Refugees at Work

Not all 68.5 million migrants identified by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) live in camps. In the US, for example, asylum seekers can receive work permits, if their cases are not resolved in 180 days. In July, 2018, one asylum seeker from Sudan was given a court date in 2021.

     What do refugees do while they are in limbo? Some drive cabs or work in nursing homes. But refugees who fled a civil war in Ethiopia mobilized family members to bring their home town food-associated hospitality to a restaurant they opened in Washington, DC. Creative employers, such as the Palestinian and Yemen business partners, Nas Jab and Jabber Nasser al Bihani, look for asylum seekers who have skills they can employ. That way, they found chefs for their Komeeda restaurants in New York, NY; Austin, Texas; and Washington, DC.

     The UNHCR adopted an idea from a French catering company, Les Cuistots Migrateurs, that organized a festival to attract immigrant chefs for restaurants in Paris, Lyon, Madrid, and Rome. UNHCR-sponsored festivals have led to numerous international dining experiences.

• Women cook native dishes at Mazi Mas in London.
• Home cooking from Syria is on the menu at the New Arrival Super Club in Los Angeles.
• Detroit is opening Baobab Fare, a Burundian restaurant and market.
• The Sushioki chain in Durhan, North Carolina, advertises the cooking of refugee chefs.

Who can resist trying Zimbabwean chicken stew and crisp baklava triangles with vanilla ice cream?

   

Mixed Messages from Saudi Arabia

I like watching CNBC, because a station that follows the stock market has to keep up, not only with economics, but also with political and social trends. Following the U.S. presidential election, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman and controlling shareholder of Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Company and one of the largest foreign investors in the US, told CNBC host, Jim Cramer, "We look at you (your country) as being the vanguard and being the leaders of the world."

     Prince Alwaleed reminded me of the time I began teaching a section on Medieval Italy by asking students to list what they knew about Italy. Roman Empire, pizza, pasta, and home of the Pope helped initiate a discussion of how fragmented the country was before unification in 1870. Now, I asked myself, "What do I know about Saudi Arabia?" Lots of oil, little water, home of 9/11 terrorists, Muslim, women not allowed to drive, considers Iran an enemy. I need to know more.

     The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not formed until 1932. In the 1950s, the US participated in the country's oil boom through Aramco, the Arabian American Oil Company.  US heavy machinery companies also participated in the oil-financed construction boom that transformed a desert into a wealthy country with ports, roads, schools, hospitals, and power plants.

     Despite these close US-Saudi connections, some Sunni Muslims in Saudi Arabia, as well as those from the enemy Shi'ite branch of Muslims in Persian Iran, harbored hatred of the US for its support of Israel against the Palestinians and resented the US presence in Saudi Arabia. At present, Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen fire long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia.

     Although Osama bin Laden's family came from poor South Yemen, his father won favor with Saudi's king and gained lucrative construction contracts. Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia and spent most of his early life there in Jeddah. Due to the Muslim terrorist activities he inspired from his later headquarters in Sudan, including a suspected attempt on the life of Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, Saudi King Fahd was pressured to revoke bin Laden's citizenship and passport in March, 1994. He left Sudan for Afghanistan in May, 1996.

     Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US were Saudi nationals. Senior Saudi officials denied any role in the attacks and the 9/11 commission found no evidence linking the Saudi government with funding for the operation. Nonetheless, in September 2016, the US Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) that gives the families of terrorist victims the right to sue governments suspected of playing a role in a terrorist attack on US soil. Congress overrode President Obama's veto of the bill and JASTA became a law which potentially undermines the close US-Saudi relationship and counter terrorism cooperation between the two countries.

     In Saudi Arabia, cuts in salaries and subsidies due to falling oil prices are understandably unpopular with the Saudi public. Saudi's Vision 2030 economic program is designed to reduce the country's dependence on oil revenues. On CNBC, Prince Alwaleed told Cramer that he is a member of a group looking into energy alternatives to oil.

     Besides the importance of oil in Saudi Arabia's future economy, succession to the Saudi throne also bears watching. Currently, King Salman of the House of Saud supports both Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, his 57-year-old nephew and minister of interior who is next in the line of succession, and his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 31-year-old contender who could leapfrog past his cousin. Speculation heightened when Crown Prince Muqrin bin Aldulaziz resigned his position in April, 2015, to make room for the Deputy Crown Prince.

The Continuing Struggle between Good and Evil

Kayla Mueller's message of hope after she was kidnapped in Syria in 2013, like that of Anne Frank, and the story of Kayla's life, like the life stories of Nelson Mandela and Maximilian Kolbe, will live on long after ISIS is, at most, a footnote of history. But that is not to minimize the horror of Kayla's 18-month captivity. As a hostage, she was the slave property of ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Because she feared her American appearance would lead to their recapture, she refused to escape with non- Western female captives and was killed in an air strike in February, 2015.

     Coupled with news that Shiite attacks on government buildings in Yemen's capital have caused the US, UK, and France to close their Embassies is the regret Yemen's Muslim women have since they are no longer allowed to wear the colorful veils that used to identify their home villages. Shrouded in black veils, women are no longer free to express any individuality in public. Few remember when no women covered their faces 30 years ago and how, at the sea, some even wore colorful two-piece outfits with long skirts, bare midriffs, and tops with sleeves.

     Taliban captors in February, 2015 released Father Alexis Prem Kumar, who had been serving as director of Jesuit refugee services in Afghanistan when he was abducted. Despite violence and turmoil, women at the ARZU (the Dari word for "hope") Hope Studio, founded in the Bamyan region of Afghanistan in 2004, have continued to come together to carry on the weaving tradition that has produced lush rugs for centuries. Located in central Afghanistan, Bamyan's arts and architecture have been influenced by diverse Greek, Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Chinese cultures. In 2001, however, it was the site of the Taliban's destruction of three monumental Buddhist sculptures carved into a mountain in the fifth century. Yet, women at the ARZU Hope Studio persevere, incorporating wartime imagery and biblical verses into their woven panels, earning an income, maintaining a community garden, and funding a preschool, health care, and community centers.

     Boko Haram finds it unnecessary to recruit followers. Like their earlier abduction of more than 200 young women in Nigeria, the group continues to TAKE girls and women as wives, cooks, and suicide bombers and young men and boys as soldiers. These little soldiers will be facing about 300 former soldiers from the South African Defense Force who, according to the Financial Times (March 27, 2015), have gone to Nigeria to fight terrorists.

(The earlier blog post, "Hope for the Future," mentions some of the successes that help remind us past problems have been solved.)