Ill gotten

It’s little things which suddenly become upsetting when you’re leaving an area.

Today, whilst on my way to the tube, I discovered that my favourite footpath, the one which snakes down the ravine to the station, is closed. I subsequently discovered that the path is only reopening in mid July, so it’s possible I’ll never enter the tube via that route again. I certainly won’t as a local resident.

Here’s a question: Today, whilst on the tube, a rather large woman sat in the seat next to me, and then proceeded to invite her seven-year-old child to come and sit on her lap. The child wriggled and squirmed, as children are apt to do, and I found the entire journey incredibly uncomfortable as a result. The ruck sack of toys came out. There was a colouring book for a short while. Then a tangerine. And all the time I found myself getting more and more claustrophobic.  Should children be sitting on laps in public places? 

Of course all of this first world niggling pales into insignificance against the image in the newspapers yesterday which is being billed as the “picture which shames America.” I’m afraid I found the photograph so distressing that I was unable to read beyond the headline which related the picture to the issue of the Mexican migrant crisis. The image was of a dead father and his daughter, washed up in a river, the daughter still clinging to her father’s back. I can’t imagine what must have gone through their minds as they realised they were in trouble. How the daughter must have placed her trust in her dad as she climbed onto his back. How the dad must have struggled to keep them both alive. How desperate he must have felt to risk their lives like that. 

The picture makes me want to scream at all the people in the west who are terrified of immigration, in whatever form it takes. We are all human beings. That some of us feel we have an inestimable right to the spoils we’ve inherited purely as a result of being born into a wealthy country makes me furious. Particularly when our country’s wealth has been created by colonialism, slavery and a culture of navvies and work-houses. Everyone has a right to generate wealth by working hard. Everyone deserves a future for their children. If they’re brave enough to pack up their lives and start again with nothing, then they deserve to share our ill-gotten gains.