Our last day was full of events. First of all we had two special guests in Sci office. In the morning we met “Taula per Méxic”, who told us about the situation in this country. She gave us some valuable information on narco trafficking in Mexico and the conflict and war environment caused by “narcos”. Mexico is in a constant war situation, but many countries do not acknowledge this, even though many people are killed every year in Mexico. The war in Mexico is between different groups (Government, gangs etc.) and you can never predict the next attack on either one person or a whole village. Sometimes the government has a war with the gangs against the political activists and sometimes the government has a war against one gang. Many political activists in Mexico are persecuted and they need a safe placeto stay. “Taula per Méxic” brings the political activists to Catalunya for 3 months, to rest and have a break from the constant persecution danger, which makes them unable to do their jobs.
In the evening Míriam Hatibi came to tell us about Islamophobia. This session was open to public so a lot of people came to listen to her talk. She told about what it means to be an activist, discrimination and racism. “When do you think a person suffers from Islamophobia?” she asked. And she said that when a person looks like a Muslim by wearing a scarf or dates a Muslim then you are a target. She told us why Islamophobia exists by following a theory and she explained the words; equality, paternal behavior and orientalism.
Kate made a summarry of the day:
“The last participant of the Peaceweek, Ramsis from Palestine arrived on the last day of the workcamp. He joined our group in a very interesting moment. We had a situation at a workshop and started a very emotional discussion. Everybody shared his feelings, experiences and fears. Ramsis was impressed and summarized main ideas:
1 – Every group can have the “Minority – Majority challenge” in which some members can be excluded.
2 – In most cases it's caused by lack of communication. That's why it's important to talk about what you feel and think. But if you really want to solve problems, talk when you're calm but not angry.
3 – All problems can be solved if all the team works together.
In the evening we all went to a Kurdish restaurant to have our farewell dinner.
I had some time to think it over, and I wrote some words, inspired by our talk and Miriam's speech. Being a minority means that you have to be very active whatever you want it or not. You have to speak out load and be ready to meet any reaction if you just want to be heard. You have to make double effort or even more if you want to reach your goals. It's always hard, it's always challenging. But it's worth it.”
Tomorrow is the time to to say good-bye and return to our countries with lots of good memories and topics to think about:)