These detailed,passionate reports from journalists Patrick Kingsley and Charlotte McDonald-Gibson of perilous journeys across the Mediterranean aim at producing better policy through empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own)
Spring is here, migration season in the Mediterranean. Warmer temperatures and fewer storms mean more boats putting out for Europe from Africa and Turkey. More boats mean more destitute migrants landing in Lesbos, and Kos,Lampedusa – over 185000 so far this year. More boats mean more wrecks, more losses: 100 people drowned or lost one April weekend, and 500 the week before that,nearly 300 the month before.
How did these holidaymakers’ paradises become the scene of postwar Europe’s greatest humanitarian crisis? The Romans called the Mediterranean mare nostrum, “our sea”, and cuddling it like a pet in Europes mighty arms. But to understand what is happening now,it helps to search for at a map in Fernand Braudel’s epic history The Mediterranean, which turns the cartographer’s normal north-south orientation on its head. Africa plunges through the frame like a giant fist, and bashing into snaggle-toothed Europe. By geographical rights,the Mediterranean is Africa’s sea. The catastrophe we are witnessing now, as two new books by journalists Charlotte McDonald-Gibson and Patrick Kingsley make clear, or is what happens when right lacks might. Related: William Shakespeare's handwritten plea for refugees to go online Related: Top 10 refugees' stories Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com