Professor Young has several areas of expertise. In addition to a constant production of research in South Indian religion, she also searches out new scholarship on women and religion. This material has been published in the series of volumes on Women and World Religions and in the Annual Review of Women in World Religions which she coedits with Prof. Sharma. In addition, she is also a member of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, has recently published a major study of euthanasia and sits on national advisory bodies on issues dealing with research and ethics.
Awards/grants:
1990 $2700 seed grant from McGill Humanities Research Grants sub-committee for "Reproduction and Religion in India"
1988-90 Donner Foundation, $500,000, "New Reproductive Technologies and the Family", principal investigator with M. Somerville and P. Nathanson in connection with the development of a Family and Law Program (McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics, and Law)
Major research area:
Hinduism and Buddhism in India; Tamil Vaisnavism (6th-14th century C.E.); Gender and Religion; Comparative Ethics
Maggie Mackinnon is a 37-year-old reporter for the Montreal Tribune who enjoys her middle-class life. But her life begins to change when she covers the trial of Nick, a young biker and his stripper wife, Eileen, who are charged with causing the death of their baby boy. While her newspaper wants a sensationalized story, Maggie discovers a story about what happens when people with no skills try to get by in a harsh world. Jackrabbit Moon examines crime, prostitution, the justice system and the effect of prison on ordinary people. $18.95C
5 June 1999 Bilingual anglos who have close ties with francophones are more appreciative than unilingual folks of the historic wounds that are still nursed by many French-speakers over symbolic issues like the language of commercial signs, suggests journalist Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos, co-author of the 1980 book The English Fact in Quebec. and on ..."One of the nice things about being a minority," observes award-winning writer Sheila Arnopoulos, who in 1980 was co-author of the landmark book The English Fact in Quebec, "is that you tend to be more creative. It's a lot more fun to be English in Montreal than it is to be English in Toronto, because we're in a minority situation. It makes you rub ideas together." ... Even William Weintraub , the writer and filmmaker, who acknowledges he is something of a hawk on "English rights" and the national question, concedes the film he made six years ago was probably unduly pessimistic.
Will the U.S. ever change to a Canadian Medicare régime? More likely there will be a blending of systems in both countries.
Apart from the problems arising from density of population, India lacks potable water and clean energy sources and the literacy rate is appalling. Fifty percent of Indians are illiterate, with the illiteracy rate for women rising to seventy-five percent. Where women become literate, health and mortality rates improve, their status and empowerment increase and the birthrate declines.
The key to improved - and more widely accessible - education is the Internet. Canada's TeleLearning expertise is an exceptional model. Problems exist both in shaky connectivity and inadequate content, but these are not insurmountable.
There is a need to foster women's organizations which have elsewhere have worked successfully to improve conditions and have underlined that it is possible to find an enormous capacity in people who appear helpless and hopeless ("Modern technology and empowerment brought together with wisdom and compassion").
Recalling the Chinese ideogram representing both Danger and Opportunity, there is good reason to be hopeful for India's future despite the enormity of the problems,
Brief CV of Vithal Rajan
Vithal Rajan (BA Hons McGill, PhD London School of Economics) immigrated to Canada from India in the mid 1960's, and worked for several years as Information Officer for Canadian Industries Ltd. in Montreal. A special task assigned to him was developing a program of 'social consciousness' for the company.
Following the intensification of the Vietnam War, he involved himself in the peace movement, and even served as a 'mediator' in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the early 1970's on behalf of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Commission for Peace. Later, he was a founder faculty member of the School of Peace Studies, Bradford University, U.K.
Following the suspension of civil liberties in India by Mrs Indira Gandhi, he felt impelled to return to India, and based at Hyderabad, he has worked in an honorary capacity with several civil society organizations, and especially with ' untouchable' communities of very poor women.
He was founder volunteer chair of the Deccan Development Society, which promotes integrated rural development in the semi-arid poverty-stricken Deccan plateau, literacy and community health programs, and ecological agriculture. Several NGOs like his own helped establish the fact that poor women can save and manage very successfully large funds in their community interest.
He is now volunteer chair, governing body of the Confederation of Voluntary Associations, which works through community empowerment for harmony between poor Hindu and Muslim communities living in Indian slums. This association also plays a vital role in the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy, a citizens' initiative to bring peace to the two great powers of South Asia. He also chairs an advisory committee of a federation of over a hundred grassroots 'dalit' or 'untouchables' organizations.
Special projects he has initiated include ecological management of agricultural pests without resort to dangerous pesticides; and the introduction of solar energy for the benefit of poor communities; and information technologies for basic education. He is an advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh, India, on new development strategies for the 21st century.
Over the last two decades, he has also worked on brief stints in Europe, as Chair of World Studies, International School of Geneva; as Director, Ethics and Education, World Wide Fund for Nature International, Switzerland; and as Executive Director, the Right Livelihood Awards, Sweden (better known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' in Europe).
He lives some of the time in Hyderabad, India, with his wife, K. Lalita, a well-known feminist and writer. As a Canadian citizen, he treasures hopes of being of service some day to Canadian communities; especially in BC, since his daughter is now studying at UBC.
REBUILDING COMMUNITIES: Experiences and experiments in Europe
edited by Vithal Rajan
The ideas, the stories and the struggles of people from many walks of life who are concerned with restoring the health and vitality of communities and their natural environments. Includes many case studies, including conservation and development projects which are being undertaken by WWF with local organisations in several European countries. Resurgence in assn. with WWF 288 pp with 20 b/w photos 234 x 156mm ISBN 1 870098 50 1 £9.95 pb
"Ce livre devrait être le point de départ d'une enquête publique, à l'échelle mondiale, sur le fonctionnement des institutions et des politiques internationales axées sur la préservation de la nature." Vithal Rajan, membre fondateur de la Société de développement du Deccan et de la Confédération des associations bénévoles, Inde et membre du jury du Right Livelihood Award (Prix des justes moyens d'existence).
The 50th anniversary of independence of India and Pakistan, with a broad program of political and cultural activities which started with an evening talk on child labour by Vithal Rajan, the leader of an Indian NGO which is very active on this issue. (Alternatives publishes a page in HOUR magazine, one of Montreal's major independant English papers which has a weekly circulation of over 60,000 copies. ...a group of Alternatives activists in Quebec City broadcast a weekly program of international and regional news linked with the work of Alternatives.
see also Wed909
Notes for this Wednesday-Night
Fri 5/4/01 QUEBEC HALTS ADOPTIONS FROM INDIA
The agency that overseas international adoptions in Quebec has put a
stop to adoptions from India.
see also Monday 29 January 2001 Together in adversity by ASHOK CHANDWANI
The news broke over a late breakfast on Friday at a lakeside resort in the tranquil backwaters of the lush, eternally green state of Kerala on India's southwest tip.
"I hope things are OK for you back home in Bombay," a fellow guest remarked. "I overheard heard someone say they had some tremors there."
Benard Landry the king!
Jean Charest then Money & Business
Sat 2/24/01 CANADA SENDS $5 MILLION MORE QUAKE AID TO INDIA
Canada is sending more money to India, to help the country recover from
last month's killer earthquake.
Sat 2/24/01 8:32 AM Southern India is where it's at
By: NORMAN WEBSTER The Gazette
This must be one of the few places left in the world where the hammer-and-sickle emblem of communism is still proudly displayed. The rice-green state of Kerala, in the extreme southwest of India, was the first place in the world to freely elect a communist government. That was in 1957, and the Marxists are still in office, although these days they alternate periods of government and opposition with the more conventional Congress Party.
Both sides claim credit for the evident local prosperity, which has made Kerala something of a poster child for India in the new millennium. Its Canada-size population of 30 million enjoys both the lowest infant-mortality rate and the highest literacy rate in the country.
29/Jan/2001 INDIA QUAKE DEATH TOLL MAY SURPASS 20,000
As dawn arrived in western India Monday, rescue crews clawed through
collapsed buildings desperately hoping to find more survivors of a
massive earthquake that killed countless villagers.
29/Jan/2001 Together in adversity
By:ASHOK CHANDWANI
The news broke over a late breakfast on Friday at a lakeside resort in the
tranquil backwaters of the lush, eternally green state of Kerala on India's
southwest tip.
"I hope things are OK for you back home in Bombay," a fellow guest remarked.
"I overheard heard someone say they had some tremors there."
23/Jan/2001 EXAMS DEFERRED TO FACILITATE PROTESTERS
Montreal's Concordia University is trying to make it easier for students
to protest at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.
CONCORDIA TO BUILD NEW DOWNTOWN BUILDINGS
Concordia University is planning a $200-million facelift to its downtown
campus; engineering, computer science and visual arts building
The John Molson School of Business would go up in the empty lot on the southwest corner of Guy and de Maisonneuve.
23/Jan/2001 IMMIGRANTS FITTING WELL INTO QUEBEC SOCIETY: STUDY
A new study says immigrants to this province integrate well into Quebec
society. The study, entitled "Now They're From Here" was released on
Tuesday. montreal.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/01/23/immigrants010123 
see W-N on Immigration
Tue Mar 21 2000 Dr. Vithal Rajan Chairman, Governing Body, Confederation of Voluntary Associations, India. India insists on 'minimum nuclear deterrent' NEW DELHI - India's prime minister says his country will conduct no further tests of nuclear weapons, but it won't disarm. 
and/or The India Times
Latest Coverage India Pakistan Relations
get more of the latest India News
26/Jan/2001 DEATH TOLL TOPS 2,000 IN INDIAN QUAKE
Aid officials are scrambling to get help to western India and Pakistan
this weekend. The most powerful earthquake to rock the region in half a
century killed at least 2,000 people Friday.
India from Wednesday-Night #909
Warren Allmand, Ashok Chandwani & George Cavadias |
click for
Simon Potter Diana Nicholson Nimi Potter
The topic was introduced by video clips featuring Josh Freed's film "Coat of many countries".
India is a vast, diverse, stable, democratic country with improving economic conditions, tempered only by the continuing rapidly increasing population which puts a strain on and threatens to overburden the country's infrastructure. The current policy of committing large budgets to Defense rather than to education and planned parenthood programs is harming the country's future.
Nimi Potter |
With a population of over a billion, more than seventy-nine percent of whom are Hindus, sixteen hundred dialects, eighteen official languages, people living in abject poverty cheek by jowl with others in extreme wealth, the success achieved by a democratic India is remarkable. "What's amazing is how much works". [Buddhists are a
mere 0.7 per cent. The breakdown according to the CIA factbook is: Hindu 80%, Muslim 14%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2%, Buddhist 0.7%, Jains 0.5%, other 0.4%
CIA Factbook on India
Thanks to Ashok Chandwani for correcting our facts
In recent years, the economy has shifted from dependence on the export of resources to the manufacture and export of value-added commodities including gems, jewelry, clothing, software, high precision engineering goods, electronics. Trains and planes arrive and leave on time, and the country runs amazingly well.
The strength of India is a strong democratic tradition - even if in a political sense democracy is a new construct - binding together a huge vastly diverse population. Its main weakness is the inability of this diverse population to arrive at a consensus. What keeps it going is education. India has the largest middle class (defined by purchasing parity) in the world and it is this educated middle class who believes deeply in democracy.
There is a growing common sense of belonging and a common horizon which probably held this country together following the departure of the British. This sense of belonging was evident recently when private rescuers came to the aid of earthquake victims well ahead of government assistance, much in the same manner as occurred in Canada during the Manitoba and Québec floods.
Was Ghandi the father or the product of the gentle democratic tradition evident in today's India? In fact, there is a long history of tolerance of diverse religious beliefs and the philosophy espoused by some 730 million Hindus is at the root of the cohesion of today's India.
Notes by Herbert Bercovitz
Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson
David and Diana Nicholson
25/Jan/2001 17:02
Hello David and Diana,
Thank-you for a very interesting evening once again. Dr. Vithal Rajan was indeed charming with his poetic descriptions of India. Having spent a year in India at the age of 15, I feel a strong connection to that wonderful country. I hope one day to be able to return to India, to contribute to its continuing development and walk again among its magical people. I was also glad to meet Dr. David Stragway and to learn that he is in close contact with Lousie Guay at My Virtual Model.
Unfortunately I was unable to attend the end of the evening as my beautiful date, Irina, was feeling ill and needed my immediate attention. As my duty lay with her well being, I had to leave abruptly knowing that you would fully understand.
For next week I have invited, as you requested, my uncle Andre's Vietnamese girlfriend who has just completed a masters degree in Economic Studies at McGill. With your permission I will also bring Sophia Southam, a brilliant film editor and artist, who is a dear friend of mine and x-girlfriend. Her grandfather is the renowned Hamilton Southam, who among many other achievements has brought us the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Looking forward to seeing you both next week and thank-you again for an enchanting evening.
Sincerely,
Gregory Saumier-Finch
The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit ...As society continues to scientifically and technologically advance, many questions begin to arise of a moral and ethical scope. In The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit, leading international authority on medicine, ethics and law, Margaret Somerville, presents a challenging examination of the various ethical concerns human society is currently facing at the dawn of the 21st century. Addressing everything from cloning to genetically modified foods, the mapping of a human chromosome and the use of animal organs for human transplants, this highly anticipated volume illuminates some of the most controversial and pressing issues of our time. "The book will bring Margo as many enemies as friends!"
Professor Katherine Young
Professor Young has several areas of expertise. In addition to a constant production of research in South Indian religion, she also searches out new scholarship on women and religion. This material has been published in the series of volumes on Women and World Religions and in the Annual Review of Women in World Religions which she coedits with Prof. Sharma. In addition, she is also a member of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, has recently published a major study of euthanasia and sits on national advisory bodies on issues dealing with research and ethics.
Awards/grants:
1990 $2700 seed grant from McGill Humanities Research Grants sub-committee for "Reproduction and Religion in India"
1988-90 Donner Foundation, $500,000, "New Reproductive Technologies and the Family", principal investigator with M. Somerville and P. Nathanson in connection with the development of a Family and Law Program (McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics, and Law)
Major research area:
Hinduism and Buddhism in India; Tamil Vaisnavism (6th-14th century C.E.); Gender and Religion; Comparative Ethics
Please click any image. They all go somewhere!
Sylvain Henry must be Thanked for some of this night's Great Stars
School: St Patrick's Catholic School, Taupo, New Zealand
Date: Sunday, April 30, 2000
Your epal service has enabled my students to experience the wonders of the Internet in a safe environment. We are having so much fun learning about Canada and Finland from our epals and its great to realise all the things that make our community unique. Thanks!
click Danger! if not prepared it can lead to too much wine! or break you speaker!
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Arundhati Roy
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have a look at our lastIndia Night with Prof. John Hill
Thank you to Andrew de Courcy-Ireland for the comments in theStk Forecasts page
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Stk forecast Banks
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#987 Bombardier
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