Comments on: "There's culture shock, and then there's the culture shock of moving to a country that started a war in your home."

"There's culture shock, and then there's the culture shock of moving to a country that started a war in your home."

wander — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:49:47 -0800

"The war has uprooted 4.7 million people from their homes. So where are they?" With the election of Obama and the economic crisis, the topic of Iraq has fallen by the wayside. As hard as things may be right now, Iraqis have been going through far worse for years now. If you're curious about what they have to say, hear them tell it in their own words. Iraqi Refugee Stories.

Lest we also forget the war's toll on soldiers: The Life and Lonely Death of Noah Pierce. If you're asking, "What can I do about any of this?" Go here. And if you feel you can't manage to do any of that, then be good to yourself, and your neighbors. Go out of your way to do one nice thing for someone, or challenge one of the preconceptions you might have about someone else. You don't have to save the world, but you can at try least make it just a little nicer than it was. If you know any Iraqis affected by the war (or have worked closely with them yourself), or even know of some through someone else, encourage them to share their stories here.

By: LarryC

LarryC — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:26:29 -0800

the topic of Iraq has fallen by the wayside.

By: wander

wander — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:18:30 -0800

Sigh. I didn't mean here, LarryC, I just meant in the media in general. I was just trying to think of a connecting sentence where I could add some links so it wouldn't just be the quote, followed by Iraqi Refugee Stories link. Perhaps I should have used a less leading sentence, and I'm hoping that it will not deter people from looking at this post. I usually have a hard time posting here since I end up overthinking what the wording should be, and this time around I just thought I would write up a post and not try to overanalyze it so I would actually post it. I know metafilter keeps up with the war, and that's good to be reminded about, but I just thought that this was an interesting couple of links and wanted to share them. Without context it is difficult to know in what spirit your comment was meant in, but if I have offended you in any way LarryC, I apologize.

By: sien

sien — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:17:43 -0800

Actually, the topic of Iraq has decreased in frequency according to the list from the Iraq tags post. March 2009 - 2 Feb 2009 - 2 Jan 2009 - 2 Dec 2008 - 6 Nov 2008 - 9 Oct 2008 - 5 Sept 2008 - 7 Aug 2008 - 8 Jul 2008 - 5 Arguably even at MeFi there is less interest in Iraq since last year. Interesting post. The US and other countries that invaded have a responsibility to the refugees that the invasion created. Presumably it will be dealt with in the same way the Afghans were assisted after the Soviets left.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:13:36 -0800

From Aljazeera English via Informed Comment Iraqi Refugees in Jordan and in the USA

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:43:45 -0800

We fight them over there so the refugees can't make it here.

By: beerbajay

beerbajay — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:59:33 -0800

A lot of them are here in Sweden.

By: Wolof

Wolof — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:20:35 -0800

but if I have offended you in any way LarryC, I apologize. LarryC + news/politicsfilter = unhappy, and although I disagree I can pretty easily apprehend his point.

By: adamvasco

adamvasco — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:33:10 -0800

Is LarryC's scroller broken?

By: cj_

cj_ — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:56:53 -0800

Honestly, the first link is all that's necessary, it's a great article. It's unfortunate some people flip out when they see a post doesn't look like a wikipedia article -- with every word hotlinked to something they probably won't read anyway. Anyhow, thanks for the post.