“Another boat with Refugees found capsized, 55 dead, many of them small children”. (News Headlines)
As I walked on one of the treadmills at my local gym today, focusing on my own body – how it felt, how I was breathing, making sure I was connected to myself – I had quite a realisation.
I have observed that there is a lot of fuss about refugees at the moment – in the media, on political agendas, basically everywhere you look. No big realisation perhaps, but this realisation came when I pondered upon the reception they are given; how we actually meet them?
There is this huge ‘problem’ (as some people are putting it) called refugees. We call them a problem before we even meet them. They flee from war, famine and many other forms of abuse. Many are already broken, sick, injured, or all of these. Many have been abused before, during and even after their plight: some raped and beaten, some have seen loved ones murdered, or drowned, and they have risked their lives (some many times over) to escape their tortured existence. They arrive most often in the West and are invariably subjected to hate, discrimination and further ‘mental’ torture when they are already in a state of total desperation.
It’s as though they are not humans, they are something else – a burden on us, a nuisance, a plague of unwanted debris – and not our responsibility. And we are told by politicians and other authorities that they come here and cause problems, they have no money so we have to support them, they are lazy, they are criminals, all tarred with the same brush; we are even told that many of them are supposedly ‘undercover terrorists’ that will try to kill us in the years to come.
And this is not a question of politics, e.g. of political parties saying “Yes” to 5000 more refugees when they know there is an election on the horizon, or saying “No” to the same question to catch the other end of the vote.
On considering this further I wondered – have we forgotten that we are all the same? And that despite our circumstance, no one person is better than another.
And I also wondered why we feel this way about refugees … particularly as not too many generations ago many of our families were refugees in one form or another.
We do not own this planet, though many think they do. We are all one global community so anything that happens on this planet is for us all to consider. We are all custodians of this planet – and this crisis of refugees is on our watch.
What if rather than the question “What should we do with them?” or “How can we send them back?” we might consider –
“What is truly going on here that in our so called modern age (with all the technology and infrastructure that we have) we have ‘refugees’?”
Surely with all the technological advances etc., human atrocities like refugees should be long since extinct?
How then can we work together as a global community to reframe this issue – more so as to offer the true support that is needed? And why is it that this problem is worsening by the day and yet many of us are watching as bystanders? Or seeing the harrowing pictures on the news yet are not feeling to speak up or act in some way?
I’m not raising this here so that we necessarily each drive down to our nearest port and collect and house every refugee (though that is an option), but so that we take a step back and look more deeply at what is going on. And if we do take a step back and ponder, we may just realise there are many ways to help; individually, as groups, organisations and governments, and that even the smallest things can move mountains as our collective creativity knows no bounds when we open up our hearts to these societal atrocities.
If we treated this as a community issue and worked on this together we might consider many options – it could be just by making one meal for one refugee or it could be taking a family into your home and treating them as your own family (as here on earth in truth we are just one big family). Or people of great wealth, companies, institutions, governments, with many homes or properties or resources, could provide “homes” (not just shelter) for several or many families. Every drop, from the tiniest kind word uttered from a place of love to the grandest action, will help the world become a better place for us all to live in, together.
If we stop to realise that together as a worldwide brotherhood we could act to make changes together, to meet these fellow equal human beings with compassion, with love, honesty and respect instead of the way we treat them now, perhaps they would no longer be the ‘problem’ we all fear.
What if the ‘refugees’ became an equal part of our society, as they all truly deserve to be, no longer mirroring the hate and mistrust we project onto them? And in this they could start to feel ‘safe’ again?
There have been refugees in society for many lifetimes. It is obvious here that the issue is not going away, but worsening, and that we haven’t as yet got to the root of the issue nor to the truth of a response.
Isn’t it time for us to consider this more deeply?
By Christopher Murphy, Kindergarten Assistant and Universal Medicine student, Drøbak, Norway
Further Reading:
Corporate Social Responsibility – The State of Our Working World
What’s right with this World?
A True Role Model: Universal Medicine = Universal Responsibility
966 Comments
“To meet these fellow equal human beings with compassion, love, honesty and respect” nice idea Christopher but currently impossible because we can’t meet ourselves with compassion, love, honesty and respect, in fact we can’t even treat ourselves with a basic level of decency, truly we can’t. Most of us trash ourselves through many different means, we hammer our bodies into the ground and so truly what are we going to be able to offer another? Sure some of us could muster up enough kindness to offer refugees a meal here or there but none of us are going to take ‘strangers’ into our own homes because it would effect our lives too much. Will things stay like this forever? No, no they won’t but it’ll take a while and a significant shift in how we treat ourselves before true and lasting reform can take place.
Is it possible that refugees are seen in such a negative light because we feel they will spoil or interfere with our comfortable life, it’s the I’m alright Jack and to hell with anyone else who gets in the way of this. We have all allowed this negative attitude to permeate throughout our so called modern day society.
Elizabeth you have hit the nail on the proverbial head. for many people this will be a tale too far as we have grown so used to comfort even if it is not really comfort that we do not want to know that planet earth is not our true origin. I feel it will take many lives for humanity to accept this fact.
Though it may seem it’s not directly related to the issues refuges face, living a life dedicated to love means we are not, to the best of our ability, contributing to the energy that allows abuse to occur worldwide in the first place. True change globally truly begins within each one of us.
It is so important not to have a blinkered vision, labels or go with the crowd but to instead stand back and ask ourselves questions, in other words be willing to see the truth. As you share here people have been labelled as something and put into a box and in doing that we de-sensitise ourselves from their story, their experience and their truth. This is something I am seeing so much more of lately, how as a whole, in society/humanity we are becoming more de-sensitised, so it is great to have blogs and writing like this that instead express and highlight the sensitivity we often do not want to see which of course includes respecting our brothers and sisters, from all walks of life all across the world.
Refugees have been used in political agendas for many years now, and in our present day it looks like this is happening worse then ever.
As we walk though life the way we are connected or our conscious presence within our movements shapes the way and what we reflect to others. As our reflection is our greatest form of communication, could it be all that is needed is more people to walk this level of True connection? True connection is available for us all equally and if we take that to the streets, supermarkets, workplaces etc. then as many people as possible get to feel True Movement and thus feel there is a different way of living without any self doubting consciousness’s.
My life is more richer more filled with love and certainly more interesting knowing the refugees i know, they are my family and deeply honoured i am to know them.
By being consistently the same love with everyone even if we do cross paths I don’t treat them as any different and act as a role model for others to be the same. I have met a few refugees or people coming to London as their country had financially crumbled but that doesn’t mean I have a right to treat them differently.
Absolutely Leigh we are all equal and are all to be respected and treated equally.
‘have we forgotten that we are all the same?’ And if it is not directly on our door step affecting us does it matter? Well yes it does but we seem to currently to live our lives or are more concerned with something when it directly affects us .. then we start worrying. Also what I am becoming aware of more and more is how the media choose what we should be concerned about or not, how they can focus on just one thing (and it might not even be true what they are focusing on) and miss out so much more that is going on. Like is asking ourselves why when we are supposed to be living in a more ‘intelligent’ time do we have more refugees than ever and even though slavery was supposedly abolished have more human trafficking than ever before.
Ha ha, great point that we are all refugees here, that we are here to return to live with love, truth, harmony, and in brotherhood with all.
Indeed, we are all the same, and all equal human beings, ‘I wondered – have we forgotten that we are all the same? And that despite our circumstance, no one person is better than another.’
When we use the word refugee we may see it as a label and not that these are people, people who are seeking a hand in welcome and friendship to live equally with all.
Yes the refugee ‘crisis’ really shows how much we have made it about countries and ownership of the land even though you rightly say we “We do not own this planet, though many think they do”. This ownership creates a separation of who belongs and who does not belong and all understanding goes out of the door. It shows too how comfortable we have become that we rather turn our head and look the other way hoping someone else will deal with it.
We need to make life about people, it’s so simple, and not divide ourselves because of country, religion, skin colour, or other features.
I find it interesting how there is never any doubt that every person on the planet is a human being, which you would think would instigate an immediate sense of equality between us. And yet, there continues to be so much separation.
Great article Christopher and the key words and there were many was – ‘meet these fellow equal human beings with compassion, with love, honesty and respect ‘ – We sure do need to be open in this way and we also need to bring this into every relationship we have. Our key principles of treating another as an equal and how you would like to be treated has simply faded away, and we could even ponder on whether it was there in the first place.
I work mostly with young refugees and what I’m learning is that many are scared and this is when their own prejudices, anger and demands show. The budgets to support them when they turn 18 are greatly reduced and this can be a great source of disappointment, though housed with the same rights as UK 18 year olds involved with children’s services and in receipt of the usual benefits, it’s still not the safe haven they fought for their lives to travel to. That they are treated with great respect and decency is so important because that provides a steadiness that they need to get them through a great adjustment period.
I can’t understand why one human being would stop another human being moving to a place that’s safer and more beneficial for their well-being. Surely being safe, having a home to live in, food and water and a life that is not in danger is a basic, basic human right – forget countries, or land ownership – why would we ever not want any human being to not have that?
“On considering this further I wondered – have we forgotten that we are all the same? And that despite our circumstance, no one person is better than another. ”
You only need to listen to the news to understand we must have indeed forgotten that we are all the same.
We are the same, and we don’t own this planet, ‘We do not own this planet, though many think they do’.
In these situations, we more than forget that we are one global family and that we are all immigrants. No one is purely from one place. DNA shows us this, and yet we build man-made borders. And we separate each other when in fact this is the total opposite of what is true.
This dehumanising is shocking and something we should not be proud of. “It’s as though they are not humans, they are something else – a burden on us, a nuisance, a plague of unwanted debris – and not our responsibility.” We are but one step away from this ourselves because of the instability in the world, because of our unwillingness to see each other and ourselves as all the same and borderless.
I was pondering the other day on the food situation after seeing on the news how in some countries people are actually starving, when in the western countries gluttony and over abundance abounds, where we have more food than we can eat with so much thrown out, how can this be, the same as the refugee situation, how can our fellow brothers be treated this way.? It all comes down to us and how in our lives we treat those around us, do we treat each other as equal human beings or do we have a them and us mentality.
I love this piece, it is such an important topic to discuss and you are right when we look at the ‘refugee problem’ in that way we have already cast a judgement without actually connecting to people and what is going on for them and responding to this.
It shows a deep arrogance when we refuse to see others as equal. I seriously find it super cheeky the way some people talk about refuges, for it was not too long ago that many of our families were also refugees in one form or another.
We are one world one people -let us remember this and start to have compassion and understanding for our brothers from overseas.
It’s not so much that we ‘refuse to see others as equal’, it’s that we can’t. Our thoughts, viewpoints and beliefs are given to us dependent on our alignment. If we are aligned to a consciousness that wants us to think that we’re all separate human beings living isolated existences then chances are we’re gonna see refugees and people from other countries as different from us and even a threat. If we’re aligned to a consciousness that is impulsed by truth then there’s much more chance that we’ll view everyone as the collective melting pot of God. But we’re not choosing what we think, it’s being provided to us dependent on our alignment.
In this world of diversity, it appears that we tend to judge others by their ethnicity, their gender, their age and in this case their ‘status’ as refugees, but in our haste to judge “have we forgotten that we are all the same?” Peel back our skin and all else that we use to identify ourselves and we look like the person we have judged. All these ways of labelling another only add more separation to a world that is already divided by imaginary lines on the earth. We are one family; one humanity, so let’s begin to live as one and see what happens; after all, living in separation to one another definitely isn’t working.
I am often surprised when I hear people talk of ‘not letting them in ” and ‘not letting them have access to our health care’ and so on and so on – genuinely surprised as every part of me knows that the best and true thing to do is to open our hearts. All refugees need Love and compassion not judgement or condemnation.
I love this conversation and how it asks us to consider our connectedness rather than our differences. At no point does a child set out to be displaced, to live a life where they will be considered less than human. So what is it about the way we are living that takes our focus away from decency and respect and instead focuses on technological advancements to name but one of the many distractions?
It is so true Christopher… History tells us again and again what happens when we hold people as less. We are one and anything that says that this is not so must be exposed, revealed, brought to the light of day, and let go of.
The power of us working together as a global community is yet to be realised. Yet it is this precise unity that will supersede the disparity between us that falsely believes that we are separate to one another, as such the problem of one nation are for them to deal with. Truth is that disharmony in one apart of the world is disharmony for us all. For we cannot escape the fact the we are connected, all living in a pool of energy, and the quality of energy in which we live impacts all. Hence the power of us working together as a one community to address the disharmony together in order to restore the harmony we all equally and rightfully deserve to live.
The plight of refugees the world over shows how far away we are from moving as the one planetary family of human beings that we in truth are. And solutions do not go deep enough, they are but mere bandaids. We need to look deeper and examine how we treat each other, those we call our ‘nearest and dearest’ and where it all starts.
Because many refugees tend to come from war-torn and ravaged countries, it seems that there is typically a huge fear that somehow adopting them into your country will bring the same conflict with them; hence the usual unfair judgement that they are ‘terrorists in waiting’. But when one stops and feels into this situation a bit deeper that accusation and fear doesn’t even make sense, because the people trying to escape those wars are usually not the ones wanting to continue the fight, let alone bring it elsewhere. They just want to go back to living a normal life, typically. So this situation calls for some compassion and putting ourselves in the refugees shoes for a moment before we judge them and put up both figurative and physical walls.
That’s how you bring it / us home (!) practical responsible approach because we are all indefinitely involved. This is a global issue and Christopher gives us some principles we can follow .. there is much joy in opening your heart to another no matter where they have been or come from. When I have truly been there for another human being, even if it is small and especially if they need it, it does move mountains (beyond belief). I know to never underestimate the power of love — where true change is possible removing all self-identification in the exchange.
As these words claim “.. and that even the smallest things can move mountains as our collective creativity knows no bounds when we open up our hearts to these societal atrocities.” Working together will support more rapid change.
Where there is war there is a refugee crisis as anyone who is able would be crazy not to flee for their lives. One day it may be any of us. The people who oppose settling or even dealing with refugees may one day find themselves on the other end of the stick.
If we look over the course of history some choose to live in other countries, but most would have been because they are refugees, slaves or prisoners. We also know from history that when people experiencing difficulty are welcomed and supported to re-start their lives they enhance and give back to the community that has helped them and their family back on their feet. We are more and they are more for the experience. Isolating people and imprisoning people because they are refugees makes us all lesser for we miss out on building amazing connections with people that may look very different but we realise at the end of the day, there is no difference at all. Why is it that we see the difference, which is skin deep, and not what binds us, which is everything?
We still carry this warped perception of ‘us and them’, like they are something so different and so far away it allows us to look the other way when they need us most.
My life is certainly more richer and fuller with refugees in my life
Perhaps when we realise that we are all refugees from the true love of Brotherhood we would find our way home.
When we understand the true meaning of responsibility we will know how we are the creators of such hardships of life regardless of where they are occurring, and so it is our responsibility to support those in need so they too can live responsibly and lovingly with one another.
When we get over the fact that we are indeed all one people, one nation one world we may just see that we do not need any manmade borders.
‘“What is truly going on here that in our so called modern age (with all the technology and infrastructure that we have) we have ‘refugees’?”’ This question is the one that truly needs pondering on, very deeply. We have no advancement at all if humanity is still suffering at any level.
Having to leave your home to travel a dangerous journey to then potentially reach unfriendly shores is a brave thing to do. To uproot your family, leave your job, your neighbours, your friends, everything familiar for the safety of your life and for those who you love is a massive decision to make. Perhaps to admire the person who makes this decision is a starting point in seeing the humanity in everyone who is called a refugee.
We celebrate and marvel and the newest iPhone yet still have refugees and war and a list of ills longer than a toilet roll. If we did nothing but look at the ills we’d get depressed very quickly, but celebrating and focusing on objects will never make the ills go away. Connecting to ourselves and then others, now thats when things start to shift.
Refugees are all human beings just like us. And we should welcome them like fellow human beings, when they flee to our countries. And of course if there are terrorists among them, or refugees abusing their status for economic gain only, than people like that have to be sent back. But even those people can be warmly welcomed first as fellow human being.
Refugees are people who have been displaced from their country of origin because of atrocities that most of us have never and will never see in our day to day lives – and for this reason we really need to be more compassionate and understanding as we support them to assimilate into our society.
I work with refugees and I absolutely love them, I have learnt so much from them. I find it a real joy to connect and mix with others confirming my knowing that we are all the same – Love.
Instead of concentrating on our own patch as it where, we need to look afar to where problems are happening and to be on the front foot with new initiates and ideas that could help whole nations before it becomes too late and they feel they have no other choice then to move from their home place. We can play a role in offering what we know works.
“It’s as though they are not humans, they are something else – a burden on us, a nuisance, a plague of unwanted debris – and not our responsibility”, This was quite shocking to read but we can’t deny that this is the reality that faces so many refugees. How far have we strayed from true community and compassion for another in need that we can treat another human being so horrendously? If we were to return to living in community, in brotherhood, we would be able to offer so much support to the displaced members of our human family. From the littlest offering of a warm meal to the bigger offering of a bed to sleep in, every offer would come with the love and support of all, something that is so very urgently needed in this world where we are living in so much separation from our fellow man.
We start with opening our heart to the possibility of being the love that we are and then we live that love letting everyone we meet in and then and only then will we be able to successfully open our borders and be able to offer people a safe haven. It is up to each and everyone of us to take responsibility for what is happening
Perhaps it is not about whether a person is considered a refugee or not, but rather if they are considered a person, with a family, friends, a sense of humour, a liking to certain tastes, smells and textures. A person who dreams, sleeps and drinks water. A person whose aspirations go beyond finding shelter after displacement from their country. A person who can philosophise about life and see the bigger picture when it is called for. A person who has love in their heart for the people in their life. All of these qualities and many more are perhaps what needs to be considered and given respect for dignity to be lived.
I guess it is not that we don´t care as such but that our fears and need for security have the upper hand. As long as we are controlled by our need for security (and comfort) we will have difficulties to cultivate our innate love and care for each other that without any hurt or fear would be our natural way. Getting to the root cause is at least partially a matter of healing our hurts and facing our fears.
The dictionary says refugee means a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.So since when did we stop caring about our fellow men and instead, reduce them to a label and forget about the equal human being that needs our help and support?
I visited a mocked up refugee camp a couple of weeks ago to raise awareness of the status of refugees, at this event I learned that refugees spend on average 17 years in camp, seventeen years, that blew me away. So think, right now there are millions of displaced people living in tents with nowhere to go and little to nothing supporting them and they have years of this to endure. Isn’t that a terrible indictment on us as a global humanity. To have so little regard for our fellow brothers. But in truth we never see them as brothers as we are so bound up in the illusion of our cultures, our religions, our nationality, our race, the wealth we have attained that we wish to consume with. It is all driven by fear but what are we really afraid of, as so often we have our eyes pointing in the wrong direction, trusting the wolf in sheep’s clothing and slaughtering the lambs.
Christopher, you wrote such a great blog with so many great considerations for us all.
Thank you so much. I will put it on Facebook for all to read.
What if the ‘refugees’ became an equal part of our society, as they all truly deserve to be, no longer mirroring the hate and mistrust we project onto them? And in this they could start to feel ‘safe’ again?
How arrogant we are to think that turmoil, war, abuse, famine that occurs in another country is not our problem. Are we not part of one humanity? How is it that we have become so inane to the reality of what is happening around us, and the trouble that we are really in as a humanity, or a civilisation? Ok so we think that if we shut off to the trouble that is occurring in one part of the world, we are immune to the effect this has on us. Or worse that these people are somehow different to us because they live in another country and it is OK for them to live in conditions that we ourselves would say ‘NO’ to, as it is their problem. We need to deeply consider our stance on how we view refugees as that are people the same as us all, how we view our civilization, and the way we address and resolve the problems, the disharmony that arise. For as you have so wisely shared Chris – ‘Every drop, from the tiniest kind word uttered from a place of love to the grandest action, will help the world become a better place for us all to live in, together.’ And this is where we need to begin, with the way we live our own lives first.
“What is truly going on here that in our so called modern age (with all the technology and infrastructure that we have) we have ‘refugees’?” – This really exposes the gaps in our society today. Our ‘intelligence’, if it as ‘intelligent’ as we think it to be, is considerably inconsistent if you look at these gaps under the naked eye. Imagine if we took a microscope to it.
Yesterday I watched a short video filmed by a young girl who had travelled to safety from Sierra, or so she thought. They were put in a boat big enough for 15 people and crammed in 50 women, children and their husbands. You could tell that the children were absolutely terrified as many were crying, then the boat nearly sank and they had to be rescued by the coast guards. At some part of her journey she was robbed by buying a fake ticket to Macedonia, so she tried to cross the border to Macedonia with many others, and was tear gassed. Eventually she had to borrow 7000 euro to get a fake passport and air flight out of the country, and was picked up at the other end where she was registered as a refugee. Now how desperate must you be to have to go through that, and not only as a young women but parents who have small children to look after – we do them an injustice when we automatically think that they want to come to Europe, or anywhere for that matter, and leave their homes.
You raise some great questions Christopher. The state of the world and international relations is always going to be a direct reflection of what is happening on a micro or personal level. When we raise the standard of our relationships, we are in fact contributing to a change on a much larger scale than we often care to appreciate.
When chatting about the ” question ” of refugees I always ask myself and others if they were a refugee how would they like to be treated. Be assured that a lot of the “refugee crisis ” is created by the western counties that make weapons and sell for the purpose of greed profit. Just consider the weapon of land mines and just to name one country as an example Spain makes and sells land mines of course there are many more countries.
So in simple terms the ” refugee ” is not the issue the refugee is the result of the issues we in the western world do not want to look at , as in this example we are content to make devices that kill people . That is how we treat people never mind people who become ” refugees”
It is only when we have a sense of ‘one world – one life’ in its deepest sense will we start to unravel the separation that brings such grief.
As a society we have learnt to live in total comfort, always thinking about self and nothing else so anything that comes in the way of that we attack in order to avoid responsibility and treat each other with respect and equality as true sons of God.
“….. have we forgotten that we are all the same? And that despite our circumstance, no one person is better than another.” In response I would say yes we have forgotten. There is fear that refugees will somehow deprive us of something. Yet so many have gone on to give back to their new home country. It is said that a society can be valued by how it treats its weakest members. Things don’t look good for us in the West then.
The way we view “refugees” is very exposing of where we are at as a society. We’ve categorised them and somehow in that process seem to have stripped them of their humanity. We’re all a part of it. Even if we are not against letting them into our countries, would we let them into our homes? Do we speak up about the fact that our fellow humans are treated the way they are – be it by our own government or theirs? It’s is a global problem.
Part of the fear generated around refugees is fear of the unknown, and particularly the fear that our relative comfort might be disturbed in some way shape or form.
I wonder how much of this starts with family and the way we treat and are within our own family. Do we love and accept our family members unconditionally? Are we there in times of need or is that seen as a burden and a taking up of our time? As a society, if our own homes are not in great loving shape, it can then be super challenging to extend that love and care out to others. Where does it all start and how did we end up in the state we are in where we don’t care for our global, local or blood brothers and sisters? Perhaps it starts with ourselves and the love and care we genuinely, truthfully and honestly show ourselves.
What is shared here is very significant for the coming decades, for the foreseeable future the numbers of refugees is only going to increase. Accepting this as a reality that all of us have in some way contributed to would go a long way towards changes happening where we will see support, love and welcoming of those who find themselves in such a horrific circumstance. Unless we have lived without prejudice, judgement or jealously of any another, we have been equal contributors to the atrocities we now have in our world that have created the reality of people needing to move country to find a home in which they can reasonably safely care for their families. As all wars and conflict are fueled by these emotions.
The crazy thing is that many of these so called refugees are actually qualified, learned and respectful citizens that are equal to you or I. If a modern country like NZ was involved in some kind of major war that the world disapproves of and many were displaced, the people from NZ would become the refugee that many in that nation were judging, labelling and complaining about. How ironic is this situation and it shows how inhumane these labels truly are.
We are often so caught up in our own little world that we do not see what is happening beyond. To allow ourselves to be open and interested in another and listening with an open heart opens us up to the bigger picture and brings understanding, and this is all that is needed as it will rekindle the compassion that we naturally feel for each other and thus the knowing of what needs to be done.
I remember as a child Cambodian refugees came to New Zealand and the ones in my home town were beautiful people and even then I couldn’t believe the horrors they had gone through and the dangerous boat journey to get there. I can’t remember any hostility towards them, but maybe there was and I was too young to realise. You are right Christopher nobody owns this planet and we should all have a safe place to go to if trouble does erupt where we are from. I can only imagine how removed from our feelings we would have to make ourselves be in order to survive such an ordeal such as having to up and leave everything behind and flee for your life, only to be treated as sub-human when getting to supposed safety.
Dehumanising people and thinking we are better is as old as time. You would think we would have learnt by now that this attitude will never work and will always keep us backward and un evolving.
Such a beautiful thing to ponder on what is our feeling against refugees, why are they so demeaned in society? It is our responsibility to see that it is just our responsibility to see the world as our home and refugees as fellow brothers needing support. We are all part of this one humanity and so should we take the responsibility.
“If we stop to realise that together as a worldwide brotherhood we could act to make changes together, to meet these fellow equal human beings with compassion, with love, honesty and respect instead of the way we treat them now, perhaps they would no longer be the ‘problem’ we all fear.” The answers are often very simple however with accepting them we become aware of the responsibility we have and are asked to step up to them.
‘We call them a problem before we even meet them’ – True Christopher, globally we are looking at refugees as a ‘problem’ and it’s obvious to see that this approach is NOT respectful, loving, considerate or working full stop. We are all being offered an opportunity to deepen our local communities AND global one unified community, and it is OUR resistance to this that has created this ‘refugee crisis’, not the families who are fleeing because of conflict and unrest in their countries.
Well said, the opportunity is there, how are we responding to it? Do we see those fleeing as any different? I would flee if that was happening in my home. We sit in judgement of things we know so little about because we have not seen ourselves as part of the same body, we have fallen for the illusion of individuality.
We are all complicit in the wars these people are fleeing and then punish them by dehumanising them for fleeing! The madness that is our world today is baffling if you don’t understand that other energies are at play that do not want humanity to remember thier humanity! Brotherhood is our natural state.
We get so identified with being from a certain country, and this is confirmed by everything around us that celebrates the part of the world we live in, the nationality, the culture. We even have surveys and ratings that tells us the greatest part of the world to live in, the pockets of wealth and health. Yet as mentioned by many on the comments, what value does this have if others are suffering. It is a failure of our humanity that we only care about ourselves, or our perceived own. But what if our perceived own people is just a massive illusion, and that the differences we fear in others are in fact not real either.
Maybe if we didn’t refer to these people as Refugees and instead we see them as our brother human beings and have compassion for these people fleeing from disasters and war in their own country it would make a difference! I feel as Australians we have a rich country and need to open our hearts to these equal brothers.
“We do not own this planet, though many think they do. We are all one global community so anything that happens on this planet is for us all to consider. We are all custodians of this planet – and this crisis of refugees is on our watch.” This is huge and exposes how trapped humanity is in the belief that chasing personal security is all that matters, that there is an us and them, and worse than that there is an us ‘or’ them and that we need to look after our own.
It is a great question to ask: How come “in our so called modern age (with all the technology and infrastructure that we have) we witness people being forced to live as refugees” and how come we have other atrocities around us in our world?
I find it very arrogant to think that it is not our problem in some of the situations the western and developed countries have had a big influence into the creation of the refugee plight.
Refugees are in dire need of everyones help and have been through enough trauma without then being turned back or stuck in camps. What freaks me out is that there is enough money and resources in the world to save lots of people from the misery they are going through but it is all in the hands of so few.
What a timely and powerful wake up call for us all Christopher, a call for humanity to take responsibility and work together in brotherhood treating each and everyone of us equally and with true love. Sadly in this modern society we do seem a far cry from this truth.
It’s so past time to consider this! The way asylum seekers are treated is disgraceful. the timescales by which people are meant to be ‘processed’ – like hello, people are not pieces of meat – are months, even years out because the systems are not in place to support them. People are interviewed whilst in states of distress and with limited time or understanding of cultural background and ability to answer questions. I’ve heard from people who have worked with young asylum seekers and it’s people being reduced to a number.
Whilst the UK press calls to protect national’s money and well-fare what’s really happening as people subscribe to this mentality is a huge loss of richness to all of us. Every miss-treatment of another leaves us poorer and more bereft.
There is a big responsibility for us all in this – even thought the majority are not in a position to make changes in government, we need to be doing everyday things to make changes. Like being aware of our reactions to our family, our friends and work colleagues. If we can’t get along with them, then how do we expect countries and so forth to welcome each other. The change starts in our home and with people closest to us.
I agree we do seem to wilfully avoid asking the true questions and taking responsibility for every aspect of life. We are not asking what is truly going on here whether it applies to refugees, war with each other or war with our own bodies as the global obesity, exhaustion and ill health shows.
It’s sickening how we facilitate this ongoing hate. How can a group of people fleeing torture be a nuisance to us. How?
I have never been a refugee, but I have arrived at a foreign land by sea and been either welcomed or treated as I don’t belong there. I used to wonder as a child, how anyone could treat people so differently, we are all the same and we all share the same world. Where did this ownership of land come from and how can we separate and say this is my border you can’t come in. I personally love seeing a blend of cultures and colours, people of different nationalities and races living together. Why do we fear that if we share there won’t be enough.
“If we stop to realise that together as a worldwide brotherhood we could act to make changes together, to meet these fellow equal human beings with compassion, with love, honesty and respect instead of the way we treat them now, perhaps they would no longer be the ‘problem’ we all fear.” Very true Christopher. When we think of others as being different we go into comparison and that can feed feeling ‘better than’ in the case of refugees. We are all the same under our skin and we all need to be treated equally, regardless of ethnicity, race, age and gender.
Your love for humanity is clearly felt through this blog, it is beautifull. We are all equal and yes I agree I do not think we who live our comfortable lives just realise how much trauma many people including children have been through. We are all brothers and sisters, we are all One. Only the other day on the radio was the question ‘should we let 300 children in or not!’. Who are we to even ask this as a question, its incredibly arrogant, if the shoe was on the other foot I am sure we would want the help and support. This is a great question “What is truly going on here that in our so called modern age (with all the technology and infrastructure that we have) we have ‘refugees’?” Something is clearly not working. And this says it all for me ….. ‘We do not own this planet, though many think they do. We are all one global community so anything that happens on this planet is for us all to consider. We are all custodians of this planet – and this crisis of refugees is on our watch.’ Beautifully said. This has made me stop and reflect what am I doing in my local area and globally to help support those in need, I feel some loving action is needed here. Thank you ????
When there is, at times, a national crisis that displaces people from their homes, there is often a rallying together of nations to try and find a solution, with many wonderful people working extremely hard to support and at times rescue those caught in the cross fire. The people who do this are very precious because they are actively communicating, by their actions – that regardless of race, nationality or culture, people have value. The key is however, for none of us to be caught up in the identity of this – nether the victim nor the saviour – but simply addressing the fact that there need be no war.
To start with we de-humanise people when we refer to them as refugees; we do not want them to rock our comfortable lives; we go into fear that there will not be enough space (Uk is a small island); along with taking our jobs, but one thing that has always stood out for me is that people must be pretty desperate to risk their own lives and that of their children – especially as they know others have died trying. We as a humanity have a long way to go when it comes to helping our brothers and sisters.
Thank you Christopher for exposing something as serious as the refugee crisis, which is the coldness and lack of willingness to understand or relate to people experiencing extreme hardship and reaching out for support. I cannot help but feel that part of this is the attitude that so long as our lives are ok what’s happening to others does not matter.
How revealing of the many ways in which we classify, box and compartmentalise people and life which allows such depths of abuse and de-valuing behaviour to take place.
If we saw life for what it truly is and each person as our fellow brother, would we allow such ills and harm to take place?
Now, more than ever, it is so important for the world to see that we are all one global community. As is shared here – not too long ago we all shared the same DNA and I’m sure most people would be surprised to find that they have bits of DNA from all over the world. The fact is we’re all connected to each other and yet our behaviour suggests otherwise. All we are doing is creating separation and disharmony when we could all work together and support each other and not have these wars.
I’ve had the honour of working with someone recently who exemplifies one ‘who walks the talk’. A beautiful young woman with not only a depth of knowledge of her subject ‘Equality,’ but lives it. And how do I know this? it is felt in the way she relates and supports you. She listens, is open, generous and efficient too. Her sensitivity, dedication and deep love of all people can be felt. One of a growing number willing to stand up and oppose the de-humanisation and mistreatment of people seeking refuge or asylum and share the understanding that if each one of us is a member of one global community we should not be closing borders and building walls.
I agree and I think we have, “On considering this further I wondered – have we forgotten that we are all the same? And that despite our circumstance, no one person is better than another.” This is a living process we need to all deal with and simply using the words “we are all the same” is hollow without the ongoing expression of it. So it’s not about walking around telling everyone we are equal either or turning up to a peace rally or similar. It’s about having a look at how you are, the quality you are in and around things like this. How are you with children? Do you treat them with a care and respect equal to you or do you swing to the over and under this mark? We all have a part in this and to turn a blind eye or to say something without the continued action of the same is just our way of not dealing with that very fact.
I agree Ray. Words alone do not bring about change, only our lived expression does this. And as you say it is often in the smallest of movements that confirm who we are in relationship with others: how are we with children, parents, friends, colleagues? What message do we send, equal or differential status, loving or not?
You raise a very valid point here Christopher, that when we still have refugees in our so called advanced world, whether we have ever gotten to the root cause of the separation that is and has been so prevalent in this world. Has anything truly changed in regards to how we are with each other as a one humanity or have we only focused and changed the outer layer of our appearance?
This is a great blog, with a call to be more honest about our relationship with the word and whole concept of the word refugee, which is a de-humanising word that strips away at the natural balance of human understating.
Thank you Christopher. This gives us much to consider and ponder on. How are we with so called ‘outsiders” ? How do we view them and treat them? We know we are all equal but do we meet others in that equality and what do we do when they do not respond from that same place? How do we deal with conflict ? And on an ongoing basis?
It’s a sad reality that refugees have been used as a political football – that even the future or present leaders of the world are more concerned about their own career and future than the future of countless others.
It’s important to look at the big picture here, as you rightly point out. People are influenced (an imposition) by fear rather than presenting the truth the way you do here, Christopher. As I was reading I thought about what if we put ourselves in their (the refugees) shoes, how different would that feel then. It’s too easy for us to sit back and say ‘not my problem’ – when even defending the support for our refugee brothers a conversation begins to make a difference.
The movement of people across lands has become an explosive topic in Europe lately, as many have been fleeing war in neighbouring countries. When I hear the figures on the news of just how many people have fled I am always staggered by the sheer numbers, 100’s of thousands of people displaced. And I wonder what it must be like to suddenly be caught in such a massive tide of human movement. To leave your autonomy behind and be suddenly dependant on the ‘good will’ of other people. It must be very challenging on many levels.
The question of refugees and how we have been approaching this situation highlights the inherent flaw with the way we view the world. We see it as ‘progress’, higher skyscrapers, bigger medical machines, better tracking devices (all things to ‘mend’ the mess we have made) instead of looking at the basis of it all which is to deepen our love for each other and care for each other in the way we ourselves would love to be cared for (without sympathy!) As you so well say Christopher: ‘What if rather than the question “What should we do with them?” or “How can we send them back?” we might consider –
“What is truly going on here that in our so called modern age (with all the technology and infrastructure that we have) we have ‘refugees’?”’ We do know what is going on and we largely choose to ignore it.
Thank you Christopher for bringing up this subject. We cannot turn a blind eye to this situation any more. There is something deeply awry in the way that we ‘live’ together (or not) and inhabit this planet. Life is about Brotherhood – love one another as yourself, and this must be the basis, at the very least, that we live upon as a world. As you say:
‘We do not own this planet, though many think they do. We are all one global community so anything that happens on this planet is for us all to consider. We are all custodians of this planet – and this crisis of refugees is on our watch.’ This is a very powerful statement and is the one next big step for humanity to get before we can all heal. Thank you Christopher (true to your name’s meaning! – ‘carrying Christ’).