[Goanet-News] Between India and the Indies: German mercantile networks, the struggle for the imperial crown and the naming of the New World (Renate Pieper)
Renate Pieper Chair in Economic and Social History, History Department,Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Attemsgasse8,A-8010 Graz Austria ABSTRACT: In 1507,the excitement over the publication of the Mundus Novus led to the naming of a new continent on the map, a globe and a learned treatise as an appendix to an edition of a work by Ptolemy published in Saint-Dié, Lorraine. Network analysis of the cities where the broadsheet Mundus Novus, attributed to Amerigo Vespucci, appeared shows that the text was mainly published in German mercantile cities, especially Augsburg and Nuremberg between 1504 and 1506. There is strong evidence that this text about the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci was primarily issued to raise money in order to finance German mercantile investments in the Portuguese fleet to Asia in 1505-1506. In 1507, the map and the globe with the new name for the New World demonstrated the riches that the members of the Diet of Konstanz might obtain if they supported Maximilian in his expedition to Italy and his quest for the imperial crown. Thus, the struggle between Maximilian I and Louis XII for the title of Holy Roman Emperor and the need for investment in German trade with Asia determined the invention of America. KEYWORDS: Maximilian I; Louis XII; Holy Roman Emperor; Konstanz; Augsburg; Nuremberg http://cultureandhistory.revistas.csic.es/index.php/cultureandhistory/article/view/42/164 -- P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter: @fn Facebook: fredericknoronha Latest from Goa,1556: http://goa1556.in/book/goa-in-sepia-tinted-postcards/
[Goanet-News] Sonia Gomes: Os Cus De Judas by António Lobo Antunes
http://portlingoa.blogspot.in/ Thursday, October 30, 2014 Os Cus De Judas by António Lobo Antunes http://portlingoa.blogspot.in/2014/10/os-cus-de-judas-by-antonio-lobo-antunes.html By Sonia Gomes rgso...@gmail.com Children stretch out their matchstick thin arms, a rusty tin can in the palms of their hands, through the barbed wire surrounding the Camp, just for a morsel, a morsel of just about anything to eat. People sit on their haunches around the camp, starving, waiting just waiting for a scrap of food. Women turn prostitutes for a morsel to feed their children. Their eyes reflect patience, endless patience. There is nothing, absolutely nothing. No medicines. No food for anyone. This is what Antonio Lobo Antunes sees every day in Angola, he fights a war he just does not want to fight, he has left his pregnant wife back home in Portugal for a war which has absolutely no meaning for him or for that matter for anyone else. Antonio Lobo Antunes is brutal. And why not? The colonial war for Independence turned civil war was ferocious. Seen through the tired eyes of the doctor António Lobo Antunes this bloody Colonial War is savage. What is there about this vicious War? Every sordid detail is placed before you. Take the terrible, terrible loneliness sapping you of your will to live, add to it the lack of camaraderie between the soldiers, compounded by the utter hopelessness of the War. They just want to go home. What are they fighting for? What is all this bloody War about? They all wonder, there seems to be absolutely no escape, shall we commit suicide, or shall we wait for a nice coffin. There are no answers. Who are the Victorious? Doesn't seem to be any, in fact all of them are losers. Everyone a victim. The people of Angola are in a vacuum, what the hell is going on? There the Colonisers, the Portuguese, and then some other Outside Forces urging them to get rid of the regime, purify your country evict the Colonisers. Where are they heading? Such a colossal waste this war is, such terrible consequences, one moment the people of Angola are fighting a war of Independence, throwing the Colonisers out of their country and the next thing they know the war for Independence has turned into a Civil war. How could it have happened? That is the way Colonisers operate. They are the Masters. They take what they want, they use, they abuse, and when they can use no more they leave. It really is very simple. Good news for Portugal overnight it had turned into a Democracy. They were free without shedding a drop of blood. Why take care of countries which now are a burden? What can they get from a war torn Nation? Abandon the Africans to their own fate. The Colonisers owe these illiterates nothing. Take care of yourselves; you are now Independent, you are now Free, Isn’t that what you wanted anyway? Black brother fought Black brother, aided by powerful 'Democratic countries'. Black brothers killed Black brothers. Oh yes, terrible, terrible consequences. But who for God’s sake cares for a bunch of illiterate, black people? The white, democratic people know these Blacks do not amount to much anyway. Eventually when Lobo Antunes does return to Portugal, life is never the same for him, nobody in Portugal respects these soldiers who were embroiled in a meaningless war. Slowly and steadily he loses everything. His marriage just meanders and falls apart. His beloved daughters, he sees them once a week. He begins drinking; you see he hopes that 'it will never be morning again'. He has encounters with strange women in bars. He is just a sad beaten man. Once upon a time, a very long time ago he had been a Doctor but now he is a sad, beaten and humiliated man. A husk of a man, he is a person who has no substance, no personality, not even character, his dreams and hopes long gone, an empty shell of a human that once was. Oh yes, war does that to you. Brutal though the book is, there are those moments of utter sadness permeated by a luminosity, which lifts the book out of being just a book of utter brutality and makes it a beautiful story. António Lobo Antunes was born in Lisbon, the eldest of six sons of João Alfredo de Figueiredo Lobo Antunes. At the age of seven he decided to be a writer, but when he was 16, his father sent him to the medical school at the University of Lisbon. He graduated as a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry. All through this time he never stopped writing. By the end of his education, Lobo Antunes had to serve in the Portuguese Army and participate in the Portuguese Colonial War, which lasted from 1961 to 1974. Lobo Antunes returned from Africa in 1973. The Angolan war for independence was the subject of many of his novels. In 1979, Lobo Antunes published his first novel, Memória de Elefante – The Memory of an Elephant,
[Goanet-News] NEWS: Black Money trail: Radha Timblo - Goa miner and hotelier (Business Standard)
Black Money trail: Radha Timblo - Goa miner and hotelier Will offer proper explanation BS Reporter | Mumbai October 28, 2014 Last Updated at 00:39 IST Till recently, Radha Satish Timblo, owner of mining firm Timblo Enterprises, was leading a quiet life in Goa. The government's revelation on Monday that she is one of those to have stashed black money in Switzerland has surprised everyone in the state, including those from the Timblo family. That's because only a few years ago, Timblo was one of the highest taxpayers in the state and charges of tax evasion were seldom associated with the group. The group owns the luxurious Cidade De Goa resort in Goa. It was also a bottler for Pepsi in the state and had switched sides after Coke tried to buy it out in 1997. Asked about her account in Switzerland, Timblo, well known for her political connections in the Goa Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told reporters she would offer a proper explanation and issue a press note after studying the government's affidavit to the Supreme Court. In a statement late Monday evening, the Association of Democratic Reforms said its analysis of donations by individuals and companies to national political parties between 2004-05 and 2011-12 showed Timblo Pvt Ltd, led by its managing director Radha Timblo, had made donations to BJP on nine occasions and thrice to the Congress. An email sent to Timblo did not elicit any response. Her office said it would respond to the email, in case there was a reply from her. The family is, like the Dempos and the Salgoakars, which made their fortunes with mining, one of the old, rich ones in Goa. The family is close to the Congress and its net worth will easily be more than Rs 1,000 crore, said a Mumbai-based chief executive, on condition of anonymity. Like most of Goa's business families, the Timblos owned mines, resorts, hotels and football clubs in the state, he added. This isn't the first time Timblo is making news for the wrong reasons. According to a centrally empowered committee (CEC) report on illegal mining in Goa, in December 2012, Timblo had taken ownership of a mining lease in Goa illegally, by using power of attorney from a certain Badrudin Hussain Bhai Mavani, a resident of Pakistan. Mavani is alleged to have died in Karachi. The CEC report said Mavani's signature doesn't match the signature on another power of attorney document signed in 1979. The mining lease has been allowed to be operated illegally, by a partnership firm comprising Timblo Pvt Ltd, Radha S Timblo and others. The mining lease has been renewed … by disregarding and in blatant violation of rule 37, MCR, 1960, and on the basis of an unregistered power of attorney, stated to have been executed by the lessee while staying in Pakistan and whose genuineness and validity were highly dubious and doubtful, the report said. Soon after, the Supreme Court shut mines in Goa and asked the state government to auction those. http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/black-money-trail-radha-timblo-goa-miner-and-hotelier-114102800032_1.html
