While Trump and the alt-right, alt-white knuckle-draggers who plan to vote for him continue to excoriate immigrants and refugees, something completely different took place this weekend in my own back yard. My very good neighbor, the International Institute of St. Louis, held its annual Festival of Nations in beautiful Tower Grove Park, a few blocks from my home.
The International Institute of St. Louis offers comprehensive adjustment services for refugees and immigrants in our community. In turn, these newcomers expand the richness of St. Louis’ diversity and help revitalize our economy.
In other words, the International Institute is the living face of refugee resettlement in the Heartland of America, St. Louis. When Dim Donald rants about extreme vetting for refugees, he shows, as usual, that he doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about.
When refugees finally emerge from the years-long pipeline that leads from United Nations camps to the streets of American communities, they have already endured the most probing kinds of examinations imaginable by international and U.S. governmental and non-governmental agencies. For those who clear all of the barriers and obstacles, a lot of local help and support is required to help them adjust and become productive and self-supporting in places they have never seen among people they do not know speaking languages they do not recognize.
The International Institute of St, Louis is where the rubber hits the road for the social implementation of refugee resettlement. It is one of a handful of organizations recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees to resettle refugees in the United States. The Institute totally understands that people escaping from violent tyranny rarely look to make trouble, and the few who do will rarely be missed by the labyrinth of review that already precedes the admission of any refugee to America.
The work of the International Institute of St. Louis in refugee resettlement began nearly a century ago when St. Louis philanthropist, Ruth Holliday Watkins, and others, founded the organization in response to the waves of refugees fleeing the devastation of World War I. In the many wars, upheavals and other horrors since then, The Institute has helped resettle the victims of persecution by countless tyrannical regimes all over the World.
One of the side effects of this has been the creation, in St. Louis of an International District with diversity and quality of life rarely found in smaller, non-coastal cities. So, it was a great pleasure for me to walk the two blocks to the park and enjoy the immense diversity I saw celebrated at the Festival of Nations, where sons and daughters of the entire world came together to rejoice in the sameness of their differences and the differences of their sameness.
Photos and captions lie beyond the fold.
INTERNATIONAL BAZAAR
INTERNATIONAL FOOD COURT
It was kind of funny. American cuisine was only represented in the vast International Food Court by the county fair version of Cajun, pictured above and one American food booth serving what I can only describe as a parody of American Food:
Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Philly Steak Sandwich, Chicken Bacon Ranch Pocket, Funnel Cakes, Fried Oreos, Potato Ribbon Fries with Cheese, Buffalo Chicken on a Stick, Corn Dogs, Fresh-squeezed Lemonade, Frozen Lemonade, Shaved Ice with Flavors station
No thanks. But that Saffron Chicken over at the Iranian booth looks awfully good.
INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL PERFORMANCES
Two days of nonstop entertainment from around the World gave visitors a dazzling show of dance and music traditions from all parts of Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
All of this took place within 5 blocks of my front door. This was our first year here and I can hardly wait until Festival of Nations 2017.