News cycle leaves plenty in its wake

It’s odd how the news works on our brains. When something is ‘in’ the news, we perceive it as a reality and respond accordingly — especially if it’s dramatic (if it bleeds, it leads) or insane (the current White House).

Even celebrity stuff can knock actual news off its perch — when famous people marry, reproduce, divorce or die, it’s afforded similar space in our newsfeeds — and our psyches, as hurricanes, genocide and politics. The celeb stuff is easier to think about and less

depressing.

This results in the relationship between the makers and the consumers of news being co-dependent to the point that news makers are scared of boring news

consumers, and so news becomes either more sensationalist or trivialised.

Stories — that’s what they are called, ‘stories’ — have a shelf life. The news moves on, so that we don’t get bored.

Meanwhile, in real life, the ‘stories’ don’t go away, they just stop being reported, written about, and therefore thought about. We don’t hear about them in mainstream media, so we assume they no longer exist. Refugees had their moment, but now we have moved on, apart from the ones fleeing Myanmar, but that’s too far away to worry about, so let’s look at an athlete’s new baby or a royal starting school or whatever. It’s easier.

Except refugees have not gone away. The ones in Calais who inspired and mobilised such magnificent support from Irish people are still there — we just don’t hear about them anymore. Since the Jungle camp was demolished by the French authorities and its citizens bussed away, we assumed, not unreasonably, that the problem had been solved.

Except it hasn’t. Calais is still 20km from Dover. There are almost one thousand people living rough in the Calais area, in even worse conditions than the Jungle, hoping to reach the UK where they have family and connections. In this instance, living rough means living in woods without shelter; tents and sleeping bags confiscated daily by police; surviving on tiny amounts of food provided by tiny charities whose tiny resources have dwindled almost to nothing. An estimated 200 of the people in Calais are unaccompanied minors. Kids on their own.

This is no longer in the news, because it is last year’s news. Appeals for blankets, tents, sleeping bags, food, warm clothes, medicine — haven’t we already done that? Isn’t that story finished? Meanwhile, the warehouse in Calais has run out of desperately needed sleeping bags, socks, jumpers. Winter is coming.

On the Greek island of Samos, the refugee camp can hold 700 people. It currently accommodates 2,500, including 600 children, many of whom are sleeping on the ground. There is not enough anything — food, clothes, resources. It is not in the news. Maybe we need to go beyond the news, so that we can connect with the reality of what we need to do to help.