The clothes you stand up in.

I went on a fortnights walking holiday to the Pelion Peninsula in Northern Greece. We flew into Volos, a military airport with very basic facilities for tourists. Sadly, I arrived safely, but my luggage didn't. It became obvious very quickly that my suitcase wasn't going to appear. I literally had what I stood up in - walking gear, fortunately including wearing boots. I also had a bumbag with documents etc. My husbands suitcase did arrive, but at that time we didn't mix our things between two cases. So he had everything & I had nothing.

I only relate this because of the unimaginable numbers of people who are now also fleeing to a strange country, with nothing. They don't arrive in the comfort of a modern aeroplane. They are exhausted & terrified - In fear of their lives. They are sick, hungry & dehydrated. They don't have the comfort of a modern apartment with every facility to stay in. I had money & managed to buy a dreadful sundress, flip flops & knickers - eventually. (We were staying in a very remote rural area). Fot a while I wore a pair of my husbands Y fronts which was a very weird experience. I coped, with the help of some kind people in one of the apartments & a travel rep who did her best to reunite me with my case. Eventually I returned to Gatwick where it had been all the time.

Although I can empathise to a certain extent with displaced people, I doubt any of us, in this cosseted world of plenty most of us live in, can really begin to feel what the lives of refugees is like. My life has never been threatened. I have never wanted for food & water & a place to sleep & call my own. I have never been seriously ill or hurt without enough medical help. I have never seem members of my family or friends be brutally killed or die needlessly.

My family have had free education & health care, jobs & an income. I have been blessed & so have most of us, although many don't appreciate it. Relatively few people in our "world" don't have the basics.

So we do need to really try hard to understand what our fellow human beings, wherever they are, are suffering in this world of plenty. We do need to do something about their plight. We do need to get off our backsides & shout from the rooftops, so that politicians & leaders really hear our voice. We have the technology for instant communication around the world. We should use it to say enough is enough.