Singhni Will Be On Bbc 1 Tonight

[singh598]

Too many immigrants programme tonight on bbc1 at 9pm

[jkvlondon]

Too many immigrants programme tonight on bbc1 at 9pm

It's my little bhabhi ...trying to sneak it past people in the family apparently LOL

Apparently her episode is tomorrow, sorry to disappoint .

[singh598]

BBC couldn't have chosen a better female Sikh. She is beautiful and the representation she gives of Sikhs as a whole is excellent. Lets hope she speaks well tommorrow. Congratulations to her for going on the programme.

[Saffron]

I'm sorry am I missing something here, how does someone expressing intolerant views represent Sikhi. She came across as someone who is trying desperately to be "british" but not realising how ridiculous that is as the only difference between her and MR Mohammed is one of language. So I can speak English that means I have integrated. This selfish attitude of on the one hand giving food to the needy showing how wonderful I am and on the other inferring that the civil war in Somalia wasn't that bad, please do some reading Kiren before saying yes to turning up on tv for self publicity. The Guru teaches us to move beyond tolerance to true compassion, love and respect, and not be judgemental. Even at the end it seemed like she was saying I can't say they are a drain because I have spent time in their personal space - so not because I have learnt anything or my views have changed. Really interesting to see that racist, intolerant undertones are best expressed by a brown face!

[jkvlondon]

I'm sorry am I missing something here, how does someone expressing intolerant views represent Sikhi. She came across as someone who is trying desperately to be "british" but not realising how ridiculous that is as the only difference between her and MR Mohammed is one of language. So I can speak English that means I have integrated. This selfish attitude of on the one hand giving food to the needy showing how wonderful I am and on the other inferring that the civil war in Somalia wasn't that bad, please do some reading Kiren before saying yes to turning up on tv for self publicity. The Guru teaches us to move beyond tolerance to true compassion, love and respect, and not be judgemental. Even at the end it seemed like she was saying I can't say they are a drain because I have spent time in their personal space - so not because I have learnt anything or my views have changed. Really interesting to see that racist, intolerant undertones are best expressed by a brown face!

To be fair it was a bit of a set up she had the family who made it clear that they were here purely to take the education and peaceful life here in the UK and take it's fruit back to Somalia but not mix with anyone in a true sense while here.

Why Mr Mohammed had a objection to giving out food to the needy was really puzzling as Muslim believe in Zakat helping the needy...the excuses given were lame on his part if he knew it was a sharing of each others cultural background he would have realised Kiran was going to show her life too, including perhaps her home and place of worship. The other muslim Pakistani couple were much more open and welcoming.

He will get his family housed and educated by the taxpayers as he only does unpaid volunteer work yet when asked seemed surprised that there was an expectation of maybe allowing his children to contribute anything to this country once educated rather than Somalia. True Somalia's situation is dire and there is real danger from warlords fighting still and it needs rebuilding but for now it doesn't look it will get better anytime soon so what is the problem in making the UK a home rather than a temporary camping/waiting spot?

I think she was stating a question that posed the feeling that most white people had about Somali refugees it wasn't her view as she 'mentioned some people may think'

Look my husband and I were a bit thrown too at the last thing she said and she's family (married to my Kid bro) I know she is a good person , she has also worked for the Terence Higgins Trust in the past and is very caring , maybe she didn't want to offend him but she had the feeling like many did, that was they were going to maintain their seperateness as much as possible .

[proactive]

We learn more about the person who claims that to say what you see and hear with your own eyes and ears is racism! It's not a perception, it is a fact. The vast majority of Somalis in the UK know how to work the system and get access to the benefits and not make any contribution themselves. The women have 6-8 kids and get housed in 4-6 bedrooms by the taxpayer, they receive benefits for not working so an average Somali family receives more money from the taxpayer than if the parents went out to work for a living. The average Somali father will state that he doesn't get on with his wife and so will get housed in a flat by himself. He typically either spends the whole day at one of the Somali cafes out of his head chewing khat or working in the black market as a min cab driver not paying any taxes. So these people take two properties off the people who have paid into the system all their lives so you cannot be surprised that the person among even ethnic minorities is that there are too many immigrants.

The Mohammed guy was a typical Somali. They hate the country that feeds and clothes them. You cannot put this down to their having had bad experiences such as racism since they arrived here. They didn't face the blatant racism that our parents and even many of us faced in the 60s and 70s. His objection against taking part in distributing the food to the homeless was that he would be taking part in a 'Sikh' tradition! He is the one who came across as a bigot. Also not entering a Gurdwara not only prevented the non-Sikh viewers from seeing what goes on in a Gurdwara but showed how bigoted the Somali was. The programme should have shown what does on in a Gurdwara but then for the programme makers that is not more important that showing the same in the Mosque. The Pakistani couple came across as scroungers as well. If the husband needs medical help that's not available in Pakistan and you claim to have been well off in Pakistan then pi$$ off to the USA and pay for the medical help you need and don't come scrounging to the UK because it's free! Apart from the above the programme did really well and it was enlightening for people. It showed that migrants from Europe tend to come here to work while the Somalis and Pakistani come to take the benefits and not make any contributions.

I thought Kiran came across well. She showed that even people who are the descendants of migrants feel that the immigrants now are taking the pi$$. The immigrants who came in the 60s and 70s came here to work while the ones now like from Somalia are just here to claim benefits.

[JeevanCymro]

We learn more about the person who claims that to say what you see and hear with your own eyes and ears is racism! It's not a perception, it is a fact. The vast majority of Somalis in the UK know how to work the system and get access to the benefits and not make any contribution themselves. The women have 6-8 kids and get housed in 4-6 bedrooms by the taxpayer, they receive benefits for not working so an average Somali family receives more money from the taxpayer than if the parents went out to work for a living. The average Somali father will state that he doesn't get on with his wife and so will get housed in a flat by himself. He typically either spends the whole day at one of the Somali cafes out of his head chewing khat or working in the black market as a min cab driver not paying any taxes. So these people take two properties off the people who have paid into the system all their lives so you cannot be surprised that the person among even ethnic minorities is that there are too many immigrants.

The Mohammed guy was a typical Somali. They hate the country that feeds and clothes them. You cannot put this down to their having had bad experiences such as racism since they arrived here. They didn't face the blatant racism that our parents and even many of us faced in the 60s and 70s. His objection against taking part in distributing the food to the homeless was that he would be taking part in a 'Sikh' tradition! He is the one who came across as a bigot. Also not entering a Gurdwara not only prevented the non-Sikh viewers from seeing what goes on in a Gurdwara but showed how bigoted the Somali was. The programme should have shown what does on in a Gurdwara but then for the programme makers that is not more important that showing the same in the Mosque. The Pakistani couple came across as scroungers as well. If the husband needs medical help that's not available in Pakistan and you claim to have been well off in Pakistan then pi$$ off to the USA and pay for the medical help you need and don't come scrounging to the UK because it's free! Apart from the above the programme did really well and it was enlightening for people. It showed that migrants from Europe tend to come here to work while the Somalis and Pakistani come to take the benefits and not make any contributions.

I thought Kiran came across well. She showed that even people who are the descendants of migrants feel that the immigrants now are taking the pi$$. The immigrants who came in the 60s and 70s came here to work while the ones now like from Somalia are just here to claim benefits.

I would be hard pushed to remember ever reading something so racist as your rant! Unless you have a working knowladge of a the smaali community or know a lot of them as friends I dont think you can make such a sweeping comments. 'typical' and 'your average' are racist terminology because you are putting guilt on a whole community. My first hand knowladge of the few somalis I have known showed greta humour, hard working and yes very religious in some ways. But as 'british (whatever that means) as the next person. The Pakistani couple worked really long hours and came across as lovely. He was facing eyesight difficulties did you not listen to the inspiring words of the doctor £1,500 only for the gift of eyesight...and you would begrudge anyone that? as a Sikh? Never in my life have I read anything as vile pahji! teh hours of work his wife put in would have paid this off in taxes in no time (as she had to earn over £35,000 per annum to stay here, which probably equate to around 10,000 or more in taxes)! I would be happy to have them as my neighbours - no honoured actually! Rather than a racist.

[singh598]

The whole thing was a setup inorder to brainwash with the power of media and a very poor programme overall - you should read the comments on daily mail and telegraph. I thought the singhni was alright - though she doesn't know (as we all) what being british exactly is. What is british culture?

The somalis i know are hard working decent people. I was expecting the Singhni to say they would be a drain...throughout the programme she goes on about how disintegrated they are and then gives a contrary verdict.LOL

Obviously putting a Sikh vs Muslim was part of the trickery that the BBC used. Perhaps this programme was designed to disuade me from voting UKIP

[hsinghGB]

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh

At the start of part one last week, I was pleased to see an amritdhari sister was going to be part of the programme as she would bring Sikh ethics to the debate and put the bigots straight. But even though she did not feature much last week, the small clips made it clear she was part of the 'anti-immigration' group that needed convincing by the 'immigrant' group, which came as a surprise as her elders like almost all UK Sikhs would be immigrants.

In this week's part I was shocked when Bhein Ji said

1. She had moved to another area because the area where she had lived had become too diverse. If an English person said that there were too many ethnic minorities in an area what would we think?

2. She would not send her kids to the school featured as it was too diverse. Again, If an English person said that there were too many ethnic minorities in a school what would we think? What about Sikh ethos schools that even with a large amount of places reserved for non-sikhs will end up predominantly teaching Sikhs of Punjabi descent?

3. Her father had cut his kesh 'to integrate'. My father like many others had to do the same but not to integrate, he was forced as an oft-unspoken racist condition of employment taking advantage of his dire financial situation. He also felt there was little recognition for his and other Sikh soldiers' sacrifices during WW2 otherwise they would respect the kesh/dastaar Sikhs retained in the war.

Mr. Mohammed was perfectly within his rights not to enter a Gurdwara or assist a Sikh organisation serve the homeless, even though it was harmless, due to his strong allegiance to his own faith and that faith alone. The other Muslim couple featured although more liberal did not attend another faith's place of worship they took the English couple to their Mosque, Mr Mohammed would have happily done the same. He seemed welcoming when our sister visited his home twice and he was happy to visit her home. How many apneh, especially first generation immigrants, socialise with goreh outside work? Just as importantly how many gorey invite us around? We can't judge a 1st gen immigrant by our 2nd/3rd gen levels of integration.

His daughters spoke of returning to a peaceful Somalia one day and using their education to help rebuild the country. I found this highly commendable, who in today's age of growing selfishness would want to make such a sacrifice? It is just like Brit born Sikhs going to a Punjab they know little of and spending cash they earned in the UK, skills they acquired here to run medical camps, build homes, help the victims/widows/orphans of 84. Someone could argue that money/skill should be used for Britain's homeless. How many of us dream of one glorious day taking our UK acquired skills to an ajaad Khalistan to turn it into a utopia, to give Sikhs and non-Sikhs there the life we enjoy here?

Mr Mohammed had fears of integration actually being assimilation just as our parents did. Fears of losing our faith, our customs, respect for elders and the dangers of alcohol abuse, promiscuity etc - these are natural feelings. Brits living abroad also have similar fears with regard to identity, they also tend to live in areas where there are large British expat communities. Integration is a two way process, one way only is assimilation.

Western europeans have conquered and occupied three of the world's largest continents they were not native to - Australasia, North America and South America where the indigenous populations live in abject poverty on worthless land allotted to them. Vastly outnumbered by the western europeans, the native tribes have little prospects, resulting in high substance abuse and high suicide rates. The native culture, language and customs are dying out. Is that the integration that western europeans keep talking about? What would happen if those millions of western europeans had to return to western Europe - as we say, there wouldn't be space to sit. The fact is western europeans have enjoyed an ever improving standard of living at the expense of everyone else over the last 400 years and understandably they don't want things to change.

Immigrants come to the UK not with armies to conquer and occupy but with hopes of a better life for their children and the will to work hard to achieve it. Right to enter is determined by the democratically elected government who, as highlighted in the programme, have reduced visa numbers, introduced stringent visa conditions and reduced entitlement to benefits for non-EU citizens.

The Irish where the last immigrants before the wave of Asian and West-Indians arrived in the 50s-70s. They became accepted and some try to prove their 'Britishness' by slating us as the Brits slated them. The irony is that they still get called all sorts and are the butt of many English jokes. It seems that as Sikhs, now that we have won our rights though years of court cases and political lobbying we too are glossing over how we lost our Raj, the racism of the past and the fact that a large number of Brits still want us on the boat 'back to where we came from' - all in order to criticise the newer immigrants.

As a point of interest, Bhein Ji may want to ask her neighbours in her new street what their views are on carrying a proper sized kirpan, wearing a dastaar instead of a safety helmet, arranged marriage etc with respect to integration. Such issues came up during my working life in the last ten years, like me she may be shocked by the response of many of the educated liberal english middle class, like me she may question how British she is considered by them.

[JeevanCymro]

^ Wonderfully put veer ji I agree on 99% of what you have beautifully put across.