Within the framework of the Docudays UA film festival, which has recently ended, the Living Library, a brainchild of the Danish NGO “Stop Violence,” started its work in Kyiv’s Cinema House.
It aims at shattering the stereotypes concerning certain groups, sexual, racial, or religious minorities, which have been shaped in society. The form of the “reading” is a dialogue between the audience and representatives of certain minorities of social strata. I posed the following questions to the “books”:
1. Why are you here?
2. What most widely spread stereotypes do you face? Did they pose any danger to you?
3. In your opinion, what is the reason of this prejudice?
4. What needs to be done to improve the situation?
5. What is your cherished dream, your main goal?
Andrii, a former prisoner:
1. “I want to inspire people to defend their interests and learn more about their rights. I was sentenced to eight years for the crime I did not commit. I had a perfect alibi, I could not physically commit the crimes I was accused of, but I faced the state machine which does not give an accused person any chance for acquittal. I decided to defend myself on my own, so I started to methodically study law. It was quite hard in the conditions I was living in, but this obstacle was inspiring. As I was developing, I also helped other people. Staying behind the bars, I held public events beyond the prison, including international ones. Sometimes people were shocked to find out that the coordinator of the action was in prison. That gave me even more inspiration. There are no impossible things. Your desire is the most important thing.”
2-3. “The system of executing the sentences is meant to change the person’s attitude to the crime s/he commits. But in its current form it only embitters people. Every person, despite his/her status and origin, can find him/herself in prison. And society estranges itself from these people. For many years we have had a stereotype that a person who gets imprisoned is guilty for ever and there is no punishment without crime. In fact, if you take any criminal case from the archives and thoroughly examine it, you will find out that in most of cases the evidence was collected with certain violations. So, the sentence is illegal a priori. But how many cases are there when people are put to jail for the crimes they did not commit? I know perfectly well what the estrangement of the society means. The difference with me is that while staying in jail, I became involved in human rights activity and when I was released, I joined the milieu of my friends and colleagues, and currently I work as a coordinator of the program of Kharkiv Human Rights Group.”
4. “Society should take interest in releasing people with a qualitatively new perception of the world, which are able to realize themselves. A person needs above all to learn about his/her rights, thus acquire a possibility to develop.”
5. “I want to be able to freely attend the penitentiaries and have confidential meetings with prisoners at any time, no matter where they are kept. The more people with such power will be there, the more will the level of violence in the police and prisons drop.”
Andrii, a homosexual:
1. “It is a second time that I am taking part in this action. Many people come, they take interest in the questions, the answers to which they cannot find.”
2. “One of the most widely spread stereotypes is that gays are affected males with girlish looks, who live in a closed caste and work exclusively in show business. I for one am a businessman and have nothing to do with show business. Another stereotype is that the number of gays and lesbians has increased. In fact it remains the same, only we have become freer and braver in the struggle for our rights.
“I have been residing in Kyiv for quite a while, the most widely spread thing is swearing in my address, nothing more. Of course, outrageous incidents have happened to my acquaintances. Maybe, I have been simply lucky.”
3. “Most people are afraid of what they don’t know.”
4. “People should understand that we are like them and we have rights too. Nothing will change unless society sees us. For example, people come to the Living Library, find out something new and leave in positive moods. We also need festivals to fulfill the educational role. We need people to see us as we are and not attach labels to us. Maybe something will change if we talk to everyone. Maybe our society just needs some more time to depart from the Soviet norms.”
5. “I want to live in Ukraine, in Kyiv, with my beloved person, I want to have a family and maybe even children. It is impossible at present and will remain so in the following 5-10 years, except for abroad. And I want to live in Ukraine.”
George, a foreign student (Nigeria):
1. “I am here because the Living Library is a unique way of communication, an opportunity to communicate.”
2. “Some people think that African students bring diseases to Ukraine. For some reason they think that we are to blame for the economic crisis in Ukraine. Sometimes I hear that foreign students live better than Ukrainians and receive special high scholarships from the Ukrainian governments, which is not true.
“Once I was attacked. It happened four or five years ago at the Vokzalna subway station, in summer. Some boys started to shout offensive words, one of them crushed a bottle on my head. That was not the first incident, but it was for the first time when the attackers used physical violence.”
3. “The reason is the lack of knowledge about where you came from, who you are, and what your main values are. People simply don’t know this.”
5. “My dream is grandiose, but achievable. After graduation from the university I want to go back to Nigeria and do something useful for my country, like helping it improve the situation in the healthcare system, get involved in politics, and become a president.”
Oleksii, a policeman:
1. “I work in the department of monitoring of how human rights are kept by law enforcement officials. I came here to change some stereotypes concerning the police. I want to tell what the police are in fact.”
2. “There are negative and positive stereotypes. The latter border on compassion: the police get low salaries, so they have to take bribes, unlike the US policemen. In fact the salary of an average American policeman is lower than the salary of an average social worker. The negative prejudice is better developed: in road inspection everyone takes bribes, whereas in criminal investigation everyone gets the admission of guilt by beating and sends people to jail illegally. They forget that we also have the prosecutor’s office and the decision on the punishment is ruled by court. Of course, there are ‘werewolves’ among the policemen, those who came to the law enforcement bodies because they wanted power, but those are mostly people with psychological problems. When you go along the street and see many people, do you know what vices they have? Anyone may be a criminal, but when people see a policeman, the reaction is unequivocal. There are negative examples. However, when one counts, it will turn out that there are more criminals in society than in the police. Besides, we should not forget that the police are a mirror reflection of the society.”
3. “The bias is mostly formed by the mass media. Mass media tend to highlight negative moments, because these pieces of news always rouse interest in the society. You should also add here the stories told by your relatives or friends of the convicts about the contact with the police. Taking the theory about five hand shakes, we can say that everyone knows a man who has been to the police. Every year six million appeals to law enforcement agencies are registered, the police cannot respond to them by launching an action because of the blanks in the national legislation. Such refusals also shape a negative attitude.
“I have experienced this attitude, and it took long to convince that it was not true and we came not to make bad to anyone, but to solve the crime.”
4. “We used to have a good slogan: ‘The police are with the people,’ but it has been spoiled and forgotten. We should remind the society that those who work in the police are our sons and brothers, we cannot separate them. Besides, I think we need to show more positive moments in our work, so that people saw what our work involves. I like the Georgian police reform, but I understand that Georgia is much smaller than Ukraine and it is impossible to carry out such a reform in our country. I can rather mention here the words from Heart of a Dog that destruction is in our minds. When we overcome the destruction in our minds, we will be able to do something.”
5. “I want to be accepted as a worthy man, to be reckoned with. I don’t want to feel a second-rate person and repeat something after someone: I am speaking about me and about Ukraine. For people choose a book based on the cover, and assess it on the content. I very much want people to see not only our cover, but the content as well.”
Kapitolina, a Gypsy:
1. “People know very little about us, that is why I wanted to shatter the stereotypic attitude and tell about the situation as it is.”
2. “There are many biases. The most frequent is that Gypsies sell drugs, children, don’t work and sit at home, that they don’t need anything and are interesting only because they sing and dance well.”
3. “People see some solitary incidents and extrapolate them on the whole people. I think so. Yes, a person did see something, but such kind of things happens not only among Gypsies, but other nationalities as well.”
4. “In my opinion, we should cooperate both with law-enforcement officials and journalists, so that Gypsies were shown from a different angle, and Gypsies who have achieved something should help to improve the situation both in the life of Gypsies and in the country on the whole.”
5. “I want Gypsies to be able to realize themselves, reach the goals they set, so that they had a decent job and lived like other people.”
