Refugee Countdown presents the questions and dilemmas ordinary people faced in deciding whether to sponsor refugees and how to go about doing so. It’s an insider’s story of what actually happened, rather than an outsider’s prescription of what is supposed to happen. It relates aspects of the refugee crisis and the church that challenge North American stereotypes. Blocked from bringing Syrian refugees into the United States, members of a Seattle church help a family enter Canada, instead, raising enough funds to support them for a year while they learn English and a new culture. Refugee Countdown describes the project’s origin in 2016 and the evolution of a partnership with the Canadian church that became the formal refugee sponsor. It portrays the learning, waiting, and preparations over a two-year period until the family is finally cleared to leave their place of exile in Lebanon. The story is told from the perspective of the Canadian partners and ends with the family’s arrival in Vancouver. The focus is on the experiences of the sponsors, not those of the Orthodox Christian refugees. Along with identifying the broad range of considerations in resettling refugees, Refugee Countdown touches on the numerous resources and support services available. It presents a fuller and more balanced framework for thinking about refugees than appears in much political discourse, and shares a warm story of developing friendships and bumps along the way. The underlying theme is that refugee sponsorship should be about more than just rescuing hurting people, especially when resettlement is a mere drop in the bucket of the world’s displaced peoples. A successful sponsorship is reciprocal, enlarging the worldviews, humanity, and skill sets of the sponsors. And from the sponsors, these benefits ripple into the broader community.

A powerful investigation into the chances for humanity's future from the author of the bestseller The World Without Us. In his bestselling book The World Without Us, Alan Weisman considered how the Earth could heal and even refill empty niches if relieved of humanity's constant pressures. Behind that groundbreaking thought experiment was his hope that we would be inspired to find a way to add humans back to this vision of a restored, healthy planet-only in harmony, not mortal combat, with the rest of nature. But with a million more of us every 4 1/2 days on a planet that's not getting any bigger, and with our exhaust overheating the atmosphere and altering the chemistry of the oceans, prospects for a sustainable human future seem ever more in doubt. For this long awaited follow-up book, Weisman traveled to more than 20 countries to ask what experts agreed were probably the most important questions on Earth -- and also the hardest: How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing? How robust must the Earth's ecosystem be to assure our continued existence? Can we know which other species are essential to our survival? And, how might we actually arrive at a stable, optimum population, and design an economy to allow genuine prosperity without endless growth? Weisman visits an extraordinary range of the world's cultures, religions, nationalities, tribes, and political systems to learn what in their beliefs, histories, liturgies, or current circumstances might suggest that sometimes it's in their own best interest to limit their growth. The result is a landmark work of reporting: devastating, urgent, and, ultimately, deeply hopeful. By vividly detailing the burgeoning effects of our cumulative presence, Countdown reveals what may be the fastest, most acceptable, practical, and affordable way of returning our planet and our presence on it to balance. Weisman again shows that he is one of the most provocative journalists at work today, with a book whose message is so compelling that it will change how we see our lives and our destiny.

A firsthand account of Latvia during World War II: “A British diplomat’s wife’s beautifully observed eye-witness account of the Soviet occupation.” —Condé Nast Traveler With her husband in the British Foreign Service, Peggie Benton had already lived through the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938 and had settled comfortably into the day-to-day life of Riga, the capital of Latvia. But the country’s uneasy history with Russia and tensions brewing with Germany just prior to the outbreak of World War II meant their peace was not to last. In this compelling memoir, Benton captures both the small details of life in the city—the markets, the winter customs, the Baltic character—and the terrifying moments during the evacuation of Baltic Germans and the Soviet invasion that left the couple homeless and with an uncertain fate. Their world comes crashing down during the chaos of war, and the Bentons are forced to flee more than twenty-two thousand miles eastward across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Japan, then through Canada to England, crossing both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Baltic Countdown is a tribute to the people of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia—their resilience through the trials of history and their never-ending hope of independence. “An engaging account in its own right . . . A bittersweet memoir of a city on the edge of disaster. Her compelling depiction of Riga and its inhabitants conjures up a world that is almost unknown in the West.” —Studies in Intelligence, CIA journal

This is a compelling story about my experience in my country's civil war. Each time I revisit that time capsule, it brings back my memory of the events that took place during the war. It was the most miserable moment of my life when my city was overrun by the invading soldiers. In view of this, my family had to evacuate my city to a neighboring town about thirty miles away. My father did not stay to welcome the invading soldiers because he sat high in the socioaEUR"economic standard in the rebel area. My father left his city on the advice of his governor and the military leaders in his city; he was compelled to desert his subjects to other towns. We stayed in this other town for about three months when it was besieged by the invading army, and we had to evacuate this town again for another town almost forty miles away from my original town. Our refugee journey had begun, and the epic journey continued as we traveled to more than four towns. My father became the father of more than two hundred refugees who depended on him for survival. Fortunately, the governor aEUR"or the administrator, as he was called thenaEUR" was always very close to my father to assist him in all he needed to house and feed the refugees that followed along with him. There was mass starvation and severe malnutrition in the refugee camps that made my father very weary of the situation. My father became very emaciated and became very sick. Unfortunately, he succumbed to the heart attack that fell on him; he died and was buried unceremoniously in the village that was not his. His death looked like the end of the refugees, but my uncle had to continue to bear the cross of all the refugees until the war ended after three years of refugee life. You don't know the evils of war until you are a refugee.

A collection of thoughtfully crafted short pieces by the East High School Freshman Academy students, class of 2019. Style varies from poetry to memoir to essay. Genre varies from humor, to drama, to informational, to horror.

The arrival in 2015 and 2016 of over one million asylum seekers and refugees in Germany had major social consequences and gave rise to extensive debates about the nature of cultural diversity and collective life. This volume examines the responses and implications of what was widely seen as the most significant and contested social change since German reunification in 1990. It combines in-depth studies based on anthropological fieldwork with analyses of the longer trajectories of migration and social change. Its original conclusions have significance not only for Germany but also for the understanding of diversity and difference more widely.

Contrary to simplistic portrayals of either blissful relaxation or bewildered depression, adjusting to retirement is every bit as complex and ambiguous as life’s other transitions. In Launching Solo, six retirees describe what actually happened during their initial months out of the workforce: what went smoothly, what proved bumpy, and what they came to either desire or fear. Sometimes, their reactions took them by surprise, while other developments unfolded much as they had expected. These informal conversations with ordinary people are supplemented with brief mention of key research findings. By focusing on the stories of single people, the complications of getting along with one’s partner are set aside to highlight the types of pleasures and personal challenges that retirement brings—challenges that arise regardless of marital status. The good news is that most people like being retired, but their contentment may not emerge instantly or automatically. Launching Solo is a pleasant, yet thought-provoking, read for everybody leaving paid employment to embark on a new way of living.

A class of Grade 10 students boards a replica of a century-old schooner for a five-day cruise through the Gulf Islands on Canada’s Pacific Coast. Sail Away chronicles their first day in this friendly but unfamiliar environment. It’s a day filled with adventure, toil, and zaniness. The book portrays a rustic version of maritime life: How do I wash my hair? (You don’t.) Do I really have to stand watch for an hour in the middle of the night? (Yes.) May I climb the rigging to the top of the mast? (Only if your safety harness is clipped in at all times.) Threads about living in a humane and meaningful manner are woven into this nautical story. Although the characters are invented, the events are not. Sail Away remains true to the real experiences of real people, told from the point of view of the crew. Nobody dies. No romance blossoms. No smugglers are chased. But something compelling and enriching emerges when ordinary people are crammed into an anachronistic setting.

Time is one of the most important means for the exercise of power. In Migration Law, it is used for disciplining and controlling the presence of migrants within a certain territory through the intricate interplay of two overlapping but contradicting understandings of time – human and clock time. This book explores both the success and limitations of the usage of time for the governance of migration. The virtues of legal time can be seen at work in several temporal differentiations in migration law: differentiation based on temporality, deadlines, qualification of time and procedural differentiation. Martijn Stronks contests that, hidden in the usage of legal time in Migration Law, there is an argument for the inclusion of migrants on the basis of their right to human time. This assertion is based in the finite, irreversible and unstoppable character of human time.