Dr Sarab, is both an inspiring and committed film-maker. Starting off as a medical Doctor he has also spent the last 10 years and managed a budget of $1.5million to deliver a film that really moves you. His connections to Hollywood have assisted in the development of the film and its themes.

As you watch the film you realise that it is not preaching in manner. There are some scenes that as a Sikh make your heart sink. In others, you recognise similar public stereotypical influenced episodes.

The films delivery is based on generating a universal message of self-realisation of who you are and the importance of what you represent. Other themes explored by the film include seva (service) and dilemmas introduced by different health systems.

Please see the trailer below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Please visit the Website too:
http://www.oceanofpearls.com

After the movie the audience had a chance for Questions and Answers with Dr Sarab. Dr Saran spoke of the impact that the film had on people from different denominations. In the US film-goers expressed they felt  the need to know more about their own religion and some from the Sikh faith reflected on the importance of their own faith. Interestingly, I have heard this phenomena before. As chair of the Interfaith Youth Trust, we often hear that kids who attend interfaith awareness events often wish to learn more about their own religion. Thus deepening a respect for parallel ethics and greater meaning of their own elements.

Currently, European plans for this movie are under review. It is certainly a must buy to share with your family, local community, services agencies and your library.

The more we communicate who we are and our stories and we have many of those, the greater an understanding between ourselves and  diverse world will develop.

In December 1984 India saw the beginning of the worst industrial disaster in history. It has come to be known as the Hiroshima of the chemical industry. 40 tonnes of deadly methyl isocyanate gas, used in the manufacture of the pesticide Sevin, spewed from the plant into the surrounding areas.

8-10,000 people died within the first 72 hours and another 15,000 people have died as a result of their exposure to the gas. Another 120,000 have chronic medical conditions that require constant healthcare.
The death toll stands at 25,000+

The following footage from the You Tube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/BhopalMedicalAppeal is unbelievably graphic in terms of showing:

1. Still no clean-up?!
2. The extent of damage is vast and water is still contaminated, getting into the food chain.
3. The fact that people can still walk about and enter the plant complex

Please see the videos below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Indra Sinha, who was Booker-nominated for his book on the Bhopal disaster, explains in the following article why the gas leak that killed 20,000 people 25 years ago – and continues to create health problems for countless more. The pictures in the article are also haunting.

In addition, the following video, you can see the need for more health resources and the appalling fact that you can see the contaminated soil that is still present.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The sad news is that people are still suffering.

What is so so sad is the fact that as we enter the 26th year of the tragedy, those who have the power to help appear to be not!?  Maybe public pressure can help. I certainly missed this news item. Does this mean that what we do not see can not move us? Do we forget because the public eye facilitated by the media is blind?

Or, on a positive note now that we know that people are still suffering, we can reach out and help.

Recently, over a thousand party revellers turned out to a party in an abandoned building in London, all on the whim of a Facebook invitation. It is a pity that we do not exercise our disgust and demand for justice using such tools!

The Bhopal Medical Appeal funds the Sambhavna Clinic. Sambhavna is the only place that offers free treatment to anybody affected by the toxic gas or the toxic water.  This Medical Appeal offers free health care and hope to the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak disaster and those suffering from the present day water poisoning.  Find out more at: http://www.bhopal.org

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.

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’

1. Pirates stealing from those desperate for supplies destined to help the poor
2. The fact that we spend so much on ‘building a bridge the the 21st century’, yet we forgot that  the ‘18th century was building a canal’!
3. Where we really need to focus our efforts to address this issue, especially as these pirates not just small time crooks but command armies and ransoms that are worth millions of dollars:
4. Unfortunately, there were deaths involved on the pirate side. Any death is sad.

Here is my submission for 2008. Copyright terms deployed were under the ‘Fair use’ policy.
My aim was to raise awareness for the to make positive media rather than have others depict us inappropriately.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is part 1 of 2, re: the Interview …

And I’m pleased to say that our regular Sikh contributor Dr savi Arora is with us today… morning Savi… good to see you again.

Now we’ve been talking about places of worship on the show this morning what can you tell us about Sikh places of worship?

• Sikh temples are called Gurdwaras… which literally means Guru’s House or Door. So it’s the place to goto to learn from the Gurus. Each Gurdwara houses the Guru Granth Sahib… which is the holy book and of course religious ceremonies take place there including events like weddings.

But the gurdwara is for more than just worship isn’t it?

• As well as being a place for religious services, the Gurdwara also serves as a community centre, a school, a guest house for pilgrims and travellers – and not just Sikhs , occasionally a clinic, and a base for local charitable activities.
  
  

Now the famous Golden Temple in Amritsar is recognised as one of the most beautiful religious buildings in the world… what are Gurdwaras like in the UK?

• • Well most of the Sikh community in this country was established after the second world war so for a long time Gurdwaras were in people’s houses or commercial spaces. And then communities would buy a school or industrial complex that were no longer being used… but now we have some large and spectacular ones… for example, both Southall and West London based Gurdwara’s have been visited by Prince Charles and the Queen over the last few years. In fact one that my father went to was originally in a an old dairy that the community purchased (this is true? Yes?)
  • One of the oldest Gurdwara is Britain, in all of Europe in fact, which is in Shepherds Busch in London and it is celebrating it’s 100^th anniversary this year.

It’s interesting that churches are often used by other religious communities when they are no longer required for Christian worship… what does that say

• • My understanding is that there have been church halls that have been made available for groups to run Yoga classes and community events. I believe that this shows there is not a sense of possessiveness or a demand for exclusiveness related building ownership
  • If we all respect each other in terms of the cliché that there are many paths and they all lead to the same goal, then as a message for greater interfaith understanding this has to be viewed as a positive. I personally am a big fan of bringing people together to raise funds for a common cause. Amazingly people then forget their differences and focus on the common cause a common love for doing something for humanity under a house that happens to be where some go to pray.

BREAK FOR MUSIC

I welcome feedback…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve heard that the new look for BBC World news will be in place from 21st of April. Apparently, this is after 18 months of work costing over half a million pounds. The purpose of the exercise is to bring together all strands of the BBC News brand, for example: online, local, international etc, i.e: under a strong recognised brand / logo. Its weekday bulletins on BBC One will be renamed The BBC News at One, Six and Ten while BBC News 24 becomes BBC News. Under the changes viewers outside the UK will watch BBC World News, rather than BBC World, and all news programmes will feature a revised globe graphic.

The BBC has said…

“We are simplifying the branding structure. The marketplace is getting more and more cluttered and it was important to harness the various parts of BBC News”

I wonder about this cost, albeit that it has been suggested that the latest branding will last 5 years. My concern is about the return on capital employed. No, not as a financial measure of investment vs return but in terms of the value that we get as the main end clients and source of BBC funds.

I’ve spoken about the need for positive media in the past but I also believe that any news service must be reflective of today’s society. Too many times key events are overlooked or simply considered as non-newsworthy. Take for example, the need to spread good news in the areas of community cohesion. On many occasions massive events are given less that 10seconds of air time. Surely, the communication of communities working for good causes will create a sense of common purpose. The nations psyche will then evolve around mutual respect.

Who does set today’s agenda? Is the media lead by what is fashionable or is there a sense of sadistic pleasure to raise someone’s profile and then to drop them from a great height.

It is easy to blame the media and outlets, maybe we should consider that the media is simply reflecting what is happening in today’s society.

On Sunday I gazed at the magazine racks of a local supermarket. It always amazes me how there are so many different interests and hobbies. Each has its own set of enthusiasts and followers. It must be hard for outlets like the BBC to filter news that it believes will have a general appeal. This is where my main issue lies, re: the cost of the revamp. Don’t get me wrong, I value the impartiality, the wonderful presenters and format of many of the documentaries and features. My concern is about the need for greater investment in time, research and understanding what matters to people. Revamping to re-enforce a brand is fine but if the quality of what is being delivered remains unchanged, then it is a bit like placing a new coat on an existing car. Maybe what is really needed is the fine tuning of the engine.

* More community based stories
* The voice of diversity
* Allowing the public an opportunity to present news
* Not being mean on the time given to massive community gatherings

The whole arena of reporting got me thinking about the role of Press Relations and its role on influencing editorial chief’s, especially in leading periodicals and commentators sound bytes.

Wikipedia suggests that modern PR can be defined as the ability to  evaluates a product or individual’s public perception through market research. Once data is collected and challenges are identified, solutions are presented in a campaign strategy to meet goals. Techniques may vary from campaign to campaign but some standard tools used are; press releases, press kits, satellite feeds, pod casts, web casts, wire service distribution of information and Internet placement. Others include entertainment product placement (television, events, celebrity), product launches, press conferences, media seminars, producing events, speechwriting, establishing partnerships and more is often required.

Last week I met a specialist in PR and he suggested that the media simply wants to ‘talk’ about stuff! In other words sometimes by being more creative or creating a ‘buzz’ around the things that we do can create an interest and therefore coverage. I then considered his point in the context that maybe we will not totally overcome the obessession of some media outlets to feature celebrity lifestyle or even scandals but we may be able to generate positive stories.

Interestingly, he also suggested that generally there was a negative tone to reporting news and views. When you think about it he s quite right. In the UK we may get a 30 seconds of a good news story at the end of News at 10 but it is often positioned as a quirk or even a funny item to lighten the mood. However, lightening the mood should not be at the cost of respectability or victimisation.

Take Bollywood’s relentless negative portrayal of some religions. The humour element is not global and on so many levels and occasions blasphemous. Yet, we appear to not be able to stop them. One suggestion could be to ‘push’ positive stories about people. Those individuals from different backgrounds that are helping communities. The theory being that negative images could be potentially knocked out by positive ones, i.e.: With enough good news in the air that celebrates life, maybe we can change the behaviour of editorial staff and ultimately the way that we should respect each other.