Kaziwa Salih’s Speech in the World Refugee Day
Kaziwa Salih’s Speech in the World Refugee Day
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to extend sincere thanks and acknowledge the indigenous owners of this land, and all other Canadians for welcoming so many refugees.
We are fortunate to enjoy a safe place in this great, sprawling country. But welcoming refugees is part of Canada’s identity, its generous spirit and sense of justice.
Thank you all for being here to observe World Refugee Day. I’m particularly delighted to be joined by United Nation and PEN Canada today, as a sign of the importance attached to Kurdish refugees.
World Refugee Day is a chance for refugees all over the globe to celebrate together and share their experiences. It’s also an opportunity for United Nations supporters who contribute to the UN refugee program fund to raise awareness of refugee issues and remind people everywhere of their responsibility to help those who have lost their homes, land and livelihood – and will never be able to go home again.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am writer, journalist and human rights activist refugee who have been in Canada for five years. As a young woman, I adopted two brothers when they were children. Although that story is interesting, I have something more important to say today, my usual questions, but this time in a loud voice.
What has Canada offered me, and what has it taken from me? Am I am ready to make sacrifices for this country? My answer is simple.
Yes, I’m ready to sacrifice my soul for this land, just as I would do for my homeland. Canada offered me a lot. Canada offered me identity, which is Canadian passport, while as a Kurdish, we always have been suffered with identity expunge. It saved my life and gave me freedom to walk the streets without bodyguards as I once did. It provides me rights as a woman. It gives me freedom of expression as a writer.
But it also has taken the most important thing in my life – my faith in positive thinking and my faith in what the Dalai Lama once said. It was this. “Consider for a moment the infinite possibility of universal love between human beings.”
Let me turn that term to the general condition of refugee, writers, journalists and professional and direct my words to the honourable minister responsible for refugees; Also, to all the governments, media outlets and other organizations in the arts.
In Canada, there are hundreds of writers, journalists, artists – highly educated professionals – who have lost their identity. They are not themselves any more. They live in poverty. Some are unemployed. Without an opportunity to use their skills, they feel useless. They feel hopeless.
What we need is for Canada to provide solutions, to help give refugees the skills and relevance they need to fend for their selves again and once again be what they were before they were refugees. They were writers, journalists, artists, and professionals.
And we have amazing strengths and the ability to overcome adversity. Many refugees flet their homelands to uphold their principles, not save their lives. In fact, most could be in high political positions and live with no problems.
They could have smashed their pens, not write anymore and live with no problems. Instead, they chose to fight for freedom of expression, for the rights of those who can’t fight, for democracy, and against corruption.
Are they merely to archive their goals in Canada, and deliver pizzas or drive taxis? Did Canada save their principles or merely their lives? To be sure, most lost the most important thing in their lives: their professional careers.
The question is: Will Canada harness their ability, consider them part of its national treasure and put them to work, creating a brighter future for all?
World Refugee Day is the day to get started. It’s the day for governments, media and arts organizations to make a commitment to writers, journalists and artists who have come to Canada as refugees or immigrants. As a country, we must restore their dignity and encourage their self-reliance by putting them to work in their chosen fields. If we do that, Canada’s half empty glass will become full and its gentle nationhood more enduring – a model for the world.
Dear listener.
I believe that World Refugee Day is a day for us to whisper to each other about who is in need of help to come out of the shadows and into the sunlight. It is truly satisfying to put a human face on an inhuman disaster. We all know that. We still live in a society where many people face a daily struggle for dignity. We live in a society still characterized by too many people living in poverty.
But I would also like to call the attention of the representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, to the many Kurdish children, youths, women and elderly men and women who are dying every day. Hundreds of children suck dead mother’s thumbs instead of milk. Hundreds people disabled and injured but with no medical supplies. Hundreds are hiding in caves, in fear of bombs, with little or nothing to eat.
In addition, there is an information blockade shutting out the media. The world doesn’t know what is happening. Those people are not so far from us. They are in the villages around Qendil Mountain in Kurdistan and they are suffering from Turkish attack. On behalf of the Kurds, I ask the United Nations, Ministry of refugee affairs, and all who are responsible for human rights, justice, humanity and peace to protect the lives of all those innocent people. I ask that in the interest of stability and peace because those are the minimum requirements for humanity.
Gandhi once said: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” We must call attention to the anguish of the displaced. We must look after the urgent needs and rights of Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Urgent needs of people from Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kosovo, Darvou, Somali and all Africa, and other places over world that have been burned by the flames of war, conflict, dictatorship, and poverty. World Refugee Day is a day to speak up and be the voice for those everywhere who has no voice.
May I end by thanking and acknowledging the work of The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And thank you for listening.
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