Comments on: Refugees That Nobody Talks About

By: Al Swearengen

Al Swearengen — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 01:38:01 +0000

Hootsbuddy, JoeC – thanks for the comments! This phenomenon regarding ‘brain drain’ is described very well in this last comment…as it is human nature that takes over.

The amount of professionals within Iraq having gone down to almost nothing during the past few years is going to make the work of rebuilding once the war is over that much harder.

By: Hootsbuddy

Hootsbuddy — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:11:03 +0000

This is a good comment. No one seems to be paying attention to the obvious. If conditions were all that great there would not be an exodus. What’s not to grasp?

A subtext of the story is that most refugees rarely return to their homes. After migrating and adjusting to another place going back is almost as hard as leaving was the first time. It’s like replanting an extracted tooth. And if a new generation takes root in the new country, the parents are reluctant to do to their children what was done to them, tearing them away from friends and peers.

Even foreign students who go abroad with a firm intent to return home and apply their education == doctors, engineers, business majors, other specialists — often decide to stay where they went to study. At one level it is a net gain for places like the US, world’s biggest “brain-drain” magnet. But it is tragic for the countries that lose their best and brightest.

By: JoeC

JoeC — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 09:01:06 +0000

The comparison with the reactionto the victims of Katrina is a good one. While there are a lot of people who went to the coast to help clear and rebuild (and are still doing so) there is a major stigma associated with the poor from New Orleans–they should have left the city, they couldn’t be helped because they were shooting at rescuers, they are no good in some way. Fact is, many conservatives just don’t have a heart and are selfish. The Bush administration is excellent in wrapping that selfishness in an excuse package that many are willing to accept.

Thanks for the comments at Hard-boiled Dreams of the World, and the blogroll link. I’ve added your link as well.

-JoeC

By: James

James — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 07:56:03 +0000

When do we nuke Baghdad?

By: Catherine Morgan

Catherine Morgan — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 03:33:38 +0000

Thanks for commenting on my post regarding this issue, I agree that there needs to be more attention to this.

I am adding your link to my post on this issue.

http://informedvoters.wordpress.com/2007/03/07/iraq-refugee-crisis-is-growing-cnn-story-with-pictures-and-video/#comment-2649

I will also add your link to my blogroll on my political site…

http://informedvoters.wordpress.com/

Thanks again,

Catherine