It has been many years since I have joined these prestigious clubs, the GOANET, THE GOAN FORUM (GOA-GOANS) and not forgetting GOANCAUSES, for a short while. By and large it has been very satisfying, in so much as it has afforded me to know many a Goans, worldwide, which would not have been possible otherwise. And I must confess that I have been, sort of, addicted. For one reason, this is unlike reading newspapers, where one only reads but cannot express one's viewpoint. And there is a limit to writing letters to the editors and trying to keep the debate alive.
The gusto that I had come to the Net distribution lists, with, has long since cooled down to a larger extent. At that time it was the height of the agitation against the METASTRIPS. The leaders of that agitation have also long since cooled down, some having even certified that it is a very clean industry. Some, who had wanted to demolish the unit brick by brick, have lost their strength in the arms as well as in their vocal chords. And needless to say that some have become rich from the fall-out and have forgotten what that agitation was all about. The Net Distribution Lists have nevertheless exposed small mouths as well as big mouths. We have seen the big mouths talking about driving Indians out of Goa, themselves fattening their girth in distant lands. Some have their personal grudges to play at. It is so that no matter what, it has been I, me and myself to a larger extent. And there have been some who believe that by being charitable to Goans in Goa, directly or through Goan institutions, they are the Goan Patriots and think that they can wave a magic wands and make the bad times that Goans in Goan find themselves in, disappear. We have heard of the lower caste people in most of India being looked down upon by the upper caste. With all the rhetoric flowing down, that untouchability must be eradicated, none has seen it fit to give their toilet cleaners anything better than the bamboo woven baskets to empty their toilets of briming sewage. In the bargain, the miserable people remain miserable not because of anything else but because the stink of the sewage that has bathed them during their ordeal of cleaning their master's mess can never leave them even if they have ocean full of baths with tons of deodorants and soaps. In the same vein, our Goan patriots who boast of doing charity unto Goans in Goa are no better than the masters who make lower caste people clean their toilets. For charity does not give the people their freedom. On the contrary, charity makes the people lose sight of their battle-field where their war for freedom has to be fought. If Marie Antoinette had to flood her people with bread instead of asking them to eat cake, her royal neck would not taste the blade of the guillotine that the French revolution was. Will the Goan patriots, wherever they may be, whether they be in New Jersey, in Macao, in Kuwait, in Timbuktu, let Goans fight their own battles without getting distracted by the empty missiles fired in the air from distant lands which hit no one and land no where? They must remember that Goans in Goa have their own battles to fight which requires dedication and perseverance of the first order lest Goa is lost unto themselves and unto the Goan Loud mouths who cannot stop talking vain. Floriano goasuraj
