{"id":696,"date":"2007-01-08T02:52:45","date_gmt":"2007-01-08T07:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=696"},"modified":"2018-08-19T08:19:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T12:19:16","slug":"monday-january-8-2007-karen-refugees-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=696","title":{"rendered":"Monday, January 8, 2007 \u2014 Karen Refugees in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"07-01-08<\/a>The CBC<\/span> (Cana\u00addi\u00adan Broad\u00adcast\u00ading Cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion) often does excel\u00adlent inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal reportage, espe\u00adcial\u00adly when they deploy cor\u00adre\u00adspon\u00addents like Patrick Brown. Tonight\u2019s Nation\u00adal News fea\u00adtured a good exam\u00adple. For decades, the dic\u00adta\u00adtor\u00adship in Bur\u00adma has been com\u00admit\u00adting sys\u00adtem\u00adat\u00adic mass mur\u00adder while sup\u00adpress\u00ading the sev\u00aden-mil\u00adlion strong Karen eth\u00adnic group, and using many they don\u2019t kill for slave labour. Brown entered Bur\u00adma (Myan\u00admar) through the jun\u00adgles of the Thai bor\u00adder with young Karen who are deter\u00admined to doc\u00adu\u00adment con\u00addi\u00adtions in that region with hand\u00adicams. Brown care\u00adful\u00adly gave a run\u00addown of the his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal back\u00adground, intro\u00adduced the main ele\u00adments of Karen cul\u00adture, and inter\u00adviewed sev\u00ader\u00adal peo\u00adple. Most dra\u00admat\u00adic was the inter\u00adview with a frail, elder\u00adly woman forced to build roads for the Burmese army \u2014 roads which will be used to bring in troops to mine the region and burn down Karen villages.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report then shift\u00aded to a fam\u00adi\u00adly which has been able to wran\u00adgle pas\u00adsage to Cana\u00adda as refugees. Brown addressed a sel\u00addom men\u00adtioned prob\u00adlem in such sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtions. It is the most tal\u00adent\u00aded and best edu\u00adcat\u00aded refugees \u2015 teach\u00aders, doc\u00adtors, bright young stu\u00addents \u2015 who are most like\u00adly to engi\u00adneer a suc\u00adcess\u00adful escape. Their depar\u00adture leaves the much more numer\u00adous remain\u00adder with even less human resources to over\u00adcome the prob\u00adlems of dis\u00adplace\u00adment. Brown inter\u00adviewed one young man who is torn between stay\u00ading to help his own peo\u00adple and the prospect of a new and suc\u00adcess\u00adful life in Vancouver.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many years ago, like many Cana\u00addi\u00adans, I did vol\u00adun\u00adteer work to help Han-Viet refugees flee\u00ading Com\u00admu\u00adnist geno\u00adcide. Most of them had fled on rafts, expe\u00adri\u00adenced gang rapes, fought off pirates, and swel\u00adtered in refugee camps, then found them\u00adselves sud\u00adden\u00adly in coun\u00adtry full of snow, and oth\u00ader fright\u00aden\u00ading and con\u00adfus\u00ading nov\u00adel\u00adties. It was both an inspir\u00ading and illu\u00admi\u00adnat\u00ading expe\u00adri\u00adence for me. The sys\u00adtem that evolved here of link\u00ading refugee fam\u00adi\u00adlies with Cana\u00addi\u00adan fam\u00adi\u00adlies and lone refugees with new friends was tremen\u00addous\u00adly effec\u00adtive. This is demon\u00adstrat\u00aded by the rapid upward social move\u00adment of Viet\u00adnamese refugees in Cana\u00addi\u00adan soci\u00adety that ensued.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hope\u00adful\u00adly, the Karen refugees in Van\u00adcou\u00adver are get\u00adting the same kind of vol\u00adun\u00adteer help. South\u00adeast Asia is a com\u00adplex maze of eth\u00adnic groups, lan\u00adguages, reli\u00adgions, and envi\u00adron\u00adments. Most of them are lit\u00adtle known to North Amer\u00adi\u00adcans. I was pleased that the CBC<\/span> final\u00adly let Cana\u00addi\u00adans know about one \u2015 just one of many \u2015 hor\u00adri\u00adfy\u00ading sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtions. I was also pleased at pre\u00advail\u00ading evi\u00addence from polls (and sim\u00adply talk\u00ading to any\u00adone) that Cana\u00addi\u00adans remain strong\u00adly com\u00admit\u00adted to wel\u00adcom\u00ading such refugees, the process that has built our coun\u00adtry and enriched it beyond our wildest dreams. One look at the faces of these young Karen tells you that they are Canada\u2019s future.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CBC<\/span> (Cana\u00addi\u00adan Broad\u00adcast\u00ading Cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion) often does excel\u00adlent inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal reportage, espe\u00adcial\u00adly when they deploy cor\u00adre\u00adspon\u00addents like Patrick Brown. Tonight\u2019s Nation\u00adal News fea\u00adtured a good exam\u00adple. For decades, the dic\u00adta\u00adtor\u00adship in Bur\u00adma has been com\u00admit\u00adting sys\u00adtem\u00adat\u00adic mass mur\u00adder while sup\u00adpress\u00ading the sev\u00aden-mil\u00adlion strong \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-at-blog-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9289,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions\/9289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}