The human tide

Al Jazeera brings a coverage of societal problems seen through the eyes of the Middle East.
I was watching program the other day in which they interviewed a selection of people making the journey from the war torn areas in the Middle East. This human tide which has got us all in a tiswas. 
The men and women interviewed came from different cultures and it was interesting to listen to their separate objectives as they arrive on the boarder of  the "promised land". 

I was impressed by the strength of woman with her 4 young children as she undertook, not only to overcome the problems of traveling, largely on foot, with her clutch of small children, but she was distinctly aware of her responsibility  to her children. A truly immense burden compared to those travelling alone.
Two sisters fleeing ISIS and all that, that regime meant for them if they stayed  behind. 
The university graduate who's background made him a target of a purge in his own country.

This is a human tragedy brought on, less we forget, by the West's meddling with "regime change". 
Initially in Iraq with Saddam Hussein and then the ousting of Gaddafi in Libya. Our cheering of the 'Arab Spring', this western dream of democratisation in an area of complex tribal arrangement and allegiances, of internecine conflict where democracy, 'one man one vote' is made immeasurably more complex by the structure of a thing called a "country", (a concept of land with boarders) which is an anathema to many of the wandering tribes.
Should we be worried. Yes, if for no other reason than the Trojan Horse, "religious conviction" which generally proves stronger than any man made convention is traveling unseen with this mass of humanity. 
Individually we can sympathise with each persons story and as individuals we can make a place for them but the instinct to consolidate and stick together creates a ghetto, a pressure point within an existing society. The 'union' which a religious belief brings to a person is  so much stronger than a secular arrangement of individuals following their separate paths. It is a potentially galvanising situation where, given numbers there is eventually a call, not only for respect but acknowledgement that have become a force who 'will' be listened to.
Adjustments within society are a sign of a healthy societies maturity but when these adjustments are not organic but become part of a series of "demands", then we will have open rebellion and in fact, we will have imported more of the Middle East than we bargained for.