Life as a refugee support volunteer with it's occasional victories and frequent defeats.

Occasional Victories is a place for links, news, rants and raves about Refugee related issues.

If you would like to contribute just drop me an email at carigeen(a)yahoo.com

 
Ireland of the Welcomes!

700 facing deportation due to new govt policy (reg required).

....
Remember that until you die. Remember that.
Remember the name of the outcast and the stranger.
Remember that when you say
"I will have none of this exile and this stranger"
You have denied America with that word
Though your fathers were the first to settle the land.

Excerpt from the book-length poem 'Western Star'
by Stephen Vincent Benet

posted by Carigeen at Friday, July 18, 2003

 
Ethiopian Refugee Poem

I was so proud of my identity,
Like a great king,
Who is honoured by his country,
With respectable back history,
And being one of
The race that comes early,
Belongs to the land of many streams.
Which comes through
Deep heart of big mountains.
Flows with milk and honey.
No one knowing of sad,
But harmony,
From century to century
Like ancient times
Scriptured in Old Testament.
But after the wind gone.
Towards west.
The sun Darkened
And never rose again in the east.
Things turned over Shaded.
The flow of milk and honey changed
To tears and blood
No more harmony,
And neither bridegroom nor bride
But an everlasting sadness
In the land of millions
No meadows and green grains
But war fields and naked swords
Against one another
No one remembers his own
Back history
No more proud or self-identity
And no more hope for sanctuary.

--Tsegaye Tesfaye
posted by Carigeen at Monday, July 14, 2003