LE Eithne Operation Triton, June 2015. Image: Irish Naval Service.

Our world faces a refugee and migration crisis. What solutions can be found? Greece, now a center of activity, pioneered a new vision when people boarded boats from Thera to found ancient Cyrene. In Australia, from 1947-55, over 75,000 industrious, innovative individuals and families left two dozen European countries to relocate and build the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Power Project, a multi-reservoir hydroelectric system of 16 dams, seven power stations, and 140 miles of interconnected tunnels, pipelines, and aqueducts in the most arid country on earth. Australia remembers: #LighttheDark gathered support for the world’s current migration crisis. Europe has also opened doors to freedom and opportunity. Major infrastructure projects to combat drought are still needed today. Can our world find inspiration in the examples of Greece and Australia to offer opportunity to the industrious, innovative, pioneering migrants and refugees of our times?

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.