<m2m-eng> Like a Somali

[Jo van der Spek M2M]

Dear friends of M2M,  at  m2m.streamtime.org

Soon the Somali refugees on the street will make new actions to demand the 
right to live. Therefore, M2M has created a special page on Facebook for the 
Somali struggle: Like a Somali
http://www.facebook.com/JoM2M

If we become firiends we can do together!

Here is the info of this page:


Like a Somali




Inspired by the campaign of (mostly) Somalian refugees fighting for their 
right to live in the Netherlands, Jo van der Spek and Migrant to Migrant 
(M2M) propose this forum to create ways for us and others to connect with 
their struggle and embrace the "damned of the earth" (Frantz Fanon) in our 
midst.

Undocumented migrants have a choice, they made it already when they left 
their original land.

Forced to live as outlawed humans they can choose between hiding and 
fighting, between invisibility and demonstrating, between betting on legal 
procedures or by organizing yourself.

I am inspired by the way Vluchtelingen op Straat decided in 2011 to go 
demonstrate, demanding basic human right. I am amazed by the Somali campers 
in front of deportation center Ter Apel. And I found friendship and 
hospitality when I visited them in Ter Apel and Vught. And when they came to 
Beat the Borders, Walk like a Somali, a manifestion of Freedom of Movement 
in Amsterdam on January 20th.




"Look with us, not at us", the slogan of M2M, invites us to imagine ourself 
in someone else's position. Doing this, we can recognize that you have more 
in common than you'd think at first sight. I migrated from a small 
provincial town called Zutphen to crazy village Amsterdam in the 70's when I 
was becoming fifteen. I assure you it took me a full year to assimilate en 
feel accepted. And I spent 10 years with a woman who migrated for romantic 
reasons to my village. So I've been there.




M2M was created with survivors of the Schiphol Fire as a way to reconnect 
instead of disappearing. This is the way of Papa Sakho, co-founder of M2M:


We are here

To make a life again

Together as one




Sakho is an African artist and still a bit lost is space. We have not 
finished the work of reconnecting. But meanwhile, we can start connecting. 
On this page. Like a Somali (or like whatever you like)




You may call it the art of migration, or the art of metamorphosis. It is an 
art we can learn, enjoy and cherish.