The way to cure this malaise is to shoot for a NYPD that is about half female at all levels.
Op-Ed Columnist - Is Rape Serious? - NYTimes.com When a woman reports a rape, her body is a crime scene. She is typically asked to undress over a large sheet of white paper to collect hairs or fibers, and then her body is examined with an ultraviolet light, photographed and thoroughly swabbed for the rapist’s DNA. It’s a grueling and invasive process that can last four to six hours and produces a “rape kit” — which, it turns out, often sits around for months or years, unopened and untested. Stunningly often, the rape kit isn’t tested at all because it’s not deemed a priority. If it is tested, this happens at such a lackadaisical pace that it may be a year or more before there are results (if expedited, results are technically possible in a week). .... this isn’t justice; it’s indifference. ..... The report found that in Los Angeles County, there were at last count 12,669 rape kits sitting in police storage facilities. More than 450 of these kits had sat around for more than 10 years, and in many cases, the statute of limitations had expired. ..... There are no good national figures, and one measure of the indifference is that no one even bothers to count the number of rape kits sitting around untested. ..... a broad distaste for rape cases as murky, ambiguous and difficult to prosecute, particularly when they involve (as they often do) alcohol or acquaintance rape. ....... “They talk about the victims’ credibility in a way that they don’t talk about the credibility of victims of other crimes” ...... one shining exception: New York City has made a concerted effort over the last decade to test every kit that comes in. The result has been at least 2,000 cold hits in rape cases, and the arrest rate for reported cases of rape in New York City rose from 40 percent to 70 percent ........ Some Americans used to argue that it was impossible to rape an unwilling woman. Few people say that today, or say publicly that a woman “asked for it” if she wore a short skirt. But the refusal to test rape kits seems a throwback to the same antediluvian skepticism about rape as a traumatic crime. Op-Ed Columnist - After Wars, Mass Rapes Persist - NYTimes.com a new foreign policy agenda is emerging around issues like poverty, genocide, climate change and a topic that until recently was hushed up — sexual violence. .......... mass rape as an element of warfare in Congo, Darfur, Bosnia, Rwanda, Liberia — but the lesson here in Liberia in West Africa is that even when the fighting ends, the rape continues ......... the 14-year civil war in Liberia, from 1989 to 2003, when as many as three-fourths of women were raped .......... so many of the girls are pre-teens. ...... the best way to deal with rape — whether in Darfur or Liberia, or even in the United States — is to demystify it, dismantle the taboos, and address it directly ........ Congo and Sudan, where the brutality is particularly appalling ...... even when wars end, mass rape continues by inertia. ...... Liberia’s president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected a president in Africa, has sent strong signals that rape is intolerable. Well: My Brief Life as a Woman The side effect that surprised me most were the hot flashes — not that I got them, I was expecting that, but by how intense they were. They often woke me in the middle of the night and made me sweat so much that I drenched the sheets. In midwinter I’d walk our miniature poodle, Bijou, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. I sometimes felt as if Deb could fry eggs on my chest. (It’s also a bit disconcerting when your hot flashes are fiercer than your wife’s.) ...... certainly under-represented in the arts. Where are the great hot flash novels or movies? How come there’s not a Web site or magazine called “Hot Flash Monthly”? ....... Not only was I temporarily menopausal, but it appeared that I was also turning into a teenage girl from the early 1970s. ........ my six months of hormone therapy ...... my lifelong sense that the world of women is hormonal and mysterious, and that we men don’t have the semblance of a clue. ........ when your significant female other bursts into tears at the drop of a dinner plate or turns on you like a rabid pit bull — whether she’s pregnant, having her period or in the throes of menopause — believe her when she blames it on the hormones.
An undercover black cop in action got shot down by undercover white cops in Harlem: they thought he was a criminal. What is to be understood?
There is something called friendly fire. Soldiers know about it. Police officers know about it. It is statistical. More cops die in the line of duty than in the line of friendly fire. So was race not involved?
Things are not that black and white.
Could two black cops have shot down a white undercover cop like that? When was the last time that happened? Do white cops think criminal when they see a black face?
It is possible police officers get trained to think, you got 0.87 seconds before either you go down or the other person does. Better the other person. That is the basic survival instinct.
It is hard to dissect less than one second. But what if that less than one second is but only the tip of the iceberg? This city is 60% nonwhite but its police department is 90% white. That decision was not taken in less than one second. A decision like that gets taken over days and weeks and months and years and decades and centuries.
Of course it was racism that this black cop went down. He was doing what he was trained to do. This city's police department is going to have to become at least 50% nonwhite. We are going to have to become more racially enlightened than we are now.
The importance of the indignation over that one second is that it allows us to draw attention to the larger racial panorama of years and decades and centuries.
Unconscious mind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFreud divided mind into the conscious mind or Ego and two parts of the Unconscious: the Id or instincts and the Superego. He used the idea of the unconscious in order to explain certain kinds of neurotic behavior. In this theory, the unconscious refers to that part of mental functioning of which subjects make themselves unaware. Freud proposed a vertical and hierarchical architecture of human consciousness: the conscious mind, the preconscious, and the unconscious mind - each lying beneath the other. He believed that significant psychic events take place "below the surface" in the unconscious mind, like hidden messages from the unconscious - a form of intrapersonal communication out of awareness. He interpreted these events as having both symbolic and actual significance. For psychoanalysis, the unconscious does not include all that is not conscious, rather only what is actively repressed from conscious thought or what the person is averse to knowing consciously. In a sense this view places the self in relationship to their unconscious as an adversary, warring with itself to keep what is unconscious hidden.
Race is a reality somewhere between the subconscious and the unconscious, on top of it being a reality in the conscious. When Barack Obama says race matters deeply, that is what he means.
Of course you saw a criminal when you saw a black face. That fits the definition of racism.
The NYC Subway right now is too Eurocentric in its outlay. We need a multi-polar subway that better reflects the emerging multi-polar reality on the planet.
In The News
Rangel's Obama Quip Makes WavesNew York Times “This was a tragedy. Our Police Department is diverse and they train; sometimes things happen and they’re inexplicable,” the mayor said, adding, “There’s no reason to suspect this had any racial overtones.” .... the high tension and racial sensitivity surrounding the shooting of Officer Omar J. Edwards in East Harlem on Thursday night, another chapter in a history of fraternal police shootings across the color line. .... Rangel had called for a federal investigation of the shooting, saying that an independent inquiry would help assure minority New Yorkers that what happened was a mistake and that such an encounter would not happen again. Thompson Criticizes Bloomberg For Criticizing Rangel, Who ApologizesNew York Daily Newssuggesting there was perhaps a more tactful way of dealing with the dean of New York's congressional delegation..... Rangel issued a statement earlier today in which he apologized for his comments and said it was "entirely inappropriate to bring the President and his wife into the discussion during their visit to New York
NYC mayor on Rangel's Obama remarks: 'Plain wrong'The Associated Press "I have a lot of respect for Charlie Rangel, but in this case, he's just plain wrong," Bloomberg said Sunday as he marched in the Salute to Israel parade on Fifth Avenue. .... Bloomberg said he spent Saturday night with the slain officer's widow and children. ......... Officer Omar J. Edwards was shot to death Thursday on a Harlem street. He was in street clothes chasing a man and had his service weapon out when three plainclothes officers on routine patrol yelled for the two to stop, police said. One officer opened fire and hit Edwards three times, killing him, police said. It wasn't until medical workers arrived that it was determined he was a police officer. ..... there is no indication at this time that the officer who shot Edwards acted improperly. .... the chances of a police officer "of color" getting shot by a colleague were higher than for a white officer.
Police nightmare in NY: shooting fellow officerThe Associated Press the kind of mistake that haunts a department, opens it to scrutiny, and dominates headlines. While the phenomenon has happened around the country, New York is home to several cases in the past few years. ...... "The rules are pounded into these officers in training, and continued training, using their guns when other cops are around." ........ He had just finished his shift, and had his service weapon out, chasing a man who had broken into his car, police said. ....... One officer, Andrew Dunton, opened fire and hit Edwards three times as he turned toward them with his service weapon. ....... Witnesses are being re-interviewed and many questions remain, specifically whether Edwards identified himself as an officer, and whether Dunton's split-second judgment to fire was against department guidelines. ........ the responsibility on the out-of-uniform officers. They are instructed to drop their weapon, stay still and to obey all directions from the uniformed officers to defuse the tense situation. ...... "We have seen fatal police-involved shootings plummet in recent decades — even as the size of the NYPD increased — because of training and disciplined use of force" ........ "Department guidelines are neat and clean on paper, not so in the split-second reality of an armed confrontation. Our training is designed to help officers safely navigate through the hazards of the real thing." ........ about 22 officers have been killed in accidental shootings in the past decade. ...... staggeringly low given the tense and confusing circumstances officers regularly face. ....... The FBI statistics don't specify the race of the officers killed, and many community members and leaders say race is clearly the reason for the accidents. Dunton and the other two officers were white; Edwards was black. .............. In Providence, Sgt. Cornel Young Jr. was killed in 2000 while he was off duty and trying to break up a fight. He was dressed in baggy jeans, an overcoat and a baseball cap, and carrying a gun. His mother unsuccessfully sued the city. ....... In 2001, two uniformed officers shot and killed an undercover detective when he trained his gun on a suspected car thief in Oakland, Calif. ...... On Saturday in Harlem, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel joined the Rev. Al Sharpton in calling for a federal probe, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Kelly met with concerned community members around the city. Edwards' family mourned their son, who always wanted to be a police officer and had two small children and a wife. ........ "If you become an officer and you have a pistol and you are of color, in or out of uniform, your chances of getting shot down by a police officer are a lot heavier than if you were not of color," Rangel said. Report: Weiner Ending Bid for New York City Mayor1010 WinsThompson has been endorsed by former Mayor David Dinkins and Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel. Rangel Endorses Thompson For MayorNY1 Rangel endorsed other Democrats, including Brooklyn Councilman Bill De Blasio in his bid for public advocate and Queens Councilman John Liu in his bid for city comptroller. On Diverse Force, Blacks Still Face Special Peril NYT a Latino officer with six years on the force acknowledges being conflicted. “Tell you the truth, I feel bad for the shooter. It happens so fast, and now he has got to live with this.” His voice trails off. ....... Its serried ranks are more diverse than ever, its training and rules on the use of force more rigorous than in the past ...... political ritual: protesters march, panels are appointed and reforms are most often accepted by police commissioners. ...... the racial assumptions of their white colleagues. ....... whether too many officers harbor too many assumptions and fire too quickly. ...... “Your greatest fear is to be shot and slain on duty, and that’s only matched by your fear of shooting another officer.” ....... “If you speak with nine out of 10 officers of color they would tell you that when they hear sirens, in their head they are thinking: ‘I hope these cops know that I’m one of the good guys.’ ” .......... 47.8 percent of the city’s officers are white, 28.7 percent Hispanic, 17.9 percent black and 5.4 percent Asian. ......... the young, off-duty officer apparently had drawn his weapon and was chasing a man who had tried to break into his car when he encountered his on-duty colleagues, who according to their initial testimony saw his gun, shouted “Police!” and fired when he turned to face them. Such actions might have been in violation of departmental protocols. ......... “The physiological impact on the officer is great. It’s very detrimental to solid judgment. Your adrenaline is pumping, and your visual skills are impaired. ........ “It’s not a situation you can replicate in a classroom.” ........ two decades ago, when the number of homicides hovered around 2,000 each year. Last year, the city recorded 516 homicides. ......... Officers, many of whom grew up in segregated neighborhoods, find themselves challenged to remember daily that their own come in every shape and color. ......... “If it was just a mistake, we would see more of these mistakes with officers of different colors” ...... Instinctual judgments about race and crime are woven into the culture of the streets. “We tend to pretend in the police force that we don’t see race, we don’t see ethnicity, but we do,” said Senator Adams ........... “One of my cops once said that if he sees a non-uniformed black man with a gun, he takes precautions for himself; if he sees a white guy with a gun, he takes precautions for both because he knows it could be a fellow cop.” ............ “Everyone carries baggage subconsciously and retraining the mind takes lots of work,” said Mr. Robinson, who lives in Florida. “There are a lot of black undercovers out there, and officers need to understand that not every black man with a gun is a criminal.”
Swine Flu Now Reported in All 50 States Atlanta Journal Constitution with the total number of people infected probably surpassing 200,000 ..... 17 deaths .... Infections with the H1N1 swine flu virus continue to be mild and recovery is fairly quick, as is the case with seasonal flu .... a vaccine for the swine flu virus could be ready in October ..... there's no way to tell now if the H1N1 virus will be more virulent when -- and if -- it returns to the Northern Hemisphere with the approach of winter. ..... 53 countries have reported 15,510 cases of H1N1 swine flu, including 99 deaths, most of them in Mexico What happened to Flight 447?Reuters GM Files Bankruptcy to Spin Off More Competitive Firm (Correct)Bloomberg The U.S. government will extend $50 billion of loans to the 100-year-old automaker and plans to convert that into a 60 percent stake in the reorganized company ....... reported debt of $172.8 billion, more than twice its assets. ..... reported debt of $172.8 billion, more than twice its assets. .... GM plans to launch a new company in 60 to 90 days, armed with vehicles from its Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC units for the U.S. market. The court will supervise the sale or liquidation of unprofitable brands, such as Saturn and Hummer, and at least 11 unwanted factories. .... a worker health-care fund to get a 17.5 percent stake and the Canadian governments to take 11.7 percent. ....... Bondholders would be eligible for 10 percent and warrants to buy another 15 percent. ...... The company might remain private for as long as 18 months ......... GM’s North American sales were $86.2 billion in 2008, compared with $34.4 billion in Europe, $20.3 billion in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, and $17.8 billion in the Asia Pacific region ...... GM sales dropped 33 percent in April. ....... Lehman filed the biggest bankruptcy in September, listing assets of $639 billion. WorldCom collapsed in 2002 with assets of $103.9 billion. ...... The Chapter 11 proceeding will slash GM’s consolidated debt from $54.4 billion in March to only $17 billion for the new entity
Apple Releases iTunes 8.2 With iPhone 3.0 Support InformationWeek introduces a number of consumer-oriented features, including cut and paste, multimedia text capabilities, and a universal search function. Officials: Mass abduction by Taliban in PakistanWashington Post aimed at distracting the military from its offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley .... the school's principal was among those abducted ..... estimated about 400 captives were initially involved. ..... Known for its harsh terrain, reticent tribes and porous border with Afghanistan, as well as its history of limited federal government oversight, South Waziristan would likely be a tougher test for Pakistan's armed forces than Swat. The region also is the main base for Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. ...... The tribal areas also are the suspected hideouts of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. ..... up to 3 million people displaced by the fighting. Already, large numbers of families have begun leaving South Waziristan amid rumors of an imminent operation. President hails gay pride monthUSA Today I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration." US Stocks Rally, S&P 500 Hits 7-Month High, as Bonds SlumpBloomberg reports on personal income, manufacturing and construction beat economists’ forecasts ...... The U.S. gains extended a global advance that pushed the MSCI World Index to the highest since November as manufacturing growth in China signaled the worst of the global recession may be ending. .... The rally in equities from Shanghai to Moscow and London was triggered after manufacturing in China grew for a third month in May ....... the first global economic contraction since World War II. ...... the bond market shows international demand for American financial assets is as high as ever, even as the dollar slides and the U.S. deficit expands. Google To Sell E-BooksInformationWeeka digital book ecosystem ..... it may find itself competing more directly against Amazon.com. ...... but Amazon Web Services, the company's on-demand computing infrastructure service, remains a strong contender against Google App Engine. ..... Now, after years of false starts, the era of the e-book may be about to begin in earnest. ....... Once Google starts selling e-books directly, Amazon may have to add a caveat to its claim that it "offers Earth's Biggest Selection."
As Amazon Readies Kindle DX, Homepage Ads Are Driving SalesMediapost.com the new DX model, designed for reading newspapers and magazines, would ship June 10 ...... the e-book market will grow from $323 million in 2008 to nearly $9 billion in 2013
June 3, 2009 New YorkImmigration Court 26 Federal Plaza 12th Floor, Room 1237 New York, NY 10278 917-454-1040 Court Administrator: Star B. Pacitto
9 AM, Judge McManus, Margaret "The judge with the smallest proportion of denials [the most asylum grants] of all the judges for this period was Margaret McManus of New York. She declined 9.8% of her 1,638 asylum requests in represented cases. Judge McManus was appointed in 1991. She began her career in private practice and for one five year period was a staff attorney with Legal Aid Society's Immigration Unit......With an over 90 percent grant-rate for asylum cases, oh that all EOIR immigration judges could emulate former legal aid lawyer McManus . . . the Treason Lobby hopes!"
Rudrakumaran Visuvanathan, Immigration Lawyer 875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2309 New York, NY 10001 212 290 2925
I fear political assassination upon return to Nepal between now and the 2010 election because of (a) my ethnicity: I am a Madhesi, (b) my political beliefs: I have a firm commitment to democracy and social justice, (c) my political abilities and the intense visibility that will invite upon my return: Barack Obama, Howard Dean, Terry McAuliffe, David Pollak all know me, I have played a central role to the three mass movements in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008, and (d) my association with the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, the organization that has best countered the Maoists politically.
My fear comes from (a) remnant elements of the old political order who lost much after the democracy movement of April 2006 that turned the poltical order upside down, (b) the Pahadi power brokers of the three largest parties in Nepal, the Maoists, the Nepali Congress, and the UML, (c) specifically the Maoists who might see me as an American agent, however erroneously, (d) elements of the Maoists who might still harbor their original dream of a one party communist republic, (video of the top Maoist from January 2008 where he openly talks of capturing state power) (e) elements of the Maoists who see the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum as their number one threat, (f) rivals from the Madhesi rights camp, (g) one or more of the armed Madhesi groups who might find I am not in tandem with their separate country agenda or their violent methods, and (g) mafia elements hired by any of the forces described above.
It is going to be very easy to finish me off. I am not going to have any security detail. A likely scenario is one person with a handgun who manages to flee. Or I might get poisoned. Or I might get killed in a choreographed road accident. That is how the life of the last charismatic Nepali leader ended: Madan Bhandari in the early 1990s. I am a MLK to the 13 million Madhesis on the planet. If I go to Nepal now, I die a MLK death.
The two city charges of harassment and court order violation that got me into this immigration mess in the first place have long been dropped by the city. (An Event Invite From DL21C: This Can't Be Real) That is to say those two charges should never have been pressed in the first place. But Charlie Rangel's office got involved, and this was before Barack beat Hillary, and so you have to wonder. If my political opponents in America, in New York City can do this to me, what will my political enemies in Nepal be willing to do?
You had me in jail for six months from June to November last year. I received two death threats during that time period.
I came to the United States on a student visa in August 1996. I was a student five years at Berea College in Kentucky. Berea is the number one liberal arts college in the South. Within six months of landing I got myself elected student body president at Berea, first time in the college's 150 plus year history a freshman had done such a thing, first and last.
In 1999 I was one of the founding members of a dot com company that went on to raise $25 million during its second round before it went down during what in the industry is known as the nuclear winter. I was also team member number two of another dot com that sought to challenge then industry leader AllAdvantage that paid people for watching ads while surfing the web. That company also closed shop once the nuclear winter set in and there was a massive dot com meltdown. The founder Paul went on to Duke.
You can work for a year after graduation. During that year my college sweetheart proposed to me and we got married. I got a green card. She was the smartest student at Berea. She had spent her first semester at Macalester, the Kofi Annancollege in Minnesota.
It so happened that we ended up spending quite some time apart. There was travel involved on my part. She had a semester long internship in Australia, another subsequent semester long internship in Thailand. Somewhere along the way we fell out of love. I moved to New York City. I was a few months away from renewing my green card, something you do within two years. My ex still cared enough about me to suggest I renew the green card before we filed for divorce. I refused for emotional reasons. I passively let the deadline pass. As of winter 2005 my green card expired. Our separation paper said we had no children, no property to divvy up, and that she will get 5% of the income from my first published book. She had not asked for that 5%.
I have eaten into savings, swiped credit cards; I have borrowed money from my business partner, I have done some writing online. Adam Carson was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley before he quit and joined my team, but that before you nabbed me. The technology company I have founded had raised round one money, thanks to Adam, but that money got pulled back a few months back. But if I can raise 80K, I can raise 100K, I expect to hit round 2 by the end of this year, and round 3 in early 2011.
Right before you nabbed me I was thinking I would grow the company a little more and then apply for a green card based on that. A friend of mine, a fellow Madhesi from Nepal, got his green card through his Seattle based software company. But now I am in a rather urgent situation, and I have decided to seek political asylum. I have an extremely strong case. If I show up in Nepal right now, I am dead meat.
The king of my country pulled a coup in February 2005 and took over. The country already had gone through a decade long civil war led by the Maoists in which 13,000 people died in active combat, twice that many committed suicide. The Maoists of Nepal had proven themselves to be the largest, deadliest ultra left group this planet saw since the end of the Cold War. At their peak they had 80% of the country.
In February 2005, three forces in Nepal were at loggerheads: the monarchists, the Maoists, and the democrats. Since February 2005 no Nepali outside of Nepal has put as much time into the democracy movement of Nepal as I have. Part of the reason I let my green card expire was because I was so busy thinking about the 27 million people in Nepal - days, nights, weekends, it was a zombie existence - I literally was not thinking about myself. There would be piles of unopened mail on my floor. The work I have put into Nepal's democracy and social justice movements is going to win me the Nobel Peace Prize. I am working to make it happen in 2010. 75% of the work is done, 25% remains, and I intend to write and publish directly online a 1,000 page autobiography. This work has been so cutting edge it is going to sell itself.
What happened in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, February 2008 and again in February 2009 in the form of a Tharu Kranti was magic. If Nepal can become a multi-party democracy of state funded parties and one where at least one third of the legislature is female by law, what happened in Nepal during the four mass movements will have been the French Revolution for this 21st century.
I went to the best school in Nepal. The number two guy in class went on to Harvard to Goldman. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, I never went to Harvard. When Bill Gates was 19, he launched a company. When I was 19, I launched a political party.
I am a Madhesi in Nepal. In Rwanda they got Hutu and Tutsi. In Nepal they got Pahadi and Madhesi. Jesus was a Jew. There are 13 million Jewish people on the planet. Buddha was a Madhesi. There are about 13 million Madhesis on the planet. That is how many black folks MLK had when he was doing what he was doing.
More than 40% of the people in Nepal are Madhesi. Of the 30,000 Nepalis in New York City, maybe 30 are Madhesi. That should tell you of the filters in Nepal that work against the Madhesis.
I am half Nepali, half Indian by birth. More than 99% of the Nepalis in America are not my ethnicity. More than 99% of the Indians in America are not my ethnicity. I need to point out the ethnic politics in countries like Nepal and India are way more complicated than the racial politics in countries like America. Barack did not have it tougher growing up.
Please check my Nepal blog for my work into Nepal: http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com. Please check my Barackface blog for my work into Obama 2008: htp://democracyforum.blogspot.com. Barack knows me, as does Howard Dean. Terry McAuliffe knows me. I have a feeling the Clintons might be aware of my presence. All the top politicians in Nepal know me or of me.
There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest could be the reason a cyclone hit Bangladesh. What happened in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008, and more recently in February 2009 were political cyclones. I was the butterfly flapping my wings in New York City. What I did I could not have done from Kathmandu. I fathered the very concept.
An astronomer does not have to be on the surface of planet Jupiter to know what's going on. I don't have to be in Nepal to know what's going on. The distance gives me greater objectivity. My non player status gives me ears in all the top parties in Nepal. And I have personally met top politicians from all parties in Nepal right here in New York since I moved to the city in the summer of 2005.
In April 2006, over a period of 19 days, about eight million people out of the country's 27 million came out into the streets to shut the country down completely to force a dictator out. The Maoists wanted to take credit but they had been pushing for an armed uprising all along. (Baburam Bhattarai May Not Preach Violence To The Seven Party Alliance January 2006) The seven democratic parties kept pushing for a mass meeting here, a mass meeting there, a daylong shutdown here, and a daylong shutdown there. I am the father of the concept of continuous movement in the Nepalese context. I pushed the concept from the very beginning. If there is a tortoise sitting on the fence, chances are it did not randomly get there.
When Upendra Yadav, now leader of the largest Madhesi party and fourth largest party overall after the April 10, 2008 elections to the constituent assembly in Nepal, landed in Los Angeles in July 2007 for the annual conference of Nepalis in America, his first words were "Where is Paramendra Bhagat?" They took him to the hotel. He again asked, "Where is Paramendra Bhagat?" They had to fly him over to NYC to meet me. We had never met before. (Upendra Yadav Was In Town, Upendra Yadav: Five Hours Of Video) Today he is foreign minister of Nepal. In the recent weeks, he was talked of as a potential Prime Minister. (Prime Minister Upendra Yadav?)
As soon as Upendra Yadav landed in the US, Prachanda, the top Maoist started calling him an American agent. And Upendra Yadav is actually a former communist.
In March 2007, not long after the first Madhesi Movement, after the Maoists kept disrupting mass meeting after mass meeting by the MJF, there was a major clash between the two political groups in Gaur, Nepal, where Madhav Nepal is from. Over 30 Maoists were killed by people with bamboo sticks.
I was at a Nepali event in Jackson Heights in Queens. Some MPs from Nepal were on stage. I was sitting in the front row. Hundreds were in attendance. In the middle of the program one MP got off stage to come sit one seat from me to get his picture taken with me. Then he got embarrassed and said he was trying to get the crowd into the background of the picture.
In February 2006 Madhav Nepal, then leader of the largest political party in the country, was put under house arrest by the royal regime. A month later he managed to come online wireless. His brother lived in the house next to his. The first person he contacted was me. We chatted on Google Talk. Here's the transcript: Madhav Nepal. Madhav Nepal is a Pahadi.
But he became Prime Minister of a country where the Maoists still have their own army, 20,000 strong, not counting the 100,000 strong militia, and the top Maoist leaders still have their personal security provided by their own army.
The civil war in Nepal is officially over. Nepal had elections on April 10 last year. Why would I feel unsafe in Nepal today? Me going to Nepal would not exactly be like Benazir Bhutto going back to Pakistan and getting killed. I have never been Prime Minister of Nepal, but I was thought of as a future Prime Minister when I was at high school back in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992. Result? The Pahadi teachers and administrators destroyed my final three and a half years of high school experience. Besides I am not going to have Benazir's bulletproof car, her bodyguards, and her money. I guess you could say there were declared threats on her life. I don't have any known declared threats on me. That is discounting the numerous, random email threats I received during April 2006 and January-February 2007. I took those in stride from the safety of NYC. Most of them would say, come to Nepal, and we will know to take care of you.
So why do I have safety concerns about going to Nepal? Do I know for sure that I will be in harm's way if I show up? No, I don't. But my instincts tell me I will not be safe, the same instincts that helped me smell the April 2006 Revolution before anyone inside or outside of Nepal did. (The French Revolution And DFNYC January 2006) (And this on Barack in February 2007: Jupiter And Obama) Why? There are a few different reasons.
Nobody in the Nepali diaspora put as much time, effort and talent into the democracy movement in Nepal as I did. The old regime is gone. A new set of people have come into power. A lot of peple who used to be very important are not important no more. They don't have their old prestige, but they still have money and resources to inflict damage. In a country like Nepal you can get killed and although there will be all sorts of rumors, no one will know for sure who did it. Not claiming responsibility is the best way to do it. I do fear the anger of those who have lost much with the onset of democracy in the country.
April 2006 saw the democracy movement, but January-February 2007 and February 2008 saw the Madhesi Movement. I am a Madhesi. This was like our own civil rights movement. Upendra Yadav has been the face of that movement in Nepal. Until March 2008 Upendra Yadav did not move around like a free man but rather an underground political worker. He would always have 12-15 people with him. Very few people knew where he spent his nights. He did nonviolent political work but he moved around the country like there was a price on his head. I got to meet Yadav in New York City for a few days in July 2007 when he flew over, his airfare paid for by a Madhesi entrepreneur in Russia who in summer 2008 became Russia's Manager Of The Year: Upendra Mahato.
Why would someone want to shoot and kill a Martin Luther King? Why would some random person want to do that? I am a MLK to the 13 million Madhesis on the planet. Of the six biggest parties in Nepal, three are Madhesi. The top leaders of those three parties are practically my fans. The top leaders of two of those parties used to be on the central committee of the party to which I was Vice General Secretary before I flew to America in 1996. Both have been cabinet members, one a few different times. One, Rajendra Mahto, is a cabinet minister today. Another, Hridayesh Tripathy, is about to become cabinet minister again in the new government.
What might work in the favor of my safety though is that although all the top politicians in Nepal know me, I am not exactly a household name. I have mattered fundamentally to the peace process, the democracy movement, the Madhesi movement, but my work has been primarily to suggest tactics, strategy, and moves. In that I have almost been like a political consultant to the peace process. Also, my ways have always been nonviolent. So I don't exactly have people waiting to get "even" with me. But all it would take is one bad apple, one sick mind, one twisted heart.
And there is always jealousy. People like me who fight for equality for Madhesis and Blacs - Black, Latino, Asian Coalition - sometimes lose sight of the fact that our own peoples can harbor our worst enemies. Bob Marley made it big in America and Europe. He went back to Jamaica and was shot at.
Talk of physical harm, it has already happened. My youngest sister lives in the city. She is married to Bisun, a Madhesi who went to the same high school in Kathmandu as me, was a few years junior, he went to Harvard, now works at the Columbia Medical Center where Bill Clinton got his heart surgery, headed to Harvard Medical School this Fall.
Bisun's father was brutally murdered about two years ago. His body was chopped into pieces like a butcher's meat. The police said at least five individuals must have been involved. To this day no one knows for sure who did it. There were all sorts of rumors. Two of the largest rival armed Madhesi groups blamed each other. 700 armed cadres of one left the group and joined the other as if in protest. Some people blamed the Maoists. Others blamed some low caste groups in the village. Some blamed some Muslim youths in the village who a few days later fled. The largest armed Madhesi group blamed the Prime Minister of the country - Nepal has never had a Madhesi Prime Minister - and retaliated by murdering a close relative of the Prime Minister. If you are going to kill a Paramendra Bhagat relative, we are going to kill one of yours. That was the thinking. In a case of internalized rage, Bisun ended up blaming his own brother and that brother's wife.
I want to make it absolutely clear that I have never had any contact with any armed Madhesi group ever and there have been over a dozen of them. But their thinking highly of me should tell you how much I have mattered to the Madhesi Movement.
But the worst happened a few weeks later. The story about the Muslim youths caught fire. My family lives in the eastern plains of Nepal. In the western plains a prominent Muslim from the then Prime Minister's party was murdered by two gunmen on a motorbike who managed to flee. Many suspect one of the two largest armed Madhesi groups might have been involved. That murder sparked riots that engulfed a few different districts. The riots were Pahadi-Madhesi, Hindu-Muslim. The riots lasted two weeks and were so bad the police and the army were not able to penetrate hundreds of square miles for those weeks. There was much damage to lives and property. It is very possible there is leftover anger. Do you think there are at least some people who don't believe I have had nothing to do with any of the armed Madhesi groups?
Dawood ran - runs - the Mumbai underworld from Dubai and Karachi. Mirja was Dawood's top guy in Nepal. I was never mafia, but I was very good friends with some people he was very good friends with, people like Hridayesh Tripathy (see above). We knew of each other, met a few times. He was a wildly popular politician. At one point he was a cabinet minister. I guess they don't do FBI background checks back there in Nepal. A few months after I came to America, they pushed 42 bullets into Mirza's body. They could not afford the news that he was "still alive." Dawood retaliated. His rival Chhota Rajan ran his business from Bangkok. There was an attempt on Chhota Rajan's life in Bangkok.
I came to America in 1996. I never left.
Safety is my number one personal reason to press for asylum, but I would also like to press the special talent narrative. A Nepali music entrepreneur I know and several Nepali movie stars and artists got their green cards in the special talent category. I am a very special talent. America needs me, and America needs me in New York City.
I am the un-Bin Laden. I mean no disrespect to Christianity and Christ and if I use this metaphor it is because it is such a vivid one. Bin Laden is the anti-Christ, I am Christ. If 9/11 has been the modern day Pearl Harbor, the first major revolution of the 21st century happened in Nepal. Between eight years of a Barack Obama presidency, a possible Mayor of NYC who will get behind my idea of a new definition for voting rights in this city to engulf everyone who lives inside the city boundaries, and my tech company that will work to get hundreds of millions of new people online, I think you are looking at a total spread of democracy by 2020. The day all Arab countries have been turned into democracies is the day the War On Terror ends. There are two aspects to that war. There is the part about killing mosquitoes. The US military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies working with their counterparts in other countries get to kill mosquitoes: that is not my area of expertise. Someone like me helps drain the swamp. Everybody you need to spread democracy everywhere on earth lives right here in New York City. America needs me, and America needs me to be in New York City.
China is also going to be a multi-party democracy. But likely it will become a multi-party democracy of state funded parties, and the Chinese Communist Party will continue in power for a few more decades. Taiwan and Tibet will be states in a federal China.
My company is the best thing I could do for my country and countries like mine. Not everyone has to come to America like I did. The Internet is what will bridge the gap between the First World and the Third World, between the west and the rest. I could not work on my company in Nepal. I have to be in New York City to grow my company. I am going to list my company on NASDAQ. I am going to turn this into a Silicon City. (Silicon City) I am going to be the reason the center of gravity of the tech industry shifts from California to New York. My very young company alone might be reason enough to give me legal status.
I would like to share a story. In ancient Greece there was this mathematician, I forget the name. One day he was out in his yard, drawing lines in the sand, deep in thought. That very day his country got conquered. He was famous enough that the conquering emperor sent a soldier to fetch him for a private audience. The mathematician told the soldier he was in the middle of solving a theorem and waved him off. The soldier got angry and hacked him to death. During the six months of detention and after it has felt to me like I am that mathematician. I have been doing cutting edge work in politics and business. Don't hack me.
Warren Buffett once said he could not be CEO of General Electric. My management and leadership styles by now place a heavy emphasis on Web 2.0 and a heavy consumption and production of mind food. The worlds of academia, media, politics and business are seamless. I might have more in common with a theoretical physicist than your stereotypical MBA.
I am not someone who wants to stay back in America for the good life. I am someone who decided staying back is how I could make the greatest positive impact on the country I grew up in, the country that I left, and other countries like that one. Although I don't mind the good life, for myself and for as many others as possible.
America is a concept, America is an idea, that concept, that idea is democracy, it is the market mechanism. When was the last time an immigrant into America played a larger role for democracy and social justice in his country of origin and intends to play a similar role for all countries that are not yet democracies? The medium is not the message, but my role would not have been possible before the advent of the Internet. I am a new breed revolutionary intending to wage wars with communications technology. I am a digital democrat. I am the un-Bin Laden. Neither of us seem to need states or standing armies. He is for violence. I am for nonviolent militancy, the kind where you shut a country down completely for three weeks to bring a dictator to his knees.
Burma did not have a Paramendra Bhagat or Burma too would have succeeded. Tibet did not have a Paramendra Bhagat or Tibet too would have succeeded.
I got into this immigration mess due to two charges of harassment and violation of court order. Both got dropped "for lack of prosecutorial evidence." I am not someone trying to run. I am not someone trying to hide. I expect to list my tech company on NASDAQ in seven years or less. Someone like that intends to play by the rules, function in the system. The work of mainstreaming the Maoists in Nepal is not over yet, and Charlie Rangel and Charlie's Angels, and the immigration authorities of this country are going to have to take some responsibility for the conclusion of this International Crisis Group report of February 2009 that claimed Nepal's peace process was in the toughest spot it had been in years: ICG: Nepal's Faltering Peace Process. You stole me from Nepal's peace process for six months and Nepal suffered. That country needs my help to write itself a new constitution. I am still very much needed on a near daily basis to monitor the situation and to suggest political moves. And while I am at it I am also going to be useful to the Obama presidency. Barack's campaign has taken advice from me a few times. My young tech company also needs me on a near daily basis. That was true all those six months, the first of which I shared lodging with about half a dozen accused murderers.
When you are doing cutting edge work, by definition you will not have much in the name of company. The money also seems to wait. At one point Einstein said, "Through my work I have put a clock in every corner of the universe, but I don't have enough money to put a clock on my own wall." I am going to be a billionaire, but right now I live on little. (Hunger, Vision, Money)
Please grant me my work authorization papers immediately, please grant me political asylum right away. Give me back my green card. After I win the Nobel I expect President Obama to grant me an honorary US citizenship. Do one better, grant me an honorary citizenship now.
Madhav Nepal is Prime Minister of Nepal. Upendra Yadav has been Foreign Minister. That makes me less not more safe to show up. That just adds to my visibility without any addition to my physical security, scant as it is on its own.
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