SAJAforum

TERRORISM: Understanding how American Muslims are radicalized

Reporter Patrice O'Shaughnessy of The New York Daily News had a two-part series on an unnamed detective who has been helping the NYPD understand the threat from local Islamic radicals. The detective is Bangladeshi and came to the U.S. as a 7-year-old. From the first article:

A young undercover city detective spent four years in the shadowy world of terrorist wanna-bes - taking part in jihadist discussions and training in parks in the dead of night - to get a handle on the homegrown threat. At great personal risk, he participated in everything from prayers at a mosque to martial arts training under cover of darkness to watching jihadist videos, with many of the activities laced with talk of killing, according to a source familiar with the undercover's investigations.

His experiences paint a vivid portrait of the potential for local terror. While the picture is in no way indicative of the city's Muslim population as a whole, it provides insight into its most radical element.

The detective spent his time interacting with informal groups of youths and men who shared extremist views - and his experiences illustrate what police say is the potential for radicalization of some elements in the community.

He reported that after prayers at a neighborhood mosque, there were often private classes that included discussions about bombing different areas. The men discussed violent jihad in bookstores, private houses and on buses en route to paintball and shooting-range events. He was invited to join in "bonding" activities like working out at a gym and martial arts training in parks at night, during which the group discussed ideological justifications for killing Westerners.

More on the undercover:

DESI SPOTTING: High-flying American School of Aviation grounded

In the days after 9/11, the term "flying while brown" was coined to describe the sometimes tense situation facing South Asians and Arabs of various hues. There were several documented cases of so-called "Muslim-looking" people (including Sikhs) being asked to leave flights they had just boarded, and cases of general harassment at airports.

Given the fact that some of the 9/11 hijackers were trained at American flight schools, I had presumed it was difficult/impossible for brown folks to go anywhere near such schools. This post is an item about a school that not only welcomed brown folks - it was RUN by brown folks.

That's the logo of the American School of Aviation, a flight school based in Atwater, California (about two hours by road from San Francisco). I had never heard of the school until I got an e-mail from Savita Patel, who works for Voice of America's Hindi Service and Aaj Tak, a news channel in India (she can be reached at patelsavita[at]hotmail.com). She wrote:

I filed a story on ASA Flying school operating from the Castle Airbase in Atwater in California's Merced county. 107 Indian students were evicted from their hostel on Friday. Each of them had paid $45,000 to get into a 10-month flying course to get their pilot's
license and were hopeful of getting great jobs in India after that. The school has been shut for a month now and the management has not paid fuel costs to another flight support company and not paid the hostel electricity and water bills. Hence the students were evicted after the electricity was cut off. It was a TV story for Aajtak and was in the headlines on the channel. I wanted to keep you informed so that others can pick this up.

When I interviewed Reny Kozman, co-owner and VP of ASA (and wife of CEO Prince Singh), she blamed the whole situation on rising fuel prices. She says that she will try her best to run the school again from some other airport in a much smaller operation ASA had an office in Gurgaon, which shut down a couple of months back. They used to source students from many cities in India via agencies.

Some students who can afford to pay about $10,000 to $15,000 more will complete their required flying hours in other flying schools, like the one in Hayward. Some others who can't pay more, are stranded. Some want to wait and see if the school starts again, as the owners are saying. Some others who can't stay on for very long, if it takes more time, will go back home without their licenses. As of now, they are staying with friends, relatives and
some at small motels. Gemini Flight Support Company, which has filed a case against ASA has provided some of its barracks to some students and comes with a relatively low rental. Stan Thurston, the GM of Gemini told me that blaming it on fuel costs is irrational and other flying schools were feeling the pinch as well, but are functioning well.

CONTROVERSY: Beauty Salon chain 'exploiting' workers

By now, most of us know that the wealthy Long Island-based couple accused of keeping two women from Indonesia as slaves has been found guilty. The woman has been sentenced to 11 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. (Read about the court's decision here.)

And while this new story is not as extreme as slavery, it is interesting because it involves reported exploitation of South Asian workers by an South Asian-owned store.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that a 11-store Ziba Beauty salon chain in California has been accused of exploiting their female workers by failing to give them the minimum wage, overtime compensation and meal and rest breaks.

From the article:

For two decades, Ziba Beauty salons have brought the Indian techniques of eyebrow threading and henna tattoos to a clientele that has included Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Salma Hayak and Naomi Campbell.

Ziba Chief Executive Sumita Batra, 39, and her staff have styled models for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines and TV shows "America's Next Top Model" and "Extreme Makeover."

But now Batra and her family partners are accused of building their business by exploiting workers, many of them female immigrants.

Two former workers, Payal Modi of India and Bishnu Shahani from Nepal, have filed a class-action lawsuit against the the owners claiming that they were paid as little as $4 an hour, denied breaks and required to deliver hours of free henna tattooing services at parties.

Ziba was founded by Kundan Sabarwal and her family, Iranian-born Indians and over the last two decades have boasted celebrity clientele.

Thoughts, folks? Please post them below.

Earlier posts on SAJAForum:

• Over 100 Indian Shipyard Workers Stage Walkout in Mississippi
• Long island 'Slavery' Couple Found Guilty
  

BUSINESS: Everest Heights, the nation's first South Asian mall

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram took a major look at the desi community of north Texas. Reporter Cary Darling wrote about Radio Salaam Namaste, described as "the nation’s first 24/7 commercial FM outlet aimed at the South Asian community." (is that true?) But what I found particularly interesting were plans for Everest Heights, a 200,000 square foot mall catering to South Asians that's set to break ground this month. The man behind the project and the radio station is  Jaipal Reddy. From the article:

Radio Salaam Namaste, the nation’s first 24-hour, multilingual, commercial FM station aimed at the South Asian community, hit the airwaves two years ago as a way to promote a plan Jaipal Reddy had been dreaming about since moving from India to New York in the early ’90s to get a master’s degree in computer science.

"That was when I saw an American mall the first time in life," he remembers. "When I saw that mall, I said to myself, 'this is the kind of mall a South Asian community should have.’ "

After moving to Texas for its cheaper cost of living and better weather (he finished his degree at the University of Texas at Tyler), he got a job at Nortel in Dallas. During his free time, he liked to see Bollywood movies but didn’t care for the venues that showed them. So he began organizing screenings at a Dallas General Cinema, then used a shuttered dollar theater in south Irving.

Ultimately, he and business partner Mohammad Abbas and their company, Everest Heights, began to plan their $35 million Everest Heights mall near Interstate 635 and the George Bush Tollway. Due to open in late 2009, it will include a six-screen theater and, according to Reddy, will be the first major South Asian-themed mall in the U.S. and will serve as the prototype for similar developments in Houston and Atlanta.

Currently, Everest is showing movies at Irving’s Hollywood Theater, as well as at an AMC in Houston and a Cinemark in Austin. In the meantime, the company launched an AM radio station four years ago and then moved to FM with Radio Salaam Namaste (KZMP/104.9), named for the words for "hello" in Arabic (salaam) and Hindi (namaste).

"The radio station was always a phase to advertise the mall," he says. "We needed a very good marketing tool, and in the ’70s and ’80s in India, radio was a big thing. Basically, people who come to the U.S. who are settled here, we always miss [things from] back home — radio, movies, food and all that. We’re trying to bring that here to the U.S., and radio is part of that."

The station runs a predictable amount of Bollywood music, but has programming in 9 languages and includes advice shows and club music. The article notes that the station's ratings are really low but it's hard to say whether that pits it against heavyweight mainstream stations or comparable broadcast outlets. One thing I can say - I'm from Texas myself, and there's a much richer tradition of desi radio there than up here in New York. In Houston you can hear a variety of programming, from standard Bollywood playlists to discussions on community issues to Carnatic and Hindustani music. My father, who's an allergist, has frequently appeared on radio shows to talk about health issues and take questions from listeners. I find this a major hole in the desi cultural scene of New York.

You can see renderings of the Everest Heights mall here. According to the Everest Heights website the mall will contain a 6-screen mall, performance hall, fine dining as well as a food court, community center, financial services, clothing stores, grocery stores, a meat market and beauty salon. And much, much more.

OBIT: Vinay Chakravarthy loses battle with leukemia

[UPDATED: Funeral plans in Boston added below. Please continue sharing your thoughts.]

In March 2008, we wrote about the passing of Sameer Bhatia, one of two South Asian men whose struggle with leukemia had caught the imagination of South Asians and others across the U.S. We are sorry to report that the other young man, Vinay Chakravarthy, 29, passed away this morning.

"We are devastated at our loss today," said a spokesperson for the Chakravarthy family. "Vinay was an amazing soul who inspired all of us with his will to live. We take some comfort in knowing his journey may have saved lives through the campaign, and in all the lives he touched with his love and
spirit."

Vinay, through HelpVinay.org and Sameer, through HelpSameer.org, used their illness as a way of mobilizing the community and bringing attention to the lack of South Asians in the national bone-marrow registries.

Vinay was featured in a April 16, 2008, PBS/WGBH special, "The Truth About Cancer," taking on the question, "how far have we come in the war on cancer." You can learn more about the show here; you can watch it here; Vinay's segment begins here (chapter 5).

This is a logo of the PBS show: Vinay with his wife, Rashmi; they were married in 2005.

Vinay's last posting on HelpVinay was on May 12:

Hello everyone!

Once again sorry about the delay in updating all of you especially after the PBS documentary. Well as most my already know since my relapse in January 2008 after BMT, I received a dose of mylotarg which placed me in remission. Since then I have been battling graft versus host disease and multiple complications that have placed me in the ICU three times now. The first time for acute kidney and liver failure and the second, third time for excessive blood loss from the gut. I was successfully treated for all ICU visits, the last stay I required an interventional radiology procedure to stop the internal bleeding. After the procedure I was transferred back to the regular floor and my diet was slowly advanced to normal! I am doing well so far and will be transferring to a physical rehab center here in Boston to get my overall strength back. I hope to be home for good in 2-3 weeks! The rehab facility will provide 3 hours of physical therapy seven days a week, quite intense but should be better for me in the long run.

While I was in the ICU a lot has happened in our community, I want to send my love to Sameer and his family. Please if you need anything let us know, let the community know, we will always be there for you.

Here's what his parents had sent out last year (via SAJAer Seshu Badrinath, Vinay's cousin):

Vinay is the world to us - he is warm, funny, and loving. We have watched him grow from a little baby, to a young boy playing sports, to a fine young man determined to be a doctor, to a man marrying the girl of his dreams. Please help our son to have a chance to live - to be with his wife, with us, and with his friends.

If you aren't registered in the registry (I am, having signed up at a SAJA Convention drive some years back), please do so. Here's info on how to do so, from HelpVinay, SAMAR, the South Asian Marrow Association of Recruiters and MatchPia.org.

FUNERAL INFO - BOSTON, from HelpVinay.org:

Thursday:
Viewing is from 5:00 - 7:00 PM ET
Folks will be saying a few words around 5:30 PM
Location: Mann and Rodgers Funeral Home
Located in JP on the corner of South Huntington and Centre Street

Friday:
Rites/Service will be held in the morning from 9:30 AM onward for about an hour.
Location: Mann and Rodgers Funeral Home
Located in JP on the corner of South Huntington and Centre Street

A private cremation for family members only will be held at 10:30 in the Forest Hills area.

 

Some of you have enquired if you could do something in Vinay's memory. We request that you do not send flowers or other gifts. If you would like to make a donation in Vinay's memory, we would suggest that you donate to the National Donor Marrow Program.

Feel free to also donate in Vinay's name.

Vinay's commitment to finding other South Indian's a match has been made evident to the work that him and the group, helpvinay.org have done thus far for the South Asian Community.

 

Please post your thoughts, comments, etc, below. We will make sure his family sees them.

Earlier: Sameer Bhatia loses battle with leukemia

DESI AMERICA: NCSO, a new coalition of South Asian organizations, launches

The National Coalition of South Asian Organizations (NCSO) launches tomorrow with a press conference in NYC and a conference call and online presentation. From the press release, below:

The nation's first coalition of South Asian organizations will launch its national policy and action agenda and collaborative projects on June 24th, 2008 in New York City at 12:30PM EST.  The National Coalition of South Asian Organizations (NCSO) is comprised of 29 organizations that empower South Asian communities in 12 metropolitan areas around the United States through social service provision, community education, advocacy and organizing.

Over 2.7 million South Asians live in the United States today and face a range of issues and concerns. The NCSO's formation, collaborative projects, and release of a national policy and action agenda will increase civic engagement by the community and contribute to positive policy change that can benefit South Asians and all individuals in the United States.  With the 2008 Elections on the horizon, the national policy and action agenda will highlight many of the issues facing South Asian communities in the United States.

You can see the conference call instructions and a list of all the groups involved below.

When asked by SAJAforum if the 29 groups were all progressive, Deepa Iyer, executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together - she is part of this effort - wrote: "We are all groups who do social change work but not 'progressive' in the frame of a political affiliation as we are all non-partisan."

The full press release is below. Post your comments, please. We'll have more coverage after the launch.

CRIME: Nilesh Dasondi and six others in immigration scam

Here's a report from the New Jersey Courier News, written by SAJAer Lalita Aloor Amuthan:

Bail has been set at $800,000 for Nilesh Dasondi, an Edison zoning board member who was arrested last Tuesday and charged with conducting an immigration scam between January 2002 and June 2008 through his company, Cygate Software and Consulting of Edison.

The bail was secured by equity in three properties Dasondi owns, including his primary residence. He was also ordered to observe home confinement with electronic monitoring.

Four bank accounts were seized, three of them in the name of Dasondi's company, Cygate, and one in the name of another company he controlled, authorities said.

"We believe those were the fruits of the crime," Michael Drewniak, spokesman of the U.S. Attorney's office said.

According to court papers, Dasondi was charged with providing H-1B visas to six people by submitting fraudulent paperwork to the U.S. government, claiming that they worked for his company, when in fact they did not.

He allegedly received lump-sum payments from the six people on a monthly basis, which was rolled back to them as paychecks after Dasondi kept a small profit for himself.

Dasondi also agreed with the six people to petition USCIS for green cards on their behalf in exchange for fees of between $10,000 and $15,000 per card, authorities said.

The six people who allegedly received the fraudulent visas were arrested as well.

Three of them were arrested on Long Island, one in Chicago, one in Arizona and one in New Jersey — Hetal Shah in Paramus.

Post your comments below.

See all SAJAforum postings in the CRIME category and see the U.S. Desi Crime Map.

MOVIES: Hindus petition to boycott "Love Guru"

Seems like the Hollywood-Hindu Censor Board meeting didn't go that well.

The BBC reports that about 5,000 Hindus have signed an online petition against Paramount Pictures' Love Guru (see our earlier post) starring Mike Myers which is to be released this Friday.

These activists, led by Rajan Zed, a Nevada-based, media-savvy Hindu priest, have also appealed to the rating body to change the classification for the film to make it impossible for anyone under 17 to see it. Currently, it is rated PG-13.

Their argument is that the movie will hurt the sentiments of millions of Hindus worldwide.

They say that in the West so little is known about Hinduism that even a parody like Love Guru could be misinterpreted by teenagers and give them a skewed view of the religion.

"They should draw a line when it comes to people's faith," says Bhavna Shinde of the Sanatan Society in the US.

She is upset that the main character wears sacred Hindu saffron robes and carries holy prayer beads.

Paramount Pictures has said that the film does not make reference to any particular religion and depicts a "purely fictional faith."

What would have made these Hindu activists happy? They said if there was a disclaimer in the movie explaining that it is not a proper representation of Hinduism.

Listen to the SAMMA/SAJA webcast with Manu Narayan, one of the actors in the movie and get his take on the controversy.

What do you think? Please post your comments below.

CRIME: Indian man on trial for paying hitman to kill his black daughter-in-law

A South Asian-American story that involves murder, race and more. From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Eight years ago Chiman Rai allegedly paid Mississippi hit men $10,000 to choke and stab his daughter-in law to death in her Union City apartment while her seven-month-old daughter was nearby.

Her offense? She married his son, an Indian.

Chiman Rai

Sparkle Michelle Rai

And she was black.

On Monday Rai, 69, goes on trial in Atlanta for masterminding the murder of Sparkle Michelle Rai, 22. Fulton County prosecutors are asking for the death penalty as the family of the murder victim seeks finally to see justice served.

"The prosecutors have done a good job with this," said Rai's father, Bennet Reid Jr., Saturday. "We'll be there in the courtroom. For years my daughter has had no voice. Now, finally, her voice will be heard."

Rai, a native of India, brought his family to the U.S. in 1970. He taught math at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, later ran a supermarket and then bought a hotel in Louisville, Ky. where he hired Sparkle as a clerk.

There Sparkle met his son 18-year-old, Rajeeve "Ricky" Rai, who also worked at the hotel. The two fell in love and married.

Sparkle's father and stepmother, Donna Lowry, a reporter for WXIA-TV in Atlanta, recalled later that Rai's family at first seemed to approve of their 18-year-old son dating a black woman.

But, said prosecutors, in April 2000 - a month after Sparkle and Ricky were married - a contract killer showed up at the door of the newlywed's Union City apartment, along with two women pretending to deliver a package.

This case is getting a lot of coverage. Some recent items - you can track some of the story at this Google News link:

Murder trial: Criticism of 'racist' parents retracted Atlanta Journal Constitution,  USA - 1 hour ago By STEVE VISSER Rajeeve "Ricky" Rai testified today in his father's death penalty trial and backed off some statements earlier made to police. ...

Man accused of Ga. contract killing of son's wife The Associated Press - 22 hours ago ATLANTA (AP) — Theirs was a whirlwind relationship: The 18-year-old running his dad's hotel in Kentucky and the 20-year-old Atlanta native hired as a clerk. ...

Trial begins for man charged in death of son's black wife Atlanta Journal Constitution,  USA - 22 hours ago By STEVE VISSER Nearly eight years ago, Sparkle Reid Rai opened the door of her Union City apartment, holding her 7-month-old baby in her arms, ...

Trial Begins for Professor Accused in Racial Killing of Daughter ...
FOXNews - 23 hours ago
ATLANTA — A former math professor at a historically black university goes on trial Monday, charged with arranging the contract killing of his black ...

Post updates, comments below.

See SAJAforum U.S. Desi Crime Map - a work in progress, unfortunately.

DESI AMERICA: A Trip to 30 Baseball Stadiums

Although Vijay Narendran was born in Texas, his love for baseball began only while he attended the University of Chicago, where he became a fan of the White Sox. That must have made the Astros really upset.

But Narendran, who is currently pursuing a joint MD/MBA degree at Texas Tech University, is not your average baseball fan. To prove it, he decided to take a trip to all the 30 major baseball stadiums around the United States in 61 days traveling approx. 12,000 miles.

Read his blog to know all about his trip and see pictures from his trip.

Narendran started his journey with a game in Colorado on May 8. Since then, he has been to every single baseball stadium you can think of. His trip will end on July 4 in Los Angeles.

See his trip and budget plan here. (I noticed he put $3.50 per gallon for gas. That was in May, not anymore.)

The official title for Narendran's trip is "30 ballparks, 61 days, 1 dream." I asked him three questions about this trip.

1. You talk about "one dream." What is this one dream you have?

First of all, there's a dream of completing the thing, just doing something that took so long to prepare and put together.  The dream is really the actual process and execution of the whole thing, not really the end result. This usage encompasses the "surreality" of the stories and the interesting people i meet.

Second, if the "Dream" represents an end goal, it would be to see and re-establish connections with so much of my very supportive network of friends and family across the nation with whom, through medical school and otherwise, i have been remiss in my communications, having in some cases been unable to attend weddings and other major relationship-solidifying events. This is my way of honoring THEM, those people that are so important to me in my life. Without them i would not be able to do this, nor would i be where I am.

Do folks know of other South Asians who have been on such adventures? Other thoughts? Please post your comments below. 

QUOTES: Nepal King on Time.com's "Quotes of the Day"

Here is TIME magazine's Quote of the Day from earlier today:

The ex-king officially left his palace yesterday. He will live his life as a regular Nepali citizen, but a very very rich one! [Among many things, the ex-king has stakes in the country's largest-selling cigarette factory, a five-star hotel, a vibrant trading company and a tea garden in eastern Nepal.]

Reactions? Please post them below.

Earlier on SAJAForum:

• With King Gone, Nepalese Struggle to Pick the Goddess
• Maoist-Led Parliament Declares Nepal a Republic, King to Leave Palace

ABUSE: Boston police train on desi domestic violence

Here's something I didn't know, although I've done the occasional piece on domestic violence (DV) in our community: arresting an abusive husband can often make a bad situation worse. In Burlington, Mass., where Indians make up 7 percent of the population, police officers are undergoing sensitivity training to better deal with desi DV situations (picture by Joanne Rathe).

The training is being given by Saheli, a South Asian DV group, and funded by a $30,000 grant from the Department of Justice. From an article by Julia Masis for The Boston Globe:

Sometimes police "are frustrated when they can't press charges," [Rita] Shah said. But if they understand Indian culture, they will understand that a South Asian woman who presses charges against her husband has to face the community, the in-laws, the extended family, and younger siblings who may be unable to get married as a result, she said.  <snip>

Because some immigrant wives depend on their marriage for their legal status in the United States, presenters encouraged police to consider options other than arrest when responding to domestic violence in Indian households.

"The South Asian women don't want to come out of the relationship. They don't want divorce. They want the abuse to stop," Shah said at the training session.

An alternative to arrest is a "no-abuse order," that works like a threat by letting a man know police will be more involved if the abuse does not stop.

This strategy came as a bit of a surprise for Lieutenant Gregory Skehan.

CRIME: Sikh student attacked in Queens

June 6, 2008: New York City Council Member John Liu (left) accompanies Jagmohan Singh Premi (third from left), a student at Richmond Hill High School, to a press conference organized by Sikh Coalition in New York. Premi allegedly became the victim of racially motivated hate crime because of his beard and turban. The city and state Officials called for action from Department of Education to protect Sikh children. Also in the picture, Pritpal Singh Premi (right), father of the student. PHOTO: Jay Mandal/On Assignment

Jagmohan Singh Premi, 18, a Sikh boy at Richmond Hill High School in Queens, New York, was allegedly attacked by a 15-year-old student last Tuesday. Premi’s attacker, who tried to remove his patka (small turban) before punching him in the face, had allegedly harassed him on several occasions prior to this act of violence.  From India Abroad:

Premi suffered an orbital fracture and bruising during the incident, which led to the arrest of his 15-year-old attacker who has been charged with felony assault and harassment.

The classmate had reportedly pulled Premi's beard and called him 'dirty' and a 'terrorist' for months in their English as a second language class.

According to The Sikh Coalition, Premi wasn’t the first student to face hate crime against Sikh children at Richmond Hill High. They found that more than half of all Sikh students at the school who responded to a survey had been harassed at school. From the Coalition’s press release:

The Coalition has documented harassment of Sikh children specifically at Richmond Hill High School since June of 2007 when we released our report "Hatred in the Hallways" on bias against Sikh school children in New York City.   On July 16, 2007, the Coalition directly raised the issue of anti-Sikh harassment at Richmond Hill High School at a meeting with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein in materials submitted to the Chancellor and his staff at that meeting.

Here's Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s reaction and full text of his statement, regarding Premi's attacks from ABC 7 Eyewitness News. (You can also watch their video):

STUDY: How does parental pressure influence Indian-American career choice? Participants needed

Komal Dutt, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Education and Counseling Psychology at the State University of New York at Albany, is looking for participants for a study on the extent to which parental pressure affects the career choices of Indian-American undergraduates. If you're an undergraduate who was raised in this country, Komal needs your input - it would be completely confidential. Here's the premise of the study:

Asian Indians and their children are an important community in the United States, as they have outperformed all other groups in most areas of socioeconomic achievement.  However, research has indicated prevalence for pressure and conflict between immigrant parents and their children to choose from limited range of occupational choices, and thus an over-representation of Asian Indians in a limited number of occupational fields. The latter might be a problem, because when children forgo their own interests for the sake of choosing prestigious occupations, or struggle to do well in such prestigious occupations as medicine, a potential risk of mental health problems exists due to frustration and job dissatisfaction.

To understand this unique (that is, over representation in certain fields and giving in to career choices set by parents) process of career choice, research in mental health professions such as counseling psychology needs to understand if these students explore various career options prior to committing to a career choice or if they prematurely foreclose on a career path of their parents. My study is trying to see what factors encourage an individual to explore various career options prior to making a firm commitment. In other words, this study will throw light on how college aged Asian Indians navigate their career choice process.

If you're interested in participating, here's some more information:

Participation involves completing a short demographic form and three questionnaires. Time taken for participation should be 30-45 minutes.
If you are willing to participate, follow the following two steps to complete the survey

Step A  - click on the link below http://www.psychdata.com and,

Step B - You will see a box saying "go to survey" – please enter survey number: 124919.  You will then be able to complete the survey.

If you have any questions about the survey, contact Komal via e-mail (komaldutt03@yahoo.com) or via phone at 732-979-4682.

Earlier studies we've posted:

• Measuring discrimination against South Asians
• Indians are slow to assimilate in America
• Indian couples needed for online survey - gender roles and relationship satisfaction
• Indian Americans and drug use
• The problem of binge drinking among young South Asians

FILMS: M. Night Shyalamalan's latest movie, "The Happening"

These are photos from the W. 103rd Street subway station in Manhattan, one of several spots with billboards for a movie opening soon across the country: M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening," an R-rated scary film opening, appropriately, on Friday, June 13 (see the first trailer). Below is a collection of some of the pre-opening press.

Today's business section of the New York Times has a front-page story about Shyamalan and his recent adventures. From "A Hollywood horror story, with a twist," by Allison Hope Weiner, who interviewed him from (that's the word used in the piece, so I presume it was by phone) his office outside Philadelphia:

...movie audiences still know Mr. Shyamalan as the guy who makes scary movies with a twist.

He also has not been able to undo his reputation in Hollywood as a talented filmmaker who will not play by studio rules. After the success of “The Sixth Sense,” he criticized Disney executives, dared to compare his talent to Steven Spielberg’s and Alfred Hitchcock’s and has steadfastly asserted his reputation as an outsider by refusing to move from Philadelphia to Hollywood.

His outsider persona continued to work for him, so long as the films “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” and “Signs” continued to make money. But when his films started to falter at the box office — his last movie, “Lady in the Water,” was drubbed by critics and ignored by moviegoers — the Hollywood establishment’s support began to wane.

That failure has put considerable pressure on his new film, “The Happening,” an R-rated horror movie for Fox that opens on June 13. Another failure would harm the Shyamalan name and make it difficult for him to keep full control over his films.

Among other things, the piece talks about his next project.

Mr. Shyamalan is also directing “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” a big tent-pole movie based on a Nickelodeon cartoon, scheduled to be released in 2010 for Paramount.

“I obviously did my homework and checked him out before deciding to make the movie. It’s a very important movie for us,” said John Lesher, president of the Paramount Film Group. “He’s collaborative, open to suggestions and wants to make a hit movie. He’s open in the right way. You want a filmmaker who has passion and want him to defend why he believes something is correct.”

SPELLING BEE: Sameer Mishra wins, with 'guerdon'

[Note: Six of the ten last National Spelling Bee winners, including Sameer, are of Indian descent]

Thirteen-year-old Sameer Mishra, a four-time veteran of the National Spelling Bee, finally won the competition, becoming the latest desi to win. He took home the $35,000 cash award and $5,000 in other prizes. From the Associated Press:

The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries was all business when he aced "guerdon" — a word that appropriately means "something that one has earned or gained" — to win the 81st version of the bee Friday night.

"I don't know about comedy lines, but my parents have been telling me since the beginning that I should always stay calm, cool and collected," said Sameer, who likes playing the violin and video games, and hopes one day to be a neurosurgeon.

Sameer, appearing in the bee for the fourth time and a top 20 finisher the last two years, clenched both fists and put his hands to his face after spelling the winning word. He won a tense duel over first-time participant Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who finally stumbled on "prosopopoeia," a word describing a type of figure of speech.

Sameer was a crowd favorite throughout the tournament. When told one of his words in the semifinals was a dessert, he deadpanned: "That sounds good right now." He rolled his eyes and muttered "wonderful" when told that one of his words had five different language roots. He once asked "Are you sure there are no alternate pronunciations?" and later uttered "That's a relief" after initially mishearing the word "numnah" (a type of sheepskin pad).

And what did he have to say while hoisting the heavy trophy? "I'm really, really weak."

Look at the list of top finishers. Out of 12 kids, five are South Asian (I can't tell from her name where Samia's family is from; assuming Pakistan):

• Sameer Mishra (the winner)
• Sidharth Chand (2nd place)
• Samia Nawaz (4th place tie)
• Kavya Shivashankar (4th place tie)
• Jahnavi Iyer (8th place tie)

Note, last week, Akshay Rajagopal won the National Geographic Geography Bee and $25,000 (link below).

The screengrab on the left is from the front-page of ESPN.com. Mishra is one of the first South Asians other than golfers Vijay Singh or Daniel Chopra (who won the first tournament of the 2008 season) to have his photo featured on that front page. ESPN and its corporate cousin, ABC, treat the bee like a big-time sports event, airing the early rounds on ESPN and then the finals live on prime-time on ABC. Read ESPN's coverage, including a quiz.

Post your comments below.

Related coverage:

• Sriram Hathwar, age 8, Goes Down on Day 1, but Others Advance
• ESPN profiles Samir Patel, "the Dan Marino of spelling"
• A South Asian Spelling Bee Launches and Akshay Rajagopal Wins the Geography Bee

In 2005, Tunku Varadarajan wrote a WSJ essay: "Why Do Indians Excel in Bees,"

Where are they now?

• Here's an article from 2004 on Nupur Lala, who won in 1999 and starred in the hit documentary "Spellbound." At some point, she declined an offer from MTV to be in a reality TV show, calling it "too invasive."
• And here's some info on Balu Natarajan. He's the first Indian to win the Spelling Bee - in 1985 - and is now a Chicago-area physician who serves on the medical team of the Chicago Marathon. Balu is also a friend, and it's to his credit that he never let on that he'd won; I only found out much later. Such a well-adjusted boy!
• The winner of the 1988 Bee, Rageshree Ramachandran, was profiled by Time magazine last year.  At the time she was a Ph.D and M.D. resident in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.

SPELLING BEE: ESPN on Samir Patel, "the Dan Marino of Spelling"

Samir Patel, spelling legend, at 9, and, now, at age 14. Photo on the right by Mike Stone.

For you non-U.S.-football fans, the reference in the headline is to Dan Marino, who is widely considered the greatest quarterback never to win the Super Bowl. And Samir Patel, at age 14, is widely considered the best speller never to win the National Spelling Bee. As this year's tournament gets underway, ESPN.com profiles Patel, who is over the age limit and won't be participating. From "Spelling Bee Icon Moves on to Other Challenges," by Elizabeth Merrill (she also interviewed his mom, Jyoti):

In 2003, Samir captivated America by playfully breezing past boys and girls in varying stages of adolescence and finishing third at the bee. He didn't really understand what he'd accomplished. He was 9 years old. The next summer, he was tripped up by "corposant" and finished 27th. Every year he studied harder; every trip to Washington, D.C., brought more disappointment. He peaked, by bee standards, at the age of 11 when he finished second.

Now he's 14, with nowhere to go this week when 288 tiny geniuses are in Washington fighting for the final word and maybe a two-minute spot on "Good Morning America." The rock star of the bee will be home, his eligibility over. The TV will be off for some of the competition because his family doesn't have cable. Maybe he'll hum a few bars of "Mrs. Robinson," a song that used to unclutter his head while he sat through the other spellers' turns. Samir doesn't know it's the theme song from a movie about a boy trying to be a man.

"I wouldn't say that I miss it, because after five years it was time to move on to another chapter of my life," he says. "I've had a lot of other stuff to keep my mind busy. I try not to dwell on the past."

Other snippets:

STUDY: Indians are slow to assimilate in America

The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank in New York, recently released its first annual Index of Immigrant Assimilation. The report looks at immigrants of various nationalities, including Indians, and examines the extent to which they assimilate along economic, civil and cultural lines.

An article in The Washington Post explains the methodology of the study:

[It] used census and other data to devise an assimilation index to measure the degree of similarity between the United States' foreign-born and native-born populations. These included civic factors, such as rates of U.S. citizenship and service in the military; economic factors, such as earnings and rates of homeownership; and cultural factors, such as English ability and degree of intermarriage with U.S. citizens. The higher the number on a 100-point index, the more an immigrant resembled a U.S. citizen.

In general, the longer an immigrant lives in the United States, the more characteristics of native citizens he or she tends to take on, said Jacob L. Vigdor, a professor at Duke University and author of the study. During periods of intense immigration, such as from 1870 to 1920, or during the immigration wave that began in the 1970s, new arrivals tend to drag down the average assimilation index of the foreign-born population as a whole.

Economically, as you might have guessed, Indians had a high rate of economic assimilation. Which is to say that within a given number of years they quickly attained the same income levels as native-born Americans. See figure 4 to the right for a comparison of the different nationalities.

However, the composite index, which combines economic with cultural and civil indexes, shows that overall, Indians are much less likely to assimilate. Which is to say that while they earn money quickly, they're much less likely to, say, marry US citizens (cultural) or join the military (civic). Look at Figure 3, lower down to see how Indians compare to others.

The author of the study noted how Indians and Chinese have high levels of economic assimilation but were lower on the cultural index:

"Immigrants born in the Philippines and the Dominican Republic also show relatively high levels of cultural assimilation. At the other end of the spectrum, immigrants born in China and India show the greatest degree of cultural distinction from the native-born. It is interesting to note that both these groups show average or above-average levels of economic assimilation, a first clue that cultural assimilation is not a prerequisite for economic assimilation. The least economically assimilated large group, the Mexican-born, posts cultural assimilation levels nearly identical to those of Vietnamese immigrants, who are nearly indistinguishable from the native-born along economic lines."

DESI AMERICA: South Asian Spelling Bee Launches and Akshay Rajagopal Wins the Geography Bee

State Farm, the big insurance company, has announced the launch of the 2008 State Farm South Asian Spelling Bee. From a note from Rahul Walia of Touchdown Media[rahul at touchdown-media.com], who's organizing the event:

Dear All,

I am proud to announce the launch of Touchdown Media’s flagship event: The 2008 State Farm South Asian Spelling Bee contest in association with Western Union and Makemytrip.com

The contest is open to children of up to 14 years of age.

Speller’s parents or guardians can register them at www.southasianspellingbee.com for participation.

The contest is being held at 8 regional centers across the US and spellers can chose any one of the centers for participation.

For more details and registration, please visit www.southasianspellingbee.com

It's another example of a mainstream U.S. company spending its marketing dollars in the South Asian community.

As you know, desi kids have had a lot of success at the "real" spelling bee, the Scripps National Spelling Bee (taking place this year on May 29-30 in DC). For example, in 2005, four of the top slots were won by Anurag Kashyap, Aliya Deri, Samir Sudhir Patel and Rajiv Tarigopula.

Just yesterday, 11-year-old Akshay Rajagopal of Nebraska won the $25,000 first prize in a similar contest, the National Geographic Bee (a test of geography, rather than spelling). See coverage in Ultrabrown and AP.

So let's have some fun with this. Complete this sentence:
"A spelling bee just for South Asian kids is like..."

I'll get us started:
...a marathon just for runners from Kenya.

Post yours in the comments section below.

UPDATE: Sameer Mishra wins 2008 National Spelling Bee on ABC/ESPN.

 

 

PREZ RACE: McCain to meet with Jindal, Romney, Crist

[See all SAJAforum posts, resources, sources about the 2008 presidential race]

For three months now, we have been covering the possibility that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal might/perhaps/could be on the short list for potential vice presidential running mates for Sen. John McCain. The talk suddenly got taken a lot more seriously yesterday, as journalists started reporting that McCain was going to meet this weekend with three possible running mates: Jindal; Florida Governor Charlie Crist; and former Massachussetts Governor Mitt Romney. From "McCain to meet 3 possible running mates" by NYT's Adam Nagourney:

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on Friday is scheduled to meet with two Republican governors who have been prominently mentioned as potential running mates, according to Republicans familiar with McCain's plan.

The two governors, Charlie Crist, of Florida, and Bobby Jindal, of Louisiana, have both accepted invitations to meet with McCain at his home in Arizona, according to Republican familiars with the decision. One Republican said that Mitt Romney, a former rival of McCain for the presidential nomination wasalso expected to visit him this weekend. Romney's advisers declined to comment.

McCain, after a week of campaigning, is heading home on Friday for three days without a public schedule. His campaign declined to comment on the meetings.

"We don't talk about the V.P. selection process," said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser.

Still, the names of McCain's visitors and the timing — coming three weeks after the Arizona senator told reporters that he had a list of 20 potential running mates — strongly suggested that he was moving into an intensified phase in his search for a vice presidential candidate.

From a similar story by the Boston Globe's Joseph Williams and Scott Helman:

SURVEY: Measuring discrimination against South Asians in the U.S.

Arpana Inman and Anju Kaduvettoor of Lehigh University are conducting a survey meant to measure how frequently South Asians experience discrimination.

By understanding the impact of discrimination in detail, we believe that we can add to the limited research for this population. We also believe that this research may help professionals working with South Asian populations provide more culturally appropriate services and gain a greater understanding of the experiences of South Asian men and women. This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at Lehigh University.

You can take the survey here. Some of the questions relate to how often you've experienced discrimination at the hands of teachers, employers, neighbors, strangers and people in the service sector. All answers would be confidential, and the full survey is supposed to take 20 to 35 minutes.

Here's the contact info for the authors of the study:
Anju Kaduvettoor, ank9[at]lehigh.edu and Arpana G. Inman, agi2[at]lehigh.edu

Both are part of the counseling psychology program at Pennsylvania-based Lehigh (Inman is a professor and Kaduvettoor is a