And it was yesterday.
Don’t tell me you missed it? Did you travel? Did you hug one?
24 May 2012 was European Border Guard Day (is there anything left that doesn’t have a Day?)
What this means is anyone’s guess… do they get a day off, leaving the tidal cliche of migrants to flood through? Do they get free icecream and a balloon? Do they get amnesty from the European Court of Human Rights for puncturing dinghys off the coast of Libya? Do they get to throw sponges at Greek guards, or guess the weight of the lorryful of migrants?
No, they got a nice big conference in Warsaw as a nice big thank you for keeping us safe. Poor bastards.
The high point was a photo competition, which we think should have been a caption contest. See below the winner with BM’s effort at the image’s subtext.
As a diversion, the delegates were also offered a programme of loosely border-guard-themed movies. As if to rub their noses in it, however, the films were almost all arty flicks of hardship of poor individuals slipping past the naughty moustachioed border police, or alternatively suffering at the hands of same and being sent back to a life of poverty and oppression.
Yaaay Border Guards!
And the cost in this time of austerity and sadness? 400 000 euros (hidden away on page 118 of the EU border agency Frontex’s 2012 work programme)
“Let’s go over it again. I’ll handcuff and strip them and conduct a full body
search, then you jump out of the cake and sing happy birthday.”
(The winning photo by Jaroslaw Wtorkiewicz)
From BM contributor Zengerin
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