Refugees: their Camps and their Lives

The lives of those living in refugee camps are devastating, depressing, and to the outsider and the insider often hopeless. Those who live as refugees leave their homes, mostly through military or governmental force, thinking that their situation is a temporary one. They are, for reasons of religious discrimination, economic status, or any other cultural identifier, made social and political outcasts. They are often forgotten, neglected, and harassed not only by their oppressors, but by their own (if there is one) governments and also by the world community (make sure to LISTEN!).

Buildings and schools are erected with the mind-set that they won't last long, because they won't need to. In several cases the simple and cheap buildings and infrastructure created for and by the refugees has to last longer than intended. Many of the structures are 30 years overdue. Just as the peace talks and governmental assistance for their refugees are long overdue also. External support often comes too late as well. In the Rwanda situation for example, external support was minimal and fooling to the desperate victims.
Refugees do a lot of waiting... waiting... waiting.

Interview with a Lebanese Refugee:

Q: Why did you have to leave Lebanon?
A: Because of the war. There was a civil war between several Lebanese political parties and Israel.

Q: How old were you when you left?
A: 21

Q: How did you get to Berlin?
A: I applied for a visa to West Germany. I was told to get to Cyprus and a man would give me my Visa there then. So I went there with a group of refugees. Some of them didn’t bring any money with them, thinking that the visa would be there waiting for them. But it was not. We had to go to a hotel and we put all of our money together. It wasn’t a lot. When the man came to give us the Visas, he asked us for more money than we had expected. It turned out he needed the money for another group. We hardly had any money left for food. I lost a lot of weight in that time. In Cyprus there was a cab driver who would help us by driving us to the embassy for a lower rate. After awhile were granted our visas and we traveled into Germany. This time was very difficult and tiring, especially because we had no way of returning home, we had no money, and we had waited endlessly for those visas.

Q: Why did you choose to go to Berlin?
A: Because I had a brother who already lived there. I knew I would be safe and that I could live there normally. Those are some of the reasons.

Q: How did you learn German?
A: In School, at work, and through the family. When I arrived I immediately began taking a German course, and later I took 2 more. I always carried a dictionary in my pocket.

Q: How long were you in Germany before you met your wife?
A: One year.

Interview of 2nd Lebanese Refugee:

Q: How old were you when you came to Germany?
A: Around 6 years of age

Q: How did you travel into Germany? Did you fly?
A: Yes, we flew. We fled from Lebanon into Libya and then from Libya to Germany.

Q: How was it when you came to Germany?
A: I learned German very quickly.

Q Now that you are an adult man, how does it feel for you today? Do you think it was a good decision to have come to Berlin? Or would you rather have stayed in Lebanon?
A: I am happy to be here. I actually canceled by last trip to Lebanon because I thought it would be lame to go back. I find more corruption in Lebanon than I can see here (in Berlin). I don’t feel very connected to Lebanon anymore.

Q: Could you tell me a little bit about your school experience in Berlin? How was it different from Lebanon?
A: I actually didn’t attend school in Lebanon. I was just 6 years old at that point. In the beginning it was very difficult for me, because I transferred schools 7 times in one year. It was that way because my family kept being moved into different homes for asylum seekers. I didn’t get much support from anyone. The last elementary school that I attended made me take a test and they told me that I was too stupid to attend a normal school. So I was sent to a special school. Once the administration realized that I was too good for this kind of school I was sent to the next highest school, the “Hauptschule” (similar to alternative schools here). The administration there realized the same thing. I then transferred into the next highest level, the “Realschule.” After I graduated from there I furthered by education at a “Fachhochschule. “ Today I am waiting to be accepted into the Police Academy. I’ve had many boulders set in my way. Sometimes I feel like I’m still planning my life, rather than being allowed to simply live it.

They mostly hope to return to their lives and land as it was before the conflict that forced them to leave, if they have not found a different way out of the country and the refugee life yet. Unfortunately however, only 1% of the world's refugees receive the chance for a different and possibly better life over-seas. The remaining 99% has to see for themselves how to work and feed themselves. Realizing this concept creates another dilemma: Fleeing refugees leaving their families, friends, and homes behind. And with some places, such as Palestine, it's a whole different situation. Many refugees are forced to flee from their homes, but instead of leaving the borders of their country they become internally displaced, meaning, they live in refugee camps, inside their own countries. How would that feel?

It is global issues, like wars, that effect all humans, in one way or another. For some it may result in skyrocketing gas prices, for others it may mean living as a refugee. To name only a few issues that make the life for a refugee difficult are the infrastructure, sanitation, hygiene, space, housing, water resources, and the security in a camp. These are simple issues that many people can take for granted, but they are essential for survival.
Simply realizing that these issues are being taking for granted and expected by many creates an understanding of the inequalities and corruption of the world. It is important to understand that the devastation of others can affect the entire world community. A far-away conflict may impact the world's financial market or it could influence a family member or friend in one way or another.
The life of a refugee is frightening, devastating, and often tiering. The causes of the need for refugee camps are corruption and ignorance. The outcome of these features are immense for refugees, the internal camps and it residence, as well as the external world.

Joe Sacco's Palestine: In-Class

Joe Sacco, a graphic novel artist, enters Israel/Palestine as an America who has heard Israel's side of the story of the Israel-Palestine conflict his whole life. Entering Israel to learn the Palestinians' side is a daring and exciting step to take. Sacco's journey begins in Egypt, before he travels to Palestine. As he enters Palestine he is immediately introduced into the Palestinian lifestyle. His appearance as an American journalist attracts so much positive attention that most Palestinians are willing to share their stories with him, for him to use in his text. Going from place to place, refugee camp to refugee camp, he can speak with one person and suddenly be acquainted with several other families. The Palestinians are so desperate for their story to get out into the world that they share it with Sacco.
The political conflict is not the only one portrayed in his graphic novel though.
After he has traveled from refugee camp to refugee camp and heard many of the same stories, (people getting shot in different places, late night raids from the settlers, land and houses being destroyed by the Israelis) he is ready to go back home. Before he leaves though he stays for a few days in Israel, where he meets two Israeli women, who want peace, but do not truly understand what the Palestinians' lives are really like. Here Sacco has an internal conflict. He is now attached to Palestine. He gets offended when outsiders don't understand or are ignorant in regards to this ancient and repeting conflict.

Project Change

I've changed my mind on my project. I've decided that I want to write and portray refugee camps. The graphic novel Palestine does a great job showing the reality of Palestinian refugee camps (the way they look and feel). I have some family that have been refugees and others that lived similarly to the way Sacco portrays the camp. So, as a tribute to them I would like to research refugee camps for my paper... Maybe I'll focus on how refugees are outcasts of a system (like Pecola or the black community in To Kill a Mockingbird...not sure if I'll use this though).
I feel this is a more focused subject and I have more ideas on what I can do for this project.
Refugee camps make me so angry, because the reason why people are in them is so darn unfair. They have a cold feeling to them.

Paper (Project) #4

I would like to use some of the literature we've used in class, because I have been familiarized with it. Yet, I don't see how any of the novels relate to my theme, which I'm not quite sure of what it really is. I'm considering discussing how the name of conflict changes, but the idea or principle behind it rarely does. War is about one nation conquering another. The goal is not only to conquer land however, but also the ways of it's people. It is an attempt to have one nation cooperate and surrender its resources so that the conquerer may use these resources as well.
Ah, a light bulb just wet on! Sacco's graphic novel Palestine in a sense discusses this; it's not discussed directly, but its theme is of a war conflict.
Now, another question: How much will I focus on? Just American attempted conquering? (turn of the century- "saving our little brown brothers," protecting ourselves from the "domino effect,"(1960's), etc...) Or should I focus on different cultures/countries each do the same thing... I think I'll go with the latter.
I th

Manga Romeo and Juliet: In-Class

The manga Panels don’t really clarify Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, nor does it make the story more interesting. The character’s lines don’t always make sense. For example, on the second page, Romeo’s father says, “We would as willingly give cure as know.” I’m not quite sure I understand what he’s trying to say there. His wife, who stands beside him on this panel looks as though her only role in this graphic text is to attract attention with her sex appeal. Underneath Romeo’s parents is a depiction of Juliet’s parents. Her father says here, “Death is my son-in-law.” In Shakespeare’s story however, neither parent’s know of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. Therefore the manga text does not clarify the story. An observation of these two panels is also the character placement. Both mothers stand behind their husbands. There is a clear status representation here. In this version Romeo seems to be a Rockstar, which he clearly is not in neither the 1996 Hollywood movie version, nor in Shakespeare’s original play.
The manga version takes on it’s own interpretations of the characters, as well as it added some features, while it still uses some of Shakespeare’s language, mixed in with some modern phrases.

Romeo and Juliet: In-Class Writing

Act V Scene I
Here Romeo is in Mantua, banished from Verona. This is his monologue:
If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand;
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne;
And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead,—
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think!—
And breath'd such life with kisses in my lips,
That I reviv'd, and was an emperor.
Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd,
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy!

Here Romeo is joyful, because he dreamt of Juliet. This dream “lifts [him] above the ground with cheerful thoughts.” He is still madly in love. Although this is a joyful monologue it also describes the unhappy idea of death. This dream has opposites again, common in Romeo’s speech (life – death).
Dreams are used to foreshadow the dramatic upcoming events several times throughout the play. They are mostly warning signs of what is going to happen, but they are never fully understood or realized by the characters until it is too late. His monologue is used to foreshadow the events that are going to happen soon. The line, “I dreamt my lady came and found me dead,” is going to come true in just several scenes later.