Well-articulated about the negatives of Colonialism. Our book looks at the negatives and positives of colonialism. Of the about dozen aspects described in our book, the following may be an overlooked system. Creatingand Maintaining an Expanded Caretaker SystemThe village communities were cared for by a system of Proximaland External caretakers. The Proximalcaretakers were parents and members of the extended family, integral inIndian society. External caretakers were various Welfare Agencies eitherprivate, religious or government operated, including the Azil for the elderly and the terminally ill. Often the religious institutions,priests and nuns straddled the internal and external caretaker role by being aninformal bridge to the various entities (including recalcitrant relative), directly providing some assistance; and settinga moral code of conduct and themselves endowed by society with some moralauthority. Historically prior to and during colonization, Goan villages canbest be described as a Static, Poverty-stricken, highly Stratified, Endogamousand Rural Society. Associated features of the people are constancy in the face ofsocial and economic instability, an agrarian status and a somewhat feudal structurewhere all live in a chronic state of poverty and deprivation as a mix ofnuclear and extended families. Childrenwere expected to work at less than skilled jobs as soon as they were old enough.This is not peculiar to Goa but isseen in most villages in Asia and Europe. They are often the victim of AmoralFamilism a construct described by Edward Banfieldin ‘The Moral Basis of a Backward Society.’ This explains the inability ofvillagers to act together for the long-term common good over the short-termadvantage of the individual family. The greater challenge today is how such issues surface and handled in a modern village or in the diaspora where in the past the oncesheltered society (assisted by State and Church) is no longer protected,and individuals are no longer restricted and constrained by traditional norms,practices and expectations. In summary,traditional societies had been protected by proximal and external caretakers as described, which today in urban cites and in foreign countries is replaced by amultilayered bureaucratic “Welfare Agency,” yet the (Goan) villages and individual cases may be overlooked. Gilbert Lawrence,Co Author: Insights into Colonial GoaPublished by Amazon and Kindle
----------------------------------- From: Nandini Sardesai very well-articulated! ________________________________ So, what did the Portuguese loot? by Frederick Noronha So, someone asked this question in cyberspace: "I genuinely wanted to learn more about this. I have watched a few videos on YouTube, but they are mostly from people with agendas and don't make sense to me as they do not validate their claims with facts. What did the Portuguese loot? How did they do it?" These days, we are getting increasingly caught up in fighting battles over the past. Our economy, the difficulty for our youth to find jobs, and the crony capitalism is only getting worse. Together with this, the tendency to blame the past for all our present-day ills is also getting more acute.
