Some more progress in fight against retrogression

S

Shakti Kapoor

Registered Users (C)
Friends,
As posted in my earlier posting, I was in touch with Paul regarding the fight that we can put up against retrogression. Paul called me up today and explained how he is going to do it.

His idea was
a) Lets put up a website to convey our thoughts....initial cost ( 5000$)
b) Once the website is put up, he will market GREEN CARD PHONE CARDS through them. Part of the money would cover the phone card costs, part of them will go towards a fund which will be used to lobby with senators and congressman. ( note - to hire profressionals who are supposedly called insiders in white house to lobby for us, we might need somewhere around half million dollars)
c) Talk to one of the biggest retail stores who employes a lot of illegal immigrants to sell the phone cards over the counter during the checkout process by displaying a sign which says " BUY THIS CARD TO SUPPORT THE IMMIGRATION REFORM".

The money is required for the initial website setup and then it will generate money itself. We can also then market the card among fellow indians, pakistanis, chinese and other nationals so the more card they buy, the more money goes into this process.

These are just his views and not mine.

What do you guys think...will it work....need to have inputs from you before I and my friends decide to put the money in this venture.

Thanks
Shakti
 
Abe kahan mar gaye sab ke sab....124 views and no suggestions....bhai log hamare 5000 dollars lagne wale hain...tumse to paisa nahin maang raha hoon....suggestions to do ki whether its a feasible solution or not...

Shakti
 
Hi Shakti:

Thought I will send my opinion after I go home this evening.
But looks like I cannot wait.

Here is my opinion:

The idea seems good but for me, it is first of its kind and not sure how it is going to work. I think I will definitely buy cards and ask/market all my relatives/friends to buy cards. Or I will buy and give away as gifts. I do not think anybody looses anything by buying phone cards.

Also, I read you previous postings and I would like to contribute couple of hundred dollars. Let me know when and how.

This is the least that anybody can do and I request others to jump in and support.
 
I'm totally flattened

Let me know how i can help you....my contribution is 2999.00$. Also pl let me know the store name, city and telephone number so i can go and buy cards.
thanks so much for fighting for me, infact for all of us. i will name my child after you for doing so much for me and the community. We will never forget you and we always remain in debt to you.

i request all of those reading, please appreciate Mr. "Abe kahan mar gaye sab ke sab" and help him. Give him an helping hand. All he is asking of us is NOT money but JUST suggestions...please pour out your suggestions. We can't thank him enough even collectively. May God bless you Shakti for your unselfish efforts understading our pain and frustration.
 
Shakti:

Whos the target audience? - legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, everyone affected?

What phone card types do they propose to market - domestic, long distance, international long distance etc?

Take into consideration that most people who come under the legal immigrations section (H1B, L1, Family etc) may have cell phones and people calling internationally may have cheaper and more convenient alternatives. E.g. Reliance makes it very convenient for me to call India whenever I want from my cell phone and I dont have to tag a card in my wallet nor enter a 8-10 digit pin.

Just throwing in my thoughts. Its nice that you are taking the initiative. I can't think of better alternatives but I hope you get more input from forum members on this.
 
Shakti,

What is the profile of Mr. Paul? What he has to his credential!!! Shakti $6000 is a big amount.
Shakti I would like to talk to you. Can you reply for my PM?
 
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Shakti Kapoor said:
Friends,
As posted in my earlier posting, I was in touch with Paul regarding the fight that we can put up against retrogression. Paul called me up today and explained how he is going to do it.

His idea was
a) Lets put up a website to convey our thoughts....initial cost ( 5000$)
b) Once the website is put up, he will market GREEN CARD PHONE CARDS through them. Part of the money would cover the phone card costs, part of them will go towards a fund which will be used to lobby with senators and congressman. ( note - to hire profressionals who are supposedly called insiders in white house to lobby for us, we might need somewhere around half million dollars)
c) Talk to one of the biggest retail stores who employes a lot of illegal immigrants to sell the phone cards over the counter during the checkout process by displaying a sign which says " BUY THIS CARD TO SUPPORT THE IMMIGRATION REFORM".

The money is required for the initial website setup and then it will generate money itself. We can also then market the card among fellow indians, pakistanis, chinese and other nationals so the more card they buy, the more money goes into this process.

These are just his views and not mine.

What do you guys think...will it work....need to have inputs from you before I and my friends decide to put the money in this venture.

Thanks
Shakti
Click to expand...

Bhai Shakti Kapoor and friends,

Dont mistake me, but I can say this from my own experience with INS/USCIS over the past few years:

What you guys are doing (paying $ 5k, setting up wesite, raising money to hire lobbyists etc) is laudable, but it is similar to the saying "If you treat a cold it will go away in 7 days, if you do not it will go away in a week"

Just wait until next year, which is an election year, and you will suddenly see that all these 3,4 year retrogressions will magically become current, and all of you will get green cards.

Then a fresh batch of applicants will go thru similar suffering and eventually get GCs. So, I can frame the analogy:

"If you organize and complain you will get your GC in 60 months, if you just apply and forget about it, you will get GC in 5 years"
 
gc-despo said:
Just wait until next year, which is an election year, and you will suddenly see that all these 3,4 year retrogressions will magically become current, and all of you will get green cards.
Click to expand...

Who said its election year next year? Was it not over last year?

BTW, someone has to take some initiative to resolve these kind of immigration issues. If the same way Mr.Khanna had thought, he wouldn't have solved lot of issues in the last 3-4 years. He filed few law suites and won them as well.

Even though I have received my GC six months, still I would participate in this by buying calling cards and canvasing calling cards to my friends as well.

Good luck to you all who participate in this quest.
 
Apollo_13 said:
Who said its election year next year? Was it not over last year?

BTW, someone has to take some initiative to resolve these kind of immigration issues. If the same way Mr.Khanna had thought, he wouldn't have solved lot of issues in the last 3-4 years. He filed few law suites and won them as well.

Even though I have received my GC six months, still I would participate in this by buying calling cards and canvasing calling cards to my friends as well.

Good luck to you all who participate in this quest.
Click to expand...

Next year is Congressional Election year (all seats of House + 1/3 seats of Senate)
 
appreciate you sakthi kapoor

I really appreciate your intiatives sakthi. It should be community based effort.
There are lot of desis out there who are struggling to get thier GCs.
BTW your phone card ideas sounds good. Another one suggestion

We can establish website and we can have promo links to other company websites to buy their products.We can generate commision out of it.Also we can talk to big stores like super markets chain, circuit city, Best Buy to give us commision if we refer our community people to buy products there.We can issue printed coupon to the people and can be presented to the stores.

At last our community is one of the biggest consumer in this country.The revenues can be utilized towards our campaign
 
Shakti,

Your initiative is really laudable. I have a question, maybe a naive one.
How much time, effort will be needed to generate half million by selling calling cards? We are talking about printing, marketing, distribution costs. The profit from the cards will go towards building up half million. 10-12 people in this very thread are ready to support the cause and buy the cards. If each buys $50 worth of cards, then we are talking about $500 revenue. Of which say, $100 goes towards the half million. Instead of this, why dont we come up with $50 contributions? Someone was ready to pay $200. I am sure we will have an average contribution of $100 atleast. Since we are all in this together, can't we approach the yahoo group "techworkers". They have around 2500+ members and growing. I am sure they can pitch in too. If we reach out to our friends and spread this, I believe we can raise the half million without selling cards.
The techworkers are contacting senators, congressmen and making their voices heard, while you are going the lobby way. I think this combination might work best since the two strategies might compliment each other.

As as I said, this might be a naive idea. But I think instead of people like us buying $50 worth of cards, it would be better if they contriute $50 directly towards raising $500K.
 
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What you say is good and complements what Shakti is doing. However besides cards people should also directly contribute around $100 if not more towards this effort. Seems 1/2 million is 100 * 5000(people), this will take a lot of time. So we will have to have a cobination of both fast donations and over the month(s) income through cards. As yahoo tech group has about 2,500 if they each give 100$ we should atleast be half way mark within weeks.
--Naveen Oshos
meranumkabayega said:
Shakti,

Your initiative is really laudable. I have a question, maybe a naive one.
How much time, effort will be needed to generate half million by selling calling cards? We are talking about printing, marketing, distribution costs. The profit from the cards will go towards building up half million. 10-12 people in this very thread are ready to support the cause and buy the cards. If each buys $50 worth of cards, then we are talking about $500 revenue. Of which say, $100 goes towards the half million. Instead of this, why dont we come up with $50 contributions? Someone was ready to pay $200. I am sure we will have an average contribution of $100 atleast. Since we are all in this together, can't we approach the yahoo group "techworkers". They have around 2500+ members and growing. I am sure they can pitch in too. If we reach out to our friends and spread this, I believe we can raise the half million without selling cards.
The techworkers are contacting senators, congressmen and making their voices heard, while you are going the lobby way. I think this combination might work best since the two strategies might compliment each other.

As as I said, this might be a naive idea. But I think instead of people like us buying $50 worth of cards, it would be better if they contriute $50 directly towards raising $500K.
Click to expand...
 
How about...

creating simple website to sell used/unused/unwanted items between forum members .. and give the proceeds to this cause.

I have a website of my own .. not using it for long. Paid for hosting for the whole year. So, if you are ready to design I will give you all the details of login and password...

Let me know.
 
Shakti Kapoor said:
I am sold???????????????? What does that mean :-)

Shakti
Click to expand...

He has sold himself to a desi Bhadwa. and wants to help you help himself getting out from the clutches of the bhadwa.

Nice idea though. keep posting how its going. Surely this itself wont solve anything but, this is certainly another bucket of water in the ocean if not a drop.

neocor
 
Any body who stays in washington DC area....we are planning to meet next weekend to start this. I will let you know about the progress in coming days. Anybody from virginia, maryland and washington Dc are welcome to join us in the meeting. I will let you know about the details as they unfold.

Just let me know if you are from this area and are willing to participate so that i can coordinate this with you on a personal basis.

Shakti
 
honestly everybody her is out of mind. you guys think shakti can turn over table? who manages and accounts for money raised? After a while shakti and friends will end up with nice calling cards business and live happily thereafter. You think nobody in immigration/lawyer community got this brilliant idea?
btw already rajiv khanna office raised money for lobbying more than a year ago. now nobody talks about it. no accountability, who is paid what, how they paid and what they paid for?

guys if you have too much money give to the needy ones who are very very less fortunate than we are
 
I thought about the same thing....but to clear the misconception, I am not a part of the business....the business will be owned by Mr Paul, I am just like you...contributing towards the intial 5000 dollars to set this up....not yet talked to those guys about the financial accountability.....thats why I asked about suggestions.....Dont question my intentions.....yes you can question the accountability...i completely agree with that....but i am no way related to the business....its just an idea that was propped up to me and i said that i would post it on this forum to test the waters....

There is a difference between lawyers and immigration community fighting our case and we fighting it ourselves.....Do you think AILA is concerned about our apathy....do you think, the so called immigration lawyers know a shit about how internal lobbying in congress works....we need profressional lobbyist to work for us....not these guys....


I welcome your concern....believe me I have been thinking about it for quite long...who will control the money...are we just arranging this money for mr paul to start his business....i am still debating over the fact that is this a feasible idea....as I mentioned, don't suspect my intentions....i am one among you....just trying to find out ways to get out of this mess.

Thanks
Shakti
 
And i have already made it clear....we dont need money...we need suggestions....people are volunteering to be a part of this....Read my first post carefully....I have mentioned that me and my friends have already arranged the money....I just wanted my fellow immigrants to let me know whether I am in the right direction.

Shakti
 
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