Statistics will show that this article will get very few “reads” unless I substitute the heading with the words “FREE BOAT!” And fair enough, because people don’t come to SWS for a dose of political and social reality. But there are plenty of small things we can do in our daily lives to try to reduce the frequency of these ongoing tragedies.

What makes it different to the previous six books in this column is that it’s an adventure brought on by necessity rather than free choice.  It’s a story that is playing out in some form or another every day of the year in 2021, whether it be in the Mediterranean, the Indian ocean or the Caribbean. Normal people, whose mere existence is under threat, take to a small boat, to escape to a new life.