Resettlement

After Monday's class discussion, I found myself thinking about resettlement.  The nonprofit “Oxfam” is a combination of 20 independent charitable organizations focusing on alleviating global poverty. Oxfam was founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International, out of Oxford, UK. According to Oxfam, “more than 65 million people around the world have been forced to leave their homes because of violence, persecution, and war.” The United Nations Refugee Agency reported that only 1% of the world’s refugees are ever resettled. Since 1975, the United States has accepted 3 million refugees from around the world, Michigan being the #6 state for resettlement in 2017. 

https://www.wuft.org/news/2015/11/23/
local-organizations-discuss-refugee-resettlement-prepare-for-syrians/

This year, the United States admitted 45,000 refugees. This number comes directly from the President. Although historically the U.S. has resettled more refugees than any other country, the resettlement program has not been able to keep up with increase of the refugee population. Over the past five years, this has risen 50%. Since there were about 16.5 million around the world in 2016, the U.S. really only resettled .27%. 

In "Exit West", by Mohsin Hamid, resettlement becomes a magical thing. While keeping the tone of the novel a somber, unsettling one, Nadia and Saeed climb through doors to get from place to place, looking for somewhere safe to call home. These doorways could symbolize many things from resettlement organizations, to the feeling refugees can have on their journeys.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170724000598

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is a partner in the U.S. refugee resettlement program and identifies those refugees most in need of urgent resettlement. Resettlement organizations can either be public or private. Public organizations include The United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, and The Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Fight for Humanity

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” -Elie Wiesel

This is a picture of Elie Wiesel at Buchenwald. He is on the
second row up, seventh from the left next to the post. 

Elie Wiesel, author of Night, was a survivor of the Holocaust and an award-winning American Jewish writer. Wiesel was 15 when he, his family, and his town’s Jewish population were placed in one of the two confinement ghettos set up in his home town of Sighet. In May 1944, the Hungarian authorities began to transport the Jewish people from the confinement ghettos into Auschwitz. Up to 90 percent of the people were exterminated on arrival at Auschwitz, including Elie’s mother and sister. He and his father were allowed to work in the camp for labor, and were transferred to Buchenwald, where his father was beaten to death the night before the camp was liberated.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/
world-shrugged-off-kristallnacht/story?id=20826565

Elie’s story made me think immediately of Josef’s in AlanGratz’s Refugee. Josef’s home was ransacked during Kristallnacht. Kristallnacht was the night when Nazis/Brown shirts exploded into Jewish homes, hospitals and schools. In the book however, Josef was not taken because he was not yet 13, not yet “a man”. By 1944, it was clear as was seen in Elie’s life, that German soldiers stopped caring if you were a “man” yet (also, in Josef’s story, they only took his father on Kristallnacht while Elie’s entire family was taken and placed into the confinement ghetto and Auschwitz).

Having your humanity taken from you so young has to be one of the most traumatizing things you can suffer as a child. When Josef was in school, his teacher makes a mockery of him by teaching the class how to spot a Jewish person just by looking at their facial features. The teacher pulled Josef to the front of the class and outlined his appearance, humiliating such a young boy. He “…felt the heat of that embarrassment all over again, the humiliation of being talked about like he was an animal. A specimen. Something subhuman,” (page 20, Refugee).

To combat the stealing of humanity like Josef suffered in the world, Elie and his wife created the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. The foundation also does essay contests annually for college juniors and seniors to get them thinking about ethical problems in our world today and in their personal lives.

“The Foundation’s mission, rooted in the memory of the Holocaust, is to combat indifference, intolerance and injustice through international dialogue and youth-focused programs that promote acceptance, understanding and equality.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel#/media/File:Buchenwald_Slave_Laborers_Liberation.jpg

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1986/wiesel/biographical/

http://eliewieselfoundation.org/

https://abcnews.go.com/International/world-shrugged-off-kristallnacht/story?id=20826565

Heatstroke in America

https://www.weather.gov/otx/Heat_and_Drought

Phoenix is known across America as one of the hottest cities in the country. Its humid, heavy air weighs down citizens and can cause many health problems. One of the greatest of these being heat stroke. According to azcentral, a branch of USA today centered in Arizona, "Maricopa County Health Department officials said...that 155 heat-related deaths were recorded in 2017, up five deaths...from 2016." The city of Phoenix averages triple-digit degree temperatures around 110 days per year. The National Weather Service also posted the graph above, showing how the humidity interacts with the air temperature to create the actual temperature. The average humidity in Phoenix in the summer months is around 50%, so if the hot, western, summer air is between 90 and 95, the city could be looking at temperatures in the lower 100's.


According to "Storming the Wall" by Todd Miller, 40% of Arizona's water comes from Lake Mead. However, because of dust storms in the west, the fresh water of Lake Mead and other bodies of water evaporates into the air because the dust sucks what is already there. Lake Mead is being drained faster than it can be filled thanks to this evaporation and human need for consumption. The lake is at a record-breaking low level and with the harsh weather and changing climate, it will be getting much worse in the future. The Colorado River basin feeds both Lake Powell and Lake Mead. According to The Denver Post, both lakes are under 50% full whereas in 2000, both were well above 90%. The water supply is short and there is more need than supply. Miller also said that water rationing in America is inevitable. The question is when.


This drought will cause an unknown amount of dehydration, which can lead to a number of health issues/scares. Heatwaves, according to Miller, are considered one of the greatest environmental killers. The stages of heatstroke are as follows:
Stage 1- heat stress. People exposed to extreme heat will begin to feel dizzy and confused.
Stage 2- heat fatigue. The body is overheating and you may experience rapid pulse and extreme sweating.
Stage 3- heat syncope. The heat causes blood vessels to expand, sending body fluid into legs (thanks to gravity), which causes low blood pressure and can result in fainting.
Stage 4- heat cramps. Muscle spasms can begin to occur due to a loss of a large amount of salt and water thanks to sweating.
Stage 5- heat exhaustion. A combination of stages 1-4.
Sage 6- heat stroke. Can cause organ failure or brain damage.

The heatstroke could just be the "end of world" plague that rids the Earth of the human race. temperatures on the rise and huge cities like Phoenix and other southwestern cities will be but the first to fall victim.

"Storming the Wall" was written by Todd Miller, a Tuscon, AZ native. Miller

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_disaster

 "...the apocalyptic consequences of climate change have become reality. Many people will be forced to find new places to live. Forecasts vary, but one widely cited study, from the United Nations University, suggests that there will be 200 million environmental migrants by 2050. Both migrants fleeing environmental disaster and those escaping war will be constrained in their choices. But currently only the latter may seek refugee status, and with it the right to safe asylum," (economist.com).

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2017/03/01/as-natural-disasters-rise-congress-can-do-more-to-protect-us-infrastructure

Climate change has created millions of refugees, only adding to those forced out of their homes by war and political reasons. Things like drought, famine, floods, and other "natural" disasters are becoming increasingly common. In 1980, there were somewhere between 75-100 such disasters reported annually but according to the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), the number has been steadily rising in recent decades- 348 in 2004 and over 50 this year just since April 1!

                                      How can we help this?

                                         Can it be stopped? 

                                            Slowed down? 

https://sciencing.com/negative-effects-natural-disasters-8292806.html

https://glean.info/pr-teams-can-weather-natural-disasters/

There are no direct answers as how to help these climate change refugees and slow (or stop!) the ever-rising frequency of the disasters plaguing the Earth. Reducing carbon emissions, recycling, and other seemingly obvious tasks could be enough if done on a large enough scale. The problem citizens of the United States is having is the thought that it is someone else's predicament. Climate change refugees should be welcomed; it could happen to anyone.