Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Don't forget Aylan Kurdl

It is a week since  I saw that terrible photo of that poor little boy on the beach.
The world is slowly moving. If only dead children were as important as banks and bankers, then there would be concrete plans to stop this happening again. This boy is sadly just one of thousands.There have been many pictures of dead children, but possibly because they were not the right colour, their impact was much less. Little Aylan looked just like our children and so the storm grew.
The world is on fire and our leaders continue to play their fiddles.
Last century this happened in Europe, twice....and this is no different. We took our world wars twice to The Middle East, and we left it in pieces, and then propped up its dictators for 60 years, until they had outlived their usefulness. We pretend it's not our business today as they crumble. Yet politics and leaders are not the issue here. It is the desperate families, the women, the children.
Nobody was leaving Syria 5 years ago, it was a civilized society that were proud of their history, one of the cradles of civilisation, since then 200,000 people have died, much of the country has been destroyed, 5 million are fleeing their homes in terror.
We have our problems, 'charity begins at home' are what many people are saying, the subtext being....they are not white.
Throughout this week on my own facebook, through the comments from my own friends' posts....all British, a much more frightening tone comes through again and again....'they are all terrorists' 'let them die' 'send the boats back'  and worse. I can't  imagine our grandparents uttering the same poison. Britain had nothing in the 30s, yet we still had humanity, it was a part of our nationality, a part of being British. I am ashamed today, but yet I still believe we are overall a good people, it's just that the animals make more noise.
There are many facets, many angles to this problem, but shrugging our shoulders will not help. The Gulf states have given billions in aid, but they must accept people. The U.S. and Australia and Canada  must accept people, their countries are huge. The refugees must be fairly spread out throughout Europe, even Russia.  Isis must be defeated and Assad removed, then rebuilding can be done and the refugees will return in droves. The boats must be stopped.  The list goes on and on. The racist fuckwits within our own countries must be ignored.

In the meantime, let's try and put ourselves in one man's shoes;

Alan Kurdi's father Abdullah said that shortly after their boat left  it was hit by waves and the captain swam off.
"I tried to catch my children and wife but there was no hope. One by one they died," Mr Kurdi said.
"I tried to steer the boat but another high wave pushed the boat over. That is when it happened," Mr Kurdi said.
"My children were the most beautiful children in the world. Is there anybody in the world for whom their child is not the most precious thing?" Mr Kurdi said.
"My kids were amazing. They woke me every day to play with me. What is more beautiful than this? Everything is gone.
"I would love to sit next to the grave of my family now and relieve the pain I feel," he said.

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