July/August/September 2003

DIASPORA

AUSTRALIA

Aussie Sun Power Tower

Imagine a glass roof seven kilometers wide. At the center is a 3,300-foot tall tower with a base the size of a football field. Sun heated air under the roof will flow inward and up the tower through 32 turbines producing 200 megawatts, enough electricity for 200,000 homes. Scheduled for completion in 2006, the US $593-million dollar, Schlaich Bergerman (Germany) engineered generator sitting in the Australian outback will be the world's tallest structure, and it will cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 700,000 tons. If this giant performs well, it could provide a model for other eternally sunbaked areas in USA, India, Africa, Mexico and the Middle East.

SPAIN

Artha and Dharma in Spain

A Spanish success story in today's economically dampened post 9/11 climate bears exotic testimony to the entreprenurial savvy among the Hindu diaspora. Yet another Bharwani giant department store opened last October in glamorous Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands. A Dussehra puja blessed the opening of the glizty, futuristic addition to the Maya superstore chain. Traditional Hindu family solidarity is obviously a key to success, as four brothers, Kishinchand, Ramesh, Harisundar and Kumar work in close collaboration. During the opening, the well-educated and five-years-in-training Suresh, son of Ramesh, was inducted into the business as the new store's director. Spain is home to an estimated 12,500 Hindus of the Indian diaspora.

MALAYSIA

Seva to Save Hindus

In January the Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) held a "Hindu Renaissance Gathering" in Kuala Lumpur. Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami from USA, Swami Ghananand from Africa and Swami Vigyanand from India joined local leaders in strategy discussions on strengthening Malaysian Hindus. MHS president, A. Vaithilingam, highlighted the problem in his 2002 general invitation: "About 60,000 Hindus have been converted these last few years. If they all go, there will be no temples and no Hindu organizations. Not only the poor, but, more frightening, children and youth are being enticed by the chance to go to heaven." After the rally, several hundred volunteers came forward to join MHS's keystone "ATMAH" program. The Action To Mobilize All Hindus seeks to: 1) increase religious knowledge; 2) turn temples into community centers; 3) be proactive in social, welfare and counseling services; 4) revive Hindu cultural activities; 5) modernize Hindu print and electronic media and make it available in libraries at all temples and organizations.

USA

Indian Heroine Mourned

Kalpana Chawla walked in space, lighting a fire of pride in the hearts of millions of Indians around the world. A million also mourned her passage, at age 41, from this world to the devaloka, when the shuttle Colombia disintegrated in the skies on February 1st. One of Bharat's daughters, from humble beginnings she rose to join, in 1994, the team of space explorers as a NASA astronaut. From her birthplace in Punjab, Kalpana had come with her family to Texas, USA. So it was here that thousands joined her father, B. L. Chawla on February 2nd, 2003, to light a lamp at the Meenakshi Temple in Pearland Texas, in her memory. Kalpana was a vegetarian and known to frequent the Meenakshi temple. Little more is known of her spiritual life, but her starry aspirations and dedication spoke of her greatness. Hindus, Sikhs and Indians of all persuasions joined her father to honor one who will inspire young people for generations to come.

MALAYSIA

Malaysians Love Muruga

The much beloved God of South India, Lord Murugan, known in the Vedas as Lord Kartikkeya or Skanda, has an ancient history, especially in Tamil Nadu. His powerful shakti continues to bless us even in modern times. Wherever Tamils have gone, so, too, has the worship of this great celestial Deity. In Malaysia, the devotion to Lord Murugan is generating one of the largest annual Hindu festival phenomena in the world outside of India. This year's January Thai Pusam festival drew one million faithful to Lord Murugan's sacred home in Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur. More than 4,500 devotees performed the kavadi penance, carrying pots of milk or a yoke across their shoulders with pots of milk tied on each end, many with their bodies, tongues and cheeks pierced with small silver spears. Kavadi is a purification penance and a fulfillment of vows acknowledging prayers granted by the God. Farther north, in Ipoh, 100,000 devotees and spectators worshiped and watched at the Gunun Cheroh Sri Subramaniar Temple. Leaders of the Malaysia Indian Congress once again have pleaded that the government declare the event a national holiday.

USA

Games' Neural Consequences

Would you want your son to identify with a criminal who steals and kills anything that moves, pays people for services, then kicks them to get his money back? He does when he becomes "Tommy Vercetti," the protagonist in the best-selling violent video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City." Dr. Vincent P. Mathews of the University of Indiana Medical School has recorded decreased frontal lobe brain activity during violent video game play. This phenomenon is also found in teens diagnosed with DBD, disruptive behavior disorder. Though rated for "mature" teens, 17 or older, children as young as 13 have access to these violent games. Parenting groups and US Senators are worried about the effects of such a vicious and addictive pastime. Parents are advised to supervise video games. Your worries are warranted.

Percentage of unaccompanied children nationwide who were able to buy M-rated video games:

Age 13   66%   Age 15   80%

Age 14   70%   Age 16   85%

VIOLENT GAME REPORT CARD

Games Kids Should Avoid

BMX XXX   

Grand Theft Auto   

Dead to Rights   

Blood Rayne   

Run Like Hell   

Hunter, the Reckoning   

Hitman 2   

Resident Evil 0   

Time Splitters   

Wacked   

Games Rated OK for Kids

Animal Crossing   

Sly Cooper and the   

Thievius Racoonus

Super Mario World   

Harry Potter   

Roller Coaster Tycoon   

Mario Party 4   

I Spy Challenger   

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger   

Yoshi's Island   

Blinx: Time Sweeper 

USA

Beef Marketers Try To Battle Back Veggie Trend

People for the ethical treatment of animals (PETA), VRG and others are making a difference. See: www.peta.org, www.goveg.com, www.vrg.org. Polls indicate there are one million US school-age vegetarians www.vrg.org/journal/vj2001jan/2001janteen.htm. One in four teenagers considers vegetarianism "cool" according to the Teenage Research Unlimited in Illinois. The National Cattleman's Beef Association is worried. Their new web site, (www.Cool-2B-Real.com), targets girls, who are twice as likely as boys to go veggie. The site's "popular girl" face is filled with recommendations for beef in your tacos, salad, sandwiches and games such as "grillin' and chillin' "starring "BurgerTown Bob" that subliminally show meat products. Beef is at the top of its list of foods to keep you "on top of your game." Not!

USA

Yoga Keeps Mom Calm, Happy and Healthy

If you thought the modern western divorced-from-its-Hindu-roots hatha yoga movement was restricted to the slim, trim yuppie set... think again. A search on the Internet for "pregnant yoga" turns up hundreds of hits. Breath work, stretching, meditation and strenuous workouts all benefit expectant mothers and their unborn child. But it is a lot more than exercise. In the Los Angeles Times, Hilary E. MacGregor quotes her certified prenatal yoga teacher, "In the old days, they had a mother, a nurse, a midwife. Today so many women are isolated from families, from their community, from knowing. This is to teach a woman to stand up for herself. To have strength, a backbone, support system. It is to give them education, so they can make intelligent choices."

BRIEFLY...

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS rejected the US Commission on International Religious Freedom's recommendation to include India in the list of "countries of particular concern."

SURVEYS OF CHRISTIANS WERE conducted in Gujarat, India, in March, 2003. Gujarati police visited Christians with a questionnaire asking, "Were you a Hindu earlier? When and why did you convert? Are you getting any money every month from Christians? Why did you convert? Do you want to be reconverted to Hinduism?" Christians are objecting, and the courts are investigating the legality of the survey.

KAUTILYA'S ARTHASHASTRA is a remarkable treatise on law and sophisticated government written 2,300 years ago. The complete text is online at www.swaveda.com/Governance/Arthashastra/Arthashastra.htm.

ISLAMIC TERRORISTS KILLED 24 Kashmiri Pandits in March, 2,003, including women and children in the small village of Nandimarg, 35 miles south of Srinagar. Since 1989, Pakistan-backed Muslim insurgents have conducted assassinations and intimidation of Hindus. Eleven families, 52 persons, had tried to stay on in this small village. Gunmen called them outside and opened fire.