Serious Matters – the refugees

Several years ago I started a small humanitarian organization to help Nigerian school children pay their yearly school dues. But yesterday I began the tedious and semi-expensive work of filing for the charitable donations tax-exempt status, affectionately known as 501(c)(3), to start a new objective.

There are approximately 12 million refugees, scattered throughout more than 700 refugee camps, around the world. And in these refugee camps, all the simple amenities we take for granted on a daily basis, don’t even exist. Having once been homeless, I have some empathy for them.

The new objective involves a strategy for helping these refugees and internally displaced people (IDP). Why? Because I’m not comfortable living in a world where people have to beg for civilization’s scraps and are condemned to such cruel sadness. Is that the kind of world you’re comfortable living in? I really think we can do better.

Of course, I hope you will understand that there are certain reasons I won’t discuss the name, or aim, of my organization on this blog. For one, I am at least semi-anonymous here. Years ago, when I was a musician, I wanted the whole world to know who I was. Yet it never happened. C'est la vie. But now, I don't care anymore. Those days are gone forever and I have far more important things rolling around in my brain. Secondly, my blog is not for advertising. It’s just for thoughts and reflection. It’s a frail journal containing some guy’s random thoughts – nothing more. And nobody should have to pay money for that. Finally, it’s also about balance; the balance between serious matters and light-hearted matters. The absurd and the logical. The ugliness and the beauty. I enjoy that balance.

Some days, I need to express my concern over violence and injustice or the absurdities of politics and hate. Other days I get to be mesmerized with human triumph and romance, extraordinary landscapes, or even a particular, beautiful Japanese actress. * If you read this blog you already know who she is!! *

But this week: 12 million refugees. That’s the matter at hand and - it’s a very serious matter.

- Just a peasant

Photo of a child at a Hmong refugee camp from Doctors Without Borders site