Hope and Exictment

By Tikaram Adhikari, Canada


Bhutanese refugees, who had been forcefully evicted by Bhutan and after languishing in the UNHCR-supported seven camps in Eastern Nepal, are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel as they are being settled by the core group of countries comprising of the USA, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It is highly admirable that donors have responded to their needs with a right-based approach to providing services. The refugees are tremendously thankful to the UNHCR that took the lead in resettling them and the core group countries that worked together to host them in their respective countries. The bulk of the responsibility and initiative has been taken by the USA, which settled over 28,000 people already by the end of June 2010. Over 32,000 people have already been resettled in the West and a large section of the refugees are expected to get resettled in the near future.

Understandably, as these large numbers of people are beginning their new life in these countries, they are facing number of settlement challenges. Some of these challenges are comparatively easy issues that will get resolved during the course of resettlement but there are others without less obvious solutions and people have to learn to find ways of coping. In my personal opinion, new immigrants in these countries have to take especial efforts in making their transition smooth and quicker by taking some initiatives, being proactive and adapting by listening to the settlement agencies, people who have settled earlier and gone through the same process and those who have good knowledge of the settlement process. The primary responsibility for adapting and settling for our Bhutanese population rests with the younger generation, who needs to take concerted efforts and patient helping elders and others who are less educated.

In this piece, I have tried to discuss some of the settlement issues and the ways they could be handled. Families have to work together and communicate with each other as the needs of settlement are different for young people as compared to the old ones, males and female needs are also different and it changes with the change in time. I would like us to believe that we need to make use of various assets that we have by working together and analyzing who can do what within the families and the communities. Many are already doing it but we need to be creative and explore what is available and what we can do.



Housing amenities
The settlement agencies in different countries have measures to look after the housing needs of new arrivals. The arriving families have to cooperate with the agencies and discuss amicable solution that is convenient to the new occupants and housing providers. Sometimes the arriving families put up conditions that do not work in the situation and it is best to ask what is available and what is possible and being realistic within available budget. The renting market in the Western countries are governed by legal provisions and it is important to seek information about what are the occupancy conditions, expectancy of tenants, the demands of the landlord and the neighborhood where the families are settling. Even if it is alright for the families, neighbors have restrictions and physical and psychological boundaries within which we are expected to live and function. As new tenants and new arrivals in these countries, we are expected to respect those laws and there are penalties if we do not abide by what is allowed in the communities. Small things like walking into neighborhoods and others property is not allowed as the privacy laws, conventions and requirements are well established.

Health and hygiene concerns
The way apartments are constructed prevent air flow easily and how you maintain health and hygiene inside the apartments affects health situations of the residents. Things like regular vacuuming rooms and walk-ways, cleaning toilets regularly and keeping them hygienic is part of the western living. The way new arrivals from developing countries cook their food is not always suitable in the way houses are built in the west. They trap air and often you will find houses with strong odor of spices and oily, fried food items. It leaves strong smell on our dress and we need to adapt our cooking style by reducing fried items and limiting the amount of spices we use in our food. Often opening windows and doors and letting in fresh air helps to drive away the smell. But in countries like Canada, it is snow-covered outside for over six months of the year and it is not possible to open windows and doors often. We need to use air-freshener and bake bread sometimes, which reduces other odor. We have to be creative and apply various measures to make our living hygienic and pleasant. There are also health issues that could emerge as a result of living in unhealthy and unclean apartments. Landlords would be reluctant to allow future occupancy if they become aware of our living style. When we go to the office and if our body and cloth smells, co-workers would not be very happy to work with us.

Need to support uneducated fellow Bhutanese
Within the arriving Bhutanese population in these countries, we have a varying range of people—some with high educational levels but many with limited literacy as well, especially our elder folks who had no opportunity of going to school. It is a big problem of communication in these countries as we need to communicate in English. We have a limited capacity in the older generation to pick up and be comfortable with the required level of communicable English in these countries. Some may pick up faster and some may be reluctant or even incapable of developing functional literacy. Other members of the community have to help them, especially the younger generation have a double burden of not only raising children but raising this cadre of elders is our responsibility. It would not help us blaming anybody but have to develop coping mechanism using all available resources within the community and developing all possible network of support outside the community. There are many people interested to volunteer, especially the retired would be happy and willing to help if they can. We need to develop mechanism to make use of this potential and communicate with each other. This is where our Bhutanese organizations can play a big role, not in talking only about politics.

Employment and skill development
The level and amount of support provided to the Bhutanese arrivals in various countries varies. In Canada, the federal government supports Government Sponsored Refugees (GAR) for one year and there is good time for developing job skills and employment preparation. In my understanding, Australia supports much longer and until you are prepared to take up employment. In both these countries there is additional support if you are able to find out about them and explore possibilities. In the USA, the support system ranges from three months in some states to eight months in others. The good part of it is that there is a settlement counselor who follows through and makes sure that people have long term job. People have to explore and see what they can do, what type of resume we need to develop, who can help in developing good resume, writing selling cover letter, networking skills, interview skills and many others. This is the hardest challenge of settlement not just in the beginning months and years but for continuously in the West. The West is a competitive and individualistic society where we have to be able to sell our skills as much as the efforts in selling goods. We need to develop skills, perform well in our jobs, develop professional qualities and show that we can perform. If we cannot prove our worth nobody would be willing to hire the new arrivals. As a big part of this process, we need to learn the culture of working well with people, getting along, following instructions and contributing in our expertise areas. It will take time but in the long run the right efforts will pay off.

Understanding the culture and etiquette
The laws and social conventions in different western countries vary when it comes to acceptance of new immigrants and the way we are expected to behave. The USA is considered a melting pot and the prime message and requirement of this message is that once you are in America you are supposed to behave like Americans and forget about your original culture. In Canada, multiculturalism is valued by law and conventionally where we are required to behave like other Canadians in some ways but we are encouraged to retain our inherited culture, language and religion. The legal system and the people actively promote multiculturalism. In Australia, it is similar but it is a bit insular country being geographically isolated. It has the conservative, old thinking into the system and the people but over the years there has been growth in tolerance and respect for multiculturalism. The younger generation in most of these countries is much more understanding and accepts people of all colors and background compared to the older generation and understandably so. Our expectation as new arrivals and future citizens of these countries is to learn the system, culture and the people as much as we can and adapt. We also face a huge challenge of retaining the culture and the language. There are varied models in this as some people have retained their language and the culture and others have lost it. It is easy to be part of the melting pot but hard to regain what is lost. So the challenge thrown to new arrivals is to think carefully what you would like to do and consult among the family members.

No more refugees
The concept of being refugees is so deeply ingrained that it makes us all feel we cannot think otherwise and people would like to call us refugees. You have to learn to fight with yourself and let others know that you were former refugees and do not want to be called as such any more. You have equal rights as any other individuals in these new countries and should learn to live that way. The feeling of psychological inferiority needs to be slowly unlearnt and you should feel that you are capable individuals. The countries that have brought you would like to give you equal status as any other individuals in these countries and should learn to behave and feel that way. We also have equal responsibilities as new citizens or going to be citizens in these countries and should be uphold that responsibility with full pride and dedication.

(Based in Canada, the author is a development professional. He can be reached at: adhikari.tika@gmail.com)



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2 Comments
Rp Subba Says:
August 31st, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Tika Sir, congratulations for this great article. Resettlement has problems of its own kind and our people would definitely cope better if the learning environment is there. Articles such as this – glimpses into some of the general problems and suggests ways for avoiding some of the traps.

Most importantly, our people must understand that the western societies have laws for everything and they are followed strictly. Any ignorance of the law will not be an excuse for breaking the law. So try to stay from such activities that would potentially breach the law.

Bahadur Chhetri Says:
August 31st, 2010 at 7:10 pm
The article looks very informative. All Bhutanese in diaspora should go through this piece of writing. Both thumbs up, Mr. Adhikari. You have really jotted down helpful clues to Diasporic Bhutanese communities.

Harrisburg Bhajan Samiti

This is a formal information to all of the Bhutanese family members of Harrisburg that, there is going to be a Bhajan program held in Tika Dhungana's apartment in Thomas Street on coming Saturday.

Similarly, our bi-weekly Bhajan program is going to be held on N 17th Street in Bajgai abode( sorry for not mentioning the full name). Our Bhajan time is as usual i.e... starting from 7PM to 9PM.


"To be safe, we need to protect ourself. To protect ourself, we need to be safe. Therefore, we recommends all of our Bhutanese family members of Harrisburg to be self aware of anything".

Report

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/14/world-happiest-countries-lifestyle-realestate-gallup.html
http://www.tonic.com/article/worlds-happiest-countries-norway-denmark-costa-rica-turkmenistan/

Harrisburg Bhajan Samiti

The Comming Bhajan is Schedule for August 28th Starting at Sharp 7 PM at Deo Bajgai Residence on 2600 Block of Green Street

Educational Information:

                                                   Transcript /Mark sheets equivalence


You can contact one of the following Transcript Evaluation Services.
First call them. They will charge you nominal fees and have your transcripts evaluated.

A. International Institute of California
3550 Stevens Creek Blvd, suite # 310
San Jose, CA 95117
Phone: 408 249 1505 fax; 408 249 3187

B. The Foreign Educational Document Service
Po box 4091
Stockton, CA 95204
Phone: 209 948 6589

C. World Education Services, INC
Po box 745, old Chelsea station
New York: 10113-0745
Phone: 212 966 6311
Toll: 800 937 3895
Fax: 212 966 6395

D. Global Services Associates
2554 Lincoln Blvd # 445
Marina Del Rey, CA 90291-5082
Phone: 310 828 5709

2. To those who have a 2 or 3 years bachelors degree from foreign countries (India, Nepal, etc)
If you are applying for a Masters degree:

A. You need to have your transcripts evaluated officially. This can be done through one of the above-cited agencies.
B. You can also inquire the University that you would like to enroll in. They might want your transcripts directly send to them from the college that you have had your Bachelor degree. (Stamped and notarized from college). Though they give you credit to your degree, you still have to fulfill some criteria (additional required credit, which you can earn from community colleges, and so on, with no fees at all)

3. Educational grants:
a. Educational courses: If you are undergraduate, you can apply for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (www. Fafsa.edu.gov). Here I think you must be residing in the USA for at least one year)

b. Professional courses: You can also apply for FAFSA and check out some other educational grants. Like pell grants, etc

                                                                Attitude and Expectations



                                                                By Dirk Zeller


There are two key words that lead to success in life. These words control the successful outcome of your friendship, business, marriage, and many other areas of life. Although you may have incredible talent and skill in life, you will fail if you do not master these two words - and vice versa. Even if you have only limited talent and skill, you will win if you live by them. These two words determine your future. They are attitude and expectation.

If you have a positive, forward-looking attitude, you will accomplish great things. How is your attitude? Does it need an improvement? Are you positive and upbeat?

If you have the attitude that every challenge or obstacle leads to new opportunity, success is all but guaranteed. Thomas Edison was said to have worked on creating the electric light bulb because darkness interfered with his ability to conduct further experiments. He wanted to be able to work long into the night. Edison could have moaned about the darkness - though that would not have done any good. He used his attitude and solved the problem of darkness. There are thousands of examples in life of how some people took lemons and, with a great attitude, made lemonade.

Start building your attitude today. Convince yourself that you are the best person anyone could ever find. You have to be convinced of this yourself before anyone else will be convinced. The attitude you bring when faced with objections will help you handle them. The attitude that you take when you have a problem will make the difference between a success and failure.

One technique that can improve your attitude is using affirmations. Affirmations drive positive mental pictures into your subconscious mind. Create affirmations like:

I am a great person.

 I am skilled at handling objections and getting things done.

People want to be associated with me because I am positive, knowledgeable, and professional.

· I am a great friend / spouse.

Use these affirmations each day (or create your own) to improve your mental attitude.

The second power word is expectation. If you don't expect to win, you will not win. Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.”

Expectation is the gateway to confidence. The first step to having unshakeable confidence is to believe that you are the perfect person for the job. If your expectation is strong enough, people will come around to your way of thinking. You just need to have a stronger will and mental focus than your clients, prospects, and your coworkers. A perfect example is Henry Ford.

Many years ago, Ford went to his engineers and told them to build a V-8 engine. They said it could not be done. Ford plainly told them to go do it and report back in 90 days. When the 90 days were up, they reported back to Ford. They had spent the whole 90 days figuring out why building a V-8 engine was impossible. In the meeting with Ford, they spent their time trying to convince him it could not be done; a V-8 engine was impossible and could never be created. Ford's attitude and expectation of a V-8 engine was stronger than the engineers' attitude and expectation that it could not be done. We all know who won in the end.

Your expectation will create your reality. You have to expect before you can receive. You need to expect the people and situations that will enable you to create the future you desire. Expectation does not mean you don't have to work. You will work harder than before to develop the outcome you desire.

The expectation takes away the fear of failure. Don't be paralyzed by the fear of failure. Failure is a natural part of success. You cannot have success without failure. It's truly a masterful design. The exhilaration of success would be lost without the frustration of failure. Most people forget their failures over time and only remember their victories. Take Babe Ruth as an example; he hit the most home runs of his time. He also had the most strikeouts. No one remembers that...only the home runs...the successes.

Set your attitude to “positive.” Look for the opportunities in every situation. Expect to win...every time.

Vince Lombardi had a famous saying:

“Winning is not a sometime thing, it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in awhile, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”

Lombardi had the right attitude and the right expectation. He believed they would win...every time.

Dirk Zeller is a sought out speaker and celebrated author. His company trains more than 350,000 people worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters.

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