Invisible Mediterraneans: The Walls That Exclude the Poor and Imprison the Rich

One of the saddest scenes arising from the contemporary tragedy of war refugees was the death of Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, whose images spread around the world in September 2015. In a failed attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea with his family, the boy, just 3 years old, became a symbol of the thousands of people seeking survival away from war, religious persecution, and the poverty that often lies along the way. Using the allegory of the Mediterranean interrupting life's journeys, Cristovam Buarque analyzes how the immense geographical barrier that impedes social migration worldwide is formed. The author suggests that, to find an alternative to the world's division between destitute poverty and indistributable wealth, global society must be educated in tolerance and solidarity.