It could clothe so many.
- Look at how “marginal” alternative house and other projects in fact are, though in this city relatively prominent. And how much effort it takes just to keep them going, fighting against burocrazy and “investors” & often losing… if we aren’t mostly busy fighting amongst each other. It could provide working & studying space for so many.
- Look at how much media attention the hate & fear preachers of the ‘gida got, and how little people managed to keep the counterprotests going (I admit, after two months of freezing my ass off every monday, I got tired of it too..).
Still, “plus one” for today’s civil obedience. The fence falling because so many pushed. People bringing toy bulldozers and/or digging the graves with anything available, and if nothing, their hands. The human chain protecting the symbolic graveyard against the cops.
All you can do is live up to your conscience I guess…
(and I really should stop reading the comment section of online newspapers… )