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-- One uninformed Goan wrote:
> My personal view on the World Goan Day effort and bringing it to every
> continent and country was that of Rene Barreto. It is not so much as to who
> conceived the idea for the Goa Day, but more so who nurtured, tendered
> and propagated it to the ends of the globe.
It is interesting people have personal views without access to facts
first-hand. As I have
mentioned several times, Rene worked tirelessly for WGD, organizing WGD. Why do
you think he won a
Goa Sudharop award for WGD? He was not ALONE in the first three years while WGD
got off the
ground, but the public face. Goa Sudharop simply did not conceive the idea, but
played a founding
role. See excerpts from Rene himself below. All the international phone calls
to various Goans
groups, articles written in Rene's name, 500+ emails to various groups
including the early
promotion to get WGD going, including drafting Rene's emails to various forums
and groups,
motivating Rene to continue when he was ready to give up because of the lack of
response from
various Goans, setting up the website, setting up the Yahoo Group, etc. etc.
Sure does not seem
like just "conceived the idea" to me. All the early heavy lifting was done by
Goa Sudharop and
Rene with Goa Sudharop staying behind Rene and in the background.
It is not in my nature to claim any credit, but sometimes the truth has to be
told to offset
people's "personal views". Rene acknowledged that in an email in Goan
cyberspace in Nov 2003,
excerpts below. I think Francis Rodrigues understands the difference
(correctly) between Founder
and Organizer.
Excerpts from an email in Goan cyberspace from Rene in Nov 2003. Please read
GOA SUDHAROP for
George Pinto, I do not want any personal credit, and GOA SUDHAROP provided the
resources.
"The occasion [WGD] has drawn many Goans TOGETHER and this has been
made possible with the support from many, but uppermost among
them was Goa Sudharop. Others who helped to make this occasion
a success were the Coordinators of WGD, a network of individual
Goans and Goan organizations globally.
The very first ever WORLD GOA DAY was celebrated
on the 20th of August 2000 and was well supported by Gaspar Almeida
and Ully Menezes www.Goa-World.com organisation along with a
few other Goan Forums / organisations. In the years that followed ,
we seemed to have lost that support, But George Pinto, who is also
the President of Goa Sudharop, came to our aid and gave us his personal
and organizational support too, they has done so ever since.
When WE were frustrated for want of responses and support
George was there, encouraging us. He helped us by his postings on the
various Goan e-groups. The articles George helped publish in the Houston
Goan Convention program (in 2002) and Los Angeles this year (2003), made
this event well known through out the GOAN WORLD. Goa Sudharop and
George gave us the opportunity of launching our World Goa Day website
(sponsored by Goa Sudharop and designed by Mario Alvares) in Goa earlier
this year, that too gave us the opportunity of making the idea of World
Goa Day known to Goans in Goa !
It's not just the support, its George's participation
in the WORLD Goan events (Goa - Houston, L A, UK, S.F etc ., etc.)
that has made that difference to us. We believe that TIME is an important
factor in today's world, not just MONEY. George's efforts have been ably
supported by Filomena Giese.
Our thanks also go to Viviana Coelho of Goanet admin.,
Ariosto Jose Coelho and Mario Mascarenhas from Goa Sudharop for their
support."
End of excerpts.
However, the larger point I am trying to make is that the Goan community has
devalued WGD to a
picnic, song, dance affair and refuses to do anything substantial. I am not
referring to giving
money, in fact I recently suggested support for Romi Konknai and Abbe Faria as
two issues that
could have been supported by Goan expats but were not. Fred has posted some
ideas for WGD, and
there is no shortage of ideas of what can be done. The real issue he and others
have raised, are
Goans going to do anything? As in ACTION. Or do they never want to be
interrupted waltzing and
jiving on the dance floor?
Regards,
George
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