from Eglent Bici
Last night all night and today amidst the damage, breaking, destruction and theft in our office, one question sticks in my mind:
What if I had been inside?
What if one of my colleagues had been there at those moments? What if we were still working, as we often are until recently?
What would have happened? What would you have done to me if I had come up to you and said, “Stop! This is my property. This is my business. You have no right to touch it!”?
I don’t know the answer. And this is what shocks me more than material damage.
You’ve gone inside, up to the second floor. You damaged computers, distributed documents, broke and threw things on the ground, and took the seal. Why?
What did that office do to you? What did we do to you?!
For me, business is home. In some ways, touching it is even more difficult: because work is where the house is kept. There we provide income, support our families, build the future of our children.
We spend there more than half of our active time. There we have joys, worries, fatigue, hopes. There are beautiful days and sleepless nights. There are years of work that are not visible when you see only a desk, a computer or a sign with the name MEI Realty.
You see things to break and destroy; I see whole years of my life. I see the struggle of my colleagues. I see the responsibility we have towards our families.
To me, this is sacred.
That’s why I’m angry today. I’m hurt. I feel killed in dignity. And I refuse to pass this off with a shrug: “That’s what happens at protests.”
No! It shouldn’t happen. And we don’t have to get used to it! I refuse to accept it.
Protesting is right and I support the protest and the students. But no cause gives you the right to enter my property, destroy my work, and endanger the people who may be inside.
I don’t put all the protesters in one bag. But those who entered and destroyed my office behaved like hooligans. And the name of any protest does not erase their responsibility.
Even the boilers, traffic lights and roads belong to our community. We pay them. We use them. Their destruction affects our daily lives.
I demand that the perpetrators be identified and held accountable. If there are people behind them who have paid, incited or organized them, they should also be investigated. Until the end.
But today, above all, I want to speak as a man to those who did this:
How would you feel if someone broke into your house and threw everything on the floor? If you were to trample on your parents’ work? What if your loved one was inside?
That’s how I feel today.
YOU DO NOT REPRESENT ME. Your violence does not have my support. And you will not have my silence even if you come again and destroy the office altogether.
We will fix the office. We will get up tomorrow and work again. But let no one confuse our strength to continue with the acceptance of what you have done to us.
MY PROPERTY, MY WORK AND THE SAFETY OF MY PEOPLE ARE NOT A SQUARE FOR ANYONE’S VIOLENCE.
Eglent Bici
