A new year is here and we hope everyone had a good start into it.

Looking back we can say that 2014 has been full of confusion and we need more of it.

Our new years resolutions:

• question more
• challenge our perception more
• leave our safe space more often
• blog more
• don’t get stressed
• let people know how awesome they are

Let’s confuse and get confused.

Together, we can do it.

2015, yes!

As mentioned before – it’s Christmas time. And we are now, more than ever, supposed to think about others rather than ourselves.
This can be confusing. Are we supposed to put our own feelings aside – forget ourselves – and care for others instead? Why should we do this?

Well, partly because it would be a natural thing to do. And partly (since we are now all about ourselves) because it will make us feel a lot better.

We are living in an individualistic society where the following scenarios are very likely to happen to us:
– We are seeing a friend’s newly born baby for the first time. We watch those miraculously small fingers and inside our head a calculation of the likeliness of ourselves getting a perfect family within the coming year is starting.
– We are listening to a concert with an amazing lead singer. We stand in the crowd, completely absorbed by a burning wish that we also were able to sing and that it was us who were standing on stage.
– We are listening to someone telling a story without really hearing it, being too busy trying to figure out one that could match it.

We are comparing ourselves to others, we are competing and we are fighting our way through life.

Or “Now, we are all made in Bangladesh”, as we recently heard someone say. In the theatre “Made in Bangladesh” the actors showed that it’s not only factories that are designed to produce as much as possible while paying extremely low wages and suppressing the rights of the workers. It is us too. We are turning our whole life into a fight to be smarter, faster, better, stronger.

And honestly, this has to stop.

Because there are billions of people in this world, and even though every one of them might be important, not a single one of us is everything. Neither are our morning jogs, our new set of glasses nor our promotions.

We need each other. We feel good together. And it seems kind of healthy to get a break from our own lives and get involved in someone else’s every once in a while. (It might also save the world. Subject – to be continued.)

So, let’s try that.

Let’s think about others – for once. For real. And maybe, at the same time, forget just a little bit about ourselves.

Maybe this will make us confused.
Maybe this will make us happier.

Once again – as it is about to end – MERRY CONFUSING CHRISTMAS!

The news, 19:30, Thursday night. We watch people in torn clothes dye clothes that aren’t torn red. A voice talks about pollution. Red water flows into a river where children are swimming.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS A BIG PROBLEM says the voice.

In the commercial break, red tops that aren’t torn are sold for 3 euro.

There are Roma people in Romania who do not want their children to be registered to go to school.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS A BIG PROBLEM says the voice.

When Roma people were registered in the 1940s an unknown number of them were sent to gas chambers.

In Uganda homosexual activities have become illegal.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS A BIG PROBLEM says the voice.

Homosexuality became shameful in Uganda when Christian colonizers came to the country and claimed that it was.

IS is the Muslim worlds protest against the west.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS A BIG PROBLEM says the voice.

IS includes less than 1% of the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims.

There’s a war between different tribes in the Central African Republic.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS A BIG PROBLEM says the voice.

When France in the 1960s let go of the colony in which they had exploited gold, diamonds and slaves they left the country in the hands of a dictator they liked.

Africa is stuck in poverty.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS A BIG PROBLEM says the voice.

Botswana and Mauritius has a higher GDP per capita than China.

In so called honor cultures women are considered to give the family a bad reputation if they show themselves sexually available for men.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS A BIG PROBLEM says the voice.

There is no male equivalent to the English word slut.

The world’s richest 85 people owns as much as the worlds 3.5 billion poorest.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS A BIG PROBLEM says the voice. Not.

“But you know, they are just SO different.”

This I have heard being said, the year of 2014, by people who claim to be open-minded, non-judging and critical to stereotypes. But they mean that the people they talk about are, unlike all other people not like all other people.

They are talking about the Roma people.

Today, in Europe in 2014, it seems to be okay to portray the Roma as completely different from all others. Their mentality, their clothing, their culture – they are just not like us. And they do not fit into the society – because they themselves have chosen not to.

LET’S GET CONFUSED!

The Roma are the largest and oldest minority in Europe, without a home country and spread out all over the continent.

Slavery of the Roma people was legal in Romania until 1864.

During World War II Roma people had the exact same status as the Jews. This meant that they lost all human rights during the war, and that between 200. 000 and 1.5 million Roma people got killed. (Another, pretty confusing thing, is that the numbers are not more clear than that.)

For the UN, it took until 1989 to admit that Roma people got killed because of their ethnicity in the war.

Right after World War II, Sweden helped many Jews escape from countries where their families had been killed. For Roma people –on the other hand – it was illegal to even cross the border into the country. It took nine years after the end of the holocaust before the first Roma person could enter legally into Sweden.

You might see that there’s something seriously wrong here. And it doesn’t end.

Today, in many European countries, Roma children are excluded from schools. Let me just repeat this sentence, TODAY, in many European countries, Roma CHILDREN are EXCLUDED FROM SCHOOLS.

As for the grown-ups, they are excluded from the working markets in every single country in Europe. A study made in Sweden in the year of 2010 showed that 80 % of the Roma people were unemployed, and that most children never finished primary school. (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25200449)

Now some like to argue that the Roma people don´t want to go to school – and of course they don’t want to work.

This argumentation is based on stereotypes and prejudices. It is a comfortable excuse for the society not to integrate Roma people, not to be open and fair. Even if some might say that they don’t need school or work, it is not their attitude but the hostile environment which pushes the majority of the Roma people away from European societies.

Not sure? Let’s check out the facts just a little bit more.

A study made by the World Bank shows that systematic discrimination has made the situation for Roma people’s even worse during the last decades. After the slaughtering and lack of any compensation after World War II, the Roma people in current Romania suffered under the Soviet Union. When the Union fell, many Roma people were shut out of society, lost their low skilled jobs and remained on a low education level.

“As a result, Roma have had more difficulty re-entering the job market than other groups and have become caught in a vicious circle of impoverishment. […] Additional barriers include a lack of access to credit and unclear property ownership.” (Ringold et al. 2005, p. xv)

The hardships continued.

“Roma were left out of the property and land privatization processes that occurred during the early 1990s. Information was scarce about how to navigate the bureaucratic procedures for property ownership, and Roma were less likely than others to do it successfully. Hence today Roma disproportionately live in unregistered dwellings, contributing to poverty in complex ways. […] It also shows how economic reforms may have missed Roma.” (Ringold et al. 2005, pp. xix-xx)

So, leaders created a system, giving people ownership of land. The system, did not fit, and was never planned to include, the Roma people.

This can actually describe a great part of the European society today.

So, if they keep getting excluded – why don’t they go and get educated?

Well, because the exact same thing happens here:

“Low education levels result from constraints on both the supply and demand side. Roma often face discrimination in school and feel that schools ignore their culture and language. In addition, Roma sometimes lack sufficient food or clothing to support school attendance. Thus, attitudes, experiences, and social conditions conspire to reduce Roma education levels and labor market performance.” (Ringold et al. 2005, p. xix)

Due to racism and excluding policies, Roma children are also often sent to schools for physically and mentally disabled children.

Without access to health care, Roma people are portrayed as unhygienic. Without access to housing, they are seen as rootless. Without work and education opportunities they are seen as lazy.

Are we still sure that the Roma people choose themselves not to be part of society?

Confused?

Great.

The last note will say that of course not all Roma people are poor. Not all are excluded from society. But looking at the big picture, it is this exact, ugly one, that we have just painted. And we are all responsible for breaking stereotypes, getting confused and painting a beautiful one instead.

“Poor communication and stubborn stereotypes of Roma and non-Roma breed mistrust and reinforce preconceptions on both sides.”

 (Ringold et al. 2005, pp. xv – xvi)

For you who wish to hear a few Roma people “choosing” to beg in the streets of Sweden tell their stories, please click the link below. 

http://vimeo.com/66966202

References:

“Ringold, Dena; Orenstein, Mitchell A.; Wilkens, Erika. 2005. Roma in an Expanding Europe : Breaking the Poverty Cycle. Washington, DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/14869 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25200449

http://www.amnesty.org/es/node/17813

http://arkiv.minoritet.se/romadelegationen/www.romadelegationen.se/extra/pod/index9d8d.html

http://www.aftonbladet.se/ledare/ledarkronika/somaralnaher/article18959432.ab

Every year thousands of young Europeans travel to Africa to do voluntary work. They have heard that help is needed, that people are suffering in poor countries, and they feel that it is their responsibility to leave their home country and go do… something in this new place that they don’t know anything about.

So, what does this say about the world?

Well, by saying that the West can help “the rest”, we say that they have better knowledge on how to do things than the inhabitants themselves. This belief is exactly the same as the one the colonizers had when they “discovered” the world.

And this “helping” is what thousands of young Europeans are doing today. It’s not their personal fault, the problem is structural. Once again, nobody has made them confused.

From early on, through posters in the streets, schoolbooks and news reports the volunteers have been taught the following:

• That all Africans are poor people who love traditions and do not understand modern society.
• That they themselves live in a modern society that has amazing science and knowledge.
• That they know more than the rest of the world
• That the things they know are more worth than the knowledge that the rest of the world has.

8 confusing things:

1. Not only does the Western world have the power to decide what knowledge is correct. Not only does the Western world have the power to decide what knowledge is valuable. But a lot of the “Western” knowledge is not “Western.” It was not only natural resources, spices and slaves that the colonizers brought back from the colonies, but also numbers, letters and scientific findings.
2. The Western world has enough money and power to do what it thinks is right. It has enough money and power to decide what is right. And therefore, in many cases, it has enough money and power to decide what is being done. Does this make sense?
3. The Western society often claims to have modern values that it desperately wishes to spread to the world. In Uganda, homosexuality was part of the society until the British came, colonized the country and doomed homosexual relationships. Today Westerners doom the Ugandan laws forbidding homosexuality. Yes, why can’t the country just try to keep up with what the Western world thinks?
4. The message the young, European volunteers send out to the Western world shows a world where the richer part is saving the poor, because the poor people aren’t able to help themselves. And the understanding of what has made the poor people poor is… not exactly there.
5. The message the young, European volunteers send out to the world outside of the Western world shows a world where the richer part is saving the poor, because the poor people aren’t able to help themselves. From early on, the Western world makes sure that people from the rest of the world feel that there are things that only white people are able to do.
6. The young, European volunteers are often uneducated and unskilled. What happens to a country when nineteen-year-olds with no understanding of the culture are teaching in schools, taking care of small children and try out different social projects that they just thought of?
7. Why, oh why, is work that could have been done by an inhabitant done by this unskilled European?
8. Many, many people from the Western world go abroad to work. How many people go the other way around? If we really cared about teaching people about our practices and values – why not show it to people? Let them come here and make their own conclusions? Instead of making other societies their playground, maybe the Westerners could invite others to theirs? No?

The Western world has – because of what it has taken – enough power, money and resources to do what it feels like. And it is working effectively to keep it.

So what to do? Stay away, for once?

No. We need to get confused.

We need to grow up. We need to take responsibility for our actions and learn from our mistakes. We need to start to respect and listen to people outside of the societies we know. We need to value people’s knowledge, practices and opinions. We need to listen to people, learn from them and realize that they know more than us about their own home.

And we also need to question our own systems and knowledge. Why do I think something is right or wrong? Why do I have what I have? Is that fair?

The money, power and the resources can be used – SHOULD be used – where people need it. But we need to stop believing that we somehow earned the right to help someone else. It’s our society’s fault that we have more power than others, and we need to fix this. By letting this power go.

So, everyone, next time we feel like helping; let’s ask what people actually want from us. Maybe that is something else than your personal presence. And maybe you should listen to that. Because if you really want to make a change, you need to stop thinking that you know better than somebody else what they need. (Hint: You don’t.)

How volunteer experiences can benefit volunteers and their timeline on Facebook gets discussed more on http://gurlgoestoafrica.tumblr.com/

here is just a sample:

Stereotypes about Islam have been alive and kicking in the Christian world for long, but after 9/11 they were made all the more extreme – and cemented into the ground. A clear example of this was made just recently, in the way the media covered the uprising of IS (the Islamic State) in Syria and Iraq.

Islam is the second biggest religion in the world and has over 1.6 billion followers. This represents 23% of the world population. The countries where most Muslims live are Indonesia (ca. 209 million) and India (ca. 176 million). The countries were most Muslim people live are INDONESIA and INDIA.

The Christian world doesn’t seem to know this. Instead it is Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, concerning less than 15 % of the worlds Muslim population, that get’s to represent the whole religion.

Hm. Many countries with a majority of Christians have engaged in war and performed genital mutilation on women. This has not lead to us calling Christians primitive and violent. Why not?

Well, the knowledge of Christianity is generally high and the knowledge of Islam is generally low in Europe and North America. People in these countries tend to know very little on the large Muslim country of Bangladesh (133 million inhabitants), for example. So what do they know more about?

The IS. With an estimated number of up to 50.000 members this group has been given the right to represent the whole of Islam. This power has once more been taken from very many people and given to very few. Where and what is the political interest behind this?

That might be something to think about. And for you who would like to get even more confused – watch this awesome interview where Reza Aslan destroys, crushes and eats the pieces of some common myths around Islam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzusSqcotDw

5 of the last 12 Nobel Peace Prize winners were Muslim. So according to Bill Maher, we're all Peace Prize winners! http://t.co/SDY3w51A3D—
Hend (@LibyaLiberty) October 10, 2014

References:

http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/religions/muslims

http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/is-mehr-kaempfer-100.html

Stereotypes make us painfully unconfused. They are incredibly dangerous and cause much of the inequality around the world.

Stereotypes are based on the one-sided stories that we hear and share. They are nice and easy for us – they divide people into different cathegories and make us think that we understand something about the world. Friends and families, the media, as well as our school systems create and spread stereotypes. The one with the power can easily decide who are the bad guys, who are the victims, the good ones and who is telling the truth.

Watching the TED talk beneath you will see what this issue meant for a young Nigerian girl. By only having access to certain books, the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ended up writing her first stories about blonde, tea-drinking little girls whose lifes were nothing like her own. She had never read a book about a Nigerian – and therefore thought that obviously they were not supposed to be written about.

Through the books that the young Chimamanda read, a stereotype about “white” people was created in her. She spread these stereotypes by inventing stories of her own, based on this knowledge. The single stories mean that people, human beings around us, get reduced to stereotypes. At the same time, they restrict who we are.

Two simple examples:

– If you are a woman, you learn that men are a certain way. Through this, you also learn that you should be in a different way.

– By learning that white people are rich, normal and helpful, you also learn that other people are not and therefore need white people’s help.

We need stories which stand up and face the “single stories” and false information around us. This is needed to show that other people are complex – and that we are too.

We also need more stories which are completely different. The problem we face is that we only post stories which say the opposite to the “main” story. This means that they are not completely new stories, but answers to the old one. The second story either wins or loses against the first story, but it will always be competing with it.

But how do we find different stories? Where is the space for them? Who is allowed to speak for other people? What power do we have when we talk to others? Why do we say what we say?

We are not sure. But we really think this is a good thing. It will keep us confused. And maybe we owe this confusing, complex, wonderful world to realize what we are actually saying the next time we share stories, information and so called “facts”.

Reference:

http://storytelling4peace.wordpress.com/