Last Wednesday, a bitterly cold, miserable day here in Norfolk, I went through my usual initial weekday routine – alarm goes off, drag myself out of bed, go through the usual ablutions, get dressed and head for the kitchen to have breakfast, feed the cats and then feed the wild birds.  The ground was solid, the grass was white with the sharp frost and, needless to say, I wasn’t feeling particularly joyous,  particularly as I had to work.

I climbed the stairs to my office to check my emails and see if any work had come in overnight and saw that I had an email from Hillside.  I instantly thought it was going to be horrible news – that they had some more poor animals that they wished to take in due to torture, abuse or abandonment, but was gladdened by the news that the dogs mentioned in my previous article http://socyberty.com/society/romanian-dog-rescue along with some others were now on their way to a new, more friendly home at the Sanctuary.

The dogs, at the time of the email, were just passing through Austria and Hillside understood that about 10 had been considered strong enough for the very long journey to foreign shores.  Among them were Sanni

Brick

and Petronel

These three little refugees were to arrive with a couple of new found buddies;

Lord

and Yura.

Hillside had sent a representative across to Romania the previous week to assess the situation out there and they had reported that, due to the extraordinary sub-zero temperatures currently affecting Eastern Europe, the rescuers who had been working hard to set up temporary shelters to house the dogs, were trying to compete with the ice and snow which had reached the top of the dogs 6 ft pens. 

On Friday morning I received another email from Hillside.  Apparently 14 dogs had arrived safely at the sanctuary the previous night.  I’ve attached some photographs of the dogs, looking a little bemused and wary, as they were “unloaded” and settled down in for the night.  Ten of them were to remain at Hillside for the time being but the other four were collected by local  foster carers.

Here’s a picture of the dogs as they arrived.

and a picture of a couple of the dogs as they were about to spend their first night on Norfolk soil in safe, warm and cosy beds!

Petronel has now been adopted and the adopters had waited for hours in the icy cold at the sanctuary to collect their little waif and stray and take him to a new safe, stable, non abusive life.  Here’s a picture of the now fit and healthy Petronel with his adopter.

A couple of the sanctuary workers are still out in Romania and are hoping to be able to organise another “shipment of refugees” to UK soil in the not too distant future.

We have let in too many immigrants

Two out of three people believe that there are too many migrants in Britain,

 Mori poll carried out for the commission found that 68 per cent of those questioned thought there were “too many migrants in Britain,” a view shared by 47 per cent of Asians and 45 per cent of black respondents.

It also showed that 56 per cent of people believed some groups – mainly immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees – receive unfair priority in the allocation of housing, health services and education.

There were also deep divisions over whether immigration was beneficial – 36 per cent thought it was good for the economy but 20 per cent thought it was not.

Unveiling its 173-page report yesterday, the commission said that four out of five people felt it stressed that there were problems in some places.

In particular, it highlighted the “suspicion and mistrust” in parts of the country affected by the recent waves of immigration from Eastern Europe, in particular more rural areas.

The report said councils should identify potential “hot spots” and argued that better monitoring of “community tensions means that smaller rifts can be tackled before they become bigger ones”.

Councils also needed to intervene when tensions escalated into violence.

Councils should cut the amount they spend translating leaflets into foreign languages, with the money saved being used to help fund English language lessons for immigrants. 

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

DO NO BELIEVE THE ABOVE!!

In order for us to stop the negative image of refugees , we should do more positive work  such as  bringing communities together by giving them the opportunity to get directly involved in a meaningful way, to change the lives of victims of war, and families who have suffered and lost  so much. They’re just human like us; they’ve suffered a lot in their lives, so we should stop their suffering, provide them with the things they’ve never had in their own countries and make them feel secure.

Refugees are people who have had to flee their country due to war or persecution. Many have been victims of extreme violence, torture and rape. They struggle day in and day out for survival, still under the threat of violence and living in extreme poverty. So we should always be welcoming and accept them no matter if they are different to us. Refugees are not the people who the media write about in a horrible way. They make a positive contribution to our society as they study, work, to enrich the society in many ways.

Some of the new arrivals come with nothing but torn T-shirts, no shoes, and very very hungry-looking children. “It is this sight that tore ours hearts” says Ahmed Mohamed who heads the team distributing clothes at Dagahley reception centre. He is one of the old refugees who feel like they are at a better position than the new refugees. “We saw women and children wearing nothing but a small piece of cloth that is so torn it is barely covering their nakedness” He shakes his head “It makes you feel to want to remove all your clothes and give them instead” He adds. He says he has never seen such loss of dignity among Somalis who are known to hold their head up so high amid adversity of any nature. “You feel like the people have lost themselves”.

The older refugees have organised themselves to vigorously raise funds among themselves. They use schools to raise awareness and ask school going children to each ask their parents to donates something however little. They go around house to house, mosque to mosque and the response has been enormous. The interesting aspect of this fund raising is the fact that the older refugees would also give their monthly food rations as part of the items they are donating to the new refugees.

Even though some of the new arrivals come to the camps and look for missing relatives, majority of them have no family even distant relatives to stay with as they wait for the agencies to sort their accommodation.

The statistics of people coming in to the already over-populated camps now stands at 1500-1200 per day, according to AID agencies. Due to this influx, the AID agencies are up to their necks in registrations logistics. Hence there is a window of waiting, normally about 21 days before the refugees are fully integrated in the UNHCR system. In this window the thousands who arrive daily have nowhere to stay. It is here that one sees the generosity of the older refugees. They have opened their doors to shelter their brothers and sisters even if they are strangers to each other.

With the influx, the AID agencies have had to adapt to the dynamics of the numbers. Where-as they used to wait for refugees to show up at the Camp reception centres, they are now ferrying them from the Kenya Somali border which is 140Km from Dadaab. Each bus carries about 100 or so refugees and drops them inside the reception areas.

To understand this complex generosity, one needs to appreciate that the Somali people are very community oriented and giving to their fellow Somalis has been part of their lives for ages. They are more than willing to share the little they have with their hungry brother. It is almost like a parallel AID agency in the making.

This is probably why UNHCR which is the Godfather of the all Aid agencies working in Dadaab camps has recognised their effort and is helping the community channel these donations at a more organised manner. UNHCR is now helping them identify urgent needs and prioritize on how to help. These include mediating between them and manufacturers of shoes, clothing and small household items.

As described by the British news agency BBC, the area known as the Gaza Strip is a relatively small piece on land on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, located between the official borders of Israel and Egypt (BBC). This area, less than one hundred and fifty square miles in size, houses more than one and a half million Palestinians. A website designed to track the news of this area states that over half of its 200,000 person-per-square-mile population is made up of children, many of whom still live in the same refugee camps to which their grandparents moved after the creation of Israel in 1948 (GazaSiege.org). These camps, housing more than three-quarters of these people, often lack basic amenities. At most camps raw sewage flows in open channels, contaminating everything. Even in the cities, unemployment and poverty are at extremely high levels, but organizations such as the Red Cross/Red Crescent can only deliver the most basic of humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip (BBC).

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

And why can’t the Red Cross help these people further? Because the Israeli military has built and guards a tall metal fence around the entire area, as well as maintaining a sea blockade. Even the Egyptian side of the border is largely closed, in an attempt to placate the Israeli government. The only official import crossings are maintained by the Israeli army, and often even humanitarian aid and aid workers are not allowed passage (BBC). This state of affairs only exists due to war. In 1967, during the Israeli-Arab war, Israel took the Gaza Strip from Egyptian control, where it had been since the creation of Israel (BBC). It was not until 1994 that governmental control transferred from the Israelis to the Palestinians, and the Israeli military troops were not removed until 2005 (GazaSiege.org).

Image via Wikipedia

At that time, according to the Israeli government, the occupation of the Gaza Strip by Israel had ended. Rulings from their Supreme Court show that, officially, they feel they have no further responsibility to the people of Gaza (Shany). But once Hamas won the Palestinian elections, the Israeli military tightened an existing blockade around the area, which prevented transport of people and goods, strangled the economy, and led to a “humanitarian crisis” in 2008 (BBC) None of this even discusses the twenty-three day “war” in early during which over a thousand civilians were killed, Israel’s response to a Palestinian election result (GazaSiege.org). This blockade needs to be broken, and Gaza truly removed from Israeli control for two main reasons: first, such a blockade violates international treaties about the treatment of occupied territories, and second, because of the obvious danger to the people living there.

Israel claims that they have a reason to blockade the Gaza strip, mostly to do with political disagreements with Palestine. Israel has tried to “isolate” and “control” the Palestinian political group Hamas through control of supplies and people entering the area as well as intensifying mortar and bombing attacks. They have severely limited access to such necessities as cooking fuel and electricity, and have upheld the legality of such actions. Since Gaza is no longer considered “occupied” by Israel and its population no longer a “protected people” under those terms, these restrictions do not constitute internationally prohibited “collective punishment” but instead fall under supposedly legitimate conventions about restrictions placed between nations which are at war (Shany).

Image by infomatique via Flickr

However, many agencies and individuals around the world have rallied behind the besieged state, as proved by the attempt in during the first week of July this year to break the sea blockade simply to deliver letters of comfort and medical supplies to the people of Gaza (Torchia). Even Israel’s own humanitarian aid agencies find these policies despicable (Shany). As they should! Without the ability to import or export goods, the economy of Gaza is falling apart. Its people are attempting to survive on minimal food and water in sub-standard living conditions (BBC). The claim that Gaza is a state at war with Israel is simply laughable. They cannot maintain themselves, let alone maintain a state of hostilities with another nation!

Image via Wikipedia

Secondly, this blockade and the attacks that are intended for Hamas are a great danger to the innocent civilians living in the area who simply wish to live their lives. They have been permanently barred from re-entering Israel, and so have no choice but to make their lives in Gaza (GazaSiege.org). But this is difficult when the neighboring nations seem determined to use your home for target practice. At times, Gaza’s police force must spend more time evacuating citizens from buildings being attacked by the Israeli military than on preserving internal security; in news sources, this is such a common occurrence as to be a passing mention rather than a headline story (Jarour).

According to some estimates, the citizens of Gaza receive only one-quarter as much water when compared to supplies provided in 2005, and even in 2005 the amounts were considered insufficient. Spare parts for water treatment plants and hospital equipment are difficult to come by, often rendering those facilities essentially unusable (BBC). The area cannot handle its current population, and without the ability to emigrate, the population is continuing to grow at an explosive rate (GazaSiege.org). Unless this blockade is removed, there is no hope for an acceptable standard of living for the people of the Gaza strip.

The blockade of Gaza strip has gone on for so long as to be nearly forgotten by much of the international community; only fringe groups seem to still be making an active effort to end it (Torchia). This is unacceptable. We cannot simply abandon the people of Gaza to this treatment. The Israeli military blockade must be removed, and it must be removed immediately. Not since the Soviet occupation of East Berlin have an innocent group of civilians been allowed to be trapped in this way. These people are isolated from technological advancements, given almost nothing in the way of basic necessities, and then prevented from leaving to find a better life.

Image via Wikipedia

The blockade has no grounding in international law, and should be sanctioned by the international community. In addition, even if the two states were at war, the conditions in Gaza are simply deplorable and should not be allowed to continue. There is no reason to treat the innocent civilians of Gaza in this way, especially when so many of them are the children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren of political refugees. Their ancestors committed no crime other than living in the wrong place at the wrong time, and these people have committed no crime except to be born into this state of siege and military occupation. This must be stopped.

Works Cited

BBC. “Profile: Gaza Strip.” BBC 6 Jan 2009. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5122404.stm>

GazaSiege.org. “Understanding Gaza.” Understanding Gaza. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://gazasiege.org/key_facts.html>

Jarour, Maysaa. “Gaza Policewomen Back to Work.” The Palestine Telegraph 19 Apr 2009. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/diaries/591-gaza-policewomen-back-to-work.html>

Shany, Yuval. “The Law Applicable to Non-Occupied Gaza: A Comment on Bassiouni V. Prime Minster of Israel.” SSRN eLibrary (2009) : n. pag.

Torchia, Christopher. “Gaza Flotilla, More Cat-and-mouse Than Crisis.” Associated Press 7 July 2011. Web. 11 July 2011. <http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hTlTw7X47KBaozBuVp6rtU5Yig4A?docId=85fac624ab3541dba725763ff0bad420>

1.      Around the world, there is a growing problem on the crisis of development refugees, the people who were coerced to relocate because of development policies, programs, and projects not by wars or political conflicts. Usually, these people who are forced to flee from a disaster or conflict receive sympathetic attention and international aid. The same cannot be said for the millions of people worldwide who have been displaced by development, even though the consequences they face may be comparably dire. 

The central view of those involved in the development of traditional, simple, Third World societies was that they should be transformed into modern, complex, Westernized countries. As seen in this perspective, large-scale, capital-intensive development projects hastened the journey for a brighter and better future. Since it made them more vulnerable to change, it is deemed a necessary evil or even an actual good if people were uprooted along the way. 

Sudan is one of the victims of this ordeal and their women are out on a limb. Sudanese women stay restrained to the private world where they are in charge of the traditionally unpaid domestic chores. A woman’s prime traditional social role in Sudanese society is marriage and bearing children. Sudan has been known for the world’s largest crisis of human displacement and Sudanese women are suffering severely. There are several Sudanese women refugees who have been misrepresented, marginalized, or ignored.

There is a need to challenge the mistreated and reliant image of African women refugees by raising their power. Considering the experiences of southern Sudanese women who have found refuge in Cairo, Egypt, there have been analyses of the social, cultural, economic, and political transformations that have occurred among these women as they navigate the challenges of life as refugees.

Sudanese women are not merely victims of circumstance who are dependent on their host country and on foreign aid to improve their lives. Some of the issues on the displaced Sudanese women include resettlement and compensation. Based on African feminism, black feminism, and antiracial and critical race theory, Sudanese women utilize their recently acquired skills and knowledge to challenge their past and challenge the image of women refugees as victims. Southern Sudanese women refugees need to see themselves not as victims but as agents of social action and change.

Displacement has to be seen as a broad and multilayered phenomenon. Looking at the experience of displaced Afro- Colombians, there is a massive displacement from their home communities in the Pacific since the late 1990s. In terms of several interrelated processes, this region has seen unparalleled changes. These changes include the increased pace of development and extraction of natural resources after 1980, the increase of significant social movements in the wake of the cultural and territorial rights given to ethnic minorities by the National Constitution of 1991, and the spread of the armed conflict, with the concomitant regime of terror and displacement.

Development and modernity must be seriously scrutinized as intrinsically displacement-creating processes. There exists a widening gap between modernity’s displacement-producing tendencies and displacement-averting mechanisms. New policies are needed to construct on local communities’ ability to defy in place and to rebuild their own alternative modernization. 

These tents could belong to anyone fleeing any war or conflict in any part of the world. What part it is doesn´t matter so much, in my opinion. What really matters is that because of a tribal war or whatever conflict it is, hundreds, or even thousands, of people had to flee their own lands to survive and to escape from death.

Refugees walk endlessly to find a safe spot somewhere where they can install their humble tents.

They are men, women and children who had to leave everything behind in search for a place to live.

More often than not, international organizations can´t cope in helping them with their basic needs.

They lack everything for survival.

Scarce food, clothes or medicines… Illnesses and malnutrition spreads fast among them, wherever they have to camp.

 I look at these two children wondering what age they are, what country they come from that were forced to flee it together with their parents and, perhaps, other older relatives. What are they looking through the wired fence? Obviously, it isn´t a sports match as many other children in any advanced country would be watching and they would most probably be laughing and cheering. These boys look frightened as though they were watching something terrible. How many days have they been walking in search for a safe place to live? They are at an age in which they should be with their parents living in a place, no matter how humble, but a clean and safe place. They should be in a school learning something that could give them the necessary tools to forge their own lives in the future. Yet, seeing them behind this wire fence, I wonder what future life awaits for them.

 What a different photograph from the one above! Time ago, I read about a woman who had fostered a child in an African country. At a given time, she travelled to that country, because she wanted to know the girl she had fostered and her family. As she told us, she felt moved to see what a smiling and happy girl was when she hardly had anything, which made her think of her own children that had all that money can buy, but they weren´t happy, nagging for this or that. When this woman returned from her journey, she was met by her children and as soon as she saw them in the airport, she exclaimed to them, ”From now on, there´s no more I want this and I want that. I´m not spoiling you two anymore!”

How often we´ve seen refugee children playing football with a mere ball made of papers and cloths. MIles away from them, other children own loads of toys. They have all what money can buy. Yet, they get bored.

Today is Refugee Day as I have read in the newspapers and I wanted to spare a thought for all those who ,for some conflict or another, have to escape from horror in search for a better and safe place to start up again.   

This bland description of Australia was taken from Encyclopaedias. What it doesn’t tell us is that since ancient times there has been tales, myths if you like, of a vast southern continent – Terra Incognita, it was called – the Unknown Land. Those ancient mapmakers couldn’t know that there was, indeed, a vast southern continent that covered nearly 3 million square miles, but they had heard rumours. The encyclopaedia doesn’t mention that before Cook, this continent was almost certainly visited by traders from what is now Indonesia, and Dutch and Portuguese mariners definitely knew about us. Before them, of course, came the people we refer to as Aborigines; the most recent estimates date the arrival of Aborigines at about 60,000 years ago. In that 60,000 years, the Aborigines learned to live in and with one of the Earth’s most difficult climates, learning also how to manage the land and its animals.

Aborigines have the most complicated of languages, and they are one of the few native peoples that have a word for ‘Love’. Before the coming of White settlement, there were trading routes crossing Australia from east to west and north to south, and there are drawings of high-prowed, sea-going canoes among the rock art known as the ‘Bradshaw Paintings’ in the north Kimberley area of Western Australia; and anthropological studies suggest that Australian Aborigines may have crossed the Indian Ocean to Africa.

From the earliest days of White settlement, there have always been those people who were instrumental in changing Australia and Australians into the nation and people that we know today:

*    In 1797 Capts. Waterhouse and Kent imported 13 merino sheep into the colony, and John Macarthur purchased two rams and a ewe, thus starting the wool industry, which was to be the mainstay of Australian economics for the next 150 years.

*  Sir Edward Barton fought for Australia’s federation and became our first Prime Minister. Before Federation, we needed a passport of sorts to travel interstate!

*   Sir Douglas Mawson was the leader of the British, Australian, and New Zealand Antarctic Expedition from 1929 to 1931. After 1946 he was a member of the Commonwealth Government’s Antarctic Advisory Committee.

*  Howard Walter Florey, later Baron Florey (1898-1968) was born in Adelaide the son of a boot maker, and educated in medicine at the University of Adelaide. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his part in the development of Penicillin, which became the saviour of countless lives during WWII and afterwards in the civilian world, and was the precursor of all our present day antibiotics.

*  Daisy Bates lived with the Aborigines and recorded 188 different languages, and preserved much of their myths and legends. She was still assisting and nursing them well into her old age.

*   John Flynn – Flynn of the Inland – was instrumental in the development of the pedal wireless and the Flying Doctor service, which again have saved countless lives in the outback of Australia.

*   Sir Macfarlane Burnet’s work on viruses and the body’s immune systems has paved the way for successful organ transplants.

*  Sir John Eccles was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in understanding how impulses travel along the body’s nervous system.

*   Elizabeth Kenny was born in NSW in 1886, and early in her nursing career she developed a method for caring for polio victims that was directly opposed to accepted medical practice. Wounded while on active service in France in WWI, she went on later to further develop her treatment of polio. She went to the USA, and after some opposition her methods were endorsed by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, and in recognition of her work, by Special Act of Congress she was given permission to enter and leave the US at will.

*   In 1930, Sir Hubert Wilkins, who was born at Mount Bryan East in SA in 1888, purchased from the US government an ex WWI submarine for $1 (!) and travelled in it under the Arctic Ice cap to within 640 kilometres of the North Pole!

*  Hubert Vere Evatt, the NSW politician was instrumental in the setting up of the UN in 1946, and was President of the UN General Assembly in 1948-49.

*  A special mention must also go to all the men and women who served, and continue to serve, in the Armed Forces from the Boer Wars to WW’s I & II, to Malaya, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq; they are always there. You may not agree with your government’s policies, but without the sacrifice they made then, and continue to make, Australia would be a very different place today.

I cannot begin to list here all the Australians both White and Indigenous that have affected world history in the last 200 years, nor can I list all the Australians that have shaped our nation – such people as Neville Bonner, Robert Menzies, Simpson and his donkey, Albert Namatjira, Geraldine Cox, Andy Thomas, ‘Weary’ Dunlop, and Doris Taylor. There are literally thousands of men and women, white and black, who have worked for this nation; sometimes they did not even realise the possible outcomes of what they were doing, and indeed, I wonder if they would have changed anything if they had.

These are the people who have stood out from the crowd, who were seen to be doing something; but there are thousands more in our country today who are working for the good of all, and they are not seen, they do not stand out from the crowd, but work selfless hours in service to others.

From the very beginnings of Australia there has been an attitude of a ‘fair go’ for anyone who showed that he was not afraid of hard work, and who was not averse to telling ‘the Boss’ where to ‘get off’ if necessary; and my father was one of those newcomers to Australia in the early 1950’s who was pleasantly surprised by the friendly acceptance he found in Australian society.

But Australia started as a Penal Colony – a place for the strata of British society that could be best described as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’, and some of those sent to be their gaolers were little better. The prisoners who served out their sentences were often used as servants to the free settlers, while the Aborigines were often treated worse than cattle. This was the beginning of today’s society – the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’; and that division is still, unfortunately, with us.

I have seen, with my own eyes, a homeless man bedding down for the night in a corner of an Adelaide building. It was winter, and the night was very cold, and he was one of hundreds in Adelaide, and thousands across Australia; and while, like you all, I had heard of this and seen it on our TV news services, it had never affected me until I was confronted with it in real life.

Those of us who come to Spiritualist Churches and hear the messages that speak about Karma and Reincarnation know that, yes, maybe those in need did choose their lives to balance out their Karmas, but in doing so they present a unique opportunity for us to balance out ours. Australia’s Constitution guarantees that those who wish to grow closer to their God can do so in whatever fashion or religion they choose. We don’t need to be Saints, we don’t need to suffer death for our God or our beliefs, we don’t even need to have any beliefs – all we need to do is to serve others less fortunate than ourselves without worrying what their religion or beliefs may be. That’s all. We don’t need to be as dedicated as Daisy Bates or John Flynn; we just need to do what we can.

Australia is one nation but there is a division in our country between the various racial, ethnic, and socio-economic groups, and if we do not sow the seeds of tolerance, understanding, service, and mutual acceptance, we will reap the same whirlwind that we see in other countries. We need accept that the people who come to Australia as refugees are just that – refugees – those who risk their lives to escape intolerance; and just as those refugees from Vietnam enriched Australia, these refugees from other parts of the world will also enrich Australia.

We have much to be thankful for in Australia. Let us take this gratitude out to our fellow Australians whoever or wherever they may be, to show them that, in Australia, there are still people who would reach out to them and say, ‘Here, mate, let me give you a hand,’ – to show them that Australia can still be the ‘Lucky Country’.

            The culture of Tibet is what made the occupation by the Chinese extremely difficult. Tibet has thousands of years of history, and tradition. This culture is not going to disappear in a few years. In fact even after 50 years of violence, the culture still perseveres. It is still thriving in Tibetan settlements in India, and around the world, and in the hearts of Tibetan people. They will never give up, and will always hope to regain their land. Some think that non-violence is the downfall of Tibetan people, but I believe it is what kept them alive in the first place. The Chinese have a mighty army, one of the biggest in the world, and Tibet stood absolutely no chance. In a plea to the U.N., the Dalai Lama said, “The present invasion of Tibet will be the grossest instance of the violation of the weak by the strong.” China easily took hold of Tibet. Though the Dalai Lama was peaceful, his people still fought back, but they didn’t stand much chance against the Chinese.  With the leadership of the Dalai Lama, who Tibetans adore, they have maintained their culture, by setting up institutions like Tibetans Children’s Village, and creating a stable government sheltered by India. Without the help of India, Tibetans would have almost nowhere to go. India had played a huge role in keeping Tibetan culture alive.   

            Over 145,000 refugees have escaped Tibet, and are settled all over the world, with the largest saturation in India. They have many amazing stories of escape, and had many rough times. There was no direct route of escape, but many trekked over mountains and through the snow, and then through the dense forest of Nepal and India. Being chased by the Chinese and Nepalese, the refugees were mentally tortured by the thought of being caught.

            Sonam Gyalpo is 68 years old and lives in Leh, Ladakh. He lived in Kitdong village before he left Tibet. He escaped in 1964. He had no friends with him, but some Nepalese helped him on his journey. He came to India to preserve culture, join the army, and attempt to regain independence. He traveled by foot from Tibet to Nepal. On the way he carried some food, but when it ran out they either had to buy food from the Nepalese or beg for it. He traveled from Kitong to Desoulie (near border), then to Kathmandu. He stopped in the Desoulie refugee camp, which was organized by the U.N. and he got food and shelter. He faced very little trouble with the help of these camps, and the Nepalese. He heard that there was a Tibetan Refugee army forming in India, so that was the main reason he came to India. He was admitted into the Indian army march 15, 1965. Under the leadership of H.H.D.L., he felt very happy and peaceful in India.

            In the spring of 1949, the Communist forces attacked Nanking the capital of Nationalist China with artillery fire. The fight lasted for a few days, until the communist Red Army took the city. This was the end of the four-year civil war, and the nationalist leaders fled to Tai Wan. The People’s Republic of China was then proclaimed on October 1st, 1949. The first Chairman was Mao Tse-tung. There was conflict going on between Tibet and China in the early 1900’s, because China felt they should own Tibet. Mao had similar opinions. Even though Mao was aware that the Chinese and Tibetan cultures are so extremely different, he thought that having Tibet be a part of China would make it stronger and more unified. It is also thought that Mao  had his eyes on the rich minerals, and large amount of fresh water in Tibet.

            In 1949, Mao Tse-tung vowed to liberate Tibet from “foreign imperialists”. At this time, it is said that there were only a small handful of foreigners in Tibet. In the early 1950’s, the Tibetans started building their army, and expelled the Chinese mission from Tibet. In Tibet, they knew the communist party was planning something. Massive religious ceremonies took place. Many prayed for safety, and religion was the main tool that kept the nation together. On the eastern border of Tibet, poorly trained Tibetan soldiers who were wielding inferior weapons compared to the Chinese waited for the attack.

            After he came from Tibet, Sonam’s younger brother and sister were still in the harsh and hostile environment their nation, and were very unhappy. At this time, they had each got married and had children. He could not stand by and let his family struggle. In 1976, he went back to Tibet to take his family to India. When he reached Tibet, he met with his two sisters, and their husbands along with six young children. They decided to take the chance and leave Tibet for the Nepal border. He has a book from when he escaped from Tibet, which is very old. He wrote everything about his journey in this journal. His sister had three sons and one daughter. Two of the boys were 10 years old, and the other was 11. The daughter was only 3 Years old. Some children could walk but for the smaller children, the adults took turns carrying them. They walked in the nighttime, and slept in the day to avoid being caught by the Chinese. They crossed the mighty Himalayan Mountains without using the road. In the mountains, they faced the harsh weather and snow. At the border of Nepal and Tibet, there is a large bridge. On one side is the Chinese police post, and the other is the Nepalese post. There were usually seven plus police on both sides of the bridge, patrolling.

            On October 7th, 1950, China launched a massive attack in Tibet. They attacked six different areas simultaneously. In only weeks, the Red Army surrounded the Tibetan forces. This news reached Lhasa, and the 14th Dalai Lama had to make the choice to direct his country at the young age of 16. The first thing he did was send a plea to the United Nations for help. He put too much faith in the judgment of the U.N. who postponed the decision. The Dalai Lama was then moved to a city very close to the Indian border, so he could make a quick escape incase the city of Lhasa was taken. Tibet’s only option at this point was to sign an agreement on 23 May, 1951. This was called the Seventeen Point Agreement. The Tibetan delegates had no choice but to agree with the Chinese, so Tibet was declared a part of China, in return for them promising to leave the Tibetan culture untouched. They threatened the delegates with a massive military assault if they did not sign. In September of that year, the Chinese arrived in Lhasa with 3,000 troops. The Dalai Lama returned to the city to try to negotiate with the Chinese. Huge army camps were set up in the city, and soldiers took over people’s houses. The Chinese were cleaning out their food, and using many resources that Tibetans relied on.

            The Dalai Lama said “Our only hope was to persuade the Chinese peacefully to fulfill the promises they had made, in their agreement. Non-violence was the only course that might win us back a degree of freedom in the end, perhaps after years of freedom.”

            Sonam and his family were very lucky and there was very heavy rain the night they planned to cross the Nepal border. All of the guards were inside a small hut, and sleeping. So the large group crept over the bridge without being caught. If they were caught by the police, they would have been tortured and possibly killed. Sonam heard a story of a girl that was caught crossing, and was raped, and then thrown off the bridge into the river. When a family leaves Tibet, the Chinese authorities are alerted. Therefore, during their whole journey, the Chinese were very close behind them. In fact, just 15 minutes after they crossed the border, the Chinese showed up with guns, hunting them down. During the crossing of the bridge, the apron that was covering a 2-year-old baby was blown off by the wind and left on the bridge. This alerted the Chinese, and they told the Nepalese that someone had escaped. In response the Nepal police told the Chinese that nobody had crossed. The Chinese army ordered the Nepalese to send the escapees back to Tibet. During their journey through Nepal, Sonam and his family had to cross through the forest. They found a suitable cave, and hid inside the cave for 7 days so whoever was chasing them would call off the search. After 7 days, they crossed all the mountains and after 15 days of walking, facing many problems, like blisters, wild animals, and the mental torture of knowing they could be caught by the police, they finally reached Kathmandu. During the time in Kathmandu, they were always very worried that someone would catch them and send them back to Tibet. They went to the Tibetan reception center in Kathmandu, and told their story. This center gave them help. They were given a letter, which proved that they were from Tibet, and later gave it to the minister of exile government in Dharmasala. The minister was shocked from this story. Sonam then went back to his duty in the army, and left the responsibility of supporting his family to the exile government.     

            In the first few years of the assault, the Chinese were nice. They built roads, and did almost no harm. They tried to win over the Tibetans, because they knew it would be impossible to force this extremely different culture on the people. Progressively, the Chinese forced rule on the government and the people. They took away the Dalai Lama’s power, and prevented his reforms on the land owning system. Communist reforms slowly started to be carried out as early as 1953 in Kham region. The Chinese started to destroy thousands of monasteries and started killing any opposition in this area. People were punished for practicing Buddhism. This created much unrest, and guerilla groups started to form. These groups did damage to the Chinese, which made them send in more forces, to destroy the resistance. More and more uprisings took place as the news spread, so the Chinese strengthened their hold on the nation, not allowing this to happen. Uprisings continued to happen in 1957-9. The Dalai Lama was strictly against violence, he did not want this to happen, but he could not control angry guerilla groups and tribesmen dying in his name.

            On March 9, 1959, there was an uprising of the people of Lhasa, because the Dalai Lama was scheduled to visit a Chinese camp without his usual bodyguards. The Tibetans were very suspicious, and would not allow their spiritual leader to be taken or killed by the Chinese. The townspeople armed themselves with whatever they could find, and thousands marched to Norbalinka where His Holiness was staying. By midday, over 30,000 people had surrounded his house. The Tibetan army also joined this group. The people were chanting and shouting against the Chinese. Chinese troops converged on the group of protesters with machine guns and heavy weapons and prepared for a slaughter. The Dalai Lama in spite of his people made the decision to escape. He left in the night for the wilderness of southern Tibet. A week after he left his house, the horrifying news came. Two days after he had secretly left, the Chinese opened fire. Over 10,000 were killed in this slaughter. This was the beginning of agony for all Tibetans.

            Chamba Kunsong, age 67, lived in Lhasa before he escaped. He left Tibet in 1959, soon after the Chinese occupied Tibet. He was a part of the March 9th uprising. He went to a monastery where they kept guns, and could not go home, because he would be arrested. He was running from the monastery in a group of people when the Chinese forces opened fire with machine guns. Eleven people were killed in front of him. He then laid down on the ground pretending he was dead. He was very scared, but this smart move kept him alive.

            Two days after the uprising, thousands of Tibetan woman marched through the streets of Lhasa, which resulted in a mass arrest, and many leaders of this movement were sent to jail, tortured, and killed. Over 87,000 were killed in central Tibet alone in 1960, following the Lhasa uprising. Many resistance forces sprung up, and there was fighting all across Tibet. The Chinese only gained complete military control in the mid 1960’s. Some blame Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister, because he did not supply Tibetan soldiers with appropriate weapons. If he had, they would have had a better chance of fighting off the Chinese. The United States CIA at one point helped the Tibetan forces, but only to “embarrass” the Chinese. Later, they stopped helping because relations with China improved. The Khambas fought for years with the Chinese in northern Nepal, but when the Nepalese started helping the Chinese, the rebellion ended in 1974. There were many labor camps set up by the Chinese, and in one camp in particular there was a 99.5% mortality rate. Prisons were extremely brutal. Prisoners were tortured and beat to death. If anyone expressed Tibetan culture or religion in any way, they were sent to prison. If anyone spoke against the Chinese, protested, or even talked to a foreigner about something, they would be sent to prison. In 1980, there was an estimated 80,000 Tibetans in prison or work camps.

            Similar to the Dalai Lama, Chamba Kunsong escaped from Lhasa on horseback. He left with one of the first major groups of people to leave Tibet in 1959. There were about 500 people in this group. The group was mostly made up of 10-25 year olds. This is because the older generation would not survive the strenuous journey, and they had already lived most of their lives, so it was not worth it to travel to India. He first went to Pembo, then to Konbo. He visited a Holy lake called Lhamoi Latso, near where the Dalai Lama was born. After walking for 15 days, he crossed the border to India, near Sarikingoson. This was near Ashram Pradesh. They walked in the nighttime, and slept in the daytime. They slept in wooded areas to hide themselves. The Chinese were chasing them every step of the way.

            One day they were caught by the Chinese, who opened fire on the group killing many people.  It was very difficult to hide such a large group of escapists. During their journey, the group had to cross a mountain pass. For two days, they walked in the snow with no food or water. Even when they were walking at a lower altitude, in the warmth, they faced many problems along the way, which included lack of food, the right clothes and shelter, and most of all, there were many snakes and leeches. Many people were killed by snakebites. They also faced blisters on their feet. They had none of the medicine they needed to treat any of these things. They suffered from the heat, because they were used to the cold weather. During the night, they would stay in caves, or any shelter they could find. At one point, they crossed a very rickety rope bridge, and people fell off into the river, never to be seen again.

            When the group reached the Indian border, they handed over all of the guns to the Indian border patrol in Takporigo. They had no problem at the border. They got medicine and health treatment.  The Indian government helped them out by air dropping food during their journey. They spend nearly one month in that area of India making roads, in trade for food and shelter from the Indian government. From there, they were flown by airplane to Asam. This is near to Bumdilah. After they arrived, the Indian government selected different fields of work and sent them to Aram Pradesh, where many went to school or vocational training.

            It has been 51 years since Chamba Kunsong escaped the brutality of Tibet. His relatives want him to go back to visit Tibet, and he almost went, but the Beijing Olympics made security very tight. Now, Chamba can call his family, but the calls are monitored, so they cannot ask about the situation in Tibet, or anything political. He is now living in Leh, Ladakh and has a shop in the Tibetan market.        

            There were an estimated 600,000 monks in Tibet before the Chinese occupation. Many of these monks were jailed, tortured, and killed. Some were also forced to do dirty work in front of their people. Many monks just vanished without a trace. Many religious figures and government workers were subject to “Thamzings” or “Struggle sessions”. Many of these people were beaten, tortured and killed, usually by members of their own families who were forced by the Chinese to do this. Children were forced to watch while their parents were beaten and stoned to death. In total, over one million Tibetans were killed from 1950 to today. 

            In 1980, Topgyal Tsering left Tibet for Nepal. He was enrolled in a Chinese school in Tibet before leaving at the age of nine. His father chose to go to India. The main reason he left, was his parents wanted him to get a good education. In Tibet, the education system is very poor.

            They left for Nepal in a truck. It took about three days of driving. They traveled from Tingri, to Nyelam, and from there to Dam. Normally people took the route over the mountains, but Topgyal took the easy, but more dangerous route, directly to Nepal on a road. Topgyal’s aunt took him to Dharmasala, and he was admitted into the TCV School. He then became a teacher in Dharmasala, and later moved to Ladakh. In 1991, Topgyal traveled back to Tibet, but only near the border. He did not have permission. He spent twenty days in Tibet, but stayed inside for the majority of the time, in fear of being caught. This was a very risky thing to do, but he says, “This is my country, Tibet is my country, and I have full right to walk in my country.” After his stay, he took the same route that he took eleven years earlier to return to Nepal. Later, he traveled Europe, but there is a special passport made just for refugees. It is not a very good passport, because not many countries know about it, and many are questioned while using it. Tibetans are not allowed to buy land because of state subject, so he must rent a house, and have a shop in a Tibetan settlement market. Nowadays, Topgyal has very good contact with his family in Tibet, but they must not talk about any political topics. It would be dangerous for his family if he talked about the Chinese in any bad way.     

            Though much of the Tibetan culture was destroyed before the Cultural Revolution of China, afterwards, everything was ruined. One factor of the Cultural Revolution was to destroy everything that had to do with the past. Tibetan culture is almost all about past tradition. In all, over 6,000 monasteries were destroyed along with many priceless artifacts, and even stricter rules were set into effect. Anything that had to do with the old culture, including hairstyles, clothes, family life, and religious beliefs were strictly prohibited, and monitored. Everything was monitored by the Chinese. They would search houses to see if there were an authorized amount of occupants, and if someone was missing, they knew that they were trying to escape.

            There are approximately 145,000 Tibetan refugees. Of those, about 100,000 live in India, 16,000 in Nepal, 2,000 in Bhutan, and 25,000 in the rest of the world. Dharmasala, India houses the exile government called the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). This government is democratically elected, except for the head of state, “His Holiness” the Dalai Lama. The government has its own Judiciary system, and legislator made up of 46 members. It also has a Cabinet called the Kashag, which is the main executive party. The Dalai Lama and his government work hand in hand, one is not more powerful the other. The Dalai Lama coming to exile in India brought many refugees to India. The Indian government has helped the Tibetans in a huge way, allowing them to have freedom of culture, and a place to stay until they can get their country back.  

            The Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) was established in 1960, just a year after Tibet was occupied by China. H.H. the Dalai lama recognized that the younger generation was going to be most important in freeing Tibet. Therefore, he proposed TCV. On May 17, 1960, fifty-one children from the road construction camps in Jammu were flown to Dharmasala, and given shelter with the help of the Indian government. The Dalai Lama’s elder sister Mrs. Tsering Dolma Takla looked after the children. This first settlement was called “Nursery for Tibetan Refugee Children”. Soon after this, many children started pouring in from road construction camps from all over the nation. Many organizations donated money to this growing non-profit, and it steadily grew into what it is today. TCV’s motto is “In service of children”. There are well over 11,000 children under its care. TCV was developed to care for orphans in particular, but also any Tibetan refugees. It is based in Dharmasala, and has spread as far north as Ladakh, and as far south as Bangalore, India. TCV is made up of many different sectors, including children’s villages, residential school, day schools, daycare centers, vocational training centers, youth hostels, and old people’s homes. All of the children in TCV live in groups called “Khim-Tsang” which is similar to a Tibetan home, and had two foster parents. Each “Khim-Tsang” has its own house, with all needed facilities. The children are raised as brothers and sisters, and are given love and community. TCV’s goals are; to give Tibetan students a good education of normal subjects and the Tibetan culture; to help Tibetan orphans or exiles to be contributing members of society; to give Tibetans a sense of community and Identity, and to bring the Tibetan people together. Tibetan Children’s Village is almost fully dependant on external funding, The SOS organization donates about 50 percent of the total donations. Other organizations donate about one-third, and individual sponsors from around the world give one-tenth. Thanks to this school, 85-90% of exiled children are enrolled in school.

            “Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the under the care and kindness of our parents. Then, later in life, when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are then dependant on the kindness of others. Since it is the case that at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on others’ kindness, how can it be that in the middle we neglect kindness towards others?” – H.H. The Dalai Lama     

            Tanzin Boutik is 26 years old, and lives in Leh. She lived in eastern Tibet, in a town called Soso Nehrum. She escaped Tibet very recently in 2008. She came because she wants to get a good education in India. She says it is a very hard life in Tibet, and she wanted to see the Dalai Lama. She fled Tibet with a group of five girls. They asked nomads, which had yaks, and are allowed to cross the Tibet border, to carry their things. They went before the nomads, so they didn’t have to lug everything with them. Therefore, during their journey, they did not have enough cloths or food. They had to wait until they met up with the nomads.

            They traveled just south of Mount Everest. There was a lot of snow, and it made it very difficult to cross the terrain. There were also many large cracks in the snow, which went very deep. They got water from snow, and usually went without food for long amounts of time. They slept in daytime, in small caves, or built small huts with rocks. Even though she had a place to sleep, Tanzin was always kept awake by the thought of being caught by Chinese. They were very afraid of the Chinese army. They were depending on luck, because they could easily fall into a rift, or run into Chinese authorities. When she crossed near Mount Everest, the small group met with mountain climbers, who were climbing Mount Everest. The climbers gave them food and shelter while they waited for the nomadic group to bring their things. The Nomads never showed up, so the group left early in fear of the Chinese or Nepalese catching them.

            At the Nepal border, they crossed at night. If arrested by the Nepal police, then they would be looted, beaten, jailed, or raped. It all depends on the person who is on guard. Tanzin was very lucky, and was not caught. Once they arrived in Nepal, they were very happy, and much more comfortable. In Nepal, they met up with a woman, and then went to Delhi. They were helped by some people, and brought to Dharmasala. At the reception center in Dharmasala, they did not know for sure if she was Tibetan, because she didn’t check in with the refugee reception center in Nepal. Luckily, her uncle lived in Leh, and picked her up. Tanzin would really like to go back to Tibet to meet her family again, but she knows that she will be arrested if she ever goes back to Tibet.   

            There are still many issues facing Tibet people, and their environment today. Of course, there is still the lack of national independence, which is all of the Tibetan peoples main goal. The problem is if anyone young or old expresses any opinion on Tibetan independence, they will be accused of trying to “Split the motherland” and be sent to jail. Even possessing a Tibetan flag can lead to a seven-year jail sentence.  In Tibet the Chinese are constantly trying to wipe out the strong Tibetan religion. Tibetans are forced to pledge allegiance to the Chinese government, and denounce their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Not agreeing to do this will result in a prison sentence. Possessing a picture of the Dalai Lama is illegal today. In May 2005, the Chinese government went so far as to declare a “fight to the death” against him. In effort to change Tibetan culture, the Chinese are transferring many Chinese immigrants, which now outnumber the Tibetan population.

            In July 2006, a railway opened from Lhasa to Gormo, which more easily allows Chinese people to move into Tibet. Every day, the train brings in about 2,000-3,000 Chinese who settle in Tibet. Tibet’s education system is controlled completely by the Chinese. Tibetan children are faced with problems, as the system is built directly for the Chinese students. Tibetans are subject to extra fees, and poor facilities. The main reason that over 10,000 students escaped to India, was to get a good education. More than half of the refugees arriving in the Tibetan reception center in Dharmasala are below the age of 18. Even though China in 1998 comprised the bill of rights, it was not enacted in Tibet. Tibetans have absolutely no rights, and the Chinese have complete power over them. Tibetans are subject to random arrest, without any reason, and are denied any legal representation. There is still torture in prisons, even though the U.N. had a convention against Torture. Many children are denied healthcare, and schooling. There are many political prisoners below the age of 18.

            The Chinese are plundering the environment of Tibet. Deforestation is a big problem, because the Chinese and their development plan calls for tons of wood to be cut. The forests in Tibet are hundreds of years old. From 1959 to 1985, the Chinese removed $54 billion worth of timber from Tibet, making up over 46% of its total amount. There are no programs to plant more trees or help the environment, so there are many harmful affects on the wildlife and nature. The Chinese have not only destroyed much of the animal’s habitats, but they also “Trophy hunt” endangered species. There are over 81 endangered species in the Tibetan Plateau. Many minerals and metals are being stripped from Tibet to feed the massively growing nation of China. The new railway in Lhasa is expected to boost extraction rates. One of the elements they extract is Uranium, which is a key element in nuclear technology. Tibet holds about one quarter of China’s large nuclear missile arsenal. The Chinese use Tibet as a nuclear waste dumping site. There have been deaths of Tibetan livestock near dumping facilities. The Chinese also offered foreign countries a cheap area to dump their waste, at only $1,500 per Kg. Cancer and birth defects have been on the rise, and water has also been contaminated.            

            Throughout the world, there are about 250 Tibet support groups. These groups raise awareness on the Tibet conflict, and support the Tibetan people. The Central Tibetan Administration’s use of non-violence to attempt to win their land and dignity back has drawn a large crowd. It is human right to have the freedom of land, religion and culture. These groups have spread the word on Tibet. The demonstrations during the 2008 Beijing made many people realize that something has been going on. There have been Tibet Support group meetings starting in 1990, and over 52 countries have participated. The Chinese often label this group as “Hostile western forces” in the propaganda. There are also many NGO’s in India including Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT), and Gu-Chu-Sum Movement. These help the Tibetan refugees to live a good life and get their freedom back.

            All of the refugees that successfully made it out of Tibet were very lucky. Thousands of people trying to escape were killed. Many were caught at the border, but by circumstance, mental sturdiness, and quick actions, these refugees survived.

            “If someone takes away your house from you, but then in return gives you a smaller shack, and builds roads and technology, but has complete control over you, would you be ok with that?” says Topgyal Tsering. Without freedom, life is not worth living.

            Tibet has a long way to go before they get their land back. Since the governments of the rest of the world don’t want to mess with China, Tibet has to rely on themselves, and the many NGO’s around the world that help them. Of the exiles I interviewed, all of them had hope in restoring the old Tibet. None had lost any hope. This is what has kept the culture alive. The best thing we can do to help Tibet is to spread the word. The protests against the 2008 Beijing Olympics was when I first realized something was happening in Tibet, but I had no idea what exactly was going on. I was requested by multiple Tibetan refugees to spread the word about the Tibetan tragedy. After hearing their stories, and connecting them with the history books, I know something very real has happened. The nonviolent nature of this Buddhist government must be helped by the rest of the world to take back what is theirs- the land, freedom, and human rights of the Tibetan people.      

Bibliography:

Internet:

“Issues facing Tibet today”, “Tibet in Exile”, “Worldwide Tibet Movement” <http://www.tibet.net>

Picture, <http://www.tibettravelplanner.com/assets/images/Maps/map-of-nepal-and-tibet.jpg>

Books:

Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet: Probing Truth from Facts, Dharmasala, India, 1993 The

Christopher Gibb, Independence to Exile, A History of Tibet Book 2, Dharmasala, India, 1987

The Dalai Lama, Tibet, China and the World, Dharmasala, India, 1987-1988 compilation of interviews

Patrick French, Tibet, Tibet, New York, 2003

Scientific Buddhists Association for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Tibet: The Facts, Dharmasala, India, 1984

Tibetan Children’s Village Information Brochure, Dharmasala, India, 1996

Interviews:

Chamba Kunsong

Dawong (TCV Headmaster Leh, Ladakh branch)

Sonam Gyalpo

Tanzin Boutik

Topgyal Tsering

Four TCV students (TCV school, Leh, Ladakh)

Future Research:

            I suggest that if someone does research on this topic, they go to Dharmasala, where there are many more Tibetan refugees then in Ladakh. Interview more people, and also interview the CTA about their status. Travel to Tibet, and see for yourself the way that the Chinese have taken over the people, and forced a new culture on them. I would try to get more stories on escape, and much more in depth information on the escape. I would also try to interview the Chinese government on the situation, and look up Chinese newspaper articles on the topic.    

When Ketsana entered the Philippine area of responsibility, it did not seem threatening. The weather bureau PAGASA had issued the standard warning a day before, giving a Signal no. 1 in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. When I left my house 5am on September 26 to go to Stairway in Puerto Galera, there was just a bit of rain and no wind.

Three hours later, however, when I arrived at the Batangas pier, I was greeted by the full fury of Ondoy. No small boats were allowed to go to Puerto Galera and the last ship for Calapan City had already left. From there I could have taken a two-hour jeepney ride to Puerto Galera.

Only the debris from the river could be seen on the bridge, after the
40-ft deep floodwater which submerged it had subsided. © Solitary Wanderer

Dripping wet from the rain (my umbrella withstood the wind for less than a minute), I immediately boarded the parked bus going back to Manila. What should have taken a 3-hour trip to Manila took 14 hours, and on the way, we could see stranded cars, people wading through the flood, and floating debris.

Inside the bus, it was not any better. We were wet, cold, hungry, and worrying about our loved ones. One passenger received a call from his teenage daughter, crying and asking for help. She and the other members of their family were on the roof, watching the floodwater rise even higher. Helpless to do anything, the passenger could only ask the driver to go on despite the threat of the rising water on the road.

I myself had left a teenage sister in my house. Confident that Montalban was in a higher ground, I was shocked to learn that our street was already flooded. My sister was crying and did not know what to do. All the neighbors had left and she was all alone.

Elsewhere, my colleagues were not spared. Nancy and Amihan were stuck waiting for another staff member. They were supposed to go to the police training school to give a Child Sexual Abuse Prevention (CSAP) orientation, but floodwater suddenly inundated the streets right before their eyes. Amihan walked in waist-high floodwater to get home, worried about open manholes and leptospirosis, and disgusted with the cockroaches and rodents swimming past her. Fortunately, she lived close, and got home safely albeit wet.

Nancy, on the other hand, waded in the floodwater for over six hours, which ranged from waist- to chest-deep. She had left home her two minor children without an adult companion and although she did not worry that they would drown, she was nervous about fire (there was a power blackout and her children used candles) and electrical accidents.

Constant communication with them revealed that water had already gotten into the first floor of their house and the children had moved some of their things to the second floor. This made her all the more determined to get home. She and some people walked in the middle of the highway, sometimes holding hands to keep from being carried away by the strong current. In some parts where the water reached chest-deep, she had to raise her backpack over her head because she was carrying two laptops and one LCD projector. 

Along the way, Nancy somehow sustained wounds in her feet and legs, which were bleeding by the time she arrived home. She was tired, wet, hungry, and scared that she would drown without anyone knowing, but in the end, she was grateful that they were all safe.

Donna, our social worker, was the most affected. She was living with her family in a flood-free area, and they never thought that they would experience a flooding that has never happened before. When they saw that the water was knee-deep already, they tried to move their things to the second floor of their house.

Unfortunately, the water level kept on rising, so much so that her whole family (including her year-old son and 5-year-old niece) decided to leave the house via their and their neighbors’ roofs, clutching the children and the few pieces of clothing they wanted to save. Water level was over 6 feet and rising, and the current was strong. One misstep, and they would be carried away.

It was a very emotional time for Donna’s family. On the street, they could see cars spinning like clothes inside a washing machine, and the water continuing to rise. They had already entertained the possibility that they would not survive the night. From 4pm of that fateful day, they stayed until dawn, hungry and scared, but thankful nevertheless that they only lost material things and not their lives.

When the Philippines was able to take stock of what happened, over two million people were affected by the floods, with infrastructure and agriculture damage about PhP5 billion. Pictures and videos from all over the metro show people walking on electric wires or swimming in over 10-feet of water, cars decorating tree branches, and whole communities submerged in mud.

If the Filipinos were used to natural disasters, what made Ondoy different? By themselves, the pictures were nothing new; other typhoons had killed thousands of Filipinos. For Ondoy, there were “only” hundreds.
What made it remarkable was the fact that the flooding happened in places where it never flooded before. Montalban and Quezon City were geographically higher compared to its neighboring Manila and other cities.

When Ketsana came, it took the people completely by surprise, for in just a span of a few hours, the amount of rainfall was equivalent to one month’s worth, making it the worst in Philippine history. More, it made the people aware that they were not as safe as they thought they were. With Ondoy, no one was spared; people in squatter’s areas as well as in affluent subdivisions all similarly suffered the storm’s wrath.

As a volunteer psychologist to one of the organizations doing disaster management work in Rizal, I hold small group sessions with traumatized children identified to need specialized interventions. In one session, an 8-year-old boy who lost his father and their home to Ondoy included a tree in his drawing. “If people did not cut trees, my father would not have died,” he said.

While it is good that children as young as he is have already realized the need to take care of the environment, it would have been better if he had learned it before Ketsana.

It would have been best, however, if everybody realized that fact now, when we still have an environment to save. For in the destruction of our natural resources, the children would not be the only one to suffer, but so would all of us.       

Israel is situated in the middle east and is bordered by Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. The existence of Israel is very controversial. Israel is regarded as the homeland of the Jews. A practising Jew may have citizenship if he/she wishes so. The neighbouring Arab states, however,  is angered by their existence in the region. They claim that Israel was built on stolen and usurped land. The fight started even before the state of Israel was formed. Before Israel was formed, the British were occupying the region and even then there used to be clashes between Jews and Arabs.

Image via Wikipedia

So intense is this animosity towards the Jewish state of Israel, that Israel and its neighbours have fought 3 major wars, one immediately after Israel was formed, and several other minor clashes and attacks.

The most successful war for Israel remains the 1967 war. The war lasted 6 days and Israel won triumphantly. They not only defended themselves excellently but also pushed ahead and occupied land that was almost as large as the country’s territory itself. Israel captured the Golan heights and the Sinai peninsula. In a peace treaty with Egypt, Israel returned Sinai Peninsula to the Egyptians as a gesture of goodwill.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Then came the existence of an apparent state of Palestine. In the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a group of Arabs decided to liberate themselves. They called themselves Palestinians. Before 1967, they were nationals of other countries which includes Lebanon, Jordan or even Egypt. After 1967, when Israel occupied the area, they became refugees and they had to live in refugee camps. The refugee camps were absolutely pathetic. The living conditions of people were horrible. All this caused extreme regret and frustration on the part of the refugees and they began asking for liberation and independence and an end to an “Israeli occupation”.

Since then, the fight for the independence of Palestine is going on. The Palestinians have tried many ways to try and get their independence. Though talks have happened, violence happens to be the most preferred method for the Palestinians. They have done all sorts of horrible things to intimidate Israel.

One of the most horrible things they have done was the Munich Massacre. During the 1972 Olympics which was held in Munich, terrorists from the Black September Organization which is affiliated to the Palestinian Liberation Organization took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and murdered them all in the end.

The Palestinian dream is not just the setting up of a homeland alone. It is also the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel. It is no surprise that the Palestinians look forward to talks breaking down than talks materializing.

Let us take the recent Operation Cast Lead for instance.

When the ceasefire contract between Israel and the Hamas expired in 2008, instead of negotiating for the extension of the ceasefire, the Hamas started firing rockets into Israeli cities.

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Is the new state of Palestine going to embrace peace and live with Israel side-by-side? I don’t think so.

The state of Israel has only 2 conditions for the creation of the state of Palestine. Those demands are

1. Recognize the Jewish state of Israel.

2. Renounce violence and live side-by-side with Israel in peace

The same demand has been reiterated over and over again by various Israeli leaders. The demand hasn’t changed in Israel even though governments in Israel have changed.

It is odd that after such simple and peaceful demands from the Israeli side the Palestinians still don’t want to make peace with the Israelis.

Of course, everything is easier said than done. There are a lot of issues that needs to be sorted out. But the fact remains that Palestinian leaders are reluctant to come to the negotiating table raises a lot of questions.

The whole world is busy in condemning Israel and its actions which in my opinion is quite justified as every country has a right to self-defence. The question remains as to why the whole world disregards the demands put forward by the government of Israel.

Now you may find it odd that Israel is putting forward such simple demands. It sounds too good to be true. But Israel has reason for that.

First of all, Israel is happy with the current territory they have. They have had a lot of disputes regarding territory but that issue is pretty much solved. They do have an issue regarding the area of Jerusalem, but that is an issue which needs to be talked out and unless Palestinian leaders keep their hatred for the Jews aside, they cannot sort the issue of Jerusalem.

Second of all, Israel is not worried about a Palestinian invasion or an attack of Israel. Israel’s military is one of the most professional militaries in the world. Even countries like Jordan approaches Israel for the training of its military. Israel is fed up of the terrorists that come from Gaza and West Bank and they are also fed up of rocket and mortar fire from the Palestinian territories. Israel does not want to be on the highest state of alert all the time. Israeli citizens don’t want to be terrorized by rockets from Gaza. The Israeli people want to roam free in the streets without worrying about where the nearest bomb shelter is.

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Thirdly, the Palestinian problem is using up too much of Israeli resources. If a Palestinian state will live side-by-side peacefully with the Jewish state, then they don’t need to spend all their money on their security and rebuilding of damaged infrastructure. They can assign their resources for better things like Science and technology. It is an amazing feat that Israel is a pioneer when it come to science and technology even when it is literally terrorized all the time.

Fourthly, contrary to popular belief, Israel is not a brutal and racist country which enjoys killing Palestinians. Israel wants peace. But what Israel wants is a genuine and permanent peace. It doesn’t want a terrorist base which is 50 miles away from Tel Aviv. Whenever any country has wanted to make peace with Israel, Israel has gladly made peace. Let us take the example of Egypt and Jordan. When Egypt wanted to make peace after the 1967 war, Israel made peace. It even returned the Sinai peninsula back to Egypt as a goodwill gesture. Similarly when Jordan wanted to make peace with Israel, Israel made peace with them. Similarly if any country wants to make peace with Israel, Israel will gladly make peace with them.

So these demands are actually benefiting the state of Israel than it would benefit any other country.

And what is wrong if the Palestinians accept the Jewish state? If Arabs can live in Israel without fear, become Members of Parliament and have as much right as Jews do in Israel, then why can’t a Palestine exist side by side in peace with Israel?

The funniest part is that nobody reasons this out. Nobody thinks about why the state of Palestine is not being materialized. Why are the Palestinians devoid of a nation of their own? What is keeping them away from the grand dream of the Palestinian nation which was originally proposed by the United Nations in 1948 which the Arabs refused?

The whole world goes on to demonize Israel without thinking of the reasons. The world sympathizes with Palestinians but they still cannot figure out why a Palestinian nation cannot be formed, and the ironical part is that they don’t even think about it.

When foreign aid pours in for Palestine (which goes to billions) nobody asks where the money goes. Nobody asks where did weapons ranging from small arms and rockets come from and why are they killing Israeli civilians. Very few asks questions. And even fewer think about the Israeli side of the story. Civilians of one side being killed does not make them right.

If the Palestinians want a state of their own, it is time they stood up and said “Yes, we recognize the State of Israel and its existence and we would love to have a state of our own where we can co-exist in peace with the Israelis”.  The day this happens, the Palestinians will definitely have a home of their own.