Today they are on the run, tomorrow we may be the one…

Years ago, the registration officer in Lesbos asked me to speak for the European Parliament.
I told him: ‘Listen, I am a peacemaker, not an activist.’ By writing on request my book: ‘One Love – One Tribe – Face behind the refugee’, I had to go through enormous depths. Now I do not have an excuse anymore, the time is ready to speak.

I lived for many years in Africa between the poor. Even if their lifestyle is different, they have something we lost: the power of trust in the unseen. Classifying them all as fortune hunters, we will only do if we never stood in their shoes.

Since four years, my partner and I spend lots of time between the refugees. We meet them, embrace them and let them know that they are welcome. Believe me: if we really take the time to look them into their eyes, we immediately start to realize that there is no difference between them and us. Never again, we will take the same decisions as we are taking now.

Because everybody is focusing on women and children, we focus particular on man. Those people we like to classify as terrorists, criminals and rapists. When they arrive, most of them are pure and innocent, no different from us. After treating them as we are doing, many of those beautiful souls get stuck somewhere in Europe and lose their hope.

A shame for Europe

The refuge-crisis is a shame for Europe. The Turkey deal, the way we push refugees back and let them drown before our eyes without even acting, is a shame for Europe, a shame for humanity. All the money we spend on Frontex, we can better spend to give our brothers and sisters a better life.

How can we speak about human rights and turn our back to all those suffering. How can we accept that thousands of those young beautiful souls are dying, while we mourn for years when it is one of our family members?

How can we sleep, while they are fighting for their lives? From behind our desks, we have already divided them in refugees and migrants and classified as real or unreal. How can we live with this?

The real slaves, the real losers are we, the privileged ones. We are not only closing our borders, we are even closing our hearts and by doing this we have degraded ourselves from human beings to human doings.

Our policy is as much divided as we are

Believe me, the refugee is not the problem, we are the problem. As long as we nourish the illusion that we are better than others, because of our religion, our position or our skin, we think we have the right to explore the world and to feed our boundless greediness, while we exclude others by building high walls and detention centers.

After 11th of September 2001, willingly or unwillingly, we have spread fear all over the planet. When we are fearful, we lose our power. We also lose our integrity and we are taking decisions we never should take.

I do not make a difference between migrants or refugees. All people who leave their homeland and take the risk to lose their lives, have a reason to come here.

Let us open our eyes and see how mother earth is reacting on our manipulation. Ultimately, we are destroying our selves. One day we will wake up realizing we cannot exclude anyone. We are One World – One family. We breathe the same air.

If we realize it or not, we are all moving in the same direction. Even if we think we are more privileged than others, we will all end up in the grave. Be honest, if we look back at the end of our lives, can we be proud on the way we have exploited our earth and its inhabitants, on the legacy we leave for our children and grandchildren? I do not believe this!

Life on earth is beautiful because of her differentiation. If we like it or not, the world has to mingle. When we are living our true nature, without fear and with an open heart, we will honor all life and never destroy anything or kill anybody. Then we unfold our full potential and do not take more then we really need. Then we know there is abundance for all of us.

I challenge you to read my book. It is a touching but beautiful book about beautiful people…

Before we send them back, let us go there and life with them for a while. Then we start to realize that no solutions invented by westerners behind their desks will work there, because they are not living and controlling their life the way we are doing.
If we like it or not we need each other. How more we like to control others, the more we will lose control and nature will take over. Deep inside of our heart, we know this…

I wish you and every living being on this beautiful planet, a long and an abundant life,

Yasmin Verschure
– The Netherlands

• Our appointment for this week was cancelled because of renovation. Today I got permission to sent a box of 20 books and letters to Sophie in ’t Veld and her secetary Sylvia Heerbaart. They will divide them…