Cuban Refugees

Currently in our English class we have just finished the book "Refugee" by Alan Gratz. Throughout the book we travel through three different times when a certain group of people were migrating due to their current problems in their country. We start with Joseph who lives in Germany and is trying to escape due Hitler being in charge and wanting all Jewish people dead. Through Joseph we see a little of what some Jewish people were going through during that time, having to leave their homes and travel to a foreign place. The next character we meet is Isabel who lived in Cuba during the 1990s we learn that the country was poor, and they needed to flee to escape the falling country. They too are having to leave their homes behind to go to a foreign country and start a new life from nothing. We continue to meet the next character named Mahmoud who is a Syrian boy whose country is being torn apart by ongoing civil war violence. 

One thing that all these characters have in common is that they are all refugees. It is sad to see how they were treated in these stories and how most are treated today. One issue that I wanted to know more about was what all happened during the Cuban migration. We gathered from the book that they had no choice but to leave due to the horrible conditions the country was in, when the Soviet Union collapsed. In Isabels journey they are trying to get to the United States by a raft that was built out of old material. This is however how most traveled to the U.S. and how many were eventually caught and either taken back to their country or sent to a refugee camp.

Looking farther into this topic I found an article by the New York Times called " Last of Refugees From Cuba In '94 Flight Now Enter U.S. " Throughout the article it discusses how some came to the country and quotes of why they were coming to this country from some. Most said to get a fresh start and work, most were wanting to get jobs and have a better life away from poverty. The article also mentions how there was a mix of Haitians with the Cubans. However, most of the people from Haiti were sent back to their country by the U.S. coast guard. More than 29,000 Cubans and 21,000 Haitians were held at Guantanamo when they arrived. Through the Clinton administration there were refugee camps set up there. However, due to the refugee camps many were more suicidal due to the conditions they left and the ones they were currently in. The camps also ended up costing the government about $150 million dollars. They said that they thought the camps helped solve the Immigration Issue. There are still refugees today, history has shown us that all these people want is a fresh start and somewhere where they can protect their family and succeed. Refugees should not be a threat and should be helped instead of punished for the circumstances that they are trying to escape.

 “How wonderful it is that no one has to wait, but can start right now to gradually change the   world! How wonderful it is that everyone, great and small, can immediately help bring about justice by giving of themselves.”

— Anne Frank

Border Control

"Storming the Wall" by Todd Miller is a very interesting and important book to read. If I was not mad about the current situation with climate change reading this part cleared everything up. Throughout chapter 5 he writes about Tohono O’odham people and their troubles with the border patrol. He specifically describes this chilling experience through the character named Garcia, as he travel with two young adults through the border. It is horrible to read about the unfair treatment that most receive when they have already gone through so much.  A very huge part of what Miller discusses is the border patrol and what they were intended for and how unfair they can be. Most check points are set up after an environmental crisis that results in a ton of people moving to a new area. In this time, they are expected to go through check points to see if they are allowed into a state. During this patrol can pick out anyone based on their own intuition if someone looks like a criminal or a terrorist they can be taken off path and searched. This upset me a lot, everyone knows the old saying you cannot judge a book by its cover. If this is the case then how can border patrol?

This is what brought me to do some more research, with such strict border patrol I wanted to see how many others were at risk for being affected by border control if Climate change continues. I wanted to know more and learn about future events that could possible happen. That is what brought me into looking into the future of border control if climate change is going to continue at the rate it is going. An article called "  Climate change will be the border control of the future  " by Reece Jones describes what the future will look like for many people if their homes are also going to be destroyed. An unsettling fact is that "Estimates vary, but the consensus Is that there will be at least 200 million people displaced by climate change by 2050" (Jones, 2017). That is so scary to think about that many will be displaced and because of strict border control guidelines will most unlikely be able to enter the U.S. 

Climate change is not going to stop at any time soon and the issues are getting bigger. The more and more people wait to address the fact that Climate Change is indeed real the more danger everyone is going to be in. The biggest part of helping these refugees who have already lost so much is to allow them into countries without the fear of being mistreated and abused by our own security. If we as a nation are going to move forward we need to start working together with others and changing how we live.

Sex Trafficking

 Sex Trafficking is a form of slavery that occurs in the United States as well as globally. Most victims are forced into slavery, they either are scared into it or are sold into it by their families or people who trick them. The most common group affected by this is runaways and homeless young people. According to  WXYZ Detroit Michigan the number of cases seem to be rising, in 2017, 309 cases were reported to the helplines.

Currently we just finished a book in our English class called "The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi. Throughout the book we follow one of the main character named Maria, she is struggling in the world she is living in and has no real advantage of getting out. We concluded that her age was around 16 or younger, not really ready to be on her own yet she was. In the story everyone is trying to deal with the drought and the loss of water in Phoenix. Maria is struggling to keep her current shelter that she is living in with her friend Sarah. Like many victims who fall into sex trafficking Maria is lost and needs money. She is persuaded through violence and forced to sell her body in order to pay rent to the main leader of the strip. 

"Pay him. Or the next time you come back, ... your girlfriend owes me, too." (Ch. 12) In this scene Maria is talking to the Vet about the money that she owes him. Just like many victims we can see how trapped Maria feels. She either has to pay him or end up dead, this is a scary thought. Its hard to believe how someone could make you feel this way. How in a second your life could be over and what would you do in order to stay alive? Life during this novel was no longer about happiness and family but more about survival and making sure that each day wasn't your last. It is horrific to see how sex trafficking can happen, you never really think about what these people go through on a daily bases. By reading this book it made me more aware of this growing issue in America and around the world. People are being sold into sex because they feel that they have no other options left, what can they do at this point they are no longer in charge or their own fate. Maria seems to feel this way throughout the book, and sees how the world may never change, like Maria these victims feel as though they have no other choice.

"She needed more than... pad their bras." (Ch. 18) this seemed like another important quote in order to show how realistic the book made this issue. Maria is trying to think of anyway to keep this rich man to continue buying her. Polaris a sex trafficking website dedicated to informing people about the issue and providing support for anyone who may be a victim of sex trafficking. The website lists many different ways that most victims fall into sex trafficking most being either forced into it by families or violence. We can see in this passage how reliant Maria is on this man who just bought her for money. She is so scared by the Vet who could kill her that she wants to stay with this man in order to make sure she is not killed. Polaris has received reports of 22,191 sex trafficking cases just in the United States. This is a very important issue that more and more people are being forced into and it seems to be getting worse.