God Bless capitalism! please log in to view this image I'm surprised it wasn't big bad Cuba invading the USA and every other god fearing country!
A welcome change to the right wing agenda that many football fans have aligned themselves to over the years http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34142261
The German (and some other countries) reactions are really putting us to shame. And Cameron's lack of a reaction as PM, or his refusal to even admit that the desperate people dying and struggling there are even human is a disgrace! It's great to see the #refugeeswelcome hashtag being used, but depressing to see how much ignorant abuse and xenophobia there is on social media. I just heard about this - I haven't looked into it yet, but it sounds like a good idea http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/16M4UIKPSEIFM I'll look into it when I get a chance later and buy/donate something
I'm not sure if anybody else on here is involved in supporting the refugee crisis. But I'm involved with a group where I live. We are in the process of collecting donations and liasing with our contacts about dates to travel over to Calais. The pictures of those poor children drowned and washed up on the beaches was too much for me to sit back and do nothing. As a father I saw those images and thought any one of those children could have been my daughter. I find the whole reaction from our Govt and media (thus far) to be utterly reprehensible. They wanted us to believe that it was hordes of immigrants trying to 'break into Britain' to come and sponge off of our state. It's been the grass roots response of ordinary people that has forced the issue. If the people in power won't do anything, then **** them. We'll do it ourselves.
That is shocking! Especially with the 3-4 decades the USA have spent screwing up and messing with Nicaragua (and other Latin/Central American countries), propping up dictators, undermining governments who don't bend over backwards for USA corporations*. Imagine a country with a population of 6m and a crippled economy not only starting a war on, but invading the most powerful country in the world, with a population of 250m+!!! Hilarious! *Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent makes a good (if dated) read about geo-politics and goes into detail about what the USA has done to countries like Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala
The USA propped up a right wing dictatorship in Nicaragua for years,the people then rose up and the Sandanistas came to power.The Yanks then decided that there was no democracy in Nicaragua
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34141716 Anyone read this story on Abdullah Kurdi's family? It genuinely broke my heart. Utterly devastating, none of us could even begin to imagine what this man is going through. The worst part is there are loads more stories like this - some worse - and I hope we can all provide them with as much support and help as they can get.
Out of interest what do you all think is the answer? Plenty of outrage here about the big bad west and how awful we all are, but what is the solution? Send out ships to empty Syria of anyone who wants to leave? Bring them all over to Europe and set them up with lives here? Where should they be settled in Europe? Do we all agree to a quota? Do we just let the refugees and immigrants (because it's both) choose where they want to live? Do we worry about numbers or the backgrounds of people, or do we just ignore those details? Do we focus instead on the reasons why they are all fleeing and what we can actually do to help the route cause? Do we go to war in the Middle East again? There aren't any simple answers here.
Germany has said it expects to take almost a million people this year, so the 350k applications to the whole of the EU figure seems a bit off? Though I suppose that could just be the current figure with the EU expecting a lot more arrivals and applications to be made. Then the Brazil example is a bit of an odd one, the country has 200 million people to our 60 million, and 8.5 million km2 compared to our 243,000 km2. So we have taken 187, they presumably have taken 1870. What is trying to be put forward here? It's an attempt to make it look like other countries further away are dwarfing our support, but fails to take into consideration any differences between the countries. The video is clearly aimed at trying to give a certain image of the situation rather than an impartial analysis. That's not to say I don't think the issue is presented with an agenda from all sides at the moment.
Mehdi Hasan has never claimed he would be offering alternative points of view and he has made no secret of where he lies on the political spectrum. No prizes for guessing where he stands on this issue. Every news reporter or journalist has an agenda though whether it's implicit or explicit. The point about Brazil is about how far the refugees have had to travel in risking their lives and families when neighbouring countries or countries a lot closer to them have been less willing to help them in their time of need.
No Mehdi didn't, but you claimed it was some myth busting, when in fact it's an attempt to portray the situation in a particular light by using sensationalist techniques like making out it's only 350k people the whole of Europe needs to help between them. And using "10x more" flashing across the screen instead of saying Brazil took a couple of thousand people, which is far less dramatic. I agree though, different elements of the media have different agendas. It's just frustrating when it's put forward as being impartial when there's an obvious slant to the piece (I'm talking in general btw rather than particularly about this video).
But it's not about the number of people, it's about the fact that a country in an entire different continent has been willing to help out refugees when so many other countries have been reluctant to do so when they are much closer. Cameron would not have made the statements that he did yesterday if it wasn't for international and public pressure to do so. Given that I have been reading a lot of comments about people worrying about where these people fit in, where they are going to stay, whether they're going to contribute to society and that British people should be "prioritised first" (I'm not joking), I would suggest that this is a form of myth-busting because people need to understand the scale of the issue and realise how much or how little European countries are doing to help these people fleeing from war-zones.
I'm risking invoking Godwin's Law on this one, but I can't help feeling that this brings to mind one party from the past: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-armband-under-proposed-reforms-10489011.html This country's going backwards at a disturbing rate. Seriously disturbing stuff.
Not sure. Maybe he didn't have enough time to cover it in the 2 minute limit he had. I assume he wanted to bring up the main points and that involved dispelling myths that have been perpetuated by the government and right-wing groups. Cameron has said he will taken in 20,000 more Syrian refugees over the next 5 years. What do you think about this?
I think that what David Cameron says and what David Cameron does aren't necessarily the same thing. He's saying what he believes people want to hear right now. Whether he follows up on this remains to be seen. The Tory promises on immigration were completely unobtainable. I suspect that this might be a similar scenario.
Don't immigration figures include British immigrants (yes, they are immigrants) who have lived abroad but want to come back to the UK, in addition to international students, and those who live abroad but have secured employment in the UK for a new job? If this is the case, then it definitely distorts the numbers.
