Staff Reporter
MIGRANT care worker Helena Maleno Garzon’s words are a chilling reminder of how close we are to one of the 21st century’s gravest crises.
Garzon’s voice is often the last thing heard by those in peril crossing the Mediterranean.
While we lap up the summer rays on sun-kissed beaches, dozens of – mainly young – African migrants are drowning as they head for Spain’s shores, which offer escape from poverty, torture and war.
Thousands of African women are trafficked for sexual exploitation in western Europe. The countries they come from, and the hardships they flee, may seem distant.
But a common humanity links us to them. A quirk of birth dictates that we can travel to Spain with ease. For thousands of others, it’s a journey that may be their last.
We know all this. But how about some solutions? Birth control as suggested by some, comes too late. These people are already on the planet, they aren’t going away.
Common humanity means we must pluck them from the sea. Having done that, we can’t pretend they don’t exist. So do we accommodate them or return them for a further attempt until they actually do drown?
Irrational post (what a surprise). All immigrants to Europe should commit, as should all existing Europeans to the one child programme that the Chinese have recently abandoned. This measure is the only thing that can guarantee a future not just for the biped but for all species.
If the Chinese had not adopted the one child rule there would now be 300 million more Chinese – think about that. This measure is of course the nemesis of anglo-saxon capitalism, which is why big business will do whatever is nec. to stop discussion on this vital topic on an international basis.
China could force its one child policy only by dictatoric advice from the Communist Party. The Chinese now pay the bill by a shortage of female population. Who will care for the old people, when there are no woman? And young men cannot find a female partner to marry.
The only way to reduce fertility in Western Africa will be caused by a economic upturn in the West-African countries. As this cannot be expected for the majority of those countries, the EU or the UN should concentrate on economic development of some West-African countries which then could serve as a role model for their neighboring countries. This approach has been blocked by the French who do not allow interference in what they call their ‘sphere of influence’.
Ah! A solution. Not ideal, but at least not a pie-in-the-sky idea like copying China. Obviously the answer must lie in the source of these unfortunate people. It might help if we stopped providing the arms that they use to slaughter each other with. The West could also stop plundering the natural resources from these countries, which helps to prop up corrupt regimes using puppet dictators, thus causing starvation and internal strife. Following which, thousands of bodies wash up on beaches that till recently only hosted untreated sewage.
Wolfgang,
your post conflates two totally separate issues – birth control and the ‘asian mentality’ that a son is valued but a daughter is’nt. Most of the rape that happens on an almost industrial scale in India is because there is a huge imbalance between male and female brought about directly because of this asian mentality. The one child policy has nothing whatever to do with this imbalance in China – why are you deliberately trying to promote this lie?
Poor old stefanjo – you are the pie in the sky, try to deal with reality. Starvation in many countries is simply the result of overbreeding. Fascist China’s one good policy was the one child rule, that China would have an extra 300 million people is a stone cold fact.
Neither sky pixies nor ‘great leaps forward’ provide anything except b/s and state sponsored mass murder. The only problem this planet has, is one species overbreeding.
Without the religiously promoted overbreeding in the Horn of Africa/West Africa there would be no tragedies of drowning in the Med. Without massive population explosion, a 10 year drought and CIA induced unrest in Syria there would have been no mass exodus from that country either.
The subject of this piece is migrants fleeing a desperate situation and what can be done about it.
If massive birth control was imposed today (mad idea) the problem would remain, the bodies would continue to wash up. The calamity is here and now. Airy fairy, wishful thinking about altering human nature and imposing a one-child policy will not change the present situation.
China and India is paying the price of this now-discredited scheme. The “Little Princes” in China who will never find a mate. The generation in India and other places who are coming up, will face a similar difficulty A combination of birth control and scans to ascertain sex, aided by selective abortion has led to a massive imbalance of the sexes. Boys of course, being preferred.
Instead of finger-pointing and playing the blame game we should be seeking humane answers to a human tragedy.