As I skim through last week’s articles in this newspaper, all related to the Valletta Summit on migration, I ask myself what was it all about? What was its outcome?
Was it about us and them? About our agenda and their agenda? Or was it an opportunity “to become better and closer neighbours”, as European Council President Donald Tusk emphasised when talking to the House of Representatives on the eve of the summit? Beyond the glamour andred, one thing was of importance, safeguarding the dignity of the human person. Unfortunately, though, we often wear blinkers and our vision is tinted with selfish interests making us unable to move out of our niche and reach out to others.
No wonder that Katrine Camilleri, the human rights lawyer, has been reported to have said, before the summit, that the migration debate was exclusively about the need of European states and not about what migrants are willing to die for (November 12). Before any economic deal or development aid is concluded, all leaders have to be convinced that unless they take to heart the importance of giving respect to all human beings irrespective of colour, creed or race, and unless they convey this message of solidarity to all the citizens whom they represent, no amount of signing of agreements would result in a really neighbourly family.
The monument in the form of a knot commemorating the summit is apt, for through its entanglement it not only represents unity between the two continents of Africa and Europe but it also symbolises what one still has to go through to bring about such unity. Prejudices still need to be shed and the interchange of different cultures needs still to be appreciated. The monument depicts more an ideal towards which all of us, both Europeans and Africans, should aspire rather than the fact that we are already there.
Let us hope that in spite of the latest carnage in Paris, rather than build barriers and fences we shall build more bridges and show greater solidarity with our brethren who are fleeing war and oppression.
For, after all, that is what the Valletta Summit was all about.