I have never had a great relationship with technology. My poor skills for tasks beyond google and Word are well known and now also available -potentially- world-wide. I am no better with a mobile phone. I have long since declared a white flag against the app that suggests some news every day. With apparent indifference, I swipe left to delete the notification and in the meantime, I read the title. These days must deal with either 'Covid' or 'new decree'. 2021 has certainly brought some fresh air because a couple of days ago the headline was "Anno nuovo, solita solfa: l’Ong...". I save the swipe for the next Covid-themed one and tap on the article.
The full headline is even worse than I could imagine from the preview.
"Anno nuovo, solita solfa: l’Ong vuol scaricarci migranti", which in English might be something like "New year, same old story: NGO wants to dump us migrants" . Since I am not an Italian scholar, I check quickly the meaning of 'solfa'.
it means refrain, old story. A monotonous and boring repetition of the same words, especially when making recriminations
I recalled it properly.
Is it just me or is this formulation indelicate and disrespectful?
Would it be possible to say 'enough of the crimes of Nazi-fascism, or of Floyd? I'm not saying it's the same, they are different situations and times, but there’s one common thing: innocent deaths treated as an indistinct and often inferior crowd. In concentration camps there were 'Jews'; in slums there are the 'Blacks' with hoodies; and in the Mediterranean, -ready to be dumped- 'migrants' on an inflatable boat. No one cares about where they come from, what their faces look like, how many of them they are here . These few details are enough for us to put them into a box. Their name, the history of their parents, how long they have been travelling, why they arrived there, are not very relevant elements for categorisation.
I think it’s offensive and inhuman to consider the life of a refugee - who, we shouldn't forget, is a human being before being a refugee - as a boring refrain.
The journalist does not give up. Indeed, he describes the details of this "solfa" with a vocabulary that seems more suited to a logistics department than to people. Open Arms wants to 'dump' us (yes, us!) an undefined mass of illegal immigrants. Cattle are unloaded at the farmers' market; Amazon parcels are unloaded from a van; migrants are unloaded on beaches (someone else's, of course), or at borders.
From the article we get to know that the NGO ‘loaded’ 169 people on 31 Dec and another 96 on 2 January. The journalist describes the rescue on New Year’s Eve as ‘The first cargo’. If they hadn't specified that it was about migrants from Libya, I would have thought it was drugs, animals, or unspecified goods. Nothing remotely resembling anything human with free will or rights. The article continues without any particular technicalities stolen from the field of logistics and distribution.
Not only is it an Italian phenomenon, the English press has its own “logistics experts” as well. BBC, Politico can testify.
On the page of the Auschwitz Museum and Memorial (auschwitz.org) I found these words to describe the Jews in the camp (just to be clear: not only Jews died in the labour and extermination camps, and not always was the religion the main reason for that):
"Tens of thousands of Jews, mostly from Hungary and Poland, were held in separate parts of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp defined as transit camps without being registered individually. Referred to as "transit Jews", or "deposit," they were held by the SS leadership as a labour reserve to be "distributed" on a gradual basis. They waited days, weeks, or months for the SS to arrive at a decision as to their fate."
Put Greece or Lebanon, Bosnia instead of Hungary; put hotspots, prisons, camps instead of SS and these lines could be written today.
According to the article, Proactiva Open Arms 'loaded illegal migrants on board', on the other hand, the staff onboard twitted that they 'rescued people or shipwreck survivors', in addition to another 96 brought to safety a few hours later.
Dehumanisation through language is the first step in dissociating bodies from their humanity. It is subtle violence, normalisation of injustice that creeps between a piece of news on Facebook and the picture of the biggest roasted turkey ever.
It’s not about dumping illegal immigrants, it’s about saving human beings. in this case most of them are Eritrean. Since I didn't know anything about it, I did a quick search. in the late 90s Eritrea and Ethiopia fought for the control of the border. Despite a peace agreement in 2018, the situation in the country has not improved. Since then, many young people have been leaving to escape the mandatory, indefinite military service for President Isais Afewerki's dictatorship. According to the UN, about 500,000 people had flied by 2018. The condition of Eritrean children is worse than that of children in neighbouring countries where, despite the continuing war, the ruling class is cooperating with international organisations and NGOs. According to Unicef, at least 60 per cent of the children in the country is undernourished. Moreover, Isais Afewerki confiscated hospitals and schools run buy international organisation, leaving families without any help.
In total, Open Arms rescued 265 people between 31 December and 2 January, who are still on board. I feel a bit ashamed if I think that , while I was watching the fireworks, people where in the middle of the sea on a wooden boat. After Malta's refusal, Open Arms is heading to Porto Empedocle in Sicily. The same malnourished children who are now playing on the ship's deck may soon be able to do so on Italian soil.
PS: one last quick comment: it seems to me that the 'logistics and delivery' language of the article clashes with the top strip "give hope back to the victims of Islamists".
article and 2nd photo: www.ilgiornale.it/news/cronache/anno-nuovo-solita-solfa-long-vuol-scaricarci-migranti-1913913.html
other photos: twitter.com/openarms_it
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