HOME

We had a typical British summer here.. wet and cool. And like any other Maltese person who knows the heat, the rih isfel, the scorching sun and the dazzling turquoise seas..I missed Malta and our long, hot summer with a passion.

And I got thinking.... I am living here in the UK because I want to, because I have a choice..I can go back home (or indeed anywhere in the world) anytime. My passport is well-thumbed.. More importantly I have a passport.

I am here out of choice...and I still hanker for home.. I still miss the Malteseness of people. (and I certainly cannot complain of hostility from the locals). 

This post is not intended to be about the refugee crisis. I have written about it in other posts and anyone who follows me know where I stand on the issue, knows that I personally feel it is my DUTY to help. But as the news spotlight has moved on in recent days, and our MEPs and our heads of State are in 'talks', it is all too easy for us to forget that outside of our comfortable existence, there are other realities, other existences that are so far removed from our own experience that we could not even begin to imagine what they must be like. We need to hear about them from the people who have been there, experienced that and if they're lucky, have escaped with a handed-down fake-branded t-shirt.

I found this poem by Warsan Shire earlier this year. I think it explains so many things, if only we are ready to listen to them.

Before little Aylan Kurdi's body washed up on a Bodrum beach, thousands had drowned in this desperate crossing. Yet how many times have we heard that these people cross on a whim? 

I will stop here. 'Home' is food for thought enough.

HOME  (Warsan Shire)

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here

Syria refugee/migrant crisis

As the migrant/refugee crisis drags on, and our leaders twiddle their thumbs and squabble over who does what.....these are some reflections of mine.

These are people, families with kids like ours... It breaks my heart to read the comments/posts loaded with hate and indifference. The root of it is fear and just plain old selfishness. These people are just seeking a better life.
It could be us....and if it were us, we'd expect compassion...yet we find it hard to be compassionate towards others.
I'm sick of all the bullshit excuses I've been hearing ad nauseam...there could be ISIS terrorists among them (like, when have ISIS ever left anything to chance?) ....they will take our homes, our jobs, our tax-funded benefits (I wonder whether any of the people spreading these hate posts have ever lived on benefits in a foreign country ....it is humiliating, to say the least.. Who would want to do so on a whim??) .... they are Muslims, they will destroy our churches etc (not all Muslims are radical Muslims...there are millions of Muslims in the world..why do we generalise from the actions of a few thousands???)
It is shameful that some people use news stories, inflate them out of all proportion, and add their own spin to them before passing them off as facts...and all this to fuel their own sick agenda..
And it is even more shameful when people who are meant to be 'good' people allow themselves to be manipulated by these so-called 'news reports' which in reality are nothing more than scurrilous opinion pieces.
It is a disgrace that people do not realise or care that they are being used, when anyone with half a brain knows that you should always check the source of that article you're reading...

I agree that the huge influx of refugees is a massive logistical headache...but many European governments have done nothing to prepare for it. The war in Syria has been going on for more than four years...shouldn't that have warned us that at some point these people would be displaced simply because the situation in their home country is untenable?
Yes, Assad needs to be taken out, this massacre of the Syrian people needs to be stopped in much the same way that ISIS needs to be stopped. But what about the big guns, the ones who have the power to put an end to this, who can make it safe for migrants/refugees to return to their homeland...have they done anything about it???
Even so, their wrong does not make our indifference, selfishness and plain hatred right.

No one (not even "economic migrants") leaves his home country, unless leaving is the only choice left. If you are in any doubt, try moving to another country legally and you will maybe understand better....
Just think before you spew hate ... If you were desperately seeking a better place to raise your children than your war torn home country, if you had crossed the desert on foot, and the sea on a rickety boat just to get to the better countries...and found that you are unwanted, that you are going to have to fight for every single breath you take... How would you feel? Would it hurt? Would your feet bleed when you have to walk thousands of kilometres ??  Would your heart break seeing your son exhausted from all the walking when you are unable to carry him on your back?
I know mine would.