Within this past month, 2 rock legends have passed away: Scott Weiland and Lemmy Kilimister.
Being that I was a 90's teen, I was more familiar with Scott Weiland.
Weiland first rose to fame as the singer of Stone Temple Pilots (STP). At the time, grunge was the most popular sub-genre in rock music, with Nirvana and Pearl Jam leading the way.
It was funny to note that when STP's 1st hit "Plush" came out, everyone said it sounded like Pearl Jam, and therefore everyone accused STP of being Pearl Jam imitators. Also because many of the grunge bands came out of Seattle, many assumed STP was also from Seattle, when they were actually from San Diego. Turned out the Pearl Jam's singer Eddie Vedder was living in San Diego before he moved to Seattle and joined Pearl Jam.
But as time went on, STP's music started to stand out more, and people stopped accusing them of trying to be like Pearl Jam.
My favorite song from STP was "Interstate Love Song"
By the early 2000's, STP broke up, but Scott Weiland wasn't done being legendary. In fact, he teamed up with the former members of Guns N Roses (GNR), and formed Velvet Revolver. It was like GNR replacing Axl Rose with Scott Weiland!
Here's a cool track from Velvet Revolver
Velvet Revolver "Dirty Little Thing"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9jNBuEqD4E
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Lemmy Kilimister (aka Lemmy) was the lead singer for Motorhead, a heavy metal band that got it's start in the 1970s. They were an inspiration to heavy metals that I have more familiarity with -- including Metallica, Pantera, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer!
Lemmy was known for his hard living, rebellious spirit! He inspired many outcasted youth to embrace their wild side and not give a damn what other people think!
He also had some controversy over his interest in World War II memorabilia, especially his collection of Nazi items. Lemmy said he was just interested in WW2 and that he doesn't believe in the Nazi ideology! This was similar to Kid Rock & Ted Nugent both insisting their Confederate flag wasn't in defense of slavery! (Funny that both Kid Rock & Nugent are NOT from the South, in fact both are from MICHIGAN!)
I think UH football will be much improved with its new coach Nick Rolovich! He was a former player who as an assistant under Coach Mack, then worked at Nevada.
He played with the run-and-shoot offense, and learned to coach the pistol offense. Both have schemes that have helped under-rated players gain success on the field, and therefore more suited to schools like UH that have difficulty getting the top recruits!
Also unlike Norm Chow, Nick Rolovich has great people skills that will help him succeed when dealing with assistant coaches, players and the media! Norm Chow's attitude was just straight up poison!
He'll still have Chris Naeole who was the interim coach after Norm Chow got fired! Naeole just wasn't ready for head coaching duties, but he is very well suited to coaching the offensive line as well as being the team's disciplinarians. I think a few more years of experience will help Naeole become more suited for a head coaching position!
I hope Nick Rolovich get rid of this stupid "no long hair" rule put into place by Norm Chow! A rule like that is culturally poisonous to a team filled with Polynesian players! Remember, UH had great mana (power, spirit) when they were allowed to have that long, wild hair.
Earlier this year, I lost my wallet
and had a major scare. That was in May
One Monday morning, as I left my
apartment and went to 7-11. While at 7-11, I felt my pockets and
.................no wallet!
I went home ................no
wallet!
I was supposed to work at a school
that day and had to cancel my work assignment.
The previous night, I was on the UH
campus. I remember using the vending machines, so I went to the same vending
machine the next morning.................no wallet!
Checked lost & found, called
Campus Security................no wallet!
My wallet not only had cash, but
my
state ID
debit card
medical insurance card
social security card
bike registration
bus pass
and more
So yeah, I had to call
the bank and other agencies. To get a replacement state ID, I need a
social security card, but to get a social security card, I needed a state ID
(or a driver license or a passport for which I have NEITHER)
I had to empty my
bottles of coins and used Coinstar at Foodland just so I could have cash for
the week!
Just when I went back
home and feel all miserable, I got a message on my BlackBerry! Someone found my
wallet!
The cash was gone but
all the cards were still there!
A few lessons
DO NOT PUT ALL YOUR CARDS IN ONE PLACE
DO NOT store your state ID and your social security
card in the same place
If you carry your state ID (or driver's license) in
your wallet, DO NOT put your Social Security card there too! Hide your
Social Security card somewhere else. Hide it somewhere in your home where
burglars will have to struggle to find it!
Also, hide a small stash of cash somewhere in your
home, in case you lost your wallet outside. But make sure it's just a SMALL STASH
of cash! Hiding your life savings under the mattress is just another
recipe for disaster!
If you don't need to carry certain cards very often,
don't leave it in your wallet! Hide them, depending on their importance!
Also, I haven't got around to this, but get a Passport and hide it if you're not traveling. In case you lose your wallet with your state ID, you still have your Passport as photo identification
I'm sure there's more
tips, but those are just a few I learned from this experience!
9 days ago was my 2nd graduation from UH-Manoa, this time for my master's in Library & Information Science(LIS).
Since then, I have been on vacation, but still keeping busy with unofficial, personal stuff!
1) Graduation
My recent graduation was on December 19, 2015.
I set my alarm for 5:15 but I woke up at 4:30am! Very rare, but fate made it happen!
The ceremony was scheduled to start at 9am but the graduates were expected to report at 8am! I arrived circa 7:45 am.
Usually the graduates wait outside. There were grey clouds and drizzles, bringing worries that we would outside in the rain. Lucky for me, the graduate students could line up inside the security gate. But the undergraduates had to wait outside! Oh well!
Then circa 8:40, we all started walking towards the arena floor to take our seats. When we took our seats, we all looked around to see loved ones out in the stands. I saw my mother and waved.
At 9am, it was time for the usual graduation stuff. The national & state anthems, speeches, the oli (basically a Hawaiian chant performed by students from the Hawaiian Studies program), and the calling out the names.
My high school doesn't call out the names of the graduates, which makes the ceremony much shorter! But at UH, with much more people, does call out the names. But lucky for us at UH while we are waiting, we can go use the restroom in the backrooms of the arena! No one would stop us!
By noon, it was time for the ceremony to be over! The LIS graduates take one group picture outside the arena, as it would be one last time we are together as a group. Then we our separate ways as we walk to the fields to meet our loved ones.
Those last named A-N wait at the football practice field, while the O-Z wait at the baseball stadium. While we enter, the graduates had the whole field to themselves as the loved ones are held behind the rope, giving us to time to find our spot by our letter.
Then the rope came down, and the loved ones are let loose.
It was just my mom who came. (My father couldn't make it. By the time I told my parents the date & time of graduation, my dad already booked his trip to Mexico. As you could tell,I don't communicate very often with my parents. Oh well!) I did take pictures with some of the other students, but we didn't stick around for long. Though sometimes I sticked around longer, but my mother is at retirement age and can't stand around for too long. Afterwards, it was time to make surprise visits to relatives who couldn't make it. My brother was at work, so we visited his workplace. Then we visited my grandmother, who depends on a walker to get around, and therefore couldn't make it to the graduation! 2) The Vacation I was done being a student, and my job as a substitute teacher was on winter break, so I finally had time to do other stuff! The most important was exercise. I had gained 20+ pounds during my time as an LIS student! It was all work & school, work & school! Now, I finally had time to get back on my biking adventures and the YMCA workouts! It feels to be doing those things at least twice a week again! I also finally got around to migrating some files from the floppy disks to a USB flash drive.
facebook
Also my vacation time was used to do some of the following
set up my ergonomic stand for my new computer (which I bought 3 months ago).
add photo images to my photo binder (yes, I still use them)
visit relatives for Christmas
and of course ........ parties at the club! Last year, I was ill in the week before Christmas, so I was unable to go clubbing with my new green Santa hat on! I finally got around to it this year :)
But there are still some unfinished personal business that I want to take care of soon. They include
end of the year blog posts
blog posts reflection of my entire time in LIS
organizing all those folders I used during my time in LIS. Probably half the items could be shredded, though some of the printed articles were from restricted databases only accessible to UH students. (no, not every article can be found via Google search. Some UH students learned that the hard way, LOL!)
organizing all those printed articles & newspaper I've been piling up! Most will probably go into the trash or recycling! The only problem is finding time to sift through the ones I really wanted to save, then throwing out the rest
Just general housecleaning!
Well, it's a few days away from New Year's! Enjoy!
This was my final semester in UH-Mānoa's Library and Information Science (LIS) program.
This is it. I'm ready to graduate with my master's degree in LIS :)
Later on, I'll do a blog post reflecting on my entire time as an LIS student, but for now, I'll just reflect on this semester.
First the classes
1) LIS 690: Internship
This semester's internship was at the Image Library (recently renamed Visual Resource Center) which is part of the university's Art & Art History Department.
The Image Library has a huge collection of slides (some made in-house, others purchased from outside vendors) that were once used by art history professors for use in their presentations.
But as the world has gone digital, so did the Image Library.
My project was to digitize some of the slides produced by retired art history professor Dr Thomas Klobe. The slides were produced in the 1970s when Dr Klobe traveled to Turkey to research on the region's architecture. Those slides were later used in his classroom presentations.
Since Dr Klobe retired, those slides were at risk of spending the rest of eternity in obscurity.
Here I am to the rescue. My goal was to bring those slides back to life by scanning them and putting them online.
But digitization is more than just scanning images and uploading them.
First, I was asked to some online research for similar images online, as well as learn alternate spelling for some of the Turkish terms used on the slide's labels.
Then I had to do an inventory spreadsheet for every slide that was about to be scanned.
Then it was time to use the slide scanner
Pablo Wegesend's video with image on computer screen copyright by Tom Klobe
This internship was very different from what I was originally thinking about doing when I entered the LIS program. My thinking entering the LIS program was that I would be the guy working at a public library working at the circulation or reference desk.
However, during my time in the LIS program, I have learned that libraries (especially those in universities, archives and other organizations) are involved in digitization projects. My slide digitization at the Image Library is just one example. Other examples include scanning books/journals/magazines and putting the scanned images online. UH-Mānoa's Hamilton Library is doing something like that with the older Hawaii's newspapers. At UH-West Oahu, videos stored in VHS and other older film formats are being digitized and being made available online.
By learning digitization at the Image Library, I have increased my technological skills, as well gained appreciation for the older formats. I would love to be more involved in the digitization projects in the future
---
This was my 2nd internship during the LIS program, and this time, it was much, much, much, much better than the 1st time!
The 1st time was in Spring 2015 at Hawaii State Library working with an emotionally unstable supervisor Tisha Aragaki! To make it worse, the LIS internship coordinator at the time was Noriko Asato, another emotionally unstable, corrupt, unethical person and a professional victim too! Learn more at this link, this link and this link!
This time, my internship supervisor was Kanako Iwase, who is a very easy person to get along with! She is very knowledgeable in her field, and more importantly a patient & respectful person. Even when I had a question about her evaluation, we were able to discuss the issue without any drama and with an appropriate sense of humor! Because of that discussion, I had greater understanding of what image librarianship & digitization is all about!
And the LIS internship supervisor this semester was Dr Violet Harada, a "retired" professor who has decades of experience in the library world (unlike Noriko Asato) and has shown much more interested in keeping the communication lines open with the interns & the supervisors. Dr Harada is also good at communicating how to handle difficult situations! Much respect to her!
2) LIS 652: Introduction to Archives Management
Just like this semester's internship, this class focused on an area of librarianship that I really wasn't thinking of joining in when I entered the LIS program. As mentioned in previous blog posts, my initial interest when joining the LIS program was to work in the public libraries. I'm still interested in public libraries (hire me!), but it's also good to learn the other type of library environments too!
My original plan when registering for class this semester didn't include this class. However, since LIS 694 (Open Access) got cancelled, I decided to sign up for this class since it was scheduled the same time as the cancelled class. Plus, I already took most of the other classes and I already set my internship schedule.
So archive management class it is!
I am so grateful I took this class.
This class focused on archives, which unlike public libraries, focus on preserving rare documents, and allowing access to those documents (under certain conditions) to researchers both amateur and professional.
The professor of this class was Dainan Skeem, who was working at the UH archives located in the upper floors of Hamilton Library. It is great to have the class taught by someone currently working in the profession.
Mr. Skeem did give us a tour of his workplace, where we get to see the hidden documents of this university. (oooh. what secrets are they hiding, LOL!) The archives also held the collection for off-campus organizations (ie sugar plantation organizations, grassroots organizations, Japanese-American veterans of WW2) and has recently received the papers of a prominent Japanese-American veteran who became a US Senator --- Dan Inouye. However, researchers wont have access to Inouye's papers for a while. In fact, if the archivists find any sensitive information in the collections, they do have to contact the relevant federal agencies (which may include the FBI, CIA, etc.)
We also took a tour of the Hawaii State Archives, which holds the government records of not only the state government, but also the governments of the independent and territorial days.
And one more tour -- Doris Duke's Shangri-La! This was once the mansion of Doris Duke, the heir to a tobacco fortune. She was an avid collector of Middle Eastern art which she imported to her mansion near Diamond Head. We did see an archival collection downstairs, but much of the tour was more of a museum tour than an archive tour. We did have students in the class who were in the university's Museum Studies program, and we did compare archives & museums in this class.
Besides the tours, we also helped process an incoming archive collection. This collection was from the Save Sandy Beach Coalition, a grassroots organization that was devoted to stop hotel development along East Oahu's beaches in the late 20th century going to this century. The boxes we got in this collection wasn't well organization, so our class had an opportunity to organize the collection. We organized the items by years, as well as by the types of materials (ie newspapers, letters, flyers, notebooks, VHS, etc.) I find organizing materials a very fun activity, but we also had to take it seriously being that these were historical documents.
Other areas of focus in this class included
archival ethics
indigenous archives
preservation of rare documents
proper storage
purchases and donations
We also had to do a presentation on a special topic. I did mine on School Archives.
Unfortunately for the university, Dainan Skeem has recently got another archival job, this time at BYU! Skeem was a great professor with an appropriate sense of humor! We at UH will miss him greatly!
3) Other business
Technically, I could have graduated in the spring semester, but I had some unfinished business to take care. For one, I wanted to take the class "Books & Media for Young Adults" which I did this past summer. Also, I wanted to do my 2nd internship with a more suitable supervisor and that was also outside my realm of expertise. I did that this semester as I have already explained!
But I had other unfinished business as well that goes beyond just taking classes.
I always felt that I could've had another year in high school because even though I passed all my classes, I wanted another year to do more activities. At least in college, you are allowed to take extra semesters so you can have extra time to do extra-curricular activities :)
So, let's go ...............
a) Oral Exam
Students in the LIS program have to do either a Thesis or an Oral Exam. If I did a Thesis, I would have had to take extra classes. I now wish I did take the extra classes, even if it meant delaying my graduation further. I do wish I spent some time doing another independent research project ( I did one on "library services for blind & visually impaired" which was basically done to keep me busy when a summer class got cancelled last year), but my mind was blank on what new areas I wanted to explore.
So yeah, I settled for the Oral Exam! In the Oral Exam, you have to study 4 scenarios (covering professional philosophy, public services, administration and technical services) and you get "interrogated" by 2 professors and you can't have any notes there to help you!
In my first try, I did fine with the professional philosophy and public services. The administration could've used more work, but I really, really felled flat on the technical services part. The problem was when I did my first print-out of the scenarios to study for, this was before they changed the technical services scenario. I only found out about the change of the scenario 2 weeks before my first Oral Exam. To make matters worse, the new scenario was much, much ,much more complicated than the original scenario!
Luckily, I had three extra weeks to study for the re-take for the technical services scenario. This give me time to do more research via online journal articles and print books!
And while one of the professors who "interrogated" me for the re-take session was a database expert with a gruff reputation, I did much, much better on the technical services scenario the 2nd time around. It was also my first time I had a real conversation with that database expert with a "gruff" reputation (I took database class with another prof) and it seems like he's a pretty cool guy to have a conversation with. Though some students told me stories of less than ideal situations with him.............I'll just go with what I experienced, which turned out just fine! I'm just glad he wasn't the "interrogator" in my first attempt at the Oral Exam! LOL!
b) Graduate Student Organization (GSO)
This semester, I continued being the LIS representative in the GSO.
That resolution was passed in the summer. During this semester, the University Librarian (official term for "head librarian") came to the GSO meeting to respond to the resolution. She mentioned the budget issues getting in the way. I wished she would lobby more, maybe encourage the university to lobby the legislature for funding the extended summer library hours.
When the University Librarian asked the students what was driving us to support this resolution, I mentioned that while summer school cram a semester's worth of work into 6 weeks, having less time available in the library made it much harder for students without a computer or quiet study space at home. She then said "we'll investigate if there's space for those things outside the library". I asked "where?". Another student snapped at the University Librarian saying she should do her research and realize there are no computer labs available to all the students outside the library! Another student mentioned the possibility of just keeping one floor open at Sinclair Library. I mentioned there is no restroom in the 1st floor. The person in charge of all the campus libraries didn't know what most students on this campus already knew! Well, she knows now!
We were going to vote on a resolution on the proposed increases to mandatory fees going towards Athletics in my last meeting. It got delayed to next month, when I'll no longer be around!
c) Hui Dui
Another unfinished business I took care of was joining the Hui Dui committee this semester!
Hui Dui is the main student organization for LIS students. Being in this committee comes with great prestige, as well as great responsibility!
Hui Dui is in charge of the LIS orientation for new students and the banquet honoring the graduating LIS students! It feels good to plan for both activities, especially picking the location & the menu for the banquet ;)
Hui Dui committee is also in charge of the lounge where the LIS students chill! We have access to the closet, so we can restock the snacks and collect the money!
But you know what's my favorite part about having access to the key to the closet? I have quick access to extra paper in case our computer lab's printer runs out! I came to other student's rescue on that issue several times! It's also good that I no longer have to beg to have the printer refilled since I can now do it myself!
Hui Dui also sponsored the Meet & Greet, a networking session to encourage new students to join student organizations
And here's the flyer I made for the Meet & Greet
Hui Dui
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Hui Dui co-sponsored the 50th anniversary celebration of the LIS program. We had a guest speaker Dr Miles Jackson, a retired professor who used to be in charge of the LIS program
Pablo Wegesend's photo
Dr. Miles Jackson
Pablo Wegesend's photo
Hui Dui also took part in the Literacy Fair at Kuhio Elementary School on 11/7/2015. We had a game booth where we encourage students to play games with book related themes. We had major fun that day :)
photo by Lori Nakamoto
Hui Dui committee at the Literacy Fair (11/7/2015)
d) ALA accreditation
Colleges not only get accredited for the way the campus operates, but their academic departments also get accredited by organizations related to that academic major.
So for the LIS programs, we get accredited by the American Library Association (ALA).
This was the year our LIS program was up for re-accreditation. That means we get a visit from the ALA! Major pressure for the LIS administrators and the professors!
But you know what? It also means the LIS students get to meet with the ALA team without our professors around! Yep, we could talk about our profs behind their backs to the people that grade them!
Actually, most of what was said by the LIS students was positive, though I did point out that one of the core classes was taught by professor whose real expertise was on something else! (hint, hint) The LIS admin is lucky that the ALA team didn't ask about internships because I would've just blasted former internship coordinator Noriko Asato in front of everyone!
However, I did praise the LIS computer labs, the opportunity to learn technological skills, opportunity to get scholarships from sponsoring organizations, the adjunct professors, and opportunities for student involvement. When one of the newer students said she wished the core classes were offered in the summer, I mentioned that they were offered in 2013 when I took the database class. Hopefully, they will be offered again next summer!
Besides the opportunity to vent to the ALA team, I also appreciate the lunch being offered. One of the students cooked the shoyu chicken and the rice! Super ono! :)
e) UH Grad Fair
On 10/16/2015, ASUH (Associated Students of UH; aka the undergrad version of GSO) sponsored a Grad Fair, which promoted graduate student programs to interested undergraduate students. I requested a table so that the LIS program can give out brochures and flyers.
The Grad Fair was held in the Campus Center Ballroom! Last time it was held outside under windy conditions. Being indoors meant less worry about out stuff being blown away or being rained on!
This time, I also had help from 2 professors as well as 3 other students. It's great to have others help explain our program to other students, as well as to talk story with during the down-times.
University of Hawaii LIS Program facebook page
me & LIS student Gailyn Bopp
f) pre-Halloween party
On Friday 10/30/2015, I passed the left-over parts of the Oral Exam! Super happy status!
And to top it all off, there was the pre-Halloween party in the LIS lounge. Nothing wild, just a few folks with costumes and people talking story!
Pablo Wegesend's photo
Me with the paper bats
We also get to stay in the library past closing time. One of the LIS professors sticked around so that we could be let out the back door when the party was done!
I left still jazzed about passing the Oral Exam earlier that day :)
g) Hawaii Library Association conference
On December 4th-5th, there was the Hawaii Library Association conference. Whereas last year's conference was held in semi-isolated Kahala Resort, this time was in a more convenient location : East-West Center :)
The highlight for me was the poster session! For 1 hour on both days, the LIS students stood by their posters as visitors walk around to view the posters and ask questions.
here's the setup for the poster session
Pablo Wegesend's photo
My poster was titled "Student Advocacy for Extended Library Hours", which as you may already know from earlier in this post, was my pet project in the Graduate Student Organization.
Here is my poster
(in case you difficulty viewing the small print, the poster is also available to be viewed at
I also was attended a few presentations including ones about
Micronesian libraries
audio-visual collections
Accelerated Reader in school libraries
There were exhibits from local publishers, national/international database vendors, and scanner vendors.
I was really fascinated with the new scanners, especially the ones that can scan the books with the pages facing up!
Another favorite part of the conference was the lunch, provided by Da Spot (who also cater to the GSO meetings!) They know how to make good food :) Friday, I ate with LIS students plus the librarian from UH-Hilo and with one of the LIS professors. On Saturday, I ate with the LIS rookies. I was the "senior" of the group so I was their connection to the LIS past, as they were the connection to the future!
h) LIS Grad Dinner
And of course, we had the LIS Graduation Dinner yesterday :)
As mentioned earlier, it was sponsored by the Hui Dui committee!
Here's the flyer I made for the event!
Hui Dui
As yousee from the flyer, the banquet was held at Kapiolani Community College, which has its own restaurant which is sponsored by its Culinary Arts program.
It also happens to be the same building where I attended my first LIS banquet, back in my first semester as an LIS student in Spring 2013. That was to celebrate that semester's graduates from when I was a LIS rookie! So yes, I'm back at the same place to honor me as the graduates!
Even though this year's banquet was in a different room, I still feel like I came full circle!
That's the privilege of being in the Hui Dui committee, you get to pick the place and the menu for the banquet :)
Anyways, we all had a great time with our food, listening to speeches from faculty, and hearing members of the student organizations honor each individual student for their contributions.
And this being Hawaii, I got tons of leis placed on me!
And of course, the most important thing of the evening...... the graduates group photo
Pablo Wegesend's photo
Fall 2015 LIS graduates
(look for me in the back, hint,hint)
Being that some of the continuing LIS students were here too, it might be the last time they talk to us (the new grads ) in person! So there was some bittersweetness too!
But we have one more thing to do before it's all over............... tomorrow's graduation!
Hawaii likes to pride itself about "diversity" and "being multi-cultural"
But Hawaii isn't immune to irrational bigotry towards people they're not familiar with!
Earlier this week, Hawaii's governor David Ige said that he is willing to accept having some Syrian refugees coming to Hawaii!
People went ballistic over that!
And not your stereotypical Anglo-Americans who recite the conspiracy nonsense of Ann Coulter and Donald Trump!
We're talking about Hawaiians, Filipinos, Samoans, Japanese,Portuguese and other minorities objecting to having some Syrian refugees coming in!
That's right, minorities who have been stigmatized a century ago are now doing the stigmatizing!
That's right, groups that were once stigmatized and stereotyped for being criminals are now stigmatizing potential Syrian immigrants for being "dangerous"
And the other excuses are even more mind-blowing.
They say "we can't take in more people, we have homeless people here to take care of"
Oh yeah?
Here's my response to that on facebook!
The hypocrisy doesn't end there!
Much of the online hatred is expressed using tools like Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Safari, all of which are produced by Apple, a technology company started by a son of a Syrian immigrant!
That's right, Steve Jobs is a son of a Syrian immigrant. Don't let his last name fool you, he was adopted by an Anglo family!
So I mentioned this on facebook
The hypocrisy doesn't end there!
Many of those objecting to Syrian refugees call themselves "Christians"! But Mary was pregnant with Jesus Christ when she was looking for shelter while traveling. She and Joseph were rejected several times.
And guess where that happened? In the Middle East, not far from Syria
facebook.com/beingliberal.org
The hypocrisy doesn't end there!
Cuban refugees benefitted from an extremely lenient immigration policy, mostly due to US being in opposition to the communist dictator Fidel Castro! The same was true for the Vietnamese/Laotian/Hmong/Cambodians escaping the communists after the US military failed to stabilize their homelands!
But Marco Rubio, whose family benefitted from the very lenient immigration policy, doesn't want to expand those benefits to other people who need the same type of help he got! Severe hypocrite!
Occupy Democrats
Same is also true about Ted Cruz, another son of a Cuban refugee that wants to ban Syrian refugees. Cruz says "why, we don't know who might be terrorists hiding among refugees".
But Ted Cruz also admitted his father was fighting on Fidel Castro's side before switching sides and running for his life!
And of course, as Ted Cruz............................................... how can we make sure these Syrian refugees are being screened so that we don't let in terrorists.
The Syrian refugees are going through a very tedious screening process that most of us can't even handle!
"Refugee Screenings Are More Intensive Than Some Politicians Would Have You Think"
The officials, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said they think people may be unaware of how the screening system works -- already an 18- to 24-month process on average that includes biometric and biographic tests, interviews and other vetting procedures by a number of U.S. security agencies.
(and more)
"The U.N. is doing the vetting," Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) told reporters on Tuesday. "That's insufficient."
That's not the case. It's true that UNHCR is often involved -- although not always -- in referring refugees to the U.S. Before doing so, UNHCR goes through its own vetting process, which determines whether an individual should be classified as a refugee under the1951 Refugee Convention., the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducts in-person interviews with applicants, most often in Amman, Jordan, or Istanbul, Turkey. The USCIS interviewers go through eight weeks of training, or more if they're going to work with Iraqi or Syrian refugee applicants, according to a second administration official.
Once they're referred to the U.S., the government begins its own vetting process. Though there's discussion, even among Democrats, on whether it can be improved, it is still extensive. And officials said they're continually working to strengthen it. Here's how it works:
Information-gathering
Overseas Resettlement Support Centers managed by the State Department start to gather information. They collect biographical information from applicants and take their fingerprints. This information is used later to check their identities, whether their stories are consistent and whether they pose a security threat.
Interviews
Next, the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducts in-person interviews with applicants, most often in Amman, Jordan, or Istanbul, Turkey. The USCIS interviewers go through eight weeks of training, or more if they're going to work with Iraqi or Syrian refugee applicants, according to a second administration official.
Medical tests
Refugee applicants go through a health screening to ensure they don't have a contagious medical condition, such as tuberculosis, or other health problems that require follow-up screening once they arrived in the U.S.
Checking information
This is a challenging part. The Departments of State and Homeland Security work with the FBI, the Department of Defense and other security agencies to check whether the information provided by applicants is true.
The government compares their stories and information with the file from UNHCR, to see if they've been consistent. Some cases are flagged for USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security Unit for individualized screening, such as looking at whether their stories correlate with what was happening on the ground at the time, the second official said. They similarly investigate the explanations people provide if they do not have identification.
Syrians also go through an enhanced review with USCIS refugee specialists in the U.S., the second official said.
Another article about the screening process that Syrian refugees have to go through before being allowed into the US.
ontrary to asylum seekers who show up at America’s doorstep like the Latin American minors fleeing violence, refugees need a referring agency — generally the UN High Commissioner for Refugees but sometimes the U.S. embassy or an NGO — to refer them to America. This agency has to perform its own screening before recommending someone. Just this stage takes four to 10 months and the UNHCR usually refers less than 1 percent of the applications it receives.
After that, even refugees from non-terrorist countries are lucky if they can get a clearance from American officials in a year.
But because Syrians are coming from ISIS land they are subjected to a special third-degree that can take another two to three years. As Vox’s Dara Lindpoints out,they have to prove a negative and show that they are not affiliated with any terrorist group. Until recently, if they had any contact whatsoever with a jihadi no matter how unknowing or innocuous — which is virtually unavoidable if your hometown has been overrun by terrorists — they were denied admissions. There have been cases when folks have been rejected because they might have served a jihadi who showed up at their sandwich shop.
Setting that aside, after a UN referral, a refugee still hasa dozen or soother hurdles to cross. These include, asper USCIS website:
A Security Clearance Process that involves the State Department running the names of all the refugees referred through a standard CLASS (Consular Lookout and Support System) name check. In addition, enhanced interagency security checks were phased in beginning in 2008 and applied to all refugee applicants by 2010.
Certain refugees undergo an additional security review called a Security Advisory Opinion (SAO). These cases require a positive SAO clearance from a number of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies in order to continue the resettlement process.
Refugees who meet the minimum age requirement have their fingerprints and photograph taken by a trained U.S. government employee. The fingerprints are then checked against various U.S. government databases and information on any matches is reviewed by DHS.
All refugee applicants are interviewed by an officer from DHS’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) who may travel to the country of asylum to conduct a detailed, face-to- face interview with each refugee applicant. Based on the information in the refugee’s case file and on the interview, the DHS officer will determine if the individual qualifies as a refugee and is admissible under U.S. law.
If the USCIS officer finds that the individual qualifies as a refugee and meets other U.S. admission criteria, the officer will conditionally approve the refugee’s application for resettlement and submit it to the U.S. Department of State for final processing.
If approved, the refugee will be required to undergo medical screening conducted by the International Organization for Migration or a physician designated by the U.S. Embassy.
Prior to departure to the U.S., a second interagency check is conducted for most refugees to check for any new information.
Upon arrival at one of five U.S. airports designated as ports of entry for refugee admissions, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer will review the refugee documentation and conduct additional security check.
As all of this shows, the process ain’t no stroll in the park and at the end of it lies rejection for the vast majority of applicants. To think that ISIS agents will subject themselves to it only to face either rejection or detection or both is patently absurd.
That's at least 8 steps Syrian refugees have to go through! You think you can handle any of them?
So.. you'll going to tell me that the Syrian refugees aren't being screened?
Or are you just a racist fool who only think in stereotypes?
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My 2 YouTube speeches on this issue
Defending Syrian refugees who might come to Hawaii (part 1)
