August 22, 2019

The Siri Singh Sahib Corporation (SSSC), as the oversight body of the Yogi Bhajan legacy organizations, is charged with supporting the mission and vision of the organizations and ensuring that our collective values and moral standards are being upheld. Toward that end, the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation has decided on three actions to serve and uphold those values.

The SSSC has listened closely to concerns raised about Akal Security’s role as a subcontractor to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) at the Krome Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida. In response to issues relating to the current administration’s immigration policies, a sincere discussion is ongoing at the SSSC about how to uphold our collective values and move forward in the most expedient, responsible, and humanitarian manner possible.

The SSSC supports the legal and human rights of refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers who have come to the United States seeking shelter and safety from untenable situations in their home countries. Along with people of conscience around the world, we are increasingly concerned about the recent shifts in tactics and policies being applied to innocent people seeking asylum. We are morally opposed to separation of children from their parents and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and immigrants.

Background
Akal Security has provided security services to the US government since 1987. The types of facilities that Akal has served include courthouses, airports, army bases, offices, and other government facilities. The scope of Akal Security’s work at Krome is to maintain safety and security at the facility while the cases of the individuals detained are resolved.

The population at Krome consists entirely of adult males; no women or children are housed there. This facility has not experienced the large influx of newly arriving immigrants such as we have seen at the US-Mexico border. Unlike the temporary, overcrowded facilities on the US-Mexico border depicted in the news, the Krome facility is a highly controlled detention environment in a permanent building equipped with air conditioning, beds, recreational facilities, showers, medical staff, access to books and legal counsel, and food options according to religious and dietary choices.

The SSSC’s Board of Trustees has made the following determinations:

1. The organizations under the SSSC umbrella may not enter into any future contracts with ICE.
2. Funds from Akal Security shall not be included in future grants to the legacy non- profit organizations as long as Akal Security remains in any ICE or ICE related contracts. These include: Sikh Dharma International, 3HO Foundation International, Kundalini Research Institute, Sikhnet, Sikh Dharma Education International and 3HO of Europe. As a point of fact, Akal Security has not granted funds to the non-profits for the past 5 years.
3. The Siri Singh Sahib Corporation and Akal Security are actively exploring and evaluating Akal's business model including the current contract at the Krome Facility.

All of our organizations, for-profit and nonprofit, are committed to working actively for positive change, and we encourage all people of conscience to get involved in ways to make a difference.

The members of the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation Board appreciate the prayers and concerns of all those who have reached out and participated in this process, and will report back to the community any future developments about this issue.


Humbly yours,
The Board of Trustees
Siri Singh Sahib Corporation

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For comments and questions email: info@ssscorp.org 

If you want to play this game of love, then step onto my path with your head in your hands.
Once you set out on this path, give your head and disregard the opinion of others.

To read more about the SDI Yatra, read past experiences or even participate in the 2019 Yatra please click on the following link: www.lightofgurunanak.com

Vitality and Stress Level Two Training  taught November 2018 in Accra, Ghana was the second one ever conducted in West Africa. The first one was lead by me in January of 2017 with the assistance of Ram Singh of France. 

I began Level 1 trainings in Ghana in 2005 and Togo in 2007. There are 10-12 teachers in Lome, Togo that have been teaching and conducting Level 1 trainings since 2008. There are 5-7 who have been teaching well before that without Level 1 certification. I was successful in getting a small grant to bring 4 of the teachers to Summer Solstice, two in 2010 and two in 2011.

Yogi Tea was host to local officials, visiting guests and board members from around the world, local and non-local Sangat members and company employees and their families on Saturday August 11th for the gala public opening of the new Yogi tea manufacturing plant in Eugene Oregon.

In a family friendly meet and greet that started at 11:00 am with fruit drinks, yogi tea (of course!), live music, and ice cream about 250 guests watched Yogi Tea Company CEO, Giancarlo Marcaccini, and employee’s children cut the ribbon to open the new plant. SS Nirvair Kaur offered a prayer written by the Siri Singh Sahib to bless the occasion.

A world cuisine buffet was served in the new Yogi Tea conference and dining hall while guests continued to mingle. Giancarlo Marcaccini gave the opening speech, emphasizing the values that Yogi Tea was founded on and continues to live by. Parampal Singh, operations manager, talked about the process involved in creating the new building, from vision to art work and plant machinery. He also thanked the many people involved in bringing the new tea factory into being. Lastly, Sat Bir Singh, director of world communications and outreach, directed guests to sign up for tours of the new plant.

The tour was the most impressive part of the activities for me. Although internal pictures of the plant were not allowed, the size of the facility is amazing.  The site is 13.3 acres, which is hard to imagine. It is the largest new commercial build in Eugene in the last 10 years. The building is 190,754 square feet, equal to over 4 football fields. Over 7,500 plants are installed, there are 45 exterior and 97 interior doors in the facility and over 2,400 gallons of paint was used in decoration. Seva Kaur (LA) and Sat Hari Kaur(Eugene) were the principle interior artists. Two of the eye-catching motifs used in the artwork are enlarged Yogi tea bag sayings by the Siri Singh Sahib, which tastefully offer inspiring spiritual and lifestyle affirmations, and large mandalas which adorn many of the larger wall spaces. Each room is named after a spice used in production of the tea. The building is in the process of being gold LEED certified and will be the only tea production facility in the world to be so designated.

Sat Nam,

It has been some time since we reached out to the global Sangat through the vehicle of this newsletter.  As you can see we have a new format for our newsletter and we have launched a public Siri Singh Sahib Corporation website.

With the recent formation of an SSSC Sangat Communications committee, we expect to communicate more regularly with our global Sangat.  

The Siri Singh Sahib created a vast organization of for profit and non-profit corporations whose reach touched people around the globe.  The responsibility to oversee that organization lies with the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation in partnership with the boards and employees of the various organizations the Siri Singh Sahib founded.  The growth of Kundalini Yoga and Sikh Dharma is phenomenal, and we are just at the beginning of this expansion.  It seems, wherever you go in the world, you are likely to have someone come up to you and say Sat Nam.  The energy of the various local, national and international events (yoga festivals, Solstices, Baisakhi Day, Sat Nam Fests) is increasing and we are all privileged to be in the forefront of this change in human consciousness.