CONSCIENCISM: EUROPE AND THE HUNGARIAN HANDLING OF THE REFUGEE CRISIS.

Conscience is feeling: An intuition that help us in making decisions about right and wrong. Moral judgments fundamentally are predicated on principle values, norms, and rules.

The refugee crisis spiraling out of control in Europe, places most citizens in an emotional quagmire and a psychological torture leading to a feeling of remorse when juxtapositioned against the decision taken by their political leaders going forward.

A case in point is an Hungarian colleague of mine who felt so emotionally traumatised by the action or inaction of the Hungarian government in handling the refugee crisis, that he was very ashamed to identify himself as an Hungarian.



The situation in Hungary is here instructive, this is a country with history of mass emigration to other part of the world, yet when the time comes to give humanitarian assistance to needy fellow human being, the government renege on it's legal and moral obligations.   

"Hungary, who citizens were once the beneficiaries of asylum across Europe, has shut its borders, resorting to tear gas, water cannons and violence to defer asylum seekers."-Suzanne Lynch (The Irish Times).

Earlier this week the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees addressed the European Parliament in Brussels. Criticising the EU’s lack of unity on the refugee crisis, Antonio Guterres recalled the Hungarian refugee crisis that followed the 1956 uprising.

“At that time 200,000 Hungarians fled. There was no Schengen at that time, but the borders were open. And they came to Austria and Yugoslavia. At that time there was no European Union, but Europe was united. Unfortunately today we have a European Union, but Europe is no longer united.”-Suzanne Lynch (The Irish Times).

I like to note here that we cannot castigate Hungary alone, since most wealthier European countries who are better placed to take more refugees are not playing their roles effectively.

  Read the link below.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/sep/19/thousands-refugees-stranded-croatia-hungary-eu-rise-asylum-applications

OTUNBA ADE ILEMOBADE is a philosopher
Twitter: pearl2prince