“No one is born hating another person because of the color of their skin, their origin, or their religion. People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can also be taught to love. Love comes more naturally to the heart than its opposite,” said Nelson Mandela.
Of course, we are doing something very wrong as a society, judging by the comments we can read these days in local digital media and on social networks. Have we really reached such a degree of dehumanization? How can there be such damaging comments, such manipulation of information and demagoguery on such a serious issue?
Mandela speaks of “learned”, not innate, hatred towards those who are different. And he is right. That hatred - racism and xenophobia after all - is what a sector of the local population is showing these days towards the migrants who arrive on our islands and are being relocated to hotels and apartments.
There is no doubt that the measure is controversial, delicate, questionable. This article does not intend to judge the suitability of this action since there are experts in the field for that. Underlying this issue is a major problem that, of course, is not well resolved and has to do with the migration policies of the European Union and the actions of the member states.
If we add this underlying discomfort - understanding that we have been dragging the inefficiency of governments (at all levels) for a long time who have not been able to resolve it - to the general tension and the wear and tear that the crisis caused by Covid-19 is causing, one could understand that the atmosphere becomes convulsive. But, in any case, shouldn't the response of citizens who disagree with these measures be against the decision-makers?
How can it be explained that hatred is against those who abandon their homes to avoid starving to death. We have failed as a society if we have taught that hatred, instead of teaching to love, returning to the quote from the Nobel Peace Prize winner. And what needs to be considered is how to reverse the situation and unlearn that hatred.
What is happening these days is temporary, transient and no less serious for that. It can have a solution if society mobilizes, in an organized way, and uses legal tools and elements of pressure to achieve effective measures at the highest level. But hatred does not vanish like the wind.
Marta Armas
Director of Marmas Comunicación