Grande Synthe, Dunkirk 2016. Is the situation ever hopeless? Part 3

....They said it would never happen again.

I lost count the times I was asked in France by men in uniforms, with guns, "show us your papers", or words to that effect. Like we need papers and documents and official identification to prove we are legitimate human beings. I do not have to prove the legitimacy of my existence to anyone. I do not recognise such authority to endorse or deny the legitimacy of my existence.

My existence justifies itself.

I heard in Belgum last week that a by law has been passed making it illegal to feed refugees "as it will only encourage them". So it is a crime there now to share your food with another hungry human being.

I read the other day that the EU is proposing to criminalise rescuing drowning people from the sea under people trafficking laws, while at the same time NATO is responding to the crisis of humanity we now face by sending a war fleet into the Mediterranean to deter people traffickers. So if I decide to go to Greece and pull survivors out of the water am I liable to be shot at by NATO warships?

Is this truly the best response the nations of Democracy have to offer in the face of this crisis of humanity?

I hear today from a friend that the police have started slapping pregnant women into submission for not wanting their picture taken on the Grande Synthe Human Being camp.

This is clearly provocative behaviour designed to incur the indignation and defiance of the people there.

Just like in Calais where French police are repeatedly guilty of firing tear gas into the camp without cause or need, just to provoke a violent response, of course.

The men who wear those uniforms need to ask themselves some important questions. Do they want to be remembered as the abusers of humanity that were "just following orders"? Do they really want to be remembered as the Nazi boot boys of the early 21st century?

It astounds me that people still cannot see the parallels here with what is going on now and what went on in the 1930's and 1940's in Europe.

It's there for all to see.

The blanket condemnation of people based on race or religion.

The blatant removal of the peoples right to dissent, and the creation of a social climate where neighbour reports neighbour, parent reports child and teacher reports pupil for "suspicious behaviour".

The denial of peoples humanity, identifying whole racial, social or cultural groups as some kind of inhuman or subhuman species, worthy of nothing but hatred and contempt.

The building of "camps" for these people being seen as a "solution" to their existence.

The rampant profiteering from their plight, stripping them of resources and possessions (I met more than one person in Grande Synthe who had had their phones taken off them by French police with no explanation given, and no avenue offered by which they could retrieve their property).

The rampant profiteering by organised crime that sees these vulnerable people as nothing but an opportunity. Inexpensive organs for harvesting, orphaned and untraceable children for selling to those who like fucking children, a source of constant income from those desperate to make it to a better life in a relatively peaceful and free society, (one where they can leave their house and visit the shop of a morning without fear of being shot, bombed or beheaded, or having their sons conscripted under threat of death to their family into some militia or other, or having their daughters taken off of them to be used as sex slaves for the "troops").

A society where the government doesn't hang your friends from a lamp-post in the street.

There is a war going on that is currently sucking every nation of the world into it, being funded on all sides by big business cartels from the oil, arms and financial markets (as usual) and where the people who suffer the most, as always, are the innocent, the young, the old, the vulnerable.

The powers that have taken over the institutions of governance in this world are creating world war three, right before our eyes. It comes complete with the creation of a global financial crash that has led to an economic environment that makes people fear losing what little they have, and far more prone to national isolationism. It comes complete with the creation of a  "folk devil" we can all feel justified in hating via false flag atrocities and propaganda ( a very old game that we should ALL be wise to by now). It comes complete with genocide and the attempt to destroy a whole people and their culture. It comes complete with the unrestrained use of chemical weapons (like depleted uranium), the unrestrained use of indiscriminate bombing of whole nations (regardless of the loss of civilian lives, or the inability of such actions to actually quell the fighting in these regions), the posturing and muscle flexing of world super powers who are equally determined to present themselves as our saviours in the face of a perceived threat they themselves have created. And all the time the criminal organisations of the banking, oil and arms industry, the people trafficking business, and the drug trade are all doing very well indeed out of this chaos they create, and the real nations of concern, the real terrorist organisations with proven track records of illegal, immoral and unscrupulous behaviour go un-remarked upon in the culpable "free-press".and untouchable by any kind of democratic oversight.

Do not think you can remain unaffected by any of this in your safe little corner of the world. We are all being affected, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and politically. Do not think this won't come to your door. It's already at your door, and the people you elected to protect you from it are the same people who meet in secret think tanks and dream up these schemes of megalomania and global domination. They do not care about your security or the quality of your lives. They do not care about you.

They care only about feeding their own addiction to power.

Do not think that the so-called "free press" are keeping you informed of the realities of the situation. There is no "free-press", and those that masquerade as such are simply agents of fear and manipulation that are deliberately playing with your humanity and your emotions so as to manufacture your consent for further atrocities. They want you scared, and they want you angry.

They want you to feel helpless.

Do not think your National Identity will protect you from the socio-paths who  engineer these scenarios, nor your Religion, your Bank Balance, your Profession or your Guns.

Your God won't save you either.

The only thing that can save us is ourselves, this is our planet, our reality and our problem. Only our collective commitment to peaceful, non-violent, non-compliance can save us. We, the people of this world, must grow up and each of us take responsibility for the future we contribute to and the world we are co-creating for future generations.

Will our children and grand children be free people or slaves?

Do we even care enough?

We must work together, all of us, diverse as we are; to create an egalitarian society based on compassion, altruism and social justice.

We must re-connect with our spirituality and ignore the reductionist attitude of those who would tell us what to believe, what to feel and what to think.

We must drown out the voices of hate with our cry for peace. We must smother the sound of the war drums with our own orchestral music of love, tolerance and mutual respect for all humanity and indeed for all life, in all of it's forms.

We need to stop waiting for permission to make change to happen, and start making it happen in our lives, neighbourhoods, cities and countries.

You and I will change this world. Indeed every choice we make, every pound we spend, every word we speak and every action we perform contributes to that change and the form it takes.

So what kind of world do we want to live in? What kind of world do we want to leave behind?

Let us all throw ourselves body and soul into the "Peace Effort", because the only thing that can save us now is an all out global outbreak of peace.

They said it would never happen again...

...It's happening now.

Truth is, it never stopped.



Love, Courage and Strength to you all.

Grande Synthe, Dunkirk 2016. Is the situation ever hopeless? Part 2

.....

The first three things I noticed walking onto Grande Synthe Human Being camp are; 

First, the mud.

You cannot fail to notice the mud as it is everywhere and it is overwhelming. It permeates every aspect of these people's lives and is a constant enemy to be resisted, suffered and struggled against. How they manage to keep the inside of their makeshift homes so clean (which they do admirably) is a mystery to me. We tried to keep the inside of our van clean and we failed, admirably (apologies to www.legs4africa.org!) The mud is so bad that even to leave your tent, put on your boots and make the arduous journey to the toilet block, shower block or kitchen tent is a herculean task that saps the energy out of a strong man. The simple task of taking off or putting on your boots means that you will get thick mud on your hands and after a while I gave up trying to keep my hands clean. It was futile.

Secondly, the smiles.

These people are friendly, welcoming people, very appreciative of the efforts being made by volunteers on their behalf. I cannot count the times I have been thanked over the last few weeks for "the work you do for our people". There is spirit among these people. A spirit that will not be broken no matter how hard the haters, exploiters, power junkies and manipulators try. They sit around their camp fires and laugh, joke among themselves, play music, share food and cigarettes. We were constantly welcomed into people's areas and tents, offered tea and food, offered conversation and friendship; even from those who could not understand or speak our language. Sometimes the most eloquent conversations are non-verbal. A smile, a hug, a handshake, a gesture towards the surroundings and a shrug, a sad look, a fist thumped against the heart. The offering of a mug of hot tea. Offering a light for your roll up. These conversations are in the universal language of mutual respect and appreciation. The language of love. I have had quite a few of these non-verbal conversations of late.

Thirdly, the volunteers.

What can I say about these stalwart people from all over Europe who are living day in day out with the people who call that field of shite home? They are trying valiantly to keep them all from the edge of desperation and doing all they physically can to improve the conditions of life on the camp. The people from Aid Box Convoy (www.aidboxconvoy.org.uk), a Bristol-based group of grassroots volunteers who have been committed to working on this particular camp since October, and the independent volunteers from all over the international community living and working on camp full time, and all the people from all of the various groups around the UK (like www.lesolidarity.org among so many others) and Europe who have answered the call of the heart to do whatever they can to help in the face of this humanitarian crisis, are absolutely my heroes and my family. I love them, each and every one of them. The value of the work they are doing on the ground cannot be overstated and I have no doubt that their actions have thus far prevented many deaths, from hunger, exposure and disease, from happening over the last few months. They are overstretched, under-resourced and unsupported by any organisation, governmental or otherwise, but still they work on, doing what needs to be done in the name of the Family of Humanity. True Anarchy in action. People seeing clearly what needs to be done and just doing it, without thought of personal gain, and without waiting for permission from anyone. Just getting the job done.

After about two weeks into my trip I began to melt down. I started losing my faith and losing my ability to see the point of what I was doing there. I had a conversation with a guy called Ian, an ABC volunteer. He restored by commitment by telling me straight what we were doing. "We are injecting hope into the situation. This is not a hopeless situation". Thank you Ian. Thank you very much. You injected hope into me. I will always be indebted to you for those words.

The final thing that eventually became apparent to me in my time there was the profound truth that these people from Kurdistan (yes, that is a country, though you wont see it on any current map of the world) have so much more to offer us, in post-modern - consumerist - "God is dead" - apathetic UK, than we have to offer them. They have such a strong sense of community responsibility, such a profound respect for the privacy and sanctity of a person's home - however humble, such a strong tradition of hospitality towards strangers. These people could, and would, enrich our society with its focus on individualism and its cult of superficiality and celebrity. Sure we have much to teach them, (about environmental concerns and the silliness of sell-by dates if nothing else!) but also they have much to teach us, if only we could see it.

I hope and plan to be going back fairly soon, once I have my strength back (mental, physical, spiritual), and stay on camp until the French Establishment try to evict them. I will need to raise some money to do this as I have none and live on the benefit of benefits (what a privileged life I lead, seriously. I give thanks to That Which Is for my freedom and the access to public funds I have been granted. I try to make good use of them). I will stand with my friends (some of the people I met on camp will be friends of mine for life, whatever happens and wherever we end up). I may not see eye to eye with all of them politically, or theologically, or culturally. However, none of that really matters to me. These differences are superficial, and through making the effort of getting to know each other we can always reach a place of mutual understanding, mutual respect. These superficial differences between the "me" and the "not me" are really as meaningless as the differences of skin colour, eye colour, hair style and sartorial taste. When faced with absolute need and the day to day necessities of staying alive, our commonalities become very apparent. We all have in common the basic needs of survival, the emotional and psychological needs of companionship and love, the spiritual need of freedom, and freedom to express ourselves - express the legitimacy of our own existence. We are human, we are sentient, we are family. I will not abandon my family to the oppression of men with guns. I will not keep away from the danger they face, be it from uniformed men working for "Government", from ignorant and misguided people working for abstract ideas about "National Identity" or "Economic Necessity", nor from ruthless men working for criminal gangs of exploiters whose only thought is of the $'s they can make from the needs, vulnerability and hopes of others. I will share their danger, and I will share their truth...

...Insh'Allah.

More to come....

Grande Synthe, Dunkirk 2016. Is the situation ever hopeless? Part 1

Hello friends and readers.

I got back last Saturday night from a few weeks helping out at the camp at Grande Synthe, near Dunkirk, in northern France. I am exhausted still, physically I feel weak and sore, mentally I feel drained and empty, emotionally I am somewhat numb.

I have been trying to compose in my mind what I want to say to you all about the situation, both at that particular camp of human beings, and about the situation on a wider scale.

After 48 hours of trying I came up with very little, so here I am winging it and just typing as I feel. Apologies if the style of writing does not entertain you.

We (my travel partner Michaela Smith and myself) rolled up there on Tuesday the 26th of January with a van (loaned to us by the good folk from www.legs4africa.org), filled to bursting with aid items (contributed by the good people of www.lesolidarity.org), a bank account with a good few hundred quid in it (donated by our good friends from Leicester's' counter culture), and two hearts full of love, compassion and good intentions.

We were going to help these people and we were going to make a difference.

From the outset we were on a mission to get the aid off the van quickly so that we would have room enough to lay our mattress down and sleep in relative comfort within it. At first we both felt that we wanted to live on camp with the human beings we now call collectively "refugees" (or, if you buy into the bullshit, "migrants"). We were getting along well with this at first and knowing the layout of the camp helped. Knowing who to liaise with on the ground and meeting up with one or two familiar faces among the volunteers was also invaluable. We had managed to unload the 40 or 50 sleeping bags, boxes of blankets, crates of food etc to the relevant distribution tents managed by the international community of awake souls who work there full time, doing with little resources what the UN and the EU should be doing, but are not. We then had to move the van closer to the men's clothing tent to get all the boxes of jackets, coats etc unloaded.

That's when the shooting happened.

Michaela was reversing the van and I was guiding her in when I noticed to my left two young guys having what looked for all the world like an argument. As I was waving the van in, this argument suddenly became a full on altercation with police issue tear gas canisters appearing in their hands from out of nowhere, and one of the guys getting a face full of the nasty stuff. I caught a bit of it on the breeze and that was irritating enough. The inflicted party ran off, retaliating in kind as he did so, only to be pursued with vigour by the other young man who then proceeded to draw out an automatic pistol and fired one shot in the direction of his target. I tried to see, but could not tell if anyone was hit by this reckless bullet in a camp full of children.

At this point it all gets a bit blurry as things happened fast. I recall Michaela (fearless creature that she is) ignoring my demand that we now leave camp and insisting that we remain to unload more jumpers and jackets. So that is what we started doing (she is the boss in our team, make no mistake) and for a minute or two we got on with this effectively. Then more shots were heard around the camp and suddenly we were hemmed in by frightened people attempting to shelter behind, alongside and inside of our van.

I heard Michaela say "Alan, get in the van!" but I couldn't. To have done so would have meant pulling others out of the back who had sought it's shelter already. I couldn't do that as I had noticed the terror on their faces. I had noticed the way they automatically made themselves smaller targets and sought cover from stray bullets. An automatic practise I dare say they have had to learn from the circumstances of their already traumatised lives. I noticed the way they sought safety around us, as if we offered some kind of protection in these circumstances.

How many shots were fired altogether I do not know. I counted at least six. Michaela reckoned about ten, in two bursts from two directions. Then this one bloke, whose name I never learnt, placed himself alongside our van and started shouting in Kurdish. I have no idea what he said but he obviously commanded some respect as the shooting stopped. There were now a group of young men with sticks and evil grins approaching our area from behind the van and from the wooden shack alongside us a woman and two small children emerged, crying and trembling. We tried to offer them the shelter of the van and to take them away from the camp but I do not think they understood our words and I (to my continued shame) decided then and there that I was prepared to abandon them to their fate for the sake of getting ourselves to safety. Maybe, for all my fine words, I am nothing but a coward after all. However, my prime concern was getting Michaela out of the danger zone. I couldn't deal with watching her catch a bullet. To do so would break me. So I told her forcefully, half pulling her physically towards the cab, "We leave, NOW!"

So we left, driving out and feeling like total selfish cunts for doing so.

The wail of anguish that I heard from people as we got in the cab and left the area will remain with me all of my days.

We hung around the area trying to catch news of what was happening inside, then after a while we decided to head off to find somewhere to park up and kip the night.

I have never been caught in a gun battle before. It was an experience that brought all kinds of realities about myself into sharp relief and I am still in the process of reflecting on what those realities say about the meaning of my existence, the meaning and point of me. However, as I learnt subsequently over the next two and a half weeks, gunfire, killing, bombs falling from the sky and sudden brutality and death are things these wonderful people have been subjected to from many quarters for some time.

To try and escape these things is the main reason they are living in that field of mud. They have men with guns back home killing their loved ones and grinding their homelands into shit, men with guns killing their people in the name of God, Revenge, Autonomy, Democracy or Business. They have men with guns working for the French establishment searching them as they come and go to and from the camp, and making them feel like they are wrong for existing. They have men with guns attempting to dictate the conditions of their existence within the camp, working for gangs of organised criminality whose sole objective is to profit from their desperation, their need, their vulnerability and their hopes.

So what did my first day at camp teach me? Well it reaffirmed one conviction that I have held for a while now.

Men with guns are no solution to the challenges of life. Once you pick up a gun you become part of the problem, whatever your idealistic or abstract justification, whatever your emotional reasons, and whomever you work for and however much they pay you.

I hope one day we (humanity) learn this lesson well. We need peace to be secure, we need peace to be happy. We need peace to progress and evolve into the truly integrated society of enlightened beings we can (and will) become.

Peace will never be established by people with guns. For peace to become our reality we all have to put our weapons down.


More to come......