Well hello 2016!
So we left a 2015 with turbulent changes behind us.
As a European I guess the refugee crisis is on top of the list of events from a political and economical point. Unrest, fear, so-called terror, militarisation of cities, endless willingness to help, social action, armchair activism and direct volunteering are only a few words that come to mind.
We are torn between helping people, who have nowhere to be anymore, because their homes are attacked/destroyed, and hating them because they flow into our countries by the thousands. Arguments arise that these people are not refugees, they have new phones and good clothes, they have money. Stupid argument, if you ask me. If we watch how extremists destroy entire cities, we must understand that their possible stable income or at least pretty normal life did not prevent them from being under siege and made them run.With their new phones and good clothes.
European cities now overflow with people that have nowhere to go. New jobs thus are created to protect the borders, to handle bureaucracy, to take care of those refugees and the places they are placed. Lots of money is spent on that new-born system. And nobody knows where this will lead us.
I heard a prediction that about 20 Million refugees will come to Europe in the coming time. Poor people, but also highly trained people. Recent figures from the U.N. and other aid organizations have shown that the majority of people arriving in Europe often come from upper middle class, well-educated backgrounds. Their children will enter our education system and form the next generation of Europeans.
And then there is the famous "maybe there are terrorists among them" - as if those haven't been here before. Keeping refugees out will not stop terrorism yet letting them in will obviously stop them and their children from taking up arms.
So we cannot stop the refugee crisis, we cannot turn back time, not undo what happened until now, we can be against all this - but it will not change the fact that hundreds of thousands of people will keep coming to Europe. Instead of resisting and fearing this, we should accept this fact and try to find way to live with this new situation. It is not merely a crisis, it is a new situation.
Many of my school-mates in the 80s were refugees, from Iran, Lebanon, Vietnam even. There were my friends, I grew up with them. And today, they are just living their lives in our countries as we do.
So move aside a bit, make place, get your good will together.
It's gonna be a bumpy ride this future - but it is happening. The world is changing.
Let's make the best of it.
Peace V
