Gurpreet Singh writes from Vancouver

RAJ Soomel who was gunned down in Vancouver recently was a budding cartoonist while in grade 4. His family had displayed the portraits of the renowned literary and political figures of the Indian community along with the cartoons he drew for Canada Darpan, a Punjabi publication which has shut its business long ago as a tribute to the deceased at the Delta’s Five River Funeral Home past Saturday.

The media was not allowed at his funeral. A close examination of the cartoons revealed his understanding of issues like racism, war and workers’ exploitation. An old clipping from the Canada Darpan described the then fourth grader Raj as the youngest cartoonist of the publication. In fact, the former editor of Canada Darpan and a close friend of Raj’s father, Dr. Darshan Gill addressed the gathering. He recalled young Raj as a talented and sensitive boy who excelled in Bhangra, a Punjabi folk dance and soccer besides, painting. ``We used to call him Picasso’’, Gill said with a lump in his throat.

Born to a prominent progressive Punjabi poet, Mohinder Singh Soomel and his wife, Iqbal, 35-year-old Raj had inherited the artistic instincts from his talented parents. Soomel’s love for literature and poetry and his wife’s melodious voice had given this couple recognition in the community. Their skills must have left a deep impression on Raj’s personality. Soomel has penned several books of poems, including one on Bhagat Singh, a revered revolutionary of India.

Raj was shot to death near the half way house where he was staying after being released on parole. He was convicted for conspiring to kill Hardip Uppal, who had told a court that his brother Robbie Soomel was involved in the alleged contract killing of Tara Singh Hayer, the founder editor of the Indo Canadian Times in 1998.

He was arrested following an undercover police operation and convicted in 2008. Robbie is currently serving a sentence for the murder of Gurpreet Singh Sohi. While Sohi’s father, Harinder Singh Sohi is an orthodox Sikh religious leader, Soomel being a communist gave his children a more liberal education.

The ongoing gang violence has shattered two ideologically opposed well respected families of the Indo Canadian community. These are not the only prominent families who have suffered these tragedies as there are a few more renowned people in the community whose progenies had association with the crime.

Although both the Sohi family and Soomels had spent a lot time on the upbringing of their kids, yet they could not prevent them from getting into trouble with the law. How this happened only their parents or the police can tell, but the loss of human lives is unbearable for the families who have lost their sons. Raj has left behind a widow, Neena and a three-year-old daughter Ramayya, who is too little to understand what has happened to her dad.

The stigma of being the parents of the men who died in the gang war is equally intolerable. Although Soomel was politically active yet the politicians stayed away from the funeral of his son. The only exception was Herb Dhaliwal, the former federal minister who was present at Raj’s cremation. Most members of the Indo Canadian Workers’ Association, the political organization Soomel belonged to once were also absent. The root causes of the gang violence and gun culture should be identified and addressed so that the youngsters don’t get involved in crime. Instead of focusing on tough laws alone, the government should find an alternative to the black economy and remove social inequalities that breed unlawful activities. The parents of the slain men should also come out of the state of denial and form a group against violence so that others don't suffer like them.

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Rise in Canadian Dollar hampers economic recovery

Khushwant Toor writes from Toronto

THE Canadian dollar is up again and trying to catch up with the U.S. dollar soon. This week It traded as high as 97.28 cents (U.S.), $1 U.S. costs just $1.28 Canadian. Since the beginning of this month, the Canadian dollar has gained more than three cents; all thanks to a stronger-than-expected jobs report in Canada, higher prices for oil and other commodities and a weaker U.S. currency. On the other hand in the U.S., retail sales fell less than anticipated in September.

This fall in retail sales target suggests that the consumer lags spending confidence in the U.S. The lag in consumer spending confidence is directly related to still negative job market in the U.S. Economists expect the Canadian dollar will continue to climb and reach parity with the U.S. dollar as early as by the third week of October.

The rise in Canadian Dollar poses great threat to economic recover about which the Bank of Canada again has raised great concern. So much so that the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a public statement and told reporters in Vancouver last week that a rising dollar "poses a risk" to Canada's economic recovery.

Rise in Canadian dollar in particular is bad for Canada’s manufacturers and exporters. Canadian exporters, who ship more than three-quarters of their goods south of the border, are worried that higher prices for their U.S. customers will mean lost sales just as they are trying to emerge from the recession. Further, a strong Canadian dollar makes exports more expensive in foreign markets, hurting Canadian firms' ability to compete.

Rise in Canadian dollar may be threatening the Canadian manufacturer and the exporters but Canadian cross-border travellers to the U.S. are welcoming the news. Canadians took 18.9 million overnight trips to the U.S. in 2008, spending $12 billion in the U.S. The vice versa is not true for the U.S. travellers as the stronger Canadian dollar does not attract them.

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Forgotten event that changed the course of history

Gurpreet Singh writes from Vancouver

THE Indo Canadian community leaders forgot another eventful day that changed the course of history. October 3, 2009 was the centenary of the day when the former Sikh soldiers in the British Army had burnt their medals and uniforms in Vancouver as an act of rebellion against the British Empire.

These men had immigrated to Canada in a hope for prosperous future. Since Canada was the dominion state of the British Empire that ruled India before 1947 these men came to Canada as British subjects for economical reasons. However, they were disillusioned by the British propaganda that the Empire treated its subjects equally after experiencing racial discrimination. They soon realized that the root cause of their sufferings was the slavery back home and vowed to break loyalties with the British rule and burnt all the symbols that reminded them of their services to the imperialist lords.

Bhai Bhag Singh, the towering leader of the Khalsa Deewan Society, Vancouver - the oldest Sikh religious body of Canada had inspired these men to take such a radical step. A former soldier himself he had called upon his compatriots to light the pyre of these emblems on October 3, 1909.

Since the mainstream Sikh leadership of India was largely pro British at that time and Punjab was a garrison state that supplied manpower to the British army, this act was very explosive in nature. In fact, some pro British former Sikh soldiers continued to visit the Sikh temple in uniforms to tease Bhai Bhag Singh and his supporters.

This had laid the foundation of activism in the Canadian Sikh community which was not only disfranchised by the BC government but also denied the right to bring their families from India.

Despite being a historically important incident, the Khalsa Deewan Society in particular and the community leadership in general failed to organize a fitting event to mark the day.

Last month too, the members of the Khalsa Deewan Society had failed to show up at the candle light vigil that was organized on the martyrdom day of Bhai Bhag Singh. A British agent, Bela Singh shot him and Bhai Badan Singh on September 5, 1914 inside the old Vancouver Sikh temple. The two men succumbed to their injuries a day later.

While the representatives of a number of progressive groups showed up at the vigil that was organized by the Indo Canadian Workers' Association, nobody from the Khalsa Deewan Society attended the event to pay obituaries to the leader who was not only in the forefront of the freedom struggle against the British rule in India but in the campaigns for the civil rights to the immigrants in Canada.

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American health care suffers from racism, consumerism and arrogance

Dr Sawraj Singh

THERE is a serious debate going on to reform the health care system. What are the major problems facing our health care delivery system? I feel our health care suffers from three major problems: Racism, Consumerism and Arrogance.

Many surveys have shown that there is a big difference in the quality of care received by the different races. We can measure the difference by the indicators such as infant and maternal mortality as well as the life expectancy for the different races. The statistics for the minorities are much worse than the white population. When we combine all the races that brings our indexes down and make them look very poor compared to the other countries. Not only there is a difference in access to health care for the minorities but once they get into the health care system they do not receive the same quality of care as the white patients do. Health care providers belonging to minorities face prejudice and discrimination.

Consumerism is a big problem. Those treatments and medicines are not promoted which do not generate much profit for some body, whether it is the drug companies, hospitals, insurance companies or the doctors. Generally the preventive care and life style modifications are not promoted. For example, our major killers are heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes. Life style modification can significantly lower mortality and morbidity from all of these. Diet, exercise and stress management can not only significantly reduce the incidence but also can improve the survival.

Consumerism is a big problem. Those treatments and medicines are not promoted which do not generate much profit for some body, whether it is the drug companies, hospitals, insurance companies or the doctors. Generally the preventive care and life style modifications are not promoted. For example, our major killers are heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes. Life style modification can significantly lower mortality and morbidity from all of these. Diet, exercise and stress management can not only significantly reduce the incidence but also can improve the survival. A typical example of consumerism is that HDL a lipo protein in our blood can protect us from heart disease. However we keep emphasizing reducing cholesterol rather than raising our HDL. Exercise increases our HDL but to lower cholesterol we need drugs. Cholesterol lowering drugs are now used by many Americans but a very small percentage of the population is using exercise to increase their HDL.

Many Americans are suffering from depression. There are studies to prove that exercise can work better than the anti depressants in depression. However a very large number of Americans are taking anti depressants but a very few even know this that exercise can help them with their depression.

Obesity is another problem affecting many Americans. This can be contributing factor to all the major health problems and as well as the diseases which are the major causes of death. Diet and exercise can help to solve this very prevalent condition. However modifying life style with particular emphasis on diet and exercise has never been our number one priority.

Arrogance prevents us from facing the realities. We continue to insist that our health care is the best in spite of all the hard evidence. We continue to say that our health care is the best because people from other countries come to America for treatment of their diseases. However that does not tell us the whole story. One truth has multiplied truths in it. Our emphasis is on treating diseases but not preventing the diseases. This is true that some of the diseases can be treated better here but that does not change the fact that compared to the other developed countries, we have the poorest overall health. This fact has been brought out by the different comparative studies. These studies are not done by our adversaries but some were sponsored by our own Government and our institutions.

We have more law suits than probably the rest of the World combined. This also significantly affects our health care system because our resources are being misutilized. Many doctors are forced to practice defensive medicine. Some good doctors are forced to quit their practice. The minority physicians practicing in a white majority area can become easy target because insurance companies may be reluctant to go to trial fearing that a white jury may not become sympathetic to a white patient. However, in the end all doctors and the health care system suffer because many law suits are started which have no merit. However, insurance companies may settle them if it does not cost them a lot. This attitude keeps compounding the problem. We need a study which compares number of law suits filed against the American doctors to the number of lawsuits against the doctors in the other developed countries, if there is a very big difference then it can only mean one of the two things either America has the worst doctors or lawsuits are being filed which have no merit. A health care reform without addressing the medico legal aspect has little chance of succeeding.

[The author is M.D. F.I.C.S. Chairman Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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Getting sick, dying quickly

"It's my duty and pride tonight to be able to announce exactly what the Republicans plan to do for health care in America," announced Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) on the House floor September 30. Taking out a chart, he continued, "Here it is. The Republican health care plan for America: 'don't get sick.' If you have insurance don't get sick, if you don't have insurance, don't get sick; if you're sick, don't get sick. If you do get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: 'die quickly.'" The speech generated instant controversy as offended Republicans accused him of degrading "the integrity and proceedings of the House" (even though GOP lawmakers have been making false claims about Democratic plans for months). While Grayson later admitted that his hyperbole was "tongue-in-cheek," he stood by his statement and refused to apologize...to the GOP. "I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner," Grayson said, referring to the thousands of Americans who have died because they lacked health insurance. Grayson's comments highlighted a sad truth: Too many Americans get sick and face crippling medical debt as a result of either having no health insurance or having to pay high premiums charged by private insurers. Unfortunately, the Republican solution is to keep the status quo or make the situation even worse.

THE STATUS QUO: Many Americans do indeed die simply because they can't afford medical care. According to a recent Harvard Medical School study, nearly 45,000 Americans die each year -- one person every 12 minutes -- because they are not covered by health insurance. "We doctors have many new ways to prevent deaths from hypertension, diabetes and heart disease -- but only if patients can get into our offices and afford their medications," said the study's lead author Dr. Andrew Wilper. Although having private insurance should make this better, high deductibles and other expenses can still result in unaffordable bills. In fact, 78 percent of people who filed for bankruptcy because of medical costs had health insurance, underscoring the importance of not just extending coverage to the uninsured, but also shoring up inadequate coverage. In addition, many people who went into medical bankruptcy had private coverage, "but lost it when they became too sick to work," concluded a Harvard University study. "Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter do so within a year." The "proportion of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems has increased by 50%" since 2001, and will continue to rise without significant reforms to the health care system.

EXACERBATING THE STATUS QUO: "Just say no! Just say no! Just say no! Now Republicans -- that's going to be our chant from now until Election Day," declared Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) as recently as August, making clear that he and many of his colleagues want to keep the status quo on health care. "There are no Americans who don't have health care," Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) has said, agreeing with Shimkus. "Everybody in this country has access to health care." There is no unified GOP alternative health care plan (even though on June 17, Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt told reporters that he "guarantee[s] you we will provide you with a bill"). House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) recently faced heat from constituents who demanded to know, "What is your substantive proposal to meet these real everyday problems that people have? Where's the beef?" Republicans claim they have introduced 37 health care bills. But as the Center for American Progress has noted, "[E]ight of the ideas have already been incorporated into Democratic legislation; five lie outside the jurisdiction of the relevant committees; so Republicans could have enacted them when they were in power." A close look at the GOP's so-called "principles" shows that they would break-up employer-based coverage, endanger the coverage of Americans with pre-existing conditions, and drive-up health care spending. In the Senate, Republicans have been spending time introducing frivolous amendments to the Finance Committee's legislation, such as Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) amendment to raise the excise tax threshold "for any state with a name that begins with the letter 'U,'" or John Ensign's (R-NV) idea to strike the word "fee" everywhere it appears in the bill and replace with the word "tax."

INSURANCE INDUSTRY CONTROL: The sole group rooting for maintaining the health care status quo is the insurance industry -- and it has managed to get key lawmakers on its side. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) made clear he was one of those individuals when he called for a provision that would allow health insurance lobbyists "ion Fund analysis found that of the 534 amendments that have been offered to the Senate Finance Committee's bill, at least 47 of them directly reflect the health insurance industry's wish list. Indeed, in the last two and a half years, the health insurance industry has spent more than $585 million lobbying Congress to protect its investments in Medicare Advantage, defeat competition from a public option (or even a cooperative), and preserve policies that allow it to attract a disproportionate number of healthy applicants. Predictably, health insurance stocks shot up when the committee voted down two amendments that would have created a public health insurance option, which is favored by the majority of Americans. "We are of both the Rockefeller and Schumer amendments," said Tom Currey, president of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has promised that we "are going to have a public option before this bill goes to the president's desk." [Courtesy thinkprogress.org]

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Wreckage from the Wall Street

AMIDST the economic wreckage, after 7 million job losses and approaching 2 million home foreclosures in America alone, with businesses and consumers around the world still struggling to get finance after the long credit crunch, Wall Street, the Mecca of the fanatical capital nay fiscal irregularities and crimes is finally on trial. But only a little piece of Wall Street.

In the first major case against bankers at the heart of the financial meltdown, a jury of 12 mainly working-class New Yorkers will decide the fate of the two Bear Stearns managers, whose hedge funds imploded in 2007, signaling the start of the crisis. Ralph Cioffi, 53, and Matt Tannin, 48, pocketed millions of dollars in pay during the boom years, but the events of 2007 left their investors nursing losses of $1.6bn (£1bn) and ruined forever the reputation of Bear Stearns, one of the oldest investment banks on Wall Street.

Can the world expect the trial to expose the unimaginable crimes?

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