By Marcos Roitman Rosenmann on June 26, 2023
photo: Daniel Kubirski
They entered our house without knocking. There was no time to reflect. Without knowing why and how they were suddenly not strangers. Their names have accompanied us for a whole week in the corporate media. We knew immediately who they were.
The media have been prolific in informing us. We learned their exact number, five, all men, and their names were Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton Rush. We know their professions, age, hobbies and skills. Their lives have been relayed to us so we can empathize with the pain of death. We also have been told what good people they were. Their stories have become part of the narrative. An unidentified problem lost track of them. Navy, aviation, intelligence services of the United States, Canada and Western Europe joined the efforts in a crusade to find them. Radars, satellites, drones, in short, state-of-the-art technology was put at the service of the rescue.
As the news circulated, we learned about the characteristics of the submarine, the cost of the expedition and the exclusivity of the experience. The objective was none other than to photograph and observe the wreckage of the Titanic, an icon of 20th century maritime catastrophes. The intrepid travelers of the sea abyss were millionaires. Few could emulate their adventure. Their stories would be the center of attention at parties, meetings and gatherings. Now it is to mourn them. Their families and friends mourn them bitterly. Everyone has words of appreciation. They were brave, including Dawood’s 19-year-old son, who was forced to climb on at his father’s express wish. Surely, their heirs will set up ad hoc foundations to keep their names alive. Thus we will soon see how they will sponsor trips to emulate the ill-fated expeditionaries and the risk of non-return will be incorporated into the price as part of the experience.
At the beginning of summer, in Europe, with the sea calm, the Mediterranean and its beaches are a lure for thousands of tourists who sunbathe on rented sun loungers, recreate themselves on its promenades, enjoy the weather and live their vacation time, oblivious to a sea that exhales death. However, for decades, in the midst of an unequal world, NATO and first world countries have been promoting xenophobic policies. Their governments apply immigration laws reminiscent of those developed by the Third Reich.
In spite of all the inconveniences, knowing the difficulties, the risks involved, many people put their lives at risk for a dream. They seek a better future. They pay money to mafias, mortgage their few assets and know that if their families do not pay back the loan they will be a target for hired assassins. They are fleeing poverty, hunger, wars and hopelessness. They see the sea as a lifeline. They are naive, they do not value dangers, they only visualize the possibility of getting a job, studying, educating their children, being able to live with dignity. In short, to find a haven from so much suffering.
There is no other reason why they embark on an odyssey whose end, most of the times, is to die with their lungs full of water. But they have no other choice; that is the trade-off. If not by sea, it is by land. But at the border they are also persecuted, expelled in the heat of the moment, as happened a year ago in Melilla. There the dead have no name or surname, they are still in the morgue. They are corpses that will end up in mass graves. No one takes responsibility. The victims have no rights, nor to be recovered by their relatives.
In those days, while we followed with attention the rescue of the five multimillionaires, hundreds of people died in the waters of the Mediterranean who do not make headlines, except for their number. They are poor, they do not deserve any attention, after all they come from the Sahel. Blacks, women, children or pregnant women. They are people without names or surnames. So they are labeled as Syrians, Cape Verdeans, Nigerians or Cameroonians. Their lives are anonymous and their stories are not quoted on the stock exchange. They are numbers that swell the list of the disinherited. Dehumanized, they make up statistics built to avoid taking responsibility. Nor do they make any effort to rescue them.
For the damned of the earth there are no means at their disposal. No government tries to save them, but rather leaves them to die. And when they manage to reach the coasts or are rescued by NGOs, the survivors end up crowded in concentration camps or are transferred to internment centers until their repatriation. They are mistreated, denigrated and expelled. There are many examples. Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece, France, no matter the country of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, their policy is similar. Let them die, so they will desist and learn that they are not welcome. Being poor means they have no right to live. That is where we have come.
Source: Network in Defense of Humanity – Cuba, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English