Listening to people on the radio offering accommodation to refugees brought it home to me what a disconnect there is between the citizenry and the politicians we elect to represent us. While our government hums and haws over increasing the derisory commitment they have made with a slightly less derisory one, The general population is prepared to open their homes if need be. Now, the assortment of cranks and loons that "talk to Joe" on a daily basis might not be everyone's idea of a representative sample of the population as a whole but in this I think most people would be of like mind.
However the question of what happens to the refugees when they arrive here needs to be addressed. Whoever comes here will be staying for a while. After the horrors of their homeland and the hazardous trip across Europe Mosney or wherever will seem like paradise but you can't expect people to sit and moulder on €20 a week for years. These are people who had lives, careers skills. Why not let them contribute to Irish society. I cannot understand the thinking behind the direct provision system. It just gives ammunition to those who would prefer the borders to be shut.
Europe's reaction to the crisis has been pretty poor. Arguments about numbers while bodies are floating around the Mediterranean doesn't reflect well on the "European project" If the EU wants to be taken seriously as a force in the world it needs to step up, both in the short term by trying to alleviate the situation for those trying to escape the wars in their homeland and in the longer term by doing something constructive to bring an end to the conflicts.
The only way the refugee crisis will end is if the situation in places like Syria improves. I think they need boots on the ground in there.and not just soundbites about "helping them help themselves" from the type of people who then complain about the size of foreign aid budgets in their own countries. ISIS will not negotiate, will not be sanctioned into submission I'm by no means a "Yeeha!! let's smoke 'em out" sort of person but standing idly by while ISIS butcher their way across the Middle East is 1939 and appeasement all over again. A "just" war may be an oxymoron in some eyes but there needs to be some sort of intervention.
Back to our numbers game. 600 refugees is a joke A proportionate response should be in the thousands. Germany is taking 1 million, no questions asked. In reality, we shouldn't even be counting, just acting.
