As the marketing member of the IVAP creative team, I have the most ambiguous role. I will not choreograph a performance. Or write a play.

My mission is to help contextualize this refugee problem for American consumers.

To wit, here are some new advertising slogans.

“There’s no place called home.”

That’s the problem. These refugees are in purgatory. They’ve left their country and families behind – often with just a suitcase full of clothes and important documents. Most hope never to return to Iraq.

Many are in Lebanon illegally. They cannot work. Get social services. Or even walk down the street and make friends. They fear being caught and imprisoned. Or worse, getting sent back to Iraq. So they wait in the shadows. Hoping the UNHCR will resettle them in another country. The process is long and tedious. And once they’ve been accepted, they have no idea when they will actually leave; often waiting for over a year.

So they live life on hold. Homeless. Hopeless. Suspended in time . Lost in limbo.

“Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of 4 million Iraqi refugees.”

It has slowly become clear that the USA is blamed for this mess. Not just by the refugees themselves, but by a number of  non-governmental organizations  as well.

Some people have declared this angrily. “You promised to eliminate murder and torture, but instead we have more.” “You took our lives, our laughter and then some of our body parts.” “Stop playing God on Earth.”

Others have been more diplomatic. After all, they want to be resettled in the US – so they are hesitant to say anything bad about it. And yet, they can hardly suppress their vehemence at the instability and chaos we have left behind.

I believe each one of our team members is feeling the weight of this responsibility. Unlike Darfur or Palestine, this is our refugee crisis.

“If we don’t help them, some else will.”

Many of these displaced people get assistance from church organizations or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And, yes, many are helped by countries like the USA.

But, there are other people willing to step in and help as well. Organizations like Hezbollah. They will gladly provide money for these distressed families, hoping to win over a new generation of zealots and martyrs.

We visited with a family that was being well-supported by “local charities.” The fact that  every picture, clock and poster in their home was of the Head of Hezbollah made it easy to figure out which charity they were referring to.

 It behooves us to clean up our mess. Not just because it is the just moral thing to do. It’s also the prudent thing to do.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Lebanon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.