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My favorite example of why I distrust the NYtimes... aerocontrols Send a noteboard - 18/11/2016 05:54:45 PM

They had an article (straight news, not opinion) in 2003 about 20,000 Somali Bantus who were being brought to the USA to escape persecution. First part of the article describes (among other things) the motivation for why they want to leave Somalia:

They are members of Africa's lost tribe, the Somali Bantu, who were stolen from the shores of Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania and carried on Arab slave ships to Somalia two centuries ago. They were enslaved and persecuted until Somalia's civil war scattered them to refugee camps in the 1990's.

and...

The Bantu, who were often denied access to education and jobs in Somalia, are mostly illiterate and almost completely untouched by modern life. They measure time by watching the sun rise and fall over their green fields and mud huts.

and...

But most have never turned on a light switch, flushed a toilet or held a lease.

and...

In America, the refugees tell each other, the Bantu will be considered human beings, not slaves, for the first time.

and...

In Somalia, the lighter-skinned majority rejected the Bantu, for their slave origins and dark skin and wide features. Even after they were freed from bondage, the Bantu were denied meaningful political representation and rights to land ownership. During the Somali civil war, they were disproportionately victims of rapes and killings.

The discrimination and violence continues in the barren camps today -- even here -- where the Bantu are often attacked and dismissed as Mushungulis, which means slave people.

and...

''I don't think Somalia is my country because we Somali Bantus have seen our people treated like donkeys there,'' said Fatuma Abdekadir, 20, who was waiting for her class to start. ''I think my country is where I am going.

''There, there is peace. Nobody can treat you badly. Nobody can come into your house and beat you.''

So now they're coming to the US, and how does reporter Rachel Swarns pivot to the challenges they will face here?

The refugees watch snippets of American life on videos in class, and they marvel at the images of supermarkets filled with peppers and tomatoes and of tall buildings that reach for the clouds. But they know little about racism, poverty, the bone-chilling cold or the cities that will be chosen for them by refugee resettlement agencies.

(emphasis mine)

Right Rachel... these folks don't know much about racism or poverty. Life in America is really going to smack them in the face, isn't it?

Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion.
Africa's Lost Tribe
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Why are people still whining about the election? - 17/11/2016 01:47:55 AM 889 Views
And all the rest of the whining DOESN'T make you smile? *NM* - 17/11/2016 02:41:31 AM 348 Views
Lady Macbeth thwarted in her lust for power. - 17/11/2016 12:53:54 PM 662 Views
Those reports belong in the now much-discussed 'fake news' category. But otherwise, yeah. - 17/11/2016 05:44:55 PM 630 Views
That's the part that worries me *NM* - 17/11/2016 05:51:12 PM 313 Views
Fake News is a real problem - 19/11/2016 01:25:44 AM 561 Views
Maybe because it's indistinct from network news. - 20/11/2016 01:33:56 AM 834 Views
That's touches on something that I just don't understand.... - 17/11/2016 09:18:55 PM 533 Views
Sigh fake / exaggerated news, here is the snopes link - 19/11/2016 01:23:41 AM 757 Views
On a related note, historically speaking, has the New York Times always been such a rag? *NM* - 18/11/2016 10:57:46 AM 294 Views
My favorite example of why I distrust the NYtimes... - 18/11/2016 05:54:45 PM 773 Views
Re: My favorite example of why I distrust the NYtimes... - 19/11/2016 09:44:55 AM 805 Views
I have no problem with the "whining" - 21/11/2016 07:19:55 AM 767 Views

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