6 years ago
4
Europe at Its Ugliest: The Refugee Scandal on the Island of Lesbos
As winter arrives, the situation on the Greek island of Lesbos is unsustainable. Conditions at the refugee camps are horrific and island residents are tired of being left in the lurch by Athens and the EU. A visit to ground zero of European ignominy. By Giorgos Christides and Katrin Kuntz.
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http://www.spiegel.de
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This really sets the tone, and I don't think that's completely justified. I mean, there's some truth to saying that you'd like to only accept refugees who truly needed to flee their old country, since you can't just accept literally anyone who shows up. I think that's what bothers me about the article - I completely agree that the situation sucks and that there's no way to justify the conditions in Lesbos or other places, but it's really damn easy to then blame that on the EU (or mainland Greece, or whoever) without proposing an alternative mechanism to handle the situation.
It's not up to you to solve the world's problems. Likewise, it's not these reporters' jobs to fix the policy missteps that led to this. Considering conditions there, I wouldn't say it was easy for them to've produced this piece. Someone for whom it was 'easy' wouldn't have the heart to've done it as well. I don't think they ought to be expected to invent a time machine, go back and master World Affairs in exactly the way they would need in order to avert modern catastrophe. There are people far more responsible that've been drawing salaries far better than theirs who're actually culpable.
Too true, but I guess I've become somewhat jaded by reading quite a few really in-depth articles like this one (with Dutch reporters going along with refugees for most of the journey, for example), and the end conclusion just ends up being that the system sucks. It certainly does, but I suppose I don't much like that feeling of helplessness. There's quite a few discussions like that going on in the Netherlands at the moment, and I don't think the main arguments or proposed solutions have changed at all in the past five years, so I'm just hoping the next in-depth view of the issues will somehow come up with a fantastic solution that makes everyone happy. I can keep dreaming, right?
I know what you mean. Too many like this and that. Too few like this one and the other.