Nocturnal kitchen thoughts

We said goodbye to our Christmas tree this weekend in our shared flat. It was a gift from Mulham to all of us. Just as we decorated it together, we took it down together yesterday. The boys then took it to the collection point. And somehow that day then turned into a departure. We turned our whole flat upside down. Rearranged, cleaned in detail, the big lemon tree moved from my room to our common living room. The boys also worked all day, all ready for a new time.

Now I'm sitting here and letting my thoughts run free.
I'm meeting my daughter this morning to discuss further work for #StopDeportationToAfghanistan. Many new photos and statements have arrived.
A young man is also joining us, the brother of my son's friend. He is applying to a university for photography and film. He will volunteer for the project. We want to get young people involved in our action, we are currently discussing how we can do this well. To express the concern, the sad knowledge of their homeland Afghanistan, the political rejection they experience here and still let them shine in all their strength and dignity. I am very grateful for the involvement of those around me, the young people here.

I think of my friends/colleagues and I think of my boys. Many of them are here with us in life, they study, work, learn, go to German courses. Education was and is one of our topics. And I think of the others who had to leave Austria, with B2/C1 certificates in their pockets, deported, or still on the run. To A. Jan, who is at university in India and is waiting until everything is done for the next step, to Rahim, whom we all miss so much, to Blümchen, who had to leave home at 12 and is on the road again, and, and....
I am meeting some of my friends/colleagues next week in Vienna to discuss the #Fairlassen campaign. There was no hoped-for improvement in the matter of the Federal Care Agency/#BBU.

"Ministerial" legal advice, isolation of those seeking protection, which will have serious psychological consequences, 3 asylum centres near the border, in which everything concerning asylum is to be dealt with to the exclusion of civil society. A look at our website/text pearls
http://www.fairness-asyl.at/textperlen-im-asylverfahren/
reveals why we NGOs, helpers, sponsors, friends, but also lawyers andadvocates express our greatest concerns about this. There are many reasons why political parties, for whom asylum seekers are a thorn in the flesh, want to handle asylum procedures in isolation from the public.

I wonder intensely whether there would be people in our country who would volunteer their creativity, their life experience and their know-how for a campaign based on the theme that Christoph Riedl often addresses:
"Let's save humanity".

There are thousands of wonderful success stories in our country, of people who have landed here with us after extreme war experiences, exhausting flight and have given their best to build a new life. I and many others have reported about this a great deal in recent years.

Now the situation has changed. Not only those people are in need of protection, because for years hatred was deliberately stirred up against them. We as a society are also facing a great challenge, the emotional level is lagging behind the technical and economic development in terms of injuries. In this respect, we have also become a society in need of protection.

Sounds theatrical, but it is very real. Time is money, stinginess is cool, we can't afford it, are all sayings that manipulate our thoughts every day.
Many different groups meet. Those who accompany refugees, those who think it is good that there is accompaniment, those who report on it but actually run large NGOs and have little idea of the practical life of those affected, those who remain silent for various reasons but wish so much that someone would come and build a bridge for them to talk and those who would like to but cannot for various reasons.

And those who can't/won't hear the topic any more and those who want the protection seekers gone.

And here is the big question that concerns me tonight: how do we sum up all those, except the latter, in order to claim humanity for all of us?

How do we make people feel that it makes sense to deal with values, with charity, with humanitarian solutions? How do we spark curiosity and courage in society to discover what we are/would be capable of?

It is no longer just about those seeking protection. No, it is about our society. Let's not allow ourselves to be persuaded that empathy and compassion are simply no longer feasible, let's not allow ourselves to be divided according to origin, religion, education, gender. Let's find ways to slowly and cautiously get closer to what we are: Human beings.
And let's support each other in developing empathy, in "looking over the garden fence", in getting involved in new ways.

It's true, it's not easy. But what change is easy? Much is new, unknown, frightening. But in the end, we will find ourselves strengthened and satisfied in the joy of the successful outcome.

Let us not stop looking for this path. For we have a great responsibility for the souls of our children. And this requires much more than purely economic and political solutions will ever be able to give.

Nightly kitchen thoughts, even if I will miss sleep tomorrow, how grateful I am that they exist.