Stories and News No. 1269
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the famous talk show: Guess who's coming to the microphone.
Today's episode we shoot in France, precisely the area overlooking the Channel between Calais and Dunkirk, and it is one of those that will make people talk, so don't get up from your seat even to pee.
They will make a movie about this, they told me. Indeed, a TV series in the form of docudrama, those with the writing ‘inspired by a true story’, which is never really like that, but this is different, I swear.
The protagonist of this episode is nothing less – because it would be impossible otherwise, than a migrant. Although he prefers be named as a person, or a guest like everyone else, or even a human being, this is our home and here we do as we please, right?
Unleash the recorded cheers and giggles and let's go live:
"The first question I ask you, dear migrant, is the following one: did you hear about our Majesty's government decision to send you to Rwanda if you dare to get on one of the kind of rafts you call boats to land in the UK?"
"Yes, I heard."
"Did you also know that a recent poll shows that it didn't dissuade you from traveling?"
"Yes, I confirm it."
"And do you also confirm that last Sunday 250 of you crossed the Channel?"
"I do."
“Eleven days had gone by before this weekend and there was a sharp drop in arrivals to our shores and our leaders blamed it on the threat of driving you to Rwanda. What made you change your mind?"
"We didn't. It was only the bad weather, rain and wind that would have prevented the navigation of any boat of any size."
"In fact, the sun returned on Sunday..."
"And we're back too."
“But aren't you afraid of being arrested once landed?
"Yes, but fear didn't stop me the first time I set sail and it certainly won't now."
"Do you think my government will be able to load you on a plane as a package and ship you to Rwanda?"
"I'm sure about that."
"Aren't you afraid?"
"Yes, but fear didn't stop me when..."
“I se, fear is not a deterrent that works with you. So let's say you manage to enter the country without being arrested. Don't you think that at best you will have a wretched existence, made up of hardships and tribulations, living in miserable and dangerous conditions?"
"It is very likely."
"Do you know that we had Brexit and the people voted to shut the whole of Europe out of the door?"
"Yup."
"And how do you think they could be welcoming with you Africans?"
"I never said I believed it."
"Where exactly did you start from?"
"Southern Sudan."
"And why did you leave?"
"Because seven years of civil war have destroyed entire generations, causing nearly four hundred thousand deaths and we have eight million people at risk of starvation in the coming months."
"Do you have any family members still alive?"
"They are all dead."
"So let me be clear: you are alone in the world and you left your country because of the war and the lack of food, right?"
"Exactly."
"So you arrived in France, in the nation that almost elected the worst president that one like you could wish for, but the other one is not so much better."
"Precisely."
"Then you decided to cross the Channel with the risk of being exiled to Rwanda or, at best, spending the rest of your days in misfortune and poverty."
"That's it."
"At this point I can't help but ask you my last question, which is what we all have been asking ourselves without finding an answer since the first day you started appearing on our shores, because alone we are unable to understand it and perhaps this is our problem."
"Please, go ahead."
“Dear migrant, why don't you give up? Why don't you want to die? And above all, why do you love just being alive so much? Please tell me, shout it live now, you don't know how much we need to remember that..."