‘I used to believe in all that stuff in textbooks, about human rights and the Nobel Peace Prize. I had seen how well they treated stray dogs in Norway, putting clothes and little shoes on them in the snow, and I thought surely they could help me. But it is just an illusion—rights only apply to those people who they accept, who they accept as human, and I was not one of them. It is my dream, once in life, just to be normal in the airport, to not be stopped, to not be put in a separate line, to not be looked at like I am something strange, something different.’

But this does not mean that doing nothing is a good, or even the least bad, option. Opposing certain forms of action (namely, military action) by our governments has not led to proposals or demands for alternative action. Indeed, it hasn’t led to much action at all from those of us in the anti-war, anti-interventionist, pro-peace camps.