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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 12/8/17

Obscured American: Melissa the Iraqi Refugee

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Message Linh Dinh
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I don't dance. Not too much. We don't have the time to dance.

I watch American music when I, a child. I watch almost 80%, from all the movies, American. American. I love American music.

You know Saudi? Arabia Saudi? They have one channel for American movies. They translate the movies. I love Indiana Jones. Rocky. I love Fast and Furious. Paul Walker, he die. Jackie Chan, I love.

Look at this, man. Abu Dhabi. Police cars. Lamborghini. Uh huh. Exactly!

When we come to America, we stay a couple hours in New York, then they put me in the car, and we're leaving to here. Social service, they connect with this people. Yeah, so they found the house. They bought the food. They already made everything for me and my children. Just open the door. Stay here.

Even the bed. The beds for the kids. They made food. They made everything, so we just open the door. Stay here.

They help me, a couple months, then bye!

The government gave me, I think, five thousand dollar, so they found, for me, bad house. The church, they found, for me, bad house. Bad, bad, bad house.

They pay the rent for six months, from my money. They pay for me the stuff, for the house, beds or something, the sofa. Stuff, from my money, so they told me, "Ah, we pay this, we pay this, we pay this, we pay this, we pay this!" They bring a receipt. I just look at it. Then they give me one thousand dollar.

They tell me, "This is what we have now, OK? You have to go to the bank. Open your, this one. Here's a thousand. Maybe you'll need it."

It's not enough to do anything. "Keep the money! Keep the money!" I tell them.

The people, they understand how they play. They bring bad stuff, and they take all my money, you know? Even the shampoo, they bring for me the cheaper one, you know, that blue one. Bad, bad, bad stuff, they bring my house. Why you spend this money, man? They steal it. Yeah!

If they're just working for help the people, so how everybody, like, have a good car? Yeah, they steal the money from the people!

I don't have a cousin here, nobody in America, so I'm, like, blind.

What the heck. If you wish, don't buy for me nothing, the people will help me. When I live my house, after three days, the people bring for me stuff, you know. Jama, the mosque. The mosque send people. They bring for me everything, everything, so why don't wait?

The social service, they know the system here. Why you steal my money already, before I come? I lose the money. My stuff is bad. The people help me, so I lose the money, you know.

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Linh Dinh's Postcards from the End of America has just been published by Seven Stories Press. Tracking our deteriorating socialscape, he maintains a photo blog.


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