Tomorrow it could be us
Shaadaab S. Bakht
@ShaadaabSBakhtShaadaab S. Bakht, who worked for famous Indian dailies The Telegraph, The Pioneer, The Sentinel and wrote political commentaries for Tehelka.com, is Gulf Today’s Executive Editor.
A girl stands before a gutted camp in Lesbos, Greece.
Where is your satchel? Where are your books? Why aren’t you in your school uniform? The answers to the questions aren’t with the little girl, but the above politicians, who are responsible for her state of affairs, and were elected to power by her elders and thousands of others.
If they grow up to be impudent, ruthlessly manipulative and corrupt, it shouldn’t surprise us...
In their run-up to the rule of authority, they must have made huge promises. And they must have done that for weeks to win their seats.
But the men, once in position, failed their people, left their pledges in tatters and allowed their country to slip into bloody violence, forcing the girl and the rest to flee.
They landed on Lesbos island, Greece. The little girl and all the others were settled by Greece in the Moria camp on the island. There were more than 12,500 people. The camp was designed for 2,750.
But the blizzard of misfortune and the latter’s cohort, suffering, don’t rest till they totally freeze their hosts.
Guess what? The entire camp was gutted in a fire some weeks ago. Since the blaze, which came after the camp faced a coronavirus lockdown, thousands of people and tearful children have camped out in the open on the highway near Moria under police guard and have been queuing up for hours for food and potable water.
The most heart-warming response to the crisis came from Germany. Speaking to reporters in Berlin, spokesman Steffen Seibert called the help for the minors “a first step” but said more needed to be done to alleviate the suffering of the migrants sleeping rough since the blaze. Some of them have been shifted to a new tent.
Well, what impact will all this have on the little girl and thousands of children in the camp? If they grow up to be impudent, ruthlessly manipulative and corrupt, it shouldn’t surprise us or make us angry. Because to expect manners and morality from some who have stood in queues for months and years just to drink clean water and eat food is purely idealistic.
It’s high time the world dealt with the refugee crisis, which involves the lives of as many as 50 million children across the world. We mustn’t forget that today it is them, tomorrow it could be us.
