I am fascinated by the fact that Somalis, almost anywhere they go, magically get a Community Center just for them. Yesterday, I told you what I think is going on, here. Although ostensibly set up to help Somalis transition to American culture (what a laugh!), these are political agitation offices modeled after the Alinsky/Obama/ACORN/SEIU school of community organizing.*
I also told you that coincidentally “Somali community organizers” happened to show up in Greeley, CO and Grand Island, NE just before those meatpacking demands started flying late last summer. We have a whole category on the controversy here.
For background, the Somalis flocked to Ft. Morgan to work at a nearby Cargill meatpacking plant after the demonstrations (religious accomodation demands) in Greeley, CO turned violent and many were fired at a Swift & Co. plant there.
The Ft. Morgan Times welcomed the influx with open arms and glowing editorials, this is how I opened a post on an embarrasingly naive and politically correct editorial.
Today the Ft. Morgan Times has an editorial entitled, “Refugees taking root in Ft. Morgan.” I have read a lot of politically correct, diversity is beautiful, let’s all sing ‘kumbaya’ articles, but this one I’m going to print out and hang by my computer and wait for the day when something happens in Ft. Morgan, CO and I can refer to it again.
Read it all here.
Back to this week’s article in the Ft. Morgan Times.
A Somali Community Office has opened in Fort Morgan, and it will help deal with several issues affecting the refugees and the surrounding community.
Somali elders asked Khadar Ducaale to come help their Morgan County community with issues ranging from the driving skills of the newcomers to how to find housing, he said.
The office will be an additional base from which supporters can help Somalis and advocate [Edit: press their demands?] for them as they face learning how to live in a new country, Ducaale said.
Ducaale has been in the U.S. for about five years, coming here from India, where he had studied microbiology, he said. [Oh yeh, so if he was happily studying microbiology in India, what immigration program did he use to come here, clearly not refugee resettlement, we don’t take Indian refugees and refugees must ask for asylum in the first country they arrive in after supposedly escaping persecution in their homeland, did anyone ask?]
After moving to the U.S., he became involved in the issues facing his fellow refugees and went to college in Rochester, Minn., for a couple of years to study social work in order to have better skills to help them, Ducaale said. [In Rochester, MN he was in a hotbed of Muslim community agitation.]
Most recently, he was working in Nebraska before being called to Fort Morgan, he said.
Working in Nebraska? Called to Ft. Morgan? Where was he working in Nebraska, did anyone ask—could it have been Grand Island? Or, was he being trained by Mohamed Rage in Omaha? So, the elders just picked up the phone and said we need someone here in Ft. Morgan to organize our community and got this guy from Nebraska? Who is paying him? Is this another federal grant? Don’t you lazy “state run media” reporters ever ask any questions?
As for this issue of helping Somalis learn to live in America, one thing we have observed with these Somali Centers is that yes, they may “advocate” for such things as better housing etc., they also make sure that especially their women don’t assimilate. We saw in Nashville where a federal grant was supposed to help Somali women with such issues as female genital mutilation (common among Somalis in the US) but that in fact the money was used for other purposes. And, sources tell us the Somali women in Nashville live in fear of their male “community organizers.”
Cargill, look out!
Ducaale also said he would like to work with Cargill Meat Solutions — which employs a number of Somalis — to find ways his people can advance.
Until now, even Somalis who have worked at Cargill for two or three years are still in the same positions as those coming to work now, which is frustrating and disappointing, he said.
It seems like there are only two levels of employees outside top management — supervisors and floor workers — and no Somalis have made it to supervisory positions, Ducaale said.
Somalis want to learn from managers and executives what type of education they need to be desirable enough to be promoted, he said.
“We want to work with them to solve these problems, but it’s very discouraging,” Ducaale said.
Cargill’s Fort Morgan General Manager Mike Chabot said everyone at Cargill has a chance for promotion and the company works hard to give advancement opportunities to all employees of any kind.
Somalis are paid as well as any employees and pay is negotiated with the Teamsters union, so Somalis are treated like any other employees, Chabot said, adding that ethnic background is not a factor in hiring or promotion.
Cargill also offers educational programs to its employees.
Ducaale said his Somali brothers and sisters are very thankful to be employed, but they want some chances to improve their lot in life.
I can’t wait to see what the next step is for Mr. Ducaale, sounds to me like the Somalis are getting ready to charge that Cargill is discriminating against Somali workers. Also, Ramadan is just around the corner in August! Swift & Co. expects a new round of demands from its Somali Muslim workers at that time.
* If you are a new reader and want to understand how political agitation works and how it brings about chaos and ultimately “change,” please go to our Community Destabilization category and read some of the posts on Alinsky and “Rules for Radicals” (the bible on Community Organizing).
Also, for new readers, the US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.