World Refugee Day!
Hello, Shirleys and other people!
As you see above, Wednesday June 20th is World Refugee Day! Over 100 countries celebrate the achievements and acknowledge the efforts of the worlds 17 million refugees.
At this years "celebration" there will be a bunch of singers from all over the world including the singer "Hotdog". A portion of Hotdogs story is that he came to the 'Peg after making his way through Sudan at the age of 6 when his parents were killed in the war. He is awesome, heavy, and heartfelt, and always delivering the goods in a really intense way.
In our glorious little city of Winnipeg the festivities will be from 4-8 pm in Central Park (by the way if you press on this link check out the "blue marker" on Kennedy and Sargent to see a great interview with our friend Asili Gelle. She is awesome. Also check out the marker on the south side of Qu'appelle avenue for another interview with Somalian refugee, Mayran Kalah. As soon as you're done that check out the east side of Carlton street to see The Welcome Place where we, Proragrandhises, donate our RUN FOR RIGHTS pledges, some other coinage, and spend a lot of time volunteering. If you keep thumbing around you can find some more cool interviews with people around here including the awesome Immigrant Womans Sewing Collective.)
I'd like to suggest a book called Human Cargo as part of my build up to World Refugee Day. What a truly great book.
A refugee is someone with "no durable solution" to the problems that face them in their home country. At some point in your life your world may turn upside down and you may possibly find yourself seeking refuge somewhere very unfamiliar. It is absolutely our job as citizens of this city to make newcomers feel welcome and make their introduction to our city the best in can possibly be. A lot of people come here having faced severe and painful pasts and are looking forward to a life here. It's devastating to see some of these dreams slowly erode when the reality of this place sinks in.
People endlessly email us asking "what can I do?" in regards to helping make the world a better place. I'll suggest that you could check out a refugee welcoming center in your area is a good place to start. From there you will meet people from all over the world and see tons of stuff going on in your city that you may have never known existed. Certainly many opportunities will arise. I can tell you that my life has improved about 1 million percent since I have been volunteering. To me, there is nothing better . If you have no friends, and you probably don't if you're visiting a Propagandhi webpage, here's a good way to get some. And you don't have to listen to anybody talk about their record collection! Yay! Hahaha.. jest jokin.
O.K. let's get to it! There's a lot going on in this world. Find the World Refugee Day celebration in your town/ city and head out! See you 'Peggers in Central Park!
...Oh yeah, by the way, Hannah will be cleaning toilets so come and take a giant, rotten, dump at intermission!! yeehawhaw...
-Hamroid.