“Please, mind the gap between the train and the platform”, I heard a man’s voice coming out of the speaker. I immediately minded the gap – it was not too big and yet your foot would fit in. I started to think how many people had fallen down the hole. “Are they alright? It is pretty dangerous…”. The warm male voice sounded in the London underground again.

“I bet there is a large number of accidents here”, I thought while observing the gap, which was sometimes bigger and sometimes smaller. We reached the next stop within a few minutes, not hindered by traffic or street lights. The underground seems like the best way to get around the city. Lots of new commuters got on the train. The loud announcement was heard again but I noticed no one even paid attention.

The voice keeps reminding passengers about the danger every day, and yet the new data show an increase in the number of people falling down the gap on London underground.

“How come?”, you may ask. The answer is, unfortunately, pretty simple. We can hear announcements, we may learn about facts many, many times, and yet we keep ignoring them. We think they do not relate to us. We believe those news shown by the media do not involve us directly. We choose to imagine it is somebody else’s fault or problem. We choose to think that someone else is responsible.

The world has changed within the last decades a lot. Human ignorance has not. We have started our group not to teach but to learn together. People all around the world should become more aware of what is going on around them. People means us and you. Perhaps you would also like to join us on our journey by underground? We will talk about things that we can see but choose not to.

I got off the train. The white paint of the writing on the ground was a bit dusty and messy. “Mind the gap”, it kept reminding me. I read it out almost aloud.

I do mind the gap. The question is: do you?

Dominik Napierała

Przewodniczący SKN Common Language