Brooklyn Singh vs. Walmart
I just got an email from the Working Families Party (a progressive political party in NYC) about the latest developments in mega-corporation Walmart’s latest attempts to set up shop in NYC. One of the biggest real estate development companies in the city called Related is reportedly in discussions with Walmart about building its first NYC store in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. The below video put together by ALIGN, the Alliance for a Greater New York, features a Sikh business owner, Iqbal Chhabra.
This video warmed my heart for several reasons. It goes without saying that I live in Brooklyn and am concerned with all things Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not exactly known for its large Sikh population. I see the occasional Sikh construction worker or shop owner, but I don’t know of too many other Brooklynwale Singhs or Kaurs. So I was pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Chhabra speaking out about an important Brooklyn-based issue in this video.
30 Responses to “Brooklyn Singh vs. Walmart”
There is a solid population of Singhs and Kaurs working and learning in the hospitals in Brooklyn, notably at Lutheran and Brookdale.
Opportunists from the Caribbean islands, only there to fulfill their 2 year quotas, before leaving to greener pastures for their careers or even back to their apartments in gentrified areas like Park Slope. Power to the people Sanehval!
Its not simply people from SGU Ross etc, many of the residents/fellows are from India, Pakistan, and other foreign countries both desperately trying to get their medical careers going and being underpaid to do their work with ever limited resources. No, I'm not a physician, scientist, or an apologist for the bloated American medical system. However, I am baffled by your second point. If you worked in a violent and dangerous neighborhood, how is it disingenuous to choose not to live nearby? Would you send your kids to a school in a dangerous neighborhood with a high dropout rate for solidarity's sake?
Why not stay in Pakistan and India, where there services are most needed? Many could have great medical careers there and the satisfaction of being where it most matters.
As you stated, the system in the US is already bloated.
On the second point that is why there isn't much to celebrate these parachuters. Much better would be doctors from those areas that have a REAL stake in the community and it's long term well-being. Not short-term opportunists that are merely looking to use a community as a stepping stone to greener pastures.
Point taken on staying on Pakistan/India and not being complicit in the brain drain, but then you're taking about individuals who are looking for better opportunities abroad…Sikhs have been doing that for a century and a half. A mix of capitalism and the Indian/Pakistani state's non-existant public health/health infrastructures make practicing medicine in India an unfavorable prospect, unless you feel like working with the wealthiest in the country. If you really want to help the poor, you've got to stay poor doing it. Not quite fair when you sink a few years of your life and debt into medical training.
I meant the American system bloated in terms of inefficiency, bureaucracy and mismanagement. Government funding cuts are causing hospitals – NYC included – to shut down, and there are a smaller number of residents doing the same amount of work even from this year to last. Ask anyone who is working in a major city, most programs are in violation of ACGME rules because their residents are working overtime.
I don't see any point in which I was celebrating the "parachuters", except perhaps acknowledging that their working conditions are not glamorous. Moreover, I still don't see what you're getting at about working in one area and living in a better one within your means. If you want local doctors working for their own underprivileged communities, you don't have to think very hard to see the collusion of race and class barriers that make it unlikely for a black male born nearby one of these hospitals to end up graduating from medical school, let alone come back to work in their community and taking a pay cut to do so.
I read a tone of celebration in the 'solid population of Singhs and Kaurs' phrase. Okay, so we both seem to agree that they really don't matter as per the author's conversation of a sense of community in Brooklyn. They really aren't part of the community, just migrant labour, there to work and then leave.
Responding to your last paragraph is my point. Of course the structural problems you bring up are there. However that is where the most work should be concentrated in helping the black males/females (and since we're talking about Brooklyn – the Jamaicans, Dominicans, Ukranians, Russians, Puerto Ricans, etc.) become doctors rather than just importing them from India and the Caribbeans. Those people are the community and most vested in it – as one of the points that the author is celebrating in the post.
I think there is something to be said about your desire to slot people in a "community" in the first place. I doubt that you would care about a conversation considering Sikhs working in a hospital in Tribeca and their contributions or not to their community. I read a negative tone in your calling the physicians migrant labour, or in that case, tens of thousands of Mexicans who shuttle between the US and Mexico can seemingly never be part of a community. I think what constitutes a community, one's relationship to it is what's at stake. Especially in ghettoized areas in Brooklyn like were talking about, what does it take to be part of the community? Being poor? Lending your neighbor sugar? Writing letters to Michelle Obama asking for Wal-Mart to come in and alleviate food desert conditions? Not getting hurt on a sidewalk? As a side note, I wonder how well Sikhs in general in the U.S. "integrate" and become "part" of a community, especially ones who don't come here with professional credentials. Does an upper-middle class professional integrate better with his or her community better than the illegal Sikh laborers you see in Richmond Hill waiting to be picked up for wage labor?
Your last point is ultimately structural, and idealistic. Its about reforming education in poor areas, which requires resources, and the undoing of class and race stereotypes that find their way into policy decisions. I think the point of mine that you're missing is that sure, one might be more apt to helping the community that they came from, but the lure of a higher salary will likely be more attractive than staying poor to care for the poor. Why work in poor conditions for a lower salary to help people that are from your "community" (what does that mean again) when you could have a higher salary doing easier work in a nicer neighborhood?
Mexican migrants that stay long term do form a part of the community. Those that shuttle are part of the migrant community. In a post celebrating Brooklyn solidarity, opportunists largely from the Caribbean med schools shouldn't figure as part of that conversation.
Everything else in your comment is just smoke and light. Your rhetoric is unconvincing. On your last paragraph, again that is fine, go to the richer neighborhood and do easier work. We just don't have to celebrate you.
but are saved because they label others as such
where are you writing from?
and what community do you work in and for?
" why not stay in India and Pakistan?"
Unless you are writing from India or Pakistan, that is an amazing statement to make.
wow…..so when did the world become divided into either the disposed and the opportunists? or maybe the third is the people who would otherwise be opportunists but are saved because they label others as such
Or Kantay there is a fourth group that doesn't really make any sense when they comment.
if you can't understand what I wrote maybe its your problem and not mine pal.
or maybe it's your usual lack of coherence pal.
But really Kantay's post makes sense, just read it slowly in relation to your first comment.
If you can't understand what I wrote above that's says something about you pal and not my writing style.
and if you can't figure out typos – that's = that
Not sure if this thread is about Brooklyn or superstores such as Walmart breaking up communities…..and the part Sikh traders play in it. I'll have to go with the second so : Its a worldwide issue. happening everyday in India, Birmingham as well as Brooklyn. Thousands of vegetable sellers and other smal traders in Amritsar trying to stop the expansion of the Walmart stores under the name of 'Best Price'.
Not sure what kind of merchandise Mr Chabra in the video sells. Looks like its western 'shirtings', rather than the Punjabi 'suitings and shirtings'. Iffings he wassings sellings punjabi cloths in a punjabi area than I don't think he'd be complaining so much because I'm pretty sure Walmart in America have gone the way that Walmart in Canada and England (Asda) have gone and incorporated local punjabi suitings and shirtings retailers into their new stores with a dedicated ethnic clothing section.
This whole thing though is about ethics. On the one hand working class communities are being decimated because of the spread of these stores….while on the other hand we're all better offf because 25 years ago 60% of our wages earned were spent on groceries whereas now, because of these big superstores, we only have to spend (I'm gonna have to make this percentage up) 20%.
So….to hell with Mr Chabra and his neighbourhood…….My vote goes to Walmart.
"to hell with Mr Chabra and his neighbourhood"
really? made up stats aren't helping your argument, nor is this statement. shouldn't the community being targeted for a store ultimately get to decide if a store like this opens up in their neighborhood? walmart has been pushing HARD in nyc to come across as pro-working class and as having tons of support from the community. anyone that has followed walmart's history should be well aware that their jobs pay very little (see link below) and they are extremely anti-union, taking countless actions to undermine their workers' right to organize and collectively bargain.
there is a huge campaign in NYC against walmart opening up here including this group (in addition to the one i mentioned in the post): http://walmartfreenyc..com/ . the city council is against it, even the mayor is against it.
more than anything i'd suggest you check out this fact sheet from the film "walmart: the high cost of low prices": http://www.walmartmovie.com/facts.php
walmart indeed would send mr. chhabra and his neighborhood to hell, so to speak…
The stats ain't made up fella. Although they are very European centric….which, I admit, normally greatly confuse north americans. Which, to be honest, isn't that difficult to do.
Now….regarding your other points let me tell you why I need neither to watch that film nor a lecture in working class. I am soldily, proudly working class, with a solid working class accent, from a solidly working class family and live in a solidly working class neighbourhood.
Previously, my family ran a convenience store. Britains largest supermarket chain gained permission to open a store literaly 2 mins drive from our store. We complained…..as did other local retailers. Eventually, the Secretary of State for the Environment ordered a public review. My dad attended the hearing and put forward our concerns. We lost. the supermarket got built. The result ? The result was that our turnover increased by something like 20% because the new superstore brought new people and passing traffic into the area that would not have previously passed our shop.
Moral of the story ? yes i am working class…but….I ain't no kamret. I'm a sikh. Sikhi ain't about me keeping working class neighbourhoods in the same sorry state they are in now. Ain't about keeping working class people expecting social security and public housing to fall in their lap at all times. its about progress. Its about hard work. I was a Mr Chabra , brooklynwala. If you started a thread here about me when I was in his position i would have laughed at you for being a sad misguided little socialist. Why should I not be laughing at you now ?
The people reading this and everything else on this blog need to ask themselves this question : When my reply to the above…..which included a detailed step by step account of what happened when Europe's largest supermarket chain planned to…and then did…..open up literaly 2 mins drive from my own working class family's convenience store, was not allowed because not deemed relevant to the both this topic and specifically the remarks made by brooklynwala avove ^ . The question then is this : How long can a UK based Sikh survive on The Langar Hall ? ……before the langar hall either ban him or make life too difficult for him to be here ? It seems top happen all the time.
no banning is happening blighty, just spirited discussion and debate. your comment made no mention of your family's convenience store, by the way. it is interesting to hear your perspectives from the UK, and in particular about walmart out there…and i appreciate your willingness to consistently engage with our posts here at TLH.
and i do agree with you that this issue is about ethics at the end of the day. but i am definitely not convinced (and quite the contrary) that working class communities and small business owners benefit from walmart opening up in their neighborhoods, despite the low prices.
"your comment made no mention of your family's convenience store,"
^ You're nothing but a bare faced liar brooklynwala. The whole of my message was about my family's convenience store……the planning permission granted to the hypermarket…..the local authority referring the matter to the Secretary of State for the Environment……He ordering a public inquiry……My fathers testimony at the public hearing……the subsequent building and opening of the hypermarket…..and the effect it had on my family's business and the local community. If that isn't relevant to a discussion about working class people…particularly a sikh businessman… and the effect a new hypermarket has on him and the local community….then I'm a monkey's uncle (no offence to one of my nephews. Who does indeed resemble a monkey).
But the way it works here……the way it has always worked……is theat people like you here control what is said in a way that supports your own view…..in a way that will show you as the winner of the debate. You do that by not allowing the alternative view. You don't normally get caught out because unlike what I did, the people who's views are not published do not bother to come back and state how their views are stiffled.
If my short time here has taught me one thing it is this : I would probably find a more understanding….and similar wavelength people on a UK based Hindu, muslim or rastafarian discussion forum / blog. Extremely difficult for any UK Sikh to communicate with a North American Sikh. And the reason for that is mostly about education. Or lack of therein. Whilst the UK sikhs are well versed in north american news, ways etc……..the North Americans are totally ignorant regards anything outside their borders. For example what you said about 'made up stats'. As news debates, parliamentary debates, judicial decisions in the UK have made it abundantly clear that 25 years ago we had to spend 60% of our weekly wage on groceries whereas now it is a tiny fraction of that……A uk sikh talking to another uk sikh would not have needed to clarify that issue…..unless, of course, the other sikh was a bit mentally handicapped. It seems to me then, that if a uk sikh wishes to converse here he will have to assume the other sikh reading his comment is a bit mentally handicapped……and therefore write his comment accordingly.
That is why you hardly ever ever see any UK sikhs here on langar hall. If he comes, he can't talk freely. he can't talk naturally. While his european education system and society generally, teaches him all about the culture, politics, words etc of the north americans………The education system of the North american teaches him nothing of the world. Communicating with you people, therefore, is so difficult its hardly worth attempting. Its like banging one's head against a brick wall.
Honest to god…..hand on my heart. Even though i'm a Khalistani proud sikh….I've probably got more in common with and can communicate better with, and would recieve a better reception from, european based blogs by Hindus and muslims. I don't plan on being here much longer.
no time to respond thoroughly to this, but a couple of quick things:
1. name-calling and unnecessarily inflammatory language in the comments are against are commenting policy, and i request that you use language more in line with our sikh principles than calling me a "bare faced liar."
2. i have re-read your comment above several times, and still do not see any explicit mention of your family's convenience store.
3. i don't claim to be an expert on anything but my own experience and observations and am speaking from no other voice than my own. if that's not relevant for you, fine, but i have a feeling you don't speak for all UK sikhs either (and we do have a lot of UK-based readers, even though all our bloggers are based in north america).
@Blighty – I think your comments here are more than welcome. I find you extremely intelligent (although at times you like to pretend you are more 'unpard' than you are, haha), sometimes outrageous, but always amusing and thought-provoking.
Sikhs everywhere will always disagree. That is healthy. Sikhs in North America disagree about Walmart. I can only imagine how much Sikhs in the UK disagree about various topics here. I remember you and Joo Kay Singh having a disagreement. I have enough friends and family in the UK and never find their experiences as different as you are making them out to be. Are there some differences, of course, but nothing so radical.
You have to remember that on this blog – there is a self-defined (although extremely vague notion of being a 'progressive' Sikh). Thus even in the community, this can be a minority voice. On many issues it is. @Kantay has at times rightly questioned whether the tail wags the dog or the dog wags the tail (does the 'progressive' lead the Sikhi or does Sikhi inform the 'progressive.') We are all coming up in this process with our different answers.
Let alone large groupings of Sikhs in N. America vs. Sikhs in Europe, even here on the blog, some of us bloggers disagree. That's ok, because we all know that each other are well-meaning Sikhs. Although I doubt you have more in common with others than your Sikh brethren, but even if you do, at the end of the day we are all family and no one will frustrate you more than your family.
If there is a topic or perspective we are missing, write a guest-blog for us!
Challo, whatever you decide I have been all the fortunate for you challenging me, provoking me, educating me, amusing me, and teaching me – all the while, we are fighting the same battles and struggling for the same causes.
the comments section of TLH is so frustrating and disappointing to read – blog post after blog post there are commenters who consistently pummel the authors, their points of view, and anyone who tries to have a rational and fair discussion with them. the video shown above is an amazing one – a testament to community members of different ethnicities and backgrounds coming together about a shared issue. why can't us readers just read and get along?
Thanks Rodney Singh
We are a gaggle of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your website provided us with valuable info to paintings on. You’ve performed a formidable activity and our whole neighborhood shall be thankful to you.