Hi Rabi It was nice to meet again and chat with you in your impressive mayoral regalia at the recent huge gathering organised by the Goan Association, London.
I do however, want to raise a point with you that has concerned me for a long time. I heard you say that, "the celebrated author Graham Greene is reputed to have once said "anthropologically speaking Goans are a Master Race." This you have repeated many times over the thirty plus years since I have known you, and I am afraid I cringe every time you utter those words or express them in the media. As this has gone on for too long and others may now try to repeat what you say, in their World Goa Day speeches etc I feel impelled to raise this matter with you: What I suggest you do is: 1. check out the authenticity, or not, of Greene's words to ascertain if you are right about what you say he might have said. You could then also inform us about what you found out. 2. consider the discordant impact of your words at a time when the concept of a Master Race is associated strongly with Hitler and Fascism. Further, please note that, the concept of human 'race(s)' has been discarded in anthropology and every 'ology' since a proper scientific study of the concept of 'race' was carried out at the end of WW2 (1945) by the UN, no less. The study was undertaken because Hitler's War, was significantly based on the idea of the Germans as belonging to the Aryan Master Race, while the Slavs, Jews, gypsies (and all of us of Asian and African origin incidentally) were deemed to be degenerates belonging to mongrel inferior races, and to be used as slave labour or exterminated. At the end of WW2, the UN felt the need to become absolutely clear about the concept of 'race' because the term had taken insidious root in discussions about scientific racism linked to an erroneous interpretation of Darwin's work on Natural Selection. The UN did an excellent job and concluded that there is just one human race and that there are no distinct groupings of 'races' as assumed previously. I will not refer to the technical terminology here, but most literature (except for extremist/fascist groups) on this topic will confirm my point. Despite this, unfortunately, people still use the term 'race' to emphasise differences between people, and 'race ' lives on as a commonsense term when it has no scientific veracity whatsoever. However, it becomes quite important to be aware of this issue, especially when making public utterances/speeches, that can be very embarrassing. I know that you are a really nice guy Rabi, but I would be amiss if I did not place your favourite and much repeated phrase about us Goans under some scrutiny. Also, bear in mind that, if indeed Greene said what you think he did, perhaps when heavily inebriated on feni, he could have been making a pretty snide remark about us good Goan folk. I, for one, refuse to be referred to, by anyone, seriously or in jest, as belonging to something as absurd as a Master Race in our contemporary age of diversity. Best regards Cornel DaCosta, London, UK. ----- Original Message ----- From: "r.barreto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Goanet" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 4:04 PM Subject: [Goanet] MESSAGE FROM Councillor Rabi Martins -WORLD GOA DAY 2006 > MESSAGE FROM Councillor Rabi Martins > Chairman (Civic Mayor) Watford Borough Council -UK > The celebrated author Graham Greene is reputed to have once said > "Anthropologically speaking Goans are a Master Race." I am not sure > about that. What I am sure of is that we Goans are very proud of our > ancestry and heritage and where ever in the world we may live, we never > forget our roots. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
