Mervyn Lobo wrote: >>In my experience, I have found that when one does not nip off a problem in >>its bud, it soon spreads like a cancer. For example, the people who are >>raping Goa today are doing so because people in Goa earlier thought the >>problems they faced(from the same people) would go away if they ignored them. >>Rajan is excellent at: 1) Photography 2) disgusting language (I have the emails if anyone is interested).
Mervyn, What holds true for the goose must hold true for the gander as well. While Goanet rules clearly stipulate that members should not indulge in personal attacks, Rajan is not the only one who has violated these rules. If Rajan is responsible for murdering the rules, several other Goanetters too have periodically done the same. The only difference perhaps is that Rajan uses the sword and hence the murder looks splashy with blood spilling all around while others have been doing this in a slightly sophisticated manner - - by using poison. I hold no brief for Rajan and do not approve the crude manner in which he articulates his thoughts. But as and when he crosses the "Laxmanrekha", the moderators are there to clip his wings. If they don't, it simply means that in their opinion he has not crossed the limits. What may have appeared obscene to you may not have appeared obscene to them. It is however my concerted opinion that crudeness in his language is not the real problem. We need to diagnose the real cancer and treat it in its infant stage. The real problem is his crude thoughts, some of them actually and Goanetters who disapprove of them should concentrate their time and energies on tackling these crude thoughts, as such thoughts are not compatible in a vibrant progressive democracy. The Buddha did not ignore the person who was insulting him. The little kid too did not ignore the abuse that was hurled his way. They replied in a manner in which their abusers ended up looking like fools. Dr Santosh Helekar has brilliantly countered Rajan's crude thoughts in the past. A few others have as well. This is what I meant in my last post when I wrote that we need to tackle his crude thoughts in a wise manner. Having said all this, you do have a point when you say that his crude language should be tackled too. I too personally believe that all debates and discussions should be done in a dignified and distinguished manner. The human mind conjures up thousands of thoughts and what we must therefore oppose is that one particular thought that comes up on Goanet as a post, without getting into crude personal attacks. But then, the alternate point is wouldn't this forum be such a boring place without some spice, Zip, Zing and Zang? Rajan provides all that. So does Dr. Jose Colaco. And so many others too. A bit of banter should be allowed, so long as it does not go out of hand. So let's celebrate each one's individualities and not take all these discussions too seriously. Let's oppose the thoughts and not the person who posts them. As for the kids, you don't need to worry too much about them. Rajan is neither a J.K. Rowling nor a Mark Twain for the kids to get hooked into reading his kind of stuff. Heck, in the days of W.W.E and all the computer games and gizmos, they won't even come close to a Cecil. Finally, while I do appreciate Jason Keith's columns and read them regularly on GT, I think Jason does go a bit overboard in comparing Rajan to Hitler. I seriously think he needs to take back those words. Perhaps comparing him to a Raj Thackeray would have been more appropriate! :-) Cheers Sandeep
