Making sense of the refugee crisis

Watching the news flag up the desperate living conditions of the refugees brings parallels to the conflict-driven hatred during the 90s in the Balkans and South Caucasus region. I have personally witnessed the conditions for life in the post-power grab reality that followed the loss of sovereignty, poverty, epistemic terrorism, violence, and surveillance in the Republic of Georgia. Alienation and the ‘othering’ is an issue that I can empathise with, but the present mediatisation of war and engineering of hatred by social media is something unknown.

Richard Mosse: picturing crisis in 'INCOMING'

As the West faces the world's largest refugee crisis since WWII, Incoming by Richard Moose dwells on the humanitarian and geopolitical plight of our time along with the climate change, persecution and displacement of millions due to war. Watch how the military-grade thermal cameras aestheticise the tragic narrative of forced asylum seekers and how the presentation of body heat, ghostly figures, and the otherness humanise our view towards ‘the others’.

Currently, there is a discussion about Facebook and the social side of its algorithms that amplify hate and violence in the Global South. Being in the conflict zone and having the right lenses can strengthen the human subjects, but, this is not enough for personal resilience. There are multiple views to take into account as these conflicts are subject to individual interpretations and survival depends on know-how and knowing what is right or wrong in this jungle. We may be familiar with the post-colonial dimensions of the inter-state conflicts but there is the knowledge-in-practice side of things, too.

Apology for the mistreatment and the negative attitude towards ‘the others’ by the western population is not new and there is nothing to blame yourselves or your western governments for. There was a similar position towards the forced displaced Georgians by the self-proclaimed elites in the capital of Georgia after the war in Abkhazia in the 90s. We all observed the torture and suffering of the refugees when I was growing up in Tbilisi back in the 2000s, but back then I was not aware of the impact of imperial history and its links with the rise of value of the US Dollar.

Media constantly transmitted the refugee's suffering from the state’s inability to provide shelter. There was no such thing as a state at that point and sovereignty is still under construction. I still remember the entropic aesthetics of the derelict buildings, dysfunctional hospitals, abandoned hotels and public schools where the internally displaced persons were forced to reside. At that moment I was not equipped with the right knowledge to think about its implications on regulating and normalizing the violence, torture, suffering and idolatry that it followed.

Figure 1. This building is under construction since the end of the 1990, so is the sovereignty of the countries in the Global South (2021)

Regardless, it is worthy of noting that affluent western societies can help those in need because this is something that the Global South is lacking. The charities and social entrepreneurial firms working with the refugees can improve the conditions of life for the forced displaced persons. Take, for instance, Solidaritee that runs charitable activities to transform the lives of asylum seekers through raising legal aid and many other organisations that support work, employment and education for migrants. It is difficult to speak what it takes to survive in conflict regions, but having empathy towards the ‘others’ is highly rewarding.

Figure 2. The ghosts of post-industrial colonies (2021)

There are no words to express the experience of surveillance and being in this uninterrupted vicious cycle that social media is currently instigating. If there is something that the victims require the most is empathy and understanding that the individuals are not responsible for their misery. The ghosts of authoritarianism are lurking behind these abandoned industrial cities, which may leave us with slim options for humanity as our lives are accelerating towards digital.

All photo credit belongs to Mika Kiladze