looking away from migrants
A Guardian journalist remind us the accepted scientific knowledge that the pollution in the West is the main culprit on the drought in the Sahel region. Such a statement does not come as a surprise, I believe, to the readers of this page. More interesting is that in the same article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1860299,00.html) is discussed a proposal to reduce the greenhouse effect. Another scientist has recently proposed to shoot into the atmosphere certain chemicals, able to reduce the darkening of our skies. Nice and dandy, besides the detail that those chemicals are the same pollutants that caused the droughts in the Sahel. So another neat example of looking away. Let's deal with the greenhouse effect, which scare the wits out of our western populations (certainly after the hyped movie “the day after”), but let's look away from the consequences of our solution in other, less sexy, parts of the world.
Consider another stance of western-people-saving-the-world. For any reader of spanish newspapers, the drama of african migration is a day to day affair. I hardly remember a day in the last year in which I have not find in a spanish newspaper the body count of arrivals at the beach-heads of globalized flows of people. In the last months -finally- the media catch up with the fact that every day, the coasts from spain are arrival points of every kind of boat crammed with people flying from africa and intending to start again in europe. A real flow of people, that suddenly, could not be integrated any longer. It looks like europe does not need, after all, so much cheap labour. So we have got, in the last weeks, different spanish ministers doing the european tour of asking for support to stave the rising tide. Already couple of months ago, the sexy government of Zapatero trumpeted the agreement of the EU to supply helicopters, newer boats and money to the coasts guards of spain. It did look very much like fortress europa.
But for good or for bad, that europa -oh so hugely concerned with the migrant question- has turned her back to this issue as well. The headlines of today tell me that the EU has refused funding for the defence of the spanish front. No new helicopters, no fast boats, no money for welcome –or deporting- centres. It is really hard to imagine what is really going on. How comes that the fearful europa is going to left undefended the front? How comes that the governments -of say The Netherlands- are looking away from the reaching-for-money hand of Zapatero?
Probably it all boils down to crass budget policy. Probably the EU has not yet designed a budget instance called something alike “fund for the fighting of unasked migration”. So there is no money in the purse of Brussels bureaucrats for paying a fleet of boats rescuing the hundreds of persons floating away miserably, in their attempt to reach the beaches of europe. Probably, now that we are in the warming up of an electoral year, in due time those funds are going to be released, and less barbaric and more reasonable support will be given to the coastguards.
But now, xenophobic europa is looking away. And the african europhiles go on dying in the sea.
Consider another stance of western-people-saving-the-world. For any reader of spanish newspapers, the drama of african migration is a day to day affair. I hardly remember a day in the last year in which I have not find in a spanish newspaper the body count of arrivals at the beach-heads of globalized flows of people. In the last months -finally- the media catch up with the fact that every day, the coasts from spain are arrival points of every kind of boat crammed with people flying from africa and intending to start again in europe. A real flow of people, that suddenly, could not be integrated any longer. It looks like europe does not need, after all, so much cheap labour. So we have got, in the last weeks, different spanish ministers doing the european tour of asking for support to stave the rising tide. Already couple of months ago, the sexy government of Zapatero trumpeted the agreement of the EU to supply helicopters, newer boats and money to the coasts guards of spain. It did look very much like fortress europa.
But for good or for bad, that europa -oh so hugely concerned with the migrant question- has turned her back to this issue as well. The headlines of today tell me that the EU has refused funding for the defence of the spanish front. No new helicopters, no fast boats, no money for welcome –or deporting- centres. It is really hard to imagine what is really going on. How comes that the fearful europa is going to left undefended the front? How comes that the governments -of say The Netherlands- are looking away from the reaching-for-money hand of Zapatero?
Probably it all boils down to crass budget policy. Probably the EU has not yet designed a budget instance called something alike “fund for the fighting of unasked migration”. So there is no money in the purse of Brussels bureaucrats for paying a fleet of boats rescuing the hundreds of persons floating away miserably, in their attempt to reach the beaches of europe. Probably, now that we are in the warming up of an electoral year, in due time those funds are going to be released, and less barbaric and more reasonable support will be given to the coastguards.
But now, xenophobic europa is looking away. And the african europhiles go on dying in the sea.
posted by Unknown at 2:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home