Excuse me while I jump up on the soap box again, exhibiting my moral superiority to Others Who Don't Think Like Me.


The issue today? The abuse of clearly defined terms by media outlets in order to dramatize a situation as much as possible.

The word at issue: refugee.

The United Nations 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a "refugee" as a person who:

"as a result of events ... and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it."

Therefore, a refugee is someone who is currently outside his or her country because they fear persecution on the basis of race, religion, etc., and are afraid to return to their country because of these terms.

The victims of Hurricane Katrina are not refugees. They are unfortunate people in need of humanitarian aid and assitance, who must evacuate their homes because of a natural disaster.

Why do I even care? Because, in my feild of study, definitions are everything. It is so hard to nail down any term, because it never means the same thing to anyone. Two prime examples: democracy and terrorism. Is democracy just simple the right to vote for your government? If so, then Iraq was a democracy, because Hussein held elections. Just because he was on the only candidate, and the elections were neither free nor fair wouldn't detract from that IF that was the definition of democracy. And, well, with terrorism, as horrible as is to say, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. So, you see, in political arenas, definitions are incredibly important.

And when you have such a nice, clearly defined definition like the one for 'refugee' by the most credible (based on membership, not track record) international organization, it's important to ensure that it's not abused or used incorrectly.

If the United States keeps using the word refugee for people leaving their homes because of dangerous living conditions, they're going to have a lot of people from third world countries knocking on their door, going, 'hey, we're refugees! Our living conditions suck, too! Let us in!' And, well, based on the US's use of 'refugee', they'd be right. Given the current US foreign policy, this is probably not what the Bush Administration would like to see happen.



My point, those of you who have been exposed to many of my self-righteous ramblings lately, is that definitions are very important and using a word improperly can change its meaning, and create a whole mess of a situation.

Again, despite appearances, this is not meant to belittle the plight of the victims of Katrina. This is more aimed at the news networks for their determination to dramatize and sensationalize every situation. There was one man, totally overcome with emotion because his wife was missing and presumed dead, and the damn reporter kept shoving the mic in his face and asking him more questions. Leave the guy alone! He doesn't need you sticking a camera in his face in order to get a great little sound byte to boost your ratings.

News networks, like working under the guise of trying to 'inform the people' are profitting from this disaster. The same way that some gas companies are unrealistically raising their prices, and THAT is what I find offensive in the whole situation. And yet, the stampede that killed over 700 people in Baghdad was barely even mentioned, because, you know, deaths in the Middle East aren't worth talking about (unless their of American soldiers who were killed by insurgents). *is incredibly annoyed by mass media and is swearing off all news sources based in North American...for about 10 minutes, until my Google News addiction rears its ugly head*



Where's the damn humanity, people? Although, I got a little weepy and envious of American political culture reading a statement by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has offered the Astrodome as housing for victims as long as necessary, talking about what they've done in order to make living conditions as comfortable as possible. Here's the part that got me all sniffly:

"We're going to pull together so that these families can find as much normalcy as we can...We're going to get through this together as one American family."

One American family. That is what I love about the US. This hurricane did not just happen to the states along the Gulf Coast. It happened to the whole damn country, and dammit, they're going to pull together to make sure they get through it! It's just like 9/11, and I love the rallying that Americans do when faced with these kinds of situations. If only we could get them to see themselves as part of the "global family" and not just as Americans, this is a sentiment that could be put to powerful use and potentially change the world.

If this happened in Canada, well... it would depend on where the disaster struck. If it was in the West, Alberta would kick ass and take names while Ontario would flail around trying to help but really being of no use. If it were to happen in Manitoba or Saskatchewan, no one would hear about it. If it were to happen in Ontario, the provincial and federal governments would compete for air time, trying to come across as Good Leaders in Crisis Situations and earn the trust of the people. If it were to happen in Quebec, the rest of the country would point and laugh (not really... well, sort of). If it were to happen on the East Coast, we'd sigh, admit the tragedy and then forget about it.

We're not one country, we're regions, and all regions hate the government in Ottawa. And that's why we'll never rock as much as the US, at least under these circumstances.

By the way, I really do love my country. I'm Canadian to the core, but I'm not a blind Canadian, and am in fact painfully informed of the issues that keep us from realizing our potential, and I'm not afraid of discussing these failings.


I really do sound self-righteous. I was intending for this to be a small post about my irritation over the mis-use of the world 'refugee' but it spiralled out of control. I should get a blog, so I can weed out my politics from my LJ, but that would be too much effort, and really, this is all part of who I am and I can't really escape it.