The left's reality problem

During the migrant crisis the media has been drumming the need for Western nations to take in more and more refugees.  We have seen various harrowing images of drowned children, women and children in liferafts who have escaped several warzones etc, but strange that according to even the most reliable figures most of the refugees are fit young men.

The reasons for accepting the refugees are summed up below

• The west's colonial history.

Somehow modern day Europeans have to pay back the excesses of their forbears.  This is part of the post-colonial guilt trip that I read about.

• The west is responsible for these wars

To a limited extent yes, US and Uk have been heavily involved in Iraq and Afghanistan for example.  However, a large percentage of the refugees head for places like Germany and Sweden, which have had little involvement in recent wars due to constitution (Germany) and political neutrality (Sweden).  The main source comes from Syria and that conflict started when Syrians started protesting against Assad, the west only got involved when IS came along.

• The west has all the world's resources

This is an old canard, its true that large amounts of resources flow to the west, but this is all to do with trade, it is all paid for.  In fact in recent years, the world's resources have been flowing towards China.

• Refugees enrich us with their culture and even add to the economy

Whether foreign cultures can enrich the west is a hotly debated point.  I don't see Chinese, Iranian or whatever non-Western society suddenly deciding it needs cultural enrichment.  As I will point out later it is this cultural difference that leads to problems.

So there you have the left's arguments and I will put the counter point in my next post.

The refugee crisis

Even living out here in HK, one cannot avoid the refugee crisis that is happening in the Europe and the UK in particular.
From truck stowaways, cross channel swimmers and drowned toddlers, this has been the headline news on CCTV, Phoenix TV and TVB here in HK. There are many harrowing stories and but if you see through the emotional photos and footage a few facts need to be made clear.

Refugee or not.

Assuming they are all refugees fleeing persecution, why haven't they all sought refuge in first safe destination. Why do they have to seek refuge in certain European countries?  Also apart from a few tragic examples, most of these refugees are young men, if governments persecute people then they would persecute men and women, young and old.  Could it be to do the fact that the UK and Germany have a good social security structure?

 

Crisis due to western intervention

Germany has opened up its doors to these refugees from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea, but Germany has not been involved in any of these conflicts.  The UK was involved in Iraq and Afghanistan and now partially in Syria.  Other countries have been heavily involved in the Syrian conflict including Iran and Russia(both on the Assad side), the Gulf states, Saudia Arabia and Turkey (on the side of ISIS).  So far these countries have failed to take in any refugees.  The other form of western intervention has been British muslim teenagers going to Syria to join IS, apparently without their parent's knowledge!  Surely Iran and Russia should open their borders.  This argument does look very thin.

 

Isn't the UK in austerity.
We keep hearing that the UK is in austerity, but the left wants the UK to let these 'refugees' in, so how can the British taxpayer pay for all this when the UK is already in tough economic times?  Suddenly we regard to foreigners, austerity is ignored.