NEWS: Is any of it 'Fair and Balanced?'

By Crystal Broyles
June 21, 2005

"NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees uncertain of ever going home" reads a Reuters news headline. Yesterday, June 20, 2005 marked World Refugee Day. Did you know that? Sadly, probably not. Most people do not know of the millions and millions of world refugees and internally displaced persons. A rough estimate of refugees in the world today is just over 17 million. But that's not all, there are over 25 million internally displaced persons alive today. According to the Washington File, internally displaced persons are people: "uprooted within their homelands" therefore "considered internally displaced persons."

Why didn't you know this? Because our prime-time news sources would rather tell us about an 18-year-old girl from Alabama whose whereabouts are uncertain in Aruba. Does this mean I have no sympathy for the poor girl's family? Most certainly not. If it were my sister, I would be crazy with fear, worry, and uncertainty. On the other hand though, how many people go missing each and every day? How many people are murdered every day? And how many people know about the genocide in Sudan or of the crisis in Nepal? We do not know, not because we are stupid, but rather because we are uneducated. Our ignorance of the vast world out their beyond our little circle of friends is due in part to our news informers - reporters and journalists. They would rather spend months telling us the same thing over and over again than educating the public of ALL the happenings in the world. Now, trust me I know there is a whole lot of stuff going on in the world. Far more than what can be covered in the nightly news. But, I think a lot more could be covered if we didn't have "talking-heads" on the news every night telling us what happened today in the Scott Peterson trial or Michael Jackson's trial. I mean, come on! We live in a society inflicted with ADD. If the nightly news switched their stories up a bit it would probably help their viewers with a short attention span and increase their ratings!

Just where are these refugees being hosted? According to this years World Refugee Survey, conducted by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants "Nations with per capita incomes of less than $2600 hosted more than two-thirds of the world's refugees." Merril Smith, the author of this years World Refugee Survey says under a 1951 United Nations convention concerning refugees, refugees are guaranteed some basic rights. Many of which you and me take for granted. These rights include the rights we have to live where we want to live, work jobs, and our right to an education (let's not forget about the 'No Child Left Behind' act). However, there is a major problem. Pakistan and Thailand, two large refugee-hosting countries, have not signed the convention! Therefore, they have no obligation to the refugees and as a result many refugees in up living in "warehoused" conditions in barricaded camps. The refugees in these countries do not even have a legal right to pursue a livelihood. They are just expected to sit and do nothing while their country wars. They have nothing to do, but at least they are not in the crossfire...

This situation reminds me of the film "Flight of the Phoenix." There is a plane with passengers on it flying across a desert and they crash. The survivors decide it is a very good idea to try to repair or rebuild the airplane so they can try to get out of the desert and hopefully survive. Well, the captain says no they cannot do it. His reason: it will lift their spirits and give them hope that they might not die in the desert. A young man that was a passenger decides if they cannot rebuild the plane he might as well try to cross the desert even though it is 99% certain he will die trying. But hey, it's better than just sitting around waiting to die. When the captain discovers the young man has left, he sets out to find the young man before he dies. When he finds him, the young man tells the captain (paraphrase) "so what if you don't think the airplane will fly again...at least give us something to do." Those words "at least give us something to do" represent the vitality of purpose in life. People need to have something to do. When you look back in history at the United States this can be seen for truth. "White men" took the Native Americans and them captives on their own land, rounded them up, and sent them off to refugee camps ( a.k.a. reservations). By doing so, the Native Americans were stripped on their purpose and many lost sight of who they are...were. When Native American reservations are visited today, the proof is in the pudding.

Refugees do not need to be rounded up like cattle to live in barricaded camps. They need to be treated like political asylum seekers and treated with respect. I have personally talked with women who in the middle of the night fled from their homes on Laos and Vietnam. They arrived in the United States and were sent to American schools, educated, and now years later they are partners of thriving businesses. One woman I recall, was a child she and her family came to the United States by an act of God. A church in Michigan sponsored her family. Isn't that awesome?! A church paid their way to the United States and set them up in a house... What a testimony of God's love for His children, both lost and found.

Angelina Jolie is a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassador and has participated in World Refugee days since 2001 when she became an ambassador. This year a few of her remarks were: "(Each year), I try to find the right words that will inspire you, move you ... to realize these refugees are just like us," she said. "They are us and often they are the best of us. World Refugee Day is the day ... to commemorate the humanity that binds us all."
She also challenged everyone to educate themselves and not just know what prime-time news tells us. Ms. Jolie thinks it is a need and not a necessity to be aware of the plight of all refugees, not just those currently in the news. "It's hard to raise awareness unless there's an emergency, and then the money comes in. But then it forgets the other emergencies." Remember the devastating tsunami that struck on December 26, 2004? Millions of dollars poured in for relief efforts. And still hardly anyone knew of the hundreds of thousands of people that are being "ethnically cleansed" off the face of this planet in the Darfur region on Sudan.

The "hero" in the film Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina was also there with Ms. Jolie and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to commemorate refugees all over the world. Mr. Rusesabagina said "We need to give our fellow men and women hope. We need to reach out to them now so that we do not see a Hotel Darfur 10 years from now." Those are powerful words coming from a man that understands the meaning better than anyone.

Refugees are the lucky ones: "The streets swam with blood. People [were] in despair, they had no food, no shelter. They were terrified, fearing for their lives, and the lives of their loved ones. The fortunate ones became refugees, because others were killed," Rusesabagina said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said of Paul Rusesabagina "When Rwanda sank into genocide, you, a hotel manager, found the courage to shelter over 1,200 refugees from certain death, putting your own life in great jeopardy. This story should give us all the courage to rise to the moral challenges that come our way." Helping those in need is a "moral" responsibility. What does that mean to you and me? "It means those who have the ability to do what is right, have the responsibility to do what is right." - Nicolas Cage, National Treasure.

To do your own research just go to http://www.google.com and type in "refugees" or click on this link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&biw=945&q=refugees
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crystal.broyles@gmail.com