whispering sikhs: race religion and politics

a response to a racialicious article

2012-01-24T15:36:00.001-08:00

http://www.racialicious.com/2012/01/24/not-my-arab-spring/

Interesting stuff. I agree, my parents come from the Punjab region of India, I was born in the United Kingdom and was raised in the United States. When I came here I was perhaps a little too British for these guys, but over time I think I've become sufficiently American so as to be accepted. I think coming here when I was 10 probably helped me there. But I am aware that alot of children of immigrants from countries like India seem to feel they have a connection to the country their parents were born in. In my life, and in my mind, I don't feel as if I have any such tie to India. I was not born there, I haven't lived there, I am not of their culture. It is a foreign place to me. I am often asked about India, most specifically what I feel about certain things, where can you find the best Indian food, or what language do I speak. Most commonly, arguements with me about whether or not I am Indian. I always tell them I am not, that I'm British, and i currently live in America.

But my point is... when I am looked at with brown skin, black hair, I am assumed to be Indian. This annoys me to no end. I don't for instance look upon someone with white skin, fair hair, and assume they are from America, or Europe. I think we live in a time where we can no longer look at skin or hair and derive a persons origin. Ultimately, my skin has no bearing on my views. And similarly, neither does where my parents come from. My parents may be from North India, but I have no tie to the country. I don't believe things like nationality can be passed down from generation to generation. I would have to live in India and be immersed in the culture to call myself properly exposed.

I understand when you say you are asked to give expert views on topics you are far removed from. You may say it's because you are Muslim or Arab and because of this you understand that others may assume things about you. I am similar, and yet different. I am not Sikh, nor am I Indian, however I am brown skinned and black haired. I feel fools will approach me and assume I am something or the other, and bigots will ignore what I reveal myself to be, and attempt to brand me with names and distinctions of their own coining. I am who I say I am, especially when it comes to the identity I bear. I hope in the coming century people like me will not have to fight tooth and nail to be accepted in the ways we wish to be. I see parallel's with the gay community in America, I have seen them fight for their right to be accepted as their name, and similarly I seek to escape the branding of immigrant, or Indian, and be known for who I am, what I am of, and whom I seek to be. For instance, I am interested in punk music, I play in a rock band, I am interested in entrepreneurship, but I don't get noticed or recognized for these things on a street corner or in a bar room. I am instead recognized as a brown skinned black haired potential-Indian, and these people will assume my identity, and talk to me about topics they believe I am knowledgable of. I have brown skin, but I don't bear my skin as a badge of my expertise in the South Asian affairs, or even Arab-spring related stuff. I look at it as a fluke of our times, as like the Irish, now brown-skinned people are being looked at as exotic, different, and other-worldly, and perhaps easily understood. I am just as convoluted as the next guy, whether they be white, black, or otherwise.

Ultimately I'd like to see a move away from the notions of race and nationality, especially when I am asked to reveal my ancestry as a means of being able to better interpret my identity, in the form of requests from others curious about me. But I don't think society will change overnight, and all you, I and others can do is continue to voice dissatisfaction over cultural associations with skin and hair color and continue to show the lack of logic for such things to be done.

race crap

2012-01-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

so i got on stage at scarlet n grey after hearing a bunch of race related jokes and of course i offered them a quick diatribe on why race is not cool to use especially if not everyone is allwoed to participate. for instance ,asian people, none of whom were in teh bar, were being made fun of. maybe to giddy white people this is an OK phenomenon, but to the rest of the not backward world these things are deplorable and I'm fucking glad that I got up there and said something about it. If you're going to live in this modern world then I'm sorry but you can't just get up there and rail on people just because they have a certain skin color or whatever the fuck. It's those things like sexual preference, accent, and whatnot. They're fine and all until it goes way too far. Certain jokes just make you shake your head. And if your audience is getting offended by your jokes, it might eb worth taking into consideration. i guess a smart comedian will make sure they dont do things that offend people. If you can make race jokes that delight the majority of THAT race, then guess what, you've made it right. But if your race jokes offend that race, while perhaps delighting others not of that race... you might have made a racist joke. it should not be a requirement of a joke to not be that target race in order to find it funny.

deh shiva

2011-12-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

Deh Shiva bar mohe ihai
Grant me this boon O God

shubh karman the kabhu na taroo
May I never refrain from the righteous acts;

Na daroo ar siyoo jab jah laroon
May I fight without fear all foes in life's battles

Nischai kar apni jeet koroo
With confident courage claiming the victory!

Ar Sikh hao apne hi mum ko
May thy glory be grained in my mind,

Eh lalch hou guna tau uchroo
and my highest ambition be singing thy praises;

Jab aav ki audh nidhann nanay
When this mortal life comes to end,

Aut he rann me tab joojh maroo
May I die fighting with limitless courage

why im legitimately not indian and actually british

2011-11-30T02:35:00.000-08:00

people like to tell me that im indian. they ask where my parents are from. they argue that they are considered german. its so tiring of a process. i hate to waste my effort on such bullshit. its such a rediculous thing that im surprised i have to deal with it still at the age of 25. yet in the comedy scene of columbus ohio, this is something that emerges. a guy blocked me on facebook today because i angrily messaged him after tonight's show about how i didn't want to discuss with him whether or not iw as indian. he's fucking 'afraid' of me. what a little twat. seriously people, when you actually believe in something, and you don't want people to bug you about it, what's there to be afraid of? see what i mean? when people get in your face, bother the fuck out of you, why the fuck do they NOT expect some sort of a RESPONSE from you? they think they can do shit up and down that hits you in ways that arent cool, and you respond to their shit, and they turn around and say: "hey dude, we think you're completely wrong in your summarization of yourself, you aren't at all british and in fact are indian." - this is what i call jackassery.

marginalized minority females

2011-10-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

Great article. I'm sortof godsmacked with a certani realiziation whilst reading your words. I think alot of your experience my be chalked up to immaturity. Sheer immaturity of the men involved feeling they have the right to heavy handedly interact with the world the way they do. There is a very real sense of entitlement. Men seem to feel they have an innate right to the world. This isn't inherent in all, but you might see it in some of the immature types who aren't willing to actually act civil, as society dictates. Society is a choice that not everyone participates in. Ultimately the abrasive nature of these people will come to haunt them, either in their lifetime, or in their legacy [im someone who lightly entertains the notion of karma].

In order to successfully interact with society, you have to be willing to allow yoruself to in a way be a bit more open and disarming. Otherwise if you aren't then you are essentially rigidly being abrasive to every person you meet. You shouldn't be an obstacle for other people to overcome, human interaction should be a smooth process. Not everyone learns this growing up, Not everyone's taught this. But I feel when everyone tries to operate on this level less laws are broken, less feelings are hurt.

http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/26/unsafe-in-seattle/#more-18685

2011-10-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

I'm going to go ahead and say that the poster is literally just a reference to a very good john lennon song. and i think that as an english major and a guy who grew up in a family that didn't allow "bad words" i can never really be for the striking of a word from use. it goes to peoples freedom to express themselves. in this case the word is pretty much historical at this point, playing a major role in african american identity and the freedom movement in the united states. i understand people not wanting to be exposed to the word, perhaps because they feel its directed at them, but i feel like when we can't even examine the word then things are going way too far. to understand it we need to be familiar with it. if we dont, not only may we forget the word, but the mistake of it's creation. and then we are doomed to create another such word. lets actually try to enlighten ourselves, rather than get caught in cages. thats just my opinion though, and clearly an unpopular one to have.

http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/13/theyre-going-to-laugh-at-you-white-women-betrayal-and-the-n-word/#more-18483

2011-10-13T00:44:00.001-07:00

i might be the nly person who feels this way but i think that people are definately NOT mocking native art to use a symbol they've seen and be artistic with it. reverence to the point of restriction, and business that is never allowed to sell anything that like... fucking does whatever they do.

a company does what they can to make ap rocut but they won't sell anything people won't want to buy. there is a real market for tehse things; are you going to fault these usbcultures and their providers for offending you? does their existence offend you? perhaps you feel as if you "own" these symbols, that they are only for the natives and not for all peoples. THAT is a bigoted view.

http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/10/an-open-letter-to-urban-outfitters-on-columbus-day/#more-18375

Comparing the south-asian immigrant community in America & the LGBTQA community

2011-09-22T12:27:00.001-07:00

I wrote this as a response to a racialicious article that was actually not half bad and got me thinking.

"Interesting, because I've been hanging with a black friend lately who is pretty homophobic and likes to talk about how its part of the "black community standards." Like you, though, I haven't found it to be the rule, more the exception, and homophobic black folk who use the old line of, "don't worry, my beliefs are supported by my peers, this is just part of the experience of 'being black' ", and of course "by not being black, you just couldn't possibly understand," definately one of the most closed minded and outright wrong things a person can think.

There are no limitations to the human mind.

But yes; I live in a very gay-prevelant city. We're touted (amongst our own residents) as the second largest gay-city in the country. There's alot of open clashes between the LGBTQA community and the "others". I've seen "bigoted" straight people, but bigoted gay folk as well. Ultimately its not the sexual preference that's predisposing people to have a certain mindset, but merely their own humanity showing through inevitably.

I'm not a bigot, I feel like folk should be able to do as they please, so long as they aren't putting at risk: life, limb or property. With that said, my own preferences are clear, and I have strong convictions behind those preferences, but as a guy who interacts with LGBTQA on a daily basis, you have to learn how to play nice. While I might object to an entire community gathering together merely because they share a sexual preference, I understand the reality of the shared experience of another nature: discrimination; unpleasantness of all flavors because of a rift between society and subculture.

Then again, I'm also the kindof guy who hates using the word: Black. I'd rather just call them by name; I'm of South-Asian decent, but British nationality. I routinely tell people, "I'm British," when they ask where I'm from [I live in the Midwest, so it's a clusterfuck of explaining, and I'm a socially-lazy bastard, which I feel is perfectly alright.]

As a comedian, I find gay-jokes are reacted to [by sensitive gay folk] in the way jesus jokes would be reacted to by extremely conservative pious christians.

Both will burn you at the stake.

Ultimately, there are those who will get sucked into the "sub-culture", or perhaps even the myth of the subculture. Some people will feel more justified outright attacking one another because they feel it's OK, since they're just doing what is the "norm". They're just being a good ______ [insert deliniation here]. It's the enlightened-few that no longer bother with trying to appease some ideal which ironically and ultimately more-resembles a stereotype than a life-goal or genuinely-worthwhile-ideal to endevour to inhabit.

And then there's a bit of resentment.

As an immigrant, I have nothing like what the LGBTQA community has in my city, and in my country. In my lifetime, I will never have the support amongst people with my immigrant experience [within my specific era of immigration, my specific locale of origin]. And there's bitterness in that, because examining the LGBTQA community, one of the formulative experiences that draws everyone together is the "coming out story." It's weird, because it's such a universal that it extends far beyond sexuality. Anyone whose ever had a clash of relgious belief, or really any belief whatsoever, between themselves and strongly-believing parents... It's these people which will relish the chance to relate to others who've been through THAT formulative and PAINFUL experience.

So it's great that such things exist for the LGBTQA community.

I just wished we'd have it for the South-Asian wave of American immigrants as well. "

identity and why we coin it four ourselves

2011-07-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

people feel so full of thmselves as to be able to walk up to me and demand my ethnicity. and then when i answer wrong, im scolded. i say, look, i was born in wales, im british. and theyre like, but youre brown? here are you really from? and its like, what kindof uestion is that you twat. get the fuck out of my face and just live your miserable life elsewhere. its fucking nonsense for people to come up to me and demand that i sit down and explain to them exactly what im about and shit. its fucking rediculous. and ultimately people need to ust recognize that like, this is how i am. you cant just fuckin walk around and expect me to sit down and conform to your bullshit. im going to live resolutely as always. im never going to give myself up to your nonsense. ill always fight back and you need to recognize that. dont fucking come up to me and try to convince me otherwise. people are just so full of crp as to feel they need to cnvert me to their way of thinknig. why is this valuable to you? why bother wasting your energy on me to such a degree. why is it important to you how i feel about myself. fucking invasive ass little twats. get your own life, this is mine.

people like to call themselves scholars of religion, they like to pride themselves on knowing everything, and then they think to themselves that since this is what theyve read in their books that essentially this is what people are. i have to repeatedly put down that im welsh born and british before people start to recognize what i am. i am kinda fuckin tired of people telling me, "he doesnt like ot be called indian" as if im supposed to be called indian. its not fucking the case. im brown people, its simple, dont fucking walk up to me with your bullshit. you cant fucking sit there and tell me what i am who i am and all of that. my very identity is not up for fucking debate people. you need to recognize that i am a fucking welsh born britsh guy who lives in america today. thats how this shit works and if you have anything to say about it then you need to fucking just close your mouth and cry about it or howl to the wind because nobody fucking careswhat you think. so thats just generally how that works. ultimately its just the basics and people need to eralize the routine of this shit. you cant just sit down and be so worried about shit. you cant just sit down and be so fucking insane about this shit. just leave me the fuck alone give me my fucking space and youd o yours ill do mine. simple shit.

and these scene kids, as weird as they are, cant accept me. thats when it gets crazy. people cant fucking just be like that. ultimately you have to sit down and realize that thats just how this shit goes. people need to realize that im not going to back down from myown vieews and shit. just because ive been sortof beaten down by the town i lived in for awhile i kinda got over that. dayton was a terrible place for me a horrible time and town and it really stuck with me for years. and the thing is that its really just held me back in a million fucking ways. i need to get myself back on trakc and liberate myself from all the crap thats been thrown into my head by years of bullshit. ultimately its just one of those things where people think theyve got some sortof knowhow or whatever but they dont. theyre just fucking wasting their lives running after a kid who just doesnt give a fuckk. go shine the light someplace else, someplace that matters, ebcause me, doing my thing, being who i am, thats fucking rediculous. dont fucking come up to me and tell me what ou think i am. i know what i am. and if you think you know enough to bidn people with your thoughts then youre fucking retarded. thats ultimately how that shit goes. so just fucking fuck off. simple shit bitches. simple shit.

why im not an indian, and why i am brown

2011-07-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

people seem to have an issue with this. they seem to think their opinion affects my identity. i want my peers to recognize me for who and what i am. and some people vehemently refuse to do so. and the fact is that at the end of the day thats aprt of my identity. this guy needs to get off my back. the reality is ive spent time in that country, ive been affected by its culture, ive got a love for its place. and the bottom line is im never going to give that shit up. thats part of me and the fact is im not denying other parts of me exist as well but those arent the ones i live by. i live as a british man. and the fact is that at the end of the day people just need to step off and leave me alone about it. i grew up there, i have ...

im just so tired of having to defend my identity to people who are basically not from anywhere but here. this kid's from fucking columbus ohio and yet he thinks he has the moral authority to pass judgement on whether or not im british. its fucking rediculous. you construct yourself man, whatever you are, thats what you are. i can't just fucking hide the truth and the fact is im not fucking indian. it was a painstaking process to go through as a person but i kinda realized that i simply wasnt fucking indian. in the same way that this guy can accept a blowjob or whatever which to me is disgusting if he knows hes straight and forced himself to do it anyway, thats horrible. and this same guy is trying to come at me and tell me that im wrong to have my own shit the way i have it. and its like, just get off my fucking back dude. this guy has some serious passion thats being directed specifically at my own identity. if you cant accept me then fuck off. but im not gonna like fucking do extra crap to fucking like try and make you believe any more than you do. i mean i think the fact is this guy is being an ass to give me as much shit as he is. this is my life, my identity, and im sorry, but not everything has to be constructed, contrived and all that. this is just who i am. its a soul thing.

buti guess he wants an airtight arguement and in a way perhaps i do too. then i can satisfy the ultra curious but hte fact is people dont exist on that ultra curious plane at all times. and if they do, well, they'll burn out pretty fast. some people need to learn how to chill out. and thats the essential bottom line there. you have ot know how to let yourself just chill out and have fun.

a bit of politics

2011-06-02T13:32:00.001-07:00

The republicans have fielded a guy to try and run against Obama. This guy is promising gold and has nothing to back it up. These guys are emphasizing the sorts of things they have no power to accomplish during tenure. Romney says he will make the united states the "world's top job creator". How? Claims are more about buzz than about follow-through and likely something he won't do once in office. This guy is a "multimillionare" as if he'd know about the plight of the average man. Absolutely rediculous. People are promoising way more than they can deliver. This guy is clearly NOT the right man for the job. He's got a background in big-business which we've already got lobbying in the senate. A republican says he wants to "balance the budget." So did obama, but republicans didn't alow it.

His massachusettes reign involved health care reform which disenfranchised him with his party. high-brow palin-esque move.

the association of brown skin with the word indian

2011-05-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

so yeah. I've been out and about in this town for a few years. and every once in awhile ill be asked where im from. i tell them wales. and then they ask further questions. where are the parents from? why does it matter? they want to confirm that my parents are from india so that somehow undercuts where i was born. i was born in wales, i spent ten years in england, and ive spent time in chicago and dayton while currently livig in columbus. i would say the current term that describes me is british asian american. ive heard teh term south asian before but that doesnt work for me. when you try to come up with a term for who i am i feel like it should represent my culture and not my genetic origin. i was birthed in wales. i feel that has more significance than where my mother and father were brithed at least in terms of trying to understand who I am. People are very interested in where the parents are from. but my point is it doesn't have any bearing on who I am and what business is it of yours to know where they were born in the first place. its one of those things. kindof crazy. i would love to be recognized for the person i see myself as and not the way other people want to classify me.

im also tired of my willingness perhaps conditioned to go along with people on these tangents, trying to explain away my british heritage and confirm my indian one. its a process that strips me bare and has me catering to the critics rather than standing up for who i believe i am. and really thats all that matters. other people who presume to know you better than you know yourself are wasting their time and effort to try and gain insights into you that they would be better off spending that effort upon themselves. its hardly something with any gain for them and whats more they know it. its just a game that they play to waste time and perhaps even try and mses with you a bit. people see a vulnerable person who perhaps isnt resolute in their beliefs and they feel like its their duty to go to that person and just start espousing things to them to try and help them understand themselves. but whats worst is that they really do honestly feel like teyre helping. at the end of the day its better to let people figure things out for themselves than to tell them what they want to hear. because for many of us its more in line with what we "want" at least gut-instinctively to have someone outright tell us what to think rather than to explore and decide what we think on our own.

essentially the world is full of spoilers and people are always trying to come up to us and try to get us to go and deal with things in their way. but the fact is thats a joyless pursuit to reduce everything down to what you already know. there's a certain fun to life that you experience whilst trying to figure things out for yourself through trial and error that people are depriving themselves of and are being deprived of the oppertunity to experience it. its a rediculous impulse but many of us have it and i just dont understand why thats the case. perhaps in this age of technology we've become so lost behind computers that the real world is now foreign to us and we're more comfortable in digital domains coded to be simple and straightforward. the world is a swirling mess of existence but you give it meaning by seeing it with a rigid view. without that you're just without purpose. there are many purposes in existence and if you never try your hand at living then you can't really say you've put in the time to try and make shit happen. so its just one of those sorts of things. but yeah. again, people tend to try and make this association of brown to indian and it infuriates me and surprises them as well when i show that anger. they feel as if its a benevolent or neutral question.

to me it just exposes my identity crisis perhaps. im not sure i really have one though. im quite sure that im british and i am american but only because of naturalization and i am someone who has been exposed to indian culture but only because my parents represented it and never because i actively sought to learn about it. basically only second hand have i learned anything about indian culture and its largely a mystery to me which is also something im not really interested in. im a welsh born british guy who happened to be immigrated over to america as a child at a time when choice wasn't afforded to me. and now as an adult i find myself in a place and position where i have access to a university where i can study and gain credentials and be able to work in a field of study that could be quite exciting. so im definately working my way through the coursework and getting these credentials earned. at the same time im also getting better at being myself and considering those things which are often placed in front of me such as basically the way that people are consistantly tying my brown skin to being indian. to me its quite possible to have brown skin and yet not be indian. and for me, thats the point i want other people to be aware of and to respect.

the immigration act of 1965

2011-04-21T12:12:00.001-07:00

"restrictive immigration quotas" - why was the american dream only for whites? - http://www.asian-nation.org/indian.shtml

In a span of 80 years of immigration, only 800 were registered as having immigrated (those of Indian origin) to America...

"Only 7,629 immigrants from South Asia are said to have arrived in the United States by 1965." and "Indians had come to the United States as early as 1820."

terrible. 145 years of immigration led to 7,500 immigrants. That's literally 51 South Asian immigrants every year.

"If given the chance to go to school, Indian children devour it like a hungry person does food." - heh. a comment on one of the pages.

so, what was the act that opened America up to South Asians? (the reason I'm here).

"President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation into law, saying "This [old] system violates the basic principle of American democracy""

"equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in new immigration from non-European nations which changed the ethnic make-up of the United States"

third culture kid

2011-04-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

so i've been pondering this whole third culture kid thing. its crazy... i don't know... like i'm dealing with POWERFUL things when it comes to these things. like... i don't know. there's just ALOT going on that needs to be looked at. it's hard to srtof just move on and just live a new life. I always feel like I've got one foot in the door. Perhaps because I guess you could say an entire life I lived is lost, as if I've lived and died many times. I feel OLD, very old, and feel like I've seen and done many things, but those things have little or no connection to my life today. People just don't care what I've experienced, they aren't really valuable to anyone. Nobody really cares about the time i spent in England as a kid. Or my experiences out like... in Chicago with the Sikh religion. Nobody really cares about the experiences i faced over in Dayton losing my family ...

school assignment

2010-11-24T10:30:00.001-08:00

Religion:
Why is it a mistake to introduce religion to children at a young age?
What are tangible benefits of religion to society?
What are tangible benefits of religion to individuals?
Why do many people stake much of their resources on religion and religious issues and conflicts?

for a class

2010-11-12T19:54:00.001-08:00

1. (RC)What ways are Black students pressured to assimilate as students in America?
- master culture & ways of american mainstream

2. (RC)What particulars of being Black are Black students pressured to "give up" as American students?
- styles of speech
- appearences
- value priorities
- preferences

3. (RC)Why might American Blacks find it harder to assimilate than immigrants?
- they've been here since the beginning (of america)
- (yet) they are excluded from defining images of school
- (therefore) essentially it's an insult to American Blacks, because theyre being asked to join into something that's made them invisible as a people in America's history books.

4. (RC)What are some areas Black Americans have influenced the American South? (why shouldn't Black Americans be ignored in American history?)
- housing design
- land use
- religious expression

5. (RC)What has American Society told itself of the origin of it's successes?
- that it's exclusively white and not the sum of it's assimilated immigrant population

6. (RC)What do American educators assume about Black students?
- that they need extra help to overcome inherited cultural weaknesses

7. (RC)How do programs targeting Blacks equate black identity with substandard intellectual status?
- sharing credit for success, but blaming failures on weaknesses that can never be overcome

8. (RC)What is the difference between Black students in the 1950's and 1980s?
- grades worsened in the 80's as compared to the 50's

9. (RC)Why is there a difference between grades of Black students in the 1950's and 1980's?
- in the 1980's, Black student's abilities were under suspicion
- ambitions, successes, and failures all distorted

10. (RS)Why are Black students today more racially vulnerable than in the 1950s?
- they are given too much help and taught to feel almost crippled or incapable as an inherent trait.

11. (RC)What can schools do to fix the problem?
- schools must focus more on reducing vulnerabilities in students

12. (RF)What are the four fundamental conditions that are required for success in Black students today?
- the student must feel valued
- the education of Black students should be guilded by the challenge and promise of personal fulfillment, rather than remediation
- racial integration
- black life & culture presented in mainstream curriculum

13. (RC)Why is challenge important in a student-teacher relationship?
- without it, the student will never excel

14. (RC)Why is respect important in a student-teacher relationship?
- the student will resist any challenge without being given respect

15. (RC)Why is segregation bad?
- draws out group differences
- makes people more vulnerable

16. (RC)When is confidence reliable?
- when based on strongly competative skills and knowledge

17. (RC)Why do segregated schools have trouble generating confidence in students?
- lack of resources and access to students

18. (RC)What is the ultimate challenge of Black parents?
- stopping their kids from dropping out
- giving their kids a sense of hope and entitlement to american life and school

another one of the things i hate about the whole "gay culture" thing

2010-07-30T23:58:00.001-07:00

"we didn't choose to be gay we were born with it"

bullshit. i know some of you might have the predeliction of a gay preference from an early age, perhaps the earliest discernable age (its based on attraction... so you'd know what you were around puberty). part of the problem is people seem to think anaffinity for feminine stuff is a tell tle sign for gayness. its not. you are simply interested in fair things. sex with men is a sexual thing. perhaps you might sexualize men if you are feminine and perhaps identify more with the role of the woman in relationships that you see on tv or perhaps in real life. but the thing is, one does not guarenete the other. one may introduce the other, but thats about it. and so some people say "im born gay." bullshit, i say. i think its perhaps something that MA Ybe programmed in FOR SOME. but i do know that we do have free will, and someone could choose to be gay without perhaps having gayness as their preference at their first known cognifitive moment of sexual maturation. some choose, some start, others grow into it, and perhaps some grow out of it. its fluid, like all living things- biologically based lifeforms change and evolve as they grow, and one so cognitively based such as ours is fueled by choice and thought over many other factors. some may be biologically driven to be gay, others likely are not. certainly for ALL gay people there is no ONE cause.

kids & justice

2010-07-30T14:48:00.001-07:00

http://www.racialicious.com/2010/07/28/framing-children%E2%80%99s-deviance/#more-9390

when i see the two videos juxtaposed, i think of how both children are equally terrifying and equally capable of wrongdoing. neither child is of course an adult, but a child, an adult0in-training. the message here from the parents should be clear, what was done was wrong, unacceptable, for the many laws broken, and hazards dared, albeit without a scratch. the risks they took should be understood, as well as the potential pain caused, and the damage that could've and already was done.

they need to understand how society works, and why its beneficial to follow laws rather than to break them; they need to get a feel for the fact that law is there to protect members of a society from rogue elements that would impinge on their freedom to live happily.

whether a child be taken to a facility, or a child be taught by their parent, something certainly should be done. but i think these videos say less about the children than they do about the assumed capability of the parents. obviously the police feel its a good idea to get involved with the African-american kid, but with the white kid, there isn't any police force on the show (why would there be?) but also the seeming assumed outcome for the white kid is that he wont be getting any slap on the wrist from the cops. (nor did the cop that pulled him over make an appearance on the show, strangely).

the point is in case #1 with the black kid the cops assume the parents dont have the cajones or skill to make do with the situation and make right with the wrong, pass the knowledge down of societies rule and the potential for harm, why the kid literally CANNOT act as he did, given the rules of society enforced by the punishments of it. they would rather he face those punishments in a gritty in your face realism that "the system" can bring; over the ability of those parents of this kid, their ability to make him understand right from wrong; police assume they aren't capable of the job, and take matters into their own hands, essentially using "the system" as a surrogate parent, given the grandma's seemingly assumed incompetence.

the white child on the other hand is seen in the arms of his family, with the camera panning to them regularly; these are "good" people who you can laugh with and even adore in a strange way- as the host seems to try to paint the picture. but juxtaposing the two videos, you see two identical children handled in two very different ways, not by their families necessarily, but by the police force, and the media seems to be lapdogs for the authority's position, readily embracing the assumed ... scolding-being-enough for the white child, yet not quite being enough for the black child. its not the child, again, thats being evaluated, but the ability of the parents to cope with this curve ball in their tenure as guardians of this child. the parents are either assumed incapable, or capable, by the law enforcement. the child is getting treatment based on this assumption, and therefore the law isn't really working the way it should; that is, unbiased, and fair & equal, but more-so very biased, unequal, and just plain ugly.

2010-07-26T22:57:00.001-07:00

"if i was dating a bi guy, it would make no difference whatsover to me, i think it would be completly hypocritical. the only difference it might make is that i would feel closer to him because he understands the struggle bi/gay people go through, maybe even more so than women."

bullshit. i mean like.. yeah you talk about the struggle of gay / bi people, but i mean dude, look at this place, look at the resource you hav.e now imagine if instead of gay you were a TCK. guess what? there'slike no resources for people of that distinction. and unlike many "curious" "in the closet" gay people, there's never really a time where TCK's can escape their life. it's a developmental thing, the kids are shifted places and are given two cultures but having lived amongst the pair they're neither of either so they're a hybrid third with the possibility of being able to freely pick amongst any culture and society. that lack of belonging and ownership means theyre relatively free agents to be able to shop amongst the worlds cultures and beliefs which is nice. additionally, given my religious upbringing in two different sects, i feel the same thing about spirituality. its a shopping cart there for me to peruse and find the one im most attached to. many people dont have such an ability, such an oppertunity, to be able to find a theology and way of life that fits them unhindered. its nice. but the thing is, its a solitary path, and you can say what you like about gay/bi struggles, but the struggles of TCK's are just as badif not worse given the fact that there jut sint any organized support for people like me. so when you talk about how "people understand the struggle of gays" or whatever... it just makes me feel like you're taking liberties. because at the end of the day, to go t oa site where folk can sit and support one another, a place where the entire status quo is in line with your way of thinking, how can you sit there and bemoan the state of things when you have such a strong and supportive community and culture? its just retarded if you ask me. gay people ar elargely selfish bastards, they may try and talk about how noble their quest is for freedom, but they would never extend such a helping hand if it were to benefit a group other than their own. TCk's certainly don't see any love. so don't expet me to extend my sympathies to you when you're crying about how the world is "mean" to you. it does that, thats how it works. it wont change, but you can support folk through it. however your community seems selfishly to only want to support their single brand of existence. how closed minded. fucking rediculous.

piracy

2010-07-10T03:46:00.000-07:00

"No surprise there. The Pirate Bay and the Pirate Party have been making a mockery of lawful society for a long time. Why don't they do something productive instead of ripping off the productive people in our society? The fact that the Pirate Bay is at all popular just shows that freeloading scumbags care more about what they can take than any semblance of law and justice for the people working to create their entertainment. "Mine, mine, mine. I'll take what I want, screw everybody" is the mantra of pirates. No surprise that the Pirate Bay comes from the same country where marauding Vikings originated."

absolute bullshit. this's fucking nonsense. don't come down on the people who try to get by SHARING not stealing. where do you draw the line? who are you to say that sharing is illegal? then where in your mind does a library fall? you are denoucing one of the most basic societal + cultural areas of information storage and passage. people say they think thee creators of that art are being shafted, but really... all that theyre losing out on is the digital creation of their product. they can perform it live, and make money. they can sell physical packaging that cannot be downloaded. the thing is... people don't bother trying to sell things that are of any worth to their consumers. instead they think hereticizing the intnernet and all things digital is the best way to go. lets just say youre better off working with the digital breed rather than against them. the net creates possibility, don't simply try and bemoan the fact that this change is inconvenient. use the new to create some new business models. otherwise if you keep living in the past you showw yourself off as a dinosaur, perhaps never worthy of the immense profits you once reapeed, as you simply stole the idea from another idea-man, one who perhaps got bullied off the pedestal by you, as thats all you seem to know. when the roof is taken off the building, when there is no cap, vertical growth is allowed and will begin to happen. perhaps not from whence you want it, but it will happen, and those innovations can lead the way for revlutions of entire industries. that to me is the massive change potential laced in with this whole thing. the world can move a step forward if certain delivery methods are considered worthy. without any attempt at working with the new cultures and such social movements then its utterly useless to try and make any stab against the people. accept those that are different to you; if life limb or property arent being infringed, then don't come down oon these people. reinventing the term property to create a loophole where unjustifiable attacks are now justified only makes you appear the deciever, and nobody's fooled. perhaps you can lie to yourself so often that it then becomes etched in your mind as a falshood held as truth, but the masses can smell deception when it is so clearly and grotesquely formed out of such negative bias and utter intolerance for ways of life differing from ones own. no harm is brought, and help is wrought, by the methods of the pirates and other sharers. sharing is an admirable trait, and just because it impacts ones profit margin, then it seems that the business is agaisnt admirable qualities. it seems that the money mongerers are more intent on their pennies than the furtherment of civilized society and the greater goood of mankind. we should seperate our divisions and wok together rather than etching such rigidly protected caste whereby keeping certain people from certain action even though such action is humanly possible and not damaging in the flesh. the old businesses must go and the new must be... wrought in ways that work in harmony with the world at large and of our time.

violence, not racism. anger, not honor.

2010-06-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

http://digg.com/odd_stuff/White_Teen_Attacked_by_Two_Men_Because_of_Slavery

so they're talking in this article about a black man and filipono man who beat / tortured / insulted a white teenage boy for four hours. they say its "race related" because the guys brought up "slavery..."

to me its just absolute nonsense to take these guys for what they say they are. instead we should look at it as a simple case of deviance. these fuckers are people who just hardcore have anger issues, have no respect for fellow human beings, and are not safe for society. these are the types of people that should be locked up and re--educated, or perhaps if found hopeless, then just left locked away. the reason why is they are a threat to law-abiding citizens. you cannot simply let your anger manifest itself upon other people. you cannot simply let your anger out on other folk.you need to let shit go and deal with people in a more realistic way. the disease of anger spreads from father to son, mother to daughter, and people need ways to see that anger is not the right response to a situation. we can't be violent either, there's only three circumstances violence is worthwhile, when life limb or property are threatened. as far as we can tell none of these occured in this situation therefore these guys have no use for their violence. it was violence that was un-justly enacted and by harming other individual they brand themselves as criminals. the idiocy of trying to decry the horribleness of a past crime on past people and then go on to commit a crime of your own making yourself into a criminal is thick. if you truly have issue with crime, start by not perpetuating it unto others. dumbasses who really at their core simply have anger problems that need to be treated. you cannot treat other people in that way. and by flinging the basic tenants of decency aside they pave the way for their own social isolation.

a racioulicious response

2010-06-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

". I don’t consider myself a Latin American actress. I was born and raised here, and I have Cuban parents, but for me, I am the new American girl. It’s not only Drew Barrymore and the blond Midwestern girl. This, she says, extracting her finger from the ice to point to her face, 'this is also what we look like now.'”"

"As someone who made the opposite move from you, I can second that “which is better, north or south of the border?” thing…Though I tend to be much harder on Canada because I feel like Canada often gets credit for being way more progressive than it truly is.
As for Little Mosque on the Prairie, I know a lot of people who have mixed feelings about it. When it first came out, me and a lot of my friends were really excited. But I actually don’t find it very funny, alas.
This whole convo made me think of the Goodness Gracious Me, the English sitcom about an Indian family…I wish there was something like that on American TV. The interesting thing is that the impression I get [(from having spent brief periods of time there and being half-English (ie ethnically and nationally)] is that the UK is more overtly racist than Canada or the US. So I feel like gauging social attitudes based on TV may be somewhat complex. Sort of like how we can’t draw a straight line between a black president in the US and an overall less racist culture."

"As for England, that’s an interesting perspective — I spent part of my childhood in Kilburn, London, which as you may know was and still is fairly ethnically diverse (now gentrifying, unfortunately). But I went to school in Hampstead, which is more posh. After the kids got over the novelty of my American accent, the white kids didn’t talk to me any more (pretty blatantly), and my only friends were the two Indian girls and the other Black kid in my class. The racism was thick! "

at the same time you cant just sit there and talk about children's racism and stuff... when your personality is most likely nonexistent and all you essentially have to offer is your physical being. therefore racism amongst children i feel is more acceptable than racism amongst adults, however some adults do behave like children, which gets us into our current state of affairs.

another thing... you can't just explore india, and indian culture, themes etc, when dealing with pepole who happen to have ancestry hailing from te indian subcontinent... there are brown people with a world of diverse experiences... its rediculous to stand back and do all this belly-aching and nay-saying when the bottom line is we are intrinsically apart of the problem. there needs to be acceptance of "non-traditional" lifestyles fro mbrown people, within the brown communities. i say brown because "indian" is quite frankly offensive. there is no need to attribute my fucking orientation with regards to fucking south-asian politics. i have none. ive visited on holiday india, much like many white people do, but my brown-ness or my ancestors geo-political origin has notihng to do with my own experience, my own raised-in culture-s, and my own worldview, which i determine, not my skin color; even with tradition, i was raised with a few options, that of india, england, and sikh, as well as christian, and traditional/conservative. some of these i kept, some of these weren't me. i define mmyself, not my skin defining me. im in control here, not my body-casing shell.

"This phenomenon has more to do with the global economy than the assimilation of Indian Americans or whatnot."

"I’m not impressed with Indians being trendy."

indians dont fucking exist. youre brown, if you choose to describe yourself by physical attribute, but beyond that... youre just a fucking huma nbeing, youre capable of going in any direction, and even if you have had steering early on, as an adult, all that falls by the wayside and youre left to exploer this big beautiful world in whichever way you see fit. thats the beauty of free will. stop acting like it doesnt exist .and stop acting like every brown skinned kid with parents born in india are destined to be clones of those parents. use your imagination. there doesnt have to be only one primary teacher toa child. and you can always elect to find direction in your life elsewhere. some people dont consider their parents to be the end all be all gods of the universe like some of yo useem to describe your own lives as. its easy to see then how a brown skin can find cultural icons and achievements and orient their life around that, becoming very oriented around that culture or cultures and then essentially being "of the people" rather than "of the family." fucking wake up and stpo being absolutely fucking nuts. idiotic pieces of shit. fucking rediculous. indians dont exist! theyrer fucking bogeymen you make up to make yourselves feel better. but the truth is yourer brown, as a skin reference onl, and the brain remains grey and open to persuation, form any category and angle. so dont fucking keep harping on about the mental similarities ofbrown skins, just stop it, youre not ever going to make it work, so just sotp it, please .its just as bad as these gener reassignment loonies. thinking they have to "normalize" the fringe. fucking get ooff it. eventually you'll find your popular-caucus of indian born brown skins will dwindle within a generation or two. let them die off and youll find nothing left of your precious "Indian" culture. it will be reduced to sheer homogenousness, with the culture being avalable to all but not necessarily forced upon any, and that i believe is the best way to be, how all cutlure should be handled. let it be out there, but do not fucking brand people with your dogma, ethics, politics, or anything else. fucking leave people the fuck alone, there is a freedom screaming to be let out. absolutely fucking rediculous. and anyone who feels that Indians do exist, OUTSIDE OF FUCKING INDIA, make me sick. fucking nonsense spewing fools of far fetched ideas and absolutey insanity for brains. can't be trusted, should be avoided, and certainly aren't worth listeing to. so fuck off. absolutely fucking weirdo loonie brain-dead dumbass.

http://www.racialicious.com/2010/06/15/whats-behind-the-south-asian-boom-on-tv/#comments

2010-05-26T23:33:00.001-07:00

it was 2001 that saw a new push to understand muslims. we know them enough to hate them, speaking as a nation, we know enough to fear, but we havent come to the point of acceptance. social change is slow. the gay and lesbian community have put in the work. americas homogenous nature and general keeping to oneself tactics by the asian community have fostered this lack of dialogue and now subsequent fear. its a fear of something people don't understand. they just know it as a threat.

http://www.racialicious.com/2010/05/26/who-do-americans-prefer-not-to-have-as-neighbors/#comment-2070981

2010-04-23T07:03:00.000-07:00

sandeep said:
the situation with women and sikhism is interesting. go to a gurudwara and you see the divide. women on one side men on the other. children sometimes sit with the women. sometimes they sit with the men. in our dayton ohio gurudwara mostly women prepare the food. when the gurudwara had a shortlived sunday school it was mostly manned by women.

sikhism has rules on hair, sometimes which feel more lax on the women, as far as what is currently accepted. a woman can trim her hair and it wont affect her standing in the community. only if rubbing shoulders with the most religious of the community would any such criticism arise, and when i was younger, pointing out hypocrisies, i never once heard anyone beside myself point out this fact. similarly with leg shaving.

i ended up cutting my hair six years ago. i had many issues with the community. i felt that the hair was a ritual in common day use much like many of the other sikh tenants none of which were meant to be used in such a way. when action is taught without meaning ritual forms.

women don't really seem free in INDIAN communities which Sikhs are apart of. In my old town of Dayton, many of the sikhs are invited and encouraged to participate in larger further reaching cultural organizations of Indian alliance. Festivals, dances, speaches. Dinners. If you've ever brushed shoulders in the community you know what i'm talking about. alot of rules of social decorum from these sorts of gatherings, expatriots, first and second generation immigrants, as Indians have immigrated worldwide only recently in bulk. basically people want to maintain ties with their fellow excountrymen. and sometimes that puts them at odds with their own cultural beliefs. survival as an immigrant and a minority in a host country can sometimes depend on whom you know and how well you network. so while we stand upon this frontier despite perhaps having been born in the country certain people probably wouldn't dream of making themselves social pariahs in the larger Indian community. the modesty of women is one of those tenants.

My father has taken me to some of the more famous Sikh settlements in America and if you go out west you see many more Sikh leaders interestingly enough with white skin. For those who maybe don't know, Sikhism doesn't really try to convert so the majority of members tend to be descendants from India, and more often then not from the state of Punjab, where Sikhs are most prevalent. (sortof an israel contained within another country) But it seems like the western notions of women filter in to the religion there and the entire "Indian" influece is confined to that of the text of the Guru Granth Sahib.

Essentially, the culture of India is in effect contaminating the water for Sikhs and has them inadvertedly facing opposite many Sikh beliefs as a default position. This obviously will change over time as the Sikh diaspora comes less to be defined with a tie to India and moreso on the shoulders of it's own religious tenants. At least these are my thoughts on the matter.

Posted on 21 April 2010 at 9:46 AM

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2010/04/sikhism_-_a_fem

hi, im an indian like you.

2010-04-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

some kid walks upto me last night saying this bullshit. and its like dude who the fuck are you and why the fuck do you think that im a) indian abd b) like you. i told him dude im welsh, and he's like ,oh, well i was born in idaho. and its like... what the fuck does that mean? he knows damn well he calls himself indian and i dont. thatjoke just soured it for me from the get go. my girlfriend dint warn me about this kid and well nobody did really walking into that place but this guy ws a vivek clone trying to impress folk and uptight with all the mental trapings of my dad but the nervous gut feeling that he had to try really hard to be unlikehimself. perhaps he recognized what he was ,the conservative parent package that'd gotten into his psyche, wasnt the best thing in the world to use to get laid, unless say you were out in punjab. so, with that, he decided the best thing to do was to go psychadelic. why? because well, he's indian, and being indians weird, so what else is weird? psychadelia. so lets make the connection there. walk around with big glasses ,exaggerate dances like bhangra esque disco and attract the laidies... wait... he has a girlfriend, and turns out those "ladies" are his friends .what is this kid on about? wha tis he trying to accomplish with all of this show?

i meaen im just standing back wondering why he'd bother to do all this crap for zero return. but thats that. the indian clai mthat we with brown skin share kinship. and its like, what the fuck is wrong with you comig to me like i know you. you think my esecret decoder ring got misplaced and they sent me this brown skin suit instead? i belong to no club, i have no interest, no pull or drive, no guiding force that brings me to identify with a country on the other side of the world i wasnt born in never lived amidst or will ever end up at. that spot has nothing to do with me. you might as well say, hey, im africa nlike you. walk up to a black dude, be like, hey man, im african, we're brothers. see if you dont get a look. count your blessings you dont get backhanded. this fucker walks up and is like, oh, hi, im indian! and its like... dude. what the fuck is wrong with you. dont you think thats a bit presumptuous and also derogitory. you thikn yo ucan put together someones origin just by their skin? their nose? their what. you tihnk youve got all that info stored away? im not fucking indian, dont fucking try and brand me with that shit. fucking rediculous ass shit. this is racism in the truest form. these fuckers walk up and breath, "indian" out and its like... go fall on a rake, please.

gay marriage

2010-02-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

religion isn't meant to control, but enlighten. the discussion of gay marriage should only include those things directly related, and as i see it, the christian doctrines have nothing to do with love shared by homosexuals being recognized by their peers.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=14870&post=104007&uid=257910883939#post104007

airport stares

2009-12-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

is menacing staring considered harassment
- intentional infliction of emotional distress
- more of a workplace crime
- dignity of work
- shattered by exploitation and mistreatment

http://www.errtravel.com/archive/20060127.htm - about staring

Here’s how it works. Except for narcissists, people generally feel uncomfortable when they are the object of sustained attention. They feel they are being scrutinized, which of course they are. That discomfort creates anxiety, and to relieve the anxiety, a person will likely change whatever miserable thing he is doing. He changes his behavior, and the stare ceases; his anxiety is relieved, and you’ve accomplished your objective. It’s a win-win situation.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/meridians/v004/4.1hai.html

"I hear so many familiar sub-texts burgeoning behind that question that a tart reply forms itself and leaves my tongue before I have fully processed either the situation or the wisdom of my answer. Underlying his question is first the obvious patriotic guilt-trip: why have you abandoned the soil [End Page 145] that nurtured you, to give of your learning to others, to that Western nation already saturated with brain power? Why not stay here where our need is greater? Implicit in it is also the woman guilt-trip: why are you not at home with your parents, serving family, community, nation—above and beyond your self? How can you live there, a woman alone, incomplete, unsheltered by a husband? The daughterly guilt trip: you should stay at home as is proper—for you are after all property—until you have been appropriately disposed of by parental agency into husbandly hands, instead of remaining that unspeakable burden, the unmarried daughter, undutifully obstructing your parents' function in life, which is to be relieved of you. Much remains unsaid on my part too, that must perforce remain unsaid. His desire for random exchange is incommensurate with my impulse to round on him with all the collected detritus of my years of struggle against familial and societal demands. Was he really prepared to hear my answer?

"

this kindof makes me worried to ever study these kinds of things for fear of perhaps just thinking of them as static concepts and not anything that directly effect me. it seems she's a well studied feminist. these're classes i'm looking at with interest in CCSF.

also feminism seems more a source of anger for this person than a source of enlightenment that provides perhaps a sense of peace of mind, morseo just entrance to a whole new battleground that perhaps she felt she wasn't aware of before.

"An old trap, pitting devotion and self-sacrifice against self-interest"

nice.

"Yet, as the oldest daughter, I still carried the pain of knowing that because of my insistence on shaping my own life, and [End Page 148] because of my refusal to subordinate my intellectual self to the cultural expectation of marriage and progeny, my parents had been regularly mocked and humiliated for failing to control and appropriately dispose of me. My eventual "late" marriage to a non-Pakistani of my own choosing—my husband is a British national, of mixed European and South Asian descent—was still culturally coded as an embarrassment to which my suffering parents had had to reconcile themselves."

interesting.

"that a culture and country that did not treat its women with much respect should presume to demand that those very women return and devote themselves to a self-sacrificing patriotism. "

"For what had been bothering me throughout, I realized, was ultimately a matter of respect, or rather, of suffering continuous disrespect as a wom-an. I became aware of it the moment I arrived in Pakistan—it would descend upon me like a weight in the air, that subtle aura of dismissive-ness, that expectation that I must humble myself, and retreat to my proper "place." "

you know this makes me think that perhaps this sort of thing seems to sort of lead towards a comparison between her treatment there and my treatment here. i would almost say that i get the same sort of treatment here as she does there. exactly so, really. it's kindof strange and sad really.

"And yet inevitably, as is the case with family reunions, old histories and unresolved tension points created minefields amidst the celebration."

this's rediculously awesome

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/meridians/v004/4.1hai.html

check it out.

the young turks

2009-12-03T22:55:00.001-08:00

"can you tell how scared they are on this? why do you keep screaming?"

"this is why the republican party is a joke. its like theyre not aware of their own hypocricies."

"its important that you analyze obama speeches in the light of day... you get a little tipsy on obama speech making. you have to go over the speech again to make sure you got everything... you have to dive in to see what he's actually saying."

"they are so insecure about morality that they want to enforce morality one everyone."

_______________________

racialicious

i don’t really agree with this. first of all the movie companies are based in america. secondly its hard enough to get skin color in roles. to expect the actors to be from the country of the character is a bit much. there is such thing as acting. it means theyre putting it all on for show. if you cast an actual barber as a barber where’s the acting? bottom line is american movies are probably likely to have an all american cast. consider the audience theyre trying to sell the film too. plus the fact that the same ten actors act in every hollywood blockbuster. the bottom line is that there’s no direct tie between africa in hollywood. if there was then you might see more crossover. actors local to the region. as well as directors and film crew. as it is they’re based in america and they feature mainly americans. if africans are bothered by it they should start their own film industry local. look at the indian system. an indian actor in an american film is a hard sell. but if you go to india there’s a big industry for indian film. plus america itself is deeply prejudiced. i’d say save yourself the trouble and start something in a more african friendly environment. bottom line is the most you can expect is for an actor to look like the guy. at least when it comes to cinema. if you want real quality acting go to the stage.

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/12/03/casting-white-actors-in-asian-roles-1957-to-today/#more-4545

it seems like when it comes to race we’re really far behind in film. i’m actually surprised things are so bad so recent. my question is is there any tendency to rewrite non-asian roles as asian? it might just be that we’re jumping the gun. with there being so few asians in america perhaps there arent enough actors for the role. there’s only so many movies jon cho can do.

but i have to admit it does look bad. its hard not to look at those charicatured roles. asian characters distinctly played by whites. perhaps by erasing the asian role altogether they save face. but when seen against the backdrop of the history you can see where its coming from. and its not a good place.

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/12/03/casting-white-actors-in-asian-roles-1957-to-today/#comment-2048918

i’d just like to say this is a brilliant article. and it echoes alot of my own personal beliefs.

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/11/30/no-one-hijacked-islam/#comment-2048922

racialicious #2

2009-11-25T07:47:00.001-08:00

i think you can’t expect people to be empathetic. the lady was put into a strange situation and she freaked. she put a wall up between herself and the issue, and then defensively insulted the nanny until she no longer felt threatened. that’s pretty normal behavior. it isnt helpful or healthy, and it is self destructive. but it’s not the nanny’s job to fix her employer. the nanny should just pick herself up, find someone else to work with and get on with her life. also the longer she’s in america the more she’ll get used to racism. me as a brown-skinned indian descent person, i had a bit of a rough change-over, but the key is to think of how you’d consider another races’ racism, and then apply that to yourself no matter how squeamish that may be. there’s bad things in the world and there’s healthy way to react to them. and you shouldn’t expect to recieve help from an unqualified stranger. it takes a surprising level of understanding to make a difference in these situations.

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/11/20/it%e2%80%99s-not-all-about-you-or-the-case-for-empathy/#comment-2047865

someone brought up family. things were kosher between me and mine until i grew old enough to understand the religion they raised me in and noticed some hypocrisies in the practice. eventually i grew to emphatically exclaim how i wanted to move away from certain practices of the faith and this didn’t sit well with mom and dad who convinced me not to trust my own gut instinct at 13. these sentiments stayed with me until 17 where i was in college and free enough to carry out my plan. the resulting shunning and pain due to that was intense. you could basically say the result was a three year break from having any family whatsoever. the only thing that really brought us together was a death that i experienced. things are better now but that was definately a dark time. and i can definately relate with losing the respect of your peers and support system because of making a decision to be outspoken.

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/11/20/quoted-resistance-on-club-membership/#comment-2047868

the most powerful thing in the article is the video. the japanese internment camp period was something ive read about but never something i’ve immersed myself with. i’d say the video is the single greatest reason to avoid palin-esque antics. fear mongering leads to improper treatment. let due process be the method by which we dole out justice. mob mentality can lash out in some pretty terrible ways which can hurt alot of innocent people.

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/11/19/good-to-know-sarah-palin-believes-in-racial-profiling-glenn-beck/#comment-2047870

spiritual awakening healing repressed-terror

2009-11-08T14:10:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I kinda figured out that like when I was growing up, in Heathfield, which was in Blackburn, and then also in QEGS which was in Blackburn, I was going to Christian services as well as Sikh ones. And so basically, as late as about 1994. When I was about eight years old. And uh... as we moved to Ohio in 1995, this stopped completely. Like, my parents wouldn't take me to a church of course. But more interestingly, they enrolled me in Christian schools in England. But they didn't do it in America. And I'm not sure if I liked Christianity more or I liked both equally, but there are a couple pieces of evidence that help me figure that out. Christianity was taught to me in English, by a whole hell of alot of people. So I kinda got the gist. In fact I don't think that I had any questions about the religion. On the other hand, even today there are things I still feel compelled to discuss when it comes to Sikhism.

Now, I watched a documentary, about two Quakers. And basically, they were both starting to question the way of life. Because the Bibles that they were reading were in German. And they weren't allowed to go to school after they were 14 years old. And they weren't allowed to read their Bibles outside of their home. And they weren't alloweed to discuss their Bibles with people outside of their family. So two of these guys started meeting each other and discussing the Bible. Both of them got excommunicated from the Quaker church. And that meant that basically they were shunned. Which means that they couldn't be talked to, and they couldn't visit each other. And it just kindof reminds me about one simple thing. That basically you can't combine culture and religion. The deacon for the Quaker church were telling people how to dress. And these two radical Quakers, they decided that that wasn't part of the Bible.

Now this is pretty much identical to like... what I've seen with Sikhism. That because we're kindof a culture within a culture... there's it's own language. There's it's own... um... set of celebrations, clothes, and rules basically covering every part of life. A Sikh who decides to look at what Nanak says is kindof in a way, excommunicated from the community. Now the Sikh community does provide benefits. They can offer jobs or advice or help. But they kindof cut that help off if you get excommunicated. And shunned. And that's exactly what happened to the Quakers in the documentary. But the point is I was never completely Sikh. Because being completely Sikh is being nothing else. But I was going to churches the same time I was going to temples.

"so its like you were given to religions to check out at a young age"

exactly. But I don't think that that was a good idea. Because after 1995, one of those was taken away from me. And I just remember kindof crying 'cause my mom couldn't answer what would happen when I die.

"how old were you?"

well... if you do the math. it was probably 1995 or 1996. so probably about 9 or 10. but like that was the start of my almost terror when it comes to death. it didn't happen to me before then because it didn't bother me when i had christianity and sikhism. and honestly i think the way that they did it, they raised me to be culturally a sikh, but religiously a christian. because all they really got across to me was the culture in the sikh stuff. most sikhs dont even understand their religion enough to teach it to you. so youre just sitting there left being afraid of death or whatever. but like christianity something i learned at the exact same time, that taught me the heaven thing and that pretty much you know is a relaxing idea. and to me its kinda cool that if youre ogod to people you end up getting rewarded later on in life. but thats good because being good to people already makes you feel good now.

so, it's like... 2009 now. and basically they havent kept me around christian stuff since 95. like it was christian sikhism mixed from 86 to 95. and i guess you could say part of why i hated chicago was because of the aunts. they wanted to bring me up as a strictly sikh kid. but that just kindof you know made me depressed. like i guess the point is that my parents never thought about the religious aspects of the schools. because if they had actually thought about how i was learning more about christianity than sikhism maybe they would've acted a bit different. but the truth is that they didnt really do anything about it. to me i just kinda feel like thats fine. they decided to put me in these chrsitian schools and thats where i found something that i liked. i just dont like how they took away that option later on in my childhood. 'cause you can say expose your kids to lots of stuff but why take away what they like. but thats kinda what they did.

i mean thats something that liek ive talked about alot. but its kinda come in many different forms. like the whole talking about moving me from england thing. but what was one of the most poigniant things of my time in england. definately the religion of you know the british. see like i dont really feel like im a christian convert. because i was raised with the both of them from the get go. so i mean i just feel like im both at the same time. at least i have the right to choose either one and not really worry about it. but i mean its interesting to find out that this is like something inside me. like what do you think?

"it is it's very interesting. i think it's kinda cool how like you had two different religions to learn about. but uh... i just don't really understand why your parents, they moved you, but not only that, anything you had in england, they made sure you didnt have in america. and its like alot of the things you had in england were good things."

i agree completely. but i mean its like there's not really much we can do today about the past. except kindof understand it better.

i guess the new thing to think about is how there are some repressed negative memories in my head. like thinking about the whole fact where there's this moment where i feel suicidal. thats where i guess it makes me realize how important it is. i mean enoughs enough. and if its bothering me that much its time to stop listening to my parents and do what i want to do. like unquestionably just stop listening to them. like its so far overdue to stop listening to them that its not even funny. but yesterday was a wakeup call to see how much this really was effecting me. but to me, all those thoughts went away, when i reminded myself of some of the christian things i learned when i was 8 or 9. like for me, for some reason i just feel like life's pointless without having like all my spiritual stuff. i mean if you think about it my parents have just made me do alot of stuff. like moved, schools. those were all things my parents made me do. so its time that i started moving towards the things that i know i like. spiritually, artistically, academically. its time they stopped influencing anything in my life. your life shouldn't be navigated by your mom or dad. and so im definately gonna make some changes.

What's going on in the world?

2009-11-03T20:24:00.000-08:00

in Hollywood they're doing alot of remakes right now. That might not be the best idea. I wonder how long it'll be before people stop watching movies. You know, when they stop watching sequels. That's when we'll see more original shit. Although I have to say, subscription models work too. It's kindof the World of Warcraft style filmmaking. Keep giving them more and more of the same shit. They'll stick with it until they get bored of it. And people make millions in the meantime. But it definately reduces the stock of film in my eyes. It's terrible to do back to back films. I like reinvented universes. Rather than the same thing every time. Who wants to watch that. Why would they give a shit. It's got to be original. And original movies steadily get discovered. It seems indie is now the realm of interest. And I guess big budget means subscription. The real adventures are Indie. That's what I think anyway. Real originality and stuff. Maybe that's the current model.

this is interesting:

I agree that concerts are where an artist typically makes his/her money. But how does that apply to say movies? If you aren't buying a ticket to go to the movies, AND you aren't buying the DVD, how is the studio supposed to make money?

so basically. the deal is that when people make films, they're doing something thats a recording. the live version would be the play. thats how the studio makes money. plays. of course... that shows the limitations of the medium. but technically all of the lyrics can be spoken on stage.

"downloaders spend more on music than those who obey the law"

i can definately agree with that. you're basically being exposed to more music. like you couldn't afford that music before. and music is kindof like a form of art. in a way its the most accessible form of art out there. because you can watch people do it. but its also a show. its a performance. and thats key. but the price... thats the limiting factor for people. good things in the world shouldn't be locked behind cash. that's how it is in boston. the best parts of the city are priced out the ass. its better when things aren't controlled by money. leave things free. let things belong to the people. things that everyone who is born there will own. universal ownership. something that no amount of money can buy. that's basically how people are going to be able to do it. let things exist as a universally owned thing. let things be owned by the things that live in it. i dont think we should keep invading all these forests.

Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods

This shows pretty cool though. And like, that Texas fair looked awesome. I like how positive the guy is. I think he just gets really into his cooking, and he doesn't focus on anything else. It's kindof inspiring really 'cause it shows what the best thing is to do. He studied cooking in school, and now he lives cooking. He's friendly to everybody that cooks, and he's friendly to everybody else 'cause he's doing what he likes. His example is pick something get really good at it and that'll be how you see the world. And you just enjoy life a hell of alot more that way. He's like a good example of what we should be doing, like what our approach to college should be. 'Cause like if we have the right attitude, this could be a really positive experience.

pet project: demographics

2009-11-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

scotland
-97.99 white
-1.09 south asian
-0.19 black
-0.25 mixed
-0.32 chinese
-0.19 other

it's pretty surprising to read that scotland is 98 percent white. you would've expected it to be a bit more of an even distribution. but its also interesting to know that indians are the biggest minority group in scotland. they call them south asians in the united kingdom. but south asian is a word that is only for india. so literally one out of every hundred people in scotland is indian.

portugal
-96.87 portuguese
-3.13 legal immigants

portugal doesn't even really list the information very well. like they've only got portuguese and immigrants listed. but i keep kindof seeing a trend that all these european countries are fine. they say how their countries are getting swamped by immigrants. but if you look at the numbers its just not the case. like you see 1 percent to 4 percent of a population being indian. its just a bunch of lies and fanatacism. so that just shows the truth of these situations. the guy that we talked to yesterday seemed like he was surprised that i was bold. the point is his assumption about people like me was they were afraid. maybe he even felt they were supposed to be greatful because they got allowed to come to the country. but the thing is people are born or brought here at very young ages and are practically american. it really doesnt matter what these people think. after one generation you become american. my parents were the generation that immigrated. because i had my childhood in this country i became an adult that was a product of this country. and once youre a product of a country you have as much ownership of it as anyone else.

italy
-93.5 italian
-2.72 romanian/albanian/moroccan

italy doesnt even list indian people. it says 93 percent are italian 2.7 are romanian, albanian and moroccon and then the rest are just everybody else.

cambridge, MA
-68.10 white
-11.92 black
-0.29 native american
-11.88 asian
-0.08 pacific islander
-3.19 other
-4.56 two or more races

-(in addition to being one of the above, 7.36 claim hispanic)

cambridge is only 68 percent white. with it almost being 12 percent asian. but i don't like how they lump chinese and south asians together. we're completely different. people from south asia have nothing to do with chinese people. so it's just kinda offensive for them to try and dumb everyone down and try and say everyone's the same. i think the europeans do it way better. but its interesting to think that america has attracted way more people from that part of the world. mainly because they took the land from native americans. speaking of which there's only 0.29 native americans in cambridge. they're the descendents of the ones that used to rule the entire country. and then the 68 percent of white people they're the descendants of those who killed the native americans. see living here is almost living in acceptance of what was done to the native americans. because the vast majority of people here don't seem sympathetic to native americans. maybe its like a country out of desperation. like maybe they really desperately wanted their own country so they killed everybody to get it. and then by having such high demographic numbers from asians, its interesting because the european countries which have more relations and ties to india have less. so i guess people really did get taken by the american dream. but the whole american dream has been built on like a bloodbath. and the people who enjoy their time here are doing it because of crimes committed. like this whole country as a whole is a criminal nation. it invaded a native population and exterminated them. and anyone who comes to america today does that more or less in indifference to their past. people seem to act like the industrial revolution made all history before that useless. but this is just a disgusting country. like if i was in a position, the same one my father was in, in 1991... knowing what i know today i never would've come over here. it's just a disgusting place. sure you can make money but its basically blood money. every dollar is drenched in the blood of a thousand native americans. every brick is build on the grave of a dead indian. i dont know how america can ever live down this horrible legacy. but its definately clear that something needs to be done. americas been a player in the world because its basically gone from one thing to another. like basically americans have never had a rest. ever since they started coming over here its been one problem after another. and because of it there's alot of deep wounds in america that haven't even begun to be healed. if you ask me i think the whole things gonna self destruct one day. unless they try and like heal some of these deep wounds in america. just like vivek committed suicide with his deep problem. america could go down the same road. suicide of a country is the same thing as civil war. and i wouldn't be surprised if shit like that did happen one day. like if you look at america, they definately do rule the land like a bunch of cowboys. taking way too many risks, killing without respect, like outlaws. taking what they want, and then coming up with schemes to make themselves the richest people in the world. america has steadily had more and more dreamers like that. and that spirit of anything goes fuels that here. but still... there's a dark side to it. all the towns that're lying in ruin because nobody has jobs. because the companies were just not ever protected. these bigass companies that stretched out across the country were basically like cowboy companies. and then they die the death of an outlaw, except... just like in mafia times, the guys a criminal but he's offering you protection, if you don't accept protection he'll kick your ass, and you have to pay him a fee, so you learn to live like that, and then your fucking mafia gets killed off, and you've got nobody there to protect you. that's kinda like what happened in america with the car companies.

somerville MA
-76.97 white
-6.50 black
-0.22 native american
-6.44 asian
-0.06 pacific islander
-4.96 other races
-4.85 two or more races

-of the above, -8.76 hispanic/latino of any race

Canada
-32.2 canadian
-21.0 english
-15.8 french
-15.1 scottish
-13.9 irish
-10.2 german
-4.6 italian
-4.0 south asian
-3.9 chinese
-3.9 ukranian
-3.8 aboriginal
-3.3 dutch
-3.2 polish
-2.5 black

you know what really surprises me? in canada they have almost 4 percent of the population aboriginal. i think that beats america. and its not just asian but thats 4 percent INDIAN so thats way more than america. see if they did it by american standards then it would be chinese and south asian together which would be almost 8 percent which's almost 10 percent. and thats way more than what america has listed. see canada's a smaller country as a whole but because of the diversity on the street youll see different types of people on a regular basis. another thing i like about canada is there's only 2.5 blacks, which means that theyre not gonna dominate the news and everything in canada that isnt white. america has too much of that white black thing going on. its so much that basically asian people dress up as black kids. because they identify with that more since theyre apparently not white. that to me is kindof interesting. but canada does look a little bit more promising. lets say you add up all the south asians, blacks, aboriginals, chinese, and what do you get. i get about 15 percent. so thats still pretty fucking small. i mean... its probably an 85 percent white country. i mean its good they do the demographics in real demographics and not "white". but they definately seem to in a positive way have more ties to europe. in the sense that the people there still tend to hold on to their irish name and stuff. so thats kinda cool. but its not some sort of real equal place or anything. an equal place would be no one group overshadowing the other. i read about a place in new york where that was the case. 20 percent of every race. its in new york. its like a borough or a neighborhood.

New York City
-44.1 white (35.1 non-hispanic)
-25.2 black (23.7 non-hispanic)
-0.4 american-indians (0.2 non-hispanic)
-11.6 asian-americans (11.5 non-hispanic)
-less than 0.1 pacific islander american
-16.8 other races (1.0 non-hispanic)
-1.9 two or more races (1.0 non hispanic)

-27.4 hispanics & latinos

dude. new yorkers, they call native americans, they call them american indians. its fucking rediculous. youve got indian americans and now youve got american indians. why use the name india for these people its insulting to people who are from india. it just seems like a fucking rediculous thing for a city like new york. they just don't deserve the name India. they should call them like indigenous peoples. the europeans have a way better way of describing it.

see in new york they list whether or not people of that race are hispanic. which's interesting because in america they don't go that in depth. i'm guessing hispanic just literally means spanish-speaking and spanish-cultured. but that just shows much of an impact the spanish had on the americas. like mexico and then south america. its like the new world was divided up between spain england and france. france got canada. england got america. and france got south america. what do you think about that? but isnt that crazy how they divided up an entire part of the world with people already on it. they just used their technology to rape half of the world. they brushed aside the locals and brought their own people from across the oceans in. i mean thats absolutely insane. just because you have power does it mean you have to use to bully people around? and these people didnt bully people, they killed people. and they stole whatever they had. and then they brought their families and stuff and they started living in the stuff of these dead people. i mean that is just so brutal. fuckin bloodthirsty bastards is what these guys are. theyre just like modern day vikings with fucking cannons. coming in blasting shit up and then moving in their wife and kids. and at the end of the day its like, did they really gain anything from doing that? i mean i know when you read about britain you read about how really crowded it is. so was their solution back in the day just kill people and take land? we've got too many people so lets take half our people send 'em there and kill everybody and live there. yeah i just don't understand why death had to be involved in this whole process. and to me death is a fucking huge crime. if somebody commits murder in the united states they can get executed themselves. if not jailed for their entire life. but an entire country was basically pardoned for murder. not only were they pardoned for it they were asked to kill people by their government. well they had enough power to win so they felt their award was winning. and apparently it didnt bother them at all to get what they wanted through murder. its through violent crimes that the world has come to the place its at today. and those crimes are still waiting to be punished for. there's no justice for the dead natives. not yet. maybe in the future we'll give 'em you know 1/10th of america. but as it is the descendants of native americans who choose to live in the land that they were born in, they suffer today and nothing is done for them. they've given retardedly small pieces of land there's nothing they can do with it. they're made to feel like foreigners in their own land. like... i kindof understand it because i grew up here, but what if my ancestors grew up here too, for like 10,000 years. that's a fuckin bitter pill to swallow. trying to stand back and just realize that you have no power over this land. i mean i guess you could probably get over that. but like... being treated like youre not even as good as other people. see anytime i have any problems with someone all i need to do is think of native americans to put me in my fucking place. if they can continue to live in this country and try to continue, then i mean fuck it man its not that hard for me to do it. but those are some deep wounds that havent been healed. and im definately interested in living in a way that keeps all wounds healed.

a response to racialicious

2009-10-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

Racialicious article: NPR sortof hates Black music.
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/10/20/npr-sort-of-hates-%e2%80%9cblack-music%e2%80%9d/#comment-2030405

in a way its nice perhaps as a so-called south-asian to not have to deal with these sorts of things. there is, after all, no concept of what brown-skinned “indian-looking” folk listen to. The only crap i could assume would be potentially, beyond Ravi Shankar, probably Bollywood movie soundtracks (which do sell well), or perhaps Bhangra (which’s regionally specific to my grandparents, all four, place of origin). Beyond that… perhaps the whole grime/hip-hop/rnb deal going on over in the UK that brit “asians” seem to be getting into.

But yeah… i think that without being raised within a Sikh and Indian-American community, I would have never been exposed to all that, not just the music itself, but the knowledge that such music was listened to within the Indian-American, and to a lesser extent Asian-American diaspora in America.

So, while in a way it’s a shame we don’t really find music that originates in India, or music written/performed/sold by Indian-Americans aka South Asians aka Brown Skinned easterners… heh. (i’d rather be called brown-skinned than indian as i have no tie to the country, and its really the skin they’re trying to classify me by, so do it outright, goddammit, heh)… while thats a shame, its nice in a way that we don’t have such misconceptions about our community.

although… perhaps you could say that what we have instead is worse… that burning hole of absolute lack of knowledge about our community by outsiders, in any way whatsoever… no education in the schools, really no exposure to the Joe Schmo besides their television and perhaps for the few vigilant detectives, net searches.
____________

Racialicious makes some comments on racist halloween costumes
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/10/21/the-racialicious-halloween-roundup/#comment-2030426

interesting. i had an… interesting halloween experience in 2003. freshman at the Ohio State University meant I was dragged out to the OU halloween party, a massive city-wide drunk-fest, where folk dress in costume and get pissed, New Orleans-Mardi Gras style ‘cept out in the Midwest. So back then I had long hair, a putka, which is akin to the turban, as a kid in a predominantly-Sikh family. Whilst I’d raised protests to the outward sign of faith that more or less was a personal lie, i was strongarmed into keeping the hair intact by my folks. (don’t worry, that didn’t last, fast forward 6 years and we’ve since reconciled over my long-since shorn hair, heh)

But back to the story, walking the streets, semi-blasted myself, with my gargantuan local friend and former Highschool classmate, and folk’d glance me, drunk themselves, and decry “Osama!” Now… more or less these guys got a bit of a break, given that it was Halloween… I was cautioned to give them some space, as my first gut instinct was to sock the guy in the face, but i was held back by said gargantuan friend… this happened a couple times in the night…

long story short, i had just gone out without a costume, none of us in our group had one, as we’d just impromptu driven to the town for the drinks, and had no idea there’d be a city-wide street-side Halloween party boozefest. All in all the crawl was pleasant, hardly anyone bothered me really, but the thing is… essentially I’d been taken for a halloween costume… my parental-encourage religious garb, sign of faith, had been reduced to a pop-culture reference of extremely offending nature… lovely.

boston #1

2009-10-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

the musicians here just sound goofy. like they just never play it right. sing too soft. and like just too awkward. all these guys sound goofy. they don't sound as awesome as bands that you'd expect. everyone's depressed. they just dn't seem talented. they seem afraid of what they're doing too. that's probably because they live in boston. they feel like if theyre not like every other person then theyre goofy.

they try as hard as they can to make everyone feel shitty who doesn't fit into their thing. if you don't look like them, or if you choose not to surround yourself by a crowd, they just want to keep you in place. they want to make sure you never get too ambitious. there's always going to be someone to try and remind you that you're shitty. i feel worried about living here, i think it'll change how i sound. i'll lose all my energy and i'll just become soft. i have not seen a single punk band. the only remotely punk thing about one guy was his mohawk. but thats just a uniform. musically the guy didn't play punk.

the prevailing opinion of boston people seems to be to be depressed as fuck. you have to understand these guys are full of shit. it amazes me how shitty all these people are. almost whiney. and afraid. we can't live here.

talking to a madman #2

2009-10-25T07:04:00.001-07:00

so yeah, the guys basically still on there. my own insult of the guy got taken off which i kinda wish they hadnt done. basically... yeah.

____________________-

it's a shame that my honest views get deleted off this thread. Jessy, you're asking personal questions that i have no interest in answering. Furthermore, you've totally changed the discussion from something i was interested in, to something that i'm not. You're outright attacking me, whilst i really am more or less indifferent to you, outside of the dislike of these attacks, which i could describe in great detail the level of my dislike, but apparently, these are well moderated forums, if youre a newcomer your thoughts wont stay, but you seem to be on the inside. so congratulations for that. getting away with saying such things as "half-baked" "i pity you" and accusing me of "doing ... propoganda" as well as "you guys are wasting your time and just full of air" and "you are nothing... get it." classy.

"Live with the TRUTH.. do not build FALSE WALLS.. and assume that is TRUTH.. because thats what sets WRONG and RIGHT apart.. a THEIF.. sitting in the CELL .. does not admit he did it.. he thinks. he has the right.. or that whats the harm.. Only a person who can see the WRONG. can tell him. what is RIGHT and what is WRONG..." - most of this is baloney. youre trying to give me advice as if im asking for any.

and the further nonsense, "I pity your knowledge... egoism... mundane effort... immature and half baked approach..." - apparently this is all great example for the kids who read these forums. insulting posters outright. clearly this doesn't deserve moderation. does it?

I basically read your entire post as one long personal attack. But the moderators don't seem to mind. Perhaps this post will get deleted too.

________________

"Sandeep.. if you were a Hindu or a Christian" - how does this have anything to do with what we're discussing?.
"I have no issues.. because they are not debating what you are debating.. When we did not give this right to them" - the right to discuss sikhism?
"since 400 years. why do you deserve.. on the other hand. you should NOT even try to debate this point..... this is utter HYPOCRICY..." - hypocrisy that i decide to discuss sikhism?
"You wrote "you do not see the unshorn kesh and pagh as a ritual. i do. "
Wow.. are you the new GURU" - sounds like an insult.
".. see tell me frankly if you believe in his words or not.." - why does it matter what i believe? i can discuss things regardless of belief.

"Tell me 3 things frankly.. no IFS or BUTS" - no thanks.
"- do you Agree and Believe with Gurujis words or not?" - assuming alot to think im going to bother answering.
"- do you believe in the GRANTH SAHIB from A-Z or not?" - you dont have to believe in something to discuss something.
"- Do you believe the HISTORY or not?" - are you suggesting that some of it was invented?

"if you say YES TO ALL" - bit silly hah.
". without any Reasoning then. lets talk." - in other words, youve got a list of things i need to go out and achieve for you... who made you the boss?
"else.. I think you guys are waisting TIME and just full of AIR..." - lovely, another insult.

"I am not here to change you.." - really? sure sounds like it.
"but I STOP you from doing your OWN propaganda.." - im laughing reading that. what propoganda? youre just inventing problems and whining about them.
"GURUJI's word is the FINAL.. YOURS is NOT" - actually they're dead, i'm not.

"It DOES Not matter what you think.." - lovely.
"because you are NOTHING.." - i bet you have lots of friends
"get it.. NOTHING compared to the GURUJIs..." - this is almost like deification of the guru's which is kinda defeating the purpose.

"Live with the TRUTH.." - this sounds like propoganda
"do not build FALSE WALLS.." - this doesnt even make sense
"and assume that is TRUTH.." - you sound like a televangelist.
"because thats what sets WRONG and RIGHT apart.." - you must think im really gullible.
"a THEIF.. sitting in the CELL .. does not admit he did it.." - strange analogy hah.
"he thinks. he has the right.. or that whats the harm.." - so youre comparing discussing a religion with a crime. lovely.
"Only a person who can see the WRONG. can tell him." - youre making a stretch here. its almost like you could have this scenario where people see wrong in practically anything, and essentially we're kept from doing whatever it is we want to do as the dude deems things "wrong." i'd rather live by my own views. than some strangers.
"what is RIGHT and what is WRONG..." - you act like i have no clue about morality. lovely.

"Even after reading all the words.. of GURU. you are still ADAMANT..,.. I pity you.." - lovely.

"I pity your knowledge.." - thats alot of pity.
"your EGOism.." - are you kidding me? your ego seems way bigger than mine. you after all are the one trying to passing judgement. and failing.
"your Mundae EFFORT to change DEFINITIONS..." - where exactly am i trying to do this? heh.
"your Immature and HALF BAKED approach" - lovely.
"to CUSTOMIZING religion..." - that doesnt even make good sense in english. how exactly does one "customize" a religion. it just sounds like a silly saying.
"and feel sad for you" - hah, doesn't sound that way.
"to DEFY the LAST word of GURU;s.." - you sound like living a free life is a life of defiance. thats weird.

"Read whatever you want to in between lines.." - thanks for the permission, but i do what i what regardless of what you write.
"but then thats what you will do your ENTIRE LIFE...." - are you a fortune teller now?
"and you will keep DOING IT.." - lovely.
"because.. in the future. someone is going to DEFY your though process as well...." - so how much for the palm reading? if you seriously think anyone is going to take that straight faced, youre living in fantasy.

______________________

talking to a madman

2009-10-23T00:57:00.000-07:00

jess, youre a fool. why the hell are you writing with capitals. and why are you even fucking talking to me? i wasnt even talking to you. i actually was done with this thread until you came along and started writing your nonsense. i full right to write whatever i please. i dont give a shit about your views. the difference is i dont read yours and feel the need to blast yours. why do you read my views and feel the need to write an essay.

i keep deleting what i write, and im not sure why. maybe its just kindof to save this thread frmo your idiocy. maybe its just to try and do something better. but it seems every day you post something terrible. your views dont represent all sikhs believe me. and why are you bothering to preach the guru granth to me? do you think im not capable of reading it myself? do you feel like you're important enough to preach shit to me? what exactly makes you feel like you have the write to tell random people what to do?

the thing is you're an idiot. and i can't believe that you can call yourself a Sikh. you can quote shit all day, but you don't respect people. you don't seem to have any acceptance of people. so you are a hypocrite. you say that you're a "true sikh". i see more evidence of you being a true jerk. i can't believe that people like you exist. in our community no less. people should be able to speak freely whenever they like. and guru's werent gods. you takl about hinduism... you treat sikhism more like that religion than what it really is. these discussions are getting me to read more about the sikh faith. and regardless of what i read you are still a fool.

i dont understand how you cant afford respect to a girl half your age. im assuming youre in your 20s. if thats the case why waste your time with this chick. why bother trying to preach to her that she's an idiot. does that make you pleased? are you happy to kindof insult people? you hide behind the guru granth sahib and insult people. you think that you're smart but you're really just a fool. for all your work to try and understand the religion, you really haven't gotten your mind around some of the basic shit. you try to tell people what they're trying to say. and then you argue against your own fantasy. its kinda pitiful. youre creating enemies and then fighting with them. only your enemies only exist in your head.

you kindof mystify me. how can someone spend lots of time around the guru granth, and become as twisted as you are. if anything youre a warning to anyone who wonders what it'd be like to be a so called sikh nerd. and thats basically what you are. you relish the granth. perhaps like a LOTR nerd would do so guerillermo del toro. wake up man. noone gives a shit about what you think. we live as we want. you think youre trying to repremand me? what gives you the right to even try to judge me? you are a foul bastard. you put yourself on a pedestal. your heads in the clouds. and you probably dont have any room for the guru's in yoru life.

i saw your friends list. every single person on there's indian. are you isolating yourself from indians? your facebook says medical imager. you seem to identify with your job. maybe you think youre not allowed to do anything but look down. but dont go so far as to think thats the way everyone should go about shit. its absolutely rediculous how youre acting. people werente ven talking to you. and you decided to introduce yourself, not with a name, not a background, but instead like a rabid preacher on the street. you make me want to distance myself from the religion. religion is a personal thing. people like you are blights upon sikhism.

and this whole insulting girls thing. i dont know about you, but ive got better things to do than to get on facebook daily and bother 16 year olds. apparently you dont. maybe your job as a medical imager doesnt keep you busy. but let me guess. born in india. came over here. working now, and surrounded by indians. why? because apparently youre not allowed to talk to other people. you memorized the guru granth. its a book written by people who died a long time ago. youre a fucking fool if you believe that shit. theyre just men, just like you. to memorize their views as some sort of noble pursuit is fucking silly. you can learn from it, but why pretend its anything but fantasy.

you need to wake yourself up. and check yourself. youre bullying people on sikh forums. making people feel less welcome to talk. kindof acting sour. quoting the granth like its a machine gun. people are free to do whatever the hell they want. and they can call themselves whatever the fuck they want. you seem to think youre the crown prince. that anyone who wants to call themself a sikh has to meet your expectations. thats absolutely rediculous. if you have that much of an ego, you can't possibly be sikh. youre just a fool. a fucking religious wingnut. youre a fundamentalist, bigoted, and sick. and you need to learn that.

the guru's would never have encouraged people to act the way you do. you wakl around trying to bring people down. and basically just for your own pleasure. posting derogatory remarks on a website isnt going to change a damn thing, except that you look like a fool. youre practically like a suicide bomber. taking these life guidelines, turning them into a weapon, and trying to hurt people with them. youre whats wrong with religion. its not meant to be something people have to copy. its not meant to be something you have to sit there and memorize. that sa fucking set of facts. thats fucking grade school. thats busy work. that doesnt fucking change your fucking convictions.

good and bad are in a head, those are there from the knowledge of a man from what he's grown amongst. apparently you feel violence, is justified. you feel like your religion is being insulted. and then you feel its justified to then attack back and say that no, my religion isnt bad, its you, the accuser, thats bad. and you turn yourself into an inflictor of pain. thats no way to be. but apparently, thats exactly how you choose to be. you think its better to pull someone aside, tell them they suck, and tell them to convert, or perhaps they need to force themselves through some brainwashing sessions, until they agree with you more, and then maybe theyll be ok.

what a fucking lame ass way to deal with someone who has questions, or someone who has different points of view. youre telling people to agree with you? thats probably alot like how you handle making friends. you expect them to be indian. at least brown skinned. if they can't do that you wont accept them. you know? because youre racist. and in a larger sense, youre closed minded. you buy into these fantasies. communication can be good, if you know how to do it. but instead youre building a fantasy, and then getting upset with it. youre fighting against invisible enemies. and it makes you look clinically insane.

im guesing thats whats wrong. and the shame of it is how youre influencing these kids. youremaking them feel like youre a good example. you know why? because the rest of the community is silent. i wonder why thats the case. anyone who gets to these threads gets your nonsense thrown in their face. people should be able to just write what they want. you just write constant nonsense. it just pisses me off. but because i dont want to be a bad influence, i sanction myself. you dont seem to hold yourself back. and youre being a terrible influence. if you want to educate people, do it in a way thats kind. otherwise... just fucking stop.

now i dont know why you feel like its your job to remind people how stupid they are. and to do it over the subject of sikhism too... now there's alot of internet nerds out there. maybe i should just delete all this and type one word. troll. youre just nothing but a troll. and i guess, dont feed the troll, eh? youre full of shit. you spend more time bitching on the net than you do making white friends. or black friends. or asian friends. or hispanic friends... indian only right? i forgot how stupid you were. how afraid you were of different races. youre just full of shit. and nobody should ever listen to you.

i cant believe that you even bother wearing a turban. all that venom you spit out your mouth shows how little of a sikh you really are. trying to shout down discussion. trying to put your rules on the words spoken. youre a fool. and youre also no good. you need to either enlighten yourself, or go away. because in your current state, youre no good. youve got problems, and apparently you just can't see it. that's the problem though isn't it. you're just a fucking fool. sikhs should always be free to write what they feel is on their mind. you don't seem to thnk so. i do. and you think censorship is good. as well as feeling like the guru's are near gods. which is absolute heresy and rediculous to boot.

i even feel like you feel like you and your words deserve attention. and unfortunately, ive given you that. but the truth is, youre just a fool. there's nothing youre saying that has any value. your words are insincere, and really shouted out in anger. there's not a bit of sincerity or kindness in any o fit. and that belies the true nature of yoru words, and your work. youre out there to do as much damage as you can. and thats absolutely stupid. honestly i can't believe you feel welcome to post on these boards. you come here, in front of the sangat, and you feel perfectly fine to yell at those who don't agree with you. to me that's rediculous

remember, there's children out there that can read these. and they're reading your words, about how you're just doing us all a favor by enlightening those fools who are stupid enough to think that cutting your hair is good. is it really that simple though? only a fool would do something blindly without questioning it. do you think hippys were stupid? what about einstein? how about philosophy in general? free thinking is a skill yes, perhaps one you are terrible at, but why do you feel like free thinking within the bounds of sikh philosophy is banned? who banned it? and why did they ban it? what exactly is banned in the first place? and why the fuck should we give a shit?

you perhaps underestimate who you speak to. ive had folks die. ive had religion thrown in my face. ive been thrown all over the world. ive been treated like shit. ive been treated like a god. ive been poor. ive been rich. ive seen a shitload, and ive got a different POV than you. i was smart enough to stay away from medicine which is essentially the auto-mechanic of the body. what a fucking brilliant job you picked eh? i mean really... it's just pitiful how you can sit there and try to teach everyone about how you're the best at this sikh thing, that we should copy you. you seem to just want attention, like, "hey! look at me! im a good sikh!"

what bullshit. you're just an attention whore, and unfortunately like i said, i gave it to you. there's more important things in this life to fuck with than you. Wars are currently being fought, people are dying as we speak, and I'm sitting here wasting my time with one fucking fool whose too afraid to make friends outside his own race, too afraid to work in a profession outside of the stereotypical one, and too afraid to question a damn thing about a religion that honestly was written by people youve never fucking met. all you know about thesep eople could be blatant lies. you think youre so smart, but have you even factored that shit into it?

your whole religion is a huge fucking leap of faith. they could all have justbeen fucking invented sons of bitches. or even if the dude was around, maybe his fucking views werent quite like that. there were 10 gurus after all, and they all did different shit. like a line of kings. by the way, you realize that they kept this shit in the fucking family right? like a fucking dynasty. what the fuck does that have to do with being fucking smart about shit? its not necessarily inherited. look at you, im sure your parents must have had some intelligence about them to give you the oppertunity to be bitching on a pc over the net eh?

so the point is this. why do you fucking bother. what drives you? what makes you get up in the morning walk over to your PC and write this crap? i mean seriously. you are taking something that is TOO GOOD for you to fuck with? i mean why do you think its your job to go forth in the name of sikhism and ACT LIKE AN ASSHOLE? this isnt a fucking crusade buddy. its the 21st century. we all know better. and the whole fucking sticking to people hwo look like you thing. why dont you mingle with others? whats so scarey about those evil white people? i maen are you foolish enough to think skin actually matters? dude, pigments pointless, GREY matters. if you cant fucking figure that shit out, youre fucking hopeless.

and like i said, the guru's would shake their heads and this idiocy that seems to come from yoru PC. youw rite such hateful words directed at Sikh youth, as if you don't give a shite what happens to them. All you're concerned with is your own position in the community, you have to make a show of slapping people around a bit so that people know that you're going to regulate. Or perhapsyou do it for the sheer joy of other people's suffering? No better than the Mughal rulers who fucked with the Sikhs so long ago. Sawing people in half? in the digital age, we aren't so powerful as to have weapons ready and people in sights, instead it becomes a matter of a war of words. but to think that you ever have the right to dig someones faceinto the dirt... is fucking wrong

all i can say is im sure you were bullied alot growing up. there's no other explanation for your knowledge of causing harm amongst people. youve gotten this whole religionthing down well, at least in the sense that you might be trying to exercise its potential for control. i just dont understand why you didnt pick islam instead. then you'd be able to go out and do shit like beat your wife and more or less kill people who opposed your religion and youd be praised by your peers. such seems to be your vendetta and indication of your path currently. have you no idea abou tthe sikh deal. i think youre a fool, because you profoundly misunderstand and misrepresent my faith. and that makesme angry. because i love this religion.

nanak was a fucking badass. but to think that that makes him beyond reproach is fucking stupid. its up to each and every individual to ask themselves if what this guy says matters a fuck. if not, then fuck it. why waste your life doing somethingyou dont give a shit about. but apparently this is something you give a shit about. people talking about sikhism on the internet. youre a fucking fool, and here's why: you try and control people. you try and persuade them NOT to think about Sikhism. You try and turn people away from the faith, directing them to other religions that perhaps they may better like. You are the one reducing Sikhism to a handbasket in a store window. We do not share your Point of View.

You insult us. assuming we know nothing about the religion and would jump at the chance to get out of it and join up with another one. You insult the religion, to treat it so lightly as to suggest such things, and to misrepresent its benevolent virtues so comprehensively. Youre a disgrace, to your family, and to your religion. The founders of this religion would turn in their grave, had they been buried in such a style, none the less the saying still holds true. its a disgraceful way to be, to constantly goad the youth of our time for their views.

You need to updateyour own views if you think all that differ with you deserve to be avoided, shunned, silenced and insulted, You're a fool and a bully, youre sole joy seems to be found in the insulting of others. You prize your own views, and feel others views are rediculous, this is a textbook definition of a ... bigot. and you also seem a cheovinist. why the hell wuold you suggest harlene be a social worker? thats rediculous and limiting. she can be whatever the fuck she wants. youre absolutely fucking full of yourself. you expect people to respect you and you need to fucking be surprised. youre a fucking fool and dont deserve a damn.

so just fucking buzz off. go to another place. dont bother us. we discuss because we want to. you silence because you want to fucking get a rise out of it, because you get some plaesure smashing heads in, and you fucking feel like a big man when youve got the spotlight on. but you know what? some shit is fucking sacred. and if you violate those spaces, you will fucking recieve retalliation. you cant denegrate the views of the masses just for your own pelasure. and people will change, whether you try your frantic jumping up and down or not. youve held my attention this long, but no longer. youre a waste of a minute.

2009-10-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

the people i knew in ohio state were such idiots. they just kindof did stupid shit. for years. and i dont think they ever stopped. everybody in ohio is an asshole to each other.

Y chromosome effective for tracing populations.
original ornkey / shetland picts possibly eliminated
similar to tasmania where original inhabitants killed off by british

our ancestors have surivived this desolation for the last 25,000 years. nomads emerging from the last ice age. the stone age.

about 15,000 years ago teh climate began to change.

humans discover the grasses, a huge supply of grain. first step forward.

barley and wheat began to be selected, the edible grasses. they were hunter gatherer's but the grasses forced a change of lifestyle.

over half the world is fed on grain today
grain if left dry can last for decades
a person can harvest for three weeks to get enough to last a family for a year

shorter ice age followed, vast drought in middle east, and famine. the natufi were the people of the area. drought lasted over 1,000 years. but then ice age ended and world became wetter and warmer.

farming allowed for more children via increased yield of food. - given larger populations, leaders were required.

"it took a crisis to push them forward" - perhaps human instinct?

herders begin - goats, (dogs already hunted w/ hunter-gather) pigs, cows, sheep etc. people still herd goats today.

the herders and the cereal growers came together - herding + cultivating to bring about ready supply of meat + cereals.

people and animals living together created new diseases.

corporations might possibly be evil - eliminating the chance for people to be able to do what they'd like

the farmers move out and colonize europe, exchanging animals and seeds for local commodities from those groups and communities that already inhabited the area. this spread the farming to new areas, and these new settlers would clear cut forests to allow sunlight to come in.

in the middle east the way of life was in crisis. after thousands ofyears of ivllage life, available fuel diminished. goat herding & grazing caused trees to no longer grow.

european climate proved a challenge. after 1,000 years, the plow arrives, crop timing arrives. as well as getting used to building with pure timber rather than mud. they were called teh longhouse peope. also perfected dairy cow.

many of the original northern hunter-gatherer's remained with their own ways untainted and bothered by the middle east influence. hunter-gatherer's eventually abandon their own ways for the security of farming. this is the time of the standing stones.

4,000 years ago the last hunter gatherer's roamed europe. they disappear. warriors are taking over the lands.

roussoulian culture in between the sumerians and egyptians, became first tree cultivators, and also mass produced pottery, plus importance of converting raw materials into high value products. like milk into butter. trade was at the center of this whole way of life.

roussoul was nearby teh dead sea, and salt made possible preservation of such things as olives and fish.

religion emerges as a method of control and leadership. birth death and the changing seasons amaze, the priests dictated the gods will. standing stones erected during this time.

copper begins to be mined, smelted, the first smelted metal, and traded.

the egyptians and sumerians begin to irrigate their own lands, mine their own salt. rossoul disappears within 100 years. living by trade begins to spread throughout the middle east and into europe.

what if the communal lifestyle of the stone-age europeans was left untouched today. no sense of personal ownership etc.

being a stone-age trader might've been kinda cool.

trader's believed more in value of individual. came as traders, stayed to farm. brought the art of smelting to the north. the "beaker" people. mix some tin to copper and you get bronze.

daggers, spearheads, swords, the whole nature of armaments was changed by effective working bronze. military elite emerges. bronze, fermented drinks, and mounted horse signs of power status. leaders on top, farmers on the bottom. the wheel spreads about 5,500 years ago. it comes from the middle east as well.

amber found amongst seaweed, traded.

3000 years ago iron discovered, and warfare follows.

there are over 9,000 species of birds today.

facebook forums

2009-10-21T23:36:00.001-07:00

"questioning means you are questioning the guru and his words" - i don't see anything wrong with questioning the Guru himself. He was a man after all, and it's his theories (their theories, you write guru but after all we know there are ten) that we are memorizing and then thereby deciding to emulate. For something that is essentially going to shape the rest of your life, I see no problem with seeking greater understanding, knowing the "why" behind certain things, and challenging those why's with anything that comes to mind. for any truely great belief-set, every why is answerable with a bit of wisdom of equal power.

"you or no one... has even a... right... to question the guru" - what a silly belief you have. we all have whatever rights we afford ourselves. there is no physical barrier stopping us from thought. and therefore, being that this is entirely a game of abstract thought, whatever is possible in the mind is fair game, as it was abstract thought that came up with such things. your whole view is paramount to that of the experts of yesteryear that were against the notion the earth was round. Explorers proved those notions were wrong. Religion is science of the mind. To take one expert opinion as the unquestionable truth is to completely misunderstand the origin of the beliefs of Sikhism entirely. They arose from questioning, they too are bound to face the same questions, and that's how the Guru's would have wanted it. They never would have wanted a Khasla of sheep, but true believers. Belief comes in many ways, and for the sharp of mind, it can come from discussion.

"the world will try to change you" - you make the world sound insideous. lets talk practical. We're talking proselytizers. Anyone with their wits about them can spot a Jehovahs witness a mile away. It's only the desperate or those who have no original conviction that fall prey to these vultures. and They aren't doing it for their own religion, but just for some bit of satisfaction that has nothing to do with their own religion's definition of salvation. An equally true statement may be, "You as well may try to change the world."

"and then you become a slave to their thinking." - again a bit misguided there. Are we really ever slaves to thinking? Not if we're willing to question.

"or you stand firm and let them change." - you seem to think someone is going to change, and if not you, then them. that's a bit weird. a third alternative could be that neither could change, or a fourth, and the one i believe in, is that Everything and Everyone will change, given time enough.

"guruji's stood firm" - hardly at all. nanak was a hindu? and challenged both his religion of birth as well as the other dominant one of the time, islam. Found they both sucked. and Put together what he felt he gave a shat about in one collection of beliefs. He didn't stand firm at all, but instead found the ground he entered upon from birth was unsteady, and instead decided to forge his own path in life.

"if he would have listened then i believe we would not have been sikhs" - again a bit silly. are you suggesting that we as sikhs should look to the guru's as an example of the benefits of being closed minded? Nah, the guru's were some of the most advanced thinkers of their time. This religion was the result of their intelligence. If you read the granth, there are poems from people of all backgrounds, even those that conflict with sikhism, as our message was a universal one. it cut to the core and heart of many of the worlds religions. remember, religion is the science of the mind, and the unseen.

"why not question your own thoughts" - if we do so, are we not then not following the guru's example? of leading by example, not questioning our own thoughts, and instead going forth with what we know already is true in our hearts, and stepping forth with pride and strength? sikh virtues.

____________________

"it does not matter what you think because you are nothing compared to the guru's" - they were people, ordinary flesh and blood, like we are.

"are you the new guru?" - why bother asking?

"but i stop you from doing your own propoganda" - what propoganda?

"you are nothing... compared to the gurujis" - any human being is equally capable of abstract thought.

"i pity you" - for what reason?

random stuff, while sitting in a hotel in the back bay of boston massachusetts, seat of the new england corner of the united states, superpower

2009-10-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

you dont know what its like, spending all those years trapped behind a wall of politeness, bound and gagged. in a dark and silent world where nothing grows but the anger. - jim carrey

they're all fucking beigists - billy connolly

a possible boston tuesday:
Melrose Public Library Meetup - 10am tues
energy healing and nutrition support of Massachusetts - 1:30pm tues
Lexington Petitioning - Farmer's Market Harvest Festival - 2pm tues
Ultimate at the Commons - 5:45pm tues
Tai Chi meetup - 6pm tues
Tuesday Evening Run - approc 45 min run - 6:15pm
Mattapan Poetry group - 630pm
FYI: German Food and Beer Tasting - 630pm
Free Interactive workshop on mind and meditation - 7pm
The First Time book writers club for non professionals - 7pm
Writers anonymous (not your typical writers group) 7pm

a possible new york tuesday:
10am williamsburg soccer for people without a job self employed etc.
11am introductory meeting (artists way group)
1230pm dance/theatre meetup
230pm screenwriting workshop
5pm sing new york new york with friends at kareoke
6pm steve vai autograph signing
6pm new york guided meditation group
615pm new york yoga and laugh group
630pm ny rainforest healers social
645pm healing with color light sound and energy
645pm telepathy for beginners
7pm monopoly playtime
7pm bhangra fun fitness
7pm life coaching for creative people and solo practitioners
7pm ny gaming meetup
7pm open traditional irish seisiun
7pm new york city fencing meetup
730pm raw food meetup
8pm nyc british film & telly meetup
830pm tango
9pm jam session tuesdays

its a bit stupid they still call the natives of america indians. they're not from india, so why keep calling 'em it. surely we're advanced enough at this point to be able to say that for sure. its just not the right word.

i still think its better to focus on yourself than blather on about other people.

i hate when people ask if im indian.

its interesting that each seasons lasts only three months.

stuff that matters.

2009-10-10T21:10:00.001-07:00

rowan atkinson sees his older work resurface, blackadder is getting a remastering. link

it seems billy connolly tends to get involved with charitable cases and good-news stories involving fans or something well intentioned. well in this case a man manages to see connolly before passing away. link

eddie izzard has a documentary coming up about his life and driving motivating factors. that's pretty awesome hah, and i'll definately check it out. link

joy formidable spits out a new single link

jim carrey apparently is gaining weight in preperation to play curly in the three stooges alongside benicio del toro and sean penn... strange... interesting... perhaps promising... link

british band little man tate play their last show and call it a day! sorry to hear link

the cribs apparently are planning on releasing another record, with johnny marr, of the smiths. link

british band the maccabees have been doing well this year after releasing an album this summer produced by the guy behind the arcade fire, markus dravs, to decent sales and acclaim. they are currently touring. link

former dirty pretty things frontman carl barat has his solo album underway, taking a break however to perform here and there, once with pete doherty his former libertine bandmate and friend, as well as a member of glasvegas on another occasion link

apparently british band the wombats are playing a massive show before a manchester united football match, AT THE ARENA. awesome job guys. link

months after noel announces he's out, brother liam confirms it, oasis is no more. kaput. finis. link

dutch DJ collaborating with Jonsi of Sigur Ros among others on upcoming disc. Might be worth checking out. link

nyc

2009-10-06T05:59:00.001-07:00

interesting how new york city is partially sat astride long island, a palce i know relatively little about. apparently there's beaches, and suburbs, and places held high by the local wealthy. apparently queens has nearly one fifth of it made up of asians. apparently there's two native american reservations on long island. they call new york a "melting pot". weird. there's a shitload of artists from long island.

NY music scene

2009-10-04T10:36:00.001-07:00

how is the new york music scene?

famous nyc blogger: http://www.brooklynvegan.com/

hah i guess u2 members are @ carnegie hall tonight, or a few days ago. somewhere around that.

what the fuck is carnegie hall?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Hall

apparently paid for by anderw carnegie and build in 1891, a famous performance hall in nyc.

apparently the band MGMT was formed at a new york college as music majors, heh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_New_York_City

not sure if that helps at all heh.

well apparently the NYC scene is supposed to be getting worse, due to increasing prices and stuff. but, Brooklyn's scene seems to be getting better as Manhattan chaces out the artists with the high prices.

apparently this has NYC shows listed
http://www.ohmyrockness.com/index.cfm

i guess Brooklyn is the place to go to find Columbus Ohio style dives for indie stuff and the like. i dont know, but it might be the spot to look. which'd mean it'd be nice to go to school there... which unfortunately i think wont happen given the fact that there's just no schools there hah. at least not with the CUNY network. but i can check. still, all the same, i haven't seen shit about it.

http://www.grandlifenyc.com/category/music/favorite-venues-stores/

cool site with some cool stuff listed about the music scene and stuff.

random #1

2009-10-04T08:10:00.001-07:00

so if i wanted to get into school, supposedly with what im reading im meant to go through their community college program first. which'd be interesting. so i guess the best location i could find was the manhatten campus, but yeah, its interesting stuff. so ive got my eyes on the borough of manhattan community college. for now.

associates in applied science? weird. makes sense. but heh, it's a.a.s. lol.

they don't have a whole hell of alot of choice. i guess the thing is i need tofind out what all i need like to get into the main manhatten school. what classes required and all that. because i want to get into the city university of new york, main campus. so i need to know what i need to be able to do that. i mean just looking at it there's: video arts and technology, small business/entrepreneurship, theatre, writing and literature, business administration. these are all associates dgrees.

apparently there's an october 9th viewing of the place. i guess you have to register for it or whatever.

866.583.5729 - BMCC community college. (borough of manhattan community college). i guess you get in here, get a degree, then get into the bigger one, and the better degree.

television host

the thing about wealthy peopl eis they have so much that i wonder if they even work. what do they do with their time. i dont have access to that kind of money, i have to go out into the world andmake my own fortune. what exactly that will be i dont know. how ill do it, i dontknow. but i like the idea of playing with large sums of money. entrepreneurial business is where its at, see in many other professions there's a hardcap to what you can make, but in business, if youre smart enough, you can create things that are widespread and profitable to the point where its not really a necessity to work any longer. thats teh kind of funditure i'd like to pursue. it's the sort of lifestyle i've had up until now and it's what'll help me continue to live like that in the future. but the excitement is not only the chance at alot of money, but really, it feels like the arena worth competing in. its something that can make you insanely rich, or broke, but thats what makes it all exciting. come up with a company idea, change the world, and reap the reward. richard branson is a guy ive seen doing that. but its pretty awesome, and its definately something i want to get involved in.

____________

http://www.thelocal.se/22458/20091004/

pirate bay issues drag on, as google recently went through a debacle regarding whether ornot pirate bay was seachable. having read on the founder of google, 36 year old billionaire hailed as visionary, i have a hard time accepting a wikipedia-esque philosophy-bearing dude as a guy whose against the access of a site he'd most likely feel we were all welcome to take a gander at, given the fact that information, as he sees it, is something that's best left free.

if it wasn't for many of these sites, i would've have heard much about stuff i've

____________

http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/31198.html

lately i've been reading alot about hipsters. now im not sure if i'd call myself one, but things are starting to look that way. i myself don't wear the garb, but i listen to the tunes, and in a way, i do follow the fashion trends too, i just am modest of what i wear, otherwise i like the... flavor of it. im into the culture of it. i come from columbus ohio, or at least that's where i spent four of the last six years. whislt there, i was immersed in hipsterdom, or so i've been told. after all it's been said columbus ohio is the birthplace of hipsters, by certain columbus-residents. i'm not sure i believe it, but i certainly do see alot of the hipster-ish folk out there when i go to visit old friends. the hoodie, colorful clothes and hats, and a certain downward dejection that seems to pull it all together. throw in an eclectic mix of indie music fandom, drug addiction, and party culture, and you've got something along the lines of hipster-ism. whether or not i am one remains to be seen, im not quite sure. my music interest in the indie stems from '03's freshman year @ osu, where i was given oink.me, a site that torrented tunes i'd never before heard, and soon got enamoured in it all. the site eventually disappeared, about two years later, much to my chagrin, but not before i managed to pick through years of brit-pop, as well as a century worth of pop, hits, oldies, jazz, grunge, grime, and the like. new genre's never heard of, a veritable mental renaissance. and then of course i'd go out into the streets and i'd find my people. those that listened to the same, wore sweet stuff, and got laid often. they were my folks. and i guess thats how i was slowly but surely ushered into the world of the hipster. certain places perhaps in the east coast might be called dive bars, but out in columbus, they were just the best place to be. its entirely because the people rocked. not some architecture-phile-like addiction to old and decrepid spaces. in fact those were of course the first bits, the test to voercome, the first scare thatmade you feel unwelcome and uneasy, its only the people that you realized were the best, roaming the ruins of the bars once grand, finding their vestiges of awesome and friendliness.

blackburn is in the news, i was there from couple months old to... i left there in 91 or 2. if it was 91 i would've been 5. 92 woulda been 6. and then uh, 94 and 95. 8 and 9. so i must've been there from like, a few months old to 6. and then 8 to 9. i was in that town. thats now trending.

college #4

2009-10-04T04:58:00.001-07:00

so apparently the city university is huge. 23 different schools so it says. the site says theyve got a diverse set of kids and over 230 majors. better than bunker hill hah. alot of the kids get financial aid so that's cool for anita.

the city campus looks awesome. like old and built up. apparently founded a fair long time ago. so its pretty nice. october 7th is the next tour of the main campus. @ 11am. its called the city college of new york. they actually have an asian studies major. but im not sure about it. seems a bit too non-india focused.

hah black studies... kinda racist hah. wouldn't they call it african american? that kinda makes me shudder to read. i can't believe they're calling it black studies. and it's a university too. it just seems really strange. that word should've been gotten rid of. if you can see black studies then you can probably see white studies too. kinda shitty. i really dont like that. i would expect something like a learning institution to not carry such a blatantly weighted word on their page.

earth and atmospheric sciences looks AWESOME. im amazed by the sweet ass set of study points they've got. rock solid degree.

the film and video production BFA looks badass. oldest continuous film program in the country. and seems well put together. and what's really cool is the BFA only takes 2 years. thats pretty fuckin quick. downside: only 25 kids get in yearly. what the fuck. thats completely rediculous. why would they keep the seats so limited. thats fucking rediculous. i can' tbelieve they would do that. they should make this shit more available to people. ihave no idea how much of a chance i'd have getting into that program.

the fucking language degree doesn't offer icelandic. what fucking bullshit.

they've actually got a international relations program which's cool. 75 page masters thesis!? damn hah. that's alot of work. seems like its got alot to do with political science. you know, i like this. they like describe their masters thesis as a "chance" for the students as if its a selling point hah. but they are right in saying theyre in the city of the UN. and distinguished teachers sounds promising. i worry with the requirement being a 3.0 gpa. it is a masters program, so its not an undergraduate: it requires undergraduate degree to get involved with it. i could go and do the earth / science thing for under and then apply to this for the graduate or i guess its called masters and do the international relations.

i gues they list the majors by undergraduate and graduate.

and again... the music majors... bfa in performance... in what?... classical or jazz. wha tthe fuck... really now. where's the fucking representiation of every fucking type of music in teh world. this is the sort of truncation i hate to see in the world. i mean i'd've loved to have majored in celtic music or that sort but no... nothing of the sort. i think its just completely fucking rediculous.

philosophy seems kinda stupid.

political science might be cool.

sociology seems fine (boring)

and the women's studies degree... not a single man in the picture. are you fucking kidding me. what a fucking farce that is. alot of disappointments in this university.

college #3

2009-09-30T00:17:00.001-07:00

new york seems more exciting but harder to break into the education system there. boston seems more boring and plain, small, but managable school system, with bunker hill being very accessible and easy to sign up in. but there seems to be more excitement out in new york.

plus new york has the united nations building

im starting to look through the new york list of colleges now. there's alot. it's intimidating.

there's alot of very specialized schools, like one for jewish boys, another for hispanic youth. many are very small schools.

there's a place called briarcliffe, but it seems suspect as it's a "subsidiary of the Career Education Corporation". sounds scummy.

the other thing is the place doesn't have many actual associate's degrees to pick from. kinda disappointing.

looks a bit weak

now this looks a little bit more like it, the City University of New York. 450,000 students.

so there's a set of community colleges, which someone can earn an associates at, which then allows students to go into what're called i guess "senior colleges" where kids can go and get a bachelor's degree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_University_of_New_York_(CUNY) - this has the list of all the schools involved.

college #2

2009-09-26T22:15:00.001-07:00

its interesting there's people in my shoes trying meet people out in boston. its strange how boston has so many schools. but it seems like that's probably the place to study. then new york the place to work. i dont know.

8 percent of bostonians are apparently self-identifying Asian Americans. no idea how much of that is american indians. or rather, indian americans.

i guess you immigrate / raise kids in new york, and send them to school in boston. heh.

those racist laws written to keep indians out might've been there to protect the locals from foreign elements coming in driving wages down and escaping with riches perhaps not for the benefit of the country - but social climates have changed and kids today have no such ties to the country india which is more often told to them rather than them themselves speaking it out that they indeed share a relationship with the country in question. when examining americans very rarely today does one resort to tracing back the history to the point in time where america and england shared ties. so many have lived and died since those days that it only really survives in those longest lived of things, the laws, design of government, the architecture of the streets, and remnants in the words taught to children on american soil today. but certainly having spent time in ones life in england is no longer a prerequisite of a "typical" american. holding people prisoner and forcing them to live by dead time is insulting the way time works. in time, all things will be forgotten. insistance of folk keeping to old world histories is just a manipulation by folk interested in power grabs and votes and not one who is interested in representing the people in question. its often by people who want nothing to do with these people. but those that represent the population itself would hold no such view.

desi's in the house by sunaina marr maira

the amazon.com listing

that booked seemed pretty good. surprising a bad review was given. but i think i might buy it hah.

what if i got a major in indian-american studies.

i just feel like college majors are largely needless things.

reasons why i dont want to go to college

college

2009-09-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

anyone can get a degree...

why doesn't it fucking say what classes you'll take. it's like they don't want you to know. fucking sociology major. (grad)

these look so boring. strategy formulation and implimentation?... rediculous. i can see how this stuff wuold benefit someone already in the field but i dont get why anyone would just try and polish off a shiny new business MD or whatever just for the hell of it. these htings have such specific application that it just doesnt seem like it makes sense for them to be taught to people who have no interest in being a business xyz.

heh, apparently you can have a Ph. D in music. wtf.

i hate reading about college stuff. i hate tests. apparently Ph. D stands for doctor of philosophy. and apparently german / french are REQUIRED by a music... phd. what the fuck. im guessing this is like a degree of ancient music. or whatever.

i just hate everything about college. the whole uniform shit with the tassle and whatnot on graduation day. the fucking way that there is a designated "teacher" who is made to be given utmost respect. fucking rediculous. i can't respect random people. and i hate taking etsts. to me i'd rather test myself on the real world to see if i had it right, rather than on some fucking paper where it's more about the art of some specific pursuit than necessarily the truth of the real world. they aren't measuring intelligence but compliance. that's what i feel anyway.

if world popu = 100 people:

2009-09-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

61 identify as asian - for accuracy
12 identify as european - for accuracy
8 identify as north american
5 identify as south american / caribbean
13 identify as african
1 identifies as oceanic
*50 identify as women
50 identify as men
*47 identify as urban dwellers - since suburb
9 identify as disabled
33 identify as christian
18 identify as muslim
14 identify as hindu
16 identify as non religious
6 identify as buddhist
*13 identify as other religions - for agnostic reasons
43 identify as without basic sanitation
18 identify as without improved water source
6 people claim to own 59% total wealth
13 identify as hungry / malnourished
14 identify as illiterate
*7 identify as educated at 2ndary level (highschool)
*12 identify as have computer
*3 identify as having internet
1 identify as having aids
total spendature per annum on military claimed at 1.12 tril
total spendature per annum on developmental aid claimed at 0.10 tril
*25 wealthiest identify as having fridge, closet, bed, roof
*30 wealthiest identify as having bank account - for accuracy
18 identify as earning 1 dollar a day or less
53 identify as earning 2 dollars a day or less

2009-09-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.wxii12.com/news/20623422/detail.html

neo nazi coverage should include both the protestors and the actual people there for the meeting. this one just interviewed protestors, and didn't give us a full picture.

alot of these republican articles out there trying to talk about obama as say lenin in modern day seem to devolve into unnecessary hatefests, they may have a grain of truth to them, in that the first paragraph of the rant is civily done and hardly contestable, and then it goes to hell. just more or less grevious insults that have no base and are just designed at slinging mud. these under the guise of a "discussion." terrible.

its stupid that missionaries believe its their job to go over and convert all peoples of the world to christianity. bringing progress is one thing, by offering technology and solutions to their local problems, bringing modernity and all that, but to persuade peoples to abandon their faiths and adopt your own... to offer the carrot at the end of the stick in the form of the promise of positive change... but intertwining it with the message of the christian gospel... its a terrible sadistic and destructive process.

"people go to hell for their sins whether or not it's their culture".

are you kidding me? what a fucking twattish motherfucker this dude is. to assume so much about his own beliefs. yes, you, little monkey-offspring, talking big about all of your species... and where is god in terms of your animal bretheren? just rediculous. your religion was INVENTED two thousand years ago. unfortunately, man has been around at least a million, in our most modern form... wake the fuck up kid. you're just the newest kid on the block. everyone in the world could sit and believe christianity, ubt that wouldn't guarentee it would last forever. the next major thing would rise, maybe islam, maybe something completely different, and it would be spread, by way of gunpowder, or spearpoint, and that empire would spread its beliefs as it asserted its dominance over you or your descendants. nothing is permanent in the fickle world of human imaginings and social construcuts. we're constantly evolving. a man penned your religious doctrine, maybe a pack of men, and it's just a story, perhaps one that's there to show a general spiritual mantra, but they certainly didn't necessarily intend that followers of said religion wipe out all diversity. turning a pious mans plight into the heart of an empires lust for global domination is an abomination of something perhaps once meaningful and pure.

response

2009-08-31T01:50:00.001-07:00

the article

you know whats weird? the term "second generation immigrants". what the hell is that supposed to mean? as if the title "immigrant" seems to like... be bestowed upon a whole new child, a whole new lifetime, spent entirely in like... basically like... in the country... yet they'er called immigrants. why? because of the place their parents were born. that's absolutely rediculous. there's like more things at work here. why would the parents history be important in the definition of the child. the children htemselves having lived never a day outside of the country at hand in some cases, are still called immigrants... but why is this considered to be correct. consider if they were sent back to the country where they're purportedly said to be immigrating from... they would be moving to a new place, foreign to them, where they themselves would be foreign as well to the land. like they wouldn't have anything in common with the people. absolutely rediculous. and yet in the country they were born in, where they were educated, all thats considered familiar to the,, in that country, they are labeled as immigrant, as if they are some foreign thing in the land. what a horrible way to entitle someone. they should be recognized as merely citizens, and little more than that. rather than going to the great effort to describe them as being... second generation foreign born. absolutely rediculous.

out of egypt

2009-08-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

out of egypt, starring dr kara cooney

generally i get the vibe that its very american-judgemental. like there's alot of other-ness involved with this womans world view. secondly it seems like its entirely framed around the fact that she's a woman. and that because of that she's then supposed to be sexed up. which i kinda find a bit repulsive as its meant to be a science show. there was a scene where she was getting blessed by a south american priest, and she recalls getting spit on, and they play an instant replay... which just surprises me. highlighting the strangeness of something new, without a hint of perhaps understanding. a quote i read a day or so ago from my japanese guide book read that visitors should be perpared to readjust their view of the palce alot as appearences are decieving. i think this could be held true for any place and person on our planet. be prepared to be surprised, and dont take anything for granted.

also it makes me wonder why arent any of the local experts involved in this? a white chick from california in egypt? given todays climate regarding the whole terrorist situation? and there's not a single brown faced guy walking alongside the pyramids with her? i don't know i just feel like maybe alot of experts are being locked out of this show. like this woman comes in, without giving nods to those who are already doing something with these artifacts, and isntead just wants to more or less pillage the history and magnificense for her own television shows? and yet those anglo-germanic folks on their forums would cry bloody murder if some islamo-funded docu was shot at the vatican. its just rediculous.

even her tone of voice seems to have that slight bit of like... disdain... i mean really. why the fuck is it so hard to just open yourself up, and just see these people as real people, to no longer put up barriers in your mind between you and them. but i think her viewpoint encourages such other viewpoints as racism and shit. she's not really fucking comfortable enough in the world to really consider herself in front of a human being whilst in front of... a human being. instead they're subtitled, excluded from captions recognizing their university affiliation or even their first and last name. and then the way she repeats everything they say as if they perhaps arent sharp enough to carry on with her. it just comes across as insulting and disgusting.

it just makes me wonder how she can feel so welcome to study things such as egyptian history, when there's like, mummies in universities all around the world. it just feels like pure exploitation. if they had the dead of say scandinavian origin in museums around the world there may be a clamor to return the bodies to their country of origin.

it just feels like egyptian history is exploited and exported as a commodity and a marvel for other countries, at the cost of perhaps the richness of the country itself. like for instance why wasn't there a movement to keep egyptian pyramids and mummies IN egypt? why weren't these things considered national treasures and worthy of preservation? instead they're picked apart and shipped to museums worldwide. and it just feels disgusting in a way, how such a country's rich history was exploited by those who came in and pillaged then left whilst populating museums with the spoils.

and again and again, they ahve experts from local countries native to the archeological remnants that are continually not recognized by name and university of affilliation, and instead are given captopns to help their "totally undiscernable" dialect make some sense. and all she does is repeat abck to them what htey say to her, looking for a hint of approval that yes, she parroted it back quite correctly. what fucking shitty stuff. highly insulting, and just smacks of racism. she understands what theyre saying, so do i , as well as likely the majority of her viewership. stop with the captiopns, and just give them their name of regocnition and university of origin. they deserve equal treatment to that of the white university professors. stop with the other-ness. they're human beings speaking a discernable dialect of english, your own fucking language, cut the crap, stop acting like its filmed in french, and give them their due recognition as lifetime seekers of knowledge, much like yourself, narrator.

and then a chick, from say a christian nation in south america... doesnt get captions and isntead gets a name and university of affiliation. and there's no fucking repeating back of their words. its just fucking rediculous shit. so obviously she considers certani peoples other-ness to be greater than others, some deserving captions, others earning their right to have their name fucking displayed. shwo them all... and stop acting like english speakers need interpreters. of university level education no less.

and then the treatment of how the gods hold the head of say a decapitated person, that then to be emphasized as "gruesome"... stop with the labeling. you ahve no idea how those in their time reacted to this. you have no idea... so instead of trying to wrongfully follow through with the labeling, take a step back, and just recognize its way beyodn you to make such leaps of thought and to then speak them forth as almost certainty on the same level of importance as any of hte facts she rattles off about the pyramids or their makers.

i guess at the end of the day i hate the snide and snotty demeanor that seems to like bleed off of this womans voice that just really makes it hard for me to enjoy her programming. she is rattling off facts yes, but there is a visible and audible amount of distancing she does between her and the content at hand, she isnt one of those bearth in the dust and live like the locals do types, like say... anthony bourdain, or any number of those typical bbc-english experts and their docu's they host... no she's more sarah palin-ish and just has her narrowminded views and conservative vibe, more reminicent of bush jr. than anything near-enjoyable.

observations 3

2009-08-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

i dont think the problem is with people disagreeing with things, becuase that'll happen, but rather the way people act in accordance with this disagreement. some use jokes, laugh it off, continue. others muse, but then let it go, and continue. but there's a small subsection that seems to fixate on it, become furiously enraged, and then in that rage... more or less becomes capable of committing crimes in order to more or less get their way on the issue. but the problem is their issue becomes obscured by their crime, and no change will come about if they are labeled as murderer and not idealist. tough luck.

there are more options that just simply deciding not to work together to create a situation where all parties can feel comfortable. and to say someone has a country of their own is a bit strange... say for isntance with the sikhs... their ancestral lands are split between two countries, one which is overtly anti-sikh, the other being passively anti-sikh. there is no country for the sikhs, so simply citing "return to it" is a meaningless line of drivel for such people.

"invading the lands of my people" what a backward point of view, with regards to immigrants, when speaking of well known colonialized countries... australia for instance... was once white-minority. america... white minority... etc... and then if you go far back, i would venture to say that if all life came from africa... then basically all the europeans trying to lay ancestral claim to europe are rediculous. they were just the first to get there, but before them, was nothing. and even if they got there, those who did get there may not have even been white-looking, or otherwise identifiable european types. its just too much of a stretch to try and lay claim to those humans that did occupy those lands as being default-europeans. there's been much migration, warfare, death, and various groups have come in, intermingled, and settled. the so called "white race" is also a hybrid of its predecessors. ignorance of your own origin is a bit much with regards to "acestral claims".

and "belong in the country of their origin" crap... why is this now an impetus for mankind today? we did not impose such limits on ourselves in past eons. why now? and who affords such power to you to control where a person goes and why. noone. its an overextended reach of a silly idea that deserves little attention and has little merit.

and then ruining the racial composition of a country... why the hell does it matter what race your country is composed of hah. absolutely rediculous.

more observations

2009-08-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

ancestral connections to soil is a piss poor reason to allow or disallow someone into a country. comparing yourself by things you have no control in seems like a fools game.

america is a country of immigrants, not of germans... get it right. if there is such a thing as an american nationalist party, its one that would include every shade and variant of immigrant.

while people look at the marjuana smokers as something insideous, if you look at the reasons for places like the netherlands, china and japan having low rates of use... its probably due to extremely controlling families... and people who feel duty to their family, their ethnicity, their skin color, their race... their ancestors... essentially they're pulled between many directions and in the end can't move in any... whereas in america... we don't have such views as a whole... its weird. i think conservative control isnt much better than liberal mistake.

amazingly... at 21 about 50 percent of kids in america have reported using weed, and nearly 20 percent have reported using cocaine. some people like to point out the counterbalance of strictness in some european countries being the reason nothing has gone awry in those countries.

strangely enough i find alot of similarities between myself and the germanic folks on the german-oriented ancestry forums... perhaps thats a similar thing found in indian culture... but strangely enough yes there's startling similarities in the way i AND my parents think and these posters on the german ancestry forums. in a way its giving me a chance to look in the mirror, and see something of myself in it... for the first time... by reading the sentiments of these people.

its ironic that some of the most vocal germans are those with impure blood, notably a man saying he had a drop of native american in his veins, and people responded saying they could kick him off if they please. yet he comes back for more, even though scorned by his own forum. and nobody rushing to his defence. amazing.

why such a focus on the children of interracial marriage? race itself is just such a stupid thing. its just skin color, a bit of biological genetic difference, amounting to perhaps a horse breed... but defining your identity as a person by your breed as a person... seems a rather hollow place to hide... why not strike out and let something more daring be that which identifies you. instead these people seem to remain incubated within their own... self-protectionist nature of "my race" "my ancestors" and pointing out who is and who isnt to be involved with them. as if masses of people around the world band up by race... no... most dont. because unlike you, few people believe fleshy skin to be a worthy ideological point of union.

another thing, the ... hatred by self-identifying-white men with regards to identified-white women and their choice to sleep with identified-black men. this seems such a rediculous state of affairs. how can a SI-white man called a I-white woman anything... when they just are not related whatsoever.

these people talking about how scummy folks are for being in interracial relationships... what fucking idiots... there is nothing wrong with HUMANS being in a relationship. eugenics brought about WW2 and the holocaust. travesties of mankind.

heh these guys come across as viking nerds.

interesting, so when you see how these people think, when they discuss sikhs specifically, you can see how there are parts of our belief system that are entirely familiar to them as they are also part of their own .the sense that sikhs are warriors, were the strongest picked out in a time of war, have a legacy of some sort of selection, strong genes being taken forth and being made into sikhs... very similar to the aryan / german notions of racial purity and the like, and controlling who mates with whom.

absolutely rediculous... calling homosexuality a sin in sikhism... just as cutting hair is a sin... are you kidding me? it's not even a sin to begin with. that's a christian term. not even inherent in our texts. wake the fuck up.

and then this whole god's design thing... kinda rediculous.

i didnt even know there were sikhs out there who were opposed to homosexuality, but then i guess it makes sense. those who believe in natural law, those are the folks who think that whatever is inherently meant for by design in nature is what is law, and any thoughtful choice to overcome or go against that natural law is a perversion / sin / whathaveyou and therefore is wrong and unjust, unwanted, perhaps dark and destructive in some way. but yeah, some sikhs seem to believe in this notion of natural law. me, i don't. but some seem to. seems weird as fuck. but at the same time, it's very similar, in fact the exact same belief that some of these white-power groups hold true, they believe that the white race must be maintained, that miscegnation (interratial children) are again against natural law... its all that shit... basically conservatism where they hinge more on the past than present. living their lives in pattern rather than in a real motion of individuality. free thought and free will should be celebrated, not withheld. live virtuously, but not behind bars. these views are just plain terrible.

observations

2009-08-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

people needa realize that while racist views are wrong if you live in a place with mainly one race... youll have mythologies for the seldom seen. expect it.

also... its rediculous to limit all discussion to "white" people and "PoC"... fuckin rediculous. you need to talk about everybody as individuals... dont try to attempt and make these overarching relationships and subcategories within which to draw all your theories and such. just give it a rest. let your actual case stand as an instance of racism...otherwise... dont try and paint characteristics of various races. its just a waste. focus on the crime, not the people. trying to typecast the people as a type is a crime. recognize.

its wrong to control whether or not women should be allowed to go topless on beaches... hearing that australia has passed legislature that bans such an act is disappointing and perhaps also a bit of a spark of a fight.

hah and then those who like... call nudity immoral... what wrongheaded people they are... this is just a natural state of our own bodies... why be ashamed... silly people...

heh... then calling victorian sensibilities far greater than those of those "hippy" nudists today... what utter bullshit.

hah, and then saying hte image of a woman nude means sex... thats a bastardization of the person... if you think sex when you see a naked woman... your mind is warped... sometimes yes... but always? no. wake up... smell the roses... open your eyes to the world outside your bible.

then there's this view that all immigrants should accept the incoming culture entirely... which's rediculous... not even those within the country are compelled to accept any given part of that country's culture... so why immigrants... remove the distinction of those names, and call them what they are... people... there's no reason to require people to be as perhaps the percieved popular belief is of the minute.

and then these people who talk about integration... you cant fucking do integration in schools. youve got to do it in the home. if parents teach children backwards views theyll bring them to the school. thats just how it works, period. publisc school forced integration wont nearly impact kids as much as parents. do your part, with your own. that'll end it.

the caste system of india seems almost like the feudal system of the old european countries and kingdoms. in that the king would be replaced by another of royal blood. but why were certain people exaulted above others as being particularly better to do a certain job in the first place. in india you arent given choice as to what profession you enter into, rather its a thing thats meant to be inherited from the parents.

why is it unfortunate that foreigners assimilate into the local genepool hah. why is there a need to try and keep a given race "pure".

alot of these countries independant but fledgeling and flailing seem more like death traps for those unfortunate enough to be born within their bounds - i think it should be perfectly alright for populations to desert areas that are now desolate and unproductive, and if there just doesnt exist any infrastructure for say an african country to do much good with what they have... then why should these people be forced to live there. in european, or western, countries, it wasnt the people at large that made these places great, but few organizers who had an eye for organization. most people today can only claim to benefit from the work of their ancestors, or their precedants. let the damn people leave, and let 'em work the jobs you have vacancies. and stop making such a big fuss about it. sure, you need your race pure, but society needs its wheels turning, and there are certain jobs that'll require filling.

letter to teacher

2009-08-10T02:43:00.000-07:00

given the fact that India is one of the most populated countries in the world, and that Indians are the fastest growing Asian immigrant group in America, that the governor of Louisiana is Indian, why are we not taught about Indian-American immigrant history, or the history of India?

Some facts:
A 1918 law barred Indians from getting citizenship or immigrating to America. The 1680 case where an Indian man and Irish woman had a daughter taken a way and sold into slavery as Indians were considered the same classification as black people. In 1940, Indians were returned the right to be citizens, yet it must be noted Indians have been in America since Europeans first began settling. Why wasn't I taught that in the 60s, immigration was opened up? That the current population of Indians in America is about 2 million? A key reason behind that number being so low, say compared to German-heritage folks are the racist laws that disallowed non-Europeans entering the country and gaining citizenship. This despite the fact that the Europeans were a minority in a Native American country, yet were afforded unlimited immigration rights as their self imposed way of the day, whereas Indians, as well as other Asians, were denied entrance to the country and citizenship because they were a minority of the day (hypocrisy). The injustices in laws that used to exist and the methods by which they disposed of and liberty restored should be taught. After all, America is a country of immigrants, the original native population being decimated by disease and war. India is nuclear, and a major player in the global economy. Some combination of these facts must qualify India to be taught about. Not doing so is an injustice, depriving children or necessary knowledge, and will serve to encourage the mythology of the unknown, which in turn leads to war, racism, violation of human rights, and other unpleasantries. Education plays a vital role to every young developing mind, providing a window to the world for children living in otherwise-homogenous communities. Does it make sense hiding critical facts about the world from children who are eager to learn typically only whilst young?

patit sikhs?

2009-07-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

Should Patit sikhs, who have chosen to cut their hair, be allowed to call themselves sikhs or not.

so i found this on yahoo answers today. another sight, religion facts.com had a line in a sikh glossary about patit sikhs, sikhs who are a member of the khalsa, who have cut their hair. the phrase is worded khalsas. anyhow, this was interesting to me, as it does have some relevance to me, as i've cut my hair. my mother and father were and still are practicing sikhs, neither has taken amrit, the initiation into the khalsa, so neither could be really honestly considered khalsas. similarly, i was never baptised, never took an oath to uphold anything. therefore i can't really be honestly held to the standards of the Khalsa club, those who've taken the oath. it's akin to some ancient club of folk who relinquish shit to achieve greater-something. but... thing is... i feel like perahps i've been treated like a patit-sikh ever since i've cut my hair, which to me is a shitty thing.

the response:

No certainly not.

Patits who do not keep their hair are not sikhs at all. They themselves have chosen not to follow teachings of sikhisam.

this makes me wonder exactly what this guy's talking about. firstly to me there seem to be various distinctions here, one being that of the sikh, another being that of the khalsa, or perhaps khalsite, if you will. someone who has taken the oath, and has sworn themselves to uphold the ideals, much like a knightin feudal europe. and in alot of ways, perhaps you could think of this as a surviving vestige of medieval india, such as that might be compared to medieval europe, that with the knightly oaths, valiance in battle, and all the trappigs of knightly virtue and code of conduct.

but that aside, i feel like sikhs who call themselves sikh today are doing it as a blood-family thing. i'm sikh, for a number of reasons, firstly being i was given a sikh name from the guru granth sahib / ceremony. secondly i have been raised in and among sikh communities, been made to sit in many sunday sessions at the local gurudwara's, wherever i may have been, england, chicago, ohio, etc. thirdly, i've further been taught and retaught the histories, stories, and the music integral to sikh worship, the shabad-kirtan on the harmonium. words i do not understand, but can reproduce faithfully. i know enough about the gurudwara to be able to tell the rough meaning behind each major piece, although thanks to a lax education system in each and every gurudwara i've ever been in, alot escapes me. thankfully, i'm not to blame, and therefore i don't believe my sikh-ness is forfieght.

now here's perhaps the, if any, point of contention. at age 17, in college, i cut my hair. for a number of reasons i might add. firstly, i had been bringing it up to my mother and father in the years preceding. i'd asked why as sikhs had we brought htis ritual upon ourselves when in fact sikhism preached against such things. when answers didn't really meet the mustard, then i began to come to internal consensus that as a honest true sikh i could not practice the kase-bearing any longer. it just did not make sense with my internal beliefs and understanding of Nanak. so as i left for college, given the fact that my parents were vehemently opposed to me cutting my hair, much like their vehement appraisal of hair-bearing, really it was the choicelessness that left me berefit of any internal compass as to what made sense to me. so i used my own mind, logic, and heart, and came to my own decision. for the truth is religion is a choice each of us has the beautiful oppertunity of making. christianity, islam, sikhism, judaisim, paganism, etc. there's so many options out there, including agnosticism which is the anti-choice, the choice not to choose, or atheism, the counter-choise, or the decision to reject it all vehemently and decry their utter falseness. but none of these were presented to me as choices, and as i was outwardly robbed of my choice internally i vehemently refused to give such a thing up, as it was very much my modus opperandi to do what Nanak would, evaluate all that was around me, and come up with my own guiding path. this i did, and was strongly punished for it. near suicidal moments at my bedside, extreme pangs of grief and left to grieve alone for the untimely death of a close friend, life was tough. and little sympathy is afforded me by any turban-donning sikhs as im "the hair cutter". in their eyes i quit something, i'm little more than a coward to them. but how little they understand. to me, i see them as the cowards, those who question their actions, but continue to assert them surreptitiously. it is they in my mind who deserve the scolding, cold ignorance and shame. however such is not the case, as our fundamentalist and orthodox sikh leaders are in power at this time. those who cut their hair are shunned. i twist with disgust when confronted with oppertunities to dine with local other sikhs who i know wear turbans, because i expect the "turban speach" something along the lines of "you should start wearing the turban again!" etc. i mean really. how often is this going to be repeated to me. im just tired of it, and my parents attitude of do-nothing/dont worry about it/just let it go/just give it up is just not my style. i was drilled this concept of saint-soldier, of deep fucking permeance, and it stuck, and now all these fakers with their stupid ass vendetta's get exposed for their ignorance, and i'm left scratching my head for what i might follow.

nanak said, there is no hindu, there is no muslim, so whose path am i to follow. i will follow the path of god. this is more or less my modus opperandi, my guiding compas, to religion and spirituality. because nanak was clearly a casual, and not a hardcore religious fanatic. to me, that's the ultimate good of sikhism. fanaticism may have taken root here, but it may not call sikhism a home. any scholar will know sikhism in truest form was the gathering of the casually-religious and free-thinking. using it to accost fellow sikhs by the hands of ultra-mega-fanatics is bastardizing what should be pure.

indian actors in us films

2009-07-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here we go with this crap again.

Lemme ask you a question, OP. If I were to look at the boards for I Am Legend, would I see your name in one of the posts complaining that "Will Smith isn't white, he can't play the role bcuz in teh book he's white"?

Get. The *beep* Over it. Hollywood will hire to anyone that they feel is the "right choice" for an actor. The only color that matters to them is green, and the only race that matters to them is the race to production deadlines. Just be happy in the fact that Uwe Boll isn't touching this movie. And stop seeing people for what their ancestral background is and start seeing their acting prowess/merit.

some guy writes, on imdb, regarding jake gyllenhall being cast in the prince role... prince of PERSIA.

alright so... come on. trying to fucking compare will smith to white actors? fucking rediculous. hah, and then the ancestral background lecture, begin GIVEN to indians.

alright bozo, how many films do you see indians in, playing roles that have nothing to do with being indian? a big fat zero, pal. wake the fuck up and backpedal outa that ditch buddy, because indians have exactly zero roles out there for them that have nothing to do with ethnicity & race. name me a superhero, a random schmo, that has nothing to do with being indian. indian food, or indian parents, its all the same thing, being cast in the same vein of familiarity.

thankfully we're getting more immigrants over here due to laws that've still not completely righted the injustice of years and years of sheltered immigration laws, only allowing certain types of people into the country. did you know indians were not allowed to immigrate from 1918 to 1945? and that the quotas of those allowed to immigrate into the country werent lifted until the 1960s? do the math buddy, there's more white than any other here, and thats because of white made laws keeping others out. had there been more diversity you can bet your ass there'd be more actors of indian origin in the spectrum, but as is there just arent any. people like the actor from harold and kumar fulfill a stereotype. its the actors that come after that can really shine light upon a particular role. otherwise, you're just bitching about nothing.

now talking about green... do you have any idea how many indians there are in the world? third populous country in the world ring a bell? if they actually made a movie that appealed to these folk, made it in america with american tech, they could make a killing. but do you ever see that? no. its the same with books, walk through barnes and noble, and youll see the same thing time after time, about 3 or 4 books on people of indian origin, and thats it. absolutely rediculous. whereas native americans have tons, as do all the other more overtly and commonly understood asian gruops. south asian, desi, whatever you wanna call it, we're a distinct group, we have our own trappings, we can't be lumped in with "asians". im sorry but its just not gonna work that way. the differences are too profound for there to be this real distinction abridged.

how many films do you see indians in, playing roles that have nothing to do with being indian?

this's a question i'd have to think on, because honestly, i don't think i've seen any. and i'm being very serious. a movie where a person with brown skin is not immediately identified as being an indian. i mean... overtly identified, as in... stated within the film as part of the dialogue. it just is something that you dont see. the absense of this. i'd love it though, i'd love for indian-origin people, basically folks who you're really stretching to make the connection to india any longer, to be cast in roles that highlighted personality and not cultural differences. those roles would be the ones worth sinking teeth into, and the ones more enjoyable to watch. to continue to see rehash after rehash of movies summing up the indian experience just boils folks who happen to have folks born in india (mine were, all four grandparents from punjab, mother and father born outside, me being born in wales). honestly its dumb for me to even call myself indian. as a rule i typically don't, but without that tag, there just isn't any culture, or anything, for me to explore, that i guess you could say ethnically, i could be apart of. it's a shame, there's so many things out there extended towards me should i take on this "indian" distinction, but should i shrug it off, all hands are withdrawn.

did you know indians were not allowed to immigrate from 1918 to 1945?

this has got to be one of the most rediculous things ive ever learned to be honest. like the fact that americans were literally so immature when i came to race, that they felt certani groups were evil, perhaps bad intentioned, for wanting to come to america and be successfull, the very same things these people who put such laws into effect wanted as well. what was the difference? well they looked different, and at first they sounded different. they had different views, coming from a different part of the world insulated from the prevailing views of the american majority at that time. for some reason, this difference was considered dangerous. why, im not sure. but because indians were different, in look, in belief, in sound, they were considered scarey, a threat, and in the end, protected against. but really, how much harm did indians really do. they come over, work the hardest jobs, get the highest qualifications, and contribute greatly to the society by working from dawn til dusk. when will indians be seen as equal contributors and not just some kindof second class knockoff that can't be assumed to be able to speak proper english, nor can they be expected to understand the ways of america. take any immigrant and they'll act foriegn, let them have kids and youll see how rapidly they seem "normal" to you.

if they actually made a movie that appealed to these folk, made it in america with american tech, they could make a killing.

here's a thought. why don't we see this kind of thing? now the slumdog movie, yes, people may point to it, but to me... what a god awful premise for a movie. love story? pleaase. lets see something more interesting than that please. sci-fi. fantasy. something that captures the imagination. but... fucking romance... get off your fucking rocker do you really think youre going to get a mainstream audience to watch that baloney. please... spare us... instead lets see movies that take the rarely talked about indian mythologies and folklores and turn them into action packed films. perhaps even films loosely based on the shit. turn it into a hollywood LOTResque blockbuster, throw in all the trappings, and see what you get. don't be surprised if it works, if it makes a killing, and those who hadn't tried it before smack themselves for being so conservative about film. casting only whites in asian roles will only damage hollywood cred in the eyes of the excluded. allowing brown skin onto the stage will foster positive relations and encourage young brown skinned folk to go into the industry, and perhaps in 10 to 20 we'll start to see the new class emerge, of americanized indians who are not stereotypical in perhaps the fashion you'd expect. yes, there are conservative jews, but also liberal.

i'd love it though, i'd love for indian-origin people, basically folks who you're really stretching to make the connection to india any longer, to be cast in roles that highlighted personality and not cultural differences.

this's actually be pretty cool. like perhaps an indian cast in shakespeare. or one of these many remakes using an indian to play the role, of perhaps a reporter, or some other deal. i mean there were indians in america throughout the 20th century. even indians in the house of representatives ( the first guy in managing three consecutive terms and losing a fourth due to a stroke ). the prblem with alot of these folks is they just don't really make roles for indians. then, when casting roles, they don't really entertain the idea of picking up someone with brown skin for the job. it's just not done really. and the end result is a white-washed movie screen with tails taken from all around the world told with white actors. this is essentially blackface, modernized. as folks from many parts of the world are sidelined, the white-hollywood types are kept in the limelight, shoveled role after role, time after time. in a world with such a large population how can the hollywood actor scene be so limited in its upkeep of various screen-artists. i can understand the robin williams, the jim carrey, but how can you keep on dramatic white actors whilst shelving dramatic brown ones. and i saw brown because really its down to color. it has nothing to do with anything else. a brown skinned black haired actor has just the same capability to be badass as a white skinned blonde haired one.

well they looked different, and at first they sounded different.

going back in history, thinking about the first indian immigrants, yes, they did sound different, yes perhaps they dressed different, perhaps they even looked different, beyond i'm guessing the skin color, because lets face it, there's all sorts of skin tones, from all around the world, and a skin tone / hair color combination should not be enough to be able to just evaluate someone so thoroughly. hell, you could take brown skin black hair and call out italian. its possible. so really don't just jump the gun when you think of the brown skin black hair. but any other difference besides that, well, ask yourself would any other immigrant from anywhere else in the world be any different. you could even take a united kingdom immigrant and place them in america and it still wouldn't be a hugely smooth transition. people get hung up when they move countries. it just happens. instead of lynching people for facing perhaps what is one of the greatest difficulties a person can face in society, essentially losing one and trying to enter another, perhaps folks should be a bit more sensitive to the difficulties that folks will most likely face. in the face of help, perhaps folks would be more likely to succeed. instead there's the upturned nose of disapproval and then the disallowal of entrance into society. how welcoming.

see movies that take the rarely talked about indian mythologies and folklores and turn them into action packed films.

now this would be cool. a hollywood movie regarding the sikhs, hindus, buddhists, or other religions, or perhaps more in depth, like the histories of the kingdoms, the kings and queens, the armies, or the villagers, the adventures of individual soldiers, or perhaps entire armies. the building of monuments, the creation of inventions. these are all things that honestly deserve to be thrown into movies. there are so many different stories that could be told with the backdrop of ancient india, or perhaps modern india, or even future india. there's just alot of cool stories that could be told. first of all there's the geography, the monsoons, the himalayas, the ocean, the bamboo forests, farms, tigers, the dusty roads, the pop music, the classical music, the linguist situation where folks are trying to preserve various languages that're being stamped out by the colonialism-influenced education system in place today, there's just alot of cool oppertunities for people to sit down and write fiction about. or take the 1984 attacks on the golden temple. i mean really, there's alot of drama, well of course, the entire human spectrum of tails to be told. its just a compelling thing, and people of all types could be shuffled into the deck to tell a rich story encompassing all walks of life. its worth a try i think.

the problem with alot of these folks is they just don't really make roles for indians.

imagine lord of the rings right? with some indians cast as minor characters. could it hurt to make some of those folks NON european? i mean im not sure i saw a single non white character in that film, beyond the pirates who'd taken the ships to enter the lands, and then even they were hardly seen and hurridly thrown in and hardly focused upon. or take a gander at star wars. yes we'd had a black actor as one of the mains, but this movie has even less of an excuse to ignore the indian diaspora. now yes, there were fewer numbers of indians in america at the time. take a look at the simpsons, who actually created an indian character, although not one that i was all that fond of heh.

hair: a legacy of pain

2009-07-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

my issues with my hair are complex. arguably my most potent moment of confrontation with the yolk my parents had provided for me in the form of religion was the day i emerged from college through the front door with hair shorn. the reaction was tears, as if my families love was forfeit. that i was somehow bound to live by these strict rules of beard and putka, and now that i had broken with it, that i had somehow broke with them. this of course is absurd, i love my parents, despite their failings, and that love did not disappear after my hair was gone. there's this strange notion amongst sikhs today that children are fair game for religious practices. the militant adherence to particular policies can be detrimental to the psyche of a child. but this doesn't daunt the most dedicated followers. they consider everything and anything a just loss in the name of religious adherence. its a terrible practice and i was subjected to it but the people who do such things aren't necessarily monsters. they're just capable of monstrous things. religion in my mind is a catalyst, perhaps for good, but also for harm. children, who are innocent and unknowning, relying on their mothers and fathers, requiring that adult brain of theirs to help make sense of this wide world with no prior knowledge and a childs point of view, are not adaquately developed to warrant saddling them with such religious convictions.

i read about the sikhs and i hear about the committments fathers and mothers made to adhering to these new beliefs. i really can picture a man walking through the streets, being one of the ten guru's, takling to people, persuading them into believing his or her gospel. i can imagine it because i can see myself doing just that, thinking myself slightly enlightened, perhaps organizing all that i believe a little better. its those guru's i take after most. whe it comes to my folks, i just see them more as the jailers than someone whose really teaching me much at all. except perhaps blind obedience to that which i don't wish to be. why are children made to follow religion. why are religious people compelled to indoctrinate their children with their beliefs. why is this considered not only OK, but a right of theirs. perhaps even something they're compelled to do should they want to consider themselves a good practitioner of the faith. by fucking their childrens minds with such restriction on the scale of perhaps some rediculous government instead of really anything that makes any sense.

children have rights too, just because they are younger, smaller, and less experienced, doesn't mean their rights are forfeit. as we grow older, we realize how the sins of our past stick with us into our adulthood. my years with my parents, whom i often discussed the merits of the hair, the putka, those conversations which were steered into the dust by my mother and father time and time again. these are close minded buffoons. they are also my parents. and perhaps they deserve respect for that. but on the same scale, they deserve also to be scorned and hated for their deep sins when it comes to the treatment of their children within the parameters of their religious teachings. why is it alright to teach to a child that he is not allowed to cut his hair for instance. who gives these people the right to tell a person that their body is not within their control, but rather within their parents. that their parents can dictate what hair style they wear, but not only that, much further and deeper on, what religious convictions they carry, if any. sikhism is a deeply personal, and just generally deep religion. you have to delve quite far into the mind to get the resulting logic that produces sikhism. this is not at all suitable for a child. anyone who thinks so is absolutely daft.

old men sitting on the left, old women sitting on the right. in the center is a rug leading to a book, brushed over by a child sitting uncomfortably. sit and bow, then take your seat on the side with your sex. why? because you're told to. largely, all of this is because iw as told to. deep cultural and religious teachings passed down to the next generation. only, because they were too pigheaded and stubborn to recognize the need of english speaking children of religious folk in the community, little to no meaning was trasferred. instead all that motivated these children to be an adaquate sikh was the badgering of their parents, and in the end, to get them to follow the rules, they were tricked into thinking they had no rights. that there was no choice but to follow sikhism. this to me is an immoral act, to teach a child that religion isnt a choice, isnt a thought, but is actually a jail, a prison, that the child is the inmate, and there is no key. what a horribly nihilistic point of view. and what a damaging way of thinking it can be when shoveled on the shoulders of a six year old. aren't there better things for these abject fools to do with their time than torture the toddlers?

but apparently this is the accepted way to behave. you go to the gurudwara and you're surrounded by people who are reeled there by discipline, not necessarily for reasons of their own choosing. it should be a culmination of belief to don the putka or turban, but instead, in sikhism, the children are shackled to their hair, they are punished and scolded into compliance, and essentially assured there is no choice, only the forced agreement that sikhism is true and not only that, but the various tenants of a devout sikh are required by the children of devout sikhs. where exactly in the guru granth sahib does it say to indoctrinate your children in religion. to me, smart sikhs with realize that instead of introducing children to orthodox religion, that there will be instead be maufactured options at ages more appropriate for introduction into the more orthodox aspects of the religion, that perhaps an 18, 20, 22 year old girl or boy could read about, take the amrit like it was intended, and then go forth as a devout orthodox sikh.

turbans being borne by unorthodox sikhs is a terrible mistake. then in turn forcing their children to do the same is a horrible wound upon a young mind, one that perhaps may never heal. and if they're unlucky enough, those children won't even be smart enough to realize that harm is being done. i noticed, but alas i wasn't capable enough as a child to be able to overcome the damage done by such an act. on the same token, today i'm endevouring to try and rid myself of this baggage, to try and be able to just let the past go and instead move forward relishing the freedom i'm now well acquainted with. the sins of the past travel farinto the future, but for the lucky few, eventually, a livable life can be achieved. i don't think my parents ever really imagined how terrible their teachings would or could be regarding me, but honestly, that has been the was this has all panned out. forcing turbans and beards onto children without the supporting dogma, hell, if you even keep the dogma attached any intelligent creature will be able to determine that it is wrong to force feed children with it. and i wasn't, the dogma was left out, on the other hand the turban wasn't. for whatever reasons turbans were worthy of punishment-induced compliance whereas the actual dogma of the religion was not. therefore i was left shackled to my putcka and joora with nary a clue as to why. other than perhaps my life was not infact my own, and i lived as a slave who had essentially given up on life.

is it our guru's intention to turn our children into mindless slaves? to cause much grief and perhaps make these children less likely to succeed, to be upstanding contributing members of the local community? is that the intention, when as part of the pange kakkar a sikh of amrit-pursuasion is compelled to bear arms should the need rise for direct involvement with the local affairs? how can a person who feels so disconnected from their own life as to essentially be swept up with the tide, however weak, how can a person of this sort ever have conviction deep enough to raise a blade or even a fist in the name of anothers defence? its absolutely ludicrious to raise a compliant young man and expect him to be the powerful beacon of abject rebelliousness based on sikh principals as we are led to believe perhaps we are intended to live. these are idiots, in the end, who encourage the children to be thoroughly disciplied, forced into compliance, and then encouraged as young adults to defend against that very thing. how can a sikh who has spent his entire life to that point living as the forced, to then grow to be a liberator of those who are in turn forced themselves? its rediculous.

so in the end, one of the most destructive elements of sikhism today, self-destructive no less, is the forcing of children into wearing the putka, growing the beard, and keeping those very children in the dark as why such a practice is warranted, as well as the use of punishment, intimidation, and eventual disbarment from the family as a means of ensuring compliance in the child insofar as the practice of keeping hair, and donning coverage. these are draconian methods of intimidation and control, that which sikhs themselves experienced from their local governments, that our sikh leaders directly wrote scripture against, to defend from, so powerful a sin was it that sikhs were compelled to sikh out their besieged neighbors, bear arms, and even sacrifice their lives if necessary to ensure the continuing freedom of all men and women. but unfortunately, such a freedom is not afforded the children of the sikhs, who are forced by whip and fist to grow hair, cover heads, and yet similarly are considered too dull to understand the depth of the religion. however this does not keep them from being forced to memorize it all anyway. slavery, is not good. and sikhism promotes it, in its children. disgraceful.

questions and inquiry into the history of indian americans in america

2009-07-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

why do american's still call native americans "indians"?

why are indians considered "asian"?

history:
1917 indians are barred from immigrating to the US
1913 first indian born person to gain american citizenship, convinces court he is "caucasian" - in 1923 due to supreme court decision, no east indian origin person can be naturalized, his citizenship revoked
1680 a daugther born to irish mother and indian father deemed mulatto and sold into slavery, due to law

why are there so many names for indians: south asians, east indians, asians, - whathaveyou.

september 11th backlash seems to be the lastest in many such events involving prejudice and unfairness with indians in america, dating back to a hundred years before the country's inception in 1680.

how many indians immigrate to america each year?

an average of 127,285 indian-born immigrants entered the united states between the year 2000 and 2007.

the numbers grew from 1,679,000 to 2,570,000 in 2000-7 period. this was a 53% growth rate. the highest growth rate for any so called "asian-american" community.

891,000 of the 2,570,000 currently in america entered the US from india in the last 7 years.

1 out of every 4 indians have entered the us in the last 7 years. my generation is literally the generation that is immigrating literally as we speak.

i was a child so i was americanized. but for alot of these people, they're moving over as adults. which means, they've been indianized. i don't know what the population growth is like from childbirth.

but i'd be interesting in finding out how many american born indians are there.

history:
1946 - indians are returned the right to immigrate and naturalize
1921 - women who marry indians have their citizenship revoked
1900 - 2,050 people of "east indian" origin were reported to be living in the united states.

why were there so few indians living in america in 1900?

1912 - the first sikh temple was opened in stockton, california
1956 - dalip singh saund of punjab elected to 3 terms in U.S. house of representatives.
1965 - per-country immigration laws removed, immigration on basis of qualifications introduced
1924 - act introduced to limit immigration of peoples to 2 percent of their american population in 1890.

so from 1924 to 1965 indians were basically limited to 2 percent of their 1890 population as far as yearly allowance of immigration to america. i mean thats like forty years. i mean its no wonder the indian population isnt huge right now.

1923 about 7,000 indians in the united states.
1940s dalip singh saund forms the indian association of america to help make asian americans elegible for citizenship
1946 luce-cellar act signed by truman permitting citizenship to asian indians
1947 gandhi and people of south asia rid themselves of british colonialism
1980 census data shows 359,000 indian americans
1990 census data shows 815,447 indian americans
1999 census data shows 1,300,000 today

so in 27 years, it went from 359,000 to about 2,570,000 indians in america. so if you do the math, 7.15 ... the uh... population increased 700 percent... in the past 27 years. which means... only 1 in 7 indians in america have lived here more than 27 years. so for someone whose 28, most indians have come during their lifetime. which means there's very few indians with history in america. and there's never been more history of indians being written than there is today. which is pretty cool. this is as good as its ever been and its looking to get better.

so 1923 to 1980 we go from 7,000 to 359,000 so thats like uh... 50 times the increase in population. which is a way more dramatic increase. so you look at the past 27 years, and its only like 7 times as much.

why are indians doing so well after british colonialism?

fucking rediculous

2009-07-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

This expands to a lot of sins in this country: Whites [and] Native Americans; the internment camps where we packed up Japanese Americans.

alright, all agreeable good points, but where's the mention of the '25 to '45 complete ban on Indian immigrants, and then the following two or so decades of a limit of immigrants to about 200 per year from the country. really? at a time when likely half of the population of america was essentially an immigrant population. and only 200 indians a year could join that diaspora. i mean put the fucking pieces together. how the fuck are you supposed to rationalize that.

but what really gets me is not just the state of that situation, but then the lack of mention. yes, this never gets brought up, ever. not by indians, not by anyone else. this should just be one of a long list of facts that gets rattled off, only, it doesnt. come the fuck on.

and then there's the "turban tide" shit from the 20s. why is this the first time ive heard it, doing my own research, reading something thats there if you want to look for it, but isnt being put out there to grab my attention. i mean really. where are the fucking indian americans? we dont have much shit comign our way. turban tide isour slur from the 20s. why don't we know this? fucking rediculous. and how come we dont know about the fuckig 20 year ban on people of our origin from entering this country. you cuold call us today the modern allowals, those folks who after whover decided to open up the immigration numbers did, and after which, numbers swelled up. fucking indians being banned from america. i mean thats just pure immaturity. how the fuck can you expect that to be considered legit? really? keeping a certain skin colored-segment of the global population form global mobility?

i'd like to see a day where the lines of countries are no longer boundaries which keep people from being free. passports and id's should be done away with. folsk should be able to roam the world as they see fit. the cities extend their influence far across the globe, whilst most of the world is actually countryside. does anyone see something wrong with this? its completely wrong. if there's more country, there should be more influences nestled in it. but some strange flip of power, those who live in these concentrated cities extend their influences miles in every direction. it doesnt make sense, but its how it is.

i'd be happy when these indian american children grow old enough and numerous enough to have their own identity. i mean i know i kinda exist on the outisde of all these identities but i'd love for one to exist. something for this assumed-community to own, you know? beyond bhangra and hiphop heh. where's the originality and style. of course most of it is just percieved shit that's mostly racist. people buy whats on tv, and the alternative tv is black media.

The target audience has, and probably always will be, white males.

are you kidding me? the above is in reference to the porn industry. wake the fuck up whoever-wrote-that. you understand that the hispanics are on the rise? immigration has been opened up, expect more from other places. fucking rediculous shit. didn't you know indians werent allowed for about 60-years in a reasonable fashion? duh... why do you think there's a white majority? it was founded by whites, who were very intolerant of others, so made it rough for anyone to join there club. fine, except their club swelled to the size of current day united states. that, and its likely the best biggest bastion of freedom and biggest oppertunity for personal wealth in the world, given credentials. they arent exactly throwing money into the streets, but if you putyourself in a position to catch some, you may get an armfull.

but yeah. give it time bitches. as the hispanics, who seem to be migrating northward from mexico and other south american countries, populate these lands, the demographics change. its interesting, because the spanish, largely through their formerly subjugated peoples, are now coming to greater prominence in the new world, as their language, once forced upon natives, becomes increasingly relevant as more and more of their descendants descend upon the borders of the united states. and then the asians, now that the doors are open, give it time again, as decades pass, the numbers should equal out some. really, if immigration is universally equal, and the promise of freedom is colorblind, there is no reason america shouldn't be racially striped in equal dimensions. but is it? not at all. but this is due to racist and ancient laws that artificially promoted white travel to the united states whilst blocked off all others. is it any wonder we live in a white majority country today?

but for those fucking stupid ass depressed fucks, who like to remind themselves that it'll "probably always be this way" wake the fuck up. i'm sure there was a native american fool who thought the same thing, before the tide of white came in, descended upon america, and wrought havoc for hundreds of years to come. anything can change. especially when we're talking of human constructs. they exist in the tenuous ground that is nature's whim. should we ice-age it up, or any other natural disaster, disease, whathave you, the rules of the game change, and the way we play it, this racism thing, and all its trappings, tend to go out the window. we're reacting to what we've got, and the current situation is that many whites are indeed inheriting a position of power, whilst many non-whites are not. this is the legacy of whites in the past. former empires, pillaging the lands worldwide. this is our species history. subjugation, based on something as fickle as color. could you imagine the color of someones skin could be the general motivator of unification between people? in some ways it feels like we're still in the stone age. i don't get it, but that's what we get, what we're served as we enter this world, the summed up history of our peoples, that's what we inherit, and certain people choose to inhabit that world. me on theother hand, i try not ot. i try to discount that which i find superfluous, and instead focus on whats real, nature, science, that shit. people, we're just artistic fuckers looking for ways to espouse our creativety, be it slavery, or other social constructs. theyre all just social constructs, and none of 'em matter. not at all.

just wait for the ice age. see what happens.

beard issues

2009-07-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

well, i've got beard issues.

when i was a kid i was raised to believe sikhism. it wasn't really so much an option as it was a chore. something that had to be done. no choice involved really. didnt wanna go to temple? tough. not wearing a putka was out of the question. the sheer lack of freedom was startling. and as i grew older, the same thing continued. i was not allowed to cut my hair. my hair had to be covered by a cloth. if i didnt do it, my folks would kill me. it was unthinkable. so deeply was it ingrained into me. my parents arranged it so that they would be heartbroken should we cut our hair. it was never a real harmless option to be our own selves. our parents put their fragile hearts in between us being what we wanted, and we suffered because of it. i think of so many things i could've done, should've done, that had i done, my folks would have become murderously upset about. and for some reason, we felt like upsetting our parents was something we could never do. essentially it was never on the table. im sure somewhere along the line one of us, perhaps both, upset our parents, and we were given such a rattling that we learned from then on that it was only their way. nothing else was possible. basically they made it so unpleasant for us that the path of least resistance was to go ahead and give up our freedom. so we thought. but like... giving up your freedom... you dont realize how much youve given up until youve then lived with complete freedom. its nuts.

but the bottom line is, i can't grow a beard. why? it makes me sick to my stomache. i see the beard, and i remember the repressive years. i remember how i was literally a prisoner in my own body. i could not shave. i could not get a hair cut. i could not date. i could not do anything. and the representation of the faith i displayed on my face, i did not know if i actually believed. i went to qegs, and christianity was taught there. i loved the hymns and shit. meanwhile at the gurudwara i was taught next to nothing about the religion. i mean i like the heaven story, hell i even like praying, but there's things out there that i like even more. like this whole like, icelandic set of beliefs. i know they have a church, but they also have more ancient and powerful beliefs that hold some weight in my mind.

turbans & civil rights

2009-07-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

the turban issues is interesting as its something a friend of mine is currently facing up. he’s one of two sikhs battling the united states military for his right to wear a turban and fulfill his duty in the military. the interesting twist is he used the military program which pays for med school in return for a pledge of X years of service. those recruiters that picked him up assured him the hair would be allowed to be left long, that the turban would be allowed to be left on his head. thinking the circumstances fair knowing that his religion was going to be respected, he goes and signs up. now, years later, after he’s done with his degree, they’re renegging. and he’s fighting it in court.

this isn’t the first time i’ve heard this either. another friend of mine, goes down to take a law school entrance exam, and is refused the test unless he removes his turban.

with sikhs, it goes down to scripture, those that’re orthodox enough to follow what are known has the pang kakkar, 5 symbolic items of uniform instituted by the 10th leader of the religion some 300 years ago will likely find themselves with a turban. not only that, the turban is one of the pang kakkar that tends to be followed even if amrit hasn’t been taken. amrit is the baptism that essentially is a symbolic declaration of adherence to those tenants outlined in the book (named guru granth sahib) and taught by the 10 successive guru’s of the religion.

france currently has laws that require sikhs to remove their turban for driver’s liscense photos. generally the world seems to frown upon the turban, seemingly quietly linking it up with the burka, which has its own negative press.

the truth is, sikhs love their turbans. no sikh (unless perhaps you consider some of the children) wears a turban against their will. its a sign of pride & faith, more like a cross, than a restrictive burka. furthermore, folks often mistake turbans for signs of islamism. now i have nothing against the muslim faith, but turbans are very rarely used by muslims, whereas they are almost uniformly employed by sikhs. if you do your homework, you find sikhs have very little in common with muslims. the first guru of the religion lived in a muslim and hindu dominated world, checked both religions out, and rejected them, then put together what more or less made most sense to him, and lived & preached it. that lead to followers, which lead to a successor, and in time, a religion. this was 600 years ago.

but the bottom line is, sikhs are sworn to defend the weak, to stamp out injustice, these were some of the motivating factors behind the transfiguration of the khalsa formation 300 years ago, when the pang kakkar were put into place by the 10th (and last) sikh guru. and for sikhs to find themselves now being attacked for such things as the turban, which is part protest against the ancient tradition of only royalty being allowed long hair, and part uniform to encourage people to keep themselves presentable, and most importantly so, a very optional part of sikhism, one which many choose not to follow today, is disgusting.

after 9-11, many sikhs rallied and formed various organizations stateside and worldwide. this was to stem the very visible backlash against all things “islamic” be they truely linked or mistaken. many sikhs realized our disposition in the world wasnt quite the way we’d've liked it. we wanted the world to know us on our terms, not simply as some “other” guy. there’s still work to be done evidently, elected officials worldwide continue to sponsor anti-turban legislature and policy, but there are seemingly just as many pro-respect folks out there who’d wish nothing less than complete protection of a sikh’s right to wear a turban.
anyway, figured i’d toss that out there.

why its wrong to introduce children to religion

2009-07-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

alright, so lets just start this by saying im brown skinned but not brown-belief'd. if that makes sense. essentially to these racist fuckers who seem to think tehre's beliefs inherent in skin color. but yeah there isnt any. its just there's extreme backwards views that i guess we have to contend with. i mean like, im not sure why we even have to humor those stupid povs. but we do. at least i do. and i see others doing it too. well why not, we live in a world thats white dominated, why? because of white-empires from before color-mixing. in countries where diversity was systematically purged over time. and the relatively isolated nature of the white areas kept them from major contact with the rest of the world. then essentially as they came in contact with everyone, they took over. bought shit up, took shit over, shipped shit out, and left people destroyed and distraught. its a shitty situation but thats teh world we live in, the post-pillaged era of white-power. they say white power people are wrong, but how far as they from the truth, when essentially whites DO dominate the world. it doesnt take much religious-hobnobbery to be able to then seek divine cause for the way things have gone. but its a very human thing, nothing magical or spiritual about it, neither the witches nor the pagans, neither the hindus nor the sikhs, neither the buddhists nor the jews, nobody will stand back and call this a magicl happening.

but anyway. children are valuable to society. they will grow up one day and becoem the new crop of adults, who will in turn then give birth to their own subsequent generation. if ever child born today was rendered impotent, from today onwards, mankind would end. part of the renewal of life and continuance of it on earth is the continued passing down of life from parents to children. so this process is very important to continue the species. but its also important for other reasons. this is how children gain the knowledge they need to be able to go and do those things they wish to do. without these abilities, without the right outlets, people essentially ust go down the tube. there's a need for nurture as a child invests their interests into an adult they trust, they have no choice but ot trust, or have that trust violated and then feel afraid of trusting, and then living in fear, but unable to learn because of it. but the thing is children need ot learn during that growing period in oirder to mentally be an adult once their body reaches its full size. in the old days once you were sexually mature you would just naturally be looking for a mate and then childern of your own would follow. but all that you learned as a child would come and influence your ability to raise your own so those lessons would be valuable in your success teaching your children about human and natural worlds.

now part of those teachings people feel are worthy of passing down are those of spirituality. now im not going to say spirituality is a bad thing, i think its good and perhaps even necessary for a full experience of life on earth as a human being. but beyond that, its just a crazy thing to expect people to understand their place on earth efore they are mature enough to even conceptualize such a thing. and beyond that, the way that religion is essentially a theory that shares brothers and sisters, that an adult is taught a religion by a teacher of that religion, a missionary such as the founder of all these religions, and then that these folks go around and do whatever it is they do, and folks get attracted, adult folks, folks who have questions, who think, and find some answers with these new philosophies being pitched to them. and thats essentially how it works. but then there's the other end of it. people who go out and have children then teach those children their religion of choice, not teaching it as a choice but as a rule, a requirement, falsifying the way thiese religions operate and making those children feel as if really that there was not a damn thing that could be done to stop themselves from being this one particular religion, saying its in their blood, that its in their history, that their ancestry is of this religion and therefore this child is then irrefutably of this religion as well. but this is a perversion of the religious process. to go out, learn and then believe, perhaps to practice and find solace, meaning, and peace. this is the point of religion, an arm reached out to those that would wish to follow it, but not necessarily meant to be the yolk that it becomes when used upon children. children are not meant to shoulder such burdens and therefore cannot really operate with any real success having had such a burden placed upon their shoulders. the burden is too great to carry, the orthodox policies too far reaching for a child to understand and the like. children should not made to follow any particular religion whatsoever. in this modern world where many such beliefs exist, people should be given the option, to be lieve or not. many children are in fact scolded should they not believe, and these children are punished coerced and forced into naming themselves as sikhs, and other religions, whereas their own belief in heart wouldnt so much much necessarily align with such a thing. its a terrible thing to shove some philosophy down someones throat. and this is how some of these people seem to act. but bottom line is that folks need to recognize how shit their own efforts seem to be and how much better they could really have it if they only left children some solace and freedom. enforcing discipline in a house is one thing, but then instead trying to like... bring about spiritual awakning in a six year old is just ludicrous. its damaging and detrimental and needs to stop.

raised without sex

2009-06-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

Swedish couple decide not to use gender as a definition applied to their young child, opening the possibility to a human being raised without such a pressure upon themself.
http://www.thelocal.se/20232/20090623/

This is an interesting case. in theory i agree with everything these folks are doing. i mean really, this is some solid stuff. taking a child and saying, "hey, lets not get them dolled up, lets not teach them about boy and girl, isntead, lets let them be free of such constraints." to me this is enlightened living. why must me force down the throats of our children all this bullshit that we do. in artciles comdemning this i hear such things as how they shouldnt be trying to shove down idological vioewpoints down their childrens throats but what a hypocritical thing that is to say when children are faced with religious coersion all the time, go to church / temple / gurudwara etc. learn your bible/torah/quran/guru grath sahib. this is some real fuckign forcing of children when it comes to all this religion bullshit. children are too young to fight anything off, so anything you give htem will have an impact on years to come, maybe it will be cast aside as an adult but what a painful casting off and digging out it can be when something is unwanted. like thinking to yourself, "what if my folks never introduced sex to me." to me the real what if is, "what if my folks never introduced religion to me".

religion & children
this's something i've written a bout a few times now and i think children are too young to learn about very adult oriented terminilogy and circumstances. the concept of god and the otherworldy are things that a child can't hope to understand, except in impossibly grandiouse ways. perhaps some people never grow out of that, but i did. these concepts although large intheir art are actually in practice very small. most of these notions are more likely forged by men than perhaps the word spoken to them from some imaginary god. i don't know if i think no god exists, when confronted with the question do i think it certainly doesnt, i can't necesssarily say i do. there's no proof either way. why would i be the fool to declare something unproven to be absolutely true. this goes both ways, for athiests and believers. in between there's breathing room, rgound where you decide not to get involved. if you ask me what deignation i would accept for myself i would say perhaps religiously involved

but as a child, i dont think i should have beenf aced with all that i was. putkas, tightly tied, strict weekly visits to the local temple, forced training in particularly entwined cultural/historical/religious instruments & history as well as language. all of this to basicallyf uel what amounted to a counter-culture before my eyes. it opened my eyes, because whilst perhaps other kids are educated in communism or whatever else by their mothers and fathers, my cultural education, my counter-cultural educaiton, was that of sikhism. now in concept i think its brilliant to have such a thing as a cultural challenge posed to a child @ a young age. it'd be even better to have no challenge whatsoever. but still, what a crazy situation.

reading about sikhs

2009-06-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

so i went through some old ww1 and ww2 photographs of sikhs, and it struck me how amazing it was that these people resembled those that i'd seen at gurudwaras, photos taken at least 60 years ago, and in some cases more alike 90, resembled people whom i knew to be in their 20s and 30s today. this is amazing because its striking how similar the sikhs really look.

i see these photographs and i see young strong sikhs then when i look to the photographs of gurudwaras today i see humble hobbles of humanity huddled together hiding away from the outside world. to me its a strange thing that the community isn't extending like it should. people seem more interested in silently worshiping anonymously rather than doing anything else besides that. it's absolutely rediculous and crazy that these things are the case, but they are. i don't understand how these people have managed to do all that they have but it's just insane that there's been so much persecution of sikhs over the years. i mean i would not have expected to see so much, not nearly as much asi've read about, from the british taking over the sikh raj, to the survey of those that could decipher the sikh guru granth sahib falling under 30 within the entire country of india, to the partition of india severing the punjab in half, to the '84 attacks on the golden temple itself prompting an assasination which then prompted a massacre of sikhs, the '01 terrorist attacks in america which then prompted years of xenophobia, and racism, death and injury both mentally and bodily... and then the crushing conservatism of today's folk-view filled midwest, considering those "brown-skinned devils" to be little more than scourges of god.

not to mention the years where sikhs were not allowed to immigrate to america, from 1925 to 1945. its crazy. but these are the facts of our society, of our people. some would wish our history to be forgotten, i say some but i really mean most all.. because these people just literally would not raise a finger to the injustice they know all to well about in america, india, and in the world at large. just willing to "go with the flow" all teh way to their grave, they are the people that are eating away at what it is to be sikh - a strong resistance can compel a people to achieve great feats but isntead of doing so we've allowed ourselves to become consumed by that which as come our way - you could say these early events in our religions history are things that perhaps will define us in years to follow, allthis century's trials and tribulations may be remembered as well as the christians seem to recant the adventures of jesus and his nerdy gang of devotees.

then there's this whole conversion thing, these people trying to supplant religion in the mindsof the religious, why bother trying to have this new form of warfare take place, what good is it to destroy all other beliefs, why does this honor your own, certainly honoring your fellow man includes honoring his beliefs... it is possible that a man can live a life in a world with many beliefs without it coming into conflict with what more or less he's found to be what he feels is right in the world. religion is a poetic form of verse which gives physical form through literary inference to the divinely unseen. there is no proving and there is no disproving. it is not something that can be scientifically tested since it is nowhere at all scientifically rooted. religion has more to do with philosophy & art than anything else, as these things give life to the unknown, that faceless and nameless expanse that exists beyond our cranium can then be thought of with much though in the direction of critical thinking. there is no critical doing, there is no physical act which shall illuminate your religious beliefs.

and then another bone to pick, the initiation of children into religion, how is this right in any way whatsoever, this is an adult pursuit through and through and children have no place in its halls, children can't even imagine themselves in the universe let alone question the universe's makeup. these religions are postulations into artful specultion as to why and what and to give answers to the otherwise unanswerable, its mankinds greatest gift in some ways to itself by making sense of of the senseless and then giving man the true ability to excersize his influence across the universe. our ability to thikn and imagine is a pwoerful one but a child has no concept of such things and perhaps should not be made ot live an as orthodox member of such a religion or sect. to do so is to shut the mind off from any other stimulation and to remove the choice from teh child which is then to disengenously make the assertation of specific devotion of said child to parent-introduced dogma. these things should be outlawed, children should be educated of the worlds many philosophies and ways, and should be made to choose, to find within themselves which one speaks most to them. to me this is what essentially is the college process today in that we go to pick a major try it out and eventually find something we specialize in - in the spritual sense it is much the same, finding a religion within which to specialize, something that we can indeed go and do a great deal of good within. thats what exactly we need to do and these are the things that people should eshew in their lives amongst their community members and families.

but then there's the silent majority, the sikhs who go to the temple, wear the turban, grow the beard, who gasp when a sikh shears his hair, who mindlessly utter words whose meaning is unknown to them, these are the people who kill religion, who destroy immensely powerful gestures and gut them to their ritualistic core, and that's all that remains, blind ignorance and repetition, and those of us that do seek deeper meaning are left bankrupt and alone for the majority of sikhs just don't give a damn about their religion. it's turban-social club and little else, more like little india. these people jabbering with their social partners and gossiping about the lastest seen mishap or mystery in the community, the chilren scurrying about, elderly men and women sitting silently perhaps enjoying the chaos, adolescents outside playing basketball or handing the food out in the living out of their parents ways, the introduction of children to the life which they're asked to live, yet without any deep meaning, nor any real scholarship on the religion, people are left searching for intelligence and find there way out of the gurudwara and into the streets. because education especially within the sikh community is not prized and intelligence is so absurdly rare. this is not something im pleased with, i'd've rathered it be the other way where we had at least some who understood exactly what they were trying to do as well as some sort of an appropriate history of the religion.

and that's another thing, the history. we're emphasized the religious - folklore of the guru's but we're not given the battles, the life of those that came after the gurus, a clear timeline, no it's all garbled and almost impossible to follow along, these are people who are almost entirely lost in detail, who completely forget the big picture, and by doiing so lose those that perhaps need such a big one. the big picture is often the most satisfying, the most profound, and the most juicy, and yet in our schools our teachers just didn't make the grade, whilst we were just left there scratching our heads why we were even doing what we were, that these people going through their motions failed to teach us what was most important, the why, the big picture, and thereby depriving us of the reason those that followed the guru in the first place began their plight. whyd id they bother with the rantings and ravings of a most likely commonly percieved lunatic. because there wsa likely some promise in his words, some meaning and some truth, some profoundity and ultimately soemthing compelling that had people thinking to themselves this is a proper man with a proper message strong enough so that im going to abandon what ive got and pick up with what this man has.

and of course in the end there's the whole idea that we're following the words of one man who lived 600 years ago. do i really seem the type to be of that persuation? no i don't believe so. i was reading about the description of sociology earlier on, and it mentioned the phrase, "healty skepticism". to me i have a healthy skepticism and this in turn gives me the empowering sort of point of view that any man is capable of what the guru's came to, that we can be anything, that we can do anything, if only we practice, if only we try and force ourselves to bring ourself to greater heights. these pursuits take time, and time is something we don't have much of in life. the problem i often find myself faced with is the question of what seems most worthwhile to fill my own time. and this essentially is what makes a man, not the ability to do something, but the committement to doing so. and in that, we have very little difference in intelligence, but moreso importance on specialization and pursuit... how much hardcore training has someone had in something, and how hardcore are they about their topic. do they seem like they give a shit about it and are they really passionate about it to the point of exploring every rock nook and cranny, that they are pushing the boundary and letting it get woven into the fabric of their lives, are they able to take a step back, realize that even their pursuit has its place, that in the grand scheme all these things are basically just part of a larger human conscienceness that spans many views, theories, ideas, concepts, inventions, and social-states.

in genera i find it difficult to commit myself to a religion i was raised upon as a child. my natural state is to reject whatever iw as spoon fed as religion is something that essentially is only acceptable to an adult mind and that children are hardly in the state to be able to really make any sense of it at all. religion is something that should be left to adults, much like smoking sex and alcohol, because of its powerfully warping perceptions and potential to create violence and other undesirable outcomes. children should be allowed to frolic in fantasy, in the stories of the past, those that are more fanciful and even pagan, for these are the more ancient views of the world, and they are far more rich and old than even the oldest religious text. we should be encouraged to laern about all, and to remain impartial, to develop a personal sprituality, but not necessarily do it because of the prompting of ones mom or dad. thse things are generated by inner potential and drive, not necessarily by outward forces, and those who seek to convert by introducing thought-pollution into new minds only serve to confuse and destroy. the damage dealt by europeans advancing in the americas rings true to present day, and these are the results of transformative movements. there is nothing noble in them. to convert is to kill, and manslaughter is frowned upon. the killing of thought should similarly be considered criminal, especially when the supplanted thought is rich, rewarding, benign, benevolent, and contributory to happiness and peace of mind. destruction ,warping of views, these do not equate goodness. conversion is a blight upon humanity.

my take on sikhs

2009-06-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

it just seems like sikhs have been fucked over numerous times throughout history, yet refuse to stand up for themselves. yeah there have been momentary generals and the like, but where has there been anything truely established and powerful. and how about the fact that back in 1900 when they wanted to do a translation of the guru granth sahib they couldnt find more than like 20 people who could even read the damn thing. there was a period, and im not sure its still the case today, but there was a period during sikh history where they were some of the most uneducated people out there in india.

and then there's the whole islamic massacres of sikh peoples and leaders. they'd cut people in half, pay people for the heads of sikhs, more or less try their best to convert & or kill those who opposed them. in a way you could call this one of the great tests of the religion, as more or less every fledgeling religion seems to have, where there's religion it seems, there's competition, competing for peoples souls and shit, and that sort of shit is just hard to really kinda ... hard to reconcile and shit.

and of course the whole 84 thing. years have passed and many government officials still havent been brought to justice. in some cases they still hold their incumbant positions. the massacre and invasion of the holiest sikh shrine, and the current sikh leader, plus the numerous killed sikhs in the rioting and such. this was incited by government people and those people do deserve justice brought to their case. if you incite people to kill, a crime has been committed. its not a war, it was a murder of many people. but i can see how hte government might try and weasel out of it saying it was a wartime thing, that under the terms of war, the state gives the government right to kill & maim in the name of the state. its a terrible thing, and war no matter how its looked upon causes much destruction. but given the right political spin, a country can feel justified in murder, whislt the invaded force can feel very compromised.

i was readin 'bout the last sikh ruler

2009-06-03T16:43:00.001-07:00

the lion of punjab, that's what the last GREAT ruler of the punjab was called. however his son, aged 9 was taken from his post and carted off to england. he in turn had his own children, and they too had theirs, and a man has been found as being a potential living survivor of the bloodline today. british, tax-collector, not even mildly interested in his lineage, significantly father of two, there is a living survivor of the dynasty of leaders that once ruled the kingdom of the punjab.

ive read things such as the son's forced conversion into christianity, and his disallowance from visiting india more than twice in his nearly 60 years of life. nor was he allowed to be returned for cremation following his death. the return of the son of the great lion of punjab in funeral was thought to potentially stir up things in a way that wouldn't bode well for the british. so, insultingly, he was buried as a christian in the united kingdom.

it's just a terrible thing, and i can imagine how he felt, as i've also immigrated & been taken from my own home. i can see how my parents potentially didn't feel welcome in england, the land where their leader was carted to and their prized jewel taken from them. its now in the crown jewels. why it hasn't been returned, i don't know.

what does it mean to be indian american

2009-05-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

well... this's a question i thought i'd ask myself. what does it mean to be indian american. firstly its simply someone whose traced their origin to the country India, who currently resides in america. one of the latest in many waves of settlers in america. one of 2.7 million. 0.9 percent of the united states of america. one in a hundred.

there's not alot of history...

barred from citizenship in 1923... 1943 saw the allowance of indians to naturalization & the like.

in 1943 indians were returned the right to immigrate & naturalize.

i don't understand why people convert to christianity

2009-04-25T00:52:00.000-07:00

reading about christian missionaries, i thoguht to myself, why do these hindus in this case convert to christianity? why ditch your own faith, much older than theirs, for theirs. its a text, written by ancestors, either yours, or theirs. you have your beliefs intact, they exist in your culture. yet, people will drop their own beliefs and adopt those of their neighbor for what? why would they refuse the teachings of their parents for those of outsiders? those outsiders have the same script passed down thruogh the ages style philosophy you do. why do you drop your own direct ties for something that will never truely be yours. you arent the people of jerusalem. nor are yoru ancestors. why follow the teachings and beliefs of those people. beliefs that have nothing to do with your ancestors. the blood that flows through your veins has 7,500 generations of man in it. of those, none were christian, if you're a purebred hindu, sikh, and the like. sikhs rarely go out into the world and try to convert others. likewise, sikhs rarely get converted. however it does happen. sikhs are lured away to the promise of the larger christian church. its like joining a bigger company. buying out the mom and pops. but its a monopoly that has far reaching effect. noone today has coined the major religions. these are texts that have influenced followers for generations, thousands of years in some cases, and the arrangement of the world today is largely to do with the influence those texts had on their followers.

its crazy how this shit went down. these people were following their own religions, then the christians would come in, guns in hand, and would give them the choice. life in the christian world, or death as a whatever you began life as. whatever you were taught by your parents. the christians offer this temptation, scorn your own father and mother, and join the mindless hoard of christians. i wonder if we could call christians the new pagan hoards.

"better to be around your own kind"

2009-04-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

i was recently having a conversation with anita my girlfriend and we were speaking about the recent rash of people my parents had been hiring to come over to the house and do various things, first the lawn mowers, then the guy who sprayed all the lawn with chemicals, then the guy who got hired to fix the dish washer. all this going on, plus the mail man. anyhow all these peoplwe were white skinned, had a bit of a hostile posture and demeanor, both anita my white skinned girlfriend and i brown skinned noticed the same thing. these were people whom i and she had avoided growing up, the worst of the worst, the people who were so bad that you just instinctively knew to avoid them. however in this weird twist of fate, now my parents pay for their bread.

we're meant to sit in our basements while they roam free in our kitchens and yards, and i thought it was a strange thing to have such a situation be the case. i really dont think that these people really have any idea about what they do. they seem to just walk around angrily with this sort of paranoia and tenseness that you know is induced y the knowledge that brown skinned people live here. it isnt just brown skinned people, but a brown skinned man with a beard and a turban! such a fearful thing this must be to these white skinned simpletons. im not saying i have anything against white skinned people, but i think thebest way to refer to them is perhaps white skinned people instead of just calling them whites. but really they're more pink skinned, or creamish colored, than they are white. after all white is the absense of all color, and black is the existence of all of them. a black man is more brownish in skin tone, while a white woman is more pinkish reddish and cream colored in their skin tone. the words black and white are exaggerations, ones that lend to a tense world view, one im not really interested in entertaining.

im more of a relaxed guy, and as such like a relaxed point of view regarding the earth, life, and such. and when it comes to skin color, there's nothing right about calling someone BLACK. there is absolutely nobody who blends into the darkness of the night. the word itself is a lie. those people do not have black colored skin. ask any art teacher to pull out the color chart. refer if you like but common sense should hopefully draw you to the conclusion that indeed black people are mislabled and should be labeled dark-brown. and white people should be labeled creme-pink-red. indians are more brown-creme. at least i am.

another thing i want to deconstruct is the word indian. i am not of india. never born there, haven't lived there, i have no allegiance to the government of the region. whilst my parents lives began in those lands, my own did not. in fact i began life in wales in the united kingdom. if someone is going to label me as a countryman of some place, it should be a welshman. country ties dont extend beyond your birthday. they dont precede you. if you are born in a land, that land is your birth place. no assumption of my intentions, grey matter, the like, based upon my skin tone, will ever draw you to the point where you really have a good time with it.

i met an english woman yesterday, who actually said to me, yeah i imagine you have a hard time with it. i said yea, at least when she was speaking about the whole indian versus white situation in dayton. but yeah. thats the sort of thing that goes on. i personally hate the word indian. i have no tie to the country india. i have nothing to it at all. beyond forced-upon temple visits and language lessons, food tastings and cultural-gatherings, i am no more indian than any other person whose mildly tuned into the pop-culture-media-machine.

but back to the topic at hand, "your own kind" is something i find absolutely terrible. first of all is there really and kind which we cna call oru own. i mena yes perhaps ideologically we can. but physically, using the skin tone as a judge of character, is such a terribly inaccurate measure, and the things imposed upon peoples because of their skin tone are terrible institutions. but then i was thinking that perhaps if we even idenitified by our differences on an intellectual level, yes, the lines would be drawn in a color free manner, but the problems would still exist, albiet in a mixed skin mehtod but still a fight for the people to fight. something where sides would exist, opposed to one another. i'd rather break free of the system of infighting that's been imbued into the very fabric of humanity, looking back at man's recorded history, tale upon tale of conquest, assimilation, destruction, oppression, rebellion, overthrowings and independances, death and decay, explotion, stagnation, then overthrowals and renaissances. such a violent past man has behind it, a system of application of ideals over vast populations of people by the hands of few, boiling down to single individuals. imposing the will of one over many is never a good thing, hopefully we'll emerge from all of this wiser and more advanced in the future.

84

2009-04-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

it's crazy how little sikhs do about the 1984 attacks. also it seems like the sikh community is literally a headless beast. even in india, there is no leadership, and its a shame. the prime central location for the people of sikhism, was attacked by military forces and yet you hardly hear much of it in the gurudwaras in chicago and ohio.

i think that sikhs really dont do a good job of having really any kind of like sense of religion and community. we dont really have a dialogue for anything about anything. its all crap really. and the requirements of the turban are crazy. i dont understand why sikhs perform rituals when nanak said rituals were wrong. that was the very reason for the creation of sikhism. instead they go and cover there head when in the presence of a book, knelt to like an idol. this is far removed from the original teachings of nanak. certainly these are more worshippers of nanak than practitioners of his beliefs. they kneel to him like he is god instead of letting themselves learn his teachings. children are brought into the temples not knowing the language of the text and are forced to sit and listen to unknown tongues and then sit and eat food. it doesnt make any sense to those children nor will that be resolved by watchful adults. they're allowed to continue unknowning and they will never really know anything about the religion. these kinds of things are crazy and certainly they shouldn't really be the modus opperandi for gurudwara's nationwide.

also another problem is the turban issue and its PR issues and legal conflicts. as well as the kirpan. police entered a house and upon seeing the kirpan at a womans side restrained her and arrested her took her to the station for questioning. only, she was a resident of that house and her brother had called in a burgalery. it was an embaressing situation and i don't really feel it can really be used as a rightful gague of the legal system in america. these agents of the law used force against innocent citizens and this is wrong.

2009-04-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

there was like this fuckin set of videos i watched.

one was on 1984, the way that the indian army came in, killed sikhs. the US senate has footage of people speakin and shit. its fuckin crazy. dead indians. like i wonder if there's sikhs out there who hate hindus for the way they were well more or less massacred by them. crazy shit.

taken from metafilter

2009-03-08T16:45:00.001-07:00

I have been on their "list" since I spent time in Afghanistan in mid-2001. Every single fucking time I go down to the States, no matter if by car or by plane, I am pulled aside (to put it mildly), interrogated, confined to a cell, and finally questioned by the FBI. The very first time this happened to me in early 2005, I was driving down to Buffalo with my mother and her friend to catch a flight onto San Fransisco.

"Get out of the car and put your hands behind your back!"

My mother, her friend, and I were welcomed to America by five INS officers.

"Ummmmmmm... what's this all about?"

"You're wanted on weapons charges, now move!"

For the next 8 hours, on and off, a 10 by 15 cell was to be my home. I was stripped of my shoes, my belt and anything else I was under the illusion was mine. Bathroom? Yeah, accompanied by two guards and don't I dare flush. Food? Regardless of the last time one has eaten, they don't have to feed you for eight more hours.

My only form of entertainment was observing my mother (who had been separated from her friend) through the small plexiglass of my cell. Was she pissed. Deja vu Iraq - me and a bunch of Muslims being interrogated by culturally insensitive officers asking ridiculous questions and making incredibly ignorant statements.

During my second finger printing session:

"The Canadians say he's okay."

"I don't care what the Canadians say."

Hmmmmm...

The FBI finally arrived and it was good cop, bad cop. What a fuckin' cliché. The parts I can remember were as follows:

"Do you have an alias?"

"No."

"What religion are you?"

"Agnostic."

"Xxxxxx, in America, you are free to practice any religion you like. What religion are you?"

"Agnostic, but my parents are Jewish."

"Why didn't you tell the INS officer you travelled to the Middle East earlier?"

"He asked me where I had been on my most recent travels."

"Don't get into semantics with us."

"Listen, you people complain when I give you long-winded answers and you complain when I'm brief. I can't win."

Bad cop finally breaks free from his muted trance, "The last three guys I interviewed, I made cry."

"I don't know what to say to that."

"Would you like some water? Would you like to go to the bathroom? Let's start again. This can be as easy or as difficult as you make it."

"Do you know the book, 'Arabic Script: Styles, Variants, and Calligraphic Adaptations'?"

"Nope."

"Did you write the book 'Arabic Script: Styles, Variants, and Calligraphic Adaptations'?"

"I don't know it, so how could I have written it?"

"Do you go by the name Xxxxx Xxxxx Xxxxx"

"No, but I have seen this name on the Internet. He's gotta be a lot older than me."

"Have you ever met anybody who dislikes the United States?"

"Yes."

"Did they try to recruit you or offer you any money?"

"No."

"Do you know Osama Bin Laden or any of his associates?"

"NO."

"Have you ever attended a terrorist training camp?"

"NO."

My favourite was, "What do you think about America?"

"Well... nobody's perfect."

"Are you surprised to be sitting here, Xxxxxx?" (they really liked to say my name).

"Well, yes. You people did the same thing in Iraq for three weeks, and then again in Toronto a year ago. I would think you'd have it all sorted by now."

For over an hour, not only did I have to endure their absurd questions, but I had to take them seriously.

Back to my cell for a couple more hours. Finally, the lock turned one last time.

"Get your stuff and follow us." *Oh you mean this stuff, you've dumped all over the floor outside my cell? Bastards.

More Q&A, but this time from a friendly/aware INS officer who took a liking to me. We went through the hundred or so standard questions, most of which, he answered 'NO' on my behalf. Then, he had to supplement with a bunch more specifics to my case. He helped me, so I helped him brainstorm new questions. I noticed an order taped to his desk - 'Anyone attempting to enter the United States from the following countries, x,y,z, require an interview'.

"So you guys totally profile here?"

"Ha. Yup, but we can't call it that."

What happened next was one of the strangest experiences. A British passport was brought into the office and passed around to several people, including myself. They asked me to take a look at it and try to determine if it was a fake. WTF?

"Well, the picture has no holograms over it and the print is almost see-through, but it was processed at the Embassy in Tehran, so..."

Next thing I knew, the man I had just seen in the photograph was grabbed from his car, handcuffed and escorted past me to a cell.

"Ummmm... I don't want this passport, here you go..."

My new friend and the FBI (who also took a liking to me in the end) wanted to forewarn me I wasn't getting in.

"Nobody who goes through what you have, gets in. There's no point for the supervisor to risk it. He can send you back and not think twice, but if he let's you in and something happens..."

Twenty minutes later, as if an intervention from Allah, they gave me a 16 day visa.
posted by gman at 6:13 PM on March 7 [78 favorites]

what the fucks up with this race bullshit.

2009-02-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

you'll see these fucking ad's on the tv. a black face and the word race. as if it's a legitamate measure fo man. i think its a difference we'd better ignore. its for sure not an accurate measure. the way people seem to label the average man, looking at his skin and assuming knowledge about that person. to me seems strange. the world is still young as far as modern human migration. travel takes money, poorer populations remain in their original situations. but it seems a bit strange.

in india there are brown skinned people in the millions. thats their home, the place they've known for life, no strife as far as skin color type, just persona stuff. however the new world hasn't been well traveled by the east, although once there it's a feast -

are there few places an indian can feel at home. a brown skinned boy in a white skinned world. it seems pretty crazy. are indians pretty lazy. or perhaps it costs money. to come to the new world. money that isn't spread. fairly at all man. the education over here. is envied the world over. is that a source of interest. for the people on faroff shores. are these degrees. something you'd love? perhaps we'll stay and learn for the day. let ourselves play while we remain. but take advantage of the degree factory.

2009-02-09T22:45:00.000-08:00

i think its whack that there's like no indian musicians, indian actors, or anything. down at the grammy's last night, there wasn't a fucking single person who was indian. there was a sri lankan, MIA, well, she's the daughter of a Sri Lankan, i wonder if you'd really call her a person from the place, or if you'd be better off calling her a British citizen. i do know that's where she was recording her stuff at, but I dunno. we'll see.

anyway, there's MIA, and besides that, there's like, no other BROWN SKINNED people on the stage. Not a single asian. no native americans. no latinos. or any hah, aboriginals, or south pacific peeps, or anything.

its fucking rediculous. there should be more fuckin indians on tv and shit. you dont see any fuckin indian comedians on the fuckin shows. where's the fuckin indian stand up comedians. i mean where the fuck are they. there's like fuckin none of 'em, except the fuckin overweight and girlish dweebs i'd never call fuckin funny hah. at least they're tryin, but so far we've got no great comedians in the indian community hah. it's fuckin rediculous. and when it comes to fuckin music, sure, there's artists, a few. but do they fuckin get recognized. no.

and one other thing. bhangra right? called world music according to allmusic.com. while at the same time they pull up folk and its listed as folk music, typically european or american. and im thinking, what the fuck. hah. there should be some fuckin indian shit in there. i mean, bhangra is the folk music of the punjab. it was done at harvest festivals and shit. i mean what the fuck hah. there should be some fucking distinction given to that fuckin shit. i mean if thats not fuckin folk music, nothing is hah. in my fuckin mind, Bhangra IS folk and needs to be recognized as such. otherwise its fuckin rediculous.

if i were to ever form a bhangra group, i'd call it an "indian folk" group. heh.

2009-02-08T00:16:00.001-08:00

why the fuck wouldn't folk music be used for music from countries outside of england and america. fuckin bullshit hah. fuck that shit.

fuckin rediculous shit, "world" music. fuckin rediculous. raeggae like they say grw large enough to be its own genre. why not bhangra hah.

2009-02-02T15:37:00.001-08:00

so you could fuckin say that fuckin people who are fuckin religious are like fuckin peoplw who fuckin see ghosts and you cuold fuckin say they're fuckin crazy - then you fuckin can fuckin say that our fuckin world is fuckin in the hands of crazy people - and you coudl also fuckin say that its fuckin acceptable to be fuckin crazy in fuckin public office, that in order to fuckin get elected you need to appear to be at least a little crazy because so many of the voters are crazy as well. and you could say that there's so much insanity going around and that only a few people are actually sane. its a crazy ghost story that so many people believe, they've been forced at gunpoint to pretend they believe, but i think alot of these people who have been forced would cast down the shackles if they felt they could, if the religion and baicaly the guns pointed at their heads went away, if the regime seemed to be failing, then people might seem to be way more free and stuf and they may then start if not abandoning the crazy notion altogether that perhaps they may start looking at it as - well basically its like people ahve always viewed death as crazy and thats why they come up with these crazy explanations for it but if you were able to accept death just as a natural process then you can break through that whole cycle of craziness and i think its the next fuckin step of human evolution thousands of years ago ancient man noticed his compatriots would die and this distressed him the notion that he could indeed lose loved ones was something that distressed him and this is when they began burying the dead perhaps so that they wouldnt see the decaying flesh of the loved one out in the open, but to signify the loss of the consciousness and then the absense of body as perhaps the thing that they can do the living that is for the dead and that became some sort of a tradition within the species in all sorts of cultures there's all sorts of different methods of dealing with the empty body once the consciousness can no longer be sustained and this is the way that the people still alive give a nod and perhaps do favor to the dead consciousness by giving them perhaps a bit of control regarding when the body disappears and the like and this was the thing they gave to the no longer able to regain consciousness friend or sibling of theirs. this is the way that they would take care of their fellow people, the favor they would do them, to save them from the fate of being eaten up by scavengers or rotting away and looking hideously out of place before withering away - this way they would gracefully disappear and still remain whole in the minds of those alive. i dont know how much good it really does to the deceeased only that it ensures that either they exist in whole or not at all and avoid going through the decay process that would normally follow when something dies and the like.

fucking christianity, one of the fucking stories out there, that some fucking crazies believe

2009-02-02T15:28:00.001-08:00

hah alright so there's these fuckin people
they're tryin to fuckin convert people
they're fuckin tryin to get people to fuckin listen to their shit
its a fuckin book written by fuckin people
perhaps the most fuckin popular story of our fuckin time
but it doesnt have any fuckin evidence to it
mans been fuckin around for millions of years
and they're fuckin tryin to say
that we've got this fuckin religion
and it's fuckin more correct than all the others
which is fuckin bullshit
who are they to fuckin judge
you cannot fuckin look at the christian shit
and say its any fuckin better than any of the rest
now the fuckinthought of god is one thing
its even fucking kinda pagan
but the whole fucking doctrine is shitty
and these fuckin people are crazy
and when they fuckin try to talk to other people
its the fucking christians that gave the fucking muslims the idea
how to fucking be a douchebag
look at this fuckign shit
they fucking killed all the fucking native americans
fucking incas and aztecs
even fucking hitler was under the same fucking banner
fuckin inuits
the fuckin aboriginals
fuckin insane
fuckin everyone besides the fuckin christians fuckin seen as fuckin subhuman
the real fucking evil fucking people were the fucking christians
with their fucking hate and their fucking violence
causing fucking injuries to all sorts of fucking people
these are the fucking people who fucking inhabited the world
and fucking like a virus
the fucking christians came
and they fucking killed and converted
they fucking didnt give people a choice
few fucking people are as dangerous as christians
the fucking natives didnt fucking go to europe
and the fucking christians were the strongest of the invading parties
and they fucking still today keep up their bullshit
trying to fucking talk people into shit
trying to fucking promise them shit
if only they fucking abandon their values
and fucking take on another fucking culture's
its fucking rediculous
the fucking book was written by a fucking man
this isnt a fucking religion of god
this is a fucking religion of man
fucking religion is a fucking personal thing
you can't fucking tell me what to do
it's fucking between me and the fucking elements
its not fucking between me and another person
they fucking want tribute fucking paid
thats all they fucking want
they want to fucking create the christian empire
fuck that fucking shit
there's so many fucking religions of the earth
fucking christianity is the fucking religion of a fucking crazed man
fucking people starved as shit
in the fucking desert
who had to live fucking hard lives
should we fucking all live like that
fuck that fucking shit
fucking wake up
fucking rediculous bullshit
so there's alot of different like stories and shit
fucking who gives a shit about them
ive got fucking more important things
its like fucking jason
ive got fucking more important shit than worrying about his shit
who gives a shit about his fucking music
its a fucking highschool thing
and this is a fucking highschool thing too
who fucking gives a shit
the fucking more time i spend thinking about it
the fucking more power im giving them
and their fucking rediculous ass fucking concept
its like fucking beating people into submission
its fucking terrible.
anyone who fucking takes part in it is a fucking piece of shit
its fucking bullshit

2009-01-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

anita was wantin to go hit the gurudwara

2009-01-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

there's no fucking class amongst indians, the brotherhood of indian-ness is dead and its a free for all, ugly dumpster diving son of a bitches that dont give a crap about anything except what they want themselves. there's some people out there who actually give a shit, and would love to see idians doing well in teh world today, but there's others that practically ersemble micheal jacksons intent to dye his skin white. fucking rediculousness. i think to some people being indian is just an inconvenience. like its fucking insane for them to imagine actually giving a shit about being indian, because frankly, it isnt cool amongst their white friends heh. fucking rediculous. have some fucking pride in yourself, in any way you can, and one way you can is your fucking indian heritage heh. or have you fuckers been fucking christianized in the worst way, the worst kinda, the people who fucking feel sorry for themselves at all times and wish you to do the same. fucking rediculous heh. remeber your heritage, youve got the ticket to joy in your heritage, use it to your benefit and reap teh rewards heh. fucking crazy ass mother fuckers.

2009-01-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

so down in new years met some indian girl whom i was told thought i was too indian hah. what the fuck is that bullshit. im fucking brown skinned, my parents have the lineage from india, but id never fucking say im too idnian. i thikn she's got a fucking weak ass threshhold for indian people hah. she's too fucking mouthy. thats her fucking problem hah. but yet again no fucking interesting indians, just depressed or awkward people who cant fucking speak without making themselves look bad or insulting someone else heh. fucking rediculous bullshit. wouldnt expect anything more from a fucking fool like that.

bhangra site

2008-12-26T23:55:00.001-08:00

http://www.bhangraomega.com/

hell yeah

2008-12-26T23:53:00.001-08:00

a beautiful quote

2008-10-03T20:54:00.001-07:00

"You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance"

Kahil Gibran

2008-09-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

hmm. so yeah. this is the demographic breakdown of the indian state of punjab. im happy to say youve got a very righteous helping of sikhs represented in the population. 75 percent of the general population of the state, amounting to 18 million people. thats a significant bunch. consider that the population of iceland is 300,000. thats quite a few sikhs. we're decently represented. now there's a great deal more people in the world, numbering in the billions, but the religion of the sikhs is still a fairly prevalent one. its one of the top 5 if not top 6. but the real contenders in honesty are the top 2 or 3. christianity, islam, hinduism. if there are 18 million sikhs in the state of punjab, there are far more Hindus in the country as a whole. Sikhs are a minority in India, as they are in America. But there is a place where Sikhs outnumber all others. The state of Punjab is a place a Sikh can go and feel they are akin to the average person. Sikhs dont exist in great numbers, but the founder of Sikhism was a Hindu, and so you can say that the Sikhs and Hindus do share some common ground. While in philosophy they largely differ, they share common history, and the people of the Sikh religion were once Hindus or perhaps Muslims. We share a common history, and because of this we are intertwined. It may be similar to comparing members of the Anglican church to followers of the Vatican in England. While the religions are different the King created the Anglican church in order to allow his divorce from his wife and before the creation of the church the people of England were followers of the Vatican. Perhaps the way someone worships is only a small part of who they are. I think both Sikhs and Hindus can be better classified as Indians. Perhaps they can be united under the banner of patriotism. I know what it is to be British. Perhaps that is what it is to be Indian. Perhaps the Sikhs and Hindus arent as divided as I have been taught to believe. My father certainly does not dislike Hindus or India. Contrary to that, he is quite fond of both India and Hindus. I perhaps have encountered some extremists within the Sikh community and made to feel that Sikhs are very seperate from all peoples and states. I believe I have been misled. The problem with being a Sikh according to some peoples views is that you are Sikh before all other things. In Britain one could have his faith AND be a patriot. In India Sikhs arent as well intertwined or so I have been led to believe. I definately do wish that Sikhs would be integrated and not feel seperate from the people of India or the people of the Hindu faith. Our faiths may be different, our beliefs may be different, but if we can worship together, we can bring our people together. I know Sikhism is about the relinquishing of certain Hindu and Muslim beliefs, but at core we do sit and sing hymns and we do listen to passages from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Guru meant to replace men. A book that was written by a succession of flesh and blood gurus. I do not know if this was a good decision. As the world changes and modernizes, there is an increased need I feel for a human voice of leadership among the Sikh community. Without a leader the Sikhs are fragmented I feel.

But enough for now.

Indian actors in an American scene

2008-05-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

Kal Penn. Those two names should conjure up an imagine of Kumar. White Castle. Now a sequel. But where is the competition? I see very few indian actors acting, visibly. I hear of very few indian actors, acting.

I see Kal Penn, and I feel motivated. I want to be an Indian actor. I want to be a forerunner. I want to inspire younger indians. I want to break barriers. And i may just try to do it. Drama, acting. Perhaps that's a new direction in Ohio State.

a blog, and an indian girl on sesame street

2008-04-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/ - this is a blog that seems quite impressive in some of the things it does. at least the 2006 archives were nice. but i am not too sure about the 2008 on postings.

nitya leela

on the same note its nice to see an indian person on television, especially on a children's program targeting an american audience. but honestly i think there needs to be more of a visible "indian" normal every day guy who DOESNT run the convenience store etc. not that nitya need be something is is not. On the contrary i think Nitya did a good job to call herself Leela and stick with it considering the flack she undoubtably got for doing so. If she likes the name more more pwoer to her, rarely in fictitious television shows do the actors retain their original names, they "play the part". no, my objection is more targeting the entire cast of indian actors on american television and film. so far we haven't broken through the a-typical doctors, sons and daughters of indians that immigrated, or immigrants themselves. where are the well adjusted indians that retain their cultural flavor but aren't getting their a**es handed to them ona daily basis on things like getting jobs ( and fearing racism ) or rebelling against the parents etc etc.

there seems far little work towards something better, and moreso an enshrinement of what is. Call me an idealist, but look at the african american community. They're in a very similar position to ours, but the difference is the youth really hit the ground running with music film art and it's something that permiates the entire society in america. its the culture that gives life to society, and culturally indians are dead, either dancing their same old dances emulating the "old" style. where is indian ingenuity? in a way that's typically indian. It seems we only borrow from hip-hop raeggae etc. where are the trailblazers? we could do with a few of those.

our television shows and films need not only be a documentary of the ways indians live, they can also be narratives of fantasies like ALL of the favorites of our past one hundred years in film and in print. these were rarely tellings of fact, and in the case of the lord of the rings, which has influenced EVERYTHING fantasy ever since, including dungeons and dragons, the popular game which now drives every MMO the current MASSVE cash cow of the game industry, as well as the yearly bout of 5 to 10 major box office fantasy films... all from one man, three books, and an imagination burning bright.

There's more to life than the drudgeries of day-to-day, but indians have yet to break into that wealth of material in english speaking countries. Things won't truely be equal until leads for roles aren't automatically white, male, etc. When race, and sex, are inconsequential, and the characters are measured by their grey matter and not their skin pigment.

what IS indian

2008-03-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

what is indian? heh, people say, man are you indian? well nobody does ;p. in fac thte only people who seem preoccupied with where im from and all that are other indians. heh, this guy, wha tthe fuck was up with this guy, well i think heh first thing that comes into my mind is he's got a shitty job in a country where he feels like nobody likes him. and fact is the way he was actin i can see why. it has nothin to do with his race, its not the pgiment of his skin that gives him such shitty personality traits. he fuckin looked at me and said, man you're just brown to them. he said it to me and i was pretty fuckin offended. it was the totality of it - youll always be brown to them. what THE FUCK. wake the fuck up kid and get that shit out your system. else youre gonna be walkin around palyin the victem for your whole fucking life. wake up man, people dont realize that LIVING is a daily process, and QUALITY OF LIFE means getting the filth out your fucking head. walkin around with that shit, man i can see wwhat hsi problem is. but then he tries to say that he and i are alike, because we look the same. no fucking way man, hah no fucking way. we re not alike at all. in teh same situations where he feels like he needs ot keep his head down and keep quiet im talkin, and the fact is taklin is the bread and butter of everything. if you dont communicate and tell people howyou feel if you dont get it out of your system at all then you are sabotaging yoruself firstly sir you have to take the time to right yourself most places will elet youwork quietly and mid your buisness do that and hwile you have a roof over your head then figure shit out and as you do then youll get the right idea because the fact is if you live with someoen then you realize you have to communicate for there to be understnding. people have to get one another and if people dont want to get one another then they shouldnt be living with one another. but the fact is that you need to go and do what you need to do, dont be a whiney little bitch, and isntead consider that every step you make with your own legs is a prodcut of your own will, and unless people physically drag your legs down then you are mobile buddy, wake the fuck up and realize that you have the power to start your own shit. thats what you need to go and do if they wont take you than do it your way. but never fucking hate people welcome people the way you wish that you would be welcomed. but instead you do this nasty shit. yeah you can avoid racist bastards. or snobs. or whoever. but dont try to be friends with everyoen anyway. you think that just because you came here that everyones supposed to help you? or even be nice to you. get real, you came over here and youre at a major fucking disadvantage, you dont have networks, you dont have anything, and you have to forge all of that out of your own will. you dont have the benefit of shit being easy. the fvery fact that you are in that country means youre doing soemthing difficult as shit. maybe you should have saved some fucking money up before you came over. people come here penniless and shit and then they whine about how they're working a million jobs. if they really wanted to make money, they can study the art of investing, or heh all the other millions of ways to make money. fact is if you put forth the effort, are ingenuitive, there is a large global market out there, and there are millions of tiny markets out there, make something interesting and sell it. but of course you cant do shit because youre so fucking worried about how people are thinking of you right? did you ever thing that if you are so worried about people, then people will percieve you as being worried before anything else. if you want people to actually rate you on the merit of your personality, then it is your personality that neesd to shine through. if you greet people with a whine then people will expect that from you and probably avoid you unless they like whiners and then those people are bad company anyway. its just common fucking sense. if you want to associate with people through your whines then whine to peope and theyll whine back or treat whiners the way theyre asking to be treated, with rudeness and disrespect. if you want people to treatyou with respect then act respectful. be kind helpful thoughtful but be yourself. if you arent yourself then you arent doing yourself justice. how then do you expect the world to do any justice to you as well, when you dont show yourself ever to anyone. wake the fuck up man. you are sitting there bitching and that bitching is negative energy. if you bitch do you think anyone is going to listen to your bitching and walk away with something positive? do you really think that you are helpign your own situation or anyoen elses. no way man not one bit all you are doing is now renewing this bad thought in your memory. you are chained to your sad thoughts and you by whining about them constantly are constantly reminding yourself about it. wake up man. not everyone is like you. and like that, not everyone is _ANYTHING_.

if you moved to a bad place, move to a better one. if you really think everyone heres a racist then why the fuck are you trying to work here. go to america man. its much fucking bigger, you can have a MASSiVE INDIAN COMMUNITY feel in nyc and all that - but let me say this, people who cant survive without a massive ( specific race ) community there to support them ) are at a huge fucking disadvantage to all the people that DONT need that, why? because we are PEOPLE and the world is a whole lot bigger than just people with the skin color olive / brown / yellowish. you are putting tha tlimitation on yourself and is aw you with tht girl that was disgusting man she was drunka n came to gie you a hug and when you hugged er you seemed really desperate and shit. what the fuck man. use the fucking internet. wake the fuck up. all the social shit you need is right there, the internet is a social HUB. network, feel good, do all that shit, group people by yer interest, meet peopel that way, in the real world people dont have signs, but on the net they do, and the fact is my friend, wake the fuck up, if you want to meet people purely by interest, then do it in a purely - text forum, the interenet, written correspondance literary circles and all that shit.

but ive gotta say im fucking sickened by your point of view here and ive gotta fucking say im pretty fucking repulsed by it nd i think youre a scummy ass person that i dont fucking want to associate with again. it took me a while to digest all this shit but man youre a fucking scummy ass mother fucker and you dont deserve my time or respect. ill say this much, i wont consider you a friend, and im not going to seek you out for shit, and i definately would not allow you in my own circle hah. when people whine alot, people get annoyed and evetually sick of it. and when people just sit around and moan when you can go out there and do something, then its just fucking rediculous. personally peopel like that are never going to be accepted by me. wake the fuck up, its easy as shit to do shit, go do it. dont fucking whine to me. i dont want to ehar about it.

2008-03-11T06:31:00.001-07:00

its interesting that people at the local kebab shop were all feeling a bit kinda introverted a bit depressed lower self esteem and not feeling comfortable enough to just go and do normal things like other people, they struck me as people who just werent comfortable with things,

and i think it is out of discomfort that alot of the whole "terrorist" and "islamic" stuff comes from, the extreme points of views and all, it isnt so much the religion as this niche point of view. they are afraid of people, they are really keeping to themselves and its no good to see.

2007-12-18T14:18:00.000-08:00

2007-12-18T13:04:00.000-08:00

and i just wanted to add in an addendum to the india / indian / nationalism deal, if the culture today teaches or passes something on to the next generation then isnt it in turn helping the new generation out and isnt it then also surving in a very important way if the most important parts of the indian culture inspire someone today then it wil live in the mind soul and speach of that person and perhaps it will continue to inpsire for many generations

2007-12-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

"I feel the main reason why Indian parents do not like inter-racial marriages is because they feel their culture will be lost (which they hold dearly). It becomes all the more important to a first generation immigrant once he/she comes to a foreign land. They are probably in the same situation that first Italian, Polish, Irish immigrants were when they first came to US. It took them atleast about 40 years to open doors (roughly one generation). I am pretty sure 2nd generation Indians will not be like this."

alright so the subject on the table is that of iundian marriabge and that of indians marriying non indians ha this one great i love the comparison to irish and polish immigrants this gives me a great perspective in which to frame our current state hah our current shit state, look at the current enthusiasm in irish culture hah, maybe not all aspects have survived in completely integrated non traditional families but poeple have a way of seeking out their past in a very focused and poigniant way and then of course the fac thtat its very popular irish folk music and things like that these things are huigely popular plus hah ireland is world renowned as a sort of modern oasis with the green lands and hah the nationially well internationally scelebrated st patricks day the irish political dynsasty of the kennedy's the many celebrations the huge pop culture influence these osrts of things are here today and people still have irish names now people have changed their names for year sbut look at the african americans they had a resurgence of nationalism grew out the afros had the back to africa movement these people were proud of their prigin even renamed themselves to more tribal sounding names and such these things will happen in the indian community as well the music will endure people love music hah of all ypes and indian music is distinct enough to survive longer than indian culture however indian culture is in no danger of disappearing its like the whole south pride thing with the heritage of the south being represented by the old flag of the rebellious south that also has come to respresent what they were fighting for, slavery, and alot of people who are today tied in some way to those days are offended when they see these flags and things, now this is probbaly one of the things that i would consider to be a huge issue with the wholenotion of holding onto your roots because hah what are they really holding onto while yes i recognize the right to remember the past i lso think sometimes bad things happen and perhaps bad things can be forgotten, like in russia do you see them doing things that enshrine the history of the soviet union, that is, in the US, you wouldnt, we opposed them and we didnt like the communist system, and with them out the way we didnt want to prise the good of their government, and you see, these are the things that when caste system disappers from india hah ,then that may also be something that gets lost to history, i mean yea castes might be important, perhaps if the family did the same line of work for generations then maybe it had bearing, but in this fast paced modern world with an internet access anyone can become anything, with a bit of knowhow and effort as well hah, but if youre willing to weork, there's work out there willing to hire, so these older caste ssytem deals dont work in this post industrial era. but then the whole fear people are scared of everything but why let fears control you arent people measured by their courage and not their fear dont we always remember those people who despite the popularly held fear acted in a way that wa good and righteous and beneficial and helpful selfless and loving these are the things that we should remember.

2007-12-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

this was a line i found in my notebook from a while ago thought it stuck out hah and figured id toss itinto a blog so ther's alot of indain peoplea round but you rarely see or hear of them they seem hiden hiding hindians bejind the scenes and rarely are they ever speaking much about anything theyre doing doctors and engineers all of em what do they do besides these things!? heh and indains in film really arent the sorts of things that yod see very often heh and when you do see em in fil youve got not very innovative roles those are the sorts of things that i am surprised to see we have to step up and represent the full spectrum of indian thought we have people of al lkinds of all shapes and sizes all of this witin the minds of indians as well as members of any race and creed but im not trying to be multicultural i think that already has enough venues and forums of its own i want to see something specifically for indains because i want to see the indians being brought closer together thats something that we dont see enough of what do they do but lumpo everyone together in these multicultural things and heh then you have the indian acting like american or englishman but its interesting i mean if theres a backlash against dark skinned boys and men shouldnt there be an answer i mean im the sort of person to say or do something about it and heh im surprised there arent many others like myself out there. you see many of these people want to go and make their money with their heads down to the ground its like come on stop being so scared and lets be representatives with the way we live lets show otehrs that you can be proud and successful as wellas be indian. heh i always knew that there was not a single difference between an indian and a anything else but there is a real indian community that does look inwardly for entertainment if not problem solving and i think if there was some form of problem solving then teh community would be able to help itself out thats more or less what we have here its not a race issue or a skin color issue its a community issue that helps out those within the comunity be they any race whatever i dont consider race race doesnt exist in my mind people do heh peope are what matter not the label that i never use like gay and straight and man and woman are all i use right now and i think those many should also leave me as well because i think sexual orientation ha sno relation to political interest or good and evil these sorts of things are just genetic coding or personal choice but its your choice and right to go with what you are comfortable with and its our job to respect these other people or else we are ass holes and we will get them acting like assholes back to us. its this trifecta of respecting comforts and not ebing assholes that brews friendship and love. alot of these things i dont really put to much interest in because when i am walking around i just look into peoples eyes and speak with them head on eye ball to eye ball and i connect with people that way almost all the time hah and this new listening method of saying your thought then listening to it you think about what sjust been said get a sense of your place then move forward with understanding of your plac eand you dont feel aimless you have a position in the stars its a wonderful feeling. everyone should feel it. i give this gift to anyone i come across. i believe in spreading the good word. speading joy and enlightenment.