YOUR VIEW

HOCKEY NIGHT IN PUNJABI RECOGNITION OF OUR COMMUNITY AND LANGUAGE

This is from BALWANT SANGHERA, President, Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA) Canada:

THE return of Hockey Night in Punjabi is great news for the Punjabi community in Canada. On behalf of Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA) Canada, I would like to thank Chevrolet (GM Motors), CBC, our elected representatives and everyone else responsible for bringing it back. Hockey Night has become a very popular national institution in Canada. To broadcast it in Punjabi was a major development for our community. Now that it is back, the three generations of Punjabi children, parents and grandparents can jointly enjoy watching the game in their homes again on digital TV and online beginning December 10.
This broadcast in Punjabi is a lot more than simple broadcast. It is recognition of our community and its language at the national level. It is also a great honour for the sixth most spoken language in Canada and our community’s 125 years in Canada. This gesture is bound to create more pride of being a Canadian where our mother tongue gets such an honour. At the same time, it is a feather in the cap of our policy of multiculturalism.
The Punjabi community owes a big vote of thanks to this event’s corporate sponsor - Chevrolet - for retrieving it at least for this season. CBC had made it quite clear that they would broadcast Hockey Night in Punjabi only if they can find a sponsor. Our community is very resourceful. Similarly, we have some fairly large business organizations. If due to some reason, Chevrolet is unable to sponsor Hockey Night next season, it is our sincere hope that some business(s) from our community would step forward so that this extremely popular program can continue.

JAGRUP BRAR’S INITIATIVE GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO HIGHLIGHT POVERTY

This is from CHARAN GILL, CEO of Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS) Society:

JAGRUP Brar has taken a courageous stand to accept the MLA Welfare Challenge and live on provincial income assistance rates for one month in order to discover the reality of life for social welfare recipients. Some people in the community feel that this challenge is a joke and that living on $610 a month will not be difficult, however they are very wrong. Mr. Brar has undertaken a serious effort to show the plight of people receiving social welfare. His actions will demonstrate a big divide between the rich and poor, and make people aware that this gap has to be minimized. 
Almost 60% of the South Asian community lives under the poverty line but they do not realize their predicament because we engage in practices of communal living within our large families so that we can economize living expenses. When groups of people, like a family, are able to pool their money together, they can stretch their dollars even further. I’d like to bring the focus off those receiving income assistance to the farm workers in our communities. It is very difficult to raise a family on farm worker wages, especially as they do not even earn minimum wage. How can farm workers sustain themselves while sending their children to higher education? They will never be able to afford it.
Many people who live under the poverty line visit India, wear very nice clothes and pretend to be well paid. However, they live and earn here - in Canada. They have to pay for their food, shelter and other miscellaneous necessities of life in Canadian dollars; not in Indian rupees. Therefore they must consider supporting this demonstration for justice.
In the first week of January, I will ask the community and farm workers to come out and support this event by openly asserting their plight with large placards stating 1) We Want Minimum Wage; 2) We Want Stat Holidays; and 3) We Want Overtime. Farm workers deserve these rights like any other workers in BC that are governed by Employment Standards.
I also implore the community to support Jagrup Brar's MLA Welfare Challenge and will give people a date / time to come out to state demands. All farm workers live under the poverty line. Mr. Brar’s initiative is a great platform for us to put pressure on the government to do something for poor working people.

POWER LINES SHOULD BE UNDERGROUND

This is from M. HAJEE of Surrey:

IT happens every winter.  Power outages because some car smashed into a transformer, a tree fell on power lines, etc. Every winter BC Hydro staff have to spend hours in the cold, wet weather to fix the problem and restore power.
Why not hide the power lines underground instead?  That way, the problems of power outages are greatly reduced and the Hydro staff can do something more productive.  If Hydro had done something 10 years ago, by now all the power lines in all of BC could be out of sight.
Instead, the Crown Corporation spends billions on "smart meters."  These meters will not be able to prevent or reduce power outages. So every winter these problems will persist. The meters may be smart, but the top brass at Hydro certainly are not.

(Views expressed in YOUR VIEW are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Asian Journal.)