My Writings. My Thoughts.

February Food for Thought: On Fear, Race, Change and Borders

// February 1st, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Quote of the Week

On fear: Focus on believing in yourself. Everything else falls into place.

When you give people the power to set time-lines on your life, you lose.

Fear isn’t a sign of defeat necessarily. But having that fear dictate your actions or inaction is certainly defeat.

On race: Yay for Black History Month. Isn’t it so great that all the minorities get their own month here? Nothing like a month to make us feel equal.

We can give away months to minorities, but whitey still owns the calendar!

On change through new media: Most social change is the not-so-novel idea of one person fueled by the actions of many in various mediums.

On borders: Borders are human-made, geo-political constructions that should neither necessitate the deprivation of basic human rights nor cast people as outsiders. In our world, they function as a specific form of colonial domination that necessitates the delineation of an inside and outside, the marking and categorizing of certain bodies as alien and foreign for specific political purposes such as the “national security” project.

Make Sure to Go Watch My Name is Khan – Feb 12

// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian

Shahrukh Khan and Kajol–two of the biggest Bollywood celebrities–made history when they rang the bell to open up NASDAQ on Monday.

I am not sure what promoting capitalism has to do with the film.  Does Shahrukh Khan’s character (Rizwan Khan) in the movie also ring the NASDAQ ‘ghanti’ to reunite with his loved one? But anyway, it seems part of the heavy marketing scheme for a movie that promises entertainment value as well as progressive thought.

Watch the NASDAQ event here:

Odds Jobs List

// January 29th, 2010 // No Comments » // Human Rights

Inspired by Gabe

You won’t find these on my resume. They are lost to history.

First paid job ever: Taco Bell at the age of 16.

Best moment: A $20 tip from a guy who ‘liked’ me.
Worst moment: Too many to recall right now. Maybe some rude customer asking me if I knew how to count (while I am doing Calculus II), or the management keeping me beyond my paid hours to wash down the place. It helped gain the necessary experience for janitorial services later on though.

Second semi-paid job: High School Assistant Policy Debate Coach

I occasionally got some pocket money for teaching marginalized urban youth forensics. Then the program shut down.

From there, I was promoted to a part-time janitor and then full-time janitor by my mother, who brought me to this country for “greater opportunities.”

(I can safely bet that I would have never been a janitor in Fiji).

You can see all about how your janitor is probably smarter than you: Part 1 and Part 2.

Payment was in the form of free food and shelter, with occasional clothing. Worker’s compensation was out of question. This continued throughout my undergraduate years, graduate school and even after graduation with my Master’s Degree, till I broke my wrist in April 2008. Now I help on occasion but tasks like lifting garbage or vacuuming are much more difficult with my weak hand. Yes, now you know my weak spot.

Fanbases: This is not an ‘odd job’ but it was something I did as a hobby that felt like a job after a while. Most people have no idea, but I have actually created thriving online communities before DreamActivist. They were completely apolitical though and fan-bases for some Indian television celebrities. Do you know how I can record and rip videos at lightening speed? Or use video-editing software and photoshop? A lot of practice from this era.

I let it go as a hobby and have not updated in several years. See VluvAnita for one of my remaining forays into celebrity obsession. I had 5 others like this that got more hits per day than DreamActivist does today.

Yes, she knows who I am and I have her cell-phone number and we have spoken, text-messaged and I just grew up and out of it. Her posters still adorn my walls though.

Brave New Films, Jan 2008-June 2008 – Yes, how can I forget these exploitative fools? I heard they are now hiring a blogger for Afghanistan? Make sure to get them to give you a contract and not exploit you like they exploited DREAM Act students a couple years back. They were supposed to pay us but never did and let the ‘program’ go without any sort of communication.

I am lucky. This is it. I applied to Taco Bell again just two weeks ago but have yet to get a call back. But then everything happens for a reason. A friend says to hell with it, and I’ll get a much better gig than the crap I have been vying for the past month.

Odd is out. It’s time to get even.

Fantastic Two Weeks of Victories

// January 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Site Updates

I may appear like I am always ready for a fight but I am actually quite happy and content with life.

The last two weeks have been hectic, but also quite great.

I fought back home foreclosure, formed a public relations shaming campaign called OneWestFail, and received attention from the corporate office at OneWest. They just mailed a new package this week, and now my mom’s case is with an escalation specialist in the headquarters. They will not foreclose and have agreed to work with us for a HAMP Modification. Just yesterday I spoke with an LA Business Journal reporter who is looking into OneWest and stumbled onto the site. Apparently, I have quite a few people sharing their stories and putting their names down for class action. I will get back to them soon with corporate office contacts and list of lawyers who are handling lawsuits in various states.

The devastation in Haiti ironically presented a great opportunity for immigration reformers here to finally get temporary protected status. Deportations to Haiti were halted, temporary protected status granted and over the weekend I also pushed for humanitarian parole, which was granted this Monday. The intellectual side of me is finally kicking in and now I can step back and criticize mainstream media coverage of Haiti and the ongoing occupation of it by the North-Atlantic hegemony.

Anees Sous. I seriously don’t know why Mohammad feels compelled to help almost everyone who comes across our site, but I can’t say no either, so I agreed to help at least setup his site using the same template from the OWBFail campaign and push it out online at Change.org. We got a temporary victory, with Anees getting 30 more days, but only with Mo working directly with Congressperson John Conyers’ office. If we had more time, the online aspect could have been developed into a campaign to get the Arab-American community involved in immigration reform, but there are not enough hours in the day. Anyway, now Mo is working on putting up a site so that people can train themselves to organize for their own cases and all the sign-on requests can go to one place.

Today, I worked with Eric at NewComm to set up an action against the National Council of Science and the Environment to dis-invite gumball Roy Beck from their New Green Economy conference. Their ED was adamant about providing the white nationalist Roy Beck a ‘forum.’ I think the least I want from this is to send enough letters and make enough noise so that NCES seriously rethinks and issues a statement denying affiliations with the anti-immigration agenda. I also hope Beck chokes on one of his gumballs.

And the last two weeks, I have been ill so I am supposedly taking a long weekend off to catch up on playtime. I am still looking for a full-time job (resume here) but pretty happy with my current gig at Change.org as well. Maybe this elevated mood also has to do with making time for the gym daily and the full-tuition scholarship offers from good law schools in the United States. If I have to stay here in Fall 2010, I might as well go to law school for free.

Lessons from MLK

// January 18th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Human Rights, Racism

My middle-order MLK and the DREAM for Immigrant Rights was posted earlier today at Change.org but I will use my space here to share with you two more great lessons from Martin Luther King Jr., that guides my daily life and philosophy. The source is Letter from Birmingham Jail and this time, it is the “white moderate” under attack:

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
-Martin Luther King Jr, Letter from Birmingham Jail

I have already once blogged this quote here, while deriding people in the ‘immigrant rights’ movement for holding the DREAM Act hostage. It still holds true today when ‘immigrant rights’ people are quick to blame and judge ‘anarchists’ for creating an atmosphere of violence when it is simply PIC who feel that pepper-spraying children is a necessary action when it comes to “crowd control.”

But it is not our ‘allies’ that I am too concerned about nowadays. We know how to use them and they know how to use us–it is an exploitation based on a symbiotic relationship. I am more concerned about those in our ranks who choose to do nothing.

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What Do Google Users Know About Fiji and Fijians?

// January 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Fiji Coup Coverage

Searching Google for Fiji? Try stopping for answers here.

Where do Fijians Come From?

Fiji

I am sure the question above is asked by Americans the most. Where do Americans come from? Fijians come from the South Pacific Island country of Fiji. Duh. Now don’t ask where the South Pacific is on the map.

Why is Fiji water so good or so bad?

Why is Fiji

I’ll pick so bad. Where do we start? A sizable population of Fijians cannot access safe drinking water while the rest of the world is having the ‘drop of water untouched by civilization.’ Fiji Water is actually not owned by Fiji, pays no taxes to the military regime, and the people of Fiji do not benefit from the corporation in our country. Moreover, the American corporation has trademarked the brand name FIJI–the name of a nation-state–without paying anything to the Fijian government. How do you get away with trademarking the name of a country? Lets not get started on the carbon footprint.

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Best Songs from Bollywood – 2009

// January 16th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Desi-Indian

Want to try out new, ‘exotic’ International music and just don’t know what to listen to after seeing the gazillion Indian music albums out there? Well, here is a listing of some of the best songs from Bollywood in 2009, in my opinion.

New York – Tune Jo Na Kaha

3 Idiots – Behti Hawa Sa Tha

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How FDIC, George Soros and Michael Dell Are Screwing People Out of Their Homes on Your TaxPayer Dollars

// January 15th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Home Mortgage Crisis

Having trouble modifying your home loan?

You are not the only one.

Indymac used to be an independent bank till it filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and was bailed out by FDIC.  Later, IndyMac was bought and transformed into One West Bank by a private equity firm called Dune Capital Management, a  group that includes billionaire George Soros and Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell, who agreed to buy the failed bank for $13.9 billion. The bank’s assets at the beginning of this year (2009) totaled $23.5 billion so they made some billions immediately at the time of purchase.

Then, they struck a 20/80 loss share deal with FDIC. OneWest Bank agreed to pick up 20% of the loss whereas FDIC would pick up 80%. IndyMac would end up owning the property after foreclosure, making a sweet profit from the sale of the house. Hence, they have no reason to modify home loans and every reason to take over our homes. Many other banks have similar agreements with FDIC, so in effect, these banks are profiting on taxpayer dollars. Translation: People are becoming homeless on your dollars.

The system needs checks and balances, as well as transparency. Urge Congress to stop foreclosures, launch an investigation into the unfair lending and loan modification practices now and create clear transparent guidelines to help homeowners with their loans.

It’s also for a class action civil lawsuit in every state. If you have been screwed over by IndyMac and One West Bank or know anyone who has, see what you can do here.

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