A very human tragedy

It was Friday morning. I woke up late; the consequences of having overdone it ridiculously the day before; mind you, at the venerable age of 51, it's good to know that one still can, and found an SMS message from my friend and fellow artist Debbie Caruana Dingli that said: "The photo on the back is one of the most moving images I have ever seen. The girl is just old enough to understand and feel frightened". Knowing that Debbie is in the process of collating an exhibition of which "immigration" is one of the main themes, I immediately presumed that yet another boat had arrived and sped down to the letterbox to retrieve my copy of The Times. There it was; a masterly portrait by Darrin Zammit Lupi of this beautiful little girl, her exquisite features marked by pain, suffering and misery with one solitary poignant tear running down her cheek.

We Maltese pride ourselves on how we love our children and grandchildren. We dote on them. We also pride ourselves about our generosity and hospitality. Now tell me. Had that little girl been your daughter or granddaughter would not that coursing tear not broken your heart? Would not that anguished little face move you to tears? And, yet, I have personally experienced people who, out of fear at best and ignorance at worst, declare that they would let these people drift out at sea to die an agonising death on an open boat in the desiccating summer sun and become fish food rather than have them in our midst. This is Nimbyism in its worst form.

What the eye does not see is merely an abstraction. The dead are just a number; a cold statistic to add to all the others that are thrown at us from all over the world. It is only when confronted with a picture as moving as the one taken by Mr Zammit Lupi that the terrible reality of this very human tragedy hits us; right between the eyes.

I fully understand the apprehension and worry of people who have grown to resent the growing number of immigrants in our midst. There are those who think that it is a subtle Islamic takeover. There are those who are afraid that these Africans will bring unknown diseases to infect their children. There are those who are afraid that they will take over our jobs. There are so many of these fears being bandied about, many of them groundless, that it is one of the great ironies that when they are brought into the Grand Harbour, instead of finding a people that, since the shipwreck of St Paul have been known for their kindness, they are confronted by police and soldiers who hurtle them into buses destined for a concentration camp! That little girl is now somewhere in that camp, sheltering from the blistering sun under hot canvas, wondering what is to become of her.

This is why we cannot call ourselves decent human beings let alone Christians and Catholics to boot if we even think, let alone say, that these people should not be rescued. It is tantamount to condoning murder.

On the other hand the problem that faces us is formidable. First of all it is one that is impossible to solve. No amount of prevention is possible while the African continent bleeds in civil wars and famines, dictatorial regimes that would make Hitler blush and impossibly sustainable political corruptions that have turned the continent upside down. From north to south and from east to west, Africa, beautiful and unspoilt as it is, is in great turmoil and what arrives here is the mere trickling of the ones who got away. We have also been told that Libya, from whose vast coastline all these boats set sail, is not cooperating at all. Despite ongoing talks and pressures, Muammar Gaddafi remains inscrutably obdurate.

Think of the bloodbaths of Darfur and Rwanda, think if the regimes of Idi Amin and Robert Mugabe and thank your lucky stars and the Lord above that instead you were born Maltese. We have our problems; who doesn't? But at the end of the day we are on the whole a decent law-abiding people who care for others.

This is why I cannot understand that in all the Sunday Mass sermons I have listened to, some as dull as ditchwater but others truly inspired, I have never had the luck to catch one direct reference the topic that is of paramount concern to us all: illegal immigration.

I feel that it is the Catholic Church's solemn duty to remind their members that the tenets of our religion are based on Christ's parables that do not distinguish skin colour. The Good Samaritan is not a story. It is a very real and universal blueprint as to how Christ wants us all to live. A very high ideal indeed you might say but an indelible Christian benchmark all the same.

kzt@onvol.net