Monthly Archives: October 2006

The Plight of the Cabbie

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We have done many stories here on SM about South Asian cabbies that make a living here in America. It’s a job full of risks, and sadly one cabbie died on the job over the weekend.

The body of a taxi driver who had been shot to death was found slumped over the steering wheel of his cab Sunday morning. The Contra Costa County coroner’s office identified the driver as Musharaf Poswal, 48, of Rodeo. Officers found Poswal with multiple gunshot wounds; he was pronounced dead at the scene. [link]

As some of you may recall, I was involved in researching taxi workers in Los Angeles earlier this year. Talking to the taxi drivers was an interesting experience — many of the drivers were men my father’s age, unaccustomed to talking about their lives, yet totally welcoming of the opportunity. They lead hard lives with long hours, and of course, always with a potential risk. The report was launched last month.

The report, called “Driving Poor” and written by law professor Gary Blasi and urban planning professor Jacqueline Leavitt, paints a bleak picture of the lives of the city’s roughly 5,000 taxi drivers.

The typical driver makes $8.39 an hour — less than the city-mandated “living wage” — and 61% have no health insurance, according to a survey of 302 drivers conducted as part of the study. On average, they drive 72 hours a week and show signs of extreme stress and chronic back and leg injuries, the study found. The report also found that drivers lack the protection of wage, hour and workers’ compensation laws; many own their cabs but can lose them at any time; and they retain little control over their working lives, even being told by the city what they can wear. [link]

There are proportionally far fewer South Asian taxi cab drivers in Los Angeles than I had expected – the report shows only 5% are South Asian. Surprisingly, the largest percentage of taxi drivers were born in the Middle East, 38%. [p. 18] The hundred page report gives insight into the taxi industry here in Los Angeles and is downloadable here. More importantly, this document can be used in changing and creating policies that can protect taxi workers in this industry. Let us hope that by creating reforms in the system, we’ll be able to protect the lives of more of our taxi workers.

Related Posts: Taxi Cab Confessions, Immigrant Entrepreneurs, You Talkin’ to Me?, and The Transporter.

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Shove your petition up your…

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For the past few years I have dreaded the approach of Diwali. Why? Because my email inbox gets flooded with emails asking me to sign a petition so that we can have a U.S. Postal Stamp commemorating the Hindu holiday. As if a simple postage stamp would rid me of years of pent up post-colonial anger.

To: Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, c/o Stamp Development, U S Postal Service, Washington, DC

Dear Ronald A Robinson,
Chairman – Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee

We are requesting you to issue a US postal stamp commemorating ” Deepawali”, the ancient and joyous festival of lights celebrated universally by Hindu and several other faiths, reflecting the unity and multi-cultural rich diversity of the people of USA and India.

Freedom of religion is a hallmark of United States of America. The U.S. Postal Service has befittingly honored Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Eid by issuing commemorative stamps depicting these festivals. According to former President William J Clinton, ” Deepawali” presents all of us with an opportunity to reflect on the many ways, the talent, the history and the traditions of the Indian people who have contributed to our national life and cultural heritage. President George W Bush, this year- even though he was traveling in Asia-, made sure that ” Deepawali” was celebrated in The White House and he sent personal greetings and felicitations to the community on ” Deepawali”… [Link]

Even our own Sajit spread the word in 2004, prior to the formation of the Mutiny. Manish reluctantly followed suit in 2005. Now a crack team of SAJA assembled journalists [led by Arun Venugopal] has finally provided me with the excuse I needed to ignore this stupid petition, guilt free. The whole thing is fake. Continue reading →

Chicago meetup 10/28? [Was 10/21]

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I saw this in the window during my last trip to Chicago.

I know it’s short notice, but I just looked at my calendar and realized that I will be gone most of November, and that if we were going to hold a meetup in Chicago in 2006, this Saturday is probably the best bet. [The Saturday after is a possibility if this Saturday is a really bad idea]

So, are people still interested in a Chicago meetup? I can’t promise the luminous Anna or any of the other mutineers, it would be just me and well, all y’all lovely people. Which honestly, is enough for me

If so, when and where? On Devon? [I’ve never been] If so, where? In one of the desi eateries? Or one of the Jewish ones? [Ooooh – are there any good South Indian places up there?] Somewhere else? The Loop? Lincoln Park? Tentatively, I was thinking 2-3 in the afternoon to meet.

Holler at me, folks. Tell me what your favorite places are, and if you can make it at all and I’ll update accordingly. [If nobody can make it, or if nobody is interested, then we’ll simply punt]

UPDATE: I’ve moved the date up one week because of Diwali. Will that work better for most of you?s

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Master Rajj – gasian escort and cop

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Sometimes you hear the model minority myth enough that you start to think that brown people really are more intelligent than everybody else. Then you read news stories like this one (from the end of the summer) and you realize that there are plenty of desi chuckleheads to go around.

Suckbir [sic] Mann was a married police officer in Scotland. Because the Scottish police force has relatively few ethnic minorities on its force, he routinely posed in recruiting adverts along with his boss. He also posed for a different set of photos which he posted on a gay website, under the escort listings:

A page on gaydar, offering sex for £100, featured pictures of the officer in a range of fetish clothing, including crotchless leather chaps. [Link]

This is one dumb cop. Using your own photo in ads for sex (especially if you also sell fake viagra, which is apparently a more serious charge) is a stupid move for a police officer.

He claimed to specialize in a wide range of different roles, although surprisingly “cop” wasn’t one of them:

“I do my master and slave in the leather stuff. I’ll be your master. “I do doctor and patient. I’ll dress as a doctor, you be the patient. I’m a personal trainer, that’s what I work as, so I do personal trainer and student. I’ll do schoolmaster and pupil, too. I’ve got the schoolmaster’s gown. [Link]

Self exocitification wasn’t a large part of his repertoire, but I did wince reading this:

“Also occasionally I wear a turban… yes, I do take it off in bed!” [Link]

Sorry folks, I didn’t bother trying to hunt down his photo. You’re on your own with this one. However, if you really need a visual, imagine the same desi guy impersonating all of the Village People. That’s probably close enough

Related articles: [This is where he got busted] EXCLUSIVE: ON DUTY HE’S A POLICEMAN, OFF DUTY HE’S A PROSTITUTE

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Wifebeating worldwide

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Every time we’ve discussed domestic violence on this blog we end up having the same debate – “Is domestic violence worse amongst desis?” – without having any facts. However, thanks to a recent WHO study of 24,000 women in ten countries, we know a bit more about the way that one desi country (Bangladesh) stacks up to nine others outside the region:

Domestic violence in urban Bangladesh is worse than any of the six other countries where urban domestic violence was measured, and domestic violence in rural Bangladesh is the third worst of the relevant eight countries, after Ethiopia and Peru.

How bad is it?

In Bangladesh, a cross-sectional survey of women aged 15-49 years was carried out, with 1603 interviewees in the capital city Dhaka and 1527 in the rural area Matlab….

Combining data for physical and sexual violence, 53% of ever-married women in Dhaka and 62% in Matlab had ever experienced physical or sexual violence. [Link]

Nor is this the kind of violence that apologists can simply wave away:

In both sites, one in four women who had experienced physical abuse by a husband reported that they had been injured at least once in their lifetime; a third of them in the past 12 months.

Among women who had been injured, 68% in Dhaka and 80% in Matlab needed health care at least once as a result of their injuries.

10% of ever-pregnant women in Dhaka and 12% in Matlab were physically abused during at least one pregnancy. Of these, 37% in Dhaka and 25% in Matlab were punched or kicked in the abdomen. [Link]

Much of this violence is hidden from view:

In both sites, 66% of women who were physically abused by their husband never told anyone about the violence…Only 5% of physically abused women in Dhaka and 7% in Matlab ever sought help for the violence. [Link]

Why is domestic violence so high in the one SouthAsian country tested, and is it representative of the region as a whole? My guess is that domestic violence in Bangladesh is high because women have relatively low levels of education and therefore few economic opportunities outside the home. Continue reading →

Gandhi-giri in Full Bloom

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Remember Lage Raho Munnabhai? This fall, it seems that many civic-minded Indians are taking the Gandhian techniques shown in the film and applying them to real-life problems and protests, with the demand for accountability from government officials being the most common application. Instead of Bandhs and riots, in the past couple of months protesters have been sending flowers and doing Pujas, hoping that people whose work shows signs of negligence and incompetence will “get better soon.” Here are some of the examples of “Gandhi-giri” I came across in a quick search:

And those are just a few examples; more are given in this recent Boston Globe article. My cousins in Delhi tell me that elderly people are stripping off clothes (this is directly out of Lage Raho Munnabhai) to shame government officials in charge of pensions to actually disburse their funds. And there are stories about pavement dwellers, in response to trash flagrantly dropped where they live by thoughtless passers-by, cheerfully (but pointedly) cleaning it up — again right out of the film.

It’s not all good, of course. Vidhu Vinod Chopra is reportedly using his own invention to lobby the government of Gujarat to give his film tax-free status, which it already has in many other states. That seems a bit much; “Gandhi-giri” may well just be this year’s fashion, which will get old as soon as other super-rich people start using it to demands perks and privileges.

Gandhi-giri: flash in the pan, or a sign of a real revival in non-violent civic engagement amongst Indians of all classes? Continue reading →

50 Years after Ambedkar’s Conversion

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ambedkarpics.jpgFifty years ago, on October 14, 1956 — and a mere two months before his death — Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the scholar and political leader who was principally responsible for the drafting of India’s Constitution, converted to Buddhism in a public ceremony in Nagpur. Somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 of his Dalit followers — the accounts vary — embraced Buddhism in the immediate wake of his conversion. For Dr. Ambedkar, nothing in his long, distinguished career could convince him that the socio-cultural dynamics of Hinduism would ever offer Dalits a way out of “untouchability,” disenfranchisement, poverty and social stigma.

Each year on October 14, conversion ceremonies take place at which Dalits embrace Buddhism or Christianity. This year they have extra poignance, not only because it is the 50th anniversary of Ambedkar’s act, but also because several states ruled by the BJP have recently adopted or strengthened laws limiting conversion. On top of all this, a principal follower of Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram, who founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which is the main political vehicle for the Dalit movement now, passed away earlier this month.

From accounts in the press so far, there were major conversion ceremonies today in Nagpur and also in Gulbarga in Karnataka:

Hundreds of Dalits on Saturday embraced Buddhism and Christianity at a mass conversion programme in Nagpur, in which copies of Gujarat government’s anti-conversion bill were also put to fire.

The mass conversion, organised by the All India Conference of SC/ST Organisations and the All India Christian Council on the occasion of World Religious Freedom Day, was attended by Dalits from Orissa, Karnataka and Gujarat states, organisers said.

The conversion of Dalits to Buddhism was performed by priests, while a group of Christian pastors from the Council led by President Dr Joseph D’Souza baptised the Dalits. [Link]
GULBARGA (Karnataka): More than 3,000 Dalits on Saturday embraced Buddhism at an impressive ceremony here on Saturday, synchronising with the golden jubilee of Dr B R Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism.

Marking the change of faith, the Dalits were administered the oath by Bante Bodhi Dhama, a Buddhist monk from Japan.

Preceding the ceremony, “Buddha Dharma Deeksha Pratigne”, a huge procession led by more than 500 monks, was taken out through the city streets. [Link]

There are some very interesting present-day political angles here, not least the controversy over the anti-conversion laws, and the fact that the leader of the BSP, Mayawati, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has said she will not convert to Buddhism yet. She said this at today’s Nagpur rally, while announcing that Kanshi Ram’s funeral rites were performed in the Buddhist tradition, even though he had not converted; and while expressing her hope that Buddhism would spread further among Dalits. The mixed message clearly reflects the political complexity of the Dalit leadership’s position.

In the larger historical frame, perusing the day’s news and doing a little background research reminds me how shamefully little I know about Dr. Ambedkar’s story, let alone more obscure yet significant figures like Kanshi Ram. I hope that comments and debate on this post will help me, and surely others, remedy this lacuna. Continue reading →

Butter Chicken in Bratislava

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Back in the day when your humble servant was but a wee lad, we lived in France with one extended family to visit in the United States and another in India. That made for a lot of intercontinental travel, and since we didn’t have much money, we tended to go for long stays and travel by the cheapest means possible. The result is that I achieved a lot of early experience flying on disreputable airlines. In 1973, my dad took me for my first visit back to India; Iraqi Airways was our carrier. Twelve years later, I traveled solo on Syrian Airlines. There were some sinister looking Syrian security personnel watching us as we boarded in Paris and aboard the plane. But that probably helped keep us safe. At the layover in Damascus airport I remember big empty halls and lots of pictures of Hafez al-Assad.

But the single worst passenger experience was circa 1978, on Aeroflot. Flying from Paris to Moscow was no big deal; a relatively modern aircraft, on time, quick. There was enough business, cultural and diplomatic activity between the Soviet Union and Western Europe to warrant decent service. The Moscow-Delhi leg was another story. Almost everyone on the plane was someone trying to get to India cheap — mainly backpackers and families like us — and our comfort and care were not major corporate priorities. That Ilyushin was one loud-ass aircraft and falling apart inside and out. The food was unspeakable, but the flight was long, and people ate. Mass nausea ensued, and long lines began to form in the aisles toward the rear of the plane. As I recall, we were sitting back there and the aromas were quickly getting nasty.

Amid this scene, the air hostesses, who had until then treated us with glacial Slavic/Soviet neglect, suddenly ran down the aisles toward the back, agitation on their faces, and yelled to the people in line:

“You sit! You sit! Pilot say, airplane TEEPING!”

Ah, travel tales. Well, this joyous experience is what comes to my mind as I learn from the BBC, through a kind tipster on the News tab, that

An Indian-born businessman has purchased a private central European airline for an undisclosed amount.

Harjinder Singh Sidhu, who lives in UK and is a British passport holder, bought Air Slovakia, a small privately owned airline based in the capital, Bratislava last week, it has emerged.

His son, Riqbal ‘Rocky’ Singh, told the BBC News website that his father wants to transform the 60-employee Air Slovakia into a “Punjabi experience”.

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The benevolent loan-shark

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I feel that a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is always best understood in the context of the fire that was originally lit under them. No person or organization wins a Peace Prize unless they are driven to conquer forces that would cause most to throw their hands up and walk away out of sheer helplessness. In the case of this year’s winner, Muhammad Yunus, it was the famine of 1974 that snapped his world into focus:

There was a shortage of food in 1974 throughout the world. However, unlike some other countries that suffered from food scarcity, the situation in Bangladesh was rooted in the historic evolution of the society and others germinated from poor management of the food distribution system in the face of severe floods. After 1971, the majority of the Bangladesh population experienced a drastic drop in their standard of living mainly due to major disruptions in economy and society caused by the war of liberation. The damage caused by the war was colossal. According to the United Nations, the material damage amounted to about $1.2 billion, consisting of loss of fixed physical assets (particularly in the transportation system), damage to agricultural potential, and rehabilitation requirements. The task of rehabilitating returning refugees and other floating population was accomplished early but general economic activities could not be restored to a normal level even two years after independence. Consequently, economic activity lagged behind the levels achieved in prewar years. The downward spiral of real income and unemployment continued. The worst victims of this process were industrial workers, small peasants, agricultural labourers and low paid fixed-income earning groups. [Link]

It makes sense that many of the winners of this prize have had a Siddhartha Gautama-like moment when the veil was lifted from their normal view of a situation and they began to see the reality of what was always in front of them, subsequently finding it unacceptable to carry on any longer in the same manner:

When Yunus saw the disaster’s crippling effect during a university field trip, he felt that classroom economic theories were simply not doing enough to address the needs of those living in desperate poverty.

Soon after, Yunus handed out loans as small as $27 to a group of women in a village near the southern port city of Chittagong. His plan was simple: give the poorest of the poor money to begin income-generating projects that will help them support themselves. Yunus said he was convinced that people could take care of themselves, if they had just a little help. [Link]
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The Brownz Yearbook

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I now have a new goal in my pseudo-internet-life — to somehow get my picture into the new addictive blog, Brown People. What is this “Brown People Blog”? Why it is almost the best form of wasting a Friday work day ever (second only to creating 55Friday Fictions.)

random photos of brown people.

(thats it. that’s the concept.)

How you use it up to you. . .as a reminder that different brown people are doing their thing, use it as detox from reading 17 magazine, use it to find ideas for a haircut, to remind yourself you’re not an invisible freak, to procrastinate on your postcolonial studies paper…whatever you please.)(this is of course not one of those stupid rating things though.). [link]

The bloggers on this site are anonymously fabulous in their selections of brownz ranging from the SM (in)famous Kal and Parminder all the way to the non-famous brown faces on flickr. Our very own ANNA has even made an appearance to the site. I liken this site much to a desi version of the high school yearbook — you never quite know how to get your picture in the yearbook, but you know it’s significant to your popularity when your photo is in it.

Come on, it’s a Friday. Check out the site. They source all of the pictures so it has a real potential to suck you into hours of brownz web surfing. To quote Ismat, how are you going to use this site?

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