Mother Teresa : The Little Nun Who Could

About ten years ago I was seated at a refresher course for Hilton Hotel employees in Webster, Texas. There were lightning-round questions thrown at us, and one question was, "if you had a chance to meet a deceased person, who would it be ?"

One fresh young thing said, "Elvis !" while another one said, "Abraham Lincoln". Two names came to my mind, but I 

immediately blurted out the name of the person I felt was most relevant to the meeting : "Dr. Martin Luther King". 

The other person on my mind that day was Mother Teresa,

also a Nobel Prize winner, and today, ten years down the road,

I would have gladly and unhesitatingly have said her name.

Oh well, there's always a next time to say the name of the little nun who could - and did !







There will be none like Mother Teresa again, say commoners

Tuesday - Aug 24, 2010, 04:00pm (GMT+5.5)


Kolkata (IANS)- As Mother Teresa's birth centenary
Thursday draws near, commoners here still get tears in
their eyes recalling the deeds and words of the Albania-
born nun who took Indian citizenship and became one of
the world's greatest symbols of love and compassion.

Read more: 
http://tinyurl.com/2acc5dg





Photojournalist and Author Linda Schaefer is a special friend of mine on Flickr and Facebook.
She was fortunate to be with Mother Teresa in Kolkata and was granted the rare permission to take
what were to be the last documented photos before the great lady passed away in 1997. Hers is a
fascinating and inspiring life in itself. She now resides in Ada, Oklahoma with her son Paul.
Today, on what would have been the 100th Birthday of Mother Teresa, Linda continues to honor
the work of the Nobel Laureate by speaking to groups and  organizations all over the U.S.
As Mother Teresa often commented, “Each person can make a difference.”
That is what Linda seeks to accomplish through her work.

Come and See: 
A Photojournalist's Journey into the World of Mother Teresa



Preview : Linda Schaefer's
Mother Teresa 2010 Calendar



Wikipedia Page for Mother Teresa

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Indians

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Indians, 
pic from unknown source, uploaded to Flickr by FredMikeRudy
We Had No Beggars in India. Right.

Today on August 15, India's Day of Independence from British Rule, I received this frequently forwarded pic in my email....yet again. Apparently a spoof, as it turned out, two years ago. But this time around the words seemed even more jarring to my soul.

When I consider that they 'broke' the country after all, and then after the damage had been permanently put in place they 'fixed' it (to their advantage, or so they thought) it sounds a little like BP now fixing the problem after making sure they got as much as they could out of it all first. Placing a cap on the spill while making sure they did an advance recap of their expected losses due to the lawsuits of the century that are impending.....

The difference now is that though the wealth has skyrocketed and brought India to the forefront of the world's economies, the Poverty and misery is not disappearing, just being relegated to the back burner.
 
from wikipedia : In 1982 Gertrude Himmelfarb wrote that "most professional historians have long since given up reading Macaulay, as they have given up writing the kind of history he wrote and thinking about history as he did. Yet there was a time when anyone with any pretension to cultivation read Macaulay". Himmelfarb also laments that "the history of the History is a sad testimonial to the cultural regression of our times".
 

God Save all the Kings, Queens, Jacks and Jokers of this world. God help us all.

The controversy, blogged elsewhere :

http://sundayposts.blogspot.com/2008/01/lord-macaulays-quote-on-india.html

Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay