FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Papal advice on migration crisis naive and unhelpful

Papal advice on migration crisis naive and unhelpful

Re: "Migrant issue a test of basic human goodness", Letters, August 3.

Edward B Duhigg cites the words of the Pope as guidance to mankind on the issue of migrant invasion. With respect, these words are rhetorical and contain nothing by way of solution to the chaos prevailing. Rhetoric and emotion solve absolutely nothing, particularly when guided by dogma rooted in fantasy. Solution to any problem must be based on facts, starting with the root cause.
Fundamentally the two causal factors are religious dogma and ignorance. The religious wars and poverty from which migrants claim to be fleeing are but symptoms.
Many people who claim to be peaceful follow a religious diktat by tradition, without having true knowledge. Those who have knowledge of the origins of this ideology use the same violent tactics as its founder to gain power. Enlightenment of the majority of followers regarding the offensive nature of the ideology masquerading as a religion would see their numbers diminish. A domestic solution would gradually arrive, together with a reduction in migration.
Poverty breeds poverty, particularly in Africa. Children are born into poverty only to die before they can even walk. Birth control would alleviate this appalling and completely unnecessary loss of life by adjusting population according to food supply. The solution is not food aid alone, creating ever-increasing dependency, but food aid plus education in family planning – and training in food production. 
Dependency would gradually yield to proud self-sufficiency and an end to economic migration. The Pope would do well to consider this.
Mass invasion of foreign nation states is illegal. The disparity between the invaders and the invaded can only cause chaos and violence. Naive altruism is destructive to both, and that is not “goodness”.
JC Wilcox
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