Why a three year old on a beach may preserve our humanity

Why a three year old on a beach may preserve our humanity

Finnley (shark blanket) and
James (Photo: A. Kane)

My nephew Finnley celebrated his third birthday on Tuesday, surrounded by loving family in beautiful upstate New York. My brother posted a little video of him in an orange t-shirt leaping down some stairs and grinning proudly as he heard his father’s encouragement. Later, my sister-in-law shared a picture of Finnley in his new shark blanket, sitting on his father’s lap and smiling.

One day later, Aylan Al-Kurdi, another three year old surrounded by loving family, got into a boat dressed in a red t-shirt and shorts. His leap, likely involuntary and caused by waves overtaking the over-packed boat, did not end in smiles and applause. It ended in eternal slumber, face down on a beautiful Mediterranean beach, where tourists promenade. He, too, will be in his parent's arms tonight (at least in my belief system). Most of his family also perished. His family loved him so much that they risked his life and paid thousands of euros to smugglers to escape a deadly and indiscriminate war in Syria that, over a protracted period of five years, has killed civilians and forced over 11 million people to flee for their lives.

Aylan drowned in a failed attempt to reach the Greek island of Kos.
His body was found on the shore in Bodrum, Turkey. (Photo: DHA)

Aylan’s story is now in the center of the maelstrom of the migration and refugee discussions. These discussions race from terms of art to use of images and from Europe’s capacity and willingness to accommodate the influx of people to what needs to be done politically to halt the conditions that force families to risk their lives and abandon everything.

Terms
The word migrant often used, particularly in the pejorative sense. Aylan is more precisely part of a large group of refugees or asylum-seekers who are forced to leave their homes, in this case due to a conflict that is over five years old and that has taken unacceptable tolls on civilians. Aylan and his brother Ghalib are also children, people, humans.


As we continue to debate how to talk about this crisis, let’s put people first and preserve our humanity. No one who sees the last poignant picture of a dead three year old boy on the beach can remain unmoved or unconvinced of his personhood. The IFRC, like many organizations involved in responding to this crisis, has a glossary of terms.

Images in the Media
The use of this image, intended to provoke “normal” people’s compassion and engagement, incited a great deal of debate, with many organizations justifying the use of the photo with Aylan lying tummy-down on the beach, dead. Others, perhaps more gentle on their audience, used one of a Turkish rescue worker carrying him off the beach. The Independent published a pre-transport picture of Aylan grinning next to a stuffed animal and his brother Ghalib (Galip). These are the pictures we take of our cherished children, often thinking they grow up too quickly and these charming moments will slip our memories. Aylan and Ghalib's family could not have dreamed this would be the last memory of their little boys.

Left: Finnley and Liam (Photo: A. Kane) | Right: Aylan and Ghalib (Photo: Al-Kurdi family)

I am reminded of the iconic 1972 picture of Kim Phuc Phan Thi fleeing naked away from her village in South Vietnam following a napalm attack. Kim survived after AP photographer Nick Ut took her to the hospital, where she recovered painfully and slowly for over a year. She became an activist, using the global recognition generated from the photo – and of course her own conscience, strength and experience – to advocate for children in war-torn countries. Aylan will never do this, but maybe this gruesome picture will inspire another person to take up his banner.

Accommodating asylum seekers
I was struck yesterday by the story about the City of Munich. Europe currently is experiencing its largest migration/refugee activity in 70 years. This time, it’s going the opposite way. The police in the city of Munich had to ask its citizens via social media to stop bringing toys, food and gifts to refugees arriving at the train station. The people of Munich had been too generous in a few short hours. It gives me great hope for humanity and the ability for our collective conscience to evolve.

And in Iceland, over 11,000 people from a country of 330,000 people, offered to open their homes to refugees. Refugees Welcome, which matchmakes citizens willing to share their homes with displaced people, is also receiving offers to set up services across the EU. This reminds me of the post-Katrina efforts in the U.S., coordinated through CraigsList.

My organization, through our national and local branches of Red Cross and Red Crescent workers, joins many other organizations – though still not enough – in trying to accommodate this enormous movement of people by providing protection services, emergency food, first aid, family linking services, registration and more. Through the Protect Humanity campaign, we seek to encourage individuals, governments and donors to find ways to provide relief and asylum. There is so much more need.

Germany released a ten point plan last week to address the crisis. In addition to encouraging fair distribution of asylum across the EU based on national capacity, and encouraging appropriate legal accommodations so that newly-arrived asylum seekers can legally work, live and contribute to their communities, the plan closes with an exhortation to the entire international community to find political ways to curb the causes of flight.

“Stabilizing failing states and curbing violence and civil war must go hand in hand with concentrated efforts to achieve economic development and create genuine economic and social prospects -- especially for young people in the countries of origin. All of the international community's efforts, above all those of the European Union and the United Nations, must be focused with the utmost intensity on this aim.”

I was struck last night by a conservative friend’s post that said, as a father he wept at the sight of that picture of Aylan. Let us all weep and mourn a three year old who will never sit on his father’s lap in a shark blanket, jump joyfully from stairs or become an advocate for children in war-torn countries.

And let us turn our tears to compassion and dedication to find acceptable solutions to accommodate children, parents and young people to surmount the challenges posed by their unenviable and impossible choice to flee their native lands. We are Aylan. #ProtectHumanity