The election results in the five Indian states in the recently concluded polling have confirmed the long-term trend of the decline of national parties—the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Though these two parties continue to lead the two major coalitions at the federal level, it is state and regional outfits that continue to gain strength. In the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP)—a state so large that it would be the fifth most populous in the world had it been an independent country, the Samajwadi Party is back in power after decimating the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The BJP and the Congress have been relegated to the third and fourth positions. The outgoing BSP government created history when a party representing the Dalits (the former ‘untouchables’) came to power on its own. The focus of the party to cater to its base meant that it alienated other major constituents—Brahmins and Muslims—that had engineered its victory in the 2007 elections. On a side note, the BJP has, for the first time since the demolition of the Babri Masjid, lost the assembly elections in Ayodhya, the purported birth place of Lord Rama. In Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-led front maintained the same number of seats that it had in the outgoing assembly. So did the Congress. The Akali Dal’s partner—the BJP declined from 19 seats to 12, while the SAD’s made up for the lost seats. In the other three smaller states, the key contenders have continued to be the Congress and the BJP, the Congress and the BJP are set to form the government in one each while in the third state (Uttarakhand), it could be either—so thin is the margin as this goes to print. From a national perspective, these states are too small and on the fringes, which makes it all the more ironic that the so- called national par-ties are the main contenders here. For the Congress, the UP elections are not good news for its future leader Rahul Gandhi, who has devoted a number of the years in trying to rebuild the party in the state that influences, if not determines, which party rules in New Delhi. On the other hand, the sons of the SP and the SAD chiefs are credited with the resounding success of the respective parties.

“To all the women in Pakistan who are working for change, don’t give up on your dreams. This is for you.” These were the words uttered by 33-yearold Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy as she lifted the golden statue at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony recently. The journalist and documentarian’s work in Saving Face, a documentary short she co-directed won her the Oscar. There is reason to celebrate as the victory is the first for a Pakistani. Ironically though, the subject of the film is not some-thing to rejoice about. Saving Face documents the painful experiences of two women subjected to the horrific abuse of acid attacks. Such abuses aren’t uncommon in South Asia and are thought to affect at least 150 Pakistani women every year. Grim stories of burning and disfiguring female faces routinely appear in the Indian and Bangladeshi media. This dastardly act is just one more form of violence against women in the South Asian sub-continent. For this very reason, the victory of Ms. Chinoy, who also happens to be a Canadian citizen, assumes even more significance. Acid attacks, besides in-flicting agonizing pain on the victim, leave her in trauma, isolation and with brutal stigma. In a society that is prone to blaming women even when nothing is wrong with their appearance or personality, faces disfigured by acid burning can only bring them a humiliating sub-human existence. The most recent case of acid attack reported from India involves Aarti Thakur who is just 22. She was attacked in the middle of Mumbai’s busy Goregaon train station and remains too traumatized to show her face in public even after under-going three skin grafting surgeries. One hopes Saving Face will revive the debate about having specific legislation for acid attacks in countries where the scourge is often com-mitted with impunity. In 2002, Bangladesh passed two laws aimed at regulating the sale of acid as well as stringent punishment on offenders. The law imposes the death penalty or rigorous life imprisonment for offenders who maim or kill a victim using acid. Uganda, an African country, which too has to deal with this issue, has a life-imprisonment provision for offenders. Unfortunately, until the time South Asian societies show greater respect for and openness towards their women, the latter must at least have laws to save their faces.

When the first batch of South Asian migrants came to Canada almost a century ago, they were a minority–visible or not. Mostly Sikhs belonging to the farming background settled in the BC region. Within four years, they were denied the federal vote and access to political office, jury duty, professions, public service jobs and labour on public works. The regulations didn’t change until 1947. Suffice to say, the first South Asian immigrants didn’t have it easy in Canada–a land so distant and alien to the one from which they immigrated from for a better life.

Within a century’s time, things have dramatically turned around. By 2006, Canada’s South Asian population swelled to 1, 316, 770 and is expected to grow exponentially. Still concentrated heavily in Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), some members of this community have also made other parts of Canada their home. In the GTA, there are regions that have more South Asian population than any other community–making this visible minority a majority in those particular pockets. A lot of employers now give preference to candidates well-versed with particular South Asian languages when picking prospective employees.

South Asians are no longer just represented by Sikh farmers either. They are well established in almost any trade and profession one can think of–from the federal government, to truck owners and software consultants. In this issue of South Asian Generation Next, we celebrate all of them by bringing into focus the shining stars from this community; those people who have truly defined the Generation Next of the initial batches of immigrants. Making Canada their home, they have also amalgamated unique facets of their home cultures into their lives here.

As you flip through the profiles of these achievers in their respective fields, be aware their stories are not a matter of chance. These individuals paved their way to the top by overcoming many an obstacle–be it financial, circumstantial or any other. Today, they stand as beacons of hope for the next generation of South Asians in Canada.

In this issue, we also celebrate influential South Asians globally. The accomplishments of this community are no longer confined within the geographic boundaries of South Asia. They have spread across all continents and, as will be evident to you from reading about the efforts of the Khan Academy–even to the World Wide Web.

However, as we revel in these successes, we must also reflect on the challenges that lie before South Asians in Canada.

Visible minorities still remain a pitiable minority when it comes to positions of prominence. Thankfully, advocacy groups such as Maytree are playing an active role in making this important issue heard.

The road ahead might not be silky smooth for South Asian immigrants and the Generation Next, but the journey sure promises to be an exciting one.

When a kid is born, the parents’ emphasis is that the kid learns to share and work together with his or her siblings. As the kid grows and goes to school and eventually post-secondary academic institutions, he or she is given tasks in a team, so that he/she learns to be a good team player. Indeed, as a society we must work together with mutual respect and fair play to grow. However, when these same kids grow up to be politicians, the sentiment of working together declines considerably.

Not only do politicians routinely insult one another, they mock each other not on the basis of policies, but on the basis of personalities. They talk over each other, they are rude to one another and civility seems to be something that is to be taught by highly-paid consultants to these politicians that we elect to represent us. Is this a reflection on our characters as well? We will leave that to our readers to determine.

Coming back to the point, there seems to be a major disconnect between what the municipal politicians want from the provincial politicians and what provincial politicians need from federal politicians.

City of Mississauga and City of Brampton, for instance, cannot agree on the urgent need of building the Goreway Bridge between Malton and Brampton. Ontario may agree with the City of Toronto on its transit program, but does not have money to forward to the City. (Surely the province does have money to pay someone $1,500 a day to find efficiencies in government spending. Similarly, the federal government that preaches belt tightening can spend $96,000 a day on consultants to find where costs can be saved. Perhaps the government could have started by saving taxpayer’s this $96,000 a day.)

The minority Ontario government, led by Premier Dalton McGuinty, is believed to be snubbing its opposition rather than working with it. It has already defied its election motto of “Forward. Together.” by giving an impression to their opposition peers that they are in majority in Ontario legislature. Reality check. Liberals are one seat shy of being in majority.

Ontario and the federal government cannot come to terms with how to deliver settlement services to Ontario’s newcomers who become role models and source of inspiration once they are settled.  In this week’s edition of Generation Next, you’ll read about Anu Srivastava who had come to Canada with her husband at a young age. Starting off with odd jobs, the couple is now a well-known contributor to Region of Peel’s cultural and social scene.

Politicians’ lack of collaboration for the betterment of people who have elected them for their welfare has made politics a dirty career in which very few people want to invest their time. The recent voter turnout is a clear indication of that. The global unrest among people and movements like Occupy Wall Street etc. is another sign that as a society we are not working together.

And the policy makers have an obligation to rectify that if that want to elevate themselves to the level of statesmen.

Otherwise it will just continue to be a dirty game that politicians must play to gain and remain in power.

Traditional spirit of South Asian ‘giving’ has take a formal philanthropic shape in the GTA. Hospitals paired the fundraisers for hospitals with traditional Indian festival of Diwali.

Trillium Diwali fundraiser has raised more than $4 million in the last decade. It is also believed to be the largest festival of its kind in the GTA. In its tenth year, the target was to raise $600,000 for endoscopy department.

United Health Network is the team of three Toronto hospitals: Toronto General Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital. They held Diwali fundraiser for the first time. Akshay Kumar, Canada’s Ambassador to India, joined the fundraiser to support the emergency services at the three  hospitals.

Aside from these two mega events, there are several small Diwali fundraisers over the next week or so.

The spirit of the South Asian ‘giving’ is undoubtedly commendable. South Asian community gives in various shapes and forms. It also feels responsibility to ‘give’ to their countries of origin to their poor relatives and neighbours.

Nonetheless, many of these mega and medium sized cultural festivals’ organizing committees look for a few individuals to support their events. Mr. Anil Shah, Board Director of Trillium Diwali pointed out a very important challenge that there is a ‘donor fatigue.’ The same individuals are stretched in every direction ‘for dollar here and dollar there,’ which means lesser community level engagement.

Moreover, giving opportunity to just the few to be part of the event is not only unfair, it damages the cause and restricts the community engagement. It gives an impression of creating a monopoly of the select few. So for example, if there is one media partner in this worthy cause, why can’t there be more partners, surely South Asian media wants to lend its contribution to worthy causes. Media can engage its viewers, listeners and readers to be more aware and more involved.

There are almost 1.2 million Indo Canadians, nearly the same number of Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Tamil, Afghani and Nepali Canadians have chosen Canada as their home. If these Canadians are engaged and involved, our institutions and our organizations will be stronger in ‘giving’ back to the Canadian society.

At the same time, South Asian organizations need to do a better job of increasing their membership and giving value to their membership.

The largest Indo-Canadian organization has only about 1,200 members in 1.2 million Indo Canadian population. This speaks volumes of doing more. The responsibility is not only of the organizations, it is also of small business owners, and individuals. After all we all have chosen Canada as our home.

October 6^th election is only a week away. It’s the day for Ontarians to decide which party and which leader they most trust to represent them.

Another recession seems to be looming just around the corner as we see that the US job market and housing market is no better than it was during recession. Undoubtedly it will affect Ontario’s manufacturing market yet again. With businesses uncertain about tomorrow, jobs will be scarce.

And Ontarians have an added pressure of making the right decision at the right time to choose their leadership.

What has been evident from this election campaign is that many South Asian families are not supporting any given party blindly. They are evaluating each party’s platform, perhaps not as thoroughly; nonetheless they are aware of the issues and what each party is offering.

During this election campaign families in the Region of Peel have asked whether their kids will be picked up by a school bus from their homes. Which party will provide funds to do so? Some of these parents have to literally give up work to ensure that one parent can pick up and drop off their kids to school.

In an economic climate where both partners have to work to provide a better living, families cannot afford to stay home just because their government is not willing to facilitate a school bus to pick up and drop off their kids to and from school.

South Asian families have also started noticing that many candidates who come to them as a South Asian and ask for their votes do not deliver once they are in the public office. Quietly they are skeptical of these South Asian elected officials who are not being vocal in addressing the issues of their constituents, yet when the time for elections come, they are all over them.

Many of the South Asian families also refuse to have a sign board of a South Asian candidate for fear of being taken negatively once the South Asian candidate from the other party gets elected.

Under these circumstances, the South Asian elected officials have added responsibility of reassuring their South Asian constituents that they will represent all of their constituents whether they voted for him/her or not.

Postsecondary education is the most expensive in Ontario. There is very little doubt about it. While it’s already almost unaffordable, universities continue to eye hiking the tuition to meet their expenses. Mr.

John Milloy, Liberal Minister of Colleges, Training and Universities does not appreciate anyone saying that the postsecondary education in Ontario is unaffordable; nonetheless families feel that they are paying too much money for a degree.

Minister Milloy counters by saying that Ontario ahs a very generous OSAP program that helps students pay the tuition. In a press conference with ethnic media a few months ago, he noted that the Liberal government in Ontario has introduced measures to ease off the pressure on students who cannot afford to pay back their university and college loans.

Although Ontario families feel the pinch of higher tuition fee, those who are teaching in postsecondary education system note that the Ontario’s education system is the best in the world and still cheaper than the other parts of the world.

In Generation Next’s this week’s edition, we conducted an informal survey with South Asian students studying in various programs in Ontario universities. There was a consensus that the tuition fee is very high. Many students said that any more tuition hikes, and they will be out of the universities. Others talked about financial pressures and stress to pay off for not only the tuition fee but for text books and other related expenses. Almost all of these South Asian students said that their parents are responsible for paying their tuition fee. However students work part time to pay for other related expenses. These students were quite angry that different faculties charge differently for the education they provide.

With provincial elections set in another 15 days, political parties are selling their postsecondary education platform to Ontario families. Liberals have committed 30 per cent grants to middle class families. They have also said that the next Liberal government will cap the student debt at $7,300 a year.

The PC has made a promise of easing off transferring of credits from one institution to the other, vowing to create 60,000 more student spaces. The promise to create 60,000 more spaces has also been made by Liberals.

The New Democrats, on the other hand have said that they will freeze the tuition fees for next four years and eliminate interest on provincial parts of student loans.

It is up to Ontario families and Ontario students to decide as voters which party will represent their best interests in the next Ontario legislature. While all parties are prone to skew the numbers, the responsibility of choosing your government rests with you and you alone.

Weigh your options carefully before you vote on October 6^th.

Almost all political candidates we have spoken to in the last few days say that the first issue raised on the door is lack of jobs for those who used to work in factories or in manufacturing sector. This follows the frustration about university and college graduates not being able to find jobs in the areas they have studied in. The youth unemployment remains higher than the national average here in Ontario. Another issue is of course of immigrants not finding jobs and living below poverty line. Their foreign credentials are not recognized and they don’t have the Canadian Experience. Unlike in North America, it’s not easy getting college and university certificates in a sealed and stamped envelop from the registrar’s offices in South Asia.

Lack of quality jobs is another issue. People are nostalgic about a time when they were secure in their jobs, now even the jobs with the government cannot provide peace of mind and stability to families.

Anytime Generation Next runs a profile of a community organization that does some work in helping people find employment, Generation Next gets calls from people. These people suggest that more needs to be done in creating jobs for people. Many of them are new Canadians, by the way.

We hear a lot about green jobs in today’s world, however there are very few people trained in these jobs. We also know that there are several thousand jobs that go unfilled. Perhaps, there can be a deliberate move to promote these jobs among Ontarians, so that some unemployment numbers translate into employment.

In such desperate circumstances, it is quite shocking to hear politicians tell us that we in Ontario are better than the rest of Canada and the United States. We hope that our politicians understand that while they are fighting for cushy jobs for next four years, and that fired politicians still get the best deal from companies, ordinary Ontarians are not so lucky.

Lack of jobs doesn’t just mean that there is not a job, it has far reaching consequences – social, psychological and economic. The general impression is that recent graduates are more likely to get hired than those who have been struggling to find a job for the last few years. Another impression is that older people cannot get hired because employers are looking for young energetic people who can work longer hours with lesser salaries and benefits.

But at the same time, many companies lay off people to save their profits rather than sharing some of the pain of losing a little profit here and there.

Investment in people can never be a bad investment. At least that’s what we were told growing up.

Tis’ the holly jolly season, but it doesn’t seem to be too happy for political circles. Ontario Liberal MPPs suspect that in the upcoming provincial elections in October 2011, they will probably be losing about 8 to 12 seats in Ontario Legislature, not having Harper-like majority but a majority that will have less in control in the face of opposition.

The situation with Federal Liberal Party attracting Liberal MPPs has made the situation worse for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. MPP Fonseca has resigned from his position as an MPP and will be a federal Liberal candidate from Mississauga-Cooksville in the upcoming federal election. There probably will not be a by-election but a general federal election where Mr. Fonseca will be a candidate.

Conservatives are eyeing the transition of Liberals from province to federal closely with the hopes that they can secure a seat from Mississauga Crooksville –  a riding next to Conservative MP Bob Dechert – Brampton Springdale, Mississauga Brampton South and possibly one from Etobicoke. How helpful can Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug Ford’s ties to Etobicoke be for Conservatives remains to be seen, but it has Liberals worried, both provincially and federally.

We don’t intend to be political pundits predicting any victories or losses as voters can be unpredictable. It has to be acknowledged that the Harper’s Conservatives have made inroads into the South Asian community of the Peel region.

Mr. Jason Kenney, the federal Minister of Citizenship & Immigration and Multiculturalism is very persuasive in his arguments even if the facts may not always be accurate. His name and his work with immigrants, refugees and settlement organizations provokes an intense debate among South Asian political circles. Some are extremely unhappy with him; some have nothing but to pat him on the back for his work with the South Asian community. Some remain skeptical of Conservatives as their nominated candidates are tight lipped on issues that are of concern to the community. Some believe that appointing Ms. Salma Ataullahjaan as a Senator was a very smart move by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. This appointment has softened not only the South Asian community but the Muslim community of the GTA toward Conservatives.

Province however is a different story. Premier McGuinty has sent out Season’s Greetings cards to almost every South Asian media outlet, wishing them in 31 languages including English and French. It’s a clear indication that “Celebrating Diversity” is not just the slogan for Ontario Liberals. While a lot more needs to be done, a good first step should always be appreciated.

With too much at stake for politicians, we wish them luck and Season’s Greetings and hope that they will return with not the politics of division, but a clear vision of how they will be leading our province and our country.

So it’s Christmas season. Santa parades and the jovial mood is in the air in spite of chilling frosty winds. Christmas parties are being held all over the place and people who are watching weight are worried. Well as South Asians we have even more to worry about when it comes to pounds. We have been celebrating since September when there was Eid-ul-Fitr, then there was Garba, then Diwali, then Eid ul Adha, then the birthday of Guru Nanak ji and now it’s the Holiday season. Cookies in mouth watering flavours and shapes – one can hardly resist the temptation!

And the deals on some of the items we keep thinking about throughout the year can be alluring too. Nonetheless, Canadians are being careful in how they spend their money. According to Ipsos survey 25 per cent Canadians are inclined to spend less than what they spent last year on Holiday presents for family and friends. Higher taxes on goods and items in Canada have made Canadians to turn to American retail market across the border to the United States. To attract them many retails stores offered packages to Canadians on Black Friday weekend, nonetheless more people chose to spend money in the United States.

But in this cheerful weather, expenses are not the only thing to worry about. One needs to be especially careful in how you dress up and drive. Roads are slippery and even the most experienced drivers have hard time navigating through slushy local roads and highways. Your car breaks might not work as they normally do in clear warm weather. And your car can be impounded if you are drunk and driving. SO be careful!