Think About It

Imagine going abroad. Not because you need to get a nice tan on the beach or because you have some extra Money to throw away on shopping in New York. Not even because you need to visit your family who has decided to relocate to country X.

Imagine being completely alone, without an idea of where you are going. Nobody will be meeting you at the airport with a big smile and a warm hug. Actually, you might not even survive. Maybe someone will throw you off the boat; although drowning might be preferable to starving.  If you’re lucky you will be hidden away in a prison-like room while people who have never seen you or talked to you will decide your destiny.

Would you be able to run away from the memories? Maybe you saw someone kill your family. Maybe you were gang raped and abused by some unknown soldiers who left you there to die. Maybe someone decided to stone you to death because you dared to open your mouth. What if you lived in place where stealing for food would be a bad idea because there is no food to steal, or where nice Westerners are using the inhabitants as guinea pigs or cheap entertainment? How about ethnic cleansing? That might sound like a nice and humanitarian experiment. After all, the people who survived are not even considered human by many.

And then, if you’re lucky, you might get out of the prison cell to face the world. A hostile world. A world that thinks that you are a loser and a beggar and a bum and spits you in the face. In that world you need to create yourself a new life, while you try to forget the old. Keeping your head up. Surviving. If you manage, you are probably the strongest person I have ever met.

Did you know that in 2007 there were about 11 million refugees in the world? Refugees, not immigrants, there are light-years in difference. People who were going through and surviving things so awful that we on our little pink clouds could never imagine.  

Think about it.