The world's reaction to lifeless Alan Kurdi lying face down on the Turkish coast pricked the conscience of a world increasingly indifferent to the plight of the 'other'. The refugees fleeing Assad and ISIS who hadn't entered the consciousness of the world suddenly catapulted into the headlines. Overnight most in the Western World opened their hearts and minds to the suffering millions.

But our post Kurdi generosity is fading.  

Chancellor Merkel, once regarded the champion of Syrian refugees, has changed the position Germany earlier took. She now says refugees are temporary guests in Germany who will return once there is peace in their homelands.

 Cameron's dismal record on refugees is in danger of becoming worse. The former Tory Defence Secretary Liam Fox has argued that "Italy and Greece have no idea who these [migrants] are... and the terrorists could enter Britain among the refugees..." and that the threat from the migrant crisis could be "much worse" than the sex attacks in Cologne.

Right wing parties in countries such as France and Germany are pushing main stream parties including the socialists of Francois Hollande to veer Right; French Prime Minister Valls has stated that "France couldn't welcome any more migrants" without being destabilised and that if Europe can't protect its borders " the very idea of Europe is being questioned".

The violence continues and the refugee situation is not getting any better.

 At least 20,000 refugees are stranded on Jordan's border and more are coming every day. Hundreds of thousands of them continue to live in camps in Turkey and all over the Middle East while thousands try everyday to enter Europe.

On Saturday January 30, at least 37 refugees, many of them children and babies, drowned off the coast of Turkey.

On January 31, a triple bombing by ISIS near the Syrian capital killed 63 and injured at least 150 people.

The same day in Nigeria Boko Haram attacked a village and refugee camps burning many people alive, killing at least 86 and injuring scores of others.

Where is our concern and anger at all this?

The sad truth is Kurdi's hell made us ashamed of our blinkeredness. And we were challenged to reaffirm our own goodness to ourselves and the rest of the world.

And as we consider withdrawing our fighter jets from the front lines, where is Canada's outrage at the ISIS' latest car and suicide bombings near Damascus and Boko Haram's attack in Nigeria?

Not that any grievances ever justify massacre of people going about their daily lives, what grievances did ISIS and Boko Haram have against their latest victims?

Our outrage is barely detectable now. We are becoming numb to terror. Our fatigued generosity is anaesthetizing our senses.

 

In that numbness and senselessness we risk becoming mere spectators in the ongoing battle against terrorism.