Memorandum: One Alarm, Many Voices

On Friday last week, twenty policemen of the federal police barged into Globe Aroma and took away seven artists. Two of them are now staying in a closed centre, four others received the order to leave the territory.

Globe Aroma is an open place in the heart of Brussels where people are welcome, independent of their origin, personal situation or status. It is a place where newcomers can come paint, create music or theatre, and get in touch with local artists. It is an integration with the smell of pancakes, coffee and tea. Dead simple but of indescribable importance for the vulnerable social tissue and the liveability in the big city.

In 2017 similar scenarios already occurred in about ten social, socio-cultural, youth, sport and welfare organisations. The actions tie in with the Canal Plan by minister Jan Jambon which must counter threats of terror and radicalisation. Attacking artists and sports clubs to prevent terror attacks? Who can follow?

Today, more and more people without documents are wandering around in our cities. A no man’s land has originated between the civil rights of those who dispose of the correct nationality, and the universal human rights. It is in that grey zone that human solidarity comes more and more forward. There, people and associations meet the facilities in which our government fails.

Ways are sought to legally give that twilight zone a place, because no one likes to work in a legal vacuum. A few authorities, mostly local, are informed about this and support the many creative solutions for the increasing precariousness that no longer can be ignored.

Unfortunately, civil solidarity needs to give in more and more to a cold interpretation of the law. The creative sector, civil society organisations and an increasing group of citizens strongly disagree and take their responsibilities. The civil society organises itself in a grey zone between legal and illegal, with humanity as moral compass. For this, we seek support, not sanctions.

Everything that seems obvious today, was once fought for. Social revolutions ask for political negotiations and courage, over and over again. And we will always have that courage, because ‘if the most vulnerable inhabitants of our cities are degenerated into wild animals, we will all become part of a hunting ground.’ (open letter, published in De Standaard, 12 February 2018).