Twelve years ago Indian immigrant Terwinder Singh entered the U.S. without proper documents for an arranged marriage. Since then Singh has worked at Kohl’s Department Store, bought a home, paid taxes, bought a business, and had children in this country. On Nov. 4th Singh flagged down an officer when she had a flat tire. The police then took her to jail and have held her ever since. From NRI-worldwide.com:

Thirty-one-year-old Terwinder Singh, who had entered the United States without proper documents 12 years ago for an arranged marriage, is reportedly being treated like a fugitive by the US authorities. When Terwinder, a mother of two from Wisconsin, appealed for help after she got a flat tyre, police started checking her records as part of routine. They discovered that immigration officials had wanted her detained more than five years ago. Her appeal against the order has been hanging fire since 1998. She had been served an order to depart voluntarily, at her own expense, by March 2002. Why Terwinder ignored the order isn’t clear, but that made matters worse. Her husband, Ram Singh, claims they were unaware that her appeal had been denied or that a final order had been served to report with bags packed for deportation.

This can’t be the best way to deal with this situation. Surely she can appeal to her congressman for some understanding? As fate would have it her congressman is none other than James Sen­sen­bren­ner, the same congressman who held up the 9/11 bill in congress because he wanted tougher immigration provisions thrown in. Is he willing to help? From the Sussex Sun:

Wisdom, a coalition of about 90 Southeastern Wis­con­sin religious congregations, and its Milwaukee and Wau­ke­sha affili­ates will rally outside Congressman James Sen­sen­bren­ner’s office Thurs­day to ask him to intervene on her [Singh’s] behalf and to hold con­gres­sional hearings on broader immi­gra­tion law reform issues.

Sensenbrenner’s press sec­re­tary, Raj Bharwani, said in a telephone interview yesterday that the con­gress­man “never got involved, because he was never contacted by any member of the (Singh) family or a family representative.”

“Concern for this woman and her family is pretty wide­spread,” according to the Rev. Joy McDonald-Coltvelt of Galilee Lutheran Church in Pewaukee, a member of Wisdom’s Waukesha affiliate, Stewards of Prophetic Hopeful Intentional Action (SOPHIA).

Well I am glad to see this woman has such support from the community. Everyone knows that things seem to get done once religious institutions step in.

Oh what to do when your long repressed country suddenly has access to Bollywood films. Its enough to drive a good religious man to have sinful thoughts, no? The Christian Science Monitor reports on what happens when Bollywood flesh presents itself to a society long confined to looking at bharkas:

One midnight during Ramadan, Sullyman got up and flipped on the TV. His family was sitting down to eat before the 4 a.m. prayer and he decided to do a little channel surfing. But the station he landed on stunned him.

“It was 100 percent sex,” says the dapper young man in Kabul’s Macroryan neighborhood. “It was the first time I’d seen anything like that.”

The prurient film – and the questionable programming being pumped to thousands across Kabul – prompted the Supreme Court chief justice to ask President Hamid Karzai to stop cable broadcasts during the holy season. Last month, a Council of Ministers banned virtually all cable broadcasts in the city. The minister of information and culture created an advisory committee to review the cable networks. Since then, the networks have begun to broadcast again.

This wasn’t real sex he was referring to of course? After all, most of us grew up acutely aware of the fact that Indian censors didn’t allow Bollywood stars to kiss. Still, the thought that Bollywood movies, which are tame by Western standards, could have such a strong effect on Afghan society intrigues me. Maybe Bollywood films are the way to “spread democracy” and combat religious fundamentalism in the Middle East. Isn’t that what the U.S. administration wants? Maybe Bollywood films can do what bombs cannot. Maybe the military should broadcast Bollywood movies into Iraq as a way to soothe the insurgents. Maybe I am getting carried away. Continue reading →

What rhymes with Osama? It’s good to see these racist punks get served…or were they? From the Newsobserver.com:

Three men found guilty in District Court of ethnic intimidation for assaulting an Indian Sikh reached a plea agreement on less serious charges when they appealed their conviction.

In a plea agreement in Orange County Superior Court, the men pleaded guilty Monday to assault inflicting serious injury and simple assault, but not to ethnic intimidation.

One man will go to prison for 150 days for the assaults and for several probation violations. The other two will each spend 14 days in jail.

The case stemmed from an incident in March on West Franklin Street when defendant Kenneth Antwaine Perry, 20, walked past UNC student G. Bindra and called him “Osama.”

At the time, Bindra, a Sikh who has brown skin and a beard, was wearing his hair wrapped in a scarf. He responded by saying, “Your mama.”

Continue reading →

Sky News and the Washington Times report on Britain’s decision to press for prosecution in 117 so-called “honor killing” cases.

More than 100 deaths and disappearances of Asian women are being reinvestigated to ensure they were not victims of ‘honour’ crimes.

They can involve suicides, false imprisonment, forced marriages – and even murder, as happened to Heshu Yones, 16.

Heshu was stabbed to death two years ago in Acton, London, by her Kurdish father – who believed she had dishonoured the family by having a boyfriend.

There are 117 other suspected ‘honour killings’ currently under investigation in the UK alone.

Suicides among such women in Britain are three times the national average.

When this sort of stuff happens in Afghanistan we think we can only do so much about it, but when it happens in a “lawful” developed country we should take decisive action which is what Britain seems to be doing. In other countries, like France for example, when the government tries to step into cases like these it further radicalizes the youth (Muslim youth in the case of France) who feel their customs are under attack. Some clerics fuel this paranoia with lectures on how good Muslims should follow Sharia law. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli has been doing an excellent series of stories on this phenomena of the growing radicalization of the Muslim youth in Europe.

Voice of America does a nice little story on the most accessible source of news in America’s number one media market: South Asian newsstands in New York.

New Yorkers love to read the news, and there are hundreds of mainstream and specialized newspapers to satisfy their needs. But the men and women behind the counters at the thousands of city newsstands and magazine stores are not nearly as diverse. These days, most New York news dealers are South Asian immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Enterprising émigrés from the region can also be seen running restaurants and other small businesses throughout the Big Apple. But the experience of Mombai-born Mohammed Khali is typical of the many South Asian immigrants who sell newspapers and magazines. Despite his old-fashioned smock and the calm, easygoing manner that many associate with India, Mr. Khali has been a New York newsagent for 27 years. He says most of the city’s newsstands are run by South Asians “because they get the jobs right away and we newsagents always need help.” Mr. Khali adds that although “there are a lot of people who are engineers and doctors and most of them are very well educated people, it’s the easiest work that they can find.”

Still, his own family is perplexed that he has not left the newsstand business to become a professional. “Mostly all my family is right here,” says Mr. Khali, “in Atlanta, Boston, California, Arizona [and] Detroit. They are engineers and everything. And I am the only [one] playing around here in the newsstand. They wonder why. I tell them I really enjoy it!”

I can relate to how Mr. Khali feels. Unlike other successful Indians who become mostly doctors and lawyers, I have shunned the life of wealth and beautiful women so that I can blog and bring the people the news that they want, dare I say need, to hear. It is a noble profession. Right? [crickets chirp in the background]

Alas, the life of a newsstand owner isn’t as glamorous as it may seem:

Not all of the dealers are quite as experienced in the ways of New York. Rajeena Patel emigrated only recently from his village in Gujarat State in western India. For him, adjusting to city life, the English language and Western ways has been hard. “Good life in India, but no money,” he says. “Here is always money, but no life.” Mr. Patel notes that gender roles are unfamiliar. “In India, [the] woman is always home, [and has] no job,” he says. “And here, I go home, [and] my wife is going to [her] job.”

The transcript of this audio story can be read here.

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has been a one man wrecking ball against the corrupt practices of big business the last couple years, will be featured tonight, on NOW with Bill Moyers in an episode titled Eliot Spitzer: “The Sheriff of Wall Street”.

As New York’s chief law enforcement officer, Elliot Spitzer has taken on the titans of Wall Street to get a fair deal for Main Street. His far-reaching investigations have uncovered fraudulent practices in some of the nation’s biggest companies and helped restore transparency and honesty to industries that provide important products and services to regular Americans-mutual funds, prescription drugs, insurance. On Friday December 3, 2004 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), NOW’s David Brancaccio goes inside the mind, motivations and investigations of one for the nation’s most feared and respected attorneys general, the man they call “the sheriff of Wall Street.”

In addition to taking on the Mutual Fund industry and other titans, Spitzer is also helping the little guys. In this case, Bagladeshi pretzel vendors in Central Park.

M&T Pretzel Inc., which owns more than half the pushcarts in Central Park, has agreed to pay $450,000 to settle labor law violations because it stiffed its workers on overtime or minimum wage.

Between 50 and 100 vendors who worked from 1999 to 2002 are expected to share in the settlement, said state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who announced the deal yesterday.

Most of the workers are Bangladeshi immigrants who have gone on to other jobs.

Continue reading →

The Oakland Tribune recently peeked into the closet of the South Asian community, specifically in the Bay Area. In the times when Gay marriage seems to be the biggest issue facing the homosexual community, South Asians are still struggling with the basics.

Sonia first realized she was different when she was 12 or 13. Growing up in a middle-class Punjabi family in Northern California, she did not dare to discuss it with anyone.

“How could I? I am Indian,” said Sonia, who has never been to India. “You’re not supposed to have these feelings.”

Sonia is typical of the many homosexual South Asian Indians living in California, or in America, for that matter. The 2000 census puts the state in second place after New York with 451 gay Indian couples, indicating the race of the main householder alone.

But the real number is probably higher, given many are closet homosexuals. Despite living in the shadow of San Francisco, the gay capital of the world, many suppress their desires and grudgingly bow to cultural norms, while others come out and court rejection.

Sonia did both. Convinced she was being a “good daughter” by keeping her homosexuality a secret, Sonia agreed to a marriage her family had arranged. “There was no question of marrying a woman, so I married this man,” she said.

The article goes on to describe Sonia coming out to her parents and them just ignoring it, like her declaration never occured. South Asian society remains consistent in how it deals with things.