Newsline Canada

Masala, Mehndi, Masti, Toronto Mastifies South Asians - Goan cultural show thrills the audience at MMM! By: Silviano Barbosa From: goanet@goanet.org.
Click on the images to Enlarge
I had a great time today at Toronto Harbourfront after attending the annual Massala!Mehndi!Masti festival, which presents some of South Asia's best cultural heroes in almost all fields. For full text click here.

Lorna arrived in Toronto
O n 9 August 2004, the date of her birth anniversary. Present at the welcoming ceremony at the Lester Pearson Airport were the President of Goan Heritage Canada, Mr. Agnelo Rodrigues and other members of the organisation as well as well wishers. The celebratory reception took place at the residence of Everest Fernandes, President of Goan Soccer Association, where Lorna cut the birthday cake. Also present at the celebrations, were comedians Ben Evangelisto and Dominic and Music Maestro Norman Cardozo. [Photo received from John D’Souza, Goan Voice Canada].

Ontario housing slightly less affordable, says RBC Economics
First time buyer demand to be impacted by weaker affordability
TORONTO, Aug. 18 /CNW/ - The cost of owning a home in Ontario was slightly higher in the second quarter of 2004 than it was the previous quarter, according to the Housing Affordability Index released today by RBC Economics. For full text click here.

Bibles banned from citizenship ceremonies
CBC News
SASKATOON - Citizenship and Immigration Canada has banned the Canadian Bible Society from giving out Bibles at citizenship ceremonies, saying the practice is not consistent with the federal government's secular nature.
"We find that allowing holy books to be made available at citizenship ceremonies detracts from this message and could be construed as a tacit endorsement of certain religions," the citizenship department told the society in a recent letter.
See also: Becoming Canadian http://www.cbc.ca/news/becomingcanadian/

Ontario invites public debate on mandatory retirement
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/08/18/mandatory_retirement040818.html
TORONTO - Ontario will move quickly to end mandatory retirement at age 65, Labour Minister Chris Bentley said on Wednesday as he announced a series of public hearings on the issue.
"We are determined to end the practice of mandatory retirement without undermining existing rights to retire, to retire early, or undermining current pension plans," Bentley told a news conference in Toronto.
"Ontarians are healthier and living longer so it is unfair to insist that they stop working simply because they reach age 65."
Some labour groups have complained the proposed change is a cost-saving move by business and governments.

Slower, lower, weaker: India at the Olympic Games
CBC News Viewpoint | August 18, 2004 | More from Jeremy Copeland
A commentator on the local TV coverage of the first day of the Olympics summed up India's shortcomings at the Games. After his colleague speculated about Michael Phelps's chances of setting a record for winning the most gold medals at one Games the commentator said: "Isn't it amazing that here we are talking about the possibility of one athlete taking seven gold medals and our country of one billion people may not even win a single bronze medal?"
India's performance in past Olympics has been, to put it mildly, disappointing. At the Sydney Games four years ago India won just one bronze medal. That was in weightlifting. Tennis provided India with its only medal of the 1996 Atlanta Games, that one also a bronze. Before Athens, the only other medal India had ever won in an individual sport at the Olympics was also a bronze in wrestling at the 1952 Games in Helsinki. More at ...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_copeland/20040818.html

CBC Launches Exclusive South Asian VideoOn Demand Channel
By Binoy Thomas
http://www.weeklyvoice.com/CNews/?CNewsID=526710
CBC, Canada's national broadcaster always in tune with its multicultural communities, has taken the lead in launching a South Asian channel that will now be available on Rogers Cable as a Video on Demand (VOD) service. This is the first community specific channel in Canada. For full text click here.

News Clips from Goa
by Joel D'Souza & Fred Noronha

Govt gears up for exposition
The state government has proposed to arrange accommodation to 7,500 pilgrims daily during the exposition of the sacred relics of Goa's patrol saint, St Francis Xavier. The 42-day exposition will begin on November 21 and culminate on January 2, 2005. Official sources indicated that nearly 3 million people - both pilgrims and tourists - are expected to visit Goa during the exposition period.

IFFI work gains momentum
With Goa signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre on the staging of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the process to get the state ready for the big show has started picking up. The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), which is the parent body for IFFI-Goa will hold its governing body meeting on August 14 at the old GMC complex, to finalise the arrangements for the festival. The IFFI executive committee meeting will be held on August 19 to okay the arrangements finalised by the ESG. The ESG meeting will be chaired by the Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar who is also the ESG chairman.The IFFI executive committee meeting will also be attended by Ms Kapoor, film makers, Mr Subhash Ghai, Mr Shekhar Kapoor, Mr S Chopra, principal of Goa College of Art, Mr Mahesh Vegurlekar, Mr Rajendra Talak, Mr Rajiv Shinde, Mr Tomazinho Cardozo, Ms Madhavi Dessai, Mr Anil Samant, Mr Lucio Miranda, Goa CII representative, Mr Caesar Menezes and IFFI's nodal officer, Mr Sanjit Rodrigues.

Uniting goans across the world
Rene Barreto acknowledged as the Father of World Goa Day, swings into action once again, exhorting Goans of the world to celebrate being Goan. An UK-based Goan NRI proves that while you can take the Goan out of Goa, it's not easy to take Goa out of the Goan. Non-Resident Goans of all shapes, sizes and vintage jumped at his idea of a World Goa Day in 2000. Resident Goans are lukewarm about a World Goa Day but a fever is already building up among the Goan clubs in India and abroad. This is a day to celebrate quintessential Goa - traditions, heritage, culture, cuisine, music, literature, poetry - anything and everything that is truly Goan

Hell breaks loose over helmets
Mapusa came to a standstill yesterday over the move of the traffic police to implement the helmet rule within the city limits with two-wheelers owners protesting against this decision of the cops. Thousands of two-wheeler owners resorted to a traffic blockade at the Hanuman Chowk on August 16 evening demanding return of their money paid by way of challans issued by the traffic police and documents confiscated in the process. Caught in the traffic jam was the Law Minister, Adv Francis D' Souza, who was forced to alight from his vehicle and subjected to a barrage of questions by the residents of Mapusa. Bowing to pressure, D'Souza concurred with the views of the protestors that the helmet rule needs to be enforced only on highways and not within the city limits.

New rules threaten charter flights
The Indian Navy is all set to play nemesis to the tourism industry's ambitions for the third time in less than a decade. This time, however, the problem has reached serious proportions and threatens to halve the number of charter flights landing in the state during the upcoming season. Allotment of landing and take-off slots to foreign charter flights at Dabolim airport has once again become the centre of controversy only months after Rear Admiral Shekhar Sinha, Flag Officer Goa Area, assured the state that the airport was open for civilian operation 24-hour-a-day.

Events
For listing of events in 2004 please click here

Friday September 11th, 2004
Event:	For Natalia
Location:	St. Marguerite D’Youville Church 2490 Sandalwood Parkway E. Brampton, Ont (905) 792-7497 Northwest corner of Sandalwood Parkway E. & Torbram Road North of Bovaird
Information:	(905) 793-5734 or 793-8333 or 793-9637 or (416) 604-2622
Tickets:	$20.00 each
Enjoy an evening of fun, famous Italian and Spanish classical music A major portion of the proceeds will benefit the Children’s Wish Foundation www.childrenswish.ca/chapters/ontario/events/php www.brampton.com www.CatchTheSpiritBrampton.com Click to see Flier
Click here to see the Direction Map

Goan Soccer League (Toronto)
For 2004 Events go to:http://www.goansoccer.com/gsl/index.php

Saturday September 25th, 2004
Event:	The Cortalim Association of Toronto Invites You To Celebrate The Feast of St. Philip and St. James
Place:	Claireport Place: Banquet & Convention Center 65 Claireport Cr., Etobicoke (Hwy 27/ Albion Rd)	Click to see Flier
Contact:	NAME TELEPHONE Adeline Fernandes Clara Fernandes Coney Pereira Sue Maya Anne Rodrigues Manuel Coutinho 416-321-5910 416-621-7942 905-824-4388 905-305-0545 905-629-2695 416-281-0443

People Places and Things

US: Reuters Outsourcing Journalists
by Jacques Steinberg, New York Times
Outsourcing has become all the rage in recent years, and India has become a favorite destination for Western companies that want to send jobs to cheaper markets. Companies as different as Delta Air Lines and Dell Computer have hired workers or subcontractors to perform customer service, data entry or other computer-related jobs once done in the United States. For full text click here.

DOM MORAES: UNCONCERN IN GOA TOWARDS ITS EMINENT SONS By Joseph Zuzarte jzuzarte@rediffmail.com From: Goanet goanet@goanet.org
		F N Souza Funeral
The generally unmourned death of Dom Moraes recently one again highlights the unconcern in Goa towards eminent sons of the soil who shine in other lands. Similarly last year with F. N. Souza. According to many, Dom was the greatest living writer of English in this country. He never won the Booker or anything of that sort. He was not that kind of wrier, a novelist. He occupied a more rarer realm; he was a writer's writer. He also possibly peaked too early, and then went steadily downhill.For full text click here.

Indian engineers to save UK rail network
Goanet by:Eustaquio Santimano
Faced with acute shortage of skill, Britain has imported a dozen Indian engineers to carry out urgent work on its crumbling rail network and refurbish signal boxes dating back to the Victorian era.
The emergency mission to upgrade the outdated Victorian signal boxes was launched when desperate bosses realised there were not enough experts here to do the job, Daily Express tabloid reported.
More than 150 years after Britain first built tracks in India, Network Rail chiefs have been forced to spend around £40,000 to fly in the 12 Indian workers because of the skills shortage.
see full article at : http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/2004-August/108578.html

How the Tate Family conducts business
News Release By: Mili Tate
There is Dick Tate who wants to run everything. Ro Tate tries to change everything. Agi Tate stirs up trouble whenever possible and Irri Tate always lends a hand.
Whenever new ideas are suggested, Hesi Tate and Vegi Tate pour cold water on them. Imi Tate tries to mimic everyone, Devas Tate loves to be disruptive and Poten Tate wants to be a big shot. But it is Facili Tate, Cogi Tate, and Medi Tate who always save the day by getting everyone to pull together.

Obituary

Health & Wellness

India can generate $5 billion through health tourism
New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) :
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=7830
India has the potential to attract one million health tourists every year and this will contribute up to $5 billion to the economy, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said Sunday.
India must leverage its competitive edge, especially its cost advantage, to attract a large number of medical tourists to the country, the CII study report said. For full text click here.

Transport Canada warning.
Warning from Transport Canada. Imagine if you walk across the parking lot, unlock your car and get inside. Then you lock all your doors, start the engine, shift into REVERSE, and you look into the rear-view mirror to back out of your parking space. You notice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window. So, you shift into PARK, unlock your doors and jump out of your car to remove that paper or whatever it is that is obstructing your view. For full text click here.