An innocent three-year-old boy named Alan Kurdi died along with his older brother, five-year-old Ghalib, in the Mediterranean Sea near Bodrum, Turkey on September 2. On the same day, the photograph of Alan’s dead body made an appearance on social network, Western newspapers, online media, and eventually spread throughout the whole world like wild-fire.
The photograph shows Alan’s lifeless body lying on the sand on the beach. Alan, his older brother, and their mother all died at sea, but it looks like the sea refused to take dead bodies caused by man-made war. He was the youngest son of the Syrian refugee family of Abdullah Kurdi and Rehanna, who were travelling with the dream of a better life.
Along with Alan, the dreams of the family’s “better future” are also lying there in the sand, in that photo. Our cruel world is not only killing children, men, and women but it is also killing the hopes and dreams of many.
In the now famous photograph, we can see that he was wearing a red T-shirt and a pair of blue pants and sandals. The way Alan’s body is positioned in that photo, with his face not showing, is rather symbolic of the ignorance on the part of our world leaders, which leads to many such incidents like this going unnoticed.
Alan was a casualty of the modern but cruel world. He understood little, but it wasn’t up to him to ponder on what the cause of the conflict surrounding him was. What is ISIS, and why are they doing such horrible things? How were they able to take over his home, his life, and those of so many others?
I doubt if Alan even knew who the president of his own nation was -- Bashar Al Assad may not be a good enough leader for the Syrian people, but that should be decided by the people, not by the terrorists and murderers like those at ISIS.
His parents’ quest for a better future was for Alan and his brother, since neither his own nation nor the world leaders were capable of providing a peaceful life to Alan and many other children like him -- always moving from one place to another with their parents, scrambling for a chance to breathe easy.
Millions of people these days are made to move from their land, parting with their possessions and their homes. People hardly ever want to leave their entire lives behind them. There is no pride in being a refugee, but the situation forces them into such lives.
Bangladeshi blogger Ananta Bijoy was killed in Sylhet in the recent past. He had applied to Sweden for a visa, to attend an international conference on freedom of expression, being invited by the Swedish branch of PEN International.
Guess what happened? That’s right, his request for a visa was refused. Had Ananta gotten his visa, he might have been alive today.
Many nations in Europe are over-burdened by refugees, while many nations protect their borders and stop refugees from entering at all. This is inhumane and unjust. The EU is trying for equal distribution of these refugees, however, and credit goes to Austria and Germany who are receiving refugees with open arms.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron declared that they would receive a number of refugees themselves, with officials stating it as being 4,000. US, Canada, Australia, and other developed countries should come forward and allow these poor refugees into their countries.
The most important thing now is to put an end to all the conflict and war and ensure sustainable peace for everyone. The fact that, even today, people have to fight for their right to live in their own homes is a travesty, plain and simple.
The UN, EU, and every other developed nation in the world should consider effectively stopping war. It’s not that hard either. Many countries are spending ungodly amounts of money on military and armaments, more than they are spending on food, education, health, and welfare.
Alan’s dead body is a symbol of the forceful migration caused by war. No one ever wants to see children dying, and no one ever wants to leave their homes. Such suffering can be stopped very easily, if only our leaders were willing.
As Bangladeshis, we know from our struggle for independence how a life of conflict can force people to become refugees. We should pray for an end to that kind of suffering for all.