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Stavenger Airport, passport checkpoint. I'm chatting with fellow Actors for Human Rights. The officer barely has a look at our passports, mine included. He doesn't double-scan and double-check and double-verify and double-consult his colleague and double-re-check my passport. Is it because i was obviously in the company of white western citizens or because I was leaving the country? I bet he would have let me go even if I'd shown him a bus ticket in place of my passport... Heathrow Airport, passport checkpoint. |
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We'll be performing in between sessions today so I figured I should attend all of them. That means I won't be seeing much of the city. But I'm not bothered, I'm interested in the subject anyway. The morning is dedicated to Immigration and Asylum in Europe ("Open Port or Fortress Europe?") and the afternoon to other human rights issues, such as rendition and freedom of speech. Our performance before the session of "Rendition and Secret Detention" feels particularly appropriate: we tell the true story of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian young man who's been detained in Guantanamo Bay for the last six years without charge or trial. |
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Present at the seminar are Zimbabwean writer Chenjerai Hove and British publicist Judith Vidal-Hall. During one of the breaks, I overhear Chenjerai telling someone he'd organised the book fair in Zimbabwe in 1984. And I know that Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera was at the fair as well (In 2009 we're organising a tribute festival on Dambudzo Marechera). So later on, I catch Chenjerai and ask him if he knows a certain writer named Dambudzo Marechera. |
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Stavenger Airport. I'm queuing at the passport checkpoint. Though Norway isn't part of the EU, the queue is advancing fluently, the officers merely having a look-in at the passports. Two men, probably from Latin America, with a bunch of documents tucked in their passport are in front of me. The duty officer now takes his time and looks at the offered documents carefully. He asks a few questions (where they're from, purpose of visit, etc), stamps and hands them back their passports. My turn. |
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On 15 - 17th May I will be in Norway to perform 'Asylum Monologues' with Actors For Human Rights/iceandfire, during the 1st European Hospitality Tribunal, in Stavanger, Norway. The 1st European Hospitality Tribunal is organised by the Stavanger2008 Capital of Culture project “The Arts of Hospitality†and the International Cities of Refuge Network’s EU Culture 2007 project “Shahrazad – Stories for Lifeâ€, in collaboration with Amnesty International, International PEN, the European Council for Refugees and Exiles, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Municipality of Stavanger. |
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