Celebrating Rakhri..

The last few weeks I have been getting stopped frequently in the streets or at the malls by parents asking for more information on The Times: Building an Inclusive, Diverse Community. Its encouraging to see fathers and mothers guiding their children on the responsibilities of building an inclusive community. Most parents want to see their children become contributing members of our society and appreciating that more work needs to be done. In fact, we have just received our second contestant. Tasha Hinterbrandner of Mission emailed me with her submission. She wrote about diversity and that it takes leadership, so it can be for the betterment of everyone. When I selected this years judges this is exactly what I focused on. They include: Abbotsford Police Deputy Chief Rick Lucy, Abbotsford Community Services representative Pat Christie, School Trustee Preet Rai, Clayburn Middle School Teacher Jasbir Singh, local Denist Henry Louie and Mission Accountant Susan Kleinsasser. A dynamic group that bring a lot of leadership to the discussion of inclusiveness. My goal through the selection process was to create the ‘right balance’. I believe I have accomplished this with the selection of these members from diverse backgrounds and occupations. This years questions is: “ What have you done or what can you do to make our community inclusive?” You must be of ages (14 to 26) and live in the Abbotsford/Mission area. Your submission must be less than 300 words and can be emailed to me at the address below or dropped off at The Times office on Peardonville St. We haven’t set an official deadline due to the fact I am expecting many entries to be dropped off in September. So there is no immediate rush at the moment. We will have three winners and an honorable mention. Winners will be notified and have the opportunity to be profiled in our diversity supplement along with their short essay‘s. For those sitting on the fence, going from past experiences the participants were all extremely happy they wrote in.
On a different note, Indo Canadian families recently celebrated Rakhri. It’s a time when sisters and brothers show their love and respect for each other. You may have noticed guys around town were wearing shining bands on their wrists. This symbolizes the strengthen bond between the males and females within a family. This brings up this contradictory statement I heard from a elderly lady that approached me in Abbotsford. “In Indo Canadian families, males and females are treated differently in the household, meaning boys are spoiled and females aren’t.” She later said: “this is why there is a (small minority) of spoiled males in the East Indian community that are troublemakers.” First of all, I am really puzzled of the fact that some people like to just focus on the (small minority) in the East Indian community. Why, is that? With all due respect lady its the (small minority) in every community. Secondly, in most Indo Canadian families and Sikh families in particular, women (girls) are treated equally or in some cases better than men (boys). Ok, there are some traditional families out there who may favor boys over their girls. This is very wrong and goes against the practice of their Sikh faith. But, still a small minority compared to the vast majority of families who treat their children equally regardless of gender. Just to clarify a point she made about spoiled males are troublemakers. Reading between the lines, I think she meant to say they tend to become drug dealers or into criminal gangs. I would like to believe people have the will to make their own choices in their lives. If you want to be a troublemaker, you will become a troublemaker regardless what your parents do or don‘t do for you.
In the Sikh religion everyone is equal regardless of class, caste or gender. The long-standing tradition of Rakhri demonstrates this very aspect of Indo Canadian culture. What the general Canadian public fails to understand is that many Indo Canadian families have been here for 25- 75 years and others less than 5-10 years. This generational gap will result in some families will be more traditional and others less. You cannot generalize this fact. If one bark that truly hurts as a Canadian is when people deliberately attack my community (Indo Canadian) or any community for that fact without knowing the real reasons behind their voice. This must change!