Month: April 2009

Earth Day plus one: more ‘climate change’ refugees on the move

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, surprise, surprise, they want to move to neighborhoods in the First World.  Our friends at Blue Ridge Forum sent this to us yesterday, but am just getting to it this morning and don’t have time to do it justice.   But, I want you to see this excellent (and humorous) article at American Thinker by Brian Sussman entitled, “Sinking Islands or Stinking Islands?”

Sussman begins:

The headline on Monday read, “Climate refugees in Pacific flee rising seas“. Boy did the editors get this one wrong. A more accurate caption would have been, “Jesse Jackson-like shake-down gets tribe taken off tropical trash heap”.

A focus of the story was the tiny South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Apparently New Zealand responded to the phony cries of a few goo-goo activists, and is now convinced that unless the Tuvaluans are allowed to immigrate, they’ll soon be blubbing with the fish. Of course, the calculable cause of this sinkage is a steadily rising sea fed by anthropogenic global warming.

Rubbish. Literally.

He concludes that the ‘crisis’ of a rising sea level is a myth perpetuated for political reasons by Al Gore and his friends around the world.  Read the whole article!

So, while Mr. Gore conveniently lifted certain facts from the record when creating his film, he will no doubt champion the recent evacuations as prophetic vindication. Tuvalu is being decamped while New Zealand is being played like a cheap ukulele.

This incident has been diabolically concocted by global warming zealots, who are recruiting convenient poster children, so that when they convene in Copenhagen for the big climate change powwow this December, they’ll be able to stick another sharp pin in their global warming voodoo doll.

Here is an archive of all the posts we have written about “climate change” refugees.  I wish I had time to say more, because this is a subject near and dear to my heart since my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are in environmental studies and  I worked as an environmental lobbyist.  I KNOW these zealots!

Later I’ll make a new category here at RRW for “climate change” refugees because I have a sneaking feeling we will be hearing more about this hot topic.

Comment worth noting: Iraqi refugee speaks out in Utah

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Our ‘comments worth noting’ posts are to bring to your attention comments we receive to mostly older posts that readers would be unlikely to see.   This comment came to us yesterday from Vav who identifies himself/herself as an Iraqi refugee resettled in Utah.  We have written many posts on Utah’s struggling Iraqi population most recently reporting that some Iraqis are packing up to return to the Middle East.   Here is what Vav had to say at this post.  He/she is blaming the volags (see top ten contractors here) hired by the State Department to resettle them for their difficult situation.

I am an Iraqi refugee here in Utah. Many of the problems we face are because of the incompetency of the Catholic Community Services (CCS), International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Asian Association. These three NGOs are consuming funds provided by tax payers and deliver very poor services in return to their Iraqi refugee clients in the aspects of integration and employment. Actually, I am shocked how did they hired this unqualified staff here in Utah, the case workers are almost with zero experience and so unmotivated to assist and help. Iraq is not safe for us to go back to, and most of us have been through too much to come here, we really like to become good citizens of USA/Utah. We do not ask for special treatment, and we do not want to add more burdens on the tax payer’s shoulders. We only ask the community, to assist us on putting more pressure on NGOs funded by the federal government to resettle us here.

State Department, what is going on?   Our poor economy can’t be entirely to blame for the continuous stream of unhappy and angry Iraqis we are hearing from, or hearing about.

Coincidentally, just this a.m. I came across this article from a Vermont publication about a very happy Iraqi Christian couple.  He was an interpreter for American forces and the couple hopes one day to take all of their American education back to Iraq to help their country.  One thing noticibly missing from this article is any mention of help from a volag, a government contractor.   They seem to have been completely taken under the wings of Americans—at a University and at a church and in a small town—and express their deep gratitude for all the help they received.

I don’t know what the answer is to these widely divergent stories from Iraqi refugees.  I do think Americans are generally privately charitable, but when charity becomes a government program and funded by the federal (and state) government, with little oversight to boot, it becomes not much better that the Motor Vehicle Administration at providing services.  And, frankly any incentive for private charity is removed—afterall, the government is taking care of it, right?

End note:  Lest you think that maybe it has to do with the state—that Vermont is more ‘welcoming’ than say Utah—it doesn’t.  Just last month we told you about the angry Iraqis in Burlington, VT, let down by their resettlement agencies.

Jamal may get some ‘justice’ of his own thanks to Minnesota Rep

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday we told you that Omar Jamal, probably the one and only member of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, was heading to New York to seek “justice” for the Somali pirate, the only living one, who faces charges in the now infamous Maersk Alabama hijacking.   But it seems his highly publicized involvement is bringing down the wrath of Minnesota State House Minority leader, Rep Marty Seifert.  

This is so juicy!   Thanks to ever-watchful friends in Tennessee for sending it.   From the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Twin Cities activist Omar Jamal said Tuesday he has helped ensure that a suspected pirate is treated justly while in federal custody in New York.

But if a Minnesota legislative leader has his way, it will be the last pirate Jamal helps.

Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, said that he spoke Monday with the parents of suspected pirate Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse and that he has been consulting with Muse’s attorneys. He said he intended to be in court Tuesday, but Muse’s public defender said his presence wouldn’t be necessary.

But House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, responding to “tons of e-mails” from people he said were outraged by Jamal’s actions, said he will seek to block nonprofit status and state grants to any organization that helps foreign citizens accused of piracy or terrorism.

Rep. Seifert says he is introducing legislation to disallow Jamal from getting tax payer funding for his non-profit group.

“Not one dime of taxpayer money if you jet off to New York to support a pirate.”

Funny thing is, I just went to Guidestar and although the Somali Justice Advocacy Center is listed, care of Omar Jamal, there is not one bit of information on file—no IRS determination letter, no financial reports, no Form 990’s.  So who does fund Omar Jamal?   How about a full-blown investigation of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center!

Rep. Seifert, while you are at it, could you find out how Jamal got out of his conviction for immigration fraud!

Refugees International Report from Iraq: no mention of Christians

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

To further make the point I made yesterday in my post about Refugees International’s pro-Muslim (really if you read it carefully, it is pro-Sunni Muslim) bias, here is a recent RI report from Iraq that discusses “vulnerable” groups, but never uses the “C” word.

The last segment entitled “Focus on the Most Vulnerable” gobbles up nearly an entire paragraph on the much smaller number of Iraqi Palestinians that have been displaced then the Christians who are running for their lives from Muslim persecution.  Here is the whole section, if you didn’t know the circumstances you would never know who the other “vulnerable” might be.

As efforts continue to stabilize and rebuild Iraq, special attention needs to be given to the most vulnerable, and durable solutions need to be found. The stateless Palestinians of Iraq remain one of the most vulnerable groups, and are the subjects of discrimination and attacks by many factions. The hundreds who sought shelter in the camps of Al-Tanf and Al-Waleed at the Syrian border with Iraq must be resettled immediately and the criteria applied should be the same as for Iraqis. According to the UN, there are 10,000 to 12,000 left in Iraq. For this population, resettlement to a third country is likely to be the only durable solution.

The U.S. and the international community must also turn their attention to Iraqis who will not be able to return home, whether they are refugees or internally displaced. They may be too vulnerable to return, or have reasons to fear for their safety. Either way, there are currently no plans to address their needs and plan for their future. The U.S. must engage Syria, Jordan and other host countries on finding durable solutions for these particularly vulnerable groups. As for the 39% of internally displaced Iraqis who don’t plan to return home, they will need assistance to either integrate in their new communities or resettle elsewhere. The political implications for the future of Iraq must be carefully considered, while respecting the will of the displaced.

As for resettling the Palestinians, these Iraqi Palestinians have blasted Arab governments for not helping, here, where they called their co-religionists hypocrites.   I have never seen RI or any other NGO put pressure on Arab governments to take in their Muslim kin and I believe it is either their pro-Muslim/anti-West (US is always bad) bias or that RI is flat-out chicken to take on a Muslim government.    The pressure is always on the West to take-in this group of Palestinians who are persecuted by other Muslims because they were friends of Saddam.

Meanwhile in the US, a Chaldean (Christian) group is helping resettled Christian Iraqis weather the economic down-turn by establishing an ‘Adopt-a-Family’ (note how nice it is to see Iraqi women not covered from head to toe) program where private citizens help Iraqi Christians pay their bills thus placing less demand on the American taxpayer to do so.  I wonder if the Chaldean group can apply for the Emergency Housing money from the State Department.  I’m betting they can’t.

Hurry, get your free government money before it runs out

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration announced today the availability of additional tax payer funding for refugees who need help paying rent.   Five million dollars of Federal Emergency Housing Assistance can be applied for between today and May 21st, but hurry, the taxpayer funding will be going fast.

See today’s announcement here.

Oh, and you have to be an approved federal contractor—-one of the top ten or presumably one of hundreds of their subcontractors.