There is a place for everyone

Well, it is now Monday 22nd June. Maybe World Refugee Day was just another day in the year. For me, it was a special day for two reasons. One was the experience of going to the Bangkok Refugee Centre and seeing the performances by the Congolese, the Somalis, the Sri Lankans and the Chinese. The other was learning the news that my Thai priest boss was just named a Bishop for a diocese that includes refugee camps for those who have come into Thailand fleeing the oppression of Myanmar.

If I could share something of my Thai priest boss, I know him to be a good and dedicated priest. He is a kind man and humble. These are not the chararterisitics that are presently highlighted within the local scene. Here, within in a culture that features patronage and that values prestige and status, he suddenly becomes the centre for much adulation by his peers and employees. Such adulation does not speak of him or his new role of leadership and service in the Church. It does however speak of his culture and how much it places the value on one's standing and position rather than who one is as a person, or this is how I see it from the outside. I know this is not him but he accepts it for what it is worth and goes on in his humble way. He does impress me.

I now want to tie this experience to the message of World Refugee Day. We, no matter who we are or where we come from, live in a world that so values what we have, what we do; that values how strong and powerful we are above simply who we are. Maybe if we took a lesson from my Thai priest boss and just valued each other for who we are as people, then our world would be a better place and have fewer refugees. In a world where we value each other for who we are, the powerful and strong, the dominators and the control freaks could not easily get their way at the expense of others, the little people, the gentle people. Our world hopefully would be fairer and more peaceful. In it, we could acknowledge that there is a truly a place for everyone no matter who we are. Would that not be a more preferable world that ruled by the obscure values of power, control, greed, status and prestige?

World Refugee Day

June 20 is World refugee Day, a good time to remember the 42 million uprooted people around the world who are still waiting to go home. They are among the most vulnerable people in the world. So says Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

One could lecture or preach or just sprout on. For now, I just share with you photos from my day here in Bangkok. I was at the Bangkok Refugee Center for their celebration of Refugee Day. It was a festival of colour, of song, of dance, of happiness among and with those who are so vulnerable and desperate in our world. For now let the photos speak. Take them in and just sit with the message for you. And let the words of the Center's Director also ring as he said - Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Displaced People are not the problem. Then what is?

Bangkok is a Hub!

This has been quite a week. It started with mygoing to Ratchaburi Province along the border with Myanmar. Then it continued from there with the Caritas Asia gathering and my meeting there Bishop Giorgio, the Catholic Bishop of Djibouti and Somalia. Even just to hear him tell me that he was the Bishop for Somalia literally blew my mind apart. On getting to know him, I discovered a man who was kind, easy going and so friendly. I could only imagine where he came from but his whole demanour spoke of a whole different reality - kindness and gentleness. Giorgio is an Italian Franciscan. The previous Bishop of Somalia had been murdered and so giogio has been the Bihop for the past eight years. He lives in Djibouti and has not been able to get to Mogadishu for the past 18 months as it is just too dangerous.

There was a cathedral there but part of it has long been blown up. When he was able to visit Mogadishu, he described how he was not met by Customs and Immigration but by the armed convoy sent by the then local Catholic Sisters. the convoy was made up of men armed with armalites. They were his passport to the then Catholic compound. This compound no longer exists as one of the Sisters was murdered and the others then withdrawn. Such is Somalia.

I took Giorgio to meet some Somalis I try to help here in Bangkok. He met with Ahmed whom my Province is trying to get to Australia. Their conversation was interesting and a joy for me to share. One conclusion was clear - the present situation in Somalia is not one where Muslim extremists are fighting for their version of Islam. Rather this is a new strategy being presented by the thugs, crooks and hungry power seekers that have been fighting in Somalia since 1990 in their greedy bid to grab power. That is the reality.

Like Thailand - all is never what it seems. We can be simplistic as we approach our world but we need to be wise as serpents. Thank God for the Bishop Giorgios of our world.

All is not what it seems

Here I am pictured in Ratchaburi Province in the midst of such beautiful countryside. All seems so peacful but the the reality out there speaks of a different truth. Not so far away is the Thai-Burma border and along that border so near to where I am standing is a refugee camp for Burmese who have fled a homeland where they only know war, fear and oppression. Life is so different from a countryside that is so beautiful and peaceful.