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Pope: "The Earth is a precious gift of the Creator"
http://www.indiancatholic.in/news/storydetails.php/13173-1-12-Pope
Published : August 27 2009

Castel Gandolfo: Creation, "matter intelligently structured by God", is gifted to all men so they may benefit from its fruits and govern it, sharing its wealth and concerning themselves so that even generations to come may enjoy it. This principle reaffirmed by the Church inspired Benedict XVI’s call to "international leaders" so they " to act jointly respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet (cf. Caritas in veritate, 50) . This requires, he told the 4 thousand people in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo for the general audience, "integral human development for the benefit of generations, present and future, a development inspired by the values of love in truth. For this to happen it is essential to convert the current pattern of global development towards greater and shared accountability for creation: this is demanded not only by environmental emergencies, but also the scandal of hunger and misery”

"The end of August is upon us – he highlighted - which for many means the end of the summer holidays. As you return to your daily tasks, thank God for the precious gift of creation, which you can enjoy and not just during the holiday period! The diverse phenomena of environmental degradation and natural disasters, which unfortunately are often in the news, remind us of the urgency of respect due to nature, of the need to recover and celebrate in everyday life, a proper relationship with the environment."

"The earth - he continued - is a precious gift of the Creator, who has designed its intrinsic order, thus giving us guidelines to be followed as stewards of His creation. It is from this awareness that the Church considers the issues related to environment and its preservation intimately connected with the theme of integral human development”. Recalling that "the natural environment is given by God for all, and its use involves our personal responsibility to all humanity, especially to the poor and future generations," the Pope underlined "our common responsibility for creation”. "The Church - he continued - is not only committed to promoting the defence of land, air and water, gifted by the Creator to all, but mainly works to protect man against the destruction of himself. Indeed, when ' human ecology 'is respected in society, ecology and the environmental also benefit from it". "Is it not true that the careless use of creation begins where God is marginalized or His very existence denied? If the relationship between the human creature and his Creator should fail - explained the Pope – then matter is reduced to selfish possession, man becomes the 'least important’ as the purpose of existence is reduced to a' breathless race to own as much as possible”.

“Creation is therefore under the responsibility of man, who is called upon to exercise a responsible government to in order to protect it, to enjoy its fruits and to cultivate it in new ways, finding in it the necessary resources for a dignified existence for all. With the help of the same nature and with the commitment of their work and their own ingenuity, humanity is truly capable of fulfilling the grave duty to hand the earth on to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate it (ref. Caritas in veritate, 50). For this to happen, it is essential to the development of 'the alliance between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God' (Message for World Day of Peace 2008, n. 7), recognizing that we all come from God and we are on a journey to Him. How important then that the international community and individual governments know how to give the right signals to its citizens to counter effectively a use of the environment that is harmful to it!"

"The economic and social costs resulting from the use of shared environmental resources, recognised in a transparent manner, must be met by those who benefit from them, and not by other people or future generations. Environmental protection, protection of resources and the environment require international leaders to act jointly in respect of law and solidarity, especially towards the weaker regions of the earth (cf. Caritas in veritate, 50). Together we can build an integral human development for the benefit of all peoples, present and future, a development inspired by the values of charity in truth. For this to happen it is essential to convert the current pattern of global development towards greater and shared accountability over creation: it is demanded not only by environmental emergencies, but also the scandal of hunger and misery. "

The Pope concluded his discussion by citing the words of St. Francis in the Canticle of the Sun: "Most high, all powerful, all good Lord! All praise is yours, all glory, all honour, and all blessing.... Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures". So said St. Francis. We too want to pray and live in the spirit of these words. "

Finally at the end of the audience, Benedict XVI said: "It seems to me that a small choir from Japan wanted to sing something, right?" And some Japanese men and women, young and old sang a short song in chorus.

Courtesy : AsiaNews

Gambling Away Our Future
http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=27144&cid=14
First published in Herald.

Goans are being forced to accept a problematic industry that has been rejected elsewhere in India, says VIVEK MENEZES

It was a curious set of demonstrators who clogged the open space of Azad Maidan this Wednesday, September 9. They were almost all young men, under the age of 35. They were almost
all Hindi speakers, with a rare Goan sprinkled in between. And instead of gathering together in one large group and listening to speakers -- as most demonstrations in Azad Maidan play out -- these young people stuck to their individual groups, milling around one or two people of authority, laughing and giggling among themselves like it was a company picnic.

Closer examination proved that this is exactly what it was -- all these young "demonstrators" were actually the employees of the state's many casinos, who had been instructed to show up at this demonstration rather than for work.

It was an attempt by the gambling industry to lobby for a reduction in the fee increase that recently made an entry ticket to casinos rise in price from Rs 200 to Rs 2000. Before this mass of young casino employees poured into Azad Maidan, they took a quick round of central Panjim, waving placards and signs.

"We Goans do not want to go back to work overseas," was one particularly emotional appeal, which
continued with a plea about having to leave aged parents behind. But when I went up to the men who were holding the sign, not a single one responded when I spoke in Konkani, asking whom the sign referred to.

I pointed to the relevant lines again, and asked again in Hindi to meet these Goans who "did not want to go back to work overseas". A small commotion ensued. Finally, a supervisor was pushed forward to buy more time until a suitable Goan could be produced.

In Azad Maidan, I continued to search for a Goan employee of the casinos who would be able to speak to me. I finally found one young woman who spoke Konkani, but she refused to speak on the record. "You go talk to my director who is standing there," she said, " we are not supposed to talk to anyone. We were just told to come to Panjim today instead of to work, and that we would be given instructions when we got here to Azad Maidan."

Though I couldn't find her director, in the end I did find myself talking to a British employee of one of the casinos, and he pointed me to another British man, who finally produced a slightly nervous Goan employee who began to speak to me about his job and about the day's demonstration.

But not a minute had gone by before the foreign supervisor showed up again at our elbows, listening closely, and interrupting his employee's train of thought. By then it was quite clear that this demonstration was a pure public relations exercise. And when all these young demonstrators were finally instructed to leave the city a short time later, they left mounds of garbage and all those ready-printed signs strewn all over Azad Maidan for the poor ragpickers to clear up after them.

There could be no better metaphor for what these casino operators think of Goa -- our state and our people are only there to be lied to, taken advantage of, abused and dumped on.  Make no mistake, the lies are manifold. For example, we are told that casinos are a major tourism draw that the state needs. But according to the figures reported by the gambling industry itself (to the Commercial Taxes Department) only a little over 2,00,000 entry tickets were purchased in the entire financial year 2008-2009.

If you average that number across the state's casinos, that means each gambling den got less than 30 visitors per day. That's not enough to justify a beach shack license, let alone a problematic industry like gambling.

Thus, we're left with inescapable conclusions -- either the gambling industry is lying about the number of visitors they get, and thus cannot be trusted in the first place; or we, as a people, are being lied to about it being a major tourism draw. More than two million visitors come to Goa each year, if only 1 per cent is interested in gambling, then the state's policy needs to be re-thought immediately.

More brazen still is the illegal assault on the historic and once-beautiful Mandovi waterway, which now sports several permanently anchored rusting hulks, like so many smaller River Princesses. Every day that they remain -- in contravention of myriad laws, as well as simple public decency -- we are reminded that Goa is a democracy only in name, that the powers that be can and will ram what they will down the throats of the citizenry.

We are reminded that then chief minister in 1992 amended the Anti-Gambling Act to allow slot machines in five-star hotels despite serious public objections. That then-CM Pratapsingh Rane further amended the act to allow casinos on ships despite serious objections. And then, crucially, precisely because of serious public objections, Mr Rane promised to incorporate a minimum distance from the shore, but failed to keep that promise.

The entry and consolidation of the gambling industry in Goa has been a long, consistent trampling of democracy from the start.

At this point, a certain amount of introspection is required. Why is it that every other part of India has managed to keep the gambling industry out? Kerala's coastline is much longer than ours, and the state needs (and pursues) the tourist trade just as much as Goa, but the gambling industry is nowhere to be seen. Pondicherry is a lot like Goa, and also seeks to increase its share of the tourism marketplace -- but its administrators would never turn to gambling to do it.

Up and down the subcontinent, the gambling industry has found no foothold but Goa, and we have not one but an astonishing 19 casinos hidden away and anchored in plain sight, and this despite the fact that the gambling industry has no supporters at all in the populace at large, and has even come under constant criticism from the majority of the state's legislators.

It is no more than a fact that Goans are famously tolerant. We are wonderfully tolerant of each other, and of visitors and migrants who all know -- and constantly extol the message -- that we are a hospitable people like no other. It is a tradition that goes back thousands of years.

Researchers like Anant Sinai Dhume have pointed out Goa was tolerant and accepting even in 2000 BC, assimilating significant Sumerian influences. Wave after wave of migration, invasion and assimilation has taken place, before the Portuguese colonial episode, and after.

We have seen the coming of the flower power brigade, and hundreds of thousands of migrants from the rest of India, to the point where we can all see the day when Goans are reduced to a minority in their own land.

Openness and tolerance of diversity can be a great strength, and it has often proved so for the Goan people. But there must be limits, or else we become a pushover for the unscrupulous, and eventually a laughing stock and victim.

Mahatma Gandhi once wrote, "I do not want my house to be walled in on sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any." But with this casino episode, we are now actually being forced to lie on our backs and accept a deeply troubling and problematic industry that has been rejected everywhere else in the country, even as the operators continue to flout every rule and guideline.

It is a profoundly disturbing development, and a warning sign that we might be approaching the end of Goa's working democracy.

http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=27144&cid=14
First published in Herald.