"This not about sharing a burden. It is about sharing a global responsibility, based not only on the broad idea of our common humanity but also on the very specific obligations of international law. The root problems are war and hatred, not people who flee; refugees are among the first victims of terrorism."
-UN Secretary-General, António Guterres
Very, very powerful video. My heart feels like it is beating at an unfamiliar pace that is becoming all too familiar. It is a mixture of sorrow and hope and disgust and joy.
ReplyDeleteI want to see a policy where it is demanded that every politician in every country must spend, by law, time engaging personally with every situation that they are engaged in, in legislation, policy making and humanitarian funding. That would be a wake up call for all of them behind those ivory walls.
We visited a middle eastern country a couple of years ago and it was a real eye opener. The government makes it impossible for citizens to leave legally. I can understand first of all why they'd want to leave and secondly the desperation that makes them pile into rust buckets with no life jackets trusting they'll reach somewhere safe. My husband's family were refugees after the last world war. These modern day refugees are no different, just people like ourselves, forced to flee from all they know and a country they love because of war and hatred, as your quote says. To reject them is to reject a piece of ourselves.
ReplyDeletethis quotation should be on the wall of every Prime Minister/President/Emperor ... if we all thought like this, surely we could begin to treat everyone more kindly.
ReplyDeleteWe humans are an ongoing tragedy. I'm never sure why we don't wake up to the reality that we are all just one species on one planet whirling in space together. We could be so much different, couldn't we? What would that be like? I've spent my life yearning for it.
ReplyDeleteBless the people in the video, the selfless rescuers, who respond because it is the right thing to do. As awful as these troubled times are, there are always going to be those who respond with their hearts and bodies. They lift me up, as surely as they lift up the desperate people who are looking for a better life.
ReplyDeleteIt's an ongoing tragedy with the refugees that seems beyond anyone's ability to bring to an end. But saving lives: that at least can be done.
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