Cyreenik Says
The news about the migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea has focused on the lives lost by boats capsizing and people drowning. This makes sense from the "If it bleeds, it leads." media truism point of view, but there are other issues involved in this that should get more attention.
One issue is that these are illegal immigrants -- they are just as illegal, and in just the same ways, as those crossing the Rio Grande in North America. This means the basic immigration issue must be faced more squarely, just as it must be in the US.
My opinion: immigration in both directions -- in and out -- should become much more routine. Immigrants are ambitious people, we should be encouraging that ambition to express itself in open and helpful ways, not as shadowy organized crime environment activities.
Another issue is that the Libyan tribesmen that are supporting this migrant boating infrastructure are human traffickers. They aren't getting nearly as much high-profile condemnation as they should. These people are just as much pirates as those Somalis who harass cargo ships on the Red and Arabian Seas.
There are a lot of movies going around this year about rescuing art the Nazis were stealing when they conquered nations during World War II -- The Monuments Men and Woman in Gold being two examples.
It seems we now are experiencing the equivalent with the ISIS iconoclasts busy destroying ancient art in Syria and Iraq. So... how long before we have movies about rescuing art from ISIS?
And perhaps a lot more.
ISIS is setting itself up to become the brutal conquerors in stories and tales told throughout the rest of the 21st century. They are open in their violence, even recording it themselves, and they have attracted a lot of intellectuals from all over the world to their cause.
Since the essence of ISIS is these are end-of-the-world times, when the times don't end there are going to be a lot of disappointed survivors who are going to become articulate story tellers in many fields.
Expect "movie ISIS" to become the "movie Nazis" of the 21st century.
-- The End --