2019 HUMANITY IN ACTION WARSAW FELLOWSHIP

Let’s Meet at the Intersection of You and Me I have a question for you: Who are you? Can you describe yourself in a single word, a single sentence? Is it even possible to encapsulate who you are in words? In all likelihood, you have attempted to whittle yourself down to a digestible description. And, if we are honest, these descriptions never do us justice. Yet, we so often focus on our own and others’ singular identities, while missing the greater portrait of who we each are. So, what does that mean for those who are driven to bring about change—for example, we Humanity In Action Fellows? It means that we must abandon simplistic ideas of identity and expand our toolkits to include frameworks and theories that make space for the complex people and problems we seek to resolve. Today’s addition to the toolkit, then, is intersectionality. A concept developed by Kimberlè Crenshaw, intersectionality was intended to provide a framework for understanding overlapping identity discrimi...

What Solidarity Sounds Like I hear the word ‘solidarity’ and my brain immediately goes to the song ‘Solidarity Forever’, a hymn that played in the background of my childhood. Written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915, the song was a union anthem passed from generation to generation of organizers and activists. One line always jumps out to me: “...yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?” Said simply, there is power in numbers. Solidarity is a charged word, one that extends beyond the lines of a song or the picket lines of a protest. It came to describe the struggle for freedom against tyranny in Poland in 1989, permanently intertwining itself into the fabric of democracy-building. It’s important to remember that, until the latter half of the 1970s, Polish social groups that opposed the communist government were not united and their actions brought little long-term change. It took three decades of resistance—locally, regionally, and nationally—to form a broad co...

When Protest Counts: Poland's Struggle For reproductive Freedom The early 90s was a very promising period for changes in Central and Eastern Europe. The “virus of democratic revolution” spread through the countries in the form of the New Forum in the German Democratic Republic, the Civic Forum in Czechoslovakia and the Alliance of Free Democrats in Hungary. Even though a completely new post-communist civic society developed in Poland after Solidarity came to power, some human rights issues have remained unresolved, even today. A special concern should be raised around the status and protection of reproductive rights of women. A discriminatory law on abortion introduced in Poland in 1993 outlines only three circumstances under which women are able to access this procedure legally: when continuation of the pregnancy endangers the woman's life or health, when the fetus is irreparably damaged, or when the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act (rape/incest). In reality, 90%...

Do WE save migrants and refugees or do THEY save us? What do you think about when you hear the words “migrant” or “refugee”? Is it a beggar in the constant need for help? Rootless and helpless in the search of own well being. Or is it someone proud, breathing with liveliness and full of ambition? Just looking for a right aerodrome for the flight of their lifetime. Is it someone who has to fit in, accepted in your community if they meet set of particular conditions and hide certain parts of their own identity? Or someone embraced unconditionally? My thoughts and associations are versatile and complicated: my sister is the bright example of intellectual migration to the United States, while my father had lost his hometown indefinitely in the heart of war conflict between Russia and Ukraine back in 2014, and could be a refugee unless our family resided in the other hometown. I am myself on my third year of BA in Warsaw, Poland, and could be considered as an economic migrant. Out of 1...

LOVE IS MY RELIGION Barack Obama once said "We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn't a matter of political correctness. It's a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith." This his quote illustrates what I thought about on the 19th of June when we had a chance to listen to the lectures of Dr. Mustafa Switat and Catholic theologist Zuzanna Radzik. It is common knowledge that religion mostly unites people. However, it is necessary to stress that it unites mostly people of the same faith. When it comes to different religions, it turns out that religion may be a flashpoint of conflict. People who are not Christian in Poland often faced discrimination and were subjected to hate speech. Our guest Mustafa Switat said that in the last years the number of situations when members of...

This Rainbow Is Complicated “I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth” said God to Noah, when the rainbow first appeared on the sky after the Deluge. If he had done that in today’s Poland, he would have probably been accused of “homopropaganda”, at least by some members of the Roman catholic hierarchy. Because of its similarities with the seven colours of LGBTI+ flag the rainbow has become a source of never-ending controversy, of which the burning of the rainbow installation at Zbawiciela Square and the scandal around Madonna of Częstochowa with the rainbow halo are just two examples. This symbolic war is also symptomatic for modern Polish society, where different values and points of view are constantly clashing with one another. In order to fully understand this complex problem the tenth day of our fellowship was devoted to the issues around the LGBTIAP community in Poland. In the first session we met with   Gosia Kot , a Board...