At one Swedish library, you can borrow books├óÔé¼ÔÇØand people!

[munch]

A Swedish library, realizing that books are not the
only things being judged by their covers, will give
visitors a different opportunity this weekend├óÔé¼ÔÇØto
borrow a Muslim, a lesbian, or a Dane.

The city library in Malmo, Sweden's third-largest
city, will let curious visitors check out living
people for a 45-minute chat in a project meant to tear
down prejudices about different religions,
nationalities, or professions. The project, called
Living Library, was introduced at Denmark's Roskilde
Festival in 2000, librarian Catharina Noren said. It
has since been tried at a Copenhagen library as well
as in Norway, Portugal, and Hungary.

The people available to be "borrowed" also include a
journalist, a gypsy, a blind man, and an animal rights
activist. They will be available Saturday and Sunday
in conjunction with a Malmo city festival and are
meant to give people "a new perspective on life," the
library said in a statement. "There are prejudices
about everything," Noren said. "This is about fighting
those prejudices and promoting coexistence."

Borrowing a person will be free, and the library will
also provide coffee at its cafe where the "living
books" will answer questions about their lives,
beliefs, or jobs. "It's supposed to be relaxed and
human-to-human," Noren said.

Malmo, located on Sweden's southwestern coast, has one
of Sweden's largest immigrant communities. It is also
located just a narrow strait away from Denmark, and
centuries of warfare between the countries has been
replaced with a friendlier rivalry in recent decades.
Still, both nationalities have several stereotypes
about their neighbors. "Danish Radio called to ask
what prejudice we have about Danes," Noren said. "They
had some tough questions for me."

Interest in the project has been high, Noren said,
although the library does not allow bookings├óÔé¼ÔÇØthe human
subjects will be checked out on a first-come,
first-served basis. And it will not necessarily be
people with prejudices who will take the opportunity.
"It could be that you're about to belong to one of
these categories yourself, such as someone losing
their eyesight," Noren said. "Or it could be someone
who just found out their child is a lesbian. But then
there are people who just want to unload a lot of
anger. These people [who get borrowed] are ready for
anything to happen."

The "living books" are all from the Malmo area and
were recruited via different organizations and
associations. However, it wasn't possible to find
suitable subjects from all desired professions. "We
would have liked to have a police officer and maybe a
meter maid," Noren said. (AP)

source:
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid19850.asp

[PauloMorfeo]

... curious visitors check out living
people for a 45-minute chat in a project meant to tear
down prejudices about different religions,
nationalities, or professions. ...

The first and most important steps to "tear down prejudices" are to mingle with the people we expect to have prejudices to. Once we get acostumed to them, all prejudices are gone. (of course we might still not like a particular person for some reason but not anymore because of it beeing diferent)

[FizWizz]

I'd like to give the person who came up with that idea a pat on the back. That's a pretty creative and out-of-the-box (sorry for the cliche) way to get people to learn more about each other. You've got to admire the volunteers too for putting themselves up like that, especially for whatever flak they may get while doing this. and like PauloMorfeo said, most people are decent enough despite whatever category they belong to (the obvious exceptions being people like terrorists, drug cartels, and American lawyers, but hey, even these guys are motivated to do what they do for a reason, noble or not).

[Zoombie]

That is one of the oddest idea's i have ever herd. But its so crazy it just MIGHT WORK! I just hope no nutcases with guns (got to hate those nucases with guns) decide to shoot up some of the minorities he doesn├óÔé¼Ôäót like.

[FizWizz]

Well, I'd worry about that in a country where people think it's their god-given right to own guns, but somehow I just don't see that happening with Swedes.

[Zoombie]

I guess your right. Also the main reason the second amendment was around at all was because A: We had just achieved independence, and so many people where probably paranoid and crotchety and afraid of the British (now swap out British with terrorist, and that├óÔé¼Ôäós how its kind of like now, except with multiple extreme differences that make the entire analogy erroneous!) B: People had to HUNT (sometimes) for there food, and if you dint have the gun then├óÔé¼┬ª well to bad for you! C: Don├óÔé¼Ôäót forget the injuns!

Now we, being a bunch of gun nuts, cant seem to collectively realize that there is no real reason to own a gun in most houses. I repeat THERE is NO Reason whatsoever for a gun to be in my house and in every house with in a few hundred miles around me! Its not a Clockwork Orange where you cant step outside with out being beaten, stabbed and shot to death by some teenagers!

But that people borrowing idea is still really weird. Any success that anyone has head of?