'Last Week Tonight' Puts The 'Human' Back In 'Humanitarian Crisis'

By Emily Cutler | Videos | September 28, 2015 |

By Emily Cutler | Videos | September 28, 2015 |

Last Week Tonight has been pretty much since the beginning a must watch for me. But it’s recently gotten good enough that it’s actually become noticeable when they miss a week. That might be something that Oliver and company recognize and are trying to address. Because after taking last week off to win an Emmy, they came back with a “Let me make it up to you, baby” episode.

After addressing Volkswagen and David Cameron (#respectfulinterspeciesfacefuck), they moved on to the European migrant crisis.

And Jesus, do a lot of people have their heads up their asses on this one.

Steven wrote earlier this month about how changing the label given to people entering Europe has a significant impact on how they’re seen. And as long as we’re rightly reframing how this crisis is viewed, I’d like to add two other points:

1.) As stated in the video, not all of the migrants trying to reach Europe are Syrian. But the Syrian civil war has created over 4 million refuges, and internally displaced another 7 million people since it began in 2011. That isn’t a case of people selfishly wanting to cut the line or ignoring the proper legal channels. That’s an international humanitarian crisis.

2.) I know that by and large humans are not good with change. We don’t necessarily like new people, new customs, or the idea that our way isn’t inherently the best way. But accepting new groups into established communities has literally been happening since the beginning of humankind. Maybe instead of constantly fighting to keep out “others” and retain “our” way of life we can recognize that changing and adapting is our way of life. That all groups will eventually incorporate new ideas and new people. And that by and large the groups are stronger after accepting new members. Maybe we could make the transition from old to new an exciting part of the process instead of something we fight against every time. Or maybe we could just stop kicking children. Maybe just a little common decency would be a good place to start.