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I am a ghost in Berlin,

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walking the veins of a haunted city.

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If you know Berlin,

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it might be by its stories

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of excess: parties, sex, drugs.

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Or you might know it by one of its ghosts.

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War. Authoritarianism.

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Addiction. Homelessness.

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Disease. A place is haunted by everything

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that happened there.

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Ghosts live where

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there is unfinished business.

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I'm considering Görlitzer Park,

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where there are so many others like me.

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Görli goes back a long way.

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It was created in the 1980s

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at an abandoned railroad

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in an immigrant neighborhood.

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By the 2000s,

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rent had risen uncontrollably.

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Gentrification turned to displacement,

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and Görli was dubbed

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the most dangerous park of Berlin,

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a problem in the middle

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of an otherwise nice neighborhood.

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The myth of Görli is of a place

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taken by illegals, drug dealers,

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where junkies hang around

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high and dangerous.

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It is where many invisible people

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end up ghosts to everyone but themselves.

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Undocumented migrants

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who cannot work

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and resort to the drug trade.

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Unattended children, mostly refugees.

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People with no place to live.

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Setting up camp on the borders.

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Drug addicts of all ages

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looking for a fix of heroin or cocaine.

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Blood coming out of their arms.

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Passing out in the public toilets.

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There have been many attempts

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to exercise Görli.

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To cast away

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those who no one wants to see.

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In 2015, there was a zero tolerance policy

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on drugs, a so-called law and order.

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Then they drew a pink zone

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where drugs could be dealt legally,

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but the neighbors say it never happened.

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Recently, authorities

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wanted to build a fence

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to cage us in the park.

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I'm not surprised it didn't work.

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Now, the park is a delicate,

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swarming ecosystem,

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a grey zone,

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its residents not welcomed, but tolerated.

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A ghost is collective trauma.

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Perhaps plans and policies in Görli

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fail because they are built around fear,

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disgust and unwillingness

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to see oneself in others.

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There are more than 18,000 people

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in Berlin with HIV.

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Most new infections arise

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from intravenous drug use

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and needle sharing, report NGOs.

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A newspaper announces a little boy

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stepped on a used needle

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in Görlitzer Park.

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It is yet to be known

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if he contracted HIV.

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A girl finds a bag of heroin

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in a sandbox at Görlitzer Park.

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To this, a neighbor replies

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that most people

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are not affected by the drug scene.

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But that is not the story

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told by authorities of the media.

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Perhaps I'm not the only ghost around.

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The ghosts of addiction and HIV

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to live in Görli.

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The virus. It's still here.

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Waiting in the corners.

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And for those who inject sharing tools,

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be it in trust or in desperation,

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it awaits in every opportunity.

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Those who see this as something

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that would never happen to them

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are simply wrong.

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A ghost wants to be acknowledged.

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Past one of the main entrances

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of the park,

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a Moroccan drug dealer

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points to a parked van

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and says that is where the junkies are.

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Around six years ago,

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white vans started appearing in the park.

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Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.

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The vans and the people working

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inside became a part of the ecosystem.

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They transformed the park from a gray zone

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to a space of truce between worlds.

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For drug users,

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it is a space of warmth and solace

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amid a pacified yet rough environment.

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At the door, someone says, come in.

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A nurse handing you a clean needle,

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a bandage, a test.

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Hands that know what to do.

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A voice that calls you by name.

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Eyes that won't look away

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should the pulse falter

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or the breath slow.

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For a moment, drug use and HIV

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are no longer ghosts,

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lingering in the shadows.

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They are seen, named, treated,

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prevented, acknowledged.

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At the vans door

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an old Chilean man who lives in the park

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says there is no drug

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he hasn't tried before.

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But these days he hangs around

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to get coffee and something to eat.

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I don't know what to say

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about the insight, he says,

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but it's easy to see less people die.

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We are all looking for something

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softer than survival.

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Here I see the power of simply being told.

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You deserve to know.

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You deserve to live.

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But this as all that is earth bound

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has a limit.

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There are timetables, salaries,

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legal lines,

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buses that keep fighting each other.

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Politicians that only want prevention

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when it's convenient to them.

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There is a strange ease

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when the vans are in the park,

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but the sun begins to set

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and it drives off.

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Workers go home

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and the ghosts come out again.

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The swarm of the park goes back in place.

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Drug addiction

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doesn't stop in the evening.

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It doesn't stop on Sundays

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comments one of the workers.

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It is good, but not enough.

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Everyone says this place is haunted.

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Haunted by its history,

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by the people who live here

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and the people who are left.

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Ghosts live where

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there is unfinished business.

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Even if you don't want to see us,

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we will still be here.

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And I might stay for a while too.