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--- Francis Rodrigues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Whilst the Day's origins remain shrouded in the
> mists of antiquity (I will refer you to George here),
Dear Francis
Here is a brief overview. In 1999, I was President of the Goan Institute of San
Francisco and met
Filomena Giese in connection with the canonization cause of Blessed Vaz (as of
today, Goa does not
still have native Goan saint even after 500 years of Catholic tradition).
During our conversations
she mentioned that in 1994, she had tried to start Goa Sudharop with a few
others but it did not
take off then. She asked if I would be interested in doing something. I
explained to her that I
was extremely disappointed that Goan organizations around the world (especially
the USA, UK,
Australia, Portugal, Canada) were not much more than social organizations and
were not meeting the
current needs of the community. But it was not just the associations, members
themselves were not
reaching out to improve the Goan situation or connecting with Goa.
The Goan organizations had served their initial purpose when Goans immigrants
were in a survival
mode in their new environment, but their calendars were still from the 60's and
70's and had not
been updated to meet the needs of Goan youth and the changing face of Goan
immigrants who had gone
from first-generation immigrants to more established communities. The calendar
of events at the
Goan organizations and associations and Institutes still were an annual picnic,
Christmas/NY
dance, anniversary dance, Halloween/Valentine Day's function, Kids party and
Francis Xavier feast
(I am writing here of Goan Catholic expats). Membership was dwindling as Goans
did not seem to
have a real Goan anchor (in my estimation). Except for Gulf Goans, nothing Goan
was being
celebrated, honored, fought for or remembered. Hence, the WGD idea.
During my discussions with Filomena she had suggested the idea of a World Goa
Day to be
specifically set aside to be about Goa, a serious celebration of our history,
people, culture. In
addition, WGD was supposed to bridge the divide between the Goan Catholic and
Hindu communities
which I might add are painfully segregated in their interactions (take Toronto
for example). I had
posted the idea in emails in Goan cyberspace in 1999 and suggested January 1 as
WGD to signify a
new beginning. During that time I met Rene who we brought to Goa Sudharop as an
Advisor and for
the first three years in addition to setting up the website and making phone
calls to various Goan
groups and sending emails, tried to set up WGD. The initial thought was to get
some traction and
make it easy to celebrate WGD without too much hassle. So any celebration was
called WGD. In
hindsight, that was a mistake since groups have taken the easy way out and
called picnics and
mindless events as WGD events. Even that would be something we could live with
except, at some of
these affairs, not even a WGD sign is displayed, not a mention made of WGD, or
anything Goan done
or remembered. Yet, some of the Presidents, have splashed their "celebrations"
in cyberspace for
publicity. Clearly some of us are not fooled or happy at this devaluation of
WGD.
Rene has been tireless in organizing the event for which he was honored with a
Goa Sudharop award
but the world Goan community has let us down. At the founding stages, Basilio
Magno (Spain) wrote
the song, and Goa-World helped promote the event (there are others I might have
overlooked for
which I apologize). Many of the Goan organizations who used to celebrate WGD no
longer do so. Part
of the reason is that Goan associations committees come and go on a volunteer
basis and there is
no continuity. Additionally, picnic, dances seems to be popular but that is
specifically what we
trying to avoid. There are 364 other days in the year for that tamasha. As you
can see with the
Abbe Faria and Konknai script this year (to mention two issues) there are
enough opportunities for
Goan groups to do something. Instead we see empty rhetoric and messages of
goodwill, unity,
togetherness, and such nonsense when the proof really is to do something
concrete. In fact, in one
of the early years, the WGD theme was GIVING BACK TO GOA. You guessed it, nada
happened. When the
time comes for action, Goans disappear. But they are there to give speeches.
I had set up a WGD yahoo group to discuss WGD issues and you guessed it, nada
ideas. Instead
emails about non-WGD stuff which was available on other Goan cybergroups so I
disabled the group.
My own fear is that after all the hard work of the first few years (the first
three for me
specifically), we are watching WGD lose its way and be devalued. Something that
could have made a
difference is falling behind its purpose. As a community, are we only Goan by
name? Are the new
immigrants in Goa from Bihar, Kashmir, Karnataka, etc. who are actually doing
something in Goa,
more Goan? Who knows, they will soon celebrate WGD and give it meaning,
something we are failing
to do.
I will write more later (time permitting), including on Silvianos book sales.
I regret that
although I am an optimist by heart, my tone in this email is not uplifting.
Perhaps there is a
hope, however small, that this might motivate our Goan community into doing
something concrete.
Regards,
George
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