Well not yet. But it could become one if a proposed Hindu temple is erected there. That was at least one of the reasons residents tossed around before San Bernardino County protested vehemently against construction. From KTLA.com:

It was proposed as the largest Hindu temple and cultural center in Southern California, an ornate structure with the kind of religious status held by the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

But when a nonprofit Hindu organization selected Chino Hills farmland for the project, residents in this wealthy bedroom community of San Bernardino County protested vehemently, saying it would generate too much traffic, ruin the city’s rural atmosphere and become an unwanted regional attraction.

Objections also surfaced from opponents who said the project would turn Chino Hills into a “Third World city” and a haven for terrorists. One petition to stop the project said the temple would play a role in “changing the city’s demographics forever.”

Gee, I wonder if the proposed building of a large church would have caused such a reaction as well. That, I bet would have been touted as being good for the local economy. The chairman of the city’s Planning Commission, supported the Hindu project, calling it an asset to the city. “It’s a beautiful building with wonderful landscaping and water features,” he said. Still, many folks don’t like the idea.

Some of the opponents also seemed worried that the temple would draw Hindus to live in the city. “Unless you want the current demographics to look a bit like New Delhi, don’t do this,” said an e-mail dated Aug. 9, 2003. Another letter suggested Muslim extremists might blend in among Hindu worshipers, making the temple a “hiding place for terror.”

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The Chicago tribune reports on the addition of a Gandhi statue to the Chicago suburb of Skokie (where this blogger was born). In addition to simply discussing the statue they also discuss the demographics of the suburb:

Once an icon of the Jewish community, Skokie since the 1980s has become something of a north-suburban United Nations, where 80 languages are spoken in the homes of its public school students. In May, the annual Festival of Cultures drew an estimated 25,000 visitors.

And three years after Kamaria and a citizens group proposed the idea, Skokie again celebrated its rich cultural diversity by dedicating an 8-foot-tall statue of Gandhi on Saturday, the 135th anniversary of his birth.

Of course the other ethnic communities there want statues of their heroes as well:

So far, at least three groups–representing Skokie’s Korean, Filipino and Swedish ethnic communities–are toying with the idea.

“Who knows? Maybe we could find a great figure of sports,” said Jin Lee, director of the Keumsil Cultural Society, which promotes Korean-American culture. “Or [it might be] best to have a scholarly figure who did great deeds for the country.”

Might this great gesture honoring Gandhi eventually stir up a controversy in the community? At least some local politicians think so:

Michael Gelder warned fellow members on the Skokie board of trustees to consider “the quagmire we might be creating for ourselves.”

Although it might be easy for Skokie residents to agree on the worthiness of someone like Gandhi, Gelder said recently, “it strikes me that there’s very little consensus among the various ethnic groups or nationalities about [what constitutes] a great leader.”

“… One person’s liberator is another’s terrorist,” Gelder said.

I really loathe how people now so casually throw the “T-word” into every situation.

Newsweek details the growing trend of going abroad for medical care, in this case to high-tech hospitals in India:

The trend is driven in part by long waiting lists and high costs in countries like Britain and Canada. Like software outsourcing firms, Indian hospitals offer quality at Third World prices. The number of foreign patients seeking treatment in India—now 100,000—is growing by 12 percent to 15 percent a year, says the Indian Healthcare Federation.

I have heard of people increasingly combining their vacations with some type of medical procedure as well (often times cosmetic).

The private sector already sees medical tourism as an industry with tremendous potential for growth.

Travel agents, tour operators and hotels are vying to make their presence felt.

And by next year, the Indian medical industry will be ready to move into outsourcing to relieve overburdened medical institutions in Western countries, which are facing severe staff shortages.

My senior year (1997) at the University of Michigan, The Indian American Students Association (IASA) had a novel idea. Why not create a Gandhi Day of Service where people perform volunteer work in honor of his birth anniversary? The next year the idea was picked up nationally and is now in its sixth year. Tomorrow, schools and organizations around the country will participate. From the NGDOS website:

MISSION: National Gandhi Day of Service (NGDOS) is an annual event sponsored by South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT) to inspire and empower people around the world through civic engagement and community service. Participants will be united through Gandhi’s common values of equality, tolerance and nonviolence, regardless of ethnicity, racial or religious background.

VISION: To establish NGDOS as a widely recognized and well-respected event that fosters involvement in community service and civic engagement. NGDOS will provide the platform for meaningful service that highlights the universal beliefs of compassion, selflessness, and unity.

HISTORY OF NGDOS: The First Gandhi Day of Service took place on October 4, 1997 at the University of Michigan. Organized by the Indian American Student Association (IASA), their vision was to unify people through the common goal of serving communities in need. On that day, 200 students throughout the campus collaborated for a day of speakers, group interaction, and a range of volunteer projects. The tremendous response received for Gandhi Day of Service led to its expansion in 1999. The First National-level Gandhi Day of Service was a huge success, involving 20 universities and 2000 students nationwide.

Last year, over seven thousand volunteers from over two hundred universities and organizations contributed over twenty five thousand hours of community service in memory of the teachings and spirit of Mohandas K. Gandhi. Join us this October and help make the sixth annual Gandhi Day an even bigger success!

Please check out their site and volunteer if you can.

Well why not? We outsource everything else. It’s good for a free market economy. On September 20th I wrote about the deportation of a Sikh man who claimed he would be tortured if returned to India. You see, it is against international agreements for the U.S. to deport someone if they know that person will be subjected to torture. In the case of th Sikh man there was controversy as to whether or not his claims were false. Soon though, that argument may be irrelevant. From the Washington Post:

The Bush administration is supporting a provision in the House leadership’s intelligence reform bill that would allow U.S. authorities to deport certain foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or abused, an action prohibited by the international laws against torture the United States signed 20 years ago.

The provision, part of the massive bill introduced Friday by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), would apply to non-U.S. citizens who are suspected of having links to terrorist organizations but have not been tried on or convicted of any charges. Democrats tried to strike the provision in a daylong House Judiciary Committee meeting, but it survived on a party-line vote.

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Slate magazine pokes fun at America’s continuing electronic voting anxiety by using India as an example of how to do things right:

While we in the United States agonize over touch screens and paper trails, India managed to quietly hold an all-electronic vote. In May, 380 million Indians cast their votes on more than 1 million machines. It was the world’s largest experiment in electronic voting to date and, while far from perfect, is widely considered a success. How can an impoverished nation like India, where cows roam the streets of the capital and most people’s idea of high-tech is a flush toilet, succeed where we have not?

Apparently India uses an incredibly simple technology that may not be as fancy as the machines here, but does the job well. Continue reading →

It is well known that there is a growing unease between black South Africans and Indians in South Africa. How bad is it? A recent poll suggests that are large percentage of Indians there think that things were better during apartheid. From Rediff.com:

Despite their support for the ruling African National Congress, more Indians than whites in South Africa were unhappy with the present dispensation and prefer the former apartheid regime to the present democratic state, a survey by ANC has revealed.

The survey, conducted in the Guateng region (which has an Indian population of over 3,00,000) revealed that 37 per cent of Indian respondents replied in the affirmative when asked whether they prefer going back to the apartheid regime compared to 19 per cent of whites who made the same choice.

There is of course a lot of racial tension between the two groups:

The [poll] has made the ANC deduce that the “skepticism” of the Indian and coloured communities towards the government was due to the perception that before they were “not white enough and now they are not black enough.”

I remember hearing about a racist song out of South Africa not so long ago (2002) that was very popular.

A new song [2002] by renowned South African composer and producer Mbongeni Ngema is causing a racial stir — this time round between blacks and Indians. The song, “Amandiya,” which means “Indians” in Zulu, has lyrics describing the country’s Indian population as abusive to black people, and being more racist than whites.

Ngema’s song blames Indians for taking advantage of blacks. He denounces the influx of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, who he says are flooding into South Africa, so much so that “a brave man is required to confront” them.

The song struck a wrong musical note with the country’s leading politicians and human rights activists, who are wary that the song could provoke racial hatred in a country that prides itself on its new commitment to multiracial cooperation after years of apartheid rule. As of June 19, it was removed from the public airwaves until further notice.

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A life sized bronze statue of ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi will be unveiled and put on permanent display in Houston, TX this Satarday on the anniversary of his birth. IndoLink reports:

The statue, sculpted in India by renowned artist Ram Sutar, has been gifted to the citizens of greater Houston by the Indian government as a gesture of goodwill and friendship.

Houston Mayor Bill Whitwill formally accepted the statue in the presence of Indian Ambassador to United States, Ronen Sen.

The six-feet bronze statue will be unveiled on October 2, the birthday of Mahatama Gandhi, in the city’s landmark — Hermann Park, which is frequented by millions of tourists each year.