By Martien Pennings, historian.

The above telling picture appears twice in the report by Arnold Karskens on the asylumseekers in Kos. In the Dutch text on ThePostOnline we learn that these well-groomed people at the table in the background are having lunch and communicate with their smartphones with relatives that stayed behind. They come from Damascus, are staying in a nice hotel in Kos and are bound for Germany.

Arnold Karskens (1954) is a Dutch war-correspondent who worked in Afghanistan and Irak and who is not easily to pin down in political terns like “left-wing” or “right wing”. On the Dutch weblog “ThePostOnline” he wrote a piece on the flood of asylmseekers that is nowadays hitting the shores of the Geek island of Kos. He went there after his investigative journey had been made possible by crowd-funding initiated by ThePostOnline. Karskens writes:

“Television pictures from Greece show anxious and crying children being disembarked in the middle of the night from a rickety boat, on their way to security and freedom. This is what the British investigative journalist Nick Davies in his book calls ‘ Flat Earth stories’ when he talks about persistent errors in the media: everyone believes it, until someone starts doing some research.”

I must admit that I was one of those people that wrote about “heartbreaking pictures” and coupled that with an appeal to the Dutch politician Geert Wilders to nuance his verdict that “we should send them all back, everyone of them”.

But! On the other hand I can boast I participated in the crowd-funding that made the journey to Kos and research on-the-spot by Arnold Karskens possible, if only with a tenner. That report by Karskens has indeed made clear to me that what I saw on tv was much less “heartbreaking” than I thought.

After reading the report by Karskens I keep only one reservation in mind: I would like to know what chance Syrian Christians (Yazidis) have for a decent life in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

And now for the most important: what facts about these “aylumseekers” does Karskens come up with?

Very many come from Syria, receive preferential treatment, but were originally given shelter in countries where they are in no danger (!) namely in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

They all took leave from Turkey: a fairly easy boat ride of half an hour.

They are all relatively rich.

There is a whole asylum-seekers-industry around those “asylum-seekers” on both Kos and Turkey.

The care for that small wealthy minority is costing more money than for the 95% that is given shelter in the region: an asylum-Apartheid-system.

The care for that small wealthy minority goes at the expense of the quality of the care for those who are given shelter in the region, where real misery is experienced and even hunger.

Lots of “refugees” have enough money to stay temporarily in hotels with swimming pools before they go into Europe.

For terrorists, it is no problem to mix between the “asylum seekers” and get into Europe.

So far the main facts recorded by Karskens. One is tempted to quote extensively from the report, but that would not be fair and take a lot of translation. But I assure you, that Karskens text justifies the conclusion that on Kos little or no real asylum-seekers will be found, but a lot of adventurers and fortune-seekers who are almost all Muslims. Still, two small quotes I would like to give you coupled:

“Representatives of Syrian refugees have let the islanders of Kos know that they only will go on board the passengers-vessel [that has been laid ready for them] if there is a WiFi connection and charging points for their smartphones. A modern refugee is someone who has some demands. “

“The immaturity of European politics surprises in several areas. This week it was announced that the European Union earmarked 2.4 billion euro for additional assistance to the sheltering of migrants. Greece gets almost half a billion euros. Simultaneously about four hundred thousand Syrians who stayed behind in Lebanon and Jordan heard last week from the UN World Food Programme WFP that their food rations get halved due to lack of funds. “

My conclusion: that these facts had to be unearthed by crowd-funding a renown journalist proofs that in Western Europe there no longer exists a mainstream body of journalism which seeks to display the facts. There are only leftish ideologically framed narratives in which many things are concealed. This has created a civilian population in Western Europe that is totally confused and has no longer a basis to make the right political decisions.

Meanwhile, it is also becoming less relevant, because the political power of the citizen has virtually disappeared from the EU. It just does not matter anymore: a quasi-elite in politics, media and education has been becoming more insane for decades and a misguided population does not know where to turn.

Exclusively for Snaphanen. Also by the same author: Mogherini will change Europe into an Islamic hell