########################################################################## # If Goanet stops reaching you, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # Want to check the archives? http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
Tim, I cannot believe this is a serious question that you and/or "your friends", are raising in the year 2004! On top of that, you demand "rational" responses, mainly from non-Catholics, probably reserving the right to decide what is rational and what is not. Frankly, as a Goan Catholic, I find this whole topic quite embarrassing. While you are probably being brutally honest in exposing these feelings, haven't we learned anything as a community in recent years with all the inter-marriages taking place, and haven't we gotten beyond such narrow and xenophobic concerns? If we haven't, I think it's about time. The Brits who resent "foreigners" do so because of ignorance and xenophobia and the feeling that it is "their" country that is being overrun. In the US, Indians typically don't care whether anyone "likes" them or not, because everyone in the US, except the native Americans, came from somewhere else, and Indians have been the No.1 ethnic community when ranked by family income in the US since 1980. The Canadian Indians that I know don't seem to care either, because most of them are doing quite well and everyone in Canada, except for the native Canadians, came from somewhere else. So, if anyone resents the American and Canadian Indians it is their problem, or it should be. If some Catholic Goans feel that their neighborhoods in Goa have deteriorated because Hindus have moved in is a very sad commentary on those Catholics. Aren't they reacting just like the Anglo-Saxon Brits? If the place is "filling up with Hindus", so what? I have heard some Goans complain that Goa is filling up with non-Goans. Again, I say, so what? Isn't Goa a part of India, where everyone has a right to settle anywhere they choose to? Some of my best friends are Hindus, and are far more respectable and careful with their property than many Catholics I know. And, I don't think that any objective research will support the notion that Hindu homes are not well maintained, in Goa when compared with Catholic homes. I'm sure you will find both kinds of homes among both communities. Tim de Mello <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:########################################################################## # If Goanet stops reaching you, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # Want to check the archives? http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ########################################################################## I attended the St. F.X. Feast festival at the St. F.X. Church in Mississauga today (Dec. 4). It was a very cold and windy day and the procession took place outside the church! Brrrr! Following the High Mass and some excellent singing by the Konkani Choir we adjourned to the Family Fair at the Church Hall. There was plenty of Goan food available. As far as the quality is concerned I would say it was fair fair fare! (I saw this description in a cartoon two days ago) Here is question that got raised by a friend of mine who had recently returned from a trip to Goa (Divar). He lamented the fact that his predominantly Catholic village was being taken over by Hindus. This is not the first time I have heard this comment. Once, visiting my cousin's place just outside Mapuca, some guests there made the same comment. In Konkani they said "This place is gradually filling up with Hindus". Here is the question. We, Goans, living overseas, have taken up residence primarily in the UK, Canada, Australia and the US. I know from first hand experience the resentment felt by English people when I lived in England. They felt that we "lowered the tone of the neighbourhood". Even today in Canada, if a sub-division is predominantly "Black" or "Chinese" or "Indian", the other communities tend to stay away from those areas. Is this resentment/reservation that is felt by these communities outside Goa similar to that felt by Christians towards Hindus? Or does it run deeper? >From what I have seen it appears that the Hindu homes are not as well kept on the outside as Christian homes. There did not seen to be the emphasis on a nicely decorated house, nice gardens, etc. More functional living. This is not a scientific observation but just a casual one. Is it because poorer Hindus have just moved in and trying to make a home for themselves? Maybe improve the house with more affluence? Can some knowledgeable people shed some light on this? I would particularly like to hear the views of non-Catholics. For heaven's sake, let the responses be rational - not an opportunity to vent strongly held prejudices. Tim de Mello [EMAIL PROTECTED] CANADA
