As 2016 draws to a close, I am still not sure how I feel about it…
This year, probably more than any in my life, I have exercised my freedom of choice in ways I never really thought possible. Its ironic as it is also the year that awareness exploded into my consciousness that this freedom of choice is precious, rare and endangered.
It is a year with so many memories burnt into my mind, a year with memories that I will never forget and will not fade with time. A year that seems much longer than only 12 months. There aren’t many years like that, they usually fly past without you noticing they have come or gone.
I wont be celebrating New Year this year, in some ways I am relieved as I am not sure quite how I feel about this year yet. I have not yet processed its ups, downs and madness of it. This is not however why I am not celebrating it, I have flu (or similar), otherwise I would probably try to forget reality for one more night and sing ‘Don’t Worry be Happy’ at the Karaoke in the local pub after a few glasses of wine.
As many do, I wonder what I have achieved this year, the first year in 25 years that (out of choice) I haven’t been in paid, regular employment. The year I have had time to think, research and grow, the year I supposedly jumped off the treadmill. I know I have tried so very hard to help build bridges, spread awareness and show solidarity with people displaced from their homes. I know I have made so very many mistakes in this process, and I know I could/should have done so much more.
Now as I look through my facebook feed and see the suffering of displaced people trapped in and around Europe, watch the barbaric atrocities being committed in Syria and Yemen (among others) I feel frustrated and powerless, when will it stop or at the very least, when will the decline start to reverse.
This year I have met or become acquainted with so many people of which I am in complete awe and hold the utmost respect for. Some who have fled war and been forced to live in refugee camps. The people I met have among them people who are far more; intelligent, harder working, kind, resilient, resourceful, skillful, funny….. etc than me or many of my British colleagues. Yet they have had their lives turned upside down by war, politics and the fight for power, their freedom of choice and security has been taken from them, they are in limbo.
No longer can they choose which way their lives or the lives of their family will go. They are in the hands of politicians who will decide; whether they are allowed into the country, where they will live, whether they can work or study and how much they need to survive each week. These are the ‘lucky’ ones.
I look to 2017 with trepidation and fear mixed with not insignificant scatterings of hope. I have seen such incredible depths of human kindness and compassion over the last 12 months. Crossing (so called) ‘barriers’ of; language, race, religion and gender. Friends and family have stood shoulder to shoulder, speaking out against racism and inequality.
The ‘barriers’ thrown up to divide us are used by Politicians, the Media and other Groups are for their own gains and agendas – a divided and fearful population is much easier to control than a united one.
This year, I will continue to protest, speak out, pressure MPs, organise collections and fund raise. I also hope to visit some friends displaced from their homes and scattered around Europe. Its not a lot but its something, doing nothing is inconceivable.
Happy New Year peeps XX
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing.”
― Edmund Burke
Solidarity for refugees 