Childhood & Christmas

Whatever you think about the immigration issue I want you to consider another perspective. 

When I was a child we didn't have sleepovers. We played in the street or the back garden. But we did play. We played with marbles, balls, water, sand. We had swings & parks. I lived in Birmingham, but I could walk to grassy open areas, two of which had rivers or canals. So it was like being in the countryside. Children were connected with both other children, adults & their environment in a way that they aren't now. We didn't have TV, but we listened to the radio & read books, which sparked our imagination, made us concentrate & think.

My childhood shaped me.

I'm not going to dwell on childhood today in the UK. You all know what it is like. It's light years away from what I remember. In some ways better, but in many I think children have lost something important.

I do want you to think about children in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan, Somalia & the DRC. Children who are living in war zones. I doubt that you can imagine what it's like to constantly be surrounded by death, destruction, shooting, bombs & noise. I can't. What sort of a childhood do these children have? Even survival is not guaranteed - Theirs or their friends & family. The risk of life changing injury is even higher.

Then there are the children living in countries where humanitarian law doesn't apply. In Nigeria for example, mass child abduction is fairly routine. Children in many countries do not have a childhood, they work, voluntarily or not, from a very young age. The family needs them to work in order to be able to survive. Children are sold & trafficked. It's a form of modern slavery in every country in the world, including the UK, the US & Europe. In Africa children are sold for as little as 15$ - 70$.

 

I'm going to stop there. It's too harrowing.

My point is today is the start of Advent - Leading up to the "money fest" of Christmas. We are sold a tinsel & Santa image of happy families. The projected spend on Christmas in 2025 is £41.6 - £46.6 billion. 

More & more I find that unacceptable. Just think of the good, even a small part of that money could do, for the children & their parents living in the conditions I have described. Where is our humanity? Why are we demonising refugees & immigrents?