Human Library. tomorrow the 17th and Sunday 29th Oct

[Rascal]

http://humanlibrary.org/

I'm a book at the Human Library. The library is open tomorrow from 2pm at Salford Royal, Humphrey Booth Building. And on the 29th at Emmanuel church on Langworthy Road Salford from 12 midday.


The Human Library is designed to build a positive framework for conversations that can challenge stereotypes and prejudices through dialogue. We have just started so at the moment we don't have many "books" but we are trying to grow and become a resource across Salford at first and then hopefully across Greater Manchester.

The Library works like a normal library, but instead of taking out a book, you take out a person. You have 20/30 minutes with the "book" of your choice to chat and discuss the book. My book is called "Don't look at my ears" so if you took me out you would have the pleasure of reading my book and I would have the pleasure of explaining the rationale behind my book.

The books we have are varied and cover topics from Bullying, racism, ageism, and other forms of discrimination. The aim is to challenge peoples perceptions, prejudices and bias or to simply offer a chance for people to learn and educate themselves about others travails in life. Our books are interesting, forthright and open, although our books do expect to be treated with the respect they deserve. After all you would not want to damage a real library book.

It was started in Denmark and is now becoming a world wide organisation, although it is new to the UK. The atmosphere is relaxed as you would expect in a normal library.

All books and library staff are volunteers and the library is free. Up to now we have only concentrated on in-house visitors from the Salford Royal staff and the feedback we have had has been very positive and of course we are very pleased with the progress we are making.

So if you have a free hour tomorrow afternoon and fancy something a little different, give us a try, you might like it, you might learn something and you may leave with some challenging thoughts to think over. We are also looking for new books, so if you have a story to tell and are prepared to be honest and open about difficulties or situations you have faced drop me a PM and I will put you in touch with our Library boss.

Cheers

 

[DelToro]

Bump.

worsleyweb would make a good read.

 

[worsleyweb]

Can't wait. See you there. I am being serious. Can't do tommorow but will do the next one.

 

[Rascal]

Can't wait. See you there. I am being serious. Can't do tommorow but will do the next one.

You will find interesting I hope, we have some great books, with fabulous stories to tell, some quite harrowing though.

If anybody else fancies it, come along, bring a friend, tell a friend.

We are honest and all we are attempting to do is to make the world a slightly better place.

Cheers

 

[Rascal]

The library went well yesterday, our busiest yet. So busy we abandoned our usual one on one readings and had two on one instead.

I was "read" five times but the last one really stood out. Fascinating. Manchester University Med school (Salford Royal hospitals teaching partner) sent along a group of about 15 Syrian/Iraqi doctors. All who have fled their country due to the war and who are now learning English to the standard a Doctor is required to have to work in the NHS. I had already spoke with an Iraqi Doctor and his teacher/mentor, his English was not great, but I understood him and he understood me albeit slowly, but his medical knowledge was superb. He knew about my condition, he knew the treatments available, but had not learnt the treatment pathways. He was not a dermatologist though and he was more what we would see as a GP.

The second Doctor was a Syrian Opthamologist (sp) an eye doctor. We talked for about half an hour and my book sort of got lost in the convo because his medical knowledge, his understanding of the issues we concentrate on was first rate. His English is acceptable, he sounded like a Geordie to me . He was telling me he was shadowing a Doctor at Manchester eye hospital and was allowed to make diagnosis in his presence because his English must be of PhD level before he is allowed to operate as that was his main job in Syria. He was warm, incredibly bright and very thankful that he is being given an opportunity to be here and to practice his skills. He has done 7 years at University in Syria and basic English was part of his Doctorate. He is working hard to improve his English so he can further his career and a become an asset to the country that has welcomed him. I ran out of time with him sadly as the library was closing and I could have spoke with him for hours. He was not the classic economic refugee you see as portrayed in our hysterical right wing media, he was a political opponent of Assad who was seeking asylum. At the end of the reading, he shook my hand warmly, thanked me for my time and we wished each other well, he was a real gent.

On the way home I was thinking we are short of Doctors and he wants a chance, has the skills and wants to repay our welcome. It is fucking incredible that people do not want these people here. Would they rather go blind than be treated by a Syrian Doctor? There must be anti immigration zealots who would choose that.

An incredible experience. I see this topic has not had much interest sadly. I do hope though as our library grows it is embraced as a valuable resource for the community at large. In times where prejudices abound, race hate is on the rise, intolerance is growing and the nation is becoming more divided and polarised then our resource can play a part in tackling all forms of discrimination.

Cheers for listening, hope to see you in the future.

 

[DelToro]

Excellent post that Rascal.

Personal stories tell so much more than emotion free statistics. Human Library is a cracking idea - it feels to me that schools could benefit from their pupils visiting.

Just one point to pick you up on mate, namely; "His English is acceptable, he sounded like a Geordie to me." That's verging on the oxymoronic.

Keep up the good work.

 

[mackenzie]

I see plenty of people who come to the UK with skills but are unable to have their abilities recognised, for various reasons.
Good luck and success to the project you are promoting/supporting Rasc xx Every bit helps

 

[Old Punk]

That sounds like a fascinating, worthwhile venture.

Well done on your contribution and also your interesting comments about who should care what colour, creed or religion a surgeon or doctor is as long as he/she helps you. To think otherwise is just racist nonsense.

Maybe I'll pop down to your next library, it sounds like a great idea fella.

 

[Rascal]

Thanks all. And nice to see you about Macca, hope you are well x

One of our books is by a lovely lady of Nigerian heritage. She is a little younger than me and I was astonished when she told me her biggest fear when growing up and going through school was eating a banana in public in case people thought she was monkey. I was stunned to hear those sort of fears could exist in our nation. That fear has stuck with her all life and even now in her 40s she will not do so. Her story is fascinating and she is such a warm beautiful woman who works hard, has raised a decent family and is proud to be British. We really must not allow people to have these fears in modern Britain.

The library is not just about fighting racism though, it is about fighting all forms of discrimination. We have books on sexual discrimination, ageism, mental health and sexual orientisation (LBGT) amongst others. The racism books stand out though as their stories can be quite harrowing and show some of the reality of being different in modern society. One girl who is with us is half Somali half Arab, she is currently doing her PhD at Salford University and she told me regularly receives abuse for being a "Paki". She is stunningly beautiful and incredibly intelligent with much to offer our country. She has no country other than the UK, she loves being here, speaks with the broadest Salfordian accent you will ever hear and the abuse she gets really hurts her. I can not imagine what it must be like to run a gauntlet of ignorant halfwits on such a regular basis. Thankfully she is strong willed and ready with her wit and will not let the ignoramus fruitcakes spoil her future and denigrate her as a person.

Another interesting aspect of Tuesdays library session was the interaction between the Syrian and Iraqi Doctors and our LGBT books. We have a gay man, two lesbian ladies and a Transsexual lady. The Doctors were fascinated with the openness of our books and we believe we have helped educated them in the more open mores of our nation. Our books were treated with respect and a little fascination too. At our debrief we all agreed it had been a very successful session.

Chabal, schools is something we hope to branch out into in time. However according to our main organiser it will be difficult due to the nature of our work and we need to make sure it is aimed at the right age groups. Sixth forms and colleges are an area we hope we can be available to in time. It is still early days for us and there is an amount of scepticism about what we do. I understand that and think it is a fair assumption that is why I posted what we do here so we can spread our message gradually. We have done sessions for student nurses, but that was in-house for Salford Royal hospital and it worked very well.

Thanks again for peoples support and we hope to see you all at some point at one of our Library openings. I'm sure people will find it interesting and if you are prepared to have your mind set challenged it can be a very rewarding experience.

We are also on twitter if you look up HumanlibraryUK which will give further insight into what the organisation as a whole is trying to achieve

Cheers

 

[Brightwell’s left peg]

Haven't we already got an Arsenal Thread?