OUR WORLD OF SHAME

I have not frequently felt impressed by most countries in Europe.  It is not because I hold slavery and its impact against them, although I could.  It is not even because I fault them for colonizing and exploiting Africa. I could do that as well but I would never do so because I believe that African countries have generally had sufficient time since their respective independence to transform themselves into beacons of hope and respectability.  However, they haven't because Africans have mastered the art of embracing corrupt oppressors and massaging the egos of tyrants who kill them. 

Most European countries do not impress me because they continue to live true to their history as  ethnic and racial purists.  I have long been convinced that, if they could, many European countries would deny entry into, and residence in, their countries of people whose presence would reduce the homogeneity of those societies.  I suspect that they would even deny citizenship to people born in their countries who did not exactly come from the predominant stock. 

In the last few weeks, with Syrian and other migrants arriving on European shores as refugees, we have seen the worst of European sensibilities.  Except for the leaders of Germany and Austria, other European leaders have engaged in a race to the gutter.  Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Heinz Fischer of Austria have been the lone voices of reason in a wilderness riddled with hypocrites who talk well and pretend to mean well - until there is a crisis.  In the last few days, Prime Minister Cameron of Britain has begun to talk about acting with some compassion by offering to take in 4,000 migrants a year for the next five years.  Perhaps that should make up, or at least provide some cover for his previously expressed position on this matter.  It is often in times of crises that we get to see the true colors of those who try to present themselves as superior to others - as Europe has historically done. This is a time of crisis, and European leaders have not acquitted themselves well.  

Certainly, Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, took the cake when, in his effort to turn Europeans against the migrants, he wrote in a German newspaper during the week that preventing the current migrants from entering Europe was very essential in order to "keep Europe Christian".  The questions that one should probably ask are: Is Europe a Christian continent? Was it ever?  Were the crimes of slavery and colonialism perpetrated by Europe grand Christian acts or is anyone a sinner who considers those acts as evil?  What part of Christianity encourages believers to turn their backs on needy strangers and to deny them of water, shelter and food? 

This is not just about Europe, however.  Between 1967 and 1970, Ghana expelled Nigerians from Ghana, kicking them right into the the middle of a dangerous civil war that was at that time raging in Nigeria.  The Nigerians were forced to leave their property and other investments behind - which were then taken over by Ghanaians.  In 1985, Nigeria gave a week's ultimatum to 700,000 undocumented Ghanaian immigrants to leave the country.  In my mind's eye, I can still see that period and can still recall the pain that I felt and the uncertainty that I saw as I watched departing Ghanaians during that time.  This year, we have seen South African blacks kill black immigrants from other African countries and try to intimidate others into leaving South Africa. We have also seen the Dominican Republic kick fellow Dominicans of Haitian descent out of Haiti despite being born and raised in the Dominican Republic. We have seen conservatives in the United States demand that our country deny entry to children coming into the United States as migrants.  We have also seen U.S. and European politicians speak about certain segments of our immigrant populations in extremely derogatory terms while some in society commend those politicians for being "sincere", "courageous" and "politically incorrect".  That is the stuff of which xenophobia is made.

  

We must not stay silent when people give voice to darkness. Instead, we should be ashamed that such people live in our midst and, in that shame, we must rise to act before their voices further turn us and our world into a miasma of hopelessness and despair.  We must always demand sanity and kindness from ourselves and others, especially those in positions of power and responsibility.  By so doing we become capable of making ourselves responsible custodians of a world that was given for our care.