Canada: “Barbeque shooter” is a former refugee from Somalia

No, he didn’t shoot a barbeque even if the title of the article in CNews sounds like that is what he did.  He killed people eating barbecue in what is being described as a drug gang scuffle.

TORONTO – An accused gunman charged with firing a weapon at a Scarborough barbeque where two people were killed and 23 others wounded arrived in Canada as a refugee from Somalia seeking a better life, border officials say.

But the 19-year-old allegedly “fell in with the wrong crowd” after obtaining Canadian citizenship, officers of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said.

The officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said since he has been granted Canadian citizenship, it would be nearly impossible to deport him in the event of a conviction.

Nahom Tsegazab, 19, of Toronto, has been charged with the reckless discharge of a firearm.

[….]

Officers suspect the gunfight, which was the worst in Toronto, stemmed from a dispute between the Galloway Boys and Malvern Crew street gangs over turf or drugs.

What, no Somali Hot Boyz in Canada?   And, just think the citizens of Canada have paid for his upkeep—to raise him and educate him for how many years we aren’t told, but surely now they will get to feed and cloth him for most likely the rest of his life behind bars.

Illegal alien Rohingya Muslims pushing into Assam region in India

I don’t have time to write about it, but in order to keep our Rohingya Reports category up-to-date readers should know that India continues to have problems with thousands of illegal alien Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh who are causing friction and violence in India’s Assam Region.  Some of the region’s other religious and ethnic groups fear that Islam will soon be the political and religious guiding force for a majority in this region.

Here is just one story on Assam.  My alerts are full of similar stories.

And, just a reminder, the US State Department is listening to pleas from the likes of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to bring (more!) Rohingya “refugees” here.

Get ready for it! Syrians will be our next big batch of refugees…

…..along with the Rohingya (but that’s another story)!

Last week I reported that Iraq had agreed to open its borders to fleeing Syrians (Syrian Christians being killed by rebels).  But, it appears that they have done so with great reluctance because they fear that Al Qaeda (Sunnis) will flow in with the Syrians.  I think it’s a legitimate concern for the mostly Shiite government in Baghdad.

Here the New York Times has the Iraqi anti-refugee theme outlined.

QAIM, Iraq — Muhammed Muafak decided he had had enough when Syrian Army mortar shells struck near his house while his family was having the iftar meal to end the daily Ramadan fast. He packed up his 10-member household in Bukamal, the Syrian border town where they lived, and fled here to this Iraqi border town.

He expected a warm welcome. After all, his country had taken in 1.2 million Iraqis during their recent war, far more than any of Iraq’s other neighbors, and had allowed them to work, send their children to public schools and receive state medical care.

Instead, Mr. Muafak found himself and his family locked up in a school under guard with several hundred other Syrians, forbidden to leave to visit relatives in Iraq or to do anything else.

“We wish to go back to Syria and die there instead of living here in this prison,” said Abdul Hay Majeed, another Syrian held in a school building, along with 11 family members. Mr. Majeed was refused permission for that either, he and other refugees said.

Alone among Syria’s Muslim neighbors, Iraq is resisting receiving refugees from the conflict, and is making those who do arrive anything but comfortable. Baghdad is worried about the fighters of a newly resurgent Al Qaeda flowing both ways across the border, and about the Sunni opponents of the two governments making common cause.

The NYT never did like that Iraqi government:

The contrast with the situation during the war in Iraq is stark. [Assad’s] Syria took in more Iraqis than any other neighbor, and was more hospitable than Jordan, which imposed tight restrictions on its 750,000 refugees’ freedom to work and use public services.

[….]

“If they don’t want us here, they should let us go back to our country,” said Thafir Khalel, who came Thursday. “It’s better to die there than be humiliated here.”

Looks like Iraqi government leaders have a legitimate fear!

Now, American troops have left Iraq, and Al Qaeda has switched sides, taking up arms against the Assad government.

Here is the story that link about switching sides sends you.

The presence of jihadists in Syria has accelerated in recent days in part because of a convergence with the sectarian tensions across the country’s long border in Iraq. Al Qaeda, through an audio statement, has just made an undisguised bid to link its insurgency in Iraq with the revolution in Syria, depicting both as sectarian conflicts — Sunnis versus Shiites.

[…..]

One Qaeda operative, a 56-year-old known as Abu Thuha who lives in the Hawija district near Kirkuk in Iraq, spoke to an Iraqi reporter for The New York Times on Tuesday. “We have experience now fighting the Americans, and more experience now with the Syrian revolution,” he said. “Our big hope is to form a Syrian-Iraqi Islamic state for all Muslims, and then announce our war against Iran and Israel, and free Palestine.”

Watch for it!  We have already given Syrians Temporary Protected Status and now I can hear the distant drumbeat—the clamor to bring more Syrians to America has begun (and it won’t be a clamor to save the Christians).  Will we be sure Al-Qaeda doesn’t sneak in here too?

“Benefits” vs. “Challenges” of Refugee Resettlement Program

There is a little chart (Table 3, P. 20) in the GAO Report I mentioned in my previous post worth talking about.

You will note that at the top of the list of Benefits it says “refugees add diversity” to a town or city.  Would someone please tell me why adding diversity to a community is a good thing?  Who said so?  Why do so many fall for this myth? Why did the GAO simply parrot that old canard promoted by the resettlement contractors?

Check out our “Diversity” link at the top of this page  (LOL!  We have a lot of stuff here at RRW that even I forget we have!).  I’ll remind readers that Robert Putnam, a Harvard researcher and author, found just the opposite.

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities. He fears that his work on the surprisingly negative effects of diversity will become part of the immigration debate, even though he finds that in the long run, people do forge new communities and new ties.  [In other words, they get used to it over time, but it doesn’t mean that diversity has brought some over all good—ed]

Putnam’s study reveals that immigration and diversity not only reduce social capital between ethnic groups, but also within the groups themselves. Trust, even for members of one’s own race, is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friendships fewer. The problem isn’t ethnic conflict or troubled racial relations, but withdrawal and isolation. Putnam writes: “In colloquial language, people living in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’—that is, to pull in like a turtle.”

So here are the wizards of smart at the GAO with their list of  “benefits” and “challenges” (couldn’t they come up with a better word than challenges?):

Benefits:

*Refugees add diversity to their communities [who says that is a good thing?—ed]

*The presence of refugees in a community teaches tolerance for others [in fact, I have noted the opposite–ed]

*Refugees take jobs that are difficult to fill [you mean when they can find a job—ed]

*Refugees are reliable, dedicated employees [as long as they can pray on the job—ed]

*Refugee-owned businesses create jobs [subsidized by the federal taxpayer—ed]

*Public services developed to assist refugees, such as transit programs, also benefit other vulnerable populations  [what!  we are putting in new transportation systems for refugees—ed]

Challenges:

*Communication can be difficult due to language and cultural barriers

*Mental health resources are limited for refugees who have experienced trauma

*The cost of interpreter services can strain service providers’ budgets, and some health care providers have chosen to stop serving refugees

*Refugee students with limited English proficiency can affect school districts’ performance outcomes

*Some refugees live in poverty due to unemployment

*Some refugees are unfamiliar with social norms and laws in the United States

So, in conclusion, we have a few weak benefits and some very significant “challenges” in the cost side when analyzing the refugee resettlement program.

An afterthought:  This is a little thought experiment.  Let’s pretend that a bunch of white or black Minnesotans wanted to add diversity to the little Mogadishu section of Minneapolis.    Let’s say those Americans want to bring a little American culture to the neighborhood—maybe open a lingerie store with mannequins in the window, and let’s say a bar and a liquor store.   The bar might be blaring hard rock music through its open door.  Are they bringing diversity to the Somali neighborhood?  Yes!  Would they be welcome?  NO!   Why don’t we say (anywhere in the world) that Muslims need to be taught tolerance (the GAO says we need to be taught tolerance)?  So, why does that diversity c*** only go one way?

New GAO report critical of Refugee Resettlement Program

Obviously in response to a request from Senator Richard Lugar back in July 2010, the General Accounting Office has just released a new report that criticizes the State Department and the Dept. of Health and Human Services for not coordinating with communities when refugees are resettled resulting in overloaded, and stressed-out cities.

I haven’t read it and don’t even have a minute to summarize the summary, but check it out yourself hereHere is the release from GAO.

And, I’m not going to get too excited about it because no one in the refugee industry is going to take it seriously.  The only thing that they will take seriously is when the money stops flowing to the contractors.  And, the only way that will happen is if Congress takes action, and of course what Congress could do is just throw more money at the overloaded communities!

Oops forgot!  Meant to give you the title:   Greater Consultation with Community Stakeholders Could Strengthen Program.   Every time I see that word “stakeholder” I want to barf!