Misleading history lessons

Although history does not repeat itself precisely, that general lesson can be gleaned from an understanding of it is surely undeniable, except by the most arrogant or wilful of leaders [naming no names]. It is in understanding it badly that lies one current malaise, which may cost us dear. How we talk about, treat and make policy about foreign peoples may be the very cause of some of the most intractable policy areas: diplomacy, Europe, immigration, social cohesion.

As rulers of colonies, the British Establishment acquired a sense of superiority, entitlement and arrogance which has yet to be diluted by the passage of time since empire's demise. Foreigners were looked upon with either suspicion [if powerful] or disdain [as lesser beings]. Still, today, our ruling oligarchs and their media camp-followers seem content with a default mode of suspicion and stereotyping. The Algerian author Karem Daoud sums up this attitude thus: "Arab-ness is like Negro-ness, which only exists in the white man's eyes"

 Such a hangover from history leads to behaviours, even policies, such as schmoozing the rich, no matter how ethically dubious; and trying to avoid direct contact with the rest. Handshakes are exclusively reserved for those with money to spend. This "rubber-glove" attitude may be manifested in trying to ensure that our shores are protected by other States not letting people out in our direction; or in bombing from a safe height. It cannot be seriously believed that history teaches us that the gunboat is preferable to the conference table, but metaphorically this seems to be the first resort of the Right. Trouble in Syria - lets bomb, or better still, use remote controlled drones. Refugees in Calais - lets keep them away with fences and someone else's armed guards. Mass migration in Europe - lets claim we are not a part of it.

Refusal to welcome valid refugees is all about their foreignness rather than their humanity. Hostility to the EU is about an arrogant distaste for collaboration with Others. The British Establishment still seems to show its old colours, failing to grasp that all humans are of equal worth, no matter how much or little wealth they command; and that foreign States are as entitled as our own to self-esteem and the respect of others.

The World is changing before our eyes. Mass migration has only just started. As climate change also shows, you cannot simply turn your back on such seismic shifts but have to adapt to them. Concrete walls will - should - not keep out either extreme weather nor the realities of human need. So let us have reality in politics not worn-out attitudes inherited by a narrow-minded and xenophobic few.

Refugee numbers are big but it is the individuals who matter

It was the books of Lyn MacDonald bringing to life the experiences of soldiers in the Great War which changed everything for me. Studying history, ancient and modern, seemed until then to be all about dates, scale, win or lose. The big story about WW1 was the telephone numbers of casualties. Almost 60,000 on Day 1 of the Battle of the Somme, 19,000 dead. Millions of dead and wounded on both sides. Lions led by donkeys. All these headlines typify how history seemed until it became personal - not for me but for every one of those who experienced the events which make up the narrative. Every unit of statistics is a story - a biography of a person, usually involving other people, who knew, loved, hated or otherwise encountered them. Lives lived, enjoyed, happy, sad, ruined, concluded.

Now, once again, we are in the midst of a numbers storm. Millions of people displaced, hundreds of thousands in camps, tens of thousands perilously crossing seas, thousands of political pawns. Then a picture is published showing a dead boy and we realise that migrants are refugees; refugees are people, individuals who also had lives in their places of origin as bank managers, scientists, engineers, cooks, school-children, with families, friends . How desperate these must have been to leave these lives, to face walking, limping, swimming, starving, with no known destination. Every one a story, a life, a human.

This is why refugees must be found homes among those who have the wherewithal to provide. This is why shutting them out is not appropriate and shows a deficit in leadership and humanity. This is why those who have played a part in creating the chaos the Middle East has become have a duty to those displaced by the deployment of Western arms. What are these individuals supposed to do, who find themselves with nothing, in the middle of alien countrysides, facing hostility, starvation, or a future worse than the ones they fled. This is why we as individuals too should think how to change things.