h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/05/billionaire-wants-to-build-refugee-island.html

mmm, that is an interesting one Gingersnapper, thanks for posting the link.

I don't think this is the best way to help, that the money spent could be more usefully spent in the places where refugees and communities already are but will think on it some more.

any chance of a summary o what that link is?
(it's a more than Petty Hate of mine when that happens)

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris tweeted out an idea he called “crazy.”

He would buy an island, fill it with refugees, and then provide jobs and housing until they could return to their homeland—if they so chose.

“Greece or Italy sell me an island, ill call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country,” he wrote on Twitter. Then, added: “Crazy idea .. Maybe but at least temporary until they can return to their countries ?? !!”

we need some ideas, crazy or otherwise

(thanks for the summary )

~ Thankx Peanut, for the summary , you said it so much better than I ever could have.

I can't take credit Gingersnapper, I just cut and pasted from the article and quickly posted as I saw Sho was still around

If the world is to survive, *somebody* has to dare to dream big dreams. The oceans cover about 3/4 of the world's surface. If anything, we could use more islands or, failing that, floating ones.

My concern would br the island effectively becoming an internment camp with no resources or infrastructure that other countries use as a dumping ground for refugees they don't want to have to worry about.

A bit like Australia then?

Australia had *plenty* of resources, so no, not a bit like Australia.

I think the problem might be to get these people to accept being put in refugee camps in the first place. Certainly the ones in Hungary seemed none to keen on it.

With the welcome they got in Hungary, I'm not surprised they didn't want to be sent to a camp. I know I wouldn't have.

They would probably have preferred seeing their own country straightened out so they could return to it.

So let's offer the refugees weapons and military training. There seems to be enough able-bodied young men among them.

~ The Island, "Independence" , should not be a 'camp'. And keep Religion your own private path you choose to Heaven or Hell <> If you think he/she is on the wrong path let God sort it out. <> Be Kind <> Peace <>

"So let's offer the refugees weapons and military training."

What a great idea. It's a pity we never thought of that with Saddam Hussein. Or the Khmer Rouge. Or the Taliban. Or Bin Laden.

Initially I thought it might be a good idea, not to buy an island and claim some sort of independence but to rent one. Not as a permanent base for people to settle but as a place where people can get their papers processed and where immediate needs are meet.

But I don't think this is even a particularly good way of helping, I think due to the fact that many people want to move through the countries in which they land and have to seek asylum in the first place they get to.

I think it is great that people the very rich and the very ordinary want to take individual actions, but what is needed desperately is a co-ordinated and collective effort of agencies, governments and countries.

On those grounds instead of setting up a separate project such as this, I think donating to agencies on the ground with the expertise to deal with this level of humanitarian crisis in the short and longer term and who are pleading for resources would be the best way to go

Quite. The UK has been following this exact policy, providing over £900 million in humanitarian relief (another £100m was announced yesterday) which is more than the rest of the EU combined. There's also a policy of housing refugee families from camps close to Syria. Somehow this has been translated as the UK doing nothing