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Cultural differences can manifest themselves in ways people never consider until they cross from one culture to another. In this clip, refugees from Sudan encounter America for the first time, and find it quite different from their homeland. This is from the 2006 National Geographic movie God Grew Tired of Us. -via reddit
The Hammersmith and Fulham Council in England is in the process of selling off a building to make room for the West London free school. Twenty community aid organizations are being evicted. One of them is the Afghan Council UK, which advises refugees from Afghanistan.
The report suggested that refugees who use the centre could instead contact the Southern Afghan Club, reports The Mirror.
The Afghan Council UK offers support to Afghan refugees – while the Southern Afghan Club is a dog appreciation society which organises shows in the south of England.
Labour’s Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter said: “Not only are the Tories selling for a song centres that are a hub for their communities but they’re doing so in an ignorant and cynical way.”
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Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara was stationed in Lithuania when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Thousands of Jewish refugees came to the consulate seeking travel documents in order to escape the Nazis. Sugihara’s superiors in Tokyo ordered him not to issue any travel visas.
Sugihara discussed the plan with his wife Yukiko and decided to risk his career and his entire future by defying his superiors. The couple then spent 29 days issuing travel visas, up to 300 a day, as thousands of refugees stood in line at his office. Yukiko would prepare and register the visas while Chiune Sugihara would sign and stamp them, hour after hour, without breaking for meals. They would work late into the night until Yukiko would massage her husband’s weary hands in preparation for the next day. Sugihara was under orders to leave, which he could no longer delay. The family departed on September 1st, but he kept signing visas even as he boarded the train. Sugihara then tossed his official stamp out to the crowd, as he hadn’t time to stamp them all.
Sugihara’s actions enabled around 6,000 Jewish refugees to escape the Holocaust. For his efforts, Sugihara was imprisoned by the Soviets and fired from his job by the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Read the entire story at mental_floss. Link
