Breaking News
Just a reminder, says the Portuguese journalist a little overexcited at 6:30 am, we are in breaking news for 10 days now! I almost didn’t leave my house for this amount of time: I went to a demo, I went food shopping a couple of times, I went to a doctor’s appointment, I worked at somebody’s kitchen once (that is where I teach one of “my” kids learning Portuguese) and I picked someone from the Kindergarten twice. A Greek friend, who always brings me chocolates and talks faster than me and as loud, came visit once. She has reached out after the massive demo for peace in Berlin. My friend doesn’t normally mingle in such contexts, so she was asking herself if I was also there and how I was doing afterwards. I was indeed also there, first time ever feeling people-phobic due to badly organized moving masses, including Occupy Frankfurt in financial crisis’ years or any Revolutionary Demo over May Day in Berlin. But I was relieved and not surprised at all, that almost half a million people were demonstrating in solidarity with refugees. Or against the war anyway… or against spending money in the military, which is alien for Germany for obvious reasons (pity that the same concern with further-away-wars’ profits every year is apparently not equally appealing). Germans are very supportive of refugees in general, I have to say. They have been there recently for Mediterranean survivors as for Syrian people, more than other peoples anyway, for more or less selfish reasons like cheap labor anyway, considering their late Merkel-governments, but regular people are compassionate and less racist than I was used to before moving here.
There’s an unforeseen tsunami of solidarity with the Ukrainians in Portugal. It is quite inspiring, but it is also demanding a serious reflection on the nature of this solidarity: the community of these migrants is huge there since the 90’s and we have never before seen war through social media like this… but it is impossible to erase the fact that now the refugees are mostly white and coming from Central Europe. Is this the main reason behind this amazing show of love for others? Probably. They look like us, they could be us. There was even an European leader, Hungarian* I guess, but I could be wrong, stating almost exactly that, that they are like us, educated, civilized. The division of Africa among the European powers and the consequent establishing of European imperialism was over a century ago**, but here we are still.
This is all seeming irrelevant now. As well as the will of the USA and NATO for another war to happen. Fact is we are talking about nuclear destruction, the possibility of new invasions in Europe, the rebuilding of the iron curtain, the intentions of psychopaths on prime time. Any time, actually. That's us here in peace. The others, them Ukrainians and Russians, among many other peoples in distress outside Europe, are concerned with all kind of survival all coming minutes. I don’t think it is ok to declare myself radically peaceful anymore if my own continent is under attack and our representatives’ lack of action might mean a genocide. Maybe it was never ok. I started to question every position I always held about peace. I even remembered an estranged German comrade of mine who changed his mind about the need for military intervention abroad following the genocide in Rwanda back in 1994. And what would have happened to Kosovo war survivors if NATO had not intervened then? At this point I still don’t have a clear position… which is better for me than applying a comfortable black and white thought in any given situation. I just hope for financial sanctions on Russia to produce any concrete result sooner than later. For as much as I hate to feel useless, I wish I could pray or believe in any peaceful solution.
Invariably, for the past 10 days, I have been falling asleep very early, warm and cosy with the cat after having a video call with my lover; it hasn’t been possible for me to read or watch something fictional before going to bed. I am waking up around 5 am to check the news. I have coffee, eat something creative (I have been out of basics since home alone, it’s not everyday that I feel like going out shopping) and I try to remain uncynical. Afterwards I have a nap and wake up in the same rush as ever to receive some arriving kid for Portuguese tutoring. It became harder to deal with teens lately; I do talk about war with them, but it feels weird if not unfair to address some privileges. After all it is legitimate and healthy to crave to be happy. My favorite moment of the week now is to collect a lovely 5 years old from Kindergarten and to walk together around Schöneberg discussing colors and books’ covers at shops windows. Once at my place we drink hot chocolate and practice letters and numbers by singing and drawing. It was during one of these snacks that I found myself wondering, once again, who the dishes we bought in the market when we arrived in Berlin, almost fourteen years ago, belonged to.
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