Weltsalon

Returning to fear in Fallujah
PEACE

Home After War is a room-scale, interactive virtual reality experience that takes you to Fallujah, a city that was, until recently, under Islamic State (IS) control. The war against IS has ended but the city is still unsafe. There’s one looming fear for returning refugees – booby trapped homes and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the neighbourhoods. Since the end of the war, thousands of civilians have died or been injured by IEDs.
Ahmaied Hamad Khalaf and his family returned home after the fighting subsided. In the experience, you find yourself in Ahmaied’s home, which still shows signs of the damage from the war.
A NOWHERE MEDIA Production | Directed by Gayatri Parameswaran

www.homeafterwar.net

COMMITMENT

Around 1,300 demonstrations took place in Munich in 2018, and almost 4,500 in Berlin. Demonstrations are well underway – the climate movement is leading the way. It is unusual that a topic like climate protection is so high on the political and media agenda as it has been since Fridays for Future. However, it’s not enough, all of us need to be on the street!

Irrespective of whether it’s about the climate, data protection, diversity or animal welfare, one thing counts: we are being heard and we can make a difference! So use your right to demonstrate and tell the decision makers in our society to take action!

It is essential to have creative protest signs: get equipped, create your next demonstration poster and stand up for an open society, for greater protection of the climate and wildlife and for our democratic values!

SUSTAINABILITY

Leave behind the daily grind, let your soul drift away, soak up the sun and discover new things. Isn’t that what we all want? There are countless travel destinations that entice you to fulfil these and many other wishes. For the time being, this is your last chance.

The travel agency Total Global is packed in crates, stranded at the recycling centre. The trend towards convenient online last-minute booking brought it here and is now just waiting to be disposed of. But there are still four trips left in the prize draw! Just take a moment, answer five questions and win your own personal dream trip. Perhaps you’ll soon be on a plane heading for your dream holiday?!

COMPASSION

War is currently being waged in 24 countries around the world, and people are dying every day in armed conflicts and as a result of terrorism. This information is reaching us in real time through the media. In successive articles we hear about attacks and assassinations, with fatalities increasingly becoming stark numbers, just statistics. But the dead are not just numbers. They are fathers, daughters, friends and neighbours.

A drop of blood for a human life – the pots and jars show how devastating wars and conflicts are and how many human victims they claim. It’s terrifying. How is it possible that one event can preoccupy us for decades when there are other terrible conflicts that we have not even heard of?

TOLERANCE

Homosexuals are persecuted in 70 countries worldwide. They are threatened with fines, prison sentences and even the death penalty in 11 countries. They are betrayed by close relatives out of conviction or through fear.

Apart from criminal prosecution, family, friends, acquaintances and strangers often cause physical and psychological harm. For many LGBT people, the only option is to flee.

Rainbow Refugees Stories tells the stories of 27 LGBT refugees who have been persecuted due to their sexual orientation or identity in their home countries and are now hoping to be granted asylum in Germany. Open up a door and meet these people and hear their stories.

RESPONSIBILITY

On average, we Germans own 95 items of clothing – some of us even over 300. “More is more” seems to be the motto. One in five garments is hardly ever worn. Clothes are now disposable goods.

Yet behind every item of clothing is someone who made it, mostly under intolerable conditions. In our globalised world, a lack of safety at work, low wages and exploitative child labour are commonplace in textile factories. In Germany, large corporations appear to be thinking primarily about their profit margins, regardless of the casualties. It’s time to open our eyes to this – it’s up to us!

And for our wardrobes, this means that ultimately less is more – and it should be Fairtrade.

FORGIVENESS

“Weak people cannot forgive. Forgiveness is a quality of the strong.” Mahatma Gandhi

It’s time to bury old conflicts, because forgiving – both the little and big things – is liberating and makes you happier.

Who are you fighting with? Is there anyone you would call your enemy? What negative thoughts are following and frustrating you? Take the first step and get it out of your mind. It will make you stronger.

DIGNITY

Werte Menschen/ Values People. This is a clear invitation: People, it’s all about our values! These values define our actions and influence our social interaction and they are much more: They are the basis of our human rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, is more relevant and important than ever over 70 years later. Human rights have to be defended in times of war and terrorism, fleeing and persecution, hunger and poverty – everywhere, every day and by every single one of us!

SELF-EFFICACY

Last year, the police registered more than 14,000 cases of sexual abuse of children. The number of unreported cases is much higher, with the perpetrator often coming from the immediate community. How can you handle an experience like this?

“You taught me how to be a butterfly, only so you could break my wings.”

Sina Niemeyer’s project Ignoscentia addresses the abuse she experienced herself throughout her childhood. In the course of her courageous project, she met the perpetrator and confronted him with the crime he had committed.

TOGETHERNESS

Biodiversity is the basis of life on our planet. Each species has its place and function. If one is missing, it affects the entire system. We still know far too little about the “web of life”, and have only identified a fraction of the species found on earth, and yet hundreds of species are vanishing every day. The simple cause: humans and their greed!

We loot the oceans, plunder primeval forests, concrete over habitats, spray toxins on our arable land, pollute the environment and boost climate change. Humans are responsible for the sixth great mass death in the Earth’s history – 65 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs, and in doing so are putting their own future at risk.

Walk into a room full of species! Can you find them all?

JUSTICE

A ship is fully laden, stacked high. What associations does this bring to mind?

Can you see the masses of goods that we ship around the world every day to satisfy our need to consume? Because we can’t get enough of it and because we can afford it. Maybe the boat is also a reminder of how many people there are trying to cross the Mediterranean in hope of a better life?

The world of globalisation in a rowing boat. Ultimately, we are left with the question of why it is so much easier for a pair of shoes in a box to cross the sea than it is for a person in need.

COURAGE

Come and play for coal with RWE!

The Hambach Forest is an ancient ecosystem located between Cologne and Aachen, which should have given way to one of the largest open pit brown coal mines in Central Europe years ago. Protests by committed climate and environmental activists have averted this to this day, with glowing symbolic power: For months now, several generations have been fighting to preserve the forest and put an end to the era of fossil fuels.

In an interactive installation, the artist Veronika Angloher playfully presents the situation in the Hambach forest. The demonstrators in “Hambi” as it is known are defying the large mining companies. Good luck, RWE, but you won’t be getting our coal!

PROTECTION

With Siri, Alexa and automated Google searches, where does our data end up? Does the data stay in or go out? Locations, movement profiles, mobile phone data and “Like” information are being analysed and then served up again as advertisements and social media postings. How convenient!

But what does it mean if it is used to manipulate our own life or society? When people cross the street when the traffic light is red and they get black marks? What if they are only allowed to buy train tickets if their social points account balance will allow it?

In two audio channels Sven Kemmler takes us into the data jungle, far away in China and right on our doorstep. It’s not so bad. Or is it?

EDUCATION

Education means freedom and is a fundamental right. In theory. In reality, it is the privilege of those who can afford it. Worldwide there are still too many people without access to education. 264 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 don’t go to school, 750 million people are illiterate, and the parents’ level of education still dictates the children’s level of education – even here in Germany! Education is essential for an open society with citizens who are committed to democracy and tolerance. Education gives people the freedom to lead a self-determined life and to choose their own career. Education gives people the ability to make responsible decisions for themselves and their environment. Education must be accessible to everyone!