Hello COpenhagen
ANd we’re nearly there! Halfway at least. We’re sitting in the ICE Hamburg - Copenhagen. In the corridor since there seem not to be any places left on the train. We expected mainly activist on the train, but from the looks of it those are only a minority. Except if the 60 year old couples will turn out to be die hard activist. Who knows what they did in their golden days?
Well, let’s hope they are. Cause we will need every voice in Copenhagen to be loud and visible. From the looks of it also Copenhagen will be a failure for the Climate. Our so-called leaders are seemingly not willing to live up to the promises they have been making for the past year. They are slowly backing out of an agreement to be reached here., moving it up to 2010. But we know that in politics postponement means that there will be no agreement or a very weak one.
And we (the people and the planet) need a strong agreement. We need to stop climate change. It’s simple. It’s as simple as the survival as we know it now.
And therefor we need to raise voices. In Copenhagen. But also in our home countries. We need to pressure our governments into the necessity of this agreement. We need to say loud and clearly that this is a matter of utmost importance. That we need a change in their behavior, not climate change
Helllo Austria?
Fuckerdyfuckerdyfuck.
And we’re in Vienna. Boarding the night train to Hamburg.
When we arrived in Budapest in the morning we took a 2 hour rest till the train to Vienna came as we were starving. And of course it was nice to sit around and take in the beauty of the train station of Budapest Keleti.
After we got ripped off in an exchange shop (Hungarian Florints are a bitch) we took off to Vienna. Ass the plan was to start hitch hiking from Vienna onwards we already started planning in the train. We needed carton to write our destinations on and we needed to find the place where, we found through the internet, was the easiest to hitch a ride to Germany and then Denmark.
Easiest? My Arse!
We stood 4 hours in the freezing cold. Waving at cars. SMiling the crap out of ourselves. Doing some crazy dances to keep warm. Begging out-loud in the hope a driver would hear them. And nothing.
Nobody stopped. Well, somebody actually stopped but that was to taek with another hitch hiker who arrived later than us.
We didn’t get a ride. But by god we can say we got spit upon. From a car that was passing a guy got his head out and frankly spit upon the cardboard Esra was holding. Thank you Austria for you hospitality! See you next time!
We’ll just take the train to Hamburg and proceed from there!
bubai!
Yo! Copenhagen! We’re coming!
Here we go again. We’re off to Copenhagen. Off to the COP15. The plan is to travel by train from Istanbul to Bucharest. From there to Budapest and then to Vienna and then to hitch hike to Copenhagen.
When I’m writing this we’re already on the night train to Budapest and it’s past midnight. We actually survived the 22 hour train ride from Istanbul to Bucharest and those hideous passport controls. Having a Belgian Passport indeed has its benefits. No visa trouble at all. The obnoxious border patrols asking over and over for my supposedly Turkish Passport witch according to them I should have when they see my name are just a minor trouble. More mental than actually physical.
For Esra, whom I’m traveling to Copenhagen with this is the first time she has actually left Turkey. Since she has a green passport it makes things with visa’s easier. She only had to apply for a transit visa for Bulgaria. But still.
We could see the suspicion in the eyes of those border guards. Why was this Turkish Girl traveling with this supposedly Belgian boy.
Additional questions were almost always asked. Like it was actually any of their business. But we complied. We wanted to get through in the end.
We wanted to reach Copenhagen before we got anything close to getting arrested or send back.
This of course doesn’t make this damned fortress Europe any better. Nor anything else that deprives us from the freedom of movement.
But these borders and visa shit make it nearly impossible to go to a climate conference in Copenhagen from Istanbul. Many other activists are taking the plane as they would loose too much time and money visiting consulates and begging for transit visa’s. You can say that it is not green or even mind-bobbling to fly to such an event, but as a privileged Westerner with a EU passport I really do not feel just to cast judgement upon that. Not everything is that black or white.
Of course I was kinda freaked out when a journalist from the Turkish newspaper Radikal called and told that we were most probably the only ones going by train from Turkey. You simply never would like to be one of the only ones doing something that crazy. But his first question after that was rather interesting. He asked why we wanted to go by train. As he really did not understand the reason behind it. But why not go by train? Isn’t it the most environmental manner to travel? Next to Hitch hiking?
To some it seems nearly an injustice not to use our advanced technology when traveling. They would nearly take it as an insult to travel by transport that is time consuming. But we’d rather do that then as it is less energy consuming and certainly less damaging to our climate.
Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I’m through with playing by the rules
Of someone else’s game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It’s time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!
It’s time to try
Defying gravity
I think I’ll try
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I am defying gravity
And you wont bring me down!
I’m through accepting limits
”cause someone says they’re so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I’ll never know!
Too long I’ve been afraid of
Losing love I guess I’ve lost
Well, if that’s love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I’d sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I’m defying gravity
I think I’ll try
Defying gravity
And you wont bring me down!
I’d sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I’m defying gravity
I think I’ll try
Defying gravity
And never bring me down!
bring me down!
The Hypocrisy of a Majority Thinking
In our current understanding of democracy it is clear that societal changes (or any change for that matter) can only be made when 50% or more of the voters agree with this change. Or vote in favor of it. it’s the way our governmental coalitions are formed. It’s the way our laws are forged. It’s the way we are structured. We can see this principle nearly everywhere. In politics. In civil society.
This understanding of democracy seems to be set in stone and certain for some. But is it really something we should strive for in democracy?
Doesn’t democracy actually mean solidarity? Doesn’t it mean inclusion?
Isn’t it highly questionable that this 50% and more rule is actually not working against solidarity and inclusion? I would say No. Because there is no way in this rule that all of society is shown solidarity and the inclusion they deserve. There will always be hatred and exclusion when we keep pretending that in a democracy an amount of people should agree and then after that everything would be okay. Just okay.
Because it isn’t. If only a certain amount of people agree then there is another amount of people not agreeing with whatever that should be agreed upon. This is a democratic deficit.
It’s a democratic deficit as such that if those decisions and agreement carried by that majority would harm that minority that disagrees, it would mean exclusion and discrimination. It is a democratic deficit since harm is done to minorities and that that then is carried to the institutions that form our societies.
Can we then still say that we live in a democracy?
Islamophobia and racism walk hand in hand through the Swiss mountains
When writing this it look like the referendum on the banning of Minarets in Switzerland will pass with a majority of votes. The referendum will decide upon the faith of minarets in the ‘neutral’ mountain state. And since in Switzerland referendum are binding this will become a practice put down in law.
It is quite astonishing how something democratic like that is being used for something that discriminatory and would become a tool to spread hatred.
This ban on minarets in Switzerland is only a signal of the times. The signal that hatred, that racism, that islamophobia, that a despise for minorities, that non-respect towards the ‘others’ is gaining field in our ‘European’ and ‘Western’ societies. It’s gaining field and is about to be set in stone. Into the law. The law that is supposed to be written for all of a countries citizens, inhabitants. Is this now how we see democracy in the ‘West’? I this how we drive discrimination to new heights? Is this how we want to be en example of the implementation Human Rights and democracy in society?
No We Shouldn’t even pretend.
It is clear that with the extreme right gaining more and more votes. With so many political parties embracing discriminatory policies. With the institutionalized spreading of hatred. We are not even worth pretending to be an example for so-called developing countries or the Global South. We’re nothing more than hatred for everything that is different or unknown.
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