“Fear not suffering’s gravity.
Return to earth its weighty share;
heavy are its mountains, heavy the sea.”
Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus
Last week at least 700 people – refugees and asylum seekers – drowned in the Mediterranean. That raises this year’s known death toll to 2000. Italy plans to build a cemetery, a memorial of sorts, to those who die at sea. It would be located next the remains of the country’s largest fascist concentration camp. While the cemetery is the least Italy, or any country, can do, that cemetery is not a “final resting place”. There is no final resting place for those refugees and asylum seekers. This weekend is filled with images of cemeteries and those who come to the cemeteries: families, dignitaries, people. But there is no picture of the surface of the Mediterranean, and there should be. As we stare at the photographs of cemeteries, we should be made to stare at the unbroken surface of the Mediterranean. We should remember all who have perished in the name of war.
One day, impossibly, we will come to the water’s edge and grasp one another’s hands. We will encircle the Mediterranean and we will say the names of every child, woman, and man who drowned in the heavy sea while trying to find haven. Amen.
(Photo Credit: Europe Now)
Well done Dan. Memorial Day for me is to remember refugees and asylum seekers who died as the result of wars. The Mediterranean Sea is a liquid cemetery, that costs the world nothing to prepare or maintain. It is too convenient.
The death toll from drowning during the attempted crossings last week was 1000 +, according to one source. Not that we can ever know the full picture when human smugglers load unsafe boats after they receive their money. There are no ship registries to provide names and numbers. The beautiful Mediterranean which inspired poets has become a charnel house. Thank you, Dan, for reminding us.
Catane, dernière demeure pour les migrants morts en mer http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2016/09/03/catane-derniere-demeure-pour-les-migrants-morts-en-mer_4992047_3214.html
Migrant crisis: 28 dead in day of rescues off Libya http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37560655
Nearly as Many Migrants Died in the Mediterranean This Year as in All of 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/world/europe/migrants-mediterranean-deaths-united-nations.html
Twenty-nine dead bodies found on crowded refugee boat
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/twenty-dead-bodies-crowded-refugee-boat-161027032221565.html
Scores dead as migrant boats sink off Libya https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/03/migrant-boats-sink-libya-un-mediterranean
La mort d’une joueuse de foot de la Gambie en Méditerranée symbolise le drame de ce pays
http://www.slateafrique.com/697856/gardienne-gambie-foot-mediterranee-migrants
Mediterranean Migrant Arrivals Reach 350,573; Deaths at Sea: 4,699 https://www.iom.int/news/mediterranean-migrant-arrivals-reach-350573-deaths-sea-4699
2016 on pace to be deadliest year for migrants crossing the Mediterranean http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/12/02/2016-on-pace-to-be-deadliest-year-for-migrants-crossing-mediterranean.html
2016: Refugees arrivals fall as deaths hit record http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/12/refugees-mediterranean-161218084101126.html
Mediterranean: more than 200 migrants drown in three days https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/03/mediterranean-migrants-drown-three-days-libya-italy
600 people die crossing Mediterranean so far in 2022 http://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/40816/600-people-die-crossing-mediterranean-so-far-in-2022