Greetings!
This
is the weekend I would normally do a Charity Sunday post, where I
post about some worthwhile cause, then invite you to comment. Then I
donate to the charity according to the number of comments I receive.
Today,
I’m doing something a bit different.
I
don’t know if you saw my post “Imagine”
a few days ago, on World Refugee Day. In
that post (which I’d love you to go over and read), I invite you to
imagine what it would be like to be one of the 70 million individuals
in the world today who have been forced to leave their homes because
of conflict, violence and disasters natural and man-made. Despite
their suffering, refugees are in many places treated as
unwanted, even inhuman. Can you imagine what it would be like, to be
homeless, destitute and despised?
Today,
I thought I’d help you imagine, by sharing my own attempts to make
real the plight of one group of refugees. According
to UNHCR, there are currently more
than 95,000 refugees in Thailand, living in nine camps. Most are
from minority groups along the border with Myanmar, who have been
displaced by decades of ethnic conflict.
My
new release Refuge
brings one of these camps to life, seen through the eyes of a young
private in the Thai military. Here’s the blurb:
I
never wanted to be a soldier, especially a guard at the remote, dusty
Mae La refugee camp, a thousand kilometers from my home. But these
days there were no jobs in our village. My mother depended on the
money I sent her each month. Still, she cried whenever I phoned her.
Until
I met the lovely hill tribe girl Preean, though—until she asked for
help I knew I shouldn’t give her—I never really understood what I
was doing to my fellow human beings. How could she go on, one day
after another in that desolate place, without any hope for change?
Mae La was limbo—once you arrived here you were stuck. There was
nowhere else you could go.
To
love her was dangerous, a risk to my own life and freedom. But when
she offered her body and her heart, how could I refuse?
~ ~ ~ ~
Refuge is a multicultural erotic romance with a happy ending, but it
portrays, as vividly as I know how, the miserable life of these
refugees.
I
want you to read this story. You can download it free from Smashwords
by going here:
and
then using this coupon:
VZ77M
So
here’s the deal this Charity Sunday. Instead of making donations
based on how many comments I get, I’ll donate
two dollars
to Amnesty International
(one of the most important organizations working for refugee rights
and welfare, around the world) for
every download of the book
(free or paid).
Furthermore,
I plan to donate all proceeds from sales on either Smashwords or
Amazon (which I hope will have the book up within the next 24 hours)
to Amnesty.
I’ll
donate two dollars for every review on Amazon as well.
The
coupon and donation offer expires on July 4th. The
altruistic allocation of proceeds will go on indefinitely.
Feel
free to share the coupon, and the book, with your friends and family.
The more people who imagine the life of a refugee, the more likely it
is that the world will work to reduce their suffering and give them a
home.
Finally,
here’s a bit from the book, so you’ll have some idea what you’re
getting:
~ ~ ~ ~
“Excuse
me, do you have a pencil?”
I
jumped. I had been daydreaming about home, eating somtum and
gai yang with Mum and my brother Daeng under the tamarind tree
in the backyard. The light tap on my shoulder dragged me back to the
smelly, dusty camp where I was supposed to be on guard.
“What?”
“A
pencil? Or a pen?” The young woman gestured back towards a knot of
kids gathered in the shade of the water tower. She held up a sheet of
corrugated cardboard scavenged from some trash heap. “I’m
teaching them their alphabet. I’ve got this but nothing to write
with.”
She
wore a faded teeshirt, baggy shorts and flip flops. Her hair hung
down her back in a messy ponytail tied with an old shoelace. Still I
could see that she was pretty, slightly built, with sharper features
and paler skin then the girls back home. Her smile appeared genuine,
though her eyes appraised me nervously. I guessed that it took some
courage for her to approach me, a uniformed soldier with a loaded
rifle—never mind that I was only a year or two older than she was,
and wanting nothing more than to go back to my family in Yasathon.
I
leaned my gun against my thigh. “I’ve got a pencil back at the
barracks, but I can’t leave my post until my shift is over. Maybe
you could postpone your lessons until after three? I’ll bring it to
you then.”
Her
face lit up. She grabbed and squeezed my hands. Hers were tiny, but
strong. “Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you.”
I
blushed at her enthusiasm. “Never mind. Now you’d better go.”
I’d noticed Sergeant Chokchai headed my way. He didn’t approve of
what he called “fraternization” between us and the camp’s
inhabitants.
“Everything
secure, Private Nu?” He loomed over me. I swallowed hard. He came
from Bangkok. He had made it clear in his view, I was just a stupid
hick from the Northeast.
“Yes,
sir. Everything is normal, sir.”
“What
were you doing, talking to that filthy Burmese cunt?”
I
winced at his foulness. “Nothing. She wanted to know the time,
that’s all.”
“Why
should she care? She’s not going anywhere!” Chokchai gave a
nasty chuckle “You should know better, though. Don’t talk to
them. Don’t get involved in their affairs. Oh, they’ll act all
polite and respectful, but they’re snakes. They’ll stab you as
soon as your back’s turned. You remember what happened to Sakon,
don’t you?”
“Yes,
sir.” Sakon had been another sergeant. They had found him behind
the mess hall with his throat slit. Everyone assumed that he was
murdered by one of the refugees, even though he’d been a brutal man
who had many enemies.
“Just
remember, they’re animals. Ignorant, superstitious animals.” He
looked over his shoulder in the direction that the girl had
disappeared, shaking his head in obvious disgust, before returning
his unwelcome attention to me.
~ ~ ~ ~
