Month: November 2010

UN Refugee promoter says Iowa and Nebraska great for refugee resettlement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I can’t figure out exactly what the organization the United States Association for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees does.  I don’t think it’s a resettlement agency, maybe just a public relations firm for the UN?  I never heard of them before.  But their head honcho recently told an audience at the University of Nebraska  that Nebraska and Iowa were great for refugees because there were lots of industries there that need cheap labor (you know like meatpackers), cities are large enough for refugees to blend into,  and there is a sufficient number of non-profit groups (funded by taxpayers) that can get the refugees plugged into welfare.   Well, he didn’t exactly use those words, but this is what he said that was posted at the Omaha World Herald:

Omaha, Lincoln and Des Moines are likely to host more resettled refugees for two reasons, an expert said Tuesday in Omaha.

There are more than 40 million displaced people in the world today — more than 10 times as many as at the end of World War II, said Marc Breslaw, executive director of the United States Association for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

And, he said in an interview, a “critical equation” that has made Nebraska and Iowa cities havens for refugees from such places as Vietnam, Bosnia, Sudan and Myanmar will continue to make the cities attractive for refugee resettlement.

Nebraska and Iowa have industries that can employ people, Breslaw said. The cities are large enough to be accepting of foreigners. And they have a well-developed network of nongovernmental social services programs.

We have many posts about Iowa and Nebraska.  If you recall, in Nebraska we had all those problems with the Somalis in Grand Island disrupting the the town and the meatpacking plants there.  Here is just one story on that to get you started.  I betcha Mr. Breslaw never mentioned any of this to the students at the Univ. of Nebraska.

Japan remains one of the hold-outs to the one-worlder-megalomaniacs’ goals

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

George Soros and his one-worlders, who are busy trying to eliminate boundaries in their tyrannical drive to make us all one big happy warm and fuzzy world, have a tough nut to crack in Japan where they have been sensibly trying to hold onto their unique culture.  Japan only recently began resettling a small number of refugees and continues to get the wrath of the UN and the far left “human rights” activists aimed squarely at them as we see in this story.

From The Mainichi Daily News:

TOKYO (Kyodo) — When five ethnic Karen families arrived recently from the Mera refugee camp in northwestern Thailand, Japan became the first Asian nation to accept refugees under the third-country resettlement program promoted by the United Nations.

Yet critics remain skeptical of Tokyo, often criticized for its restrictive refugee policy, and some experts said a much more comprehensive approach is necessary to make any significant difference.

“Japan’s refugee policy lags way behind the rest of the world,” said Shogo Watanabe, a lawyer actively involved in human rights issues concerning refugees and other foreign residents in Japan. “From the very beginning when Japan ratified in 1981 the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, it has never had a consistent policy.”

Japan decided in December 2008 to accept Myanmar refugees from the Mera camp under the resettlement pilot project. The move was welcomed by U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres as a symbolic development in Japanese asylum policy and it also raised hopes of setting an example for other Asian countries to follow.

“But with a quota of 90 people over three years, compared to the tens of thousands that the United States [it is mostly the US as you will see shortly] and various European countries are taking in, what Japan is doing does not qualify as having fulfilled its responsibility,” Watanabe said.

According to the UNHCR, 24 countries* currently take part in the refugee resettlement program, which calls for third countries to accept refugees who have fled to nearby states due to conflicts in their home countries but have found it difficult to settle there or return.

Among the top three resettlement destinations, more than 62,000 refugees relocated to the United States through the UNHCR in 2009, while Australia accepted over 6,700 people and Canada took in more than 6,500.

*Most countries in the world DO NOT take refugees.  Why?  Because they are trying to hold onto their cultures too!

For more on Japan, use our search function.

Muslim ponzi scheme unraveled by FBI

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is actually an old story, but maybe there is something new on it that I’m not aware of, but just to remind readers Muslims do scam other Muslims (not just infidels) as we learned here:

A Muslim man from Chicago became a real estate investor and skimmed $44 million from other Muslims. Salman Ibrahim, 37 and two of his Muslim partners opened Sunrise Equities company and lured other Muslims to invest in a sharia compliant business. They assured to pay 15 to 30 percent profit of the investment instead of interest, which is prohibited in Islam.

The company never generated any profit but paid the existing investors from newer investors. However, they built a good reputation among the Muslim immigrants and raised over $40 million through the scheme.

Fazal Mahmood, one of the victims lost more than $200,000. He intended to use this money for his daughters’ education. He told the Associated Press, “I’m a Muslim and he’s a Muslim. I was always taught … a Muslim will never cheat another Muslim.”

Read it all.

Then, don’t forget! we have the San Diego Somali ponzi scheme of last year, here.

Somalis heading to Green Bay, Wisconsin, seems one draw is the new mosque

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story mostly about how the schools in Green Bay are coping with an increasing influx of Somali refugees.  It sounds like the increase in numbers is due mostly to secondary migrations and some family reunifications.  I wonder if there is a meatpacking plant nearby.

From the Green Bay Press Gazette:

The number of Somali students enrolled in the Green Bay School District has more than quadrupled since the end of last school year.

The district now enrolls 90 Somalis, compared with 49 in September and just 18 in June. The district’s overall student population tops 21,000.

The growing number of Somali students — many of whom need help to improve their English skills — prompted the Green Bay district to hire someone full time to support and instruct students, to work as a parent contact for schools and to interpret. Abdul Nur’s first day is Monday.

New Mosque is a draw

Green Bay doesn’t have neighborhoods like Chicago,” she said. “They’re coming here because they feel safe, and now they have a community.”

They also are attracted to the newly located Green Bay mosque of the Islamic Society of Wisconsin, she said.

“We have had an influx of Somalis in the past year and a half or so,” said Mohamed Ibrahim, a mosque leader. “They come to worship and be part of a community.”

Family reunifications are also responsible

Catholic Charities this year assisted two Somali families who had refugee status to move to the U.S. to reunite with family members, according to the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.

The main reason the Green Bay area has seen an increase in the Somali population is reunification* of extended families, said Judy Roemer, family strengthening manager for Catholic Charities.

* I wonder if they had their DNA test?

USCCB: No hope for Christians in Iraq, bring more to the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Well, that is basically the gist of what the US Conference of Catholic Bishops told President Obama lately.  Check out the whole story Clerical Whispers:

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the U.S. government to “redouble its efforts to assist Iraqis” in providing safety for its citizens, especially religious minorities.

“To meet its moral obligations to the Iraqi people, it is critically important that the United States take additional steps now to help Iraq protect its citizens, especially Christians and others who are victims of organized attacks,” said Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago in a Nov. 9 letter to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Read it all, but, I warn you, it is one of those dark websites that are hard to read.

Regular readers know that the USCCB is largely funded by you, the taxpayer, because we have written about that a zillion times on these pages (one of many recent posts is here).   The USCCB and Catholic Charities around the US are busy resettling Muslims to cities near you and could very well say to Obama, point blank, we want to resettle more Christians because they are being persecuted in Iraq and elsewhere in Muslim countries, but they are too squishy to say it.  Maybe this is about as close as they are going to get.  My fear is that the USCCB is really saying let’s bring an even larger total number of refugees (because we are paid by the head) instead of substituting the desperate Christians for some others.