One of the helpful aspects of managing a blog is that one can see what people are searching for that brings them to us.  A couple of people today were searching Rohingyas, Burmese Muslims, and Canada.    So I googled around and found out that Canada did take Rohingyas this time last year, and became the first western country to do so.

Go back and read our previous posts beginning with this one.   And, then go back further to this one.

All I can say is that I guess Canadian government officials who made this decision hadn’t been doing their homework, hadn’t even been reading liberal Time magazine.   Notice to US State Department, no Rohingyas here!

For a group of people living in refugee camps in Southern Bangladesh, the late arrival of the Canadian spring will mean a true fresh start in the spirit of the season. Canada is taking the initiative of opening its doors to a first group of Rohingya refugees living in UN camps in the southern tip of Bangladesh.

Actually that was a misleading headline to get your attention!   I don’t know if they are coming yet, but from here to Australia they are making  their pitch and beating the drums. 

After we wrote about the Rohingya here (please go back and read this if you haven’t seen it before).  We received a letter from a Mr. Zafar Ahmead, Pres. of the Myanmar [Burma] Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organization Malaysia, which said among other things:

We are further frustrated as The UNHCR and International Communities are fully aware of our situation in Malaysia but there are no serious action taken. We are hoping for permanent solution to our serious situation. We have the rights to live like other people. We are hoping that the Third Countries will give us place in their countries for resettlement. We are frustrated as very few of us get resettlement in the Third Countries. We are hoping that the UNHCR and The Third countries will not looking at our religion before making decision whether to take us or not.

Just today we see in the Burma Times that the UN is now responding to the drumbeats from Rohingya activists and organized a meeting earlier this past week in Australia.

Kensington, Australia: Speakers at a seminar, held on March 5, said that the Rohingyas are both stateless and refugees. The seminar was on “Launch a report and film on Rohingya Refugee in Bangladesh.” organized by UNHCR. It was held at the Council Chancellor Hall, Chancellery Ground Floor, University of New South Wales , Kensington, Auatralia in the morning, said Abdus Samat, the secretary of Burmese Rohingya Community in Auatralia, or BRCA in Australia .

This is how it works.   An advocacy group hounds the UN, then the UN (which doesn’t require much hounding) will hound western countries and before you know it, we will have Burmese Rohingya Muslims, adversaries of Burmese Karen Christians, in places like Waterbury, CT, or Fort Wayne, IN or your home town.

Somehow those in the Refugee resettlement business must have a crazy notion that since America has been dubbed a melting pot, all these centuries old animosities will be magically left behind when we bring old enemies together here.