Customer Reviews

Teenage Refugees from Somalia Speak Out (In Their Own Voices)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is informative, and educational. It is geared to young adults to give them an idea of the concerns of teenagers who are refugees. The stories are not propaganda, they are directly from the experiences of teeneagers. I say this with full confidence, as I work at a refugee agency, and know that the stories have not exagerated or misrepresented the typical experience of Somalian refugees. I definitely recommend this book.

The School Library Journal review depicts everything in Somalia as completely controlled by superpowers which is absurd -- the Soviet Union had broken up before the conflict in the 90's occured and controlling events in Somalia was not very important to Washington in the 90s either. The corrupt land hungry warlords are responsible and to say otherwise gives them excuses for their destructive nihilistic selfish behavior.

A "Reader" demonstrates a common attitude of Somalis towards those who get refugee status - e.g., the Bantus who left Somali are lying about their experiences just in order to get refugee status to enter the U.S., etc. This is absurd if one considers that if everything was so great in Somalia why would they have left and decided to live in dangerous, impoverished refugee camps in Kenya?

It is good to write a book but this one did not worth publishing. Most of the stories are based on fabricated lies designed to dodge the immigration interviews in order to be eligible for refugee status. Otherwise, it can be a good reading about a people from a conflict-ridden Somalia.