The other day when I was talking with Yusuf, he came up with an idea which I found very useful. He talked about the lack of communication between the different groups using the park, and proposed that we could put up two or three big information boards in central places in the park, which everybody could use.

At present there is only one “official” board with information from the city government, which is illegal for others to use. The only means for ordinary people to inform others now, is to fasten notes on poles. This is not very satisfactory and also is also ugly to look upon.

Therefore I give this idea to the Park neighbour commitee and hope they will act on it.

(But they must not end up like this! It’s the responsibility of us all…)

Photo:

Auntie P

Today I had a nice enquiry from Leylah and

Carissa. They would like to invite other mothers with babies and little children to come together every morning around 11 AM in the park.
– We sit by the fountain, and it would be nice to eat together and have some smalltalk, they say.

They also hope that when you get to know each other you can to arrange trips together, to museums, art exhibitions, cultural arrangements and so on.

The fountain – in the evening

Photo: KE4SFQ

I took this snapshot as I went through the park today. “5 young men seeking jobs, everything of interest”.
And I thought of a group of immigrants I talked with the other day. Why not let these two groups join? They are different ok, but the unemployment is equally serious for the young people, whether they are born here or are immigrants. At present the two groups are in opposition to each other.
Some views on this?

PATSY

Photo: Kelseyohhgee

Last night a very successful event took place in the cafe. Some of the immigrants had taken the initiativ to have a gathering where both immigrants and local people could come together for some cultural input or just to chat together. A lot of people accepted the invitation, and there were so many people there that there were not enough seats for everyone; people had to crowd together.

Food from all over the world was served, and a couple of musicians played music from different parts of Africa and the Middle East. A really multi cultural happening!
I fully enjoyed the evening and hope this will become a regulary event.
A big hand for Sandra and Yusuf who took the responsibility to organise the evening.
Photo: Yakudza

Blog posting from Pierre (neighbour):

I talked with Maja at the phone and she let me post this on the community blog.

I have read what Maja has published about the immigrants seeking jobs, and the article in the paper. This is a difficult problem with no easy answers. In my opinion we have a long way to go, but we have to do something now.

I am sceptical about the proposal having quotas from immigrants to be employed. This only leads to aggression among local people and more hostile attitudes between the groups.

I will ask the unemployed immigrants to demonstrate their skills and make employers aware that they are valuable resources for the employer’s enterprises.

I have made a copy of yesterday’s article in the Magazine about unemployment!

The unemployment rate still rising

Ayanna Abdi`s writing course this autumn has been a big success, and three of the girls` stories have been selected to be published in “Young Voices”, a nationwide book on multicultural youth culture in our country. Congratulations, girls!

Writer Ayanna Abdi would like me to quote an extract from an article about Muslim women and employment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/29/international/europe/29women.html

Yesterday I had a long chat with three men in the café, and I would like to share some of the things we talked about since I think it can be of general interest.

They really have a difficult situation. The times are difficult for everybody, and especially when you have no recent experience and papers to show to employers.

But it isn’t all the fault of the society. They also have to get into themselves and reflect on their own attitudes.
During our conversation they showed a pride that forbid them taking “women’s jobs” as they describe it. This is a big problem for them I think, because many jobs here really are jobs for both women and men, as we don’t discriminate. But their cultural heritage is strong, and I wonder how to get them to distance themselves from such views without coming in conflict with their own cultural heritage…Or is it perhaps impossible?

I am also concerned about the consequenses of being without work for years. What is such a long term unemployment doing to people? And how does the society look upon them as the years go by without them finding jobs? And their educated children, that will easily will find jobs, how are they going to look upon their fathers?

Women’s and men’s jobs – different ones?
Photo: Slagheap

I often notice the little group of young men sitting at their usual table in the cafe, or outside the cafe. Sometimes there’s only a few, but other times it is quit a big group. But always these’s these three. As usual I got curious to know more about them, and invited myself to their table at a time when only the three of them were sitting there.

They were very polite to me, and we were sitting for a couple of hours talking. Hassan and Yusef were from the Middle East, and Ali from Afghanistan. They all had been here for about two years, but when I asked what work they were doing, they suddenly became quiet. After a while they admitted that they had no work, and I asked why. Hassan had been a bus driver, Yusef had worked in a food store and Ali had been a mechanic. But now they were not doing this kind of work. They were living onwelfare money, and were unhappy about this.
When I asked them more about this, they answered that they were skeptical about “social welfare ladies” and wanted to find jobs themselves.

I had something to think about when I left them. Why haven’t they found any jobs here in their new country? I think I will post a new article about this tomorrow. PATSY
Photo: CharlesFred