Dear Eddie Perhaps you would be kind enough to can pass on the following response to Selma Carvalho as she has chosen to write to me and Gabe on goanet through your office:
Quote Dear Selma First of all may I politely remind you that it was your doddery "interface" with EAST AFRICAN Goan people that led you to bid a fond farewell to goanet. Are we all now to shop for "welcome back" banners and Rose wine? Secondly, may I politely remind you that during the course of the project, you and your Public Relations Officer gloated to everyone on goanet the high level of popularity this project was receiving and the great enthusiasm shown by volunteers on the project. In fact at one stage when Melvyn was questioning aspects of your project, your Public Relations Officer wrote to him saying he was losing his credibility. Of course, Melvyn did the needful and replied back with one word "incredible". It has therefore come as a surprise to me to see you write in this post "a few of us bore the brunt of this enormous project which stretched over three years". Perhaps now that the project has concluded, in between taking your book to market, you will find some time to dig out these goanet posts and refresh your memory. Thirdly, may I politely remind you that Melvyn wrote privately to you offering his assistance in marketing your book and he heard nothing further from you. Fourthly, I would like to point out to you that if I spent my valuable time scrutinising every line in your book, I would not have time for anything else in my life. To tell you the honest truth, I picked out just ONE line in your book which is meant to be a historical document NOT a fictional novel, this was the line "District Commissioner Wyndham Wild, Marsabit, 1950" and it came to light then that this was not the case in that year. The reason for that was I doing a search as to find out how many Goans lived in that region at that time. Interestingly, I came across one document that recorded early years to 1950, in the Marsabit township in 1929 only 1 Goan lived there and by 1935 it had gone up to 5 Goans. I guess there would have been an increase in the number of Goans in the years that followed. If the issues of gender dynamics, caste and class consciousness, the struggles in the civil service, the building of the churches, the politics, the prejudice and the pain of migration had affected our community so very much, surely they would have packed up their bags and left East Africa and gone back to the paradise of Goa after just a few years! If you really analyse these issues, we still face them today, do you see many of us packing up our suitcases and move permanently to Goa? Once again, I repeat, we did have our struggles and face discrimination, one of the major hazards were tropical diseases particularly "malaria" but I can honestly say that most of those who lived around me had a life full of community spirit, laughter, fun, helping each other and were more than capable of rising above everything and living life to the full with our never ending picnics, drive in cinemas, dances, sports, childrens plays, etc. etc. My father the majority of the time (sometimes he was strict) was a happy jolly man with a tremendous sense of humour and great love of life and travel, as a child I remember constantly packing up the car to go here there and everywhere. Again, I repeat, those who found their life unbearable and like hell always had the opportunity of doing something about it and returning back to Goa and if they did not do this when they had this opportunity, it is now too late to complain! You have written about interview extracts from people who lived in East Africa, some long, long before I came into existence. May I also politely remind you that I spent the most formative years of my life in Mombasa, Kenya during the period you have headlined in your book so I am expecting this book to cover not only my story but all those of my generation. As I have indicated, I have seen no parallel as yet in the pages I have read and hope this may come in the following chapters of the book. It is good to hear that your book is moving fast, fast and may not need the strong publicity engine of goanet, perhaps you can share the secret of your success with other struggling authors in getting their book sold and read. Finally, we are now on the same hymn sheet, I too refuse to believe some of the writings you post on other social media that inadvertently turn up on goanet, I would have expected you to have evolved beyond that, that too to me is a tragedy. Rose Unquote Thank you Eddie for passing this message on. Rose Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 1 June 2014
