(Photo: xinhua/AFP)
The boat smashed into the rock, shattered into pieces, dozens of asylum seekers are dead along with bodies of children and women in the rough sea of Christmas island just two weeks before the Christmas event. Screaming of the rest, who are not dead yet, with pieces of floating debris echoing back and forth between heaven and earth for begging a last chance to have nice life in Australia. These asylum seekers had come from the hells (it seems by feeling desperation of these people) of Iraq and Iran. Earlier we observed hundreds of ethnic Tamil packed up in a ship along with their women and children begged ‘last chance’ for a nice life in Canada. They sailed from the hell (apparently appeared from their despair) of Sri Lanka. The term ‘boat people’ is already the subject of research in south and south-east Asian context where unskilled poor people from Bangladesh, Burma, and so on took the dangerous journey through rough sea crossing the shore of Thailand and Indonesia towards the ‘heaven’ with limited food and health facility. Some of them were detained in Thailand caught by sea patrol, some of them died on board and some of them returned home empty hand only having experience half way to the heaven.
The questions are What is wrong in these hells on the face of earth? and what does drive people towards the heaven? For example, everybody knows that Iraq is a war ravaged country, which prove ‘despair’ of asylum seeker. Though US has finished its mission there driven by moron father-son foreign policy, reconstruction and state building process really have not got any shape. Every other day someone blast himself or herself in the name of holy God causing bloody tragedy leaving some dead around. The picture is same in Afghanistan. Therefore, desperation among citizens of these nations to look for a heaven is justified. Situation in Iran is not that bad. The country is not war-torn and not even under civil unrest. The country is not, in fact, financially poor. Proposed biblical war is till date a myth. Probably some kind of suffocation either political or religious could have chased these people on the wooden boat to find land of eternal peace.
Ethnic Tamil and their revolutionary freedom fighters had been cleansed by Sri Lanka government that might have led some groups of people to get on boat. Some traveled towards heaven in the east and some towards west. Burma is a well-known place where generals and their relatives should have all the pleasures in life and the Suu Kyi’s followers as well as ethnic minorities will live in perpetual poverty and suppression. Thus, they join others on boat searching for a heaven. India, one of the emerging economy having two richest man out of top ten billionaire in the world, is becoming job market for US citizens. Probably economic boom is counted on the basis of indicators like GDP, national income, reserves and so on that do not count the suicidal farmers, job less dalits, or mass people living below poverty line. Neither ten thousand garment factories alone use the millions of unskilled labors in Bangladesh nor the landless farmers helplessly seeking space in urban slum can see light at the end of the tunnel. Desperate migration of jobless people, refugees and asylum seekers are justified for right to livelihood – right to work – right to have adequate house – right to educate their children – right to health, in fact, for having minimum quality of life that their home countries fail to give them for long what they are entitled to.
Sailing from hell to heaven is driven by the hope to have such minimum quality life with dignity. Bigger picture is that not only these poor and unskilled people, out of poverty-stricken or war ravaged nations, desperately seeking heaven but also the educated as well as skilled people are in despair for similar mission towards heaven. Tire 1 visa in UK, permanent resident status in Australia and citizenship in Canada are the legal ways around where these skilled people from the hell migrate with around five to ten thousand dollars cash for year-round survival money to find a suitable work in the heaven. However, in the end boats slam into rock, if alive boat people get some rest in the off shore detention camp. Eternal rest in the detention camp sometime ends in last breath and finally migrate to the real heaven along with their women and children riding on a boat of celestial light in the sea of colorful universe. Let them rest in peace!
Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture. and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s needs worldwide.
Swine Flu is spreading around. Tamil tigers are killed mercilessly as if cleansing virus by antibiotics, wild fires are burning forests and civilization into ashes, swat refugee crisis and killing field, repression and killings in Burma, North Korea nuclear enrichment, militants and rebels in Africa are getting aggressive out of frustration,Taliban and Islamic militants are on edge of despair, increasing cross boarder conflicts, earth quakes are shaking nations indiscriminately, Yellow stone is just waiting for the bell, Iran-Russia ties out of insecurity, Israeli’s desperation out of insecurity, rich nations are shaken by financial quake, jobs cuts shattered dreams of millions to have quality nice life, migrant workers are dying like animals in the construction field without little care, malnutrition children are dying in hunger, maternal mortality rate is rising, communicable and non communicable diseases are killing millions silently.
Flood, storms, drought, land slides, and sea level rise have threatened millions else where in the world. They call it negative impact of climate change. What is the underneath reason of climate change? Is that green house gas emission or something else? Earth quakes one after another in Indonesia, tsunami in Samoa after 2004 wash away, Typhoon Parma following super Ketsana and the latest Mirinae, cyclone victims in Taiwan, unusual cyclone in Fiji, alarming phase of hurricane activity in North America, and frequent earth trembles have been very unkind with the inhabitants of earth these days.
“Visionaries In Our Midst: Ordinary People who are Changing our World” is Allison Silberberg’s inspiring collection of essays that profiles ordinary people who are changing our world. Silberberg shares the stories of individuals who identified critical needs in their communities and responded with courage and conviction.
