Category: health issues

Renewed interest in Tyson’s (failed) Somali experiment in Emporia, KS

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In the wake of the news from Shelbyville, TN last week about Tyson’s Food scrapping the Labor Day holiday in favor of a Muslim holiday, we have had a flood of visitors to RRW and many are interested in what happened in Emporia, KS.  

Reader Robert sent us this post from a blog called “Maggie’s Notebook” which begins: 

Tyson Foods’ blatant disregard for the institutions of America is worse than we thought – and it stretches outside just the Shelbyville, TN plant.

Here’s how the Topeka Capital-Journal under the heading “Somalis arrive in Emporia with tuberculosis” describes the “exotic, new arrivals:”

Yes, Maggie, it was definitely a critical point in the controversy in that city.  Here is our post on the TB death at Tyson’s.

For the ambitious reader we have referred to Emporia, KS in 34 posts and you can review those here.  At one point the citizens were so upset by the influx of Somalis that a public meeting was called to air grievances (that was in November).  The bottomline is that Tyson’s closed (well, nearly closed) it’s Emporia meat packing plant in January of this year and moved the Somalis out.

I’ve been hearing suggestions that Shelbyville is due for a public meeting.  We had one in Hagerstown, near where we live, last September (see VDARE on our meeting here).  I’m all for putting all the information out to the public and letting the citizens of a community hear all the facts and have some say in the sort of community they want.   The federal government working with businesses like Tyson’s Food shouldn’t be able to dictate the character of a city or town.

Update on Law lifting ban to allow HIV-positive immigrants to enter US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We reported to you not long ago that Congress had approved a measure, and I gather the President has signed it, to lift the ban on HIV-positive immigrants to the US.   The ban had been in place since the 1980’s.

Now comes a group called “Immigration Equality” that describes itself as follows:

Immigration Equality is a national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive individuals. Founded in 1994 as the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force, we have grown to a membership of 10,000 people in cities all over the country. We are run by a Board of Directors and have full-time staff in our National Headquarters in New York. Immigration Equality is funded by donations from our members as well as generous support from private foundations.

Immigration Equality helps Gays and Lesbians seek asylum in the US.  Here is a portion of their website dealing with asylum.   I guess their work must be stepped up in recent times as the internet is full of photos of gay men being hanged in Islamic countries like Iran.

Anyway here is what they are telling their members what the next step is to make sure the ban removal is fully implemented.

When the President signs the Pepfar bill (which could be as early as this Wednesday) the statutory HIV ban will be removed. That is, the HIV ban will no longer be written into the Immigration and Nationality Act which is extraordinarily good news. This is just the first step though, in a two step process. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the authority to decide which illnesses constitute “communicable diseases of public health significance.” Currently, HIV is on this list, meaning that the HIV ban will not immediately be lifted with the passage of Pepfar. So, what happens next?.

We must now set our sights on HHS. and urge them to strike HIV from its list. Immigration Equality is working in coalition with other organizations now to determine the best way to approach HHS. In order for the ban to be fully repealed, HHS will have to issue proposed regulations, allow for public comments, and then issue final regulations. This could be a lengthy (and contentious) process.

Refugees have already been admitted to the US with HIV/AIDS, a reader had previously told us how that has come about here.

By the way,  did I mention that the taxpayer will be paying for the treatment of these new immigrants, as we already pay for refugees HIV medicine.

Refugees loaded with health problems

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This morning I have a couple of articles about refugee health in my alerts.  The first is from Utah.   It is a lengthy article well worth reading in its entirety.   Be sure to look at the interesting graph depicting health problems of refugees arriving in Utah.

In 2007, 889 refugees arriving in Utah had health screenings.    219 were found to have Tuberculosis, 182 parasites, 28 Hept. B, 11 lead, 8 HIV, and 6 STDs.    The article discusses problems with language barriers and other things that keep refugees from regularly visiting medical professionals.  The first thing I wondered was how many are not sticking with a medical treatment such as the lengthy one required of those with TB.

Here is a portion of the Salt Lake Tribune article:

Tropical infectious diseases, which some American doctors have never treated, are commonplace. Schistosomiasis, a waterborne parasite that burrows into the skin and migrates to the lungs and liver, is frequently seen in southeast Asians, Swoboda said. So is Strongyloides, a roundworm that lives in the tunnels of the small intestines.

Tougher to identify are refugees’ mental health problems, among them depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

While up to 35 percent of refugees are victims of torture – for Somalis, that number can be as high as 90 percent – the symptoms of PTSD may not appear until months after a refugee has been seen by a doctor, said Rabin, who is also the medical director of the Utah Health and Human Rights Project.

A car accident or a troubling encounter with an authority figure can send a person who has been “white knuckling it” for years reeling. “One pin drops out and the trauma comes flooding back,” she said.

I had to laugh over that last statement above.  I shouldn’t be giving hints, but I see the legal defense being crafted for all the Somalis who commit crimes in the US.   You know that Somali guy from Tennessee the other day, the one who tried to rape a woman, stole two trucks and almost ran over a sheriff’s deputy.  It’s all about Post Traumatic Stress of course.   No one will raise the issue of a hate crime.  Did the Somali guy attend a ‘religious conference’, get fired up at the mosque, and then go after a white Christian woman in a Baptist church,  or did a “pin drop out?”

Somalis and autism?   Another health story involving Somalis is being reported from the Somali capital of America, Minneapolis.  Turns out that a large number of Somali children, larger than those in the normal American population, are developing autism and the school system in that city is having a real challenge with special classes filled with Somali children.  

Read the whole article about a possible link between autism and sunshine.    A study is being planned.  However, one would have to include in any such study some information from Somalia.   I’m wondering if toddlers in Somalia who might have autism-like symptoms just don’t survive there.

We have posted on many occasions about refugee problems in Utah here.

HIV-positive immigrants will soon be on the way to a city near you

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Some of you are asking what happened with the bill to open the door to HIV-positive immigrants.  Since I was away at the end of the week, I didn’t get all the details on final passage in the Senate of the $50 billion bill to provide funds to countries fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases.  The bill passed the Senate with the section intact to lift the ban on HIV-positive immigrants to the US.   There are a few more legislative hoops, but last I heard it was on a fast track and expected to be signed by the President.

You can learn more (and get the gory details) about what happened by going to Blue Ridge Forum here.

If you are new to this topic, my previous posts are here and here.

HIV-positive Sudanese refugee convicted in Canada

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A Sudanese refugee with HIV/AIDS has been convicted in Winnipeg, Canada of having unprotected sex with underage girls.  He was found guilty in six cases of aggravated sexual assault.  Hat tip: Josh.

A Winnipeg man who hid the fact he was HIV-positive from his young sex partners has been convicted of six counts of aggravated sexual assault.

Justice Joan McKelvey convicted Clato Mabior, 31, yesterday of two additional counts of sexual touching and sexual interference. McKelvey acquitted Mabior of three additional counts of aggravated sexual assault involving three different victims.

At trial, the victims — one as young as 12 years of age — testified Mabior plied them with booze and drugs and engaged in repeated acts of unprotected sex without ever disclosing he was HIV-positive.

“He knowingly withheld that information from his sexual partners on the basis that in all likelihood they would not have engaged in sexual contact with him,” said McKelvey in a written decision released yesterday.

McKelvey called Mabior a sexual predator who preyed upon young, vulnerable victims.

Meanwhile, I have just returned to news that the US Senate has opened the doors (closed since the late 1980’s) to HIV-positive immigrants.  As soon as I get the full story, I will report it.

Update July 18th:  Full story on the Senate vote here at Blue Ridge Forum.