Founder-Director of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa (1979-1994)Fellow of the Portuguese Academy of History (since 1983)Fellow of the Geographical Society of Lisbon (since 2000)Retired as Cathedratic Professor, Universidade Lusófona, Lisboa (1996-2014)Researcher of the Centre for Studies in Politics, Economy and Society (15-11-2017) based at the Universidade Lusófona (Formerly CPES (Centro de Pesquisa e Estudos Sociais) Supervisors: General Editor, Journal "Fluxos & Riscos" (Universidade Lusófona)
In the fast changing world of digital communication and economic globalization the existing forms... more In the fast changing world of digital communication and economic globalization the existing forms of governance, including the democracy, seem to be finding it hard to adapt themselves to new challenges or to respond satisfactorily to the growing unrest of new publics that are made to contribute to governance and public welfare without reaping proportionate benefits or even a share in an effective representation of their needs and woes. Electoral procedures tend to become a periodic farce and ethically ambiguous with subtle and timely manipulation of electorates. The so-called separation of powers that was thought to ensure the rule of law and justice, is seen to be increasingly eroded by politicization of judicial institutions and by a consequent judicialization of politics and legislative options. As a result, growing numbers of citizens have been losing respect and faith in their politicians and state institutions. Francis Fukuyama, a management guru turned political analyst, had been quick in 1989 to present the fall of the Berlin Wall as the end of Cold War and a final victory of neo-liberalism over the giant communist rival of the post-World War times. He did not hesitate then to title his book The End of History (1992) to expand his earlier essay with a hurried and provisional analysis. Francis Fukuyama has very recently revised his understanding of world politics and has presented his updated and a much more balanced picture, a far cry from his earlier euphoric vision, in a new book entitled Identity: The demand for dignity and the politics of resentment (2018). With the risk of over-stepping the limits of this column, I wish to provide a very brief summary of his new analysis and recommendations.
Politics is a science of governance and an art of the possible. It requires good legal training, ... more Politics is a science of governance and an art of the possible. It requires good legal training, a fine tact for negotiation, and the courage for timely concessions. Many a political crisis would not end with violent confrontations if an experienced politician was available. Historians cannot replace politicians. Their role is to safeguard the cultural heritage, stick to the evidence, and prevent its manipulation and misuse. This implies quite an inflexibility of positions and can help to warn mis-adventurous politicians that their future will end into the dust bin of History. The ideals and reality often differ. Politicians tend to have a relationship of ambivalence with History, implying a mutually beneficial trade-off: politicians need myth-making to win power and to stay in power. Some historians get carried by the political offer of scholarships, chairs and other types of funding. The ambiguity of the relationship implies a politician’s understanding of historian’s role as myth-making, while professional and critical historians stand for the opposite, namely de-mythifying, or deconstructing stereotypes. Unfortunately, there is no lack of historians who succumb to political allurements and reduce history to political prostitution, replacing the role of an historian from a judge of relevant evidence to an advocate of a political ideology.
Handling humans is probably the most tricky job as compared with handling any other living creatu... more Handling humans is probably the most tricky job as compared with handling any other living creature on the face of this earth. Having said this, it may not be difficult to comprehend why the human evolution has witnessed and will continue to witness ever new ways of governing humans and human societies. Even the expression “human societies” is ambiguous, because not all individuals feel themselves comfortable in a society they are expected or forced to belong to. There are individuals who even resent having been born from their biological parents or having been born in a particular country. Fortunately, or unfortunately this is part of the “freedom” that characterises the “homo sapiens”, who tends to be at times a most stupid product of the natural evolution. Seen positively, we may agree with Hegel, the German philosopher who grounded his insights upon dialectic, and explained to us why the evolutionary process is necessarily painful and new forms of life emerge from a spiralling process of thesis and antithesis into a new synthesis, which then becomes a new thesis to face new antithesis and so on. This is not entirely a new discovery, but as old as the biblical saying “unless a grain of wheat dies…” (John 12:24)
Contribution to our understanding of how the Gulf countries helped to the betterment of lives of ... more Contribution to our understanding of how the Gulf countries helped to the betterment of lives of the descendants of thousands of Goan households since late 40s of the last century. My own father, Mr. L.C. D’Souza from Moirá was one of the Goans who landed in Kuwait via Karachi in 1949 as an employee of KOC. Without any formal education he became a much appreciated cook of the household of the mother of the ruling Amir Sheik Jabir till his voluntary retirement in mid 70s. His professional companion was THE GOAN COOKS’S GUIDE. With the subtitle GOAN CUZNERACHO SANGAT (399 pp), it was authored by Pedro Damião Dias, who had been cook of several British Indian viceroys. Published in Bombay in 1937 (4th edition) by B.X. Furtado & Sons, it was printed at the Jesuit Mission Press at Anand, Gujarat. It contained 2012 recipes in Konkani, with titles in English. My dad’s three decades in Kuwait brought the shine of the Kuwaiti dinars to change effectively the bleak fortunes of our family. Unfortunately, many individuals deserving recognition have completed their lives in obscurity without ever getting into limelight. Great majority of Goans had no material or social conditions during the colonial past to merit attention, and quite a few developed their talents and distinguished themselves through diaspora. I wrote in the Preface to Alfredo de Mello’s autobiographical book From Goa to Patagonia (2006) that globalization was a truly a “Goabilization” that empowered many generations of Goans who saw no future for them under the colonial dispensation.
Ganesha, Vinayak, Vignyaneshwar, Gajapati or Ganapati, or whatever his other attributes and deno... more Ganesha, Vinayak, Vignyaneshwar, Gajapati or Ganapati, or whatever his other attributes and denominations, will continue to be relevant in times to come, considering the fact that human progress has never been linear or fast-forward. We need to be thankful to our Indian ancestors from the times of the rock-carvings of Kerala for recording Ganesha as a helpful ally [http://bit.ly/2NJUYbM]. World cultures have thrown up since pre-historic times mythical heroes, gods and mother-goddesses to seek guidance, comfort and protection against the insecurities and threats to human survival. Many of those have been replaced and new ones invented as human skills developed to reduce those insecurities. Baruch Spinoza, a descendant of the Portuguese Jews who fled to the Netherlands, has left his understanding of this phenomenon, and summed it up by distinguishing two phases of nature, which he called natura naturata and natura naturans. The former represented the natural forces dominated by man, and the latter as the nature that remains uncontrolled by science and continues to instil fear and insecurity.
Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian and Asian winner of Nobel Prize for Literature. His comp... more Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian and Asian winner of Nobel Prize for Literature. His composition was chosen for the national anthem of independent India. It conveys a message of internationalism, wherein the whole world is presented as the home of mankind. It is very relevant for today's world plagued with the cruelty towards the refugees.
Resumo: Este artigo procura apontar para os sentimentos e expressões nacionalistas dos missionári... more Resumo: Este artigo procura apontar para os sentimentos e expressões nacionalistas dos missionários que serviram o Padroado português na Ásia. Nota-se que estes sentimentos e comportamentos eram mais notórios entre os missionários portugueses, mais do que entre os missionários de origem italiana, alemã e francesa. O estudo deixa em aberto as conclusões finais por requerem investigação mais aprofundada, mas traz evidência significativa para defender que os missionários portugueses manifestavam fortes sentimentos nacionalistas e defendiam os seus privilégios nacionais. Isto não se limita ao período da unificação das coroas na península ibérica durante 1580-1640, mas precede e contínua até ao fim do colonialismo português na Ásia, confirmando assim que o Padroado sempre foi uma arma da expansão portuguesa na era dos Descobrimentos, e foi um instrumento da sobrevivência do colonialismo português.
Abstract: This article seeks to point out to the nationalist feelings and expressions among the missionaries who served in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado. The cultural nationalism seems to have been stronger among the Portuguese missionaries as compared with the missionaries of Italian, German or French origin. The article leaves the final conclusions open to corroboration by further research, but provides documentary evidence to supports the view that the Portuguese missionaries manifested strong emotional feelings that favoured their national and cultural privileges and characteristics. The article extends the analysis to periods before and beyond the unification of Iberian crowns during 1580-1640, concluding thereby that the Portuguese cultural nationalism was not merely a defensive posture against the loss of its independence in Europe during that brief period. There is documentary evidence to confirm that the Padroado was a tool of Portuguese expansion in the era of Discoveries, and continued to be a tool of the survival of the Portuguese colonialism till its very end.
Trata-se aqui de uma das muitas metáforas que enchem o pensamento e os escritos de Agostinha da S... more Trata-se aqui de uma das muitas metáforas que enchem o pensamento e os escritos de Agostinha da Silva. Não se trata de qualquer viagem física, mas uma conceção de humanidade como vária e una. Mas quando Agostinho da Silva e muitos outros defensores da lusofonia procuram separar os seus ideais da realidade colonial e não só, leva-me a concluir que partilham da mesma espiritualidade cristã da igreja católica que Lutero designara por "casta prostituta".
Trago aqui uma memória pública da presença colonial portuguesa em Goa. É distinta da memória col... more Trago aqui uma memória pública da presença colonial portuguesa em Goa. É distinta da memória coletiva como alguns a entendem e consideram sagrada e inviolável. Fernando Catroga no seu pequeno e excelente estudo sobre " Memória, História e Historiografia " distingue a memória coletiva da memória historiográfica. Enquanto a primeira é anónima e espontânea, uma transmissão predominantemente oral e repetitiva, e com cariz normativo, a segunda é prosaica e ensinável, resultado de uma operação científica que desmistifica a sacralidade assumida pela memória coletiva. A memória pública no título deste ensaio inclui as duas memórias mencionadas, mas com maior ênfase na componente popular de folclore, que para os eruditos tem um sentido pejorativo. É precisamente para questionar esta perceção de superioridade intelectual e devolver ao povo o crédito e o mérito da sua sabedoria que não sabe fingir ou encobrir. Os comentários populares têm pouco de crítica política, mas concentram-se na vida social e económica.
Despite the Portuguese zeal to enforce Christianity in Asia as a political follow-up of the Tride... more Despite the Portuguese zeal to enforce Christianity in Asia as a political follow-up of the Tridentine policy, the administrative reality forced the Portuguese in India to depend upon the collaboration of the Hindus till the very end of the colonial presence. It sounds like the wrath of Shiva, or the maya of Vishnu.
The “convergent” research has advanced with notable success in the life sciences, physical scienc... more The “convergent” research has advanced with notable success in the life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, as it can be concluded from the joint report of MIT-AAAS, available for online reference at http://news.mit.edu/2011/convergence-0104 containing encomiastic references to “The Third Revolution: The Convergence of the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering”. It is desirable that the realm of the Social Sciences breaks out of its departmental culture which enhances the weaknesses analysed by Thomas S. Kuhn, another north-American and Harvard scholar, in his seminal research published as The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) exposing the subjectivities that blocked the potential for convergence and innovation in Social Sciences. The “convergence” that is recommended does not require that scholars abandon their specializations, but the emphasis is on a dialogue between scholars of different scientific areas based on mutual respect and curiosity, aimed ultimately at deepening the grasp of one’s own areas of specialization. It is hoped that confrontation and cross-examination of concepts, methods of gathering and analysing data, technical perspectives and application strategies, can result in finding correlations and ways of solving common problems. The culture of convergence demands individual efforts and institutional efforts, as well as national and international policies. It is viewed as timely to avoid wastage of limited funding in an effective manner. This is clear from the most recent ruling of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technologies in preparation for the forthcoming Evaluation and Pluriannual Funding of the R&D units. It recommends to the existing research centres to re-structure themselves into larger units / consortia to maximize human and financial resources, but without losing sight of the academic objectives. The present issue of the journal Fluxes & Risks sought to anticipate this challenge and prepare the CPES to undertake suitable steps in this re-structuring process, ensuring the continuity of its heritage through a culture of convergence.
A investigação interdisciplinar tem avançado com notável sucesso nas ciências físicas, ciências d... more A investigação interdisciplinar tem avançado com notável sucesso nas ciências físicas, ciências da vida e ciências da comunicação. Pretende-se que os artigos recebidos sejam também orientados pelo mesmo paradigma interdisciplinar reforçando essa perspetiva nas Ciências Sociais e do Comportamento.
Neste contexto anunciamos este “Call for Papers” para artigos no âmbito dos seguintes eixos temáticos: - Fatores Económicos da Sustentabilidade - Plano Cultural da Sustentabilidade - Desigualdade Socioeconómica e Sustentabilidade - Desafios e ameaças dos Sistemas de Inteligência Artificial à sustentabilidade do emprego - Alternativas de acesso à riqueza, substitutas do Emprego, entre outros.
É uma apresentação quase auto-biográfica que reflete reações emocionais que possam ainda parecer ... more É uma apresentação quase auto-biográfica que reflete reações emocionais que possam ainda parecer desmedidas. Mas trata-se das experiências pessoais, e não dos outros. São mais emotivas do que emocionais, mas passaram pelo crivo de reflexões críticas e foram objeto de várias conferências em que participei e ensaios que publiquei. Estes ficam registados na bibliografia anexa ao texto e poderão ser consultados para completar o que o tempo e espaço disponíveis aqui não deixam partilhar mais à vontade.
Following the outcome of the elections a couple of weeks ago and the formation of the new Goa gov... more Following the outcome of the elections a couple of weeks ago and the formation of the new Goa government I feel vindicated about my published reflections about "Goenkarponn" adopted by Goa Forward as its election banner. With all due respect to Mr. Timble and his old-age political adventurism, I would not hesitate now to name my fresh reflections on "Goenkarponn simplified" as "Timbleponn", with Vijaiponn as what we call in Goa "faddem", thrown in by the seller for a good measure after a good buy.
How the Goan clergy and the village communities of Goa were able to turn the State legislation in... more How the Goan clergy and the village communities of Goa were able to turn the State legislation in their favour and save their funds from being diverted to colonial defence budget.
Narratives, routes and intersections in pre-modern Asia, 2017
Rivers of ink and politics have flown in India, and that applies to Goa too, about the caste woe... more Rivers of ink and politics have flown in India, and that applies to Goa too, about the caste woes in India. Despite foreign incursions over centuries and the impact of their rules upon the Indian people and culture they have not succeeded to any significant extent to change the Indian pysche into Koranic or Biblical mould.
The process of conversions has always its limitations. Given time the changes unravel, and the caste hold is reinforced, causing dismay among the foreign and native reformers, who seek to help the "backward" Indians to break out of their cycle of "dharma, karma and sansara" in order to attain the bosom of Abraham, or the heavens of later semitic religions.
Incidentally, the early Jesuits in Goa had problems in translating "heaven" in Konkani for their Goan Hindu converts. Their bhuimvoikuntta for earthly Paradise was tolerable for the Bardeskar Vaishnavas, but in no way acceptable to Sinays (Xennoy) and Shivites from Bamonn Kellxi (Kelossi) , Kushastalli (Kortali) and the rest of Saxtti, for whom their Kailasa deserved continuity. The astute Jesuits then sought a compromisse solution in a more neutral Indra's Svarg.
Fluxos & Riscos, Vol.2, Nº2 (2017)
Call for Papers
Vol. 2, No. 2 of the Journal Fluxos & Riscos ... more Fluxos & Riscos, Vol.2, Nº2 (2017) Call for Papers
Vol. 2, No. 2 of the Journal Fluxos & Riscos is under preparation, to be out during the first half of 2018. The theme chosen for the issue is “Sustainability & its five-fold axis: Economic, Social, Cultural, Ecological and Political”. Our aim is to promote an innovative debate, focusing on problem solving for our future knowledge society. Interdisciplinary research has been developing with remarkable success on Physical, Nature and Communication Sciences. We intend the papers to have the same interdisciplinary approach, reinforcing this paradigm on Social and Behavioral Sciences. In this context, we announce the following thematic areas for this call for papers: - Economic and sustainability factors; - Sustainability cultural aspects; - Socioeconomic inequalities and sustainability; - Challenges and threats from Artificial Intelligence systems to employment sustainability; - Alternative wealth production, replacing employment, among others Time limits: (1) Submit your proposal with title and a brief synopsis of 150 words until 22nd December 2017, addressed to teodesouza@gmail.com (2) The full article should be submitted online at the site of the Journal after self-registration as author http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/fluxoseriscos/user/register following the norms that can be consulted at http://cpes.ulusofona.pt/revista-fluxos-e-riscos/. A copy of the article needs to be sent to flux.risk@gmail.com. The deadline for final submission is 30th January 2018.
Guest-Editors: Ana Lorga da Silva & Artur Parreira
Prof. George Moraes belonged to a generation of Indo-Portuguese historians who believed in Portug... more Prof. George Moraes belonged to a generation of Indo-Portuguese historians who believed in Portugal’s civilizing mission, which he sought to emphatically distinguish from the colonial performance of the English and the Dutch, “who were bent solely on trade and wars”. Prof. Moraes added that it should not be forgotten that it was the Goan Priest and the Goan doctor that assisted Portugal in its civilizing mission in Portuguese Africa. Concluding his paper Prof. Moraes added a wish: "It would indeed be a fitting tribute to his memory and grateful acknowledgement of his services to Indian history if a group of scholars would come forward to prepare a centenary memorial edition of his works which are very rare but of whose immense usefulness there can be no two opinions.” We saw the death centenary and also the birth bicentenary of Cunha Rivara pass away a few years ago. I had the privilege of speaking in a memorial event organized by the Municipality of Arraiolos on 20th June 2009, and to deliver a commemorative lecture at the Public Library of Evora that same week. A summary of those lectures may be read at the website of Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa [http://bit.ly/1rTDVWt]
In the fast changing world of digital communication and economic globalization the existing forms... more In the fast changing world of digital communication and economic globalization the existing forms of governance, including the democracy, seem to be finding it hard to adapt themselves to new challenges or to respond satisfactorily to the growing unrest of new publics that are made to contribute to governance and public welfare without reaping proportionate benefits or even a share in an effective representation of their needs and woes. Electoral procedures tend to become a periodic farce and ethically ambiguous with subtle and timely manipulation of electorates. The so-called separation of powers that was thought to ensure the rule of law and justice, is seen to be increasingly eroded by politicization of judicial institutions and by a consequent judicialization of politics and legislative options. As a result, growing numbers of citizens have been losing respect and faith in their politicians and state institutions. Francis Fukuyama, a management guru turned political analyst, had been quick in 1989 to present the fall of the Berlin Wall as the end of Cold War and a final victory of neo-liberalism over the giant communist rival of the post-World War times. He did not hesitate then to title his book The End of History (1992) to expand his earlier essay with a hurried and provisional analysis. Francis Fukuyama has very recently revised his understanding of world politics and has presented his updated and a much more balanced picture, a far cry from his earlier euphoric vision, in a new book entitled Identity: The demand for dignity and the politics of resentment (2018). With the risk of over-stepping the limits of this column, I wish to provide a very brief summary of his new analysis and recommendations.
Politics is a science of governance and an art of the possible. It requires good legal training, ... more Politics is a science of governance and an art of the possible. It requires good legal training, a fine tact for negotiation, and the courage for timely concessions. Many a political crisis would not end with violent confrontations if an experienced politician was available. Historians cannot replace politicians. Their role is to safeguard the cultural heritage, stick to the evidence, and prevent its manipulation and misuse. This implies quite an inflexibility of positions and can help to warn mis-adventurous politicians that their future will end into the dust bin of History. The ideals and reality often differ. Politicians tend to have a relationship of ambivalence with History, implying a mutually beneficial trade-off: politicians need myth-making to win power and to stay in power. Some historians get carried by the political offer of scholarships, chairs and other types of funding. The ambiguity of the relationship implies a politician’s understanding of historian’s role as myth-making, while professional and critical historians stand for the opposite, namely de-mythifying, or deconstructing stereotypes. Unfortunately, there is no lack of historians who succumb to political allurements and reduce history to political prostitution, replacing the role of an historian from a judge of relevant evidence to an advocate of a political ideology.
Handling humans is probably the most tricky job as compared with handling any other living creatu... more Handling humans is probably the most tricky job as compared with handling any other living creature on the face of this earth. Having said this, it may not be difficult to comprehend why the human evolution has witnessed and will continue to witness ever new ways of governing humans and human societies. Even the expression “human societies” is ambiguous, because not all individuals feel themselves comfortable in a society they are expected or forced to belong to. There are individuals who even resent having been born from their biological parents or having been born in a particular country. Fortunately, or unfortunately this is part of the “freedom” that characterises the “homo sapiens”, who tends to be at times a most stupid product of the natural evolution. Seen positively, we may agree with Hegel, the German philosopher who grounded his insights upon dialectic, and explained to us why the evolutionary process is necessarily painful and new forms of life emerge from a spiralling process of thesis and antithesis into a new synthesis, which then becomes a new thesis to face new antithesis and so on. This is not entirely a new discovery, but as old as the biblical saying “unless a grain of wheat dies…” (John 12:24)
Contribution to our understanding of how the Gulf countries helped to the betterment of lives of ... more Contribution to our understanding of how the Gulf countries helped to the betterment of lives of the descendants of thousands of Goan households since late 40s of the last century. My own father, Mr. L.C. D’Souza from Moirá was one of the Goans who landed in Kuwait via Karachi in 1949 as an employee of KOC. Without any formal education he became a much appreciated cook of the household of the mother of the ruling Amir Sheik Jabir till his voluntary retirement in mid 70s. His professional companion was THE GOAN COOKS’S GUIDE. With the subtitle GOAN CUZNERACHO SANGAT (399 pp), it was authored by Pedro Damião Dias, who had been cook of several British Indian viceroys. Published in Bombay in 1937 (4th edition) by B.X. Furtado & Sons, it was printed at the Jesuit Mission Press at Anand, Gujarat. It contained 2012 recipes in Konkani, with titles in English. My dad’s three decades in Kuwait brought the shine of the Kuwaiti dinars to change effectively the bleak fortunes of our family. Unfortunately, many individuals deserving recognition have completed their lives in obscurity without ever getting into limelight. Great majority of Goans had no material or social conditions during the colonial past to merit attention, and quite a few developed their talents and distinguished themselves through diaspora. I wrote in the Preface to Alfredo de Mello’s autobiographical book From Goa to Patagonia (2006) that globalization was a truly a “Goabilization” that empowered many generations of Goans who saw no future for them under the colonial dispensation.
Ganesha, Vinayak, Vignyaneshwar, Gajapati or Ganapati, or whatever his other attributes and deno... more Ganesha, Vinayak, Vignyaneshwar, Gajapati or Ganapati, or whatever his other attributes and denominations, will continue to be relevant in times to come, considering the fact that human progress has never been linear or fast-forward. We need to be thankful to our Indian ancestors from the times of the rock-carvings of Kerala for recording Ganesha as a helpful ally [http://bit.ly/2NJUYbM]. World cultures have thrown up since pre-historic times mythical heroes, gods and mother-goddesses to seek guidance, comfort and protection against the insecurities and threats to human survival. Many of those have been replaced and new ones invented as human skills developed to reduce those insecurities. Baruch Spinoza, a descendant of the Portuguese Jews who fled to the Netherlands, has left his understanding of this phenomenon, and summed it up by distinguishing two phases of nature, which he called natura naturata and natura naturans. The former represented the natural forces dominated by man, and the latter as the nature that remains uncontrolled by science and continues to instil fear and insecurity.
Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian and Asian winner of Nobel Prize for Literature. His comp... more Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian and Asian winner of Nobel Prize for Literature. His composition was chosen for the national anthem of independent India. It conveys a message of internationalism, wherein the whole world is presented as the home of mankind. It is very relevant for today's world plagued with the cruelty towards the refugees.
Resumo: Este artigo procura apontar para os sentimentos e expressões nacionalistas dos missionári... more Resumo: Este artigo procura apontar para os sentimentos e expressões nacionalistas dos missionários que serviram o Padroado português na Ásia. Nota-se que estes sentimentos e comportamentos eram mais notórios entre os missionários portugueses, mais do que entre os missionários de origem italiana, alemã e francesa. O estudo deixa em aberto as conclusões finais por requerem investigação mais aprofundada, mas traz evidência significativa para defender que os missionários portugueses manifestavam fortes sentimentos nacionalistas e defendiam os seus privilégios nacionais. Isto não se limita ao período da unificação das coroas na península ibérica durante 1580-1640, mas precede e contínua até ao fim do colonialismo português na Ásia, confirmando assim que o Padroado sempre foi uma arma da expansão portuguesa na era dos Descobrimentos, e foi um instrumento da sobrevivência do colonialismo português.
Abstract: This article seeks to point out to the nationalist feelings and expressions among the missionaries who served in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado. The cultural nationalism seems to have been stronger among the Portuguese missionaries as compared with the missionaries of Italian, German or French origin. The article leaves the final conclusions open to corroboration by further research, but provides documentary evidence to supports the view that the Portuguese missionaries manifested strong emotional feelings that favoured their national and cultural privileges and characteristics. The article extends the analysis to periods before and beyond the unification of Iberian crowns during 1580-1640, concluding thereby that the Portuguese cultural nationalism was not merely a defensive posture against the loss of its independence in Europe during that brief period. There is documentary evidence to confirm that the Padroado was a tool of Portuguese expansion in the era of Discoveries, and continued to be a tool of the survival of the Portuguese colonialism till its very end.
Trata-se aqui de uma das muitas metáforas que enchem o pensamento e os escritos de Agostinha da S... more Trata-se aqui de uma das muitas metáforas que enchem o pensamento e os escritos de Agostinha da Silva. Não se trata de qualquer viagem física, mas uma conceção de humanidade como vária e una. Mas quando Agostinho da Silva e muitos outros defensores da lusofonia procuram separar os seus ideais da realidade colonial e não só, leva-me a concluir que partilham da mesma espiritualidade cristã da igreja católica que Lutero designara por "casta prostituta".
Trago aqui uma memória pública da presença colonial portuguesa em Goa. É distinta da memória col... more Trago aqui uma memória pública da presença colonial portuguesa em Goa. É distinta da memória coletiva como alguns a entendem e consideram sagrada e inviolável. Fernando Catroga no seu pequeno e excelente estudo sobre " Memória, História e Historiografia " distingue a memória coletiva da memória historiográfica. Enquanto a primeira é anónima e espontânea, uma transmissão predominantemente oral e repetitiva, e com cariz normativo, a segunda é prosaica e ensinável, resultado de uma operação científica que desmistifica a sacralidade assumida pela memória coletiva. A memória pública no título deste ensaio inclui as duas memórias mencionadas, mas com maior ênfase na componente popular de folclore, que para os eruditos tem um sentido pejorativo. É precisamente para questionar esta perceção de superioridade intelectual e devolver ao povo o crédito e o mérito da sua sabedoria que não sabe fingir ou encobrir. Os comentários populares têm pouco de crítica política, mas concentram-se na vida social e económica.
Despite the Portuguese zeal to enforce Christianity in Asia as a political follow-up of the Tride... more Despite the Portuguese zeal to enforce Christianity in Asia as a political follow-up of the Tridentine policy, the administrative reality forced the Portuguese in India to depend upon the collaboration of the Hindus till the very end of the colonial presence. It sounds like the wrath of Shiva, or the maya of Vishnu.
The “convergent” research has advanced with notable success in the life sciences, physical scienc... more The “convergent” research has advanced with notable success in the life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, as it can be concluded from the joint report of MIT-AAAS, available for online reference at http://news.mit.edu/2011/convergence-0104 containing encomiastic references to “The Third Revolution: The Convergence of the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering”. It is desirable that the realm of the Social Sciences breaks out of its departmental culture which enhances the weaknesses analysed by Thomas S. Kuhn, another north-American and Harvard scholar, in his seminal research published as The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) exposing the subjectivities that blocked the potential for convergence and innovation in Social Sciences. The “convergence” that is recommended does not require that scholars abandon their specializations, but the emphasis is on a dialogue between scholars of different scientific areas based on mutual respect and curiosity, aimed ultimately at deepening the grasp of one’s own areas of specialization. It is hoped that confrontation and cross-examination of concepts, methods of gathering and analysing data, technical perspectives and application strategies, can result in finding correlations and ways of solving common problems. The culture of convergence demands individual efforts and institutional efforts, as well as national and international policies. It is viewed as timely to avoid wastage of limited funding in an effective manner. This is clear from the most recent ruling of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technologies in preparation for the forthcoming Evaluation and Pluriannual Funding of the R&D units. It recommends to the existing research centres to re-structure themselves into larger units / consortia to maximize human and financial resources, but without losing sight of the academic objectives. The present issue of the journal Fluxes & Risks sought to anticipate this challenge and prepare the CPES to undertake suitable steps in this re-structuring process, ensuring the continuity of its heritage through a culture of convergence.
A investigação interdisciplinar tem avançado com notável sucesso nas ciências físicas, ciências d... more A investigação interdisciplinar tem avançado com notável sucesso nas ciências físicas, ciências da vida e ciências da comunicação. Pretende-se que os artigos recebidos sejam também orientados pelo mesmo paradigma interdisciplinar reforçando essa perspetiva nas Ciências Sociais e do Comportamento.
Neste contexto anunciamos este “Call for Papers” para artigos no âmbito dos seguintes eixos temáticos: - Fatores Económicos da Sustentabilidade - Plano Cultural da Sustentabilidade - Desigualdade Socioeconómica e Sustentabilidade - Desafios e ameaças dos Sistemas de Inteligência Artificial à sustentabilidade do emprego - Alternativas de acesso à riqueza, substitutas do Emprego, entre outros.
É uma apresentação quase auto-biográfica que reflete reações emocionais que possam ainda parecer ... more É uma apresentação quase auto-biográfica que reflete reações emocionais que possam ainda parecer desmedidas. Mas trata-se das experiências pessoais, e não dos outros. São mais emotivas do que emocionais, mas passaram pelo crivo de reflexões críticas e foram objeto de várias conferências em que participei e ensaios que publiquei. Estes ficam registados na bibliografia anexa ao texto e poderão ser consultados para completar o que o tempo e espaço disponíveis aqui não deixam partilhar mais à vontade.
Following the outcome of the elections a couple of weeks ago and the formation of the new Goa gov... more Following the outcome of the elections a couple of weeks ago and the formation of the new Goa government I feel vindicated about my published reflections about "Goenkarponn" adopted by Goa Forward as its election banner. With all due respect to Mr. Timble and his old-age political adventurism, I would not hesitate now to name my fresh reflections on "Goenkarponn simplified" as "Timbleponn", with Vijaiponn as what we call in Goa "faddem", thrown in by the seller for a good measure after a good buy.
How the Goan clergy and the village communities of Goa were able to turn the State legislation in... more How the Goan clergy and the village communities of Goa were able to turn the State legislation in their favour and save their funds from being diverted to colonial defence budget.
Narratives, routes and intersections in pre-modern Asia, 2017
Rivers of ink and politics have flown in India, and that applies to Goa too, about the caste woe... more Rivers of ink and politics have flown in India, and that applies to Goa too, about the caste woes in India. Despite foreign incursions over centuries and the impact of their rules upon the Indian people and culture they have not succeeded to any significant extent to change the Indian pysche into Koranic or Biblical mould.
The process of conversions has always its limitations. Given time the changes unravel, and the caste hold is reinforced, causing dismay among the foreign and native reformers, who seek to help the "backward" Indians to break out of their cycle of "dharma, karma and sansara" in order to attain the bosom of Abraham, or the heavens of later semitic religions.
Incidentally, the early Jesuits in Goa had problems in translating "heaven" in Konkani for their Goan Hindu converts. Their bhuimvoikuntta for earthly Paradise was tolerable for the Bardeskar Vaishnavas, but in no way acceptable to Sinays (Xennoy) and Shivites from Bamonn Kellxi (Kelossi) , Kushastalli (Kortali) and the rest of Saxtti, for whom their Kailasa deserved continuity. The astute Jesuits then sought a compromisse solution in a more neutral Indra's Svarg.
Fluxos & Riscos, Vol.2, Nº2 (2017)
Call for Papers
Vol. 2, No. 2 of the Journal Fluxos & Riscos ... more Fluxos & Riscos, Vol.2, Nº2 (2017) Call for Papers
Vol. 2, No. 2 of the Journal Fluxos & Riscos is under preparation, to be out during the first half of 2018. The theme chosen for the issue is “Sustainability & its five-fold axis: Economic, Social, Cultural, Ecological and Political”. Our aim is to promote an innovative debate, focusing on problem solving for our future knowledge society. Interdisciplinary research has been developing with remarkable success on Physical, Nature and Communication Sciences. We intend the papers to have the same interdisciplinary approach, reinforcing this paradigm on Social and Behavioral Sciences. In this context, we announce the following thematic areas for this call for papers: - Economic and sustainability factors; - Sustainability cultural aspects; - Socioeconomic inequalities and sustainability; - Challenges and threats from Artificial Intelligence systems to employment sustainability; - Alternative wealth production, replacing employment, among others Time limits: (1) Submit your proposal with title and a brief synopsis of 150 words until 22nd December 2017, addressed to teodesouza@gmail.com (2) The full article should be submitted online at the site of the Journal after self-registration as author http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/fluxoseriscos/user/register following the norms that can be consulted at http://cpes.ulusofona.pt/revista-fluxos-e-riscos/. A copy of the article needs to be sent to flux.risk@gmail.com. The deadline for final submission is 30th January 2018.
Guest-Editors: Ana Lorga da Silva & Artur Parreira
Prof. George Moraes belonged to a generation of Indo-Portuguese historians who believed in Portug... more Prof. George Moraes belonged to a generation of Indo-Portuguese historians who believed in Portugal’s civilizing mission, which he sought to emphatically distinguish from the colonial performance of the English and the Dutch, “who were bent solely on trade and wars”. Prof. Moraes added that it should not be forgotten that it was the Goan Priest and the Goan doctor that assisted Portugal in its civilizing mission in Portuguese Africa. Concluding his paper Prof. Moraes added a wish: "It would indeed be a fitting tribute to his memory and grateful acknowledgement of his services to Indian history if a group of scholars would come forward to prepare a centenary memorial edition of his works which are very rare but of whose immense usefulness there can be no two opinions.” We saw the death centenary and also the birth bicentenary of Cunha Rivara pass away a few years ago. I had the privilege of speaking in a memorial event organized by the Municipality of Arraiolos on 20th June 2009, and to deliver a commemorative lecture at the Public Library of Evora that same week. A summary of those lectures may be read at the website of Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa [http://bit.ly/1rTDVWt]
The book analyses the socio-political-economic evolution of Goa since the end of the Portuguese c... more The book analyses the socio-political-economic evolution of Goa since the end of the Portuguese colonial rule in 1961- It is a historical-cultural analysis which permits understanding the conflicts as well as the collaboration of the component social groups, bound and divided by their deep historical-cultural links.
WO’GOA does not wish to be critical of these approaches, but just appreciate the interest they de... more WO’GOA does not wish to be critical of these approaches, but just appreciate the interest they demonstrate, thinking also of the varied backgrounds and interests of our readers. Not unlike the rich variety of food and sites that cover our pages, we have this other menu to satisfy the curiosity of those who care for the saint.
Commemorations can be an excellent opportunity to evaluate critically the event being commemorate... more Commemorations can be an excellent opportunity to evaluate critically the event being commemorated, but usually it is wasted in repeating some of the choicest and empty sounding praises. I shall opt for revealing the experiences and informed opinions of three Portuguese and three Indians to present how they viewed the project of the Portuguese State of India that gained an official status with the appointment of its first viceroy D. Francisco de Almeida.
Goa was a port of call (porto de escala), an intermediate stop, where ships pciked up supplies an... more Goa was a port of call (porto de escala), an intermediate stop, where ships pciked up supplies and fuel, a sort of entrepôt for storage of imported goods and distribution centre. It was not a home port, nor a final destintion. It needed obviously an administrative set-up to ensure efficient and smooth running services, earning the confidence of all parties and making all feel safe and at home. That is what Goa had been under various pre-Portuguese rulers. Under the Portuguese rule it gained in scale, such as was required by the administative headquarters and colonial capital of the Estado da Índia, which extended from East Africa till the Far East.
Goa was a port of call (porto de escala), an intermediate stop, where ships pciked up supplies an... more Goa was a port of call (porto de escala), an intermediate stop, where ships pciked up supplies and fuel, a sort of entrepôt for storage of imported goods and distribution centre. It was not a home port, nor a final destintion. It needed obviously an administrative set-up to ensure efficient and smooth running services, earning the confidence of all parties and making all feel safe and at home. That is what Goa had been under various pre-Portuguese rulers. Under the Portuguese rule it gained in scale, such as was required by the administative headquarters and colonial capital of the Estado da Índia, which extended from East Africa till the Far East.
Indonesia-Portugal: Five hundred years of historical relationship
Goa and Timor marked the beginning and end of the Portuguese colonialism. Both faced military int... more Goa and Timor marked the beginning and end of the Portuguese colonialism. Both faced military integration with different consequences determined by different international geo-political contexts, but also by their different cultural backgrounds.
This article seeks to point out to the nationalist feelings and expressions among the missionarie... more This article seeks to point out to the nationalist feelings and expressions among the missionaries that served in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado. The cultural nationalism seems to have been stronger among the Portuguese missionaries as compared with the missionaries of Italian, German or French origin. The article leaves the final conclusions open to corroboration by further research. but provides documentary evidence that supports the view that the Portuguese missionaries manifested strong emotional feelings that favoured their national and cultural privileges and characteristics. The article extends the analysis to periods before and beyond the unification of Iberian crowns during 1580-1640, concluding thereby that the Portuguese cultural nationalism was not merely a defensive posture against the loss of its independence in Europe during that brief period. There is evidence to confirm that the Padroado was a tool of Portuguese expansion in the era of Discoveries and continued to be a tool of the survival of the Portuguese colonialism till its very end.
Resumo Este artigo procura apontar para os sentimentos e expressões nacionalistas dos missionários que serviram o Padroado português na Ásia. Nota-se que estes sentimentos e comportamentos eram mais notórios entre os missionários portugueses, mais do que entre os missionários de origem italiana, alemã e francesa. O estudo deixa em aberto as conclusões finais por requerem investigação mais aprofundada, mas traz evidência significativa para defender que os missionários portugueses manifestavam fortes sentimentos nacionalistas e defendiam os seus privilégios nacionais. Isto não se limita ao período da unificação das coroas na península ibérica durante 1580-1640, mas precede e contínua até ao fim do colonialismo português na Ásia, confirmando assim que o Padroado sempre foi uma arma da expansão portuguesa na era dos Descobrimentos, e foi um instrumento da sobrevivência do colonialismo português.
This paper was presented at a colloquium organized by SVD Congregation in Fatima in 2005. The pro... more This paper was presented at a colloquium organized by SVD Congregation in Fatima in 2005. The proceedings have remained unpublished. Indian castes have adapted themselves to Indian democracy. The vote has given a new opportunity to low castes to rise in class status. It is a classization of castes. The issue of traditional ritual purity is losing importance. Will this lead to fraternity? The situation is not likely to be different from the societies that have not known caste system. There are many other obstacles besides castes to achieve liberty, equality and fraternity.
This paper presented as president of the symposium on "South India: The Maritime Trade", during t... more This paper presented as president of the symposium on "South India: The Maritime Trade", during the Pune session of South Indian History Congress, 1988, remains relevant till date. It raised issues like the humbler commodities in maritime trade to the detriment of the trade in exotica. It also sought to stress the importance of the local traders, without whose collaboration the trade of the foreign powers in India would have little success.
It is my pleasure and a near-compulsive response to present to GRNetters and my other regular rea... more It is my pleasure and a near-compulsive response to present to GRNetters and my other regular readers in academic platforms a new arrival, just out of print and still awaiting an official release. It is authored by my old seminary professor at Rachol and a respectable senior research-historian of Goan issues, Leopoldo da Rocha, author of the classic book on “As Confrarias de Goa” (Lisboa, 1973).
It is my pleasure and a near-compulsive response to present to GRNetters and my other regular rea... more It is my pleasure and a near-compulsive response to present to GRNetters and my other regular readers in academic platforms a new arrival, just out of print and still awaiting an official release. It is authored by my old seminary professor at Rachol and a respectable senior research-historian of Goan issues, Leopoldo da Rocha, author of the classic book on “As Confrarias de Goa” (Lisboa, 1973). It is a compilation of 44 short texts grouped into 4 sections covering 213 pages. Only apparently fictional at times, most of these essays recover the memories of the octogenarian author. They are linked with his personal experiences in Goa, Rome and Portugal. In some of them the author shares several tragic incidents connected with some close friends and contacts that left deep impressions upon him.
È um ensaio publicado na série de Cadernos de Ciência das Religiões nº 5 (Universidade Lusófona) ... more È um ensaio publicado na série de Cadernos de Ciência das Religiões nº 5 (Universidade Lusófona) e aborda questões relacionadas com eurocentrismo, valores asiáticos e conflitos interculturais.
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Papers by Teotonio R. de Souza
Electoral procedures tend to become a periodic farce and ethically ambiguous with subtle and timely manipulation of electorates. The so-called separation of powers that was thought to ensure the rule of law and justice, is seen to be increasingly eroded by politicization of judicial institutions and by a consequent judicialization of politics and legislative options. As a result, growing numbers of citizens have been losing respect and faith in their politicians and state institutions.
Francis Fukuyama, a management guru turned political analyst, had been quick in 1989 to present the fall of the Berlin Wall as the end of Cold War and a final victory of neo-liberalism over the giant communist rival of the post-World War times. He did not hesitate then to title his book The End of History (1992) to expand his earlier essay with a hurried and provisional analysis.
Francis Fukuyama has very recently revised his understanding of world politics and has presented his updated and a much more balanced picture, a far cry from his earlier euphoric vision, in a new book entitled Identity: The demand for dignity and the politics of resentment (2018). With the risk of over-stepping the limits of this column, I wish to provide a very brief summary of his new analysis and recommendations.
The ideals and reality often differ. Politicians tend to have a relationship of ambivalence with History, implying a mutually beneficial trade-off: politicians need myth-making to win power and to stay in power. Some historians get carried by the political offer of scholarships, chairs and other types of funding.
The ambiguity of the relationship implies a politician’s understanding of historian’s role as myth-making, while professional and critical historians stand for the opposite, namely de-mythifying, or deconstructing stereotypes. Unfortunately, there is no lack of historians who succumb to political allurements and reduce history to political prostitution, replacing the role of an historian from a judge of relevant evidence to an advocate of a political ideology.
Even the expression “human societies” is ambiguous, because not all individuals feel themselves comfortable in a society they are expected or forced to belong to. There are individuals who even resent having been born from their biological parents or having been born in a particular country. Fortunately, or unfortunately this is part of the “freedom” that characterises the “homo sapiens”, who tends to be at times a most stupid product of the natural evolution.
Seen positively, we may agree with Hegel, the German philosopher who grounded his insights upon dialectic, and explained to us why the evolutionary process is necessarily painful and new forms of life emerge from a spiralling process of thesis and antithesis into a new synthesis, which then becomes a new thesis to face new antithesis and so on. This is not entirely a new discovery, but as old as the biblical saying “unless a grain of wheat dies…” (John 12:24)
Unfortunately, many individuals deserving recognition have completed their lives in obscurity without ever getting into limelight. Great majority of Goans had no material or social conditions during the colonial past to merit attention, and quite a few developed their talents and distinguished themselves through diaspora. I wrote in the Preface to Alfredo de Mello’s autobiographical book From Goa to Patagonia (2006) that globalization was a truly a “Goabilization” that empowered many generations of Goans who saw no future for them under the colonial dispensation.
World cultures have thrown up since pre-historic times mythical heroes, gods and mother-goddesses to seek guidance, comfort and protection against the insecurities and threats to human survival. Many of those have been replaced and new ones invented as human skills developed to reduce those insecurities.
Baruch Spinoza, a descendant of the Portuguese Jews who fled to the Netherlands, has left his understanding of this phenomenon, and summed it up by distinguishing two phases of nature, which he called natura naturata and natura naturans. The former represented the natural forces dominated by man, and the latter as the nature that remains uncontrolled by science and continues to instil fear and insecurity.
Abstract: This article seeks to point out to the nationalist feelings and expressions among the missionaries who served in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado. The cultural nationalism seems to have been stronger among the Portuguese missionaries as compared with the missionaries of Italian, German or French origin. The article leaves the final conclusions open to corroboration by further research, but provides documentary evidence to supports the view that the Portuguese missionaries manifested strong emotional feelings that favoured their national and cultural privileges and characteristics. The article extends the analysis to periods before and beyond the unification of Iberian crowns during 1580-1640, concluding thereby that the Portuguese cultural nationalism was not merely a defensive posture against the loss of its independence in Europe during that brief period. There is documentary evidence to confirm that the Padroado was a tool of Portuguese expansion in the era of Discoveries, and continued to be a tool of the survival of the Portuguese colonialism till its very end.
It is desirable that the realm of the Social Sciences breaks out of its departmental culture which enhances the weaknesses analysed by Thomas S. Kuhn, another north-American and Harvard scholar, in his seminal research published as The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) exposing the subjectivities that blocked the potential for convergence and innovation in Social Sciences.
The “convergence” that is recommended does not require that scholars abandon their specializations, but the emphasis is on a dialogue between scholars of different scientific areas based on mutual respect and curiosity, aimed ultimately at deepening the grasp of one’s own areas of specialization. It is hoped that confrontation and cross-examination of concepts, methods of gathering and analysing data, technical perspectives and application strategies, can result in finding correlations and ways of solving common problems.
The culture of convergence demands individual efforts and institutional efforts, as well as national and international policies. It is viewed as timely to avoid wastage of limited funding in an effective manner. This is clear from the most recent ruling of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technologies in preparation for the forthcoming Evaluation and Pluriannual Funding of the R&D units. It recommends to the existing research centres to re-structure themselves into larger units / consortia to maximize human and financial resources, but without losing sight of the academic objectives. The present issue of the journal Fluxes & Risks sought to anticipate this challenge and prepare the CPES to undertake suitable steps in this re-structuring process, ensuring the continuity of its heritage through a culture of convergence.
Neste contexto anunciamos este “Call for Papers” para artigos no âmbito dos seguintes eixos temáticos:
- Fatores Económicos da Sustentabilidade
- Plano Cultural da Sustentabilidade
- Desigualdade Socioeconómica e Sustentabilidade
- Desafios e ameaças dos Sistemas de Inteligência Artificial à sustentabilidade do emprego
- Alternativas de acesso à riqueza, substitutas do Emprego,
entre outros.
Prazos para submissão:
(1) Favor submeter uma proposta com título e um breve resumo de 150 palavras até 22 de Dezembro de 2017, dirigidos ao teodesouza@gmail.com
(2) Submissão do texto completo na plataforma digital da revista após registo pessoal como autor em http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/fluxoseriscos/user/register cumprindo as normas editoriais em http://cpes.ulusofona.pt/revista-fluxos-e-riscos/ Uma cópia do texto final deve ser enviada para flux.risk@gmail.com. O prazo limite para a submissão final é 30 de Janeiro de 2018.
Editores-Convidados:
Ana Lorga da Silva & Artur Parreira.
The process of conversions has always its limitations. Given time the changes unravel, and the caste hold is reinforced, causing dismay among the foreign and native reformers, who seek to help the "backward" Indians to break out of their cycle of "dharma, karma and sansara" in order to attain the bosom of Abraham, or the heavens of later semitic religions.
Incidentally, the early Jesuits in Goa had problems in translating "heaven" in Konkani for their Goan Hindu converts. Their bhuimvoikuntta for earthly Paradise was tolerable for the Bardeskar Vaishnavas, but in no way acceptable to Sinays (Xennoy) and Shivites from Bamonn Kellxi (Kelossi) , Kushastalli (Kortali) and the rest of Saxtti, for whom their Kailasa deserved continuity. The astute Jesuits then sought a compromisse solution in a more neutral Indra's Svarg.
Call for Papers
Vol. 2, No. 2 of the Journal Fluxos & Riscos is under preparation, to be out during the first half of 2018. The theme chosen for the issue is “Sustainability & its five-fold axis: Economic, Social, Cultural, Ecological and Political”. Our aim is to promote an innovative debate, focusing on problem solving for our future knowledge society.
Interdisciplinary research has been developing with remarkable success on Physical, Nature and Communication Sciences. We intend the papers to have the same interdisciplinary approach, reinforcing this paradigm on Social and Behavioral Sciences.
In this context, we announce the following thematic areas for this call for papers:
- Economic and sustainability factors;
- Sustainability cultural aspects;
- Socioeconomic inequalities and sustainability;
- Challenges and threats from Artificial Intelligence systems to employment sustainability;
- Alternative wealth production, replacing employment, among others
Time limits:
(1) Submit your proposal with title and a brief synopsis of 150 words until 22nd December 2017, addressed to teodesouza@gmail.com
(2) The full article should be submitted online at the site of the Journal after self-registration as author http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/fluxoseriscos/user/register following the norms that can be consulted at http://cpes.ulusofona.pt/revista-fluxos-e-riscos/. A copy of the article needs to be sent to flux.risk@gmail.com. The deadline for final submission is 30th January 2018.
Guest-Editors:
Ana Lorga da Silva & Artur Parreira
Concluding his paper Prof. Moraes added a wish: "It would indeed be a fitting tribute to his memory and grateful acknowledgement of his services to Indian history if a group of scholars would come forward to prepare a centenary memorial edition of his works which are very rare but of whose immense usefulness there can be no two opinions.”
We saw the death centenary and also the birth bicentenary of Cunha Rivara pass away a few years ago. I had the privilege of speaking in a memorial event organized by the Municipality of Arraiolos on 20th June 2009, and to deliver a commemorative lecture at the Public Library of Evora that same week. A summary of those lectures may be read at the website of Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa [http://bit.ly/1rTDVWt]
Electoral procedures tend to become a periodic farce and ethically ambiguous with subtle and timely manipulation of electorates. The so-called separation of powers that was thought to ensure the rule of law and justice, is seen to be increasingly eroded by politicization of judicial institutions and by a consequent judicialization of politics and legislative options. As a result, growing numbers of citizens have been losing respect and faith in their politicians and state institutions.
Francis Fukuyama, a management guru turned political analyst, had been quick in 1989 to present the fall of the Berlin Wall as the end of Cold War and a final victory of neo-liberalism over the giant communist rival of the post-World War times. He did not hesitate then to title his book The End of History (1992) to expand his earlier essay with a hurried and provisional analysis.
Francis Fukuyama has very recently revised his understanding of world politics and has presented his updated and a much more balanced picture, a far cry from his earlier euphoric vision, in a new book entitled Identity: The demand for dignity and the politics of resentment (2018). With the risk of over-stepping the limits of this column, I wish to provide a very brief summary of his new analysis and recommendations.
The ideals and reality often differ. Politicians tend to have a relationship of ambivalence with History, implying a mutually beneficial trade-off: politicians need myth-making to win power and to stay in power. Some historians get carried by the political offer of scholarships, chairs and other types of funding.
The ambiguity of the relationship implies a politician’s understanding of historian’s role as myth-making, while professional and critical historians stand for the opposite, namely de-mythifying, or deconstructing stereotypes. Unfortunately, there is no lack of historians who succumb to political allurements and reduce history to political prostitution, replacing the role of an historian from a judge of relevant evidence to an advocate of a political ideology.
Even the expression “human societies” is ambiguous, because not all individuals feel themselves comfortable in a society they are expected or forced to belong to. There are individuals who even resent having been born from their biological parents or having been born in a particular country. Fortunately, or unfortunately this is part of the “freedom” that characterises the “homo sapiens”, who tends to be at times a most stupid product of the natural evolution.
Seen positively, we may agree with Hegel, the German philosopher who grounded his insights upon dialectic, and explained to us why the evolutionary process is necessarily painful and new forms of life emerge from a spiralling process of thesis and antithesis into a new synthesis, which then becomes a new thesis to face new antithesis and so on. This is not entirely a new discovery, but as old as the biblical saying “unless a grain of wheat dies…” (John 12:24)
Unfortunately, many individuals deserving recognition have completed their lives in obscurity without ever getting into limelight. Great majority of Goans had no material or social conditions during the colonial past to merit attention, and quite a few developed their talents and distinguished themselves through diaspora. I wrote in the Preface to Alfredo de Mello’s autobiographical book From Goa to Patagonia (2006) that globalization was a truly a “Goabilization” that empowered many generations of Goans who saw no future for them under the colonial dispensation.
World cultures have thrown up since pre-historic times mythical heroes, gods and mother-goddesses to seek guidance, comfort and protection against the insecurities and threats to human survival. Many of those have been replaced and new ones invented as human skills developed to reduce those insecurities.
Baruch Spinoza, a descendant of the Portuguese Jews who fled to the Netherlands, has left his understanding of this phenomenon, and summed it up by distinguishing two phases of nature, which he called natura naturata and natura naturans. The former represented the natural forces dominated by man, and the latter as the nature that remains uncontrolled by science and continues to instil fear and insecurity.
Abstract: This article seeks to point out to the nationalist feelings and expressions among the missionaries who served in Asia under the Portuguese Padroado. The cultural nationalism seems to have been stronger among the Portuguese missionaries as compared with the missionaries of Italian, German or French origin. The article leaves the final conclusions open to corroboration by further research, but provides documentary evidence to supports the view that the Portuguese missionaries manifested strong emotional feelings that favoured their national and cultural privileges and characteristics. The article extends the analysis to periods before and beyond the unification of Iberian crowns during 1580-1640, concluding thereby that the Portuguese cultural nationalism was not merely a defensive posture against the loss of its independence in Europe during that brief period. There is documentary evidence to confirm that the Padroado was a tool of Portuguese expansion in the era of Discoveries, and continued to be a tool of the survival of the Portuguese colonialism till its very end.
It is desirable that the realm of the Social Sciences breaks out of its departmental culture which enhances the weaknesses analysed by Thomas S. Kuhn, another north-American and Harvard scholar, in his seminal research published as The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) exposing the subjectivities that blocked the potential for convergence and innovation in Social Sciences.
The “convergence” that is recommended does not require that scholars abandon their specializations, but the emphasis is on a dialogue between scholars of different scientific areas based on mutual respect and curiosity, aimed ultimately at deepening the grasp of one’s own areas of specialization. It is hoped that confrontation and cross-examination of concepts, methods of gathering and analysing data, technical perspectives and application strategies, can result in finding correlations and ways of solving common problems.
The culture of convergence demands individual efforts and institutional efforts, as well as national and international policies. It is viewed as timely to avoid wastage of limited funding in an effective manner. This is clear from the most recent ruling of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technologies in preparation for the forthcoming Evaluation and Pluriannual Funding of the R&D units. It recommends to the existing research centres to re-structure themselves into larger units / consortia to maximize human and financial resources, but without losing sight of the academic objectives. The present issue of the journal Fluxes & Risks sought to anticipate this challenge and prepare the CPES to undertake suitable steps in this re-structuring process, ensuring the continuity of its heritage through a culture of convergence.
Neste contexto anunciamos este “Call for Papers” para artigos no âmbito dos seguintes eixos temáticos:
- Fatores Económicos da Sustentabilidade
- Plano Cultural da Sustentabilidade
- Desigualdade Socioeconómica e Sustentabilidade
- Desafios e ameaças dos Sistemas de Inteligência Artificial à sustentabilidade do emprego
- Alternativas de acesso à riqueza, substitutas do Emprego,
entre outros.
Prazos para submissão:
(1) Favor submeter uma proposta com título e um breve resumo de 150 palavras até 22 de Dezembro de 2017, dirigidos ao teodesouza@gmail.com
(2) Submissão do texto completo na plataforma digital da revista após registo pessoal como autor em http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/fluxoseriscos/user/register cumprindo as normas editoriais em http://cpes.ulusofona.pt/revista-fluxos-e-riscos/ Uma cópia do texto final deve ser enviada para flux.risk@gmail.com. O prazo limite para a submissão final é 30 de Janeiro de 2018.
Editores-Convidados:
Ana Lorga da Silva & Artur Parreira.
The process of conversions has always its limitations. Given time the changes unravel, and the caste hold is reinforced, causing dismay among the foreign and native reformers, who seek to help the "backward" Indians to break out of their cycle of "dharma, karma and sansara" in order to attain the bosom of Abraham, or the heavens of later semitic religions.
Incidentally, the early Jesuits in Goa had problems in translating "heaven" in Konkani for their Goan Hindu converts. Their bhuimvoikuntta for earthly Paradise was tolerable for the Bardeskar Vaishnavas, but in no way acceptable to Sinays (Xennoy) and Shivites from Bamonn Kellxi (Kelossi) , Kushastalli (Kortali) and the rest of Saxtti, for whom their Kailasa deserved continuity. The astute Jesuits then sought a compromisse solution in a more neutral Indra's Svarg.
Call for Papers
Vol. 2, No. 2 of the Journal Fluxos & Riscos is under preparation, to be out during the first half of 2018. The theme chosen for the issue is “Sustainability & its five-fold axis: Economic, Social, Cultural, Ecological and Political”. Our aim is to promote an innovative debate, focusing on problem solving for our future knowledge society.
Interdisciplinary research has been developing with remarkable success on Physical, Nature and Communication Sciences. We intend the papers to have the same interdisciplinary approach, reinforcing this paradigm on Social and Behavioral Sciences.
In this context, we announce the following thematic areas for this call for papers:
- Economic and sustainability factors;
- Sustainability cultural aspects;
- Socioeconomic inequalities and sustainability;
- Challenges and threats from Artificial Intelligence systems to employment sustainability;
- Alternative wealth production, replacing employment, among others
Time limits:
(1) Submit your proposal with title and a brief synopsis of 150 words until 22nd December 2017, addressed to teodesouza@gmail.com
(2) The full article should be submitted online at the site of the Journal after self-registration as author http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/fluxoseriscos/user/register following the norms that can be consulted at http://cpes.ulusofona.pt/revista-fluxos-e-riscos/. A copy of the article needs to be sent to flux.risk@gmail.com. The deadline for final submission is 30th January 2018.
Guest-Editors:
Ana Lorga da Silva & Artur Parreira
Concluding his paper Prof. Moraes added a wish: "It would indeed be a fitting tribute to his memory and grateful acknowledgement of his services to Indian history if a group of scholars would come forward to prepare a centenary memorial edition of his works which are very rare but of whose immense usefulness there can be no two opinions.”
We saw the death centenary and also the birth bicentenary of Cunha Rivara pass away a few years ago. I had the privilege of speaking in a memorial event organized by the Municipality of Arraiolos on 20th June 2009, and to deliver a commemorative lecture at the Public Library of Evora that same week. A summary of those lectures may be read at the website of Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa [http://bit.ly/1rTDVWt]
Resumo
Este artigo procura apontar para os sentimentos e expressões nacionalistas dos missionários que serviram o Padroado português na Ásia. Nota-se que estes sentimentos e comportamentos eram mais notórios entre os missionários portugueses, mais do que entre os missionários de origem italiana, alemã e francesa. O estudo deixa em aberto as conclusões finais por requerem investigação mais aprofundada, mas traz evidência significativa para defender que os missionários portugueses manifestavam fortes sentimentos nacionalistas e defendiam os seus privilégios nacionais. Isto não se limita ao período da unificação das coroas na península ibérica durante 1580-1640, mas precede e contínua até ao fim do colonialismo português na Ásia, confirmando assim que o Padroado sempre foi uma arma da expansão portuguesa na era dos Descobrimentos, e foi um instrumento da sobrevivência do colonialismo português.
Indian castes have adapted themselves to Indian democracy. The vote has given a new opportunity to low castes to rise in class status. It is a classization of castes. The issue of traditional ritual purity is losing importance. Will this lead to fraternity? The situation is not likely to be different from the societies that have not known caste system. There are many other obstacles besides castes to achieve liberty, equality and fraternity.
It is a compilation of 44 short texts grouped into 4 sections covering 213 pages. Only apparently fictional at times, most of these essays recover the memories of the octogenarian author. They are linked with his personal experiences in Goa, Rome and Portugal. In some of them the author shares several tragic incidents connected with some close friends and contacts that left deep impressions upon him.