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A man who put up $1.5M to help 200 Syrian refugees
- WizardlySquid 10y agoHe should have kept his money.
- EGreg 10y agoI believe that the UN should make a Convention on the Rights of the Refugee. Right now countries just pick and choose what to do with refugees in conflicts that, often, they helped exacerbate. If this convention existed back in the early 20th century then many Jews would have been saved from the Holocaust, there would be no stateless Palestinians today, and so forth. As it is, I find it frustrating that the question isn't dealt with seriously: "why do so few Arab countries give asylum and citizenship to Arab refugees?" Lebanon did it, with Syrian refugees. Jordan did it with Palestinian refugees. But by and large, Arab countries don't help fellow Arab refugees. What makes you Arab? Speaking Arabic and sharing a common culture. Russia would have taken in Russian refugees. It is one of their "five points". They even annexed Crimea and gave everyone there Russian citizenship. Speaking the same language means you can integrate into societ FAR more quickly, get a job and support your family. It is also better for the country as skilled workers can become productive faster. But it seems that international pressure must be applied to make Arab countries take in Arab refugees at a far greater rate than European countries with totally different culture. EDIT: According to this, a similarly named convention exists, but does not require countries to TAKE the refugees. And most Arab countries are not even signatories to it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_Relating_to_the_Status_of_Refugees https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_Relating_to_the_S... So as a result getting the real figures is a complete clusterfuck, with Arab governments claiming some numbers and stretching the definitions: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrians_in_Saudi_Arabia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrians_in_Saudi_Arabia
- dannylandau 10y agoVery commendable what he is doing! Although, it is worth pointing out that even without any war conflicts, if the U.S or Canada opened their borders, then 90% of the people's in the middle east and the African continent would likely be happy to immigrate.
- hoppa_liza 10y agoOne might argue that the US at least is a main driver of many of the conflicts in the area, if not by direct invasions and infrastructure destruction then by support to local dictators and puppet governments.
- 67726e 10y agoOh, I'm sorry, I forgot we were great fans of Assad and Hussein. If religious extremist want to fight, let them.
- hoppa_liza 10y agoI do not know about "we". I am not a fan of any murderer myself. This area has been marked for "free use" by several foreign forces over the years. The thing is, there is no free use, you have to pay eventually one way or another.
- soperj 10y agoThe US was a huge fan of Saddam, they provided him with a lot of weapons to fight Iran and to gas the Kurds. They were also quite happy with Assad when they were sending people there from the war on terror to be tortured after 9/11. Assad even warned the U.S. about a plot to blow up a US destroyer. Relations deteriorated after Bush went after Iraq again for no reason.
- coderdude 10y agoIs this real life or Metal Gear Solid 4? When I read HN I'm half expecting to hear about how war has changed. ID tagged soldiers carry ID tagged guns. The armchair analysts guarding HN's comment boxes should spend their efforts worrying about ID tagged pull requests. This is yet another example of when a programmer site jumps the shark. PS: programmers are good at programming. Not at all things thinking-related. Which this community shows countless times again.
- hoppa_liza 10y agoIt is amazing what can be achieved when people are looked at as people, not numbers. A refreshing story to break the immigrants-are-devils vs immigrants-are-angels fight.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- faitswulff 10y agoWhat's really uplifting to me about this article is that it points out Canada has decades of policies that are open to immigrants and refugees. Those refugees pay it forward to the next generation of immigrants in a virtuous cycle. One of my Torontonian friends recently posted about hearing "an old Chinese man speaking German in an Italian restaurant owned by Vietnamese refugees," or something like that, and it just seems like a diverse haven of different peoples.
- Mikeb85 10y agoOf course. We (Canada) were built by immigrants. My family's been here a few generations, but nevertheless were immigrants (from circa 1920), from western and eastern Europe. We also have Asian immigrants from several waves of migration, and of course more modern migration waves. Maybe because of the fact we have 2 official languages, are so spread out with various ethnic enclaves, our immigrant roots show a little more. Our culture has never been close to homogeneous.
- dghughes 10y agoI'm not from Toronto but I am Canadian but I heard a great show on CBC radio about something similar. I think it may have been Montreal. The show described amazing combinations of cultures Inuit-Korean or Greek-Jamaican or Mexican-Tibetan plus the mix of religions and food too. Wild stuff. It's pretty much common place in central Canada big cities it's just really getting rolling here in my region. Chinese, Lebanese (100 year history here), Russians, the usual Scottish Irish British Dutch Native.
- toyg 10y agoYou also had Mayor Ford not long ago, though. It's just that you still have a critical mass of first-generation immigrants from poor countries; as soon as that declines naturally (because of density ceilings), you will see more and more of the problems you see in Australia and US cropping up. Don't rest on your laurels, you are a young country.
- jacalata 10y agoI don't think Australia is a good example of "problems Canada will see when they are older".
- foota 10y agoSeems like this is a great case study (or perhaps anecdote) to illustrate the benefits of a basic income.
- purelogic 10y agoMan spends $1.5M to make his country less safe. Brings families into a culture that they will not integrate into (statistically Muslims are the worst at integrating [1]). Ultimately leading to their marginalisation and making them ripe targets for radicalisation. But good job signalling his virtue. [1] c.f. France, UK, Sweden and soon Germany. Sweden: Australian journalists attacked for going into a Muslium ghetto http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/news-and-current-affairs/60-minutes-film-crew-attacked-by-a-group-of-masked-men-in-stockholm-20160301-gn79oi.html http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/news-and-cu... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-pG4oiih3A#t=3m9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-pG4oiih3A#t=3m9s Swedish girl explains what's wrong with Sweden today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgRE5upxvAU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgRE5upxvAU
- akandiah 10y agoYou're so cowardly that you had to create a throwaway to say it.
- objclxt 10y agoNormally when people say “statistically” and provide a citation you expect it to go to an actual factual source, and not more of the author’s own opinions and assertions.
- purelogic 10y agoIf you don't think they are bring their culture with them, then you're an idiot http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-morality/ http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religi...
- louprado 10y ago“I didn’t want to be 80 years old and know that I did nothing during the greatest humanitarian crisis of my time.” As an American citizen who publicly supported both gulf wars and contributes disproportionally to climate change, the above is an understatement of how I feel about the Syrian crisis. Somewhat related, we have cities in the U.S. that are depressed in part because of population decline. An influx of immigrants could be mutually beneficial. The City of Detroit, for example, has no budget or incentive to demolish condemned homes because the cost of demolition exceeds the vacant land value. A refugee could be granted two homes on the promise they demolish one home. Perhaps one livable home can be constructed from reclaimed materials of the two. Last I checked, it cost $10k to demolish a small home and a barely livable COD home costs around $5k. Receiving $10k in property for delivering a $10k service doesn't seem like a handout. Granted refugees require support and resources beyond housing but this inspirational article on Jim Estill and his team of volunteers offer much encouragement in this regard. edit: grammar
- prawn 10y agoEach new home owner could demolish an adjacent home and turn it into a vegetable garden. Not so familiar with the Middle East but I know that migrants from Europe and Asia are often very keen home gardeners.
- mistermann 10y agoI'm not so sure the community in a place as economically depressed as Detroit would be as welcoming as the one in the article.
- anondon 10y agoNice to read this among all the xenophobic nonsense. A lot of people have this notion that welcoming (muslim) immigrants is like asking for terrorism, that they take away jobs, that they don't integrate well into society and they are out to convert everyone to Islam or something like that. I don't know what makes believe these crazy ideas, but the media certainly doesn't help, painting every terrorist attack as something to do with immigration policy or muslims. Social media plays a major role in spreading all these wrong stories. Unfortunately the vast majority of internet users get their news from social media platforms, where emotional appeal of a story trumps facts, which is something fake news writers have exploited to great success. I have no idea how people can support policies which actively want to stop helping immigrants. It's a humanitarian crisis and we need to do everything to help people who are suffering. As simple as that.
- meowface 10y agoI think part of it is the supposed belief statistics of certain regions. Like, 93% of some region may believe homosexuals should be executed and 70% that women should not be allowed to leave the house without a man, etc. (I'm making those numbers up, but I don't think they're far off from real areas of the world.) This really conflicts with the social norms in other countries. Some interesting statistics can be found here, though the video is pretty one-sided: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSPvnFDDQHk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSPvnFDDQHk (From a real Muslim woman, not just a concern troll.) Of course this doesn't mean immigrants should not be accepted with humanitarian rights and love like anyone else.
- kevcampb 10y agoCitation needed
- entropica 10y agoYou people need to learn how to work a damn search engine. At this point, there are many widely read sources for this information and it's largely an accepted fact among those who aren't actively denying it. This is like some genius coming along and saying "citation needed" every time someone remarks "the middle class is shrinking".
- bluesharpie 10y agoI live in Canada, stories like this one make me happy, but there is a huge difference in how the Canadian Government handled this crisis and how Germany did. I have met a couple of Syrian refugees living in Canada and they were indeed from Syria and their lives were indeed in danger before fleeing their home countries, that is why the results are positive. But in Germany the situation is a complete mess, thousands of economic migrants making it harder for real refugees, many which are a security threat. I have seen both sides of the coin and I don't think someone has to be a xenophobe to be against taking refugees and someone doesn't have to be naive to stand outside holding "refugees welcome" signs
- eigenvector 10y agoIt's a lot easier for us in Canada to pick and choose between war-displaced refugees and economic migrants when we have a massive ocean between us and the source of migrants. No one can arrive here without being pre-cleared by the Canadian government. European countries don't have that luxury.
- Caprinicus 10y agoYou're right that it's much less water, but euro countries are still choosing to accelerate the situation. Migrants will float their boat up to anything that looks european, sink themselves, because they are often required to bring them onboard and take them to europe, even if they're barely off the coast of wherever they came from. Even if you want all the migrants you can get, it's a terrible plan because they often accidentally sink themselves near vessels that can't take them onboard and drown, or leave in vessels that aren't seaworthy because they think they'll get picked up, and when they don't they drown.
- jbob2000 10y agoThey don't have that luxury and they don't want it. The purpose of taking in refugees is two fold: One, to save their lives (duh), but also to prevent them from radicalizing. Europe is vacuuming up anyone who wants to join so that they don't stay in the warzone and possibly turn against them.
- vadym909 10y agoI was just wondering the other day, why none of the richest people in the world were doing more to help solve or bring some relief to the Syrian crisis/refugees. I guess you need heart not money to be generous!
- siliconviking 10y agoWhat rock do you live under Sir, may I ask?
- dang 10y agoPersonal attacks will get your account banned here, so please don't do this again. Instead, please (re-)read the site rules, and post civilly and substantively, or not at all: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13234860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13234860 and marked it off-topic.
- coldshower 10y agoDang, I'm interested to know why you shadowban some accounts (obviously without warning, or else it wouldn't be a shadownban) and yet give others advance warning in a very public way. Is there a criteria or policy you follow?
- dang 10y agoFor example, when people have been serially spamming HN for years and creating dozens of accounts to do it with, we ban them outright.
- coldshower 10y agoSounds fair enough.
- known 10y agoNo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estill
- known 10y agoSince 45% of USA is uninhabited, America should absorb more Syrian refugees
- coolman90 10y agoThis story is very inspiring. Hats off to that person.
- Tharre 10y agoNo matter how heartwarmingly good this appears, it's terribly misguided. This approach does not scale. You simply cannot provide hundreds of thousands of refugees with food, shelter and education in a 1st world country. We have all seen what even a few of them do to countries: mass xenophobia, terror and rising popularity of right-wing parties. If we truly wanted to help these people and make a difference then the best thing we can do is provide local refugee camps with the resources to take care of their greatest needs. They know much better than we ever could what is needed. Hell, we can't even communicate with many of them, as many don't speak English and we have far too little translators. And meanwhile we need to actually tackle many of the root problems of why we're in this hole mess to begin with. Solving many of those are hard, others not so much. For example, could we please stop selling those countries weapons to kill themselves with?
- 3131s 10y ago> For example, could we please stop selling those countries weapons to kill themselves with? But as Wolf Blitzer so astutely pointed out on CNN, that would deeply impact the bottom line of America's 'defense' contractors! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk0TqIbPNbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk0TqIbPNbY
- internaut 10y ago> we need to actually tackle many of the root problems We have frequently shifting national moods so why is it a surprise our foreign policy behaves as if it has a multiple personality disorder? If one was a cynic they might suggest this was a subversive policy for one system to cause systemic instability outside of its borders.
- Clobbersmith 10y agoAs somebody who grew up in Guelph, this doesn't surprise me. Few other places I've been to would have a CEO spending his own money to help out complete strangers.
- ixacto 10y agoHm, freedom of speech, freedom of apostasy, freedom of any other religion to evangelize in a majority-muslim nation (Albania/Lebanon might be an exception here), freedom to criticize Muhammad & Aisha. Try doing/saying any of this in any country controlled by the religion of peace, and see how it goes over. Look at what just happened in France and Germany, a "refugee" decided to run a semi into a crowd of people for fun. I did not see any details on the Immigration Canada screening procedures in this article. It's only a matter of time until these sort of attacks start coming to Canada and the USA...oh wait San Bernadino. Better start putting in concrete roadblocks. Honestly this sort of thing is why people in the flyover states decided to elect Trump. They are sick and tired of the bleeding-hearts importing the worlds refugees and thus making them their problem. Jobs and health insurance is what America cares about, not immigrants or transgender bathroom usage. I don't want any refugees in the united states, at all. We have our own goddamn problems to deal with, and don't need anymore.
- vertex-four 10y ago> transgender bathroom usage America seems to care very, very much about that. It's just that you think bigotry is right, so you see people fighting for their rights as making nonsense up.
- grzm 10y agoAmerica seems to care very, very much about that. Please don't make sweeping generalizations like this. It's pretty clear that the US has a wide variety of opinions on this and a variety of other issues.
- dang 10y agoPlease keep political rants off HN, and especially religious flamewars. This is the kind of thing we don't want here. It's pure poison for thoughtful and substantive discussion, which is what we do want. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13235239 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13235239 and marked it off-topic.
- nepotism2016 10y agoGood on him, he did more than I would ever do. However I believe in helping communities rather than individuals
- capitalist2332 10y agoGood thing to do, but makes me think how much more effective (in terms of help given per dollar spent) it would be to help these people in some other place where the costs of living are much lower.
- internaut 10y agoThis is secular Creationism.
- meowface 10y agoHow?
- internaut 10y agoThere are many ways to answer this. Here is a high level explanation of why we are in disagreement. Instead of explaining 'How' and getting bogged down in the details and worse, trapped by semantics, I shall explain 'Why' I think we differ. Then if you want to get into the specifics we can. I used to be a Creationist, how the political ideology of Progression thinks about biology is very similar to how Creationists have thought about biological evolution down through the last two centuries. While both camps see each other as being extraordinarily different, this is not compelling evidence that they aren't related, note the conflict between Shia and Sunni. They see each as being oppositional... Similarly Progressivism and Creationism come from the same source. If you trace back the history of ideas to ye olde England and Germany this becomes startlingly obvious. It is not a coincidence that the phrase 'social justice' is Catholic in origin. Why this matters is that when Darwin set off his Atom Bomb concerning the Origin of Species, he immediately ran into direct conflict with the Church because the implications of evolution theory contradicted the account of life being formed in Genesis. Today Darwin's ideas have won out over Christianity. Most Christians believe in evolution theory, and they take the first book of the Bible as not being a literal account of reality. In my opinion this ultimately neutered the political legitimacy of Christianity. However a descendant of Christianity, Progressivism, continues to not believe in Evolution. Unlike Christianity, it has managed to exert enormous political influence through the education system, especially the universities. It is what has tabooed discussion of human speciation. This is less than obvious because most students would initially deny that they disbelieve Evolution theory. Then, as it moves further up against their taboos, red lights begin to flash and they begin exhibiting failures of imagination. There are students that; - Believe evolution explains the animal/plant kingdoms but not that of humans "there hasn't been enough time for human evolution" (christian variant: humans are special). - Believe evolution explains human evolution in the past but not the present. - Believe evolution explains human evolution below the neck only. Here the brain is immutable but obvious physiological changes are fine. - Believe evolution explains the development of the human brain but insist that nonetheless human speciation is impossible (christian variant: 'microevolution' i.e. small changes up to a limit - The reason for the constrained scope is never explained, only assumed). None of them want to acknowledge that if evolution is real then humans evolve, and if humans evolve, then logically there could be evidence for different groups of humans. If such evidence existed for the beginning of human speciation the strongest evidence would be found in human population groups which have been separated for the longest period of time e.g. 100,000 years. As you know science is very dependent on the ability to replicate experiments and make predictions. This is why in universities in the West, this subject is so tabooed there are few scientists willing to stick their necks out by doing those experiments. One of the men who discovered DNA, James Watson, is blacklisted because of some off the cuff remarks about race. If a bollocking can happen to somebody who made one of the most important discoveries in biology, it can sure happen to a less prestigious scientist. It is a tabooed subject because Progressivism is founded on theological roots i.e. the premise of their beliefs was never rational to begin with. The Chinese, who have no such taboo, Christian or Progressive, are making huge strides in biological science because the Progressivism meme is not strong in China. This documentary 'DNA Dreams' is worth watching to fully appreciate this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dVv5RMwzuo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dVv5RMwzuo