I got this in an email from Jaswinder Singh, and it was to good to pass up not posting here, so here yall go:

I present to you two religions, Islam-monotheistic religion with salvation as ultimate consequence; Sikhi – also monotheistic with submission of self as fore longing goal. Both religions condemn consumption of alcohol and stress the necessity of congregation. The question I raise before you is then, why is it a known fact that Muslims are known to have the prohibition of alcohol and my non-sikh friends are just flabbergasted when I tell them I don’t drink for religious reasons. “I thought you’re Punjabi though”? The usual remarks. We can’t really blame it on any external forces or even internal attitudes for that mater; the problem is much deeper than we think. Even in congregation, a Sikh is said to attend the Guru’s durbar at least once a day. The Muslim is given the incentive of higher rewards to attend congregational prayer. Why is the Mosque down my street so busy during noon hours on a weekday and Scarborough Gurduara has a total of 16 people during Sunday afternoon’s ardaas?

We’re suffering from a deep-seeded fear. A fear of disintegration. We have a subconscious notion, that we’re not for real, that we’re a people not fit for the modern times. We have no nation of our own that stands up for our rights and supports our spiritual authority. We have no representation on the United Nations council, no International Racism-combating, thing-a-majiggy or a Sikhi-wood. We watch Hindi movies for entertainment and tell my younger sister that she should watch it too, to understand our culture…..wait a minute…..trolley back….OUR CULTURE?…I don’t see these guys with a dastaar or a beard….right….neither does our next generation.

We can overcome this fear; come together my fellow Lovers of Guru Nanak. Whether it’s AKJ, Taksaal, Alkali, blah blah blah…..you’re a Sikh. Let’s have more events to come together. I learnt this in Biology: When an Ostrich is being chased, it runs for a bit, and then sticks its head into the ground and thinks the danger is gone…few moments later….it whispers “I’m in a better place” in Sylvia Browne’s ear who’s handling a grieving farmer. We’re the Ostrich. The way we ignore danger is to bring our fellow Sikhs down and discourage them from doing events. We criticize them and make fun of them and say they’ll never succeed. Why? At least they know we’re in danger and are still running, you put your head in the ground and resorted to slandering.

YUDH, COSS keertan Durbars, COSS Dinner Night, Ski trips…let’s get together. I urge one and all to help my friends make Friday a night a success, come to the COSS dinner. This is not a marketing pitch; I speak from the bottom of my heart. Come to every Sikh event….will it be effective in conquering our fear? I don’t know, we’ll see then. In The Lord of the Rings, in the final siege of Gondor to save humanity, Theoden King yells, “ride Theodens, ride to ruin, ride to the sword, a red day, ere the sun shines, ride to death, to DEATH”. Let’s give our community all we have, and maybe our sons and daughters will thank us. We will prosper, we will not disappear. GURBAR AKAAL!!!

Jaswinder Singh.

P.S. For more info on the dinner check out the COSS Website. (Last I heard there was a waiting list though, unless you grab the VIP tickets, so grab em, and say Shinda sent you.)

P.P.S or is P.S.S?
(And no I dont get a cut!)

Ever wonder what your favourite Sikhi site ranks as? Or how sites compare? So who better to ask then Google.

Google’s got this thing called Page Ranks, that basically sees how popular your site is based on who links to it. The more links you got pointing to your site the better. Also the more popular the sites that link to your site, the more that links worth. Put all that information through a magic equation and you get a page rank out of 10, on how popular your site is. So I took a bunch of sites, that I know from the top of my head and compiled this list:

1. Sikhnet.com - 7
2. Sikhs.org - 7
3. SGPC.net - 6
4. SikhSangat.com - 5
5. Waheguroo.com - 5
6. AllAboutSikhs.com - 5
7. Panthic.org - 5
8. SikhiToTheMax.com - 5
9. GursikhiJeevan.com - 4
10. AKJ.org - 4
11. GurmatVeechar.com - 4
12. DDT.com - 4
13. Tapoban.org - 4
14. EktaOne.com - 4
15. SikhStudents.ca - 2
16. ShindaSingh.com - 0

And just for reference sites like Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, etc, are 9’s.

Check out this site to see where your sites rank

Mr. Bryant does it again, how? I still don’t know, but he managed to get 81 pts. Simply amazing.

How he scored:

I’ll give it to Tejdeep for predicting that Kobe was going to have a big night, whereas I thought he’d brush this game aside, after all he was only playing the Raptors.

So what gave Kobe this power? What made him so good, well heres one theory:

I guess now all thats left to do is wait for him to drop 100, after all he is only 27.

Found this track on SikhSangat.com, its by Jaj Sharma, don’t know who that is, but thought it was safe still.

Download here

(Tejdeep Singh, Harsehaj Singh, Gurraj Singh, Hardeep Singh, Harpreet Singh, Sukhdeep Singh, Shinda AKA Das)

Last Friday at sports, we saw one of the greatest soccer teams ever assembled retire on top. Satgur day Neelay officially disbanded finishing the season 5-2 against K.S.F.

There were times this season when it looked like K.S.F was going to make a run, but due to lack of team chemistry, unreliable players and overall lack of skill compared to S.D.N they quickly found themselves at the short end of the stick.

All this amalgamated led to the actions of Friday when the teams were disbanded and a new dynasty was formed, seeing the new competition being between Ottawa Vs. Toronto.

Although Ottawa won the first game in the series, this had much to do with the early injury of Tejdeep Singh, and the absence of Ranjit Sion from the Toronto line up. However after barley squeaking by winning 3 games to 2, and only a goal away from loosing the last, Ottawa got lucky this time, but WHAT will they do next time with a healthy Toronto squad? I guess only time will tell.

The Federal election is less then 72 hours away, and the polls got the Conservatives well ahead of the competition, hinting at what could be a Conservative majority.

Now, everyone has their reasons to vote the way they do, but one thing I was thinking about was, how the selection of the next government affects Sikhs, primarily our right to wear the Kirpan.

Right now the whole Kirpan issue is in the Supreme Court, and the people down their, are trying to figure out what do with the whole mess. Basically if the Supreme Court comes out with a negative verdict then we’re pretty much faded, as it sets the pretense for all other cases involving the Kirpaan throughout Canada. i.e. we can potentially see school boards, work places, and other institutions, putting restrictions on the Kirpaan or banning it all together.

Now if this happens, the only other way to over rule the courts decision would be to introduce legislation that counters the courts decision, and this is where the Government in power comes to matter.

Just by nature, and due to who the Conservatives largely represent (for the most part, right wing hicks), I can’t seem to picture any sort of Kirpaan legislation passing under their watch. Whereas with the Liberals, not only do we have Amritdhari MP’s, we have many other MP’s who rely heavily on the Sikh vote, and support, and so by virtue of politics, would end up supporting and helping pass such legislation. I can also see the NDP supporting such legislation just out of their party’s rhetoric and their right wing stance on freedoms.

Of course none of this will matter, if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the whole Kirpan situation, but I still think it is something to think about when it comes time to cast our ballots.

During the black revolution movement of the 1960’s, Malcolm X divided the black masses into two distinct categories, and defined them using his famous analogies of the house negro, and field negro. He defined them as such:

“There were two kinds of slaves, the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes - they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good because they ate his food - what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved the master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master’s house - quicker than the master would. If the master said, “We got a good house here,” the house Negro would say, “Yeah, we got a good house here.” Whenever the master said “we,” he said “we.” That’s how you can tell a house Negro.

If the master’s house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, “What’s the matter, boss, we sick?” We sick! He identified himself with his master, more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, “Let’s run away, let’s escape, let’s separate,” the house Negro would look at you and say, “Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?” That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a “house nigger.” And that’s what we call them today, because we’ve still got some house niggers running around here.

This modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He’ll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about “I’m the only Negro out here.” “I’m the only one on my job.” “I’m the only one in this school.” You’re nothing but a house Negro. And if someone comes to you right now and says, “Let’s separate,” you say the same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. “What you mean, separate? From America, this good white man? Where you going to get a better job than you get here?” I mean, this is what you say. “I ain’t left nothing in Africa,” that’s what you say. Why, you left your mind in Africa.

On that same plantation, there was the field Negro. The field Negroes - those were the masses. There were always more Negroes in the field than there were Negroes in the house. The Negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house they ate high up on the hog. The Negro in the field didn’t get anything but what was left of the insides of the hog.

The field Negro was beaten from morning to night; he lived in a shack, in a hut; he wore old, castoff clothes. He hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was intelligent. That house Negro loved his master, but that field Negro - remember, they were in the majority, and they hated the master. When the house caught on fire, he didn’t try to put it out; that field Negro prayed for a wind, for a breeze. When the master got sick, the field Negro prayed that he’d die. If someone came to the field Negro and said, “Let’s separate, let’s run,” he didn’t say, “Where we going?” He’d say, “Any place is better than here.”

Similarly in Sikhi we have our share of house negro’s (Uncle Tom’s) . Let’s face it, the majority of Sikhs left in Punjab and in India are Uncle Tom’s. The biggest of the Uncle Toms, (there are hundreds of them), but the biggest one in my opinion has to be the renowned author Khushwant Singh.

I remember watching news clips, and interview’s by Khushwant Singh after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and he almost condoned the attacks, saying that the Sikhs had brought it upon themselves. Even though he was against the riots he seemed to think that the assassination of Indira Gandhi was not justified.

Now he’s not the only one, their are many Sikhs who feel both sides where wrong in 84, and feel obligated to share the responsibility, just like the house negro would justify any out lash from the master as being justified.

So what are the characteristics of an Uncle Tom Sikh? Here are the few that I picked up:

• Feel that the 84 attacks were justified and brought upon by the Sikhs.
• That ‘84 is done with, time to move on with life.
• Singhs of that era were fanatics, and where responsible for deaths of thousands of innocent.
• Religion and Politics should never mix.
• A really relaxed view on rehit. (Kakaars are optional type of relaxed)
• Satkaar for Sri Guru Granth Sahib, pothis etc, is pretty low.
• Are willing to sacrifice there pugh for a korsee.
• Their general perception of Sikhi is something almost out of a care bear fantasy world, where violence is never necessary.
• The view of Sikhi and promotion of Sikhi is far more left wing, just for the sake of appeasing one and all.
• Taking Amrit is often left optional and not seen as a vital part of Sikhi.

Now I could go on, as many of you could, but suffice to say you get the point. Uncle Tom’s have adopted the new trend of labeling themselves as moderates, although no such thing exists. Other notorious Uncle Tom’s include but are not limited to Kalaa Afganaa, Manmohan Singh, Tara Singh Hayer, etc.

Now the biggest problem with Uncle Tom’s in Sikhi is that they for one promote the wrong image to the world. They have good intentions, but the means by which they go about it I totally disagree with. They are virtuous individuals, with the wrong virtues. They waste no time in trying to distance themselves against field negro Sikhs, by labeling them as fanatics and are quick to stand against them, even if it means standing with the enemy. However beyond, that the biggest problem with Uncle Tom Sikhs, is that they justify, and promote the slave mentality within the Sikh masses, (something I’ll come to talk about later on in the coming weeks), however its suffice to say that due to the promotion of this mentality they end up becoming our own worst enemies.

Now, knowing that Uncle Tom’s are, our own worst enemies, we need to learn to deal with them. How we do that I have no clue. Up to now it seems as though we’ve left them alone and just worked at ignoring them, and only when they get rowdy do we slap them on the wrist and send them running, but this does not keep them from being a nuisance, but then again it seems like the only thing worth doing.