QUI SUIS-JE? KIU ESTAS MI?

WHO AM I ?

Dainess Maganda

I am a lost identity

I am a struggling soul

I am a shuttered mind

I am a mumbling mouth

I don’t know who I am

I was born with a voice but lost it

I am told English is all that matters

I am told my identity doesn’t  matter

I am persuaded my voice is worthless

I am taught to learn what is popular

I am told to ignore who I am

I am told to forget what it means to be me

I am told to go with the flow

I am forced to mourn the loss of my essence

But, I don’t know who I am and so, I don’t think it matters

I am a lost soul, a lost voice, a lost identity, a lost value of humanity.

The world tells me

Don’t worry,

You don’t need to learn in a language you understand

Because it is not the language of power

You don’t need to comprehend what you learn

You don’t need to be who you are in order to know what the world is

You don’t need to be heard for the world to notice you

You only need to speak as the world does – what matters is what

you should do and not what you need to do.

Cry your heart out – the world cannot hear because it doesn’t know your voice

Speak, the world won’t mind because it doesn’t understand your language

Sleep, the world won’t notice because it can’t feel your heart beat

Close your mind, because that is what the world wants you to do and

Close your heart, because that’s what the world NEEDS you  to do

BUT, I say

Let me speak, let me breathe,

Let me live.

My life makes Humanity

I matter.

In “Multilingual Education and Sustainable Diversity Work” 2012 T. Skutnabb-Kangas