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Hi Cornel,
Thanks for your responses. As you read my reply, I hope you also switch on
your "humor center" in the brain. It is the weekend.
If I am not mistaken, you replied twice with pretty much the same material. My
writings to you and others on this thread was, bringing you and us up-to-speed
with the latest historical account of Hitler. As reported, this book was a
thirty-year work by a respected historian / journalist. Your repeat response
may be, because I ignored your first. So I am replying, lest you post a third
response ... (naka ree saiba).
I plead guilty, that I ignored your first response. Like a fifth grader, you
proudly proclaimed you wrote your long essay "in ten minutes flat", ....
"typing with two fingers". OK, I get the humor. Perhaps in keeping with your
habit, you did your writings without reading the assignment - A Special
Mission: by Dan Kurzman. (Naughty .... Naughty). So you see, I was not going
to waste my time.
Let me share with you my weakness. When I respond, I first ask myself what are
the 2 or 3 SPECIFIC issues raised to which it is makes sense to reply. This
being a dialogue of intelligent people, one tries to dwell on a few details
rather than re-state the obvious and the irrelevant. Verbosity does not make
the issues or reply any more pointed or clear.
I got from your lengthy replies: Hitler was born a Catholic ..... Towards the
end of his career, he became a mad man. Then your CONCLUSION: Hitler became a
mad man and a fascist because he was a good Catholic. This, even though he was
serious about destroying the Church and physically kidnapping the Pope. Now
you and others can understand my hesitancy to reply .... after my LOL. I will
give you credit for calling Hitler a "rotten Catholic" for wanting to destroy
the Church.
I think your weakness is, the philosophy of "Guilt by Association". And this is
not the first time I am suggesting that to you. Perhaps next time BEFORE you
accuse people (including me), you need to ask yourself: The precise charge, and
the specific data to back that precise charge. Then perhaps ask: Are you
succumbing to your weakness of "Guilt by Association"? Of course this should
take more than 10 minutes, before you even write the first word.
To your SECOND POINT about casteism. If you look closely, I have FINALLY
understood your position and appreciate what you are trying to state. With
your sophisticated English and your analytic mind, you likely understand what
most Goans know well. Goan casteism (propensity to demean others while
inflating their own ego) has really NOTHING TO DO with caste. Based on your
last post, others (whom you have quoted) are trying to tell you the same. How
much more simple English can I restate this? As an English professor, rather
than "noun and adjective" (see below) should you not call it a "misnomer"? Voi
... borem confusaum murre. So really the problem between us on this topic is
one of semantics. Let me give you two examples, even though I hate writing long
posts.
Let me recount a true story of how Goan and American think and communicate. In
many respects it reflects the subtle ways how we perceive others. Two years
ago, the administrative director of our department took her son to a local
Community College for an interview for admission. Teaching at the college was
a Goan who knew me. The Goan said to the director, "Oh! Do you work at the
cancer center with someone called Gilbert Lawrence?" The director smiled and
replied, "Well, I do not work with Dr. Lawrence, I work for Dr. Lawrence".
Second example read below how you describe the history book on Hitler. It is a
classic example of "propensity to demean others while inflating their own ego".
You cast your aspersions on the book without reading it. This of an author who
read the primary sources during the war and repeated and extensively
interviewed General Wolff.
In both examples above, without involving caste there is casteism (REPEAT ...
propensity to demean others while inflating their own ego). Let me re-state
what I have written before. If you are serious about breaking down caste and
economic barriers within the Goan church hierarchy, start a scholarship fund
for lower caste / poor Goan seminarians. I will certainly join you, and so
likely will many other Catholic Goanetters.
Kind Regards, GL.
-------------- CORNEL DACOSTA
Hi Gilbert
You addressed me on two issues: a) Hitler and b) caste.
Consequently I had stopped addressing you on these issues for at least three
months. However, you now give me no option but to respond.
Thank you kindly for providing me an obscure reference to a chapter about
Hitler in a new book that you came across. I should like to read it sometime or
perhaps read the reviews of that author's chapter. I hope there is some
worthwhile substance in that chapter ...
You recently stated that I use the word "casteist" incorrectly. So please let
me enlighten you on this issue. To start with, the word caste is used as a noun
as well as an adjective as appropriate in English usage. However, in a good
example, when a poster on Goanet (a bit addicted to verbose English usage of
Edwardian times) had insisted that, a certain former Catholic Goan Minister
believed in caste but was not a casteist, this thoroughly erroneous view has to
be examined.
