Meri Kahani

Here's information about a play being shown in Mississauga about the experience of violence among South Asian Women. Through short stories, the play aims to highlight the plight of the South Asian Woman's experience through a spectrum of voices. It is part of a public education initiative by the Multicultural Healing Project. I look forward to hearing more about it since I won't be able to attend.

Meri Kahani: My Story, is an innovative play addressing the challenges faced by South Asian survivors of abuse in the North American context. Focusing on abuse, the play has served to educate and inspire audiences in resisting ongoing violence and overcoming the barriers that women face in seeking support services. Using theatre as a tool for change, each kahani, or story, is told through the varied perspectives of South Asian survivors of abuse—domestic violence, incest and sexual assault—to capture the diversity of experiences among South Asian women.

Britain's Missing Babies

Worrying new research reveals that between 1990 and 2005, about 1,500 fewer girls were born to Indian mothers living in England and Wales than would have been statistically probable for this group. Indeed, the Oxford University population expert who collated the information insists the discrepancy in birth ratios between boys and girls is too "sudden and pronounced to have a likely biological or environmental cause... the most probable explanation is sex-selective abortion". The revelation follows a three month investigation by a team from the highly-respected BBC Asian Network.

It is almost certainly a very conservative estimate, based solely on records for Indian-born women who moved to Britain, not Indian women born in Britain - for which data is not easily available. Behind the figures are heartbreaking stories of mothers in this country under pressure to have a son, being bullied by their husband and in-laws into aborting their daughters. Indian women in Britain it appears, are also travelling to the subcontinent to use the services of doctors such as Mangala Telang, who does not carry out terminations herself, but for 4,000 rupees (about £49), Dr Telang will tell you the sex of your unborn child and is happy to recommend someone who can terminate the pregnancy. It is illegal in India to use ultrasound scans for such a purpose - even in the UK it is the policy of most hospitals not to divulge this information until after the 24-week abortion limit.

Read more here.

Asian Network Report: Britain's Missing Girls, will be broadcast on BBC Asian Network digital radio.Britain's Missing Girls

Outreach for Punjabi Farm Workers

As a result of an investigative report by India-West on alleged safety and labor code violations at several IndianAmerican-owned orchards in the Sacramento River valley, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board plans to launch an outreach and education effort in the Indian American agricultural labor force.

According to micro-data samples from the 2000 census, there are about 2,000 Punjabi farm laborers living in Sutter and neighboring Yuba County, and most of them spend at least a few months each year working in Punjabi-owned orchards.

South Asian growers account for less than one percent of the farmers in the California, but records show that they have been the targets of five percent of civil actions

Kulwant Johl, the president of the Yuba-Sutter County Farm Bureau, a trade association of farm owners, and the owner of over 900 acres of orchards, said Punjabi Americans make up approximately 15 percent of the local farm labor force. They cling to agricultural work, he said, because they lack the English language skills required for driving trucks or working in local stores.

ALRB, founded under the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, aims to help farmworkers set up secret ballot elections to decide whether or not they wanted to be represented by labor unions; and also to combat unfair labor practices that pose a threat to collective bargaining. Blanco said that Punjabi farmworkers are likely to raise concerns about wage payment, overtime and access to healthcare, which do not fall under his agency's purview. "If we hear of any violations or complaints of discrimination that don't pertain to us, we'll forward that on to the appropriate agency."

CRLA and ALRB will together launch an outreach effort in the Punjabi American community during next year's pruning season in April and May. Although the sites of the outreach efforts have not as yet been finalized, they are sure to include Mahal Plaza. "I've also suggested bringing another person that people would want to talk to, like an immigration specialist who can talk about the citizenship process, or a person who does job skills training in computers or English," Pliscou told India-West.

Previous post: Cultural Isolation A Health Threat to Punjabi Farm Workers

In Loving Memory

ਜਿਨੀ ਨਾਮੁ ਧਿਆਇਆ ਗਏ ਮਸਕਤਿ ਘਾਲਿ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਤੇ ਮੁਖ ਉਜਲੇ ਹੋਰ ਕੇਤੀ ਛੁਟੀ ਨਾਲਿ ॥2॥
"Those who have meditated on the Naam, the Name of the Lord, and departed after having worked by the sweat of their brow - O Nanak, their faces are radiant in the Court of the Lord, and many others are saved along with them.||2||

(Ang 8, Sri Guru Granth Sahib)

Punjab: The Enemy Within

The enemy has crept into every village, town and city of Punjab and is destroying the energetic and enterprising Punjabis. Drugs are like an unbreached river which are flooding Punjab. Name the drug and it is avaliable here." - Reema Anand

A new documentary titled, "Punjab: The Enemy Within," was recently screened in Chandigarh to a group of community leaders. The documentary, directed by Reema Anand who has brought us His Sacred Burden: The Life of Bhagat Puran Singh and Sewa: From Paris to Tapovan, brings forth the urgency of the drug abuse problem rampant in Panjab. In the documentary, Anand discusses the impact of terrorism on the state of Panjab and the subsequent reliance upon drugs being trafficked throughout the area.

By now we're all well aware of the presence of drugs and prevalence of drug addiction that exists within Panjab. While there are theories and research behind this, it is clear that a solution needs to be reached through a collaborative effort. Through the creation of this documentary, it looks like Anand has begun to take the productive steps to help bring awareness to this problem.

"The Punjabis struggled hard and fought the terrorists to put Punjab back on the world map, but now they are up against a enemy within."

ER Named After Guru Nanak Dev Ji

The Emergency Room at Surrey Memorial Hospital in Canada, will be named after Guru Nanak Dev Ji:

Guru Nanak Dev Ji's name will adorn the main entrance of the new emergency centre in recognition of the importance of Surrey's South Asian community and its support of hospital fundraising efforts. "The guru reminded us all that devotion of thought and excellence of conduct is our first duty," said Premier Gordon Campbell, who announced the name of the future ER entrance Thursday. "By naming the entrance of this Surrey Memorial Hospital centre after Guru Nanak Dev Ji, we are saying this is a place for everyone." The premier called it an important way to recognize South Asian contributions to society "in a way that's positive and constructive and so people can see that the contributions they've made are important to everyone in the community." The new emergency centre, which will include a mental health and addictions unit and a separate children's ER, will be triple the size of the existing one, which sees 70,000 patients per year – way over its capacity.

Medical Missions for Children

I recently returned from Cusco, Peru where I spent just under two weeks working with a group of nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and volunteers in a small community a few hours away from one of the seven wonders of the world. I'm a member of a global health group based out of Massachusetts called Medical Missions for Children. A group that travels across the globe performing free surgeries for underprivileged children and young adults in about 13 different countries.

My initial exhaustion from the traveling and subsequent catching up at work delayed me writing this post. But I now finally have some time to write a little bit about my experience. First of all, I love traveling and when I can combine my absolute love for traveling with global health work, I really couldn't be happier. It's quite blissful actually...

It was kind of like a 'working' vacation (oxymoron?), and while we were able to spend some time getting to know the city, most of our energy was on reserve for the long days which promised to be...well...long. The majority of the surgeries we performed were to correct Cleft Lips and Palates. However, we also performed a Microtia case and several Rhinoplastys (in addition to other procedures). It's pretty amazing to see the before and after because the results and impact of what the group did was pretty immediate. What was most spectacular was to interact with the patients and families who were the most gracious individuals I have come across in a long time. It was amazing to me how well they dealt with everything and how accommodating they were. A lot of our patients made huge sacrifices to reach our team. Many of them traveled huge distances to reach Cusco and many were from local orphanages who had heard about our group coming from a local radio announcement. Somehow, within a week, you form a connection with the patients and it stems beyond the surgical procedure. You have an interest in providing them with the right advice when they leave, you want to make sure they're heading to a safe place after they leave the hospital. In some ways I wanted to make sure that the circumstances they were returning to were conducive to them living a healthier lifestyle (my public health side was bursting at its seams). It was therefore nice to provide our patients with a new set of clothes to leave the hospital in - perhaps a simple thing, but it meant so much more to them. You could see that the result was beyond an aesthetic change. It was a change in self esteem and confidence which was evident on each of their faces.

Doing this kind of seva is part of who I am, but it's the experience and the people I get to interact with that impacts me in a deeper way. I decided not to write about specific patients in this post out of respect for their confidentiality. But I am definitely still thinking about them on a personal level. It was an amazing experience and it just reminded me how fulfilling this kind of work is for me.

Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Health

In anticipation of the upcoming Unnatural Causes documentary to be shown on PBS in March 2008, I wanted to post this handout that speaks to the issue of health disparities. Here are ten things that we should all be aware of in regards to health:


1. Health is more than health care. Research shows that social conditions – the jobs we do, the money we’re paid, the schools we attend, the neighborhoods we live in – are as important to our health as our genes, our behaviors and even our medical care.
2. Health is tied to the distribution of resources. The single strongest predictor of our health is our position on the class ladder.
3. Racism imposes an added health burden.
4. The choices we make are shaped by the choices we have. Some neighborhoods have easy access to fresh, affordable produce; others have only fast food joints, liquor and convenience stores.
5. Chronic stress can be deadly. Exposure to fear and uncertainty trigger a stress response.
6. High demand + low control = toxic stress. People at the top certainly face pressure but they are more likely to have the power and resources to manage those pressures.
7. Inequality – economic and political – is bad for our health. Tax breaks for the rich, deregulation, the decline of unions, racism and segregation, outsourcing and globalization, as well as cuts in social programs destabilize communities and channel wealth and power – and health – to the few at the expense of the many.
8. Social policy is health policy. Social measures like living wage jobs, paid sick and family leave, guaranteed vacations, universal preschool and access to college, and guaranteed health care can further extend our lives by improving our lives.
9. Health inequalities are not natural. Health disparities that arise from our racial and class inequities result from decisions we as a society have made – and can make differently.
10.We all pay the price for poor health.

Punjab: Highest Prevalence of Obesity Among Women

Yikes.

Punjab and Delhi, which are among states with the lowest sex ratio, have the highest number of obese women in India, reveals a new government report. “Women in India, 2007”, compiled by the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCD), say that 34 per cent of women in Delhi and 37.5 per cent in Punjab are obese — the highest for any state in India. These figures are based on a study on International Institute of Population Studies in 2006...The contrast in the health of Indian women shows up when female obesity in these three states is compared with the national average of 14 per cent or that of poorer states like Bihar (5.3 per cent), Jharkhand (5.6 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (8.6 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (6.7).

The article states that the skewed sex ratio (sex ratio in Delhi in 2001 was 865 for 1,000 boys and 820 in Punjab) and high rates of obesity among women suggests that females are looked after well. I'm not sure I follow that logic (I don't think skewed gender ratios means girls are being treated better as attested by higher rates of obesity... although it's an interesting link being made and I would like to look into it more) - but there are obvious environmental factors that impact these rates such as a lack of exercise and high fat, high carb diets. Perhaps it's time to put down that extra gulab jaman!

Study: Spirituality and Health in Punjabi Sikhs

From the Journal of Holistic Nursing:

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationship of health, illness, and spirituality for Punjabi Sikhs living in Canada. A grounded theory study with a convenience sample and use of snowballing technique provided a sample of 15 participants ranging in age from 20 to 70 years. Constant comparative method with dimensional analysis was used to analyze the data beginning with the first interview. The themes of being healthy and looking for the spiritual are described. Looking for the spiritual results in the person becoming spiritually strong and therefore being healthier, recovering from illness, or having the ability to feel comfortable when near death. Nurses who understand the interplay of spirituality and health can support Punjabi Sikhs in their food requirements, prayers, and feelings of hope and anguish during illness or life transitions.

Although the sample size was quite small, the link between spirituality, which plays a large role in most Sikh's lives, and better health outcomes is clear. There are lots of studies that support this connection. I don't have access to the full article, but look forward to reading the full study.

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

“Real people have problems with their lives as well as with their organs. Those social problems affect their organs. In order to improve public health, we need to improve society.” - Sir Michael Marmot, Chair, WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health

I just wanted to highlight a new documentary that is going to be shown on PBS in 2008:

Unnatural Causes is a four-hour documentary series produced by California Newsreel with Vital Pictures, Inc. Presented for PBS broadcast by the National Minority Consortia of Public Television. Public Impact Campaign in association with the Joint Center Health Policy Institute.

The documentary will discuss the socioeconomic and racial inequalities in health. The root to poor health outcomes are health disparities and social conditions into which we are born which largely impact how healthy we are:

The U.S. is one of the richest countries on the planet. Yet, we rank 30th in the world for life expectancy, worse than every other industrialized nation - and even less developed countries like Cuba, Malta, and Costa Rica. Why? Because inequality in America is - literally - taking years off our lives. This affects not just the poorest among us, but the richest too.

I would encourage you all to partake in the dialogue of health disparities.

'Abused' Asian women behind soaring toll of railway suicides

An article in The Daily Mail states that there has been a dramatic increase in suicides on railway lines - particularly on a railway line that runs through Southall. And as a woman's rights group suggests, these suicides are linked to a high prevalence of domestic violence inflicting Asian families:

Rail suicides are soaring because of a dramatic rise in Asian women killing themselves on just one stretch of track, a train company's internal report has revealed. An incredible one third of the total for England and Wales now happen on the line going through Southall, West London, which has a large Asian community.

The article goes on to discuss the death of Navjeet Sidhu who, after experiencing extreme turmoil and stress, jumped in front of a train with her two young children. This was disturbingly followed by the death of her mother, who also jumped in front of a train at the same spot less than a year later. As women's rights groups suggest, the root of these suicides lie in domestic violence and family problems:

Hannana Siddiqui, from women's group Southall Black Sisters, claimed abuse and "sensitive cultural issues" were at the root of the problem. She said: "The high instance of Asian women suicides is linked to abusive practices within Asian families. There is a correlation between these suicides and violence in Asian homes. Psychiatric research has shown there are rarely cases of mental disorders in these cases, suggesting they are the result of social circumstances. These women are often isolated and find it hard to escape."

Being a passionate public health advocate, I tend to wonder how these things can be prevented. There is a need to provide resources to this population. The problem is obviously both health-related as well as culturally-related and I am quite conscious of the fact that receiving treatment for mental health problems is not very common in this community. Also, I think there is a disparity in individuals being able to identify the need for psychological help. But something has got to change... hearing these stories should be troubling to us all.

Traction Alopecia in Sikh Male Patients

The current edition of The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine has a piece on Traction Alopecia in Sikh Men. It's a short piece describing the impact to the hair shaft by continuously wearing a turban. Here's an excerpt:

Traction alopecia is a form of nonpermanent alopecia which is the result of physical damage to the hair shaft. The frontal scalp region is where the alopecia will usually occur [in Sikh men] given that it experiences the bulk of the trauma. Traction alopecia can also arise in the submandibular area because the majority of the followers of Sikhism will also practice a similar method of knotting their beard.

It's very interesting to me that this phenomenon, which I'm sure is known all too well by most turban-wearing Sikh men, is being discussed in a major medical journal. It seems clear to me that the prevalence of this in our community is quite high. But I wonder if this article speaks to the fact that more Sikh men are obtaining treatment for it? The article goes on to talk about treatment of this type of hair loss:

Treatment of traction alopecia in Sikh patients can be a difficult process. Religious laws forbid the cutting of hair and require the wearing of the turban. Therefore cutting the hair is not an option. Patients can be advised to allow their hair to be tied loosely and free of a turban for as long as possible during the day. At night they should refrain from wearing the turban and tie their hair in a loose ponytail without the knot. When wearing the turban, the hair should be tied loosely at the scalp to decrease the tension. Patients can be treated with topical steroids, however, unless the tension is relieved, these treatments will prove ineffective. Patients should also be advised that traction alopecia may lead to permanent alopecia, which is progressive if the traction is not removed.

This is what a google search for "Traction Alopecia Sikh" found. I must read more about it. It makes me wonder how many Sikh men are dealing with this (and to what severity) and more interesting, the likelihood that they seek out treatment for it...

Sikhnet Online Film Festival

So.. I have been ardently watching the videos from the Sikhnet Online Film Festival and have continued to be impressed with the subjects touched upon by these filmmakers. There is a film about Pingalwara and Bhagat Puran Singh Ji who embodied the message of seva. Through his dedication of helping those less privileged he was able to build a place of comfort and hope. This film is about that work..

Navnoor: "New Light"

A recent piece in the UK Sunday Times speaks to the epidemic of "Gender Genocide" which statistics suggest has impacted nearly a million baby girls each year. The article focuses on a village called Dera Mir Miran, a prosperous community in terms of farming yet less prosperous when accounting for the number of girls born there.

[The village] saw the birth of four babies in the first six months of this year. Three were boys, just one a girl. The baby girl’s parents named her Navnoor, meaning “New Light”. But her mother wept because she was not a son. Navnoor’s mother, Jasmit Blaggan, moved in with her husband’s family when she married, as is the norm in India. When her mother-in-law visited her in hospital after giving birth to Navnoor, she found Jasmit crying. “I was not happy that I had a second daughter. I thought about the cost of dowry and I knew a second girl was not needed,” says Jasmit, her broad smile softening the harshness of her words. Jasmit is not alone in her concern for the future. Although sex-selection tests have been illegal in India since 1994, unwanted female babies are now being aborted on such a staggering scale that it is estimated India has lost 6 to 10m girls in the past 20 years, a large proportion of the abortions being carried out at five- to six-month term.

Regardless of the legality of sex-selection tests, it is clear that many of the areas physicians do not feel threatened by the existence of a law banning such practices. Their creative ability to convey the information cannot be underscored:

Many doctors skirt the law forbidding disclosure of the sex of a foetus by using signals such as handing out pink or blue sweets or candles after an examination. Some families talk instead of “miscarriages”. Given the demographics of villages like Dera Mir Miran, it seems many such “miscarriages” must have occurred.

The piece becomes increasingly disturbing as it discusses the quantitative evidence behind the problem.

nationally the number of girls born per 1,000 boys was 927. The natural birth rate globally is around 950; in China it is 832. But in Fatehgarh Sahib in 2001 it was 754, and in some villages less than 500. In Dera Mir Miran it was just 361.

The consequences of this practice are large and impact the human rights of women within the country.

Far from the shortage of women increasing their worth and standing in society, as some might imagine, the result is the opposite. Women are now being trafficked in increasing numbers from Indian states where sex ratios have declined less rapidly. Some are sold into marriage. Others are forced to engage in polyandry – becoming wife to more than one man, often brothers. Those that fail to produce sons are often abandoned, sometimes killed. This further perpetuates the cycle of prejudice and injustice, ensuring many women themselves prefer to give birth to a son to ensure no child of theirs suffers a similar fate.

India, similar to China, will shortly be piloting a project to make cash payments to couples when they register the birth of a daughter and later when they immunise her and enrol her in school.

Yet when Dr Bawa starts to discuss the reasons for it happening, the fact that this district has the lowest ratio of girls to boys anywhere in India seems less surprising. Initially he says the ratio is probably not as low as it seems, since parents immediately register the birth of a son but sometimes fail to register the birth of a daughter “because they are unsure she will survive”. Then Bawa changes tack and says the low ratio is happening naturally. “Naturewise,” he says, it is happening “just by chance, not related to female foeticide”. This may be due, he says, to “diet” or “behaviour and genetics” or “climate change”.

There's not enough space to devote to the stories of the women they discuss in the article, so I would recommend reading the piece completely.

The Role of Religion in HIV/AIDS Awareness

There was a recent health-related post on SikhNet which discussed one Sikh activist's commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS. Dr. Raghbir Singh Bains tells us about his experience with HIV/AIDS research across the globe and speaks about the struggles of educating the community about HIV/AIDS in Punjab.

I studied the menace of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda but shame shrouded every where in the world. It has been my personal experience that about ten years ago I was discouraged and tried to be dispirited by a number of religious and social organizations in Punjab (India), asking me not to talk about this evil in public. The community leaders at that time were under the wrong perception that talking about pre-marital, extra-marital sex and adultery in public was immoral and unethical.

What is the role of religious beliefs in understanding and sympathizing with those who have been infected with HIV or diagnosed with AIDS?

As a result of notional misunderstanding of philosophy, religions in the past denounced those who fell ill with the virus that causes AIDS. Such religious forerunners advocated that fate of the victims was divine punishment for their immoral behaviour. They believed that those who die of AIDS, will go direct to hell. Surely, the followers at that time fell short to understand the inner depth of the religious concepts. They forgot to conceptualize that service to sick, needy and vulnerable people was in fact the leading service to the humanity and Almighty Lord. Inattentiveness of social and religious overlords provided little or no support or co-operation to people struggling against the disease due to the nature of its main modes of transmission, including sex chaos and intravenous drug use. Instead of helping the needy people, even the political leaders used human beings either as a commodity or an object of political manipulation or an element of the production and consumption machine only.

The piece goes onto discuss how Sikh leaders have responded to the growing epidemic in Punjab.

Religion provides us with important moral and ethical guidelines and supports us in addressing the day to-day problems mounting in the society. Keeping in view the universal challenges thrown out by HIV/AIDS, the Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib (temporal and spiritual throne of the Sikhs) issued an appeal to the global people during the year 2006 to help curb the menace of AIDS in the world. The Jathedar also led the huge rally from Amritsar to Khadur Sahib (India) in which thousands of youth participated. Such constructive campaigns are needed to be organized by other religious and spiritual leaders to stem the transmission of HIV.

Cultural Isolation A Health Threat to Punjabi Farm Workers

New America Media is the country’s first and largest national collaboration of ethnic news organizations. NAM’s goal is to promote the editorial visibility and economic viability of this critical sector of American journalism as a way to build inclusive public discourse in our increasingly diverse, global society. Here is a piece about environmental health issues of Punjabi farm workers from NAM that caught my interest:

Language and cultural barriers have long isolated Punjabi farm laborers in the Sacramento Valley. Activists stress the need for communication as workers continue to suffer from exposure to toxic chemicals, as well as low wages and little access to health care.

According to the 2000 census estimates, there could be as many as 2,000 Punjabi farm laborers living in Sutter and its neighboring Yuba County in the Sacramento River valley, where Punjabis have been farmers since the turn of the century. Most are recent immigrants from remote Punjabi farming communities, who have entered the U.S. legally through family connections. Others are the elderly relatives of established Punjabi American families.

Part of the problem is that California government agencies designated to protect the rights of farm workers, such as the Employment Development Department and the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, do not have Punjabi-speaking outreach workers.

Last year, five Indian American farmers paid fines for failing to provide workers with coveralls when they worked with insecticides and ground fumigants known to be highly toxic. When sprayed by workers not garbed in protective gear, the chemicals can be absorbed into the body through the skin, causing hives, flu-like symptoms, stomach cramps, diarrhea and blurred vision. Exposure has also been linked to impaired neurological development in fetuses and in infants, chronic fatigue syndrome and Parkinson’s disease. But the most common and far-reaching violations are the seemingly trivial ones — a failure to post emergency medical care information, or to provide fresh drinking water. Dehydration among Punjabi farm workers is of particular concern because of their propensity to develop cardiovascular disease.

In Mahal Plaza, a Yuba City housing complex for low-income farm workers, two women in their seventies, white dupattas drawn over their heads, sit in the sun, knitting and chatting. “The work is hard, and we are old, but we keep doing it so we can contribute something to our families,” said one woman. “We have no choice but to do this work — it’s all we know.” The women sort and pick peaches and climb ladders to prune the trees in the winter. The majority of Mahal Plaza’s residents seem to rely on the county’s public health department for basic health services, and on fee-for-service private physicians, for non-primary care.

Harpreet Kaur (not her real name) has been working in peach orchards and nurseries for several years. She would love to find a full-time job at a factory, because the work is a little safer and is done indoors. But to qualify to live in Mahal Plaza, a majority of one’s income has to come from farm work. If Kaur took a job in a factory, chances are that she, her husband and their two teenage daughters would be without a home. Like many of the men living in Mahal Plaza, Kaur’s husband doesn’t work. Last spring, while moving irrigation pipes in a Marysville orchard, his foot got stuck under a pipe. In his struggle to extricate it, much of the skin was gouged off his leg. “The foreman followed the rules and took him to the hospital,” said Kaur, “but he wasn’t invited to work again.”

But what poses the greatest danger to the Punjabi farm-working community, according to Kamaljit, is its cultural isolation. “Most of us don’t speak English, and the people who want to help us don’t speak Punjabi,” she said. “We don’t know what we’re missing out on. Something wrong could be happening, but we would never know it.”

Vanity Fair: The Africa Issue

So, two of my favorite people: Bono and Queen Rania. My dream is to meet them both (and I'm halfway there, although I didn't officially meet Bono as much as track him down at a local bookstore in Boston and get a quick hug from him before he was whisked away... but who's counting). Anyway, this is why they continue to inspire me... Bono is guest editor at Vanity Fair this summer and in celebration of his presence at the magazine and in dedication to his commitment to Africa, VF did a spread of photos of famous people who are are dedicated to causes in Africa. It's not about the pictures, although (as usual) Annie Leibovitz does an incredible job, but it's about the challenge to do better in Africa.

The Africa issue contains an interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a piece on Jeffrey Sachs (post), a reminder of Nelson Mandela's leadership, a look at Madonna's work in Malawi and much much more. It's important to remember that these celebrities are doing some great work, but they are simply an example of the true courageous work that individuals (who aren't necessarily famous) do every single day... This issue is out this week.

Have you registered?

Did You Know A South Asian has a 1 in 20,000 Chance of Finding a Match? However, South Asians comprise approximately only 1% of the National Marrow Donor Registry.

A few years ago I registered to be a bone marrow donor with Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches. Throughout the years, we've all heard stories about South Asian patients having a difficult time finding a bone marrow match. Once again, we find ourselves calling upon friends and family members to register. A fellow BU-er, Vinay, is in need of a bone marrow match. His friends and family are working hard to spread the news to the South Asian community to register in the hopes that he will find a match. I encourage you to take the steps to register in the National Bone Marrow Registry.

You can find out more information on a website that has been set up to help Vinay.

It is really easy to register:

We are asking all of you to please register at the Bone Marrow Website to help Vinay and many others just like him. Please forward this announcement to all people you know to do the same. Finding a bone marrow donor is very rare, which is why it is so important that as many people register as possible.

You can easily register with the Asian American Donor Program (AADP) Registry. The procedure to register is less than a minute and is not invasive, just a simple swab of the mouth. The AADP recommends that people read about the actual marrow donation procedure on the website before registering.

It is really important, as a South Asian, to register and I really encourage you to do so. I really believe that activism and action are an integral part of each of us.

Lest We Forget...

At 9:20am on 31 October 1984 India's prime minister Indira Gandhi was shot by two of her security guards in the garden of her home at No 1, Safdarjung Road in Delhi.

The attack led to rioting on a grand scale across India as Hindus took their revenge on Sikhs. At least 1,000 people are thought to have died and the army eventually intervened to quell the violence.

The assassination itself was revenge for the raid on Sikhism's holiest shrine in Amritsar to flush out separatist militants who had taken refuge there.

BBC - Never Forget 84
Witness84
Sikh Genocide