There is nothing unexpected about this interview of UNHCR Filippo Grandi during his trip to Washington this week in hopes of getting a commitment by the Trump Administration for more refugees to be sent to your towns and more money for the UNHCR’s ‘vital’ work.
But, what prompted me to bother writing about it, is a strange omission in the subtitles (the original video this morning had subtitles) and text transcript of the PBS youtube clip.
LOL! The title of the interview is: U.N. refugee chief hopes for ‘robust’ resettlement programs in U.S. They love that word “robust” in relation to refugee resettlement. Pay attention going forward and you will see it used everywhere in the Leftwing media.
For new readers, it is the UNHCR which picks the majority of the refugees coming to the US. (BTW, UNHCR refers both to the man and to the agency).
Here is a snip of the text from PBS:
JUDY WOODRUFF: Brutal wars in the Middle East, Africa and Asia have forced the world’s populations of refugees and displaced persons to near record highs.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has signaled its intention to substantially change U.S. refugee policy.
Filippo Grandi, who is the United Nations’ top official leading the response to the refugee crisis, is in Washington this week for meetings at the White House and Pentagon.
Our William Brangham sat down with him earlier this evening.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Hi, Commissioner Filippo Grandi. Welcome.
At this point they yak about security screening, blah, blah, blah and Grandi says how excited he is by words Ambassador Nikki Haley recently uttered in favor of more refugee protection by the US.
Then this:
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lastly, a quick question on funding.
I know this is obviously an enormous challenge for the U.N. Do you have enough money to do the work you need to do?
FILIPPO GRANDI: Certainly not.
Our budget last year was calculated at 7 billion U.S. dollars, 2016. We got billion U.S. dollars. So about 55 percent of our needs the covered. This means that we do a lot of prioritization. And we prioritize, evidently. With so many refugee crises, with 65 million refugees and displaced people around the world, we have to prioritize lifesaving activities.
What does that mean? Why is the sentence in red missing some facts? Was his accent so thick that PBS couldn’t accurately transcribe what he said?
In fact, when I checked the video (you can see it here at about 4:58), there is a key word missing. What is the key word (a number)—he said: We got $4 billion U.S. dollars (and his English is very good). So why did PBS leave out such an important bit of news?
Are they saying that the US supplies $4 billion? No, see here. The $7 billion figure Grandi throws out is just their DREAM budget. They get about $4 billion from all sources and the US ponies up $1.5 billion (Obama dollars) of that.
My suggestion for trimming the budget! Get rid of that grandiose building in Switzerland!
Endnote: Watch for it—a photo of Grandi with Senator John McCain (and or Lindsey Graham) will show up. Both Senators can be counted on to pressure Trump (the meany) for more refugee spending and for more refugee laborers for your towns and cities.