On Wednesday November 11th I joined other Cornell students in a talk lead by Professor Holly Case at the weekly Becker-Rose Café. The topic: the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe. I had been hesitant to attend, seeing it is a topic I to this day follow very closely, but I am glad I did, for she brought with her personal accounts and photographs from her visit to Hungary earlier in the fall.
She spoke of the country’s far-right Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and the propaganda campaign he and his party have been using in an attempt to steer the general Hungarian population to fear the influx of refugees. The Two Tailed Dog Party and their comedic response to billboards tied to the campaign would be hilarious, if it weren’t for the circumstances; including slogans such as “Please excuse our empty country, we’ve gone to England!,” in response to the government’s, which included “If You Come To Hungary, Do Not Take The Jobs Of Hungarians.”
Among the most interesting things I learned from Professor Case’s talk was the support groups for volunteers. It was eyeopening for me to hear of volunteers, individuals I have always seen as positive, it-gets-better kind of people, creating groups to support one another when they found themselves in various states of depression over a situation many began to feel had no happy ending. I personally almost broke down, and heaven knows I have become an expert at suppressing and hiding emotions, when she mentioned how refugees had recently started taking and even requesting Bibles offered by missionary groups offering aid, though they had previously never cared for the book, because they had heard countries were only letting in Christian refugees, and they wanted to be sure to have something to identify them as such, just to seek safe haven.
The talk was quite honestly among the worst possible events I could have attended this semester, I already have far too many depressive issues to deal with, especially seeing it was on a topic I had, and still do, consider myself well versed in. That said, it was fascinating to hear Professor Case’s first hand accounts, even though I found myself most constantly on the verge of tears.