The flow of so-called “asylum seekers” out of Africa and the Middle East has become an epidemic.
The underlying cause was the British and US imperialist drive to access cheap raw materials and cheap energy, and their interventionist policy of forcing free market capitalism on the Third World in order to create markets for their goods and services.
All this under the hypocritical banners of Freedom and Democracy, and the assumption of the “The White Mans’ Burden” to educate, and impart their (Christian) values to primitive and ignorant savages, which was just an excuse for colonialism.
Along the way Europe and America destroyed well established and stable tribal structures in Africa and The MidEast, and supported the growth of amenable totalitarian and corrupt governments – the various African dictatorships in Africa (the most notable Robert Mugabe), The Shah in Iran, Mubarak in Egypt, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Assad in Syria. And as a consequence the turmoil and chaos that now exists around the World as people try to overthrow these regimes has led to this tsunami of illegal immigrants flooding into Europe.
It was Rudyard Kipling who coined the phrase THE WHITE MANS’ BURDEN in a poem subtitled “The United States and The Phillipine Islands”. This was an exhortation to the US to pick up the burden of imperialism and educate the “half devil/halfchild” Filipinos – an idea picked up enthusiastically by Theodore Roosevelt who thought it was America’s “manifest destiny” to develop less technologically educated nations.
But reading Kipling’s poem more than one hundred years later it has a deeply ironic resonance with its talk of “The Savage Wars of Peace”. That phrase deserves its own poem when you think of the blatant Liberal lies about WMDs that took us into Iraq. And his lines “The blame of those ye better – the hate of those ye guard” has an even deeper resonance when you think of Palestine where British Tommies tried to keep the peace between Jews and Arabs, and were blamed and hated, and slaughtered, by both sides. The Balfour Declaration, and Britain’s intervention in Palestine was surely one of the biggest political/diplomatic blunders in History? It is not our fight.
For all its faults, Europe, and its off-shoot the USA, remain the ultimate goal for millions of people seeking a better life. But this wonderful, free, democratic and deeply faulted society we are fortunate to live in is the consequence of 2000 years of struggle, bloodshed and sacrifice. Its affluence and freedoms have really only existed for the mass of the people in the 20th Century and specifically since the end of World War 2 and the rise of Socialist and Social Democratic priciples.
In comparison, Africa and The Middle East are in The Dark Ages. But they (quite rightly) asked and fought for their independence, and now they have to take on the responsibilties of independence and fight, and struggle and sacrifice to achieve a decent and just society. This is not our battle and we should not intervene.
It is the ultimate irony that while hundreds and thousands of young and active Africans and Arabs decamp to The West and live on welfare, Europeans, Americans and Anzacs pick up the modern White Mans’ Burden and go to their countries to fight and die in their battles.
I am opposed to illegal immigrants/asylum seekers. Seeking the soft option they will live for long periods on benefits and destabilize European society by overburdening the already strained health, welfare and education systems. Large numbers without education and language skills will function only in the black economy – and many of them will turn to a life of crime when they realize they are at the bottom of Western society’s competitive greasy pole. My admiration is reserved for those who stay and do battle for their country. To quote just two of them one “I won’t accept being a weak link in a 2,000 year old chain.” And “We are worth nothing if we are forced to live abroad.” These are people to be admired.
However, being a pragmatist, and accepting that the unholy alliance between the capitalist/industrial/military complex that wants perpetual war, and the Liberal urban elite who lie in their teeth to achieve their ends, I have a suggestion. Allow these illegal immigrants in if you will, but all men (and women?) between the ages of 18 and 40 should be given 12 month’s compulsory military training, and sent back to their countries for 2 years to fight. Those who object to potentially killing their brothers and cousins should be given medical training and serve as front line medics.
Then and only then will they earn the right to live in The West.
I have little experience of Africa – just two trips to Kenya in the space of 10 years. But I have lived and worked in The Arabian/Persian Gulf region over a period of 40 years.
If you want insights into the Middle East, and its harsh and apparently barbaric societies, and its corruption, from the perspective of weird and wonderful oilfield trash, expatriate characters who washed up there in the oil patch from 1960 to 2001, preview my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind” at:
and download it if you have a Kindle.
Or if you prefer a real book you can order the paperback edition from:
Using the ISBN number is 978-1908147097
They offer free delivery worldwide.
thegulfdotcom 