|
U-Know! Forum » Refugee Crisis |
Log In to post a reply
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic View: Flat | Threaded |
Captain Starlet 1110 posts |
Sep 05, 2015, 14:10
|
||
|
I'm glad to see cameron's finally decided to do the decent thing and allow refugees enter the uk, albeit under pressure from public groups and EU threatening to ignore his plans to renegotiate Britain's place in the EU before he can bribe everyone prior to the proposed referendum in 2017, anyway that's an aside. I'm still sickened by the usual knuckle draggers who are shouting to let them die etc, and as for this cunt! http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/michael-portillo-says-desperate-mediterranean-5573173 I've been having a look on some sites today and have been really pleased that there's so many people here who are so willing and ready to help refugees and others in need, restores my faith in humanity a bit.
|
|||
|
dhajjieboy 913 posts |
Sep 05, 2015, 15:14
|
||
|
There's 4 million and rising..... Wonder how many Japan,China,South Korea, Australia,Mexico, South America....etc.... will be offering resettlement to? As of yesterday the count for the U.S. has been about 1500, and the Uk about 200 individuals. Many more coming. When the Ganges river drys up...we'll be needing to resettle a BILLION more. Lovely future ahead for all i suppose. Everyone on the way is expecting the 'Promise' of a better life too. My guess is that old country values and belief systems accomadation rather than assimilation will be expected. Let's hope they like the antique cultural monuments abroad more than at home.
|
|||
grufty jim 1978 posts |
Sep 05, 2015, 17:26
|
||
|
This is a massive crisis right now. And - worryingly - it's probably only just beginning. In fact, I'm starting to suspect this will be one of the defining issues of our time. Mass migration due to conflict and climate change has the potential to cause near-global instability. Even now, the current situation is threatening to tear the EU apart. The treaties allowing for free movement within the continent are falling apart. And as much as I believe the EU has been dangerously co-opted by capitalist ideologues; to see it disintegrate as a result of a refugee crisis would be terrible. If nothing else, it would likely aid the European Far Right. If a collective response cannot be found; then the fascist tendencies in Hungary, Greece, the Balkans (and elsewhere) will be better able to push their own nationalist responses. Here in Ireland it's easy to feel rather remote from it. But my wife is from former Yugoslavia, and I have family and friends all over the Balkans and in Greece. As you might guess; the people I know tend to be somewhat left of centre and are less concerned about the refugees themselves than they are about the steady rise in xenophobia that is occurring. And yet here in Europe we aren't even close to bearing the brunt of this (yet?) Eastern Turkey is host to almost 2 million Syrian refugees, and Lebanon has almost one million Syrians now seeking shelter within the country. That's a country of just over 4 million people. Just think about that. In terms of relative populations... that would be like the UK taking in the entire population of Syria! I don't know what the solution is. The decision by Germany and Austria to basically welcome every Syrian refugee who makes it to their border is incredibly generous, and it effectively buys us a little bit of time to work out how the hell we are going to deal with this crisis in the long run. But it is just a stop-gap solution. Europe as a whole needs to help Germany and Austria by accepting more refugees. As should the USA and every other country that has the resources to help. Rather tellingly, for example, the oil-rich Gulf States have accepted precisely zero refugees between them. That's quite incredible and wholly unacceptable. The Saudi government is more than capable of coping with a mass influx of Hajj pilgrims, so it would not be beyond the resources and abilities of the Gulf States to chuck a couple of billion each into building and provisioning safe tent cities along the Saudi coastline (perhaps under the supervision of the UNHCR and Red Crescent) to house Syrian refugees until the civil war has been resolved. That this is not occurring is close to criminal in my view. Ultimately though, the long-term solution is to prevent the necessity for mass migration in the first place. With climate change and resource shortages looming, I'm not sure that's even possible... but we should clearly be looking for that solution.
|
|||
|
Captain Starlet 1110 posts |
Sep 05, 2015, 17:41
|
||
|
Completely agree, the situation in the ME has been created by a number of factors, including the UK, and sadly we're taking little to no responsibility for it. The EU move to block migrants (I can't remember the name of the bill) was criminal as far as I'm concerned and really makes me ashamed to be british, as cameron was part of the group that recommended it. Then again his mere existence makes me ashamed to be british! I'm hardly surprised that countries like Saudi aren't bothering to help, they're hardly renowned for their generosity and acceptance. Yet we (the govt's) continue to kiss their collective arses.
|
|||
IanB 6761 posts |
Edited Sep 05, 2015, 20:17
Sep 05, 2015, 20:04
|
||
|
I thought this was really interesting by Paul Mason on the OECD projections for the world economy to 2060 ... "To make the central scenario work, Europe and the USA each have to absorb 50 million migrants between now and 2060, with the rest of the developed world absorbing another 30 million. Without that, the workforce and the tax base shrinks so badly that states go bust." http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/07/capitalism-rich-poor-2060-populations-technology-human-rights-inequality so where does that leave our immigration policy if being able to sustain any measurable growth is relying on taking people in just to stay solvent? As the current (wholly predictable) crisis unravels I keep thinking back to another Guardian article, this one by John Berger writing about the painter Francis Bacon. This is what he says is Bacon's relevance to us today ... "The present period of history is one of the Wall. When the Berlin one fell, the prepared plans to build walls everywhere were unrolled. Concrete, bureaucratic, surveillance, security, racist, zone walls. Everywhere the walls separate the desperate poor from those who hope against hope to stay relatively rich. The walls cross every sphere from crop cultivation to healthcare. They exist, too, in the richest metropolises of the world. The Wall is the front line of what, long ago, was called the class war. On the one side: every armament conceivable, the dream of no-body-bag wars, the media, plenty, hygiene, many passwords to glamour. On the other: stones, short supplies, feuds, the violence of revenge, rampant illness, an acceptance of death and an on-going preoccupation with surviving one more night - or perhaps one more week - together. The choice of meaning in the world today is here between the two sides of the wall. The wall is also inside each one of us. Whatever our circumstances, we can choose within ourselves which side of the wall we are attuned to. It is not a wall between good and evil. Both exist on both sides. The choice is between self-respect and self-chaos." I am encouraged by some of the reactions from the German public this past week. Given that their technocrat masters only just closed ranks and stomped on Greece perhaps this wave of sympathy is about the German people showing those masters that they don't like being coerced into imposing misery on other people. They are choosing self-respect over self-chaos. We probably wont. There will be no "Refugees Welcome" signs at Stamford Bridge or Twickenham.
|
|||
ron 706 posts |
Sep 05, 2015, 20:53
|
||
|
so ur head2headed 2 the beaches of Greece for a family holiday, and to return with 8-10 Hajj Pilgrims for a stay until they get on their feet... x x x
|
|||
|
Lawrence 9547 posts |
Sep 13, 2015, 01:19
|
||
I really hope you get beheaded by ISIS one day. You'd be the prime candidate for that.
|
| U-Know! Forum Index |
