Lunacy

We are lucky to live in Britain, we really are very very lucky
indeed. Do you think our poorest citizens have a hard time? Sure by all
means some people do struggle to get by, but only when compared in
relation to the 'average' Brit. Our welfare system should ensure that
each of us has the basic requirements of food, shelter, warmth and
clothing. In Britain we tend to think of people as 'poor' when they
can't afford a TV or when they can only afford beans on toast for their
dinner. Real poverty is a world apart from what we see as poverty
though. Real poverty is having *nothing* to eat. Real poverty is having
no shelter, being unable to afford education or healthcare. Real
poverty is not measured financially, but in quality of life. As I said,
we are lucky to live in Britain.

We complain about 'them', you know, the authorities. We complain about
our government, our police force, our social services. We complain
about trivialities mostly, although they may not seem like trivialities
at the time. How outraged are we to hear that a police officer has
slapped someone around a bit in the cells? But how appalled would we be
to hear that a British mother with several young children was unable to
feed them, clothe them or give them shelter. How appalled would we be
to hear of entire families dying in our inner cities because they
didn't have enough food? How appalled would we be to hear that our
police or army officers were executing entire families in cold blood?
Can you imagine your wife or husband being 'taken away' by the
authorities and never hearing from them again? We are rich when it
comes to the important things in life - let there be absolutely no
mistake about that.

Others aren't so rich though are they? Others are dying through hunger
and persecution. People are living in fear for their lives and the
lives of their families. People are being tortured and executed in cold
blood. They are the 'poor' of the world - we don't know real poverty
here.

Put yourself in that position for just a second or two. Imagine your
children with swollen stomachs through malnutrition. Imagine the police
coming round to pay you a visit and shooting your spouse through the
head before raping and beating you and your children. What would you
do? Imagine that was happening to your next-door neighbour and they
chapped on your door seeking an escape. Would you turn them away? Would
your thoughts be "but I am paying to heat my house, how dare they come
to me asking for shelter"? or "I work hard to put food in my cupboards,
why should I give it away"? Would you turn them away in full knowledge
that they may die through hunger? Would you turn them away knowing that
they may get executed? Would you?

What are your thoughts on Nazi Germany and in particular the holocaust?
Our nation went to war to stop them, our forefathers gave up their
lives to stop the horrors of genocide. Would we do it again? What if
two million Jews were to turn up at Dover today - would we send them
back to face the gas chambers? Would we stand by and watch as people
were forced to dig their own graves before being shot into them? Would
we? Could we?

Is the genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda or the Balkans any different to
that of Nazi Germany? Is the pain of a Rwandan any different to the
pain that we would feel? Are their tears any different to ours? Can we
turn them away from the safety of our country simply through our own
greed? No, we cannot!

If someone is desperate enough to pack themselves into the back of a
lorry with 20 other people, or actually to hang onto the wheels of an
aeroplane in an attempt to escape persecution - can we really turn them
away? If an uneducated person turns up at Dover should we be giving
them a nineteen page legal document to complete? Should we deny them
access simply because they don't know the 'correct' answers to the
questions? Can we really afford to take a chance that what they are
saying is not the truth?

We are dealing with human beings here - not just 'Bosnians', or
'Chinese' or 'Africans' - but real people with real hopes, real fears,
real hunger, real families, real pain, real tears. They are not just
numbers in some ill-informed piece of tabloid journalism. Cut them and
they bleed. These people are our global neighbours, we owe it to them,
and ourselves, to help where we can. Anything less is pure selfishness,
anything less should make us ashamed of ourselves and our greed. We
cannot run the risk of turning away even one genuine case simply
because there are some who abuse the system. It is hard enough as it is
to get asylum in the UK, please don't let's make it any harder.