RATIONALIST INTERNATIONAL
(Formerly International Alliance Against Fundamentalism)
P O Box 9110, New Delhi 110 091, India.

Phone: +91-11-2253255, +91-11-8539526 fax: +91-11-2256242
E-mail: <r_international@yahoo.com>
        <edamaruku@yahoo.com>
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RATIONALIST INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN-15
(Formerly Alliance Bulletin)
27 July 1999
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Rationalist Bulletins may be reproduced by recipients, if 
they wish. Please acknowledge the source while reproducing:
"Rationalist International Bulletin."
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ANNOUNCEMENT: CHANGE OF NAME
----------------------------

The Board of Directors of the International Alliance Against
Fundamentalism unanimously resolved to change its name into
"Rationalist International." The Alliance Bulletin, the online
organ of the Rationalist International will be known as
"Rationalist International Bulletin." 

The International Alliance Against Fundamentalism came into 
existence in December 1995, during the First International
Rationalist Conference held at Delhi. The Alliance was
inaugurated by Lorentz Stavrum, the president of the 
Norwegian Humanist Association, in the presence of delegates 
from 28 countries.

While the Alliance initially focussed on a campaign against
fundamentalism, over the years, it paid more attention to 
other rationalist concerns as well. The Rationalist 
international Bulletin will continue to dispatch informations,
reports and articles useful for all rationalists despite 
their nomenclatures - atheists, freethinkers, humanists,
rationalists, skeptics, secular humanists and secularists.
The bulletin will continue to be the vanguard of the whole 
movement.

SECOND INTERNATIONAL RATIONALIST CONFERENCE:
CHANGE OF DATES
--------------------------------------------

The Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Indian Rationalist
Association and the 2nd International Rationalist conference
was originally scheduled to be held 27-31 December 1999.
The Congress dates are postponed for 20 days. It will start
on 17 January and end on 22 January 2000. This decision is
in response to the request of friends from different parts
of the world, who found it difficult to obtain flight 
reservations.

Anticipating computer failures on 31st December, several
airlines have already cancelled flights of 31 December
and 1 January. This amounts to great air traffic pressure
during the week before and after the New Year day. Also
international air ticket costs ( which have gone up due to 
over booking) will come down heavily for journeys from
15 January onwards. A tip from the conference travel agent:
another 25% reduction in air ticket costs may be possible
if tickets are purchased in India. (Those who are interested 
may contact us for more details).

We invite you to celebrate with us fifty years of history
which created the largest and most vibrant rationalist
movement in Asia and most likely in the whole world.

Spend a week in next January with rationalists from all over
India and from around the world. Enter into thought-
provoking discussions. Share informations and experiences.
Take time for new ideas and visions. Open new horizons.

The wide and manifold programme, including an academic
seminar, lectures, panel discussions, work shops, plenaries,
performances and films, the SECOND INTERNATIONAL RATIONALIST
CONFERENCE promises to become a festival of ideas, taking
place in Kerala, one of the most beautiful places in India.

Kerala, the land of spices, lush greenery, swaying palms
and surf washed beaches is a tiny southern coastal state in 
India.

In affluent sub-tropical vegetation blossoms an unusual
state, much different from the rest of India; all of its
people are literate, many highly educated, the birth rate is 
low, extreme poverty unknown, the health care system complies
with western standards.

TRIVANDRUM is the capital of Kerala. It has an international
air port and it is easy to reach there. Daily flights from 
Delhi, Bombay and Colombo (capital of Sri Lanka, few hundred 
kilometres away) link it to major internatinal centres;
New York, London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

Please reserve your air tickets well in advance:
The new dates of the conference: 17-22 January 2000.

We request you to inform us as early as possible about your
plans to participate in the SECOND INTERNATIONAL
RATIONALIST CONFERENCE. Write your name, full postal
address and ask for an online Registration Form, which can
be filled and sent by e-mail.
     
Note: We are already in touch with some of the important
potential speakers in the conference. If you have any
suggestions regarding the speakers to be invited, please let
us know. We shall be happy to contact them.

VATICAN INVESTIGATES 
CHARGES AGAINST MOTHER TERESA
-----------------------------

Ultimately, the Vatican is forced to investigate. Though
Mother Teresa's major crime against humanity - her campaign
against all efforts to controll over population - is touched 
Vatican as it suits the holy policy, some other charges are 
now coming under scrutiny. The Vatican has recently 
appointed a three member tribunal to very verify the case
for Mother Teresa's beatification. The tribunal is expected
to examine charges that Mother Teresa did too little for the
sick in her care and accepted donations from dubious
supporters like former Haitian dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier
and disgraced British media tycoon Robert Maxwell. " We have
to establish whether there is any reason why Mother Teresa
should not be proclaimed a saint. We will summon witnesses
and question them," said Brian Kolodiejchuk, a Canadian
priest appointed as the postulator.

Apart from receiving donations from the infamous Haitian
dictator and Robert Maxwell, Mother Teresa has also accepted 
$ 1.25 million from Charkes Keating, a California banker
jailed for swindling small investors in multi-million
dollar savings and loan scam. During Keating's trial in
Los Angeles in 1992, Mother Teresa had appealed for clemency
for her donor which was turned down. She also ignored a 
subsequent suggestion from the district attorney that she
return Keating's donation to his victims. The tribunal will
scrutinise Mother Teresa's extensive network of international
contacts and donors.

The Teresa Tribunal will also investigate some charges made
by Anna Sebba, a British author, and Christopher Hitchens,
writer of the book, "The Missionary position."

" The most dangerous thing that she did was handing out
pills against tuberculosis without monitoring patients.
Often the disease mutated, that led to full blown epidemics,"
wrote anna Sebba in her book on Mother Teresa.

" All efforts to discover what she (Mother Teresa) did with
the enormous sum of money given to her in gifts by
individuals and institutions were in vain, but no clinics
or hospitals were built and large number of convents were
opened," charged Christopher Hitchens in "The Missionary
Position."

The Teresa Tribunal will send the results of its investigation
to the "Causes of Saints" at the Vatican, which will consult
doctors, theologians and cardinals to decide whether to
recommend beatification for Mother Teresa or not. If the 
"investigation" is merely an effort to white wash the charges
on Mother Teresa or not will be known only when the results
are out.
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Rationalist International Bulletin reaches a world wide 
community of concerned individuals and organisations. If your
like-minded friends wish to be free subscribers, or if you
missed and wish to get any of the earlier bulletins, please
write to <r_international@yahoo.com>
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