CONDEMNING ABDUCTION OF SCHOOL GIRLS.

It is really disgusting to see the 200 + school children abducted by the Boro Islamist group in Nigeria are still not released even after 3 weeks. The Pope at Vatican has already indicated his concern, so also some Western leaders including President Obama and just 2 days back Mrs. Obama expressed her motherly sentiments and while condemning this incident pleaded for the release of these innocent students.

Islam is a great religion of justice and compassion but those Islamists who abducted the students in Nigeria are doing a great disservice to the Islamic doctrine of justice and compassion by doing injustice to these students and not showing compassion at this hour to them.

By abducting these students the Boro Islamist group is creating a very bad image of Islam thereby giving an opportunity to the enemies of Islam to create a distorted image of it.  If today the enemies of Islam are harping against Islam, it is only because of the Boro type of Islamists who are creating a bad image of this great religion.  The real enemies of Islam are not Jews as Muslims believe but  these Boro type of Islamists who instead of brightening the image of Islam are blackening it by taking young students as hostage. Islam does not say to commit such horrible acts in its name.  Such acts are forbidden in Islam and on top of it this Boro group is functioning in the name of Islam. Shame on them for putting the genuine Muslims into a shame.

Abducting the students is one sin but on top of it threatening to sell them to the terrorists is the worst sin. Are these students commodities to sell them in the market of terrorists? Are these abductors heartless people? Don’t they have children for them?   Why they don’t show compassion as indicated in Islam and release these students? Even Prophet Mohammed showed compassion to the captured Jewish soldiers and commanded to release them without doing any bodily harm to them.

It is surprising to note that there is not much campaign in the Islamic world for the release of these students. It looks the top Muslim leaders are silently watching this incident instead of condemning it and demanding immediate release of these young girls. Where Muslim world remained silent, Christian world under its Christian leaders made awakening by taking concrete steps to fight for justice for these young students. After all Justice is the central idea of Islam and ironically Christians are fighting for this Justice even though the central idea of Christianity is Love.

 

A.    Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim,
Goa.
Tel:7507394349.

 

SALA BANCHOT CULTURE.

After my interaction with different communities and nationalities, my conclusion is that we Goan community is the best culturally, traditionally and historically though due to the swallowing of Goa by Bharat in December 1961 Goa is changed a lot.  This change came because of the influx of non-Goans from Bharat into our Goa with their harsh and dirty cultural, traditional and historical habits.  This foreign culture is called “SALA BANCHOT” culture implanted on Goa on the very first day when uninvited Bharati troops without consulting us ousted Portuguese from Goa.  The first Bharatis who entered Goa came by uttering all the vulgar and rough words and harsh statements, main being “Sala Banchot”. When those Bharatis uttered this statement it created a chilling effect and negative energy all around Goa.

The early Bharati teachers in the post December 1961 period who came to Goa as teachers in English schools from other parts of Bharat brought this Sala Banchot culture in Goa and passed it on to Goan students.  When Fr. Mendonca the then principal of Arpora School noticed this from one Malyali Hindi teacher in 1963, he terminated his service and said Arpora school should not recruit any such teachers because they are spoiling our Goan students who are culturally very rich. Moreover, said Fr. Mendonca the accent of Malyalis being unEnglish our Goan students get confused to follow their teaching. If you carefully observe the discipline and character of the Goans born and brought up after 1961 December, you will see them having lot of vulgar and harsh Bharati habits which are foreign to Goa.

A few days back a small Goan boy who was a student of primary school while discussing something with his colleague when they were going to school, without any shame loudly uttered a  statement saying “You Sala Banchot”. This Goan boy is studying in the same school where “Ghantti” students outnumber Goans because in that locality there reside many Ghanttis and they enrolled their children in the Church run school in that locality.  These Ghantti students by virtue of being Ghanttis are known for their bad habits and rough terminology which our Goan students also learn and acquire from them to use as routine thereby prostituting decent Goan culture.

It is a pity that our children are become victims of the bad habits of Ghanttis.  Culturally compared to Goans, Ghanttis are very backward but unfortunately by acquiring their bad habits our Goan children also become bad and for this reason the Goan generation developed after the exit of Portuguese from Goa are totally different in character from those Goans developed earlier. 

Even many of the priests born and brought up after December 1961 are harsh and corrupt compared to those of earlier period.  Because they are so, they misuse their priestly facilities by indulging themselves in corruption and many times vomiting Serpentine venom from the Altar as if the holy Altar is the kingdom of Satan. They are Satanic priests.

Many of the Goan parents of school going children where Ghantti students are also studying,  are in a rude shock to see their children  acquiring all the bad habits of Ghantti children and a few of the parent  are even thinking to remove their children from the present schools and enroll them elsewhere.  But where else they will find Ghantti – free schools  in Goa?  Almost all the schools in the villages are filled with Ghantti children and their money power is greater than that of Goans. Not only Goan schools are filled with Ghantti students but also Goa is filled with Ghanttis.  Not only this, even the air Goans inhale in Goa is filled with Ghantti smell.  Goa is Ghantti-ised with a SALA BANCHOT CULTURE.

A.     Veronica Fernandes,

                                    Candolim,
                                        Goa.         

WILL OUR CHURCH HELP THE NEEDY FAITHFUL?

According to the observation, once a year Catholic clergy receives bounty in the form of money.  This is the Cash money clergy receive from the huge amount of Church collection done from Maundy Thursday till Easter Sunday. One of the “Sankistao” recently told me that he found the job of counting this money very tiresome because the amount was in lakhs. He was also frank in confessing that he keeps for himself at least 10 thousand rupees every year which he claims as his illegal annual bonus, of course clandestinely but with the silent nod of his equally guilty Pe. Vigar.  

In Kuwait a few of those who count this money are become rich in a similar manner as our Sankistao because such amount collected in Kuwait is too big. All those faithful who contribute their mite and tithes to the Church in the name of God must also know that their hard earned money many times goes into the pockets of Devils and sometime their contribution in such a manner create robbers out of holy  men because money tempts even the disciple of Christ. 

There are some Churches during this season look like minting money and finally where this money goes nobody knows because there is neither accountability nor transparency. This huge collection done in certain Churches indicates the financial affluence of the faithful from those villages and also the generosity of the faithful to contribute their mite. However, if the faithful think that the notes and coins they put in the Collection Box in their Churches go to the good use then they are sadly mistaken because the Church authorities are silent on this.  They neither clearly indicate where this money goes nor disclose after what this money is spent.  In view of this the doubting Thomasses strongly feel that the utility of this money collection is done for wrong purposes and this opinion of the Thomasses will never change until the Church authorities come out with clear answer.

There is a saying in Konkani “Piddeacho uzo ani Padrichi zodd kollona kaim”.

 According to one observation the luxurious purchases of some of the Pe. Vigars including new cars are done immediately following the Easter Sunday or at least planning for such luxuries are done after Easter based on the cash collection.  Also the money spent on conspicuous consumption by some Pe. Vigars starts after the Easter.  Even their foreign tours are decided after Easter.  Not only this, the expenditure done by their concubines after the Easter clearly point finger to this money.

The collection done during the last holy week till Easter Sunday was in lakhs of rupees in some coastal villages.  If this money either fully or partly used for Damao mission the faithful would have escaped from collecting extra money for Damao mission in which case the faithful would remain without taxing their purses further and as such they could utilize this money for their other necessities.  Our Church has got one very bad habit of taxing the faithful in the name of God and religion.  

Our Church and our Pe. Vigars in our localities could use their religious stature by collecting donations and thru separate collection in the Churches to raise funds to be utilized for the  good of the poor faithful when they fall in dire need of money for major operations such as Heart Surgery, Kidney Surgery, Kidney transplantation, Brain Tumor surgery and other such major surgeries where heavy sum of money is required. Also, Church can easily organize Tiatro shows to raise this fund. 

Will our Goa Church and our Pe. Vigars take initiative to come forward for this welfare and humanitarian activity for the cause of downtrodden faithful in a true Christian way?   

During my long years of stay in Kuwait I have helped many visiting priests to raise funds for their activities in Goa but never ever even once they came to me with a humanitarian proposal as indicated above.  They came with the proposals of collecting funds for the Church ventures only to enrich the Church coffers and their personal pockets.  Never ever they touched the humanitarian issues. One of them even tried to prevent me from collecting fund for Konkani Martyrs when we from Kuwait embarked on this mission, saying instead we should collect fund for his Church school in his village. Inspite of doing so much for them, some of them now in Goa don’t even hello me pretending to be strangers. Is ingratitude your hallmark oh Goan priests?  Believers and other such denominations are also taking care of the material needs of their followers for this reason more and more Catholics are leaving Catholicism and joining them. If Catholic Church and its priests do not change their attitude towards grabbing more and more wealth for them then very shortly Catholicism will thin down from our soil.  The mushrooming of non-Catholic denominations and other sects in Goa is the strong challenge to the arrogance and money greed of the Catholic Church.

 

 

 A.     Veronica Fernandes,

Candolim, Goa.

7507394349.