[Goanet]Protestant/Evangelical Christianity in Goa

2004-01-19 Thread Peter D'Souza
Greetings,

I have been asked by friends here in the U.S.A. whether there was any
kind of evangelical Christian movement in Goa similar to the one in
Brasil. Last I'd heard--about 15 years ago--there were a hundred or so
evangelical Christians (mostly ex-Catholics) in Goa. Could somebody
provide me feedback on the current state of protestantism in Goa? (Off
list..if you prefer)

Many thanks,

Peter D'Souza




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[Goanet]Santosh Helekar's on Christianity/Religion

2004-01-26 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh, 

Santosh Helekar, in comments concerning the Bible and Christianity,
said:

People are not sinners at birth. There is no original sin. 

The Bible doesn't teach that people are sinners at birth, as you seem to
suggest. It does say that because of original sin we have a sinful
*nature*, a very different statement. Pardon my simplification: as an
example I might look at a newborn baby and say that the baby will grow
up and get angry some day and it won't look very pretty. I can make that
statement with certainty, because I know that man has a 'fallen nature'
and will sin.

We are not resigned to our fate. Nothing is pre-ordained or
pre-destined. 

True. We have choices, but we are pre-destined to facing the
consequences of those choices, either in this life or the next. The
concept of 'pre-ordained' or 'pre-destined' which suggests that we don't
make conscious choices is merely an understanding of the Bible by some
people who accept Calvin's interpretation of the Bible.

We are in charge of our life and our future. 

God gives us free will, and to take charge of our own life is a choice.

Self-righteousness is wrong. 

Right you are.

No religion or system of belief or lack of belief has privileged
access to the truth. All religions are equal to each other and
to the absence of religion. 

This is illogical. If one believes the Bible to be true, then one must
accept that there is only one way to eternal life, ergo all religions
are not equal.

They are all equally relevant or irrelevant. 

Not if you understand that they're actually very different from each
other.

Religion has no place in the affairs of the state, in the
framing of public policy, in healthcare and in education.

It has historically had a significant influence and will continue to do
so. 'Thou shall not murder', for instance, is a part of public policy
almost everywhere. The sanctity of life is also spiritually based. In an
evolutionary mindset we'd simply allow nature to take it's course and
let people die. People almost everywhere will do all it takes to save a
life, even that of an unborn. Unlike many animals which might leave the
runt of the litter to die, we humans take even the life of a baby very
seriously. I'm glad for a healthcare system which places a value on
life.

Women are equal to men. 

That's not what science teaches. ;-)

Homosexuals are equal to heterosexuals. 

Not true. You don't sound terribly scientific when you make this kind of
statement. A world full (i.e. 100%) of homosexuals would end much sooner
than a world full of homosexuals.

There is nothing wrong with contraception. 

I'm not sure what you're saying here, but Bible does not address the
issue the same way Catholicism does.

Pedophilia is wrong. 

Absolutely right. The Bible condemns it.

War is bad. 

It is bad, and sometimes necessary. The cost of avoiding it can be
greater, the lessons of the WW II speak to this. In an evolutionary
world we'd simply define war as being nature taking it's course/survival
of the fittest.

International cooperation is good. 

This is true. I wish we could convince the French.

The natural environment needs to be protected.

Sometimes the rest of nature needs to understand that. Consider this
report from Reuters in Germany: "A protected species of bird is
devouring rare fish in the German state of Bavaria and creating a
dilemma for local officials who now want federal permission to kill
birds that once appeared headed for extinction,".
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/11/13/germany.bird.fish.reut/index.html

And so on and so forth. Indeed, as one might have guessed most 
religions have found themselves at odds with these values. For
those who realize this, religion is redundant, superfluous,
unnecessary fat. One could even argue that it is an impediment
to ethical progress. 

Stalin and Lenin might have agreed with you on this.

Cheers,

Peter D'Souza



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[Goanet]Homeschooling

2004-02-24 Thread Peter D'Souza
Fred,

I'd concur with Dan Soares when he talks about:
> failure of public schools to 'deliver' in basic educational skills, the huge
> problem with drugs, alcohol, teen sex, racial bigotry (that is still 
> prevalent
> in some areas) in schools and also our desire to see our children excel
> academically and creatively.

In making our decision to homeschool our two children, my wife and I
also considered the huge benefits of personal attention that a
homeschooling child receives, better social interaction among non-peers
and generally superior language skills. None of these are really the
domain of the homeschooling movement, but if these were somebody's main
criteria in making educational choices, then the homeschool system has
more to offer.

Santosh Helerkar said:
> Frederick, you are right. Homeshooling in the U.S., especially in the 
> south is motivated by religious reasons. They want to impart Bible 
> education, and leave out devilish nonsense such as the theory of 
> evolution, global climate, knowledge about other cultures and the 
> United Nations.

My guess is that Santosh is partially right, but generally wrong. There
are many parents who'd teach their kids about both evolution and
creation--a two-sided approach can hardly be faulted, score one for
parents who do that and zero for the public shools that don't.

As for knowledge about other cultures, many Americans living outside the
USA tend to homeschool. In fact, there's a disproportionately high
percentage of those who do, and they transcend cross cultural barriers
more easily than their peers from the American public school system.
They often have a greater appreciation for foreign languages, food and
culture.

Peter


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[Goanet]Re: Goanet digest, Vol 1 #855 - 17 msgs

2004-02-24 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helerkar said:
> advanced Spanish? Certainly not as well as the "terrorists" (the 
> current U.S. administration's term for teachers - courtesy Rod Paige, 
> the secretary of Education)!

Santosh, I don't believe that Rod Paige made that remark about teachers,
but rather he was talking about the NEA, the largest teachers union.
There's a big difference. And there are thousands of teachers who
couldn't care less about the NEA.

Peter


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[Goanet]Malaria Article

2004-03-08 Thread Peter D'Souza
Fred,

Thanks for posting Dr. Lankester's article on Malaria. It is an
interesting summary and comes quite close to the real world---based on
my experience in Mozambique. I don't know how it might compare to
malaria in Goa.

A couple of caveats for those who might need to take anti-malarial
medication:

Paludrine can be more effective than Deltaprim, but it can give you
horrible mouth sores. Most people who take paludrine/proguanil also take
a small dose of folic acid everyday.

Deltaprim: some people swear by it, but we went through one season where
everyone who was on Deltaprim, including myself, came down with bad
cases of malaria. Unlike paludrine and chlorquine, deltaprim never masks
malaria, i.e. it won't give you false positives when testing for
malaria.

Doxycycline: I knew one fellow who spent lots of time in the bush, who
never had malaria, who thought that doxycycline was God's gift to
southern Africa. The most successful by far. No side effects in his
case, and none that I'm aware of.

Concerning Lariam, Dr.Lankester says: 
Not necessarily the big bad L. Lariam is effective and 3 people
out of 5 have no significant side effects. You can always trial
it for 3 weeks before going as three quarters of side effects
will show up in that time.

That translates to 2 of every 5 people who _do_ have side effects. A
three week trial is enough time for a really bad reaction. His other
caveats are well worth heeding, but I know of at least one level-headed
phlegmatic, generally-unemotional fellow who turned into a soppy,
sentimental, weepy mess after he started taking Lariam.

Malarone: I've not heard of this one, being a new drug. Perhaps it's the
same as the Chinese drug sometimes called "Coartem". If this is the
case, it is a *very* strong drug and is typically used as the last line
of defence. It is seldom used to prevent malaria, but can be very
effective in treating it.

Chloroquine: don't bother.

Good luck!

Peter



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[Goanet]Re: A Must Read before you Vote (Tim de Mello)

2004-10-29 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Tim de Mello wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 

"We should not forget that this administration inherited a
recession after
the technology bubble had burst and it was like handing Bush a
hand grenade
with the pin pulled out."
By the same token we should not forget that Clinton inherited an economy 
that was already devasted by the Bush Sr. but managed to turn it around in 
four years.

Tim, you're wrong. The economy had started to recover during Bush Sr.'s last year in 
office. The third quarter growth rate of his last year in office was 3.4%, a very 
respectable number. As for managing to turn it around in four years--some credit is 
due to the fact that there was a Republican-controlled House and Senate. Concerning 
Clinton turning around a Bush Sr. economy in 4 years, Bush Jr. has acheived the same 
level of unemployment that Clinton had achieved at the end of his first term--a record 
which helped Clinton run his re-election on the theme of prosperity.
Bush Jr. inherited a huge surplus (not a recession) - and yes there were 
problems soon after he took over but he is no Clinton. Not even close. It 
was just poor governance. 

Poor governance? One particular quarter last year had an 8.9% growth in 
GDP. The highest in 19 years. There have been several quarters in which 
growth has been over 5%, and the average has been over 4%. If you know 
anything about economics, you know that these are excellent figures. 
Home ownership is at an all-time high. The "educational gap" has never 
been narrower between minorities and the rest of the population. BTW, 
the surplus peaked one month *before* Bush was elected and certainly 
didn't pick up in the almost three months before he took office.

Nobody called Clinton a "moron" or "stupid" publicly. 

Okay, perhaps they said that privately. People can be very civil sometimes.
I just feel sorry for all the Americans 
who have lost their jobs because of this administration. A bad economy in 
America negatively affects a large part of the world.
 

Don't feel too sorry. Lost jobs *because* of this administration? Unless 
the administration caused the attacks of September 11, which led to a 
loss of one million jobs. The recession, which was inherited, also led 
to a huge loss of jobs. Almost a million new jobs have been created by 
this administration for every one of the last 14 months. Not a bad 
record, eh? This may explain why more than 3/5ths of Americans say that 
they are better off today than they were 4 years ago.

For those in India who may be not aware - being jobless in America is a very 
miserable experience. Particularly in the cold months. For many the choice 
is "to eat or to heat".
 

It can be miserable. The average "poor" American owns a 2-bedroom home, 
three television sets, a car, and subscribes to cable TV. Talking about 
being miserable, the misery index--a factor of  unemployment and 
inflation--is lower than it was when Clinton left office.

I hope the Americans do not vote Bush Jr. back into office.
I'm sorry that you want to bring a curse upon America.
Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza



[Goanet]Bush: Anti-Science?

2004-10-29 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Marlon Menezes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  wrote:
   The anti-science stance of [the Bush] adminstration is well established.
Huh? They've spent more money on stem-cell research than, say, Bill 
Clinton did. They've also spent more on AIDS and cancer research, and 
have been talking about space travel to Mars, continuing the space 
shuttle program (despite much popular opposition). You must be getting 
your news from Dan it's-fake-but-true Rather.

Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza


[Goanet]Re: Vote Kerry, save the World

2004-11-01 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Chris,
You're completely ignoring the fact that Mr. Kerry *did* introduce some very important 
measures during his twenty years in the Senate , six or seven of which actually were passed by 
the House, Senate, and eventually signed by the President. Two of those measures were 
declarations of World Population Day (different years), another one was "Save the 
Dolphins", another important one was Jackie Robinson Day. The New York Times, one of Mr. 
Kerry's most influential supporters, actually had one whole line devoted to speaking of his 
service (paragraph 22 of it's 24-para) endorsement of the Senator from Massachussetts. Don't you 
believe that Senator Kerry is running on his own merit?
    Very sincerely,
Peter D'Souza
Chris Vaz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
   Mr, Helekar--
   IF ELECTED, he would do this and he would do that. Tell me, Mr.
   Helekar IN
   THE TWENTY-SOME YEARS HE HAS BEEN IN THE SENATE, besides being
   absent most of
   the time when the Senate was in session voting on important legislation



[Goanet]Re: INTERVIEW: Cyberspace links Goans worldwide

2004-11-02 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Frederick Noronha (FN) wrote:
Q&A: Herman Carneiro, Founder, Goanet
Q: So how did it start? Old-timers on the Net might know the answer to
this, but the question is more for readers in Goa...
[...]
During the 1994 World Cup soccer tournament, I met a Goan on one of the
soccer channel. I forget his name, I think it was it was Peter D'Souza.
It still is. :-)
Peter D'Souza



[Goanet]Santosh Helekar's Defense of Kerry

2004-11-03 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
--- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The New York Times, one of Mr. Kerry's most
influential supporters, actually had one whole line
devoted to speaking of his service (paragraph 22 of
it's 24-para) endorsement of the Senator from
Massachussetts. Don't you believe that Senator Kerry
is running on his own merit?
The above post stems from ignorance, and is meant to
mislead the people into voting for Bush based on
misinformation.
Santosh,
I must commend you for your defence of Senator Kerry. As I pointed out, 
not even the _New York Times_ had more than a sentence to say about 
Senator Kerry's Senate record in its 1,652-word editorial endorsement of 
him. My post didn't stem from ignorance, I actually counted those 
paragraphs in the NYT editorial and parsed it through my word processor 
(OpenOffice.org) to obtain a word count. Concerning Kerry's attendance 
at public hearings of the Senate Inteligence Committee: 76% 
(http://www.factcheck.org/article241.html)

I challenge Peter D'Souza and other Bush partisans in
this forum to provide us such an enumeration on Bush’s
behalf, instead of circulating hate-filled garbage and
lies about Kerry. 
Hate-filled is not exactly the way I'd describe myself. I am most 
definitely pro-Bush, but I don't hate Senator Kerry. 74% of people 
voting for Bush today are doing so because they like him. Only half that 
number, 37%, are voting for Kerry because they like their candidate 
while the rest vote for him because they hate Bush. So when you talk 
about hate-filled, it's the Kerry-voting (notice I didn't say 
Kerry-loving) crowd that has a near monopoly on political hate.

It would be nice to know what significant public good Bush 
accomplished over the
past 20 years, which would motivate people to vote for him.
He's gotten the economy moving again. The average GDP growth rate has 
been 4.7%. Remember when the media were wowed by the phenomenal growth 
rate of 2.7% under Clinton? You haven't heard the term "jobless 
recovery" being tossed about even by the most ardent liberals lately. 
There are millions of Americans who pay less in taxes and consequently 
have more money to spend themselves. There are hundreds of thousands of 
Americans who no longer pay taxes--the poorest, to be sure. Thanks to 
breaking down trade barriers (except for a little lapse with steel 
tarriffs) the average American family has about $2,000 in extra spending 
cash. Then there are the people of Afghanistan who could tell you a 
thing or two about the freedom they have been enjoying--freedom that 
neither the Soviet Union nor any Western power had been able to give 
them. The people of Iraq can attest to the same types of freedom. You 
might want to check voicesofiraq.com to get a little balance into what 
the media have been feeding you. America enjoys a better relationship 
with *both* Pakistan and India thanks to some excellent diplomacy by 
President Bush and the Department of State. It was precisely this 
diplomacy that helped America achieve success against the Taliban even 
while the naysayers were telling us that our troops would have no access 
to the region, certainly not enough access to fight a successful war. 
The theory, and you might have forgotten this, was that "we have no 
allies in the region". Saddam's brutal regime was toppled. Libya gave up 
its arms programme a couple of days after Saddam was caught in his hole. 
75% of al Qaeda's top brass have been captured or killed. Over 90% of 
Saddam's henchmen have been captured or killed. North Korea agreed to 
engage in talks with a six-nation group, under U.S. pressure. Corporate 
scandals have been exposed, and their guilty executives prosecuted. (You 
might recall the 
nothing-is-going-to-happen-to-them-since-they're-all-Bush's-buddies 
line? You haven't heard that lately. He has signed legislation banning 
partial-birth abortion--as much as the media might make this to be an 
issue that concerns mainly "right wing Christian fundamentalists", the 
vast majority of Americans are opposed to this ghastly, murderous 
practice. Considering that this legislation had failed to pass twice 
before, legislation against partial-birth abortion must be considered an 
accomplishment. Talking about healthcare and health insurance, the 
concept of Health Savings Accounts is one of the finest ideas concerning 
healthcare expenses ever. It's unfortunate that liberal politicians make 
people

[Goanet]LANDSLIDE VICTORY FOR KERRY

2004-11-03 Thread Peter D'Souza
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On Tue, 2 Nov 2004 18:12:18 -0500 (EST), Mervyn Lobo said:
Folks,
The Canadian press is reporting what the US cannot,
just now, because polling has not ended. 

It's a LANDSLIDE victory for Kerry.
Mervyn2.0
 

That must have been Dan Rather of CBS reporting for the Canadian press.
Peter



[Goanet]Re: The US elections: parallels to India and the next 4 years

2004-11-04 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Samir Kelekar writes:
It is quite interesting that despite the bad economy, people losing jobs,
people have voted for Bush.
 

It is very interesting indeed, Samir. The truth of the matter is that in 
spite of the economy losing 1.9 million jobs due to the recession that 
Bush inherited, and in spite of the economic fallout of September 11, 
the Bush administration created an economic stimulus package which 
resulted in the recovery of over 800,000 jobs. ..and it continues to 
grow for the 14th straight month. Manufacturing has increased too. 
Unemployment is down by more than 1 percentage point, and is as low as 
it was during the prosperous Clinton economy of  1996. So, "despite the 
bad economy, people losing jobs", it is only as bad as it was when 
Clinton was re-elected in 1996. Nobody was complaining then, and the 
American people who were affected by it during the last 4 years seem to 
think it's only as significant a problem as it was in 1996. The United 
States share of the world's GDP at the time Bush took office was about 
25%, it's now 33%. There is no cause to complain about the superb growth 
in GDP.

Does this mean that people vote based on their religious feelings, so-called
moral issues, more than their economic concerns?
 

No, they also voted based on economic concerns as I outlined above. 
People do vote based on religious feelings, one of many factors. Values 
play an important role too. In a country where the rule of law is 
paramount it must come as a given that a strong moral code undergirds 
the foundation of that law. I think it was Malcolm X who once said "if 
you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".

Or is that the terrorism threat --- the fear factor --- has made Bush
garner votes? Or is it that Kerry was not perceived as a strong enough
candidate?
 

The fear factor coupled with the fact that the United States has been 
effectively protected against any major terrorist act since September 
11, 2001 has been an important contributor in the re-election of George 
W. Bush. There have been many planned attacks which have been stopped, 
and terrorist sleeper cells have been uncovered. This is well documented.

With $100 billion a year in war costs, if Iraqi resistance continues, and
with jobs going to places like India, the future for the US lay people appears not
so bright. Or is it that people do have jobs in the US and this outsourcing/loss
of jobs is just a media hype?
 

The outsourcing of manufacturing has several benefits, among them the 
average household in the United States has about $2,000 each year in 
spending cash. The outsourcing of tech jobs to Bangalore and other 
places has several benefits, one of which is that American consumer 
goods end up in the hands of foreign consumers. I won't bore you with 
more detail, but there are liberals and conservatives alike who share 
that sentiment. You might want to check articles on the subject by 
Thomas Friedman (a liberal), the influential foreign affairs editor of 
the New York Times, or the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal 
(conservative). Regarding war costs: there are significant amounts of 
the money spent there which comes back to the United States since 
American contractors such as Raytheon and Halliburton have been 
providing infrastructural support.

Of course, if the Iraqi resistance calms down, and Bush is
able to get cheap oil from Iraq --- which was his main aim anyway --- then
it may be good for the American economy.
 

Sir, you have no idea what you're talking about. Spending an extra $100 
billion a year does not make oil cheaper.

Peter D'Souza


[Goanet]Re: Mervyn's Defence of Kerry

2004-11-04 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Mervyn Lobo disse:
Peter,
Your vice-president called Mandela a terrorist. In fact, he voted to keep Mandela in 
jail. Had that come
to pass, S. Africa would have been another region on fire right now.
Mervyn,
Mandela's had doubtless been fighting a good cause. And he was very 
statemanlike when he came to office. His call against black South 
Africans taking vengeance into their own hands was commendable and truly 
helped the long term stability of South Africa. The Truth & 
Reconciliation Commission (D. Tutu) showed that he was serious about 
establishing the rule of law and prosecuting those who had committed 
crimes during the struggle.
You can't ignore the fact that this same Nelson Mandela
1. Planted 5 bombs in a government building in Johannesburg (1961), 
which killed many people, including women and children.
2. Said this of 4 Puerto Ricans terrorists who shot 5 United States 
congressmen (1954): "We support the cause of anyone who is fighting for 
self-determination, and our attitude is the same, no matter who it is. I 
would be honored to sit on the platform with the four comrades you refer 
to."
3. He was charged for "the preparation, manufacture and use of 
explosives—for the purpose of committing acts of violence and 
destruction in the aforesaid Republic, (the preparation and manufacture 
of explosives, according to evidence submitted, included 210,000 hand 
grenades, 48,000 anti-personnel mines, 1,500 time devices, 144 tons of 
ammonium nitrate, 21.6 tons of aluminum powder and a ton of black powder);"

Given these facts, was it wrong for Dick Cheney to oppose his release 
from prison at the time? A free South Africa is not necessarily 
synonymous with a free Nelson Mandela.

Yasser Arafat took up arms only after he was kicked out of his home. The very fact 
that the Israeli's deal with him is enough proof that he delivers on his promises or, 
in other words, he is a statesman.
Yasser Arafat once bragged to a colleague that he was the father of 
hijacking planes to achieve his ends. He has wanted nothing short of 
pushing Israel into the Mediterranean Sea. You're right, Israelis deal 
with him. I like the way they do (or have done--if he's dead by the time 
you read this message).

Peter


[Goanet]Re: George Pinto on Civil Rights in the USA

2004-11-04 Thread Peter D'Souza
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--- George Pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>Your post is interesting and true.  Kerry won in a landslide amoung the 
tolerant types.  Bush won in a landslide amoung the intolerant types - those 
who use their religion to hate others and deny them civil rights.  Yesterday, 
gay marriage as
>banned in 10 (maybe 11) states.  These from the same folks who have a 50% 
divorce rate and are concerned about preserving the "sanctity" of marriage.  
The same folks who opposed the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Rights Amendment 
and other equalities.  
>

George,
You're misinformed. The CRA passed because of Republicans and in 
spite of the Democrats.. According to the Congressional Quarterly, 82% 
of Senate Republicans voted for it, while only 69% of Democrats did. In 
the House, 80% of Republicans voted for it and only 61% of Democrats did.

Al Gore Sr., the father of that great Democrat candidate for 
president, opposed the CRA. Charlton Heston, a very conservative 
Republican, marched with blacks in Selma to support the Civil Rights 
Movement. Those intolerant Democrats! :-)

Peter D'Souza



[Goanet]Re: Santosh Helekar's Comments on Kerry

2004-11-04 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>The point is that you tried to mislead the people that Kerry did nothing in 
the senate. In a democracy people have a right to dissent. Reasoned opposition 
to the policies of the government does not constitute hate. What amounts to 
hate is spreading lies, and resorting to a smear campaign.
>  
>
Santosh,

I should have clarified--I meant that Senator Kerry did nothing 
significant in the Senate, meaning nothing that merited a mention in 
the endorsements that came from his staunchest supporters. His Senate 
record barely figured in the Democrat Convention in Boston. You've got 
to ask yourself why four-and-a-half months in VietNam was a bigger part 
of his own campaign spiel than his 20 years in the Senate.

Peter



[Goanet]Re: George Pinto on Civil Rights in the USA

2004-11-05 Thread Peter D'Souza
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--- George Pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Your post is interesting and true.  Kerry won in a landslide amoung the tolerant types.  Bush won in a landslide amoung the intolerant types - those who use their religion to hate others and deny them civil rights.  Yesterday, gay marriage as
banned in 10 (maybe 11) states.  These from the same folks who have a 50% divorce rate and are concerned about preserving the "sanctity" of marriage.  The same folks who opposed the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Rights Amendment and other equalities.  

George,
   You're misinformed. The CRA passed _because_ of Republicans and in 
spite of the Democrats.. According to the _Congressional Quarterly_, 82% 
of Senate Republicans voted for it, while only 69% of Democrats did. In 
the House, 80% of Republicans voted for it and only 61% of Democrats 
did. Those intolerant Democrats! :-)
   Al Gore Sr., the father of that great Democrat candidate for 
president, opposed the CRA. Charlton Heston, a very conservative 
Republican, marched with blacks in Selma to support the Civil Rights 
Movement.
   Peter D'Souza
  



[Goanet]Re: Santosh Helekar's Comments on Kerry

2004-11-05 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The point is that you tried to mislead the people that Kerry did nothing in the senate. In a democracy people have a right to dissent. Reasoned opposition to the policies of the government does not constitute hate. What amounts to hate is spreading lies, and resorting to a smear campaign.
 

Santosh,
   I should have clarified--I meant that Senator Kerry did nothing 
_significant_ in the Senate, meaning nothing that merited a mention in 
the endorsements that came from his staunchest supporters. His Senate 
record barely figured in the Democrat Convention in Boston. You've got 
to ask yourself why four-and-a-half months in VietNam was a bigger part 
of his own campaign spiel than his 20 years in the Senate.
   Peter



[Goanet]Re: Samir Kelekar on Economics

2004-11-05 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Samir Kelekar writes:
Gimme a break;  Bush inherited recession? My understanding was that the economy was its peak in 2000, late 2000. 

That's not a fact. It peaked in the second quarter of 2000--the GDP growth rate 
reached 6.4%. It dropped drastically in the third quarter of 2000 (before the 
elections) to -0.5%, that's minus zero point five percent. It's not what you'd call an 
economic peak.
The recession (at least in the IT field) began just as Bush took over, and then 9/11 made things worse.
 

The IT recession, as you call it, started as a consequence of the 
fallout of the dot com industry, which started as early as March 2000. 
Check the figures for the second quarter of 2000 to get an idea.

Where are you getting your data from?
 

The Bureau of Economic Analysis. www.bea.gov. Where do you get yours from?
One thing is sure that this will create more terrorists. For instance, those who are keeping people hostage now, and massacaring, they were nowhere to be seen before the Iraq war.
 

Yes, most of us didn't see them. People on the planes which crashed into 
the WTC and the Pentagon got to see some of them. There's a fellow named 
Osama who had been around before the Iraq war. People in Israel get to 
see them (terrorists) every other day. Yasser Arafat knows many on a 
first name basis. America had heard from them before the Iraq 
war--remember the US embassies in Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi, the bombing 
of the _USS Cole_ in Yemen, the bombing of the World Trade Center in 
1993, ... My point is that the war didn't transform peace-loving folks 
into mass murderers.

What about 1000 American casualties? Going by how things are going, these are only going to increase in the next four years, it looks like.
 

Maybe, maybe not. Remember what was said about Afghanistan. It's worth 
waiting to see the eventual outcome of the war.

Hey, if you get oil fields free, spending that much money could make economic sense. Certainly it does not make any legal sense (and I am talking international law here), and certainly not moral sense.
 

I don't understand how spending a premium of $100 billion per year can 
make economic sense. Your argument seems to stem from skepticism more 
than reality. .

And, people say they voted Bush on moral basis?
 

22% of voters thought that morals were the most important factor, 78% 
thought otherwise. Almost 1 of every 5 people who thought morals were 
the most important factor voted for Kerry. (source: pewforums.org). I'm 
tired of this talk about all of Bush's supporters being fools who only 
consider morals in their choice for President. The morals issue is being 
blown out of proportion by liberals who are determined to divide 
America. Why do we hear so little about the 19% of Americans for whom 
terrorism is the key issue and so much more about religion being the 
main factor? In fact, the Bush-Kerry divide on religion is smaller than 
the divide on the issue of terrorism. (source:  BBC - 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3973197.stm )

People's morals must be in their knees, man.
 

Whatever.
Thanks for your very thoughtful comments.
Adeus,
Peter D'Souza



[Goanet]Re: Samir Kelekar on Terrorism

2004-11-08 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Samir Kelekar writes:
There are enough reports to indicate that the anti-American sentiments 
world-wide has increased massively after the unilateral attack on Iraq. Now if 
you are saying that none of this sentiment is going to turn people into taking 
up arms, then you must be assuming everyone the world over is like GoaNet 
subscribers: all talk only.
Samir,
There is no dispute that anti-American sentiment is very strong around 
the world. In fact, some of the largest anti-Bush demonstrations have 
taken place in Australia and England. No matter how much the hatred, you 
can't blame Mr. Bush for encouraging the growth of terrorism. Only when 
the United States starts arresting masses of Finns, Swedes and 
Australians--in the same numbers as they've been rounding up 
Islamists--then, and only then, should America start the process of 
instrospection and wonder whether it really is the *cause* of terrorism. 
The civilised world cannot claim responsibility for creating terrorists, 
the hatemongers of this world who allow their pre-pubescent children to 
become suicide bombers are to blame.

We have seen it in Israel/Palestine. No 17 year old takes to arms and goes 
for a suicide attack just like that. The point is: terrorists are not born. 
[...] They happen due to one reason or the other. And Bush's unilateral 
unprovoked attack on Iraq sure would be one reason for more to turn to 
terrorism.
My point exactly--17-year old who has been taught to hate will take up 
arms and conduct a suicide attack. Because of his upbringing he is more 
likely to commit an act of terror than, say, contemporary in Portugal 
who strongly opposes the American governement and its inaction in East 
Timor a few years ago (a situation as dear to Portugal as the 
Palestinian cause might be to the Saudis). Do you rememeber the sight of 
hundreds of Palestinian children dancing in the streets when the WTC 
fell? What makes pre-teen children rejoice at such at such evil? There 
was no talk of invading Iraq at the time, yet the sight of children 
dancing with glee leaves little doubt that these little fellows shared 
the joy of terrorists. Sorry, I'm not trying to score points in an 
argument--you're welcome to respond, but I won't be saying any more on 
the issue. P.S. Could you drop the word "unilateral"? It's getting a 
little stale, especially since many other nations have suffered 
casualties in this war.


I don't understand how spending a premium of $100 billion per year can make economic sense. Your argument seems to stem from skepticism more than reality. 

It is not my argument; it is Bush's logic for attacking Iraq.
This is getting pointless. You've either got to study economics, or read 
the statements Mr. Bush made before the war, or both. I'd recommend 
_Basic Economics_ and _Applied Economics_ , both by Thomas Sowell; don't 
get put off by the title of the former, it is really a super book and a 
must-read for every policymaker.

America. Why do we hear so little about the 19% of Americans for whom terrorism is the key issue and so much more about religion being the main factor? 

That is an interesting point. What you are essentially saying is that people 
voted Bush because they feel that his so-called war on terrorism is making 
America a safer place.
What I am saying is that people prefer to treat terrorism pre-emptively 
than to treat it the same way that prostitution or gambling are treated 
(Kerry's strategy). Most people in America have a hard time 
understanding how terrorism can be downgraded to the level of a 
"nuisance" (Kerry again).

My take on this point is that turning American into a fortress could make it safer; however, Americans would be more threatened once they leave America; of course, other issues such as respect for international law etc haven't been dealt here. 

Being an American (and I'm not one) does not guarantee one's safety 
around the world, but neither does being a Brit, Australian, Filipino, 
Indian or anybody else. "Christian Zionists" are sometimes targetted for 
attacks, but some of the Zarqawi crew show that they don't discriminate.

Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza


[Goanet]Re: Santosh Helekar's Commentary on Morals

2004-11-08 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Santosh Helekar writes: 

   Terrorism was the third most important issue when it should have
   been the first, knowing what is going on
   in the world today.
"Should have been the first"? You're making a moral judgement by 
suggesting that the most important issue *should have been * the war on 
terror--the every kind of moral judgements that you otherwise despise.

   Moral values were not even a marginal issue in the last election.
   That they became an issue at all on election day this time defies
   all reason.
Why should it defy all reason? We apply moral choices when supporting a 
war or opposing it, when keeping a mass murderer in power or destroying 
his regime, or when permitting a woman to crush the skull of her unborn 
child when she decides to practice birth control in the 9th month of her 
pregnancy. We practice morals by acting against what we think is wrong 
or by simply being indifferent.

Regarding the statistics you quoted (and misapplied), I'd urge you to 
read "Why Did Kerry Lose? Answer: It Wasn't 'Values'". It's found on the 
editorial page of today's _Wall Street Journal_ (November 8). I've 
archived it at http://lintel.us/politics/notvalues.html. It will put to 
rest some of your arguments about the morality vote in this election.

Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza


[Goanet]George Pinto on Civil Rights and News Bias

2004-11-08 Thread Peter D'Souza
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George Pinto wrote:
--- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
 

George,
   You're misinformed. The CRA passed because of Republicans and in 
spite of the Democrats.. According to the Congressional Quarterly, 82% 
of Senate Republicans voted for it, while only 69% of Democrats did. In 
the House, 80% of Republicans voted for it and only 61% of Democrats did.

Peter,
No, I am not misinformed in this matter.  Your statistics above are a "Fox News, right-wing talk
radio" version of events. By quoting percentages, you give the impression that the Republicans
were a greater number. The fact is 46 Democractic Senators voted for the Civil Rights Act versus
27 Republicans. In the House of Representatives, 152 Democrats and 138 Republicans voted for it. 
It is actual votes and not percentages which matters.
   

Hey George,
For the record, I have not once watched Fox News. I read 4 or 5 columns 
by liberal commentators each day, it's important to hear what each side 
is thinking. Let's stick to the issues, eh? My statistics didn't give 
the impression that the Republicans were a greater number, all I was 
saying that there was a higher *proportion* of Republicans in favour of 
the Civil Rights Act than there were Democrats. Quoting absolute numbers 
is fine as long as you quote the number of those who opposed it. So 
while your numbers above make Democrats look good, they would make 
Democrats look really bad if you were to quote the numbers of those in 
each party who opposed it. It is shameful that, in spite of having a 
super-majority, House and Senate Democrats opposed the CRA in such large 
numbers.

The Republican percentage seem higher because they were represented a smaller number of the total.
I just wanted to point out Peter's skewing the facts (intentionally?)
   

Skewing the facts? Please post the numbers of Democrats and Republicans 
who opposed the Civil Rights act, will you? You have not disputed my 
facts, just my presentation of them.

For the record, I am a registered Independent and not a Democrat.  

Okay, being registered Independent, Democrat or Republican doesn't mean 
a thing. In Kentucky, where I live, the vast majority of people are 
registered Democrats who vote Republican in almost every presidential 
election. (P.S. I plan to register Independent too.)

In the last few days my intention has been to point out the repeated distortions and half-truths put out by people who get their news from Fox News and talk radio and smear good people like John Kerry.  
   

George, where do you get your news from, the New York Times, perhaps? 
(120 plagiarized stories by one reporter alone; "168,000 items looted 
from the museum in Baghdad"--subsequently revised down to thirty eight; 
pre-election-week weapons story that should've been told over a year 
ago; Duelfer Report's non-news headlines about weapons of mass 
destruction while ignoring the real news from the report about Saddam 
bribing the Chinese, Russians and French...)

Good luck and be informed.
Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza


[Goanet]George Pinto/Mandates; Tim de Mello/Draft

2004-11-09 Thread Peter D'Souza
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George Pinto writes:
George Bush received more NO votes than any President in history - over 55 million.  He has a 51%
mandate.
 

Now George, we'd all be impressed if those NO votes for George W. Bush 
were actually YES votes for Kerry. Too sad that only 37% of Kerry's 
voters actually voted for him because they liked him.

Tim de Mello wrote:
   I was watching CNN this morning and part of Cafferty's report was on
   the probable emigration of Americans to Canada.
Tim, we're really hoping that Barbra Streisand, Tim Robbins, Susan 
Sarandon et al would make good on their threats, from four years ago, to 
emigrate to Europe.

   I guess after the Draft is instituted (which, I think, it must) this
   trickle will turn to a flood - including those on GoaNet who today
   so strongly support George Bush.
The draft is not going to be reinstated. The person who introduced the 
draft measure a few months ago was a Democrat, Charles Rangel. The 
measure was voted down by over 400 votes in the House, and only two 
Democrats voted for a draft. Neither of them was Charles Rangel. Nothing 
can ever get through Congress when there is such overwhelming opposition 
to it.

Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza



[Goanet]Re: George Pinto/Draft

2004-11-10 Thread Peter D'Souza
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George Pinto writes:
   --- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The draft is not going to be reinstated. 
   

   It is apparent some members on this forum
Hey George, "some members"? We're getting a little nuanced here, if I 
may borrow a term from one of your favourite politicians. :-)

   repeat the propaganda of the Bush administration. If they only took
   time to study the issues and find out the facts. There is a draft
   already underway
   in America - some call it 'Stop Loss', the 'Back-door Draft'.
Oh, I am so sorry--I thought Tim was actually talking about the draft, 
you know...getting people who are not in the military conscripted into 
active service. The "back-door draft" or "stop loss" policy rears its 
head every few years, almost every time there is a war. The last time a 
President requested the authority to use it was during the Kosovo war 
under Bill Clinton. I don't recall anybody complaining at the time, and 
no Democrat politician (or Republican either) used it as cheap political 
fodder by calling it a back-door draft.

Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza


Re: [Goanet]The values - vote myth (NYTimes Op-ed)

2004-11-10 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Dan Soares wrote:
   http://tinyurl.com/3lga8 (linked to David Brook's article)
Santosh Helekar responded:
   What better way there is to counter a link from New York Times than 
to provide a link from Fox News that says exactly the opposite? Link: 
http://tinyurl.com/42wyj   
[Both links abbreviated via tinyurl.com]

Santosh,
   David Brooks doesn't actually contradict the statements in the Fox 
News article. In fact, all he says is that the numbers of evangelical 
Christians who voted this year were not *proportionately higher* than 
those who voted in 2000. The actual number of evangelical voters may 
have grown, but so did the numbers for other demographic groups. In the 
Fox News story you cited one of the analysts said: "I think the biggest 
surprise was that the social concerns best associated with the 
Evangelicals resonated with people who did not necessarily fit that 
group."  That statement is part of the point that David Brooks was 
trying to make. So the mass turnout by the left (Paul Krugman's 
predictor of a Bush defeat) was effectively countered by a 
proportionately high turnout by the right (a.k.a. the correct).
   Peter




[Goanet]RE:Tim de Mello on Polarisation and the Economy

2004-11-10 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Tim de Mello writes:
   "Peter D'Souza" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
   "Tim, we're really hoping that Barbra Streisand, Tim Robbins, Susan
   Sarandon et al would make good on their threats, from four years
   ago, to emigrate to Europe."
   Those of you who seem to relish in the concept of a polarized
   country would do well to recall the words of Lincoln: "A house
   divided against itself cannot stand."
You're right, Tim. Most of us actually want folks like Streisand, Robbins, 
Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg et al to learn that they're seriously dislocated from 
the mainstream culture. Nobody relishes the idea of a polarised country, all of 
us want (and sometimes expect) the rest to think just like us. (BTW, the quote 
is from Jesus, Lincoln might have borrowed it. Matthew 12:25)
   The economy of the US is taking a severe beating overseas.
What does this mean? (I don't understand the meaning of one country's economy taking a 
beating overseas, but I can see a weak American economy having the effect of bruising 
smaller economies.) Perhaps you're talking about the weak dollar? Foreign nations should 
not have to complain about this...it's a better time than ever to purchase American 
goods. Or are you talking about the fact that there was no "net job loss" 
during George Bush's first term? (Per new and revised job creation figures issued late 
last week.)
Peter



[Goanet]Re: Arafat & Terrorism

2004-11-25 Thread Peter D'Souza
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- Forwarded message from Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 10:40:51 -0500
From: Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
 Subject: Re: [Goanet]Re: Arafat & Terrorism
  To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Hey Tariq,
Apparently it is alright for you to go back to a statement made 86 years 
ago by Ben Gurion to prove a point while completely ignoring the fact 
that Mario Goveia was talking about Israel's in today's context. When 
Mario said that the PLO charter doesn't recognise Israel--a claim that 
wasn't disputed even 10 years ago--you were very quick to bring him up 
to date, per your understanding of Oslo. (I do believe that Mario is 
correct, though--Yasser Arafat acknowledged the existence of Israel in 
the accords, but that did not change the PLO charter.)

Tariq Siddiqui <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes

>
>--- Mario Goveia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>Israel doesn't claim all of Palestine as a "historical
>>right", so this whole line of reasoning is bogus.
>>
>Perhaps you were never aware of David Ben-Gurion. In 1918 Ben-Gurion 
described the future "Jewish state's" frontiers in details as follows:
>  
>



[Goanet]Update Your Virus Definitions, Please?

2004-12-08 Thread Peter D'Souza
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-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1
Folks,
Like many of you, I have been receiving loads of e-mail with headers
such as "Mail Delivery failed" which are actually not mail-releated
errors, but rather virus-laden messages which have been generated by
mass-mail worms. In particular, most of them contain either the Sober
or Netsky worms.
Looking through the headers of the mail tells me that many of these
messages seem to originate from folks on this group. Please help keep
our computers secure.
You can get a free online scan of your computer at:
http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ols.shtml
Download an evaluation version of f-secure antivirus [1] scanner at:
http://tinyurl.com/54mxf
(F-Secure, F-Prot, Sophos and Trend Micro generally do a better job of
updating their virus definitions than Norton and McAfee. A friend
recently found 18 viruses on her PC which went completely undetected
by Norton Antivirus.)
A really nice, free anti-virus program is BitDefender:
www.bitdefender.com
You're better off using non-Microsoft products for Internet browsing
and e-mail:
Thunderbird (e-mail): http://getthunderbird.com/
Firefox (web browser): http://getfirefox.com/
Good luck.
Peter D'Souza
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[Goanet]Re: Francis Xavier - Missionary

2004-12-08 Thread Peter D'Souza
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~From the Dec. 13, 2004 issue of TIME Asia Magazine
Missionary, Explorer, Hero
St. Francis Xavier was a failure, so why do millions of believers
flock to see his remains in Goa?  
BY ALEX PERRY | GOA

ARKO DATTA / REUTERS
Would anybody on this list happen to know the contact information for
the writer of this article, Arko Datta? He was a colleague of mine at
Madras Christian College and I'd like to get in touch with him.
Thanks,
Peter
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[Goanet]PLEASE DISREGARD: Re: Francis Xavier - Missionary

2004-12-08 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Sorry, I just checked the Time site and found no mention of Arko's name.
Please disregard my previous post.
- --
~ ~From the Dec. 13, 2004 issue of TIME Asia Magazine
~ Missionary, Explorer, Hero
~ St. Francis Xavier was a failure, so why do millions of believers
~ flock to see his remains in Goa?
~ BY ALEX PERRY | GOA
~ ARKO DATTA / REUTERS
~ Would anybody on this list happen to know the contact information for
~ the writer of this article, Arko Datta? He was a colleague of mine at
~ Madras Christian College and I'd like to get in touch with him.
~ Thanks,
~ Peter
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[Goanet]New York Times ( Was RE: The chickens coming home to roost)

2004-12-16 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Radhakrishnan,
I'm not sure where you live nor how often you read the New York Times.
As recently as about 6 months ago the ombudsman of the New York Times
admitted that the newspaper had a liberal bias. This was probably big
news to devoted readers of the NY Times, but it offered no surprises
to most astute observers.
(Check: http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2004/0726.asp)
To be sure, every newspaper's editorial page has a bias. The Wall
Street Journal, for instance, is unabashedly conservative, while the
NYT is pathetically liberal (or "moderate", as they might call it).
What distinguishes the NY Times is that its bias not only affects the
editorials and commentary but it routinely creeps into its news
"reporting" and headlines. Other major newspapers, including the
Washington Post and USA Today, are reliably liberal but they seldom
allow their editorial slant to influence their presentation of news.
Your might want to visit timeswatch.org to get an idea of how subtly,
and sometimes not so subtly, the NYT pushes its view on its readers.
One of my favourite daily exposes of the NYT was
http://smartertimes.com. That site is mostly defunct since its editor
started a daily newspaper called the New York Sun. They might have
archived material available for your reading pleasure.
Good luck with your journalism studies.
Peter D'Souza
P.S. Reading the New York Times everyday for several years played no
small part in my becoming a conservative.

~From: "Radhakrishnan Nair" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 20:05:45 +0530
~Subject: [Goanet]RE: RE: The chickens coming home to roost
~Hi, Mario!
~The New York Times a left-wing publication? That's news to me!
~And, as a
~student of journalism, of immense importance to me.
~Thanx for that vital information!
~Regards, RKN
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[Goanet]Indians - Most Prosperous Asians in America

2004-12-17 Thread Peter D'Souza
##
# Goanetters-2004 meet in Goa. Dec 21, Tuesday. 12 noon to 2 pm. #
# Clube Vasco, Near Municipal Garden, Panjim. Pass the word around!  #
##
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~From the Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/48dar
Stark Contrasts Found Among Asian Americans
The  group?s  average family income tops the overall U.S. figure.
But while Indians prosper, Cambodians, Laotians and Hmong  strug­
gle.
By Teresa Watanabe and Nancy Wride Times Staff Writers,
December 16, 2004
Indian Americans have surged forward as the most successful Asian
minority  in  the  United States, reporting top levels of income,
education, professional job status and English?language  ability,
even  though  three?fourths  were foreign?born, according to U.S.
census data released Wednesday.
The striking success of Asian Americans who trace their  heritage
to  India contrasted with data showing struggles among Cambodian,
Laotian and Hmong immigrants. Those three groups reported contin­
ued  significant  poverty  rates,  low job skills and limited En­
glish?language ability since their flight from war and  political
turmoil.
The  report,  "We  the  People: Asians in the United States," was
based on 2000 census data and underscored the enormous  socioeco­
nomic  diversity  among  the nation?s 10 million Asian Americans,
more than one third of whom live in California,  the  state  with
their largest population.
Asian  Americans  increased from 6.9 million, or 2.8% of the U.S.
population, in 1990 to 10.2 million, or 3.6%, in 2000.  Including
mixed?race  Asian  Americans, counted by the census for the first
time in 2000, the population was 11.9 million, or 4.2%.
"It is a community of contrasts," said Kimiko Kelly, research an­
alyst  with  the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Ange­
les. "Asian Americans are seen as a model minority  who  are  not
suffering from barriers to education or progress. But if you look
closely, you see a community that covers the whole spectrum, from
wealthy to very poor."
She said the growing diversity of the community, which was mainly
Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos until  1965  immigration  reforms
were instituted, has multiplied the challenges facing service or­
ganizations such as hers.  Translators  for  health  clinics  and
courts are among the pressing needs, she said.
The  contrasts are detailed in the report, which provides data on
such items as age, marital status, citizenship, language,  educa­
tion,  earnings,  poverty  rates,  occupation  and home ownership
among 11 Asian American groups.
Median family income,  for  instance,  ranged  from  $70,849  for
Japanese  and  $70,708  for  Asian Indians to about half that for
Cambodians and Hmong. Indian men  showed  the  highest  full?time
earnings, $51,900, about double the figure for Hmong men.
About  64% of Asian Indians held a bachelor?s degree or more, the
highest rate, compared with 7.7% for Laotians and 7.5% for Hmong,
the  lowest.  More  than  three?fourths  of Indians and Filipinos
spoke fluent English, twice the rate for Vietnamese.
Max Niedzwiecki, executive director of  the  Southeast  Asia  Re­
source  Action  Center  in Washington, D.C., said the differences
stemmed in part from different histories.  Many  Southeast  Asian
Americans  came  here  as refugees with less formal education and
with memories of traumatic experiences stemming from the  Vietnam
War and the murderous Khmer Rouge reign in Cambodia, he said.
In  contrast,  many  Asians  Indians emigrated voluntarily from a
relatively peaceful homeland and were equipped  with  strong  En­
glish skills to pursue higher academic degrees or business oppor­
tunities. Between 1990 and 2000, they doubled their population to
1.6  million  and  now  rank  as the third?largest Asian American
group after Chinese and Filipinos.
Take, for instance, Venkatesh Koka, a 36?year?old real estate in­
vestor  in Artesia. The son of a civil engineer, Koka left a com­
fortable life with servants in southern India to earn a  master?s
degree in business administration at Ohio University. As in other
upper?middle?class families, he had  attended  schools  with  in­
struction  in  English  since his childhood, rendering him fluent
even though he has always spoken Telugu, an Indian  language,  at
home.
He  says  he  came  to  the  United States in 1986 after a friend
studying here lured him with wide?eyed stories  of  freeways,  an
easy life and good money.
Koka worked at a bank and initially lost $1.5 million in real es­
tate deals, filing for bankruptcy in the mid?1990s.  Since  then,
he said, he has bounced back as manager of his family investments
and has increased their value from $3  million  to  $15  million.
This  year,  his family created the Little India Village shopping
plaza on Pioneer Boulevard in Art

[Goanet]Solemnity of Birthday of JESUS 25/12/2004

2004-12-20 Thread Peter D'Souza
##
# Goanetters-2004 meet in Goa. Dec 21, Tuesday. 12 noon to 2 pm. #   
# Clube Vasco, Near Municipal Garden, Panjim. Pass the word around!  #  
##

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From: godfrey gonsalves <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
|Just as other religions maintain due solemnity decorum
|during their festive days, ensure that Catholics do
|not turn Christmas as a "free for all" jumboree
Talking of solemnity and festive days, I was wondering if Doordarshan 
uses the same script on Good Friday each year to report that "Christians 
celebrated the feast with *traditional gaiety*"?  :-)

Peter D'Souza
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[Goanet]Tariq on Insourcing

2004-12-27 Thread Peter D'Souza
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From: Tariq Siddiqui <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| --- Mario Goveia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
|
|> [...] The US has gained far more jobs from foreign companies in the 
US than the jobs that have been outsourced, many to India.

|> And where are the statistics to back this argument?
Tariq,
Here are some statistics, and a response to another comment made by you 
follows:

~*
~  U.S. subsidiaries employ 5.4 million Americans.
~* U.S. subsidiaries support an annual payroll of $307 billion and 
pay, on average, 31% more than all U.S. companies.
~*
~  U.S. subsidiaries heavily invest in the American manufacturing 
sector. 34% of the jobs at U.S. subsidiaries are in manufacturing -- 
more than double the proportion of manufacturing at all U.S. companies.
~*
~  U.S. subsidiaries manufacture in America to export goods around 
the world -- accounting for over 20% of all U.S. exports.
~* New foreign direct investment (FDI) in the U.S. totaled $39.9 
billion in 2003.
~* In 2003, U.S. subsidiaries reinvested $38.6 billion in their U.S. 
operations.
~* U.S. Subsidiaries have spent $27.5 billion on U.S. research and 
development activities.

| In any case, your argument is one that is deeply flawed. Toyota and 
Honda have set
| up factories in the US to meet the demand of the US market. They are 
not building
| the factories here to export cars/trucks back to Japan.

So? What difference does it make *economically*? They are foreign 
companies with excellent products, they've created jobs in the USA and 
offer great value for money thereby helping the US consumer keep more 
money in his pocket and keep a few million Americans off the 
unemployment rolls. It is also worth noting that many Indian companies 
have returned the favour of outsourced jobs by employing Americans in 
their US-based operations.

If you've been listening to talk about "unfair balance of trade", you 
might want to read _Applied Economics_ by Thomas Sowell.

| -Tariq
Peter D'Souza
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Re: [Goanet]More on the malaria debate (important to Goa)

2004-12-27 Thread Peter D'Souza
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 14:30:59 +0530 (IST)
From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

A mosquito net treated with a long-lasting insecticide costs less than US$4.
While we already have highly effective and well-tolerated antimalarial drugs
(artemisinin-based combination treatments; ACTs) to replace those drugs such
as chloroquine that have fallen to resistance. These cost less than US$1 per
child treated. Less than US$20 would guarantee a poor African child access
to life-saving interventions. The cost of a malaria vaccine will be in
excess of US$60 per full immunisation.
I'm perplexed as to why NGOs, scientific organisations and the UNDP 
don't talk
about the adverse effects of artemisinin-based combination treatments.
One of these drugs, Coartem (colloquially known as "the Chinese medicine"
in Mozambique), has a horribly debilitating effect on children and many 
adults.
My son--who was barely a toddler at the time a doctor first recommended 
this
drug--collapsed and lost the use of his legs for four days. It was traumatic
to watch this happen, and those four days seemed interminable. This drug 
(and
others of the same family) are often called "final line of defence" 
drugs, i.e.
do not use them if you don't need to.

Peter D'Souza
2x Malaria survivor :-)



[Goanet]Re: Tariq on Insourcing

2004-12-28 Thread Peter D'Souza
From: Tariq Siddiqui <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
In any case, a subsidary of a foreign company will create more jobs in the US than
vice versa (exactly) because of the size of the US market. 

Not necessarily. Case in point: TCS and Wipro do not create more 
U.S.-based jobs than they do  in Bangalore, Poona or Hyderabad. It is 
precisely the low cost of programer labour in India ($6/hour) versus the 
cost of  similar labour in the USA ($60/hour) which adds jobs to the 
country that gains western outsourcing contracts.

That also does not mean that jobs were lost in the home country of the foreign companies 
 

Quite right. In fact, the home country you refer to stands to gain jobs.
You still have not understood my argument. When Honda set up a factory in the US, it
did not close down a plant in Japan. Moreover, the product was meant for the US and
not for the Japanese market. 

That's right, but it's only a part of the picture. Honda could have chosen to 
produce more for the US market out of factories in Japan--and it would have 
helped the Japanese manufacturing and shiping industries, among others--but 
given the diminished marginal returns, it makes more sense to have them 
'insource' their operation to the United States. It is a classic case for the 
benefits of insourcing--benefits for the business (higher profits) and for the 
consumer (lower cost of manufacture, lower price).
Strong trade is not and will never be a zero-sum game. (In a zero-sum game a 
win for Indian exports must translate to a loss for its trading partner.)
To help you understand better, I have no problem if GM sets up a factory in China
and builds cars there for the local Chinese market. I would have a problem if GM
sets up a factory in China only to build cars for export to the US and closes down
factories here at the same time. 
   

Such a situation might mean a loss of American jobs in one sector 
(automobile), or even a part of a sector (automobile/factory workers), 
but it often translates into gains elsewhere. There was a great hue and 
cry when NAFTA passed in 199x, and the automobile industry in the USA 
lost 10,000 jobs almost immediately. The less publicised fact was that 
40,000 new jobs were created in the same region (Detroit) in the same 
industry over the next three years. The most recent Indian 
administrations seem to have understood that international competition 
is a "good thing" (TM).

There is also another aspect here that you should consider. If you outsource a
certain part of your business process because you need to have your employees
concentrate on other process to generate more revenue, that would also be
acceptable. 

Tariq, in the grand scheme of things this becomes a micro issue. Is it 
more acceptable if they outsource such a process to a domestic company 
as opposed to a foreign company? Will the company as a whole continue to 
be viable if it does so? It is a business decision to divide tasks 
between a local labour source and a foreign one. It may or may not have 
a significant bearing on an industry or the economy.

When you talk about "not having a problem" with a certain business 
model, or another one being "acceptable", you're essentially trying to 
create an equation which says that if one country gains jobs by trade or 
outsourcing, then the other country must necessarily lose. This pattern 
of thought left economies such as India very stunted for decades. The 
only ways by which a country to prosper are to establish rule of law, 
provide good education and allow free trade (in that order).

Peter


[Goanet]The UN's Abu Ghraib, Or Worse

2004-12-29 Thread Peter D'Souza
Do you suppose this will provoke the same kind of outrage and press 
exposure as the Abu Ghraib scandal? There were calls for Rumsfeld's 
resignation when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, might there be similar 
calls for Kofi Annan's resignation? It will be interesting to watch this 
pan out.

PD'S
   *Sex for Food*
   The Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2004; Page A8
   Two years after the charges first surfaced, Kofi Annan has finally
   admitted that U.N. peacekeeping troops sexually abused war refugees
   in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "I am really shocked by these
   accusations," the United Nations Secretary-General told reporters
   last week.
   He shouldn't be. Allegations of sex crimes committed by U.N. staff
   and troops date back at least a decade and span operations on three
   continents, in places like Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia and
   Cambodia. But rather than showing the kind of "zero tolerance"
   toward sexual crimes that Mr. Annan now promises, the U.N. has
   treated such instances with cavalier nonchalance.
   In Congo, some 150 cases are under investigation. The charges range
   from rape, in which some victims were children, to sexual
   exploitation. In some cases, women and young girls have been coaxed
   into sex in exchange for essential food items. A French U.N. staffer
   was arrested for raping underage girls and taking digital pictures
   of them. He has been sent back home where he will stand trial.
   U.N. officials reportedly are worried that if these pictures and
   other rape videos allegedly shot by U.N. troops find their way into
   the media, it could become the U.N.'s "Abu Ghraib." The difference,
   of course, is that the abuses in Iraq came quickly to light through
   the chain of command and were immediately prosecuted by the U.S.
   military. In contrast, the U.N. is investigating the cases in Congo
   only after much delay and even now is unwilling to "name and shame"
   the countries whose soldiers committed these crimes.



[Goanet]Religious Stamps

2005-01-17 Thread Peter D'Souza
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| From: "Jorge/Livia de Abreu Noronha" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
| Subject: Re: [Goanet]GoanetReader -- Stamps from across the world,
viewed with faith
| Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 21:17:52 +0100
|
| Re the following paragraph of the write-up in Gomantak Times (see below):
|
| «While most stamps on show had been released by Catholic nations, what is
| equally interesting is that several Muslim nations have also released many
|>on various aspects of the life of Jesus and the Holy Family. "It showed
|>their true spirit of secularism," says Fr Cosme J Costa, well known writer
|>and priest at Pilar»,
Why would a Catholic priest, a religious man, be impressed with a spirit
of secularism? Can't one be very religious, tolerant and open-minded
without being secularist?
Quite sincerely,
Peter D'Souza
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[Goanet]Indians and Sham Marriages in the UK

2005-01-18 Thread Peter D'Souza
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The Scotsman
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
ANDREW BARROW
Key points
? Men jailed for arranging sham marriages for Indians to gain entry to UK
? UK 'partners' paid £5000 while 'clients' charged £1 in over 40
marriages
? Police say marriages were 'tip of the iceberg' of immigration scam
Key quote
"You grossly abused your daughter by giving your consent for her to be
involved in a bogus marriage. That I find to be particularly
objectionable" - Judge Simon Hammond when sentencing Zahida Amujee
Story in full TWO men who arranged for dozens of Indian citizens to go
through marriages of convenience with Britons in order to gain entry to
the UK were each jailed for four years yesterday.
Twenty-three other people received jail terms of up to three years for
their part in the racket.
More than 40 Indian nationals married British "stooges" controlled by
Salim Mullan, 50, and Ibrahim Umarji, 66. Such marriages gained the
Indians entry to Britain, and they were later able to claim residence
rights and, ultimately, citizenship.
"Clearly, this was a well-planned and sophisticated operation involving
recruitment of stooges in this country," Judge Simon Hammond said in
delivering sentence. "Some were flown to India and there was substantial
funding.
"It was a team job requiring different roles. Everyone knew that what
they were doing was unlawful. It was cheating and it prejudiced genuine
candidates.
"The sentence must reflect the public need to deter others in what was
for some a very lucrative scam."
Four members of the same family were among those beginning jail
sentences last night. Zainab Patas, her brother Ibrahim Hafeji and their
mother and stepfather were jailed after admitting being part of the
conspiracy.
The ceremonies were set up in an attempt to beat the UK immigration
system, with police saying the marriages were the "tip of the iceberg".
Patas, now 22, was said to have taken part in six bogus weddings - the
first when she was 16 - with the approval of her mother, Zahida Amujee,
who was also twice a scam bride. Patas was jailed for three years yesterday.
Appearing alongside her in the dock, Hafeji, 20, was jailed for 12
months for taking part in one wedding.
Their mother, 43, of Rockingham Close, Leicester, was jailed for 32
months for taking part in two weddings.
Judge Hammond told Zahida Amujee: "You grossly abused your daughter by
giving your consent for her to be involved in a bogus marriage.
"That I find to be particularly objectionable."
The court heard all money paid for the marriages was given to the
children?s stepfather, Abdul Samad Amujee, 56, who was jailed for one
year for taking part in one wedding.
The British stooges involved in the scam were all said to have been
recruited by Mullan and Umarji. Mullan, of Leicester, and Umarji, of
East Ham, London, were said to be the ringleaders.
They tempted the stooges with payments of up to £5,000 - although many
claim they never saw any money - and organised flights to India and the
bogus documents for immigration checks.
Mullan?s wife, Jahara, was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to
money-laundering. The court heard she had nearly £80,000 in two bank
accounts.
In all, 42 weddings took place - some in England and some in India.
The racket involved Indian men and women marrying British citizens of
Indian descent to pave their way for a life in England, Leicester Crown
Court was told.
Clients were each charged between £8,000 and £10,000 for the weddings,
which would take place in Leicester, Bolton, London or Mumbai, formerly
known as Bombay.
Fourteen of those jailed were women, many single mothers who had been
put under financial stress or were pressured by the ringleaders to go
through with the bogus ceremonies.
In recent years, the number of bogus marriages that have allowed
otherwise illegal immigrants to stay in the UK has soared dramatically.
Official figures show that in the first nine months of 2004, register
offices recorded 2,974 bogus weddings - compared with 1,725 over the
same period last year.
This article:
~  http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=61892005
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[Goanet]Re: Religious Stamps

2005-01-18 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helekar wrote:
	The word secularism has many meanings, all of which
	are good. In Indian and British English this word is
	commonly used to mean tolerance and respect for the
	right of an individual to hold or not to hold the
	beliefs of any religion. Secular people, irrespective
	of whether they are priests or not, consider all
	religions, as well as absence of religion, to be
	completely equal.
Santosh, the OED defines secular as "1. not religious, sacred, or 
spiritual. 2 (of clergy) not subject to or bound by religious rule."
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/secular?view=uk

Based on this quote from Chuck Colson's latest column, I am inclined to 
believe that the American English definition is not very different:
	"Why do militant secularists attempt to snuff out religious practice, 
even in prisons, where it is so desperately needed? Partly, it’s a 
fanatical hostility toward religion. But these efforts also reflect a 
serious misunderstanding both of the role religion should play in public 
life and of religion’s social benefits."
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/chuckcolson/printcc20050114.shtml

All of this is to say that I still find no reason as to why Fr. Cosme J. 
Costa of Pilar must be impressed with a spirit of secularism. He can 
maintain his commitment to Catholicism and be entirely tolerant of other 
religions without being a secularist.

Peter


[Goanet]Pravasi Divas

2005-01-18 Thread Peter D'Souza
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| Pitroda, Bhagwati, Shyamalan among awardees
|
| by Eugene Correia
|
| Mumbai: Fifteen people of Indian origin were honoured
| with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards on the concluding day
| of the third Pravasi Divas in Mumbai on Jan. 9.
| Three of them are based in the United States -- Dr.
| Sam Pitroda, the man who pioneered the
| telecommunications era in modern India as Technology
| Advisor to the late Indian Prime Minister Sanjay
| Gandhi, Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati, of Columbia
When was Sanjay Gandhi Prime Minister?
Another great editorial by Jagdish Bhagwati in today's Wall Street Journal.
Peter
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[Goanet]Re: Secular Stamps

2005-01-19 Thread Peter D'Souza
Jose Colaco said:
   Subject: [Goanet]Re: Secular Stamps
   ooops! what does
   http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/secular?view=uk also
   say
   "secular /sekyoolr/  • noun a SECULAR priest.
Jose,
I think secular priests are also known as PINOs, that is priests in name 
only. ;-)
Peter




[Goanet]@Calangute.net

2004-04-06 Thread Peter D'Souza
FYI -- free webmail accounts @calangute.net, no taglines added to your
e-mail messages.

Peter D'Souza


##
# Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED]   #   
# PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts #
# More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/  #  
# Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others  #
##


[Goanet]Gabe menezes on Market Forces

2005-05-17 Thread Peter D'Souza
Gabe Menezes made this comment:
	I too agree with this disagreeable policy of the USA and Britain, 
trying to impose market forces on people barely able to feed themselves, 
a bloody shame!
--

Gabe,
FYI, market forces cannot be imposed on anyone by anyone. By definition 
they are dynamic and can't be controlled. They are subject to variables 
such as supply and demand.

Peter D'Souza


[Goanet]Re: Goa, National Geographic, Amazon and Congo...

2005-05-17 Thread Peter D'Souza
Fred Noronha asks:

Could anyone confirm that National Geographic had this mention? FN

Fred,
Check this link at National Geographic: *http://tinyurl.com/8eol5

*The blurb on the site says:

Treasured watershed of India, these coastal mountains feed
grasslands, forests, and a burgeoning human population. Biologist E.
O. Wilson introduces a series examining such hotspots—among Earth’s
richest ecosystems.

Peter

>> The Western Ghats, which form most of eastern Goa, have been 
>> internationally recognised as one of the biodiversity hotspots of the 
>> world. In the February 1999 issue of the National Geographic Magazine, 
>> Goa was compared with the Amazon and Congo basins for its rich tropical 
>> biodiversity.
>



[Goanet]Meu Caro Afra

2005-06-14 Thread Peter D'Souza
Ricardo Nunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Should that be "Minha Cara Afra"? I'm really confused as to the identity
of the Afra persona.

>Meu Caro Afra:
>
>I fully agree with you. A quarter of a million years ago Africa was the only
>civilized continent.
>
>In the beginning we were all Afros and our great-granny was a black girl.
>Later on (uns dias mais tarde) a few became Afras.
>




[Goanet]Re: Acres of Diamonds

2005-06-14 Thread Peter D'Souza
Hey Santosh,

While it's true that this story is quite exaggerated, it hardly falls
into the typical "scam". To call it a scam is an exaggeration, and I
can't help but note the irony. The original story is very inspiring,
indeed, and the little girl's motives were as admirable in the
exaggerated version of the story as they are in the original.

It's sad that the Temple Baptist building has fallen into desuetude, but
I'm glad that they haven't destroyed this magnificent piece of architecture.

Peter D'Souza


>From: Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: [Goanet]"Acres of Diamonds".
>
>--- Cynthia Fernandes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>wrote:
>
>>This is a true story, which goes to show WHAT GOD
>>CAN DO WITH 57 CENTS.
>>
>>
>>False! This story is an urban legend. Please see the
>>following link to find out how we are being scammed by
>>it:
>>
>>http://www.snopes.com/glurge/57cents.asp
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Santosh
>>




Re: [Goanet] Acres of Diamonds

2005-06-14 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asks:

Do you want to excuse people (or encourage them) for
spreading "inspiring" urban legends and chain emails
through Goanet?

Santosh,

I look at intent. That was an inspiring story. Cynthia is a well meaning person 
and I don't think she intended to cause alarm, make you waste extra bandwidth 
by asking you to pass the e-mail on to everyone in your address book, leave you 
with false hopes of earning a million dollars because Bill Gates would be 
tracking your chain letter, make you send a postcard to a young boy dying of 
cancer at non-existent address in the United Kingdom...none of that. All she 
did was to pass along an inspirational story. For your peace of mind treat it 
as inspirational fiction. Put one of your copyrighted disclaimers at the end of 
her message: "The above statement is false". This isn't something to get 
alarmed about and I honestly don't know if anyone breathed a sigh of relief 
after they saw your warning about this "scam". As they say on North Broad 
Street (home of Russell Conwell's Temple University) "Yo, chill!"

Peter






Re: [Goanet] In America, the crows stick to the garbage

2005-06-14 Thread Peter D'Souza
Hey Cornel,

If you look though the logs circa October last year, you will find Mario 
agreeing with many of my postings, those of Chris Vaz and the postings of a few 
others as well. There are a number of us on this list, general lurkers, whose 
views are well represented by Mario. I personally have less energy to defend 
America than Mario does (God bless him) and I also believe that most so-called 
liberals are actually very closed-minded, consequently I spare myself the 
futility.

Mario also has more patience with people who are uncomfortable with facts and 
logic, so more power to him in his quest to educate America-haters, those 
opposed to a free Iraq, and the French.

Sincerely,

Peter D'Souza

--


From: "cornel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 
Subject: Re: [Goanet] In America, the crows stick to the garbage
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 11:13:15 +0100
Reply-To: goanet@goanet.org

Santosh,
What we have in Mario is the revisionist of American history. Like you, I do 
not find his versions persuasive at all, despite trying hard to keep an open 
mind. How can anyone who believes that everyone else, on any topic, is 
wrong, except himself, like some great Oracle, be taken seriously? That, 
surely, is the question Mario has to attend to.
Cornel




Re:[Goanet] In America, the crows stick to the garbage

2005-06-15 Thread Peter D'Souza

Peter D’Souza wrote:
I also believe that most so-called liberals are
actually very closed-minded, consequently I spare
myself the futility.

Santosh Helekar responded:
Do you mean to say that the so-called liberals are
actually very conservative, and are not open to other
points of view?

PD'S:
	No. I did not say that they are "very conservative". 
	Conservatives are recovering liberals (most of us anyway).


SH:
Who according to you is an America-hater? One who
disagrees with the policies of the present U.S.
administration?

PD'S:
	People who are opposed to the United States' actions when 
	it acts as a force for good in this world, people who casually 
	equate Guantanamo Bay with the gulag and Nazi concentration camps,

people who liken George Bush to Hitler, popular entertainers who
	criticise America on foreign soil, people weren't happy when Saddam 
	Hussein was captured (many of whom were actually sad, for fear that
	it would translate to election losses for the Democrat party), people 
	who weren't willing to admit that the Iraqi elections were one of the

greatest celebrations of freedom in Mid-East history, people who make 
lame
threats about migrating to Canada if a conservative president is elected
...they're the common culprits.

	In regard to people who disagree with the present administration: 
	Personally, I disagree with the present administration on many issues, 
	but I love this country dearly. I do not instinctively support the

the present administration, but I do share its conservative ideology.
There are others who disagree with the present administration 
instinctively,
I've identified some of them above.

SH:
Who according to you is opposed to a free Iraq? One
who disagrees with the policies of the present U.S.
administration?

PD'S:
	This is not "according to me", sorry. Those opposed to a free Iraq were very 
	vocal in opposing America and Britain's desire for a regime change in Iraq. Those who 
	supported a free Iraq choose to put their money where their mouth is by sending 
	troops and other help in the effort to toople Saddam and his evil Baathist regime.


SH:
Does an America-lover have to be a hater of the French?

PD'S:
Non, monsieur. You can hate everyone and still be truly French, 
n'est-ce pas?

Peace,

Peter




Re: [Goanet] In America, the crows stick to the garbage

2005-06-16 Thread Peter D'Souza
Marlon Menezes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Peter,
The logs also reveal that Chris Vaz made some rather
racist comments on the Arab community in Michigan. I'm
sure you dont agree with those comments of his!

Marlon,

If my memory serves me correctly, Chris used the term "ilk" in what seemed like 
a pejorative use of the word. He could have just as easily substituted another 
word or phrase (such as "the Arab comunity in Michigan" or whatever) to make 
his point without giving Tariq or anybody else an opportunity to take offense. 
He seemed to be making a generalisation, and generalisations as a rule are 
based on common reality. I do not use the word "racist" lightly and would not 
call Chris Vaz a racist for his remarks. Many people on this forum object more 
to the messenger than the message and will allow deliberately twisted logic to 
attack the messenger when they have no real counter argument. When I mentioned 
Chris Vaz, it was in the context of Cornel's allegation that Mario doesn't 
agree with anybody else on the forum.


Likewise, your bunching of groups into two political
categories, viz, liberals and conservatives is overly
simplistic. There are many of us who would like to see
social security, welfare, medicaid and other excuses
for excessive government spending abolished. We would
like to see unfettered free trade and an end of
immigration quotas to allow the import of unlimited
labor from abroad to allow industry to reduce its
labor costs and to use the best the world has to
offer. Coversely, we do not want a big, intrusive
government imposing its moral values on us or telling
us how to behave or think.

Marlon, you are absolutely correct in this. I have, in fact, simplified the 
issue. When I was talking about conservatives I was thinking of "hawks" and 
cultural/social conservatives, I should have specified.

While the conservative crowd has generally been pro
business (although this is not a hard and fast rule,
specially wrt open immigration), it has an increasing
component of the intolerant religious right.

I am disinclined to associate immigration *policy* with business policy. I am 
very pro-immigrant and think that President Bush's proposals are about the most 
clever, decent, compromise on the subject. It illustrates a respect for the 
intent of the law while making a slight compromise on the letter of the law. 
Conservatives are often divided on the subject of imigration. You will find 
folks like Tamar Jacoby writing in favour of the Bush plan on the pages of the 
Wall Street Journal, and other like Michelle Malkin writing on Townhall.com in 
favour of coming down hard on illegal residents. There is more debate among 
conservatives than most people are willing to admit.

Your remark about the "intolerant religious right" (IRR) is entirely misplaced. 
Please spend some time with people whom you believe are part of this religious 
right. Perhaps you are associating Christian Nation hate groups and the KKK 
with the religious right? Let me tell you something: I live in deeply 
conservative country. The city I live in has several mega-churches, including 
the third largest church in the USA. There is a church on almost every corner. 
It is what most opinionated social and political liberals might describe as a 
bastion of right wing fundamentalist Christians (on a good day) or the IRR. 
There's another side to this city and it's more rural neighbourhoods, though: 
it has a large Klan presence and on at least one occasion I have had some of 
that hate directed at me. In fact, the assistant Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux 
Klan in America lives about three miles from my home. You might think, 
therefore, that all this makes it a hotbed of religious intolerance. But this 
isn't the case, it most definitely is not. This is the friendliest town that 
I've lived in, I love it here. I attend an evangelical church with about 350 
people you'd probably label as being part of the IRR--and I happen to be the 
only non-white adult there--but I've never been in a friendlier church. My kids 
are among the most loved by parents and other kids. It is comfortable, even for 
people whom you might think are perfect targets for intolerance. People outside 
of churches are also very friendly.

My hunch is that you have heard that term used liberally in the media and 
seriously believe that a large voting bloc of intolerant people do exist. The 
media are frequently disconnected from reality, which you probably know. I 
heard of a case where a fellow asked a roomful of about 30 journalists whether 
any of them personally knew somebody who was homosexual, to which everybody 
raised their hands. He then asked if anybody personally knew an evangelical 
Christian, to which three of the journalists present raised their hands. So 
there you have it, they're thoroughly acquainted with a tiny minority of the 
population and completely disc

[Goanet]Acres of Diamonds

2005-06-16 Thread Peter D'Souza
*Santosh Helekar asked: *

Peter,

Do you think there is any harm in pointing out that
this "inspiring" story is an urban legend? Do you
think we should let people forward fake chain letters
to public forums without being corrected?


Santosh,

The 57-cents story truly warms the cockles of my heart. You didn't harm
anybody by pointing out the errors, and neither did Cynthia's letter
harm anybody. I'm sorry that you wasted much emotion in doing so.
Peter




[Goanet]In America, the crows stick to the garbage

2005-06-16 Thread Peter D'Souza
/Marlon Menezes writes:///

Personally, I dont give a hoot that people in Iraq may
have been suffering under Saddam's rule, just I do not
really care about the the genocide in Sudan or the
fact that women are being raped over there.
[deletia]

Evil is all relative. I am sure there are many of us
(me included) who would not hesitate to legally work
with the Saddam regime if we could profit from it.
[deletia]

Marlon,
I really wish I didn't know this about you.
Peter



[Goanet]Re: Acres of Diamonds

2005-06-17 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helekar writes:
>From my standpoint, perpetuation of falsehoods under
any guise causes grave harm to society, and a
gratuitous defense of it adds insult to injury.

Peter responds:
Santosh, mea culpa. Pardon my ignorance of the magnitude of
Cynthia's offense. I had no idea that it had or could cause
"grievous harm" to anybody and have serious societal consequences.
Personally, I am sorry for causing you such injury. If only I had
realised that you felt injured, I'd have done my best not to add
insult to it.

Santosh (continued):
You fail to see the simple fact that stating that I
did no harm in pointing out the errors, is at odds
with your claim that I wasted much emotion in doing
so.

Peter responds:
Mea culpa again--I never once thought that wasting emotions was harmful.

Santosh (continued):
I don't think you can read my emotions, if for nothing
else then for the well-recognized difficulty of doing
so across the gaping electronic void of cyberspace.

Peter responds:
Mea maxima culpa. You're such a logical and (seemingly) rational
fellow, that when you used an exclamation mark in your original
posting about this alleged "scam" it seemed like you were quite
upset. You're right, emotions never are communicated too well in
cyberspace.

Santosh (continued):
The irony of it is that if you had not tried to be
gratuitously and pointlessly defensive about this
urban legend, from a habitual and exclusive purveyor
of such myths, the matter would have ended, as far as
I am concerned, with my rather bland and clearly
unemotional first response on this thread.

Peter responds:
Gratuitous, yes; defensive, no. All I did was to point out that the
anecdote was meant to inspire and (in my opinion) did nobody any
harm. You're a researcher (from what I understand), and you tell me
that society has been caused "grievous harm", so I will wait for
you to supply proof of such grievous harm and injury to society.
 

Santosh (continued):
So I ask you, why did you invest your time (not
emotion, because I cannot tell) into this? Was it
worth it? Or was it a waste of your time?

Peter responds:
Santosh, I might have wasted time, but it was well worth the
emotion. It gave me a lot of grins and giggles.

Santosh (continued):
Are you open-minded enough to recognize that you are wrong
about defending urban legends, even inspiring religious ones?

Peter responds:
You are implying that I am wrong. There is no right or wrong when
you're merely explaining the motive behind sending out a chain
letter.

Here's something that you don't know about me: I routinely respond
to chain letters when they contain information that may damage
individuals or corporations, or create a false sense of vindication
for a person's religious belief or ideology. I have done this for
chainletters concerning Bill Gates (whom I dislike), Ted Kennedy
(ditto) & Donald Rumsfeld (like), Procter & Gamble (agnostic),
Einstein (agnostic), patriotic paintings on rocks (like), Neiman
Marcus cookies, "I love Jesus" virus...and several others. Many
months ago Cynthia sent out a chain letter to this group which
contained falsehoods, so I promptly wrote her privately and
explained that it was false. She was very thankful that I'd pointed it
out to her, and I also told her about snopes.com and advised her to
check it out. If I read one of her postings that could possibly be
harmful, I will definitely notify her. In your quest for truth you
simply seem to lose perspective of what really matters. Or perhaps
your perspective is that every little thing matters. A couple of cases
in point (I'm relying on memory here):
Cynthia had a posting about what to do in the event of a tsunami,
it contained a lot of useful advice. You proceeded to tear it
apart. At the end of it all I don't think you really helped
anyone, and I don't think Cynthia harmed any one. Ditto for your
response to Mario's forward concerning AIDS needles. "Look before
you sit"...no harm done.

Hope that helps clarify.

Peter




[Goanet]Re: Malaria, Africa ... and Goa

2005-06-17 Thread Peter D'Souza
Fred Noronha writes:

One might be wrong, but in Goa, the issue of malaria seems
to have gone off the radar of public concern. Even the
enthusiasm that was visible in the early and mid 'nineties
seems to have vanished.

Can we afford to be complacent over this? FN

BTW June 16 is the day of the African Child. Large numbers die of 
malaria each year, and many get orphaned by AIDS.


Fred,

What kinds of drugs do they use to treat Malaria in Goa? In 
Mozambique (and possibly in most parts of Africa) the doctors give you a 
week's worth of chloroquine tablets and leave it to you to take your 
daily dose. The huge majority of people feel better after the second day 
(or just enough to get past the relapse period) and stop taking it. This 
has horrible effects on their health. Chloroquine is resistant to the 
falciparum strain of malaria--the most prevalent in Africa (and in Goa, 
I think?).

There is a tendency among wealthier nations to believe that 
life's problems can be solved with enough money thrown at them, i.e. if 
we give Africa more money it will take care of the malaria problem. The 
U.N. has invested heavily in malaria prevention and treatment (and 
possibly eradication), enough to make a significant dent in the number 
of malaria-related deaths, but it hasn't helped any.
   
Peter



[Goanet]Re:In America, the crows stick to the garbage

2005-06-21 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helekar wrote:

If some liberals like you recovered to being
conservatives than at least some liberals must be
open-minded. Are you now as a conservative open-minded
enough to switch back to being a liberal?

Peter responds: 
Liberals can often be correctly accused of being open-minded. 
It does not necessarily come with the territory, though.

Santosh continues:

How about people who liken a Democratic president to
Stalin? Are they America-haters?

Peter (cont'd):
I don't know the context of your remark. I do know that people 
who loosely liken the actions of a president of a democratic 
country, such as the USA, to those of Hitler and Stalin are
genuinely deluded or motivated by hate.

>popular entertainers who criticize America on foreign
>soil

Santosh (cont'd):

By "criticize America", do you mean criticize the
policies of a Republican administration? Is the
democratic right to dissent confined within the U.S.
borders?

Peter (cont'd):
The issue is not one of rights. The issue is one of taste,
good judgment, choice of audience and purpose.



Santosh asks:

Was capturing Saddam Hussein part of a political
strategy to win the election for the Republican party?
If so, are these people America-lovers?

I don't know if it was part of the strategy. It certainly 
came close to failing. 

>Personally, I disagree with the present administration 
>on many issues, but I love this country dearly. 

Santosh (cont'd):

What are your disagreements?

Concessions to the PLO, soft stance on Saudi Arabia and
North Korea, waiting for the UN to act on Sudan, low pressure
on Mugabe (and, by extension, Mbeki), low pressure on China's
human rights record, steel tariffs (since removed), farming
subsidies, huge spending, no use of line-item veto, 

>There are others who disagree with the present
>administration instinctively, I've identified some of
>them above.

Santosh (cont'd):

I assume that you do not instinctively label as
America-haters those who instinctively disagree with
the present administration.


Peter (cont'd):
That would be a fair assumption.

>Those opposed to a free Iraq were very vocal in
>opposing America and Britain's desire for a regime
>change in Iraq. 
>

Santosh (cont'd):

Are you open-minded enough to consider the possibility
that these people disagreed that military invasion was
the only option? Are you now opposed to a free North
Korea or a free Saudi Arabia?

Peter (cont'd):
It is entirely possible that many liberals believe that
a military invasion was not the only option. What I haven't
seen is the "other option". The repetitive series of
resolutions passed by the UN are testimony to the fact
that most opponents of resolution-by-war are, in fact,
opposed to action of any sort. Perhaps delaying was the
other plan?

Santosh (cont'd):

Are you France-hater? Do you think it is appropriate
to use the word French as a derisive epithet? If so,
why?


A verité est que je n'adore pas la France ou les français.
Regarding use of French as a derisive epithet, there are times
and contexts in which many nouns can be used derisively. A 
simple study of common metaphors will confirm this. In the 
context of the war the French intransigence was less than
commendable.

Peter




Re: [Goanet] Debunk hoaxes, then use common sense

2005-06-22 Thread Peter D'Souza
--- Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>>4. No matter what anybody says, urban legends and
>>plagiarized material would continue to be
>>disseminated by people who do not know what to do with their
>>spare time and energy.
>>
Santosh,
For a fellow who claims to live by facts, you're making one huge
assumption about people's spare time and energy.
Peter




[Goanet]Thousands mob beach in 'diamond' rush

2005-06-30 Thread Peter D'Souza
Okay folks, I stand corrected: An 'acres of diamonds' story can indeed
cause grievous harm to society.

Very sincerely,

Peter D'Souza
--

> From: Mario Goveia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050629/od_nm/india_diamonds_dc_1
> 
> An excerpt from the article above:
> 
> Thousands of people have been flocking to a beach in
> India's financial hub in a manic diamond rush, but
> police said Wednesday the stones were fakes and warned
> them to stay away after one treasure hunter was drowned.




[Goanet]Ubuntu Linux Cds Avalable in Goa for Free

2005-06-30 Thread Peter D'Souza
Just a quick word of endorsement regarding Clinton Vaz's Linux CD
offer: Ubuntu Linux is one of the finest operating systems around. I
have been using Ubuntu Linux as my primary OS and am very pleased--no
worries about Windows spyware, Windows viruses and the like. I'd dump
Windows altogether if I didn't require it for work. So call Clint and
pick up your Ubuntu Linux CDs today. There's a 'LiveCD' which lets you
test Linux without even having to install Linux on your PC. And
there's the "Hoary Hedgehog" CD which does allow you to install Linux
on your PC hard drive.

Peter D'Souza
--

Clint Vaz wrote:
Just a short note to inform everybody that I have a few Ubuntu Linux
Cds that can be given out for free to anybody that desires.

The Free Cds will be made available at my shop in Margao for those who
are interested. Mail me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call me at 9822123535
before you decide to collect your cds.

Clinton..




Re: [Goanet] How did science begin?

2005-06-30 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Fr. Ivo,
[...]

2. You conveniently gloss over the fact that the Bible
and traditional Christian theology contain beliefs and
explanations about natural phenomena that modern
science has shown to be completely wrong.

Santosh,
What explanations of natural phenomena are you referring to?
Peter



Re: [Goanet]Re: George Pinto's patently faux story .....

2005-07-01 Thread Peter D'Souza
Marlon Menezes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asks:
> Joe,
> 
> How does questioning the authenticity of Jesus's
> alleged miracles constitute a "gruesome attack" on
> christianity! [...]

> Marlon
>

Marlon,
In the same way that an inspirational story can cause "grievous harm" to
society. Perhaps?
Peter





[Goanet] Immigration versus Emigration (Plus a Language Query)

2006-02-17 Thread Peter D'Souza

Mario,

I believe Mario is correct. This is what I found on 
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/emigrate.html
and it includes an easy way to remember:


   "To “emigrate” is to /leave/ a country. The /E/ at the beginning of
   the word is related to the /E /in other words having to do with
   going out, such as “exit.”
   “Immigrate,” in contrast, looks as if it might have something to do
   with going /in,/ and indeed it does: it means to move into a new
   country. The same distinction applies to “emigration” and
   “immigration.” Note the double /M/ in the second form. A migrant is
   someone who continually moves about."

Talking of language, what form of the following sentence is more commonly used 
in Goan/Indian, British, Aussie, other English?
1. Tony looked out the window.
2. Tony looked out of the window.

I find that the second form is not used very much in the USA, and I know that 
its equivalent is not used in Portuguese. It seems to imply that the person 
talking is physically inside the window (part of the woodwork), as opposed to 
being on the other side of it. I also found this second form in the Chronicles 
of Narnia, which leads me to believe that it has been in declining usage in the 
last century.

Peter

--
From: Mario Goveia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Goanet] RE: Migrating from Immigration ani Chol Voss!
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Viviana,
The words work as follows, using myself as an example:
1. I EMIGRATED to the United States FROM India (one
EMIGRATES FROM one place TO another)
2. I am an IMMIGRANT in the United States (an
IMMIGRANT comes TO a place from someplace else where
they EMIGRATED from) 


--- Viviana <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


> I was taught in school (okay, in the last century)
> that IMMIGRATION is 
> from one country to another, EMIGRATION is within
> one country. One 
> immigrates to another country but is a migrant
> within one's own country. 
> Don't know if this is how it is understood today.






[Goanet] Why plaintext...

2006-02-28 Thread Peter D'Souza

Fred,

There are doubtless many good reasons to have plaintext for a mailing 
list. But, given the extra education involved in getting everyone who 
posts to this list to use text-only, it might be easier to use a MIME 
attachment stripper. Since this mailing list uses Mailman, you might 
want to look at options such as:


   Phred: http://www.phred.org/~alex/stripmime.html.
   demime: http://majordomo.squawk.com/njs/demime/index.html
   MIMEDefang: http://www.mimedefang.org/

Peter D'Souza
---
From: Frederick Noronha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Subject: [Goanet] Why plaintext...
To: 
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO8859-1

This is for all the guys complaining that Goanet "censors" non-plaintext 
mail... Check the URL below please. -FN

http://www.expita.com/nomime.html

Configuring Mail Clients to Send Plain ASCII Text
Index (5 topics)




[Goanet] Dubya goes to India

2006-02-28 Thread Peter D'Souza

Viviana,

Thanks for posting this very insightful article. The timing of President 
Bush's visit, right on the heels of President Clinton's, might just make 
the contrast between two presidents stand out. On the one hand there's 
the one who was and is wildly popular, who watched Pakistan and India 
tease each other with nuclear weapons, and the other who has done more 
for the subcontinent than any other American head of state, and remains 
generally unpopular in spite of it.


Peter

   Subject: [Goanet] Dubya goes to India
   To: Goanet@Goanet.org


   The article in its entirety can be found
   at.http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1635835,0035.htm

   Dubya's "L'Affaire India'"

   Pramit Pal Chaudhuri




[Goanet] Dubya goes to India (II)

2006-02-28 Thread Peter D'Souza

Well, I may be wrong. Bush might be more popular than I'd thought.

According to an AC Nielsen poll published in Outlook India, Bush is 
regarded as a friend of India:

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060306&fname=Cover+Story&sid=1

The same poll asked the question "Who’s better for India—George Bush or 
the last president, Bill Clinton?"

43% say Bush is the better of the two, while 49% preferred Clinton.

Peter

**



[Goanet] India’s sea turtles lose out in touri sm battle

2006-02-28 Thread Peter D'Souza

Avelino,

Are you aware of the Goa-based organization that might be involved in 
the research of the Olive Ridley sea turtle? This is sad news that it is 
disappearing from Goa's shores. I do believe that with a little effort 
that the sea turtle population can be protected. I used to be involved 
with an Olive Ridley conservation group in Madras in the late 1980s. One 
of the solutions is to build turtle "hatcheries". (It is a bit of a 
misnomer since the hatchery is merely a chain link fence enclosing an 
area of about 5'x10', with a locked gate.) Every night a group of 
"turtle watchers" must comb the beach for signs of a new nest. Nature 
enthusiasts make good candidates for this volunteer job, which involves 
spotting a turtle trail or a nest. The nest is identifiable for a brief 
time by its slightly irregular surface. If this is not done regularly, a 
couple of waves can wash away every trace of turtle activity.


The moment a nest is spotted it must be dug up and the eggs transferred 
to the hatchery to be placed in a new nest. No tools required--a hole 
about 8 inches wide and 15 inches deep is all you need. At the hatchery, 
in the meantime, you wait for the hatch date and post somebody, a turtle 
traffic cop, to direct the hatchlings to the sea. That is all.


Peter D'Souza
former environmentalist


   Just six Olive Ridleys returned to nest at Morjim this season, down
   from 31 in 2001. The solitary landings contrast with the awesome
   arribadas (arrivals) shown in nature documentaries, in which nesting
   turtles storm beaches in their thousands in a tactic known as
   predator saturation. The only species that now arrives en masse at
   Morjim in the September-March nesting season is the sun-starved
   northern European tourist.




[Goanet] Cords of Misery or Mercy? (Miseri kort dia)

2006-03-01 Thread Peter D'Souza

JoeGoaUk,

I believe your translation is very close. It more likely means "Lord 
God, have mercy on us."
There is no verb in the phrase you cite below, but songwriters sometimes 
take that liberty. "Senior Deus" is more likely "Senhor Deus", where 
Senhor is translated to Lord (Master--superior), instead of Mister. 
"Miseri kort dia" is probably "misericordia", which means mercy.


Peter

--
From: JoeGoaUk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
[...]

   Senior Deus, miseri kort dia
   Senior Deus, miseri kort dia
   Senior Deus, miseri kort dia

   An older man in my village used to sing the above line repeated thrice.
   Soon after the ladin or Saibinn is over,

   I never understand what it mean. Could it be 'Mr. (or oh) God, have
   mercy
   on us' ?




[Goanet] Homeschooling in Goa

2006-03-04 Thread Peter D'Souza
A couple of years ago there was a discussion on homeschooling on this 
list. At the time I received a couple of off-list e-mails about it, 
including one from a lady who was considering homeschooling her kids in 
Goa. I was wondering about how much things have changed. The movement is 
growing rapidly in the USA, and I'm keen to know if it is catching on in 
Goa and other parts of India. Thanks in advance for your feedback.


Peter

-

Homeschooling grows quickly in United States

COLUMBIA, Maryland (Reuters) -- Elizabeth and Teddy Dean are learning 
about the Italian scientist Galileo, so they troop into the kitchen, 
where their mother Lisa starts by reviewing some facts about the 
Renaissance.


Elizabeth, 11, and Teddy, 8, have never gone to school.

Their teachers are primarily their parents, which puts them into what is 
believed to be the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. education system 
-- the homeschool movement.


For their science lesson, Teddy and Elizabeth are joined by three other 
homeschooled children and their mother, who live down the street in 
their suburb midway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.


Before the lesson starts, all five kids change into Renaissance costumes 
-- long dresses and bonnets for the girls, tunics and swords for the boys.


"We definitely have a lot more fun than kids who go to school," 
Elizabeth said.


Nobody is quite sure exactly how many American children are being taught 
at home. The National Center for Education Statistics, in a 2003 survey, 
put the number that year at 1.1 million. The Home School Legal Defense 
Association, which represents some 80,000 member families, says the 
figure now is quite a bit higher -- between 1.7 and 2.1 million.


But there is no disagreement about the explosive growth of the movement 
-- 29 percent from 1999 to 2003 according to the NCES study, or 7 to 15 
percent a year according to HSLDA.


This growth has spawned an estimated $750 million a year market 
supplying parents with teaching aids and lesson plans to fit every 
religious and political philosophy. Homeschooled children regularly show 
up in the finals of national spelling competitions, generating publicity 
for the movement.


Parents cite many reasons for deciding to opt out of formal education 
and teach their children at home. In the NCES study, 31 percent said 
they were concerned about drugs, safety or negative peer pressure in 
schools; 30 percent wanted to provide religious or moral instruction 
while 16 percent said they were dissatisfied with academic standards in 
their local schools.


"I wasn't sold on the idea of institutionalized education. It's a 
factory approach -- one size fits all," said Isabel Lyman, author of 
"The Homeschooling Revolution," who taught both of her now-grown sons at 
home.


"The schools take all the joy out of learning. They don't take account 
of a particular child's interests, needs and development. The whole 
system is anti-child," she said.

Regulation, instruction vary

Different states take widely varying approaches to homeschooling. Some, 
like New York and Pennsylvania, require that the parents submit lesson 
plans four times a year and regularly test the children.


Others, like Texas, basically leave them alone. So there is little 
reliable data on how they are doing, said University of Colorado 
education professor Kevin Welner.


"There are popular myths that homeschooled children are socially inept, 
cloistered kids and that they are either illiterate or academic 
wunderkinds. Anecdotes aside, we simply don't have the data to make such 
generalizations," he said.


"Some children will get top-notch instruction. Others will get poor or 
minimal instruction. Obviously it will vary by parent," he said.


Even the cliche that the majority of homeschooled children are 
evangelical Christians is outdated, if it was ever true.


The movement remains overwhelmingly white and middle class but it is 
growing fast among black and Hispanic families and becoming more 
politically and religiously diverse as well.


Some parents follow an educational philosophy known as "unschooling," 
where the children are encouraged to follow their own interests rather 
than adhering to a fixed curriculum.


Laura Derrick, president of the National Home Education Network, has 
followed this philosophy with her 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter.


"My son learned to read before he was 3 and I realized then we were 
working better than any school program ever designed," she said. 
"Children are born wanting to learn."


Lisa Dean, who was a lawyer before she became a mother, said 
homeschooling her children was tremendously rewarding but also very 
exhausting.


"It's a long day with the kids. I look forward to when my husband comes 
home," she said.


She also has backup from a local group of 70 homeschooling families who 
organize group field trips and extracurricular activities. Her children 
both take lessons in

[Goanet] Re: Homeschooling in Goa

2006-03-05 Thread Peter D'Souza
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Santosh Helekar wrote:
> --- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> ...I'm keen to know if it is catching on in 
>> Goa and other parts of India. Thanks in advance for
>> your feedback...
>>
> 
> Why would anyone want to home-school their children in
> Goa or India? 

Santosh,

I, too, am keen on finding out. Let's wait and see if we have any responses.

> Indians have no issues with evolutionary biology,
> genetics and reproductive biology, geology, the Big
> Bang cosmology, secularism, the separation of Church
> and State, and multi-religious and multi-cultural
> traditions.

I'm afraid you've made a leap of logic here, so before we make any
assumptions, please help us understand what you mean. Also, share with
us your knowledge of the homeschool movement--research data will be
welcomed.

Peter
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[Goanet] Re: Homeschooling in Goa

2006-03-07 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helekar wrote:

> Peter,
> 
> First, some questions for you. 
> 
> Are you sure you have the time to engage in
> discussions in Goan forums? Don't you have to study or
> something? 

Santosh,

Let's stick to the topic at hand. I don't want to waste your time with
personal trivia, especially since your valuable work is subsidized by
the American taxpayer.

> By the way, who are these "us" you are referring to?

The "us" referred to everyone on this list who read your post and didn't
want to make the same leap of logic that you did.

> How many of you homeschoolers are there on this list?

That's what I've been trying to find out.

> The assumptions I make are based on the following
> facts:

Thanks for sharing the factual BASIS of your assumptions, but what are
your assumptions?

You made the following statement earlier:
> Indians have no issues with evolutionary biology,
> genetics and reproductive biology, geology, the Big
> Bang cosmology, secularism, the separation of Church
> and State, and multi-religious and multi-cultural
> traditions.

When you say "Indians", do you mean all, some, most, many, a minority, a
majority...what?

Thanks,
Peter





[Goanet] Re: Homeschooling in Goa

2006-03-08 Thread Peter D'Souza
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

Santosh Helekar wrote:

> Ah, the taxpayer card! Isn't it always better to waste
> time on partisan political trivia rather than on
> personal trivia generated by a dishonest excuse and a
> self-inflicted embarrassment? But I am really glad

Santosh,

I don't know what you're talking about. My posting concerning
homeschooling was a very simple query about the homeschooling
movement--I wanted to know if there was one in Goa and/or India. If you
consider a simple question "partisan political trivia generated by a
dishonest excuse", you certainly need go get out of your dank basement
lab and get a mental recalibration. I am not embarrassed about anything
and, if you are, I don't need to know about it.

Please don't drag a discussion which had transpired on another group* to
Goanet, instead direct anybody interested in following along to that
group. I do not wish to continue that discussion here.

> that you have suddenly discovered the value of
> taxpayer-supported secular scientific research, which
> is dependent on a proper understanding of evolutionary
> biology.

This is nonsense. I don't intend to discuss this further since it has
already been discussed on GoenchimXapotam.

>> The "us" referred to everyone on this list who read
>> your post and didn't want to make the same leap of
>> logic that you did.
> 
> Are you sure they share your leap of logic and your
> political agenda?

I didn't say I was sure about anything. I did not make a logical leap, I
merely asked you to explain your political and philosophical commentary
which came as a response to my question about homeschooling in Goa. You
made a leap of logic, I merely asked a question about homeschooling.

> The facts I provided are my assumptions. What are
> yours, and those of the people you referred to as
> "us"?

You're going off on a tangential discussion. I won't humour you, sorry.
As a side note, you should be very careful about passing off assumptions
as facts.

>> When you say "Indians", do you mean all, some, most,
>> many, a minority,  majority...what?
> 
> What I mean is that in India anti-evolutionism,
> creationism, opposition to Big Bang cosmology,
> opposition to the established geological record and
> opposition to Church-State separation have no popular
> appeal, and no political and/or legal significance,
> whatsoever. 

The topic was homeschooling. Please don't try to drag me into a
discussion on unrelated topics.

Peter


* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoenchimXapotam/

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[Goanet] Unusual dishes are a passage to Portuguese India

2006-03-14 Thread Peter D'Souza
A FORK ON THE ROAD
Unusual dishes are a passage to Portuguese India
BY LINDA BLADHOLM
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Ayesha D'Mello is often mistaken for a Latin American, and others
assume from her last name that she is Italian. One taste of her food
and they realize she is from India. But her curries are a little
different, and so is the unusual multilayered cake made with an
egg-yolk batter she serves with cardamom-infused chai.

Ayesha was born in Gujarat, in western India, to parents from Goa, a
former Portuguese colony on the Konkan Coast, a lush, palm-fringed
strip along the Arabian Sea. Her father, a doctor, went to medical
school in Gujarat, where the family settled in Surat.

Ayesha recalls the challenges of growing up Catholic with a Muslim
name (Ayesha was one of the Prophet's wives) and trying not to offend
the vegetarian Hindu neighbors when smells of cooking meat wafted
their way. Holidays were spent back in Goa with aunts and uncles
eating fish and shrimp curries; fiery pork vindaloo; rechad, fried
mackerel stuffed with spice paste; and sour-spicy sorpotel, an earthy
stew of pork and liver.

The cuisine of Goa is a blend of Indo-Iberian ingredients and
influences. Chiles, cashews and pineapples were brought from the New
World and mingled with indigenous spices, coconut and tamarind to
create spiced-up renditions of caldos (soups), caldeiradas (stews),
assados (roasts), chourico (sausages) and empanadas (savory pies). The
family had a cook, and Ayesha only learned to cook when she moved to
Canada to attend university.

She and her Goan husband, Bruno, recently moved with their two
children to Pinecrest from the San Francisco Bay area due to his job
transfer. At a recent get-together for their new neighbors, they
started with potato chops, balls of mashed potato stuffed with spiced
minced beef, dipped in egg and bread crumbs and shallow fried, served
with green chutney made by grinding freshly grated coconut with green
chilies, garlic, ginger, lemon juice and cilantro.

Rechad is made by cooking bite-size pieces of chicken breast in a
bright red masala based on ground chiles, spices and vinegar normally
used to stuff fish. The spice-encrusted chicken is served on a platter
with homemade fries and okra stir-fried with crushed pepper flakes and
tangy green mango powder.

Shrimp curry is mildly hot, creamy and slightly tart cooked in a
ground spice mixture based on black pepper, cumin and coriander seeds
with onions and green chiles in coconut milk and a touch of tamarind
pulp.

Pork vindaloo (from vinh d'alho, meaning wine of garlic in the
Portuguese Creole spoken in Goa) is tongue-warming, cooked in a robust
vinegary garlic, ground chile and spice paste. All the dishes were
accompanied by basmati rice and roti (flatbread) flavored with grated
bitter gourd.

Dessert was bebinca cake, made by cooking thin layers of an egg yolk,
sugar, flour and coconut milk batter under the broiler until each
layer sets and browns. The whole cake is inverted on a cake plate so
the caramelized bottom is on top. When cut, the sweet, slightly
gelatinous, nutmeg-flavored slices are striated.

In Goa, up to 24 layers are made for holidays, taking hours, but the
version Ayesha makes stacks two cakes of 5 to 6 layers, easily doable
with a little patience (each layer has to be carefully watched as it
browns under the broiler).

When in California Ayesha taught cooking classes to small groups, and
if she finds there is enough interest in South Florida, she will
consider teaching again. Meanwhile, she has some lucky neighbors.

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.



[Goanet] Sex Abuse Brits Jailed in India (+ Guilty D'Souza)

2006-03-18 Thread Peter D'Souza
Excerpts:

*"Two British men have been jailed for six years in India for sexually
abusing boys at a homeless children's shelter in Mumbai (Bombay)."

*"The shelter's Indian manager William D'souza was found guilty of
aiding and abetting the men and given three years."

Full article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4819988.stm

Peter D'Souza





[Goanet] Re: HIV test to be made mandatory for marriage

2006-03-21 Thread Peter D'Souza
Elisabeth,

You raise some interesting points (and welcome to the list!). I believe
that there are at least two distinct issues here:
1. Government intrusion--a slippery slope indeed, as you point out.
2. The rights of an uninfected partner in a case where one partner has
HIV/AIDS.

The second issue is the more serious micro level concern, and this is
where I think the government has chosen to help, rather than intrude.
Your comparison between AIDS and Hepatitis is an unfair
analogy--hepatitis doesn't bring with it the death sentence that AIDS
does. A marriage might not occur if one partner discovers that the other
has AIDS. At the end of the day, why should one partner's privacy rights
trump the other's right to know that a future life partner carries a
deadly infectious disease? Will the government be doing right by its
citizens if it can prevent a single case of AIDS and chooses to turn a
blind eye to it?

Peter D'Souza
-

From: Elisabeth Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] Re: HIV test to be made mandatory for marriage
registrationin Goa
   
«  But no matter how you dice it, it is in the end an invasion of personal
privacy. It's a slippery slope to what the government can legislate in our
personal lives.

  Ultimately however, we have to answer the question, will this
pretesting for
AIDS prevent AIDS or its spread?»




[Goanet] Re: Goanet admin ability to read Konkani words & a public apology to Mario

2006-03-27 Thread Peter D'Souza
Bosco and Goanet's Volunteer Administrators,

Moderation can be a very good thing, as Fred Noronha has nicely
articulated in the past. That having been said, it would be nice if
Goanet contributors are told precisely why their posts are
rejected--purely as a courtesy.

José's clamour against alleged "censorship" (or should it be
"CENSORSHIP!!"?) merits discussion, I think.

My personal opinion is that censorship should be market-driven--that is
Goanetters should choose to reject posts/posters by demanding that
certain discussions be taken off-list when they are no longer relevant
to the majority of this list's readers.

On a related note, one lawsuit-happy Goanetter has threatened legal
action against a poster on this list for what he deemed verbal abuse. In
fact, he indicated he was doing it on behalf of verbally wounded
Goanetters (whether it was with their permission or encouragement I am
not certain). Now THAT is one form of censorship that not even José
seems to oppose.

Peter
--

Bosco - Goanet Volunteer wrote:
> 
> Goanet moderators do read and understand Konkani. When messages from clowns 
> like Jose Colaco are rejected...he goes around shouting CENSORING, 
> CENSORING!!




[Goanet] Re: Homeschooling in Goa

2006-03-27 Thread Peter D'Souza
Lawrence, others who have responded to this thread,

Thanks for your feedback. From your response and that of others who
e-mailed me off-list, the very idea of homeschooling in India seems
quite different from what it is in the USA.

In many cases it seems to involve private tutoring--not necessarily by a
parent. It also seems to be anchored to a traditional school board, like
the ICSE. Homeschoolers in the USA use their independence from the
system to learn in ways that are often alien to the traditional school
system and have, as a consequence, a good record of academic excellence.

Peter

---

Lawrence Rodrigues wrote:
> See http://dnaindia.com/sunReport.asp?NewsID=1017555&CatID=26
> 
> DNA Sunday
>  Beyond books and syllabi
> Saturday, March 11, 2006  19:41 IST
>   
> Several alternative schools offer innovative methods of education, and
>  appraisal systems where the traditional exam is underplayed or
> absent:



[Goanet] Re: Homeschooling in Goa vs USA

2006-03-28 Thread Peter D'Souza
Marlon Menezes wrote:
> 
> For a brief intro to the motivation of homeschooling
> in the US, look at:

Marlon,

For a real world idea idea of what the homeschooling movement is all
about please visit a local homeschooling group in your area. They
typically meet once a month. The site you referred me to has gems like
this "80% of families who home school identify themselves as Christian".
The statement itself is probably true, but note the implied cause and
effect, which is often not questioned by scholarly minds of the left.

> I am suprised that Peter is for greater government
> intervention in aspects of people's family lives -

Nice try, Marlon.

> such as restricting/regulating the rights of adults to
> get married, 

I fully support the right of an adult man and a woman to marry.

>  or for greater big brother government
> authority to monitor and track its citizens, but is

Governments everywhere monitor and track their citizens. The FBI, CBI in
India, police, etc. are organizations designed to monitor activity of
citizens with a view to reducing and preventing crime.

> against secular public education. Since when did it

Where did you get the impression that I was against secular public
education? You're jumping to bogus conclusions. I am pro-choice in
matters of schooling.

> become ok for governments to dictate the moral and
> religous code of its citizens?

It has always been okay for governments to dictate certain moral codes,
that is a part of government's job. There is not a government on earth,
that I am aware of, which does not have a moral code...they're often
called laws.

Peter






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[Goanet] Re: Illegal Portuguese immigrants in Canada

2006-03-28 Thread Peter D'Souza
If anybody's failed to reach this link, it's because there's a point
missing between noticia and asp in the link posted by Teotonio below. It
might be easier to use this URL instead: http://tinyurl.com/msw9p

Excerpt: “Um rapaz de 22 anos deixou a esposa grávida. Tem algum jeito
mandarem-no para cá, estar aqui seis meses sem a mulher [canadiana] e
ela ter o bebé sem a presença dele?”

Folks, this is most tragic. What makes it more unfortunate is that if
these were terrorists being "mistreated", we'd have heard a huge public
outcry from the liberal do-gooders of the world. However, since America
isn't the bad guy, we'll continue to hear stories about hard working
Portuguese immigrants being separated from their pregnant spouses in the
name of law enforcement.

Peter

Teotonio R. de Souza wrote:
> According to the  Portuguese daily Correio da Manhã (link below)   about 15
> to 22,000 Portuguese have been declared illegal immigrants in Canada. They
> are being deported systematically and complain of no help from the
> Portuguese authorities. Many of them seem to have discounted from their
> hard-won salaries to the Canadian social security and feel cheated. There
> have been similar moves in USA as well, from where many Portuguese citizens
> of Azorean origin have been deported in recent times. 
> 
> 
> http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia
> asp?id=196337&idselect=10&idCanal=10&p=94






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[Goanet] Re: Homeschooling in Goa vs USA

2006-03-30 Thread Peter D'Souza
Marlon Menezes wrote:
> ---> 
> Why don't you tell us what you believe to be the main
> motivation for the home school movement in the US? 

Marlon,
My opinion on this issue merely detracts from the bigger argument in
favor of homeschooling--freedom to provide better education. That having
been said, there are a multitude of reasons that influence my bias in
favour of homeschooling.

>> I fully support the right of an adult man and a
>> woman to marry.
> --->
> Not really. You have stated on this forum that you
> support the right of governments to restrict marriage
> precluding a HIV test.

I said nothing of the sort. The comment you allude to was concerning
mandatory pre-marital AIDS testing by the Goa government which was not a
determinant of whether the state would permit marriage.
Here's an excerpt from a recent news posting from Mario Goveia which
conffirms this: "If either or both individuals test positive, THE COUPLE
THEN CAN DECIDE whether to proceed with the marriage."

>> It has always been okay for governments to dictate
>> certain moral codes,
>> that is a part of government's job. There is not a
>> government on earth,
>> that I am aware of, which does not have a moral
>> code...they're often
>> called laws.
> ---> 
> It is also called tyrany. The overbearing reach of the
> Taliban moral police in Afghanistan or of the mullas
> in Iran is not something I would be willing to live
> under. Likewise, I would not tolerate a christian
> equvalent of the above. 

There cannot, by definition, be a Christian equivalent of the above.
Fear not. If you find any of Christ's teaching advocating a Christian
state or a government run by Christians, please correct me.

> Based on your support for
> christian based home schooling and your support for
> strict government controls on marriage, I get the
> impression that you support some form of a theocratic
> role for government. 

I support all homeschooling if its primary goal and end result are a
well educated child. Once again, your dig about me supporting government
controls on marriage is baseless; however, your last remark above,
namely the linking of Christian homeschool education with an implied
role of government, might help illuminate my stand on the issue--I fully
support the separation of school and state. You seem to implicitly
convey that the government deserves the role of education provider, I do
not see it as its mandate. It does a fair enough job in the USA, but you
can't say the same about the way government education works in India.

Peter






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[Goanet] Re: ILUG-Goa: Tech writing, software for libraries...

2006-03-30 Thread Peter D'Souza
Fred,

I want to thank you for providing these regular reports from the ILUG
meetings. Fritz, whom you referred to in a previous post, deserves all
the encouragement he can get. If he's having a hard time trying to find
converts to LAMP, he might be able to woo them with Windows-based
equivalents (WAMP) and convert them away from the dark side when they're
comfortable with Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, PHP, and Perl. A good place
to start would be with XAMPP, available at
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html . It is a beautifully
integrated piece of software.

> Edgar D'Souza, ILUG-Goa's long time member, shared his own experiences
> in technical writing.Suhag stressed that what was needed was good
> grammer, a knowledge of sentence structures, the use of thought and
> logic inone's work.

You know, technical writing pays really well, and it is also something
that Western companies can easily outsource. I think Suhag is right on
the mark and wish her well with her business venture.

> After sharing time with the 15 people present, we broke and look forward
> to the meet on April 22, 2006. Do send in your suggestions on what you
> can talk about then... FN

Fred, AJAX is hot stuff these days, and there aren't too many people out
there using it yet. A good AJAX shop will definitely bring in a lot of
dinheiro.

Keep up the good work.

Peter






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[Goanet] Re: Homeschooling in Goa vs USA

2006-03-31 Thread Peter D'Souza
Mervyn Lobo wrote:

> Peter,
> If I am not mistaken, your govt has laws that decide
> where on earth you are allowed to travel. 
> 
> Can you explain the moral code behind that one?

Mervyn,

The moral code behind every law cannot be explained quite directly.
Concerning foreign travel, the person ultimately responsible for the
safety of the country's citizens is the President--our head of state who
is directly elected by the American people. (I know, the concept of
electing a head of state is alien to you Canadians.) He complies with
laws which are put in place by our elected representatives.

Peter





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[Goanet] City bikers to earn Goa-faster stripes on 1500-mile trip

2006-03-31 Thread Peter D'Souza
Fri 31 Mar 2006
City bikers to earn Goa-faster stripes on 1500-mile trip
GARETH ROSE

TWO bikers are to ride 1500 miles across India after being inspired by
Ewan McGregor's round-the-world bike ride.

Peter McLellan and Millar Graham are to ride from Goa to Varkala on
1960s motorbikes to raise more than £10,000 for the Rainbow Trust
children's charity.

Mr McLellan, 37, from Pathhead, and Mr Graham, 44, from Barnton, will
join around 100 other riders taking part in the challenge.

Mr McLellan, a Royal Scots veteran and fitness instructor, and Mr
Graham, a property consultant, decided to take on the challenge after
seeing film star McGregor complete a 20,000-mile round-the-world ride in
2004.

Mr Graham said: "I just reached a certain age and thought it would be
good to do something a bit adventurous.

"Having watched Ewan McGregor on TV, I decided to do this on a bit of a
whim.

"The destination, as much as anything, does appeal to me. The route is
along rough tracks in remote regions."

The riders will tackle all types of terrain from expansive mountain
ranges to sandy Indian beaches, on their 14-day ride in February and
March next year. Mr McLellan and Mr Graham will complete their journey
on 1960s Royal Enfield 350 motorcycles.

Fritha Vincent, community fundraising manager at the Rainbow Trust, who
went on the trip this year, said: "It's really tough. You have to be
very physically fit and some people get really sick from all the rocky
riding.

"It involves riding through four or five Indian states. The route varies
from back roads, mountain ranges, wildlife centres and tiger reserves.
You go through paddy fields, backwaters - there is a lot of off-road
riding."

However, the ride completed this month - and also done in previous years
- was only a fraction of the challenge that Mr McLellan and Mr Graham face.

Whereas previous groups have ridden for up to five days, next year's
group of motorcyclists will be on the road for 14.

Each day they will start at 6am, and ride a maximum of 300 miles, before
stopping for the night.

The journey will begin in the holiday destination of Palolem in Goa on
February 17, and the first day spent riding through the beach resort
will be a gentle introduction to the rigours ahead.

>From Palolem they will climb the Ghat mountain range, which the Rainbow
Trust claims is as spectacular as the Himalayas.

The next day, as they continue to climb, they will find themselves
looking down on the Arabian Sea, before heading on towards the bustling
Indian city of Shimoga, the tiger and elephant reserves of Masinagudi
and historically- multicultural Cochin.

Much of the money raised will go towards building hospitals for the
children of India.

Mr McLellan, who served in the Gulf, Gibraltar and Northern Ireland
during his time with the Royal Scots, is looking forward to meeting the
people he is going out to help. He said: "Many of these people have
nothing. Families of ten are living in small rooms and yet they're so happy.

"We take so much for granted in this country. When I read about the
conditions in which they live I just wanted to give something back."

Anyone who would like to sponsor Mr McLellan and Mr Graham can e-mail
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

This article: http://living.scotsman.com/people.cfm?id=498702006




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[Goanet] Re: Goan 'Kokno' used derogatorily

2006-03-31 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helekar wrote:

> above poster derogatorily refers to as "defrocked",
> has been conclusively shown to have originated from
> the above poster's IP address. 

1. How reliable is proof when the only person offering such proof has
been known to modify quotes (in one instance actually inserting a word
into quoted text) before posting them in a public forum?

2. Is the term "defrocked" derogatory?

Peter




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[Goanet] Re: Is the term "defrocked" derogatory?

2006-04-02 Thread Peter D'Souza
Thanks, Mervyn. The dictionary definition doesn't seem to support your
basic contention. While it's not a matter of pride for anyone who's been
through it (the process of defrocking), it seems like a purely technical
description.

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?gwp=13&s=defrocked
   de·frock (dē-frŏk')
tr.v., -frocked, -frock·ing, -frocks.

   1. To strip of priestly privileges and functions.
   2. To deprive of the right to practice a profession.
   3. To deprive of an honorary position.

Peter

-

Mervyn Lobo wrote:
> Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> 2. Is the term "defrocked" derogatory?
> 
> Peter,
> The short answer is yes.




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[Goanet] Re: Goan 'Kokno' used derogatorily

2006-04-02 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh Helekar wrote:
> --- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> 1. How reliable is proof when the only person
>> offering such proof has been known to modify quotes
> (in one instance actually inserting a word into quoted
>> text) before posting them in a public forum?
> 
> Who is this person? What quoted text and insertion are
> you talking about? Are you who is known to have
> habitually tampered with quoted text, and deliberately
> inserted not one, but several words in it, trying to
> smear this person with garbage? Are you reliable?

It doesn't matter whether I am reliable or not, since I am not accusing
someone of masquerading as someone else--a rather serious allegation.
However, since you have publicly accused Chris Vaz of masquerading as
"Joy Braganza", and since you're the only one who allegedly has "proof"
of this, and if you must--O Bastion of Rectitude--smear someone for any
reason publicly, then the onus is upon you to prove your reliability
100%. I have proven to you on GoenchimXapotam that you inserted text
into a quote. Several GXers, and the archives, will confirm this.

In the present instance the only accusation I make against you
("namecalling", as you like to say) is to call you a bastion of
rectitude. I will attempt to prove it, if you insist. :-)

Peter








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[Goanet] Final: Is the term "defrocked" derogatory?

2006-04-04 Thread Peter D'Souza
Gabe Menezes wrote:

> Comment: Hello! So you do not see it as a derogatory term?
> persons/people are usually defrocked for breaking their professional
> code of conductto accuse someone who has not been defrocked is
> derogatory...okay mate?

Gabe, Mervyn, Gilbert, Santosh,

I appreciate your responses on the subject. I was merely questioning the
use of the the term "derogatory" when referring to someone who has been
defrocked. A question of semantics has morphed into an issue of a
certain priest's status in the clergy. Please hear me out, this post is
sarcasm-free. :-)

For your information, I know  nothing of the priest/ex-priest in
question. I don't know his name, and I have no interest in doing so
either. I have no reason to defend him or Chris on this matter, even
though I have spoken in Chris' defense each time there's a campaign to
smear him. (I will ignore comment on the last sentence.) If indeed the
priest in question has not been defrocked, then Chris' comment should be
called false, instead of derogatory. The one term clarifies fact, while
the other imputes motive.

Your responses, which were rather defensive--and for good reason, I've
learnt--caught me by surprise, because I actually believe that the term
defrocked does not have to be derogatory. Somebody could conceivably be
defrocked for questioning Catholic doctrine, or for committing some form
of highly principled clerical disobedience (marrying someone while in
the priesthood, for example). In these cases, being defrocked for
standing up for principle is nothing to be ashamed of, and using the
term derogatory to describe such a defrocked priest would be
inappropriate and demeaning to the individual who has suffered the
consequences of taking a principled stand.

As indicated in the subject line, this is my last post on the issue.

Sincerely,
Peter




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[Goanet] Re: Disgraceful Smear Job

2006-04-17 Thread Peter D'Souza
---
* G * O * A * N * E * T *** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S *
---
 USDA certified Goa Sausages and other Goan foods can now be delivered
   to virtually any part of the world.

http://www.goanfoods.com
---
Santosh Helekar wrote:

> All you have done is pointed out one solitary instance
> of inadvertent garbling of text in a quote that had
> nothing to do with this issue. 

Thank you for confirming that you "garbled" a quote by inserting fresh
text. Your admission proves that your quotes have been known to lack
integrity.

>> I will attempt to prove it, if you insist. :-)

Note, I offered to prove that you are a bastion of rectitude. I'm
slightly surprised that you juxtaposed my offer of proof (of your
rectitude) with your demand for quite a different proof below. A nice
little twist with a skillful use of a context-truncated quote.

> I challenge you once again, as I had done on GX, to
> prove that I have "modified" the publicly displayed
> "Joy Braganza" IP header information.

It is not my job to prove your "proof". When I can't trust you to do a
simple copy and paste job, and when you are guilty of inserting text
into a quote, I am fully entitled to question your reliability. Many
cases in a court of law are lost by virtue of unreliable witnesses, and
so called proof is deemed utterly useless.

> That is exactly
> what you are trying to insinuate again with this smear
> job of yours because you can do nothing else. If you
> cannot prove such "modification" be man enough to
> admit it. 

This is no smear job, o Bastion of Rectitude. As for the proof of
modification, you yourself have admitted it. "Garbled" text, by another
name, is modification. Your reasons for digging dirt on a fellow
Goanetter are most noble, I'm sure.

Peter





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[Goanet] Re: Disgraceful Smear Job

2006-04-18 Thread Peter D'Souza
Santosh,

For the benefit of those unfortunate souls who have witnessed your
attempts to smear Chris Vaz, I need to point out a few things:

1. You are not the victim of a smear job, Chris Vaz is. (Sorry, I have
to deny you a chance to claim victim status.)

2. By calling my posts "vindictive garbage" and "name-calling", you are
attempting to deflect the issue and make it about me and my motives. The
truth of the matter is that your character assassination of Chris Vaz is
contemptible. I merely speak in his defense. Garbage about Chris is not
based on my "petty grudges and disappointments", it's about one man's
character and your attempt to tear him down on a public forum.

3. You made public allegations against Chris Vaz and seem to be the only
person who has "proof" to offer, in spite of the fact that one of the
Goanet moderators who examined the post in question supports Chris. You
may have all the alleged proof in the world, but when you are known to
insert text into "quotes", you simply can't be trusted to the fount of
reliable proof.

4. Now that we know you are unreliable as a witness and have been known
to produce "garbled" text in public e-mail communications, it is time to
address the real issue: your motives in trying to embarrass Chris Vaz.
You can accuse me all day of being vindictive, disgraceful, petty, etc.,
but I don't plan to let you off the hook for trying to publicly
embarrass and shame a fellow Goanetter.

Peter



Santosh Helekar attempted to tactfully deflect an issue thusly:

> This is meant for the few unfortunate souls who
> happened to read the petty vindictive garbage dumped
> on me by Peter in this thread. As usual, Peter is
> continuing his smear job and name-calling against me.
> Every single accusation of his is either a flat out
> lie or a gross exaggeration. The motives behind his
> baseless attacks should be quite obvious to those of
> you who have some knowledge about his petty grudges
> and disappointments on this list and on GX. 
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Santosh
> 
> 
> --- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Thank you for confirming that you "garbled" a quote
>> by inserting fresh text. Your admission proves that
>> your quotes have been known to lack
> integrity.

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[Goanet] Re: John Mill a Conservative?

2006-05-19 Thread Peter D'Souza
Gabe,

Don't be fooled by Santosh's long correction of Mario's citation of John
Stuart Mill. Mario, accurately it appears, obtained his quote from
Wikipedia whereas Santosh has been a little sloppy with his attribution
of sources.

Santosh's claim that "Wikipedia has already provided a correct quote" is
incorrect. Santosh's quote actually comes from WikiQuote, at least his
link points there. We need to start treating citations with scientific
rigour.

Peter



Gabe Menezes wrote:
> On 15/05/06, Mario Goveia
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
>> --- Santosh Helekar wrote:
>> >
>> Wikipedia has already provided a correct quote. Here
>> is the link to it:
>> http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill
> 

> Santosh corrected you and you stand correced! Please be man enough to
> say so.


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Re: [Goanet]Mutation for drug resistance in Indian malaria identified

2005-01-20 Thread Peter D'Souza
Frederick  Noronha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Malaria... a serious concern for Goa. Hardly  getting  the  cons-
istent attention it deserves. FN
Gabe  responded:
Can  anyone shed light on the Pros and Cons of DDT usage?
I remember reading recently (don't know where) that the scares of
DDT  were unfounded and were  more of commercial rumour-mongering
than true scientific fact;that the third world would benefit from
the usage of DDT to rid the stagnant waters of  mosquito-breeding
larvae.
Gabe, perhaps you're thinking of this  editorial  from  the  Wall
Street Journal:
---
Death by Environmentalist December 29, 2004; Page A8
Aid  workers  tending  to  the  ravaged islands and coastlines of
southern Asia say a big concern is an  outbreak  of  malaria  and
other  waterborne  diseases in the aftermath of Sunday's tsunami.
Which reminds us of a just-out World Health  Organization  report
anticipating a shortage in a key antimalarial drug for next year.
The drug, known as Coartem, is the most effective on the  market.
WHO officials estimate that 60 million doses are needed for 2005.
But Novartis, the maker of Coartem, says its Chinese supplier  of
an  essential natural ingredient for the combination therapy came
up short. Therefore, only about 30 million doses of the drug will
be available.
This news about treatments wouldn't be so devastating but for the
fact that the international groups  in  charge  still  can't  get
malaria  prevention under control. And that's the real tragedy. A
blight that has been all but  eliminated  in  the  West,  malaria
still claims between one million and two million lives every year
in the underdeveloped world. Most of its victims reside in  black
Africa,  and  90%  of those are pregnant women and children under
five.
Beyond the human toll are the economic consequences,  which  help
keep  these  nations in poverty's tight grip. It's been estimated
that malaria costs Africa 1.2% of its GDP, or  some  $12  billion
annually. The pandemic compromises the educational development of
the children it doesn't kill, and  it  depletes  the  mental  and
physical vigor of the adult population.
The  saddest  aspect  of  this  tragedy may be that making things
right isn't that complicated or expensive. We have the means  and
the  know-how.  What's  missing is the political will. HIV infec-
tions are a fraction of malaria's, but the  former  affects  more
people  in  the  West, where advocates see to it that foreign aid
budgets keep AIDS front and center. Third World victims of malar-
ia don't have lobbyists and Hollywood A-listers calling attention
to their situation.
But the bigger problem is the  politicized  international  health
agencies that discourage the employment of all available tools of
prevention -- specifically insecticides containing  DDT  that  is
anathema  to environmentalists. Bed nets and preventive medicines
play important roles, but spraying homes with pesticides  is  vi-
tal.  Use of DDT, developed during World War II and the main rea-
son that America and Europe no longer harbor malarial mosquitoes,
has been most successful in containing the disease. Still, influ-
ential groups like the U.S. Agency for International  Development
want DDT left out of malaria-control efforts.
Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas noted the hypocrisy of this posi-
tion at a subcommittee hearing in October. AID "refuses  to  sup-
port  and  endorse  the  use  of insecticides," said the Senator,
"even when used in small amounts -- much smaller than  the  mass,
airborne  spraying that the U.S. implemented to eliminate its own
malaria problem decades ago."
This ideological opposition to synthetic chemicals has  no  basis
in  science  -- there is no evidence that the pesticide harms hu-
mans or causes widespread damage to nature -- but it amounts to a
death  sentence  for millions of African women and children. When
South Africa stopped using DDT in 1996 at the urging of  environ-
mentalists,  malaria  cases  rose from 6,000 in 1995 to 60,000 in
2000.  DDT  use  resumed  in  2000  in  the  country's  worst-hit
province,  KwaZulu Natal, and malaria cases fell by nearly 80% by
2001. Zambia, one of  Africa's  poorest  countries,  also  saw  a
tremendous  drop  in  malaria cases when insecticide-spraying was
reintroduced four years ago. Today, DDT is protecting  a  Zambian
population of 360,000 at a cost of about $6 per household.
Earlier this year AID, which U.S. taxpayers funded to the tune of
$65 million in 2003, was called to the carpet  by  Senators  Judd
Gregg  and Russ Feingold for supporting the distribution of obso-
lete drugs in Africa. The agency's opposition to DDT is  no  less
appalling,  especially since United Nations organizations such as
WHO and the Global Fund feel pressured to follow our lead.
Congress might consider looking into exactly how AID  spends  its
allocation  and  how  the  agency measures results. We are nearly
halfway though a 12-year effort to halve  malaria  deaths  w

[Goanet]Re: Benny Hinn

2005-01-21 Thread Peter D'Souza
George,
My comments are interspersed below.
From: George Pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
See this article on Benny Hinn 
http://www.geocities.com/mw_director/tbnwatch0301.html. Last year
a Benny Hinn follower from South India was brainwashed (and foolish 
enough) to be preaching the
Gospel in Saudi Arabia where he nearly got his head chopped off. If 
Benny Hinn is so convinced of
his faith and miracle ability he should try preaching the Gospel in 
Saudi Arabia.
|To be convinced that someone (Benny Hinn) is right is not the same as 
being brainwashed by him. Brainwashing takes place in a very rigid 
conditioning environment. I am no fan of his, but I've been to a Benny 
Hinn meeting and know that he does no brainwashing, he simply preaches 
with a lot of passion and what some might describe as "theatrics". (I 
don't like that term, I prefer to call it what one fellow humourously 
described as "pentecostal witchcraft"). The meeting typically lasts 
about two hours, of which he may preach for no more than 40 minutes. 
Anybody attending the meeting is just about as anonymous as a fellow 
watching a football match: he is free to go home, get back to work and 
resume life as normal without getting placed on a mailing list, 
receiving follow-up phone calls or even being invited to subsequent 
meetings.

So our South Indian friend was apparently convinced and chose to act on 
his beliefs. You might disagree with his choice and think it foolish, 
but I'd rather believe that he was passionate about his faith before 
Hinn came along. He was conducting Bible studies in his home, had 
Christian commentaries and sermons and, as you might expect, Benn Hinn 
videos. An article on the subject is here: 
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1976 .

Your criticism would be better directed at the Saudi authorities, their 
lies and their torture tactics.
|
Evangelization in the face of opposition is nothing new, neither is it 
foolish. Most of the apostles and early Christians are said to have met 
with some of the most horrible deaths. This was the era of Domitian and 
Nero. It is precisely for this willingless to become martyrs for the 
spread of the Gospel that Christianity continues to grow after almost 
2,000 years. If a Christian believes that Jesus is the Messiah and 
Saviour--and that there is no salvation outside of Him--then he is being 
more concerned about his fellow man than foolish when he chooses to 
evangelise.

to have the direst consequences. Recently, a spate of deaths, mostly 
among young children whose
parents chose to pray rather than seek medical attention for illnesses 
which were not particularly
life-threatening in most cases, has made the news, and in at least one 
incident, one dead child's
parents were charged with outright homicide for their neglect."
|There have been similar charges against many groups. Most of these are 
actually cults and have little contact with those outside of their 
church community. This is far from the norm.|

|That is my two cents worth.
Very sincerely,
Peter D'Souza
|


signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


[Goanet]Re: Benny Hinn

2005-01-21 Thread Peter D'Souza
George,

My comments are interspersed below.

From: George Pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> See this article on Benny Hinn
> http://www.geocities.com/mw_director/tbnwatch0301.html. Last year a Benny
> Hinn follower from South India was brainwashed (and foolish enough) to be
> preaching the Gospel in Saudi Arabia where he nearly got his head chopped
> off. If Benny Hinn is so convinced of his faith and miracle ability he
> should try preaching the Gospel in Saudi Arabia.

|To be convinced that someone (Benny Hinn) is right is not the same as 
being brainwashed by him. Brainwashing takes place in a very rigid
conditioning environment. I am no fan of his, but I've been to a Benny Hinn
meeting and know that he does no brainwashing, he simply preaches with a lot
of passion and what some might describe as "theatrics". (I don't like that
term, I prefer to call it what one fellow humourously described as
"pentecostal witchcraft"). The meeting typically lasts about two hours, of
which he may preach for no more than 40 minutes.  Anybody attending the
meeting is just about as anonymous as a fellow watching a football match: he
is free to go home, get back to work and resume life as normal without
getting placed on a mailing list, receiving follow-up phone calls or even
being invited to subsequent meetings.

So our South Indian friend was apparently convinced and chose to act on his
beliefs. You might disagree with his choice and think it foolish, but I'd
rather believe that he was passionate about his faith before Hinn came
along. He was conducting Bible studies in his home, had Christian
commentaries and sermons and, as you might expect, Benn Hinn videos. An
article on the subject is here:
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1976 .

Your criticism would be better directed at the Saudi authorities, their lies
and their torture tactics.

Evangelization in the face of opposition is nothing new, neither is it
foolish. Most of the apostles and early Christians are said to have met with
some of the most horrible deaths. This was the era of Domitian and Nero. It
is precisely for this willingless to become martyrs for the spread of the
Gospel that Christianity continues to grow after almost 2,000 years. If a
Christian believes that Jesus is the Messiah and Saviour--and that there is
no salvation outside of Him--then he is being more concerned about his
fellow man than foolish when he chooses to evangelise.

> to have the direst consequences. Recently, a spate of deaths, mostly among
> young children whose parents chose to pray rather than seek medical
> attention for illnesses which were not particularly life-threatening in
> most cases, has made the news, and in at least one incident, one dead
> child's parents were charged with outright homicide for their neglect."

There have been similar charges against many groups. Most of these are
actually cults and have little contact with those outside of their church
community. This is far from the norm.|

That is my two cents worth.

Very sincerely,

Peter D'Souza



Re: [Goanet]Fahrenheit 9/11

2005-01-31 Thread Peter D'Souza
Gabe,
Fahrenheit 9/11 has been thoroughly discredited, and a lot of those 
charges have been discussed elsewhere. I will respond to your statement 
concerning "U.S. American blacks".

I presume you're talking about the alleged disenfranchisement of African 
Americans in 2000? Those allegations have been tossed around for over 
four years now. Whenever charges of such magnitude surface a special 
commission (usually independent) is established in order to investigate 
the merit of such claims. No one has found any evidence of voter 
suppression. The pre-eminent body that deals with such grievances is an 
organisation called the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. It was, until very 
recently, headed by a woman named Mary Frances Berry who is virulently 
anti-Bush. She'd go to any length to deny Republicans their rightful say 
in matters concerning civil rights, even if it meant not inviting them 
to committee meetings. She spared no effort in trying to prove that the 
Bush 2000 campaign had indeed "robbed" (you used the correct buzzword) 
African Americans of their votes. In the end she found no evidence of 
wrongdoing or voter suppression.

So when you say "It was a real eye opener, took us back to when Al Gore 
was robbed of the Presidency", I must borrow an oft-repeated line from 
Santosh Helekar and say "the above statement is false".

Next stop Tehran, unless Blair and the other European leaders can do
something.
Weren't they saying this about Syria in April-May 2002?
Peter D'Souza


[Goanet]India as a Superpower

2005-02-21 Thread Peter D'Souza
The _New Scientist_ has a special edition on India with a wide range of 
articles on IT, medicine, nuclear research, the space programme and much 
more.
It is at: http://www.newscientist.com/special/india

India: The next knowledge superpower
There's a revolution afoot 
 in India. 

Unlike any other developing nation, India is using brainpower rather 
than cheap physical labour or natural resources to leapfrog into the 
league of technologically advanced nations. Every high tech company, 
from Intel to Google, is coming to India 
 to find 
innovators. Leading the charge is Infosys, the country's first 
billion-dollar IT company 
.


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EXPRESSIONS - The Flower Shop. World famous all over Goa!
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[Goanet]Re: 15 million years ago

2005-02-22 Thread Peter D'Souza
>Dear Goanetters,
>Santosh says.
>
>"15 million years ago there were no human beings in Greece or anywhere else, 
>asAfra seems to imply.
>[...]
>Santosh"
>
>ARE U SAYING THE SAME THING AS THE BIBLE SAYS? - THAT, THE WORLD IS 6356 YEAR 
>OLD? and that there were no CREATURES before that?
>
>Sincerely,
>Afra Dias (London)
>  
>

Afra,
The Bible doesn't say that.

Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza



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Greet your loved ones in Goa with flowers!

http://www.goa-world.com/goa/expressions/
EXPRESSIONS - The Flower Shop. World famous all over Goa!
**


[Goanet]Re: Piri-Piri Chicken

2005-02-22 Thread Peter D'Souza
From: "Dr. Ambert Pimenta" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

>U can say Nando's is the most happening restaurant in South Africa. Its
>costs a million rand to own a franchise ...their peri-peri chicken is one of
>the best available. They have a range of peri peri sauces , mild, medium ,
>hot and extra peri-peri... Wonder if they are coming to India ??
>  
>

Nando's has some of the best chicken around! I even remember the name of 
the fellow who worked at the Nando's in Mutare, Zimbabwe--Donemore. I 
like the lemon flavoured one with extra hot sauce. Does anybody on this 
list know if Nando's hot sauce is available in the USA?

>From: "Gabriel de Figueiredo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: [Goanet]Piri-Piri Chicken
>  
>
>>>http://www.congocookbook.com/c0163.html
>>>Piri-Piri Chicken
>>>

To add to the varied list of names, it's commonly called frango grelhado 
or frango assado in Portugal.

Peter D'Souza


**
Greet your loved ones in Goa with flowers!

http://www.goa-world.com/goa/expressions/
EXPRESSIONS - The Flower Shop. World famous all over Goa!
**


[Goanet] Evolution

2005-02-23 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Afra said:
ARE U SAYING THE SAME THING AS THE BIBLE SAYS? - THAT, THE WORLD
IS
6356 YEAR OLD? and that there were no CREATURES before that?

Peter responded:
Afra,
The Bible doesn't say that.

Afra clarified:
All the AGES of people who lived since God created Adam right
down to Jesus  ARE recorded in the Bible.
If u add them all up - it comes to 4353 years or there abouts.
Add another 2000 years after Jesus was born and the total is
6353 plus or minus a few years.
This has been done - if u have doubts do it urself
- --
Afra,
Here is what the Bible actually says (emphasis mine) in its first two
verses: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The
earth WAS formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters."
There is a very clear indication, given that the earth is neither
formless nor void, that the earth existed prior to the 6353 period that
you refer to. That it was void seems to imply that human life did not
exist prior to that time. If by "WORLD" you mean mankind, then you are
correct. If you mean the earth, instead, then I believe you are incorrect.
I have it from an evolutionary "expert" friend of mine at Harvard (who
happened to count the late eminent evolutionist J. Stephen Gould as a
personal friend and mentor) that by extrapolating from the population
growth rate (approximately 2% per year) and recorded natural
catastrophes the first man probably existed about 6,000 - 8,000 years
ago, nearly in line with the biblical genealogical record.
    Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza
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(Corrected) Re: [Goanet] Evolution

2005-02-24 Thread Peter D'Souza
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From: Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~Did this "evolutionary" "expert" friend get this from
~Henry Morris, the creationist "expert" and founder of
~The Institute of Creation Research, A Christ-Focused
~Creation Ministry?
~His 1975 article can be accessed here:
~http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-021.htm
~I wonder why even after all these years all normal
~scientists, including Stephen Jay Gould and the other
~Harvard scientists, as well as the Pope have
~disregarded this finding in favor of the conventional
~theory of human evolution.
Santosh,
I just read the article you refer to from the ICR. Unless my
understanding of the article is completely off, I don't think Mr.
Morris was making a case for a 2% population growth rate; rather, he
was making a case against the alarm raised by eugenicists such as
Margaret Mead (founder of Planned Parenthood) who based their fears on
such a growth rate.
A population growth rate is not usually determined by evolutionists or
creationists, but rather by actual demographic statistics. One does
not require an evolutionary scientist to tell you that the population
of India will exceed that of China circa 2025, or that the Goan
population in the diaspora exceeds that of the growth rate in Goa.
Ergo, the
extrapolation is based purely on demographic trends and recorded
natural events which might have skewed the patterns of population growth.
My friend, for the record, is no fan of the Creation Research
Institute. He is a very committed evolutionist and probably knows more
about the subject than do most believers in the theory. My point in
citing him and his colleague Stephen Jay Gould was to say that, in
spite of his belief in evolutionary theory, he can't deny that our
human forebears can't be traced--based on population growth
alone--beyond the 6,000 - 8,000 period that we've been talking about.
Sincerely,
Peter
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[Goanet] Evolution (contd)

2005-02-28 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Santosh Helekar said:
SH> I have to say that your understanding of the article
SH> is completely off. What you state above refers only to
SH> the first couple of paragraphs of that article with
SH> quite revealing title of "Evolution and the Population
SH> Problem".  If you read the entire article, you will
SH> find that Morris makes an argument for a Biblically
SH> mandated recent origin of man based on a constant
SH> population growth rate.
When I said: "I don't think Mr. Morris was making a case for a 2%
population
growth rate" I meant that his thesis was not to push a 2% growth theory,
i.e. he wasn't making that his primary case, rather (you're right in
this) his
argument is for a biblical creation time line based on population
growth rate. You
are incorrect in stating that he assumed a _constant_ growth rate. In
fact,
this is what he did say: "although it is obvious that the present rate of
growth (2%) could not have prevailed for very long in the past, it
does seem
unlikely that the long-time growth rate could have averaged
significantly less
than (1/2)%."
SH>   He gives a formula to
SH> calculate the number of years that have elapsed since
SH> the origin of man assuming that the entire human
SH> population emerged from one human couple created by
SH> God given whatever the actual value of the population
SH> of the world was around 1800 A.D. When he plugs in a
SH> population growth rate of 1/3%  (not 2%) in the
SH> formula he gets a value of 6300 years for the origin
SH> of man. He says that this is consistent with what is
SH> inferred from the Biblical account.
Correct. He is quite consistent in assuming the population growth rate
to have
been between 1/2% (an assumed low) and 2% (current).
SH> Here are some of
SH> the relevant quotes from his article that you seem to
SH> have missed somehow:
Morris> "In that case, the length of time required for the
Morris> population to grow from 2 people to one billion
[...]
Morris> Thus, the most probable date of human origin, based on
Morris> the known data from population statistics, is about
Morris> 6,300 years ago.
The "in that case" was referring to the estimated population growth
rate--based
on the actual populations--between 1650 and 1800, which he uses to
bolster his
case. No, I didn't miss this. Again, he is not making up the 2% figure
and also
accommodates a growth rate as low as 1/3%.
SH> Please ask your friend where he got his fallacious
SH> argument for linking the population growth rate with
SH> the origin of man. I am willing to bet that it is from
SH> Henry Morris?s writings or their derivations.
My friend would be very reluctant to say that man actually originated
6,300
years ago. He probably has a good explanation..."perhaps there was a
cataclysmic
event which left just two people on the planet 6,300 or 10,000 years
ago" is
what he is likely to say. (I don't really discuss this issue very much
with
him, we're both committed to our separate beliefs.) Like you, he
believes the
x million-year theories that have been floating around for the last
century. He
seems to believe that one man or couple might have been in existence
8,000/10,000/6,300 years ago and that such a man's contemporaries were
destroyed. This seems rational, given his mindset. I'm surprised that you
wouldn't agree but choose to dispute population growth rate instead.
| >Ergo, the extrapolation is based purely on
| >demographic trends and recorded natural events which
| >might have skewed the patterns of population growth.
SH> Henry Morris?s (and your friend?s) argument is
SH> completely wrong for the following reasons:
SH> 1. It is well known that the rate and direction of
SH> population change has not remained constant throughout
SH> [...]
SH> increased growth rate of up to 2% occurred only in the
SH> last century.
No one has disputed that. See my statement that you'd quoted above.
Also see
Henry Morris' paper.
SH> last century. One does not have to be Harvard educated
SH> or a friend of Stephen Jay Gould to realize any of
SH> this.
Correct. I don't see where we disagree on this point.
SH> this. Here are the real scientific estimates of world
I would not use the words "real" and "estimates" in the same sentence.
SH> http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/worldhis.html
SH> Please note that the table showing these estimates
SH> says that there were anywhere from 1 ? 10 million
SH> people in the world in 10,000 B.C. The original
The same table says that the world population grew at 0% (zero percent)
and stayed at exactly 5 million for a period of 3,000 (three whopping
thousand)
years. Are these guys serious? This was before the condom was invented.
SH> 2. It should be obvious to most people today that
SH> there is an overwhelming amount of physical evidence
SH> such as fossilized human skeletal parts, which has
SH> been dated with high accuracy to being at least 80,000
SH> years old.
"Ra

[Goanet]Dabolim vs. Tambaram

2005-03-30 Thread Peter D'Souza
Philip,

I'm not sure what the question in your posting meant: were you trying to
ask whether Dabolim could be a training centre similar to (or instead
of) Tambaram?

Tambaram is an Air Force base (or perhaps was until recently). It does
not have any commercial traffic and pilot training programme won't
interfere with the logistical issues involved with daily operations of a
commercial airport, as would be the case at Dabolim. Tambaram also has a
lot of glider flight training. That is the type of operational
interference that won't work at Dabolim.

Peter

P.S. There are a couple of you on this list who might be waiting for
responses from me on unrelated topics. I promise a response sooner or
later. :-)





Re: [Goanet]Re: Sexual abuse victims

2005-04-06 Thread Peter D'Souza
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Hey Carlos ([EMAIL PROTECTED]),

You say: "It may be, may be, because if Pope were to apologize, the
American lawyers could make the Vatican go bankrupt."

Make that "American lawyers arguing on behalf of hundreds of American
victims".

"Plus most of the cases happened in the Bush Kingdom, who cares anyway?
The right answer to your question could be more complex than mine."

You're right, the answers could be complex, especially if you get your
facts right. Sexual abuse by priests in America (and India too) has been
going on for decades. Don't let your anti-Bush sentiment distract you
from the fact that there are real victims, and none of them are the Vatican.

Sincerely,
Peter D'Souza


On an unrelated issue: The Wall Street Journal offered it's speculation
on the likely candidates for the papacy. Its list of 15 or so cardinals
had Cardinal Ivan Dias on the list. What are the chances that the next
pope will be a Goan?
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