“Change begins with a conversation.” That’s why I was glad to be invited to the SharedTableDinner by the Oneliness Project. How do we find a sense of home in each other? How are loneliness and democracy connected? These were the questions that shaped the evening.
Amazing people shared deeply personal thoughts about how they connect — or don’t connect — with their neighbours, and about what (good) citizenship can mean.
The common ground was a strong desire to belong — to seek human connection in one’s surroundings, to be heard, to care about others, and to be appreciated.
If you say, “Let’s do our common things in the neighborhood,” it awakens something warm. Something deeply human. It feels positive. It feels like belonging. Like home.
If you say, “Get involved in politics,” almost everyone runs away. It feels like the opposite of everything above.
And yet — by its original Greek meaning, it is the same.
So something went wrong. How do we fix this?
Five points of change I believe in:
- Who participates? We tend to forget: the War of Independence in the US began with a lack of voting rights. Taxation should be connected to voting rights.
- Where are decisions made? Bring them (back) to the local level.
- Who decides? Shift power from politicians to citizen-based structures — except for infrastructure, energy, and safety.
- How to access? German AND English as official languages.
- How do we serve? Low bureaucracy. Fast, user-friendly, simple administration.
Most of us agree on that. But how do we implement such profound change?
Ask those who have already lived it!!!
Brave people who risked their lives to escape. Courageous people who left comfortable lives for democracy. Dauntless people who started a new chapter — without speaking any German, without a network or connections.
The greatest untapped potential of German society is the more than fifteen million people who came from other countries — 1.3 million in Berlin alone.
They are not participating in politics or in shaping public opinion. They are seeking recognition. They are seeking participation. They know how to deal with change.
‘Migrants’ are not a problem.
‘Migrants’ are the greatest opportunity for Germany.
