I find it funny how everyone seems to be busy posting and sharing his anger and indignation at the brutal murder of George Floyd, but we seem to be totally oblivious to the racism and injustice that is going on right under our noses.
And this cannot be because no murder took place here in Malta. Because it did. 12 people died when they shouldn’t have. Omar, Mogos, Hzqiel, Hdru, Huruy, Teklay, Nohom, Kidus, Debesay and the three others named Filmon died because, just as the police officers who murdered George Floyd ignored his cries, we looked the other way and ignored the migrants’ cries for help. We let them die and went about our lives as if nothing happened.
Why? Why don’t we care? Why do these injustices keep on happening? The only explanation I could come up with is that these people’s lives are seen as less important. We feel distant to them and their precarious situation. We act as if our life and comfort are more important than the lives of those asylum-seekers.
And this is absolutely and horrifyingly outrageous. We have no right to go about deciding who should and who should not have a chance at living. Let alone living a good life. Especially since we did nothing to deserve the comfortable life we are blessed to be living. We were lucky to be born in a stable country full of opportunities. What if it was us who were born in an unsafe country, with no opportunity for a good life for us and our children? How would we feel?
We owe it to these people who were not as lucky to be gifted a good life, to be kind and welcoming and not make their lives even worse than they already are.
In response to George Floyd’s murder, I’ve been seeing lots of posts on social media saying it’s not enough to be not racist. We have to be anti-racist. So how about instead of just posting about it, we put that into practice, here in our own home? How about we all start showing how anti-racist we can be towards the asylum-seekers currently stranded in Maltese waters, and urge the government to welcome them on our island, and give them a shot at living the good life we all deserve as human beings?
(This article was originally posted on civilsocietymt.com)
Written by: Michela Farrugia
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