On Tue, 13 Jan 2004, Jose Colaco wrote: > gondu kamath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi > i am a Hindu from Goa, > > i read your article about Francis Xavier > > He was a racist and intolerant man. Although he came > from a midieval culture with thoughts that > Christianity alone brings salvation he did great harm > to goa's history. he saw to it that our temples were
Dr Jose, Thanks for getting active on Goanet discussions after all this time. I was a bit perplexed by the purpose of this forward to Goanet. Firstly, did "Gondu Kamath" post to the list, and is this just a response? Maybe I missed something here. Or is this just a forward of a private mail? IAC (in any case), fuelling a mailing list through religious-based controversy doesn't quite work, as we've seen. We probably need to accept that different people have a right to their views, however strongly divergent these may be from our own. To my mind, trying to prove "our" religion superior or someone else's as full of flaws is a zero sum game which doesn't take us anywhere. Also, religion evokes strong feelings, so we're unlikely to convince anyone else. At the ground level, the average (wo)man in Goa does have considerable respect for each other's beliefs. There are a small but influential set of vested interests -- of all backgrounds, including some of those who sometimes camoflage their bias under the label of "secularism" -- who are trying to cash-in on wider fears. Of course, we need to be sensitive to how other's feel, and see things from a different point of view. But just fuelling religious conflict and strife for the sake of doing so shouldn't be encouraged in any way. Incidentally, last week, the Xavier Centre of Historical Research at Alto Porvorim conducted a 'history hour'. This was the first session of its kind, and looked at Francis Xavier. For a Jesuit-run institution, some critical perspectives came up too. Let's face the past instead of merely being defensive about it. Maybe, Goanet should work more actively towards giving a go-by to the strategy of postings that fuel hate. > Oh Yes ......re <DEV BAREN KARON> .......In which part > of Goa do they speak Konkani thus? > > Oh Yes 2......I too hope that ONE DAY.... my fellow > Hindu/Christian/Muslim/Buddhist etc bretheren respect > all faiths as much as we do ours....especially towards > the Harijans! Anyone who didn't study or use Konkani in the Roman-(Romi)script would use a rough approximation of how he thought it would be spelt phonetically. I could understand quite clearly what the poster meant, even if the text might not be following the 'officially sanctioned' spellings. FN ########################################################################## # 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 # ##########################################################################
