What has Silvio Berlusconi said that belatedly acknowledges something that I had said 20 years ago to the 'leaders' of Western Governments? UPDATING Orwell from East End of London [4]

What has Silvio Berlusconi said that belatedly acknowledges something that I had said 20 years ago to the 'leaders' of Western Governments?

AADHIKARonline  © Muhammad Haque London Commentary. 

0250 [0240] [0230] [0200] Hrs GMT 

London 

Monday 

11 April 2011. 

What Silvio Berlusconi has done without losing any dignity is to acknowledge a truth that I spoke about twenty years ago. I did so in Britain. 

I addressed my thoughts primarily to John Major, who was in occupation at No 10 Downing Street. When I spoke I did so in the immediate context of John Major’s then imminent address to the United Nations Organisation. Twenty years ago, the world was significantly less tense. 

But it didn't feel that way where I was witnessing events. The tension then was not around “terrorism”. But there was a kind of terrorism in the air in the mainstream western media. That tension was being fuelled by daily “media” stories of an invasion. Invasion of the West by the non-Europeans. Mostly people from Africa. 

Thousands of people were risking their lives trying to get into the West by getting on boats and sometimes boarding ships. 

The spectre that was being painted by the mainstream media was as it was intended to be. To frighten the people, the indigenous people in the West. 

So what did I say? I said to John Major - and the leaders of the Western Governments - that they had to face it. 

Address the issue. 

Start a programme of dealing with and eradicating hunger and starvation from the countries of origins of the desperate people, seeking new lives in Western Europe. I said that the issue was not as it was being painted by the media in the West. Th media painted the hungry, the starving as something else. Something like an invading army. Like an army of occupation. Nothing could be further from the truth. The widespread social impact of large numbers of hungry starving people arriving anywhere was  something that could not be denied. 

Ought not to be denied. So I argued that the “leaders” of the Western governments 

had to stop being indifferent to the challenge. I said that the hungry, starving people would increase in number and the Western societies could become very tense if the challenge was not resolved. The way to solve hunger and poverty is to deal with t in the countries of the hungry people. Twenty years on, the leaders of western Governments have stayed silent. Only Berlusconi has now made a most reluctant admission of the problem. How long will it take the others before they face it and start addressing hunger and starvation in Africa? In parts of Asia? [To be continued]