Humans from Syria

“Everyone here has been very nice to us. When we got to the beach, there were people there who gave us food and a hug. A priest even gave us this carpet to pray on. He told us: ‘We have the same God.’”

Humans of New York is a blog. Founded by the Photo Journalist Brandon Stanton, his objective was first to capture the people of New York. There is so much diversity that he thought he could tell a story through their pictures. That soon led to writing brief stories with the picture. From New York, he went to prisons to talk about the people incarcerated. He loves to tell 'their' story-- whoever 'they' happen to be. With the recent refugee situation in Syria, he has decided to blog and create a photo journal of some of the refugees to inform the public of what is going on. 

I loved this picture. There are many emotions that are going on all around. In the previous post, this family is in front of the camera and the description depicts their story in the months prior to the picture that led up to their homelessness. They were recieving texts that they needed to pay their money to someone they did not know, they tried to ignore them and then they woke up with their home on fire. Shortly after, they got another text that they would be killed if they stayed. That is the fear that refugees around the word have to live with, HOW HORRIBLE? 

The brutal facts, 

More than 4.5 million refugees from Syria are in just five countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt:

• Turkey hosts 2.5 million refugees from Syria, more than any other country worldwide
• Lebanon hosts approximately 1.1 million refugees from Syria which amounts to around one in five people in the country
• Jordan hosts approximately 635,324 refugees from Syria, which amounts to about 10% of the population
• Iraq where 3.9 million people are already internally displaced hosts 245,022 refugees from Syria
• Egypt hosts 117,658 refugees from Syria

The UN’s 2015 humanitarian appeal for Syrian refugees was just 61% funded by the end of the year.

Funding shortages mean that the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in Lebanon receive just $21.60 per person month or around US$0.70 cent a day for food assistance, well below the UN’s poverty line of US$1.90

86% of Syrian refugees in urban areas in Jordan are living below the local poverty line.

I am grateful for good people around the world that see a need and make a difference. At the top is the description to this photo, what a good man that preacher is. I too believe, as did the preacher, that we may be different by culture, religion, race, color-- whatever it may be-- but at the end of the day, "We have the same God."

You can follow Humans of New York @humansofny

UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), International Organization of Migration (IOM)

Syria, the Cause of World War III?

Imagine living in a country with a President that many of the citizens have a hard time agreeing with. Some of the citizens do agree with the president and tensions rise that lead to violence and conflict. Other nations that agree with the president join forces with him and those opposing the president also band together. Over the course of 4 years, many would leave the country as a refugee, many would die in the country from the fighting, and other countries would have to support their allies as the tensions continued to rise. It is crazy to think that a disagreement over the choices of the president could cause that radical of a response but that is what is going on in Syria today.  Over 250,000 dead. The scariest part of it all is that we are involved in supporting the rebels and other super powers like Russia are engaged in supporting Syrian President, Mr. Assad. 

Could history repeat itself? We are so close to exactly what happened with alliances and ties in WWI and WWII. Axis vs. Allies. I pray that this can end soon before it escalates more.

To understand more about this unfortunate conflict, please read http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868 or http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/16/world/middleeast/untangling-the-overlapping-conflicts-in-the-syrian-war.html?_r=0.

Left to Tell About the Rwandan Massacre

Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza is an amazing book that incorporates the power of God through humble sincere prayer, pure luck, and the struggle to stay alive during a genocide. It takes place in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994 when radical Hutu’s decided that it was time for “pay back” to the Tutsi for a mass killing that the Tutsi did many years earlier. The author of the book tells the story through her perspective as the victim of this terrible crime to humanity. She, as a member of the Tutsi tribe, is targeted by the racial Hutu tribe and manages to survive with only a handful of other Tutsi—hiding in the bathroom of her Hutu pastor.

The story of her triumphs over depression and negativity as she sat in a hopeless bathroom are remarkable. I strongly recommend this book and promise that you will not be able to set it down.

Immaculee’s hardships that she described with such passion and explicit detail, persuaded to be a better friend, more accepting, and more tolerant to others, refugees especially. I recommend it to anyone that wants to connect better with people in tough situations because the imagery and diction help the reader get to the place the author has been.

Ilibagiza, Immaculée, and Steve Erwin. Left to Tell: Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.                         Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2006. Print.

The Golden Ticket

Abdi the American got a golden ticket.

Against the odds, he was selected to become an American in a random diversity lottery. He could not believe it. He said that if he did not get through, he would have tried again to get to America in a new way. But, he got his luckiest break of his life and was selected! Being selected does not mean that one makes it to the United States, only about half of those selected every year pass through the visa interview.

Before he could make it to the interview in the embassy, the police started raiding his neighborhood, targeting refugees-- he was a refugee. He was rejected because he was short one signature on one transcript.

He put his ducks in a row and was able to get his visa through a course a miracles and his life changed!

This story was aired on the BBC for July 4th to give Americans an idea of what independence really means. It was amazing. I feel inspired to try a little harder to be a little more grateful for what I have. I have never had to worry about being safe, having food, living in a free territory, or needing to flee my home. I hope I can help others with arms more open!

"Abdi and the Golden Ticket | This American Life." This American Life. BBC, 3 July 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

When Wasted Lands Became Treasured Lands

I am super excited about the material for this weeks post! I just watched Waste Land. The movie is a documentary about Vik Muniz who is from Brazil and now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Vik, like most other Brazilians, grew up in the streets of ghetto Brazil. Because of an unfortunate event-- being in the right place at the wrong time-- he was shot on accident by a rich man that paid him off. With that money Vik traveled to the United States and became a world renowned photographer. 

His mission in the movie Waste Land is to take pictures of trash "pickers" in the world's largest dump just outside of Rio de Janeiro-- Jardim Gramacho. With these pictures, the pickers and he made collages out of the trash that they picked, took pictures of the trash collages and sold them in a London art auction. 100% of the proceeds went to these pickers. The 50,000 dollars that one of the pictures sold for meant almost nothing to Vik Muniz who has made his fortune BUT to the pickers, it changed their lives!

I am motivated by what I watched. My goal is to make it big in the world, so that I can build others. There is not enough generosity in the world-- too much greed. I want to change that and believe I can. Vik did. 

#eliminatepoverty

Waste Land. Dir. Lucy Walker. Perf. Vik Muniz. 02 Filmes, 2010. Netflix.

Rwandan Massacre of 1994

Since my last post, I have been strangely fascinated with the Rwandan Massacres that took place in 1994. My interest was peaked first by the images that I saw from Salgado's book Migrations and the movie, "The Salt of the Earth." This was one of those images. This is the depiction of a school where hundreds of Tutsi (a race in Rwanda) went to hide from the Hutu's who were blood thirsty because of killings that happened by the Tutsi to the Hutu's centuries prior. In their attempted genocide, the Hutu's left all of their previous Rwandan traditions of having mercy on those that are in school and churches. Thinking that they were going to be safe at this school, hundreds of Tutsi piled in-- all of them massacred. 

"Left to Tell" is the account of Immaculee Ilibagiza who was hid in her Hutu pastor's bathroom with 6 other women for 3 months. She recounts the story of her thoughts during the killings; most of her family died. 

This is hard for me to see. I thought that genocides stopped with the Holocaust? I had never heard of this one and it happened just before I was born. Awareness for situations like this needs to be raised.

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Pamphlet. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. [pg. 206-207]. Print

God Grew Tired of Us

I am blessed. I have been given much; I must give. There is simply no other way to put it.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have watched God Grew Tired of Us in conjunction with reading portions of What is the What? Both of which have opened my eyes to the situations that go unnoticed in the world. God Grew Tired of Us is about a group of young men that have been estranged from their families for years due to a civil war that broke out between the Northern Muslims and the Southern Christians. The North demanded that all young men be killed in the south. This caused the demographics to change with all of the young men fleeing for their lives. The title comes because many of these "lost boys" feel that God is tired of the and humanity in general and he is trying to wipe us all out. What a sad out look on life?

Through the grace of God, they come to find that God has not forgotten nor forsaken them. They make it to America which is a very tough transition because they have to work 2, and 3, and 4 jobs to support themselves and send money back to Africa. It is a hard life for them. It makes me think of how truly blessed I am to have parents that support me financially, and to live in America and be established.

The lost boys are an inspiration. God has not grown tired of us, he loves us. He has given us the ability to choose how we will treat others. I hope that we can all treat others with greater kindness, love, respect, and tolerance because we are so blessed.

There are many ways to help humanity, do something.
Here is one way to help,
http://www.johndaufoundation.org/

Atroosh-- A kurdish Refugee Camp in Iraq

    Continuing on my voyage of studying Refugees, I decided it was time to write yet another post regarding the book that I am reading called Migrations- Humanity in Transition.  This is a photo that was taken in Iraq. It is the largest Kurdish refugee camp of Iraqi. Thousands of people live there.

What kind of a home would that be? I often wonder as I study about these things, how do refugees get food? Being a business major, I am very interested in the flow of money and from what I understand, there is no money that is being transferred. This means that they have no supplies and with no supplies they cannot make any money. I am reminded by the destitution apparent in this photo that they really have nothing. They need our help! I am glad that I have had the chance to study them both academically and on my own! 




Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Pamphlet. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. [pg. 110-111]. Print

Refugees from the Croatian population

Recently, I came across the book "Migrations." In it is a multitude of photographs depicting the human exodus world wide. Salgado has spent his professional career focused on different aspects of the earth starting with "Workers" then "Exodus" and "Genesis" is his most recent topic. Migrations is centered in his exodus campaign. As with all of his works, countless years, miles of travel, and photographs were taken to make is art as persuasive as possible. My favorite photograph was titled, "Refugees from the Croatian population."

The 1990's was not a safe era to be a Croatian. Due to much political strife caused from a push for independence by the leader of Croatia against the Serb population of Yugoslavia, A war broke out over who would control Krajina, a land that is thought to belong to multiple nations. When a peace offering was rejected by the Krajina Serbs, a war broke out and the result was thousands of Serbs fleeing during the middle of the war. ("History of Croatia"). this picture was taken by Salgado and is evidence of the dangers faced by the refugees (Salgado). 

I am deeply affected by this as I have been by many of the other refugee photos that I have witnessed. It causes me great concern that these "innocent civilians," as Salgado labels them, have to face such danger to be safe. Their goal is to make it to a better land where peace resides but the reality of that for them is grim. They like a herd of cows, really believe that the grass is greener on the other side but, like the cows, the fence to get to the other side is usually impossible to cross.

“Brief History of Croatia Serb Krajina Region”. Dalje.com. Kontineo. 11March 2008. Web. 6 February 2013.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Pamphlet. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. 22-94. Print

The Salt of the Earth Review

Sebastiao Salgado with his film “The Salt of the Earth” changed me in many ways. It educated and informed me about the sheer number of refugees, migrants, suffering, starvation and deprivation that exists today in the world—most of which is unnoticed to the global audience. It also gave me reverence and perspective to the situation and the magnitude of it. I was shocked to see that so many catastrophes have happened in the last five decades that I never heard about in history class or on the news.

Refugees are everywhere. They are all around us. “They are usually ordinary people—‘innocent civilians’” says Salgado. We tend to give them a bad rap because now we have to take care of people that cannot take care of themselves and they become our burden. The Salt of the Earth changed the thoughts of negativity I had in my heart about the economic burden. My perspective was “what a burden?” and now it is “what an opportunity?”

The refugees coming to America from Syria are good people that are in a tough situation and they need our help. What if I was placed in their position? I just up rooted my family and we had to move where we did not know the culture, the language, had no family, and no means once we arrived.

So what am I going to do as a result of what I saw? I have a new determination to try a little harder to not judge others. Generally people are molded by their surroundings, life experiences, and background. Those things are what make up a person, their character, behavior, and the way they act. Many times it is easy to judge someone that is different, (acts different, looks different, speaks different, thinks different) but the lesson so beautifully portrayed by Salgado is that no matter our background, color of skin, or language, WE ARE ALL HUMANS. We all come from the same being that loves us. This film has inspired me to be kinder, lift the hands that hang hopelessly, strengthen the feeble knees, and be more aware. I hope it has that effect on you too.

Check out this link to the trailer-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OivMlWXtWpY

Introduction to Sebastiao Salgado

Sebastiao Salgado was born in Brazil where his family dwelt at their farm. In his teens he moved from the farm to the city where he enrolled in school and attended the university in Sao Paulo. He had an interest in economics and pursued that path until 1969 when Brazil was put under military rule and he found himself as a refugee, student, and an immigrant in Europe. 

Three decades later and through a lifetime of experiences he has found his passion is to document the human predicament of injustice. In his book he speaks of migrants, refugees, displaced persons, tragedies, and land struggles with the hope that some of the people that see his work will be persuaded to help the world and these people. 

Through his experiences he says, “I have no answers, but I believe that some answers must exist, that humanity is capable of understanding, even controlling, the political, economic, and social forces that we have set loose across the globe… Are we to do nothing in face of the steady deterioration of our habitat, whether in cities or nature? Are we to remain indifferent as the values of rich and poor countries alike deepen the divisions in our societies? We cannot.”

The purpose of this blog will be to raise awareness to the refugees that are among us and the problem that we are not doing anything about it.