Note–this post will probably make me few friends and make me sound heartless and lack any empathy…..
We all have seen or read stories and photos of the women and children fleeing ahead of the Russian onslaught to neighboring countries those heart wrenching….all the destroyed buildings and lives….the long lines waiting for a ride to the nearest border…..all the crying and hugs…..and all the calls for the West to do more.
There reports state….
The number of Ukrainians fleeing abroad is now 3,556,924, the United Nations’ Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday, with more than 2 million crossing the border into Poland.
“This is another tragic milestone for the people of Ukraine and it has been achieved in just under one month,” UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh told a briefing, adding that 6.5 million people had been internally displaced within Ukraine.
Biden and his Boyz are preparing a plan to help Ukrainian refugees….
Biden was considering using his presidential authority to grant humanitarian parole to refugees or designating them under a program that was used to evacuate refugees out of war zones in Afghanistan.
The options would not guarantee permanent legal status, but the White House believes most Ukrainians would want to eventually return to their homes after finding safe havens in Europe.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas declared last week that refugees seeking asylum in the US will not be turned away, after reports of several being denied access to the country at the Mexican border.
Under the White House proposals, refugees would be flown in to the country and given support services, avoiding the dangerous and uncertain ordeal asylum-seekers face at the physical US border, the network said.
(nypost.com)
Of course the US has done what it does best…throw money at a problem…sadly it is seldom the solution that is needed.
Ukraine can expect about $900 million in humanitarian aid to flow its way….
I think everything that can possibly be done to help the refugees should be done….I need to ask….why was the refugees from the war in Syria not this big of an issue for the media?
The Syrian refugee crisis remains the world’s largest refugee and displacement crisis of our time. Since the Syrian civil war officially began March 15, 2011, families have suffered under brutal conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, torn the nation apart, and set back the standard of living by decades.
About 6.8 million Syrians are refugees and asylum-seekers, and another 6.7 million people are displaced within Syria. This means 13.5 million Syrians in total are forcibly displaced, more than half of the country’s population. Nearly 11.1 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance. And about half of the people affected by the Syrian refugee crisis are children.
The refugee problem in Syria is about 3 times as bad as Ukraine and yet it got little notice here in the West….there was not nearly the coverage that those from Ukraine….why is this?
What is it that makes one refugee crisis more important than another?
Is it race? Religion? Region?
What is it that makes the difference?
Questions with the sound of crickets as the answer.
Another thing that pisses me off….the Congress stands applauds and vote almost overwhelmingly to send cash to Ukraine….but yet that same Congress cannot have that much agreement when it comes to cash for the hungry here or the benefits for 9/11 responders or the benefits that our veterans desire…..why is that?
It is evident that the Congress no longer works for the American people…..and it has not for many years.
What makes people half a world away more important than the starving senior down the street?
Again the sound of crickets.
Turn The Page!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
“The refugee problem in Syria is about 3 times as bad as Ukraine and yet it got little notice here in the West….there was not nearly the coverage that those from Ukraine….why is this?”
Sorry, old chum, I beg to differ on this one. The Middle East for decades upon decades experiences conflict after conflict in some constantly unbalanced political arena centering around some passing dictator or monarch or religious fringe extremists groups made up of discouraged and disenfranchised elements of the population, all trying to justify themselves inside some interpretation of Islam. Then there’s the animosity created by the existence of Israel. The Middle East is a collection of economically diverse societies inside the world of Muslim theocracies. All of it extensions of those thousands of years of tribal push/pull nomadic lifestyles. It doesn’t mean one bit they are any less of humanity that needs to be recued at one time or another. But their desire to advance in technology, economics, education, etc. to the degree of the European nations had left those in the Middle East to live in a general and perpetual Third World from which their religion thrives to dictate their societies. The constant tribal personification in trying to settle old scores that haunts each conflict. The geographical climate alone for the Middle East does not include an ability to expand on agriculture and the usual livestock farming as in Europe and Asia.
To present the point in a post I made about a week or so back, there’s not that many blue-eyed, blonde hair, advanced white people countries that go through invasions from their neighbors.. and get blasted into the stone age inside of 30 days. How long was Syria in the news with all that conflict going on for.. years? Before Ukraine, before all our domestic political turmoil, it was nothing but Syria in the news.. and the refugees spreading across Europe.. and the U.S. The sad mothers and babies uprooted.. and their live destroyed by ISIS, the Taliban, U.S. missions, Russian missions… blah blah. Most of the civilized Western world, very understandably, can easily identify with the images of beautiful cities similar to their own being destroyed. Kinda tough identifying in any form the continuous conflicts in the Middles East.. in the name of Islam. Not sure how 30 days of Ukraine compares to the generations of Middle East conflicts that never go away.
As for money being spent abroad to feed the hungry masses yearning to breath free when we have our own issues here at home that needs tons of money… that’s certainly open to debate. That’s been an argument ever since Kennedy started the space program. Remember all that? Why are we spending billions to send someone to the Moon when we have the poor and homeless and a (compareitively) crappy educational system here on Earth? Now we can toss onto that heap a vast need for a mental health program. I totally agree about the VA since I also use that benefit. It’s idiocy all this garbage about co-pays. A vet used to have COMPLETE coverage.
In the end, it’s all relative to the current level of priorities.
Sorry I was not clear….there was not the rush by Congress to do what they are doing in Ukraine….the news in Syria was mostly about ISIS…refugees were cover by not to this extent…..yearning to be free? Sorry do not see that… none that explains the actions of Congress…..it boost the ones that pay their bills…and it is not us mere mortals. chuq
Ah well, Congress.. can’t ever explain those folks. 🙂
Sure it is easy….money. chuq
So much else is going unreported. The war in Ethiopa, ongoing probems in Sudan and Yemen, civil war in Myanmar, and ISIS-style groups still active in many African countries, including Niger, Chad, and Nigeria. But those places do not look like Europe, and the people do not look European. They also do not count as one of the world’s largest producers of wheat.
Watching news of wars in countries outside of Europe enables viewers to feel disconnected. Ukraine brings it all closer to home. Hence the rush to assist that country, and to take in its refugees. It may not be morally right, but it is what it is.
Best wishes, Pete.
If this war drags on….I want to see just how welcome all the refugees will be. chuq
You haven’t made an enemy in me with this opinion on refugees,.
I was wondering myself why suddenly symphaty for one group of fugatives changed to another one.
Everyone:
To be forced to leave everything
To be forced to flee is so hard to do.
It’s dangerous, lifethreatning.
No matter your nationality, religion etc.
My mother and her family, my partners family, where forced to evacuate to the norther provinces, in the early months of 1945.
The anguish, fear, sorrow, loss, were a a memory, always precent, and still is in the region
The stories that were told stayed with me.
Sorry, not fugatives.
OfcourseI, refugees, that’s the word I meant.
A non-intenional translation mix-up!
No worries I grasp what you meant…..chuq
There is only so much we can do….throwing money at the problem does not end a war…..makes things worse in most cases. chuq