Day: January 25, 2011

Somalis bring their clan squabbles to Kansas for all to see

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Honestly, I don’t want to re-name this blog Somali Refugee Watch but every day, every few hours! I get another story about some Somali problem somewhere in the US.  This one, from a reader in Kansas, draws us to a little publicized issue involving Somalis—they are tribal, and they are now bringing their clan squabbles to your town.

How would you like to take the kids to the park on Saturday morning in middle America and find Somali clans squabbling in the park?  

Sure looks like that is happening in Garden City, KS.  If you ever wondered why Somalis can’t govern themselves in Africa, this story from the Garden City Telegram will give you a hint!

Holding signs of protest and discussing leadership in Garden City, a group of Somalis on Saturday called for the closing of the center of Somalis of Southwest Kansas, saying the leaders cater only to certain groups and tribes of Somali people.

About 40 Somalis rallied Saturday in Stevens Park in downtown Garden City.

Organizers of the protest, Said Yousuf and Faysal Ahmed, said they felt some Somalis are welcome at the center, some are not. They said the problem is dividing the people. Ahmed said the reason for the divide is that the center isn’t welcoming those in certain tribes. The men don’t want to have to deal with that treatment because it’s what they escaped from in conflict-torn Somalia.

One group of protesters wants the present “community” center closed and a new one created.  

In order for all Somalis to be welcome at a community center, Ahmed and Yousuf called for the closing of the center organized by the Somalis of Southwest Kansas. They said it would be impossible to have an inclusive center without closing the current one.

I’ve written about these Ethnic Community Based Organizations (ECBOs)* on many previous occasions, I even wrote about this one in Garden City previously, here.  The federal government—the Office or Refugee Resettlement—is encouraging, with grant money, the growth of these litte ACORN-like ethnic groups.  It is part of the Far Left’s community organizing model.

In my view ECBOs create ethnic tension in cities when they selectively help THEIR PEOPLE get government goodies.  In this case the Somalis have taken the tension one step further by suggesting this likely taxpayer-funded group helps one clan over another.

Look at what the wimps at the “cultural relations board” have to say—we will help dialog, but we can’t judge who is right and wrong. Of course not—we can’t judge other cultures, and we all know that diversity is beautiful afterall.

“The city and its cultural relations board are aware of the disagreement in the Somali community. We have talked with those who are disgruntled with Somali community leaders. Their issues are interpersonal and not related to local governmental functions. Nonetheless, we are interested in helping the two groups resolve their problems. We have expressed to both sides our willingness to convene a meeting to improve the dialog. It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to identify who’s wrong or who’s right in this private matter. And even if it was, we don’t know enough about it to render that kind of opinion.”

Here is an idea—take away ALL PUBLIC FUNDING for groups like these.   Tell them this is America and they can form all the private groups their hearts desire, and they can work out their conflicts within the confines of the law and the US Constitution and they needn’t draw in the wusses at the “cultural relations board” to mediate.

* See our whole category on ECBOs, here.

The Census can’t add when it comes to certain US refugee populations

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Back in December I told you how far off the Census Bureau was in calculating the Somali population in the US.  They seem unable to grasp the fact that they need only check with statistics kept by the Office of Refugee Resettlement or the Cultural Resource Orientation Center and they can at least determine the minimum number immigrants of certain ethnic groups in the US (there are also other legal and illegal ways for additional numbers of immigrants to arrive in the US).

The census bureaucrats must assume that these groups of refugees suspend child birth for decades or that thousands of resettled refugees are leaving—both ridiculous assumptions.  Maybe they are just dying off in huge numbers (someone better check that!).

This is a story from Ft. Wayne, Indiana considered by many (especially by the citizens of Ft. Wayne!) as the Burmese capital of America.  The article is about 10 days old but I didn’t get to it until now because data normally available at The Cultural Orientation Resource Center was not coming up for some reason. Today I was able to get the data.

From the Journal Gazette. What are they talking about?

Data recently released by the bureau estimated the nationwide total of Burmese to be 53,000 and suggested California has the largest population of foreign-born Burmese.

Let’s do some addition, shall we:

According to the most recent annual Report to Congress from the Office of Refugee Resettlement we resettled 16,074 Burmese from 1983-2007 (just the refugee program).  And, let me say AGAIN, the ORR is now nearly 3 years behind in releasing these LEGALLY REQUIRED documents to Congress.  However, we have another source of numbers here.

1983-2007:      16,074  Burmese arrived in US as refugees

2008:                   18,139

2009:                   18,202

2010:         +        16,693

____________________

69,108

Are we expected to believe that the Burmese population never grew and that it in fact dropped by 16,108 since 1983? (69,108 actual refugees resettled minus 53,000 the census says is here)

So I don’t get this, is the government that incompetent (perhaps relying only on who answers the door or their survey) or are they for some reason keeping the actual numbers from us?

Back to the Ft. Wayne article:

The survey estimated California’s Burma-born population to be between 18,000 and 22,000. Indiana, by contrast, was estimated to have between 1,400 and 2,600, or about a tenth of California’s Burmese population.

The survey put the Burma-born population in Allen County at 824 – a number local agencies that serve Burmese would say is almost certainly low.

Ever since we’ve been writing this blog since 2007, the number of Burmese estimated to be in Ft. Wayne has been around 5000.

Social service agencies have estimated the local Burmese refugee population at roughly 5,000 and said the concentration is the largest in the U.S.

Read the whole article at the Journal Gazette and see if you can follow the numbers!

Vaccine theory completely debunked as cause of autism…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….so maybe we can stop blaming America!

We have written several times on these pages about the high levels of autism in children in Somali communities in places like Minnesota and Scandinavia.  Now comes word that the completely discredited work of a British doctor had given false hope to Somalis in Minneapolis.  If they stopped vaccinating their kids, autism would go away!

The now disgraced British doctor who scared the world with his theory linking childhood vaccines with autism, recently spread his debunked theories to Somali families in Minneapolis.

Andrew Wakefield’s 1994 research paper has just been declared a “deliberate fraud” by the British Medical Journal.

[…..]

He’s since been stripped of his medical license in the U.K. But didn’t stop him from coming to Minneapolis in December to spread his debunked theories among desperate Somali mothers and fathers of autistic kids.

When the realization came to Somalis in Minneapolis that their children had higher rates of autism than other ethnic groups they were happy to latch on to the vaccine theory because maybe then the government would owe them something.  But, increasingly the focus on autism is headed toward several theories including a genetic link (polygamy would quickly spread such genes).  Or, and this is what I think as just an observer with no medical training.

It’s the sun stupid (or lack of it)!

No one wants to talk about it—-the possibility that autism is linked to a Vitamin D deficiency during a mother’s gestation period—because it means Islamic practices might be the culprit.  If you think about it, the rates of autism shot up just about the time that everyone in the US went crazy worrying about skin cancer (we all hid from the sun and slathered up with sunscreen)!   I’m digressing from the focus of this blog, but everyone should have a blood test for Vit. D and if deficient (almost everyone is!), get your levels up.

So, it stands to reason that a woman living in the far north and covered from head to toe would be severely deficient in the vitamin.  Here is just one report on this theory discussing research from Sweden and Minneapolis.

It would save enormous amounts of tax dollars (to the educational system in Minnesota) if the Minnesota Dept. of Health blood-tested (for a D-deficiency) every pregnant woman who is covered, all those not covered up for religious reasons too, and everyone stop pointing the finger of blame at America and vaccines.

Just as I was wrapping up this post I came across this interesting 2008 report on the various possible causes of high Somali autism rates.  Although it is focused heavily on the now-discredited vaccine theory it did raise the Vit. D question.  But this is how the author wraps up:

“Some autism families have returned to Somalia,” said one mother, who did not want to be identified. “They were angry and disgusted with the United States. The nation that offered them refuge was the same nation that made their children so sick,” she said.

“They think that, by returning home, maybe they can make their children better.”

But wait!  I thought it was so dangerous in Somalia and that is why we have taken nearly 100,000 Somalis since the 1980’s?