The Moroccan surge into Ceuta raised a few points worth considering.
The Moroccan surge into Ceuta raised a few points worth considering.
F our points about the Moroccan surge in Ceuta:
One: According to news stories, the Migrants — that anodyne, neutral term that could also be applied to Napoleon’s army when he made a run at Russia — complained about their reception. Said a New York Times story:
Mr. Ahmidho moved in the long line, deeply disappointed with his adventure across the border.
“They had nothing for us,” he said.
Disappointed in his adventure. As if the people of the enclave are obliged to have a big box of food and games stored away for just such a moment. “Well, they’ll be hungry, so let’s set aside some Slim Jims and crackers, and they’ll want something to do, so here’s a deck of cards, a Jenga set, maybe that special Migrant edition of Monopoly where you don’t have to pay rent on any property, the bank lets you stay there for nothing, and you get a get-out-of-jail card good for any crime. They’ll love that.”
Two: There were dark mutterings about Israel’s involvement. Antisemites muttered that the surge was arranged as a retaliation for Spain’s pro-Hamas positions. Sorry — pro-Palestine, because you can absolutely separate the two, even though Gazans show little inclination for doing so. Yes, the crafty Jews used their space-based brain-control devices to rile up innocent migrants who just happened to be hanging around the border and simultaneously send the border guards into a zombie state as they stared into space while tunelessly chanting “Hava Nagila” or something.
Speaking of people who supposedly live on stolen land, it is interesting that Spain claims a part of actual Africa and has done so since the days of the Crusades. Smells pretty imperialistic, no? Spain has the proper attitude — it’s ours, we won it in a war, shut up and go away — but I think we should all start calling Ceuta “the South Bank” and accuse all its residents of being settler-colonialists. We need to find someone who has a key to a house from which his forebears were evicted in 1415.
Note: In this case, the Spanish descendants are white Europeans. If the Spanish descendants are in Central America, they are Latinx who somehow popped out of the soil itself and then interbred with the indigenous people in loving, consensual relationships that had nothing to do with power imbalances between the invaders and the local tribes. Note #2: It is not permitted to call the Conquistadors “Migrants.”
Three: The incident caused the pro-infinity-migration people to fret that the “far right” would capitalize on this event. Why, you can imagine the hay they’d make: A town of 80,000 people is invaded by 60,000 people from another country, and these Nazis think that’s a problem. It’s enrichment! Since the migrants were reportedly from many countries, not just Morocco, well, think of the delightful culinary additions to Ceuta’s tables. After all, if there’s one thing you can count on from a phalanx of single men in their 20s, it’s cooking skills and kitchen know-how.
Four: In related news, a small town in England (named Piddington, a perfect name for a tiny burg) voted to hold a referendum on secession from the U.K. rather than have their village population of 400 souls enriched by 1,250 migrants. Presumably they made a perilous crossing from France, which wasn’t good enough for asylum-seekers because they were all Benny Hill fans and the show didn’t run on French TV. Of course, the town will not be allowed to secede or even raise a peep about the importation of antithetical folk into their quiet hamlet. Theoretically, one could possibly conjure an argument why bringing in the Migrants would change the town’s character, but the people who bang on about such matters are bad sorts who probably do horrid things like fly the national flag or speak their mind on social media, so they can be safely discounted.
The stain on Spain stays mainly on the plain fact that they didn’t let everyone in and give them citizenship. They should have immediately been flown to Barcelona and put up in cots in the beautiful Sagrada Família church, and everyone would realize this was reparations for the Reconquista — which, when you think about it, was pure Christian nationalism. It’s so obviously just and necessary you wonder why Brussels doesn’t demand another 60,000 try again next week.