Do What You Can

Posted in FranceTagged , ,

If you are a right-thinking blog follower, you may have tried to access my refugee support page. It’s there, but the link is broken. No idea why.

The Ukrainiens have not yet reached Paris, so those links, which are to Paris-based groups, are not all that useful anyway. But the two million and counting, including over a hundred thousand unaccompanied minors, are going to go somewhere. The way things are shaping up, many will stay. During the months — years, if we’re talking about the kids — that they will need to sort out their lives, they’re going to need some help. As will the Afghans, etc. It’s a scary time, a dangerous world right now.

Everybody is saying give money and be sure to research your charity. Good advice, nothing I can add to that. But if you knit, consider the “Knitters for Ukraine” fund, which gives its money to the Red Cross. It was started by the Finnish magazine Laine, so it’s squeaky clean. Or even if you don’t knit, if you just like the anarchic weirdness of a bunch of folks banding together to knit Putin back to the Stone Age, go for it.

In fact in general, let’s face it, for the rest of our lives we will be dealing with refugees or worse, be refugees. To avoid compassion fatigue, we’re going to have to get creative about how we help. My thought is to choose one thing you already do or identify with — one action, one charity — and make doing it or donating to it a part of your life, now. Just normalize it.

21 thoughts on “Do What You Can”

  1. You’re right. And money is more useful than sending clothes, food, etc.–it doesn’t need to be trucked over to those in need. I’m looking at how to rearrange my apartment to create a spare room for somebody.

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    1. I thought about the whole housing thing, talked it over with friends who know the ins and outs of all this. They pointed out that refugees need lawyers who know how to get them legal status. They also need good public transportation. So most places outside Paris or maybe Marseille don’t really work. So anyone staying here, say, would need to own a car and be able to pay a private immigration attorney.

      Check out the situation where you are. Maybe it would work but for logistical reasons, it might not.

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      1. Absolutely agree. We talked about it and then came to the obvious conclusion that offering accommodation wouldn’t make sense in our case either. After the immigration part would come the need for work and some connection to their home communities and culture and there are so many other small things.
        I love the idea of making doing/giving a part of daily life. One of those rare good habits to develop 🙂

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        1. Yes. i thought about and should have mentioned the whole social thing. When I lived in Los Angeles there were what I hate to refer to as ethnic neighborhoods. Really, anyone can live anywhere, but if you wanted good kim chee or dim sum or fresh tortillas or whatever, you would head for different parts of town. For me it was all about the food. For them it was also language, friends, churches and temples, all the familiar things that ease daily living. There is and will be a lot of PTSD in refugee communities. In addition to everything else, they are going to need a cultural security blanket. We want to avoid ghettos, of course, but I think Los Angeles-type very porous neighborhoods can help. That means city life, at least for a while.

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          1. And as you mention PTSD, there will also be that whole side of health care where they’ll need translators or friends who speak the language or doctors and dentists who understand them. A whole world of things that rural life doesn’t quite cover. We speak the language and often find the bureaucracy difficult to navigate.

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  2. It’s practical action and assistance that counts now. I agree about sending money rather than goods, though once people are here among us, they may be glad of anything we can spare.

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    1. Well, yes. They will also have more need of our time. A linguist buddy gives language lessons. The kids will need sports coaching, music lessons, just plain reassurance…. The boy who was staying with us told me, just the other day, that he had been falling behind in his math classes, totally confused. Jean-Yves helped him with his homework, every night for months. The kid could have flunked out; instead, totally by chance, he had access to a Grand Ecole graduate who clarified everything. Now that he understands the basic concepts, he’s good to go.

      So, yes, it makes total sense to keep an eye out, see what we can do that would be useful.

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  3. Good post. I believe that the Ukraine situation, while currently desperate, will ultimately resolve in a relatively brief time and that the biggest long-term driver for refugee growth and population displacements will be climate change.

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    1. Climate change is a huge deal, no question. That is surely a big factor in migrations from South America and Africa. But Ukraine is being flattened. I’m sure many of these people will want to go home, but their homes don’t exist any more. So how will they manage that? Also many of them have family here or in England. That’s the big drama around England being so shitty with their visa procedures. The bulk of those applying for the visas have family waiting for them. Once you get here and people you know show you the ropes, you get a job and put your kids in school “just for now,” will you really return to a devastated country? Some will. If the Russians killed your husband and all the family you have left is here with you, maybe you won’t.

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      1. Good points. I was looking at overall global immigration as a numbers game. Figuring a population of around 45 million, a 10% displacement of population would be about 4.5 million folks – huge number but much smaller than the 200 million immigrants (per Stanford & Cornell projections) expected by 2050 caused by climate issues. I guess the Ukraine situation is more “in our face” because of a) its immediacy and b) the dreadful images on the news which personalize the plight of the immigrants. It’s enough to drive one to drink except I already took the train and got there early.

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          1. 200 million? Find out where Mitch McConnell lives and send them to his house! Institute a special Jeff Bezos tax and use the money to develop clean energy, or at least pay his employees fairly. Mostly, though, I’m thinking that leaves 40-plus million people still in Ukraine, running out of food and waiting for their homes to be shelled.

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  4. You’ve really thought this through…all right offering the emotive things, but real help comes in organisation to give security and assistance to adjust to another culture.

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    1. Yeah, it’s tough, and of course these are people who were happy where they were. We’re seeing lots of interviews with people who are clearly just falling apart. I hope they are able to start support groups, similar to those the anglophones have set up.

      Maybe they’ll go to Costa Rica. Last week an episode of “Silence Ça Pousse” was shot in Costa Rica. Not a word about the bad roads, the corruption, the petty chicanery that we get from you. It looked like Paradise with clothes.

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      1. Well, the programmes about France on British tv were nothing like the reality either!
        I can remember reading a guidebook telling us that if we were lucky we might see leafcutter ants at work. We went outside the place where we were staying to fnd the peon busy pouring diesel down a nest of same….

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        1. Not lucky, then? I don’t know, Helen. I get the feeling that Costa Rica is what it is, that visitors are more likely to gloss over the flaws than locals. Here in France I see profound hypocrisy. With all the preachy carryon about the environment, France fights for the right to hunt endangered species, use especially nasty products on crops, etc. The French can see that other countries in the EU are acting more responsibly and just don’t care.

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          1. The sheer hypocrisy of France is what got to me in the end…together with retrospective taxation and other joys. Liberty, equalty, fraternity…my backside! Unless you are a fils de papa you don’t have much chance to get on, nomatter how talented you are. A good friend – French – said that the problem is the mentality. Not only is there only one answer to a question…there is only one question.
            Locals here certainly don’t gloss over the flaws….I begin to think they wallow in them! Talk to anyone and in a couple of minutes they will start on the iniquities of the bus company, the corruption in the local council, embezzlement in the development committee….and as for the roads! The main road to the capital uses a single lane bridge which has now collapsed. All traffic has to go on the by roads, one of which involves a small bridge which boasts a notice from the road authorities banning its use as it is too dangerous….I had to go to San Jose last week and Danilo preferred to drive through the river rather than use it…just hope the main bridge is repaired before the rainy season sets in…

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  5. An excellent idea – daily practice. We’ve just had catastrophic floods in my region with lots of people made homeless and what to do and who to give what to has been overwhelming – and sort of freezes you (or me, anyway). Having a clear intention makes it faster and simpler…

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    1. Yes, any well-managed group is better than none. It’s a bandage covering the gaping wounds of our failure to deal with our treatment of the planet and our enabling of authoritarian regimes. But to anyone driven from their homes by flooding, say, or tanks at their backs, it will be most welcome.

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