At the “Human Library,” you can “loan” a person to tell you their life story, an original concept born in Denmark that is designed to challenge prejudice and which has spread around the world.
Iben — a quiet 46-year-old sexual abuse victim with mental health issues who doesn’t give out her last name — is one of eight “books” curious people can loan on this autumn day in Copenhagen.
For 30 minutes, you can ask anything you want, either one-on-one or in a small group.
Photo: AFP
“The Human Library is a safe space where we can explore diversity, learn about ways in which we’re different from each other, and engage with people we normally would never meet... and challenge your unconscious bias,” explains Ronni Abergel, the project’s garrulous initiator.
He created the living library in 2000 during the Roskilde music festival and went on to build a non-profit organization.
The concept has since found its way into more than 70 countries.
“A reading truly is a conversation,” says Abergel.
“I’m going to take a few minutes to explain my topic, my background and to make sure that you can ask me anything about being HIV (positive) or disabled, or transgender, or a refugee or Jewish or Muslim or whatever my topic may be.”
BLANK PAGES
In most cases the conversations flow freely, typically held in a calm environment like a city library, a meeting room, or as today, in the garden of the Human Library’s premises.
“Sometimes people ask a lot and the conversation flows. But sometimes I maybe need to tell them a little bit more, ask my readers questions in order for them to reflect or ask new questions,” says Anders Fransen, a 36-year-old blind and hearing impaired “book.”
People are encouraged “to ask really difficult questions,” Abergel says, stressing that nothing is off limits, no matter how sensitive the subject may be.
People who loan Iben can choose between three of her oral books: sexual abuse victim, living with borderline personality disorder or severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
She has on occasion refused to answer questions.
“I have said that that page wasn’t written yet. So they just smiled and said okay,” she recalls.
But she’s never had a bad experience in her four years.
“All my readings are different,” and they’ve evolved over the years, she says. “When I started, I was in a totally different place... I’ve been working on myself for years.”
Fransen says he’s proud to have helped people develop how they think about handicaps.
After a recent ‘reading’ with some eighth graders, he overheard them talking to their friends.
“They were saying ‘hey, this guy is a cool guy, he has a cool story to tell.’ So I made an impression on them,” he smiles.
‘NEUTRAL LEARNING SPACE’
‘Loanees’ come away with powerful experiences too.
“All the responses we’re getting indicate that it’s a high impact experience,” Abergel says.
He was recently contacted by a reader who borrowed a human book in 2004.
“She was telling us about the impact [the book had] on her view on Muslims... And she had used that information in the 17 years that have passed. So that has been to the benefit of the community, her and other people of Muslim background.”
In an increasingly polarized world, Abergel wants his initiative to help people become “less apprehensive, more open, more understanding and accepting of your right to be different.”
But, he insists, the organization is not about promoting diversity or combating prejudice.
“We run a neutral learning space where there is an opportunity for you to engage, learn about yourself and other groups,” he says.
“What you learn and what you do with your learning is entirely in your hands.”
One of those loaning a book is 41-year-old Karem.
“To see the person and listen to him or her and see the perspective, the whole story that is almost unfolding in front of you” is “very touching”, he says.
“It lets people see that at the end of the day we are a lot of titles, but the same flesh and blood and bones.”
Taiwan has next to no political engagement in Myanmar, either with the ruling military junta nor the dozens of armed groups who’ve in the last five years taken over around two-thirds of the nation’s territory in a sprawling, patchwork civil war. But early last month, the leader of one relatively minor Burmese revolutionary faction, General Nerdah Bomya, who is also an alleged war criminal, made a low key visit to Taipei, where he met with a member of President William Lai’s (賴清德) staff, a retired Taiwanese military official and several academics. “I feel like Taiwan is a good example of
March 2 to March 8 Gunfire rang out along the shore of the frontline island of Lieyu (烈嶼) on a foggy afternoon on March 7, 1987. By the time it was over, about 20 unarmed Vietnamese refugees — men, women, elderly and children — were dead. They were hastily buried, followed by decades of silence. Months later, opposition politicians and journalists tried to uncover what had happened, but conflicting accounts only deepened the confusion. One version suggested that government troops had mistakenly killed their own operatives attempting to return home from Vietnam. The military maintained that the
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) announced last week a city policy to get businesses to reduce working hours to seven hours per day for employees with children 12 and under at home. The city promised to subsidize 80 percent of the employees’ wage loss. Taipei can do this, since the Celestial Dragon Kingdom (天龍國), as it is sardonically known to the denizens of Taiwan’s less fortunate regions, has an outsize grip on the government budget. Like most subsidies, this will likely have little effect on Taiwan’s catastrophic birth rates, though it may be a relief to the shrinking number of
RSS