Can a double bed be a substitute for home?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

     The subject of Refugee Resettlement generates many stories–daily stories–about the little joys refugees experience in our wonderful America.   Every one of those stories highlight some caring and enlightened American who gives of him or herself by purchasing or donating some material item to make life easy.    This story today in the Lincoln Star about Burmese Karen arriving in Nebraska caught my eye.

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2007/07/28/news/local/doc46aaa04f6ae92618087560.txt

      Sara Pipher had been to the camps in Thailand and was moved to collect $300 from friends and family to buy a double bed for a soon to arrive refugee family, something that would make any of us feel all warm and fuzzy.   I don’t mean to diminish the gift, but as the Burmese Karen people are scattered like the four winds across the United States, can she give them something they had together?

Pipher said she was impressed by the amazing closeness among friends and families in the camps. 

. . .

And in the Karen culture there is a real emphasis on the extended family and on respect for elders and embracing the wisdom of the elder generation, Pipher said.

     There won’t be an extended family in America.   I wonder at the wisdom of our do-good policies that cause us to rush around the world rescuing people whenever there is strife or a civil war in some region.

      The fact that the refugees are arriving in Lincoln brought to mind our Civil War.  Imagine if tens of thousands of the brightest Northerners and Southerners had just been wisked off to Europe never to return, would America, as a re-united nation, have been diminished.  I think so.

       Maybe it’s our own material need for instant comfort, for things to be easy, that makes us rush in wishing to save people.   Fortunately, some people still have common sense, dignity, and a  spirit and desire to achieve their destiny on the continent of their birth.  In Africa the Liberians are returning home under banners that proclaim:

LIBERIA CAN ONLY BE BUILT BY LIBERIANS THEMSELVES

…

UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. ITS TIME TO COME BACK HOME TO REBUILD OUR MOTHERLAND LIBERIA

According to an article in AllAfrica.com on July 24th, over 100,000 refugees are headed home.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200707270743.html 

The lady from NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council) is wearing a T-shirt with the map of Liberia on the front, and the words Theres No Place Like Home.

      In Rwanda they are returning home too.     http://allafrica.com/stories/200707300120.html

      But sadly, in Nepal, the Bhutanese may never return home because the US has agreed to resettle 60,000 refugees.  http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2007/jul/jul27/news13.php

      Writing in the Weekly Telegraph of Nepal, July 31, 2007 (tomorrow!) Niraj Ayal suggests it would be better to stay together in Nepal with the hope of one day going home:   

Better let them stay here; Let them make their homes here! Let us live together with our brothers and sisters!; Let them forget Bhutan, make our future together and one day the easterly wind might bring the smell of their soil here.

    

Expect More? Yes we all do!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

      If you are a numbers person you’ll find this US goverment website of interest.  It’s called ExpectMore.gov  (Expect Federal Programs to Perform Well, and Better Every Year).  See the evaluations of the Refugee Resettlement Program here:   http://www.whitehouse.gov/expectmore/query.html?col=empics&qt=refugee&Go03.x=14&Go03.y=0

Check out this little table (below) and note the cost of each refugee arrival.   In 2006 the cost overrun amounted to $695 per refugee.  We admitted 41,277 refugees that year.     http://www.state.gov/g/prm/refadm/rls/85970.htm   

That’s only an overrun of $28,687,515.    But what’s a million here or there when it’s just taxpayer money.

 http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/detail/10000394.2004.html#performanceMeasures

Term Type  
Annual Efficiency

Measure: Total average cost per refugee arrival in the U.S.

Explanation:

Year Target Actual
2002 BASELINE $4,445
2003 NONE $4,428
2004 $4,000 $3,500
2005 $3,700 $3,565
2006 $3,600 $4,295
2007 $3,500
2008 $3,400

Go to Expect More and learn more (maybe more than you want to know!)

Muslim High school curriculum

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

      I’m speechless!  You will have to read about the Islam Projects curriculum to believe it yourself.

     Go here  http://www.theislamproject.org/education/Lessonplans.htm  and click on “Muslim Immigration to America” to see the lesson plans that are available for your public middle and high school students.    Yup,  I knew it, we are all a bunch of hate mongers.   First, we hated the Catholics, the Japanese and the Jews and now for no reason we have moved on to Muslims.

      The school year begins in just about a month, maybe you should check with your friendly local school board and see what’s in the lesson plans at your neighborhood school.

Find your state Refugee Resettlement Office

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

      Most states have a state Office of Refugee Resettlement funded in large part by the US government.   Find yours here:        http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/partners/coordina1.htm

     Contact your state office and get information about what is happening with refugee resettlement where you live.    And, if someone knows why Wyoming does not participate in the program, and how the state got out of it,  we would love to know!