Sweden and South Africa: say #NoToXenophobia

A cold wind is blowing over the world. A xenophobic wind. Where does it come from? And why does it start now?

Is the answer to this trend more police and more military presence? That is not what I believe – but that is what I see.

Two examples. One from Sweden and one from South Africa.

I read in a local, Swedish newspaper – Hallands Nyheter – about a public lecture where the author Mietek Grocher, 88 years old, talks about his experiences as a holocaust survivor. Suddenly five to six men enter the hall. They sit down on the front row. Some of them are dressed in so called bomber jackets. One of them has had his head shaved. Everyone understands that they are from a neo-Nazism organisation. They are there to intimidate and they succeed. People are scared and the principal of the school does not know what to do except to call the police. But the police cannot do anything. On the website of the organisation called the Swedish Resistance Movement it is clear that they were behind the action.

Xenophobia, which so often links to anti-Semitism. Mietek Grocher says, according to Hallands Nyheter, that he is used to this.

Isn’t that terrible? He survived the holocaust and now he has to go through similar things again? Sweden 2015.

South Africa 2015. I read this in Mail and Guardian:

The South African government has now called on the South African National Defence Force to “reinforce the work of police”, “exert the authority of the state” and “reclaim the streets” in areas where xenophobic violence has been reported.

When I read the article it describes how people, who are not South African citizens, are being stabbed or even shot. It’s terrible!

This wind is of course also blowing in Nigeria, Syria, Libya, Ukraine and in many other countries.

My point with this blog post is that more police and military will not solve this. We as citizens have to stand up, united and say no to xenophobia.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The 27 January 1945 was the day when Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops. We remember all those who were killed in this and similar death camps: 6 million Jews, 1 million Romani, mentally and physically disabled people and thousands of homosexual men. Also others were killed.

This is not the only time humanity has deliberately killed people because they belong to another group, religion, race (whatever that is), people etc. But it is one of the worst.

As an act of remembrance we made it to the Jewish museum in Cape Town and the Great Synagogue. One interesting thing happened when we approached the buildings. Two women asked us if we knew that there was a museum and we said yes, we are on our way to visit it. Then they told us that their parents had been married in the synagogue and that they were so happy that we were going to visit the museum.

To me that was a sign that South Africa is a country were Jews are free to reveal their identity to strangers. I know that this is not the case all over the world. Especially not in Europe.

One thing we learned was that the largest groups of Jews that immigrated to South Africa came from Lithuania. Two of them were the parents of Helen Suzman, well known anti-apartheid politician. I have just finished a book about her, which I might blog about later.

When we visited Oudtshoorn recently we also learnt that these immigrants from Lithuania were very active in the ostrich business.

Today I ask myself the question:

Will humanity ever learn to respect and love one another instead of oppress and kill?

I don’t know, but I will still continue on the road to justice and peace.

This is the Great Synagogue in Cape Town.