Marjolijn Masselink posted a photograph of the picture system that a Berber association used to pick their leaders. Marjolijn’s text read: “A Moroccan organisation developed a voting system, so all their members were able to vote for their board”. Hilary Hughes from Stoke on Trent responded: “Marjolijn, I hope that you tell your colleague about this, so that "illiterates" as he put it can take part in the decision making process in Rotterdam.”
I am this colleague and I speak with compassion about illiterates. I’m just not so politically correct as to suggest that an illiterate can function as a council member in Rotterdam or as a delegate of the conference we just had. I even claim that a lot of non native English speakers who took part like me, had a hard time keeping up with the jargon of intercultural professionals. So please Hilary, forgive me for not letting this opportunity pass to shame your prejudice.
I am a compassionate liberal. I speak straight when it comes to solutions. I use the word illiterate for someone who can’t read, but I don’t blame the deprived for their predicament. The Berber community in my neighbourhood was not represented. But they had ideas about what they wanted. Instead of posing as their spokesperson, I helped them set up an association so these illiterates could speak for themselves. So there’s no need for anyone to point out to me the significance of the picture that Marjolijn posted.
I was disappointed by this reaction and some others on my contribution in the debate on Friday. But I was outright worried by the support for my outspokenness that I received after the meeting, for most of them were accompanied by the comment that supporting me in the meeting itself would have been politically incorrect. In a separate post I will take a second attempt to get across the problems that arise from the presence of peasants in the city.