The San Francisco Chronicle has a really good cover story today on educated immigrant women who are left isolated at home because of their immigration/visa status. Several of my cousins have experienced this. They’re doctors, businesswomen, etc., but since they came to the U.S. following their husbands on their H1-B work visas, the wives’ H-4 visas do not allow them to do much besides stay at home. Check out the full article below.

Continue reading ‘isolated housewives…’

Today is the 2007 March on Burger King in Miami as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers fights sweatshop conditions for farmworkers in the fields.  I’m sorry I can’t be there in solidarity.

My friend Jeremy Paster passed away after a fight with prostate cancer.  He will be missed dearly.

Happy Diwali everybody!

Here in Ahmedabad, you can definitely tell it’s that time of year. Sweets galore! Rangoli’s are made in front of people’s houses. All the stores are having sales. And the fireworks are non-stop!

This morning, I visited Akshardham, which is a Swaminarayan temple, in Gandhinagar (the capital of Gujarat. More than a temple, it was also a museum to Lord Swaminarayan’s life, which was very interesting.

Things in India have been going great! Been visiting lots of relatives and relaxing.

behind the McDonald’s “Family Restaurant” in Colaba, Bombay.

Here I am in Dharamsala, India, and we’ve received word that Lhasa is on lockdown! After H.H. the Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal last week, Tibetans in Tibet have been celebrating - and the Chinese government is not happy. I don’t know many details, but I have heard that the Drepung Monastery has been surrounded, roads have been closed, curfew is in effect, and internet/communications in and out have been severely restricted.

Check out the Students for a Free Tibet website to take action!

Yes, it’s true. According to arstechnica.com:

New laws going into effect today in the United Kingdom make it a crime to refuse to decrypt almost any encrypted data requested by authorities as part of a criminal or terror investigation. Individuals who are believed to have the cryptographic keys necessary for such decryption will face up to 5 years in prison for failing to comply with police or military orders to hand over either the cryptographic keys, or the data in a decrypted form.

Read the rest of the article here.  With the UK doing this, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until the US follows suit and wants to get its nose in my private data.  Watch out!  Here comes big brother.

reminds me of the IWW Pyramid of Capitalist System:

I just read this article in the LATimes that AT&T will no longer be providing their Time of Day information service as of September. Apparently in Northern California, you can dial POPCORN (767-2676) or any other 767- number and get the accurate time. Why didn’t anyone tell me this service existed? There were so many times where I could have used this. Well, I’ve got a couple more days!

I know we did this and got off pretty easy. And while I appreciate that some people think I did something brave, I’m not sure I did. Bravery is standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square. Bravery is getting on a stage in Tibet and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama. Bravery is going to Beijing to petition to get compensation for your confiscated farmland to the very same government that probably took it in the first place. All this, with no protection. No foreign passport, government, or official body that will defend you.

What I did, what we did, it was nothing in comparison. But I hope and I pray that somehow we have made a difference in the battle for human rights and freedom in Tibet and in China. The Olympics spotlight is on the Chinese leadership now and they want the world to believe they are open and free. But they are not. They demonstrated this by deporting me at the very moment that the one-year countdown to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was taking place in Tiananmen square. Paul and I just wanted to attend. To see it for ourselves and to blog about it like one should be able to in any place that truly enjoys freedom.
~Lhadon Tethong on Beijing Wide Open