Monthly Archives: May 2009

Deaf Desis

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As soon as the South Asian Summit was over last Sunday, I headed over to the original Busboys and Poets for my first D.C. Sepia Mutiny Meetup. I was nervous since I was hosting solo and we were expecting about twenty people. As people slowly filtered in, I realized that not all twenty would show up – it would be intimate for sure.

As we sat there, this tall guy walked over to our table and wrote down something on a paper. He then signed to his two friends with his hands, and they pulled a table to join us. I walked over and introduced myself. It was clear that they were deaf, so I pulled out a stack of note cards and pens I always carry with me and placed them on the table next to me. The next three hours turned into the most fascinating conversation (using writing, speaking, and signing) about the intersection of being Desi and Deaf in an American world.

There was Shazia the Pakistani/Muslim/Californian who could speak verbally better than the other two, and served as a translator. There was Sharvedh who had just moved back to DC and was raised in South Africa in the same historical Indian neighborhood that Gandhi lived in. Finally, there was SM reader Karthik, the Desi Born Desi who had a Cochlear implant recently done and what English he spoke had an Indian deaf accent. They all represented a different aspect to being Desi, yet they were friends that were brought together in this parallel world of deafness.

“Do you know any Deaf Desis?” Shazia scrawled on a paper and handed to me. I didn’t. But seeing it on paper it struck me how I had just been at the South Asian Summit, listening to a panel on language access and how the Deaf community was not even mentioned. As activists, we fight for in-language resources for government agencies to provide in Hindi, Urdu, Bangla and other Desi languages for our limited English speaking population. But being deaf is a limited English speaking population too. What struck me was how we were having this South Asian Summit in DC talking about the needs of our community and how there was this Deaf Desi community that was not even represented at it. Continue reading →

Northern Sri Lanka: Humanitarian Questions

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displaced sri lankans nyt photo small.jpg
(Photo by Pedro Ugarte/Getty Images)

It looks like the conflict in northern Sri Lanka is nearing its endpoint, judging from various news reports this week. There have been pressures on the Sri Lankan government to call a cease-fire, to allow humanitarian efforts to move forward, but the government has rejected that call.

Reuters has a helpful FAQ on the basics of the humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka:

HOW MANY ARE TRAPPED?

That is a subject of great debate and confusion. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it is less than 50,000, while the United Nations has said up to that number are in danger. Sri Lanka’s government estimates between 10,000 and 20,000. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) say it is 160,000. Diplomats say the number is immaterial with so many in harm’s way, and a host of nations have pushed for a humanitarian truce. The civilians are in a tiny strip of northern coast with the ocean to the east and a lagoon to the west, measuring no more than 5 square km (2 sq miles), according to the military.

HOW MANY HAVE BEEN KILLED AND WOUNDED?

A U.N. working document, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, said 6,432 civilians had been killed and 13,946 wounded in fighting since the end of January. A U.N. spokesman declined to comment on it. The government has consistently called casualty figures inflated to serve LTTE propaganda purposes, and the government and the rebels blame each other for killing civilians. Getting accurate information is nearly impossible, since very few people inside the war zone can be said to be free of rebel influence and few independent observers have been permitted in.

HOW MANY HAVE ESCAPED?

Early this week, the military said it had registered more than 113,000 since an exodus began a week earlier when troops punched through an earthen barrier the Tigers erected to block entry and exit. The government says more than 200,000 have left since the beginning of the year. Doctors treating the wounded pouring out said they suffered from horrific injuries from shelling and gunfire. (link)

From my point of view, the situation of the 200,000 displaced people who have escaped the “no fire zone” is probably the most urgent issue, and it is also clearly something that the international community can be directly involved in.

The UNHCR seems to be the relief agency that is mentioned most often in the articles I’ve been reading; if you’re concerned about the situation of these displaced civilians, as I am, you might want to donate something here. Continue reading →