Beirut Diary - The issue of statelessness

How many nationalities do you have? I have two, and they allow me to live and work anywhere in the United States and the European Union. With these documents, I’ve been able to get into any country I’ve wanted. And not just that, I’ve been able to get a job, open a bank account, attend university, access healthcare and get a driver’s license in more than one country. Deciding which nationality to keep and which to discard is a choice I sincerely hope I never have to make. 

But what if I were stateless? I wouldn’t have been able to do any of these things. I’ve never properly thought about it before, but without citizenship, you don’t have the right to have rights. You can’t leave the country, you can’t register your marriage or the birth of your children, you can’t obtain legal employment, do banking, attend school, access healthcare, vote…. You are essentially invisible and voiceless. 

There are circa 15 million people who are stateless in the world today. Many of these are war refugees who lost their papers in the process of fleeing their homes. Others are whole ethnic groups who are rejected by their nations - for example the Rohingya of Burma whose recently elected liberal progressive president won’t even mention them by name - not to mention the Palestinians who continue to be stateless as long as a State of Palestine is not recognized by the international community. Still others are generationally stateless. Since many countries (27 to be exact, Lebanon included) do not allow the mother to pass on her citizenship to her kids, it’s up to the father to do so. But what happens when the father doesn’t have his documents in order? Or he is absent? Or dead? Stateless kids grow up to be stateless adults who have stateless children. 

Part of what makes this problem so frustrating and asinine is that technically, this is a question of paperwork. In a matter of weeks, nations could issue documents to all of its stateless members and clear up this mess. Also, as a new friend of mine recently pointed out, a really easy thing would be to add the words “and women” to a nation’s policy. This would allow mothers to pass on their citizenship to their children, thereby solving the problem for a huge number of people. This is so doable. But as long as there is a lack of political will, it won’t get done. 

I feel powerless to do anything. I’m not in a position to change national policy. But what we ‘regular folk’ can do is put pressure on our global leaders. There is an #ibelong campaign being forged by UNHCR. If you’re interested, you can sign the petition here: http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/ . I hope I see the end of this dilemma in my lifetime. 

Climb every mountain

Upon reading the title of this post, did you immediately think of Mother Superior in The Sound of Music singing this song for a distraught Maria? Well, I am currently feeling in need of some holy Mother Superior exhortation. 

First, let me brag a little bit (and then you’ll see where I’m going with this). I’ve just recently finished a Master of Science complete with a 60-page thesis and a defense of said thesis, all of which I managed to survive just fine. I chose a risky topic to write about and I had no idea if I was going to be able to pull it off as it involved, among other things, a quick trip to Rome to maybe hopefully potentially converse with people I knew nothing about, based solely on a suggestion by a person I’d known for a grand total of two days. It also involved executing a case study on Ghana and interviewing locals without actually traveling to Ghana or knowing any locals. But since I’m busy living in the favor of God, I pulled the whole thing off in eight weeks. A challenge? Sure. 

…but a giant piece of cake compared to the seemingly insurmountable feat of obtaining a Swedish driver’s license. Hands down the most challenging mental exercise I’ve had to do in at least a decade, if ever (and I’m including the SATs in there). I’ve been doing these online practice tests to prep for the theory exam, and I’m to the point of having to sit with the blasted manual in my hand as I answer the questions because they’re just too freaking confusing - and I STILL get the answers wrong. My nerves are fraying. I am swearing trilingually. I am irritated. And discouraged. And stressed out. Because of course I decide to finally get my license when I only have a couple of months to get it done, time and money being very scarce. My fellow Americans reading this are probably wondering why in the world a couple of months is a short amount of time to get a driver’s license. Well let me tell you. 

In Sweden, getting your driver’s license is about as lengthy and expensive a process as getting a college degree. And not just any degree - I’m talking a triple major in Physics, Traffic Law and Environmental Sciences. I thought driving was about following the basic rule and making sure you don’t kill anybody. But now I have to know how to answer questions like “By how much is motive energy reduced, and therefore the braking distance, if you reduce your speed from 100 kph to 50 kph?” Also important is knowing how many wildlife are killed by automobiles every year. And which one out of the alternatives nitric oxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide causes respiratory problems. 

For someone who spent a week doing Driver’s Ed in high school before going to the DMV to do the theory test and spend 15 minutes driving around the block before paying max $20 to get the plastic card that signified freedom, it is ridiculous to me the number of hoops I am expected to jump through to prove that I am worthy of the same freedom on this side of the pond. I mean, I get that there is no international agreement between the U.S. and Sweden with regards to drivers' licenses, but who do Swedes think they are? (Apparently world leaders in traffic safety, but whatever.) 

For the simple reason that I prefer to spend €700 on a trip to somewhere fun rather than on a driver’s license I don’t urgently need, I’ve put it off year after year. But since I’m in a major life transition at the moment and don’t know where the next season will deposit me or what it will require, I’ve gritted my teeth and decided to just get it done. So here I am, trying to answer questions like “If you’re going at 90 kph, how many meters do you travel in one second?” and “If you reduce your speed by half, how much have you reduced your kinetic energy?” 

If Mother Superior were here now, I bet she’d say “Oh Annika, you can’t escape your problems - you have to face them. Get on it girl. Climb that mountain. Then maybe, just maybe, they’ll let you drive down it.”