Of Strikes and Personal Battles
I watched V for Vendetta again the other
day and was horrified at how similar some of the scenes felt. Apathy really
does allow for the restriction of freedom, slowly but surely, doesn’t it? It
was International Women’s Day last week, and part of the different actions that
have been cropping up since the election and inauguration of Trump, March 8th
was also declared a day of strike by the Women’s March team in the US. And
assuming that not every woman would be able to just take the day off, they also
proposed other actions that women could do to show support (wear red, not shop
or only shop at women-owned businesses, donate to Planned Parenthood etc). As a
freelancer I was able to strike, I just moved projects around and figured it
out. My other half and I also didn’t work on the Day Without Immigrants that
was held in February. We both believe that we, as immigrants, and me and our
girls, as women, deserve to have equal rights. We also believe that every human
being deserves equal rights. Sounds pretty simple, no? Apparently not because
we are still fighting for it.
I was a little horrified to read so much
backlash about the women’s strike, and a lot of it from women themselves. Some
saying that only the privileged could afford to take the day off of work (I
doubt they had any idea of what striking really means), or that, even better,
we had equal rights so what were we complaining about? I also saw a lot of
comments about the International Women’s Day in general, with women stating
that they didn’t understand why we should be celebrating women for a whole day
of the year and not men, especially if we were aiming for equality. Well
ladies, IWD is all about women’s RIGHTS. And, if I am not mistaken, there is
still a long way to go before they are on equal grounds with the rights that a
white male benefits from. I mean, the current US president is someone who once
claimed that it was OK to grab a woman by her pussy, because, you know, all
women can’t resist that. So, yes, we have a long way to go.
And I do get that certain people have a
more privileged status in life than others (I know for a fact that I have been
treated better than others in many a situation because I am white), but that
doesn’t mean we need to hide inside this bubble and pretend that others are not
suffering. I can also list many examples of how I have been treated badly
because I am a woman, or promoted as some kind of toy. It’s depressing, and I
will continue to fight for equality, for all of us, worldwide. I think that it
is so important to always look at the bigger picture, because we all have
different experiences, but in the end we are all in this together. If someone
refuses to look at the plight of others then they are technically agreeing that
discrimination is OK. And it’s not. There is still a huge amount of
discrimination in this country, and this administration is doing its best to
create an even bigger divide. I think that it is our civil duty, even as
immigrants, to fight it.
As I move slowly towards the third
trimester of this pregnancy (three more weeks now, how on earth did that
happen?!), my other half and I have been wondering how we are really going to
swing a move elsewhere again. We have both lived in the US for over a decade
now, and while it was so easy to hide among everyone else in NYC, we stand out
a lot more over here. There really is no place to hide (possibly the mountains,
but I don’t want to hide). Moving to England seems like such a daunting
process, and moving to Mexico is not something that Cesar even wants is to
contemplate. I understand that, my experience of Mexico was that of a tourist
in an idyllic beach location, his experience is that of growing up in a small
town where his father was long gone into the bowels of the US, and his mother
had to work three jobs to make ends meet. We aren’t well-off, so we wouldn’t be
moving into a beautiful villa and living the life of rich expats, sending our
kids to private schools. We barely make ends meet here, so what are our
prospects elsewhere? I have Canadian citizenship too, and while Canada has some
wonderful plus sides, it is also becoming increasingly expensive to live there.
We also have to figure out how Cesar can finally divorce the person he married
years and years ago and hasn’t seen for over 10 years, especially as she now
lives somewhere in the US and we have no idea how we can serve papers to
someone who we don’t know how to find. Divorce is tricky, makes me kind of
really happy that I never gave into the temptation of marrying anyone here.
Granted, I will be marrying Cesar, but that’s it, there is no one else for me!
We have been making baby steps though; the girls’
British passport applications are now in process, and once we get those back we
will do the US and Mexican ones. The British process is the lengthiest one as
they are all processed in the UK, and cannot be done anywhere here. This means
that you need to send original birth certificates and passports (mine) via mail
and keep your fingers crossed that everything arrives safely. Of course, you
can spend $50 plus to ensure that they do, but I don’t have those types of
funds in addition to the money spent on the passports! US and Mexican passports
can be done in a day by appointment, but I have heard that for the Mexican passports
one has to leave original birth certificates with the consulate and only gets
duplicates back (important to know, especially if you only have one original
copy).
It always interests me to hear the
perspectives of others who live outside of the US on what is currently
happening in this country… Do you feel scared? Does it seem like it’s not as
bad as people are saying it is? (It is, never doubt that). We are currently
looking at severe cuts in our medical insurance, something that I will bring up
next month, and if there is anything else you would like to hear about please
let me know! I have a different perspective than others because I am an
immigrant with a multi-ethnic family, but I also know that I can be pretty
open-minded to what is going on around (although I can’t bring myself to
discussing anything with Trump supporters anymore because everyone I have
spoken to has no idea what they are talking about). This may be the land of the
free, but this freedom is beginning to feel more like a noose than anything
else.
Written by Jade
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