Reading and discussion with Ernst Schmiederer (Vienna)
in German
Photo: Götz Schrage
Under the sign of Corona, too many have almost forgotten: Day after day people disappear from our midst. People who try to live a life in dignity and security in Austria are locked up in detention pending deportation – even to Afghanistan, even though war and violence prevail there.
Nawid Naderi is one of these displaced persons, a wanderer. He was born an Afghan 22 years ago with the mark of Cain of the “uninsurable”, as Achille Mbembe calls it. On Europe’s borders, according to the political scientist and historian from Cameroon, a distinction is made “between a life that is worth insuring and a life (…) that can be abandoned or is useless”. While the world is open to us, the insurable, and a cosmopolitan life is a realistic option, they, the uninsurable, must “stay where they are” in this deadly logic.
In August 2019 Nawid fled to France because Austria wanted to get rid of him after four years. Now he is wandering through Europe. And tries to stay in contact with his friends in Austria. Austrian politics has not changed in the meantime. Just as if turquoise blue still ruled.
Ernst Schmiederer presents his “book for a wandering friend”, the two volumes WE. HERE AND NOW as well as his project of a “narrative democracy”. He is committed to refugees and the right to stay here. For many years he has been collecting and publishing the “Berichte aus dem neuen OE” as well as the “Geschichten der Gegenwart” (edition IMPORT/EXPORT). Ernst Schmiederer was an editor at the news magazine “profil”, also reported as a U.S. correspondent for the Swiss magazine “Facts” from New York, wrote a lot for “Die Zeit” and published about the tax avoidance models of the big corporations (“Asocial Market Economy”).
An event of the Jewish Museum Hohenems
in cooperation with the Hohenems City Library
ORT
Hohenems Library
Marktstraße 1a, Pfarrheim St. Karl, 6845 Hohenems
Reservation required:
T +43 (0)5576 72312-14 | info@buecherei-hohenems.at
