What insult to Goans ? Have you visited Goa lately ? The picture was a true potrayal of Goa, especially along the North Goa beach-side tourist belt..... the heavily bejewelled Rajasthani lady, the Kashmiri vendors, Gujarati traders, Keralite clerks, Karnataka laborers, Uttar Pradesh carpenters, are all part of the local scehe now.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Goans by leaving Goa have created a vacuum for others to come in. By thumbing our noses at manual labor, the need has been filled by laborers from neighboring Karnataka. These Ghantis or Ghattis as they are derogatorily referred to are excellent workers and can be counted upon as dependable workers. Without them the Goan economy will suffer, as there are not enough Goans willing to take on these menial jobs or to work as hard. We Goans have dispersed ourselves around the world and made our homes in various foreign lands, where through hard work and intelligence we have thrived. Do we ever stop to think what people in these foreign lands who were born and raised there, must be talking behind our backs about us ? That we have come and taken their jobs ? Take a picture in Toronto or anywhere in the USA or England. You are bound to get a few darker-skinned faces. We Goans have become a part of the rich tapestry of the people of these foreign lands, as much as Rajasthani women have become a part of Goa. What about the Goans in Mumbai or Delhi or Calcutta or Bangalore or Pune or various other cities in India. Are they not part of the local scene in the cities and States where they have settled ? Wake up and smell the air guys, this is no longer the Goa of the Portuguese era, and there is no return. So like it or not this is the ground reality. Vivian A. D'Souza ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
