By Melvin Durai
During a recent Cabinet meeting, US President Donald Trump went on a rant, labelling Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and other immigrants from Somalia as “garbage.” “We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said. “She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.’” As someone who occasionally has to handle garbage, wheeling our garbage bin from our home to the street once a week, his words concerned me. What if he calls people from India “garbage” one day? Would I have to wheel myself to the street? Perhaps my wife and I would wheel each other to the street. Me: “You first.” She: “No, you first.” Me: “I insist.” She: “I resist.” I was concerned enough about Trump’s words that I decided to randomly dial members of the 260,000-strong Somali community in America to find out how they are coping. The only person who didn’t hang up on me was a 32-year-old nurse. Nurse: “Whatever you are selling, I don’t want it. I have enough insurance, enough credit cards, and enough romance.” Me: “I’m not selling anything. I just want to know how you feel about President Trump labeling Somali immigrants as ‘garbage.’” Nurse: “It doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve been called a lot worse.” Me: “You have an ex-husband?” Nurse: “No, I work in a psychiatric hospital. Most of the patients are respectful to me, but every now and then, you get someone who refuses to take their medication and calls you all kinds of names. But you have to forgive them. They are going through a lot of mental distress.” Me: “So you never get offended?” Nurse: “No, you get used to it. Sometimes it’s amusing. Just the other day, I tried to get one man to take his meds, and he said, ‘I’m the president of the United States, and you can’t make me.’ I asked him, ‘What makes you think you’re the president of the United States?’ And he said, ‘Don’t you reporters have better questions to ask?’” Me: “Do you think the president should apologise?” Nurse: “He should come and meet some of us. It’s easy to call people ‘garbage’ when you don’t really know them. But humans should never be called ‘garbage.’ It happens too much though. It even happens in sports. Some fans refer to players who don’t perform well as “garbage.’” Me: “So a president who doesn’t perform well might also be called—” Nurse: “No, never. Humans should never be called garbage.
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Animals should not be called garbage either. My sister would be so offended if I called her cat ‘garbage.’ She would stop sharing her Netflix password with me.” Me: “What would you tell the president if he comes to meet you?” Nurse: “I would tell him that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I have a neighbour who takes a lot of garbage to the street every week. He doesn’t believe in recycling or donating. Anything he doesn’t want is garbage to him. So every now and then, passers-by help themselves to something he has tossed out.
A piece of furniture, perhaps, or even a rug.” Me: “Do you consider yourself one of those treasures?” Nurse: “No, I was an item in a recycling bin. I’ve been recycled in America. I was poor and unemployed in Somalia, but when I came here as a refugee, I went to college and became a nurse.” Me: “So what the president should have said is, ‘Ilhan Omar and other Somalis are recyclables.’ That doesn’t sound very insulting, though.” Nurse: “It’s a compliment. Any time you have turned your life around, it’s a big achievement.”
