"We are the World" Swedish Style

Last night Swedish artists collected money for the refugees by putting on a 4-1/2 hour musical extravaganza called "Hela Sverige Skramlar".  40 million Swedish krones were collected!  That's 

4,755,648.00 US DOLLARS!  

Wowsers Swedes, you really outdid yourselves, congratulations!  That's just amazing and so heartfelt. I feel so proud to be Swedish right now.   Here's where Americans can help: UNHCR.  It's photos like this one that started the wheels turning.  Did you know that half of the 60 million people now in flight are children like the one pictured?  Post World War II more people are fleeing strife now than ever.

Pictures like the one above which I found on UNHCR's site have helped us really empathize with the refugees' plight.  Last night at "Hela Sverige Skramlar" Hans Rosling, Swedish academic and Gapminder founder,  said though that we really can't understand war.  His explanation of the tragedy of Syria was riveting - basically half of all Syrians have fled - about 80 million people have left their homes, 4 million have left the country, 300,000 (3%) of all Syrians have made their way to Europe and 80,000 have made it to Sweden, Welcome, he said.  
The numbers are enormous, basically the tip of the iceberg and the money just isn't there to help.

Hans Roslings speech (in Swedish)

Please listen to one of the artists that performed last night to help bring money for the refugees, Laleh, singing her hit "Some die young" acapella.  Again, wow!

http://tv.aftonbladet.se/abtv/articles/92319

So again, please consider helping, here again is the US information to donate to UNHCR.  

To pay by mail, please send checks or money orders to
1775 K Street NW Suite 580 Washington, DC 20006
To donate by phone class toll-free 1.855.808.6427

USA for UNHCR is a non-profit 501 (c) (3). All donations are tax-deductible.

Migrants or refugees

Refugees Welcome Event in Göteborg, 9/9/15.  Helsingborg's event is today, 9/11.

The refugee crisis is on everyone's mind in Europe.  The war in Syria has resulted in increasing numbers of people fleeing the country for refuge elsewhere.  If you are confused about what to call them, use the word refugee.  As Queen Rania of Jordania clearly states:
"A migrant is somebody who chooses to go to another country, they want a better job, education, or to unite their family," she said. "They can choose to go back to their own country and have protection from their government, whereas refugees are literally running for their lives."
To date Germany has taken in the most refugees registering over 450,000 this year alone.  Austria closed the train line to Hungary because there were so many refugees on the rail that there was massive congestion.  The islands of Greece have been overwhelmed, as well as Italy.  It is those countries closest to the crisis that have been most taxed but as the refugees struggle through those countries northward other lands such as Denmark, and Sweden are faced with the question too of how many refugees to assist.

Some people in those countries are reaching out them, such as my friends in Southern Sweden who are helping to welcome the refugees, others just want them to move along.  Denmark will be tightening restrictions on asylum seekers they announced.  Danish Minister Inger Stojberg is quoted as saying:

"I wish to change that because we cannot simply keep up with the present flow," she said. "In light of the huge influx to Europe these days, there is good reason for us to tighten rules and get that effectively communicated."

Denmark ran ads in Lebanon to discourage refugees.  Again to quote CNN:  The ads run in Lebanese newspapers state that Denmark has passed a law to reduce social benefits for newly arrived refugees by as much as 50%.

Other measures include ensuring that foreign nationals granted temporary protection in Denmark will not have the right to bring family members to Denmark during the first year; and that they can only be granted a permanent residence permit after a minimum of five years.

To get a permanent residence permit, refugees must also meet certain requirements in terms of learning the Danish language, the advertisement said. Anyone whose asylum request is rejected will be swiftly returned.

Opinion: Europe reaps what it has sown

Please read more here on this important issue: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/10/europe/europe-migrant-crisis/ and watch the clips which will give you a clearer understanding of the situation.  As you may understand from the photo many Syrian refugees said "no thanks" to Denmark and wanted to get off in Sweden where they appear to be getting a warm welcome.

Journalist Susanne Gargiulo reported from Copenhagen, CNN's Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London, and Michael Martinez from Los Angeles. CNN's John Dear, Kim Norgaard, Pierre Meilhan, Chris Liakos, and Tobias Grimm contributed to this report.

CNN 9/10/2015