Bangla (Bengali) Calligraphy: MOTHER, FATHER, SON, DAUGHTER

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My attempt at Bangla (Bengali) calligraphy. The words in the middle
are: ma (mother), baba (father), putro (son) and konnya (daughter).
Clockwise, the border on top is made of the first letter of mother,
followed by the first letter of father, daughter and son respectively.

Calligraphy (Dhaka: November 22, 1994) © Jerome D'Costa

The Quotation of the Week (July 11 - 17, 2010)

A car-window view of the sunset in New York State, USA

Photo (June 27, 2009) © Jerome D'Costa

Catholic News Agencies and Services

Zenit, based in Rome, is one of many Catholic news agencies in the world

Christianity has many different Churches (community of believers), among which, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian Church having more than one billion members all over the world. The Pope, now Pope Benedict XVI, acts as the representative of Jesus Christ, the founder of this Church. All Roman Catholics pay their allegiance to the Pope as their religious leader.

The Roman Catholic Church has thousands of missions and missionaries all over the world. It also runs numerous educational institutions (schools, colleges, universities, seminaries and others), administers hospitals, clinics and dispensaries and performs different types of charities through other institutions and organizations.

The presence and influence of the Roman Catholic Church and its members are felt in all parts of the world.

I present below names of important Catholic news agencies and news services that disseminate news of the Catholic Church and its members.

Catholic News Agencies and News Services:

• aciprensa (Catholic news service in Portuguese and Spanish focusing on Latin America) (Lima, Peru)

• Agenzia Fides (News agency of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples -- in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) (Vatican City)
• Agenzia SIR (Servizio Informazione Religiosa) (In Italian, news agency of the Catholic Bishops of Italy) (Rome, Italy)
• AsiaNews.it (Jointly run by MISNA and Zenit -- in English and Chinese) (Italy)
• Bulletin of the Holy See (Communiques, speeches and documents of the Pope) (Vatican City)
• CathNews (CN) (Australia)
• CathNews ASIA (A service of the UCA News) (Hong Kong)
• CathNews INDIA (A service of the UCA News) (Hong Kong)
• CathNews USA (A service of the UCA News) (Hong Kong)
• Catholic News (Catholic news headlines from orthodox Catholic sources) (USA)
• Catholic News Agency (CNA) (In English, affiliated with aciprensa.com) (Denver, Colorado, USA)
• Catholic News Agency (CNA) TV on the Youtube (USA)
• Catholic News Service (CNS) (News agency of the U.S. Catholic Bishops) (Washington, D.C., USA)
• Catholic News Service Blog (Washington, D.C., USA)
• Catholic Online (Bakersfield, California, USA)
• Catholic World News (CWN) (Manassas, Virginia, USA)
• CatInfor.com (Latest Catholic information updated) (USA)
  
• Chicago Catholic News (An independent information source) (Chicago, Michigan, USA)
  
• Christian News Online (Australia)
• EWTNNews (Irondale, Alabama, USA)
• EWTN on the Youtube (Irondale, Alabama, USA)
• H2ONews (Catholic news service in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Magyar, Portuguese, and Spanish) (Rome, Italy)
• H2ONews on the Youtube (Rome, Italy)
• i.media (French news agency specializing on the Vatican) (France)
• Independent Catholic News (ICN) (London, U.K.)
• Infocatho (News agency of the French Bishops) (France)
• kath.net (Katholische Nachrichten) (The Christian world as seen from Austria) (In Albanian, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Slovenian, and Spanish) (Vienna, Austria)
• Kathpress (In German) (Vienna, Austria)
• KIPA/APIC (In German and French) (Switzerland)
• KNA (Katholische Nacrichten-Agentur) (In English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) (Bonn, Germany)
• LifeSiteNews.com (Pro-life news) (Front Royal, Virginia, USA & Toronto, Canada)
• MISNA (Missionary International Service News Agency dealing with news of Catholic missionary organizations) (In Arabic, Italian, English, French and Spanish) (Rome, Italy)
• MissiOnLine (By PIME missionary organization) (Italy)
• Misyon (Catholic news agency of the Missionary Society of St. Columban) (The Philippines)
• Rome Reports TV News Agency (In English and Spanish) (Rome, Italy)
• Rome Reports TV Channel on the Youtube (Rome, Italy)
• Salt and Light Television (Toronto, Canada)
• SMC News Radio (First Catholic Internet Radio from India) (Kerala, India)
• Spirit Daily (USA)
• The Vatican on the Youtube (In English, German, Italian and Spanish) (Vatican City)
• UCA News (Union of Catholic Asian News) (Hong Kong)
• Vatican Information Service (VIS) (Daily news service in Castellano, English, French and Italian) (Vatican City)
• Vatican Information Service (VIS) Blog (In English, French, Italian and Spanish) (Vatican City)
• www.chiesa (News in English, French, Italian and Spanish) (Rome, Italy)
• Zenit (International news agency giving news in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) (Rome, Italy)

Bangladesh Canada and Beyond Blog Is Now Available in the Facebook and Twitter

The Facebook page of 'Bangladesh Canada and Beyond' blog

The Twitter page of the 'Bangladesh Canada and Beyond' blog

We started the Bangladesh Canada and Beyond blog on December 15, 2009. Now this blog is also available in the Facebook and Twitter. If you have a Facebook and/or Twitter account, you may visit those pages regularly.

We will be happy to receive your mature and constructive comments and suggestions to our blog posts (write-ups).

The Signs of the Times

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Graffiti on a wall in downtown Toronto

Photo (Toronto: March 14, 2010) © Jerome D'Costa

Dr. Benedict Gomes Is No More

Dr. Benedict Gomes (1933-2010)

Photo courtesy: The Pratibeshi weekly (Dhaka: May 30, 2010)

I received the belated news that Dr. Benedict Gomes, a retired professor of the University of Dhaka, research fellow, social worker and mentor of the youth died in Dhaka on May 15, 2010 at the age of 77. After the funeral service at St. Mary's Cathedral, he has been buried at the Christian cemetery at Wari. He left his wife, two sons and two daughters.

After retiring from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dr. Gomes was spending his time with his family in his Eastern Housing apartment on the Circuit House Road, Dhaka.

Birth and Education

Dr. Benedict Gomes was born on May 22, 1933 at the Bhoora bari (house) of Deotola Village under Golla parish of Dhaka District. His parents were Domingo and Sabina Gomes. The economic situation of the family became more acute at the death of his father when he was six years old.

In spite of financial difficulties, he continued his studies and successfully passed the Matriculation Examinations (Grade 10) in 1953 from nearby Holy Cross High School at Bandura. After two years, he passed the I.Sc. (Intermediate Science) from Notre Dame College, Dhaka, in the first division.

In 1959, he passed M.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Dhaka and acquired first class second place. He then joined the Department of Chemistry as a lecturer. After his research in enzymology, in 1968, he received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Hawaii, USA.

Dr. Benedict Gomes was the second person in the entire Christian community -- both Catholic and Protestant -- of Bangladesh to receive a doctoral degree. The first Ph.D. holder was Father Theotonius Amal Ganguly, CSC, (later Archbishop of Dhaka), who had received it in 1951 in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA.

More Researches

Dr. Benedict Gomes taught and did more research at the University of Hawaii and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in 1975-1977. He also did some research at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) in Dhaka.

In 1981, he rejoined the University of Dhaka as a professor. In 1985, he did more research on nutrition at the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, England.

After serving as the Head of the Department of Biochemistry in 1983-1986, he retired from teaching. Yet, he was involved with some teaching at the same Department as the 'Professor Emeritus.'

Social Worker and Mentor

Dr. Benedict Gomes in his spare time was involved in social development in different villages. He also encouraged youth by patronizing various youth organizations both in Dhaka and rural areas near his place of birth. He also served in advisory committees of Caritas Bangladesh, CORR -- The Jute Works, and other NGOs and welfare organizations.

Other Achievements

In 1987, the Nobel Committee, among others, invited Dr. Benedict Gomes to name a candidate for the that year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

He was also a member of different Chemistry, Medical and Nutrition Societies at home and abroad. Once he served as the co-editor of the Bangladesh Journal of Nutrition of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Dhaka.

Besides, he as a writer of many research papers, amateur singer and drama artist, and an accomplished card player.

Named in Author Shankar's Epar Bangla Opar Bangla Book

Renowned Calcutta writer Shankar devoted a number of pages in his enormously popular travelogue Epar Bangla Opar Bangla on Dr. Benedict Gomes and his wife Martha Niru Gomes. The writer was exceptionally impressed at the sincere hospitality and friendly behaviour of this couple during his visit of Hawaii.

A Tribute from A Student-cum-Colleague

Dr. Ashrafuddin Ahmed, who now resides in Maryland, USA, was first a student of Professor Benedict Gomes. Later he taught at the same department with him as a professor. At the death of Dr. Benedict Gomes, he published a tribute to him -- Gomes Sirer Shoroney Srodhyanjali (A Tribute in Memory of Gomes Sir) -- in Bangla (Bengali).

Dr. Benedict Gomes, a gregarious, humble and ever-smiling professor, is no more. Many will cherish his memory for time to come.

Sources: l. The Pratibeshi (weekly) (Dhaka: May 30, 2010).
2. Bangladeshey Catholic Mondoli (The Catholic Church in Bangladesh) by Jerome D'Costa,
(Dhaka: Pratibeshi Prakashani, 1988), p.284.

The Quotation of the Week (July 04 - July 10, 2010)

Waves splash on the shore of Lake Ontario near Woodbine
Avenue, Toronto

Photo (Toronto: April 4, 2010) © Jerome D'Costa