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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_biscuit who wrote (8713)	10/21/1999 1:47:00 PM
From: JPR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

And now, you have someone to blame for your pernicious caste system as well! Is there anything left? Or are we done with everything now? <g> My friend, the seer and the knower of all things: In Rawanda, it is the minority Tutsi and majority Hutus. In Northern Ireland it is Protestant vs Catholics. It is not the pernicious caste system. What is it? We the rotten, putrid Mushrooms want to know why it is happening in Rawanda and Ireland. In 1994, close to one million people were killed in a planned and systematic genocide in the Central African country of Rwanda. How did this carnage occur when the world declared after World War II that it would "never again" tolerate such violence? Who was responsible? Why did the international community fail to respond? How can we prevent the spiraling communal conflicts of the global era? Divide and Rule policy is the cause of massacre Throughout their colonial rule, first Germany and then Belgium favored Rwanda's minority Tutsi ethnic group in education and employment. In 1959, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi monarch. The Hutus killed hundreds of Tutsis and drove tens of thousands into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in October 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exasperated ethnic tensions culminating in April 1994 in a genocide in which roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the genocide in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu refugees?many fearing Tutsi retribution?fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC). According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, in 1996 and early 1997 nearly 1.3 million Hutus returned to Rwanda. Even with substantial international aid, these civil dislocations have hindered efforts to foster reconciliation and to boost investment and agricultural output. Although much of the country is now at peace, members of the former regime continue to destabilize the northwest area of the country through a low-intensity insurgency. Rwandan troops are currently involved in a crisis engulfing neighboring DROC. Northern Ireland In recent years there has been an increase in tit-for-tat church and lodge burnings. In the 1991 census, 38.4% of the population regarded themselves as Catholic, 50.6% as Protestant while 3.8% professed no religion and 7.3% refused to say. Catholics are in the majority in some parts of Ulster - Derry city, County Fermanagh, County Armagh and parts of Belfast - while making up less than 10% of the population in other areas: Larne and the County Antrim coast, Bangor and North Down, east Belfast. Protestants are overwhelmingly Presbyterian and have religious, cultural and familial links with Scotland. An important part of the Unionist community?s culture are the Orange Lodges - being a meeting place for ordinary Protestant men. The nationalist community is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. In recent years there has been an increase in tit-for-tat church and lodge burnings.

To: sea_biscuit who wrote (8713)	10/22/1999 9:07:00 AM
From: JPR	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 12475

And now, you have someone to blame for your pernicious caste system as well! Is there anything left? Or are we done with everything now? <g> Dipy; We have our caste system and we want to remain in our ignorance. We don't need enlightement. Why ae these fellows coming to us? And now, you have someone to blame for your pernicious caste system as well! Is there anything left? Or are we done with everything now? <g> washingtonpost.com Southern Baptists, Expanding Effort, Target Hindus for Conversion By Hanna Rosin Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, October 21, 1999; Page A19 The Southern Baptists expanded an aggressive new proselytizing campaign this week, publishing a short prayer book aimed at converting Hindus to Christianity. The prayer book is the second published by the Southern Baptists' International Mission Board this year, and has again provoked charges of arrogance and religious insensitivity. Last month, leaders of the nation's second-largest denomination offended Jewish leaders by distributing a book urging its members to evangelize Jews during their 10 holy days. Like the previous pamphlet, the latest one asks Southern Baptists to pray for the conversion of Hindus during their holiest week, Divali, a festival of lights commemorating the god Rama's return from exile. The board plans to distribute the guide to its 40,000 churches beginning Friday, in time for the celebrations in late October. Compared with the Jewish guide, this one uses far less tactful tones to describe Hindus, beginning with its very first sentence: "More than 900 million people are lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism." "Pray that Hindus who celebrate the festival of lights would become aware of the darkness in their hearts that no lamp can dispel," the guide continues. Hindu leaders reacted angrily to these depictions, describing them as relics of an ugly colonial age. "Darkness! This is really offensive," said Suresh Gupta, president of the Durga Temple in Fairfax. "Why should they try to change us? We have a value system people crave in this country. We teach respect for others, for marriage vows, for elders. It's what every religion should teach." The book is a kind of cultural anthropology written from a missionary perspective. Each page shows a snapshot of life in India described through a Christian lens: "Mumbai is a city of spiritual darkness. Eight out of every 10 people are Hindu, slaves bound by fear and tradition to false gods," it reads. Or: "Satan has retained his hold on Calcutta through Kali and other gods and goddesses of Hinduism. It's time for Christ's salvation to come to Calcutta." Southern Baptists defended the proselytizing campaign. "If I had a Hindu sitting right here at my desk I would apologize if I had been offensive," said Randy Sprinkle, who oversaw the book's publication. "Certainly God's love is not meant to be offensive." "Some people accused us of being arrogant when we were praying for the Jews of the world," he continues. "I would acknowledge that there is an element of arrogance. But it's the arrogance of truth." Gupta was unmoved. "If I had you sitting here, I would not want to convert you to be a Hindu," he responded. "I would want you to live a good life." ¸ Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company