Day: January 19, 2009

Shelbyville, TN: The Mysterious Case of the Bedbug Evictions

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We haven’t stopped by Shelbyville, TN lately—you know the town overwhelmed more than a year ago with the arrival of  hundreds of Somali refugees to work in the Tyson’s chicken plant nearby.  Readers may recall it is also the location of the now infamous battle— the Labor Day Holiday battle— when Tyson’s cancelled Labor Day and swapped it for the Muslim holiday EID (at least until a major furor erupted in the national media).

So, back to today’s story from Shelbyville.   Coincidentally just as a film crew was in town to document the trials and tribulations of Shelbyville’s immigrant population we hear about the curious case of the  Bedbug Evictions.

With documentary cameras rolling, members of Shelbyville’s Somali community met with Hispanic residents and the T-G (Times Gazette) to talk about living in Tennessee, as well as some of the problems they have encountered, such as eviction from a local apartment complex.

Mohamad Ali and Hawo Siyad both told the documentary makers that around 150 Somalis were evicted from Davis Estates last year after one of the units in the complex was found to be infested with bedbugs.

The Somalis say they love Shelbyville and think Tennessee is beautiful but the ‘fly in the ointment’ was the Bedbug Evictions.   Then there were the Menacing Flashlight Men (I’ll get to that shortly).

However, her experience in Shelbyville, as well as Mohamad’s, was marred by the bedbug-related evictions.

Hawo said that an Somali infant was found to have suffered numerous bites from the parasite and the mother did not know the cause. Doctors told the refugee mother to report the cause to the owners of the apartment.

“When she did, they did nothing about it,” Taylor (Luci the Local activist) said. When the mother returned a second time to alert the property owners, 150 of the refugees were told to pack their things and move out, Taylor said

“They evicted anybody that spoke out,” Taylor claims.

So, let me understand this.  One woman went to complain, but Luci the local activist says that anybody who spoke out was evicted.  So did 150 Somalis go to complain?  What were they complaining about if only one apartment was infested?  I’m confused.   150 got evicted because one apartment was infested.  Hummm!  Sounds fishy. Something tells me there is more to this story.

Now to the menacing men with flashlights….the plot thickens!

Both Hawo and Mohamad also claim that men representing the apartment owners would conduct late night inspections of the units, showing up unannounced with flashlights and frightening the refugees.

Taylor explained this action was very upsetting to some of the Somalis, given their experiences in their home country, where there is no government to speak of and roving bands of militants frequently have their way with the people.

It was especially upsetting to the women, Taylor said, who would sleep with little or no clothes and then have to deal with strange men suddenly entering the apartments, shining the flashlights around. Taylor was told that this practice is still going on with the remaining Somali residents and wants to know how to get it stopped.

Now, this is all pretty improbable.   Think about what Luci the local activist is alleging here (before a documentary film crew).   Men with flashlights illegally entering apartments in the middle of the night where naked Muslim women are sleeping—-dang that is a beheading offense where these refugees came from.

So what happened?  I bet you are dying to know the ending to the Mysterious Case of the Bedbug Evictions and the Menacing Flashlight Men!

Nieto (public awareness coordinator for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition) said that the matter was investigated by the Tennessee Human Rights Commission, who found no wrongdoing on the part of the apartment owners.

You can bet if there was even the slightest wrongdoing the Tennessee Human Rights Commission would be going for blood (and calling in CAIR!).   But, that doesn’t really matter, the charges are now on FILM, a documentary film (everyone knows documentaries are truthful films), and I will wager there is never any mention made of  the Tennessee Human Rights Commission findings of no wrongdoing.

These are, afterall, community organizers who know their business well—the means (any means) justify the ends.    Shelbyville, this is a set up.

No one wants the Iraqi Palestinians, especially other Muslims

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Stuck in camps along the border of Iraq and Syria, no MUSLIM country will take in 700 fellow Muslim Palestinians who fear returning to Iraq because they were given special treatment by Saddam and thus may suffer retaliation by other Muslims.

I have asked this on many previous occasions, where is the much ballyhooed Muslim charity?   And, I am going to just keep on asking that question for however long it takes!

The start of 2009 offers little hope to the residents of Al Tanf, a refugee camp on the Syrian-Iraqi border housing over 700 Palestinians who had fled persecution in Iraq. No country has given any concrete pledge to take any of the refugees for resettlement in 2009, leaving them to battle the cold desert weather this winter with more despair than ever.

[…..] 

Resettlement is the pressing need for the people of Al Tanf. Stuck in tents in No Man’s Land between the border crossings, the refugees are legally unable to go forward into Syria and fear going back to Iraq where they face persecution from Kurd and Shia groups who accuse them of being too close to the Sunni-dominated insurgency or resent the privileges they received under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Every country has it’s immgration quota says UNRWA representative.

“It’s hard to say why resettlement is so slow,” said Kristian Boysen, project officer at UNRWA, the main UN agency dealing with Palestinian refugees. “Each country has an immigration quota and they choose who they think will fit into the country.”

So Mr. Boysen, tell me, what is the quota for Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, Turkey, or Kuwait?  Have they filled their quota of Arab Muslim Palestinians?  Or is it just western countries that must open their doors?  Or, why can’t they go live in UNRWA administered Palestinian areas and get well-cared-for by the UN (that is, the US taxpayer)?

It is not just Al Tanf refugees who need resettlement. There are about 1,000 Palestinian-Iraqis in Al Waleed camp on the Iraqi side of the border. A further 300 live in Al Hol camp, further to the north on the Syrian side.

There were 306 successful resettlements from Al Tanf in 2008: 116 to Chile, 174 to Sweden and 16 to Switzerland. In addition, Iceland, Norway and Sweden took some refugees from Al Waleed and Al Hol. But for every family that leaves, another arrives – either fleeing from Iraq or having been unable to earn enough money to support themselves in Syria. [so some actually were in Syria, they are then economic migrants?]

I’m wondering if this is just one more public relations campaign to highlight the suffering Palestinians so that the US and Israel can be beaten over the head with the situation.   

 The refugees say they are rejected everywhere, but want to go to Europe.

Europe is the hope for most refugees who point out that each country need only take 10 families each in order to empty out the camps.

How come they aren’t asking to go join their co-religionists in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Iran, or Kuwait?  How come those countries aren’t taking them in?  How come the western media never asks that question?  It’s all about the bad Christians and Jews isn’t it? It’s all about flooding western countries with Muslim immigrants, isn’t it?

US investigating Malaysian government officials about human trafficking

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know how, but suspect that somehow, this story ties into what is going on in Thailand with the Rohingya boat men from Burma (Myanmar).    The Democratically controlled  US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is investigating the Muslim country of Malaysia about the possibility that government officials are trafficking in refugees. 

Here is the gist of the story from AFP:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Senate is investigating allegations that officials in Malaysia were extorting money from foreign migrants and were linked to human trafficking, American officials said.

The migrants, mostly from military-ruled Myanmar but also from other countries, were allegedly taken by the government officials to the border between Malaysia and Thailand, where they were extorted or sold to human trafficking syndicates.

The probe is being conducted by the US Senate foreign relations committee and the findings will be relayed to key US enforcement agencies and Interpol for possible action, Senate officials said.

“US Senate foreign relations committee staff are reviewing reports of extortion and human trafficking from Burmese and other migrants in Malaysia, allegedly at the hands of Malaysia government officials,” a committee staff member told AFP. Myanmar’s previous name was Burma.

“The allegations include assertions that Burmese and other migrants — whether or not they have UNHCR documentation — are taken from Malaysian government detention facilities and transported to the Thailand-Malaysia border,” the official said.

At the border, they alleged, “money is demanded from them, or they are turned over to human traffickers in southern Thailand.”

There is a Muslim insurgency on-going in southern Thailand, are the refugees being sold as conscripts into the Islamic forces?  Or is it women and girls being sold as Atlas points out today in Africa?

If true, it sounds like a win-win for the government-official traffickers.   Either get paid off or do your fellow Muslims in Thailand a good service by supplying the mostly Burmese refugees (Rohingya?) to the Islamic insurgency.

“If all reports are accurate, then as many as a few thousand Myanmar migrants in Malaysia may have been taken to the Malaysia-Thai border in recent years,” the committee staff member said.

“If they pay, they return to Malaysia. If not, they are sold to traffickers, according to the reports,” the official said.

I’m wondering what we can do if the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee finds this to be true—-cut off funds to Malaysia?  What?

BTW, this AFP story says we have resettled 40,000 Burmese into the US since 1995.

Alinskyism (Day 19)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Remember the story about Maureen Dowd making fun of Obama’s ears early in the primary campaign where he supposedly took her to task over it?    He quickly shut down that whole line of discussion.

He had to shut it down because he knew how potent a weapon ridicule is.   In Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” in a chapter simply called “Tactics,”  RIDICULE is Rule #5.

Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.  It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule.  Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to  your advantage.

Readers, you probably all knew this already, but this is so interesting to me because my brain functions in the realm of the rightness or wrongness of policies not in how to defeat the other side simply through tactics.

Of course, this is what they did to Sarah Palin.  They tried to do it to John McCain first.  Remember they started in about how McCain couldn’t use a computer, but it turned out that his physical disability from his prisoner of war days was responsible, so they dropped it.    When Palin came along she became a perfect subject for ridicule because as elitist big city people (most of Obama’s people) they could ridicule her country ways.

Hint to our side:  ridicule the elitist city types who predominate in the Obama administration.

Jon Stewert and his ilk have gained their popularity because of Rule #5.    Conversely, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are hated by the left because they obviously love Rule#5 and know how to use it.    Stick-in-the-mud so-called conservatives who criticize Limbaugh and Coulter are making a grave error.  We need more ridicule, not less!

Days 1-18 of my Alinsky calendar can be found in our “community destabilization” category.   By the way, my inspiration to put this in “calendar” form is because my kids once gave me one of those Bush calendars that made fun of things Bush had said.  There was one ‘ridicule’ for each day of the year.