On Wednesday night the Association of Foreign Affairs hosted Lena Scherman, who dips into questions on the moral implications of defection for today and tomorrow.
Would you desert from a cause? How difficult would it be? How do you get the title defector?
These are some of the questions which SVT correspondent Lena Scherman lifts to the audience in Athen.
“We started to explore the ideas around ‘Whistleblowers,’ people who have strived beyond the frames of their societies,” she says.
Actions which have had profound and often controversial impacts on society.
From here Lena Scherman recalled three significant stories and examples of desertion from our ever-changing world.
The Arab Spring was a platform for change, scrutinised by the surrounding world. Here we can see men and women who have for example deserted from the armies of Al-Assad. Lena Scherman discusses how they have faced that change and the motifs for their actions of abruptly “Switching sides”.
They took the choice to walk the line between the two sides of the political spectrum, something which meant placing their fates on the line.
The lecturer moves over to Abdullahi Hussein Ali, a former Ethiopian militant who faced SVT reporter Johan Ripås with some startling facts.
He was a deserter from the Ethiopian militants in the Ogaden province who choose to tell the uncovered story about the kidnapped Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson. In so walking the line between a nation and the world knowing the truth.
A line in the sand which changed the fate of two men who gained freedom, whilst the world media covered the event. However, Abdullahi Hussein Ali remained in the shadows.
The third case being Alexis Goldstein, a former floor trader on Wall Street, who saw past the mentalities of capitalism and the flows of cash and left a six figure salary to join the protesters in the Occupy Wall street movement.
“This freedom to be able to re-think your life is a fundamental liberty which we often look past” Lena Scherman says. Ideals which aren’t always preached in our society where complacency becomes all to central.
“ We are all in some ways culprits for example in destroying the environment but would we dare to desert from our own lifestyles, to where would we move and what would we do” says Lena Scherman. Would we be willing to take these steps?
Topical questions which we are left with to ponder on as we leave the AF-Building.
This is going on at the Association of Foreign Affairs, UPF during this spring
