The Refugee Crisis; Why we shouldn't forget

 Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic, one must not forget the ongoing turmoil within the world; from the wars still ongoing in Yemen and Afghanistan, to the conflicting political parties, human rights violations, and police brutality and hypocrisy ongoing in the United States. We must not forget the ongoing refugee crisis in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Middle East and West Africa.

                    It is easy to focus on current events, especially if it mostly what the media is propagating amidst everything else. From politicians trying their hardest to earn a position, to celebrities acting entitled, one must not be easily swayed among the tides of information and lose sight of what else is happening. Such is the case for the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic, refugees are at the higher risk due to their lack of proper housing and general stability. In fact, it's even getting worse the more the year goes by, with rate of infection rising into the thousands, and the general populace focusing more and more on internal conflicts and media elegance. 

There are many, many reasons for people being displaced in the first place, as many news sources can attest to; fears of death, social injustice, bad economical situations, and war-torn, ravaged dwellings being huge causes. In fact, on October 23 of this year, at least 730,000 people from Rohingya were forced to reallocate due to worsening conditions in their country, as UNHCR reports. Even amidst the pandemic, we still should remember about the crisis because of the worsening conditions the pandemic has brought, which is worse for the refugees for reasons stated earlier. as people with better standards than those we have to accept, we shouldn't just turn a blind eye, which the media has decided to do.

The fact that people have to live in these conditions should upset anyone, since it shows the universal truth; that not everything in the world is perfect. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have wars over petty things such as religion, which says the same message, we wouldn't have people being forced to move elsewhere because of some rut trying to kill someone over their messiah, and we wouldn't have people killing each other just because of who they love, but we aren't in a perfect world, we're in this one. And the people have started blindsiding specifics, instead of focusing on the larger picture, they instead try to focus on one part which can be fixed anytime as it demands, which means we lose sight of more problems and gain tunnel-vision. we as a society have started thinking less of our fellow man and more of ourselves; of what we could have, instead of who we could help.

Anyways, we should not forget about the ongoing refugee crisis, since this is not only a national and international matter, it's also an economic matter. When more refugees come to a country, it adds a strain to funding, budgeting, and governments in general. With more people coming to the country for opportunities and relief, there comes an even bigger problem of overpopulation and handling of the social landscape. There will be stereotypes, prejudice, and even more things which we should try to avoid. it'll affect the cultural landscape too, with introductions to the youth of different ideas not propagated by the culture they live in, which is both a blessing and a curse.

To my fellow Filipinos, I know how important the inner workings of our country is, I know how important it is to focus on the political blocs and the different machinations of the Philippine economy, but don't forget about our fellow man, as people we have a right to help each other, not put each other down. It's important that we help flow the information into where it's needed, to focus on matters that not only focus on a location, but to also focus on the people who have come to us for aid. We may not owe them much, but they need us for a regular life, they need the help. So would you kindly spread the word?

As you can tell by the title of my blog, I want to shed lights on less-focused topics by the media, I want to show more of what's going on, so that people will know more. And when more people are informed, the more we can agree or disagree, the more we can make an effort to change this world, the more we have a chance to create a future where no one has to live in prejudice, in fear, or in madness. I have a hope that people can one day come together, and instead of focusing on the differences we have, we can instead help each other up, so that we are all equal, man or woman, black or white. But for now, we'll have to shed lights on all of these first.

references:
Image: https://www.globalsistersreport.org/sites/default/files/stories/images/Logo%20for%20custom%20field_0.jpg

730,000 estimate of refugees from Rohingya: https://www.unhcr.org/refugeebrief/latest-issues/

Deteriorating refugee living conditions due to COVID-19: https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/98/8/20-271080/en/