…nacieron en el Mediterráneo” es el coro de la canción que Joan Manuel Serrat, en primera persona del singular, dedica a ese mar que mientras para los europeos del sur “ilumina sus largas noches de invierno” para muchos habitantes del norte de África es la ruta a atravesar, en improvisados botes, para escapar de la anarquía y del fanatismo.
Desde que la OTAN (Organización del Atlántico Norte) colaboró a derrocar, en 2012, al sangriento dictador Muamar Gadafi, Libia – como la Iraq post-Saddam Husein, – se tornó en un caos a falta de un gobierno central que impusiese el principio de autoridad. Esto fue aprovechado por grupos radicales islamistas, incluyendo al Estado Islámico (EI) y a la filial de Al Qaeda en el Magreb (AQIM, por sus siglas en inglés), que originaron el éxodo de miles de libios y de otros africanos de países con presencia de fanáticos islamistas, como Somalia y Eritrea, que han recurrido a sus pocos ahorros para pagar a traficantes de personas que los conduzcan, en pésimas condiciones, a los lugares más cercanos de Europa.
Italia ha socorrido a una ola de refugiados que sobrepasa a la de 10 mil almas y si bien la bota europea no ha “pateado” a los refugiados de regreso a África, tampoco está dispuesta a absorberlos a todos como inmigrantes.
Caricatura de la web: De Eritrea a Lampedusa. http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/17325933/De-Eritrea-a-Lampedusa.html
En Abril volvió a naufragar otro bote aumentando a los centenares de ahogados previos, unas 700 personas que intentaban llegar a Sicilia, aunque la mayoría se dirigen a la isla de Lampedusa en donde se residencian.
Italia exige al resto de la Unión Europea recibir cuotas de refugiados mientras que es criticada por varios de sus países por maltratarlos. Como suele ocurrir, todos los gobiernos hablan de una política humanitaria pero ninguna toma la batuta.
¿Y los refugiados? ¿Qué le van a hacer si ellos, también nacieron en (el otro lado del) Mediterráneo?…
CANCION DE SERRAT:
Ariel Segal Blog 
Tribalism and Harry Potter
The decade of Harry Potter is over. The era of the single evil guy Voldemor that has to be defeated is over. Just see what happened when the evil guy Sadam was defeated and then the evil guy Gaddafy and almost the next evil guy Asad.
It is instinctively normal to want to focus everything on 1 clearly identifiable enemy to avoid the anxiety of complex, long and unsolvable problems. Hollywood does it all the time and it sells well. Micky Mouse journalists and political leaders do it also and convinced almost all of us everything will be prosperity and democracy after the removal of the bad guys.
And almost all of us still instinctively wants to believe that it is now just the removal of this small terrorist group IS and it will be over. And this small terrorist group Boko Haram in Africa.
The reality is different. Tribalism is back from never been away: groups that do all they can to maintain their group separate and look down on other groups and use extreme violence. The fighting and tension in the Middle East and Africa will unfortunately continue for decades. Why:
1) These are not small terrorist groups but large movements supported by large populations.If the leader of IS is taken down and the next leader will come.
2) Conflicts are hardly ever local, the different groups fighting, including IS and Boko Haram have massive support including money and weapons from other countries and external populations.
2) Religion is involved and that is an extremely strong force that cannot be tamed and it will continue to be part of the education from birth. There are very rich countries involved that for decades have been financing religions education. There are televisions channels that help maintain the religion.
3) The atrocities are of such an amazing degree: murdering parents in from of their children, taking women as sex slaves, destroying holy places of the others groups that the mantra of reconciliation and national unity governments are illusory and non achievable.
4) The conflict continues to spread, now to Yemen.
Governments are not able to stop the huge numbers of refugees reaching Europe.
Tribalism will be more and more a common reality in Europe and that is very unfortunate.
Solidarity does not exist where tribalism reigns. Each group only marries within and only cares about its members. The economy and jobs follow tribal lines. Eventually conflict erupts, what the problem is in the Middle East and Africa. Expecting democracy there is illusory and non achievable. Just shallow information fed to us by Mickey Mouse journalists.The question is how long will we avoid going back to tribalism in Europe.