The People We Know

10/11/2022

14/07/2022

22/06/2022

Vincent Binh Phung was born in born in an underground shelter in Vietnam during the American Vietnam war. B52 Bombers raided his city every day killing many. His family knows war all too well. His parents were born in China and escaped to Vietnam during the Japanese invasion of China. When Binh was 12 years old, the Chinese Vietnam War started. Both he and his young brother escaped from Vietnam to China traveling by foot and eventually onward to Hong Kong once again risking their lives on an overcrowded fishing boat . He then experiences life in a refugee camp with many other Chinese Vietnamese people. This is not the end of his journey. Binh has found freedom and considers himself lucky.

Hear Binh’s incredible story by clicking on the link in the bio.

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"The People We Know reminds us that everybody has a story worth sharing – and that these stories shape not only the storyteller, but the listener too". Sally Emery - Luckybird Content Agency

22/06/2022

Vincent Binh Phung was born in an underground shelter in Vietnam during the American Vietnam war. B52 Bombers raided his city every day killing many. His family knows war all too well. His parents were born in China and escaped to Vietnam during the Japanese invasion of China. When Binh was 12 years old, the Chinese Vietnam War started. Both he and his young brother escaped from Vietnam to China traveling by foot and eventually onward to Hong Kong once again risking their lives on an overcrowded fishing boat . He then experiences life in a refugee camp with many other Chinese Vietnamese people. This is not the end of his journey. Binh has found freedom and considers himself lucky.

Listen to Vincent Binh Phung’s incredible story by clicking on the link: https://tinyurl.com/ydzxyttn

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"The People We Know reminds us that everybody has a story worth sharing – and that these stories shape not only the storyteller, but the listener too". Sally Emery - Luckybird Content Agency

18/03/2022

Trying to strike a balance between being informed by news media and not becoming overwhelmed by it is difficult, especially with constant crisis around the world.

At a time when we are all experiencing an extraordinary level of stress, science offers a simple and effective way to bolster our own emotional health.

To help yourself, start by helping others.
Much of the scientific research on resilience — which is our ability to bounce back from adversity — has shown that having a sense of purpose, and giving support to others, has a significant impact on our well-being.

“There is a lot of evidence that one of the best anti-anxiety medications available is generosity,” said Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at Wharton and author of “Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success.” “The great thing about showing up for other people is that it doesn’t have to cost a whole lot or anything at all, and it ends up being beneficial to the giver.”

Our bodies and minds benefit in a variety of ways when we help others. Some research has focused on the “helper’s high.” Studies show that volunteering, donating money, or even just thinking about donating money can release feel-good brain chemicals. Studies of volunteers show that do-gooders had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol on days they did volunteer work.

By Tara Parker-Pope

During crisis, the people who cope best are those who help others.

31/01/2022

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Imagine you’re a stranger in a strange land far from home. You’re fleeing a brutal government responsible for the imprisonment, torture, and death of your family and friends. You’ve lost everything and traveled miles. You’ve risked it all to find a safe place.
You’re in a new country, but there is no welcome. Instead, there is suspicion and hostility. People call you scum and have no sympathy. You’re a refugee, but some people see you as a plague.
It’s not fair. It’s not right, but it is the reality which some of the 65 million refugees worldwide face every day.
Nearly five million people have fled Syria since 2011. Two million of them are children.
The refugee crisis is a worldwide problem. The nameless faces in refugee camps are people like us. Yet, there is little empathy.

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27/01/2022

A couple of years ago my cousin Kristian met an elderly Polish historian in London, who later sent him this photo. This is the last known photo of a group, that included Dziadek’s (my grandfathers) family, prior to their murder.

In September 1939 the Germans summoned the heads of various families (landowners, officials, priests, lawyers and teachers) to Lipno, from there they were taken to Włocławek and then to the German concentration camp in Rudau near Konigsberg where they were murdered.

An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished in WWII.

Thankfully my grandparents got British Citizenship.
The horror for those who die in their attempts to reach safety is laid bare by the startling figures of fatalities daily.
Compassion and empathy was needed then, and is needed more than ever now.

11/01/2022

Every day, all over the world, people make one of the most difficult decisions in their lives: to leave their homes in search of a safer, better life.
These journeys, which all start with the hope for a better future, can also be full of danger and fear. Some people risk falling prey to human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Some are detained by the authorities as soon as they arrive in a new country. Once they’re settling in and start building a new life, many face daily racism, xenophobia and discrimination.

We need to raise our collective voice and put an end to this injustice and cruelty.

08/01/2022

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As we head in to 2022, I would like to express huge thanks to everyone who has supported my passion The People We Know podcasts. I am so proud of these podcasts, sharing the stories of , &
The People We Know podcasts are inspired by my travels and living and working alongside many nationalities, as well as my radio audiences who have been from all walks of life and from all over the world. These podcasts share peoples life stories of migration instigated by war and those seeking a better life for their families. They are very personal stories that are insightful, sometimes emotional, and most often brave. They touch on many subjects we can relate to. Other topics inform, educate and give us great insight. They touch on Brexit Britain, the patriarchy, homosexuality in a countries & cultures of intolerance, growing up in war, arranged marriages, languages, the question of home & belonging & much much more.

Special thanks to those who have made this series possible and shared their stories with us all. It is a privilege.
Nasreen Abdulla Samer AlOgidi Parvez Qadir Navina Thompson Malak Harb Katerina Smoldyreva Vikki Humphreys Kamilla Omarzay Lucia Burgio Farah Feyaza Khan Shana Kad Widd Bonney

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Migration makes us all richer in so many ways.

"The People We Know reminds us that everybody has a story worth sharing – and that these stories shape not only the storyteller, but the listener too". Sally Emery - Luckybird Content Agency

05/01/2022

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“They (Widd Bonneys mother and father) ended up engaged in 1978. The happiness wasn’t long. Another issue happened, when they had the Iran Iraq war. It comes out on the TV, an announcement to say, if you're born in 1950 to 1953 mandatory you are going into service. That was my father. So he then went into the Artillery and he became a Major. My earliest memories are knowing war.
The whole time in the 80’s was back and forth, back and forth. They would see each other for short periods and he’d go back to the Military. He had a week off and he said ‘Let's do the wedding. Let's get married. And then I’ll go back to Military service and the frontline after that.’
Their whole life has been worry and pain and ‘oh my god what’s going to happen’.
So (19)84 he’s in the shower getting ready for the wedding. He gets a call saying, ‘You need to go tonight. It’s escalated. Sorry you can’t have the week off’. This is the night of the wedding. He ends up saying ‘Look can I at least have the night? And then I can go in the morning’.
‘Fine, we’ll allow it.’
He does the wedding, and you see the wedding videos and them getting married and there’s a bit of like, gloom. Because they’re not smiling genuinely. He knows that he’s not even going to get to enjoy this, because in the morning, ‘I’m out’. So that wedding happens February 22nd 84, and the next day he goes into battle.”

For more photos and Widd Bonney’s whole story, click on the link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8dtuh8

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16/12/2021

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Now based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Widd Bonney sees himself as a proud New Zealander. But his background and that of both his paternal and maternal grandparents is far more complex and culturally rich. His family's story is that of war, displacement and survival. Fleeing the Armenian Genocide in Turkey and displacement from Palestine in 1948. Thankfully there was respite and peace and happier times in Baghdad Iraq in the 1950s, but sadly this did not last. This family faces war again and again. Widds parents, battered by conflict, instability and danger with the Iraq Iran war and the Gulf war, eventually migrate with their children Widd and Farah, to a safe and welcoming New Zealand.

Listen to Widd Bonney’s whole story by clicking on the link:
https://tinyurl.com/2p8dtuh8

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"The People We Know reminds us that everybody has a story worth sharing – and that these stories shape not only the storyteller, but the listener too". Sally Emery - Luckybird Content Agency

19/10/2021

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“I like to call India my heart home and the UAE my brain home. Because that’s the lived experience that I have had. The UAE is so multicultural that nobody ever asks where are you from. Every single person you meet has a story, and is multicultural in some way or the other. So in that sense it feels more home, than any other place. In India you stand out.”

“I have been placed in a small village church (in the UK) where the majority, well I think there’s two people who are not white in that congregation and not only am I a person of colour, I also dress funny. Because I wear my Indian clothes, and I am also very expressive with my hands and my face and all of that. That’s kind of like, you know, polite English people (laughs).”

“We have come into the moment where England is really trying to address racial justice issues on the back of what happened to George Floyd in America, and then all the things that have followed on from that with Black Lives Matter, and it’s really taken off here as well. People, the nation, as well as the church, really trying to address these issues. But in reality, in the grass roots of place. Where you are actually in those villages in those places, people are just scared. They don’t want to say the wrong thing. So they don’t want to ask the question which might like open a pandora's box that they were not actually wanting to field straight away. I haven’t really had many questions."

"I also think that the language you know, it’s difficult because there is so many, you know it’s person of colour, it’s used to be in England BAME."
"There’s always so much confusion with language and naming and what is what, so I think that makes people fearful. They are fearful of being called racist. They’re also probably afraid that they might have to do some inner work, and they might have to look inside themselves and that takes a little bit of effort. Conscious effort. Rather than just unconsciously having all these ideas and belief systems in your head that you happily live out without any awareness. So you know when you have these conversations you are awakened to your unconscious bias. Then that means now that you know about it, you have to do something about it, you can’t just walk away.Yeah I think all of those kinds of fears are there in people and I also think the fear of the unknown.”

Listen to Navina Thompson’s whole story by clicking on the link: https://tinyurl.com/wx4zc4kw

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08/10/2021

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Navina Thompson is an Indian Vicar in the Anglican Church, and is based outside London. She was born in the United Arab Emirates and shares the story of her parents intercultural marriage, a strict patriarchal upbringing, her own marriage to a British Anglican Vicar and how she currently finds herself in an ever-growing role regarding women’s rights and race relations discussions in the UK.

Listen to Navina Thompson’s whole story by clicking on the link: https://tinyurl.com/wx4zc4kw

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"The People We Know reminds us that everybody has a story worth sharing – and that these stories shape not only the storyteller, but the listener too". Sally Emery - Luckybird Content Agency

20/09/2021

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“I also feel like Afghan women, because we are just in this survival fight or flight mode, where it is survival. Yes there’s the passion and the want to work and be financially independent. But there’s also that, we need to push extra than your average woman, because we need to fight for our rights. We need our voice to be heard. And I think that's why this platform is so satisfying for me in many ways, because my voice is being heard as an Afghan woman.”

“When I used to work in the radio (in the UAE). I mean, I was the only non white person. I learned that they were all making significantly higher salaries than me. So I went to our boss at the time, and I said ‘Well you know they are all making more money than me.’ It was something like 70% more. He said to me, and this is exactly his words. Quoting him he said, ‘Kamilla, you are from Afghanistan. You are making ‘this’ much money, can you convert that into your currency? That's a lot of money.’

(The boss was?) “Indian. He was also, like again, we’re going back to colonialism. The British colonised India and that’s his conditioning. You know, the west is the best.”

"Look I’m going to say this, you know, very very mindfully. But I think everybody knows it, and they can relate and understand, but nobody says it. We all know it. If a white person goes to an interview versus a brown person, especially in the Middle East. We know who's getting the job. Similarly in business. If you are British with a British passport, white. Of course they are going to attend to you first and listen to you. Maybe they are not doing it with bad intentions, it’s just how they are conditioned and wired. The British colonised pretty much the whole world. So that’s it, imperialism, colonialism, we are going all the way back and it just trickled down.”

Listen to Kamilla Omarzay’s whole story by clicking on the link: https://tinyurl.com/8c6tazsh

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20/09/2021

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“Luckily for me growing up in the UAE it was a very smooth transition (from Kabul Afghanistan) because the culture is very similar. Deep down I know, and I’ve accepted that I am Afghan. My parents are Afghan as well. Like I said to you earlier, there was a time in my 20’s I was ashamed. I was ashamed to be called Afghan. Because again, it’s the whole narrative. In my 20’s this was, you know, with the whole Osama Bin Laden thing going on. The Taliban thing going on. The Mujahadeen. So it had a really bad rep. Every media channel was, you know, talking about Afghanistan being the terrorist group and this and that, and it turns out that Osama Bin Laden was not an Afghan national and neither was any of the su***de bombers from 9/11. None of them were Afghan nationals. But it’s just media propaganda. At the end of the day, these people are making big bucks. Like big big bucks. So if they have to lie or portray a different image, as long as it doesn't hurt their pocket. So they don’t care about little people like me and you."

"So like I was saying in my 20’s when people would ask me ‘Where are you from?’ I would hesitate. I was like (groan) there was an element of shame. But that’s because the few times I had said it, the reaction would be (now the narrative has changed. Now people are like ‘oh ok you are Afghan. Ok let's move on’) but like 10 years ago it was like ‘Oh my god. So are you allowed to show your hair? And dress very westernised?’ I went to prepare for a meeting at a coffee shop and the lady who was serving asked me, she said ‘Where are you from maam? you are very beautiful.’ I said ‘Thank you so much, that is very flattering. I’m from Afghanistan.’ She said ‘huh! Terrorist!’ I mean it’s ignorance and I’m sure that was not her intention. It’s just what people associate it with. So there is not enough knowledge, it’s just what people associate it with. Thank god for social media now, there is a platform where people can show the culture. This is not us. We’re not terrorists. Our culture is so vibrant and vast, and we’re so accepting and hospitable and our culture is beautiful.”

Listen to Kamilla Omarzay’s whole story by clicking on the link: https://tinyurl.com/8c6tazsh

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13/09/2021

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Kamilla Omarzay was born to Afghan parents at home in Kabul, Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War. Kamilla lives in the United Arab Emirates and is an entrepreneur and Founder of The Snack Society. She shares the story of her family's abrupt relocation from Afghanistan to the UAE, and her experiences and feelings of being a modern Afghan woman.

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"The People We Know reminds us that everybody has a story worth sharing – and that these stories shape not only the storyteller, but the listener too". Sally Emery - Luckybird Content Agency

30/08/2021

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“Yes, so we speak English in South Africa and my family speaks English. I also speak Zulu because that’s the language that we speak in Durban. But I know that most people don’t. In South Africa it’s just people of African descent do. And then I wanted to learn how to speak Hindi. I did a course but I also before the course was watching a lot of Hindi movies and realised that because of the subtitles, I started to understand what they were saying. And so that was pretty cool. So I speak Hindi and Urdu as well. And Afrikaans obviously. We were forced to, and um yeah I’m glad I did."

"(In the UK) I learnt a little bit more about the culture, because you know when I was in Liverpool I didn’t understand a single thing anyone was saying, and I didn’t understand the humour as well at all on radio. Chris Moyles (radio host) used to be on breakfast at that time, and I remember listening to the Chris Moyles Breakfast Show, and people would be laughing around me and me thinking “what the hell is the joke? I don’t get it”, because I didn’t get British humour at all and it was very difficult for me initially. So I needed that year and a half, 2 and a half years actually, I needed to integrate into society. Because I needed to understand the Scouse (Liverpool) accent, and I needed to understand British humour and I just used that time. I watched a lot of Brookside, and that was quite interesting, and one day I realised, oh my god, I understand what they are saying!”


“(In Dubai) Taxi drivers are the worst for this sort of thing. Because they always go ‘Where are you from?’. And I go ‘Well, South Africa’. And then they go, ‘But before that, from where?’. And they won’t stop until I say India. Because they want me to say, ‘Look your brown, you cannot possibly be South African’. They go ‘Where are you from?’. ‘England’. ‘Before that from where?’. ‘South Africa’. ‘But before that from where?’. (Laughs) How far back in my lineage do you want me to go! It’s annoying but funny. Like you say it’s harder for other people to get their heads around it. I’m perfectly fine with who I am and what I am. I’m totally ok with it.
My parents probably had a lot to do with it. They made me very comfortable with who we are. My parents were just very happy to be South African Indian and we have our own culture. So they would share stories of being South African Indian, and that’s very specific to us. There isn't anyone else like us and this is our story. That’s it.”

Listen to Feyaza’s whole story by clicking on the link: https://tinyurl.com/enne4muk

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28/07/2021

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Feyaza Khan is South African born of Indian heritage, whose complex cultural identity has confused many. Feyaza shares her very personal story of overcoming abuse, finding love and the migration of her and her family. Feyaza also discusses with me being made to feel unwelcome as a migrant, and especially as a Muslim, in a country that once welcomed her. Brexit Britain.

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15/07/2021

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"I was eleven years old. I still remember it was the 31st of January 1975 when the war broke out. I remember that night. I mean, talking about the civil war in town, in Eritrea in Asmara in town. Because there were already fights outside in the countryside. But in town it was the 31st of January 1975. I remember I was alone at home with my nanny and I was waiting for my parents to come back from town. I was going around with my bicycle in the garden. It was not yet very dark. But that night I still remember my Uncle who drove back home and opened the gate and drove his car in such a rush. Which was not like him, he was a very laid back Italian, and he started shouting at me “Go into the house! Go into the house! Leave your bicycle and go into the house!”. I could hear shooting. But you know, we had also seen fireworks. So it’s very difficult to understand as a child, also maybe as an adult, unless you know there is a conflict going on. He took me inside the house and I said “What’s wrong?” and he said “Go into (it was his room) and just sit on the floor and don’t come out until I close all the shutters of all the house”. And I remember the nanny was screaming, you know crying, a Ethiopian lady who grew us up, and I couldn’t understand why. Then when he came he said “Do not move. We are going to be alone tonight. Mum and Dad are stuck in town because there is some shooting going on”. Immediately I went “They are hunting in town?”. Because hunting was also a part of, let’s say sport, in Eritrea. So he explained me briefly. His beautiful character, he sort of you know pulled the mattress on the floor and “We’re gonna eat here. On the floor, on the mattress. Who cares we’re doing camping”. And I still remember what I ate that night. I remember that the nanny had prepared all of the dinner, because we were expecting Mum and Dad and my brother to come back home. Nothing of that food was eaten.

“Ten days later, my father from having an Air Taxi, he had his own aircraft, having a flying school, land for growing cotton and houses and all that he found himself with nothing, because it was confiscated”.

“After when you mature and you discuss things, and of course with my fathers friends which we met overseas away when we left Eritrea, the question is “Didn’t you see it coming?”. Because father lost a fortune, and we had nothing in Italy. Although we were Italians, my father never thought of savings and we buy a flat and we keep it closed. Nothing of that. But 90% of Italians who were in Eritrea in Asmara didn't do that. Because they were born in Eritrea, they grew up. They had their business which was from the father or the grandfather and it was such a nice life and they didn't see it coming. Or maybe, they did not want to admit.”

Join me Accalia Hipwood talking to Lucia on The People We Know. Listen to Lucia's whole story by clicking on the following link: https://tinyurl.com/2p3ubfz8

10/07/2021

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Lucia Burgio was born in Asmara Eritrea to Italian Sicilian parents whose ancestors had moved to the Italian colonies in Benghazi Libya and Eritrea Africa. She has lived a multi-culturally rich life in Sudan, Italy, Lebanon, Germany, the USA and the United Arab Emirates and now the UK. Being a migrant can be culturally rich and rewarding. It also can be fraught with danger.

Join me Accalia Hipwood talking to Lucia on The People We Know and hear Lucia's whole story by clicking on the following link: https://tinyurl.com/2p3ubfz8



"The People We Know reminds us that everybody has a story worth sharing – and that these stories shape not only the storyteller, but the listener too". Sally Emery - Luckybird Content Agency