Do you know how you sometimes read those stories of herds of animals excluding one particular member of their group because they are a different colour or have some weakness which only they can sense?
Well, we humans are no different. Go to any playground around the world and you can see examples of this first-hand. Children can be exceptionally cruel; many times, not because they have any malicious intent but because the components of compassion and empathy are still not yet developed enough in them. How far these elements of one’s character end up being developed depends mostly on the environment they are raised in and the examples set by those closest to them.
Fear is another thing we are hardwired to feel from birth but our environment too conditions what we feel fearful of.
The smaller the space we inhabit and the scarcer the resources, the more people close ranks against anything which in their view might threaten the status quo. On a primordial, instinctual level this might make sense to many: it might even justify killing or letting people die. Only it does not.
Last weekend, while we were all munching happily on our figolli and demolishing our Easter eggs and waistlines, over 100 people were left stranded and to fend for themselves as our ports remained shut, deaf to their desperate pleas for help.
No mother gets on a boat with her child unless her home is a mouth of a shark
Days later, we were informed that five were found dead. Even now my mind is grappling with what these people must have gone through, almost as much as it is grappling with the sea of disgusting comments that I have been forced to bear witness to: a testament to how racism blinds and makes the detestable justifiable.
Of course, many have argued that you’re not racist just because you care about your country’s resources and that it makes sense to take extra precaution in such internationally trying times, but the words they use to supposedly defend their position tell a different story.
You see, this is why language is so important: it has the ability to unmask you. Every day, I am reminded more and more of how a democratically- elected Hitler was able to convince millions of people that turning on their “different” neighbours and reducing them to livestock was a fair thing to do. We do not learn.
Regardless of everything that is going on, aside from the pointing of fingers which so many of us seem to relish, people cannot and should not be allowed to die. Arguing that they should have stayed where they were is tantamount to locking the stable after the horse has bolted.
It is not only futile but it also shows a great lack of understanding and empathy for situations that ultimately none of us have experienced ourselves. No mother gets on a boat with her child unless her home is a mouth of a shark. No man puts the woman he loves in danger unless he is certain that his home is fraught with more terror than daring the dangers of the sea.
Allowing people to die and saying it’s justified in the name of public health is not just contradictory but it also sets a dangerous precedent. We cannot simply ignore our red-stained water: your life is not worth more than someone else’s by virtue of where you were born.
You’re not better, you’re just luckier.