Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, NOVEMBER 1-7, 2019
By Achim Steiner
Achim Steiner is administrator,
United Nations
Development Programme
(UNDP)
UNITED NATIONS, Oct.
28, 2019 (IPS) - Last week, a
too-familiar human tragedy
captured news headlines.
39 people were found dead
inside a shipping container
on an industrial estate in
Essex in Southeast England;
31 men and eight
women whose individual
identities, for now, remain
anonymous, as authorities
begin to investigate one of
Europe’s worst people-trafficking
cases.
While I hope I am wrong,
we may never know the stories
of those 39 people; why
they left their friends and
communities to make a perilous,
hidden journey to the
United Kingdom.
And they are not alone.
Just like the 71 migrants
found dead inside an abandoned
truck in Austria in
2015, or the thousands of
men, women and children
who have died attempting
to cross the Mediterranean
Sea from Africa to Europe
— over 1,000 already in
2019 — we may never see or
remember all their faces.
After the headlines, interest
usually moves on, with
those who died at risk of
becoming 39 statistics,
numbers that drive the
debate on the strain and
stigma of irregular migration.
Except, people are not
statistics. Every individual
on that truck had a unique
story that now may not be
told.
All the more important,
then, to hear from others
of their diverse motivations,
hopes and fears as they risk
their lives to make it to
Europe through irregular
means, to remind us of the
very real people behind the
headlines.
This is one of the reasons
why the United Nations
Development Programme
(UNDP) embarked on a new
study called Scaling Fences,
launched last week: to give
voice to irregular African
migrants to Europe, a subset
of migrants of whom
many assumptions and
judgements are made but
about whom, in fact, we
have little primary data.
Featuring analysis of
interviews with 1,970
migrants from 39 African
countries in 13 European
nations, all of whom
declared that they arrived
in Europe through irregular
means and not for asylum
or protection-related reasons,
the report seeks to
better understand the ageold
relationship between
human mobility and human
development.
It reaches some counterintuitive
conclusions.
First, it finds that getting
a job was not the only motivation
to move, that not
all the irregular migrants
were ‘poor’ in Africa, nor
had lower education levels.
58 per cent were either
employed or in school at
the time of their departure,
with the majority of those
working earning competitive
wages at home. The
average age of respondents
when they arrived in Europe
was 24.
They are of the ‘springboard
generation’ – beneficiaries
of two decades of
remarkable development
progress in Africa. Still,
some 50 per cent of those
working said they were not
earning enough.
Second, it finds that
barriers to opportunity, or
‘choice-lessness’, were critical
factors informing the
calculation of those surveyed;
that in spite of development
progress at home,
77 percent felt that their
voice was unheard or that
their country’s political system
provided no opportunity
through which to exert
influence on government.
Third, despite the danger
and risks of the fraught
journey from Africa to
Europe, only 2 per cent of all
those people surveyed said
that greater awareness of
the risks would have caused
them to stay at home.
In fact, 41 percent of
respondents said ‘nothing’
would have changed
their decision to migrate to
Europe.
The findings of Scaling
Fences confirm some
truths that need to be better
understood: that migration
is really a story of development;
that in an unequal
By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Oct
24, 2019 (IPS) - On Oct. 11, the
Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee
announced that this
year´s Peace Prize is awarded
to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister,
Abiy Ahmed: “For his efforts to
achieve peace and international
cooperation, and in particular
for his decisive initiative
to resolve the border conflict
with neighbouring Eritrea.”1
Let us hope that Abiy remains
a worthy Peace Prize winner
and that warfare and human
suffering on the Horn of Africa
will finally come to an end.
The decision surprised
those who speculated that the
Prize would be awarded to the
environmental activist Greta
Thunberg. However, people
close to the Nobel Committee
declared that the decision was
unaffected by public opinion.
The Committee had made an
effort to follow the statutes of
Alfred Nobel´s testament – that
the Prize has to be awarded to
“the person who has done the
most or best to advance fellowship
among nations, the abolition
or reduction of standing
armies, and the establishment
and promotion of peace congresses.”
–2
Irrespective of sixteen years
old Greta Thunberg not been
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
her huge following casts doubts
about the trustworthiness of
world leaders. In her opening
address to leaders attending
this year´s UN Climate Change
Summit Greta declared that
You are failing us! This
is all wrong! I shouldn’t be
up here; I should be back in
school on the other side of the
ocean. Yet you all come to us
young people for hope, how
dare you! We will be watching
you. You have stolen my
dreams, my childhood with
your empty words …3
It has been claimed that
Greta Thunberg is being used
to convey messages of her
parents and various pressure
groups. That such a young
girl cannot make any difference
on her own. Many of her
detractors have rather been
men than women. It has been
pointed out that the “ infantilization”
of Greta seems to coincide
with stereotypical labels
powerful men have used to
silence women´s public speech
– that they are over-emotional,
hysterical, unable to think for
themselves, or even mentally
disturbed. Why do some men
feel threatened by a 16-year-
old girl? Can her attacks on
unbound industrial capitalism
be interpreted as doubts about
certain men´s belief in their
masculine self-worth?
It is not the first time a
16-year-old girl has provoked
powerful men and triggered
great changes. Most famous is
probably Joan of Arc, who born
in a peasant family claimed
that she since she was thirteen
years old had visions of saints
instructing her to recover
France from English domination.
At the age of sixteen
the charismatic, and hitherto
entirely unknown girl was
against all odds presented to
Prince Charles of France, who
decided to send her to Orleáns
in an effort to end an English
OP-EDS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR are welcome from all readers. They should be addressed care of this newspaper to the Editor,
Caribbean-Life Publications, 1 MetroTech Center North, Brooklyn, New York 11201, or sent via e-mail to caribbeanlife@
schnepsmedia.com. All letters, including those submitted via e-mail, MUST be signed and the individual’s verifiable
address and telephone number included. Note that the address and telephone number will NOT be published and the
name will be published or withheld on request. No unsigned letters can be accepted for publication. The editor reserves
the right to edit all submissions.
Continued on Page 11
Continued on Page 11
Founded 1990 • Published by Brooklyn Courier Life LLC
Corporate Headquarters: One Metrotech Center North, Suite 1001, Brooklyn, NY 11201
PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER: Victoria Schneps-Yunis
CEO & CO-PUBLISHER: Joshua Schneps
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Ralph D’Onofrio
EDITOR EMERITUS: Kenton Kirby
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kevin Williams
This newspaper is not responsible for typographical errors in ads beyond the cost of the space occupied
by the error. All rights reserved. Copyright© 2019 by Brooklyn Courier Life LLC. Caribbean
Life is protected by Federal copyright law. Each issue of Caribbean Life is registered with the Library
of Congress, Washington, D.C. The Caribbean Life, its advertisements, articles and photographs, may
not be reproduced, either in whole or part, without permission in writing from the publisher except
brief portions for purposes of review or commentary consistent with the law.
The development story
behind irregular migration
Fearless young women
and insensitive men
Achim Steiner.
United Nations/Jean-Marc Ferré
/schnepsmedia.com