Extraordinary People

While I have been researching different hot topics on refugees, reading different articles and seeing different pictures, I got in a pretty low mood after seeing all the hatred and negativity pointed towards an already exploided people group. The public dialogue concerning the refugee population never ceases to create a negative conotation behind the refugee people.  When the words “refugee crisis” and “terrorist” are used together, the conversation neglects to talk about the human rights’ infracting groups that create refugees, the media instead creates the idea that the refugees are the problem, almost like a menace to society. On the contrary, refugees are people who had well founded lives and professions, who only left those lives behind because they were in fear of their fate. Instead of the usual internet post describing refugees as a “sad” or “needy”  social group, or give attention to any negative ideas even furhter, here is a positive post to remind us that refugees are people too, and it’s our job to publicize and remember that, even if the media will not.

In 1948 Madeline Albright’s family fled an oppressive Czechoslovakia I fear for their lives during the  years of the USSR in Eastern Europe. Madeline Albright is the first female secratary of state, former US ambassador under Bill Clinton, but first she was a refugee. In an attempt to bring education towards refugees, Albright continues to fight oppressive forces over refugees, as her latest Facebook addresses Trumps comments tomoward refugees.

During the reign of Nazi occupied Germany, thousands of Jewish people left Euorope in fear of their lives due to the genocide of the Jewish population. Among those refugees were the wonderful minds of men like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Einstein’s work in physhcics and the theory of relativity were Nobel award winning, which is more generally known than the fact that he was a refugee who got a position at Princeton to make his move. Freud is a well know Austrian neurologist  and discovered phenominal work in psychology and psychiatry, but due to his work in education he was personally threatened by the Nazi Regime on several occasions. Sigmumd and his daughter both left for the UK.

There are hundreds more refugees who influenced the world through their work, like Haitian rapper Wycleft Jean, Sudanese NBA All Star Luol Deng, and other popculture figures. It’s unfortunate that this infomation is not publicly known, almost as if the refugee crisis is suppressed in media and government works. These refugees are people just like everybody else, some who are more extraordinary than most of us, and that fact is not as publicly announced as it should. Makes refugees welcomed and known for their individuality and culture, not hated for it.