Alien - Aprile 1999

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The cultures at the center

The Milan Centre of cultures exists from about 4 years and since then has limitlessly committed itself in finding constructive and positive response to vast and complex phenomena like immigration and more in general in encounter of cultures, human rights, self-organisation of people.
In this period the Centre of Cultures has established itself as a point of reference and source of new initiatives in Milan panorama, in other Italian cities and some African countries.
In this 4 years the social situation has changed, immigration (processes) inflow has changed and our action touched off an evolution which, at the start, we could not imagine.
Today immigration has increased, immigration to escape from poverty, to look for future prospective, to escape wars or to escape violent regimes which negates the very elementary human rights. We have known new nationalities which we have not had an opportunity to meet and bigger communities, protagonist of first immigration to Italy have been consolidated.
Immigration societies have changed, take a look at Europe; new opposing positions are coming up like those more intolerant and rigid who refuse diversity and utilise common places in one way; on the other hand, its gaining momentum the group of people who want change and are sensible to others and their needs, who aspire for justice and liberty for all. Even the Institutions towards immigrants has changed. The immigration law got more rigid, a law that favours exploitation of immigration, black jobs, discrimination in general and it quote s energised by "bastard rules" like prisons for foreigner awaiting expulsion.
The political and economic society, in crisis for lack of human values and objectives from which it can set in and towards which it can go, grope and mix in the worst human feelings: fear, refusal, condemnation, manipulating the reason to guiltiness of any (poor) foreigner as being responsible for all evils.
In such a delicate situation, if the welcome and opening side (part) grows, is also a bit thanks to us, with all the activities we look to carry forward without a halt.
Also our way of working is "particular": is a team work that give little or no space for personalism or leaderism (of self-purpose)(interests). We look for people, give them possibility to express themselves, going on according values as the respect of diversity and communication; and we feel that all persons are important. Our meetings works and our activities bear fruits because we have a common agreement, we start from premises clear for all: to Humanise the Earth. This expression means fighting against any form of injustice and violence; learning (getting to comprehend) to express an develop the best of ourselves; getting to comprehend the others in the infinite varieties of cultures, mentalities and experiences, and love the reality that we are building together.
Since our birth we have done a lot of things (all for free): Alien, the journal that gives a voice to the immigrants and their aspirations, that reports injustices and diffuse (enlightens) on the activities of the Centre. Weekly meetings of intercultural communication and contact with oneself; organising demonstrations against discrimination; participating to the Milanese Anti-racist Net; Italian, Arabic, French courses; legal aid in general and particularly for the immigration law "Sanatoria" ; gathering of reports and help requests for any kind of maltreatment and abuse; organising conferences and debates upon "New Humanism", Islam and Buddhism; participation in campaigns against illiteracy (human support campaign) for children and adults in Senegal, Ivory coast and Benin; quarter activities in Cairo, Egypt; press team to communicate our initiatives and our position(stand) on social events to newspapers and T.V.; Milan campaign to find and solve housing problem for numerous foreigners; discrimination at international level. Because all these activities are done by people of various nationalities, in daily practice it occurs a continuous encounter between cultures, that demonstrates that diversity is a richness and that, basically, we are united by similar necessities and aspirations. The Centre of Cultures action is not limited, valid but restricted; we are not a group of volunteers who try to help foreigner to live in more decent conditions and that's all(it). Our action has a widest importance, because the Humanist Movement, of which we are part, is spread world-wide, and because we discuss the present(actual) system at the roots, proposing and putting into practise an option (alternative) which is also a culture: that is New Humanism. It\rquote s a culture of wanting to communicate and to get to know others, of an understanding capacity, of imagining positive solutions to problems for then solving them in practice. From the Humanist movement Document (by Silo): "Humanists are internationalists, aspiring to a universal human nation. While understanding the world they live in as a single whole, humanists act in their immediate environments. Humanists seek not a uniform world, but a world of multiplicity: diverse in ethnicity, languages and customs; diverse in local and regional autonomy; diverse in ideas and aspirations; diverse in beliefs, whether atheist or religious; diverse in occupations and in creativity."
Isn't this a universal culture?
Alien

Alien - Aprile 1999