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| The fire in Mati (Greece, 2018; image taken from Facebook) |
“Do you see how easily
you put your children in a boat when in despair or in danger?”, someone wrote
on Twitter on 26 July, when the whole of Greece was in profound shock after the
tragic fire that claimed so many lives. As the personal stories of those who
perished and those who survived, tried to save their loved ones or people they
didn’t know at all were emerging, turning the tragedy into something less and
less abstract, someone made this connection between the people who put their
children in boats to be taken to safety during the fire and the refugees who
attempt the perilous, often deadly, crossing of the sea. How many people made
that connection? What kind of people made that connection? Would this
connection ever occur to someone with a negative attitude towards refugees and
migrants? Would this tweet be enough to make someone reconsider?
