not ashamed

I am not ashamed to admit that I have cried at the beauty of and empathy shown in several of the submissions for La Gr@not@’s refugee-aid project “Stranger(s) In A Strange Land” (http://la-granota.com/stranger.htm ).

I have to admit that – when La Gr@not@ first launched this project – I was worried that the anthology might prove a bit boring… “much of a muchness”: the same few stories told in only slightly different variations. After all, what new could be said about refugees in just 486 words (or less) or a piece of graphic art???

I am delighted that the imagination and talents of (in alphabetical order, and just citing the ones who are users of this web-site) Clare Williams, Daphne Milne, Emilie van Damm, Hache L. Jones, Hannah Denno, Helen Jones, Theresa Mary McGlinchey, Victoria Fielding, and Wilhelmina Lyre (you may all stand up and take a bow) as well as (this is no time for false modesty) Jimmy Hollis i Dickson have proven me so UTTERLY WRONG! Typing out that list just now, it strikes me for the very first time that – aside from myself – all the contributing writers/artists (from this site) are women. A huge thank you for using your appreciable talents in aid of others!

If I may, I would like to single out (double out?) two names from that list: Victoria Fielding (who has not only submitted a wonderful, 2-page comic – and promised more – but also been very active on Twitter and other social networks spreading the word all around the globe, which has added AT LEAST another 2 contributors to our anthology) and Helen Jones, who – in just 85 words (90 if you include the title) of a very moving poem – debunks the myth that refugees are an invading horde, greedy to snatch OUR jobs or scrounge off OUR social services.

And that brings me to the following point (a paraphrasing of a comment that I made – on a different issue – on FaceBook):

There is a reason for the magician’s black wand with white tips. While (s)he is waving it around with her/his right hand, your (the audience’) attention is seduced away from noting what the left hand is doing.

Politicians have learnt this tactic and made it their very own. While they are SLASHING spending on Health, Education, and Social Services; selling off state assets at rock-bottom prices to their cronies and paymasters; and exporting (or very actively HELPING to export) hundreds of thousands of jobs to cheap-labour factories overseas… they are waving the magic wand of “illegal immigrants” (and not just “illegal”: “We must stop the flow of immigrants into this country!!!” – Why not stop the MASSIVE flow of jobs OUT of this country???)

If it was only readers of The Sun in the UK / “poor white trash” in the USA who believed this SHIT, it would be comprehensible. But the Brexit vote and the presidential elections have proven that at least some supposedly intelligent people are swallowing it whole.

Some time ago, when I invited users of this site to contribute a copy of their book to somebody else’ appeal for an on-line auction to finance the buying of blankets for freezing immigrants in those camps at Calais, another user actually criticised the appeal! “It only encourages them!” or something like that. A huge irony is that that user’s surname was obviously that of a forefather who had immigrated to the UK!

So, sleep tight after the magic show, Brits and Yanks! Auntie Theresa and Uncle Donald have barred the door and switched on the alarm system. You can burrow down in your cosy beds and be assured that dirty, pitiless, foreign savages aren’t going to slit your throats while you sleep.