Just responding to some stray issues which caught my eye... On Thu, 4 Mar 2004, Rui Collaco wrote:
> I see that you have no knowledge about Goa's > recent history and about the Portuguese in Goa, other than what you perhaps > read in the textbooks, which is understandable since you are not from Goa. Suggested above is an interesting, exclusivist argument one has seen coming up often in Goa. If you are not from Goa, ergo, you can't know about the place. Does it imply that everyone who is *from Goa* necessarily understands the place? The reverse exclusivist argument is by those who would like to control things *in Goa*, and end up suggesting that anyone not *living* here or not *born* here wouldn't quite understand things Goan. Both these are fallacious points of view. And so is the insinuation made in arguments like those above. We've continually seen that some of the persons who understand Goa the best -- Robert "Bob" Newman, Heta Pandit, M N Pearson, and many more -- have simply had no earlier connections with the place. I'm not talking about academics alone, but a number of journalists whose work on Goa really impressed me actually had no prior connections to the place. Among these I would include my friend Debashish Munshi (ex-Times of India), Ashok Row Kavi (who wrote on language politics in the state), Camil Parkhe (ex-Navhind Times), Udayshankar (author of a perceptive piece on khazans and sluice-gates of Goa in 'Down to Earth'), Shiv Kumar (ex-Indian Express), and others. > factual, there's a lot of misinformation and plain anti-Portuguese > brainwashing in the Goan media. That's ironic, because I don't find an > equivalent anglophobia in the rest of India. This is begging the argument. You are first assuming that there is a "lot of misinformation and plain anti-Portuguese brainwashing in the Goan media" and then saying "that's ironic". Firstly, a lot of negative sentiments are bound to be there against the colonial ruler in any post-colonial situation. Particularly when it is fresh in the mind, and hardly one generation old. Secondly, if the Portuguese had left as peacefully and readily as the British or even the French, they would have probably been treated in the same fashion. Thirdly, more than "misinformation" and "plain... brainwashing" it is simply a lack of information. The fact that these two parts of the world speak differing tongues, and that Portuguese has less of a critical tradition towards its colonial history, also doesn't help. FN PS: Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle. If anyone, including Paulo, is willing to do a "more balanced" article on the passports issue, we would be more than willing to have it published here in Goa. ########################################################################## # 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 # ##########################################################################
