A woman of many dimensions no doubt. We first thought from her posts that she was dirt poor and struggling with the demands of a large family and limited income. For this, we empathized with her railings against the church for building monuments and edifices in Goa while the flock met the rigors of daily life.
We then discover that she was well heeled enough to have made a trip to Europe. It is then revealed that once Goan African repatriates roamed about Goa villages in shirts, ties and hats. Wonder what our Ana Maria would want them to go about in? A kashti and curry stained banian (vest) perhaps, with a coconut shell to drink feni after a hard day in the Friday Mapuca bazaar. Of course no mention is made of the average slightly educated Goan gentleman during Portuguese times who wore exactly this Africander attire. More information coming in than the Tarun Tejpal episode. For example that Goans abroad lack food and bus money. Voila they suddenly have the funds to buy a cross continental airplane ticket so that they can get a full food plate to eat on a wedding invitation thus allowing Ana Maria to gloat on how much better off she is where a college graduate does not have to work as a plumber, waiter or bartentender. They have to go instead over the oceans where unknown to her a plumber earns in 3 months what a Goa NIO scientist earns in a year, purchashing power parity considered. Then the latent racism comes out full blown. How whites don't look at Goans nor mix around with them. In one fell sweep she has discarded all Goans and their children who have married into the white population. How they could betray the community by marrying out of caste is something that 450 years of genealogy will not permit her to consider. I can almost picture Ana Maria waiting in line for a kiss from an elder toothless British woman on the dole. Something her overseas Goan brothers (or sisters) would not get where they live. By now you will have noted that the Goan Gulfie or the shippie has been conspicuously absent from her overseas Goan and Goan gone abroad to work criticism. Perhaps she has more than one or two of these members among her fraternity. Perhaps they have funded her European trip or her repair of the compound wall or God forbid, written a cheque to the local church for a needed coat of whitewash. If one dares to go one step further, is she considering marrying one of her children to one of those Gulfies or shippies like those mothers of yore who rushed their nubile daughters to the nearest available Africander? I am assuming that at no time in the future will Ana Maria have enough money to want to send one of her children to study abroad since admissions to choice education in India is available to only the brightest and purely academically inclined, thus finding herself in the queue for a Portuguese passport the last of her family line to be eligible for it. But then of course she will be afraid that after a nice Masters graduation the child may find itself in some Swindon chicken packing factory. Ah the vicissitudes of life for overseas Goans. Roland. Toronto. Sent from Samsung Mobile -------- Original message -------- From: Ana Maria Fernandes <[email protected]> Date: 28-11-2013 2:08 AM (GMT-05:00) To: [email protected] Subject: [Goanet] Goa and goans Dear GoanettersGoans always feel that the grass grows greener on the other side of the fence. I remember in my childhood days people from africa would visit Goa and wear shirt and tie and a hat. They wanted everyone to see this atire and call them africanders. So much so that even the mothers of brides would first prefer an africander. And zooommm they all came back to Goa and some went to UK because Goa was dirty full of cowdung and no electricity to see their faces etc etc. The second case was those who migrated to Bombay. Come month of May and they would be seen on the streets with a hat on their head, short pants, etc etc and moving about in buses even in the late afternoon sweating and cursing Goa because the buses are crowed etc bla bla bla. We Goans in Goa have the habit of allowing others to talk evil of us . I am not surprised that for a dine and dance people rush to the table and fill their plates up to the brim because they in normal life cannot afford that much of food and here for dine and dance they can capture lot of food for a small price of money. We who are still left in Goa whenever we visit foreign countries do not grumble that our relatives over there are bartenders, waiters, plumbers even if they possesse a degree or post graduation etc etc. But when you come here please do not boast about your land which is actually not yours. Goans and Indians are not welcomed in foreign lands and Europeans rarely will mix with Goans and Indians over there though they will hug and kiss you here in Goa. The picture shown by our Goans migrated abroad is not true picture. Goans are starving in foreign countries. They cannot afford luxury like we can afford over here. They sometimes cannot afford a ticket to go anywhere and they have friends and relatives over here they come over her and that is the reason most of them travel by bus and make a big show. Do you know that when you go for a wedding in UK the groom and the bride will just give you one soft drink, or may be one peg of hot drink and one plate of snacks the rest you buy.
