When New York Governor Eliot Spitzer recently announced a measure to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, advocates celebrated, as the policy change will allow those who lack legal status in the U.S. to obtain state-issued identification. But concerns remain about the ways that the measure will be overseen, whether it will be blocked by the New York State Assembly, and how it will affect implementation of the Real ID Act, which calls for the creation of a national, standardized driver’s license intended to be less vulnerable to fraud. We’ll be joined by Amy Sugimori of La Fuente, a NYC-based non-profit organization that works in immigrant communities, to talk about the policy change and its potential impact.

Since early this year, Burmese citizens have taken to the streets to challenge the military junta’s economic and political mismanagement of the country. To make matters worse, the government has reacted to the protestors with violent attacks, detentions and media censorship. Buddhist monks are at the center of these protests, demanding improvements in education, health care and public services. Last week, 20,000 monks and nuns led a group of protestors in Yangon that reached at least 50,000 in number. Despite advocacy from international human rights groups and activists on the ground, security forces fired on the crowd, killing nine people, including a Japanese photojournalist. But how have monks become a political force in Burma, and what is their cultural status there? We will speak with Ingrid Jordt, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, whose work examines the relationship between religion and politics in Burma.

Finally, we bring you a sneak peek at the Third Annual South Asian International Film Festival, which opens tomorrow. The festival, which will present feature-length and short films from both established and emerging artists, will run through Tuesday, October 9 at three locations in New York City. Selections include Outsourced, a feature film about a man who, after losing his job to outsourcing, has to travel to India to train his replacement; and The Ayubowan Women’s Project, which traces the beginnings of a small organization which works with Sri Lankan women to restore lives devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. We’ll be joined by Manjri Srivastava, the director of the festival.