Hello, hello. I was in Chicago. But I was in a hurry, in and out. Sorry I could not meet you.
Road Trip To Chicago And Back
Greyhound Bus Depart December 15 New York 10 AM Arrive 4:55 AM 19 H, 55 M Transfers 2 Carrier NYP Schedule 0250 Depart December 16 Chicago 5 PM Arrive 11:25 AM 17 H, 25 M Transfer 0 Carrier GLI Schedule 1604 Non Refundable Fare $183 878 miles
Chicago Greyhound Station, 630 W Harrison St, Chicago, IL 60607 Immigration Court, 55 E Monroe St, Suite 1900, Chicago, IL (1.3 miles from bus station) * Go East on W Harrison 0.4 miles * TL on S Franklin 0.4 miles * TR on W Monroe, Arrive at 55 E Monroe on Right
I worked out extra the day before departure. It was a few days of exercise packed into one, a few hundred crunches, 600 situps, 600 pushups, and then 600 crunches in the morning before departure.
The bus got out of the city and onto the standard interstate highway landscape. Looks like Greyhound has built some new bus stations. I found some new facilities along the way. I was carrying six bottles of water and some Desi snacks with me. And still on day one there was a trip to Burger King on the road.
There was a Homeland Security check along the way. Two guys got in and asked everyone for documents. One of them called into their system to confirm I was headed to court.
I walked towards court, took a coffee break at a Starbucks a block from court.
In court, I checked in, saw my name on the list. Then there was a few hours of waiting. Finally the clerk told me my case had been transferred to New York. Did your lawyer not tell you? That was the system lying again. My name was still on the list this morning. I was still scheduled to show up in the Chicago court when the Homeland guy called in to check.
The judge finally transferred my case. If he had done that a few days, a few weeks prior, I could have saved a trip. But that's okay. It was a nice walk in downtown Chicago. I went to the see the field where Barack gave his victory speech. Then it started snowing rather heavy. I took a cheeseberger break. It was still snowing. I went for another walk in the snow, my first major snow of this winter.
Chicago is the number two city, but if New York is number one, it is number one by a wide margin. Walking around in downtown Chicago, and seeing the train there overground like in Brooklyn or Queens, you could see Chicago was number two.
I made it a point to take a leak at the Sears Tower, just to say I did it.
The back trip bus did not start out at five as scheduled. The smart female driver decided to skip the rush hour, heavy snow cocktail. And the bus had many more stops than was printed on my schedule. But I was back in the city around two in the afternoon and took the train home.
It felt good and normal to be back.
The December 16 court appearance went fine. My venue has been shifted. My immigration court date in New York could be anywhere between a few weeks and a few months away.
December 18
I got a city court date tomorrow. I have been led to understand the second charge gets dropped tomorrow. And then things are back to normal.
Then I will still have the social decision to make. Do I or do I not show up for DL21C events? After tomorrow it will be legal, I have been led to believe. I will see how I feel after I have an email from Leah telling me of progressive events in the city. I will play by the ear.
She is a Kennedy, but she is no spoilt child. She endorsed Barack at a point in the primary when I was not all that sure we will win. We won Iowa. Hillary won New Hampshire. It looked like it could go either way. She is smart. She has been in public service. She is not going to feel a downstate person to the upstate people. White woman for white woman. I don't like the idea of a male, any male, filling up Hillary's seat. There are few women in the US Senate as is. We need more not less women up there. I am not at all worried about the 2010 and 2012 elections. She will win both easy. She will raise money easy. She will travel across the state easy. Caroline, you got Barack, we got you. I like the Kennedy connection. I was not around when JFK was around. But I am around when Barack is around. Barack is JFK for the 21st century. Malia and Sasha might like a family friend in town who also was in the White House when really young.
JFK was in a boat with Caroline and a FDR son. The sharks are hungry, throw your socks to the sharks, JFK said to the FDR son. The FDR son complied and took his socks off and threw them into the water. Young Caroline was impressed.
She can more than do the job. She can more than win elections. And she brings along a load of name and charisma and glamor. She is a really famous person who is really grounded.
I think I am for Caroline Kennedy for Senator from New York.
December 11 7:30 - 10:30pm Nightingale Lounge 213 Second Ave. Northwest corner of 13th St. and 2nd Ave.
This was the best political event I have been to in the past month and a half. I liked the L train stop. There were groups like South Asians For Obama, and Latinos For Obama involved. I met many old timers, a whole bunch of people from back in the days. Considering I have been one of the earliest Obama volunteers in the city. And I met many new people.
Dave Pollak showed up around 10, gave a quick talk - he wants the Obama people to take over the state party, and was promptly out. I guess he came from the nearby DL21C party, and went right back there. The Holiday Bash is one of the two top events for that organization.
I was with two Madhesis in Jackson Heights right before the event. It was a good talk. We had samosa and momo.
I felt real comfortable at this event. You could feel the grassroots vibe.
Charles - Mr. President- is like I heard you got into a fight with Tracey, did you talk to her? My sister also confused the two women, one a Will Smith, another the Denzel Washington of young progressive women in Manhattan. I did not get into a fight, I think I got hammered. And there is lingering anxiety. There is the court date, the court order, and even if those two go away on the 18th, I still will face a few questions. I am sure emails from Leah will pop up listing progressive events in the city, some will be DL21C events. And I might be like, do I want to go, should I go? Even if the legal barrier is gone, if it is gone, I am still going to ask a social question. I might point blank ask ERC, "Are you uncomfortable I am here?" If the answer is yes, I would then no longer go to DL21C events for social reasons.
I am in a mood to go to few political events as possible in the first place. I might go to some select Obama events. I need to focus more on my work, and less on politics.
I met an interesting array of people. One 31 year old Desi woman said she wanted to travel, never wanted to have kids, a half Chinese, half white California woman, journalist for Village Voice, this Hispanic guy who expressed interest in my company whose wife ran Latinos For Obama, some Indian guys.
Lamont Carolina is just the coolest Obama volunteer. Theresa and Nina, the two dynamo Indian women. A lot of old time volunteers gave me knowing smiles.
The grassroots movement is very much on. There will be highs and lows, but the movement will go on.
High Bar 251 W. 48th Street Between 8th and Broadway
My anxiety over the state party party (December 10: Holiday) was what got me to show up at Youngblood's office a few days back where I found out I had a court date on the 18th, and the court order was still in place. So I went to the safe event, a Bill Thompson event. Or so I thought.
I RSVPd to Marla. She emailed me the new venue. There had been a change of venue.
I spent the afternoon with my sister. A week or two back I told her, after these six months it feels to me like you are the eldest child, and I am the youngest child. She laughed. She was in Nepal for a week in October after four years. I naturally am hungry for every little detail of her trip. And the food is much better at her place. I had lunch. And an evening snack.
Then I had a long walk before I hopped into a train to get to the venue. I got there 10 minutes after start time. For some reason I associated the word penthouse with the magazine word Playboy, but you could barely see people's necks. Maybe penthouse is an architecture term.
A few days earlier my sister had emailed me after she saw the digital image of that me, Justin, Tracey email. Look, here she is saying "This is really funny." Obviously she did not like it that you emailed her. I had to email her back saying it was not Tracey who pressed charges against me, I met her a few days back.
I had my 10 seconds with Bill Thompson. I walked over to where he was. He literally turned around when he saw me. Then I walked to his side and said hello, how you doing? He gave a quick polite reply and immediately turned to someone else. I had Silicon Valley attire - blue jeans, uncombed hair, a yellowish shirt I had been wearing three days and nights, a black overcoat that I had refused to check in, I like the feel of the thing, makes me feel important and composed and casual, and I think he reacted to my attire. This is a banking, media city. Dress casual means when you take the tie off. I never put the tie on. So what do I take off?
ERC Sighting
People have Elvis sightings, or at least claim so. I had an ERC sighting. They do share jawlines, if you think about it.
I showed up at the Bill Thompson event precisely because I assumed she would be at the state party party taking place at the same time. And I was proven right the first hour and a half.
Bill Thompson was introduced. He spoke. The music was nice. I had already made my small talk in the room early on. I had finished two thirds of my beer. So I decided to spend time with myself after the speech was over.
Then I turned around. And there she was. She was looking great. She looked straight at me. I made a split second reflex decision. I think it is not legal for me to be in this room no more. I gently turned around, put my glass away. Then gently turned again and walked out of the room in no hurry. I am an early to bed, early to rise child, take me to bed kind of walk, even though I am not an early to bed, early to rise child.
Even before the sighting I was thinking after December 18 it is going to be legal for me to show up for DL21C events. And I might show up. I think I will show up. Why not?
Out on the sidewalk, I thought, that was a straight, intense look, but I was not going to go into the if territory. I mean, she never dropped the second charge for which I have a court date on the 18th.
What would Jesus do? Jesus would probably walk away. What would Barack do? Barack would probably walk away. So I walked away. It was a split second decision, reflex, gentle. I think that was the right decision. I followed the law of the land.
Dave Pollak
Theresa with SAFO emailed earlier in the day that Dave Pollak was going to show up for the event tomorrow. That's great. I have a line for him.
"I think you made a difference in the swing states with those million phone calls. And tell Rambo I said hi."
I believe that is Rahm's nickname for his supposed profane ways. When I first learned that guy got appointed to be Chief of Staff, I am like, is this guy Hispanic or Jewish? I thought Hispanic.
Going To DL21C Events
After December 18 when it is no longer illegal for me to show up for DL21C events, I think I am going to show up for DL21C events if I feel like showing up for DL21C events, which I will.
The last thing I want to put any energy into is progressive infighting in the progressive capital of America, the progressive capital of the world. Not that I think I have what it takes to start a fight.
Request For Change Of Venue From Chicago To New York
December 9, 2008
Immigration Judge Zerbe, Craig M 55 East Monroe, Suite 1900 Chicago, IL 60603-5701 312 353 7313 c/o Epstein, Christine Court Administrator
Subject: Request For Change Of Venue For A 095156466
Your Honor.
I have lived in New York City since June 2005. This is my hometown. I have an immigration court date currently scheduled for December 16 in Chicago. My lawyer Rudrakumaran Visuvanathan has filed all necessary papers for change of venue. The immigration authorities in New York filed a request for change of venue on October 27. But the 1 800 898 7180 hotline still has me appearing in Chicago on December 16. I request that the change of venue decision be made immediately. It was my understanding that it was a rather routine request for my lawyer to make. I also have a city court date here in New York on December 18. It is going to be a major hassle for me to make it both places. That is for a court order violation charge that triggered my current immigration mess that my state appointed attorney John Youngblood assured me this morning on the phone is to be dropped that day.
Rudrakumaran Visuvanathan 875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2309 New York, NY 10001 212 290 2925
John Youngblood New York Defender Services 225 Broadway, Suite 1100 New York, NY 10007 212 571 6051
Thank You.
Yours sincerely.
Paramendra Bhagat
America Needs Me: A Case For Political Asylum
December 9, 2008 Immigration Judge Zerbe, Craig M 55 East Monroe, Suite 1900 Chicago, IL 60603-5701 312 353 7313 c/o Epstein, Christine Court Administrator
I fear political assassination upon return to Nepal between now and the 2010 election because of (a) my ethnicity: I am a Madhesi, (b) my political beliefs: I have a firm commitment to democracy and social justice, (c) my political abilities and the intense visibility that will invite upon my return: Barack Obama, Howard Dean, Terry McAuliffe, David Pollak all know me, I have played a central role to the three mass movements in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008, and (d) my association with the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, the organization that has best countered the Maoists politically.
My fear comes from (a) remnant elements of the old political order who lost much after the democracy movement of April 2006 that turned the poltical order upside down, (b) the Pahadi power brokers of the three largest parties in Nepal, the Maoists, the Nepali Congress, and the UML, (c) specifically the Maoists who might see me as an American agent, (d) elements of the Maoists who might still harbor their original dream of a one party communist republic, (e) elements of the Maoists who see the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum as their number one threat, (f) rivals from the Madhesi rights camp, (g) one or more of the armed Madhesi groups who might find I am not in tandem with their separate country agenda or their violent methods, and (g) mafia elements hired by any of the forces described above.
It is going to be very easy to finish me off. I am not going to have any security detail. A likely scenario is one person with a handgun who manages to flee. Or I might get poisoned. Or I might get killed in a choreographed road accident. That is how the life of the last charismatic Nepali leader ended: Madan Bhandari in the early 1990s. I am a MLK to the 13 million Madhesis on the planet. If I go to Nepal now, I die a MLK death.
I came to the United States on a student visa in August 1996. I was a student five years at Berea College in Kentucky. Berea is the number one liberal arts college in the South. Within six months of landing I got myself elected student body president at Berea, first time in the college's 150 plus year history a freshman had done such a thing, first and last.
In 1999 I was one of the founding members of a dot com company that went on to raise $25 million during its second round before it went down during what in the industry is known as the nuclear winter. I was also team member number two of another dot com that sought to challenge then industry leader AllAdvantage that paid people for watching ads while surfing the web. That company also closed shop once the nuclear winter set in and there was a massive dot com meltdown. The founder Paul went on to Duke.
You can work for a year after graduation. During that year my college sweetheart proposed to me and we got married. I got a green card. She was the smartest student at Berea. She had spent her first semester at Macalester, the Kofi Annan college in Minnesota.
It so happened that we ended up spending quite some time apart. There was travel involved on my part. She had a semester long internship in Australia, another subsequent semester long internship in Thailand. Somewhere along the way we fell out of love. I moved to New York City. I was a few months away from renewing my green card, something you do within two years. My ex still cared enough about me to suggest I renew the green card before we filed for divorce. I refused for emotional reasons. I passively let the deadline pass. As of winter 2005 my green card expired. Our separation paper said we had no children, no property to divvy up, and that she will get 5% of the income from my first published book. She had not asked for that 5%.
I have not worked any illegal job since. I have eaten into savings, swiped credit cards; recently I have borrowed money from my business partner. Adam Carson was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley before he quit and joined my team. The technology company I have founded has raised round one money, thanks to Adam, but I can't pay myself a salary because I am out of status. I was thinking I would grow the company a little more and then apply for a green card based on that. A friend of mine, a fellow Madhesi from Nepal, got his green card through his Seattle based software company. But now I am in a rather urgent situation, and I have decided to seek political asylum. I have an extremely strong case. If I show up in Nepal right now, I am dead meat.
The king of my country pulled a coup in February 2005 and took over. The country already had gone through a decade long civil war led by the Maoists in which 13,000 people died in active combat, twice that many committed suicide. The Maoists of Nepal had proven themselves to be the largest, deadliest ultra left group this planet saw since the end of the Cold War. At their peak they had 80% of the country.
In February 2005, three forces in Nepal were at loggerheads: the monarchists, the Maoists, and the democrats. Since February 2005 no Nepali outside of Nepal has put as much time into the democracy movement of Nepal as I have. Part of the reason I let my green card expire was because I was so busy thinking about the 27 million people in Nepal - days, nights, weekends, it was a zombie existence - I literally was not thinking about myself. There would be piles of unopened mail on my floor. The work I have put into Nepal's democracy and social justice movements is going to win me the Nobel Peace Prize. It could happen in 2009 or 2010.
What happened in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008 was magic. If Nepal can become a multi-party democracy of state funded parties and one where at least one third of the legislature is female by law, what happened in Nepal during those three mass movements will have been the French Revolution for this 21st century.
I went to the best school in Nepal. The number two guy in class went on to Harvard to Goldman. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, I never went to Harvard. When Bill Gates was 19, he launched a company. When I was 19, I launched a political party.
I am a Madhesi in Nepal. In Rwanda they got Hutu and Tutsi. In Nepal they got Pahadi and Madhesi. Jesus was a Jew. There are 13 million Jewish people on the planet. Buddha was a Madhesi. There are about 13 million Madhesis on the planet. That is how many black folks MLK had when he was doing what he was doing.
More than 40% of the people in Nepal are Madhesi. Of the 30,000 Nepalis in New York City, maybe 30 are Madhesi. That should tell you of the filters in Nepal that work against the Madhesis.
I am half Nepali, half Indian by birth. More than 99% of the Nepalis in America are not my ethnicity. More than 99% of the Indians in America are not my ethnicity. I need to point out the ethnic politics in countries like Nepal and India are way more complicated than the racial politics in countries like America. Barack did not have it tougher growing up.
Please check my Nepal blog for my work into Nepal: http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com. Please check my Barackface blog for my work into Obama 2008: htp://democracyforum.blogspot.com. Barack knows me, as does Howard Dean. Terry McAuliffe knows me. I have a feeling the Clintons might be aware of my presence. All the top politicians in Nepal know me or of me.
There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest could be the reason a cyclone hit Bangladesh. What happened in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008 were political cyclones. I was the butterfly flapping my wings in New York City. What I did I could not have done from Kathmandu.
In April 2006, over a period of 19 days, about eight million people out of the country's 27 million came out into the streets to shut the country down completely to force a dictator out. The Maoists wanted to take credit but they had been pushing for an armed uprising all along. The seven democratic parties kept pushing for a mass meeting here, a mass meeting there, a daylong shutdown here, and a daylong shutdown there. I am the father of the concept of continuous movement in the Nepalese context. I pushed the concept from the very beginning. If there is a tortoise sitting on the fence, chances are it did not randomly get there.
All the political actors and parties that took credit for April 2006 were fundamentally opposed to the Madhesi movement of January-February 2007 that was a more intense movement than April 2006. February 2008 was the second chapter of the Madhesi movement and the third chapter to the April 2006 revolution itself. I was the one constant to all three.
When Upendra Yadav, now leader of the largest Madhesi party and fourth largest party overall after the April 10, 2008 elections to the constituent assembly in Nepal, landed in Los Angeles in July 2007 for the annual conference of Nepalis in America, his first words were "Where is Paramendra Bhagat?" They took him to the hotel. He again asked, "Where is Paramendra Bhagat?" They had to fly him over to NYC to meet me.
I was at a Nepali event in Jackson Heights in Queens. Some MPs from Nepal were on stage. I was sitting in the front row. Hundreds were in attendance. In the middle of the program one MP got off stage to come sit one seat from me to get his picture taken with me. Then he got embarrassed and said he was trying to get the crowd into the background of the picture.
In February 2006 Madhav Nepal, then leader of the largest political party in the country, was put under house arrest by the royal regime. A month later he managed to come online wireless. His brother lived in the house next to his. The first person he contacted was me. We chatted on Google Talk. Madhav Nepal is a Pahadi.
The civil war in Nepal is officially over. Nepal had elections on April 10. Why would I feel unsafe in Nepal today? Me going to Nepal would not exactly be like Benazir Bhutto going back to Pakistan and getting killed. I have never been Prime Minister of Nepal, but I was thought of as a future Prime Minister when I was at high school back in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992. Result? The Pahadi teachers and administrators destroyed my final three and a half years of high school experience. Besides I am not going to have Benazir's bulletproof car, her bodyguards, and her money. I guess you could say there were declared threats on her life. I don't have any known declared threats on me. That is discounting the numerous, random email threats I received during January-February 2007. I took those in stride from the safety of NYC. Most of them would say, come to Nepal, and we will know to take care of you.
So why do I have safety concerns about going to Nepal? Do I know for sure that I will be in harm's way if I show up? No, I don't. But my instincts tell me I will not be safe. Why? There are a few different reasons.
Nobody in the Nepali diaspora put as much time, effort and talent into the democracy movement in Nepal as I did. The old regime is gone. A new set of people have come into power. A lot of peple who used to be very important are not important no more. They don't have their old prestige, but they still have money and resources to inflict damage. In a country like Nepal you can get killed and although there will be all sorts of rumors, no one will know for sure who did it. Not claiming responsibility is the best way to do it. I do fear the anger of those who have lost much with the onset of democracy in the country.
April 2006 saw the democracy movement, but January-February 2007 and February 2008 saw the Madhesi Movement. I am a Madhesi. This was like our own civil rights movement. Upendra Yadav has been the face of that movement in Nepal. Until March 2008 Upendra Yadav did not move around like a free man but rather an underground political worker. He would always have 12-15 people with him. Very few people knew where he spent his nights. He did nonviolent political work but he moved around the country like there was a price on his head. I got to meet Yadav in New York City for a few days in July 2007 when he flew over, his airfare paid for by a Madhesi entrepreneur in Russia who back in summer became Russia's Manager Of The Year.
Why would someone want to shoot and kill a Martin Luther King? Why would some random person want to do that? I am a MLK to the 13 million Madhesis on the planet. Of the six biggest parties in Nepal, three are Madhesi. The top leaders of those three parties are practically my fans. The top leaders of two of those parties used to be on the central committee of the party to which I was Vice General Secretary before I flew to America in 1996. Both have been cabinet members, one a few different times.
What might work in the favor of my safety though is that although all the top politicians in Nepal know me, I am not exactly a household name. I have mattered fundamentally to the peace process, the democracy movement, the Madhesi movement, but my work has been primarily to suggest tactics, strategy, and moves. In that I have almost been like a political consultant to the peace process. Also, my ways have always been nonviolent. So I don't exactly have people waiting to get "even" with me. But all it would take is one bad apple, one sick mind, one twisted heart.
And there is always jealousy. People like me who fight for equality for Madhesis and Blacs - Black, Latino, Asian Coalition - sometimes lose sight of the fact that our own peoples can harbor our worst enemies. Bob Marley made it big in America and Europe. He went back to Jamaica and was shot at.
Talk of physical harm, it has already happened. My youngest sister lives in the city. She is married to Bisun, a Madhesi who went to the same high school in Kathmandu as me, was a few years junior, he went to Harvard, now works at Columbia Medical Center where Bill Clinton got his heart surgery.
Bisun's father was brutally murdered about a year and a half ago. His body was chopped into pieces like a butcher's meat. The police said at least five individuals must have been involved. To this day no one knows for sure who did it. There were all sorts of rumors. Two of the largest rival armed Madhesi groups blamed each other. 700 armed cadres of one left the group and joined the other as if in protest. Some people blamed the Maoists. Others blamed some low caste groups in the village. Some blamed some Muslim youths in the village who a few days later fled. The largest armed Madhesi group blamed the Prime Minister of the country - Nepal has never had a Madhesi Prime Minister - and retaliated by murdering a close relative of the Prime Minister. If you are going to kill a Paramendra Bhagat relative, we are going to kill one of yours. That was the thinking. In a case of internalized rage, Bisun ended up blaming his own brother and that brother's wife.
I want to make it absolutely clear that I have never had any contact with any armed Madhesi group ever and there have been a dozen of them. But their thinking highly of me should tell you how much I have mattered to the Madhesi Movement.
But the worst happened a few weeks later. The story about the Muslim youths caught fire. My family lives in the eastern plains of Nepal. In the western plains a prominent Muslim from the Prime Minister's party was murdered by two gunmen on a motorbike who managed to flee. Many suspect one of the two largest armed Madhesi groups might have been involved. That murder sparked riots that engulfed a few different districts. The riots were Pahadi-Madhesi, Hindu-Muslim. The riots lasted two weeks and were so bad the police and the army were not able to penetrate hundreds of square miles for those weeks. There was much damage to lives and property. It is very possible there is leftover anger. Do you think there are at least some people who don't believe I have had nothing to do with any of the armed Madhesi groups?
Dawood ran - runs - the Mumbai underworld from Dubai, Karachi. Mirja was Dawood's top guy in Nepal. I was never mafia, but I was very good friends with some people he was very good friends with. We knew of each other, met a few times. He was a wildly popular politician. At one point he was a cabinet minister. I guess they don't do FBI background checks back there in Nepal. A few months after I came to America, they pushed 42 bullets into Mirza's body. They could not afford the news that he was "still alive." Dawood retaliated. His rival Chhota Rajan ran his business from Bangkok. There was an attempt on Chhota Rajan's life in Bangkok.
I came to America in 1996. I never left.
Safety is my number one personal reason to press for asylum, but I would also like to press the special talent narrative. A Nepali music entrepreneur I know and several Nepali movie stars and artists got their green cards in the special talent category. I am a very special talent. America needs me, and America needs me in New York City.
I am the un-Bin Laden. I mean no disrespect to Christianity and Christ and if I use this metaphor it is because it is such a vivid one. Bin Laden is the anti-Christ, I am Christ. If 9/11 has been the modern day Pearl Harbor, the first major revolution of the 21st century happened in Nepal. Between eight years of a Barack Obama presidency, a possible Mayor of NYC who will get behind my idea of a new definition for voting rights in this city to engulf everyone who lives inside the city boundaries, and my tech company that will work to get hundreds of millions of new people online, I think you are looking at a total spread of democracy by 2020. The day all Arab countries have been turned into democracies is the day the War On Terror ends. There are two aspects to that war. There is the part about killing mosquitoes. The US military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies working with their counterparts in other countries get to kill mosquitoes: that is not my area of expertise. Someone like me helps drain the swamp. Everybody you need to spread democracy everywhere on earth lives right here in New York City. America needs me, and America needs me to be in New York City.
China is also going to be a multi-party democracy. But likely it will become a multi-party democracy of state funded parties, and the Chinese Communist Party will continue in power for a few more decades. Taiwan and Tibet will be states in a federal China.
My company is the best thing I could do for my country and countries like mine. Not everyone has to come to America like I did. The Internet is what will bridge the gap between the First World and the Third World, between the west and the rest. I could not work on my company in Nepal. I have to be in New York City to grow my company. I am going to list my company on NASDAQ. I am going to turn this into a Silicon City. I am going to be the reason the center of gravity of the tech industry shifts from California to New York. My very young company alone might be reason enough to give me legal status.
I would like to share a story. In ancient Greece there was this mathematician, I forget the name. One day he was out in his yard, drawing lines in the sand, deep in thought. That very day his country got conquered. He was famous enough that the conquering emperor sent a soldier to fetch him for a private audience. The mathematician told the soldier he was in the middle of solving a theorem and waved him off. The soldier got angry and hacked him to death. During the six months of detention at times it has felt to me like I am that mathematician. I have been doing cutting edge work in politics and business. Don't hack me.
Warren Buffett once said he could not be CEO of General Electric. My management and leadership styles by now place a heavy emphasis on Web 2.0 and a heavy consumption and production of mind food. The worlds of academia, media, politics and business are seamless. I might have more in common with a theoretical physicist than your stereotypical MBA.
I am not someone who wants to stay back in America for the good life. I am someone who decided staying back is how I could make the greatest positive impact on the country I grew up in, the country that I left, and other countries like that one. Although I don't mind the good life.
America is a concept, America is an idea, that concept, that idea is democracy, it is the market mechanism. When was the last time an immigrant into America played a larger role for democracy and social justice in his country of origin and intends to play a similar role for all countries that are not yet democracies? The medium is not the message, but my role would not have been possible before the advent of the Internet. I am a new breed revolutionary intending to wage wars with communications technology. I am a digital democrat. I am the un-Bin Laden. Neither of us seem to need states or standing armies. He is for violence. I am for nonviolent militancy, the kind where you shut a country down completely for three weeks to bring a dictator to his knees.
Burma did not have a Paramendra Bhagat or Burma too would have succeeded. Tibet did not have a Paramendra Bhagat or Tibet too would have succeeded.
I got into this immigration mess due to two charges of harassment and violation of court order. The harassment charge was long dropped by the person who pressed it. The court order violation charge is bogus and my state appointed attorney has assured me it will get dropped in court on December 18. I am not someone trying to run. I am not someone trying to hide. I expect to list my tech company on NASDAQ in seven years or less. Someone like that intends to play by the rules, function in the system. The work of mainstreaming the Maoists in Nepal is not over yet. That country needs my help to write itself a new constitution. I am still very much needed on a near daily basis to monitor the situation and to suggest political moves. And while I am at it I am also going to be useful to the Obama presidency. Barack knows me. He has taken advice from me a few times. My young tech company also needs me on a near daily basis.
When you are doing cutting edge work, by definition you will not have much in the name of company. The money also seems to wait. At one point Einstein said, "Through my work I have put a clock in every corner of the universe, but I don't have enough money to put a clock on my own wall." I am going to be a billionaire, but right now I live on little.
Please grant me my work authorization papers immediately, and ultimately grant me political asylum. After I win the Nobel I expect President Obama to give me an honorary US citizenship.
