--- On Mon, 11/9/09, Gilbert Lawrence <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Teo's article in the Herald reinforces what is apparent to > anyone who looks at the Goa Inquisition and analyzes its > dynamics. RESPONSE: Dear Gilbert, you seem to have a problem with anyone writing about Goa from a historical perspective. Be that as it may, how are you able to "look at the Goa Inquisition and analyzes its dynamics" when so little has been written and researched about it? Do you have a secret stash of archived documents hidden in your cellar that you have been "looking at and analyzing" all these years unbeknownest to the rest of the world? Gilbert writes: It would appear that Fr. Constantino was a young > 28-yr old hot-head, not withstanding that he was a Jesuit. > With Teo's well-described "background perspective" the young > man (priest) was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and > with the wrong attitude. RESPONSE: I can understand the Catholic Church in all its zealotry, if you'll pardon the pun, thinking Constantino having the "wrong attitude", 400 years ago but for Gilbert with the benefit of a 21st century perspective, ok may 18th century in Gilbert's case, to be advising us that Fr Constantino had the wrong attitude is beyond rich. And why is "background perspective" in inverted commas. To the best of my knowledge, inverted commas are used when the writer is trying to signify that he has borrowed the words from another source or that he finds the words ironic. Gilbert writes: > I am always intrigued by these 'new findings'. RESPONSE: Why is Gilbert intrigued by "new findings" (again note the inverted commas. Is Gilbert just fond of inverted commas?" I can go into an archive tomorrow and still discover a document that has never been discovered before. How much research has been done at the French archives for instance? I have a feeling there are rich treasures to be found in France for Goan historians. We are going to find "new findings" for a very long time to come as far as Goan history goes. Gilbert doesn't understand the amount of time, patience and perseverance it takes to wade through documents at archives, documents written in a foreign language and in a style that is 400 years old, not to mention some of the people's writing is unbearably difficult to discern. Yet these historians of Goa persevere just so that Gilbert can use "inverted commas". Best, selma
