Toronto Snow Through the Eyes of a Beholder

This is how a part of Toronto looked like after the overnight snowfall. An observer with her appreciating eyes captured the beauty of it in her lens.

All Photos (Toronto: Feb. 28, 2013) © Rose Teresa D'Costa

The Quotation of the Week (Febuary 24-March 2, 2013)

A quotation of Barbara Tuchman on 'writing,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Photo: "A room with a view" (Toronto: June 8, 2012) © Jerome D'Costa

Early Bangali Immigrants Blended With Blacks and Puerto Ricans in the USA

Vivek Bald's ground-breaking book on early Bangali immigrants in the USA

Photo courtesy: www.mixedracestudies.org/

Bangali immigrants with their wives meet at the 1952 Pakistan League of America banquet in New York

 Photo courtesy: inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/

Bangali (also written as Bengalee or Bengali) immigrants, who mostly worked in British ships, jumped ships while in the USA in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries and blended with Blacks and Puerto Ricans for survival. They, thereby, lost their Bangali identity – language, culture and even skin colour in their descendants – and connection with their motherland, present Bangladesh or West Bengal region of the then British India. 

A century later, Vivek Bald, of mixed race ancestry himself, enumerated this formerly unknown immigration saga in his book, Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America, recently published by the Harvard University Press. 

Vivek Bald tells the CNN:  “This was a population who came to the United States at a time when this country had erected quite draconian race-based immigration laws.” He also said: “They came during that time but were able to build networks in order to access jobs all over the United States."

To learn more on these lost immigrants, please visit the following: 

• BengaliHarlem: Author documents a lost history of immigration in America

• Mixed RaceStudies

The Quotation of the Week (February 17-23, 2013)

A quotation of Earl Wilson on 'snow,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Snowfall in the College Park, Toronto (Feb. 8, 2013) © Jerome D'Costa

The Cartoon I Like

Cartoon courtesy: The Toronto Star

Pope Benedict XVI Announces His Retirement

Pope Benedict XVI

 Photo courtesy: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Pope Benedict XVI (85), in a surprise move, announced his retirement to a group of cardinals gathered in the Vatican today (February 11) for a consistory to approve the canonization of new saints, reports the Catholic News Service.

In his statement, the pope said: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry." 

He further announced to the cardinals: "Well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter, entrusted to me by the cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of St. Peter, will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new supreme pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."

After the resignation of the pope takes effect at 8:00 p.m. (Vatican time) on February 28, Pope Benedict XVI will be known or called by “Cardinal Josef Ratzinger” – his real name before becoming the pope in 2005 –  and he will be addressed by “Your Eminence” and not “Your Holiness.”

Pope Benedict is the ninth Germany-born pope and he was the 265^th position in the long line of popes from the beginning of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the religious leader of more than one billion Roman Catholics all over the world.

For further details on the Pope Benedict XVI, please read the following: 

• Pope Benedict XVI in shock resignation

•  The full text of the Pope's resignation announcement 

• The life of Pope Benedict XVI

Quotation of the Week (February 10-16, 2013)

A quotation of Ralph Waldo Emerson on 'language,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa

Photo (Home-made vinegar at Bhadun Village, Bangladesh, Jan. 10, 2012) © Jerome D'Costa

The Quotation of the Week (February 3 - 9, 2013)

 A quotation of Doug Larson on 'wisdom,' compiled by Jerome D'Costa