UN General Assembly
2015

The names that fill today’s newspapers are those of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram and Al-Qaida. The hashtags that circulate on the social media now refer to Sandra Bland, who died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody in Texas; Aylan Kurdi, a young Syrian boy who, along with his family, washed up on the shores of a beach in Turkey; and Madau Gach Dut, one of the thousands who have died in the conflict in South Sudan. I could continue, because the names are many and the lists are long. Thousands have died in Syria, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Afghanistan and Somalia, and thousands more, the majority of whom are from African nations, have died in the Mediterranean Sea, while attempting to flee poverty, hunger, disease, political strife or persecution. Then, too, there are those who did not die while seeking refuge and whose perilous journeys brought them safely to the borders of other nations While some of those nations welcomed their arrival, others subjected them to further alienation and degradation.