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Hello Rene,
I take your point entirely (in various posts)about the parameters of Goanet, but curiously, I happened to be with a Goan friend who has studiously avoided Goanet despite all my best efforts, including forwarding him posts which I hoped he'd find interesting. He looked through my posts today and simply said "Can't these guys talk about anything else than St Francis Xavier, belief in God, feast days, and World Goa Day?" "Now you must know why I can't stand Goanet. It is so damned inward looking" he concluded.
Perhaps my friend was rather sweeping in his criticism of Goanet (which I personally love)but I thought I'd share this episode with you in the light of the weariness highlighted about the American debate and the desire expressed to confine issues to Goa.
The friend above, (ex Nairobi) is well travelled, had lived in the USA and Canada but subsequently chose to live in the UK. The only thing he really got excited about, was my very brief reference, in a post, to how quickly some Goans got totally Americanised and he told me about a book written by a Goan Canadian in the 1970s called something like "The Americanisation of the Goan" Do you, or does anyone else know of such a book please? I am sure I would find it interesting.
Nevertheless, this highlights the view that at least some Goans prefer a wider spectrum of opinion than when confined to Goa per se. For instance, I find Goan activity in the Gulf region very interesting, especially, how Goan sport, tiatr/music and club activity has developed there. But would a heated and prolonged debate about conservative politics in the Arab world and revolutionary pressures from radicals etc if discussed by fellow Gulf Goans be out of place, even if perhaps relatively unwise in such non democratic states? Likewise, would a heated debate, among Goans, about Australia's response to boat people or to the Aboriginals, be out of place? What about the tragedy of Bhopal twenty years on and no compensation for the helpless victims not too far from Goa? Do our Goans not need to know about or debate such things? So, the question is where and how does one draw the line, apart from, when there is clearly an endless continuation on any one theme as was definitely the case re the American Presidential election, Arafat and Palestine etc. But to limit Goanet to issues closely to Goa would not be my cup of tea I'm afraid. The Goan Diaspora, in many new locations, has too much to offer Goanet, and inevitably, the discourse is likely to be expansive, for the better, rather than if it were narrowly Goan and confined mainly to Goa.
With kind regards,
Cornel
