383. Lampedusa: Does not Make Pope Fan of Illegal Immigrants
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| Pope Francis at Lampedusa: curtsey Radio Vaticano (see link below) |
After Pope Francis’ visit to
Lampedusa, the speck of an island in the Mediterranean sea between Tunis and
Sicily, some headlines treated the matter as if Pope Francis condones and has
become a fan of illegal immigration, instead of treating the matter for what it
was- a sign of solidarity for the suffering and plight of humanity.
I have written in abundance on this
and have looked at the matter from all sides, up and down and inside out- the
conclusion remains the same- no matter why or how immigrants arrive to
Lampedusa, criminals in disguise or genuine desperate people clinging to the
last straw- they are and remain human beings and consequently share an affinity
with you and I.
Naturally those who are incapable of being constructive
are shouting their mouths off needlessly to say the Pope should house them at
the Vatican, since he himself is not using it. These are the kind of people who
will go round producing anti-immigrant feelings and form political parties to
this end which are becoming increasingly popular in countries such as Sweeden,
Finland and Norway, who in turn instigate with their influence such people as
Behring Breivik to shoot 77 human beings, point blank simply because these
countries, instead of fostering fraternal attitudes towards one another they
produce inimical feelings towards others… And then one wonders why anyone can
go round shooting people- is it any surprise when it is hardly possible for
anyone have any minimum of happiness or well-being in that kind of atmosphere.
But the real problem is why there exist such
desperation in the first place to force people to such extreme actions of
leaving one’s land, home, family, language, food, culture… for a place where
you know you are not wanted nor by any means assured a better way of life, and
where to survive or otherwise end up in the spiral of drug racketeering,
prostitution, robbery and even murder as the jails in Italy show since at least
one third of prisoners overcrowding is due to immigrants.
One thing that can be said about Italian
politicians, even if we may not much like them, but at least Berlusconi or
Maroni and the likes have never pushed people back into the sea, as reported on Italian TV where the knuckles of immigrants grasping the rocks of the shores of Spain and Malta were
tread upon in order to make them lose their grip and consequently drown in the
sea. Is that why Pope Francis quoted the Spanish Playright Lope de Vega:
“that tells how the
inhabitants of the city of Fuente Ovejuna killed the Governor because he was a
tyrant, and did it in such a way that no one knew who had carried out the
execution. And when the judge of the king asked “Who killed the Governor?” they
all responded, “Fuente Ovejuna, sir.” All and no one!” http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/07/08/pope_on_lampedusa:_%E2%80%9Cthe_globalization_of_indifference%E2%80%9D/en1-708541 of the Vatican Radio website
But then, such countries, as Italy herself,
when asking for aid have been told by the European Union that these countries
have brought on this wave of African immigration upon themselves by granting
amnesty to hundreds and thousands of undocumented foreigners and the only aid
Italy was ever granted by the EU community was in order to send these people back to
their country of origin since, as one British MP explained, one immigrant more
means one vote less.
Coming back to the question of
Africa,
if anything, the Pope’s visit should stir people to re-think their view on that
humanity they prefer to shrink from with indifference and focus on improving
conditions, making it so that Africans themselves do not slaughter each other
and inspire African people that their country matters and that they should take
care of it and develop it. Africa is to be helped even if it is for selfish
reasons, so as to help ourselves here in Europe.
The Pope’s visit is to remind us not to be
indifferent to the plight of others. If we don’t want Europe to be inundated by
African immigration that it can ill support then all of Europe not just Italy
must face the problem in unison. Furthermore, and I’ve dwelt on this phenomena
much in the past, If we don’t want Africa to be dominated by the Chinese or the
Africans to slit each other’s throat, then the West must urgently do something
about that immense continent we call Africa, who nobody wants but everyone is
willing to exploit.
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