"A dreadful disaster"

Your journey's done now,
Your journey's over
From homes in China
To distant Dover

You came in peace here
You came to work here,
We never knew you –
You died in the darkness.

We tried to keep you
Outside our border
A shuttered country
You could not enter.

You came in secret
Hidden and silent
Lying in the darkness
Breathing your last there.

Fifty eight bodies,
Just two survivors
Who should we blame now?
Let's blame the driver.

There was some film shown
You were waiting in Belgium
Just hardly children,
Tired out with travelling.

Oh what a pity,
Let's turn the channel.
We're not to blame, no.
Let's watch the football.

Let's watch the football
England defeated.
All through the papers.
"What a dreadful disaster"

We've had a thread about Plane Crash at Los Gatos the last few days - nothing much changes.

Le meas, Áine

There's saying in german telling something like: 'Ten dead is sad, ten thousand dead is an incident' (the original is much more sarcastic). What about 58?

Joerg

A recent container arrived with 28 dead refugees who had tried to stow away as cargo but misjudged the length of the journey. It was in the paper a few days ago. Terrible news, but at least it's out in the open now. It has been happening for years, but such common occurrence that it was not reported in the media.

And, Escamillo, I DO blame "developed" countries, or at least their politicians and media . . for legitimising greed and self-interest, and raising them to the status of a creed.

G.

Spaw

Sometimes I just pray for you, because your heart carries so much, and so well.

Know that you have a sister here, who holds you in her heart.

~Susan

I think that it is important to note that this is not a coincidence that this coincides with the discussion of deportee--these type of deaths occur every day--

While I was following the Elian Gonzales story, I became aware that the waters where Elian was found are called "The Sea of Death" because uncounted thousands die there every year. They die in fours and fives, even tens and twenties, and often go completely unnoticed. The ugly truth is that most die in these journies, and that we choose not to notice, unless forced to--in which case we regard it as an anomoly, and blame the driver.

This is an amazing place we've got there - I post some a set of words here in England, and within a couple of hours there are posts commenting on it from people in various parts of the USA, Australia, Germany, Argentina, and back to England. Round the world. It makes immigration controls seem a really weird idea. A weird idea that has fatal consequences.

Anyway, if you want to see the song with chords (and a few changes),click here for the relevant bit of my bebsite - it's got a link to a RealAudio file, if you want ot hear what it sounds like. But here's the link as well. I hope. These things don't always work... (You need RealAudio for that - it's a free download, and a link to it on my pages)

Amergin

"Macabre incident" - isn'that a great phrase? The Telegraph had leader writers like that at the time of the Irish Famine, saying the same kind of stuff.

There's a demo in support of the rights of asylum-seekers and refugees in London tomorrow (Saturday), I gather. Lincolns Inn Fields at some time. I can't make it, but good luck to anyone who does get there.

I shall be there in spirit.

I've decided to put together a DoItYourself Guide to putting songs on Real Audio, and stick it up on my wesbite (URL on my Mudcat profile). Not that I'm good at at that technical stuff, but that even could be an advantage.

There's masses of excellent advice up there on the net, and in books written for "dummies|" with PhDs and so forth, but I find that it's only after you've muddles your way through doing something that the advice starts to become slightly comprehensible. It's the same with books about playing instruments.

-- Áine

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.

Sometimes some horrible event will make people stop and start back in disgust at what they have colluded with. For some people the deaths in Dover will have that effect, and maybe for a few days the anti-immigrant rhetoric will calm down a bit. But I can't see the bandwagon changing direction just yet.

Here's what Paul Foot wrote in Tuesday's Guardian about te rally I mentioned earlier:

Q1: How many mainstream London-based daily and Sunday newspapers have devoted excessive space to activities and campaigns hostile to asylum seekers?

A: All of them.

Q2: How many such papers received a press release with details of a demonstration on June 24 welcoming asylum seekers and calling for an end to the campaign against them?

A: All of them.

Q3: How many of these papers even mentioned the demonstration when it was attended by more than 8,000 people and addressed by MPs and anti-racist campaigners?

A: None of them.

And, apart from that brief mention, that included The Guardian.

At that though, there is a particularly onerous bit of fiction that the pillars of "Western" society foster, and that is that inhumanity, brutality, and exploitation are somehow the exclusive province of the darker continents.

Penny