Thursday, February 28, 2013

Grandparents' house is a refugee camp


Yes, I admit,  I am not a victim of apartheid or ethnic cleansing. Nor am the victim of an armed conflict or a natural disaster. But I affirm that I am an internal displaced person in my country.

In southern Europe, the Europe of the periphery, not armed conflict has displaced thousands of people arbitrarily, and such displacement, as is reflected in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, generates conditions of severe hardship and suffering for the affected populations. It breaks up families, cuts social and cultural ties, terminates dependable employment relationships, disrupts educational opportunities, denies access to such vital necessities as food, shelter and medicine, and exposes innocent persons to such acts of violence as attacks on camps, disappearances and rape. Whether they cluster in camps, escape into the countryside to hide from potential sources of persecution and violence or submerge into the community of the equally poor and dispossessed, the internally displaced are among the most vulnerable populations, desperately in need of protection and assistance.

No doubt, causes and effects of displacement are mixed together in my case, and not even my intention to compare my life to the millions of people living in a refugee camp, it would be unfair on my part and would invalidate my speech, but I can assure you I am also under conditions of suffering and severe hardship, and that I am a victim of an economic conflict based on a large-scale neoliberal project called EU that does not seek the common good.

Somehow, the grandparents' house has become an economic refugee camp, where they get together again children and grandchildren who live badly with the meager pension of their parents. The family unit has become a haven of this systemic crisis. As a huge refugee camp spread across the geography of the cities and towns of my country.




The Aliu and Lopez families looked out from their window at the arrival of the police, who were coming to evict them from their home in Viladecavalls, north of Barcelona, Spain. Alfredo Aliu and Montse Lopez had been unable to pay their mortgage for two years after their coffee shop went bankrupt.
Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

Young unemployed, families evicted from their homes. A gray panorama of exclusion, recession, unemployment and scarcity to the shadow of the Troika and their fiscal adjustment policies based on social cuts, privatization of public services and deregulation of markets.

I learn from the 25 million internally displaced persons worldwide, their incredible stories of resilience and hope. Their daily effort to survive encourages me to keep fighting against this capitalist violence, genocidal of the middle classes and social welfare, that condemns to poverty millions of people around the world.

When economic violence of the capitalist system is considered as widespread violence, or a violation of human rights, I will be truly an internal displaced person.


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