The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Aziz decamped this morning. I don't know where he'll go. I put the house protocols to him plainly--to wit, everyone who lives here and isn't a cat wakes up early and works. He didn't want to stay.
Dave Carter argued that the way I approached this was "compassionate, humane and right because it empowers individuals to realize their God-given potential, and then frees them to help others do the same."
I wish it were so. It would be smug and self-righteous of me to say I did everything I could. I did everything I was inclined to do, under the circumstances. So did he.
I'm under no illusions at all that I helped him in any way to realize his God-given potential. The only positive thing I can say is that I freed up a bit of my own potential to help someone who might be easier to help. That counts for something. But it won't help him. A refugee-resettlement program that focused on step-by-step skills training and gave him a plan might have a better chance. Score one for the Left. Maybe.
By the way, those of you who think of me as easily suckered by tragic rescue cases are wrong. When it comes to people who don't want to work, I'm as diamond-hearted as the stereotype would have it. If Granny's still able-bodied, she has to work. Otherwise, she goes right under the bus.
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May '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
We're dying to hear about all the work those cats do....
Mar '11
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
That sounds like a tough regime, with sound Conservative principles... Greece should get the same treatment - under the bus, outa the Euro.
Nov '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Looks like some cats got ClaireCare waivers...
Apr '11
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Claire, nobody who follows your writings would accuse your-better-than-Zirconium-heart of bleeding. That said, I believe you've acquitted yourself with honor and charity. Some won't accept aid and structure that will get them on a path to "self-respect and a steady check" when someone else will merely enable them.
Oct '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Upon hearing the house protocols his true intent was revealed. You have never come across as being a flinty hearted soul either.
Seems a firm display of conventional wisdom, well, works...
Edited on Jun 27, 2011 at 11:53amNov '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
A refugee-resettlement program that focused on step-by-step skills training and gave him a plan might have a better chance. Score one for the Left. Maybe.
A friend of mine in medical school was a boat person from Vietnam. She'd escaped at the age of 16 and did eventually get some support from the Catholic Church, who helped her move to the US and helped her with college tuition and so forth. Score one for refugee assistance programs.
BUT, before she got any assistance she had landed in Hong Kong with her younger siblings. She was 16 years old, with no skills, didn't speak the language, too old for schools in Hong Kong, and her parents were still in Vietnam. She went to work in a hair curler factory and supported her siblings while they went to school.
The thing I get from her story is that refugee programs may help people, but the people they help are already willing to work. And in the absence of refugee programs, a truly unregulated free market that allows people to work is a pretty good substitute, at least for giving people a chance to survive.
Jul '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
It is what it is. If Aziz is truly completely devoid of motivation to find work, then the best way to help him is to bring that fact home and let it slap him on the face. Maybe he'll notice the red mark on his cheek next time he looks in the mirror, and that will change his attitude and his actions. I think you did the best you could for him under the circumstances. I do pray that he finds his way.
Next order of business, get those cats to work. That way everyone in your household can be productively contributing to society.
Jan '11
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
How much did he steal from you?
Feb '11
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
I'm as diamond-hearted as the stereotype would have it.
I guess that's why I have all the clubs and spades.
Also, good job.
May '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Okay, to be fair to the cats, I think they do pay for their Chez Claire privileges. They entertain her and show her affection. That is their job.
Oct '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
As the old saying goes, dogs have owners, cats have contracts.
So it depends on the contract. My cats... they do, uh... pretty much nothing except keep my wife really happy. Which, come to think of it is actually quite something.
Sep '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
I'm detecting a fair amount of abuse directed toward the only household household pets descended from Egyptian nobility. You try keeping an Egyptian pharoah company. I know it looks easy, but there's only so many locusts a guy can eat in one day. I'm also deeply offended at the suggestion that we are some type of low rent cabana boys and girls for Lady Anatolia. And -- did someone say work? Work? Are you daft? I'm an Aristocat. Must everything in life be reduced to some type of J.S. Mill utilitarianism? Pass me the English smoking jacket, the brandy sifter and a good wine dipped cigar. Western civilization demands leisure: there's serious relaxation to do people.
Nov '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
... I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
- Benjamin Franklin
My best wishes for Aziz.
Aug '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Pseudodionysius
Pass me the English smoking jacket, the brandy sifter...
Golly, I've never seen a brandy sifter before.
But I did once read about an "oversized brandy sniffer" in a cookbook.
Nov '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Your case, Claire, illustrates an important difference between private charity and public welfare programs: You have BS antennae, government has none (indeed, none by legal force).
Good luck to you & Aziz.
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
But being empowered to do something also means having the freedom not to do it, right? Claire, you gave him a chance, and he opted not to take advantage of it. The consequences are his, not yours. The point, as David John aptly puts it, above, is that, "You have a BS antennae, government has none..." On the public dole, Aziz would continue to be subsidized for doing nothing, and you would pay for it through your taxes whether you like it or not.
Who knows, ...this may turn out to be a learning moment for Aziz in the long run. Or not. He is free to choose, and so are you. In my book, that still makes conservatism much more compassionate than anything the left has to offer. Strike that,..they don't offer anything. They impose.
Jul '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
For what it's worth, Claire, I never took you for a sucker on this one. I have met suckers and I have acted out of compassion myself. If he left over a reveille call, then there is no lost opportunity here. Well done.
Nov '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Pseudodionysius
Western civilization demands leisure: there's serious relaxation to do people. · Jun 27 at 1:47pm
One of my favorite books.
Oct '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
Cats may appear to toil little, save they provide more than they consume.
Try dogs, somewhat more demanding and they do keep miscreants at bay.
Unless one wants a really big kitty, local laws apply and be sure to feed it well...
Sep '10
Re: The Denouement of the Household Refugee Crisis
v
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Pseudodionysius
Pass me the English smoking jacket, the brandy sifter...
Golly, I've never seen a brandy sifter before.
But I did once read about an "oversized brandy sniffer" in a cookbook. · Jun 27 at 3:22pm
I have the last laugh, alas.