Too much news has made me feel miserable today at the downright ugliness of some bits of human nature. Specifically, the horrible situation in Calais: people fleeing war and poverty and repression in their own countries risk so much to come to Europe for a better life where they can be themselves.
They might have survived crossing the Mediterranean on one of those rickety boats, having borrowed or saved to give all their cash to unscrupulous people traffickers. Or they might have dodged all sorts of hostilities in warzones to cross land borders and then, finally, they have to play chicken with Eurotunnel Shuttle trains and some die or are maimed. Those who do arrive here face huge amounts of hostility from people who can have no idea of what these people have endured. None whatsoever.
So often I have stood on the Eurostar platform at Paris Gare du Nord and wondered how desperate someone must be to climb down and cling to the underside of a train for up to three hours in the middle of winter. How often have I been moved to tears looking out from the Eurostar’s windows as the train trundles through Calais at the high barbed fences and thinking about the people who don’t find it as easy as me to cross borders. Indeed my OH went to Paris for the day yesterday and MsDD returned on the same train as him last evening. By accident of birth they have no trouble crossing over into the UK
My father was an economic migrant to this country. Indians were British Subjects and invited here to run the National Health Service or London Transport. We could not manage our lives without the immigrants who pick our vegetables or clean our offices or labour on construction sites like mine.
It is a huge thing to leave your home and family and friends and venture out into the unknown. Just imagine for a moment what that must mean for people who want to work, want to get themselves and education. I hope we will remember that they are people just trying to get on with their lives, just like you and me. They are innocent victims of other people’s dreadfulness and then scumbags like Nigel Farage go on the radio and talk with derision about “the Human Rights brigade…preventing governments from doing their job.” I’d like to see him planted in a place where he had no human rights and see what he’d bleat then.
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And then there’s that disgusting piece of filth who goes round murdering majestic wildlife for fun, baiting them out of national parks and conservation areas so he can shoot them “legally.” . I simply can’t comprehend what sort of a person would take pleasure in doing that. I’m always a bit suspicious of people who say they don’t like animals but his attitude is despicable. And it’s brought me down.
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So to cheer me up, please indulge these photos of the latest progress in our kitchen build. The cheery captions are a bit of a forced juxtapostion tonight I’m afraid. Stuff does floor you sometimes.
Farage and his ilk have no empathy or decency. It’s not just that these people are trying to eke out a life for themselves, they are doing so with no safety net, no contacts or social circle, in a lot of cases a rudimentary knowledge of the language which makes communicating with authorities and other people a nightmare, and in some cases, suffering not only physical illness/injuries, but who knows what trauma they have gone through? Of course people conveniently forget that some of these countries that are war torn and mired in corruption & poverty are former colonies of the UK and other European countries. A friend of mine once put it like this, “If you are going to invade a country and take it over, remember it’s not just for Christmas, but for life”. While she was making the point in a humorous fashion, the message is pretty apt. It was colonial rapine and interference that caused many of the problems in parts of the world today, and as such those who benefited should own their moral responsibility to help those displaced and suffering from the mess the colonials left behind.
I’m not even going to comment on Cecil. There is nothing I can say, nor any decent human being, that has not been articulated. I do hope though that some “good” might come from this, with far more international attention and resources allocated towards helping end this poaching and these disgusting practices. Having said that, I wonder how many people who proclaim outrage at this will still try to support & defend Fox Hunting? Let’s hope that this won’t be a one week wonder and more will be done, and also proper legal consequences for poachers and those who facilitate them.
It’s great to see the progress being made on the building work. It will look so good when complete. Is it a gas fire that you have installed? Looks elegant and unobtrusive. Will you have a mantle & hearth for it?
I am sending you *Hugs* and thinking of you, hoping that there will be cause for hope and joy very soon. x
I have been appalled by some comments on Twitter about the situation in Calais. I said as much and then have kept away because I fear I would really lose my cool.
The countries who bleat the most about ‘migrants’are the ones who had no qualms about carving up Africa and the Middle East years ago.
I was also incensed by Harriet Harmans comments about ‘those who have a right to be in Europe’. …as we all originated in the Nile delta or nearby ..it all seems rather ironic.
I have no words for the killing of Cecil the lion …..or in fact for the slaughter of any animal.
As I said on Twitter “sometimes I don’t like the human race very much ”
Your kitchen is going to be fabulous sweetie xxx
Thank you both so much for your comments. I totally agree with everything you’ve said. I didn’t mean to write so much misery but it came flooding out and I was thinking all of those things too.
The gas fire is there as it stands and minimalistic. I think it’s quite cool like that. hough it’s not quite what I was expecting, I think it’s great just like that. And remotely controlled!!!
It’s really starting to take shape now eh?!
Fingers crossed
Bland, but I just agree with everything. Regarding the migrants at Calais, I appreciate I haven’t been at all put out by what’s going on but I feel a bit like a First Class passenger on the Titanic with the steerage passengers being held back in case there’s not enough room on the life boats.. It feels quite shitty.
I know there’s now a backlash about the hatred directed against the dentist for killing the lion. I know he’s not the only one and there’s more fuss because Cecil was well known but I don’t care. While a lot of us are used to seeing these unspeakably vile people on Twitter, at least this lion’s terrible fate has spread the horror at this so called trophy hunting. Mind you, I find badger “culling” and fox hunting just as repulsive.
Nice fire 😉
Is it even more bland totally to agree with you BFM? x