Solzhenitsyn Left Enduring Legacy Of Freedom
Thursday, 07 August 2008
http://www.catholicregister.org/content/view/2110/849/
Written by Ian Hunter, Catholic Register Special

LONDON, Ont. - It will take years, even decades, to comprehend fully the impact of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who died of heart failure Aug. 2 at the age of 89 in his home near Moscow.

Excerpts
In an astonishingly prophetic essay (From Under the Rubble) Solzhenitsyn made it clear that the alternative he foresaw to Communist tyranny was not Western democracy but rather a spiritual reawakening:

“Authoritarian regimes are not terrible in themselves, only those which are not answerable to God or their own conscience. Russia will most likely move from one authoritarian form of government to another. This will be the most natural and least painful path of development. Our present system is terrible not because it is undemocratic and based on force ― a man may still live without harm to his soul under such regimes. What makes ours uniquely horrible is that it demands total surrender of the soul. What we need is not political liberation, but liberation of the soul from participation in the lies forced upon us.”

I shall always be personally indebted to Solzhenitsyn because in an era of political correctness run amok and Stalinist human rights commissions, he articulated a succinct credo to live by, the best I have yet discovered. In another brilliant essay (Live not by the Lie), he wrote:

“The main thing is never to act against your conscience, not to put your signature on documents you do not believe in, not to vote for those who you think should not be elected, not to approve decisions, not to applaud, not to pass on lies, not to broadcast them, not to write them, not to put them down on paper, not to pretend. . . . Let your creed be ― Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph ― but not through me.”

Overseas Goans Are "Naal and Void"

Following article was published under title of Overseas Goans Are "Null and Void"
By: Roland Francis - Sat Aug 2, 2008
in www.goanet.org 

Excerpt

A message to the Goans in Goa, if you didn't already know.

Diaspora Goans are a pretty useless lot as far as the political problems in Goa are concerned. We huff and we puff and we pretend that we have to be kept informed of what happens. We give all sort of opinions and comments but the truth is we don't know any of the ground realities of modern day Goa. We are really like the grand father of the family gathering. We sit in an armchair, bow our head and acknowledge the respect and awe of the younger relatives. But since we are circumstantially inactive, we have no leadership to give.

The only place we can make a marginal difference is to support social causes. We can put our shoulders (or rather our dollars) to the wheels of a Goa Sudharop or to help out a small individual that arises and is brought to our attention. The publicity we get for this is far more than we deserve.

We can do nothing against the builders or the land grabs or the political, civic and police mismanagement. All that is too big for us. We can sit in our drawing rooms, dance at our social get-togethers, shop for our Lexuses and talk of downsizing from large home to smaller ones. Mostly for the large profits or perhaps the weary bones that no longer permit us to mow the lawn or plow the snow. We can pretend our conventions make a difference. They do zilch of that sort at all .If the truth be known, we can do nothing beyond express a sentiment for the Goa we knew. We need not apologize for making a decision to leave the land of our birth. That is what we have decided and whether happy or not, we have to make the most of it. But what must be our greatest taboo is to tell the Goans in Goa what is right and what is wrong and the biggest taboo of all - how to solve their problems.

We can dream of all the lush greenery of our villages, the general honesty of the Goans we knew. The cleanliness of the streets of Panjim, Margao and Mapusa, the uprightness of the administration that once was. As long as they are dreams and we ensure that we place a disconnect between what was possible then and what is happening now. There is no bridge between the two and if there is a road that must be built, it will be done with the efforts of Goans in Goa. I do not trivialize the efforts of overseas Goans who go to Goa for more than a holiday or R&R and try to make what difference they can. I am sure they get the satisfaction that we who do not or cannot do, will never get. But beyond personal satisfaction, and except for the rare Rajan Parrikar, alas even they make little difference.

It is necessary that the Goans in Goa rising as one body must feel the need for change. It is also necessary that they throw up their own leaders that can spark the change to create the fire. Overseas Goans have no right to tell them what the change must be nor whether they must make their change at all. We have no right to criticize their leaders beyond giving them the help they need.

Call to Action

The following article is from www.goanet.org
By :Lola Rafearo*
Sent: August 11, 2008 3:06:36 AM
To: goanet@lists.goanet.org

In the past few weeks there have been many comments – spoken and written – about the recent convention. The following is not an attempt to enter into any existing debates. It is intended as a commentary on our Goan Community and a plea for change. Hearing the recent comments, I am reminded of the 1988 International Goan Convention and the words of Herculano Dourado: "Our Goans are like a basket of crabs. When one starts to climb out of the basket, the others try to drag him back in." Although his words were met with much laughter, as a young lady, I had yet to learn the true meaning of these words. The 1988 Convention was a huge success and it is this kind of success that gets the crabs going.

A few months later, an article was published in The Pulse claiming Zulema D'Souza, Al Mathias and myself had created the International Goan Organization (IGO) to further our personal agendas. As some of you know, The Pulse was a publication of the Toronto GOA, distributed to all its members. I cannot provide membership statistics, but even in 1988, the GOA was a large organization. I was stunned and puzzled…at the time that I was allegedly participating in this sinister plot – as it was portrayed in the article - I was at work at my summer job, collecting the necessary hours of technical experience to put towards my degree. I was stunned not only because there was not a shred of truth to the article, but because its intent was to publicly defame Zulema, Al, and myself. I did not believe then, and do not believe now, that I was the true target of the article. Zulema and Al, as then President and Vice-President of the GOA were impressive
leaders. It was their vision, creativity, personalities and hard work that stirred the crabs who did not like that these two individuals were perhaps getting some well-deserved recognition for their contribution to the Goan Community. The funny thing is, from my perspective, they didn't give of their time for recognition. They did it to serve the Goan Community. What puzzled me about the article was how a grown man could be so overcome with jealousy that he could "attack" a young university student in his attack on the adult "achievers" …seems a bit like an unfair battle.

Twenty years have passed and nothing has changed. Instead of recognizing those within our community for their contributions, there are those who seek to attack the successful instead of looking within themselves for their own personal recipe of success – whether it be a success in the Goan Community or in some other area of their lives. Twenty years later, Kevin and Lisette Saldanha, another two impressive leaders, are attacked because their vision, creativity, personalities, and hard work gained them recognition on an international level. Twenty years later, it is still acceptable for a grown man to attempt to publicly discredit a young girl, again in the pursuit of bringing down the "adult achievers". Twenty years later, it is still "acceptable" to attack those who through no effort of their own, are recognized for their humble service to our community i.e. Aloysius Vaz. In fact, "humble" is a key word here. I question the need to
recognize those that do a fantastic job of marketing their own accomplishments.

I feel a deep sense of shame for our community…a community that promotes destructive behavior instead of helping troubled individuals learn how to redirect their energies towards something positive. Surely, I cannot be the only one who is offended that the opinions of some are portrayed as the opinions of our Community as a whole. I wholly support freedom of speech, but the time has come to help those who are so desperate for attentions do something other than "achiever-bash", so that they too may have something in their lives to be proud of. When a community publishes attacks of any kind without including a disclaimer, it enables not only these troubled individuals but other troubled individuals hiding behind those who are submitting the attacks. It is time for us, as a community, to break this disturbing pattern of behaviour. A behaviour that is perhaps better attributed to the cockroaches that crawl out at night when the light is off
them.

*Lola Vaz-Rafearo
(For the record, I am the sister of Lisette Saldanha, sister-in-law of Kevin Saldanha, and niece of Aloysius Vaz. I am not related to either Zulema D’Souza or Al Mathias and am profoundly appreciative of anyone who serves their community – Goan or otherwise.)