Archive for Moron of the Week

The “Shut Prerna Up” Campaign

// March 3rd, 2010 // 6 Comments » // Immigration, Moron of the Week

I seriously wonder what some men are smoking sometimes.

Some (straight) men actually think they can email another straight man on my team–one of my friends nonetheless–and ask them to keep Prerna in control and expect him to react in an affirmative. Really? This is the most hilarious thing I have heard all year.

You know you are hitting some nerves as a blogger when you get told to “shut up” by a multi-million dollar coalition and other white male citizens. I am one of the unfortunate few who hits nerves quite a lot but the hateful and mean-spirited messages go to my friends. They never come to me directly with complaints. I think a friend of mine had a more appropriate thing to say about that last night: “COWARDS.”

The LGBT-Immigration summit debacle hosted by Four Freedoms Fund in New York last weekend was heavily tweeted by bloggers and can be seen on the Twitter hashtag #lgbtcir. No one really had anything good to say about the anti-equality Reform Immigration for America campaign. I was one of the first bloggers to actually hammer down what occurred at the summit, along with ways in which the coalition could make some improvements. Several other bloggers followed suit which is archived at the bottom of this post.

The criticism was not taken in stride by several people who hold personal vendettas against me and have threatened to work against me, publicly. One of my straight male friends who is based in DC was told by someone from the RI4A management team and another particular white male blogger something along the lines of “shut Prerna up” and “keep me in check.” I won’t even start with the misogyny of giving a straight male figure that directive. I do wonder if they meant it in terms of violating my freedom of speech or doing some physical damage. Either one is quite bad and well, cowardly.

To be honest, I am not surprised by this response. Were other queer or white bloggers threatened after the summit? I am sure no one sent a message to Mike Rogers from Outrage to tell him not to write anything even though he was the one who told Ali Noorani that “it seems to me that you [RI4A] needs to be pushed harder than Congress” while almost everyone in the room went “Amen.” No, lets try to tell the [loud] woman of color–the lowest hanging fruit–to shutup

I have a message for haters: Don’t tell my straight male friends to shut me up, which is just misogynistic and homophobic and says more about you than anyone else. Do feel free to send your threats directly to me. You have my email: prerna [at] dreamactivist.org . You can also CC the entire team at DreamActivist about how “Prerna makes you look bad” or “Prerna…” Whatever complaints you have, Do it openly–not by hiding in the shadows like some undocumented immigrant. Because that is just pitiful.

Show the world how so-called pro-migrant advocates who speak out against hate crimes and “silencing of migrants” are actually the ones spreading hatred and trying to do the silencing.

I am neither going to be silenced nor will I step back into the closet. Threats only fuel my ego and encourage me to work harder and succeed. I am going to continue standing up for ALL my communities and I will die doing it.

That’s what she said.

If anything does happen to me in the coming weeks, I doubt that pneumonia is completely to blame. Though in all seriousness, I have nowhere to go but up, up and away.

Moron of the Week: #RI4A On #LGBTCIR Disaster in New York

// March 1st, 2010 // 1 Comment » // All things LGBT, Immigration, Moron of the Week

Sorry for not blogging more often – I have been sick since January 3 and found out on Thursday that I am in early stages of pneumonia. Let me not make this into a post about how health care in America is worse than health care in Fiji.

But I had to go to summit in New York on “Immigration Reform: LGBT Community” –A summit where I was only invited as a blogger who is LGBT. Interesting.

Lets also ignore the fact that I took my drowning left lung into the snowpocalypse ice-winter of New York. At one point, I was having breakfast at 8am EST at a cafe and heard news about the earthquake in Chile and the fact that most of the Pacific had a tsunami warning. I realized that it meant ALL my families in Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and even San Francisco. Then, I heard the CNN commentator say “Fugee” and that got me more mad than upset, and hyper-ventilating in anger is not good for drowning lungs. I got a little too ‘excited’, couldn’t breath and didn’t think I could walk the two blocks needed to get back to my hotel. But I am a fighter.

I fully expected to go to the summit later that day and steel myself against ignorance from gay white bloggers on immigration issues, hear my life getting dissected right in front of me and sit through the torture bracing myself against any real permanent damage. Sure, I heard some pretty stupid things like,

1. Asking the Trail of Dreams students where they are in the citizenship process. I don’t know gay whitey. Where are you in the marriage process? Just like you can’t just go into the city hall of any state to get a marriage license, most undocumented students cannot just apply or sit a test. Yikes! Maybe the question was meant with genuine concern but it’s a question that makes us all cringe each time we hear it. The way it was phrased was not at all sensitive.

2. I adore Robert Bray and he has many great things to say. But sir, that meeting was not a safe space for me.  I was the only undocumented person in the room, the only one who truly understood the LGBT immigrant experience and possibly one of the few people one who had spent considerable time writing and talking about these intersectional oppressions. I am strong but it gets really lonely sometimes. And it is somewhat hurtful when people are talking and asking questions about your life without acknowledging your presence and work. And this was a complete failure on the part of people who decided to exclude me from any panels.

3. Organizer of the summit: “Oh you are undocumented?!!” FAIL. Just, epic fail. Seriously, just google me.

I probably spent more time outside the room than inside it due to the constant coughing fits and the need to not hear certain things. Why am I putting myself in this cold environment when I can be at home, warm and tucked under the covers sleeping, eating and catching up on two weeks of missed Smallville and Indian TV dramas? Can you read into the cold-warm metaphors here?

I will give mad props to Eric Berndt from the National Immigration Justice Center for a fantastic presentation on how LGBT immigrants suffer disproportionately through inhumane detention and how the system is failing us.

And Rachel Tiven from Immigration Equality cracked me up more than once by talking about “gay DreamActivists” and then “straight DreamActivists.” Of course, the joke here is that DreamActivist.org was built and driven primarily by two queers for so long that “straight DreamActivist” almost sounded like an oxymoron the first time I heard it.  I never thought people would talk about us in those terms but it was so absolutely refreshing to my ears. Everyone who works on the Dream Act is called a “Dream Activist.” That’s just sweet. I gave both Rachel Tiven and Steve Ralls from IE a “I support the DREAM Act” button

I think the Trail of Dreams presentation did take the room by storm but the DREAM Act was hardly mentioned, which just reminds me of events where undocumented students are asked to talk about their life but not about the bill pertaining to them by event organizers more concerned about the “message” of comprehensive reform. Excluding our issues and our work around the DREAM Act is not comprehensive.

I do wish we could have heard from someone who worked with LGBT immigrant youth on what the DREAM Act is, who is organizing around it, how even straight undocumented youth are using the LGBT concept of  “coming out” for themselves, how LGBT undocumented youth face some unique problems (more are homelessness, at risk of suicide, more compelled into marriage of convenience by the family and the system) and how the issues of the LGBT and immigration community are so intrinsically linked to the violence of “citizenship.” Nevermind my life experience, education and knowledge. FAIL. Then again, people listen in a fascinating manner but don’t do anything to change our lives. We have to make change ourselves, which is why young undocumented people are the leaders of any immigration reform movement at the grassroots level.

Maybe we should not even talk about it and just forget the last 4 hours of how the conversation simply went down the drain when representatives from the Reform Immigration for America Campaign started talking to a room full of LGBTQ bloggers on why they should support an anti-equality immigration reform.

Yeah, no. And the moron of the week is Ali Noorani from the National Immigration Forum. Hands-down. He did us the honors.

Click here: http://j.mp/RI4AFAIL

Obama Congratulates Fiji

// October 10th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Moron of the Week

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It seems like the undeserving Nobel Peace Prize has gone to Barack Obama’s head or maybe it is his lack of knowledge of international affairs. He has been caught congratulating Fiji for the ‘rule of law’ and ‘democratic ideals’ it shares with the United States.

The United States President Barrack Obama says America stands with the people of Fiji in their pursuit of a brighter future.

Fijilive reports President Obama sent a Fiji Day message, on behalf of the American people, congratulating the people of Fiji on the 39th anniversary of Fiji’s Independence on October 10.

He says Fiji and the US enjoy a friendship founded on the mutual commitment to peace, freedom, the rule of law, and democratic ideals.

President Obama says it is through a shared commitment to these ideals that the friendship between the two countries has developed so strongly over the years.”

The note, sent via the US Embassy in Suva, is addressed to “the people of Fiji” and signed “sincerely, Barack Obama”.

Mr Obama, last we checked, Fiji was a military dictatorship ran by an illegitimate government that has abrogated the Constitution and now serves as judge, jury and executioner.  How about you address this in your next note to the illegal dictator, Commodore Bainamarama, and give us some of the change we can believe in?

Any national leader who abolishes his country’s constitution and overturns its judiciary because their strictures and findings do not agree with his idea of democracy, is not worthy to hold responsible office. Bainimarama has hung on to power for far too long by drastically changing the rules and ensuring that articles critical to the government remain unreported. Fiji is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship.

Bainimarama: I Staged Coup to Stop Terrorists

// September 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Discourse Studies, Moron of the Week

While Lasenia Qarase and his corrupt government was nothing to extol and praise, Bainimarama labeled them as ‘terrorists’ at the United Nations General Assembly, in order to legitimise his reign:

I believe that these critics are largely unaware of the extent to which politicians, in league with those who employ terror as a tactic to push a racial supremacy and corrupt agenda, had become a threat to the safety and security of our people. Terrorism has become a global issue and it impacts Fiji as well. We are fully cooperating in the international effort to control and contain this scourge.

The full speech is here, courtesy Coup 4.5

Commodore, you are reigning over Fiji with the military, using force and terror tactics. What does that make your regime?

Morons of the Week – Outraged ‘Liberal’ Americans

// September 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Moron of the Week

This is the last I will post on the topic.

The POTUS denigrated both immigrants and women in this country within the space of 40 seconds, and most Americans are more concerned over two words from a right-wing idiot that violated decorum. So concerned that they poured a million already into the election bid of the heckler’s opponent, Rob Miller, without even knowing what the candidate is all about.

That’s how rights are lost so easily in this country. People paying attention and giving weight to the wrong things to the point that they end up being on the losing end. What’s the underlying result? More taxpayer dollars spent on eligibility verification that excludes more people, not to mention higher health care insurance premiums because less people are eligible to pay into the system. Bravo.

The Home Mortgage Saga Continues

// September 2nd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Moron of the Week

The infamous Indymac Bank (One West) has once again refused to modify our house mortgage. What is the excuse this time?

“Your expense/income ratio does not fit into our system.”

Huh?

When asked for clarification, the service representative explained that our expenses are much more than our income, hence the loan could not be modified.

Yes, well of course our expenses are more than our income. That is precisely why we are seeking a loan modification!! If our income was more than expense, why would we seek and receive modification?!

This is a common problem facing home owners wanting to modify their loans–the banks are refusing to budge and forcing people out of their homes. A reader comments:

Indymac is doing the same thing to us. We are on our third attempt to modify our loan. Twice they’ve told us to pay a certain amount for three months only to deny the modification at the end of the third month stating paperwork missing or that offer is no longer available. I don’t know what to do. I can’t afford a lawyer and to pay the doubled loan amount they conjured up because we were late on a property tax payment. We reimbursed indymac for their property tax payment, but they misappropriated the funds and state that they can’t take such a payment eventhough they told us to do so. Now they are just screwing with us trying to steal our home.

It is a concerted effort to steal our homes. This is the narrative: When we call the lenders for help with our mortgage, they tell us there is nothing they can do till we miss a payment. So we go ahead and miss payments and then the warning letters arrive. We file and refile income/expense reports, negotiate for a good package but keep getting rejected. The process drags on for months, costing us time, money, energy and sleep. They keep losing files, misappropriating funds, crashing their systems, changing their numbers, and rolling out ‘new packages’ that they later reject when you apply for them. A year later, they tell us there is nothing they can do but ‘foreclose’ the house. How many stories fit into this narrative?

Indymac, here’s a counter-narrative for you to comprehend: modify our home mortgage because you are surely not getting our house. If you do get around to foreclosing our house, you face a loss of over half a million dollars. Why don’t you grow a brain and do what is best for you?

Morons of the Week: ‘Indymac’ (OneWest Bank)

// August 6th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Moron of the Week

Indymac and the people who work on the mortgage modification programs at the bank have to go down as the morons of the month. Apparently, even under the services of One West Bank, it is still an utter failure as a financial institution.

Background: There was a time when we had equity on our home but with the real estate bubble burst, the property has gone from $710K to $250.

In the past year, due to the recession, we have lost more than 50% of our gross household income. It is no longer possible to pay $3.5K per month as mortgage, especially with a similar property tax figure per 6 months. And there is nothing to gain from foreclosing. But Indymac and Citibank–our two house mortgage loan owners–have been relentless in their pursuit of God-Only-Knows-What.

(Citibank actually wrote a letter this past June saying that they would send someone to our property to inspect whether we are still staying here, and we would have to pay for it. Our attorney took care of that ridiculous proposition).

(more…)

Your Janitor is Probably Smarter than You Part II

// July 18th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Moron of the Week

Gasp! Your Janitor is probably smarter than you is back!!

Janitors

Why is there a turkey walking around the parking lot of one of the buildings that we clean? The owners called Animal Control but they couldn’t help since turkey is considered ‘wildlife.’ In the meantime, the turkey continues to roam the building, poop on the front mat and make work for us. I don’t understand why someone doesn’t just take the turkey home and have an early Thanksgiving!


Janitors don’t tidy. We clean. There is a very essential difference between cleaning and tidying. If your floor is covered with piles of boxes, paper and miscellaneous items scattered around, we can clean-up what is ascertained as ‘dirt’ but cannot tidy your floor for you.

Sunflower seeds should be banned from office spaces. Banned. Banned. Banned. Actually, it should be a question on the employee qualification forms and during the interview process: Can you aim all your sunflower shells into the garbage bin or do they just end up scattered on the floor? You can’t? Next please.

Women are usually much better than men at using bathrooms (and many other things). But, please stop flushing your tampons down the toilet! There’s like four signs in the bathroom — on the door, near the mirror, on the tampon machine and even on the bathroom door as you take a poop or piss. We just had to remove the tampon machine because people can’t follow instructions.

Stop bringing your dogs to work! Half of the vacuum is filled with dog-hair and bone fragments! Actually this reminds me — stop bringing your dog to the gym, and especially not the women’s room! It’s not like you are blind and need the dog around for work or exercise!

Nothing beats how some men use their urinals. Why on earth are pee stains found 6 foot above the ground? Please do the gravity-defying target practicing with your guns in your own home. Or better yet, clean up your mess after yourself.

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