Transcript from today’s PfT (agreed with  the producer):

Just one day’s wages can be all it takes!
We get up, we go to work, we go home, we crash out and we go to bed again.  Somewhere in there we also eat!  It’s a daily grind which tends to distract us from so much as we concentrate on getting by, particularly in these dark days of winter.  Helping a neighbour de-ice their car’s windscreen can seem a big deal, let alone helping to tackle world issues such as poverty, violence and exploitation that too often face us in the news.

Think of it:

• 25,000 children under the age of 5 die each day due to poverty-related causes.
• Nearly 900 million people in the world do not have access to clean water.
• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
• Many in our world spend hours walking many, many miles a day – often barefoot – to collect water, food or to get to their nearest school.

I remember once meeting a Peace Corp volunteer in the United States who told me about her visit to a remote village in Kenya and how the people there looked at her shoes in wonder.

The scale of these and many more issues can simply seem insurmountable to us.

Yet charity, as they say, begins at home.  Recently, I came across an international movement which encourages people to donate a day’s wage to help end global poverty.  That’s about nought point four percent of an annual salary.  It’s a simple idea.  Yet it could make such a difference to the lives of so many in this world.

There’s a Sikh saying: “The earth is a garden, The Lord its gardener, Cherishing all, none neglected.”

So next time you’re in the car heading to or from work with the weight of the world on your shoulders, listening to the news on the radio and feeling powerless to help, why not set that single day’s pay aside?  Strangely enough, it may be just the thing you need to lighten the load and give a fresh perspective on the daily grind.

My Original article is here:

Our daily grind tends to take us away from helping to free others. Freedom from poverty, slavery and exploitation tends to unfortunately drop in priority as we are so tied-up with surviving and investing in personal or associated family futures.

One of the wonders of humankind is the potential to be innovative. Recently, I came across One Day’s Wages. ODW is an international movement dedicated to ending extreme global poverty. The figures quoted on their website are shocking and staggering:

• 25,000 children under the age of 5 die each day due to poverty-related causes.
• Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
• Nearly 900 million people do not have access to clean water.
• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

These are all challenges for us. When we sleep at night we hope for a good nights rest. However, we forget about those that have to walk miles to go to school, many in bare feet. I remember meeting a Peace Corp volunteer in the US who hold me about her visit to a remote village in Kenya. She spoke about how people looked at her shoes in wonder.

ODW suggest that a one day salary contribution is equivalent to about 0.4% of your annual salary.
They are also setting-up partnerships with other organisations, for example: Not for Sale.
The latter focus on deploying innovative solutions to re-abolish slavery in their own backyards and across the globe.

The Interview with David Batstone of Not For Sale below is inspiring and exposes the evil of slavery that is happening in the 21st Century!!!?
It is great that people are now starting these organisations. A start to harmonisation and fairness in terms of the distribution of wealth, respect for human rights and stopping abuse of people.

Together we can overcome.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What gets to me every time I hear the news of innocent deaths is how quickly conditions get out of control. Whether it is the risk of communal violence or agitation by political elements, there appears to be no proactive measures to prevent escalation. I am certainly not suggesting that there are societies or countries that are better than others but the sheer lack of respect for life is evident when you see the video below.  People are been lashed at and herded. It is true that control tactics are prehistoric but is there no sense of foresight or understanding that clearly volatility can happen when extremist cults are allowed to exercise insults in the name of free-speech! Apparently, in this case the cult in question wanted to perform a parade, causing immediate offence.

Politicians need to wake up and understand that allowing a police force to shoot into a crowd is not the way to control a situation.
In the second video you see one police officer justifying free speech. However, free speech does not equal abuse and as I said before blasphemy!

There is one view that suggests that there is a conspiracy against the Sikhs. That there are extremist elements within other religions that are attempting to undermine the Sikhs in terms of their values, heritage, sacrifices, ethics, defending the defenceless and self-less service. If this is the case then Sikhs should not rise to the bait. Instead, they should ensure that the media exposes who the real agitators are. Let us see the evidence that is available on public channels. In an era where we can quickly record and submit video, images and text based content, Sikhs need to rally together to expose the real culprits, cults and mischievous elements.

Sikhs need to create media that exposes truth – For it is truth and the good who will win, not those who insult in the name of free speech and in shadow of hate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I personally attended the Interfaith Week launch for England on 12th November, the Scottish one is run separately.

It was inspiring to see so many children or should I say ‘young people’ talking about the importance of working, learning and respecting each other. I’ve often said that coming together for a common cause can produce unity as a positive side-effect.

Ironically, on the same day as the launch, on route I took a short cut to the conference venue, the Queen Elizabeth II centre. I walked through the gardens of  Westminster Abbey. A large part of the lawns were decked in crosses and poppy’s for those who had fallen in past and present wars. We only have to hope that the work being done between faiths can help build a foundation to a better world.

Recently, I appeared on Good Morning Sunday (22nd November 2009), a wonderful inspirational show hosted by Aled Jones at BBC Radio 2.
I was asked to deliver a moment of reflection. I choose to talk about whether children were inspired by Interfaith activities.
Could Interfaith work reveal another approach? Here is an audio excerpt from the show if you missed it.

In addition, an earlier version of the transcript for the reflection segment at the end:

My moment of reflection this week is about considering whether Interfaith work can bring about greater understanding, especially for today’s youth.

Earlier this year I was appointed as chair for the Interfaith Youth Trust. The Inter Faith Youth Trust was formerly known as the Alma Royalton-Kisch Trust and is the only UK charitable trust solely set-up to fund inter faith projects for young people. Every quarter the trustees from many different religions and also humanists sit down together to review applications from youth groups. Events range from interfaith football tournaments to concerts and gathering together to explore differences in cuisine.

Interestingly, last year the trust organised a meeting at the House of Lords with different faith organisations to explore what works well for the youth. One of the conclusions was that interfaith work should be driven by the youth with a guiding hand from an organisation.

One example that stood out was organised by an Interfaith group in Scotland with an emphasis on eco-awareness. Kids camped out and explored environmental issues from their religion’s perspective. On return from the camp they produced a leaflet that described and drew common threads between religions about respecting our world.

The result was that they actually learnt more about their own religion and facilitated greater mutual understanding and personal friendship.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The range is wide and innovative.

They are now able to ship units all over the world!

This is a fictional adaptation of what might have happened when Facebook was first inspired, created and then exploded!

Ben Mezrich publication is drawn both from research and imagination.

If you read the associated inside notes, it is interesting that he DID NOT met or get a response from Mark Zuckerberg. The reader is therefore left wondering what was is actually fact, adlib or opinion from those that Ben interviewed/researched.

The review at Entertainment Weekly (ew.com) suggests that:

‘the book is a breezy blend of fact and fiction’.

What is dangerous, is the risk a movie being produced that is far from reality.
I’m half way through the book and although it is a quick read, I’m struggling with the concept of clubs, fraternities and in-crowds.
Am I too shocked about how business really works or should I take this book as motivation to strive forward in an honest and thankful manner.

The latter is what I was taught.

We can only hope that success was based on a sincere approach.
NB Facebook now has more than 300 million members around the world. The privately owned company has been valued as high as $15 billion!

I talk about the latter a lot. Maybe harmonisation can be the key to reigniting the economy, especially as it has been ravaged by a banking situation and the greed generated by the perpetual motion of capitalism.
Has humankind learnt nothing about not repeating mistakes or becoming enveloped in materialism?

Yesterday’s news of the closure of a camp between France and the UK also rams home the point of the need for solutions in worlds where people flee for their lives of a better existance.

We need multi-nationals to use their power for change.

When her championship high school debate team navigated airport security, Jennie Savage’s students and their trophy got through just fine. Except one.

The related audio from the news site/archive can be found here.

Or, listen to an extract from the show here:

Having recently (28th August) returned from a lengthy trip to the US and Canada on every occasion I was put aside to have my turban pressed down as part of the TSA’s search process. I was singled out every time and the TSA staff were, for myself courteous, explaining why they were conducting the ’search’.

The TSA have worked with the Sikh Coalition. Their (The Sikh Coalition’s) excellent work has resulted in the following guide: Airport Screening Procedures for Sikh Travelers.

Back to the Trip…
From San Francisco to Seattle, because I was wearing a Ben Sherman Tee with cassette tape images, the security guard said, ‘Do they still have tapes in Saudi’! I said I wasn’t from there. Actually if you read the T-Shirt it had British flags depicting the era of Mods back in the 60s! See design below:

I was wearing this one!

It was only on a flight from Seattle to Washington Dulles, from memory, that someone wiped down my turban with a cotton swab.

At Washington Dulles on my way back to London I was getting a bit annoyed about being singled out yet again and said, ‘look I’m a UK born guy that is just returning home’. The TSA chap replied, ‘I was born in Colorado and if I wore a hat then I would have to have it searched’. Clearly he was unaware that Turbans are NOT hats!

Being singled out and being kept in a Penn is not a nice experience.
There is clearly more learning that is required about who Sikhs are.
Profiling is being incorrectly performed and could be ignorance based, remember, the potential shoe bomber was a white person.

This is why I keep harking on about the need for more media about Sikhs, who we are, what are our ethics and the rich history / heritage we have.

NB The Sikh Coalition have helped to pass the California Kirpan Education Bill, it passed 36-0 in the full Senate vote.

I recorded it on 7th June 2009 and am grateful to my editor for helping to putting it all together.

The video aims to raise the need for continued justice but also interestingly there were a lot of suggestions from the people I interviewed. They outlined a need for both Justice and Hope. Hope that we can never see such a attrocity again and that we can respect each other.

I’ve recently been elected as chair of the Interfaith Youth Trust.  The aim is to help youth better understand each other with an aim to gain mutual respect.  Last year we held an event at the House of Lords where different youth based groups came together. They suggested that once people of different faiths get together, they develop a better understanding of their own faith. They also appreciate common themes. I wonder if such groups exist in places like India?

Here is my entry for 2009  in 2 parts:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

LA Times confirms that Michael Jackson has died. Sad, sad, sad. MJ, RIP – We’ll always love your spirit, music and remember you.
MJ was certainly a massive influence on the music and video scene.

He was also a good fusion pioneer, bringing rock and soul music together.

Here’s one of my favourite tracks that suggests that we look at ourselves to make a change.
Change is what I constantly talk about. The potential that we have in all of us to make a difference to others.

Recently, someone said that some people live for themselves and others live for others.
MJ brought us great music to unify us. He also should be accredited with helping with the Live Aid / Feed the World / USA for Africa initative.

Lets remember him and keep in our hearts these messages:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Together we discussed:

• The UK Queen’s use of email
• The UK Prime Minister’s use of YouTube
• The growing use of Social media sites
• Should company’s offer employees ‘gap years’ And,
• My moment of Reflection, ‘The Trouble with Twitter’