tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post5768796102873800416..comments2023-12-18T17:32:03.325+00:00Comments on Kindred of the Quiet Way: Thinking of the Calais JungleUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-45318284483597130302016-03-21T07:26:58.082+00:002016-03-21T07:26:58.082+00:00Oh yes - that £50 billion would come in handy! I t...Oh yes - that £50 billion would come in handy! I think the saying "Where there's a will there's a way" comes in here, does it not? Pen Wilcockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13818227904371811230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-38043901365113057982016-03-20T21:02:08.406+00:002016-03-20T21:02:08.406+00:00Such places have been suggested by various people,...Such places have been suggested by various people, Pen, but no one actually runs with the idea and thinks it through and makes it workable. They could also use the £50 billion money being wated on the hugh speed railway to the north, especially since major flws have now been detected in the plans.MaryRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-30709700204591319102016-03-18T19:13:40.563+00:002016-03-18T19:13:40.563+00:00I'm thinking not so much of the 'what'...I'm thinking not so much of the 'what' as the 'how', really. The things you mention are huge problems - and of course they are concentrated more in some parts of the country than others. Luton, for example, where a friend told me the school population was impossibly fluid - 20 languages spoken and you never knew how many of the children who started the school year would finish it. Really, really difficult.<br />But surely, if we have a flood of refugees streaming out of Syria, and cannot cope with those we have already, the last thing we should have spent money on is sending aeroplanes to drop bombs on a country already bombed to pieces - aiming at a target already bombed by the Russians. The planes waiting, engines running, on the runway on the night of the Commons vote, and our chancellor crowing "Britain's got its mojo back". What?<br />And those who have fled, managing as best they can in the mud at Calais, can we really do no better than tear gas and water cannons - not to quell riots but to drive them out of their flimsy shelters at an hour's notice, and herd them around.<br />I do not see an either/or situation. Because, in some but not all areas, our schools are overwhelmed, it doesn't follow that we have to teargas them and beat them with batons as the Calais police are doing. I think we can manage both/and. We could treat them with humanity and dignity while still remaining firm about how many we let in, and where, and at what rate.<br />Meanwhile, in France and Spain there are huge tranches of abandoned farmland - some with large numbers of empty houses. How about if the European nations chose to work together - if instead of spending millions on planes and bombs to decimate the Syrians' homeland, and a £7million fence to keep them out, we put the money to seeding new communities in the abandoned farmlands, thus strengthening the French and Spanish economies and ultimately generating rents for the landowners. I feel sure that could be done - or if that wouldn't work for some reason, I bet we could think of something. Perhaps drop the plans for the £24billion nuclear power station at Hinkley Point and use the money to help resettle people?Pen Wilcockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13818227904371811230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-40938957909449969232016-03-18T17:29:46.908+00:002016-03-18T17:29:46.908+00:00I hear all you say, Pen, and you expressed it beau...I hear all you say, Pen, and you expressed it beautifully, but we no longer have enough school places, as there's been a vast increase in the number of immigrants these last two or three years, many of our hospitals are on their knees, there aren't enough houses for those who already live here, etc. Money is finite and we can't just provide these things at the drop of a hat. Mancy schools have so many children who can't speak English that the other children are suffering. I've taught classes in the past with one or two non-English speakers, and it's hard, very hard. You have to split youself in two. I wish I knew the answer, as I'm sure the Lord needs us all to open our hearts.MaryRnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-3940704582971992892016-03-07T22:29:43.667+00:002016-03-07T22:29:43.667+00:00Pleased to see that Médecins Sans Frontières has b...Pleased to see that Médecins Sans Frontières has built a new camp at Dunkirk with proper, if basic, shelters. xPen Wilcockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13818227904371811230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-27609740389509012182016-03-07T20:22:59.826+00:002016-03-07T20:22:59.826+00:00Am
I right in also thinking that if they accept as...Am<br />I right in also thinking that if they accept asylum in France, they will be allowed to stay but will not get the financial and practical help they need? At the end of the day, we are treating fellow human beings less than we would treat a stray animal. I am sick of governments wasting money on frivolous expenses and then punishing the weak, the disabled, the homeless and the refugee. Thanks for writing this piece San x Sandra Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16260644073051470011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-48184165142709894822016-03-06T21:11:01.937+00:002016-03-06T21:11:01.937+00:00:0) xx:0) xxPen Wilcockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13818227904371811230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-35204827162297142782016-03-06T21:09:04.145+00:002016-03-06T21:09:04.145+00:00Thankyou Penelope for expressing so beautifully an...Thankyou Penelope for expressing so beautifully and meaningfully what I need to be thinking about this... I don't take the time to think as probably the emotions are so affected and I can't always think clearly. This has helped me...nadinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09069124254481907764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-24076029446714055822016-03-05T13:57:20.056+00:002016-03-05T13:57:20.056+00:00I don't know everything about this, but I assu...I don't know everything about this, but I assume that lots have sought asylum in France and in other European countries. The people stranded in Calais are seeking asylum in the UK, I think. In many cases that's because they already have family in the UK and are trying to reach them. If they come into France they have to apply for asylum there, then are no longer eligible to seek asylum in the UK, so lose the chance to be reconnected with their families.<br />I think there must be better ways to receive and process the people than shutting them out. <br />What I suggest is done - well - I think our government could have responded more constructively than building a seven million pound fence to keep them out. And I think the French and UK govt could recognise the humanitarian crisis and send some aid. They have had only volunteer help, and would have starved and frozen if they had relied on official help from France and England. Then, I think there are better ways to begin to clear the camp than tear-gassing people so they flee in pain, then trashing their little shelters. What the French govt has done, is provide metal container units on French soil, to accommodate about 1,000 people. But they have trashed the homes of about 3,000 people. Some of those are unaccompanied minors - at risk and vulnerable, trying to reach their families in the UK. Anyone who goes into the metal containers on French soil has to seek asylum in France, and as well as stopping them going on to the UK, it involves separating the lone children from the people they were travelling with - so they become even more vulnerable and at risk.<br />I think the govts should begin to process the onward movement of the people who are there, easing pressure on the situation. I think they should feed them. I think they should not trash their homes and belongings in the middle of winter. I think they should not teargas peaceable people, or turn water cannons on them, or beat them up - as the police have been doing.<br />The situation is not easy, but the work of the army of volunteers already in the camp shows it is possible to respond more constructively than the govts. After all, the volunteer help *is* the help of the people, so it could just as well be official. xPen Wilcockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13818227904371811230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-18239158813076966812016-03-05T13:33:06.479+00:002016-03-05T13:33:06.479+00:00I'd like to know why they haven't applied ...I'd like to know why they haven't applied for asylum in France. It's a safe country, they had to go through other safe countries to get to France. They chose to set up an illegal camp whereas they could have registered for asylum when they arrived and already have been processed. There are faults on both sides but the numbers being dealt with are HUGE. No country or group of countries can deal with such an influx so quickly. What do you suggest is done Pen?Deborahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17295624431714012643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55532501364780143.post-49220998754497032822016-03-05T10:28:01.602+00:002016-03-05T10:28:01.602+00:00Sometimes you can know exactly where Christ is at ...Sometimes you can know exactly where Christ is at this moment in time. He is walking across Europe, cold, hungry and in rags, standing at closed borders, sheltering wherever he can. <br />What have we become .....?<br />Isaiah 53: 2 "He had no form to attract us no beauty to win our hearts, he was despised the lowest of men,.....one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised for whom we had no regard."<br />Patriciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05124987111650146853noreply@blogger.com