XAVIERS NEWS & FEATURES E-SERVICE (XNFES)
PRESSNOTE ON ONE DAY STATE LEVEL SEMINAR COMBATING TERRORISM: A CALL FOR ACTION
The need of the hour is to mobilize the youth in
order to combat terrorism and carry on the
message of peace and harmony to the masses said
Mr. Micheal M. D Souza, Director / Ex- Officio
Joint Secretary, Department of Science,
Technology & Environment, Government of Goa, at
the inaugural function of the One Day State Level
Seminar on Combating Terrorism: A Call for
Action organized by the Abbé Faria Post Graduate
Department of Psychology, St. Xaviers College,
Mapusa, Goa on 28th February 2009 at the College Seminar Hall.
Also present on the occasion were Dr. (Fr) Walter
de Sa, Principal, Mr. Herwin Furtado, Vice
Principal, Dr. Suhas Shetgovekar, Director, Abbé
Faria Post Graduate Department of Psychology and
Ms. Melisa Fernandes, the student editor,
BECOMING, the in-house magazine of the Department.
Dr. Fr Walter de Sa in his welcome address spoke
about how cliché a dominant feature Terrorism
has been to human life and said that the solution
and problem lies with man himself and hence can
find a way of providing a healing process of
restoring life. Dr. Suhas Shetgovekar introduced
the seminar to the audience. The seventh volume
of the in- house magazine of the Department
BECOMING was then released at the hands of Mr.
Micheal M. D Souza. The vote of thanks was
presented by Ms. Kshipra Vora, lecturer, Abbé
Faria Post Graduate Department of Psychology.
The key note address for the seminar was
delivered by Adv. Shanti Fonseca, who spoke about
cultural domination and ethnic discrimination as
being causes of terrorism and said that the
proactive steps to combat terrorism is to use the
powerful resource of India, the youth. She later
added that, the solution only begins when we
understand the problem. She spoke about the
outrageous form of terrorism as being religious
terrorism which creates terror. She also said
that believing in a God does not mean to renounce
the God of another. She ended her session with a
quote by Rabindranath Tagore, Where the mind is
without fear, the head is held high
The key note address was followed by a panel
discussion on terrorism and ways to combat
terrorism from media, law and order, social,
psychological and general public point of view.
During the discussion, Mr. Derek Almeida,
representing media said that groups that attack
innocent civilians are terrorists. He added that
media plays a vital role in bringing to the
masses the awareness of terrorism and giving the
people the right to know about terrorism. DYSP
Bossuet DSilva, representing law and order
informed the gathering about the various
terrorist groups that operate nationally and internationally.
Mr. Clifford DSilva spoke about the
psychological view about terrorism. He said that
terrorism is the way of the weak and the
desperate. He spoke about the terrorist
psychology where in he said that terrorist dont
want people dead but they want a lot of people watching.
Miss. Sarita Mendanha, representing social field
gave her empowering view about terrorism. She
said that terrorism is an attack to our society
and its constitution. She added at the very
introspective mode that terrorism begins in our
homes. She said that in order to live in our
present time, we ought to mobilize people for
dialogue and preach tolerance in our families and
communities. Mr. Sebastian Rodriguez,
representing the general public shared his
personal experiences on terror attacks. The
discussion ended with one of the participants Ms.
Sandhya Fernandes who quoted St. Francis de Sales
in saying Heart of education is the education of
the heart thus instilling the basic love for humanity.
Post lunch a workshop was organized during which
the participants were divided into groups and
were encouraged to interact and chalk down a
concrete plan to combat and prevent terrorism and
terror attacks; these were later presented by
representatives of each group to the audience.
The workshop was followed by a valedictory
function and the distribution of the
certificates. The report of the Seminar was read
by Ms. Tina DCunha, lecturer, Abbé Faria Post
Graduate Department of Psychology. The vote of
thanks was given by Dr. Suhas Shetgovekar.
