Back in 2013 we went on a cruise top the Baltic, a surprise present from my father at the end of his life. The highlight of the cruise was a visit to St. Petersburg, but on the way we stopped off at Kühlungsborn in what had been East Germany. We saw the sights and went on the railway. During a period of free time, we stopped for a coffee and found ourselves sitting with our guide. We chatted with her about what life had been like in the old days of communism. She told us how the young would often have learnt to drive at the age of eighteen, but would then have to put their name down to actually own a car. After about twelve years, at the age of around thirty, they could hope for their name to reach the top of the waiting list so that they became the proud owner of a Trabant car. We talked with her about how life had changed with the coming down of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. What was the key element that brought about this change? Her answer was simple. Television! None was allowed to watch western TV stations, but they all did. What could not be hidden was the standard of living and the life expectancies of western society, even if some of what was portrayed was the idealised stuff of TV drama. With that knowledge, the division between East and West could not be sustained indefinably. In the end that division collapsed and the rest, as they say, is history.
In our own day we are subjected to the distressing and horrific sight of children being forcibly taken from their parents at the border between the USA and Mexico. Nearer to home, during this past month, we have seen yet another boat of people, seeking new life in Europe and being refused the right to land in Italy. Immigration is a challenge for us in Europe and concern over immigrants is a significant factor in our decision to embrace Brexit and leave the European community. How can we cope with more people coming in? How can our infrastructure cope? We cannot afford to provide the level of health care for ‘our own’ people, so how can we possibly afford to include all these new people? In an age of ‘austerity’ these protestations become all the more understandable.
What changes the situation is the rise of social media and the almost universal access to mobile data. We can witness the plight of those perishing in the Mediterranean, or children incarcerated in camps in America, or the starving in the Sudan, or the violence of so many wars. The list goes on and on and on. We can see these things in real time and in the highest resolution and clarity. Yet the opposite is true. Those we view on our news broadcasts can often see us and the kind of lifestyle we enjoy as the fifth largest economy on the planet. Social media does indeed radically shift the move to our being a global village. It leads me to question, not whether we can possibly help all the many who are fleeing (often for their lives) and seeking new life in Europe, but how we can ever hope to maintain the stark divisions of our world. I can see that my brothers and sisters in the Sudan are dying for lack of food, but they can not only see that I have more than enough to eat, but that much of my food goes to waste. There is no instant solution to this, but I have no reason to feel comfortable that the situation can continue for ever. It has been said, with some justification, that the Third World War will be fought over water and all that symbolises in terms the right to life. As parts of the planet move to becoming uninhabitable, because of global warming, how we sustain the lives of the whole of humanity, on this small rock of a planet, has become the challenge for us all to face.
This leads me to reflect on the prophecies of the Old Testament and the cry of God, spoken through the prophets, to the effect that none of our religious structures is worth a penny, if not accompanied by a justice that includes the poor and those on the margins of society. Social media leads me to discover the truth that every person is my neighbour in a much more immediate and challenging way that could have been the case in days gone by. If we face challenges in how we cope with the number of those seeking asylum and new life in our society, then putting up increasingly high barriers will not, in the end, be a solution that can be sustained.
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