THE KARMA OF SOUTH-NORTH MIGRATION
August 3, 2015
Cheers
to NPR’s “On Point” guest host Ken Donvan for putting together a panel and
call-ins which affirms the underlying refusal to accept refugees, including
accompanied and unaccompanied children fleeing violence created in the wake of
European colonization and occupation, as it has been created by US created,
organized combination of political and economic and climatological violence,
refugees defined by Northern nations as “economic” and hence not covered by the
UN convention on the status of refugees (http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/08/03/calais-migrant-crisis-eu-chunnel-france). It is the karma of Christian-based white
Northern privilege who have those whose labor and environment were exploited to
enrich us, come to us for safety and escape the impoverishment and violence we
created and supported in the process—notably violence created by the overt and
covert US war on drugs. Seldom have I heard
the problem as Northern moral responsibility put as clearly and cogently as in
the hour-long conversation Ken Donvan conducted today. While the focus of the problem may be on
Europe, as a caller from Nebraska makes explicit, that the problem applies to
US. The US has a long, sad history of
professing to welcome immigrants (“give me your tired, your poor), while
practicing detention and tightening border controls. I join Donvan’s guests in feeling a sense of
moral and practical responsibility for profiting from shrinking the habitable
surface of our planet for our own gain.
Special thanks to “On Point” for today’s program; it’s an educational
gem. Love and peace, hal
Hal, thanks for the reference, the comment, and the attention to the lives of these people. Peace.
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