Dialogue: Helping a little in world of trouble

By ELISABETH EASTHER

The other day, a friend of mine took me to a refugee hostel where he gives some help. The experience filled my thoughts for some time.

We all see the news. We can try to block some of it out but in some places the world is in terrible trouble.

Many of those nations were represented the day I visited: Turks and Congolese, Chinese and Nigerians, Ethiopians, Somalis, Romanians, Iraqis and Iranians.

Despite where they've come from, or perhaps because of it, the atmosphere was genuinely cheery. The residents are well-versed in counting their blessings.

Abdullah, a recent arrival, had come from Afghanistan. Formerly a journalist and translator, he had been thrown in jail because he had opened a school for girls.

The Government had approved the project as long as no girls over the age of 8 years old were taught. But Abdullah was concerned that his daughters receive education and thought they could learn on the quiet.

"I bought chairs and desks, stationery and books, and then the religious police come to the school. They broke everything and slashed the two female teachers badly," Abdullah said. "I went to jail for three months."

A big man, he told me that in prison there was not enough space to lie down. He also looked like he had been suffering a headache for weeks.

He was held without trial under extreme conditions until some influence was used to have him released.

He and his family then fled to Pakistan but relief for them is still a fair way off.

He had to leave his wife and daughters in a United Nations camp in Pakistan. The rainy season is upon them and his guilt is enormous, but what can he do?

The police told him, "If we see you in school again we will kill you." There are so many in jail - writers, doctors, engineers, educated people.

"You are United Nations members, my life and family would be protected here.

"In Afghanistan, women have no rights for education or work. They can't shop or go anywhere alone, [they must] always have [their] husband or brother [with them].

"Slashing is a big problem and there is no respect for anyone. The Taliban come to Kabul from the furthest mountains and make women their first target."

Moderate Muslims, he told me, don't want women to be mistreated. It was never what Muhammad intended.

The world accepts that all people have certain rights. To deny anyone an education is a violation of the most basic rights.

I get e-mails all the time about terrible things happening all over the world. But when you meet someone from one of those places, it's much harder to ignore.

The last message I received about the plight of women in Afghanistan said that since the Taliban took power, women have been beaten and stoned in public for not wearing the proper attire. There is no way in such an extreme Islamic society to know the suicide rate.

Women once enjoyed relative freedom: to work, to dress generally as they wanted, and to drive and appear in public alone. This is no longer possible. The term "human rights violation" has become an understatement.

Those e-mails are easy to ignore because there is nothing we can do individually.

Then I hear firsthand how since 1979 inflation in Afghanistan has gone mad. Forty Afghanis (the unit of currency) would once have bought you a United States dollar. Now you would need 70,000 Afghanis. And since 1979, at least one million people have been killed.

We get a relatively small number of refugees by world standards, probably because we are so remote.

One man arrived here from Sierra Leone and asked immigration where he had landed. He was told New Zealand and shown where that was on a map.

We have signed a treaty that commits us to granting asylum to genuine cases of spontaneous arrival, which are becoming increasingly common around the world. We also take a quota of 700 a year, as recommended by the UN.

The Refugee Council can provide the lucky few who make it here with a roof and some degree of comfort and security. These people have a variety of needs. Culture-shocked and with language problems, how incredibly strange it must be.

Forwarding e-mails to people may not do much to end global suffering but understanding the plight of new arrivals here might.

While I know that we can't help everyone, that's no reason not to help anyone.