The age of the apologist

Subject: The age of the apologist.

Are we living in an age of apologists. 

Many university trained journalists write articles about the "plight" of refugees. The horror of their homeland, the rigorous journey they had to go through to get to safety and the problems they experience since settling in the West  are told in hushed tones evincing a need to be sympathetic, empathetic. It is argued that perhaps in some way we are, in part, to blame for in our history lies theirs and that they are owed an apology.

Part of the apology is due to a belief in the universality of the world and its people. 

Seen through the prism of 'human rights' everyone is entitled to the same measure of political and social expectation. Everyone is flesh and blood and each individual must hope for the same treatment no matter who or where they are.
In truth that may be what they seek in the West but they seem happy enough to turn a blind eye on reporting what happens in their home, the refugees country and why.
To say there is a war going on and people are fleeing for their lives is not enough. Why is a war going on, who are the people fighting and who are the people these refugees are fleeing from.

Civil wars and religious wars have to be the most barbaric. They pit father against son, uncle against cousin they reveal the most vitriolic hatred, a hatred not usually seen between combatants when nations pit themselves against nation.  

The Syrian conflict, the Libyan conflict, the Israeli versus the Arab, these are not conflicts about mere territory but lie much deeper in the psyche of the people. Disagreements which should have solutions, but given they are ideological, politically and religiously ideological, the root of the conflict runs very deep.
So when we are asked to share our meagre resource and make space is it not also fair to ask why.
These days we are conditioned not to ask why since it is seen as a failure on our part. Not to be understanding, not to be compassionate, just the very thing that "back home" the refugee should be asking its own people.

The mess and the intransigence lies in Syria, Libya, on the Golan Heights. Not in the west.

These conflicts have been smouldering for decades, centuries even. They are an integral part of the region. In the past they smouldered and burst into flame, out of sight and therefore out of mind but with the blessing or otherwise of modern communication we now know what a mess parts of the world continue to live in. Rivalry's that stretch back into antiquity brought to our notice on the television screen, accompanied with the exhortation to remedy what we see with some sort of sanitised western intervention, a remedy of how life should be.

We are induced to feel guilty and then, as a sign of reparation for our guilt we must extend the hand of friendship as if we are family.

Of course the religious family, at least in the Christian sect, seems to view all of mankind as family. The Muslim unfortunately are less empathetic and demand conversion. 

 Should we become embroiled in cultural and religious divides erupting far away on the other side of the globe. 

Should we not wait until the divides are healed by the protagonists. 

Should we, given the apparently unbridgeable gap, not try to step across and pontificate a view which is ours and ours alone.  

Must we be hell bent on 'modifying our own culture', (raised and nurtured after centuries of our own specific conflict), to make a home for these warring cultures. 

Can we not leave well alone and understand that people are different and not universal since the universality of flesh and blood is not what joins us but the habits and the prejudice of our own environment which in turn create the norms we are happy and comfortable with. To destroy all this on some altruistic endeavour seems to me foolhardy and dangerous.