A Chill Down The Spine

I saw

this photo in the Bangkok Post this morning. This evening, on BBC World News, there was a report on the Rohingya refugees that the Thai Navy claimed it had not "treated cruelly". The BBC report included film clips showing images like

These...

When I realized that some, or many, or most of the men in the first photo were now dead... drowned... lost at sea; it sent a chill down my spine. Seeing them looking stoically at the camera, knowing their powerlessness, waiting for an unforgiving Guardian Force to determine their life-or-death, was spooky. I don't really have an adequate word for the feeling - spooky will just have to do. Having been lost at sea myself (entirely my own doing, for sure), I can attest to the fear factor. And also a kind of fatalism that takes over and seems to be almost paralytic in its effect.

Around the world, of course, there are people on the move, running from circumstances ranging from bleak to intolerable. In every case, in this crowded world, migrants (generally referred to as Illegal Immigrants) come crashing up against the Guardians of the Border. Wherever the migrants try to go, there are already people living there! Of course there are. That's because it's a livable area. Thats why people try to go there. Just like these Rohingya, there are migrants trying to enter the United States; some (generally referred to as "Hispanics") across the land border to the south; others (mostly from Mainland China by ship across the Pacific. We generally don't see the results of our Border Guardian's efforts. We read occasionally about the dead (but HEY! What Part Of Illegal Don't You Get?) turning up in the deserts of the Southwest. But it seems a small price to pay for Our Security. Of course, we aren't paying the price now, are we?