Look at it through the eyes of a father.<\/strong><\/p>\nCan you imagine your own son in his place?<\/p>\n
Sitting on a rock.<\/p>\n
His foot injured.<\/p>\n
Hungry.<\/p>\n
Not knowing where he will sleep.<\/p>\n
Waiting for a stranger to give him a bottle of water.<\/p>\n
Could you watch the scene in quite the same way?<\/p>\n
A mother will see something else.<\/p>\n
She will see her son\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
She will notice that injured foot.<\/p>\n
She will wonder where he slept.<\/p>\n
What he ate.<\/p>\n
Whether he was afraid.<\/p>\n
Whether he cried.<\/p>\n
Whether he called for his mother.<\/p>\n
And whether his mother even knew where he was.<\/p>\n
That is why I do not want to reduce this young man to the word \u201cmigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word is easy.<\/p>\n
Cold.<\/p>\n
Sometimes even comforting.<\/p>\n
But behind that word is a human being.<\/p>\n
And behind that human being there is a mother, a father, a family, a childhood and dreams.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhere Does the Young Man Come From Who Sees His Future Only Across the Sea?<\/strong><\/h2>\nWe do not want to lie to ourselves.<\/p>\n
No one leaves their country at such a young age to end up injured on a rock because they love hunger, cold or fear.<\/p>\n
No one risks their life at sea simply because they are looking for an adventure.<\/p>\n
There is always something that has led them to believe that the other path, however harsh it may be, might be less painful than staying.<\/p>\n
Perhaps poverty.<\/p>\n
Perhaps unemployment.<\/p>\n
Perhaps an education system that did not give them what they hoped for.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the feeling of watching others move forward while they remain standing still.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the images of Europe entering their phones every single day.<\/p>\n
And perhaps all of these things together.<\/p>\n
But one thing is certain: behind every attempt to cross the sea there is a human story that cannot be reduced to a security report.<\/p>\n
And this young man, sitting on that rock, is telling us something without saying a word.<\/p>\n
He is telling us that there is a generation of young people who simply want to live.<\/p>\n
Just live.<\/strong><\/p>\nFind a job.<\/p>\n
Study.<\/p>\n
Feel that they matter.<\/p>\n
Have a place in their own country.<\/p>\n
Be able to dream without seeing the sea as the only road ahead.<\/p>\n
When Food Itself Becomes Part of the Conflict<\/strong><\/h2>\nAnd in Ceuta, the story does not end with this young man.<\/p>\n
There is another dimension, even more painful.<\/p>\n
In recent days, reports have emerged about obstacles to the arrival of Red Cross aid to areas where migrants were staying, even as the organization was providing food, water and medical assistance.<\/p>\n
At that point, the question becomes bigger than migration.<\/p>\n
When does a human being become an enemy to such an extent that even food can be denied to them?<\/strong><\/p>\nIf political confrontation over borders can be understood within the logic of states, hunger should never become part of that confrontation.<\/p>\n
Borders can be closed.<\/p>\n
Laws can be enforced.<\/p>\n
States can disagree.<\/p>\n
But a hungry human being remains a human being.<\/p>\n
An injured young man remains a young man.<\/p>\n
And a child sleeping outside does not become something else simply because he has crossed a border.<\/p>\n
That is why the image of the Red Cross reaching a young man sitting on a rock becomes more powerful than dozens of official statements.<\/p>\n
Because it brings the whole story back to its most basic truth:<\/p>\n
One human being facing another.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat Kind of Country Do We Want for Our Children?<\/strong><\/h2>\nSome may be angered by these words.<\/p>\n
Others may ask: who is responsible for these young people\u2019s decision to go to Ceuta?<\/p>\n
The question is legitimate.<\/p>\n
But there is another question we should not be afraid to ask:<\/p>\n
What made some of our children believe that risking their lives was worth the attempt?<\/strong><\/p>\nWe like to speak about Morocco, its history, its civilization, its achievements, its major projects, its position in the world.<\/p>\n
All of that matters.<\/p>\n
But the greatness of a country is not measured only by what it builds in its major cities.<\/p>\n
Nor by the number of projects it completes.<\/p>\n
Nor by what it says in speeches.<\/p>\n
There is another, far more difficult test:<\/p>\n
How does a state treat its children when they are at their most vulnerable?<\/strong><\/p>\nThat young man is one of those tests.<\/p>\n
And that test belongs to all of us.<\/p>\n
To the Parliamentarian, the Minister, the Official<\/strong><\/h2>\nTo you, the parliamentarian preparing for another electoral campaign: stop for a moment before this image.<\/p>\n
Before asking a citizen for his vote, ask yourself what you have done for a young man like this.<\/p>\n
And to you, the minister: do not look at this story as just another number in a migration file.<\/p>\n
Look at his face.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd you, the official, remember that the chairs we sit in are temporary.<\/p>\n
Positions end.<\/p>\n
Elections end.<\/p>\n
Governments change.<\/p>\n
But the consequences of the decisions we make in people\u2019s lives can last for years.<\/p>\n
Sometimes even decades.<\/p>\n
As for the state, through all its institutions, it must look at this image from an entirely different angle.<\/p>\n
That young man is not a number.<\/p>\n
He is not a file.<\/p>\n
He is not a security problem.<\/p>\n
He is one of its children.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd a state that wants to prevent its children from crossing the sea must first give them a strong enough reason to stay.<\/p>\n
Let Us Beware of Getting Used to It<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe most dangerous thing may not be seeing these images.<\/p>\n
The most dangerous thing is getting used to them<\/strong>.<\/p>\nSeeing a young Moroccan in the sea and no longer stopping.<\/p>\n
Seeing a child sleeping in the street and no longer stopping.<\/p>\n
Seeing a mother crying for her son and no longer stopping.<\/p>\n
Seeing an injured, hungry young man sitting on a rock and no longer stopping.<\/p>\n
Then moving on to the next story.<\/p>\n
The next match.<\/p>\n
The next political dispute.<\/p>\n
The next election.<\/p>\n
As if nothing had happened.<\/p>\n
The suffering of our children must not become ordinary news.<\/strong><\/p>\nBecause today it is an unknown young man sitting on a rock in Ceuta.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow it may be another.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
Until the question is no longer:<\/p>\n
Why are they leaving?<\/p>\n
But:<\/p>\n
How did we allow escape to become a dream?<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd That Smile Remains<\/strong><\/h2>\nPerhaps people will forget the numbers.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the news will change.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the Ceuta crisis will end and another crisis will begin.<\/p>\n
But I do not think I will be able to forget that moment.<\/p>\n
A young man sitting alone on a rock.<\/p>\n
An injured foot.<\/p>\n
An exhausted body.<\/p>\n
Two eyes searching for help.<\/p>\n
Then a small car arrives.<\/p>\n
Water.<\/p>\n
Food.<\/p>\n
A hand reaching toward him.<\/p>\n
And suddenly\u2026<\/p>\n
He smiles.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat pain can be contained in a smile like that.<\/p>\n
The smile of a young man who was not asking much from the world.<\/p>\n
He simply wanted to feel that someone had not abandoned him.<\/p>\n
And in that moment, the question is no longer about Morocco or Spain.<\/p>\n
It is no longer about borders, migration or politics.<\/p>\n
It becomes simpler.<\/p>\n
And infinitely harder:<\/p>\n
Would we have accepted one of our own children being that young man sitting on the rock?<\/strong><\/p>\nIf the answer is \u201cno,\u201d then we must remain with that image for a long time.<\/p>\n
Because the young man we saw is not merely the son of one family.<\/p>\n
He is one of our children.<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd history, however glorious, will never protect a nation that cannot protect the dignity of its children when they are at their most vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that is precisely why we should not simply look at that image and cry.<\/p>\n
We should feel a little ashamed\u2026 and then ask ourselves what we are going to do to make sure it never happens again.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was sitting on a rock. Alone. There was no home behind him. No bed waiting for him. No table. No hand reaching out to him. One of his feet was injured. His body carried the marks of exhaustion. And there he sat on that stone, waiting for something he did not know when it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,43,42,41,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa","category-asia-americas","category-europe-russia","category-middle-east","category-the-maghreb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4793,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4790\/revisions\/4793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}