September 8th, 2015: Refugees

[xoxoxoBruce]

Supposedly Hungarian countryside after the passage of refugees.

[Sundae]

I despise people who litter.
Because you are always close to a bin, or in your car, or have pockets...

Refugees? Carrying everything they own and leaving everything they have?
I grant leniency.

We don't need this.

[Undertoad]

I'ma go ahead and guess that this is not refugee litter. To produce this amount of trash in a week they would have to truck it in.

[glatt]

My parents just got back from a river cruise in Europe. At one point, the Danube was too dry, so they got put on to busses to complete the trip. I asked them about the refugees since they were in Austria and Hungary, among other places.

This is their email from 3 days ago.

Today we crossed the border from Austria on the autobahn. There was a ~10 mile traffic jam at the border on the side entering Austria, also some tent villages in rest areas in both countries, and a couple of police checkpoints that caused smaller traffic jams between the border and Budapest. There was one field beside the highway in Hungary where a cleanup crew with trucks and pay loaders were clearing rubble from what looked like a previous large encampment, now empty of people. Finally in Budapest we got a glimpse of a tent village in a park behind a wall. There were also occasional persons or small groups walking along the autobahn. Traffic flowing east and life in the main tourist areas of Budapest appeared normal.
Dad
There were at least a dozen buses (like city buses, not greyhound) sitting on the Hungarian side of the border filled with refugees. I found it very sad. What has their life been like, what kind of future do they have and how courageous and scared they must be right now.
Mom

[glatt]

I can see there being a government encampment that the refugees lived in for a couple days and then they left, carrying government water bottles and plastic bags and stuff, and abandoned the trash along the highway. Hungary didn't treat them well, and I'm sure they don't feel much love for that country.

[Snakeadelic]

Sadly, Undertoad, between the flight-mentality lifestyle of first world refugees and the easy availability of plastic and paper packaging, I would believe that's refugee litter. I've personally seen messes a good half the size of any of those photos that were left behind after less than 2000 people had occupied a small hotel for 3-4 days for sci fi conventions! When people have nothing but what they carry, they can't take time or energy to think about the physical world around them--whatever isn't necessary is going to get stripped away, and if there aren't garbage facilities right on the spot they don't think they have the time or energy to go find a bin or anything. There's a pretty solid chance that any cloth items in the photos (like the tent, blanket, and clothes in the first one) left behind belonged to people who were arrested or rousted, or they may have been stained or damaged or stolen, rifled through, and dumped.

I've never been a refugee, but there was a time 40 years ago when my mom had to act like one--packing everything we HAD to have into one huge carry-all bag, grabbing me, and making a break for it through the orange groves around Orlando in the middle of the night. I remember having very few toys, even three or four years later, compared to the few kids who would talk to me in school. Heck, until I was about 12 or so my prize possessions were about a dozen books, half a dozen stuffed animals, and a coffee can with about 50 little plastic critters in it that I would take out in the empty lots and arrange & orchestrate in what could have been stop-motion animation if I'd had a camera. I remember not really wanting more toys because someone would just come along and tell me we were moving again and didn't have room to take them. It must be a thousand times worse for real refugees in first world countries (which I would hope still includes at least most of Europe...).

[xoxoxoBruce]

They're not just walking through, they're being held up and screened. Only 35% are accepted with the rest being turned away. But there is no going back, so they camp until routed out by the authorities.

http://www.magyartudat.com/

http://www.magyartudat.com/ausztria-...s-bevandorlok/

[Undertoad]

Okay I'm convinced. But is that a loveseat?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I'm sure there are locals who feel sorry for these people and are donating food, clothing, and yes maybe a love seat. It's more likely the love seat was dumped there by someone before the refugees came.

I can understand the reluctance by European governments to open wide, considering the history of trouble with the transplants they already have. It's going to be a hell of a strain, and drain, on those governments from new refugees with limited language skills, and limited trade skills.

[BigV]

The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by numerous countries. Guess what country has not ratified this international human rights treaty? That's right, Somalia. Oh, yeah, and the United States of America.

I've heard the opposition to ratification is the concern that the treaty would override US law, but no such worry about, say, the Pan Pacific trade treaty.

From here: http://www.gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial...UN-Hiroko.aspx

[Gravdigr]

That beige tent is/was pretty nice.

[glatt]

And in the foreground, in front of the nice tent, is a trash bag on a roadside reflector post. So somebody went through the trouble of hanging a bag on a post and putting their trash in it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Of course it's not ratified, there's no money in that. But that shit doesn't mean a rat's ass without enforcement. Who and how would it be enforced?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Bild, Europe's best selling newspaper, published the picture in Sundae's post of the dead three year old on the beach. They got a lot of shit from people saying it was inappropriate and didn't want to see it.
In reply, Bild put out a paper this week with no photographs, none, they left out every damn picture in the paper, pointing out how important pictures are even if you're offended.

link

[glatt]

The Washington Post published at least two pictures of that dead boy. One, on the front page that was a little tamer, showing a cop carrying the body, and then I think a day later they posted another, slightly more "graphic" one in a story inside that talked about coverage of the crises and the image itself, and showed the boy's face in the rippling waves.