02 October 2010

Funeral oration for a passport (me, my body, and my identities)

Dear (not so) old passport, I never really liked you.
They look at you
and call me Ramos
They stamp your pages
and let me pass…

Borders they say! They have big pieces of cloth they call flags and they say they are proud of. They are proud of being born in a specific piece of land and not another. They call these places countries. They call me “Portuguese!” because I was born in a place and not another.

When I was born, they wrote Ramos on you to keep track of my body. They call it a legal identity: I am you and I am my body. And Ramos they call to all these things.

They do the same to themselves! They make signs in papers to make believe the papers represent their bodies. They even believe their bodies represent themselves!

But after those so many borders and papers and stamps, my dear, I see just more men. All the same eyes, mouth and feet, and all with the same gaze, looking for food and shelter.

Sometime in the future they will call Ramos to the court, you, my body and me. But well, I like to use you to travel, and pretend I am that Portuguese Ramos they say I am. You and me together! But when they call this Ramos, my dear, I will refuse, I will tell them the truth about you and I. I will tell them I am no Ramos. I am not the entity they say you represent. I am no paper or classification. I am no you!

I may accept I am this body today, but I will never accept that I am you. I will always refuse to understand the reason of your existence.

My dear passport, I hope you rest in peace!

1 comment:

Telemaco said...

Sempre me fascinou a possibilidade de ser tudo mentira (ate’ porque acho que e’ tudo mentira). Na faculdade, quando acabei o curso, tive de comprar uma certidão, e no dia em que a obtive e a ia mostrar aos meus pais, apercebi-me que, em 5 anos, nenhum deles tinha posto os pés na faculdade e que eu podia ter inventado tudo, 5 anos de mentira.
Da mesma forma, este blog podia ser tudo mentira, sempre me fascinou a ideia de nos períodos em que todos pensam que estou a viajar, eu me fechar algures num cubículo no Geres e, de tempos em tempos, produzir estes posts neste blog e fazer todos acreditarem que estou a dar voltas ao mundo.
Hoje e’ o dia do certificado. O dia do papel, a importância magna do papel para fidelizar a crença na “realidade” que nos une… um problema interessantissimo, uma longa conversa… este post e’ so’ um pequeno exemplo.