Because avg. percapita gdp is around $600/year and illiteracy rate around $40%+. You do the math and rethink your position. Majority of people in Pakistan/India don’t travel more than 500 miles let alone do spring semesters in Paris and still go back and volunteer in the summer in Pakistan.
Master no, I am not banned. I was one of the ones (secular ones) I hink whose acct was affected when the fundos hacked in. Sorry didn;t mean fundos…real pakistanis..you know religious ones..
The janus-faced boor is back. You talk of tolerance as the highest goal yet you don't practice it yourself. Maybe you will learn from your friends and keep your views in your pants as well.
i am surprised u actually think ur views about me or my views actually have any significance and is going to effect me or my health in any ways. u have already made up ur mind about these issues so whatever i say will seem wrong or as u call ‘backward’. u r as biased n judgemental as i am whether u like it or not.
There's nothing wrong with a group jerk-off, you are being judgemental again.
Why does it bother you so much anyway. Your friends are of your ilk so aside from this website, I don't think you are attacked for your religion and your views anywhere else. Why expend so much energy on something that will never touch you.
Sarah, it is not a bothersome detail..it is more of a thankful exclamation. I tell you why I care Sarah. JOhn adams highschool in queens NY is 75% desi, 50% muslim...graduation rate last year was around 48%. Parents of the kids are insular, religious and come frm low income families. They don;t need any more sermons on "good paki" "bad goras"..they need to learn that intermingling and learning from each other is the best way to succeed. So excuse me if I am a little too hands on about this. The role models infront of them are their myopic parents and the imams in the mosques who cannot help them figure out whether college can be a reality.
Zakk, you are welcome. Any little help I can offer let me know.
College is not the be all and end all. But even if it were, all the religious folks I have known have emphasized education over all else, including "fun" activities. In fact, many kids in Pakistan and even some here were forced to stay at home and study while their peers were dating, partying. And some of the most intelligent kids I have known have been from religious parents who were "myopic" as you call them. I think low income has more to do with it than religion, and if that is the case, then yes that's a huge problem.
As for good paki and bad gora phenomenon, it goes both ways. You must remember elementary school all the way up to high school. You may not have faced any discrimination but kids are cruel, cruel about stereotypes that are not even exhibited in their target, such as BO and oiled hair. That fosters introversion and sticking to your own kind.
Maybe what people need to do is give oppurtunities to poor kids so that they do not choose the easiest way to earn money, such as driving a cab because education is expensive. And what maybe needs to be done is build tolerance in "bad whites", rather than attacking those stupid pakis. And of course, self-esteem building.
By the way, in university is different because kids learn tolerance and respect for differences but in high school and earlier, many traditions have to be set aside to fit in so that non-colored peers will accept them. There is nothing inherently wrong with oiled hair, shalwar kameez to school, and to fit in you don't have to set aside those aspects of culture but kids are forced to. I can go through discrimination that I and many other kids experienced growing up here, sans oily hair, sans shalwar kameez to school, sans racoon surma in the eyes, sans all cultural stereotypes.
What is most disgusting is that the perpetrator is never targeted. I have worked with anti-racism organizations and have intruscted in workshops to foster tolerance with kids. Guess what, none of them were interested. bored, apathetic, going through the motions because they were forced to. in breaks between the games etc in the workshops, the white kids would congregate. from experieicne in highschool and before, i know because of language difficulties and mere inferiority of color, I was never permitted to gain entry into these groups. they were tjhe acknolwdged elite.
And all this stereotyping about Muslims being bad, it may not be over, but even covert attitudes among the parents can be piked up by their kids and enacted to further alienate colored kids. I am sure you already know that however. I hope your stereotypes will not be picked up by your progeny. what a shame that would be, your fight turned against you.
^ all that is good and well. but you will see pakistani ghettos in the US ala the UK within the next 10 years unless something is done. And being insular is not the key atleast not in the west...
And college is the end all be all...unfortunately Pakistan has yet to produce a Bill Gates and even he dropped out of Harvard.
Unfortunately socio economic factors are directly linked to religion in the desi community in the US..kind of like what i shappening in the UK.
What about blacks, who can trace their lineage back generations to have lived in the states, how come they are still at the bottom rung of the success ladder. Religion is not the factor for most of them.
Which institutions would that be Sarah. Kids from bangla and Pakistani families are told not to go and seek counseling at school. Secular institutions are shunned...you tell me. Unfortunately the Islamic counseling services really don't have much to offer these kids besides sermons.
There are many thing wrong with the picture. If you go and read the very first post..I said keeping religion in their pants. Unfortunately, ponitifcating advisors do not make good role models for these kids.
Here is some info from the Asian American Federation of New York..
Pakistanis are poorer and less literate and live in more crowded households than other city residents.
According to the findings, based on 2000 census data:
From 1990 to 2000, New York City's Pakistani American population grew from 13,501 to 34,310, or 154 percent -- surpassing increases of 9 percent for the city overall and 71 percent for all Asian New Yorkers.
More than one-third (34 percent) of Pakistani American children and more than one-fourth (28 percent) of all Pakistanis in New York City lived in poverty -- exceeding 30 percent of all children and 21 percent of all residents in the city.
Pakistani New Yorkers' per capita income was $11,992 -- about half of the city-wide figure ($22,402).
Two out of 3 elderly Pakistani Americans (67 percent) and nearly half (48 percent) of all Pakistani adults in New York City had "Limited English Proficiency" -- markedly surpassing 27 percent of all elderly New Yorkers and 24 percent of all city adults.
New York City's Pakistani American households averaged 4.1 occupants --far more than 2.6 city-wide.
Almost one-third (32 percent) of Pakistani American adults in New York City had not finished high school -- compared with 28 percent of all adult New Yorkers.
With a 79 percent foreign-born population, New York City's Pakistani Americans were more than twice as likely to be immigrants as city residents overall, of whom 36 percent were born outside the United States.
Most Pakistani Americans in the city lived in Queens, with 45 percent of Pakistani New Yorkers (15,604 people), or Brooklyn, with 41 percent (14,221). The rest of the city's Pakistani population was distributed about evenly among the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island.
