Refugee: The root of the word appears to be latin and french as in: to take refuge.
One who flees to a shelter, or place of safety, displaced person.
What is in a word? The people experiencing it, the people using it, the people attending to…
Refugee: also is used with political meaning : [n] an exile who flees for safety
US President GW Bush and Reverend Jesse Jackson don’t like the word refugee. They prefer the use of the word American for survivors of Katrina from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana.
The political battle and use of the word currently centres around events in the city of New Orleans.
Perhaps American refugees would be a satisfactory compromise in future political statements.
That’s not going to hunt in the US.
Even the poorest will expect at least a TV dinner in a trailer in the medium term. A cot in a converted sports stadium and MREs will only be doable for a week or so before the locals get restless.
The better-off took stuff with them by car, finding family or hotels elsewhere or quickly snapping up new digs; Baton Rouge houses that took months to sell pre-Katrina now sell in hours. One NPR report I heard had a Realtor only looking at today’s new listings, since anything older was already sold.
However, many, if not most, folks aren’t going to have the working capital to buy and furnish new digs; Uncle Sam’s going to have to pony up.
This isn’t the time to gripe about the budget deficit or to talk about Coasian solutions; the task at hand is to get people housed, fed and back on their feet, and the federal government’s likely to pick up a big chunk of the tab. Yes, that’s going to mean Dubya’s going to look more like FDR than Reagan for ‘05 and ‘06; get over it.
The private sector’s doing a lot, but this is one case where the Mommy State has its place, patching up a big boo-boo and making it better. Mommy may have a bad case of arthritis and be slow to move, but she’s needed right now. Daddy can carp about the lack of flood insurance, the falleness of the looters and inaction at all governmental levels, but he needs to stuff a sock in it and have a heart.
This isn’t one of those cases where markets do well. The do give signals of what products are needed where, but they don’t do well at helping folks without resources. That’s one of government’s jobs; they’re klutzy, but they have the scope to do things that private organizations can’t.
Speaking of refugees with with or without resources…
Barbara Bush, who accompanied the former presidents on a tour of the Astrodome complex Monday, said the relocation to Houston is “working very well” for some of the poor people forced out of New Orleans.
“What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality,” she said during a radio interview with the American Public Media program “Marketplace.” “And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”
Another group of refugees
A group of female hurricane survivors were told to show their breasts if they wanted to be rescued, a British holidaymaker has revealed.Ged Scott watched as American rescuers turned their boat around and sped off when the the women refused.
The account was just another example of the horror stories emerging from the hurricane disaster zone.
Mr Scott, 36, of Liverpool, was with his wife and seven-year-old daughter in the Ramada Hotel when the flood waters started rising.
“At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the hotel saying ‘Can you help us?’ and the policemen said ‘Show us what you’ve got’ and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts,” he told the Liverpool Evening Echo.
“When the girls refused, they said `Fine’ and motored off down the road in their boat.”
At one point he had to wade through filthy water to barricade the hotel doors against looters.
He said the experience made him want to vomit.
Mr Scott also slated the rescue operation, saying police were more interested in taking snapshots of the devastation rather than rescuing the victims.
“I could not have a lower opinion of the authorities, from the police officers on the street right up to George Bush,” he said.
“I couldn’t describe how bad the authorities were. Just little things like taking photographs of us, as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own little snapshot albums”
He added: “The American people saved us. I wish I could say the same for the American authorities.”
Another group of refugees
39 family members now living in Pennsylvannia home.
Child refugees
It is not known how many children are separated from family. The Centre for Missing and Exploited Children has partnered with the federal government to assist reunification. The page is loading slowly - and so far photos of Louisina refugee children are the only photos up.
A brief history of New Orleans from Singapore.
Published 3 years, 2 months ago
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The family of 39 in Amish country (Lancaster, PA) will be taken care of.
Thats good to hear Julana, thank you.
I guess the problem is that American rufugees is an oxymoron. Refugees under the “politcal” part and utilizing that for “American Refugees” you mentioned assumes they are fleeing American for political reasons but they are still Americans. It does a disservice to their Americanhood to use American refugees. That is why GWB and Rev. Jesse would disagree with the term.
I prefer survivors like GWB mentions. Refugees is way too loaded of a term. I prefer to focus on the good not the bad in the midst of the tragedy and don’t complicate it by the terms. Survivors is a more respectful term in my opinion.
DH:
I think I understand the shame behind the word refugee for GW. or others concerned with the use of the word. I don’t think of the use in a political sense for this natural disaster.
Survive: support oneself, continue to live, endure or last: continue in existence after an adversity
Refugees from the storm are also survivors:
one who lives through affliction
Whatever people who lived through Katrina decide to use is none of my business - semantics seem secondary, but may be very important to refugees and survivors.
If refugee gives you a sense of shame or a feeling of disrespect, that’s understandable.
They are refugees in the true sense of the word, as you indicated Bene. The degree of discomfort that GWB feels with the term has, I believe, a more Freudian origin. America, which prides itself on being “the greatest country in the world”, has shown itself to be inadequate in its care of its most vulnerable citizens. Calling them refugees only highlights this failure.
It is to America’s shame that it abandoned it’s most vulnerable citizens. It’s reputation as a civilised country has taken another dent.
Ask any single person who evacuated or was rescued from New Orleans or surrouding areas if they like being called a refugee. I guarantee they will tell you no, and in good N’awlins fashion, they will likely tell you very colorfully.