[Tamil poet from Pre-Christian Sangham era]
Quest to Restore
Tamil Rights
- Translated By Eelam Tamil Scholar Rev Fr. Xavier Thaninayagam
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Mother has topped a list of most beautiful English words in a poll of non-English
speaking countries, along with other words full of comfort and warmth. Brits may have
voted differently... Mother dear The survey, compiled by the British Council, has
produced a fantastic and gorgeous list of 70 words that is full of enthusiasm, passion
and tranquillity - and other equally positive sentiments.
It's late afternoon in Yala national park, and Priviraj Fernando, a scientist from Sri
Lanka's Centre for Conservation and Research, is carefully attaching
movement-sensitive cameras to posts on the park boundary.
With an English-speaking population now likely to have surpassed that of Britain and
the US, India, with its dynamic variety of English, is set to become a linguistic
superpower
India currently has a special place in the English language record books – as the
country with the largest English-speaking population in the world. Ten years ago that
record was held by the US. Not any more.
The population of India passed a billion a couple of years ago, and is increasing at
the rate of 3% per annum. In 1997 an India Today survey suggested that about a
third of the population had the ability to carry on a conversation in English. This was
an amazing increase over the estimates of the 1980s, when only about 4%-5% of
the population were thought to use the language. And given the steady increase in
English learning since 1997 in schools and among the upwardly mobile, we must
today be talking about at least 350 million. This is more than the combined English-
speaking populations of Britain and the US.
Real Estate [mls.ca]
Exceeds 80,000 Sales
TORONTO - December 15,
2004- For the first time in its
84 year history, the Toronto
Real Estate Board has seen
more than 80,000
transactions through its
Multiple Listing Service in
a single year.
TREB President Ron
Abraham says 2004 will go
down in history as a banner
year.
"Sales have surpassed the
previous all time high of
78,898 set in 2003 and we
should end the year with
approximately 83,000
transactions. There is no
question that real estate is
the engine driving today’s
ecomony."
With more than 2,200
transactions thus far in
December, sales are
tracking 10 per cent ahead
of December 2003.
"The Bank of Canada’s
recent decision to hold
steady on interest rates
bodes well for the 2005 real
estate market. The
historically low rates we are
enjoying have been a key
contibutor to the market’s
strength, " said Mr.
Abraham.
Mr. Abraham cautions
however; that other factors
like property taxes and the
provincial government’s
proposed greenbelt plan
could impact affordability
in the year ahead.
"We will continue to lobby
on behalf of our REALTOR
Members to help the
Greater Toronto Area’s
home buying and selling
public realize their future
homeownership goals."
"We are confident that we
are headed into another
strong year for real estate in
2005."
Serving more than 20,500
REALTORS throughout the
Greater Toronto Area, the
Toronto Real Estate Board
is Canada’s largest real
estate board. [TREB]
"Affluenza", according to the authors, is "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted
condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of
more". This metaphor of a disease is an apposite characterisation of a malignant
condition that is eating into the entrails of America. Americans' insatiable urge to
acquire things, whether or not they are necessary, has indeed reached epidemic
proportions. It has caused severe social and cultural dislocations and warped the
basic values of American society.
"With our business coming to an end my six children have turned into beggars," says
Razia Biwi, wife of a silk weaver in the northern city of Varanasi. "They move from
door to door with a bowl each and eat whatever the kind neighbours give them."
The Varanasi silk industry is in turmoil
The human rights group says India's government has not distributed most of the
nearly $500m compensation paid by US firm Union Carbide, the plant owner.
Twenty years after the world's worst industrial accident at Bhopal in northern central
India, Amnesty International says no one has been held to account. Many of those
who survived are still feeling the effects 20 years later In today's report, Clouds of
Injustice, it calls for the development of international human rights standards for
businesses.
Musical Bombay Dreams is to close on Broadway, New York, eight months after
opening, following poor ticket sales. The musical opened to negative reviews in April
and has been playing at half-full capacity in the Broadway Theatre.
A new report shows that the number of foreign students attending U.S. universities
dropped last year for the first time in more than three decades. Many educators fear
that post-Sept. 11 security measures are discouraging foreign students from
studying in America.
The latest book by Israeli author Amos Oz is A Tale Of Love And Darkness, a
memoir of growing up in Jerusalem in the turbulent 1940s and '50s, when a war-torn
Israel was achieving statehood. Oz's home life was as intense as the world outside.
Born into Brothels, a new film documentary, tells the story of children growing up in
poverty in Calcutta's red-light district who find hope in a newfound skill --
photography.
Indians abroad are returning home, and offering the country a "brain gain" that could
help solve some of India's crushing social problems.
FILMS "OF BY AND FOR" THE PEOPLE
by D.B.S.JEYARAJ
Film festivals are fast becoming annual events in many, many cities now. The
reviewer V.Radhika writing in the "Hindu" summed it up aptly "In a
box-office-propelled movie world, film festivals are oases of hope. They offer a
kaleidoscope of world visions that are not packaged in a fast-food format: to be
devoured and forgotten. They showcase works that hold a mirror to the times we live
in, often reflecting unflattering but thought-provoking images". [Contd.]
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