Vast Migration Worldwide

Ted Folkert

September 11, 2015

One billion people – yes, 1,000,000,000 – one out of every seven people on the planet – that is the newest estimate of the number of those migrating from their homeland to another region or country – as refugees – seeking asylum, relief, assistance, livelihood, safety, peace – a new place to call home, to earn a living, to raise the family, a place where their kids can get an education without being blown to bits by explosives or asphyxiated with chlorine or mustard gas. They leave everything behind except the loved ones of their immediate family. They leave their clothes, their furnishings, their dishes, bedding, cookware, their toys, their employment, their vehicles, their pets – everything they cannot carry, never expecting to retrieve these belongings.

They are starting over, starting a new life – in a new place. The apprehension must be frightening. They must be uncertain of acceptance wherever they end up, uncertain if they are to be allowed to cross a border, wondering where they can eat, drink, sleep, or find sanitation facilities. The must be uncertain of where they can find employment, send their children to school, or find a safe neighborhood for family life.

The urgency and determination is so great that, if transportation is not available, they will walk hundreds of miles in unpleasant conditions seeking refuge.

I can’t imagine even picking up and moving in the spur of the moment to the next county, let alone another country tens or thousands of miles away – a place where you don’t know a soul, don’t know where to go for assistance, don’t know your way around, where to find healthcare, employment opportunities – not knowing how long before you can find help with food and shelter.

This is how far to which civilized society on the planet has deterred in recent years. There has always been some incidence of migration around the world for safety or sustenance, but the current situation indicates a deteriorating social condition. One out of seven of us aren’t any better off than the early migrants who roamed this planet for thousands of years in small groups, living off the land.

Fast forward a few thousand years.

Now, there are so many small countries crammed together in Europe and the Middle East that getting along has become strained by the continuously growing population striving to share limited resources. Poverty, along with despotic governments, some controlled by intolerant religious organizations, have provided the turmoil and lack of compassion and cooperation in maintaining a stable society, which engenders political unrest, which engenders the creation of resistance groups, which necessitates the government in power to invoke violence in order to maintain control. This, of course, becomes a vicious circle and an effort to overthrow becomes imminent, which incurs more violence against the population. They begin to eat their own, as some animal species do in desperation of survival.

And now that society is controlled by explosives, entire communities are destroyed in order to maintain order and make the populace behave and be satisfied with their lot in life and respect the authority of the leaders they no longer respect. Then as this becomes prevalent in country after country, as employment becomes less available, as education becomes less advantageous, as life becomes intolerable, the people take to the street and become migratory beings, like those who roamed the planet in small groups before humans were considered civilized.

Looks like we have come full circle.

Of course, this could be over before you know it. The aggressive countries have enough explosives to destroy everything on the planet several times over. And some of them are considered “loose cannons.” It only takes one misguided action by one of these loose cannons to start the tirade of devastation and then the rest could be history with no one to read it.

Think about it!