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‘My name is Sami and I am a proud Swede – it hurts when people say I’m not Swedish’

Sami Hotait, a 16-year-old high-school student from Malmö, is tired of being asked where he’s ‘really’ from. Here he tells The Local Voices why he won’t let his inquisitors define him.

'My name is Sami and I am a proud Swede - it hurts when people say I'm not Swedish'

Often when I meet new people I get asked a surprising question: ‘Where are you from?’ I answer: ‘I’m from Sweden, I’m a Swede’. 

Some people don’t stop there and keep prying. ‘But that can’t be true! You don’t look so Swedish, where are you originally from?’ 

It’s mostly adults who ask. I used to answer them by saying that my father came from Lebanon and my mother is a Swede. 

But I feel like this answer confuses my identity: In Sweden I’m the Lebanese guy, and in Lebanon I’m the Swede.

So I’ve stopped answering, because it’s just silly. Nowadays if people ask I just tell them, ‘I am an inhabitant of this world. I am a human being on this planet’.

I really don’t feel any need to talk about this with strangers, but the questions hurt and bother me. At school I’m one of the best students and I have some bright mates I can talk to about the nationality issue, but not everyone is so thoughtful. 

I’ve talked to my mother about this question people ask, and how it makes me feel like they’re telling me I’m not one of them, that I’m not a Swede. But my mother has always told me: ‘It’s you who decides who you are and where you belong – not other people.’ 

And she’s right. It’s not my dad’s Lebanese nationality that defines me. I’m not a half-Swede, or a second-class Swede. I’ve lived all 16 years of my life here. I define my relationship to Sweden, not the people who ask me this question. 

This is my homeland. I never feel as free as when I’m in Sweden. I am me when I’m here. It’s a heaven for human rights. It’s the sanctuary that shelters refugees, and other humans who are in need. I am proud to be Swedish.

In my neighbourhood nobody asks where I come from because we all know each other. It’s a neighbourhood that’s mostly populated by second-generation immigrants. It has its troubles, including drugs and some crime. But I love it here because it’s where I was born, grew up, and learned my language. It’s my haven, the place where I feel love and warmth.

I have a hope that in the future we can all live together, without slurring or ridiculing each other. 

This hope lies in me, and in the younger generations. I’m studying behavioural science, and was lucky to be raised in a multicultural environment. I accept and respect all people regardless of their backgrounds. Why should my or your background be worth more than any other? 

The more we learn from each other, the more we can accept and love each other, and vanquish our prejudices.   

I want to become a talk show host in the US, to raise awareness among people. I’ll call it ‘The Sami Hotait show’.  Yes! I want to try make the world a better place. All we see around us in reality and on the news is negativity and more negativity. I want to spread the positive, to spread hope. 

My role models are Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela. They inspire me because they tried to raise awareness and make a change, and that’s what I want to do. 

I want to learn from them and add my own contribution to theirs. This will help me convey meaningful and inspirational messages to people – to change them. 

There have to be solutions to our never-ending miseries after all. Right?  

 

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GALICIA

An Aussie in Galicia: How free labour helps transform a renovation project

In her latest column, Heath Savage, an Australian who bought a dilapated property in rural Galicia, describes how visiting volunteers helped get the project off the ground.

An Aussie in Galicia: How free labour helps transform a renovation project
Long lunches is one of the perks of the new life in Galicia. Photo: H Savage

Workaway is one of the best-known online communities where people can post profiles, and match up with each other as either a host or a volunteer worker. Our Air B&B hosts put us onto it when we stayed with them in May 2018, while purchasing our new house. Volunteers provide labour, for up to five hours per day, and hosts feed and house the volunteers. A really great idea! Many people travel the world this way.

Our neighbours here in Panton have all used this means of obtaining much-needed help; with house renovations, and work on their land. We registered as hosts before we moved to Panton, because it seemed like a lovely way to meet interesting people who had useful skills we needed, which ranged from teaching us some Spanish and translating documents, to hard landscaping and demolition.

We arrived on the 12th July 2018, and welcomed Antoinne and Maude-Helene into our new home on the 15th. They were a lively, talented, French-Canadian couple, in their mid- twenties, who were keen to see the “real” Galicia. We gave them the best room upstairs, and made it as homely as we could for them. Our cat, Minnie, newly arrived herself, and still cranky from a week in transit by air from Australia, was less welcoming; she deposited a giant hairball on their bed the first night, which poor Maude-Helene mistook for a dead mouse! Minnie was instantly banished from visiting the second floor.

Our new friends worked hard in the summer sun. They helped us to clear decades of dusty, overgrown ivy and wisteria from our house and garden.

They dismantled a wrecked poly-tunnel, and pulled down a spider-infested, rotten pergola roof; leaving more time for me and Sarah to project-manage the building renovations, and find our way around suppliers. We had to learn quickly where to purchase the best/cheapest building materials, and who would deliver free.

Eager to follow local custom, we would gather our whole team each day for lunch under the (re-roofed!) pergola on our terrace. I kept everyone happy with huge pots of pasta, thick soups, garden salads and home-made bread and cakes – such a change from our usual hurried, “grabbed” sandwich, eaten at desks, when we were office slaves! Travel stories, tales of ex-pat mis-haps and eccentricities, and local lore kept us all entertained and forged friendships we still value. I was suddenly in my element again; cooking for a crowd.

Years of conferences, meetings and teaching sessions kept me from my true vocation. Making lunch became a true labour of love, and I threw myself into creating outstanding food for our workers each day – food they all still talk about! I will be sharing some of these recipes, as I work on  my first book, celebrating the beautiful local produce we are so blessed with here in Green Galicia.

Heath's Almond and Coconut Cake with Raspberries (Gluten-Free)

Ingredients

  •  1 1/2 cups (170g) almond meal
  • 1 1/4 cups (275g) caster sugar
  • 3/4 cup (70g) desiccated coconut (lightly toasted)
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 200g butter, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup (55g) fresh or frozen raspberries.

 

Method

  •  Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F), lightly grease a 24cm springform pan and line the base and sides with baking paper.
  • In a large bowl, stir together almond meal, sugar, and coconut.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla extract until well combined. Slowly whisk in the melted butter.
  • Add the butter mixture into the almond mixture, stirring until smooth. Gently fold in half of the raspberries.
  • Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin, then dot the top with the remaining raspberries. Sprinkle the top of the cake with approx. 1 tbsp. of sugar.
  • Bake 50-55 minutes, until the cake is golden and the top springs back when you press it lightly. Or an inserted skewer comes out clean.
  • Cool the cake in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

If you are feeling flush and lavish, bake two cakes, and when cooled, slice the top of one (bonus for the cook!) to level it, then sandwich the two cakes together with a thick layer of lemon butter-cream.

 

 

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