Dirty thinking Editorial
Before I start, I would first like to say that the Sikh and non-Sikh males who walk the spiritual and Godly path and demonstrate and practice it in their everyday thoughts, words, and actions are not the ones I am speaking about in this article.
Water on the cobblestones By Arun Singh
This article has been written for the cutter drifting out to deep water in the floating world. This is for gardeners who appreciate that day in the year when the red rose they have cultivated is in full bloom and at the height of its beauty, ready to be cut down and set in a porcelain urn between a miser and his gold, or between two warriors, or between a veera and God.
Textbook controversy in Gilgit By Mohammad Shehzad
Gilgit in the northern areas is sitting atop a sectarian time bomb, which is ticking away. While sectarian tensions go back to 1988 when riots broke out in the area over the sighting of Ramadan moon resulting in the killing of 300 people officially and 700 unofficially, the present tension is owed to the objection by the Shia community to Islamiat textbooks. The issue has been simmering for three years now but has acquired more ferocity in the last one year
Huns and Guns: Small arms in South Asia one year after the UN conference By Tara Ashtakala
Today, when the international community considers the biggest challenge to peace in South Asia, it immediately thinks of the nuclear rivalry between India and Pakistan. Advocacy and efforts to disarm the subcontinent of nuclear weapons attracts extensive support, both in resource and moral terms, from the rest of the world. Groups fighting to control the other types of military hardware that menace human security, on the other hand, struggle with inadequate funding and governmental suspicion of their activities.
Orwellian fantasy By Angana Chatterji
The Act passed with little discussion. Without a House, Senate or conference report it lacks the legislative history essential to offering retrospective guidance in statutory interpretation. Injecting a profusion of legislative changes, the Act is in violation of the First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments. The Act extensively increases the government's capacity to police and investigate. It fails to instate checks and balances necessary to protect civil liberties.
Peace in the midst of pain By Palvinder Kaur
The motivation for my poems arises from the basic need to make sense of my surroundings and to try to ascertain the purpose of life. For me, poetry is the most honest form to express something which at times is inexpressible with mere words. A poem can be interpreted in a multitude of ways and each reader's experience will differ. The most sublime example of this principle being the Guru Granth Sahib.
Manila bishop embroiled in sex scandal By Danny Chan
A church secretary has accused a leading Manila bishop of sexual molestation. Teodoro Bacani, the bishop for the Novaliches diocese in Manila, was accused by an unnamed 34-year-old woman of two counts of sexual harassment.
The woman, who has since resigned, alleges that Mr Bacani made sexual advances towards her twice, most recently on March 26.
High Blood Pressure: the silent killer By I. J. Ekpenyong
The condition is correctly called the silent killer because usually there are no clear symptoms until there is an emergency health crisis or it is unsuspectedly diagnosed during a routine office visit. Therefore, prevention and early detection, followed by a conservative, nonpharmaceutical management of mild cases is crucial to avoid the catastrophic health consequences of high blood pressure.
Rev. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi By Baldev Singh
Dear Oprah, I am writing this letter because I think of you as an enlightened person. This letter is about the statements you made during the show you dedicated to the memory of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.
During that show, you compared Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King with Mahatma Gandhi.
Sikh studies chairs By Jasbir Singh Sethi
For pursuing these religious studies, University Grants Commission (India) awards fellowships and scholarships based on a National Test (N.E.T.).
Since 1999 this test has been abolished in Punjab without any reason. If it had been stopped for Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Jains it was understandable, but only Punjab, well it is clearly against Sikhs.
Did anybody object to it or challenge it?
Pure melded souls By jetty Singh
With utmost respect and heartfelt humility, I dedicate it to my father-in-law Sardar Amarjeet Singh, who was one of the purest and nobelest souls I ever met.
The new cannibalism By Nancy Scheper-Hughes
These organs are used for transplant surgery, a business driven by the simple market calculus of supply and demand. With desperation built in on both sides of the equation - deathly ill 'buyers' and desperately needy 'sellers' - local and religious beliefs in the sanctity of the body have collapsed under the weight of market demands.
Indian delegation’s strident talk By Mohammad Shehzad
Cross-border terrorism seems to have become an obsession with India. No Indian, official or unofficial, wastes a second to use a public forum to malign Pakistan by accusing it of sponsoring ‘terrorism’. The six-member delegation of Indian parliamentarians led by journalist Kuldip Nayyar, that recently visited Pakistan, was no exception.
Punjab and autonomy By Ram Narayan Kumar
The juxtaposition of the theme for the discussion today suggests to me a restorative intent. It implies an urge to remedy those distortions of twentieth century history and the resultant malevolence in the matrix of political relations, which not only stultify and dissipate the civilizational potential of the people in this region, but also seem to underlie the legacy of stunted growth, deprivation of democracy and justice, senseless strife, trampling of human rights, and environmental degradation pervasive in the whole of the subcontinent.
May your spirit be strong in face of unfriendly forces By K.P. Singh
At a recent forum on American Indians in Indiana sponsored by the Central Indiana Community Foundation, one of the presenters greeted the audience in her native language. The greeting translates as "How are you?" and "How strong are you today?" As I thought about this unusual greeting and its possible significance, my mind reflected on other greetings exchanged upon meeting people.
Healthy lifestyle and weight reduction By Mark Skelton
Most people recognize that a healthy lifestyle is important for a pain free and illness free body and for the long-term happy state of well-being. However, most of us repeatedly choose short-term pleasure or reward while ignoring its long-term impact on the body. How does lifestyle relate to health?
Ex-hostage alleges military, kidnappers in collusion By Danny Chan
In her recently published In the Presence of My Enemies, Ms Burnham alleges that Philippine soldiers brought the insurgents a package of peanut butter, crackers, soap and other supplies as a general negotiated for a percentage of the ransom. She further maintains that it was military gunfire that injured her and killed her husband Martin Burnham and Philippine nurse Ediborah Yap during a botched rescue attempt.
Jump Start: Japan comes to the heartland By David Gelsanliter Jump Start tells the story of how Honda, Nissan, and Toyota transferred a large and still growing part of Japan’s most important industry to our lower Midwest and upper South, why they picked the sites they did, who they chose to hire and promote, and how they won the loyalty of small town America in the process.
Unification Theory: How the marriage of technology brings us all together By Michael Dougherty Singh
First, allow me to bring some background. I'm Anglo-Saxon with Irish-German-French-Portuguese blood who has recently become Amritdhari on January 25th of 2003. My knowledge of Punjabi language is near nonexistent and my knowledge of the Guru Granth Sahib is only a smidgen better. However, my experience both in technology and with many religions combined with my wife's yearning for the truth in spirituality has brought forth a perspective not often witnessed in the Sikh community.
Closure By Jasbir Singh Sethi
Life is a flowing stream. It goes on in Chapters. Various chapters may be delightful or sordid and even deadly. Unless we close the chapter, we cannot move on to the next chapter and on with the life.
The politics behind MMA's religion By Mohammad Shehzad
Last month, Arno Keller, the outgoing head of German Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, lambasted the MMA for pushing Pakistan into medieval age in the name of Islam by banning music, dance, co-education, women sports and kite-flying, closing down cinema houses and defacing billboards that carry female images. “Pakistan’s conundrum is [the] mullah.
They are the biggest hurdles in the way of foreign investment,” said Keller at his farewell.
Misinterpretation of Gurbani by W.H. McLeod By Baldev Singh
The languages in which the holy writings of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Budhism, Parsi religion and Confucianism are enshrined, though all difficult, are for the most part homogenous, but not so the medieval Indian dialects in which the sacred writings of the Sikh Gurus and Saints were composed. Hymns are found in Persian, mediaeval Prakrit, Hindi, Marathi, old Punjabi, Multani and several local dialects. In several hymns the Sanskrit and Arabic vocabularies are freely drawn upon. Moreover, there are words in the Sikh sacred writings which are peculiar to them, and cannot be traced to any known language.
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