Sikhs doing Seva
For many of us school is out and the holidays are upon us. Throughout the season, many Sikhs throughout the world engage in seva to support members of the community in which they live. We expect this year to be no different.
We hope that commenters will use this section to highlight events or drives that may be occurring in their local communities. Here is one such effort by the youth of the Fresno Jakara Movement group.
Part of something larger and hoping to set an example for other communities, the Sikh youth of Fresno are coming together to organize their annual Sikhi, Seva, Cinema event. More information can be found on their facebook page. They are hosting fundraisers for items that will be distributed to those that are currently houseless in the city. The event is completely youth driven and they are calling for other Sikhs to be generous with their time on December 17 or generous with their money to assist others. The national press has highlighted the preponderance of poor in rural central California. We hope other Sikhs become active in their communities, just as these youth are doing.
12 Responses to “Sikhs doing Seva”
Educated, middle class Sikhs are no better or worse than normal everyday folk of other hues and ilk. They're both full of a hot steaming pile of dog poo.
'Seva'…..to make them look good.
While the middle class sikhs on the other side of the atlantic have been going through the motions let me tell you whats been one of the main mainstram news items on the other side of the pond : The homeless Sikhs.
Southall ; the largest concentration in density trems of sikhs in the entire world. Hit the news this week because its the cheapest place to buy heroin in the western world. Cheapest, because of the sheer amount of heroin addicts per sq mile there are there. The news story itself is based on the 'homeless sikhs of london'. Franch, German, Italian and Spanish folk have been reading this week about the plight of sikhs that sleep on the streets in europe. UK viewers of the sikh tv networls were treated to a week of live feeds from the homeless sikh camps.
So….lets get some reality here : A slightly useless sikh living a comfortable life in the suburbs of San Jose is gonna attempt to make himself a reasonably insufficient sikh by pretending to help some stated homeless, never quite bringing himself to the status of an awakened sikh by realsing that a short boat ride away HE himself is what society deems 'the homeless'.
Trying to make sense of the vitriol:
1) I don't see any 'mainstream news' coverage. Can you help?: http://www.google.com/search?q=homeless+sikhs&…
2) If you're going to run through the vulgar marxist critique, you can take solace in that most of the homeless Sikhs in London were petty bourgeois in another life in Punjab.
3) Help direct us middle class Sikhs in San Jose on how to be less useless. I know at this point we look like a lost cause, with us finding the Guru through Dr. Dre, but I for one still think there is some hope.
"I don't see any 'mainstream news' coverage. Can you help?"
^ I'm not a carer for the mentally handicapped, Sahneval. There are professionals out there that can give you the sort of help you need. Because of your lack of finger-brain co-ordination they can come 'round to your house and press the buttons on your computer for you. What they can't do, however, is make you a well read individual. They can't correct your distinct lack of general knowledge……your ignorance of worldly affairs. Seeing as you have great difficulty with the printed word and conducted basic internet searches your best bet might be to invest in an airline ticket and come to London. After midnight….take a trip to Southall in west London and Ilford in east London. You will see hundreds of homeless sleeping rough on the bitterly cold pavements (sidewalks). Every last one of them is a Sikh from Punjab. If you're really brave you might like to take a walk on the Broadway in the middle of the night. There….you'll see apnian kudian from Punjab on student visas selling their bodies.
Or…….it might be easier to sit, as you're doing, with poor brain-finger co-ordination…..in general ignorance of anything that doesn't happen within a 5 mile radius of your home.
My "vitriol" in the 1st message is, more than anything else, a frustration at the incredible level of dunceness of Sikhs in north america. We (here in uk, europe, india etc) know and keep up to date with everything that happens in your neck of the woods as well as our own)…but the north american sikhs……seem to be the most uninformed thicko's in the world. They are so ignorant they know absolutely nothing about the real world outside of their borders. And they don't find out until someone lets them know just how stupid they are. Their response…usually….is to shoot the messenger and give him as many minus thumbs down points as possible. Strange fruit.
Blighty, I've been following the homeless issue here, and I live local to the area – what exactly is your gripe? Is it that the sikh youth in Fresno haven't found specifically Sikh homeless people to help, or that they haven't flown over to Southall instead?
None of the above. I'm merely pointing out the fact that, by and large, they are a bunch of dunces totally ignorant of everything and anything concerning Sikhs outside of the north American continent. Basically, what I'm saying is that comments and threads on the langar hall from Sikhs based in the UK, Germany, Italy, India, Singapore and Malaysia have much more substance because generally these Sikhs know what the issues are in all the continents in which Sikhs live. These people are well read. They know what's happening in Vancouver or Fresno as much as they know whats happening in their own locality. In contrast, the threads and comments by Sikhs based in North America have such little value because these people generally have kindergarten level knowledge of issues affecting the worldwide Sikh community. They are totally in the dark when it comes to anything outside of their continent. Now…you could argue then that they are good true representations of stupid americans and irrelevent canadians as a whole but I would argue that the whole point of being a 'Sikh' is to be a scholar. A Sikh that prefers to remain in the dark about his brethren in another continent is therefore, by defenition, a pointless sikh. In our worldwide Sikh diaspora they are without doubt the weakest link. Of absolutely no use to the Sikhs as a whole. The reason for this is that they spend most of their time having to prove to the wider community there that they are great American and Canadian citizens. Hip Hop….black homeless….occupy wall street etc. Anything and everything, as long as its a non-sikh issue. So absorbed in non-sikh issues they have neither the time nor inclination to do something about a large, influential University in western Canada and the B.A honours degree course they are teaching in……….wait for it…..drum roll please………'How to Convert Sikhs to Christianity'. A recognised degree course that offers core units that include things such as how to visit Gurdwaras and pretend to be interested in the Gurus, with the second semester teaching how to incorporate the gurus into the christian teachings in order to gain the sikh's trust. You see, jookay singh, thats the difference between us and them. Had it been the UK or Italian sangat in their place, there would have been a riot with blood on the streets over this issue. It would not be tolerated. Our north american cousins, however, are busy busy bees. They have financial centres to occupy and hip hop nights to organise…and film festivals to celebrate. They have no time for actual Sikh issues that actually affect Sikhs in the actual world. Whenever you read a thread or comment here from one of them you can be sure of this fact : What they're doing has no relevance or interest to you as a sikh. What they're doing is all about the internal public relations issues of that continent. They live in a continent where christianity is still alive and not a museum relic. They are forced to do things that will please their fellow non-sikh compatriots. None of which is of any use or of any benefit to we….the worldwide sikh diaspora.
@Blighty – It is not that bloggers are unaware of the issue you originally described – http://thelangarhall.com/india/sikh-welfare-aware…
It is that they need not discuss it in each of their posts. If they have a North American bias, then why don't you send guest submissions, instead of essentializing and talking in non-existent monoliths.
Two things @Blighty-
1) Can you link me to some of the courses and where they are being taught?
2) Man I wish I was a Sikh based in the UK, Germany, Italy, India, Singapore and Malaysia, that would make me smart 🙁
'Making you smart' Yadig, would take a lot more than that…and would probably involve several hours of surgery. Luckily for us though the point in question can be broken down in very simple terms : The Sikh in Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, Italy or England, knows about and keeps himself up to date with the Sikh happenings and issues in Canada and America as well as his home country. In contrast, the Sikh in North America ain't got a scoobie what the issues and current affairs are among the Sikhs outside of that continent…………and no desire to know either.
In fact….very often….they even need to get on the internet and ask European Sikhs to tell them what is happening on their own doorstep. The European Sikh, thankfully, does not judge. He does not suggest that the north american sikh is, perhaps, a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Instead, he lends a helping hand where a helping hand is surely needed and helps the north american out :
Trinity Western University, BC.
No educational establishment, whether private or not, anywhere in Europe, would be allowed to teach the kind of stuff they do. If they did, not only would the local Sikhs burn the building to the ground, but the authorities would prosecute and send them to jail. As such….seeing as christianity is all but dead in Europe and only attracts the most nutjobs of nutjobs, many of these die hard christian evangalists from the UK go to Canada in order to learn how to penetrate Sikhism in order to convert Sikhs. In other words, we have to deal with the fall-out…the result of the north american sangats ineptitude. But like I said before…..you guys a busy busy bees. Bzzzz Bzzz buzzz. Always buzzing around. Bzzzzz hip hop nights to organise. Bzzzz sikh film festivals to celebrate. Bzzzz financial centres to occupy. Everything and anything under the sun……..as long as its a non-sikh issue.
Take a look at the actual course descprition and modules. This beggars belief : http://acts.twu.ca/archived-syllabi/spring/CCM-60…
Blightly you continue to make unsubstantiated claims and when are asked to provide evidence, you come up short and say people are stupid. That's fine, but does little for your credibility. There has been no recent "mainstream" coverage on homeless Sikhs in Southall. Similarly there is nothing online to suggest that: "Franch, German, Italian and Spanish folk have been reading this week about the plight of sikhs that sleep on the streets in europe." I didn't ask you to link me because I didn't know what you were talking about. BBC, etc. have pointed out the problem several times and gave that great video of the Sikhs living in a garbage chute. Maybe a feather in the US' cap is that we don't have a sizable homeless Sikh population for the media to commodify, but I'm not one to say that one country's Sikh population is better than another.
"influential University in western Canada" is what you consider Trinity Western University.
A private Christian school in Langley BC with four thousand students. Influential indeed. There is one class being taught in some random university and its not being offered this quarter, and is likely not to be again. If UK Sikhs are willing to burn institutions like this to the ground and be jailed for it, I'm sure they do it on the regular on holiday in Punjab where they can just pay the police off, no?
But there's nothing anyone can do that will change your attitude on North American Sikhs, so we can all wallow in our ignorance and continue doing the meaningless things we do, while our compatriots in the UK watch poor Sikhs on tv in the evenings and their girls roam the streets at night right? No.
If stating the name of one of the universities and giving a link to the module is "unsubstantiated" then I don't know what your version of substantiated is Sanehval. Perhaps your needs are such that one has to hold you by the hand or carry you to the actual premises. Now I'm sure you have lovely soft hands and are a delight to carry but I'd rather you improve your own reading / comprehension skills and learn to figure things out yourself….for your own benefit.
So…2 things that you said in the message above wouldn't have needed to be said. Firstly, if you improved your reading skills you would have been able to see that previous messages stated that the Punjabi Sikh girls one finds selling themselves on the Broadway at night are girls recently arrived from Punjab on student visas. None of them are what you call 'UK' sikh girls. They are testament to the poor moral state of Punjab in this day and age.
Secondly, a previous message already made it clear that the university is a private university. That message made it clear that it makes no difference whether or not a university is public or private. We have private christian universities here also. They also have them in Germany and Italy etc. So…..is your argument that Canada operates on the same level as third world countries in that there is no regulation of graduate and postgraduate education at all ?
My worry about substantiating arguements was about you not giving any evidence that the problem of the homeless Sikhs in Southall was receiving recent mainstream media attention the UK, and that people in other European countries were reading about it.
You keep jabbing at my comprehension skills, but find one bit of my writing in which I asked you to back up your claim about the university course. I never did. But you decided to harp on that. You're right, I can't hang with your level of discourse.
Earlier you claimed that the class was a "large, influential University in western Canada." The university is neither large nor influential in the least bit. A problem we have in North American higher education is that people are desperate for degrees, and private universities often cater such desperation or students who are under-qualified. Students drop thousands of dollars on degrees that don't have the concomitant salaries that the students dreamed of. Sound familiar to you? This university is likely one of those degree mills rather than a place where people flock to learn how to convert people. Anyways, this "large influential University" is the least of Sikhs' worries. You blew it out of proportion and claimed that UK Sikhs would be ready to fanatically burn such an institution to the ground. Yeah. +1 UK!! If only all Sikhs in the diaspora could be so committed as you lot.
When I wrote "their daughters" I meant it in the communal 'an older Sikh woman is your aunty' sort of way. Chal I'm done, off to celebrate Christmas eve with the very nice young woman who stopped by our house and started chatting to my Dadi Ji about Christ's sacrifice. I'll print you out a certificate for being the most lucid and focused Sikh representative of her majesty's home.
Yes, my friend. It is fitting that you go and celebrate the life and times of some bloke who the Jewish sect of the Nazerines, after the expulsion of Jews from Jeruselum, later conveniently took the happenings of the Zoarastrian god 'Mithra' and attributed those happenings to him…………..while I carry on with my thesis on the use of mediation in american anti-discrimination in employment cases, getting ready for tomorrow where, my laptop will be turned off for the first time in 72 hours thus giving it a chance to cool down before it blows up and I will go to my chacha's sons house for dinner to celebrate the special day of the great prophet 'santa' and get completely and utterly sh*t -faced on alcoholic bevarages.
Anyways…….this rather poor excuse for a debate, over the last few days, has been a welcome distraction for me. You know how junkies get an 'anticipation high' while on their way to see their dealer ? Well, I've been so busy with this thesis and haven't had a drink in so long I'm getting an anticipation merryment just thinking about the grog on offer tomorrow. Merry xmas to you sir, and a happy new year. 🙂