HUMAN-BUTTONS
This
campaign is about Human beings,
Democracy, UNHCR, Refugees, The Iraqis,
Islam, Kurds, Human rights, Respect,
Money, Donations, Angelina Jolie,
Pavarotti, Giorgio Armani, Donors,
Peace, History, Campaigns and about you if you care
about these words.
Hi there,
I am
SAM, an Iraqi refugee living in Lebanon at the moment; I have spent the last
10 years of my life as a refugee registered with the UNHCR in Beirut. The last
4 years, I have spent as an activist for
peace and human rights (especially refugees and asylum seekers) on the Internet; I'm also
books author and ebooks publisher. I have launched many campaigns to improve our situation as refugees in Lebanon and hopefully bring more understanding to our problems worldwide. I helped make many changes and improvements at the UNHCR office in Beirut; I used the Internet as the field for my activities (you can read more about that in my free ebook
'MY
CAMPAIGNS').
This is my newest campaign, it’s about the
illegal and humiliating actions of the
UNHCR, who using photos of refugees as
banners and human-buttons to collect
money. This is an abuse of the dignity
and humanity of the refugees and must
stop immediately and a clear public
apology present by The United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees. My
friends, I am talking about the pictures
you can see here: http://www.unhcr.ch
Notice
how they used the same human-button with
different colors to fit the background
of their pages! For them it’s artwork
and for us it’s humiliation.
There
is an Arabic song for an Egyptian
singer, she sings: “With all the
languages in the world, I’m loving
you”.
The
UNHCR singing for refugees: “With all
the languages in the world, I’m
humiliating you”.
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Arabic
song |
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Bulgarian
song |
Chinese
song |
Japanese
song |
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Czech
song |
Korean
song |
German
song |
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Greek
song
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Swedish
song
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French
song
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Danish
song |
2d
Japanese song |
Italian
song |
For
those who don’t see song in their
native language, please contact the
UNHCR and demand for song in your native
language. It’s national pride, don’t
miss it!
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Korean |
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Russian1
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Russian2 |
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Japanese |
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Chinese |
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German |
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French1
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French2
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French3
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French4 |
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Austrian |
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Sweden |
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Greek |
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Greek |
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Danish
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Italian1
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Italian2
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Italian3
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As I’m a refugee and an activist for human
rights, I feel that the problems of
refugees are not being solved by the
UNHCR in fact their policies are
worsening them. I have been saying this
since the first day I started my
activities and I said then that “If we
want to improve the situation of the
refugees in the world we must start with
changing the policies of the UNHCR,” I
even wrote this in my books.
The
people of the UNHCR have used these
pictures as banners and buttons to
collect money from donors. As a human
being and a refugee, I felt these
pictures represent a bad and offensive
example of the disrespect for our
humanity as refugees and asylum seekers.
It does nothing to represent the meaning
and the principles that were mentioned
in the UN51 convention. It fills me with
pain and sorrow to see this disrespect
to our dignity and humanity and also how
they are deceiving the community with
these pictures.
Unfortunately, the people who work at the UNHCR are working hard to present to you a portrait of a refugee as a poor human being who's problem will end when you donate a few $$$. Please look at their websites (just google for the unhcr) and look at the pictures there. Everywhere on the site you'll just see pictures about poor people!
They have worked hard to establish a deep-rooted
connection between poverty and refugees.
Everywhere in the world now if you ask
anyone what the word 'refugee' means the
answer will be "a poor person who
has lost his home" does any one of
you know another meaning for the word?
They
have showed you just one thing: poor
people as refugees and they made it
clear that by paying some money to them,
the problem will be solved; all it needs
is financial resources! When you look
directly at their websites, the pictures
of poor people will grab your attention
straight away! For UNHCR, the problem is
money only! We all as humans
need money, but not only money!
There are many things in the life not
only money, for example things like
what you could read in my free ebook ‘REFUGEES
FARM’.
When I started to post in Yahoo groups mentioning
I’m a refugee, many people didn’t
believe me, and they asked, “how it
was possible for me to have access to
the Internet?” I was astonished at the
beginning but afterwards I understood
the reality of what they were saying and
started to post messages telling the
truth and because of this the UNHCR
declared war on me and prosecuted me. So then I started to
call myself “The Truth Warrior”
because I am struggling to tell you the
truth. I was the first refugee who wrote
and published an e-book on the net and
the first refugee who wrote and
published an e-book about the UNHCR and
the first who used the Internet as a
weapon in his struggle to survive and to
make changes in real life.
The people of the UNHCR emphasized the connection between the refugees and poverty and
they drew a foggy picture of refugees, creating a strong impression about their poverty, more than the fact they were stateless refugees. They also put forward the idea it was the poverty creating the reality of them being refugees in the first place. Now it is an accepted idea in the world community that a refugee is just a poor person looking for a better life, well this is just not true! The majority of the world doesn't even realize that it is even possible for a millionaire to flee his home and be a refugee.
Article
1 of the Convention defines a refugee as:
"A person who is outside his/her
country of nationality or habitual
residence; has a well-founded fear of
persecution because of his/her race,
religion, nationality, membership in a
particular social group or political
opinion; and is unable or unwilling to
avail himself/herself of the protection
of that country, or to return there, for
fear of persecution."
There
is no mention made of the financial
situation of the refugee or the degree
of poverty he is experiencing, in plain
simple words ‘poverty does not make
someone a refugee’. As I said before
“the link between poverty and being a
refugee is another thing entirely”.
Most of the time the situation of the
refugees is bad because they have no
security, no opportunities to get work
and this then does create poverty! Its
clear that giving money will not solve
the problem, what's needed is real
understanding for the problems that
refugees are facing and they need global
co-operation to solve these problems. This
inspired me to adopt motto:
Justice
brings peace, freedom brings
democracy
understanding
is the way
Let me share with you some figures published by
the UNHCR itself.
2003
Private Donors to UNHCR over US$ 100,000
as of 20 February 2004
Donor
|
Amount
in USD
|
Italy
|
Private
donors Italy
|
3,068,858.00
|
Pavarotti
& Friends
|
2,336,932.00
|
Giorgio
Armani, Italy
|
356,295.00
|
Total
Private donors Italy
|
5,762,085.00
|
Spain
|
Espana
con ACNUR
|
4,486,112.00
|
Private
donors Spain
|
1,254.00
|
Total
Private donors Spain
|
4,487,366.00
|
Netherlands
|
Dutch
Postcode Lottery (NPL),
Netherlands
|
1,076,426.00
|
Stichting
Vluchteling
|
800,921.00
|
Breesaap
B.V., Netherlands
|
300,000.00
|
Private
donors Netherlands
|
2,444.00
|
Total
Private donors Netherlands
|
2,179,791.00
|
Japan
|
Japan
Association for UNHCR
|
1,550,162.00
|
Private
donors Japan
|
271,605.00
|
Shin-Nyo-En
Foundation
|
109,244.00
|
Total
Private donors Japan
|
1,931,011.00
|
Germany
|
Deutsche
Stiftung fur
UNO-Fluchtlingshilfe E.V.
|
1,296,044.00
|
Private
donors Germany
|
2,390.00
|
Total
Private donors Germany
|
1,298,434.00
|
United
States of America
|
USA
for UNHCR
|
412,758.00
|
World
Conference on Religion and
Peace, USA
|
300,000.00
|
UNF/UNFIP
(Ted Turner )
|
177,737.00
|
Private
donors United States of America
|
35,658.00
|
Total
Private donors United States of
America
|
926,153.00
|
France
|
Association
Francaise de soutien a l'UNHCR.
|
661,144.00
|
Private
donors France
|
143.00
|
Total
Private donors France
|
661,287.00
|
Kuwait
|
Kuwait
Red Crescent Society
|
441,705.00
|
Private
donors Kuwait
|
29,995.00
|
Total
Private donors Kuwait
|
471,700.00
|
Australia
|
Australia
for UNHCR
|
437,607.00
|
Total
Private donors Australia
|
437,607.00
|
Switzerland
|
Florindon
Foundation, Switzerland
|
234,742.00
|
Private
donors Switzerland
|
146,391.00
|
Total
Private donors Switzerland
|
381,133.00
|
Oman
|
Oman
Charitable Organization , Oman
|
366,902.00
|
Total
Private donors Oman
|
366,902.00
|
United
Kingdom
|
United
Kingdom for UNHCR
|
303,519.00
|
Private
donors United Kingdom
|
818.00
|
Total
Private donors United Kingdom
|
304,337.00
|
Norway
|
STATOIL
|
275,458.00
|
Total
Private donors Norway
|
275,458.00
|
Greece
|
Private
donors Greece
|
232,915.00
|
Total
Private donors Greece
|
232,915.00
|
Canada
|
Private
donors Canada
|
207,535.00
|
Total
Private donors Canada
|
207,535.00
|
|
Other
Private donors
|
148,133.54
|
Total
Contributions from private
donors
|
20,072,010
|
You
can download this table from UNHCR's
website here: 2003 Private Donors to UNHCR
From that table, we can see the total private
donations in year 2003 were US$
20,072,010. Now let’s analyze
that number, Anyway if we consider the
total numbers of asylum seekers and
refugees and others of concern to the
UNHCR which was 20,556,781
persons published on their table on the 1st
of August 2003. Now we need to divide
that amount on the number of refugees 20,072,010/20,556,781
guess what? It’s equals $0.97!
So then each refugee will have a grand sum of
$0.97 every year from these donations!!!
Yes my friend, they humiliated us for
less than $1 a year. Now let me think
what I can do with this amount of money
in one-year m’mmmm, maybe I can buy 2
bars of Lebanese candy!
I registered
with UNHCR more than 8 years ago now and
until this day I have not received one
cent from them! So according to that
table they owe me $7.80, a fortune!!! I
declare now that I don’t want this
money ($7.80) I just want them to remove
these humiliating pictures and make a
public apology. You
can ask the UNHCR in Beirut about that
point via their email: [email protected]
and please ask them also about the
amount of the money that they give for
the refugees in Lebanon now. I hope
they’ll answer you! Don’t you think
it’s strange that it’s hard to get
answers from the UNHCR! You’ll see if
you’re interesting to know the truth!
The big question is: Does all this money come
from these human-buttons asking for
donations on the UNHCR'S site? Does
Pavarotti or Giorgio Armani need these
human buttons to make donations? If they
need these buttons and it's a good way
for collecting money for the UNHCR, so why
don't they use their own pictures this
way to bring more money in for the
UNHCR. Also about Angelina Jolie, she is
a goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR and
she has worked hard to collect money for
the UNHCR, she is pretty and attractive
and her picture would make an excellent
human-button. They could write on the
Angelina Jolie button "make a
donation and be like Angelina" or
Send a donation to receive thanks from
Angelina" do you think that would
offend her or the others we spoke about?
Why would it does you think??? Her
pictures are everywhere so let them use
these as a human-button to collect money
if they feel it is inoffensive and not
dishonorable to her.
Pavarotti in one of his concerts. Many
human-buttons around him!!!
The last thing about these numbers is the percentage of the amount that different governments contribution to the UNHCR. I read in one table the total is $928,865,984. So what will happen if the UNHCR loses the 20 million that comes from private donors, if they remove the human-buttons of refugees? OK, they will have
$908,865,984, but they would be giving respect to the refugees of the world, do you think they care?
$0.97 a year makes
no difference to a human being but if we
divide the same amount between the
number of people working for the UNHCR,
I believe they have about 5000
employees… so 20,072,010/5000=$4014.40
more than $4000 a year don't you think
that makes a difference?
I have finished now about the numbers, let us
continue about the pictures, and the
idea of using the Angelina Jolie, maybe
you will say that her picture is already
being used on the site of the UNHCR and
you would be right! But there are a few
differences between her picture and the
pictures of the refugees. Angelina’s
picture isn’t used to collect money;
it’s used to show how much she cares
about people and her help for the UNHCR.
When you click on her picture, you read
about Angelina, but when you click on
the human-button of the refugees you
find a form to donate money.
The important difference being this, Angelina’s
picture gives you her name, dates and
history. The human-buttons, say nothing
about the people on them, no names, no
dates, nothing! This pushed me to find
out more about these human-buttons. I
found out the truth about the picture on
the Iraqi banner in the page about Iraq,
and the button on this page to donate
money. I wrote about it in my book “THE
TRUTH WARRIOR” I could tell you
quickly about it now, for more details
please look in the book.
This is a picture of a Kurdish family, and it was
taken in 1991! So that was 13 year
ago!!! The funny thing is that they used
it to illustrate and draw attention to
an event that happened last year,
writing on it “IRAQ EMERGENCY”
strange to speak about an emergency and
use a 13 year old picture don’t you
think? Look here please: www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/gallery/staffphoto/thumbs.asp
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/iraq
Do you know why they used that picture? Because
it was easy… they had it already, no
new refugee crisis happened during the
last war with the USA on Iraq in 2003!
Guess what? This picture shows a Kurdish
family fleeing by crossing the border
near Suleymaniye in the north of Iraq!
The problem now, of course is the
returning of refugees who left during
Saddam's rule. The age of the picture
and the fact it was taken for a
different reason, it's deceptive and
dishonest act.
I would have thought that a big organization like
the UNHCR would be able to get a more
modern picture of what is happening.
They receive information daily and I am
sure they don't need to resort to
13-year-old pictures; this information
is from the last century!!! Maybe now
there are not any pictures of Iraqi
refugees to encourage donors to click
the human-button! What a pity for the
people of the UNHCR and for the
refugees, especially the Iraqis. I wonder, how old the other pictures?
Do you feel that the picture shows the real
situation of Iraqi refugees now? Are the
Iraqis still fleeing and seeking refuge
outside Iraq? The truth is always
painful. The UNHCR has stopped receiving
new applications form Iraqis seeking
help, and when an Iraqi goes to the
UNHCR in Beirut to ask for assistance
they are told that the only help they
can get is repatriation to Iraq. At the
moment Iraqi refugees are scattered
around the world, Many countries are
offering to help return Iraqis home.
These countries governments mostly
finance these plans. For example in
England the government has offered $1000
plus the cost of their flight home to
each refugee.
In Lebanon, we are not sure about the amount of
financial support for those wishing to
return home, but someone who had gone
home told me that it was about $40,
the source of the money was also
unclear. Some people are saying that
this money is from unknown Iraqi parties
and some say the Iraqi Embassy in
Beirut. I am currently looking for more
information on this matter.
Anyway I don’t feel the $40 dollars given to
refugees in Lebanon is worth anything.
Especially when viewed against the $1000
given by most European countries. The
question is this: If there is no refugees
crisis in Iraq and the financial support
is being paid for by the governments
where these people are, why is the UNHCR
still asking for money using pictures of
Iraqi refugees?
One more important question about that picture,
do you think that the people who work
for the UNHCR know anything about this
woman or her family? Are they registered
refugees? What is her name and where are
they all now? Do you think she agreed to
have her picture put on the web and used
as a human-button?
I would love to know the answers to these
questions, but unfortunately I can’t
ask the people at the UNHCR even though
I tried many times over the years. They
never answer any question! Instead they
have tried to hurt me and even tried to
get my ISP to cut my connection! I hope
one day you get the chance to ask them,
and that maybe they will answer you.
They didn’t answer any of my friends
who sent them messages. So please if you
like, let us play their game and be a
little cheeky. I hope that one of you
can contact them and tell them you want
to donate money to help the family they
showed in the picture. Not telling them
of course that you know the picture is
old. Just tell them you want to sponsor
that family. Notice that they wrote on
it ‘Emergency’ so it’s good to
help them out! I’ll wait with baited
breath to hear their answers.
What do you think the answer will be? What do you
think she would feel like if she see her
picture used like that, and what if her
family sees her like this or someone in
her village? She is a Moslem woman and to
expose herself like this is a sin in
Islam. Did you notice she uses two
pieces of cloth to cover her head?
The UNHCR
using picture of Moslem woman on the
net as a banner and as a human-button to
collect money where millions of men
could see her!!! That is a very big sin
in Islam.
As
I’m a Moslem and I am sure the UNHCR
haven’t asked the woman’s permission
to display her picture publicly like
they are doing now, I am asking them to
respect the Islamic religion and
apologize to the woman and remove her
picture immediately. Also I am asking
each Moslem person reading this article
to express their concern about this sin,
which is being committed by the UNHCR
for the sake of this woman and her
family. Every Moslem knows what sin is,
and it is also a sin to be silent when
you see a wrong being committed. I am
asking each Moslem to contact the UNHCR
and express your opinion as we are
guided to do by Islam. I’m
asking Moslems particularly and all
members of other religions generally, to
express concern about the abuse of
refugees because all religions are based
on respect for the dignity of all
humanity.
There is a legal point of view for this subject:
The
United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees was established by the U.N.
General Assembly in 1950. According to
the UN51 convention and the Statute of
the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (G.A. res. 428
(V), annex, 5 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 20)
at 46, U.N. Doc. A/1775 (1950)).
“CHAPTER
II. - FUNCTIONS OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER
10.
The High Commissioner shall administer
any funds, public or private, which he
receives for assistance to refugees, and
shall distribute them among the private
and, as appropriate, public agencies
which he deems best qualified to
administer such assistance.
The
High Commissioner may reject any offers
which he does not consider appropriate
or which cannot be utilized.
The
High Commissioner shall not appeal to
governments for funds or make a general
appeal, without the prior approval of
the General Assembly.
The
High Commissioner shall include in his
annual report a statement of his
activities in this field.”
As you can see the UNHCR must have permission
from the General assembly for any
general appeal for money. The question
is: Did the General Assembly agree to
use these pictures to appeal for funds?
I
would sincerely love to receive an
answer, I am a refugee and I feel it is
an abuse of our humanity as refugees in
this world. Its not just abuse of our
humanity as refugees but for the humanity of all
humans.
We appeal to you to support this campaign to
remove these abuses and to provide more
respect for all refugees worldwide. Our
situation in the world worsens day after
day without any new polices to help or
improve our situation. The UNHCR uses us
as human-buttons and baits to collect
money! Our problem is not only because
of poverty it's because the general
abuse of the meaning and the principles
of UN51 convention because of these
money collectors in UNHCR and other
organizations.
This
abuse must stop immediately. If UNHCR
needs money so badly, there must be
other respectable and honorable ways to
make general and public appeals for
money. For example using buttons like
paypal provides for donation without any
humiliating pictures of humans at all.
I'm
not saying that the people of UNHCR are
all bad, they're just part of a system
and they have their procedures and
regulations. I just wanted to explain
some of our feelings as refugees. To
offer my understanding of the
relationship between the refugees and
the UNHCR. I'm an eyewitness to that
relationship, trying hard to improve the
relationship using my campaigns, my
books and my unanswered questions.
I feel sad because
the UNHCR has failed in the past 3 years
to answer my questions. Until this day
they failed to answer even one question!
I'm not asking for the impossible. I
just want some answers, as I'm a
refugee, as I'm a human and as I'm an
activist for human rights. All that
gives me the right to ask and to have my
questions answered.
I
invite you as fellow humans and members
of the world community to support my
mission by asking the UNHCR to remove
these abuses and to provide some
reasonable answers for the questions
that you have read in this article.
This
invitation is a very important as part
of the collective efforts to enhance respect
for human rights, and for global peace.
The UNHCR represent an important
constituent of our community, as humans
and any failure in its performance will
weaken the harmony and peace of the
world.
We're living in a
time where wars are declared to liberate
people from despotism and further
democracy and human rights. Blood is
being shed now to improve democracy and respect for human rights. Do
we need wars and to shed blood every
time we face disregard for human rights
and democracy?! Isn't there any peaceful
way?
I have heard many
people claim that they're working to
help the refugees and human rights
activists and some of them are
collecting money also. I'm asking these
people: What are you doing to help
refugees and enhance human rights and
respect our humanity? I'd like to know, and if you
have nothing to do now, you can start
work and help refugees by working to
remove these abuses and humiliations for
all humans. Contact the UNHCR and ask
them about these pictures and tell them
that these pictures are an abuse of
refugees’ dignity and humanity, when
you can do this then we can see that you
really care about refugees.
I
don’t have any money to pay you but if
you would like to help us in our
struggle and you respect our humanity as
refugees in the world, then we would be
very thankful for this help. I’m an
E-book publisher and I will be
publishing many more E-books in the
future. I would like to have answers to
the questions in this article and since
the people at the UNHCR refused to
answer my questions, I declare now that
I’ll give free access to all of the
E-books I will write in my lifetime to
the first person who will find the
answers to my many questions concerning
the UNHCR. He/she will be a hero of all
refugees and I’ll write about them
what they would like. I can’t give
them a medal now, but we will give them
our love and our thanks as refugees.
Please,
if you think this issue is important and
needs acts, you can send messages to the
UNHCR and your government to speak your
opinions according to your rights and
the democracy. Here are some emails:
[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected]
Notice
that you can find more emails here: http://www.umacr.org/truth/emails.htm
or you can brows for more on the net or
to find more ways for contact them like
phones or faxes.
Together
we will build better world.
Thanks
THE
TRUTH WARRIOR
OSAM
ALTAEE
My
home page
My
organization
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