Palermo Pride 2017

Hello, people!

I've been absent for quite a bit - due to travelling, dissertation writing, intense weeks full of seminars, and then some much-needed distraction because I really wasn't in the mood to see my laptop after submitting my first chapter. 

But I'm back now! And not only I have a great content for you, but also some exciting news to share in a few weeks.

Today I'm taking you to Palermo Pride 2017. 

Since I moved to Palermo, Pride has become not only my tradition but also one of the things I absolutely look forward to every summer. I go into it a little bit more in my video, so definitely check it out (and subscribe if you like my content!)

I support equality for everyone, that's why for me it's a big deal. I work in the social field, I volunteer since I was 16, I'm writing my PhD in human rights so I would've been a complete fraud if I wasn't supporting Pride.

I love that here, in Palermo, everyone is celebrating together. I love that I always meet so many great people there. I love that together we are not only having fun but also making a statement. 

 

I love that a Pride is possible here - in this form and with this level of freedom. In Kyiv we had a total of 4 Prides or Equality marches till this point:

- in 2014 there were two times more police than the participants;

- in 2015 a horrible attack from the part of far-right assholes happened, many people were beaten and one policeman almost died;

- in 2016 and 2017, when the threats from the far-right became completely unacceptable, they actually acted out as a promotion - many people who never thought about LGBTQI+ rights as rights finally saw that if you are quietly observing discrimination and oppression without even trying to do anything, you are working with oppressors. 

If this doesn't prove that hatred and narrow-mindedness are atavisms, I don't know what does. 

So here we are. Let me know what you think)

*All the photos are made by me. On the last two of them, you can see my wonderful friends who also came to support freedom and equality.

Celebrate diversity: post-Eurovision thoughts

Hello, wonderful people!

If you are not from Europe (or, well, Australia), you have never heard of Eurovision. But if you are from here, you know the drill - it's a widely entertaining and controversial annual guilty pleasure, three nights of junk food and drinking games, political scandals and sometimes, shockingly, even music.

Eurovision Song Contest was created in 1956 to unite Europe, that was still recovering from the war. Now, this is the longest-running annual international TV song competition and a childhood tradition for many of us. 

Each year the competition is hosted by a country that won it the year before. And this year it took part in my home city for the second time since 2003 - the year when Ukraine started participating in the contest. The slogan of this year was Celebrate diversity and I was very pleasantly surprised to see the level of participants. And even more surprised to see the level of organisation. Kudos, Ukraine, you've done very, very well.

* I am not going to touch upon the gender balance of the hosts, just because I basically have nothing to say. Yes, one one hand it's weird and not really diverse to have three guys hosting a show of this level and with this slogan. But on the other hand, it's man and a woman each year, and each year it's the same - he is hitting on her, she is making fun of him. Is that diverse? I don't think so. But I'd love to see three women hosting Eurovision in the near future. 

But, considering this year's topic and the general atmosphere, it's very disturbing to see the things some people are writing about the winner - Salvador Sobral from Portugal.  It starts from being on drugs, having mental health issues and finishes at the "great" argument about him being "just weird".

#45daysofblogging 43: Searching for equilibrium

Day 43 - September 29

So here's Ana's story. Created during two days in July 2016 in Slovenia, in the framework of the TC Facing the Street. 

#45daysofblogging 39: what is Human Library?

Day 39 - September 25

As you already know, I'm writing these posts on the daily basis, but I post them with a bit of a delay, as I still have no internet at home (I don't even want to think about it, but I'm afraid I will have to search for another apartment, if this issue will not be resolved). So yes, when you see words "today" or "yesterday", consider the date on top of the post.

#45daysofblogging 33: Ljubljana

Day 33 - September 19

After the crazy, but nice day in Venice it was the time to continue my adventure and go to Ljubljana. 

For me it was my first time in Balkans, so I was very excited to see one more country and learn useful things along the way. 

Logistics

The tricky part about traveling to Ljubljana and Slovenia in general is that airplane tickets are quite expensive. The cheapest way to get there from, for example, Italy is to go to Venice or Trieste and take a bus from there (for example with GoOpti). 

#45daysofblogging 18: The whole new level of sexism

Day 18 - September 4

I don’t know how I got so lucky, but both of the countries I consider my homes are currently in the midst of sexist scandals. And I really want to address them both, one by one, as I feel personally and professionally touched by both of them. 

So let's start with my motherland. After all the disrespect towards female athletes during the Olympics, Ukrainian media decided to step up to the international ones. One of the news portals referred to the acting head of the Kharkiv regional state administration as “32-year old blond”. In the headline. Yes. 

What is EVS?

As I mentioned in a few of my previous posts, the first time I came to Sicily for a volunteering project. Actually, it was a complete accident, but yeah, some people call it coincidence, I call it fate.

After returning to Kyiv from Thailand, I was very happy to be back home. Well, I was very happy for about a month. After that, when all the emotions faded, all the Thai presents were gifted, all the delicious food and all the Cambodian coffee was finished the reality kicked in (even though I still have dreams about that coffee…)

I realised that I’m back to where I started from - in my room, just that now it was decorated with lovely Thai lights. And somewhere there, far-far away, the world continues to be interesting and full of adventures. Just that someone else was living it, not me.

Don’t get me wrong, it was my decision to leave Thailand and go back home. It was a great experience, but for various reasons, at this point of my life, I can’t see myself moving to Chiang Mai permanently. But the desire for adventures was already fully awakened and wanted to dance.

So I started researching volunteering opportunities – my newly grown sense of self was telling me that I shouldn’t even be bothered with searching for a job as I will not be happy in a corporate environment anymore.

My article about the life of Palermo

A few weeks ago I got an offer to write an article about Palermo and the way it embraces diversity for a Ukrainian cultural magazine. 

Of course I agreed. Palermo became my second home two years ago, and I have a lot of admiration for the way people here find ways to live together quite happily, even in the face of economic crisis, all types of migration and high levels of corruption. 

Sicily is one of the most diverse regions in Europe - not only due to migration, but also to comparatively low prices and developed civil society, that brings here many international volunteers, interns and Erasmus students.

So I wrote an article about all the projects I personally am involved with and the ones I know about, about block parties and Palermo Pride, about Catholic church that invites Muslim community to pray, as they currently have no mosque and works with LGBTQI organisations to organize manifestations against hate crimes, about international volunteers that make workshops on urban gardening for children from underprivileged neighborhoods and many other things that I see with my own eyes every day.

Unfortunately the article is available only in Ukrainian, but if there's any interest in this topic, I'd love to write something regarding this topic also in English. 

You can read the article by clicking on the link:

PALERMO: THE PLACE FOR EVERYONE