Need high tech assistance? Try a refugee camp!

Refugees in Dadaab’s camps are crammed in to spaces meant for only one third of the actual population, most don’t have jobs – they can’t get work permits under Kenyan law- and boys are often recruited to become pirates and child soldiers.
And now some of them are earning money with internet-based jobs such as searches, [...]

Australia’s only Sudanese Stand-up Comedian

This is the second time Sunday Funday has featured Australia’s only Sudanese Stand-up Comedian, Mujahid Ahmed, who lives in my home town and works for the agency I work for (lucky us!).
Enjoy. I particularly liked the very last line!

Sudanese stabbed and media skewered

A young Sudanese man was murdered in an Adelaide suburb a couple of days ago.
There’s a PhD waiting for someone in analysing the news reports.
First I heard of it was through ABC radio news:
“A group of Sudanese men were sitting on an oval on Eastern Parade at about 4:30pm when they were attacked by about [...]

Can you picture all these asylum seekers?

Yes, South Africa had over 200,000 applications for asylum last year – roughly one quarter of all those in the world. 2008 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons
So, should Australia panic over the number of asylum seekers who have arrived here by boat this year – about 1,300? Nearly 1,500 boat people: [...]

Australian public critical of negative reporting of Islamic and Sudanese communities

New research shows that Australians define ‘Australianness’ by behaviour rather than through ethnic origins.
‘Australian’ behaviour is defined as obeying the law, respecting others, integrating within communities and developing a working knowledge of English.
These findings come from a group of surveys conducted in metropolitan and regional Victoria by a team from Monash University.
In commenting on the [...]

Whole lives lost in shoddy, degrading refugee camps

Many refugees spend an entire lifetime in a refugee camp.
The recently released World Refugee Survey shows that millions of refugees spend anywhere from 10 to 60 years in
“shoddy, degrading refugee camps, where they are unable to move freely, work to support their families, or live anything resembling a normal life.
“In some cases children are born, [...]

War child: “Left home at the age of seven/one year later I’m carryin’ an Ak-47.”

Emmanuel Jal, an ex-child soldier turned rap artist is in Australia at present. He is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, whose parents were killed, ended up in a refugee camp and we taken as a boy soldier at the age of eight. His story is similar to many other Sudanese Australians.
He has begun [...]

Sudan and Cuba join Ahmadinejad in teaching human rights (gasp!)

I reckon the Durban II ‘anti’ racism conference must have been a gasp-fest.
Gasp one – Ahmadinejad’s old-fashioned Jew-hating diatribe
Gasp two -Cuba claimed that “all Cubans, men and women, with no exception enjoy the same rights without discrimination of any kind.” As Corner points out, this may even be true, considering that they enjoy very few [...]

African migrants: daring to hope

I draw your attention to an article in the Australian, ‘New home, new hope’ by Drew Warne-Smith on March 23, 2009.
Drew reminds us of the so-called brawl in the Melbourne suburb of Flemington in 2007, when
“a police van on a routine patrol of Flemington, in Melbourne’s inner north, was hit by a rock as it [...]

Race relations and Africans in Australia

Sunday was Harmony Day in Australia.
“The key message of Harmony Day is Everyone Belongs. It’s about community participation, inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.” Diverse Australia Program
Andrew Bartlett reminds us that it was also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and draws attention to a new project from the [...]