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, empathizing 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 destabilizing 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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