A few days ago I stayed till late in the yoga center. When I left it was almost midnight. I went home, biked along the Rhein River with a smile and a full heart. I like to bike in the night specially in summer, I love Basel because you can bike everywhere. If you have been here you know this is a fifteen-minutes-city, you can get everywhere in more less fifteen minutes.
I got home and it took me a while to find the keys, this is almost my ritual. Finding the keys, it takes me ages, I loose the keys three times a day. There is a cafe in the building where I live. It is called Cafe Ticino, sometimes I go downstairs in pijamas with a cup in hand and get a coffee. I take it upstairs and drink it in my balcony. That is another ritual. My life is full of rituals.
The Cafe Ticino is open till late. The door was open. I was still looking for the keys in the depths of my bag. I felt a presence coming closer from the depths of the Cafe Ticino. I looked and suddenly a face aroused from the darkness and moved towards me. I was frozen. This was the face of a woman I've seen sitting there already a few times. But this time was different.
The face of this woman -which I supposed was in her mid-fifties- was like a canvas adorned with a collection of bruises: a purple lip here, an eye hemorrhage there and a swollen cheek. She was standing tall, showing her bruised face with proudness and looked me in the eyes. If you have been here, you know that's not common.
I couldn't stop my mouth and asked, "WAS HAT PASSIERT?" My eyes let her know I was worried and truly wanted to know what happened to her. She replied in swiss-german, "It was a fight". When she got closer to me, I could smell she was a bit drunk, she was a tough woman but sweet at the same time. She reminded me a bit of my Grandmother Luz.
The last weekend she was walking home with some friends after a party. They were walking in the St. Matthäus Church park. That is very close to my house. They crossed the park to find a man kicking a eighteen-years-old girl. She was on the floor, crying, shouting, covered with blood and the guy wouldn't stop. To top this horror cake with a bloody cherry, there were about twenty people watching the scene, mostly men, frozen people as I was frozen while I was listening to this story.
The man stopped, the girl ran to sit on a bench crying, bleeding and shouted to him something in the most folkloric swiss-german. The guy replied, "Now I am going to kill her". My new friend -the fifty-something-years-old woman- went to the guy and actually stopped him. He turn back and within less than a second punched her. Clean fist straight to her face, that was the purple lip. She punched him back. The twenty guys around were still frozen. If you've been here, you know that's common. He punched her again, that was the eye haemorrhage. She punched him back.
Her friend threatened him and said he would call the police. The guy ran and escaped. At least he didn't kill the girl and her. After that, finally the frozen people moved. She told them, "I am sure you recorded a video with your f***in' mobile and you will play it and replay at home like monkeys, you are a bunch of monkey a**holes".
I think monkeys sometimes do better. I am not sure if this was actually more offending for the whole monkey species than for the people were there. My heart was shivering, I hugged her. If you have been here, you know that's not common. I thanked her in name of all the women and men that have been attacked in this place and only have been watched but not helped.
She hasn't said anything to the police. This kind of violence seems to be a taboo in this fifteen-minutes-city. Two years ago my friend Noemi got a kung-fu kick in the chest center by a drunk guy on a sunday morning in Claraplatz. It was a beautiful sunny day, nine AM. There were several people around, nobody moved. She would take the tram, sobbing and schocked. The guy followed her, everybody watched, they didn't say anything. Noemi hasn't said anything to the police.
I said, "By the way, what's your name?".
She answered, "Charlotte".
I said while we shaked hands, "Nice to meet you Charlotte. Good night".
I am happy to know I have friends like Charlotte.
Wow - Thanks Dani. That’s scary indeed. We need to be more careful in this city that seems so safe and calm at times, where children walk around alone and women feel happy to wander alone at night. i never knew it was so bad. Although a year ago my friend was driving home from the city to Reinach and had to slow down as 2 guys were chasing a 3rd guy across the street. the 3rd guy was already pretty battered and was struggling to get away. He came to the car to ask for help with a bloody face and my friend froze not knowing what to do. The 2 guys were also following as my friend was frozen - not wanted to get involved in a dispute. this all happened in seconds and finally one of the followers took out a gun (yes a gun) and shot the poor man in the head right next to my friends car. When i heard this all my onions on Basel changed. Especially when the story appeared in the papers and it reported that it was a family dispute amongst a Sri lanken immigrant family. Some locals were translating the story to me and stopped when they got to the part where they reported that it was an immigrant family and stated - we don’t care about them - we wont read any more!! Wow I thought. Nice
ReplyDeleteAnother time I was walking with my Mum where a homeless man had fallen in the street and cracked open his head. people were bustling round and panicking - but no one really helping. No one in the street would go near or touch the poor man - again - standing round and watching. So i took his hand as he squeezed it tight telling him it would be OK. I put him in the recovery position and removed his bag to use to support him. No one helped me - about 20 people watched.
Im surprised everyday at the disconnection in most people from 'others' around them ad the unwillingness to participate in life. That’s why I continue to practice yoga and listen to my teachers - I don’t want to walk around blind. I want to be like Charlotte x