At LeafSalon we try not to get all political, but we think this book, and its writer, deserves a plug. It's Wellington-based Ethiopian poet Yilma Tafere Tasew, whose book Diasporic Ghosts (First Edition Publishers, $39.95) has been putting the African - and indeed the global - refugee crisis under the noses of many of those who need to do something about it. And that could well be all of us.

It’s so easy for us in Godzone to live our comfy lives with maybe just a flicker of curiosity or compassion for how others have to live theirs. Occasionally we get a bit of a shakeup: I had one a few years ago when designing a makeover for the Mangere Refugee Centre (don’t ask). Having interviewed management and staff and met some of the Kenyan and Somali people who were fresh in, I was reeling. I’d had no idea that there are long-standing Kenyan refugee camps whose unhappy residents – some of whom were been born there and are now in their teens – number in the high tens of thousands.

Ethiopian-born Yilma Tafere spent over eight years in refugee camps in Kenya before coming to New Zealand. In one of the most infamous, Kakumba Camp, he established a newspaper and a library, and helped with the publication of a collection of writing by some of the other refugees. He’s clearly one of those extraordinary people who are made stronger by adversity, and more determined to change the world. And he certainly hasn’t been sitting back doing his nails since he got to New Zealand.

Diasporic Ghosts is a collection of writing on refugees. The contributors include journalists, public servants, activists, academics and of course, refugees, brought together with Yilma Tafere’s own poetry. He has clear and interesting ideas on how we can better help incoming refugees deal with their new lives once they get here. And one of his main aims is to get the Government to set up a refugee studies programme at universities. A good starting point for a worldwide problem that ain't going to go away.

Orders can be placed from Unity Books. Email: unity.books@clear.net.nz or phone 04-499 4245.