Editor,
Through this letter I want to remind every Christian and all Christian Churches that according to the Bible, before Jesus was crucified, he and his twelve apostles had supper together. He broke bread and drank wine together with them. Judas, an accountant of the team sold Jesus in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. During the last supper Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray and sell him but he still shared the bread and wine with his betrayer. This clearly shows that Jesus forgave Judas for his act of betrayal even before Judas could realise his mistake.
Being a devout Christian myself, I am not trying to object to the Christian tradition for I am not a theologian. I just want to express my opinion and ask “What if?” What if all Christian churches are established and function with one objective and that is the act of ‘Mercy’? Pope Francis the Roman Catholic Church said how he wished there was a church for the poor. He even announced the year 2016 as the year of Mercy in the Church. I believe that God’s message is full of mercy and forgiveness. Again what if all Christian Churches do away with all punishment and let the state and its judiciary deal with that? What if Christian churches concentrate more on putting food on the table of the poor than condemning or judging others or punishing it’s faithful for committing mistakes?
The role of every religion should not be about conversion. Neither should any religion boast about itself. The purpose of religion is to work for the betterment of society by strengthening the fraternal bonds and promoting peace. Religion should not divide humanity. Religious ideologies are meant to create love and understanding and not separatist ideologies.
My apologies in case anyone is hurt by this letter.
Yours etc….
Mickey M. Marweiñ
Pyndengrei, Nongstoiñ.
What sort of representatives do we elect?
Editor,
I must thank the Shillong Times and congratulate H.H Mohrmen for the article `Basis on which people elect public representatives’ (ST May 15, 2017) I firmly believe that readers of the article are made wiser this time round before gpoing to vote. The basis on which voters in Meghalaya choose their MPs/MLAs/MDCs as cited by Mohrmen is very true indeed. It is on the basis of kinship ties, accessibility, solidarity in times of joy and sorrows, being member of the same faith (denomination) and same party affiliation, being from the same village or geographical area; because he/she provides public movable and immovable assets or articles, provides hard cash to individuals or liquor or other material goods. The voters don’t spare a thought on the quality and capability of the candidates on the basis of being good law makers or on issues. Nothing of that sort has happened in the last 45 years. In this connection, I just want to suggest three things to Mohrmen. First: Please give a detailed analysis both in English and the vernacular print media and other social media as to why the voters of Meghalaya have to heavily depend on the above enticements. Second: Please offer detailed suggestions/solutions (though some have already been indicated in the article) to voters as to how to go about choosing their candidates in future elections. Third: If possible, which I think it is, please form a powerful Social Network which will undertake wide political awareness campaign in Meghalaya on the sole issue of how to elect public representatives in the right way to Parliament, State Legislative Assembly and to the District Councils.
Again, in this connection, I would appeal to the NGOs which include the different faith based organisations and the traditional institutions, to help in educating the public on how to elect public representatives based on quality and capability as law makers in the legislative bodies and not based on sectarian and selfish extraneous considerations.
Yours etc.,
Philip Marweiñ,
Shillong-2.
Vitamin D deficiency
Editor,
In this era of online shopping, people don’t have to go outside frequently for domestic needs. Things are easily available online. But while going out for office or other works, people apply sunscreen over the bare body parts which creates obstruction in producing vitamin D in the body. Vitamin D deficiency is noxious for our body and health. Sunlight is the best natural source of vitamin D and we are avoiding this to protect our skin from tanning. We have to be aware that not having enough vitamin D in our body can cause rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Vitamin D plays an essential role in reducing hyper-tension, atherosclerotic heart disease, stroke, heart attack and even cancer. Vitamin D deficiency results in skeletal diseases, infections, metabolic disorder and more. And the most important thing that young people are obsessed with is obesity. According to research findings presented at the European Congress on obesity, supplementation of vitamin D can help in loss of weight in cases of obesity. For vitamin D, we have to maintain the optimal range somewhere between 50-70 mg/ml and I can suggest that appropriate sunlight exposure is the best way. The other two ways of having vitamin D are food and supplements. Vitamin D is one of the fat-soluble vitamins. There are two types of vitamin D – D2 and D3. Vitamin D2 comes from fortified foods, plant foods and vitamin D3 from animal foods like fatty fish, cod liver oil, eggs and liver. Vegetarians can have milk, cereals in breakfast, Portobello mushrooms etc. Vitamin D supplements are a must as our body cannot produce it to adequate levels. So people who work indoors most of the time should take vitamin D through proper food or supplements.
Yours etc., ,
Sanjukta Maiti
Shillong – 6