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?
@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