Guardian members share the article which changed their view of an issue. Helen Norris, 69, a semi-retired business development director from Beckenham, considers the impact of Suzanne Moore’s 2015 piece, ‘Life in a refugee camp’.
Suzanne’s report, in which she witnessed at first hand life in France’s infamous refugee and migrant camp, was published at the height of the crisis in Calais. It was the most detailed article I had read on the subject and really brought the issue to life for me. I always broadly knew what was happening, but Suzanne’s description of conditions at Grande–Synthe made it totally unforgettable as a piece of journalism.
The personal stories Suzanne wove through the piece particularly stood out. One young man with a broken arm had been a pharmacist in his home country, and here he was forced to live in a squalid, rat-infested swamp, having fled unimaginable horror, not knowing what would happen next. The women cooking in tents, trying to keep a semblance of normality amid the chaos; the children who had made it to Calais but didn’t know where their parents were; the doctors trying to treat people shot with rubber bullets; the terrible cold …
The raw reality was brought to life in these moments, almost like a photograph in words. These were people, not numbers, and moreover, they were people just like you and me, trying to survive in inhumane conditions right on our doorstep.
At the end of the article, Suzanne got on the train with a heavy heart and travelled back to her comfortable life. Walking among the refugees, she was only an hour away from where I live. I thought: “I’m not physically able to go and help, but reading this and sharing it, and donating what I can is the next best thing.”
I remember Katharine Viner, the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, calling this “the crisis of our time”. The story had been unravelling for well over a year by the time I read Suzanne’s piece, but this was the first time I was moved to act. She is a writer who always seems to get inside her subjects and present the voices of those she discusses. This story didn’t alter my view on events, but it profoundly intensified what I already knew, in a way that no longer felt abstract.
I read the Guardian most days. In some ways I am what you might call a “typical” Guardian reader – a liberal-minded, baby boomer – but even having shared this among friends with differing views, it seems clear that stories like this need to be told. It was a relatively short article, but, for me, an example of journalism at its best.
We are keen to hear from Members about the Guardian articles that changed their views on the world, politics, society or culture. If you would like to share your experience, please email sophie.zeldin-oneill@theguardian.com, with a brief outline of the article you’d choose and why.
