Spudulika
03/09/2015, 7:47 AM
I don't know what the view is like in Ireland (or Europe) right now, some of the Russian media is reporting with a tinge of delight with what is happening in Europe right now. For over a year we've had actual refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine (to Russia and other parts of Ukraine) with politics being played by all sides. In Kiev the far right have zero interest in devolving power to the regions, as was agreed back in 2003/4, and I think everybody saw what happened in Maidan. Yet the media, especially tabloid ones, are breathlessly reporting from Syria, Hungary, France, Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.
My own feeling is that there is a massive political game going on with the usual suspects. The "ngo/taxpayer funded" egomaniacs who need such crises to earn their money, and those further down the food chain who need the aid game to survive and line their pockets. The politicians who are trying to keep a positive spin on everything. The criminals (arms companies, financiers, people smugglers, corrupt officials) who are earning off the mess in Libya and Syria. The media who are lapping it up and putting the tragic images on a gif loop. The public who are caught between asking questions, being horrified/scared and worried, and asking questions.
Many of those who overran police in Macedonia were not Syrian but Afghani, Pakistani, Turkish, African and "other Asian". In Serbia and Hungary there are places offered to assist refugees with international groups already on the ground and providing assistance, yet last night on Euronews a woman claiming to be fleeing Syria said "The Hungarian people are very nice and friendly, but I want to go to Germany."
It brings back the old question of when Nigerian "refugees" were arriving in Ireland. They were coming from EU countries so not directly from a war zone. Maybe I am wrong in thinking that once people land at their first safe haven, they can be processed and then with a visa system be allocated a place in, for example, Ireland, Germany etc?
Having worked alongside genuine refugees in Croatia, recently in Russia and even in my current work, there is a massively uncomfortable element to what is happening.
My own feeling is that there is a massive political game going on with the usual suspects. The "ngo/taxpayer funded" egomaniacs who need such crises to earn their money, and those further down the food chain who need the aid game to survive and line their pockets. The politicians who are trying to keep a positive spin on everything. The criminals (arms companies, financiers, people smugglers, corrupt officials) who are earning off the mess in Libya and Syria. The media who are lapping it up and putting the tragic images on a gif loop. The public who are caught between asking questions, being horrified/scared and worried, and asking questions.
Many of those who overran police in Macedonia were not Syrian but Afghani, Pakistani, Turkish, African and "other Asian". In Serbia and Hungary there are places offered to assist refugees with international groups already on the ground and providing assistance, yet last night on Euronews a woman claiming to be fleeing Syria said "The Hungarian people are very nice and friendly, but I want to go to Germany."
It brings back the old question of when Nigerian "refugees" were arriving in Ireland. They were coming from EU countries so not directly from a war zone. Maybe I am wrong in thinking that once people land at their first safe haven, they can be processed and then with a visa system be allocated a place in, for example, Ireland, Germany etc?
Having worked alongside genuine refugees in Croatia, recently in Russia and even in my current work, there is a massively uncomfortable element to what is happening.