#24 Monday Morning Coffee Post

Things are changing rapidly these days. Yesterday I came back to Denmark on a train from Germany and the police raided it upon entry. They patrolled through the carriages in their bulletproof vests and with guns hanging on their belts, with great authority they asked for passports. My guess is that it was a refugee raid. There were a lot of southern looking people on the train. I was sitting near to three young men from Pakistan. They had their passports and papers and as the police went through the carriages several times, they got classified as "the three Pakistani" and they were kept safe and treated almost as noble men. The one man looked at me once after they'd gone through and we laughed at the craziness of it all. It isn't long ago that this kind of raid would not have been so polite and protective of them. Unfortunately others were not so fortunate. Syrians seems to be the hunted ones these days. The police hammered down the toilet doors on the train dragging out people hiding there. Suitcase flew open as they were thrown off the train and people were degraded into the poor life of caged chickens. 40 days and 40 nights they have travelled through Europe, slept on the ground, walked 1000 of kilometres, lucky enough to survive crossing the sea only now to enter this checkmate with the Danish police border control. As Denmark clearly isn't their first stop in the EU I wonder what their fate will be? Will they be sent back to Germany, Greece, Hungary, where millions of others sharing the same label as "refugee" is kept in camps or trying to make the journey North.

Sorry friends your dice rolled to "go back to start" as if it was a game of "Monopoly"! Maybe some even rolled onto "go to prison" and yet some ended up at the bottom of the sea only too be washed up as a reminder that this isn't a monopoly game. 

And here I am, the Danish Passport holder, drinking my coffee in my country house this Monday morning reflecting back on an experience that shattered a little more of the illusion I am living in, reminding me of what is important in the greater "Monopoly" of Life and Death- lending someone in need a hand, practising a little more kindness and a whole lot more gratefulness. Not to feel good, or to save myself or anyone else, but because that is at the core of our Human Beingness. We are living on a round planet where no corners exist and where the line in the sand is as illusory as your perceived difference of you and me.