Public forum:

Indonesia, the new Pacific solution? Refugee rights and social justice in the Asia Pacific

 Date: Tuesday, 08 December 2009 Time: 18:00 – 20:00

A discussion forum with Pamela Curr and Setyo Budi Presented by Indonesia Solidarity Forum and the University of Melbourne Indonesian program

Pamela Curr – Long term refugee rights activist and the Campaign Coordinator at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre will be speaking on “Australia: externalising borders and aping the Gaddafi/ Berlusconi agreement. Human rights trampled by political skulduggery. Has Australia lost the plot? What can we do?”

Setyo Budi – Indonesia solidarity activist and presenter on the Asia Pacific Currents show on Radio 3CR will speak on “Indonesian attitudes towards their government’s refugee policy. What is happening inside Indonesia? Linking with the Indonesian refugee rights campaign.” The Australian Government, the Liberal Party and the corporate media claim people arriving in Australian waters by boat are “unauthorised” and “trafficked” people, while the Indonesian government has agreed to do Australia’s dirty work by locking up Tamils and others inside Indonesia which prevents them from presenting their case in the Australian legal system. Australian aid money to Indonesia presently paying for locking up Tamils and others destined for Australia, should be used to improve the lives of Indonesia’s poor majority, not for jailing refugees. Over 100 000 Tamils are incarcerated in camps controlled by the Sri Lankan military away from international media. According to an October 28 Age report “Surveillance cameras funded by the Australian Government at Colombo airport have been linked with a spate of extra-judicial arrests” encouraging Tamils seeking refuge in Australia to leave by boat. Tamils who have done this and are now detained in Indonesia have been courageously fighting for their rights and stand almost alone in the Australian media. Other voices inside Indonesia and Australia supporting their claims have been effectively silenced. This forum aims to increase the links between organisations in Indonesia and Australia that are campaigning for justice for refugees in our region, to raise the voice of refugee rights and as the first step in building a united movement. Indonesia Solidarity Forum aims to establish an ongoing Australian organisation supporting justice and democracy in Indonesia.

Uno de los cubanos llamó a la sala de control de la central nuclear de Turkey Point para avisar que eran refugiados y que acaban de desembarcar. (Foto: AP)

Los cubanos, 29 adultos y cuatro niños, desembarcaron en una zona que se suponía debía estar protegida, lo que ha puesto en cuestión las medidas de seguridad de la central nuclear.

La empresa FLP se vio obligada a mandar un informe a la Comisión de Regulación Nuclear de Estados Unidos ante el fallo en los controles de seguridad.

El grupo de refugiados cubanos llegó al canal de la central en una pequeña embarcación al mediodía de ayer.

Uno de los cubanos llamó a la sala de control de la central nuclear para avisar que eran refugiados y que acaban de desembarcar.

Agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza y de los Servicios de Aduana se hicieron cargo de los 33 cubanos para los trámites de inmigración y ser sometidos a un interrogatorio.

La central nuclear de Turkey Point se encuentra a cerca de 20 millas (40 kilómetros) al sur de Miami, dispone de cuatro reactores y siguió funcionando con normalidad durante todo el día a pesar del incidente, según explicó FPL.

Fuente: El Mensajero

Ibrahim e Siham querem ficar no País como refugiados assistidos pelo ACNUR

Ao lado da esposa Siham Mahmud Abdallah e da filha Sabrin, Ibrahim completou dois anos de residência em Venâncio Aires, em setembro último. Não esconde a satisfação com a liberdade e tranquilidade encontradas na cidade. Entretanto, ele reafirma sua preocupação com o destino da família, a exemplo do ano passado. Depois de um ano da reportagem veiculada na Gazeta do Sul, Ibrahim não tem emprego e faz apenas alguns bicos como trabalhador. A esposa é doente e, segundo a família, não pode trabalhar.

A filha, Sabrin, frequenta a escola desde que chegou na Capital do Chimarrão. No meio do ano, no entanto, a jovem de 19 anos teve o auxílio-estudo e as aulas de reforço suspensas pelo Acnur. Graças ao poder público municipal, que garante o transporte da estudante até Santa Cruz do Sul, ela dá continuidade às aulas na Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA). Com exceção de Siham, a família de Ibrahim entende e fala o português. Eles moram no térreo de um edifício residencial, no Centro da cidade.

O primogênito de Ibrahim, Muhand, está reassentado com a esposa e os filhos nos Estados Unidos. Até o ano passado, as súplicas do pai eram para transportar Muhand até o Brasil, resgatando-o na fronteira do Iraque com a Síria. Sem permissão, o rapaz foi levado com a família para solo norte-americano. Agora, Ibrahim torce por uma outra causa: para que o Acnur não retire as bolsas-auxílio aos refugiados. “Como vamos viver?”, indaga ele, que garante não poder trabalhar por causa de queimaduras nos pés. Segundo Ibrahim, as famílias aguardam uma reunião com representantes do Acnur, para que seja definido o futuro de cada grupo, há três meses.

Benefícios
Por dois anos, a contar do dia da chegada no Brasil, as famílias de refugiados palestinos são sustentadas pela Acnur e monitoradas pela Associação Antônio Vieira (Asav), de Porto Alegre. Em Venâncio Aires os grupos recebem a ajuda de um agente de integração, que agenda consultas médicas, por exemplo. Desde então, conforme a assistente de Informação Pública do Acnur, Carolina Montenegro da Costa, eles têm moradia alugada, mobiliada e com eletrodomésticos, auxílio-subsistência, curso de língua portuguesa e outros, assistência social e acompanhamento médico, além de oportunidades para colocação no mercado de trabalho.

Carolina comenta que os benefícios diretos e indiretos aos refugiados deveriam ter sido encerrados entre setembro e outubro deste ano, mas foram ampliados até o final do ano. Os recursos da comunidade internacional, representada pelo ACNUR, vêm de um fundo comum que conta com doações voluntárias de países, do setor privado e de doadores individuais. Apenas 2% do orçamento do órgão tem como origem a Organização das Nações Unidas.

Pacote de assistência
•• Pagamento de aluguel em habitações mobiliadas e com eletrodomésticos;
•• Auxílio-subsistência, de acordo com a composição familiar, com repasse de recursos financeiros;
•• Curso do idioma português, com professores bilíngues (Português/Árabe) e especializados em ensino do idioma para estrangeiros. Neste caso, foi pago um incentivo financeiro mensal para todos com pelo menos 75% de frequência nas aulas;
•• Assistência social e acompanhamento médico, incluindo marcação de consultas e serviço de tradução;
•• Oferta de medicamentos não disponíveis na rede pública de saúde. Para casos de doenças crônicas, como hipertensão, diabetes e doenças respiratórias, foram fornecidos aparelhos específicos como medidores de pressão e inaladores, por exemplo;
•• Serviço de tradução juramentada para documentos escolares e universitários, carteira de motorista, entre outros;
•• Emissão de documentos de identidade, Carteira de Trabalho e CPF;
•• Encaminhamento de crianças, jovens e adultos para instituições de ensino;
•• Vale-transporte depositado mensalmente em conta bancária de cada refugiado;
•• Para as famílias com filhos recém-nascidos, o programa ofereceu – até a idade de um ano – recursos para compra de leite em pó e fraldas descartáveis;
•• O programa também trabalha em parceria com agências de microcrédito, para facilitar o acesso a recursos que possam financiar a implantação de pequenos empreendimentos.
Fonte: Setor de Informação Pública do Acnur

Fonte: Gazeta do Sul

The case of Child M was well documented last week.

An 8-year-old Iranian boy, along with his mother and brother were detained between Monday 16th and Friday 20th in an Immigration Detention facility pending deportation on Saturday 20th.

This Child was taken  out of school and detained for 5 days, despite the fact that UK does not support or condone the detention of children.

An injunction was sought and subsequently obtained to prevent removal. This injunction was contingent on the family’s substantive asylum claim.

This example shows that despite campaigns and studies into the impact of detention on the well-being of children they are still sometimes forced to spend a unfathomably long time, for a  child, in restrictive and undoubtedly un-child-friendly  conditions.

The Governments policy is to treat all children the same regardless of background and to give all children the best available care and opportunities. Despite this it seems that in the case of children who are not UK citizens there comes a point where this does not apply: They are no longer the governments problem.

This month, the Government proposed a draft bill to reform the UK asylum system as part of new simpler refugee regime.

The Bil proposes to make a system, already founded more on administration than on Human Rights, more efficient.

On November 16th the Refugee Council issued a press release stated the reforms will make the law “more rigid and less sensitive to the complex needs of people seeking asylum in the UK”

The Bill also amends but nevertheless reinstates the rule under section 55 of the nationality Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, which give authorities the power to refuse asylum seekers support if they fail to apply for it if they deem did the applicant did not apply as soon as ‘reasonably practicable’.

The Bill, which is only a partial draft does not yet include provisions dealing with support for failed Asylum seekers (dealt with in earlier posts). However the nature of this draft legislation does not give much reason to hope for positive change.

Joshua Fattal (27) - American Jew hicker in Iran

Sara Shourd   (31) - American Jew hicker in Iran 

Shane Bauer (27)-American Jew  hicker in Iran

Yaghoghil Shaolian   (19) – Local Iranian Jew 

Accused of acting against national security – Espionage

It has been 120 days since three American hikers were detained in Iran.

The trio reportedly crossed over to Iran during a hiking trip near Kurdistan Iraq.

The Iranian government has accused them of espionage.

It has been 166 days since Yaghoghil Shaolian was detained in Iran, a member of Iran’s Jewish community, was not an activist, did not join the protests, but got caught up in the moment and threw some stones at a Tehran bank branch, in central Tehran on June 14, 2009, during unrests after June 12 presidential election in Iran.

Yaghoghil was arrested, accused of acting against national security – Espionage, resulting in his conviction and was sentenced to two and half years in prison.

An international effort is seeking more information about the FOUR defendants, and will raise concerns with the Iranian authorities, since those convicted and sentenced appear to have been denied a fair trial. 

The Iranian government has accused them of espionage.

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A cidade de Durban, a leste do país, é exceção à regra em questões de educação. Crianças estrangeiras têm as mesmas oportunidades que os alunos sul-africanos

Em algumas escolas sul-africanas, as crianças estrangeiras, muitas delas refugiadas, sentem-se resguardadas de comportamentos xenófobos. Em Durban, uma das maiores cidades do país, os alunos vindos de outros países africanos têm acesso a uma educação justa e adaptada. Admiram o trabalho dos professores e dizem aprender mais do que nas escolas onde estudavam. O bom ambiente é elogiado pelos próprios: “As crianças desta região são muito simpáticas. Nós falamos e rimos das nossas diferenças e não passa disso”, afirma um aluno, originário do Burundi.

Uma escola primária de Clareville, citada pelo jornal Afrik.com, é exemplo disso. Foi a primeira escola da região a contrariar o medo generalizado de receber alunos de fora do país. Em 1997, era frequentada por três alunos da República Democrática do Congo. Atualmente, um terço dos 768 alunos são estrangeiros. Acreditavam pois que não deveria haver diferença entre os petizes e que a educação era um direitos de todos. Redobraram esforços para acolher os novos alunos, na grande maioria lusófonos e francófonos. Em poucos meses, os pequenos estudantes aprendiam a falar inglês, língua oficial na África do Sul.

A vontade manifesta de a escola acolher meninos e meninas refugiadas já é reconhecida, tanto a nível local como internacional. O Alto Comissariado das Nações Unidas para os Refugiados visitou as instalações, em 2001, e procedeu à entrega de 8200 dólares para a remodelação de salas de aulas.

No país, os petizes estrangeiros não são bem aceitos pelas populações locais. Os alunos queixam-se de ser maltratados ao saírem da escola. Entre outras coisas, são acusados de “roubarem oportunidades”, aos sul-africanos. É também frequente, escolas contatarem o ministério para se informarem sobre a legalidade da entrada de um aluno estrangeiro para a mesma.

Fonte: Fátima Missionária

Muchos residentes de Utah se reúnen a compartir un alimento y dar gracias en este día especial. Entre ellos encontramos a una familia celebrando su primer Día de Acción de Gracias en América.

El pavo fue parte de su alimento en este día especial, pero Raghad Safah también incluyó otros platos de arroz y de cordero. Aunque el menú refleja sus tradiciones Iraquíes, la importancia de este día de fiesta americano resuena grandemente en la familia Safah.

Safah dijo, “Y estoy agradecida por mis niños y mi esposo, por supuesto. Estamos agradecidos por la salud y agradecidos por America, de hecho, por que estamos aquí.¨ Ellos escaparon de la guerra religiosa violenta de Iraq y pasaron tres años como refugiados en Siria.

“Cuando llegué a Siria, sentí un gran alivio y todas las preocupaciones sobre mi esposo y mis hijos desaparecieron, pero aquí estamos mucho mejor que en Siria,” dijo ella.

La familia Safah llegó en Junio a Utah y con la ayuda de la comunidad católica se establecieron aquí. Ahora la familia está tratando de empezar una nueva vida. Raghad está asistiendo al Community College mientras su esposo trabaja para mantener a la familia.

“Todo es una sorpresa para nosotros aquí, pues todo es completamente diferente a Iraq o Siria,” dijo ella. Ella nos cuenta que los niños rápidamente se acostumbraron a las hamburguesas y al bus de la escuela.

Fuente: KSL News

An alien spaceship breaks down over Johannesburg, South Africa in District 9.

Recently I wrote about how the horror movie Drag Me to Hell didn’t entirely live up to the hype surrounding it. People were saying it was a new classic for the genre. Now having seen District 9, a film receiving similar fanfare, I must agree that this is one of the best science fiction films I have seen in years. It is entertaining, thought-provoking, creative, and doesn’t have any extraneous scenes. Even better, it has neither a Hollywood ending or one that will leave you depressed. In my opinion, ending a movie this way is harder to achieve than it might seem– especially for a science fiction movie.

The movie begins in the style of a documentary, that would seem entirely realistic to us if it were not about the arrival of aliens. We find out that about 20 years ago an alien ship began hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. Military forces eventually entered the ship to see what was inside, because the ship did nothing after it arrived.

Inside, thousands of human-sized insect-like aliens were discovered and appeared malnourished. For unknown reasons their ship could not leave. The government of South Africa decided to move the aliens to the ground directly below their ship. This is the area known as District 9. The aliens, referred to as “prawns,” become hated by South Africans, who see them as a nuisance and lesser, animalistic beings. District 9 becomes a slum, and eventually the government of South Africa hires a private corporation to manage the eviction of the aliens from District 9 to a concentration camp.

This is where we pick up the story in present day. As it progresses, the style of the movie seems intentionally less like a documentary as the story unfolds and more like a traditional movie. We meet a bureaucrat who is has been promoted and will be in charge of the evacuation of the aliens. He is apparently one of the most knowledgeable people about the “prawns,” but despite his knowledge also views them as foul pests. During the initial evacuation of District 9, he meets an alien referred to as Christopher Johnson. Johnson has been trying to assemble the materials needed to fix his peoples’ space ship.

This is the basic setup for the action that then takes place in the rest of District 9. It’s both exciting and interesting, but to discuss the plot more is a disservice to people who haven’t seen the movie. Some people have lauded the movie’s use of science fiction to provide commentary on South Africa’s history of Apartheid. In Roger Ebert’s review of District 9 he explains that

The film’s South African setting brings up inescapable parallels with its now-defunct apartheid system of racial segregation. Many of them are obvious, such as the action to move a race out of the city and to a remote location. Others will be more pointed in South Africa. The title “District 9” evokes Cape Town’s historic District 6, where Cape Coloureds (as they were called then) owned homes and businesses for many years before being bulldozed out and relocated. The hero’s name, van der Merwe, is not only a common name for Afrikaners, the white South Africans of Dutch descent, but also the name of the protagonist of van der Merwe jokes, of which the point is that the hero is stupid. Nor would it escape a South African ear that the alien language incorporates clicking sounds, just as Bantu, the language of a large group of African apartheid targets.

He’s right that most of us know little about South Africa, and thus it’s much easier for the ignorant among us to view the story simply as a tale of how refugees are often treated badly. We don’t talk about the humanitarian issues involved with refugees enough in society, mostly because we choose not to think about the unpleasantness of being homeless and subject to the benevolence or hostility of a neighboring country’s government.

It’s worth noting though that at least one reviewer thought that the movie was not really about refugees and only used them as a plot vehicle for what he describes as “the dull, anti-corporate politics of District 9.” I think he missed the point entirely and instead focused on one particularly disturbing aspect of the movie’s subject matter.

In defense of such criticism, I will also put forth the idea that there are no new stories to be told. Only new ways to tell them.  The story of refugees is more relevant than ever. District 9 provides food for thought about the issue in a compact, creative, and entertaining way. It even reminds us that even our own grotesque treatment of each other is perhaps the most alien thing of all.

Field Report: Relief Web

An offensive by Burmese troops against Kokang rebels in August did not result from its resistance to border guard transformation but from drugs and weapons production, state media said today.

Much of the news surrounding the incident, which forced some 37,000 refugees into China, had focused on the Kokang group’s reluctance to transform into a border guard militia, and thus closely ally itself with the ruling junta, prior to the 2010 elections.

(c) Democratic Voice of Burma (DBV)

My teaching style usually emphasises creative projects with children where they are actively engaged in inventing music, and seeking out solutions to musical problems or challenges. However, it needs to be said that this approach (which I believe to be far richer pedagogically, leading to deep musical understanding among children) can be very demanding on the teacher:

• It requires you to think on your feet, constantly ready to respond to the music as it emerges from the children’s efforts;
• My creative projects often span several weeks, if not the whole term, so there can be quite a lot of planning and developing that needs to take place between each lesson;
• When children get over-excited through the freedom of the process (which can happen, and is quite an issue at Pelican PS), then a huge amount of energy needs go into simply containing them and keeping the process on track. It is this last point that I think I find the most debilitating sometimes.

By the time Term 4 started, I knew I was feeling pretty weary. It has been a busy year of projects! The children were too, so I decided to develop a number of ‘directed’ projects for us all, projects that would involve playing and singing, but primarily through learning material, rather than inventing it.

It has proved a good tactic. At the Language School, the Middle Primary class with its very particular group of demanding, narcissistic boys has really benefited from learning specific, pre-existing material. There had been too much hijacking of creative tasks in previous terms, in terms of disruptive behaviour, and tantrums when collaborative processes didn’t go their way, and things felt much calmer this term.

Here’s a rundown of the kinds of things we’ve done:

Lower Primary – Learning the song Ho ho watanay and developing accompaniments (some learned, some invented). Lots of instruments, and detailed structure to memorise.

Middle Primary – Learning the song Ah ya zahn (traditional song in Arabic from Lebanon) with various learned instrumental accompaniments. This song introduced the children to thefull chromatic glockenspiels, and they learned to play the melody, with its wonderfully twisting, middle-eastern mode.

Upper Primary – Learning the song Sakura form Japan (both in Japanese and in the English translation that I wrote some years ago). The UP students also created new melodic material on glockenspiels, using a Japanese mode (take off all the Gs and Ds so that you are left with F-A-B-C-E). I asked them to think of a flower or plant that is special to the country they come from. From these suggestions we developed three spoken phrases, with rhythms implied by the syllables of the words. Then, working in teams, they selected notes from the mode in order to make a melody to this rhythm. Their words included:

Hababa flower, many colours (from Ethiopia, Oromo people)

Some big, some small, pink, purple, white and blue

Yellow sunflower, follows the sun (suggested by an Assyrian boy from Iraq)

Shishke on the Christmas tree, all the year round (from a Russian girl)

At Pelican Primary School, things have been similarly structured:

Preps and Grade Ones have invented their own simple version of the song Driving in my car (originally by the UK pop group Madness). These are very cute songs. We’re trying to add instruments, and on a good day, it all comes together.

Grade ones and Twos are singing The Earth is our mother and have created several melodic phrases inspired by sentences that describe ways to keep the planet healthy.

Grades 3 and 4 have learned to sing Ah Ya Zahn and developed similar accompaniments to those that I’ve taught at the Language School.

However, my Pelican Primary School experiences are making me re-think a lot of the creative work that I do. These children have so much creative energy, but zero internal discipline (as a group) to hold their focus long enough to make something work. In my experience, this kind of constant distraction, or distractedness, is quite common in schools where there are high numbers of refugee-background students. These kids have so much to gain from well-managed, clearly-structured creative processes. However, many of the tactics I have developed at the Language School have been proving too loose for the children at Pelican PS.

I’ve spoken about this with some of the other teachers, and they confirm that this lack of capacity to engage well with creative tasks occurs in other classes too. “Even just having a discussion about something with the class is very difficult in this school,” one teacher admitted. The disciplines of listening to each other, taking turns, not interrupting or shouting another person down, aren’t really present.

In music too, more open tasks make many of the students feel uncertain about what is expected of them, and this uncertainty (coupled perhaps with general insecurities, and the abstract nature of music in the first place) sees them go off-task very quickly, and just make random noise.

I’ve written before (see here) about the way the Pelican students seem to respond to noise in general, and specifically to multiple sources of sound in music. Little by little I am realising that the strategies I’ve been developing for ESL/ELL students in the Language School can’t be transferred here automatically. The students in the Language School have a far greater capacity to focus and remain engaged.  Perhaps the length of general classroom focus is always determined by the shortest attention span – or the shortest attention span among the more dominant class members!

There are lots of children from refugee backgrounds at Pelican Primary School. If we think about survival skills – being able to stand up for yourself, and get what you need for you and your family, making sure your voice is heard over the top of many other voices, making sure you are never at the end of a line, no matter what, being quick to react to any new potential threats around you, and learning to respond to a constantly chaotic environment – then we can see a kind of progression from those survival tactics to the common strategies employed by many students in the school. Lots of shouting over each other, interrupting conversations (often not noticing if said conversation is even taking place!), turning heads to watch whatever is taking place elsewhere in the room, and so on.

I feel very sure that music can offer these children opportunities  and motivation to break some of these patterns, and to experience themselves as learners in a different way. Creative music-making offers the additional benefit of a sense of ownership over the music, a validation and endorsement of one’s own contributions to the process, a deep understanding of the music from the inside out, and a powerful means of self-expression and individual voice. But I do need to figure out some new and powerful ways into creative music that scaffold each of the smallest of steps, and offer tangible experiences of success and delight to the students in as short a period of time as possible, due to those peskily short attention spans. Those experiences of success and delight are the key to their motivation to continue working cooperatively with me and with each other.

I was at an academic conference last week, and it struck me how it seems that the default attitude is ‘doom and gloom’.

Racism? Marginalisation? The gap between rich and poor? Australian xenophobia? Yep, they are all rampant, you could think.

I am writing a PhD thesis about the success of integration of Hazara holders of Temporary Protection Visa holders into Australian society.

It’s a good news story.

And every so often I worry that it is not dark enough to be taken seriously.

But I am a natural optimist, and always am amazed by how many Australians welcome new settlers, and not by numbers who don’t want them.

The blogger at PoliticalOwl brought my attention to the most recent Morgan survey of what Australians see as the important issues, and the good news is that only 7% of Australians rate asylum and refugee issues as the most important problem facing Australia.

This is up from 1% last May, and 0 last November – but still – I see it as good.

‘Pollyanna’ Possie

I was doing some research about human trafficking, and came across many write-ups abour refugees in MALAYSIA. These refugess flee from their homeland to seek protection in Malaysia, but our government did not provide any form of protection but they are treated as prisoners. They are being put in the prison, tortured and left to suffer.

Some are being brought to the border, and be part of the human trading market. They were sold at RM500! Those that are lucky, they have their family and friends to pay off that amount of money and get themselve out of the “market”. But unfortunately not all of them can afford to pay RM500.

I felt my heart just stopped, reading what they have to go through. How they are being treated, is just heart breaking. Come on, they are also human. They are worthy for us to love them, to treat them as human.

click here to read about some of the real life stories.

Kai Massaquoi is seen here at the basketball courts at James Logan High School, were he spends time playing hoops, in Union City, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009. Massaquoi a refugee from Guinea witnessed family members executed, spent years living in rehab clinics and camps before his family moved to California six years ago. Massaquoi recently graduated from James Logan High School. (Photo: Anda Chu/Staff)

There are many things about Gbessaykai Massaquoi that distinguish him from his friends. One is the twangy music he switches to when they get out of the car.

No one understands why this West African refugee, who has survived war and peril, likes country music band Rascal Flatts.

“We listen to hip-hop,” Massaquoi says. “Then, when they leave, I listen to country music. It’s soft. It calms you down. The sound, the melodies of it, just keep you going.”

American country songs distract him from violent memories and daily poverty. The music and other pastimes — basketball games each evening, long hikes through the trails above Hayward — are salves.

“All that stuff, it keeps me busy, stops me from thinking about the past,” he said.

Massaquoi, who goes by the nickname Kai, was a young boy when armed men stormed his family’s home in Monrovia, the Liberian capital that in 1996 was ravaged by chaos and urban slaughter.

“They asked, ‘Where’s Mr. Massaquoi?’ My stepmom said, ‘He’s not here.’ They said, ‘We came to kill him.’”‰”

Born in Guinea to parents who fled from conflict in neighboring Liberia, his father had been a driver for Samuel Doe, the Liberian president who was executed by rebels in September 1990 — two months before Kai was born.

That made his family a target as fighters allied with rebel warlord Charles Taylor waged a brutal war to take over the country. Uncomfortable in Guinea, which had been flooded with refugees from years of bloodshed in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the family returned to Liberia because they thought they would be safe. They were wrong.

Assailants ordered the oldest brother to rape his stepmother — right now, they demanded, in full view of everyone. The brother refused and was shot dead on the spot.

Massaquoi, then 5, remembers sprinting outside and toward an uncle’s nearby home as bullets fired in his direction. It is one terrifying memory of many.

“I’m surprised that I’m here, that I actually made it to America,” said Massaquoi, who turned 19 this week.

Massaquoi will not share some stories, but he will say this: Along with witnessing the war, he was recruited to become a part of it.

“It was about tribalism, it was about religion,” he said. “Most kids, they join the rebels for revenge. ‘You killed my mom, you killed my dad, so now I’m going to kill you.’ That’s why the war kept going on for 14, 15 years. Just too much blood. Too much.”

Desperation and abductions also pressed thousands of boys to join the fight, wandering in bands and factions — some of them sponsored by government leaders — that battled throughout the northeastern counties of Liberia and across the forested border with Guinea.

“His story is not the only one in the U.S. and I would wager not even the only one in Oakland,” said P.W. Singer, an author and researcher with the nonprofit Brookings Institution. “You’re talking about a global phenomena. Let’s put it this way: There are roughly 300,000 active child combatants in the world.”

Burdened by wartime stories his family advised him not to divulge, Massaquoi will not talk about being a child soldier, only about how he got out of it.

“Me and my friend Prince, we decided to just get out of there,” he said. “While they were advancing, going toward the gunshots, we retreated.”

He and his friend fled from Liberia into Guinea, washing up in a river and cutting their disheveled hair before looking for refuge in the town of Yomou. Sometimes they had to steal or rob to get what they needed to survive.

“It was very hard for us to live normal, act normal,” he said.

They made their way to the refugee-filled border town of Gueckedougou and later to Conakry, the capital, where Massaquoi eventually entered a rehabilitation center before being transported to a refugee camp near Dabola. It wasn’t until just before coming to the United States that he was reunited with most of his family.

“As soon as you let it out, you feel free,” he said of his stories. “That’s what my family doesn’t want to do.”

The burdens of his past are compounded by the fact that many Liberians have been hesitant to forgive and move on, or are still afraid of what could happen to them, he said. It was children like him, they whisper, who killed or mutilated their relatives.

“Even when I go to a party, I hear it — ‘That kid was a child soldier’ — I hear them,” Massaquoi said.

More than 200,000 people were dead and untold thousands maimed by the time Liberia’s civil wars finally concluded with Taylor’s ousting in 2003.

“Like other child abuse, when it ends, that person may be scarred by that experience psychologically as well as physically, but it doesn’t mean that they are somehow lost forever,” Singer said. “It’s an experience that’s going to shape them, but it doesn’t mean they can’t get past it.”

Massaquoi’s first stop in the United States was Torrance, where he moved with his aging father and siblings when they arrived as refugees in fall 2003.

As he turned 13 and entered classrooms for the first time in years, Massaquoi had trouble adjusting. His father, frustrated by signs that the neighborhood gang culture was influencing his son, sent Massaquoi north to live with an aunt he barely knew. By age 17, the teen moved out of the house, rooming in Hayward with Lisa White, a cousin who had grown up in Texas.

They both had lost their mothers to illness. Friends sometimes lent them gas money, and they signed up for food stamps. When their apartment went up for sale last month, they prepared to sleep in a car, then reluctantly moved back with their aunt, paying $600 to sleep on the couch and floor of her converted garage.

“We don’t have bad credit, we just don’t have any credit,” said White, who hopes to find a new apartment soon. “Sometimes I ask, when was the last time anything good happened? And I can’t remember.”

White juggles caregiving work with studying engineering at Chabot College and enjoys both. Massaquoi, unemployed for months, has signed up to learn welding next year. He could make easy money selling drugs, his friends tell him. He changed his number to stop their calls.

“I don’t want to keep making mistakes. I made enough already,” he said.

The teen was struggling to get through high school more than a year ago when Sharyl Larson, a teacher at the Union City adult school where he was making up a course, first spotted him in a classroom with his head down.

She chatted with him, asking what was wrong. They were questions that few adults had ventured to ask Massaquoi since he moved to America.

“She said, well, ‘Kai, I’m here, whenever you need my help, just let me know.’ She’s been a good friend,” he said.

Graduating from James Logan High School this year was one of his most hard-fought accomplishments. Massaquoi knows many languages — French, Kpelle, Mandingo and Arabic — but English was not his best, and he failed the state high school exit exam the first two times he tried.

On the third try, after studying hard, he passed it, meaning he could graduate. The day he found out about his score was one of the greatest of his life — not since he was 12, when he found out he was moving to the United States, did he feel so hopeful, he said.

“He’s been through a lot,” said Larson, who is no longer Massaquoi’s teacher but remains a friend. “He’s going through hard times right now. But he manages to get up every day to look for work and take care of his business.”

The ebullience that rests beneath Massaquoi’s serious outlook was on display Sunday, as Larson invited Massaquoi and White over for an early Thanksgiving dinner at her Oakland home. The friends joked, discussed their challenges but also the possibilities they have for the long lives ahead of them.

“I think he will survive,” Larson said. “If the past means anything, he’ll be able to get through anything.”

Source: Inside Bay Area

Produced by creative agency Propaganda, in association with iconic British band, Portishead, Dark Angel is a beautifully haunting rendition of Sophies story.

The Murder of Sophie Lancaster was a murder case in the United Kingdom in 2007. The victim was brutally attacked along with her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, while walking through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Rossendale in Lancashire. As a result of her severe head injuries she went into a coma, never regained consciousness, and later died. The police said the attack may have been provoked by the couple wearing gothic fashion and being members of the goth subculture….

Essential Doom Metal Albums

Doom metal has its origins in the early 70’s, with heavy metal band Black Sabbath playing songs with slow riffing and dark, foreboding lyrics. In the ’80s, bands like Saint Vitus, Trouble, and Candlemass took those elements and warped them into what became known as doom metal. The genre spanned out in the early ’90s to include other musical genres, including death, thrash, and black metal to form a multitude of subgenres. Today, the genre is still going strong, especially in the underground scene. Check out our list of essential doom metal albums, and recommend ones you would add.

Essential Doom Metal Albums

Katatonia Interview

The latest CD from the Swedish band Katatonia is Night Is The New Day, which is getting great reviews and is destined to appear on many best of 2009 lists. I caught up with the band’s guitarist Anders Nyström, who is also in Bloodbath along with some of his Katatonia bandmates and members of Opeth. He gives the scoop on the new CD, the early days of Katatonia, the band’s upcoming tour plans, and if his former band Diabolical Masquerade will get back together.

The Top 6(66) Movies About Metalheads

Not only am I a metalhead, but I am a total movie junkie. I love ‘em. I’ve seen a lot of movies, and I’ve seen a lot of metal. So I figured, why not combine the two and pick out my five favorite movies about metalheads. Please note, I chose to leave out documentaries and

A Psychoanalytic Defense of Realism

A central aim of Bhaskar’s A Realist Theory of Science is to diagnose what he refers to as the “epistemic fallacy”. In a nutshell, the epistemic fallacy consists in the thesis, often implicit, that ontological questions can be reduced to epistemological questions. The idea here is that ontology can be entirely resolved or evaporated into an inquiry into our access to beings, such that there are no independent questions of ontology. As an example of such a maneuver, take Humean empiricism. As good Humean empiricists, we “bracket” all questions of the world independent of our mind and simply attend to our atomistic impressions (what we would today call “sensations”), and how the mind links or associates these punctiform impression in the course of its experience to generate lawlike statements about cause and effect relations.

Three ads from UNHCR / ACNUR. found in Refugees would like to have the same problems you have

More Insight on Those Leaked Climate Change Emails

[Image: "Earth Egg," from the CC-licensed Flickr stream of azrainman]

Cory told you earlier this week about the recent hacking at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, and the subsequent distribution of emails that some people say prove a global conspiracy to promote anthropogenic climate change contrary to evidence………….

……And now, I bring you a whole crap-ton of links……….:

Yaounde RESPECT Club

• Since January 2005, a group of 8 urban Burundese refugees ages 13 to 18 years has correspond with the Bourg Madame High School Solidarity Club in the South West of France.

• The members of the Club come from several high schools in the city of Yaounde.

Apesar de ter sido retirada de pauta, juntamente com outras 14 proposições, por pedido de vista coletivo, a proposta de emenda à Constituição (PEC 3/09) que submete ao crivo do Senado o ato de reconhecimento da condição de refugiado, na hipótese de condenação judicial do solicitante, será debatida em audiência pública pela Comissão de Constituição, Justiça e Cidadania (CCJ). O requerimento foi apresentado nesta quarta-feira (25), pelo senador Eduardo Suplicy (PT-SP) e a PEC, assim como as demais matérias, voltam à pauta da CCJ na próxima semana.

Suplicy sugeriu a participação dos seguintes convidados no debate sobre a PEC: o secretário-executivo do Ministério da Justiça, Luís Paulo Teles Ferreira Barreto; o coordenador-geral do Comitê Nacional para os Refugiados (Conare), organismo vinculado ao Ministério da Justiça, Renato Zerbini Ribeiro; a representante do Alto Comissariado das Nações Unidas para Refugiados (ACNUR), Eva Demant; e os juristas Dalmo de Abreu Dallari e Celso Antonio Bandeira de Mello.

Por sugestão dos senadores Valter Pereira (PMDB-MS) e Arthur Virgílio (PSDB-AM), a audiência pública deverá ser realizada em conjunto com a Comissão de Relações Exteriores e Defesa Nacional (CRE).

Segundo explicou o relator da PEC na CCJ, senador Demóstenes Torres (DEM-GO), a intenção é tornar obrigatória a manifestação do Senado sobre os casos em que o Poder Executivo decidir aceitar pedido de refúgio. O Senado teria 30 dias para analisar o processo, que precisaria ser confirmado pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF). O voto do relator é pela aprovação da matéria, nos termos de substitutivo.

Arthur Virgílio também pediu a Demóstenes, que preside a CCJ, para colocar na pauta da próxima semana projeto de lei (PLS 72/07- Complementar) de sua autoria que trata da nomeação e demissão do presidente e de diretores do Banco Central, além da organização de seu quadro funcional. A proposta tem o senador Antonio Carlos Junior (DEM-BA) como relator, que deve se manifestar sobre os aspectos de constitucionalidade e juridicidade. O julgamento do mérito caberá à Comissão de Assuntos Econômicos (CAE).

Prejudicialidade
A CCJ aprovou, também, votos de Demóstenes pela prejudicialidade de duas matérias. Segundo argumentou, propostas mais amplas, que já tratavam das questões em pauta, haviam sido aprovadas anteriormente pela comissão.

A primeira delas foi o PLS 197/07, do senador Aloizio Mercadante (PT-SP), que alterava o Código Penal para incluir circunstância agravante genérica nos casos de crimes praticados contra agentes penitenciários. A outra foi o PLS 35/06, de autoria do senador Augusto Botelho (PT-RR), que também alterava o Código Penal para estabelecer como circunstância qualificadora do crime de homicídio a hipótese de a vítima ser policial, agente penitenciário, fiscal tributário ou do Trabalho, juiz ou membro do Ministério Público, no exercício da função ou em razão dela.

Fonte: Agência Senado

Nuevas actualizaciones de equipo en Kenia – 25 de noviembre:

“Acabo de ponerme en línea en la casa de huéspedes después de dos días sin energía. Todo está bien, aunque hoy hemos testimoniado más tragedias humanas en los asentamientos de refugiados de lo que creía que podía soportar. Mañana, cuando llegue a Uganda, voy a postear actualizaciones y fotos. Christopher”.

Refugees United

When 12-year-old Mahtab’s father returns home with obvious signs of torture, and her grandfather is forever lost, her family knows it can no longer live in Taliban-controlled Herat, Afghanistan. Her best friend has already left without saying goodbye, hoping to find refuge somewhere in Iran. Now Mahtab and her family must leave her beloved grandmother and the rest of the extended family in search of survival and freedom.

Mahtab, her mother, and her two younger siblings begin their frightening journey hidden in the back of a truck, while her father rides in the front, bribing officials when necessary to get the family safely to Pakistan. There the father must leave his family behind, traveling alone to Australia where he hopes he will be able to prepare a secure new life for his wife and children. They must patiently wait, hidden, desperate, and unsure of their tenuous future. Days and weeks become many, many months … the younger children begin to wonder if they can remember their father’s face … and even Mahtab begins to doubt that the family will ever be safely reunited again.

Mahtab’s Story is inspired by a true story, the book’s cover reveals. In the afterword, award-winning Australian author Libby Gleeson recalls that she was introduced to a group of refugee girls in a Sydney high school in 2004: “Their stories of persecution and fear in their own countries and their escape to Australia were so compelling that I felt I had to write about that experience.” She stresses, however, that this is a novel, not a biography. And yet, this is also sadly a very familiar tale in our contemporary world of questionable wars and the countless innocent victims who must risk everything for survival. In the end, Mahtab’s is undoubtedly one of the lucky stories …

Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult

Published: 2008, 2009 (United States)

The EU has pledged to host 10,000 Iraqi refugees

It is cold, the language is foreign, and there are many unfamiliar rules. For the approximately 1,800 Iraqi refugees in Germany, while it is not always easy to feel at home, many see their futures here.

After the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, around two million Iraqis fled to neighboring Syria and Jordan, where many lived in extreme poverty. In November 2008, the EU’s interior minister announced the bloc would take in up to 10,000 of those Iraqis in need of protection as part of efforts to alleviate the refugee crisis.

Germany currently hosts 1,800 Iraqi refugees and has pledged to take in as many as 2,500 under the EU deal.

Challenges in the classroom
One-third of the Iraqis here are under the age of sixteen – among them, twelve-year-old Ahmed from Baghdad.

He arrives on time to German class, as he wants to improve his language skills as quickly as possible. His goal is to make the most of his new life, and he pushes himself hard. The class takes place in a small and simple room with wooden tables and plastic chairs in blue, yellow and orange.

One-third of Germany's 1,800 Iraqi refugees are under the age of sixteen

In addition to Ahmed, there are seven other children between the ages of ten and fifteen who attend. They receive thirteen hours of extra class time per week outside of their regular school schedule – but they still don’t understand much and are still at a basic level. Today, the students are learning how to write the word “mama.”

The class is not only a challenge for the students, but also for the teacher, who doesn’t speak a word of Arabic. The children are indeed willing to learn, she said, but they can also be unruly.

“This is understandable. We don’t know what these children have been through in their lives so far,” she says.

Peace in Germany
After class, Ahmed goes straight home. He lives with his mother and two younger sisters in the so-called “Transitional Home for Refugees.” Four Iraqi families live in the four-story house.

Ahmed runs up the dirty staircase to the second floor and knocks on the door of apartment number 22. Behind it is the one room his family members have all shared since they came to Germany six weeks ago.

“In Iraq it was very difficult. We came to Germany to have a better life – without injustice and oppression. In Iraq we lived in a constant state of fear and stress. Here in Germany, peace and order rules. I wish for peace for all the children who still live in Iraq,” says Ahmed, visibly content to be in Germany.

Memories of death and violence
Flowers sit on the window sill – Ahmed’s mother has made a great effort to make their home more beautiful. She is in her mid-thirties and wears a plain headscarf.

Around half of the Iraqi refugees are Christian

“Everything is in order here,” she says.

But previously, everything was not in order. Memories from their last days in Iraq keep coming back up.

“They threatened me and my children because I worked for an American firm in the Green Zone in Baghdad. They pushed my son and punched out two of his teeth,” she says.

They threatened to kill the family if they didn’t leave of Iraq.

Ahmed’s mother takes out a photo showing an overturned desk chair and a hole in the ceiling after an attack on her office. Shiite militias had also attacked people in a residential neighborhood with baseball bats – and abducted twenty-five of them. Two of Ahmed’s uncles were shot.

Ahmed also has bad memories from his homeland. He and other people were shot at as they tried to buy bread.

“A bullet flew by and just narrowly missed my face,” he says, falling silent.

Father and grandparents left behind
Ahmed’s family fled to Syria in 2006 where they applied for asylum at the UN refugee agency. After a long wait they finally received an answer – Germany would take them. Refugees from Iraq receive a three-year residence and work permit.

Millions of Iraqis have fled to Syria and Jordan

Around half of the refugees are Christian. Others, like Ahmed’s neighbors, belong to the religious Mandaean minority, whose beliefs contain elements of Judaism, Christianity and Gnosticism.

When Ahmed remembers his first day in Germany, he begins to cry. He thinks of his father and grandparents who had to stay behind in Syria. But then he remembers what he likes about Germany.

“In Germany, the teachers speak politely to the students. They respect them and make a big effort. In Iraq, children were hit. Here it is different and I feel happy.”

And finally, Ahmed can play football again – his passion. On TV and on the Internet he can follow his favorite club, FC Barcelona.

Ahmed and his sisters also speak to their father almost every day over the computer. They tell him that Germany is cold; that it is wonderful to take the streetcar; and they report on their trip to the zoo.

And they always ask him the same question – when will you get here?

Source: DW-World

Nairobi, 24 de novembro 2009

Christopher

Refugees United