Two more comments worth noting: Iraqis write from Sacramento looking for answers and for help

01/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update January 17th: For unhappy Iraqi refugees, here are links for where you can send complaints and appeals for help.

Two days ago I posted a ‘comment worth noting’ from Houston about how Iraqi refugees are having a tough time in that city with a resettlement agency that had been assigned to help them get settled. I recommend readers visit that post which has generated an informative discussion about how the refugee program works (or doesn’t work) and that it must be reformed.

For first time readers, the gist of the problem we are writing about here and discussing at the Houston post is that the US Refugee Resettlement program is obviously bringing in more refugees than some agencies and cities can manage and refugees are being left high and dry with no jobs and a fear of being evicted, some even without enough food. A few of those refugees have expressed a wish to go back to their home country.

Today we received two comments, obviously from Iraqis who know each other in Sacramento. They are very long comments, but I’m posting them in their entirety below. I have also forwarded them to The List Project, an organization (with lawyers) that advocates for the resettlement to the US of Iraqis who have helped our efforts in Iraq. Maybe they can help these men.

A long time ago I suggested that the State Department establish a “complaints” hotline of some sort, so that refugees having difficulties could bypass their resettlement agency(and its parent volag) and voice their concerns directly to the State Department.

Until there is such a mechanism in place, we will just post refugees’ complaints right here for the world to see. Maybe someone can help them. If they are Iraqis (especially those with Special Immigrant Visas) we will forward to The List Project. We will also find a newspaper in the refugee’s city and send the information to a reporter.

Here is the first one:

To Whom It May Concern;

Happy New Year

I’m Furat AL-Daagh, I came to United States on May 19, 2009 as a Special Immigrant (SIV Visa)

A part of my application to acquire the SIV Visa, I filled the resettlement benefits election form to get the Department of State placement and resettlement program. The Church World Services (CWS) was picked by the Refugee Processing Center (RPC) to be my resettling agency. The CWS and its affiliate agency the Opening Doors Inc. accepted to resettling me in Sacramento, CA

I didn’t have friend or family member (sponsor), so the Opening Doors Inc. supposed to guide me after my arrival to my final destination in Sacramento, CA which is I don’t know how they picked it for me.

My new residency in America wasn’t like what I expected, my expectation for the new home of a refugee came from a war zone to be healthy and safe no more no less.

The affiliate agency (Opening Doors Inc.) enrolled me in ESL school (English as a Second Language) and vocation in same time by the name The Bach Viet Association, and this is non profit and non human organization, the duties for this school is to learn English language and law and rules and the main goal is to Learn about and be referred to employment services and help to increase our opportunity to find a job.

After eight months of my benefits, they didn’t increase my opportunity to find a job, they keep telling me this is a bad time for us, according to the global economy crisis, the job markets is not good as to it is used to be. But why this school keeps finding jobs for the other nationalities other than my nationality? Since the date I first attended that school until lately, no body was getting hired unless he or she has relationships as to be a friend or a relative or boy or girlfriend or even you came from the same country that job placement employee originally came from.
Lately when I started to complain to everybody here and there and specially for the organization that brought me here, the head of the school started to play a tricks with us to keep our mouths shut, such us taking us to a false job interviews and after that letting us sign some papers stated that they spent time with me, training me and getting me over to that interview location. I have a lot of examples:

On December 16, 2009, they took me to an interview after almost SEVEN AND HALF MONTHS of my arrival to Sacramento, CA. A small grocery store needed two new employees (A & K Fresh Produce Inc. – fresh fruits and vegetables store) located in 5800 Madison Ave. Sacramento, CA 95841, which is lies far from my apartment location. During this play in that grocery store, the boss asked me and my colleague some questions concerning job history for each one of us, after that he asked us about how long distance from our accommodation to the store, and about if you have car or not, and which type of driving license do you have, and when he knew, we have no car, we are a hundred percent dependable of the public transportation. He said to us, ok come tomorrow at 6:00 am, and he knew better the first bus will be there at 7:14 am near this store.
In someday of October 2009, one of school staff was called me earlier in the morning, and he asked me about one of the Iranian guy that he speak Russian as another language to his native one Persian, and he is new in our complex, about job interview in one of gas stations in Stockton Blvd, Sacramento, CA, in that time the Iranian guy didn’t receive any of his official documents (Employment Authorization Card, ID etc….), and I told the school employee, I don’t know anything about this guy, maybe he have something to do and he left early, after that he said to me, are you interested to work in gas station? I said yes, he said ok, I will pick you up now to this interview, I went with him and the manager of school Olga to this interview with one of Bhutanese colleague, when we reached to gas station, we found Asian female waiting Olga outside the gas station and she is a non refugee and never attended our school before, we entered to the gas station, and we shake the manager hands, the manager said for us, I will start with interview with Asian female, and for others please wait me outside, and we did, during female interview, the other female school staff came and enter to the gas station, after that the school manager Olga went out and she said for us, I’m so sorry the gas station manager have no time to make interview, and we will do the interview next week on Monday, but this is not real, because the manager of the gas station and according to my information, hire the Asian girl, after that I discovered the Asian girl is relative to female school employee that entered during interview.

The question is why the school manager asked us to come to the interview?
The reply is to make an action that the school looking to find jobs for us and we are not eligible.

Also on November 2009, we went through school to one of employment agency, and we did the test, typing, Word, Excel, and the required scores for typing is 30 wpm, and I got a 31 wpm without mistakes, 80% scores for Word and 83% for Excel, and from this time there are no one called me from this employment agency, although I got a best scores in this test, I know what’s the reason, this is similar to what I claimed above.

After that, I went to Opening Doors Inc., and I met Mr. David Blicker (The Director of Opening Doors Inc.), to discuss with him about my purpose and existence in this city. A city with no future for refugee came overseas and already run out of his cash and food stamps fruitless and what should I do from now on? And why they enrolled me in that school? And why they helping others finding jobs but me?
Mr. Davis Blicker told me and told the other refugees who the Opening Doors Inc. their affiliate agency to play the GAMES the one who want to increase his opportunity to find job should play it.
Is this the words came from an agency director who is its job is to get a refugee resettling in your country and to get him feeling to be safe and none threatened anymore??????????????????????????

For two months the study in this school for advanced class was stopped because the teacher was inherited money, and she took a long-term leave of absence to complete the documents concerning her inheritance.

I applied for more jobs by me even housekeeping, but I failed to find a job, most jobs required a job history and referrals, and I have no history here or referrals.

I know my welfare is discontinued and I have no right to talk with school about find job, but why the International Rescue Committee (IRC) agency help the refugees to find jobs without any kind of cheat and relationships and friendships.

For future, I hope to watch the performance of refugee agencies

In the end, I live now with frustration and I asked my God to pick me up from this impasse.

I know that the economy crisis is effecting everybody lives in the United States and I really appreciate the Department of state cash and food stamps for the past eight months.

Regards

Furat AL-Daagh

And here is the second one:

To Whom It May Concern

My name is Yasir A.T. and I’m Iraqi immigrant came to United States in July 7th, 2009 with the
SIV program as an Iraqi translator who worked for the U.S. Army in Iraq.It is not my choice to come to the states ,it was an urgent matter to leave that place after several threatenning upon my life and my family and after my brother killed by a silent pisstols 4 kilometers from the U.S. Army base he was working for and everything was indicating that I’m going to be the next.

I beleived that I’m going to have the assistant I’ve been promissed by who ever greated this program ,to start a new life in your countrey .That beleife came to me from all the forms and instructions that I downloaded from the U.S.Embassy (Baghdad-Iraq) regarding this program.Truelly this what makes me made my decision to leave my countrey after I spent five years in the U.S. millitary bases and camps , after I lost two members of my family due to the last war and after my life ruined over there .

I did’t have any sponsor,family member or a friend in the United States , the RPC choosed Sacramento -California as my resettling place.

As a part of my application to accuire the SIV Visa ,I submited a form called – refugee resetlement ellection form- to make use of the department of satates resettleing and placement program.The CWS organiztion or the other one here in Sacramento ,CA (The Openning Doors INC) is the one who suppose to help me or guide me after my arrival to this city as coperative agreement of the U.S. Dept of State and the Affiliate agency (The Opening Doors INC) in Sacramento.

I had found this after six months from the date I arrived to my final destination which I don’t know
how or who was decided by :

1.The cash assistant is $320 ,my rent is $575 , the electricity bill is about ($20 to $35)and the landline
phone bill was 47$ a month for the first 3 months.To make the life easier for the Openning Doors INC
,we were lucky to have roomates from the same countrey and we speeking the same language and
of course to make the rent and the bills payable.But even so with a simple math you can see the money
is not enogh and if there is a cash left,it is not enough to buy a toothpast or aliquid cleaner to clean with it or anything the human beings daily needed and canot buy it by the the food stamps.

2.My first and new residency in the States after I arrived is as follows:It is unhealthly as you can see
in the attached picture ,It is not safe so that everyday the police arresting someone in our apartments comlex and with more than one having a house arrest bracelet arround his ankle,all the refugee families
leaving theses apartments after a maximum period of a month.To moving we all needed the apartment
diposite to pay it to who ever lease me an apartment here ,but I can’t have it.It’s the Opening Doors INC decision to give the diposite to some people and not to other ones .How they choose? I don’t know.

3.This program says I’m going to receive a teaching and useful information about America which is cool because when I came here I didn’t know how to mail a letter to someone here or there
.Where I came from we don’t have that kind of services.
Instead the Opennig Doors INC enrolled me in some Engish school for bigginners and most
of it are lessons of haw can you play a stupid game called HangMan,but gues what I’m an English-
Arabic translator and originaly I have a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering science ,ok it’s from Iraq ,but still I can read and write enogh to get hired or apply for a job required the English language

4.Everybody said the maine goal for you to do in the USA is to find a job ….but how ? As the first moment my feet touched the ground in Sacramento Airport till now everybody keep telling me this : there are no jobs , nobody hiring anyone , starts with the one who was waiting for me in the airport and everybody I had met in sacramento especially those who called themselves a job developers.

5.They enrolled me , well it’s the same English school but with other thing too called Job Fair,
or something else,the only thing these guys know is there are no jobs and especially for you cause
we get tired from finding jobs for a specific Iraqis starts attending this school lately ,Iraqis I don’t know them but I don’t know how it comes to be my problem.The only thing in the past five months they taught people was how to buttone their shirts and how to wear a neck tie.They are funny guys cause for the past five months I never noticed a single employee among the school staff wearing a nick tie.

6.There are some issue with the Sacramento ,CA computer systems that stops giving an answer why a refugee like me elligible for health care don’t have a health plan and can’t get to visit a doctor after six months of re submitting the paper work ,the same paperwork the one choosing a health plan and a primary doctor with it for FIVE times in SIX months. I have a health issue that discovered by the refugee health clinic here in Sac ,after a full body examination and vaccination required from everybody new in this city.It starts with a small symptom finally developed to an emergency forced
me to admit an emergency department in the closest hospital to my location and for two times.Till now don’t know how to deal with it or who can help me and this is what makes me write you this letter.

7.I had met the Openning Doors INC director Mr.David Blicker after I couldn’t have the answers to my
questions from his employees or the the Sacramento County DHA ,to complaining to him about what
do I do here and whay his organization accepted to resetle me in this city? Is it true that I have to
buy a car to increase my chance finding a job ? Why they enrolled me in that school(The Bach Viet Association) which is getting paid helping me but they are not unless I’m a Russian or an Asian or a spanish ? Everybody getting hired by that school and they are not even a refugees and not a single Iraqi got hired unless he or she is involving with an intimate relationship with one of that school staff?

Mr. David Blicker told me and advised me to do the following

A.I have to play games with the job placement school (Bach Viet) to increase my chance finding a job.
B.Finding a job in America is all about a relationships and referals .
C.Nobody staying in Sacramento , everybody comes here soon will leave after maybe four months later.
indicating that this city is not the one for me and maybe should I go somewhere else.
D.I can contact the RPC,CWS,IOM,NVC and the Department of Satates to find out what I’m doing here.
Who sent me to such a city with obviously no futre for an Iraqi refugee.

I had tried to find a job and going to an interviews here and there in this city ,and I failed .I don’t know why .I don’t have any job history in the United States .I don’t have any referals .I don’t have a car and I don’t know how drive one.I don’t have money .I’m ignorant in your country.

I know there is the global economy crisis and it is effecting upon everybody here and I really apreciate
the efforts of the State Department and the cash and food stamps beeing giving to us by your government
I know the resetling and placement program says if your friend or family member receiving some benefit
in another state ,that doesn’t mean you’ll get the same where you are .But in Sacramento ,CA we don’t get the necesary help.

I’ll go back to Iraq and takeing my chances there.But please before that I wish if somebody can respond and answer these questions and if you can’t ,please tell me who does ?

Why I didn’t know the full information from your immigration and embassy websites ?
Why there are incompitant employees getting paid from your government or chairty organizations without
doing anything?
Why do someone like me has to play games to get a job ? Are we in a good mode to play games?
Why do the governement of CA gives cash and food stamps for several months to refugees like me with
no goal?
What the mystery behind my health plan application?

Regards

Note to resettlement agency workers: I don’t want to hear any comments about how Iraqis are difficult to work with, you chose the job of resettling refugees! If the program has problems, it’s time for you to stand up to the head honchos at the volags (and the State Department) and say so!

If you think you can help these men, contact me at Ann@vigilantfreedom.com and I will give you their contact information.

One more thing! Anyone with complaints should send them to Eric Schwartz, Asst. Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration at the US State Department. Contact info. is here.

Comment worth noting: the system is failing Iraqi refugees in Houston

01/12/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update January 17th: For unhappy Iraqi refugees, here is where you can send your complaints. Start with the Iraqi Embassy!

State Department! What are you thinking! The system is crashing. Whether in Pittsburgh, PA, or Bowling Green, KY or Greensboro, NC or Ft. Wayne, IN and now Houston, TX, it cannot be sustained in its present form. And, although they are contributing factors, it isn’t just about a lack of funds and scarce jobs—these volags appear to be completely unsupervised! They surely aren’t following any Operational Guidance from the State Department.

Here is a comment we received today (to this older post) and the comment needs to be brought front and center; it is that important. From Nicolinahawaii:

I work with Iraqi refugees in Houston, and one of our Houston refugees just had this awful experience.

The agency apparently didn’t have the money to pay his full rent, so they just kept telling him they were taking care of it, not to worry, until last Wednesday when they made it known that they hadn’t been and couldn’t pay the rent, so he was given a surprise eviction notice, three days to move out, and no leads on what to do next. All the agency would tell him is, “I’m sorry. We can’t help you.” Not, I’m sorry–we should have prepared you–or chosen for you an apartment that we could afford.

The Iraqi refugee in question told me that when he was in the agency office (Multicultural Alliance for Community Affairs), another refugee was in there. She arrived in the USA, and 16 days later, her husband died. The agency couldn’t pay her rent either, so now she is facing eviction.

And since the agency is not responsible for the refugees after 4 months, it’s not their problem if these refugees now have ruined credit histories because of these evictions, if they become homeless now, or if they succeed or return back to their war-torn countries.

It is truly appalling.

The same agency also apparently didn’t have the money to pay for the taxi ride from the airport to the apartments for one of our other new families, and so, in their first hour in America, the Iraqi family was asked to pay out of their meager personal cash supply just so they could get to their apartments. [Readers should know that this is a basic requirement of the volag—the refugees are to be met at the airport and taken to their apartment where food must be available.]

Something is wrong if the agency can’t even afford to get refugees from the airport to their housing.

Out of the 40 Iraqi families at just our apartment complex, probably half are unemployed and the agencies (except YMCA and Interfaith) seem to not be able to find employment for their refugees.

The refugees have told me, “We are destroyed.”

Note to readers: I know we have readers with wildly varying views on the refugee program in general, but I am sure everyone reading this agrees, or I hope you all do! We should have an open and vigorous debate about this program, how many refugees are admitted and from what cultures, but once they are here it is imperative that they be cared for until they get on their feet. Afterall, they were encouraged to come to the US, and we can’t blame them for believing the promises.

I simply don’t get it! How can this be happening everywhere (at least it seems like everywhere!)? It is unconscionable!

Where is Matthew Lee—that is what I want to know! For new readers Lee is (was?) an Associated Press reporter who reported every month during the end of the Bush Administration—bashing Bush clearly at the behest of his buddies in the refugee industry and bemoaning the small numbers of Iraqis being admitted to the US. Well, the Iraqis are here and some of the same agencies that lobbied hard to get them here are now letting them down!

I’m reminded of the Iraqi boy wise beyond his years! I told you about him in September of 2008, here. He summed up his observations about the unhappy situation with Iraqi refugees in a letter to the editor to the Tucson Citizen with this line:

It is better to have 10 Iraqi refugees who are satisfied with their lives than having 100 angry ones with no life at all.

Frankly, the State Department should be readying airlifts home for any refugee profoundly angry or unhappy (paid for out of the funds of the volag that didn’t do its job)!

Comment worth noting: America owes the world

12/30/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Comments worth noting is a category we created to highlight comments that otherwise would be lost because they were sent to old posts, or are so good (or bad!) that we want to make the point more strongly by posting them upfront. Here is one this morning (posted to our ‘fact sheets’ link) just to give you an idea of the sorts of comments we get. Apparently this guy (assume it’s a guy) says that because of Islamic terrorism, he has left his “beloved” African country and come across our Mexican border illegally. And, we owe him. No further comment from me!

Dolecha says:

I can’t tell you how flawed your immigration system is or other bullshit your writing……But i can tell you something[how i end up being an asylum seeker]i came vie the Mexico border.I haven’t in my wildest dream thought of coming to USA to be illegal this way.I was having a multiple profession with a very comfertabel income.But your country is helping a blood sucker in East Africa in the name of terrorism it let us flee our beloved country hence,it is your responsibility to give us what we lost in our respective country’s.You have to take responsiblity.I am not saying that all of us have the same reason to be here,but there are fewor many of us who don’t want to be here but were forced to be.

Which African country is the “blood sucker?”

Comment worth noting: Burmese in Bowling Green update and questions

12/24/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday we had a comment from Cindy (an American friend of the Burmese) writing from Bowling Green, KY. For new readers you might want to first visit this post that set in motion a controversy last month about the care, or lack of care, Burmese refugees are receiving from their resettlement agency in an obviously overloaded refugee resettlement community in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

This is what Cindy asks yesterday in response to a post about the Office of Refugee Resettlement Match Grant program, here.

Recently, one refugee family in Bowling Green, KY was placed on Match Grant by the International Center.

They will receive $460.00. $240.00 is cash and the other $220.00 is a Walmart gift card. This is how the International Center will distribute the $$ from the Match Grant monthly. They are receiving Food Stamps. Why would International Center give them a Walmart Gift card in lieu of the $460.00 cash?

They said the International Center has not helped them to locate a job. They have been communicating with other refugees to locate employment.

Lovers Lane Apartments is charging $500.00 per month in their uncleaned roach infested apartments which needs to be turned into the Housing Authority once again.

I wonder how is this refugee family will come up with the $500.00 for rent in January? Will Lovers Lane apartments evict them immediately (from what I am told by other refugees) or will they go through the legal process for eviction by Kentucky law.

Answers anyone? What’s up with the Walmart cards? Do Walmart and the International Center have some sort of deal going on? And, on the rent coming due issue, maybe the refugees could better use their entire ‘cash’ payment for rent? Any lawyers out there who could help them with making sure Kentucky law is followed regarding evictions?

I know it makes no sense but it’s almost like the US State Department and the US Dept. of Health and Human Services (Office of Refugee Resettlement) and the volags (supposedly voluntary organizations but really federal contractors) want this program to explode because that is where it’s headed! Eventually even the mainstream media will see behind the presumption of good intentions.

Guest column: Americans should know how Karen people have stood with America

12/23/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

From Madeleine Blu of the Bwetee Pe lulu Team:

I have been reading various USA’s newspapers on line. Over a period of time I have read posts, comments and articles from the USA on line. Most recent has been the Fort Wayne discussions on the Refugee Resettlement Watch Web Site. I was perturbed to read of the confusion regarding just what ‘Burmese’ means. I have written the short comment below to attempt to clarify who was who in Burma. I am most fortunate in the Refugee Resettlement Watch’s impartiality in this matter. I have been unable to get this information on Fox News, BBC TV and Radio, other TV stations in the USA and the U. K. Ditto with the newspapers. Given the daily horror of innocent lives lost by bullet, by torture, or by landmine there should be a News Bulletin every night.

GREAT AMERICANS AND THE KAREN AND KACHIN OF BURMA (Myanmar)

Prior to and during the 2nd World War the various ethnic groups were addressed and known by their ethnic names, there was no confusion. The Karen were known as the Karen, whose homeland was in the Hills (Karen State) and the Delta, then there is the Kachin in the north, Kachin State, then there is the Shan, the Wa, the Naga, the Burman and so on. It is only sometime after the War that the word ‘Burmese’ came more and more into use to mean all the people who lived in Burma. Yet this is against the expressed will of the Karen and the Kachin.

During the 2nd World War, a Burman, Aung San, led most Burmans and the majority of other ethnic groups to fight for NAZI Germany and Imperialist Japan. Aung San established the Burma Independence Army (BIA) in 1941, which grew out of the Burma National League (the Dobama Asi-Ayon or The Thakin Party) which Aung San joined in 1938. The British, American and Allied Soldiers referred to them either as fifth columnists or as the Burma Traitor Army. Along with the ever present danger of the fifth columnists were other ethnic groups and the Japanese. The Allies had to traverse the immense difficulties, which we can only guess at, of jungle terrain with its blood-sucking insects and deadly diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

This is what the American forces, known affectionately as MERRILL’S MARAUDERS, were up against; fortunately, they could depend on the Kachin, our Allies. One of the well-known battles was at and around the Kachin capital city called ’Myitkyina’. Merrill’s Marauders were to know the great loss of many, many brave and fine men, who fought with great courage, in much pain and distress. These men and all like them in the 2nd World War are a great loss to the world.

The Karen were not only regular soldiers but played such a vital role volunteering in levies that it has been said that without them it is possible that Burma could not have been re-taken from the Japanese and Aung San’s BIA. Aung San was and still is regarded as the ‘Father of modern Burma‘. He is also the father of Aung San Suu Kyi. The modern roots of the present day horror for the Karen and Kachin dates from this War.

Going further back into history, the Burman grossly subjugated the Karen, despised and debased them. If caught they would be killed, enslaved or tortured by the Burman. When the British arrived the relationship that developed between them and the Karen, was that the British protected them from the Burman. The Karen, no longer having to be wary were able to settle and build homes and villages for themselves. Although it is said that during the reign of the British they favoured the Karens, colonial documents show that the British still gave sway to the Burman Court and gave far more favours to the Burman than the Karen; although they thought greatly of the Karen person and their ‘plucky little nation’.

It was the arrival of the Americans, in particular that great American, Adoniram Judson, (Dr.) the Baptist missionary, which brought the true renaissance and well-being for the Karen. He was not the first missionary to arrive in Burma, indeed, there have been reports of the Roman Catholics and other missionaries before him, but it was to Pastor Adoniram Judson that the key was given to discovering a gem, indeed a treasure trove of precious gems in the Karen.

Pastor Judson had been in Rangoon for some time enduring hardships and imprisonment for his Faith, completely unaware that to the east, in the Hills, were a race of people whose own spiritual tradition was not only Biblical but also Christian. The Karen would walk by the British and Pastor Judson singing of the God of the Holy Bible and the awaited Holy One in their own language which neither the British nor Pastor Judson understood.

I need to take a few moments to explain the word ‘missionary’. It is often misunderstood or used negatively by people of different religions or of no religion, to accuse the missionary or the country where the missionary is from of some sort of wrongdoing. So I emphasize that the Karen were never converted to Christianity, they were already Christian and Pastor Judson’s mission (meaning ’a task’) with the Karens was over when Ko Tha Byu was hired by him as a water-carrier. Pastor Judson had been translating the whole of the Holy Bible into Burmese and compiling a grammar.

Ko Tha Byu had seen part of what had been written and although he had great difficulty in understanding Burmese he read enough to realise that it was very similar to the God traditions of his own people. He took this message (his mission) to his people and the response from them was immediate too. The Karen were fired with joy and relief that their God traditions had been validated.

Ko Tha Byu was Baptised in 1828 and started immediately as the Karen Apostle, teaching his own people. It has been said that this was the most remarkable Christian event in modern times. Several suffered for their Faith at the hands of the Burman authorities and were even crucified. Pastor Judson went on to form a way to write down the Karen language; he used the Burman alphabet, adding more letters and translated the Holy Bible into both Karen dialects of Sgaw and Pwo. This most remarkable man did many, many other things.

Endnote:

Technically, all the other ethnic groups in Burma (Myanmar) are entering America on the definition of the UN’s refugee statement. Meaning that all people in other ethnic groups are fleeing the Military Junta … on political, religious and ethical grounds. Therefore, as they are all ‘pro democracy’ they should get hap hap happy along together. However, this is not true, there are ‘economic refugees’, false refugees, fraudulent claiming refugees and people who have bribed, stolen or impersonated the identity of another group. Many of the very old Karen’s (over 70) are preyed upon by other ethnic groups who harass, intimidate or threaten the Karen to cough up his identity. There have been murders. There are also the Burman ‘spies’, people, usually young student looking types, hired by the Junta to enter the camps and find out what is going on, or to further harass the Karen (by rape, by thieving their identity), or to go America/UK etc as a refugee and spy directly on the American/UK etc governments – as well as on what the Karen are up to.