goanet-digest Saturday, May 25 2002 Volume 01 : Number 4017
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In this issue:
[Goanet] what is new on The Goan Forum Website
[Goanet] From Prof. Hari Sharma (retd.)
[Goanet] Interview with Fred Noronha
[Goanet] Wake up Sr.Pe.Vigar/Sr.Pe.Cur.
See end of digest for information on subscribing/unsusbcribing.
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Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 13:57:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: The Goan Forum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] what is new on The Goan Forum Website
Dear all,
Three new posts responses are added to TGF's "Are
Goans Liberated " editorial (total now 20 responses)
at http://www.colaco.net being updated bur still
accessible
they are listed below
your criticism are welcome
jc for TGF
=======
Livia de Abreu Noronha
May 24, 2002
"One man's meat is another man's poison", and
therefore to some Goa is liberated and to others it is
still in bondage.
Nitin Singh
May 24, 2002
Even if Mr. Prabhudesai “doesn’t miss an opportunity
to slam the Portuguese”, we do have TGF here to defend
the Portuguese honor! Don’t we!?! *
Nitin Singh
May 25, 2002
Ineffective Indian blockade of Goa, Hippies and a
communal harmony that came into being*
Both * posts have TGF comments added at foot of posts
Coming Soon.....Siddis & Religion
=====
Recommended Goan Sites in Cyberspace
Goa-World at http://www.goa-world.net
The Goan Forum is at http://www.colaco.net
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
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http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 18:47:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: George Pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] From Prof. Hari Sharma (retd.)
Dear friends:
Here is a report on the NY event. It shows that the Sangh Parivar fascists can indeed
be isolated.
It shows that they may be very well organized, and very vocal. But they are still a
very small
minority. A hand full of upper-caste, upper-class, bigots.
Imagine what would be their fate if the vast majority of the NRI's - the workers in
the organized
and unorganized sectors, the un- or under-employed marginalized workers, the taxi
drivers, the
workers on the farms, the small business men and women, those belonging to religious
minorities,
the dalits, and the students and professionals who still have their thinking faculties
and their
rationality not appropriated - imagine, if all of these were brought together to stand
up and
speak! The Hindutava-fascists among the NRIs in North America (or anywhere else) do
not amount to
more a tiny percent of the lot. They can be silenced. They can be reduced to their
little
conceited selves.
A definite indication of the work we have to do. And a cheering news, indeed.
Hari sharma
President, SANSAD,
President, INSAF
A 'Riot' was planned, but nobody came
Rediff.com News
May 22, 2002
0950 IST
Prem Panicker in New York
A "boisterous protest" was scheduled for this evening. It didn't happen. And a good
thing, too.
The voice of fundamentalism, though often short on fact and long on rhetoric, tends to
be shrill.
The voice of reason, though sane, lucid, eloquent, tends to be soft.
It is in the nature of the second to be drowned, and of the first to drown. The real
triumph of
this evening, thus, could well lie in the fact that the voice of reason was heard, and
appreciated
with frequent bursts of applause, by the audience at the Tischman Auditorium in the
main building
of The New School, on 12th Street, New York.
Outside the school premises, the middle-aged Narain Kataria of the Hindu Swayamsevak
Sangh and his
followers - numbering all of 18 - chanted a few slogans, held up assorted placards,
and flashed
embarrassed grins at passersby wondering what the heck was going on.
Inside, an audience of approximately 500 people, at $10 a pop, gathered for a staged
reading of
author and senior United Nations official Shashi Tharoor's novel, 'Riot'.
For the uninitiated, a staged reading is essentially a dramatised version of a book or
part
thereof, in multiple voices. In this instance, four characters from the book - Ram
Charan Gupta,
Mohammad Sarwar, superintendent of police Gurinder Singh and district magistrate
Lakshman were
chosen. And voiced by, respectively, actress and parliamentarian Shabhana Azmi,
actress and
director Madhur Jaffrey, Tharoor himself, and Deputy Editorial Features Editor of the
Wall
Street Journal Tunku Varadarajan.
'Riot' - the novel - is a tale of love and its almost inevitable fictional
concomitant, death, set
against the backdrop of the Ram Janambhoomi agitation. In it, the author uses 12
different
voices to tell his story and, inter-alia, to cast light on the troubled times.
Michael Johnson Chase, International Program Director of the Lark Theatre Company, in
tandem with
the author adapted the book for the event. That is to say, he gave the central romance
the miss in
baulk, and made the canvas itself his tale.
Thus on stage we had Shabhana Azmi playing the volatile Hindutva chauvinist Ram Charan
Gupta.
Ironical bit of casting that, for the handful of protestors outside had in their
slogans been
characterising her as rabidly anti-Hindu, and a friend to Muslim jehadis and the
Taleban.
Tunku Varadarajan, known for his acerbic columns, was another instance of classic
miscasting - as
the soft-spoken, rational district magistrate trying to do the right thing. Tharoor,
with his
booming base, played the expletive-spouting, hard-drinking top cop. And Madhur Jaffrey
rounded off
the ensemble as the sarcastic, witty, yet always sensible Muslim professor making a
case for his
- -- and his community's - essential Indianness.
It was a structured retelling, kicking off with Azmi talking of the historical
injustice of
Babar's demolition of a Hindu temple to erect a Muslim mosque on the land revered as
the
birthplace of Lord Ram, and making a case for the land to be reclaimed, and a temple
to Ram
erected in place of the mosque.
Varadarajan as the middle-of-the-road official followed up with an argument against
the increasing
climate of intolerance. "The phrase Hindu fundamentalist," he said, "is a
contradiction of terms,
because Hinduism is a religion without any fundamentals" - a line that, in fact, finds
place in
Tharoor's earlier work of non-fiction, India: From Independence to the Millennium and
which, like
a few others, were transplanted into this performance.
Jaffrey in her turn gently mocked the Hindutva brigade's claims to historical
sanction, and
rounded off with the eminently quotable: "Build Ram in your hearts because if he is
there, it
little matters where else he is."
And Tharoor rounded off by talking of his increasing headache - to wit, maintaining
the peace.
>From that point on, all four performers blended literature and dramatics into an
>escalating tale
of Hindu belligerence and Muslim angst, mixed with the attempts by Authority in the
form of the DM
and the cop to restore peace.
The production was full of lines of startling eloquence, with Jaffrey drawing the most
laughter,
and applause when she defined the temple agitation as "The reclaiming of history by
those who
believe that at one point they had been written out of the script" or when she pointed
out that it
was Islam, in a way, that had led to the nationwide resurgence of Ram as an object of
veneration,
saying, "The role of Islam in the sanctification of Ram is a PhD thesis someone should
do -
provided he or she is adequately insured."
But Azmi proved the scene-stealer. At one point, as the tension built, Azmi as Ram
Charan Gupta
told of preparations for the next morning's Ram Shila procession in the town of
Zalilgarh, where
the action of the novel is set. Of how two youths painting slogans on the wall were
set upon by
two Muslim youths, attacked with knives and hacked.
As Azmi spoke, her voice trembled with the startled surprise of the two young Hindus,
blazed with
the anger of the Muslim attackers, turned hoarse and broke in anguish as the attack
put the
victims down in a pool of their own blood, and throbbed with raw emotion bordering on
tears as she
spoke of how one of the boys, slated to get married within a month, had his face
crudely
disfigured.
Sans props, sans makeup, sans a helpful director standing in the wings yelling 'Cut!'
till she got
it inch perfect, Azmi yet produced a moment of high, gripping drama. And Tharoor
acknowledged her
virtuosity when, in the question-answer session following the reading, he spoke of how
Azmi had
performed the role of Hindu fundamentalist, espousing the character's views "with such
fervour
that for a moment, even I was convinced!"
The performers built up towards the inevitable denouement - the riots and the
bloodshed that
followed in the wake of the Ram Shila processions. And ended with a retelling of an
old Hindu tale
relating to one man's quest for truth and his ultimate discovery that Truth is,
ultimately, what
you make of it.
The evening had begun with a bow to the secular ethos, when I. Ganguly sang 'Raghupathi
Raghava Raja Ram', segueing immediately into 'Allah ho...’ It ended with Azmi reading
a poem of
rare eloquence by her recently departed father, the poet and lyricist Kaifi Azmi.
Inside, people ignored the organisers' repeated pleas to vacate in order that the
auditorium could
be shut down for the night and queued up to shake hands with the four performers, and
with the
director.
Outside, where three hours earlier a motley crowd had hung around, brandishing signs
reading
'Shabana is a Communist, deport her!' and 'Shabana has not condemned the ethnic
cleansing of
Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir', there was silence. And peace.
And in between the energized atmosphere inside and the silence outside, you were left
with a
thought: What if, one day in our country, they threw a riot - and nobody came?
__________________________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 07:14:45 +0530
From: "Aloysius D'Souza" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] Interview with Fred Noronha
Thanks John,
I wish all Goans in Goa will read your replies and take pains to ensure that
they vote on May 30th --
Cheers
Aloysius
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 02:58:49 +0000
From: "A. Veronica Fernandes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] Wake up Sr.Pe.Vigar/Sr.Pe.Cur.
WAKE UP SENHOR PE. VIGAR/SENHOR PE. CUR.
The purpose of the Church authorities is to guide the people away from the
sin and away from the path that leads to sin. Today political scenario in
Goa is leading to sin and sinful life. Hence it is the duty of every
religious authority not only of Christian and Catholic but also of all other
religions to guide the people in right direction. Because of failing
standard of political morality in Goa Church role is imperative since
Church is already taken up issues earlier of public importance. That other
religious authorities kept silence over many Goan issues affecting the life
of Goans is very disturbing. When moral standard in any aspect is going
down then religious authority must involve otherwise we may easily have
another Soddom and Gomorrah. Some of our political leaders when they get
elected and assume ministerial powers they immediately indulge in sinful
life and convert innocent people into sinners. Accepting bribes, committing
sexual hara-kiri on our innocent girls by promising them Government jobs,
using muscle & and money power to get their work done – these are some of
the worst crimes politicians can commit. By committing such crimes the
politicians degrade the human standard to that of an animal and slave.
In the last Assembly we saw so many politicians got defected and made mess
of the entire system in Goa. Law and order was totally destroyed beyond
recognition. Defection is the worst crime a politician can commit. In
Aldona constituency there are number of villages where the majority of
voters are practicing Catholics. These voters are misguided by the
politicians either thru false promises or thru bribes. They must be
educated and only the Church can take up this responsibility rightly. At
this stage Church leaders in Aldona constituency cannot remain silent
spectators. The Pe. Viagars and Pe. Curs in Aldona constituency must come
out forcefully against the defectors, against the candidates who use our
Catholic Girls as whores and concubines. These Pe. Vigars and Pe. Curs must
tell the congregation not to vote for the candidate who ask monetarily and
sexually bribes to dole Government jobs. I am sure when priest in the Church
highlight these issues then there is every possibility for the congregation
to follow the Church instructions. If Church leaders, if Pe. Vigars and Pe.
Curs now fail in their obligation towards guiding the people in right
direction then we may again have the same candidates who took us for a ride
in the last Assembly.
The above pattern should be also followed in other constituencies where
defectors are again contesting the election in their constituencies namely
at Curtorim (Sardinha), Cortalim (Mauwin Godinho), Ponda (Ravi Naik) and
etc.
It is surprising that besides Church no other religious authority is coming
forward in Goa to guide the people. It is a must that every religious
authority should involve in guiding its followers so that they are not
trapped on wrong side. Every religious authority is duty bound to tell the
voters NOT TO VOTE FOR DEFECTORS – NOT TO VOTE FOR SEXTERS – NOT TO VOTE FOR
COMMUNAL ELEMENTS. The candidates of the party that committed carnage at
Gujarat by all means should be defeated otherwise these people will come out
with greater fury and convert Goa into another Gujarat. The candidates of
the party that disgraces the fair image of Mahatmah Gandhi must be thrown
out. The candidates of Congress have no right even to utter the name of
most upright man Mahatmah Gandhi. They will fool the voters by uttering the
name of Gandhi but voters should be clever. Mahatma Gandhi stood for
uprightness in political life. Are the current candidates of Congress
upright? NO AND HENCE THEY DESERVE KICK IN THE COMING ELECTION. Wake up
voters in Aldona and elsewhere where defectors and crooks are contesting.
Show your condemnation to them by NOT VOTING THESE RASCALS. Vote only for
clean and upright candidates
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
_________________________________________________________________
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End of goanet-digest V1 #4017
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