Guest blogged by Mewa Singh

This evening I had the opportunity to view a screening of a new documentary on the tragedy and heroism of the Sodhi Family. From the website of “A Dream in Doubt” comes the synopsis:

“A Dream in Doubt” is an immigrant story in a world in which patriotism has morphed into murder. When Rana Singh Sodhi’s brother is killed in America’s first post-9/11 revenge murder, he begins a journey to reclaim his American dream and fight the hate that continues to threaten his community. This intimate, hour-long documentary of one man’s odyssey from persecution in India to embracing America as his homeland proves that courage and hope have the power to overcome hate.

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Last month I attended PolicyLink‘s 2008 Regional Equity Conference in New Orleans. The conference covered poverty and racial inequality in the context of the U.S., but it focused on the connections between living spaces — i.e., between neighborhoods, cities, suburbs, and rural lands.

While cities were at the center of the discussion, I spent my last day at the Rural Equity Caucus, where representatives from some of the U.S.’s rural communities (Hawaii, Mississippi and Georgia, California, Connecticut and Massachusetts, North Dakota, Wyoming) gathered to discuss advocacy, development, and the common issues facing their communities. While the conference took place in the South, the overwhelming number of people in the room were from California’s Central Valley. There was some racial diversity among those present — a handful of African American farmers from the South, and a smattering of Latinos/Latino-Americans from California’s rural core, but there were almost no Asian Americans.

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I like T-shirts. I am a self-described ‘scrub.’

22. scrub

Someone who doesn’t care much about what they do or how they look doing it. Or if you just do something very very stupid.

((Girl walks into classroom for a class one day dressed in XXL sweatpants and a huge baggy sweatshirt, no makeup, hair looks nasty, but shes in perfect good health, just very lazy))
“Wow Anne, you are dressed like a scrub.”

T-shirts are my staple. For every season I have a Sikh camp/organization T-shirt. Need brown, I got it; need blue, I got it; need maroon, I got it. Did I mention I like T-shirts?

Apparently, so do a group of Sikh high school students in Surrey. Recently, the Canadian press reported here and here that:

Thirty students at Princess Margaret Secondary School say they’ve been put on suspension notice after wearing contentious T-shirts to class.

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As I was exiting the parking lot of a major grocery store in a heavily concentrated Punjabi area the other day, I saw in my rear-view mirror a woman wearing a salwar-kaamez and holding a Bible with two Indian boys dressed in their “Sunday best” and carrying leather book bags, while they approached a man with a friendly smile. How surprised was I to see a Jehovah’s Witness woman wearing Punjabi clothing while she and these two boys proselytized in this Punjabi-concentrated area.

A few weeks prior, a friend of mine who lives in this same area, shared with me the story of how her family was confused to find a Punjabi couple at their front door delivering the message of God as Jehovah’s Witnesses. She told me that after hearing the door bell she ran to the door and peeped out the window and saw a man wearing a coat-pant and a woman wearing a salwar-kameez. Instantly, she knew they were Jehovah’s Witnesses because of the Bible they were holding and the other paraphernalia in their hands. My friend hollered to her dad that there was an Auntie and Uncle ringing the door-bell, but they looked like Jehovah’s Witnesses so she wasn’t going to answer the door. However, her dad responded rightfully so, “ekaan thaa teekh nahi laghdhaa … ladoo na dhaan ai hon” (that doesn’t look right they might be here to give ladoos).

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Although my earlier discussion on multiculturalism put forth some of my thoughts, an interesting news item caught my interest yesterday. I guess this can be seen in a way as a part II of that original post.

While many of us spent our weekends remembering the spirit of the Khalsa, attending Nagar Kirtans, making rounds at the Vaisakhi Melas, or buying tickets for the upcoming Gurdas Mann tour, some New York Sikhs did something very different.

Sponsored by the Sikh Coalition, Sikhs in New York gathered at the steps of City Hall in protest. They released a report, “Making Our Voices Heard: A Civil Rights Agenda for New York City’s Sikhs.”

The report provides its own background:

In December 2006, the Sikh Coalition, with the help of several dedicated volunteers, began conducting the first ever civil rights survey of New York City’s Sikhs. The survey intended to gather information on Sikhs’ experiences with incidents of bias, employment discrimination, language access and other issues that hinder full integration into New York’s civic and political life.

This report represents the results obtained from the data we collected from 1,021 Sikhs who live in New York City’s five boroughs. The data presented in this report identifies significant gaps between the promise of the law and the Sikh community’s reality on the ground.

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This week the National Post launched a series about “Canada’s Biggest Mistakes.” Written by different columnists, yesterday’s big mistake was deficit spending. In today’s installment of the “top 5,” columnist Barbara Kay sets her sights on multiculturalism.

I must admit I am not an avid reader of the National Post. In fact, I don’t think I had ever even heard of it prior to this column. However, Wikipedia informs me that it is a “voice for Canadian conservatives.” A brief perusal of Kay’s biggest hits, including as “Hug the Earth, kill the humans, ” “Barack Obama’s selective silence on his racist pastor, Jeremiah Wright,” and “The College Campus: Anti-Semitism’s last North American Refuge and Taking Back the Campus” helps me situate her on a political spectrum. In America, we call her David Horowitz and Bill O’Reilly. Well, enough of that, let us try to engage the substance of her argument.

Kay doesn’t mince her words on her stand:

Multiculturalism is Canada’s greatest mistake, but if it is any consolation, it is every western country’s greatest mistake. And now some of them are paying a terrible price.

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The New York Sun posted an editorial today that raises the question of ‘neutrality and justice.’ Quoting from Federal Judge John Noonan in the famous case of Harpal Cheema, who was jailed for six years on suspicion of fundraising for the Khalistan Commando Force:

“Contrary to the government’s assertion, it is by no means self-evident that a person engaged in extra-territorial or resistance activities — even militant activities — is necessarily a threat to the security of the United States. One country’s terrorist can often be another country’s freedom-fighter.”

The New York Sun editorial calls for giving amnesty to two freedom fighters that fought/are fighting against communist regimes. General Vang Pao, is a hero to most Hmong-Americans, and maybe even known to our readers in Sacramento, Fresno, and other locales with high Hmong concentrations. General Pao is facing weapon charges for attempting to aid Hmong militants against the Laotian regime. The other, Cambodian-American Yasith Chhun, attempted something similar against the Cambodian government.

As the summer Olympics game approaches and we are repeatedly reading of continued Tibetan freedom protesters against the Chinese government. What should be the role of Tibetans in America? Should America (or fill in whatever country you are from) provide a space for dissenters to come together? For Irish-Americans, Jewish-Americans, South African-Americans, the American soil has always allowed this ground. Some chose organizations that were not violent, but many did not. What should be the limitations? Is it violence? However, even here it becomes murkier. In Harpal’s case, he didn’t engage in any violence, but he did fundraise for certain groups. What is our barometer of justice? Should the American judicial system be wed to the existing nation-state set-up in the world? Or is the metric the relationship between the opposed state and the United States?

For anyone in the D.C. area interested in Jhumpa Lahiri’s writing- she is on a book tour and will be speaking at Sixth & I on Wednesday, April 23 at 7 pm.

Tickets are available at Politics & Prose for $6 or you can buy the book for $25 and get 2 free tickets with it. Contact P & P at 202. 364. 1919.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories about the Indian-American diaspora vividly evoke both the ambivalence of the older generation – appreciating their adopted nation, but feeling dislocated – and the freedom of the younger generation, unfettered by their South Asian origins, except for parental expectations. Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for The Interpreter of Maladies, and her second novel, The Namesake, was adapted to a film in 2007.

A little more info: Lahiri’s new collection of stories (as well as her older works) elegantly capture the way we navigate dual cultures.

Assimilation, in Lahiri’s fiction, is about coming to terms with disorientation. It is about not fitting in or settling down, not starting over from scratch and freely forging a new identity or destiny. Her characters balance precariously between two worlds—not just Asian and Western, but inner and outer…

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In the past few months, New America Media has reported on the treatment and exploitation of Punjabi farmworkers and the cultural isolation they are experiencing. This is not a new issue nor is it unique to Punjabi farmworkers, but it is a growing trend that is beginning to be addressed by workers’ rights organizations. One of the most recent articles by NAM speaks about the exploitation of farmworkers who are here on temporary visas.

In California’s rural Central Valley farmland, there are rumors that American farmers of Indian origin are, in an ironic twist, also abusing the temporary work visa program. In 2005, the case against a prominent Yuba City, Calif. grower, Harbans Bath, was settled in favor of his workers. He had been accused of housing hundreds of temporary workers, including some of his own relatives, in trailers, pesticide storage sheds and other structures that didn’t meet housing safety and health standards. According to Lee Pliscou, a lead attorney at California Rural Legal Assistance, the workers weren’t provided with food – instead, they were made to eat the crops they picked. They were also told that they wouldn’t be paid until the end of the harvest season. The workers from the Indian state of Punjab readily accepted this condition, since that is how payment has often worked on Punjabi farms.

An interesting statistic suggests that while South Asian growers account for less than one percent of the farmers in California, records show that they have been the targets of five percent of civil actions. Related to labor violations, Punjabi farmworkers are also experiencing cultural isolation that is adversely impacting their health. California governmental agencies that are responsible for protecting the rights of farm workers do not have Punjabi-speaking outreach workers. Many farm-working Punjabis often endure hazardous conditions, substandard pay, and little or no access to health care. Indian American growers in California have paid more than $15,000 in field violation fines to county agricultural commissioners in the past two years.

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Recently on “The Langar Hall” there has been discussion about “Runaway Grooms” who with their immigration status abroad marry women from Punjab, only to abandon them after receiving the dowry. Along with being deserted by their husbands, these women’s “dreams” of going abroad are also shattered. These “dreams” were generally a primary reason many of the women were married to these men. Hasit Shah writes in his BBC news article,

“You can see it around you. There is a lot of foreign money in this city [Jalandhar]. The NRIs have been coming back and building huge houses and flaunting their success. The locals see this and want a better life for their daughters, but when the husband is unscrupulous, the women’s lives are ruined.”

Many Punjabi men in Punjab/India are also tremendously influenced by this wealth and have dreams of going abroad (a lot of it has to do with lack of job/economic opportunities in Punjab). NRI women’s green cards and citizenship status become routes for gaining permanent residency abroad. Interestingly, it is the “unscrupulousness” behavior of “husbands” and gendered power dynamics prevalent in “Runaway Groom” situations that translate into the predicaments faced by a growing number of NRI women who are also manipulated and abused by their Punjabi Sikh husbands from Punjab/India. Their “husbands” were not interested in a marriage … they really only wanted the money and permanent residency abroad. I completely agree that this is not the outcome of all NRI and non-NRI marriages. Many couples are very happy. Yes, I acknowledge that the circumstances are different for NRI and non-NRI women based on the power hierarchy between the US and Punjab, which influence the choices these women make. However, with these issues aside, in this post I would like to focus on the similarity of situations between NRI and non-NRI Punjabi Sikh women and highlight the unique circumstances of NRI women.

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Last week, an article appeared in the Toronto Star by a young university student, Jasmeet Sidhu. In the article Jasmeet discusses her [is this gender assumptions or what, the name given is only Jasmeet Sidhu and nowhere in the article does it state whether she is male or female, but I am assuming female based on her music tastes] problems with living the life of a “bicultural suburban teen.” Now this topic is hardly new to the The Langar Hall. In fact in some ways, it has been discussed here in various manifestations many many many times.

Jasmeet’s case seems to follow a similar story. Tired of the what she feels is the hypocrisy of her own community, she is attracted by the lures of greater Canadian society. [An interesting assumption here is that Punjabi-Canadian society can never be considered ‘Canadian’ despite the huge presence, influence, and cross-cultural encounters that have spanned for more than a century.]

For Jasmeet and for many others, the world seems only binaries:

Bhangra or Rihanna? Arranged or “love” marriages?

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So yesterday I had to fill my car with gas. I never really pay attention to the price of gas until I get to the pump. Yikes!! Is it really $3.75?? And that is just for the 87 octane. I feel bad for the ‘ballers’ in our community that choose to drive expensive redundant SUVs and other vehicles that might come in handy should the apocalypse strike.

All over the media, we are hearing about the scary $4/gallon that is coming up. Most of these articles read the same. However, a recent article on the same subject in the Fresno Bee reminded me of another factor…we own these businesses.

Harry Dhaliwal, owner of the Olive Avenue Chevron, said he sympathizes with his customers, who are increasingly making smaller purchases of gas.

“It used to be people would spend $20, or $30, and now it’s more like $10 and $20,” Dhaliwal said. “The only people who fill up anymore are the people with the credit cards. What does that tell you?”

So let’s here our take. Are you driving less? Are you considering to join the hybrid craze?  If you own a gas station, what has been the effect on your family? At least from the Fresno Bee poll, people are not putting the blame on gas stations. So, will there still be too many Hummers in the Gurdwara parking lot on Sunday?

In this election year, both during the primaries and presidential election campaigns, immigration policy is a hot issue. A lot of the debate on immigration reform centers around illegal immigrants/ion from drivers’ licenses to fences. Furthermore, this debate has created prototypical “illegal” immigrants in the United States as Latinos who are manual laborers on low wages, particularly during an election year when presidential candidates are trying to win the sizeable Latino vote. Therefore, they have created a narrative around “illegal” immigration that continually highlights this one aspect of the issue to the point where immigration reform has become the “Latino Issue” in the general eyes of the public (even though some presidential candidates are addressing some of the nuances). Understandably, Latino manual laborers are by-far the population in the United States most effected by immigration reform policies and need attention paid to their particular circumstances; however, by making it only the “Latino Issue” we are forgetting to address the nuances and complexity of “illegal” immigration in the United States, adding to the politics that continues to divide people of color and immigrants, and giving more ammunition to groups who continue to vilify “illegal” immigrants, particularly Latinos.

John Buchanan of “The Washington Post” recently tried to address some of the nuances of “illegal” immigration by writing,

“Many illegal immigrants in the United States are manual laborers on low wages. But there’s another group that attracts much less attention: entrepreneurs who have set up businesses, created jobs and grown affluent.”

These entrepreneurs come from, for example, India, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Israel and South Africa.

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The Broadcast Piece:

Last week Radio 4 on the BBC broadcasted a piece titled “Sikh Terror – the UK Connection.” The piece was produced by Amardeep Bassey as an investigation into possible terror links within the UK Sikh community. You can download the 40 minute report by clicking here.

Despite other bloggers believing that criticism of the piece by Bassey somehow emboldens the enemies, my feeling is that is as stupid as saying “You’re with us or with the terrorists.” However, those that cannot begin the process of internal discussion within the community are guilty of the same stupidity.

I have major problem’s with Bassey’s portrayal. To interview Ajay Sahni and claim him from the “independent Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi,” the same organization that is headed by the “Butcher of Punjab” – KP Gill, flies in the face of all Sikhs. The praise that Gill receives in the Indian press and this omission in the BBC report only further insults those families that were devastated by state violence. Human rights groups such as the Khalra Action Committee, ENSAAF, and others are at the forefront of fighting for justice for the victims of state violence. To interview a member of an organization that is led by Gill, claim him as an ‘independent’ authority, and not provide context about the charges raised by groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch about Gill is beyond an error of omission. It reeks of negligent white-washing.

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Can a kesdari Sikh man excel at high levels of athletic competition in the U.S. and practice his faith? Just ask Darsh Singh, junior starter and co-captain of Trinity University’s basketball team:

This season, fans haven’t had to chant for Darsh – the team co-captain has appeared in every game, and every time he plays, he makes a statement. As a follower of the Sikh religion, Darsh speaks volumes by wearing a turban and allowing his beard to grow. In fact, it’s believed that he is the only turbaned Sikh to play in an NCAA basketball game.

Maybe you weren’t as impressed as I was by his exploits as a jock. Not to worry, beta is an active engineering student, making honors every year and working in a number of student organizations.

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While Sikhs have lived in the U.S. for over 100 years, our numbers have grown tremendously after 1960s immigration reform. With this increase in numbers, we’re beginning to see the first long-term interactions between waves of immigrants and within generations of immigrants. These shifts in demographics, in concert with growth in the population of U.S.-born Sikhs, have created a space in which we are re-visioning and exploring advocacy and expression on behalf of the Sikh community.

Among many U.S.-born and 1.5-generation Sikhs, this advocacy and participation has happened through the creation of new institutions. Sidestepping the process of sangat-based decision-making, a slew of new “community-focused” advocacy organizations have popped up. Many of the organizations we now think of as household names (SALDEF – formerly SMART, Sikh Coalition, United Sikhs, Ensaaf) were founded in the last 15 years. While these same organizations provide important legal advocacy tools, a lack of coordination between organizations, paired with a hesitancy to engage Sikh spiritual organizations, at best leads to confusion around a cohesive, unified Sikh voice/message. At its worst, this failure to work together leads to the creation of campaigns that often either duplicate efforts or undermine each others’ work.

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Recently, I watched a brilliant documentary called The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of Politics of Fear. Produced by the BBC, this documentary is 3 one-hour films comparing the rise of the American Neo-Con movement with the radical Islamists. It discusses certain parallel ideologies and the symbiotic relationship of the two that serves only to create fear and terror.

So before you head out to watch Will Ferrell’s Semi-Pro, this movie deserves your time. Maybe less laughs, but I found it absolutely fascinating.

Although I saw it in a theatre, Youtube has the beginning clip and the entire movie can be streamed here.

Your thoughts?

While perusing the internet news, I found something interesting. It seems that Native Americans, in order to bring awareness to issues concerning both Native Americans and the global community, have started an initiative, called the Longest Walk 2008, commencing from San Francisco this past Tuesday with volunteers walking to Washington DC on foot and reaching there by July 11, 2008.

From their press release, their mission and the occasion is stated:

On Tuesday, February 12th, representatives from hundreds of Native American nations participated in a ceremonial and cultural commencement for the Longest Walk 2, the 30-year anniversary of the historic 1978 Longest Walk. More than two hundred participants of the Longest Walk 2 have embarked on a five-month long trans-continental journey on foot from San Francisco. The walk will arrive in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2008, bringing attention to issues of environmental injustice, protection of sacred sites, cultural survival, youth empowerment, and eroding Native American rights.

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Co-Blogged By Camille and Phulkari

The National Context: Subprime Markets & Immigrant Communities
It’s hard to read the economic news these days without coverage of two big issues — the subprime mortgage crisis and a looming recession. In many of these stories, the narrative of the subprime mortgage crisis focuses on two issues — how banks extended credit to low-income and traditionally unbanked communities, and how these communities lacked the funds to keep up with large interest rate step ups.

Underneath the surface of this narrative, a salient aspect of this conversation is rooted in the unique ways that predatory lenders sought borrowers with very little financial training. I live in Connecticut, where nearly 2/3 of the properties facing foreclosure were refinances of pre-existing mortgages. Even more jarring is how the lack of understanding around lending terminology impacts the upward mobility of both working poor and immigrant communities. For folks who had made enough money to buy into a higher tax bracket or economic class, subprime mortgages seemed to deliver on that promise of a nice house in a nice neighborhood.

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This tip just came in (thanks DJ Drrrty Poonjabi).

It seems that the US Department of Justice has released a training video, developed with SALDEF, for public view. Although the video has just been placed on their site, the US DOJ seems to have been using it for internal purposes since the Thanksgiving last year (2007).http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6224218468847681650

An article reported:

Meanwhile, all 43,000 TSA screeners will undergo Sikh cultural awareness training before the Thanksgiving holiday travel season. The trainings will include two tools developed by SALDEF in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice: A training video entitled “On Common Ground: Sikh American Cultural Awareness Training for Law Enforcement,” and a poster titled “Common Sikh American Head Coverings” that TSA is distributing to all 450 airports across the country.

Take a look at the video either through the harder to see Google Video posted or check out the clearer version on the DOJ website. Your thoughts?