It shouldn’t take a picture to call people to action, but that’s exactly how it happened. One little boy washing up dead on a Turkish beach did more than years of reporting on one of the worst civil wars in modern times.
The photo certainly did more than decades of reporting on a dozen or so other equal horrors occurring across our planet.
Canada, and to a larger extent the global community, prefers the silent atrocities. The ones that take place for years in Sudan, in Libya, in Eritrea, in CAR, in Congo, in Somalia, in Iraq, in Myanmar, without stirring up much fuss.
The Syrian crisis is one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes of our time, certainly, but why does it garner such media attention? Is it really for the size, or a function of geography? Were Syria not within a short boat-ride away to the safe shores of the EU, would it be on the news to the extent that it is today?
Of course, Canadians can’t solve every world crisis. Just like Canada can’t take in every refugee seeking a new home.
But these crises don’t emerge overnight. The devastation of Syria didn’t start with that little boy and it won’t end were Canada to take in one million refugees or zero. Not to mention that, according to the UN Refugee Agency, the vast majority of people in need of direct aid are not refugees, but rather internally displaced people in countries such as Iraq and Syria.
But before that little boy, most countries in the world not immediately bordering Syria were fine to throw up their hands and say “oh well, what can be done?”
Now’s the time to push for refugee reform. If the world wants to claim altruism and not pragmatism, then every refugee should be welcome – within logistical, political and economic reason – no matter if they’re dying in the Aegean or they are displaced within their own country.
Otherwise, call it what it is: pandering. If Canada and the world elevates the lives of Syrians over the lives of people dying in camps across the globe then humanity cannot claim a moral agenda.
Of course, Canada and the rest of the world cannot accept every refugee in the world, nor should they. The root problems must be addressed, whether it’s in the form of a stronger UN, increased support for progressive movements within oppressive regimes, or at the very least attention to these areas before they boil over to their tipping points.
In the interim Canada’s path is clear; step up to the call. Welcome Syrians, yes, but when people in countries tucked away in the heart of Africa or the corner of the Asian subcontinent call for help, Canada should not be deaf to their needs just because they’re many kilometres away from where the western media cares to pay attention.
The Syrian refugee crisis did not start with that tragic little boy, and the larger cycle of human violence will not end after peace returns to Syria.
If Canada remembers that, then maybe next time we won’t need such a photo and maybe, we might even prevent one.