In Canada we lead such good lives - From the Cluttered Desk with Keith Roulston

Looking for something to watch the other night, we pulled the movie The Good Lie off the shelf. The movie was a reminder of how fortunate we are to be born in Canada. Right now there are 45 armed conflicts in Africa alone, let alone other continents.
Produced by actor/director/producer Ron Howard, the movie headlines Reese Witherspoon, but the real stars are four Africans, themselves former refugees. The movie was made in 2014, but the story begins in 1983 when five Sudanese children are made homeless when their parents are killed by rebels. They walk 500 miles until they finally find safety in a refugee camp in Kenya, although, along the way, one of the children is captured by rebels.

 

This part of the movie is heartbreaking and is enough to make you give up on it, but stick with it. After years in the camp, the children are chosen to go to the U.S. When they arrive there’s more heartache when they’re told their sister must go to Boston while the three brothers are sent to Kansas City.

 

There, they are met by an emergency worker, played by Witherspoon, who takes them to an apartment and drops them off, realizing as she begins to drive away they don’t know what to do. She takes them into the apartment, then leaves. Over and over in these scenes, she shows her ignorance of the rest of the world, for instance, trying to reach them by telephone when they have no idea that the bell they hear ringing is a signal they can talk to someone.

 

Little by little, her character learns more about immigrant hardship. She helps them find jobs, for instance, but the guy working in a supermarket gets in trouble when he gives away  outdated food to a poor woman dumpster-diving out back and is caught by his boss.

 

Eventually, Witherspoon’s character learns they are missing their sister and she cuts bureaucratic corners to offer a home, herself, to the sister. Then, one of the brothers, who had dreamed of becoming a doctor, learns that his captured brother has apparently survived and turns up at the refugee camp, and he decides to go back to Kenya to find him.

 

There are few easy answers in this movie, possibly explaining why it only generated $3.2 million at the box office. But the movie made me do a little research.

 

This movie might have been about a civil war 40 years ago, but such wars still exist. The internet shows there are 42.7 million refugees today, and 73.5 million internally displaced people. Overall, there are 123.2 million  internally-displaced people - three times the population of Canada.

 

In 2023, the last year figures are currently available, Canada admitted 169,448 refugees, up 20.5 per cent from 2022. How many of those we’ll allow to stay remains uncertain. 

 

Meanwhile, scenes daily shown on our televisions show people suffering and dying of starvation in Gaza because the blockade by Israel has kept food from being distributed. Since it was originally Israel that was attacked by Hamas and Hamas is supposedly the government of Gaza, even if most residents aren’t aware of it, Canadians are generally sympathetic with Israel, but not in this case. As this is written, Israel has allowed some food to be distributed but many have already died of hunger.

 

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has increased funding for  the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and it has gone to war with immigrants, in some cases picking up former refugees off the street who have been living in the U.S. for years and are employed, and shipping them, without trial and often against the instructions of judges, to prison camps in El Salvador.

 

Such is our ignorance, that U.S. President Trump, who owns several resorts, suggested Gaza would make a great place for a luxury resort, if only all the Gazans (two million of them) were moved out.

 

Meanwhile, Russia, one of the major players in world politics, has been at war with Ukraine for several years now, creating many more refugees, including many who have come to Canada.

 

The sad thing is that leaders of many countries want to gain more power or territory and often are not answerable to their own people. Even supposed democracies, like the United States, seem to be unsure if they’ll uphold their democratic standards.
I’m an old man now. I was born following World War II, one of the most horrific of wars with so many soldiers and civilians killed and six million Jews and other minorities exterminated. I have lived through many distant calamities like wars in the Middle East, southeast Asia and elsewhere. But, generally, I have lived a peaceful life in Canada. We must not forget, however, the millions who have not been so fortunate.