Envisioning a Mediterranean common house: what steps for Mediterranean integration
Food for thought: Ways of building a collective imaginary of unity and common destiny among peoples on the two shores / Ways of intertwining participation practices and intercultural dialogue and of challenging the “clash of civilizations” culture / Role of civil society in building a regional itinerary for integration, including the creation of common spaces and institutions.
Objective of this dialogue: Letting the importance and the value of common space and its cultural resources emerge, as well as of a common political engagement in order to defend the values of Mediterranean citizenship, and the project of integration between the two shores.
Summary by Francesca Piro, Progetto Mediterranea (moderator)
Participants: Mohamed Leghtas, Morocco, activist and editor, member of FMAS (Forum des Alternatives Maroc) and coordinator of El-Jossour, an Internet portal for the civil society of Maghreb and Mashreq; Takoua Ben Mohamed, Tunisian woman living in Italy, graphic journalist and screenwriter, founder of “Fumetto Intercultura”, a series of comics talking about intercultural issues that has had a great media and political success over last years; Sebastian Barbalan, Romania, theatre and cinema actor, president of Associazione Culturale di Teatro Sperimentale Clandestino (an association promoting experimental theatre); Giovanni Serra, social entrepreneur, head of a social cooperative called Dignità del Lavoro. He is vice-president of MOVI, the Italian movement of Voluntarism and he currently works on a project aiming at creatin a training institute on activism in Southern Italy.
Moderator Francesca Piro introduces the dialogue by asking participants: «How can we imagine a common Mediterranean house? Which are the paths to go through?»
Giovanni Serra starts his speech by explaining briefly his engagement in promoting labour integration for disadvantaged social groups. He then expresses his opinion on the role played by employment within the social community: a tool for re-achieving human dignity and social identity. According to Serra, imagining a common house in the Mediterranean means imagining a common space for action, where transnational actors can cooperate and plan initiatives together. This could be possible thanks to a movement among the peoples involving grassroots initiatives, where all actors are on the same level. This system, as a consequence, would not only have an impact on a political level, but also on an ethic, social, legal, cultural, artistic, environmental and democratic one.
Sebastian Barbalan talks mainly about his artistic experience: he imagines art as a tool to construct social change and a means to let cultures emerge and to define common spaces. According to him, art is able to convey messages straight away and is incline to encourage broader visions. Sebastian Barbalan has participated in some regenerating projects in neglected urban spaces of Oradea (Romania), and considers this experience as a model to work on. Nevertheless, he does not seem convinced about realizing a common Mediterranean house, because the region is characterised by different identities not easy to integrate. Still, art is a fundamental tool to let these identities meet.
Taqwa Ben Mohamed suggests the need for imagining a common Mediterranean house as a place where there are no religious or social prejudices. Judging how people dress, whether they wear the veil or not etc. represent an obstacle to fair social integration. According to Taqwa it is thus necessary to tear prejudices against different Mediterranean cultures down, also through art: she uses comics, that represent reality in an ironic or grotesque way, deconstructing exterior features and letting true problems emerge and confront each other.
Mohamed Leghtas briefly describes his role within the Moroccan movement for active citizenship; according to him, it is possible to imagine a Mediterranean common house, where free information can circulate. He then talked about the difficulties met by journalists in his country, even though the law apparently defend free information. Actually, freedom of expression is not respected. He declared: «Nowadays, social networks offer the chance to share a common space where prejudices and violation of civil liberties can be denounced, facilitating an integration de facto».
The four guests were asked: «How can we encourage grassroots movements and move towards integration, also in a political sense?». They all agree on the necessity of keeping on meeting, planning common actions and campaigns and sharing idea and opinions, in order to facilitate the transmission of knowledge and to share views on the most urgent problems. They end up saying «A true and wide Mediterranean identity, involving all countries on its shores, can emerge only if people talk with each other».
