Caption This: 100 Years of International Women’s Day

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Social media is all a flurry this morning letting me know that it is the 100 year anniversary to International Women’s Day. Only 100 years? Feels like we should have been honoring women since the dawn of time.

To celebrate the day, I wanted to post an iconic image that some of you may recognize from 1971 of the Mukti Bahini women of Bangladesh. I dedicate this post and this image to all the mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers out there, all fighters in their own revolutionary way.

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Let’s have a go around of “Caption This”, shall we? Let’s keep it a celebratory post, please. And if anyone has another image or link to a website to honor International Women’s Day, please share it in the comments – I’d love to hear and see stories and images that pull you on this important day. Continue reading →

Ten years later, and we’re still not safe

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On Friday, two frail and elderly Sikh men were gunned down in cold blood as they went for a walk in a suburb of Sacramento. Surinder-Singh[1].jpg

Surinder Singh, 67, died Friday afternoon on the sidewalk along East Stockton Boulevard near Geneva Pointe Drive. Gurmej Atwal, his 78-year-old friend, was shot twice in the chest. His family said he was in critical but stable condition [link]

The police are looking for a tan pickup seen leaving the scene and nearly $30,000 in reward money has been pledged by different community groups. One of the first to step forward with $5,000 was the Sacramento chapter of CAIR; I only hope members of the Sikh community will be willing to do the same in return.

Gurmej-Atwal[1].jpgAuthorities have admitted that they have no other motive for the crime (they weren’t robbed, they didn’t pick a fight at the club the night before, they weren’t kingpins of organized crime families), so it looks very likely that this was a hate crime. The FBI have been contacted, and hopefully will be investigating.

What boggles my mind is both the kind of coward who would shoot two old men (both heart attack survivors and frail) and the kind of virulent hatred which would motivate them to single out these two men, in broad daylight, in a quiet suburb. What kind of twisted person would think this was a good thing to do?

Continue reading →

Ras Ceylon Brings a Fire

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He has dreadlocks. He’s a Rasta. He just came back from recording in Jamaica. He comes straight outta Oakland with a home base in So Cal. And he’s got Sri Lankan blood pumping through his veins. I’ve interviewed Ras Ceylon before here at Sepia Mutiny, and lucky for you, Ras Ceylon just dropped a mixtape street album last week. Titled Gideon.Force Vol.1 (named after Haile Selassie’s Ethiopian army), the album is fantastic anthology of Ras Ceylon’s musical work over the past few years.

Drawing on his Sri Lankan roots and Rastafarian faith, Ras Ceylon brings a unique sound intertwining a revolutionary message with head nodding beats. Gideon.Force Vol.1 is a mixtape, compiling collaborations with various emcees and producers from Oakland to L.A. to New York to Jamaica. The album features major artists such as Munga Honorable (Jamaica), Shabaam Sahdeeq (NYC), Norris Man (Jamaica) and includes original remixes of collaborations with stic.man of Dead Prez and Tragedy Khadafi (NYC). True to mixtape nature, laced throughout the album are clips of Davey D. of Hard Knock Radio interviewing Ras Ceylon about his journey.[rasceylonblog]

Today’s #MusicMonday is the whole album – but if you have to make me choose one song off of this mixtape, it’d have to be The ?. Though you can order a pressed copy of his album online at Ras Ceylon’s website, if you go to his bandcamp you can download the entire album right now for “Pay What You Want.” Listen to it all below, but feel free to be generous and download the whole ting.

His tracks show a clear connection to his musical inspirations – Public Enemy and Bob Marley. The track 4 Aiyana Jones hits the listener hard as a revolutionary anthem with lyrics on the epidemic of senseless police brutality while his first single Aluta Continua (Struggle Goes On) has a strong island feel and dancehall undertones. Whether head bouncing beats to spreading the message of substance abuse with the song The Question or the spiritually produced song Jah Livez spreading the message of God living in the hearts of all, Ras Ceylon’s lyrics calls for repeat listens. [rasceylonblog] Continue reading →

Behind the Orange Curtain is a Minority Majority

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When you hear the words “Orange County,” I’m sure you have an image that comes to your head very much like the ones on television shows “The O.C.” or “The Real Wives of Orange County.” The image I have, after having organized there for the past two years, is very different. The O.C. is a largely diverse county, with a “minority majority” where only 45% of the population is White and 17% of the population of Asian descent, according to the recent 2009 Census report. The largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam resides in Garden Grove in Little Saigon, and Santa Ana is an epicenter of the Latino population. And of course, the Muslims. There is a large population of Muslims scattered across the county – in fact, according to a religious study from 2000, it is the 5th most popular religion in the county, representing 1.4 percent of the population of The O.C. I’m sure the statistics on this will be different if you look at 2011 result of the region on religion.

Why am I telling you about this other perspective of Orange County? To give you context as you watch this video, released by CAIR-LA on Wednesday.

The above video was filmed at a rally in February, outside of a fundraiser for the Islamic Circle of North America, a charity driven international Muslim organization.

The event – held at Yorba Linda Community Center, a facility that has been frequented by Muslim families and businesses over the years – first became a target of anti-Muslim bigots over two of the fundraiser’s speakers, who were to speak on the importance of charity in Islam. [cair-la]

What was most disturbing to me, albeit not surprising since I’ve had to build relationships with Electeds in this region, is the statements that came from the politicians that spoke at the rally. Councilwoman Deborah Pauly clearly implied that all the Muslims should be murdered. In light of what happened with the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, due to the hate sentiments fueled in the community (as well as by Sarah Palin) and a lunatic eventually retaliating with a gun shot in to head… Well. Can Deborah Pauly really be that ignorant to not make a connection that her words could have the same effect? Or maybe she knows, and simply doesn’t care.

Villa Park Councilwoman, Deborah Pauly, while addressing the crowd at the rally, appeared to threaten Muslim event-goers. Congressman Ed Royce (R-40), in a troubling trend of disparaging Islam and its followers, added fuel to the fire by encouraging protesters to continue on with their hate-mongering. The attendance of Congressman Gary Miller (R-42) was a clear surprise, since he previously has engaged with all constituents, including Muslims, toward a better America. [cair-la]

But this situation isn’t simply a one-off of crazy tea-baggers in Orange County. There have been a string of Islamaphobic stories recently in Orange County – from the protesting of the construction of mosques to a hijabi woman fighting for her job at Disneyland because she wanted to wear her hijab to work. But the biggest story currently comes from UC Irvine, with the case of the Irvine 11.

The students — 8 currently at UC Irvine and 3 UC Riverside graduates — were charged with with two misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to disturb a meeting and disturbance of the meeting by the Orange County District Attorney’s office on Friday, only a few days after a protest was staged outside of the DA’s office in support of the so-called ‘Irvine 11.’ Continue reading →

Next stop: Hi-dehr-a-where?

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In December, I was in Delhi’s brand new Terminal 3, waiting with my mother for a flight to Chennai. The terminal itself is pretty consistent with most such new constructions in India – one enters and is immediately transported to Anywhere, Cosmopolitania – shiny floors, ginormous ads for stylish bathroom fixtures, and food courts featuring the generic and exotic (Subway and dosas, respectively).

Eventually we made our way to the gate, where we listened to the departure announcements.

Friends, it was hilarious.

First, an automated voice would make an announcement in English butchering the pronunciation of the destination city (presumably for the phoreign ear). A few seconds later, the announcement in Hindi would pronounce the city name perfectly.

Here’s Chennai:

Guwahati via Bagdodra:

Khajuraho via Varanasi:

Srinagar via Jammu:

Continue reading →

Twitter Helps Mom Find Kidney Match

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Here’s what Twitter addicts everywhere already know: Twitter isn’t just a social media tool, it’s a lifestyle. Spend a certain amount of regular time on the website interacting with folks and if the stars align, you’ll find yourself with a good group of friends, a search engine more specialized than Google, a date or two, news in real time and much more. But for one person, Twitter may literally be a life-saver.

I’ve been following Arizona-based Kirti Dwivedi on Twitter for over a year now and her updates about her parents, who she lovingly tweets about as #TinyMom and #TinyDad, have always brought a smile to my face. But I didn’t know that Kirti’s mother has been suffering from kidney disease for the last 10 years and that she desperately needed a kidney transplant. On Sunday, while absent-mindedly playing with my phone, I saw this tweet from Kirti, “What has social media done for you? It helped me find a kidney donor for my mom…”

Turns out that Kirti, being the social media addict she is, turned to Twitter and Facebook to see if she could find a kidney donor for #TinyMom. Kirti told me via email, “Unfortunately, neither my brother nor I are blood type matches for my mother.” Neither was #TinyDad. After Amy Donohue, one of Kirti’s Twitter friends, checked out the informational Facebook page Kirti had created, Amy offered to donate her own kidney.

Anu Dwivedi’s daughter, Kirti, is the one who brought the two together. She started a Facebook page educating people about her mother’s kidney disease. Eventually, Kirti started chatting with Amy Donohue via Twitter about the Facebook page, and their friendship progressed to phone calls. One day, Donohue told her something she’ll never forget. 

”Her words to me were, ‘You have two kidneys. I have one mom. So, let me see how I can help you out,'” Kirti said. [Link.] Continue reading →

A civilization of regions

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It is well known that in Western Europe the south of Italy is the poorest region. It is less well known, though not totally surprising, that regions of northern Italy such as Lombardy are among the wealthier areas of Western Europe. The aggregation of some of Europe’s wealthiest and poorest regions into one nation, Italy, obscures some very interesting fine scale trends. But since this is a weblog about brown-folk I’m not going to be discussing variance in statistics across the European Union. Rather, I want to address the issue of variance of statistics, and culture, across South Asia. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka (Bhutan is so small that I will leave it out of this treatment).

Intuitively we know that comparing Sri Lanka to India, or India to Pakistan, is apples and oranges. In terms of administrative units in the post-Westphalian age they’re equivalent, but we know that a nation of 20 million (Sri Lanka) and one of over 1 billion (India) are ludicrously mismatched. Even when comparing Pakistan to India, you have to face the fact that one state of India, Uttar Pradesh, is more populous than all of Pakistan! If Uttar Pradesh was a nation unto itself it would be the fifth most populous in the world. Continue reading →

Tarun’s Beatitude

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TarunNayar_cover.jpg Today’s #MusicMonday is an electronic beat that has been on repeat on my iTunes this week and comes to you off of 22º of Beatitude, an album that drops tomorrow on March 1st. The album is Tarun Nayar’s first solo effort and is a compilation of music spanning a decade of sounds collected worldwide. Tarun has been a music maker for years, having traveled the world in the Canadian fusion troupe Delhi 2 Dublin as well as been a part of the music site Chaiwalla’s BOOMBox.

Breaking out of the dancefloor-driven format, Tarun’s aim was to record as many of the sounds as possible, live, without the use of sample libraries. Each of these songs tells a story, and each story is a chapter in the artist’s life.

22º of Beatitude will be released March 1, 2011 and will be complete with archival photos and videos that will accompany each track on the album and enhance the music into a dynamic visual experience.[tarunnayar]

The album itself is an eclectic electro mix fusing together the classic Indo-influences with a range of drum n bass, trip hop, and chill beats. A lot of the sounds are reflective of the Karsh Kale, Bally Sagoo, Talvin Singh era of sound from this past decade. But the song that I can’t get out of my head diverges from the rest of the album with a surprising B-more funk that feels like it was dropped in the middle of hot day in Rajasthan.

808s and Sheikh Sarai by TarunTspoon

Love it! It’s queued between Jai Paul and Rye Rye on my iTunes playlist now. To hear more songs off of the album visit Tarun’s SoundCloud, and for more info on the album which drops tomorrow, visit his website or his twitter @TarunTspoon. Continue reading →

Nostaligia for Your Ears

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I’m not really big on Bollywood/Bombay-ish/Filmi music, though I have a vague appreciation for the historical importance and the beats do fill me with that Desh pull. But that just may change with a new site just up on the interwebs and recently handed to me, thanks to an awesome find by GirishRaj. It was so delightfully mishthi, I just had to share on The Mutiny immediately. BombayProduction_Logo_2.png

A beautifully designed site, Bombay Production is the Desi version of Pandora, on really spicy achar. With visuals reminiscent of classic Bollywood posters, an easy to surf matrix layout and the ability to easily listen through songs throughout the eras, this site is sure to be a hit amongst all of you amateur Bollywood ethnomusicologist.

For over seven decades films have been the primary entertainment source in India, introducing us to great music through highly creative and talented singers, songwriters and composers. Our inspiration comes from this rich history and we hope to capture some of it’s magic to bring you an experience that is different and engaging.

Bombay Production is designed to simplify the listening experience with one click. We’ve gotten rid of clutter and through simplicity in design created different stations that capture the mood and the flavor of a particular decade, artist or genre. The stations are randomly placed with musical tracks that are carefully selected and meant to surprise and delight you. Our collection is small but slowly growing. As we continue to grow, along with our listeners, we will be adding more music as well as customization to the stations.[bombayproduction]

I think the site has a lot of potential with an amazing catalog of music that had previously only been on vinyl – I’d love to see it expand the musical genres to include the classic rock scenes of India, emerging hip-hop, and maybe a Chutney collection too. Excited to see where this site goes and who are the brains behind this musical experiment. Don’t forget to follow them on twitter too – @BOMProduction. What do you think? Continue reading →

Oh Dear, that’s Just not Cricket…

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This week we learned that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is nepotistic (GASP!)

The World Cup final is to be played on April 2 in Mumbai, whose Wankhede Stadium has a capacity of 33,000 seats. Of these, only 4,000 have been allocated for sale to the public. The remaining tickets, a whopping 27,000, are reserved for the ICC and the Mumbai Cricket Club’s associate members (ESPNCricInfo).

Not only that, but when fans tried to buy tickets online, the whole system crashed from the number of people trying to make purchases.

The most prominent errors took place on Monday afternoon when the servers of Kyazoonga.com, the ICC’s official ticketing partners, were overwhelmed with the load as the site went ‘live’ with sales for the final and semi-finals at 1pm India time. The website received close to ten million hits in a matter of minutes – half a million at any given moment – many of those people refreshing the site. It would have needed, a Kyazoonga staffer said, a server farm the “size of a football field” to keep up with that kind of demand. The site crashed by 1.05pm and the few people who had got into the system and begun purchasing their tickets found their plans hanging somewhere in cyberspace.

The website went online again around 9.30pm IST with a statement that no tickets for the finals & semi-finals had been sold on Monday due to the system issues and that updates about the ticket sales would follow. So, all the tickets allocated for online sales will still be available once the Kyazoonga network teams in India, Europe and the United States get their servers up and running again. Kyazoonga were not willing to reveal an approximate time when that was expected to happen.

Epic Fail. Oh well, it’s better on TV anyway, right? Even if you’ve traveled from South Africa to see it live? Um, yeah.

The only remotely exciting match of the tournament so far was the most recent one, between Bangladesh and Ireland. It shouldn’t have been close, but the side that scored 283 against India in Dhaka last week was nowhere to be found. Instead, Bangladesh were bowled out for a paltry 205, and just managed to make sure Ireland didn’t catch them. Scorecard

This weekend should be more promising: On Saturday, Pakistan and Sri Lanka play in Colombo, and England takes on India in Bangalore.

And in case you’re still not sure what this game is all about, have a whack here. Stick out the first half-minute. You’ll be glad you did.

Continue reading →