Rajan Parrikar: 1: We have turned the better things in our colonial legacy to sh*t. 2: I grew up in the epsilon-neighborhood of Miramar. I don't go there anymore because it is painful to see what has become of it now. I would rather retain the old memories. 3: Goa ... was the last pocket of the civilized life left in India.
Selma Carvalho: 4: The man publicly defecating. I was revolted. I feel like I'm going to throw up. 5: suddenly I understand Rajan's anger, which I've been calling xenophobia for sometime now. 6: This is the indignity that Goans now have to live with 7: while we tell ourselves that everyone and anyone can make Goa their home because afterall in 1961, we became part of India. -- Dear Selma and Rajan, What you have written is absolutely true. It is what yours truly has been writing on GoaNet for over 12 years. He was summarily dismissed as one who was a mere nostalgic Lusophile. I suggest however that it is too late to turn anything around. All the horses have left the stable and become part of Steak Tartar. For political purposes, Goans were divided into religious groups. The MG party (now BJP and Congress) played a lead role in this divisive process. Next came the move by the MGP to try merge Goa into Maharashtra. The MGP brought in 'deputationists' to fill posts which Goans could have easily filled. The Congress Party (in Delhi) kept Union Territory till the United Goans Party dismantled and became the Congress Party. When the Congress Party (read United Goans Party) became the governing party, the MG chaps (like Rane, Mesquita, Narvenkar) jumped ship and became 'loyal Congressmen' and took control of the party. When it was politically convenient, they supported (albeit from ouside) the Parrikar BJP govt. We even had Wilfred Mesquita (an MG from as long as I can remember - and then a convenient Congressman), being nominated as a BJP candidate for elections - with the mistaken belief (on the part of the BJP) that Catholics will vote for Mesquita merely because he was a Catholic. While all this foolishness was going on (i.e. while Goans were kept busy with the language struggle and the divisive script battle) non-Goans came and did as they pleased. To them this was a Vacuum that could be filled without resistance. And it was. The 'coup the grace' was the factually flawed and heavily communal Parrikar VideoCD. (I am sorry Remo but you are wrong when you stated on TV that the facts in the VideoCD were accurate.) Ask yourself this very simple question - WHAT exactly was the purpose of the VideoCD? I submit that the BJP in Delhi and in Goa thought that the time was right to fully destabilize Goan Catholics in Goa and finally uproot Catholicism from Goa and. "make Goa the Kashi of the West"! And now ...with relationships among Goans seriously fractured in multiple sites, we are wondering what happened? Learn to accept this: Goa was divided and it fell. It is now on the auction block. To the highest bidder. There is nothing Goans will be able to do about it besides rant and rave on cyberlists. Pointless now blaming: * the alleged and real Freedom Fighters for NOT planning for a proper take over of governance after the Portuguese exit in 1961 * the MG Party for allowing a neighbouring state to have such a strong say in Goa * the party aka the Congress Party for participating in this confusao * the BJP for trying their best to attack Goan Catholicism while pretending to be the friend of Goa Catholics. * the Newspapers (owned by vested interests) for telling Goans that "all was brilliant". * the Goan populace for falling from this swing Instead, I suggest that Goans must educate themselves, work hard and earn a decent living ...anywhere they are able to. just my view jc
