10 April 2018 - We were Evicted

We are human, young, old, pirate, student, homeless, worker, weak, strong, shy, energetic...
We are Lisbon, Europe, the World. We were born into this society that sees us as a number, as a list of material possessions, as somebody who has to play a game for which we never volunteered and that we don't want to play. We walk the streets of Lisbon and we see the abandoned houses that adorn it, we see the cardboard boxes that some buy to move houses and others use as a bed, we hear music and we hear complaints. We want to live here. We want to be able to live here. But how? Should we stop talking of autonomy and enter the vicious cycle that makes us study, work then retire? Should we try to rent a room, buy a house? Get ourselves into debt? We don't want to. We don't want to! We want to live the way we want.

We want to be self-sustainable - we want to live outside of this system that oppresses us and depresses us, this system that fills the streets with publicity and considers tagging a crime, that raises the minimum wage 50€ but the rents 200€, that puts people out of their homes to build more Airbnbs and hostels, that burns food, that doesn't finish building schools but makes the streets beautiful in the city center, that plants eucalyptus trees that burn every year where there is no water, that... that... We don't even know anymore... But we know we don't want to be a part of this and so we chose to live differently. We chose to recycle, occupy, sing, not have a boss, get out of the herd.

Anomalia is ours, it's us, it's me. No need for the state or the system.
We need humans, young, old... Anomalia is a home, it's a kitchen, a living room, a building that's been abandoned for more than 15 years which every day rots and falls. It's a squat, an occupied building, an okupa, a place that was abandoned and because it belongs to someone on paper, it will continue to be abandoned. So, this is a big problem... In a city with big part of the population being evicted from their homes and living close to poverty, they still prioritize a paper that says this house belongs to this or that person, even though this or that person doesn't use it. The law favors the right to own private property all the time, avoiding talking about the right to have a home. Why shouldn't we try to solve this ourselves? Why shouldn't we occupy? We don't know. As much as they explain with official laws and ethical teachings that we shouldn't steal and "poor this person" or "it's not fair to that person", we don't feel we are thieves, we don't feel sorry for the owner of a house who's not using but won't let people who need it use it, we think it's fair to try to change the city, the society, to try to change the future by doing something right now. We sleep very well, we dream high and we see the possibility of something changing - that makes us happy!
We will not give up, not now, not ever.
Anomalia