India wins it FIRST ever individual Gold medal in Olympics!!

Congrats Abhinav Bindra !!! You have made us proud.

He has won FIRST ever individual Olympic gold for India. He won gold in men's 10-metre Air Rifle event in Beijing 2008. It's only a beginning, I am sure. We are coming... may be bit behind China.. may be 10 - 20 yrs.. We'll be there!!

WYD and the Colonial hang-over

One of the beautiful parts of World Youth Day final Mass was the gospel procession by the Pacific Islanders. I was there, right beside. It was really beautiful, touching (watch it here) . But,... that's a BIG BUT!

The end of the gospel precession really tasted bitter.. The symbolism! The Pacific Islanders 'entrust the Gospel' to a European convoy (at least all looked like Europeans). Then they takes it to the alter, as the Islanders passively look at it! Black and White!

Just reminded everybody of the new Cadbury ad on the TV. The Pacific Islanders wage war over coffee and the Emperor wins, only to see that European colonials came to take the throne.

Dont think that I am too critical. But there are things to be fixed up. In God, there's no race. When we do a liturgy for WYD, which is supposed to celebrate the universality of Church, these things should get right. The powerful symbolism could have all changed, if we had, at least a black or brown person among the convoy who received Gospel from the Pacific Islanders.

Tail piece: During the Saturday vigil, one of the Indian young pilgrims told me. "Look father they pray in almost every language on earth. But why not in any of Indian languages?". He was right. The representation of Indian subcontinental languages were almost nil, except for one of the prayers of the faithful during the final Mass in SriLankan Sinhalees.

I want to answer RIGHT to my fellow young pilgrims from Asia next time. After all Jesus was an Asian and Asia is the cradle of Christianity!

On US, Oil and Obama!

I got a mail from Mr John D of Carnegie as a reply to my post "There's a Silver-lining everywhere man".. I post his mails and my replies with his permission.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jaison, I disagree with your views on uncle sam taking possession of Iraqi oil. The truth is that right now Iraq needs American expertise to modernise and fully develop oil production but once this is achieved you should expect that this expertise will be transferred to the Iraqis themselves. There is no 'uncle sam' in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis nationalised their oil industry decades ago when the likes of Getty and Texaco were invited to leave the country. There in no 'uncle sam' in Iran, or Kuwait or the UAE and we know only too well what that caring intelligent socialist Hugo Chavez of Venezuela thinks of dear old uncle sam. Russia, which almost certainly holds the world's largest reserves of oil, is steadily squeezing out every multinational - the American were never there (what a surprise) but now Shell and BP are on the verge of throwing in the towel as the Russians move to take full control. Contrary to the popular view America's principal interest is there needs to be an unfettered world oil market and one which is not threatened by idiotic mullahs and other crazy dictators such as Libya's Kaddafi who has just banned oil exports to Switzerland because that country threw his son, Hannibal, (true) out of the country for assaulting his Filipino servants. See what I mean?

John D

Carnegie

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi John,

Good to hear from you.

I'm not pessimistic.

I do agree with you that " right now Iraq needs American expertise". But the RIGHT NOW (The situation that is been created in Iraq) seems to sit perfect into a BIG picture, which could have been very well created! This wouldn't be not only my perception. Most of the world agrees with me, in this regard (aka, Iraq war was for oil).

"There is no 'uncle sam' in Saudi Arabia".. well, something very similar to 'banana republic'!

And regarding the other big stuffs you told about Chavez of Venezuela or Russia or Libya.. I must say, I am not in a position to comment at the moment.. coz I havent really put my mind into it.

Look, I think, you have been offended (I dont know whether, you are a US citizen or hails from US, etc).. I never meant any offense. There's a lot of good things about Uncle Sam. May be the best thing happening at the moment would be "Barak Obama". And much much more.. But every one, whether persons or nations need to be refined. And I am sure that 'Uncle Sam' will also take the lead in this regard(they are always at the forefront of everything!). Let's pray for that and hope for that.

Jaison CMI

PS: If you dont mind shall I post your reply in my blog? It's a good comment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please go ahead and post my reply, if it stimulates others to join the debate so much the better.

You may be disappointed at the end of the day because, if I'm right, and I do believe I am, John McCain will win the election. I draw as a parallel the year of 1960 when the youthful charismatic John F Kennedy on just managed to defeat the dour uninspiring Richard Nixon. Why? Because Kennedy had to overcome a silent but deep-seated antipathy towards catholics and I do recall at the time catholics everywhere rejoicing that their man had managed to crawl over line.

Barack Obama has a far more daunting hurdle to clear - he is a black man, and despite current polls suggesting he is leading McCain (only just) I keep thinking of 1960 and that 'silent deep-seated antipathy'. The problem for Obama is this malaise has a habit of finally revealing itself only within the enclosed anonymity of the voting booth.

We shall see....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's okay John... It's upto Americans to decide what they want, what image they want to give to the rest of the world.

I have published them in my Blog.

Jaison CMI

Winston Churchill won the war, but Clement Attlee was elected PM

I was just reflecting about WYD!

It was great success - as an event. The government has done a wonderful job. They poured out money and support. The infrastructure - public transport, randwick, barangaroo, security - was excellent. The pilgrims were excellent - their happiness, joy and discipline were exemplary. Sydniers were so welcoming. The Church organization did a good job - the billeting, hospitality, the ceremonies - esp, the Way of the Cross and final Mass were excellent.

Only one thing failed. the PR - public relations. It was a disaster. Except the official media (particularly new corp print media), all others tired their level best to tarnish the Catholic fest, by blowing the sex scandals and atheist/liberal views out of proportion in their prime time and space. The internet was the ugliest thing. I followed it till Thursday. Hopeless.

The Church (in Aus) didn't see that it was coming. When it came, it didn't know how to address it, when it addressed, it failed miserably.

Cardinal Pell did a wonderful job in bringing and conducting WYD in Aus. But many a time he failed to reap the fruits of it, by allowing himself to be exposed to unwanted controversies. Whether it was how he dealt the "sex abuse cases of the priests" (in this case a man who died in prison before 10 years) or "more western babies" or "un-linking climate change from human activity" (what the hell on earth a Cardinal should comment on the relationship between climate change and human activity (aka pollution) during WYD. It belongs to scientists and does not belong to religions to prove or disprove it, let science do it. May be on the basis of that we could postulate moral implications!), he was a PR failure.

He is good man, with lot of convictions. He was the right person to conduct WYD (except PR could have been given to a different team).

It was Winston Churchill who won the World War II as the PM of England. But it was Clement Attlee who succeeded him after the War. I heard that the people of England did a right thing by ditching their war hero over a moderate face. They had known that they wanted a moderate face to heal the wounds of war.

I think Rome will learn from history. I think, Pell will be taken to Vatican for greater roles in the Church. Australia (esp, Sydney) will have a new face - a moderate, happy face!

CHRIST University, India - The first ever Catholic university in India

Here is the much awaited good news: Christ became University!! (as reported in www.cmi.in) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India, in its notification of 22 July 2008, has declared Christ College, located in Bangalore, Karnataka, as 'Deemed-to-be- University’. Christ College, till now Autonomous College, is now a University Rev. Dr. Augustine Thottakara, CMI, Rector Dharmaram College, President of the Board of Trustees of Christ College, and President of the Governing Body, has been elected as the Chancellor and President of Christ University by the Governing Body according to the directives of UGC. The Chancellor and President has appointed, according to the UGC Rules, Father Dr. Thomas C. Mathew, CMI, hitherto Principal, Christ College Autonomous, as the Vice Chancellor of the University. Other office-bearers will be elected/appointed in due course of time. Hearty Congratulations!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my reply to cmigroup mail:

It's a great moment of pride in the history of Indian Catholics. It's a decisive moment in the history of CMI congregation. Blessed Chavara would be shedding tears of happiness in heaven! My heartfelt congratulations to all - especially Fr Chatamparmabil, the Vice-chancellor of Christ University (and not forgetting all previous and present visionaries of Christ and Dharmaram) - who worked hard to realize this dream. Well done. Let our Lord continue to bless!

Jaison Paul Mulerikkal
12 Chewings Street
Page, ACT 2614
Canberra, Australia

Globalisation of Human Resource and Climate Change

Immigration must be cut to tackle climate change, says study - as reported by (Herald Sun). (IMMIGRATION must be slashed if Australia has any chance of seriously tackling climate change, says a Monash University study.)

I found that it was absurd and send a reply like this:

The term 'scientific' , 'research' and 'monash' are just decorative in this article. This is the most ABSURD thing that I have heard in the recent past. It seems that they are talking about "Australia warming" rather than "global warming"! Migration is only people moving from one part of the world to another. It's not going to affect the global warming. Or if the argument is to deprive people belonging to resource-less regions of the world (at the moment - like India or China) to confine to their regions, the policy will backfire. Then there wont be any moral ground for resource-ful countries (like Australia) to preach/persuade those countries. And those countries cannot be intimidated by economic or military pressures anymore. Like globalisation of resources, the globalisation of human resources cannot be reverted and should be continued (in a faster pace) without fail. And if we can read between these lines, there's one more thing to be done - which is the RIGHT thing to do - "Like all Australians they'll be living at twice the standard of living of current residents if the Government's predictions for per capita economic growth are correct,'' - BRING DOWN the CONSUMPTION of resources in resource-ful regions/countries of the world, because the the Globe's resources are limited.

"Convincing Victory" of India

The Manmohan Singh government in India survived a confidence motion yesterday to go ahead with the Civil Nuclear Deal with US.

It was a "convincing victory"! Victory of the WILL of the people of India. We do have difference of opinions. That we have showed in the oppositions to the Deal. But in spite of our differences, as a nation, we are ready to go forward and claim our place in the history. We are determined.

The bribing allegations is only a part of the game (the BJP and Communists want to save their face). We all know that politicians receive money. In India, we call it as bribing and in the "developed world" they call it as lobbying (just makes it legal.. so no bribing..hihi). Only thing whether it was caught red-handed. But, even IBN-CNN went backward and not yet produced anything and which shows that there wont be much to come and even if something appear, its credibility will be heavily disputed. So no fuss as well. (It's time in India to stop horse trading and to find ways to find legal ways for acquiring money in politics, to support politicians to sustain).

The Singh is really King!