By Gianluca
Mezzofiore
A demonstrator walks
along part of the Berlin Wall. (Getty)
The dawn rises on
another year's celebration of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. As part of
the 25th anniversary, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in then East
Germany, said the fall of the wall "showed us that dreams can come true".
"We can change
things for the better," she said. "This is the message for...
Ukraine, Iraq and other places where human rights are threatened".
Peter Gabriel sang a
version of David Bowie's Heroes, and 8,000 helium balloons perched on poles to
match the height of the wall and stretching for 15km, were released one by one
by to the sky.
But the hangover
should jog everyone's memory that new European walls have taken the place of
the Berlin monolith, effectively cementing the borders of "Fortress
Europe" against all unwanted migrants in the name of empty sentences like
"security" and "internal protection".
"These phrases
are reminiscent of those the GDR [German Democratic Republic] once used,"
points out Josefina Salomon on the blog of Amnesty International, the human
rights organisation that battled for the release of more than 5,000 political prisoners
in the GDR until 1989.
Fortress Europe is
made of real walls, just like the 7.5 mile-fence in the city of Melilla that
separates Spain from Morocco. Thousands of African immigrants living illegally
in Morocco try to enter Spain's enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta each year, hoping
to reach Europe. Spain's Interior Ministry said 2,000 migrants have made it
across Melilla's border fences in roughly 60 attempts this year.
The irony is that the
fence started as a simple 2.5 metres tall structure that was then reinforced
year on year by Spanish authorities, as Europe steadily closed in on itself.
A picture which is
all too obviously emblematic shows African asylum seekers stuck on the razor
wire fence behind white-clad golfers teeing off on an immaculately manicured
golf course.
A golfer hits a tee shot as African migrants sit on
top of a border fence between Morocco and Spain's north African enclave of
Melilla, on October 22, 2014 (José Palazon/Reuters)
