"Macabre incident" is exactly the dehumanisation of the victims which (I have always understood) prompted Guthrie to write "Deportees". I didn't actually intend to suggest any more of a parallel than that, though I feel it goes much further. In both cases the implication of the "media" reporting is/was that the victims are responsible for their own fate . . used to minimise the enormity of what has happened.And I do accept that such incidents are not uncommon . . that doesn't lessen the extent to which they (and the whole issue of refugees, political and economic) is an afront to our common humanity and our pious declarations of belief in that humanity (e.g. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the US Constitution). I fail to see how our "Christian" leaders (US and UK) can square their political actions with their (loudly) professed beliefs. But then again I'm not much of a Christian, so perhaps I'm missing something.
G.