Adopted in 2000, the motto of the European Union, United in Diversity, was structured in reflection of 'how Europeans have come together, in the form of the EU, to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time being enriched by the continent's many different cultures, traditions and languages' (europa.eu). Certainly, since the tumult of the early 20th Century, the European Union appears to have stood with such strength, continuing to grow with the addition of 13 new member states since the turn of the century, two, Romania and Bulgaria, joining as recently as 2007. Growing national tensions around whether, as Nigel Farage enthusiastically espouses, the UK should leave the EU cloud the benefits being a member state can bring: ease of living abroad (migration), strong workers' rights and non-discrimination (see equal pay treaty of 1957), paid leave (the EU Working Time Directive entitles everyone to a statutory minimum of 4 weeks paid leave a year), foreign study (exchanges under the EU's Erasmus programme), consumer protection, food labelling, commitments to clean environments etc. (BBC, eruopa.eu). Oh, and who could forget - under the Schengen agreement, freedom of movement.
The United Nations has recently warned that the exodus of 8,000 refugees to Europe, daily, looks set to continue. Germany expects to have at least 800,000 asylum seekers this year (BBC News). Around 500,000 migrants are thought to have arrived this year. Hungary had received 96,350 asylum applications by the end of July, second only to Germany's 222,000 by the end of August (BBC News). Around 115,000 applications (January - August 2015) are from Syria, stemming from the ongoing political conflict, 60,000 from Kosova, motivated by the widespread poverty, just under 60,000 from Afghanistan, where violence continues to pervade everyday life, and 40,000 from Albania; Iraq, Pakistan, Eritrea, Serbia, Ukraine and Nigeria each herald up to 36,000 applications themselves. An emergency meeting in Brussels convened to vote by the majority upon the relocation of 120,000 refugees across the EU. Earlier this month, following suit after Angela Merkel's reimposition of border controls along Austria, Austria, Slovakia, the Netherlands and other EU member states have begun to set up strict border controls to manage the 'crisis' (The Economist).
"We will manage!" (Angela Merkel)
Less than a century ago, another exodus shook Europe under the tyranny of another ideological evil extremity and political instability. Millions were displaced, more often than not forcibly, and still more millions murdered; lives were wrecked, rewritten, extinguished, erased. Displaced. Some found it in their hearts to empathise and assist these unwanteds; Corrie Ten Boom hid families in her house, the Franks were offered hiding in an annex, Oskar Schindler gave 'work' to thousands of Jews instead of their condemned journey to the chimneys of Auschwitz. Raoul Wallenberg, First Secretary to the Swedish embassy in Budapest in 1944, used his diplomatic status to issue protective passports to thousands of Jews, 'identifying them as Swedish citizens to prevent their deportation'; he 'rented more than 30 buildings to house around 10,000 Jewish refugees', under the disguise of the Swedish flag and pseudonym, 'The Swedish Research Institute' (shalomshow.com). Giovanni Palatucci, an Italian police official and lawyer, manipulated his authority as the chief of the Foreigner's Office to forge papers permitting hundreds of Jews to flee the persecution of Eastern Europe and, under Nazi occupation, redirected Jews to a prison-cum-refugee camp managed by his uncle in Southern Italy, destroying over 5000 documented records, thus, again, saving them from the sentence of concentration camps. Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker organised the smuggling of 2,500 children out of the Warsaw ghetto into Polish families, orphanages and convents. Nicholas Winton, a British Stockbroker, organised the Czech Kindertransport, saving 669 children out of eight trains before the outbreak of WW2, finding them all foster parents in England and Sweden (all shalomshow.com). China Sugihara, a Japanese Diplomat, began issuing visas to all who applied ('including those who did not meet immigration requirements') following the Soviet invasion of Lithuania in 1940, allowing 'them to enter Japan for up to 15 days, in direct violation of his orders'. Would you condemn them? Do you disagree with their actions? Did the Jews and other targeted peoples have the right to this help? Did they deserve asylum and relocation?
United in Diversity. Really? Why the sudden rift and seismic tensions throughout the continent? After a majority vote on relocating 120,000 asylum seekers across the EU, many member states argued national sovereignty in rebuke of mandatory quotas. Croatia's Foreign Minister, Vesna Pusic, is quoted saying that Croatia could only give asylum to 'a few thousand' migrants. The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary all voted against the compulsory quotas (BBC). Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, refuses to 'respect this diktat of the majority'. In Latvia, hundreds marched against the quotas. The Czech Republic is expected to take the matter to the European Court of Justice (Radio Prague, BBC). Milan Chovanec, the Czech Interior Minister, tweeted: 'Very soon we will realise the emperor has no clothes. Today was a defeat for common sense.' (BBC).
In the short tale by Hans Christian Andersen, 'The Emperor's New Clothes', so crudely referenced by Chovanec, two weavers promise a vain emperor a new suit of clothes invisible to all who are 'unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent' (Wikipedia). When said emperor parades before his subjects wearing his new clothes, no one mentions that they are unable to see any suit of clothes until a child, too young to understand the political motif of keeping up the pretence, exclaims - "but he isn't wearing anything at all!" Was not this child Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian Kurd from the war-torn town of Kobani, near the Turkish border, found washed up facedown in a red t-shirt on a beach? Look to the eruption which shook the European media following his viral picture; look to the diction employed by the reporters who circulated it further; look to the shift in attitudes that followed this quake. Suddenly it was a 'humanitarian' crisis; suddenly they were not 'migrants' but persecuted 'refugees' and 'victims'; this was, The Guardian headline read, 'The shocking, cruel reality of Europe's refugee crisis'. Common sense says that these are not people seeking to cause disruption and demographic trauma in Europe; common sense says that these are not people persecuting European countries; common sense says that these are persecuted victims of political instability and extremism, seeking a better life for their children and turning towards the EU, a socio-political and economic body which stands for unification, peace, and prosperity, which is united in diversity. I hope we realise that the emperor has no clothes on because, aren't we the emperor?
"Only the future will show what a mistake this was." (Milos Zeman)
The United Nations has recently warned that the exodus of 8,000 refugees to Europe, daily, looks set to continue. Germany expects to have at least 800,000 asylum seekers this year (BBC News). Around 500,000 migrants are thought to have arrived this year. Hungary had received 96,350 asylum applications by the end of July, second only to Germany's 222,000 by the end of August (BBC News). Around 115,000 applications (January - August 2015) are from Syria, stemming from the ongoing political conflict, 60,000 from Kosova, motivated by the widespread poverty, just under 60,000 from Afghanistan, where violence continues to pervade everyday life, and 40,000 from Albania; Iraq, Pakistan, Eritrea, Serbia, Ukraine and Nigeria each herald up to 36,000 applications themselves. An emergency meeting in Brussels convened to vote by the majority upon the relocation of 120,000 refugees across the EU. Earlier this month, following suit after Angela Merkel's reimposition of border controls along Austria, Austria, Slovakia, the Netherlands and other EU member states have begun to set up strict border controls to manage the 'crisis' (The Economist).
"But there's a big, enduring question which hangs over all of this: what kind of country do we want to be, what is our role in this globalised world of ours? Open or closed? Leading in our own European backyard or isolated from our nearest neighbours?" (Nick Clegg)
"We will manage!" (Angela Merkel)
Less than a century ago, another exodus shook Europe under the tyranny of another ideological evil extremity and political instability. Millions were displaced, more often than not forcibly, and still more millions murdered; lives were wrecked, rewritten, extinguished, erased. Displaced. Some found it in their hearts to empathise and assist these unwanteds; Corrie Ten Boom hid families in her house, the Franks were offered hiding in an annex, Oskar Schindler gave 'work' to thousands of Jews instead of their condemned journey to the chimneys of Auschwitz. Raoul Wallenberg, First Secretary to the Swedish embassy in Budapest in 1944, used his diplomatic status to issue protective passports to thousands of Jews, 'identifying them as Swedish citizens to prevent their deportation'; he 'rented more than 30 buildings to house around 10,000 Jewish refugees', under the disguise of the Swedish flag and pseudonym, 'The Swedish Research Institute' (shalomshow.com). Giovanni Palatucci, an Italian police official and lawyer, manipulated his authority as the chief of the Foreigner's Office to forge papers permitting hundreds of Jews to flee the persecution of Eastern Europe and, under Nazi occupation, redirected Jews to a prison-cum-refugee camp managed by his uncle in Southern Italy, destroying over 5000 documented records, thus, again, saving them from the sentence of concentration camps. Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker organised the smuggling of 2,500 children out of the Warsaw ghetto into Polish families, orphanages and convents. Nicholas Winton, a British Stockbroker, organised the Czech Kindertransport, saving 669 children out of eight trains before the outbreak of WW2, finding them all foster parents in England and Sweden (all shalomshow.com). China Sugihara, a Japanese Diplomat, began issuing visas to all who applied ('including those who did not meet immigration requirements') following the Soviet invasion of Lithuania in 1940, allowing 'them to enter Japan for up to 15 days, in direct violation of his orders'. Would you condemn them? Do you disagree with their actions? Did the Jews and other targeted peoples have the right to this help? Did they deserve asylum and relocation?
United in Diversity. Really? Why the sudden rift and seismic tensions throughout the continent? After a majority vote on relocating 120,000 asylum seekers across the EU, many member states argued national sovereignty in rebuke of mandatory quotas. Croatia's Foreign Minister, Vesna Pusic, is quoted saying that Croatia could only give asylum to 'a few thousand' migrants. The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary all voted against the compulsory quotas (BBC). Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, refuses to 'respect this diktat of the majority'. In Latvia, hundreds marched against the quotas. The Czech Republic is expected to take the matter to the European Court of Justice (Radio Prague, BBC). Milan Chovanec, the Czech Interior Minister, tweeted: 'Very soon we will realise the emperor has no clothes. Today was a defeat for common sense.' (BBC).
In the short tale by Hans Christian Andersen, 'The Emperor's New Clothes', so crudely referenced by Chovanec, two weavers promise a vain emperor a new suit of clothes invisible to all who are 'unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent' (Wikipedia). When said emperor parades before his subjects wearing his new clothes, no one mentions that they are unable to see any suit of clothes until a child, too young to understand the political motif of keeping up the pretence, exclaims - "but he isn't wearing anything at all!" Was not this child Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian Kurd from the war-torn town of Kobani, near the Turkish border, found washed up facedown in a red t-shirt on a beach? Look to the eruption which shook the European media following his viral picture; look to the diction employed by the reporters who circulated it further; look to the shift in attitudes that followed this quake. Suddenly it was a 'humanitarian' crisis; suddenly they were not 'migrants' but persecuted 'refugees' and 'victims'; this was, The Guardian headline read, 'The shocking, cruel reality of Europe's refugee crisis'. Common sense says that these are not people seeking to cause disruption and demographic trauma in Europe; common sense says that these are not people persecuting European countries; common sense says that these are persecuted victims of political instability and extremism, seeking a better life for their children and turning towards the EU, a socio-political and economic body which stands for unification, peace, and prosperity, which is united in diversity. I hope we realise that the emperor has no clothes on because, aren't we the emperor?
"Only the future will show what a mistake this was." (Milos Zeman)
"If we now have to start apologising for showing a friendly face in an emergency, then this is not my country." (Angela Merkel)
Europe knows more than anyone the cost of political instability and extremism, and from this desolation she has risen in unity; is not now, millions ask, the time to show this unity and assist others in their own desolation? Of course, there may be limits to the capability of individual European nations in their assistance; there may be demographic restrictions, economic implications, socio-environmental limitations. Hence, an ambitiously rigid mandatory quota may not be sustainable. However, this should not impede the need to assist and take action. One cannot enjoy the benefits belonging to the EU brings, without assisting in her crises. Though border controls, restrictions and strict checks on the nature of individual refugees may be required for socio-political and economic security, such should not hinder the help awarded refugees; indeed, The Economist writes that 'border controls appear to negate perhaps the most visible achievement of European integration' leading 'many Eurosceptics' to celebration ("Schengen surely can't survive now" tweeted Farage). In their time of crisis, persecuted people have turned to Europe for help. Why they identified Europe as a safe haven may vary; some may be motivated by its geographical proximity, others by its political and economic security and development, still others by Schengen, some by the possibility of a better quality of life, and others perhaps purely because it's the destination so many before have chosen. Whatever the reason, is it right to ignore and stigmatise the exodus?
Further, I wonder, is this merely a European crisis? Or a world crisis? The role of the UN, the United Nations, hints towards the underlying fact that this is a humanitarian crisis, responsibility for which should fall upon the shoulders of humanity itself. Those who sit aside and criticise the actions of European leaders, whilst themselves doing nothing, deserve just as much critique themselves.
Though there may be disagreements and differences, don't let this undermine the EU's pride of unification in diversity to work for peace and prosperity.
Further, I wonder, is this merely a European crisis? Or a world crisis? The role of the UN, the United Nations, hints towards the underlying fact that this is a humanitarian crisis, responsibility for which should fall upon the shoulders of humanity itself. Those who sit aside and criticise the actions of European leaders, whilst themselves doing nothing, deserve just as much critique themselves.
Though there may be disagreements and differences, don't let this undermine the EU's pride of unification in diversity to work for peace and prosperity.
C
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