The Danger of A Single Story

In response to this, but also something to keep in mind when reading this blog.

Thanks for posting this Whitney!

In Solidarity

members of Afro Plus in Moscow

When I went home the first Christmas after moving to Slovenia, a family member came up to me at a holiday party and beckoned for me to "say something in Russian", when I told him I didn't live in Russia, he just laughed. Throughout the night, many people came up to me to "ask me about Russia", and I still come across people (old friends who find me on Facebook, long lost family members) who seem to think I live in Russia or thereabouts. In many people's estimations any country ending in "ia"=Slavic=Balkan=Eastern European= somehow Russian. While I won't deny that there certainly must exist some vague Slavic similarities between Russians and Slovenians, this ain't the same place and it's nowhere near it.

And after reading this article, I couldn't be happier.

(BBC) Africans Under Siege in Moscow: Nearly 60% of black and African people living in Russia's capital Moscow have been physically assaulted in racially motivated attacks, says a new study.

While Obama is busy making buddy with Medvyedev, scores of black folks on Moscow streets are looking over their shoulder every two seconds in fear. It's horribly ironic.

All this is not to say that Slovenia is perfect on this front, it certainly isn't but I feel more than safe walking down the streets, and pray that one day soon black people in Russia will be able to say the same.

Invisible Inflows

Two Latin American women who've been living in Spain without papers - Source

We recently had some family visitors from Germany, and at one point I was asked how life is here in Slovenia for immigrants.

This is a tough question. I gave a few anecdotes about poor pay, about other people of various backgrounds and their experiences, about how I get the sense that the Slovenian market doesn't really seem to know what to do with immigrants unless they are uneducated Bosnians here to do manual labour. All in all, it is very tough to say exactly how things are. It is one thing to talk about The Erased, but yet another thing to talk about The Invisible -- those who do not appear on public register, and even when they do, they cannot materialize on the social register. The immigrant experience is so very personal in so many ways that I would never be able to (and am not really interested to) comment on. But on the public scale, I rarely see immigrants on television except for the few times that the cart out some fortunate (usually European) foreigner who has triumphantly learned the language. So it's all so tough to say.

Today I came across this fantastic survey of immigration in Malta, Cyprus, and Slovenia. It is only 17 pages and certainly worth a read. Very illuminating.

"Where Slovenia is defined as a country of immigration there is an implicit understanding that this refers to mainly European migrants. People from outside of Europe (i.e. ‘Asians’ as defined in the table) are deemed at best to be a transient population, on their way further west to Italy, France or the UK. The experience of 2000 served to reinforce this perception. Asians, it was suggested during one of the interviews, are not attracted to Slovenia because of its image as a ‘communist’ country.

The distinction between the two migrant groups is problematic for two reasons. There is first and foremost the risk of racially profiling migrants. It is the non-white population who seem not to form part of the Slovenia’s immigration profile. In the case of some Asian migrants residing in Slovenia, this has led to questioning their motives for being there. The recent growth in the number of Chinese migrants, who work mainly in Chinese restaurants, has become a source of intrigue and suspicion. There are doubts over the economic viability of the restaurants, and an assumption that the businesses are simply fronts for illegal activities."

Read more here.

The Mystery of Merlene Ottey

The other day I was walking around Ljubljana. I was meant to meet with a friend but I felt sick and unfun. I walked down the street and spied the Slovene Ethnographic Museum and figured I'd stuff myself in there. I'm not sure what I was thinking since cultural artifacts in big quiet rooms scare me, but I toughed it out. I learned a bit and I really liked the musical exhibit they had up. However the most intriguing thing of all was the discovery of Ms. Merlene Ottey.


I think this sez something like: " The guests were considerably surprised at Merlene Ottey's party to celebrate both her acquisition of Slovenian citizenship and her 42nd birthday. At the venue TMG-BMC, the new Slovene awaited her guests in our national garb (in the photograph of Borut Jurčič), each attendee was also treated with bread and salt.

I read that and was scratching my head. Who was this woman? How come I never heard of her? So as soon as I got home I wiki'd her. It turns out she is an Olympic medal holder (many times over) and one of the world's most preeminent athletes in the area of track and field. Born in Jamaica she ran for that country for many years. In 1998, she moved to Slovenia to train with her Slovenian coach and after a whole bunch of Jamaican national team drama, she threw up her hands and decided not to represent that country any more. In 2002, she became a citizen of Slovenia and has represented the country in many meets. She hasn't won a medal for Slovenia and at the ripe old age of 48, I don't think she's liable to, but I think it interesting that she's here as a black woman living the life of a local celebrity and national treasure.

In Merlene's own words:

"There is a very simple reason for such a decision. Here in Ljubljana I really feel like a "normal", ordinary human being - like any other citizen - which not only means that nobody bothers me here, but mostly means I can relax just like all other people."

United Nations of Wheelville

However, I haven't just been sitting here mourning all day. I've also been out with some of my new friends. Yes, it's true, I've finally made some of my very own buddies here in Wheelville. Owing to my "high visibility", one of them just walked over to me on the street and started talking! I've been so excited to have friends that it is pretty visible on my face, but luckily that hasn't scared anyone away. My few days of friendship have already revealed that Wheelville is actually far more diverse than I'd originally thought. The Australians down the road, the Argentines around the corner, the Chinese up the block, everything is starting to unfold and it's been fun. Nay a mention of the "e-word", only good times and good tails of our lives
grappling with the language, adapting to the country, meeting new people, and figuring out which grocery store is best.

Oh and by the way, this is the website for some of my new pals. I'm sure they'll appear here in future adventures very soon!

This or That

Me in Mexico last week

Always one to torture myself with abstract thoughts, I spent part of my winter vacation thinking about expats vs. migrant workers vs. immigrants. After a few weird experiences with expats, I am wondering what an expat actually is and whether I really want to/should/can identify myself as one and even if I do identify whether I should gravitate towards that community. There are a lot of other immigrants/migrant workers I've seen around my town and also in Ljubljana who have probably never been to a single expat event. While the migrant workers I've seen here seem to come from many different backgrounds and work different types of jobs here, I think there are a lot of people who may be automatically excluded from these expats groups and their activities by the mere fact that either they don't speak English or don't have web access or lack funds or (like me) don't have adequate transportation. Where do they hang out? Where/ what is their social support network? As I am trying to build my own social network I am curious to think about this.

I'm not sure where this is going, but I am probably going to be rambling about this off and on for the next weeks, just musing and throwing out information. I've grown up used to feeling marginalized, and it was a weird (but not surprising) experience to get marginalized by Americans outside of America, however it is a good reminder that I usually have more fun and learn more by lingering at the margins anyways. So that's what I'm gonna try and focus on for a while. ...well, that and ten million other things.