There are too many children crying, hurting and dying in this world. It needs to stop
A few years ago, I wrote a blog – The
haunting moments of broken bones – following a particularly brutal evening,
where for one hour, I was locked out of surgery at the hospital, listening to
my son – Lex – screaming for his mum. I was helpless and couldn’t come to him
as they re-set his broken bones. I’ll never forget that night. It was brutal.
But it was nothing compared to what we are witnessing around the world
today. The experience with Lex ravaged me, but he had his mum there with him,
cuddling him, reassuring him, crying for him, empathising with him…. You can
get a kid through anything when they have you by their side.
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| Syrian children refugees on the Turkish border, Shutterstock |
Hearing and knowing that kids are hurting so much everywhere in the
world – and yes, it’s not a new thing, but I believe we are an evolving species
– well, let’s just say, I’m bloody sick of it and it just makes me want to
scream – WHAT SORT OF A FUCKEN WORLD ARE WE BUILDING HERE?
Obviously, if we just stick with current news, we have the revolting situation
happening in America right now. Oh yes, it’s been “overturned,” although no one
knows if the current kids will be reunited with their parents quickly or at all!
Quite rightly, it’s caused global outrage, and a by-product is, all of
us are having conversations within our social communities, because (what
appears to be the majority of us) believe it’s wrong, barbaric, revolting and
beyond forgiveness. Crikey even the Catholic Church in the US is talking about
excommunicating employees implicit in these activities.
And then for those of us who feel this deep anger and despair about the
situation, we find ourselves connected with people who want to tell us why it’s right. To anyone in my
community who feels the need to educate me (you don’t, I’m good at that) or
those lacking compassion and empathy for any child put in despairing
circumstances, all I want to say to you is: fuck off!
Fuck off with your logical opinions.
Fuck off with your questionable legalese.
Just fuck off, full stop.
Because NO CHILD SHOULD BE LOCKED UP AND SEPARATED FROM THEIR PARENTS.
NONE!
A nice reference to the timeline
of events in regards to this unfolding series of events (thanks Tash), for
those wondering.
Why don’t we learn?
Anyhoo, do you know why our world is in a shit state right now? Because
we keep making these stupid mistakes, destroying the minds of young people –
harming them beyond repair – and what happens when we do that? We create
another generation of broken people that do harm within their communities when
they grow up, or harm at greater scale – like school shootings, terrorist attacks,
and I could go on.
Obviously, this situation is not just happening with children in US
detention. It’s been happening since time immemorial, but in the last decade, we
are seeing a resurgence of pain, despair and butchery – where children are suffering
the most and they will be impacted for the rest of their lives.
Whether it’s refugees fleeing across Europe to escape civil war, or
children watching their families blown apart right before their eyes, or children
sold into sexual slavery while escaping horror no child should face, or the Rohingya
children escaping unbelievable brutality in Myanmar, or babies drowning in
oceans and toddler’s dead on beaches, or or or! There’s too many ORs!!
We all know we have big problems in the world, but right now, I don’t want
to talk about people smugglers, corruption, drug cartels, or the requirement of
adults to follow due process when they’re escaping certain death, or further legal
discussion or the bleeding-heart lefties versus what….. inhumane assholes?
I want to talk
about what matters – helping humans in need
I want to talk about the fact we have well over 25 million refugees
spread around the world, half of which are children, and that means one in 200 children in the world are
refugees. We should all hang our heads in shame at that number.
Wants some stats and knowledge, including the fact that the West is not burdened
by this issue? Read this UNHCR
report. Not that this will make a difference. It’s not new information and
no one seems to care about it anyway…
I also think it’s time we get super honest with ourselves, especially if
we want to get through this time without hurtling into WWIII – which I believe
we are.
First, we have to start by looking at our responsibility in creating
this situation. Because most refugee situations are a direct or indirect result
of problems the West was implicit in creating – whether for: financial gain and
business greed (oil, defence industry profits, drug profits, human trafficking
profits); territorial security (secure shipping lanes, access to weapons if
needed); the heritage and hatred created by past and present colonial rampages
and destruction; past wars; ignorant misguided wars (Vietnam, Iraq and
Afghanistan); racist policies; extremism (usually created by all of the above);
the on-going killing of civilians in the theatre of war; and on and on I could
go.
It’s pathetic and we keep doing it, over and over again. The same
mistakes, creating the same outcomes, which will mean future generations won’t
know peace, and still, we continue to call for those same mistakes to be made
over again…
Seriously sometimes I wish mother nature would get on with it and wipe
us all out. We don’t deserve to be here.
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| No more: Shutterstock |
Politics is the
enemy of peace
So, while politicians are posturing and trying to secure their seats, the
politicians who want to do the right thing for the world can’t, because
if they do, they get voted out and won’t be able to do anything. And then we
have those politicians keeping us all living in fear, so we can’t see the bigger
game being played (not just by them, but the corporations profiting) and
instead we look to each other and believe that is where our fear needs to be
directed! Divide and conquer has always worked, but we never seem to see when
it’s working on us.
I mean, doesn’t anyone study history anymore? It’s all there. Look at
the refugee migrations before WWII? Long before the big kick off of war. It’s happening
now. Why can’t we see it? Why can’t we see all of this from the perspective of
those who benefit, because none of us are benefitting. We’re just living in
fear and when you’re fearful, you can be controlled. I don’t know about you,
but I’ve had enough of that shit!
All through history, this is how it starts. Get the population
terrified, get them focused on the enemy living next door, and then create
policies that restrict us all… It’s happening right now. It’s bloody
preposterous.
We need to solve
the refugee crisis
BUT here’s the thing that constantly plagues me. We are only at the start
of this refugee crisis. It has the potential to get a LOT worse and we can’t
cope with what we have right now!!! I see this crisis as the central destabilising factor in the world right now. We must
solve it.
Because if the predictions are true, we haven’t even started being
seriously impacted by refugees, not if the Environmental Refugees predictions
come true. In this
article, apparently we’re going to have 50 million on the move by 2020
(less than two years away) because guess what, they will be incapable of living
in their home. Life will become unsustainable.
Will we turn them away, for being unlucky enough to be born in that spot?
Because – let’s be honest - they didn’t cause the environmental catastrophe
expected to come. We ALL did that and the West continues to do the most harm. This
means we are responsible for that exodus. Will we take responsibility? I’m not
feeling too hopeful…
Here’s another
source with the same news if you don’t value the first publication, and a
contradiction from another source, although this prediction was for the
same numbers in 2010. And here’s
another predicting 750 million refugees due to climate change. Lots and
back on forth on that article/video, right?
Is it going to happen? Will we face this massive increase? Well
predictions don’t always come true, but just last year we saw the biggest
increase in refugees in decades, and the graph is only going up. We have a
problem now, not just if these figures come to fruition.
What are we gunna
do about it?
So here we are, the world’s in turmoil, we’re not coping with what is
already happening, the lack of humanity in government is staggering, the apathy
and buy-in to fear of the global population is depressing, war is everywhere, cyber
war too, we don’t trust anyone anymore, we’re polluting our world without
thought, extinction numbers are on the rise, 1,000 year-old
trees are unexpectedly dying in Africa, and it all just feels like it’s going
to get a lot messier before it gets any better… if it does get better and we
don’t wipe ourselves out….
Which wouldn’t be a bad thing.
What can we do to solve a potentially growing problem that can only
continue to destabilize our world?
Here’s my suggestion.
What’s yours?
We build four mega refugee cities around the world, at appropriate
locations accessible for any country or region that faces a crisis – whether war,
extremism, or environmental catastrophe. When the need arises, safe transport
is arranged to get fleeing refugees to these cities, to ensure they are safe
from people smugglers, slavery, the elements, starvation, and countries not
willing to help fellow humans in need.
All nations (currently not in crisis) must come together to fund the
building and maintenance of these refugee cities, and they are built
beautifully (to last), with offices, facilities, schools, hospitals, housing, the
right infrastructure - electricity, fresh water, sanitary waste disposal, the internet,
etc.. the basics of a civilized society - and anything else needed to sustain a
community, until the problem in their home-country is resolved.
The refugees can live with dignity, work, have access to funds, be safe,
and so on, and when their home becomes safe again, they can return to rebuild
their lives, or at least have a comfortable place to wait until immigration elsewhere
can be organized. But they can wait in comfort and they won’t be locked up!!
These refugee cities would need to be placed strategically around the globe,
so none has to be a “burden” on existing societies/cultures - if you’re
interested in the cost impact of refugees, read
this, and many other articles on the subject. Not the burden everyone
expects.
No matter how we think about this – the politicians need a solution that
they can work with, because getting elected matters, and you can’t get elected
if you’re a humanitarian these days it seems… When I look around the world
today, I see us being led by politicians, who are being led by fearful people,
and some of the politicians are even buying into the fear too…
As a solution, the refugee cities could mean no one else has to freeze outdoors
in European winters, or die in oceans, or risk border/desert crossings, slavery,
sexual slavery, death, murder, rape, or anything else they currently have to endure.
We have a solution. Politicians can get elected. Someone makes money building
and maintaining these cities, the cities could eventually become sustainable
through the work of the refugees, etc. It’s a win win win win win win win.
The worst that could happen is the cities are never occupied, because we
don’t need them. That wouldn’t be a bad thing!
Is this simple? No. Lots of things to be considered? Yes. But it could
work if there was the will, right?
I obviously don’t have all the answers, and this is simply a suggestion,
but let me know yours? What is your solution?
Conclusion
I think we can agree it’s time we must address this! People are in
crisis and it’s happening in greater numbers every year. We all know it. We’re
all impacted by it in different ways. The refugee city idea is one way humanity
could potentially prepare for it. I am sure there are better ideas.
Let’s do what we can and please, we must all remember the biggest
priority should be to take care of the children – in all ways throughout all of
this – because if we don’t, we’ll continue to be fucked.
Looking forward to hearing what you think, but please, don’t be an
asshole. So many assholes out there today, and by writing this, I know I’m
exposing myself to them. I hope they don’t come visit. Assholes are really
boring.
Yours, without the bollocks
Andrea
Thank
you for reading my ramblings. My brain and heart are a work in progress,
always. I’d love a comment if it stirred any thoughts or feelings and of course,
please feel free to share it with anyone you know who might be interested or
entertained. I sure do appreciate it when you do. If you want to connect, I'm
on Twitter here, Google+ here, Instagram here, YouTube here, and Facebook too. I share loads of stuff, not just my own xxxxx
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