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Monday, August 31, 2015
Human tide
Illegal immigrants and refugees have been in the news a lot lately. In the US, presidential candidate Donald Trump has been getting a lot of press with his thoughts on the issue. Europe is in a real mess.
Continental Europe is not really a continent as it's fully connected to Asia. It's possible to walk from some of the worlds worse trouble spots right into the heart of Europe. The Mediterranean is good sized, but not so big that it can't be crossed with rather small and primitive boats. People in troubled North Africa are crossing over to Italian and Greek islands on a daily basis.
It's not just a North American/Europe problem. Australia has boat people desperate to make landfall. Even China has to deal with an influx of North Koreans. Anywhere in the world where there's a better life across a thin border is in play.
Historically, human migration is on of the big drivers of societal change. Often the "barbaric invaders" are desperate people who've been forced from their homelands. When Rome was first invaded it was by hungry people crossing a frozen river. Like immigrants and refugees today, they just wanted a better life.
The problem is two fold. These are human beings and often their treatment has been pretty brutal. Human smugglers have shown amazing disregard for the well being of their clients. Many have suffocated in trucks or sent to the bottom of the sea. Something better has to be figured out.
On the other hand, a country that can't control its borders ceases to be a country. If enough new people enter they overwhelm the people who where there before. The world would have been a different place if the Native Americans could have successfully dealt with their immigrant problem.
The best solution would be if these people could stay in their own countries. No one wants to be a refugee and be forced leave the land of their birth. It's ironic that some of the very countries that overthrew the government in Lybia now has to deal with refugees from the situation they helped create. I wonder if they would have done things differently if they knew the full repercussions.
Of course, the world is the way it is. Somehow a solution must be found to deal with these people in a humane manner. It's an accident of birth which side of a border one is born on. I know if my family's lives were in desperate danger I'd look to hop a border too.
-Sixbears
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The lack of compassion on this issue is incredible.
ReplyDeleteI'm disgusted with the world!
Sometimes I weep for the species.
DeleteI can understand the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the European "common man" for this new tidal wave of immigration. Most of these new comers offer zero skills, and have voracious appetites for government aid. I saw two Palestinians on Al Jazerra explaining that they wanted to get the hell out of Greece to Germany because "there you get an apartment, and a car, and a good living allowance, and you don't have to work." They were unabashed about it. That's not the first interview I've seen of that nature.
ReplyDeletePeople who think we can accommodate all the Hispanics pouring across our borders, and that the Europeans can accommodate the hordes of third worlders pouring into Europe, ought to take a look at North Georgia and see how the indiginous population has simply been swept away in a tide of Hispanics in places like Gainesville.
It's a sad situation, but I'm not volunteering to have some of these people come live with me in my house, and I don't see many others doing so either.