The focus of the world’s attention on the refugee humanitarian crisis, in recent weeks, highlights many contradictions in our culture, our society, our ‘civilisation’, and our capitalist economy.
The age of the internet has given us freedoms, but costs. Freedom of information and access to uncensored, unmediated images, like never before. Refugees are no longer abstract, faceless, nameless victims, but little boys wearing shorts and sandals dead on the sand. Syrian refugees are men, women and children like us, in a real time exodus, civilians fleeing the cradle of civilisation. Some may be well educated, middle class, with their t-shirts and cellphones, but their cause is no less legitimate for that. Their cities are bombed, their societies destroyed, they’re persecuted for their beliefs, and they fear for, and sometimes lose their lives in the escape from a ‘home’ that no longer lives up to its name.
This is no hidden holocaust. The internet has given us the ability to see ‘others’ as ourselves, in desperate conditions. We can use social media to vent, mourn, share information, mobilise, inform debate, set the political agenda, rouse others, raise funds, offer refugees support and a home. But it comes with the costs of knowledge of horrors, that once seen, are unknowable. With knowledge of injustice comes responsibility to change it. Destroyed cities in the Middle East, in Syria and Gaza, drowned children, women and children between barbed wire and batons. Suffer the little children. But from such gross and visible suffering there should be no turning away.
In the response to unconscionable misery and sadness which is the plight of any and all refugees, we see humanity, and inhumanity. Even though refugee crises and the search for asylum in desperate conditions are nothing new, at the moment at least, the world’s attention is focused on this issue. We see humanity in the empathy and compassion shown by everyday global citizens offering moral and practical support, food and water, shelter, tolerance, friendship, solidarity and hope.
We’ve seen inhumanity in the racist responses of some, including many governments. We’ve seen inhumanity in the recourse to long winded policy processes (vague commitments to review the NZ refugee quota), and xenophobic nationalism. We’ve seen inhumanity in the causes that have given rise to refugees to begin with. There’s deep inhumanity in the arms sales, the drone strikes, the historical and contemporary colonisation, the very geopolitics of the Middle East that leads to ever greater instability, terror, and loss of life for ordinary citizens, not less.
The last few weeks have also been a roller coaster of optimism and pessimism. Pessimism at the failure of leadership in this Government and others. Pessimism at the nature of man (and I do use that term advisedly) that destroys families, societies, cultures and antiquities. Pessimism about where a solution to the chaos in war torn, ‘failed (destroyed) states’ could possibly lie, given the instability, oil resources, conflicting international interests, religious intolerance, absolute destruction, economic, social and psychological trauma in those countries today.
But ironically there has also been reason for optimism. Images of Germans welcoming busloads of refugees; Hungarian people offering food and water to those stranded at Keleti train station; Icelanders offering space for 10,000; Strong pressure on this Government from the good people of New Zealand, all offer hope in the face of despair. These highlight the courage of people, and the weakness of governments. A “welcome” as opposed to a heartless turning away.
The images of refugees on masse rushing through razor wire, forging through police lines, marching off with pride from Hungary en route to Austria have been terribly compelling. They show the triumph of courage over weakness, of organisation over impotence; A triumph of spontaneous self-determination against the odds, in the face of organised state resistance. It shows the paradoxical weakness of the European ‘Fortress’.
The New Zealand Prime Minister has sought to distract us from a global humanitarian crisis with shallow symbols of a false and dangerous nationalism. He offers us a Clayton’s choice of quasi-corporate logos as the standard for our country. But it’s a nationalism he would sell out to the world’s transnational corporations in a blink. It’s a contradiction that supports Kiwis as global consumers but limits the extension of universal human rights to a racially and economically selected few. He leads a government that sends our troops to Iraq at the cost of $25million but argues we can’t afford to offer refuge to more victims of war. His is a government that can rush through legislation to allow alcohol sales night and day during an international rugby competition, but won’t expedite policy to accommodate again, international victims of war.
A world of 52million refugees, is clearly a world divided. It’s a world of haves and have nots. Yet peace, security, equality, freedom, opportunity, recognition of the dignity of every person, a safe place to call home, is the birth right of us all.
Disclaimer
Christine Rose is employed as Kauri DieBack Community Co-ordinator by the Auckland Council. All opinions expressed herein are Christine’s own. No opinion or views expressed in this blog or any other media, shall be construed as the opinion of the Council or any other organisation.
a quasi corporate logo, ie. almost but not quite.
imagine this. nationhood banished and replaced by corporate structure. The justice system replaced by TPPA style rules. the flag gone and a silver fern logo in its place. parliament becomes a corporate head office with a boardroom presided over by a CEO. and board elected by our overseas shareholders. new zealanders offered shares in place of voting rights, most of which were sold.
is this john keys perfect world? well, i believe that the name new zealand has already been trademarked…
@ kejomu . Dead on the money.
Jesus I loath jonky. What an awful little creature.
Robbie Burns wrote a poem about a field mouse after he ran over it while mowing hay.
If I ran over jonky in my car I’d write a sitcom.
He’s such an appalling little arse that I can barely wait to see what happens to him on the 15 September.
Who the fuck voted for the hair tugging, mincing, little nancy? What were they thinking ??? A sharp beaked, sneaky little shit and no ones fantasy unless you’re a ferret looking for a trouser leg to run up for no real reason other than one born of desperation. Ferrets are like that. Driven by instinct to seek out trouser legs then run up them . Imagine the disappointment at the end of jonky’s trouser leg? A dusty little crevice mournfully adorned with a currency traders appendage and right next door…. Never mind .
They say the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Certainly, the price of jonky is blithe complacency . That’ll learn us.
Yes, I think one future plan is to gather up all the water that falls on our fair land, sell it overseas and make local people pay market rates for it. No doubt they’ll find some way of taxing us for any that we collect from the roof.
A beautifully written piece, and your compassion and humanity comes through. I fear that the images we are seeing, and the tide of humanity that they represent, are but the beginning. Global inequality is so entrenched and rampant, that it is now an insurmountable problem. The west is preoccupied with shoring up the banking system and staving off a global financial meltdown. To address inequality means dismantling the structures of oppression which are one and the same with our monetary system. Overlay this with increasing numbers of climate refugees and it looks very bleak. Can we change? I despair, truly I do.
@ Steve King. Don’t despair. Although I admit it’s easier said than done.
It’s always darkest before the dawn and I’ve come to realise that as we’re ever more appalled at mans inhumanity to man that very realisation is the beginning of a curative process. We’re all beginning to understand the horrors of profitable waring and we’re all taking steps to fix it. The 1 % of the 1 %’ers are running out of places to hide. Their fortunes will be rendered worthless and their influence will be seen as an idle amusement over dinner in time to come. We’ve just got to hang in there and demand our right to Love unconditionally. Even if it means kicking deviant, cunning, nasty , ugly arses . Hang in there.
Thank you Steve, I despair too, but hope all the same.
Lets get kicking….
Thankyou Christine. It is friendship like this that greeted me and my sister when we first arrived in New Zealand in 1957 and New Zealaners opened their doors and hearts to us. To me this is the real New Zealand thakyou.
Thanks Christine for such an honest and well articulated piece of writing, we need more of this sort of stuff. Just to read this and get the comments of @ country boy has made my day!
Only problem with this one though is Camoron is quoted as saying we’ve gotto bomb Syria (ISIS but is this really effective? They either miss or drop supplies for the.’moderate rebels’ which fall into ISIS hands for Alan. Something’s on the boil. Watch this space. Also on my twitter feed, not.sure how.accurate this is – the child’s body was placed in that position, all.the other bodies were picked up prior.to the photo op. Wondered why there were.no other bodies around. Anyhow interesting aye?
There’s no reason why we can’t bring in several thousand extra refugees. There are towns all over New Zealand crying out for skilled workers and Syrians are highly skilled and highly educated.
Well done on your piece Christine!
And yes, my mother was aPolish refugee!
I thought there were no jobs for the unemployed in NZ?
Please pick a position and stick with it.
I think in some ways we are all hypocrites, somewhere, somehow, when it comes to considering ourselves “civilised” and “humanitarian”.
Given the state of the globe, even if we brought about more social and economic justice, I fear the planet and its population is already in a situation where the present total human population is not sustainable, and will never be sustainable, given limited resources.
Rain forests are not simply destroyed just to make profits for a few, they are also replaced by agricultural land with mono-culture food production, or to produce other resources that humanity seems to need.
Over grazing and unsustainable agricultural practices are evident everywhere, from sub Saharan Africa to even developed nation’s farmland in the US Midwest for instance.
Soil erosion, overuse, now increasingly climate change with increased risks of droughts or high precipitation, over-fishing of oceans and lakes and rivers, ripping of more fossil and other resources out of the ground, it is all a sign of not only greed and socio-economic injustices, it is a sign of human beings, that is all of us, being the most destructive being on the planet.
So the refugee crisis presently hitting Europe is just one symptom, and it will only be the beginning, of worse to come. There will soon be limits to what European peoples will be able to and prepared to take in as refugees. The “wealthy” nations like Germany and France also use energy resources that few would want to use in New Zealand, such as coal fired power plants and nuclear power, that enables them to have “affordable” energy to power their cities and high populations, now to be boosted by more refugees.
New Zealand could take in more people, perhaps suggest that instead of a few hundred to take in a hundred thousand or half a million? That would make a difference, I guess, when looking at 50 tyo 60 million displaced all over the globe.
But would people handle it, accept that, and would it be good in the long term for New Zealand?
What is a “birth right”, I am starting to ask? Yes, we have human rights, written on paper by the UN and various states with their laws and/or constitutions, but are they ever honoured?
I witness world-wide deterioration of affairs, and increasing tensions. Now I am starting to realise also, simply taking in refugees will not resolve the issues that cause people to leave their homes. Not ending the rampage of groups like ISIS will not help the situation, as there will only be more refugees, so the ones supporting them will have somewhat emptier lands they call the ‘Caliphate’ and can then “re-populate” with off-spring they can indoctrinate from young on.
I fear pacifism is a thing of the past now, we are facing harsh times, times of war, I dread that is the future, there is little else we can expect, given the crap that happens in Syria, large parts of Iraq and increasingly also again in parts of Afghanistan, and now also in Yemen, Libya and with the Tuareg that once served Ghaddafi, now looking for their future in the Sahara desert.
New Zealand is remote from all this, but as the past has shown, this country and people will not be able to stand by, and get away with just taking in an extra 600 Syrian refugees over two and a half years. The day will come that more will be expected, or as the pictures from Europe shows, people will simply demand things and come anyway, with whatever means. That is the future, do we prepare for it, or continue to live in lala-land and indulge in week-end shopping at the malls, as if nothing else is happening around us?
“A world of 52million refugees, is clearly a world divided. It’s a world of haves and have nots. Yet peace, security, equality, freedom, opportunity, recognition of the dignity of every person, a safe place to call home, is the birth right of us all.”
Sad reality is we are all in big trouble, planet Earth looks like it is going into a Canfield ocean event. All of the mass extinction in Earths history (except one the K-T impact extinction) are now known to all be greenhouse extinctions or (conveyer disruption hypothesis). (Look up the book Under A Green Sky, Peter D Ward phD).
6th extinction is underway by the way, 200 species a day more or less.
We won’t drop fossil fuels fast enough to save ourselves. Our way of life has put all life on Earth into palliative care including our own. It is sad to watch and see everyone carry on driving/flying around in circles everyday. It is even sadder that sealion pups have been starving to death and baby walrus are also in trouble because they have all hauled out due to no ice burgs in the Arctic sea, they lose their family units in the big mess of the haul out and can also be crushed.( I was going to put these wild baby animal deaths into human perspective somehow before this horrific/ shocking event of the little boy washing up on a beach).
All the dots need to be joined and people need to learn what is going on with climate change and how far in the shit we are. Or all I can see in this whole miserable mess as hypocrisy, and ultimately the death nail waiting for all of us. This is NOT and should NOT be business as usual any more.
OMG when will we stop trashing the planet for our own hubris culture and fucken pleasure.
I am beyond angry now, this circus we call civilization is so warped some idiots actually thinks we can escape into space and colonise other planets, (RNZ This way up show). That is a fantasy made up by the fossil fuels lunatics probably to fool us ‘special’ people into business as usual trashing Earth and dreaming of terraforming Mars and warp speed space ships, yippee. Just as lunatic as believing god will save us. Delusional! Our species doesn’t deserve another planet if it can’t Look after this one precious place called HOME. (Tar sands anybody?)
In your last sentence…..a safe place to call home is the birth right for all of us. Well we had better get our collective shit together about climate change, or we WILL be the bones making up the next mass extinction on planet Earth, and not far off either by all accounts.
Read todays Wake up New Zealand it will cheer us all up.The 1% is
collapsing, the US dollar being made obsolete.
Supposedly Britain controls US,if that true Britain will be controlling a failed state.
Hope at the end of the tunnel.
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