Councilmembers

As a public policy intern and something generally interested in politics, I've been exposed to a lot of City Hall recently. It's be amazing to see the City Councilmembers do their jobs. After going to some hearings at City Hall and seeing the members around the city, I really started to respect their jobs, positions in society, and work.

I've also come to realize that these politicians aren't big-shot well-to-do pompous politicians. What I like most about the New York City Council is that it's populated by real people. REAL PEOPLE. Did I emphasize that enough? Real people? Real people who joke around and are relaxed and chill. Real people who know a lot of their constituents - well. Real people who sit on the ground because they feel like it, like Robert Jackson (D-Washington Heights). He's just such a chill guy. And he even winked at me!

I feel like there are no pretenses for these people. They're just doing their job as voices for their communities. In a lot of the hearings I've been to, I've seen these people protest injustices and governmental bureaucracy and red tape. They are the voices of their people. And these are the politicians who matter: those who know their constituents and whose constituents know them. Barack Obama? He'll be fine, I guess. But I don't know who he is. He doesn't know who I am. How can he advocate for me? How can he be my voice if he doesn't even know me?

It's Councilmember James, Jackson, Mendez, Sears, Weprin, Quinn, Brewer, Vacca, del Arroyo, gosh, so many others. These are the people who matter. They're the ones who speak for me.

Mumbai Terrorist Attacks

I know no one reads this blog just yet, but I felt I had to start up this blog somewhere and what better item to vitalize it than the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

BBC story : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7753177.stm

I firmly believe that the New York South Asian community should put a strong response out there telling India that our hearts and prayers are with them and telling the international community and terrorist organizations that we will not stand for this sort of violence!

I sent out an email to Suketu Mehta, the resident expert on Mumbai, after writing Maximum City, a book detailing the inner workings of Mumbai.

The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) has been running webcasts every couple of hours since the attacks hosting a number of intelligent and important people to give their opinion on the ordeal.

Anyway, what do you think the New York South Asian community should do to respond?

Meandering

In my eighth grade Earth Science class, we learned that rivers meander.

Living on Manhattan Island, I'm surrounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem Rivers - all of which I go to find solace and peace. It's especially calming to go the Hudson River Park and watch the Hudson flow peacefully upward, void of worry and stress. I can't describe how beautiful the East River is when the sun rises over it. The river seems to welcome the sun by trying to reflect the grandeur back to the skies. Again, the calm is so overpowering that the surroundings are engulfed into it. It's sort of ironic how calm these rivers are when the island itself feels like a raging typhoon everyday. Perhaps not ironic but necessary; perhaps they anchor the island and its people to some sense of life otherwise lost by the tall towers and busy streets.

But the rivers of New York do not meander. Nor do the people.

While I have seen pictures of the Amazon River meandering, it was just in a class presentation and felt relatively meaningless in eighth grade. Browsing through Google Maps, I came across a river running through Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, Canada. It's called Peace River - a fitting name because it seems it has been left largely untouched for many many years. And there I saw through the satellite images that Peace River meandered.

I love how the term "meander" is so scientific in reference to rivers, yet it's so symbolic of everything else. Of how the rivers are free to run wild, how they take all and every type of turns, how they go across all sorts of landscapes, how their path changes so much, but eventually, they end up where they need to be.

And perhaps, that's why the rivers of New York don't meander. And perhaps, that's why the people of New York don't meander.

While this is a gross generalization, it's not far-fetched. People do wake up, get dressed, go to work, go to dinner, go to clubs, go home, and repeat. And it's so mechanical. And it's so lifeless. It's so similar to the path of the Hudson; a straight path (almost) from start to finish. No meandering.

The Peace River. You see how in the center, there seems to be a horseshoe of water bent out of shape? That used to be part of the river. And that was meandering. Sure, the river let that part go and reconnected to itself in a straight path, however, that disconnected part was once a part of the river and its history...much like the meanderings in people's lives.

Boring Subway Rides

People watching has always been a great alternative to pass my time during long subway rides from one of the city to another. It was always fascinating to think that another person who is sitting across from you has a completely different life, comes from a completely different background, and knows completely different things. It's the possibility that this type of person, whoever they maybe, could have crossed through my life for the briefest moment. Even the conversations I hear on subway are simply amazing. I enter a world that would have been otherwise alien to me. While I've always observed people and wondered what their worlds must be like, I never actually wrote anything down.

Take this man for example. I was on the 5 train on August 18th on the first or second car. I got on at E 180th St in the Bronx along with him. I surreptitiously took a picture of him and proceeded to create a story.

A Polish man, perhaps, of maybe fifty to sixty years coming from a working class background. His face contains lines of hardened skins from years of labor and familial turmoil. He's traveling to the city in the middle of the day to visit a potential employer about a job. The big, bulky laptop bag houses an old IBM from the mid 90s and important documents.

This man doesn't take any bullshit. He's a very reasonable man, but life hasn't always returned this quality. He looks to the front of the train and hope life takes him farther than this train does.

Open Letter Against Section 377

" Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code is cited below:

'377. Unnatural Offences.Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.'

The law penalizes certain sexual acts equally. For example oral sex, regardless of whether it is heterosexual or homosexual; even penile-masturbation of one person by another – is considered criminal. Although facially neutral, the law has effectively stigmatized and criminalized a section more than others, namely same-sex desiring people, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), hijra, kothi and other Queer people. The law has been used by the police to intimidate same sex desiring people and has been a source of serious human rights violations."

-- Voices Against 377

Please click on the following link and sign the petition!

http://p2.voicesagainst377.org/

Directions: click on "many more" (in red) and scroll down to "Click here to sign the open letter". Please enter your email address to ensure the electronic signature works!