Humanity falls flat on its face

The poignant picture of a Syrian migrant toddler Aylan on Turkey's Bodrum beach has aptly been described as 'humanity washed ashore'. Only three years old, the boy, his five years old brother and mother also did not survive their perilous boat journey to the Greek island Kos when the vessel capsized with 17 passengers on board at dead of night. However the boys' father survived.

Caught in the crossfire between the Islamic State (IS) and the US-backed Kurdish fighters, this family of four like thousands of their kind was desperate to flee the city of Kobane, Syria. Already 3,000 such refugees have perished in the sea this year and many times more have been struggling to seek shelter in Europe, particularly in Germany.

Not since the mass human exodus during the Second World War, has Europe witnessed a displacement of inhabitants on such a scale. The irony is that during the World War, the Jews were forced to leave Germany but now refugees from the Middle East stream into that country via Greece, Italy, Serbia and Denmark. The displaced Jews have found a permanent home in Israel, the only non-Arab nation in the Middle East.

History repeats but repeats at times in a reverse way too. The current human disaster in the Middle East has been spawned by what is known as the Arab Spring. The suspicion is that not all the rebellious outbursts were spontaneous in the Middle-east countries. The fire was stoked from outside -a work of secret services from the Western countries. No wonder, the rise of youth power in the Arab world did not culminate into any kind of logical and happy conclusions. Even in Egypt, such uprisings fell flat and a change in the system of governance for the better did not come about.

So the legacy of the conflict and its shockwaves have to be traced back to the creation of Israel as well as the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Saddam's renegade elite forces are reportedly leading the IS fighters. In their attempt to halt communist push in Afghanistan, the US-led western powers armed rebel fighters who subsequently grew into a Frankenstein proportion. The US had to embark on an all-out war there to minimise the Taliban threat. Both Iraq and Afghanistan are now far from stable, socially and politically speaking.

So, like the boy lying flat on his face on a Turkish beach, the sovereignty of individuals and nations in the Middle East lies equally trampled. Rich in oil and minerals, the region is being used as a chessboard by the Western powers and the boy and the thousands like him are turning to be mere sacrificial goats.

The travail, agony, frustration and disillusionment experienced by refugees have failed to move the conscience of the powerful people in the West. But the image of Aylan's body on the Turkish shore has proved so moving that even the media which try to stay neutral and objective have lashed out at the European leadership.

In fact, the small boy has become the symbol of neglected humanity. He represents the civilian victims of armed conflicts starting from Palestine to Syria. Heart-rending scenes of blood-splattered Palestinian children dying in their parents' arms when hit by bombs or missiles from Israeli planes or artillery are so moving that they silence all who take a look at those. In a father's or mother's bosom, though, the anguish never dies.