In Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, he wrote,
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
As we sit and observe from afar, what is happening in the middle east, Nigeria, Zambia, Horn of Africa, Libya, Burma, Afghanistan (so many places in the world) it's hard not to feel for those who are suffering through the very worst of times, their season of darkness. What is really sobering at times like this, is just how many people simply don't care. And even worse than that, are those who seek to cash in on the despair of others and seek opportunistic glory for themselves.
I can understand why people feel anger when they see what obviously appears to be economic immigrants queue jumping to get into Europe. The overwhelming number of young men in particular is worrying. It raises a number of questions. Why so many? Are the reports of women and children being thrown overboard from overcrowded boats true? It does make me suspicious that perhaps there is some truth to that. Is the story (attributed to an ISIS operative in Turkey) that ISIS is going to flood Europe with sympathisers true?
Many are asking the same questions. So the combination of images of well feed, smartly dressed immigrants, coupled with serious questions, make people angry, suspicious and not so willing to offer compassion and help. As a result, what happens is the real refugees who are in desperate need, fleeing for their lives, are often lost in the crowd and they are branded along with everyone else. People living in overcrowded camps in places like Lebanon, Syria, Egypt etc. are forgotten.
Whilst I know many are unhappy with what they see as a backdown by our government in taking a one off additional 12,000 Syrian asylum seekers, I'm not. I am so pleased we are taking people who have been proven to be genuinely persecuted and who are living in camps in the Middle East. The UK is doing the same. That is to be commended.
What really sickens me, are the two bit, so called celebrities who are coming out now and offering rooms in their houses to immigrants flooding into Europe. What a bunch of self-serving opportunists, these people are. Millions of people have been languishing in camps for years. But not a word from this glory seeking bunch. But now of course, the world is focused on Europe, so they are very quick, to capitalise on this. They are as bad as those who used the picture of a little dead child to promote their cause. The same lot who said nothing about the children who died a horrific death in the back of a locked and abandoned smuggler's truck in Austria only the week before. Frankly, they disgust me. The lot of them. Sorry. I just needed to say that.
I hope when people start arriving here around Christmas time we will accept them knowing we have done something good for those genuinely in need. Not those who have the money to pay smugglers to queue jump and country shop. Let’s pray that in taking the action they have, that Europe isn’t foolishly opening itself up to their future ‘worst of times’ as a result of a social experiment in throwing the doors to the kingdom open.
