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Humanity Washed Ashore

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There is so much being written about the refugee crisis. I specifically use the word "refugee" over "migrant" unlike many or our news publications. A migrant is someone who moves to a different part of the world to find work or better living conditions. A refugee moves out of fear for their human rights and safety, not for a better economic chance. Those fleeing from their lives are not doing so because they have a choice. They are doing so to live. I'm not sure how much I can add to the debate, but I can tell a personal story: In my first year of university I lived in halls of residence, a self-catered apartment with six rooms. Across from me was Adis Kulo. Adis had been a refugee from Sarajevo and arrived many years before I met him. He had fled Bosnia as a child, been separated from his mother and temporarily lived in France with a family of strangers. He was finally reunited with her in the UK, which the Adis Kulo Foundation website calls a " count

Reasons To Stay Alive

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I'm reading a book by Matt Haig called  Reasons To Stay Alive . As you can rightly guess from the title, I'm looking for reasons. I'm not actually enjoying the book very much, but that could be because when I'm depressed enjoyment isn't easy to come by, or I just don't like it, but yet I plough on in the hope that it will provide the magic potion that convinces me. Every time I'm about to stop reading something from the next page catches my eye. The first was that he began to write of Graham Greene. Greene's book The End of The Affair  challenges and inspires me. The opening line is my favourite of all the books I've read: "A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead."  I highly recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Colin Firth. There are times when I can't sleep or I'm too depressed to even read that an audiobook is akin t