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#rC3 - The Mission of the MV Louise Michel

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    Herald: Hello and welcome, dear creatures,
    to our first sets of talks. And now a
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    quick info about the translation. Der nun
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    exploring the virtual event such as rC3 is
    difficult. So please help us out. Drop the
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    herald news show, hints or interesting
    stuff under the email address
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    newsshow@rc3.world.Or go to the blog
    newsshow.rc3.world. And we have a Q&A
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    section for this talk "The Mission of the
    MV Louise Michel". There is the
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    possibility to ask questions. And when you
    want to leave us a question, use the IRC
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    channel which is also linked below or go
    to Twitter or the fediverse, using the
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    hashtag #rc3one. That is rc number 3
    letter o letter n letter e: rc3one. And
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    now the upcoming talk is "The Mission of
    the MV Louise Michel". Feminism will be
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    antiracist or it won't be. Search and
    rescue is not standing for...SAR is not
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    standing for search and rescue, as going
    by the Louise Michelle crew, it also
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    stands for solidarity and resistance. The
    talk will be about the mission of the
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    rescue vessel Louise Michel and why
    smashing borders won't work without
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    smashing the patriarchy and the other way
    around. The talk is given by a small group
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    of people who run together with many
    others the high speed lifeboat MV Louise
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    Michel, which patrols the Mediterranean.
    And now let's go live to the bridge of the
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    Louise Michel. The stage is yours.
    Hannah: Hello. Thanks a lot for the invitation
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    to have a slot at the CCC 2020. Although
    we have almost no time to...for
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    preparation. But we are anyway happy to
    sit here today and give you a small impact
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    about what the Louise Michel project is or
    can be. So, there is much more than could
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    be said in 40 minutes. So hello everyone.
    We are sitting on the bridge of the lovely
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    Louise Michel. At the moment we have 6
    crew on boards. And here in the
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    room are Leona, Anouk, Yakob, Lorence and
    me, I'm Hannah. And we will give you a
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    short introduction about what the project
    has been done in the last 12 to 14 months.
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    And then we will try to make a slight
    switch and talk about mostly
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    sexist boundaries.
    Leona: So, yes, maybe many of you already
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    heard, this ship is a search and rescue
    ship. And was bought nearly one year ago.
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    It all started with Banksy writing an
    email to Pia Klemp, offering a ship. And
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    then after a few discussions, the ship was
    bought and a group of a few people put
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    many work, many effort in it to prepare a
    former navy French navy ship into a search
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    and rescue vessel. The preparation when
    nearly all of them were done in France and
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    the ship was brought then to Burriana in
    Spain. And, turned from a French navy boat
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    into...a pink disaster. laughs Is now again in
    Burriana, Spain. We left for our first
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    mission on the 5th...of the 18th of
    August. Went to the central Mediterranean
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    Sea in front of the Libyan coast. And we
    were involved of rescuing almost 300
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    people. And after returning to Spain, the
    ship didn't get detained or didn't get
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    seized, what we kindly or we were
    expecting this. So we aren't detained, but the ship is
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    blocked. And now after the first mission,
    a group of people decided to keep the ship
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    to get the ship ready again for the next
    mission. And that's basically what we are
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    working on right now. Like getting a new
    registration, because Louise Michel was
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    registered as a so-called pleasure craft,
    as a motor yacht, which was no problem at
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    all, because it's obviously a pleasure
    craft and the motor yacht. So as long as
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    authorities...well...they didn't know that
    we were supposed to do a search and
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    rescue, it was no problem at all. But
    after they found out that we are doing
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    search and rescue, we lost our
    registration. And are now working on
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    getting a new one to be able to sail
    again. And yeah, so we are now in harbour,
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    doing shipyard time. That means preparing
    the ship, working on problems, fixing
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    stuff that needs to be fixed on the ship,
    which is quite a lot. And yeah, also doing
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    a lot of paperwork, because as many of you
    also may know, search and rescue is very
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    political and there are many political
    issues...let's call it like this...that
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    needs to be fixed. Many stones are...they
    are put in our way. And yeah, that's what
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    we're working on right now.
    H: In the short description was
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    already said, that we don't understand
    SAR, that normally stands for search and
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    rescue. That we understand this SAR as
    solidarity and resistance. That
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    means...all of what we are trying to say
    with this, is that we are not standing our
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    activism or our acting not as a
    humanitarian thing, but as political. And
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    this is inspired by the central critique,
    that humanitarian work, which is just to
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    say this kind of short. The other medal
    or the other side of the same medal. So
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    humanitarian work tries to milder what
    capitalism, patriarchy or racism do to and
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    with the world. And so, it makes the shit
    that's going on looking better. But it's
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    making invisible what all these structures
    of power cause. So this is racism,
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    this is death. This is...they make the
    structures of inequality and power
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    invisible.
    L: And this is kind of what also our
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    project is about, not only going to sea
    saving lives, because the - obviously -
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    the EU is not willing or...mean they are
    definitely...they would be able to do it,
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    but they are not willing to save lives or
    to stop people from drowning. So, we are
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    definitely...this is part of our project,
    but part of our project, the main part of
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    our project is definitely to put some
    effort in changing the whole system,
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    because as Hannah already said, like
    capitalism and definitely racism, they
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    cause the death, that we can see at our
    borders, especially in the Mediterranean
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    Sea. So without capitalism, without racism
    and also without the patriarchy, there
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    would be not such a problem. Like there
    wouldn't be so many people drowning at
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    sea. And this is that, what we mainly
    understand, what we should do...like,
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    bringing effort in changing the system.
    H: And that also means, that our actions
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    have to be followed by the adults and they
    have to be reflected. We have to reflect
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    on what we are doing and not get caught by
    this stupid game, all this disgusting
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    game, that is played by national states,
    by the European Union, or by all those
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    authorities, who are trying to force us to
    work on stupid registrations. So what the
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    main situation is, for us and also for all
    other rescue ships is, that we are
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    blocked, that we are hindered, that the
    European Union stopped all their rescue
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    programs they had. The central
    Mediterranean is still the most deadly
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    border in the world, but it's not the only
    deadly border in the world. Borders at all
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    are killing and causing death and torture
    and suffering. And the borders are
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    imaginary lines. Or boundaries are
    imaginary lines, that have been set up at
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    some point. And so it makes the people
    believe, that there is something, that has
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    to be protected...by the national borders
    or the borders of states are not the only
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    borders we are struggling with. And there
    are also borders between, or boundaries that
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    we have to cross, like gender, like
    racism, like capitalism, like
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    inequality...Maybe I can hand over.
    L: Like what Hannah already said, like the
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    boundaries not only exist between
    countries and states or even continents,
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    but also between human beings, between
    people. And this is something we are also
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    seeing like a lot on ships. All of us
    worked on different kind of ships. And
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    we've seen a lot of borders, a lot of
    boundaries, whether they were quite
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    visible or most of them were more
    invisible between people. And the reason
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    for that, or the reasons for those
    boundaries, I think...you said them
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    already, are mostly gender, are the color
    of the skin of people, the level of
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    education people have. And all this stuff
    is causing boundaries between people and
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    borders between people. And we, as a
    political project, not we are not only
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    trying to fight the borders between
    countries and helping, or we're trying to
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    put effort in helping people across those
    borders between countries, but also
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    helping people and forcing...not only
    forcing, but...challenging ourselves to
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    cross those borders, that society teached
    us to live within. So, we are also trying
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    to...as I said, help people, but also
    challenging ourselves to cross those
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    borders that exists in our head and that
    are very invisible from time to time. But
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    when you work as a crew, they get...you
    can feel them, you can't see them, but you
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    can feel them.
    H: And this is maybe something that we can
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    say as one of our main understanding.
    So, we don't see, when we talk about
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    migration or when we talk about people on
    the move, so, migration is everything.
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    It's also migration, when I move from
    Berlin to Spain, because I think I like
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    the beautiful, all the warm weather more.
    This is also migration, there's nothing
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    like this.
    L: And I mean, the weather is quite nice.
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    We are in Spain right now and it's just
    wonderful to be here. laughs
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    H: But this is also migration. Migration
    is also when you move from the landscape
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    or from land side to the city. But it's
    not framed as migration. And I think
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    there...it's always a difficulty to go
    somewhere else. And people who are
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    crossing the borders of the European
    Union, we don't understand this as fleeing
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    people, who need our urgent help and
    support. But we understand this
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    movement, there's a kind of challenging
    borders. So, because I don't accept these
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    imaginary lines, that they were told, that
    they are not allowed to cross. Freedom of
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    movement is a basic right of human beings
    and should be like this. And this is
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    something, that we should stand for. And
    so then the people always say like, OK,
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    there is e.g. an institution like Frontex,
    that is a policing, military organization.
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    And in 2011, they were told to accept a
    new rule. That means they are not allowed
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    to do pushbacks. Because they do
    pushbacks. But what else do we expect? So,
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    we have someone who is controlling
    borders. We expect that these people
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    controlling borders will say to someone,
    who wants to cross it: "Oh, you're not
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    allowed". And they expect, that the
    opposite will say: "Ahja, cool...I will go
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    home again." That's not how it works. And
    this leads to a situation of violence,
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    because as soon as this border is not
    accepted and someone crosses anyway it
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    will have an effect.
    And that's, what we are facing
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    at the moment and at the very
    moment where - sorry, I need
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    a second, I lost my point. laughing
    L: You were talking about the moment that
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    people cross borders without having the
    permission to cross them.
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    H: Yeah, but I lost it. It's just gone.
    L: laughs so, maybe I can jump in until
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    Hannah finds her point and I think her
    point was pretty good. So, I would love
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    her to get back to that. But, when we were
    preparing this talk, we also talked about,
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    who was even able to draw the lines as
    borders. Like, for example, Frontex is
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    "protecting" the border between, for
    example, African states and European
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    states. And, but there are so many other
    borders. And we figured out in our heads,
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    that it's always the most powerful
    position, who is able to draw those lines
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    as borders. And when it comes to borders
    or boundaries between people, that it's
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    also, again, the most powerful, powerful
    position that is drawing this line. And
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    this should be changed. So it should not
    be these powerful persons deciding, where
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    the boundaries or the borders are and who
    is allowed to live within which border,
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    like...for example, cis man decides this
    is the border between a male and a female
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    person, who's deciding this. This is just
    stupid and same for borders between
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    countries like European states is
    deciding, so this is the line and I'm a
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    European person, so I'm allowed to live
    within this line and all of you should
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    just fuck off and stay outside. And you
    can just put this into many, many
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    different situations, I think.
    H: Borders are a matter of distinction and
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    it separates people from each other. So,
    while it is saying you are different than
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    me? Because you are male and this is a
    female or because you are white and black
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    and that's your passport and that's your
    passport. And maybe you don't even have a
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    passport. And we are mostly talking in our
    crew about gendered borders, about - and
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    this is something that makes sense, when
    we are understands a ship as a place or as
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    a space of hierarchy, of patriarchy. That
    is, so it brings bad luck, when you have
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    a woman on board. That's the story that's
    told. And we have this talk also
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    yesterday, that we have a funny fireball,
    that you can throw into the fire, when
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    there is a fire and then will explode. And
    there's a picture on it and you see a male
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    who is throwing, like, very nice and
    slightly into a fire.
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    L: He's definitely the hero of the
    situation.
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    H: As it is. And there's also a pictogram
    of a woman. And she's putting this ball
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    from the top into burning oil.
    L: Very nicely.
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    H: Very nicely and she's smiling. And this
    stands for something, that we are facing,
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    when we, as not cis males, enter a space,
    like a ship. We notice so every day, that
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    we are kind of in the wrong place. We
    notice that it's a different, when you go
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    alone through a port. We have all these
    visible things, that we can talk about.
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    So, when you have a male chief engineer, it's
    a male chief engineer and you can say this
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    is a powerful position. But there are so
    many things, that you can't see that clearly.
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    L: Yeah. So they are these visible
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    boundaries, but also like invisible
    boundaries. So we were also talking about,
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    what is changing, when you have, for
    example, cis men coming on board the ship.
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    What does this create, like what feelings
    change and how feelings change and how
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    behavior also changes? And what does
    it make with the whole crew? Maybe all of
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    you also have situations in mind, when you
    were only, for example, cis females or
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    FLINT persons in a project or in a room
    and how this was, how you were working
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    together? How you were living together?
    And as soon as cis man is entering the
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    room, the project, how this is changing.
    And this is also about boundaries between
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    people, I think.
    H: And it's challenging us a lot. So,
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    always, when we try to crew mostly FLINT
    people. So, we try to turn the
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    usual...what is a Normalverteilung
    (German, Gaussian Distribution)?
  • 20:41 - 20:45
    L: The usual Normalverteilung
    (German), sorry for the English speaking
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    persons. laughs. L: I've no idea.
    H: So, usually these rooms are structured,
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    that if you have women on board or FLINT
    people on board. That you have one or two
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    and the rest of cis men. And we try...
    L: And, maybe also saying, that on many,
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    many ships, the FLINT person is doing the
    crew care, or the, for NGO ships, it's
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    the guest care positions. Like many
    medical departments are made of, we can
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    say it, like of women and guest care and
    crew care is, like are mostly female
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    positions. But when it comes to engineers
    or captain or officer positions, this is
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    mainly cis male position.
    unintelligible
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    H: And that was what I was about to say. So,
    we are doing crewing for the ship and we
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    try to crew mostly FLINTs persons. And,
    that also means, that we can open the doors.
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    Although we are kind of the door keepers
    and we can open the doors for those
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    people, who usually have it much more
    difficult to enter such a project or to
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    enter such positions, that they can take
    over, when they are entering Louise
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    Michel. But of course, that's the story
    about being exclusive. And we have, we are
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    struggling a lot with the fact, that we
    are still working in a surrounding, that
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    is super masculine dominated. So, always
    when we are looking for people, who can
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    take over the powerful positions, like
    being a captain, an officer, a chief
  • 22:36 - 22:49
    engineer. We are having a wide range of
    cis men, who offer their support. But on
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    the other side, there's no one.
    And this is something that is
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    really a problem. And it takes
    us much time to deal with the
  • 22:59 - 23:04
    situation, because we really want
    to stick to this idea of creating a kind
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    of, as possible as that could be, a kind of
    safe space. And, because we experienced,
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    that the surrounding and the climate on
    the ship, is definitely another one, when
  • 23:19 - 23:28
    you have a most FLINT crew. So, there is
    more space you can give for trust, because
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    people come and say, when they don't trust
    themselves to do something, or when they
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    don't feel comfortable with something,
    there is much more talking, there is much
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    more reflecting. It's super easy to hand
    over jobs, when you have a climate that
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    allows not to know. When you have a
    climate, that allows you to be weak,
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    because this is a ship and when it goes
    out and there's a problem, that no one
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    said like: "Hoho, I made a mistake, but
    maybe I just cover it with something."
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    L: No, no, no, don't do it.
    H: Don't do it. And then it's important,
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    that someone comes and says: "I don't know
    how to do it." And...
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    L: Maybe this is at least, what we have
    seen during the last month, when we were
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    working together on this ship as a new
    crew and with many different people coming
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    from different countries, from different
    environments. That - or at least it's my
  • 24:25 - 24:30
    experience, I don't know what
    about you? That it was many
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    times, it were women asking
    for help or being less self-confident and
  • 24:38 - 24:43
    trying to, like, double check, when it
    was, on the other hand, like men always
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    jumping in, like, being much more self-
    confident and maybe it's for reasons and
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    it's totally fine. But I think this is how
    we grew up, how we got educated and what
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    society teached us, how we should be,
    like, women always being or many times,
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    being very or less self-confident than men
    are. And this is something we try to
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    challenge on this ship, like, empowering
    women to be at least as self-confident as
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    the men are, or as the men try to be.
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    H: Maybe we should come to an end. So, I
    think now we are at the point, where we
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    can talk, like, a lot more about all these
    little lines, that we are crossing every
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    day. And it's not just
    about unintelligible
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    and taking care of the engine room.
    L: We can talk about a lot about the
  • 25:37 - 25:41
    engine, because our chief engineer has to
    stay off, so he's not here. laughs We
  • 25:41 - 25:54
    can say a lot about him.
    H: And...but I think for all kinds of
  • 25:54 - 26:04
    political action, the main thing is that
    we have to, we have to stay. And maybe
  • 26:04 - 26:12
    sometimes we also have to improve it. The
    enmity with the circumstances and by
  • 26:12 - 26:18
    keeping the friendship to the world or
    with the world. And, so we are trying to
  • 26:18 - 26:23
    create a kind of an open space, by never
    accepting any fucking kind of border, that
  • 26:23 - 26:29
    is dropping or crossing our waves. So we
    have to reflect, we have to force
  • 26:29 - 26:36
    ourselves to step about this or to cross
    this borders, to step over it. And to not
  • 26:36 - 26:43
    getting lost or desperated or frustrated.
    And this is what we can be. So, we can
  • 26:43 - 26:48
    create a space, where even when we are
    blocked and it always feels kind of
  • 26:48 - 26:52
    senseless to get to this sucking port,
    sitting around don't know what you are
  • 26:52 - 26:56
    doing, because why we are sitting here and
    everyone's talking about all those lovely
  • 26:56 - 27:03
    pink little ship that tries to challenge
    European borders. We are - in the end - we
  • 27:03 - 27:07
    have to say, we are blocked. But somehow we
    also have to deal with this frustration
  • 27:07 - 27:10
    and we have to go on. So, there's no
    possibility to say, like, OK, they forbid
  • 27:10 - 27:16
    us to do this - so, we can't accept that,
    but at the same time, we have always have
  • 27:16 - 27:23
    to challenge ourselves. And we always have
    to support ourselves. And we have to
  • 27:23 - 27:29
    understand ourselves as part of a social
    movement. And this is, why we really
  • 27:29 - 27:36
    appreciate to get some questions from the
    audience to get something more, than this
  • 27:36 - 27:42
    limited space we are living in here.
    L: Yeah, maybe as a conclusion, we can
  • 27:42 - 27:47
    say, that we are not only fighting or
    dreaming of a world without borders
  • 27:47 - 27:53
    between countries, but also for a world,
    or we have this vision of a world without
  • 27:53 - 28:01
    borders between humans in any
    kind, in any way. Thank you.
  • 28:01 - 28:09
    Herald: That is a nice way to talk.
    Thanks so much for telling us all that.
  • 28:09 - 28:17
    And I can relate the virtual applause
    you're getting from the
  • 28:17 - 28:22
    audiences. You sadly cannot
    hear that. But I am sure,
  • 28:22 - 28:29
    that there's a massive feeling of
    gratitude and thank you from all of those
  • 28:29 - 28:36
    who are watching. And I've got some
    questions for you from the audience. And,
  • 28:36 - 28:41
    if we've still got some minutes left, so
    when you have an additional question, use
  • 28:41 - 28:49
    the IRC, link below the video, or use
    Twitter or the Fediverse using the hashtag
  • 28:49 - 29:01
    #rc3one in letters. So hashtag rc number
    three letters o, n, e. Then our signal
  • 29:01 - 29:06
    angel will put that down in the pad, so I
    can ask the question. And the first
  • 29:06 - 29:14
    question coming in to you, for you is:
    "Have you had any direct confrontation or
  • 29:14 - 29:20
    other experience with Frontex
    officers or boats?"
  • 29:20 - 29:31
    L: Maybe I can answer the question. So,
    yes, definitely yes. When we go in to the
  • 29:31 - 29:36
    center of the Mediterranean Sea, when
    you go, yeah, in front of the coast of
  • 29:36 - 29:44
    Libya, for example, you can basically
    nearly every day see Frontex airplanes
  • 29:44 - 29:52
    crossing, like, searching for boats,
    searching for NGOs; what the hell are they
  • 29:52 - 30:00
    doing there. And, yeah, so it's from what
    I experienced during the missions, I went
  • 30:00 - 30:06
    on, it was mainly airplanes, that were
    searching for, for example, boats in
  • 30:06 - 30:13
    distress or people on the move and giving
    this information unfortunately not to NGO
  • 30:13 - 30:18
    ships, for example, or informing
    coastguards in the way like, OK, those
  • 30:18 - 30:23
    people need help, but informing, for
    example, the so-called Libyan coast guard
  • 30:23 - 30:30
    to go there to push the people back. And
    that's definitely one of the main
  • 30:30 - 30:37
    experiences I make with the Frontex. Like
    organizing illegal pushbacks.
  • 30:37 - 30:49
    Herald: Most of it was plane sightings and
    not direct contact with personnel or ships
  • 30:49 - 30:57
    in touching distance. OK, so the next
    question is more of a technical side.
  • 30:57 - 31:05
    I think the core of the question was about
    how to grade situations, but I'm trying to
  • 31:05 - 31:12
    read that out, I think something is lost
    in the translation. I hope you see what
  • 31:12 - 31:19
    that means, but take it in good-meant
    spirit. How do you define a maritime
  • 31:19 - 31:28
    emergency / ship wreckage? Do
    you already take action for a dinghy with
  • 31:28 - 31:35
    a working motor and rescue them? Or is it
    only about situations where people's lives
  • 31:35 - 31:40
    is crucially endangered? Is there some
    guideline that you can...
  • 31:43 - 31:47
    Oh!
    L: Great.
  • 31:47 - 31:53
    Herald: What's happened, Toto? Yes.
    H: He was asking a question...
  • 31:57 - 32:01
    L: If this is our Internet, now
    we can just sit here.
  • 32:01 - 32:07
    H: No, I think it's not our Internet, I think
    it's just the audio signal.
  • 32:20 - 32:25
    Herald: I just saw the chat explode,
    with all the technical stuff.
  • 32:54 - 33:03
    Herald: I have so many good questions I
    would like to ask, but yeah,
  • 33:03 - 33:07
    technicalities are the great dictator and
    we are allowed to go four minutes over,
  • 33:07 - 33:20
    right Toto? I'm preparing to go four minutes
    over. When will we ever be back?
  • 34:17 - 34:19
    Give me a go and then I start.
  • 34:32 - 34:38
    So second question, so maybe something
    is lost in the translation,
  • 34:38 - 34:44
    but take it in a good
    spirit. This is about technicalities. How
  • 34:44 - 34:53
    do you define a maritime emergency/ship
    wreckage? Do you already take action for a
  • 34:53 - 34:57
    dinghy with a working motor and rescue
    them? Or is it only about situations where
  • 34:57 - 35:05
    people's life is crucially endangered?
    H: As soon as you enter the central
  • 35:05 - 35:12
    Mediterranean Sea and try to make it from
    e.g. Libya to Italy with a dinghy, with a
  • 35:12 - 35:16
    small engine, even if it's working, it's a
    distress case.
  • 35:16 - 35:20
    Herald: Yeah, OK.
    L: Yeah. And to be honest, it's not only
  • 35:20 - 35:24
    if the engine is broken down or there's
    already water coming in, but those
  • 35:24 - 35:31
    dinghies are normally super crowded. And
    you never know about the weather coming up
  • 35:31 - 35:35
    because me personally, I always have this
    idea of the beautiful central
  • 35:35 - 35:40
    Mediterranean Sea with nice weather, no
    waves at all. But that's definitely not
  • 35:40 - 35:48
    the case. So, um, yeah, I think it's not
    always about this super dramatic scenes,
  • 35:48 - 35:52
    but as Hanah said, as soon as you enter
    those boats, this is not a good idea.
  • 35:52 - 35:58
    Herald: And and it's quite a distance and
    it would take several days to get there
  • 35:58 - 36:02
    right? So it is it is not a pleasure
    cruise or something.
  • 36:02 - 36:09
    L: No, I would not say so, not in general.
    Herald: OK, next question. Is the crew
  • 36:09 - 36:15
    also trying to overcome hierarchies on
    board, are they trying to find structures
  • 36:15 - 36:22
    that work without classical captains etc.?
    L & H: Yes.
  • 36:22 - 36:28
    Herald: And, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
    H: So there is, there is a legal side of
  • 36:28 - 36:34
    the things. And so when the ship is on the
    sea and when it's operating, the person
  • 36:34 - 36:39
    who is responsible is always the captain.
    So the person who's facing all the legal
  • 36:39 - 36:43
    consequences are those in powerful
    positions. And this is something that we
  • 36:43 - 36:49
    have to keep in mind. But for all
    decisions that are made on the ship, it's
  • 36:49 - 36:58
    not up to the captain or the leader who's
    the coordination on the mission or to the
  • 36:58 - 37:06
    few powerful positions we have, the
    decisions get made by all, and we are
  • 37:06 - 37:16
    trying to keep it as flat as possible. And
    of course, everyone's allowed also to say
  • 37:16 - 37:22
    his or her opinion and it's going to be
    acknowledged.
  • 37:22 - 37:28
    L: But we have to be honest about that, we
    have to challenge ourselves to make this
  • 37:28 - 37:35
    running, to work with this flat hierarchy.
    Yeah, we are on it, we are far from
  • 37:35 - 37:39
    perfect, but we are trying to improve
    ourselves every day.
  • 37:39 - 37:49
    Herald: Good. OK, the nice people of the
    signal angel crowd have written me down
  • 37:49 - 37:54
    another question. Has there been other
    attempts to sabotage your work except the
  • 37:54 - 37:59
    legal challenges of the ship license,
    maybe attempts to distract you from
  • 37:59 - 38:05
    complicated work, maybe even algorithmic
    driven behavior recognition or something?
  • 38:05 - 38:12
    This is more of a technical question.
    H: I think I didn't really get the
  • 38:12 - 38:18
    question. But to be honest, this legal
    side of things is quite effective. So
  • 38:18 - 38:22
    there was once the question of we can't
    just leave as a pirate ship without a
  • 38:22 - 38:36
    flag. And if we do so and that's an
    invitation for all armed forces to enter
  • 38:36 - 38:41
    our ship. And this is quite effective. And
    I think the main problem is with all kinds
  • 38:41 - 38:48
    of repression. And that's how police also
    works and is that it is not just trying to
  • 38:48 - 38:53
    block you or to sanction you, but it's
    also about destroying structures. And this
  • 38:53 - 38:59
    is what we have to work on and all the
    structures we are organizing to not let
  • 38:59 - 39:03
    them destroy our networks, our
    connections, our relations and everything
  • 39:03 - 39:09
    else.
    Herald: OK, so this legal action works
  • 39:09 - 39:16
    really, really well. So the idea of I've
    given some context for this. Do you think
  • 39:16 - 39:23
    that you're constantly surveyed by others
    so that they can throw sticks into the
  • 39:23 - 39:28
    spinning wheels?
    L: We definitely have to keep this in mind
  • 39:28 - 39:34
    all the time. We would not talk about very
    sensitive stuff or we are trying very hard
  • 39:34 - 39:44
    to protect our data. But we are not sure
    about this, but we have to keep this in
  • 39:44 - 39:50
    mind. I'll be keeping this in mind.
    Herald: And that's another question about
  • 39:50 - 39:56
    the hierarchy on board. More specifically
    what decision making processes do you use
  • 39:56 - 39:59
    on board? Do you want to give us some
    insight on that?
  • 39:59 - 40:07
    H: Yes, of course. We do, we are organized
    with a small crew, like a core crew, who's
  • 40:07 - 40:11
    coordinating and is also kind of decision
    making. This is sometimes a problem, but
  • 40:11 - 40:18
    the ship always works independently of
    it's core crew. And the crew who is
  • 40:18 - 40:24
    involved is organizing themselves so they
    can have a very structured day, like every
  • 40:24 - 40:30
    day morning meetings or try to find other
    ways to at the moment, the situation with
  • 40:30 - 40:36
    the current crew is that we have our
    construction sites that we are working on,
  • 40:36 - 40:39
    but everyone is free to organize
    themselves. If they want to work up to 11
  • 40:39 - 40:42
    in the evening, they're more than welcome.
    But we will stop them at some point
  • 40:42 - 40:49
    because we don't want, we have an anti burn
    out policy. So then they also have to start
  • 40:49 - 40:59
    later. So, no, we don't really have a
    plan, but we are trying to give the
  • 40:59 - 41:04
    communication to those or the organization
    to those who are doing it. That means the
  • 41:04 - 41:10
    ship organizes itself and the core crew
    is trying to to take care of all the
  • 41:10 - 41:17
    organizational side of the things. That
    means caring about money, about
  • 41:17 - 41:27
    registration, the legal aspects. But at
    least we are always giving a big part of
  • 41:27 - 41:30
    our responsibilities that we have as a
    core crew at the moment. And they wanted me
  • 41:30 - 41:36
    a part of the core crew. And the ship crew
    is doing their own organization together
  • 41:36 - 41:44
    with us. So, yeah.
    Herald: Yeah. For information for the
  • 41:44 - 41:49
    studio, I'm planning to go four minutes
    over and I'm already one over. So there's
  • 41:49 - 41:57
    room for two more questions. After having
    rescued people do you social distance them
  • 41:57 - 42:05
    because of their unknown health status.
    This is a Corona related one.
  • 42:05 - 42:07
    L: Yeah. Lovely. I'm so happy to talk
    about this.
  • 42:07 - 42:16
    Herald: Aren't we all.
    L: Yeah, great. Finally. So after the
  • 42:16 - 42:27
    rescue we try to wear masks and to hand
    over masks to our guests and for sure the
  • 42:27 - 42:31
    guests, they had to, it was mandatory for
    them to quarantine when they came on land
  • 42:31 - 42:38
    in Italy. And we tried to make everything
    possible to keep the guests healthy, like
  • 42:38 - 42:43
    protecting them from our possible
    infection, but also trying to protect the
  • 42:43 - 42:48
    crew from getting infected. So this is a
    small boat. We have to be realistic. It's
  • 42:48 - 42:54
    not possible to social distance like two
    meters like there is no way. But we do
  • 42:54 - 42:59
    everything possible to protect us and
    other people.
  • 42:59 - 43:06
    H: And I think we have to add to this,
    that this corona thing is used from the
  • 43:06 - 43:14
    authorities to stop us because they say
    it's not possible on some NGO ships to
  • 43:14 - 43:25
    keep the social distance, to ban [us]. And
    to be honest, when you look at the
  • 43:25 - 43:29
    situation on the Mediterranean Sea, when
    you have a question about drowning or
  • 43:29 - 43:32
    spreading Corona, I would prefer spreading
    Corona. Yeah.
  • 43:32 - 43:40
    L: So we we think Corona should not be an
    excuse to close harbors or to block ships
  • 43:40 - 43:47
    because as you all know treat first what
    kills first and drowning kills you first.
  • 43:47 - 43:52
    And Corona is quite a bad thing and very
    serious, but it should not be an excuse to
  • 43:52 - 44:01
    close our borders.
    Herald: And follow up on that. You said in
  • 44:01 - 44:09
    your talk that the Louise Michel is a safe
    space. Do you advertise or announce this
  • 44:09 - 44:18
    in any way when you rescue somebody? Do
    you have a standard procedure where you
  • 44:18 - 44:22
    say, listen, this is a little bit
    different as other ships or something like
  • 44:22 - 44:28
    that? Or how do you approach those you are
    rescuing and inform them about that? I
  • 44:28 - 44:33
    think it's not the first step. But how do
    you do this kind of information?
  • 44:33 - 44:39
    H: I would just say first that we are not
    a safe space, but we are trying to get as
  • 44:39 - 44:44
    close as possible. And the rest I have to
    hand over to Leona.
  • 44:44 - 44:49
    L: We are definitely talking to our guests
    about this, telling them that we are
  • 44:49 - 44:57
    living very close on a very small space
    and that this is a safe space. So there's
  • 44:57 - 45:03
    no place for racism or any kind of
    discrimination, weapons, drugs whatsoever.
  • 45:03 - 45:10
    So this is definitely a topic and it works
    at least what I experience, It's it wasn't
  • 45:10 - 45:16
    a problem at all. So there was a huge
    respect from the people on the move and
  • 45:16 - 45:21
    from the crew among each other. That was
    great to see.
  • 45:21 - 45:31
    Herald: So our time is up. Thank you so
    much for coming to us live from the boat
  • 45:31 - 45:40
    Louise Michel. It was a pleasure. And now
    it is my great pleasure to hand over to
  • 45:40 - 45:46
    the Herald news show, which will be live
    from Bielefeld Heideblümchen. And, see you
  • 45:46 - 45:52
    in the next talk. Bye.
    L: Thank you. Bye.
  • 45:52 - 45:55
    rC3 postroll music
  • 45:55 - 46:30
    Subtitles created by c3subtitles.de
    in the year 2020. Join, and help us!
Title:
#rC3 - The Mission of the MV Louise Michel
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Video Language:
English
Duration:
46:32

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