The ethnic and gender composition of the Nepalis in NYC gives me a very good picture of the social disparities in Nepal. I know of two Dalits. There might be a few more. There are less than 30 Madhesis. Yesterday in my speech at The New School I said less than 0.1% of the Nepalis in NYC are Madhesi. I think it is more like 0.01%. There are somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 Nepalis in NYC, and less than 30 of them are Madhesi. (Some Madhesis have been making jealousy comments that that number is more like 5,000 ever since I got myself elected Convenor, Coordination Committee, Nepali Organizations In New York City. It has been noted Barack Obama is not awfully popular among the blacks. The black population is yet to come around to someone with a cross appeal.) On the other hand, Tara Bahun has gone on record to tell me that my being Convenor does not mean I get to convene the meeting in May when I have video footage to prove to the contrary.
The New School Event: Madhesi Question: Photos 2
The New School Event: Madhesi Question: Photos
The New School Event: My Speech To Be Delivered
I find it unbelievable that there are people who actually organized a meeting that concluded by suggesting if I am on the panel of The New School event, they are going to boycott it, which they did. My first instinct is to say, mai ka laal hai to samne aye. Who were at that meeting? I would like to know. Thos idiots do not seem to realize I was not a "guest" at the event. The event was a joint brainchild of Ashok Gurung and me. We together decided on the panelists. The names were obvious. I was not a guest, I was a coorganizer, if you will.
I have been trying to suggest we Nepalis should try to earn our voting rights in the city elections. And work starts at home. We have to become mass based in terms of organization. Our organizations have to become transparent and democratic.
Voting Rights For Immigrants In New York City
The first task it to establish the goal. Right now the right to vote is not even a goal among the Nepalis in the city. That is a shame. People who don't know that they don't know.
Then we have to ask ourselves, what would be the best way to organize the Nepalis in the city. Right now there are 30,000 t0 40,000 Nepalis in the city. Noone knows for sure how many. I think less than 1,000 of them are members of one or the other organization, 2,000 tops.
And there is no umbrella organization. We have a coordination committee, and that's about it. The member organizations are fiercely opposed to setting up a proper umbrella organization: the symptom of a powerless group, the enormous reluctance to claim the identity that seems to drag you down. (Typhoid And Typhoid Victims) When I talk about voting rights, many prominent leaders have said, that is for Adhikaar to work on. Adhikaar is great, it is the most active Nepali organization in the city. But something like voting right has to be a community thing. The entire community has to get organized, if it is to be achived.
So how do you organize the Nepalis in the city? The vast majority of them work below minimum wage jobs seven days a week, many of them 10-15 hours a day. How do you organize them?
The style so far has been that we will do events, and they will come. If we will build it, they will come. And so no matter which Nepali event you go to, you meet the same 200 or so people. The New School event was different. The usual faces were all absent. It was a whole bunch of new faces.
That has been a mistake. We have to go where they are. I think most Nepalis party at least once a month, if not more often. Many party weekly. So we think of the house party as the building block of our organizational effort. And we connect them all through the internet. Web 2.0.
ANONYC: Proposed Constitution
The Political Process In Nepal
I have been very inspired by the New School event yesterday. But I have also been toying around with a few options. I am reminded how one evening Homraj Acharya from DC, and Sanjaya Parajuli and I got together at Sanjaya's place - all members of Hamro Nepal - and we talked for hours. At the end of it all, I wish we had it all recorded in audio.
I have been talking to Anil Shahi and Sanjaya Parajuli. Why not form a group of 10 people and meet at Sanjaya's place every few weeks for a few hours and put it all out in audio on the web? Better to vent it out at this end than to risk street agitation or worse in Nepal. We need a ton of debate and discussions to make the best of the constituent assembly process.
Tek Gurung's Community Center Idea
The last person to have tried this was Chandra Prakash Sharma. What makes Tek Gurung's effort one better is that he is starting out with a survey of 5,000 Nepalis. He is going to get 5,000 Nepalis to commit to chip is $5 per month before he will take any step. I hope we can keep the process transparent all the way, and I hope we can take a business approach to it. How about starting with just 1,000? $5000 per month is enough money to get started. On the other hand, it should not end up a community center where nothing happens from Monday to Friday. The center should end up being self-sustaining. It should grow to make business sense. No?
Community Center Idea: A Few Options
Nepali Community Center
Convention
Right now I have put it out as my personal business project. But I am open to making it as a business project of the ANONYC. The team that will implement it will still get a percentage of the profits. But the event will belong to the ANONYC.
Nepali Convention 2008, NYC
My ANONYC proposal breaks us away from the rest of the Nepali diaspora. But that break is temporary. As soon as they adopt democracy, and transparency, we join them. At that point our convention becomes a regional convention. But until then, we part ways.
ANONYC: Proposed Constitution
The Matrix
The Matrix
Facebook: The Matrix Reloaded
You have to think of The Matrix as an invention. As long as you build The Matrix, it does not matter if you have voting rights or not, it does not matter if you want to work on the Madhesi and Janajati issues or the larger Nepal issues. It does not matter that you do not stick just to the Nepalis. If we Nepalis can take the lead on building The Matrix, we become the nucleus of the Obama phenomenon. We grab our non-white identity with gusto.
>From: "Anil Shahi" <anil_shahi_et@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: nepaldemocracy@googlegroups
>To: nepaldemocracy@googlegroups
>Subject: [ND] Re: New York Events on Terai (Madhesh) Issue in Nepal
>Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:05:33 -0500
>
>
>Dear all,
>
>The discussion event (on Madhesh isuue) at The New School today went very
>well. The Q & A session was lengthy, lively and vibrant. I will be
>uploading
>the audio recording of the entire program later when I have more time, and
>will surely provide the links to you.
>
>It was bitterly disppointing that some of the prominent members of the
>Nepali community in NY decided to boycott the event. The issue: Paramendra
>Bhagat as one of the panelists. As a matter of fact, there had been a
>rigorous campaign by them to remove Paramendra from the list of panelists
>in
>the last few days. I am glad that Ashok dai still decided to keep him on
>the
>panel, and I commend him for the bravery.
>
>I too am not a fan of Paramendra's style, and I too vigorously disagree
>with
>him on many of the radical views that he represents. But to deny him his
>RIGHT to hold those views and style is fundamentally wrong and
>undemocratic.
>It is amusing to me that the very people who profess to rally for democracy
>in Nepal would so easily astray from the very basic and fundamental
>principle of democracy when it comes to those who disagree with them,
>either
>in substance, or in style.
>
>Rather, it made a DEMOCRATIC sense to have invited him to speak, and to
>have
>had the opportunity to challenge him with questions on his stance. We are
>mainstreaming the Maoists by engaging with them, and so can we mainstream
>Paramendra by engaging with him.
>
>Loktaantrik bhanera afulaai chinaaune haru le loktaantrik naaraa layera
>mattra Nepal loktaantrik bandaina -- loktaantrik sidhaanta haruma pani
>purna
>biswaas garna sakna paryo, loktaantrik maadhyam ma aastha rakhna sakna
>paryo. If one wants to preach democracy, one should practice it as well.
>
>Until and unless we make individual efforts to strenthen true forms of
>democracy by letting go of feudalistic attributes within ourselves, I am
>afraid, our efforts to make democracy prosper in Nepal would go in vain.
>
>I am not defending Paramendra or his views and his style by writing this.
>But, by God, I shall defend his (and of those of his likes) RIGHT to be
>himself till death.
>
>By the way, Paramendra did very well today -- he was sensible, articulate,
>and powerful with his presentation.
>
>Anil.
From: Tek Gurung
Dear friends,
As we all are aware, population of Nepalese is growing rapidly here in New York. Approximately, 20000-30000 Nepalese and Nepali minded people live in New York metro area right now . In coming 5 years, number of Nepalese will be twice of what it is now. Nepal is very rich in culture and heritage which play significant roles in our lives, which is very much crucial for us to be able to preserve. I have met and seen some Nepali friends who have strong desires to build Nepali community and have tried to do so. Unfortunately, most of them were unsuccessful. After much thought, I have decided to circulate this survey within the community. My goal is to try to reach most of Nepalese and Nepali minded people and evaluate whether a community center is something that interests majority of us or not.
For example, If 5000 people feels that we need our center to be established, then we can initiate the project and it will only be possible if lets say 5000 people are willing to give $5 every month for this cause, by which we will be able to collect $25,000, which is a great amount. We can then, open an office, hire employees and work from there systematically.
Therefore, I ask for your help today in filling out this survey. Your opinion is valuable in making this very important decision. I thank-you for your time.
Sincerely,
Tek B.Gurung
WE, VERY MUCH WOULD APPRECIATE IF YOU COULD GIVE YOUR INFORMATION WHICH WILL BE ONLY USED FOR OUR SURVEY PURPOSE.
THANK-YOU.
YOUR FULL NAME:
HOME/MAILING ADDRESS:
Do you think we, Nepalese need a community center of our own in New York City ?
I think we need do not need it.
If we need it, please choose a name suitable for the center.
Nepali Center Nepali Mandir
Nepal Ghar Nepali Community Center
Other suggestion
How can we fund raise for this purpose?
Monthly charge each person
Hold concerts & other cultural programs
Other suggestion
Monthly, I will donate/give $5 $10 $20
other amount.
How should we conduct board meeting?
Inviting all Nepalese to vote
Inviting only the members of our organization ( whoever think we need it and willing to give monthly minium $5 is become member)
Other suggestion
Where should our community center be located?
Manhattan Queens Brooklyn Other suggestion
What are the facilities should it contain?
Auditorium Hall Meeting Room
Hindu Temple Gumba
Church Funeral Home
Office rentals for Nepali organizations
Other Suggestion
Do we, Nepalese, need our own Nepal Parade Day?
Yes No (If yes, please choose a suitable date)
Budha Jayanti, which falls on sun, may 06 every year. All of us in this world need peace, which could be a perfect day to hold our parade.
The date in which Nepal and America established relationship, Wed, April 28 which is good, since we are in this country building ourselves.
Nepal’s April revolution, sat, April 28, which in a way is a independent day us, nepalese.
other suggestion
HOME/CELL #:
ACTIVE E-MAIL ADDRESS:YOUR PROFESSION:
DRAFT SURVEY
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