debater

Ever since the introduction of socialism many churchmen and women have championed the cause of the poor and the oppressed. It is very true especially in the Latin American countries. Many of the paid a high price for their stance fearlessly. In the 1960s many claimed to be the voice of the voiceless poor the third world countries. One such a person was Rev. Jim Jones. Born in Lynn, Indiana, in 1931, he became widely known for his zest for preaching and his loving kindness towards all, especially the poor and oppressed. He founded the people’s Temple and had followers across the States. He was appreciated for his efforts to bring about peace, equality and harmony. However, his followers and statesmen failed to notice a blood-thirsty, sadistic monster in him. He misappropriated the funds received and built a ‘Jonestown’ in the jungles of Guyana. A thousand devoted men and women followed him to Jonestown in 1977. For sometime nothing was heard about those in Jonestown and people in the ...

For most of us education has little to do with politics. Some even argue that education is a neutral process. This view is contrary to the desired results we expect from our students in the long run. By and large, all of us agree that education is not only alphapatization or memorization of some theories and vomiting them in the examination. On the contrary, education is as a process of holistic development of a person – for instance, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore opined that it is a process of character-making besides technical and entrepreneurial skills. The post-colonial educationists, such as Paulo Freire (a Brazilian educationist and philosopher) expressed that education necessarily is and has to be political for a simple reason that knowledge is developed in communion and not in isolation. When students come together to learn and discuss with their teachers they come with their own bundle of knowledge and for the most pick-up things apparently untaught. Politics need n...

Recently I was reading Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth.   The following dialogues are worth mentioning. "Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desire." Macbeth before murdering the king.  "Is this a dagger I see before me? I have thee not, and yet I see thee still." Macbeth's guilt is manifested in the form of a dagger. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" Lady Macbeth washes her hand every quarter of an hour. She sees blood stains in her hand. Her guilt is manifested in this way. She again says: "Here is the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." It was a pleasant reading. There are a lot of things we can learn from this tragedy. There are Macbethian symptoms in our modern age. There are people who live in guilt and die of it eventually. Perhaps Shakespeare helps us to see the psychotic and neurotic tendencies that ...

If there is anything that leaves us with much thought when thinking about the life our Blessed Lord that is the betrayal of Him. Betrayal is nothing but a breach of trust.  We cannot complain saying that someone we have never known over the years betrayed us. Betrayal is hard because one who has known and shared our life alone can betray us. When being betrayed we feel as if a part of ourselves that was extended in friendship and brotherhood being lost. It takes courage to forgive someone who breached our trust and carry on as if nothing had happened. A betrayer is not easily identifiable by others; the traitor and the victim alone are aware of the happenings. He or she is understood by others as one who does good for others. That was the understanding of the apostles when Judas Iscariot went out on the night of our Lord's supper. The end of a traitor is drastic. He dies in guilt.