Have you seen it?
Have you seen it?
I ask twice because if you’ve seen it — if you’ve seen him — you would not forget.
No, I do not believe we can forget…
Last week 3 year old Aylan Kurdi and his family attempted to flee from Syria to Europe. The fighting is so bad between the Islamic State terrorists and Syrian-Kurdish forces that his family was desperate to get out of Syria. Of his mother, father, and 5 year old brother, only Aylan’s father survived the treacherous trek across the great Mediterranean Sea.
These are desperate people — caught up in a major migrant crisis, as Europe attempts to discern how to respond.
This crisis existed long before last week. But what happened Wednesday? Aylan’s picture surfaced… this precious, innocent boy, a dark-haired toddler, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, was found lifeless, laying face down in the shallow, Turkish shore.
Sometimes we don’t care about something until we see it. Sometimes we don’t think too much until we experience it for ourselves; there’s a little bit of outta-sight/outta-mind mentality that permeates each of our thinking.
After seeing Aylan — and then later, a second image of a sober-faced policeman, who gently cradled Aylan’s limp body and carried him away — I care. I can’t get that picture out of my mind.
Not only is this a tough story to write about, but it’s a tough story to even follow — lots of angles, lots of motives, lots of countries, and all sorts of varied responses. Hence, what are the basics about the migrants’ massive flight?
- The majority of immigrants are coming from Afghanistan and Syria; they are fleeing war, torture, and persecution.
- Migrants are also fleeing from Africa, with the majority coming from Eritrea, Nigeria, and Libya; they are fleeing due to poverty and abuse.
- While the European migrant or “refugee” crisis has been going on for some time, increased Islamic militant violence has also increased the urgency for many to move now.
- Germany and Austria have said that they will welcome the migrants; in fact, in the most recent development, the German Vice Chancellor said his country would accept 500,000 annually for the next several years.
- Many other European countries will not allow the migration — as they already face significant economic challenges of their own. Hungary, for instance, has called for Germany to end its perceived “open door” policy.
- Funding is an issue — how to pay and care for the migrants; tensions and disagreement seem rising within the various governments within the European Union.
- Simultaneously, the migration is becoming seemingly riskier; there have been multiple reports of dangerously, over-packed boats — also, of boats sinking.
Desperate people dying.
So what should we do?
Great question… hard question… and the answer is probably not some nice, easy, simple answer. If it was easy, it would already be fixed.
Still, it is something we must address — even if outta-sight/outta-mind… even if on the other side of the world…
Have you seen the picture of Aylan?
Respectfully…
AR