ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© Barry Malone
Imagine waking your children in the morning. Imagine feeding and dressing them. Imagine pulling a little girl’s hair into a ponytail, arguing with a little boy about which pair of shoes he wants to wear.
Now imagine, as you are doing that, you know later today you will strap their vulnerable bodies into enveloping life jackets and take them with you in a rubber dinghy - through waters that have claimed many who have done the same.
Think of the story you’d have to tell to reassure them. Think of trying to make it fun. Consider the emotional strength needed to smile at them and conceal your fear.
Now imagine, as you are doing that, you know later today you will strap their vulnerable bodies into enveloping life jackets and take them with you in a rubber dinghy - through waters that have claimed many who have done the same.
Think of the story you’d have to tell to reassure them. Think of trying to make it fun. Consider the emotional strength needed to smile at them and conceal your fear.
There is no "migrant crisis" in the Mediterranean. |
What would it feel like if that experience – your frantic flight from war – was then diminished by a media that crudely labelled you and your family "migrants"?
And imagine having little voice to counter a description so commonly used by governments and journalists.
The umbrella term migrant is no longer fit for purpose when it comes to describing the horror unfolding in the Mediterranean. It has evolved from its dictionary definitions into a tool that dehumanises and distances, a blunt pejorative.
It is not hundreds of people who drown when a boat goes down in the Mediterranean, nor even hundreds of refugees. It is hundreds of migrants. It is not a person – like you, filled with thoughts and history and hopes – who is on the tracks delaying a train. It is a migrant. A nuisance.
It is not hundreds of people who drown when a boat goes down in the Mediterranean, nor even hundreds of refugees. It is hundreds of migrants. It is not a person – like you, filled with thoughts and history and hopes – who is on the tracks delaying a train. It is a migrant. A nuisance.
It already feels like we are putting a value on the word. Migrant deaths are not worth as much to the media as the deaths of others - which means that their lives are not. Drowning disasters drop further and further down news bulletins. We rarely talk about the dead as individuals anymore. They are numbers.
When we in the media do this, when we apply reductive terminology to people, we help to create an environment in which a British foreign minister can refer to "marauding migrants," and in which hate speech and thinly veiled racism can fester.
We become the enablers of governments who have political reasons for not calling those drowning in the Mediterranean what the majority of them are: refugees.
We give weight to those who want only to see economic migrants.
When we in the media do this, when we apply reductive terminology to people, we help to create an environment in which a British foreign minister can refer to "marauding migrants," and in which hate speech and thinly veiled racism can fester.
We become the enablers of governments who have political reasons for not calling those drowning in the Mediterranean what the majority of them are: refugees.
We give weight to those who want only to see economic migrants.
The argument that most of those risking everything to land on Europe’s shores are doing it for money is not supported by the facts.
I agree with every word of that, though I think you're being a bit optimistic about the availability of life-jackets.
ReplyDeleteThank you John. I am sorry to point out that I didn't write this article, I read it last night on Al Jazeera: the author is Barry Malone please see top of blog.
DeleteCopied & pasted it up this morning for everyone to see.
What a sad thought indeed, certainly not something anyone would wish to go through. The media has a way of downplaying the fact these are REAL people, human beings just wanting a better life, and running away from war and danger.
ReplyDeleteThank you for understanding Blogoratti.
DeleteAm sure that if the media journalists had experienced at firsthand half of what these refugees have, then their level of professionalism would be more humane.
Heron - what a pleasure to read this - it is exactly how I feel about the whole thing. When I see the looks of terror on the faces of some of those children, when I see the look of despair and exhaustion on the faces of their mothers and the look of hopelessness on the faces of their fathers, I feel ashamed that so many people hate them so. Thank you for putting a sensible view. I endorse it fully.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comprehension Pat.
DeleteI think that the people that dislike the refugees are coming from a position of fear and what they are afraid of is that their standard of living will drop, they are to be pitied!
It is a sad article on the way we treat these people coming from war torn countries; their deaths because of unseaworthy boats and that terrible calamity of 70 people suffocating to death in a lorry. What is to be done? the media report facts and sometimes the reportage is biased on our fear of upsetting our apple cart of well being when we should be concentrating on how to help them.
ReplyDeleteThank you Thelma, I am certain that we need to be helping the refugees rather than treating them like criminals.
DeleteI actually shared this on Facebook as it is very powerful. I get so angry with the media and government whipping up such a frenzy about migrants and how they are only coming for the benefits. What has happened to compassion? Sometimes I despair of mankind :(
ReplyDeleteHello Fran it is the media moguls who are attempting to lead the people of the western world in the direction that they want it to go. Don't get me started on politicians please or we will be here all day!
DeleteThe many thousands of desperate people who have to leave their homelands are REFUGEES not migrants.
To recap:
Some seventy years ago when most of europe was in flames and suffering from the woes of war refugees were everywhere and over the years many of them either returned to their home countries or re-located to other countries.
Today the children and perhaps grandchildren of those unfortunate former european refugees, plus the descendants of others who were more fortunate, have hardened their hearts.