​In September of 2015, a tragic image of a young Syrian boy named Aylan who had drowned on a Turkish beach echoed around the globe, tugging on the heartstrings of the international community and raising renewed outcry over the refugee crisis.
 
Only 3-years old and fleeing his native Damascus with the rest of his family, who all perished at sea that day as well except for his father, Aylan was just one of the countless thousands of refugees that attempted to cross the Mediterranean in an attempt to find safe haven on European shores.
 
Perhaps this one image did more to humanize the plight of Syrian refugees than all the news articles and media reports that came before it, but the reality is that people also need accurate facts to truly understand the magnitude of the refugee crisis – and become inspired and mobilized to help.
 
Here are 25 facts about refugees and displaced persons around the world and the Syrian refugee crisis:
 
1.         A refugee is a person who has left the country where they live and can’t return because of fear of persecution due to their religion, political beliefs, race or ethnic group, or affiliation with a certain organization. 
 
A Displaced Person is someone forced to leave their home due to armed conflict, violence or other human rights violations. It may also be a natural disaster or lack of food, drinking water or their livelihood that forces them to flee.  
 
2.         Currently, 65.3 million men, women and children around the world have been forcibly displaced, the highest levels on record.
 
3.         That includes 21.3 million refugees that have been displaced or fled their own countries, now seeking amnesty, shelter or safe haven in nations other than their own.
 
4.         That adds up to about 1 in every 100 people in the entire world displaced from their homes, the highest ratio since 1951. If all of those refugees formed their own country, it would be the  22th largest in the world by population, larger than even the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, South Africa or South Korea.

5.         Only 12 months ago we had 59.5 million refugees and displaced people in the world, representing a huge increase of 5.8 million people in just one year.

6.         In 2015, an average of 24 people fled or were forced from their homes every 60 seconds, a fourfold increase from ten years ago when only one person on average became a refugee every minute.

7.         Every day about 34,000 people are forcibly displaced due to conflict or persecution.

8.         The rise in child refugees has been alarming, with 2015 marking the first year that 51 percent of the world’s refugees were minors.

9.         53% of the world’s refugees come from just three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.

10.      Syria now has the most profound refugee problem in the world due to their brutal civil war. In fact, 4.8 million Syrians are refugees, and 6.5 million more Syrians are displaced within their country. It’s estimated that about half of those affected are children.

Add it all up and and about six out of every ten Syrians have been displaced from their homes, a magnitude not seen in any other country in recent history. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/15/key-facts-about-the-worlds-refugees/
 
11.      Where do all of these refugees go? About 80% of the world’s refugees are located in developing countries, not wealthy or western nations.
 
12.      In fact, more than 4.5 million Syrian refugees are now in just five countries: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

Turkey hosts 2.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. Lebanon hosts about 1.1 million Syrian refugees, which means that approximately 1 in every 5 people in Lebanon are now Syrian refugees.

The 635,324 Syrian refugees in Jordan make up 10% of that country’s entire population.

13.      Neighboring Gulf countries like Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain still offer no resettlement opportunities for Syrian refugees.

14.      Even wealthy nations like Russia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea have offered no resettlement places for Syria’s refugees.

15.      A little more than 10 percent of all Syrian refugees have fled to Europe.

16.      In 2015 alone EU countries, with the addition of Norway and Switzerland, were host to 1.3 million refugees.

17.      Out of all European Union countries, Germany leads the way with accepting Syrian refugees. In fact, Germany has pledged admission for 39,987 Syrian refugees, which is about 54% of the EU total.

18.      From 2012 to the close of 2015, the United States has accepted roughly 2,174 Syrian refugees, which is only about 0.0007% of the total U.S. population.

19.      However, the Obama administration has pledged to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016 and accepted 2,300 in June alone, putting them on track to reach that goal.

20.      In the Middle East about one-in-twenty people are now displaced, with Africa being the next highest region at one-in-sixty.

21.      Child and minor refugees are often forced to fend for themselves. Of the total unaccompanied minors entering Europe between 2008 and 2015, 48 percent came in 2015, alone.

22.      Children who become refugees often have to work just to survive, sometimes in demeaning or dangerous jobs. They also frequently face a high risk of sexual abuse or exploitation. Right now between two and three million Syrian children are unable to attend school because of that country’s civil war.

23.      Refugee children often become malnourished or fall ill because of a lack of basic food, clean water, sufficient shelter, warm clothing and medical care.

24.      For instance, the most vulnerable Syrian refugees now resettled in Lebanon receive just $21.60 per person every month for food, or around $0.70 each day, well below the United Nation’s designated poverty line of $1.90 per day.

25.      International relief organizations are scrambling to help, but it’s still not enough to provide the basic necessities for these millions of refugees, and complications with delivering the aid magnify the problem. For instance, the United Nations 2015 humanitarian appeal for funds to assist Syrian refugees was only 61% funded by the end of 2015.
 
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If you’d like more information about the refugee crisis or how you can help, visit the United Nations Refugee Agency page or email me any time.
 

On September 11, 2001, two planes hit the World Trade Center towers in New York City, another crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth hijacked plane went down in a field in Pennsylvania en route to the White House. The world as we know it changed that day, as the horrible images of destruction and devastating losses of life will never be forgotten. Every year since 2001, September 11 is a day of remembrance, mourning, and national pride for the many people who lost their lives that day. 

To honor 9/11, I found 25 Facts about 9/11 you probably didn't know. It's important to distinguish that while there are many conspiracy theories and far-flung claims about the events that day, we stuck to verifiable facts from sites like CNN, Wikipedia, the UK Guardian, and others:

1. September 11, 2001 resulted in the largest loss of life from a foreign attack on American soil, far more than Pearl Harbor.

2. A total of 18 people were rescued alive from the rubble after the World Trade Center collapse.

3. After the first plane hit Building 1 of the World Trade Center, employees in building 2 were instructed to stay in the building – not evacuate. The New York City fire evacuation procedures called for evacuations only of those floors directly adjacent to a fire.

4. Video accounts of the World Trade Center attacks were aired on news stations all around the world almost instantly. However, video footage of the Pentagon attack wasn’t released to the public until 2006, 5 years later.

5. On the average day, about 50,000 people worked in the WTC towers and another 40,000 would come and go through the building complex.

6. Many people forget that the 9/11 wasn’t the first time terrorist target the World Trade Center. In 1993, a car bomb exploded, killing 6 people. 

7. Of the casualties resulting from the WTC attacks on9/11, 343 were New York City firefighters, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 officers at the Port Authority. As others ran away, these brave men and women ran into the buildings.

8. Few people realize that another World Trade Center collapsed that day, not just the Twin Towers. In fact, Building 7 of the WTC complex fell later that afternoon. It was not publicized and a lot of information was not shared with the public. It was concluded that the structure came down because of fire damage. Reportedly, never in the history of construction has steel melted to the point of collapse due to a fire.  The structural failure of construction-grade steel is 90% at 800° C (1432°F).

9. Every Tuesday morning, NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had a recurring meeting on the 23rdfloor of the WTC building 7. His meeting the morning of 9/11 was cancelled just a few hours earlier.

10. Likewise, President Bush’s cousin, Jim Pierce, was slated to attend a conference that morning on the 105th floor of the South Tower. But the group was too large so the conference was moved at the last minute to the Millennium Hotel across the street.

11. There were plenty of warnings about 9/11, including that received by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who is on record saying he received a warning late Monday evening from airport security, telling him not to fly.

12. The death toll for the 9/11 attacks rose for years, even after all of the rubble was cleared and all of the bodies exhumed. That’s because there were a handful of subsequent deaths due to dust exposure, smoke inhalation, lymphoma, and other lung diseases caused by the attacks, all ruled homicides.

13. As of this date, only 1,632 victims have been identified, leaving as many as 1,121 unidentified.

14. The Victims Compensation Fund was set up almost immediately after 9/11, operating from December 2001 to 2003. The VCF received 7,408 applications for personal injury and death claims, awarding funds in 5,560 of those cases.

15. Ten years after the attack, on January 2, 2011, President Obama signed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, empowering the scope and work of the original VCF to help more victims.

16. The economic loss due to the attacks is staggering. It’s estimated that the price tag comes to $123 billion, including lost wages and suspended commerce during the 2-4 weeks immediately after the attacks, decline in air travel over the next few years, etc. Other price tags from 9/11 include the $60 billion cost from WTC site damage, including damage to surrounding buildings, infrastructure and subway facilities, $40 billion to fund the emergency anti-terrorism package approved by Congress in 2001, $15 billion aid to the airlines, and $9.3 in insurance claim payouts.

17. To clean up the WTC site, it took 3.1 million man-hours and $750 million, clearing 1.8 million tons of wreckage.

18. The Homeland Security Advisory System was introduced on March 12, 2002 to monitor and caution the public to terrorism threats. The color-coded system includes (in ascending order) green, blue, yellow, orange, and red threat levels. It has never been below yellow since 2001 but it was raised to orange five times and red once, in 2006, when flights from the UK to the United States expected an imminent attack.

19. Exactly nine months after 9/11, the birthrate at New York City hospitals was 20% higher than the same month in 2000. It’s reported that alcohol consumption in New York City rose 25% the week after 9/11 compared to the previous year. Church and synagogue attendance was up 20% as well.

20. There are many stories of bravery and humanity coming out of the attack that day, but one of the most touching is that of Michael Hingson and his dog, Roselle. Hingson, who is blind, was in the North Tower that day with his guide dog, a yellow lab. When the plane hit, Roselle led her owner down 78 stories of stars, out to the street, and down to a friend’s house to safety.

21. New York City fire fighters couldn’t extinguish all the fires caused by the 9/11attack for 100 days.

22. At Princeton University, a computer-generated algorithm program called the Random Event Generator predicted a “cataclysmic event was about to unfold.” That was three hours before the attack.

23. The week after the 9/11 attacks, the top searches on Google were: 1) Osama bin Laden; 2) The World Trade Center; 3) CNN; and 4) Nostradamus.

24. Cantor Fitzgerald is a financial services firm that operated out of WTC and lost 658 employees that day. Since then, they’ve dedicated the proceeds from their efforts every September 11 to world wide charities, raising upwards of $101 million for good causes and honoring their fallen comrades. 

25. There is a growing movement to make 9/11 a national holiday, serving as a day of remembrance and tribute the victims and honoring those who sacrificed their lives to save others. It is currently designated as a Day of Remembrance, not a national holiday, similar to Pearl Harbor Day on December 7.

-Norm  

“Money can’t buy you happiness,” is a mantra we tell ourselves regularly, put on bumper stickers and even teach our children. But is it true?
 
Probably not, it turns out, as studies point to the positive correlation between income and levels of happiness. So having more money really will make us happier?
 
Somewhat, but there are certain important distinctions to make before we start blindly chasing dollar signs in hopes for inner bliss.
 
First, we’ll go over the research:
 
One of the first stabs at producing empirical data about money and satisfaction was a 2010 article in the New York Times that looked at consumption and how it relates to happiness.
 
The NYT writer annotated research that defined that categorized the top material things that produced happiness.
 
While you might venture a guess that the top categories that made people happy included big mansions, flashy sports cars, or priceless jewels, that wasn’t the case. In fact, the category that produced the highest reported levels of happiness was “Leisure Activities,” which included vacations, entertainment, sports and equipment used to enhance lifestyle like golf clubs, a surfboard or yoga mats.
 
In 2015, a study by Princeton University took the research into money and happiness much further, with fascinating revelations. The basic conclusion of this study was that happiness levels did rise as people earned more income and were in better financial situations, but only up until a point. In fact, after earning around $75,000 annual income, the effect on money on happiness had diminishing – and eventually, even negative – returns.
 
The study, conducted by economist Angus Deaton and psychologist Daniel Kahneman, was so vanguard in reversing societal conceptions that money can’t buy happiness that it eventually won a Nobel Prize for Economics.
 
By analyzing the responses of 450,000 Americans in a Gallup and Healthways survey, Deaton and Kahnerman were able to pinpoint two income metrics: $75,000 and $200,000.

It seems that for the average person, the more income we make, the happier we will feel. In fact, for every 10% more income they made, the higher they ranked for feelings of happiness - but only up to $75,000. After that, the levels of additional reported happiness will slow down drastically the more income we make.
 
Once people reached the $160,000 level of annual income, the effect of money on reducing negative emotions like stress, anxiety, and hopelessness, etc. – and replacing them with “happier” emotions – was greatly diminished. By the time the survey participants hit the $200,000 level of annual income, there was zero effect in reducing negative emotions and producing happiness. In fact, those negative feelings did start to reappear in greater proportion and happiness levels actually started to reverse in many cases.
 
The conclusion? Money does buy happiness, up to a point, probably because people had less financial stress, had the means to enjoy their lives more with experiences,
 
The study also found that about 85% of Americans – the vast majority – felt happiness every day regardless of their income. They also noticed that there were two measurable kinds of happiness: the day-to-day feelings that related to current mood and circumstances, and then the bigger-picture satisfaction and fulfillment with their life.
 
The study also found that people facing certain obstacles in life were less sad (and therefore, more happy we’d assume) the more income they earned. For instance, among divorced people, about 51% reported feeling sad or stressed the previous day if they made less than $1,000, but that number dropped to 24% if they earned more than $3,000 a month. Likewise, people with asthma that made less than 1k, 41% reported those negative feelings, versus only 22% in the higher income bracket.
 
Of course it’s important to note that these numbers just dealt on means of a large sample size, and other factors like culture, health, and the cost of living in their city or state influence the financial benchmarks.
 
Studies aside, this actually makes perfect sense.
 
Money itself might not make you happy, but it does afford you the opportunity to live a healthier, less stressed, more stable and comfortable life that you enjoy more.
 
For instance, if you are sick or facing medical difficulties, having money to visit the best doctors, get the best treatment, and afford necessary medications can only improve your overall positive feelings.
 
Mid and higher income brackets also have more money, time and flexibility to purchase healthy food (and eat less junk and processed food), invest in their health and fitness by joining a gym or engaging in regular exercise, have lower stress levels, participate in self help and self improvement, etc.
 
They can also afford gratifying experiences, a chance to pursue their passions and hobbies that are fulfilling long term, and go to concerts, sporting events, and other recreational opportunities.
 
When it comes to family, people in mid to upper income levels also can spend more time with children, have better relationships and marriages, and afford family vacations, celebrations, and the like.
 
It seems the key is using the money earned to take advantage of the right things in life that afford safety, comfort, health, personal relationships and spirituality and a balanced, fulfilled life.
 
When you think about it, money can at the very least buy the opportunity to pursue happiness – if not outright purchase it – at least up to a point.

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-Norm  :-)

I originally wrote this blog for BlueWaterCredit.com. Check them out! 
 
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