The Future for the Country of Syria

The country of Syria has been in war for the past few years now. Small towns have been destroyed, the lives of innocent people have been taken and the visions of a future for the country of Syria have faded away. Around the world countries have come together to help the citizens of Syria, by providing permanent homes and temporary homes as well. Millions of refugees have been helped but there are still some stuck in the country desperately seeking help. In the beginning some countries closed their doors their doors to taking in refugees. But now that the future of Syria seems less bright, the temporary homes are becoming permanent and countries have now opened their doors to taking in refugees.

The country of Syria is in war as i'm writing this blog post. The war is due to a terrible government that isn't doing anything to stop or even prevent the war. These wars are practically the fault of the Syrian government itself. The only way that the country will be safe again is if the government undergoes major changes. What I mean by that is that the president of Syria will have to resign from his position and new elections will go. But the problem is that Syria has lost more than half of their soldiers, they've lost their weapons and they've lost territory. Another election could lead to another war ans Syria is no longer equipped for war.

The temporary homes for the refugees like the camps built in Turkey, Greece and Lebanon are over capacitated and the countries themselves no longer have the ressources to support the refugees with food, water and shelter. Like I said they were only supposed to be temporary homes but they've been temporary for too long now and eventually it wont be helping the refugees anymore. Countries like Canada and Germany do have the capacity to take in refugees but even there, there are limits such as job opportunities and living spaces.

Abandoning the refugees an sending them back to Syria is not an option tho. They are human and deserve a fair chance at living a good life. The countries around the world need to come together more then they already have and come to agreement that we as a world need to help out the people of Syria and give them the opportunities they deserve.

As for the future of the country of Syria, all that can be done is to hope that they regain their humanity and stop fighting. I hope you all enjoyed my post, it was a pleasure writing it!
Happy summer:)

Source:
Greg Wilson(my dad)

Mistreated in their new country

Hello readers! Wow it's been quite a while since I've written a post. I apologize but I am back now and here to write an excellent post for you guys.  So in this post what I will be talking about is cases of mistreated Syrians in the countries that have taken them in to give them a "better life".

One of the cases I will be writing about in this post is the case in London Ontario when 20 just-arrived Syrians filed complaints against the city's main settlement. The complaints I will be talking about are four examples from a group of refugees. They claimed that many of the hotels they were placed in were understaffed and inadequate, medical services were not provided in a timely manner, the food was borderline unsuitable for human consumption and that big families of for example 6 were laced into an apartment of home suitable for only 2.

I think that these are big issues and the refugees were right to have launched complaints. The whole point of bringing in the refugees was to give them a better safer life. They come from having lived in the middle of the desert with no food and then we bring them to Canada and stuff them in a tiny spot with terrible conditions... How is that better? Now dont get me wrong, its better then living in fear of war but  they should be treated more properly then we have been treating them.

Peter Fragiskatos, a liberal MP for London North Center has agreed that these are serious concerns. "Is there validity there or not? I dont take these concerns lightly.... I've forwarded it to the department of immigration,  and they are looking into it". These concerns need to be brought more to the attention of people like Justin Trudeau who is the one that had the idea of bringing them in. Maybe for his next group of refugees he should pay more attention to them after bringing them in. A church group has started a petition to remove the refugees from the harsh circumstances and giving them better life conditions like a regular citizen would have. I think this is a great idea because it exposes the harsh truths and makes the people realize that not everything is good.

Londoner Mariam Hamou, who has been involved with volunteer efforts to welcome the refugees has said that they are not filing the complaint because they are upset at the Canadian government. "They are very grateful but they are upset with how the CCLC has dealt with them".  As a Canadian citizen I am too truly upset at how they were treated. Canada was supposed to be their safe landing and not another nightmare. Hopefully this is brought to the attention of the people with power and things change for the refugees. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Make sure to tune in for my next post!

Source:
http://www.lfpress.com/2016/06/14/londons-cross-cultural-learner-centre-mistreated-refugees-20-just-arrived-syrians-say

The backlash on the muslim Syrian refugees

Hello readers! I hope you're all doing well. In recent news headlines you've probably for sure read about the recent bombing at the brussels airport. I contemplated mainly talking about that but  it honestly makes me too sad to even write about. So instead of talking about the attack in particular, I've chosen to write about the effects that things like these bombings and anything with ISIS have on the Syrian refugees and the dangerous environment thats being created for them.  I hope you choose to read on because this topic is important and it is a type of lesson as well.

  All muslims are violent, terrorists and/or extremists. Thats what most people think. In the world, there are very educated people on stuff like terrorism but there are also non educated people when it comes to things like terrorism. Non educated people just simply think that all muslims are terrorists. One non educated person you all definitely know is Donald Trump, who as you all know thinks that all muslims are terrorists and plans to deport them when he becomes president.... He is irrelevant so i will not be talking about him anymore in this post. 

Now back to the important subject here... the backlashes on the muslim Syrian refugees. As we all sadly know, there has been a recent outbreak of terrorism attacks such as the ones in paris, the multiple shootings and bombings in Egypt as well as the most recent one mentioned in my introduction the bombing at the Brussels airport. (Please take a look at these links to see  some other attacks that have occurred lately https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_July–December_2015  &   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_January–June_2016 ). In this post i will mainly be basing myself on the attacks in France and the attack in Brussels because I've read a lot about those two in particular.  The attack in France was perpetraded by the Islamic State(ISIS) and the attack in Brussels also perpetrated by the Islamic State. The Islamic State is a militant group that follows islamic fundamentalism which is simply religious mouvements practiced in earlier times. The leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is one of the most wanted men and the U.S. state department has offered a 10 million dollar reward for anyone with information on his location or any information  that could help with his capture.

The backlashes on the Syrian refugees caused by these bombings are that since 97% of the Syrian refugees coming into the western countries are muslim, people think that they are terrorists and are therefore mistreating them. Since the attack in Paris in the month of November Paris has decided that they will no longer be taking in refugees, Britain has also decided that they will no longer be taking in refugees, Hungary and Australia as well, Another country that has decided to no longer take in refugees is the United States. They will let the 1500 Syrians that are already in the country stay but they will not be taking in any more.  Those countries closing their doors to accepting more refugees is causing innocent non terrorist Syrians to have to stay in the war countries risking their lives. Innocent children will die because of this. In my opinion I think that its very too bad that because of corrupt men and women that are part of groups like ISIS innocent people will die and not be granted access to a better life.

Im not going to lie. Since the attack in Paris and Brussels I've started worrying about if the terrorists would ever plan an attack in Canada. Im not worried that it would happen in Windsor because when the terrorists plan an attack they want to kill many people. But I do fear them planning attacks in big cities like Ottawa and Toronto... and in both cities I have family. My dad has told me to not worry, but do you blame me for worrying? I know that I am not the only one worrying and i also know that im not the only one thinking about how Canada should stop letting refugees in. I know everyone deserves a fair chance at a better life but so do I. Thanks for reading, I hope you've enjoyed reading this:)

Sources;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_al-Baghdadi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant

A bright future

Hello readers!  I hope you liked reading my last post as much as I enjoyed writing it. This subject is very important to me and I absolutely love writing about it. So to continue with my next post, I will be talking about what the future holds for the refugees. Like what kind of jobs are out there for them, the education opportunities for the children as well as the teenagers and the health care that will be provided for the refugees.  I will mainly be focusing on those things in the countries of Canada and  Germany since those are a few of the countries that are permanent homes for some of the refugees.

So to get started I will be talking about the job opportunities in Germany. One of the main reasons Germany was so open to taking in so many refugees is because they were hoping that since their work force is expected to drop 6 million people by 2030(since the death rate is higher than the birth  rate now) that the big number of Syrian refugees would come in and create more jobs and take the jobs that are available. That is good for Germany because it helps keep a growing expansion. In Germany they have a bit of a crisis. With the birth rate getting lower there aren't enough young people to work in manual labor factories. When I say manual labor factories I mean jobs such as a car assembly line or a pipe factory. The job domain in Germany needing the most people is for sure the industrial section. Like I mentioned in my last post is that there is also a lot of job opportunities in private business`s like ones such as flooring, roofing, baking, cleaning services. Stuff like that. It isn't a problem at all for refugees in Germany to get a job because there are so many job slots open. An interesting fact I read was that even if every refugee aged 26-47 got a job, there would still be more job slots open.

Now for education. Around 60  universities are offering free courses and some are even thinking of paying for Syrian students full university education. Not all universities and colleges are offering things like this so not every refugee is available for things such as a free education. But the ones that aren't offered free education aren't left abandoned and do get help. For younger children in grade school, Germany has recruited 8,500 people to teach child refugees German so that they can attend German elementary schools. All of the elementary schools across Germany are accepting children and the school boards of Germany have figured that they will have to recruit 20,000 new teachers to teach in the expanding schools. All in all, Germany offering permanent homes to the refugees is beneficial to both the refugees and the country of Germany.

However, in Canada its a much different story for job opportunities. The refugees are going to face a very hard time finding any kind of employment. When they do find it they are going to be in minimum wage jobs with no benefits or any kind of pension. Adding in the factor that many refuges don't speak English or French it makes it even harder for them to land any of the jobs that are available. Jobs are key to being able to support you family. The Syrian families that are sponsored are alright because when they cant find jobs they always have their sponsors to fall back on. But the Syrian families that are government sponsored and aren't finding any type of employment wont be able to support their families and they don't really have anyone to fall back on. They will face a much more difficult time. Jobs are difficult to come by for any Canadian but the Syrian refugees will encounter even more difficulties finding gainful employment.

All of the child refugees coming in face some difficulties. Even though all the elementary schools in Canada offer free education, the children face some difficulties.  An essential thing that the Syrian children don't have is the ability to speak English and or French. But another challenge they face is adapting to the idea of school. Some of the children don't even know what school is so it will definitely be a  process for them to adapt. In an article I read it said ``it will be difficult for the children to grasp the concept of studying in a building that wont get bombed``. That hit me very very hard because young innocent children shouldn't have to worry in the morning about if they will get bombed at school or not.  I understand that the children will face difficulties but they are difficulties that can be overcome, I am just happy that the children will not have to worry anymore about getting bombed at school.

So in reading this post I hope that you have been able to realize some of the pros and cons that you maybe haven't thought about. My opinion is that I think the idea of bringing in the refugees is a great idea in moderation and in assurance that we can support them. However I am for sure worried for their future as well as my own.



Sources;
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/11/18/schools-key-to-helping-syrian-refugee-children-settle-in.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/28/germany-recruits-8500-teachers-to-teach-german-to-196000-child-refugees
http://www.newsweek.com/german-universities-offering-free-education-syrian-refugees-411940
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/refugees-are-an-opportunity-for-the-german-economy-a-1050102.html

Controversies ignite

Hello readers! I hope you guys enjoyed reading my last post and I hope also that it answered any questions that you  might have had. So in my last post I talked about all the countries that came together to help the refugees. I also went a bit into detail about Germany because in the refugee crisis they have been one of the prime supporters/helpers. Germany has been making quite a few news headlines recently for positive helping during the refugee crisis and  this week they made headlines once again... but for a less positive reason.

As a suspected arson fire was causing immense damage to an old hotel turned into a refugee home in eastern Germany,  a crowd of people were cheering and celebrating as Syrian families were fleeing their home as it burned. Luckily nobody was hurt... this time. Police are worried that this could spark new concerns about violence towards the newcomers. One of the police officers said that people were saying derogatory remarks and showing their joy for the fire with pride.

Now of course there are people that will be very welcoming to the new refugees because they are open to the idea but there are also people that are not open to welcoming them and thats alright because everyone has a different way of thinking as well as a different opinion when it comes to big changes like welcoming millions of refugees into your home country. Personally myself, I have very mixed emotions about the whole refugee crisis, but I will talk more about that in another post. In Germany, the people that are not welcoming to the idea have definitely voiced their opinion by organizing protests in front of refugee homes.  At the scene of the fire police officers had to ask three people to leave the scene because they were trying to distract the firefighters from doing their job. Two of the people were detained after traces of fire accelerant were found on the scene.

This isn't the first alarming situation that has happened in Germany regarding the refugees. Back awhile ago a mob threw bottles and fireworks at the police officers that were setting up a shelter for the refugees. Also, this past Thursday as refugees were arriving in a bus  to the small town of Clausnitz, people were blocking the way shouting at the refugees to go
 home. The governor of Clausnitz said that both of those situations were horrible and that he is surprised. 

In my opinion, I dont think that this will be the last situation like this. Its unfortunate but I do see this happening again in the future for sure. Whether its a fire or a riot, the introduction of Syrian refugees will remain a hotly debated controversy.  What is in store for the future? Will people start to be more open minded to the newcomers or will they reject the idea even more? I guess only time will tell. Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it:)

Sources:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/02/22/onlookers-cheer-as-fire-damages-refugee-center-in-germany.html

Countries come together

Hello everyone! I am super duper happy that everyone enjoyed reading my last post so much, it makes writing new posts so much more exciting! So in my last post I talked about Canada and how newly elected Prime minister Justin Trudeau entered the project of helping the refugees. I've had many requests to talk about the other countries that are involved in helping so that's what  I will be talking about in this post.

Since the beginning of the war in Syria, almost 4 million refugees have left the country and fled to other countries. Many long journeys such as great walking distances and crossing large bodies of water have been undertaken by the refugees to reach safer countries. Many countries have accepted the refugees but other countries have chosen to not get involved. Countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Greece have taken in large amounts of refugees. Turkey leading with 1,9 million refugees, followed by Lebanon with 1,5 million refugees, and then Jordan with 1,4 million and finally Greece with a quarter of a million. Unfortunately those countries are not offering permanent homes and are only offering refugee camps for a temporary amount of time in hopes to send the refugees back when the war is over. 

But countries like Italy, The United States of America, Australia, Germany, Sweden, France and Britain are offering permanent homes for the refugees. Italy has taken in 110,00 refugees, the USA has taken in only 1,500 but has given 4.1 billion dollars since 2012 to Syria to help, Australia has taken in 4,400 refugees, Sweden has taken in 80 000, France has taken in 24 000 and Britain plans on taking in 20 000 by then end of 2020. But out of all those countries, there is one that has taken in the largest number of permanent refugees which is Germany with 1.8 million taken in.

 Now you may be asking yourself a couple of questions like why would Germany take in so many permanently? Well here's the answer. Germany estimates that the work force will drop 6 million people by 2030 because the death rate is higher than the birth rate, making it hard to keep a growing expansion. Many businesses are relieved because a large number of refugees are  seeking jobs and will practically take anything that is offered to them. Daniel Kok, an owner of a flooring business has been looking for a few new employees and so he hired refugee Tesfagebriel Abraha and offered him a position until 2018. Over the past few years 1,5 million job opportunities   have been opened and Germany hopes that the refugees will help fill in those job positions.

 Another possible question that you might be asking yourself is why some countries have only offered temporary living arrangements. Its a complicated issue and these countries have simple decided that they do not want  to permanently take in a bunch of newcomers as it isn't possible to help. For example in Jordan, the refugees are already struggling with water and energy resources.

In my opinion I think that as a world it is our job to come together and help our countries in need. Fortunate countries need to put themselves in the shoes of unfortunate countries like Syria and realize that we can't just abandon them and that it is our duty to help them during their tough times.

Many countries have come together in helping the refugees. Some countries have decided to take in the refugees and some countries have decided not to and have decided to only provide temporary conditions. Is there  a right or wrong decision? I guess only time will tell. In my next post I will be talking about families that have settled in to their new countries and experiences that they have had. I hope you enjoyed reading this post and are looking forward to my next post:)

Sources;
1)http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-migrants-scorecard-20150908-story.html
2)http://www.businessinsider.com/r-in-ageing-germany-refugees-seen-as-tomorrows-skilled-workers-2015-9

A tough time for Syrian refugees

Since the spring of  2011, the Syrian war has become a talked about topic worldwide. The country was and pretty much still is in major distress. Innocent people continue to be killed with no solution to the crisis at hand. The world we humans claim to have is falling apart. Many problems are arising and at this point there are far too many to even think about repairing, but I guess we have to take everything one step at a time.  Newly elected prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau has decided to involve Canada in helping give the Syrian people a brighter future along with a better and much safer life by allowing them to immigrate to Canada. 

However they face great difficulties integrating into Canadian society for reasons  such as language barriers because they speak neither English or french. Also because of religious beliefs, the men of Syria believe that their women shouldn't work in public jobs to be able to help support their families.  Another reason for which they'll face economic hardships is because many are coming to Canada with injuries and/or sicknesses that will make getting a job difficult.  

For many years to come the new coming Syrian families will be forced to rely on social welfare systems. In a recent Windsor Star story, they interviewed a new Syrian family to see how everything was working out for them so far here in Canada. The man told the interviewers about how before they moved to Canada and lived in Syria, a group of men came up to him, his wife and their five children and demanded them to give them their car. The man said no way and then drove away with his family. It wasn't over though. The group of men tracked the man and his family down and stole the car and kidnapped the man and threw him into prison and tortured him for 3 months. When the man came out of prison, he explained to the interviewers that his hand was severely damaged and he had lost almost all function in his hand.  

After he explained his story he expressed his fears about not  being able to get a job since the jobs offered to him consisted mainly of manual labor which he can't do because of his injury. His main fear is not being able to feed his wife and five children. He hopes that now that he is in Canada and has full benefits, that he will be able to get his hand fixed and provide for his family. 

In my opinion I think that Justin Trudeau is making a good decision to bring in the refugees because no family deserves to go through an experience like that. All humans should have the right to live a life without fear of being captured and tortured. I just hope we can bring and help as many as possible in moderation of course. In my next post, I will go more into detail about the problems and the future for the Syrian refugees. Be sure to read up on my next post. Thank you:)

Here is a video of our Prime Minister greeting the Syrian refugees arriving in Toronto

 http://windsorstar.com/?s=syrian+refugees