Is it illegal indeed? I think it is a misnomer at best and stupid at worst to classify the journeys by mainly young Africans across the Sahara and the Mediterranean to Europe as illegal. It is not.
In the first place these people have a constitutional right to leave their home countries by any means available to them to go somewhere else. The act of leaving is a human right. Freedom of movement.
Secondly they are entering Europe in the same way David Livingstone and Cecil Rhodes entered Africa or how Christopher Columbus entered America or how Marco Polo entered China. They were called explorers and discoverers and the like. In like manner these Africans cannot be called therefore Migrants or Illegal Migrants or going to Europe thru the Backway. No. Because Cecil Rhodes and Columbus or Alvisto Cadamosto et al where not called that even though their reasons 500 years ago to enter Africa is the same reason these Africans have today for entering Europe. It’s all economic and political. It was these European explorers that paved the way for slavery and colonialism and consequently the Industrial Revolution and massive development of Europe as manifesting today.
So this means these Africans are explorers and discoverers as well and they must be supported by their leaders and governments as the monarchs of England and Spain and Portugal supported their explorers to enter Africa.
Both of them never went through any official route and did not seek a visa and merely forced their way in. That’s how Mungo Park went all the way into the interior of the Gambia and our people accepted him and even died and buried in Karantaba.
Likewise we must call on the Europeans to accept these African explorers as we accepted their own 500 years ago. Tit for tat is a fair game. What is good for the gander is good for the goose.
So let us stop condemning our youth as illegal migrants or pouring such stupid slogans as No To Backway. Which Backway? They are EXLORERS.
This is however not to defend the failure of our leaders and governments for generating such thousands of Explorers.
Defend your people.
This is it, just calling a spade a spade even though it hurts. Hope some will not call it madness because thats what most will call the harsh reality. Even looking at it in terms of so called legal immigration travel processings, it will cost the African five or six times more to travel legally to the west than it will cost a westerner to travel to Africa. I will buy the idea too that, the exploration and the colonisation of Africa, I believe,was nothing other than a projected economic plan into the future.
Thank you Kairo news and all participants for telling the world how how we see Gambia within a continental African perspective.
This is cool stuff man….
Unlike the likes of my dear “friend” Maxs, who are happy to heap all blame of forced migration on the “source” countries of migrants and absolve the “target” countries of any blame and responsibility, I agree with the writer in the general concept that human migration cannot be illegal because (in my view) no human can be illegal anywhere on the face of “mother” earth…
“Mother” earth “gave birth to us”, “nurtured, fed and protected us” in life and will shield and provide sanctuary to us in death….
No human, no matter how long your generation of descendants have stayed in any place, should have the right and power, to declare another illegal in that very place, much more anywhere on planet earth…
Migration is a natural phenomenon that is as old as the human species itself and the concept should probably be considered a “Law of Nature “, because it is proven and had stood the test of time…No artificial barriers or imaginary boundaries can ever stop migration…
The “law of nature” is that life pivots towards areas that provide it with better living conditions that increase survival chances and the human life (being) is no exception..
“Mother Nature” (Earth) has provided her “children” with enough provisions and know how for each to live a standard of life that befits her offsprings, but the greed and selfishness of a few influencial and cunning individuals have robbed the majority off their bequeathed rights and “legitimised” it for themselves…
The blame for this lies mostly with the Western World and Mathew Wright, host of the Wright Show on Channel 5, agrees this morning when he said that the old colonial powers, that exploited the resources of others to build their own countries, should shoulder the full responsibility to address the issues driving mass migration.
The answer to resolving this looming crisis is simple : Tackle the causes/factors of forced migration rather than the consequences of the factors of migration…
And the primary cause is ABJECT POVERTY due to unfair distribution of “mother” nature’s provisions……All the others factors,such as conflict, poor governance, diseases,etc are secondary because they all stem from abject poverty due to unfair distribution…
Provocative and hateful media headlines (“8 million foreigners in UK plus stories of “benefits cheats” appearing today) will not solve the problem….
Once again, as has been well documented by historians, the world is on the move and this time, Western Europe and the America, as well.as.other “prosperous” countries are the targets….
No obstacles, natural or artificial, will stop today’s deprived young people from reaching their target countries and this trend is irreversible…The sooner real reforms of the exploitative and inhumane Global Capitalist System are carried out, the better for all..
I agree to the basic premise Bax. But I disagree on the cause. Poverty is not the root cause of migration but an effect at the core of it is the governance system. In any society where governance is not open and fair and participatory within the culture of transparency and accountability then poverty and corruption and diseases and ignorance and general backwardness will characterize the lives of the majority.
Bax, migration is natural phenomenon since time immemorial . I think you will agree with me that there are different reasons why people migrate and these includes economic , political oppression /persecution seeking education , social reasons ( seeking better environment , tourism ) and so on .
You seem to blame Mother Nature as the cause of forced migration or migration by the indication of this state Below .
1. Bax said ” the primary cause is abject poverty due to unfair distribution of Mother’s Nature provisions ”
This means that you indicated that nature is not fair in its distribution which therefore resulted to abject poverty .
BUT you have stated very different picture about Mother Nature in the same piece by these statements below
2. Bax” Mother Nature has provided her children with enough provisions and know how for each to live standard of life that befits her offsprings , but the greed and selfishness of few influencial and cunning individuals have robbed the majority off their bequeathed rights and legitimized it for themselves ”
In the quote number 2 , you have indicated that Mother Nature provided her children with enough provisions but because of greed and selfishness of few individuals , the masses are without enough provisions or resources to live a standard life . Is This not self contradiction in the two quotes ?. How can Mother Nature be unfair in its distribution and the same time provided enough provisions and know how for each to live a standard life ? The contradiction is because in the first quotes you stated that Mother Nature was responsible for migration as a result of its unfair distribution resulting to poverty and the second it is greedy and selfish individuals who amassed the resources for their selfish needs .
You have indicated that conflict , poor governance and disease are secondary causes because they all stem from poverty due to unfair distribution. Don’t know you know people migrate because of the poor governance which leads to poverty ( economic reasons ) , oppression , political persecution , and seeking education, seeking better environment for liesure or raise family and so on ? Why would that be secondary factors?
I think poor governance , conflicts , diseases , seeking education, leisure , change of environment and poverty are all causes of migration. I will not blame poverty on Mother’s Nature unfair distribution because that is outdated and lazy concept . Human resources is the best resources for human being to improves their life or eliminate poverty . It is also the same human resources which can be utilized to have good governance and prevent political oppression. . This can be done through the effective use of our brain to think and prioritize our needs .
Bax, if the blame of mass migration should be placed on western world especially colonial powers when are Africans ever going to take personal responsibility for our underdevelopment , backwardness , massive migration , poverty and other issues ? So every time we have urgent problem such as mass migration , conflict or poverty, we should point fingers to western world . Pointing Acussing Fingers to western world is the one of the things African dictators are good at. Example Jammeh instead of focusing on human rights concerns EU has raised with regards to reforms , he accused EU of trying to introduce gay and lesbian in The Gambia. It is also the same reason why jammeh continue to blame British people for what he called 400 years of misrule which is a lie . This is another political tactics to confuse the population in order to gain votes . African countries should look up to Asian countries which are also colonized and had similar exploitation from the colonial powers . Today some of these countries are competing with their former colonial masters in terms of development . Example Singapore and Gambia had independent at the same period , but look at Singapore , they are developed country while Gambians cannot feed themselves . South Korea and Ghana can be Compare in similar manner . United States was colonized by the British but USA is powerful than Britain in every aspect . So Africans must be responsible for what is happening in the Africa . Please do not listen to such shows because it will make you lazy and you will blame everything on west.
You’re right lexicon…Perhaps governance lies at the core of the problem….
Maxs. …I’m referring to the man made unfair economic system of distributing the wealth that workers create.. not the natural distribution of resources by “mother” nature… So there is no contradiction..
Of course, we are not completely free of blame because we can change our relation with the rest of the world, if the political will is there, but that requires tremendous amounts of sacrifice and perseverance…as well.as a “deep” understanding of how this capitalist “monster” of a system functions..
Africa,in particular, owes it to her children and people, to.reassess its role in.the global economy and its relationship with the industrialised “world”…It is.either that or we shall continue to be the wretched of the earth for ever…The current global system is designed to exploit Africa, not to help it to develop..despite all.the.promises and aids/grants… (aids/grants are in fact distrustive and part of the problem).
America was a colony but it later evolved into an imperial power that exploited slave labour (and foreign lands) to create and amass immense wealth, which provided the capital used to support its development process…
Countries of the East and the South East Asia Region (Singapore,Malaysia, Thailand,South Korea,Japan and China too) benefitted from an “accident of history” to achieve economic development…
These countries became the frontiers states in the great ideological competition between USA and it’s NATO Allies (on.the one.hand) and the Soviet Union and it’s satellite states of Eastern Europe (on the other hand)..
In order to curtail the influence of the Soviet Union and draw these countries away from its sphere of influence, the Western capitalist alliance provided preferencial treatment to these countries…
They enjoyed massive capital investments and technological transfers into their economies,as well.as protected markets in the West for their emerging industries…
So their development “success” is more of a fluke one, rather than an economic template from which we can learn ..
Bax, here is what you said in your initial posting
Bax said ” the Primary cause is abject poverty due to unfair distribution of Mother Nature provisions ”
Here is what you said in last posting
Bax” max I am referring to the man made unfair economic system of distributing the wealth that workers create not the natural distribution of resources by Mother Nature ., so there is no contradiction ”
Really Bax , there is huge difference between the two quotes . No where did you ever mention man made unfair economic system in your initial posting but you did mentioned that primary cause is abject poverty due to unfair distribution of Mother Nature provisions . It is very confusing and contracdictory .
Even if you believe that man made unfair economic system of distributing the wealth that workers create result to migration if I get you right , how is that possible you called it unfair since those countries have better economics because they have worked for those better economics. Good governance are core to better economics . Therefore poor governance result to people migrate from those poor countries ( source ) to Better economics countries ( host) which lexicon and I believe but you have dismissed that in your opening statement below .
Bax said ” unlike the likes of my dear friend maxs, who are happy to heap all blame of forced migration on the source countries of migrants and absolve the target countries of any Blame and responsibility”.
I think the blame should be on sources where the government has bad policies in terms of its governance . I hope that point is clear.
I also think Asian countries with better economics have worked hard to achieve those economics rather by accident of history which I think is laughable . I think your indication that their economic achievement is a result of accident of history’ can be compare to ridiculous assumptions of pardoned prisoners that God was responsible for their imprisonment .
Very sad very sad African and nobody can understand why we hate each other , ex. Senegal don’t like even Gambian cycle or 2pack of tea from Gambia , if u live in the border with Senegal you will have pay 120dalsis for your motorcycle otherwise you will lost it ðŸ˜shameful shameless politician ,, and yes western are trying to impose they gay law with is 200%against Islam and our culture so we need leaders strong leaders who can ban them Mashaa llah , Allah will act about this
I have lived a significant part of my live in the west too and ENJOYED its democracy and seeked for assylum there doesn’t mean that the west have ever once been a shining light to the welfare of Africa where a good percentage of the earth’s natural resources are reserved. For instance, the Nigers toil and get sick in the uranium mines of Niger where the resources belong as well but all that have not changed Niger from being one of the poorest countries in the world. For not having the will to justify injustice anywhere anytime and anyhow, it is my opinion that a lot of love and care is exhibited on the global tables whilst a lot of hate and lack of care for others lies underneath them.
I think what the writer was trying to put through is that; after 500 years, should reaching farther lands by other means different from our times official methods be considered illegal?……if the once uninvited explorers 500years ago are heroes in the history books today thanks God for their invention of heavyweight floaters.
He (the writer)asserted the fact that however, he is not defending the failure of our leaders and governments for generating such thousands of explorers.
Our best leaders and best citizens have always short lived their lifes and a fact anyone who is a concerned observer of our political ages would not miss to realise. Guys there is a lot of things about Africa we need to know in general. Do we have radioactive waste dumping sites unknown to populations across Africa?Probably most of the opinions and comments folks make here should help our future leaders to wise up to make wise foreign policies in the future. I think for sure, if a president of any western country decides to deposit 3/4 of his country’s coffer in the swisss banks, the matter becomes public and scandalous in nick of a second, when national treasures embezzled from different African countries get stucked in Swiss banks having problems sometimes with regards to such treasures’ kinship. Borrowing from Hon. Darboe, there shouldn’t be any IDEOLOGICAL SOPHISTICATIONS with regards to Africa and it continental relationship to the west. What complicates the whole issue is that some dictators in Africa have used this type of criticism as a means of justifying their terror of their own people. To know the west and what it stands for Africa, one needs to know the west and that is not just the U.K, the U.S or Netherlands and Germany where you will still learn less as to how the average grassroot westerners concept is with regards to Africas well being.
This is what a guy told me in a train from Zurich to Milano sooner than we started talking; that, Johanesburg was nice and clean in the eigthies to the early nineties but now it is crowded with all those blacks from neighbouring countries and soweto turning it to a chaotic, dirty and full of criminals. This was sometime in the year 2001. A fight nearly broke out and when the police came I was definitely the victim to be interrogated to miss my train. In that part of the west I am referred to as an extra-community.
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Ooh my dear africans don’t kill ur self over unnecessary things