Today I come to talk about a situation that concerns us all, but is known by few. The most feared word today. The skin tone most feared by nearby European countries. IMMIGRATION.
In recent months, exactly in Lanzarote, a high number of boats have arrived, overflowing the few centers prepared for immigrant minors. Beds are scarce, and so is human conscience. First, let's put ourselves in the situation.
Many years ago (not really that many), the Canary Islands were experiencing a general crisis. Our grandparents, their parents, their friends and siblings, many were forced to emigrate. There in South America they intended to find a better life, escape unemployment and poverty and sacrifice their lives to send some money to their families. This is how they got jobs, some even new families, all involving a great effort for all those people. As I said, that was years ago, a different situation from the one we live in today.
Today those people are not Canarians traveling to America. Today they are Africans traveling to the Canary Islands, among other places. They arrive with absolutely nothing, they don't expect to see their family again, they don't expect to have a job when they arrive, they don't expect a plate of hot food waiting, they don't expect to have a roof without working... they only expect to SURVIVE. But then, why do we separate them from our society? very easy, INTOLERANCE. How beautiful everything is when nothing is known. That's how we emigrate, that's how they emigrate. If we know what it is to suffer, to flee from your native land, why do we have to make it more difficult for them?
Lately the number of BOATS is increasing, an unstable boat overflowing with people. These people sacrifice their lives, they are humans with no other remedy than to cross the sea. They seek to LIVE, it is no longer a question of living better or worse, but to LIVE. However, we continue to judge, by their skin tone, their way of speaking, their way of dressing, their way of acting, their way of looking, their way of playing... and then is when we say, we are not racist. Very well, we start from that idea, that racism is no longer a problem, we accept blacks, whites, yellows, reds, violets... of all colors, but we cannot accept the need for help and shelter that they are crying out for.
Today I feel disappointed, we are all people. None of us has chosen the place of our birth. We have not been lucky enough to be born here. They have not been unlucky enough to be born there. But we are all responsible for what happens in Africa, the poor Africa product of colonization, the exploited Africa product of the big companies, the Africa that cries suffering all known diseases, the Africa that gives everything in exchange for nothing, the illiterate Africa that nobody wanted to teach, the colonized Africa whose borders nobody wanted to respect, the Africa of slaves where humanity did not exist...
But we are not racist, we don't want them to come and take our jobs, or to play with our children. We don't want them to shop in the same stores as us, but we don't want to see them naked in the streets. We don't want to give them the opportunity to work, but we don't want them to live on "state money". We don't want ghettos to exist, but nobody wants to accept them.
We need to wake up, and soon. WE ARE HUMAN, but we need humanity. If you see people in need, who only want to get a better life, don't make it even more difficult for them. You don't have to be a volunteer in a center or in the emergency teams that rescue them. What is needed is that you don't give them a bad face when you cross paths with them, that you don't throw them out of your town like infected lepers, don't teach your children that they are not good, don't blame them for being born in a country in need. And don't judge them for not having the opportunities that you have been given.
This piece of land is not ours, this piece of land will allow thousands of humans to be saved, this piece of land wants to feel life. Let's be thirsty for life. Let's be humans living with other humans.
"If the homeland were like a loving mother who gives shelter and sustenance to her children, if they were given land and tools to sow, no one would abandon their homeland to go and beg for bread in other countries where they are despised and humiliated" (Librado Rivera).
By Teresa Fajardo Negrín
(It is clarified that this text is a simple point of view, at no time does it try to debate
opinions, a mere criticism. It is not only aimed at Lanzarote or the Canary Islands, but also at all the
places that try to avoid waves of immigration by all possible means in the European Union
Europe and our own country)
