After the last park interview with a Muslim man, I have received a lot of reactions by mail. This is an important issue in

our neighbourhood, and please post your comments and participate in this discussion.

Thanks, – Maja

You see? Those guys ar humans too 🙂
We want more BROS!!!

What is your opinion about the discussion about muslim women and violence?

Gert (60) This I have expected

for a long time. I have said all the time that these people, our new citizens, are taking with them much negative and horrible customs from their original homelands and are

expecting us to respect them. They are not like us!

Eva (17) I think it is terrible what these poor women are

suffering. We must free them from the isolation and dominance of their husbands, give them shelter in special centers.

Sandra (34) This is not

representative for my group. There are a few men who have viwes as this, they are only few, believe me!

Elisabeth (45) I dont know.. we

cannot do anything regarding their own customs and what they are doing within their homes, can we?

Photos: Thomas Hawk, Hamed Saber, Zen, Pinna

I have just interviewed Hassan, who regularly sits in the cafe together with his friends. I wanted to know more about how muslim men look upon their wives and how they treat them.

When talking with Hassan, I got the impression that he was not a very strongly religious man, but he had strong opinions about how to treat his wife. My wife earns respect, he said, she is doing a wonderful job raising my children and doing the house work. Therefore I do not want her to get bad ideas from the society around us, where I see a lot of other wives who are disregaring their duties both to the children and their husbands.

So therefore it is in her own interest that she spends most of her time in the home, and when she is going outside, it will only be for shopping and necessary errands. I dont want her to have contact with women from this country, that will lead to bad ideas and influence on her. And I think she is content with the contact she has with other women from our own couontry and our many relatives.

I thanked Hassan for his opinion and now is asking the readers;

what comments do you have to this? PATSY

Photo: Robert Scales

The drug addicts should be listened to as the other members of our community. I´m very happy to have Johnny posting this on our blog:

Many people seems to have an idea about what is best for the drug addicts. What do you know about our situation? You are just conserned about the problem we cause for yourself, your nice and perfect life, pritty neighbourhood and your kids. Let me tell you, we don’t want this life, many of us have struggled hard to get sober and free from the drug, but the system that is supposed to help is not working properly. When you start to get motivated for treatment, you have to wait too long before you can get an offer. When you get out of prisson there is no support that can stop you from going back to your old drug friends. Of course it is a problem with the needles in the park and we don’t want it to be like this. Give us an injection room, and give those who want, an easier way to Metadon treatment. This is what we need!
Johnny from „Needle Hill“

Photo: Davic

The Street Magazine present to day the story of Anthony the homeless old man that died in the hospital. He prefered to live outdoor despite he had money to choose otherwise. How can we understand that some people choose this kind of life? What does this tell us about our welfare system? For most people like Anthony provoke our idea about the civil society and how to behave when you are living in a city. We are likely to think that the people living like this is either alcoholic or mentally ill. Many people seems to think that they are a danger to the society. Bearing diseases, smelling terrible, and is a hunt to our welfare system. But is this true? In the next number of The Street Magazine we will focus more on the situation for the homeless in the park and you can read what the Salvation Army know about these people, and what our Health and Social Service think they can offer these people. We also offer the readers to bring in their thoughts about this.
The Editor, Street Magazine

Anthony used to sleep on the bench by the football ground, every night. All year round. Officially it is not allowed to stay overnight, but I closed an eye for him because I was one of the few people that talked to him.

He was shy and not very social, but locals accepted him and even liked him somehow. So did I: when he died it was as if I lost a member of my family. It is a very sad story. He lived here for a very long time.

He had a hard time and one morning I found him with a serious fever so I called the mobile unit of the Salvation Army. But that didn’t do him any good. They forced him to go into an institution, although the world outside is his life. The open air is his past and his future, so he died unhappy in residential care for elderly only 3 months after I found him.
Antony was a part of the park. Many people know him. Some elderly brought leftovers for him. But other people like businessmen eating their lunch in the park had difficulties to understand him. Especially when he was drunk and making amok I had to intervene from time to time. You know what is funny, I heard recently that he had a lot of money on the bank when he died, but maybe that’s only a rumors.
He was not the only homeless person frequenting this park, but he was certainly the most colorful. I feel so sorry for him. He grew up in a bad situation with abuse and going from one stepfamily to an other. He spent time in institutions and prisons. Never ever in his life was able to grew over his unhappy childhood. This is why his relation with the other homeless was ambiguous. He was like a father for them, but on the other hand he was very afraid of getting attached to them. He never learned to build relations or became emotionally attached to others.

Adrian

We have to use every means to destroy the terrible milieu that ruins our Green park! To remove the drug users from the park is the best thing we can do for the crap living there. –The rest they have to sort out by themselves!

As some of you may have seen there´s a portrait interview with Johnny in the last issue of West Magazine. See below.

Three ladies have put up a note in the Civic Centre. Thought I´d share it with you, and maybe husbands and children in immigrant families can pass it on to wives and mothers? Thanks, – Maja

COOKING GATHERING FOR IMMIGRANT WOMEN.

Are you interested in cooking and want to share your knowledge with women from other countries?

We are three women from Chile, Kurdistan and Kenya who meet once a month to cook together. Would you like to join us? We have been allowed to use the kitchen in the Civic Center every two weeks, and plan to start a «cooking gathering» on a regular basis. Come and meet us!!