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* * * 2007 ANNUAL GOANETTERS MEET - GOA * * *
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WHERE: Foodland Cafe - Miramar Residency - Miramar, Goa
WHEN: December 27, 2007 @ 4:30pm
More info:
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2007-December/066098.html
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GOAN BUSINESSMEN-4
By Valmiki Faleiro
Catholics are about a demographic quarter of Goa. In terms of Catholic
businessmen,
the proportion shrinks even further. Yet, outside Goa, Goan Catholics did
admirably in
business. Let’s check out some instances in this concluding part.
The Portuguese were a crafty lot. In 1536, they intervened for the Nawab of
Bengal,
Muhammad Shah-III, against Sher Shah, and got permission to build a
fort-factory in
Chittagong, then Bengal’s principal city. That was followed by Satgaon and, by
1580,
Hooghly (‘Ungolim’), Bandel and other trading stations. Of all, Calcutta was
destined to
grow into a metro and attract many Goans, particularly Catholics.
Of the many Goan Catholics who did well in Calcutta, the three best-known were
Jose
Barreto & Sons (Grande Casa dos Barretos), Tomas de Sousa & Co., and Joao de
Faria
of St. Inez, Panjim, who started Bruce, Faria & Co. Joao’s son, Sir Rogeiro de
Faria,
moved to Bombay in 1803. He controlled the opium trade to Macao, with offices in
Calcutta, Bombay, Daman, Macao, Mozambique and Brazil. He owned four ships. In
1835, when the Goan, Bernardo Peres de Silva, the newly appointed Prefect of
Goa,
was forcibly deposed by Portuguese troops, he sought Rogeiro’s help. Rogeiro
financed
the ill-timed sailing force for Goa’s armed capture. The disaster led to
Rogeiro’s disaster.
His company collapsed in 1838.
Two brothers, Cosme Damiao and Domingos Vicente de Noronha, from Carona, Aldona,
had minted a small fortune in Africa when young. They returned to Goa to start
their
families. Cosme married, took some public contracts like tunneling for the
Western India
Portuguese Railway in the ghats section between Colem and Castle Rock in the
1880s,
lost money and men to malaria and snakebites, and, by the time he died after
marrying
two of his surviving eight daughters from eleven children, was no more a ‘rich
man.’ He
was my mother’s mother’s father. His brother married, moved to Bangalore, and
by the
time he died, controlled the fruits, vegetables and milk supply to the city and
owned a
good fraction of the emerging metropolis. His son, Fred Noronha, reputed to be
the first
Indian FRCS, did not marry, as did another of the two daughters. The married
one had
no issue. That partly explains how the Church came to possess a good part of
downtown
Bangalore. Domingos had a huge mansion at Brigade Road. Where one of his farms
was now are the Dharmaram College and several Catholic institutions.
Mervyn Nunes, a Zanzibar-born Goan, former British civil servant in East
Africa, is today
that continent’s best-known Safari operator. Vilberto Mascarenhas, of Sarzora,
left
Bombay young, as a stowaway in a wartime ship sailing for England. He moved to
Portugal, got into business, and, over the last half century made it so big,
that a grand
dinner at the last meet of the Goan Diaspora was hosted at his vineyard mansion,
‘Quinta dos Mascarenhas’ at Palmela, 70 miles off Lisbon.
Brian and Carmo Lobo, brothers, originally from Assagao, I’m told, own some
3,000
apartments in New York City. Franklin Pereira, of Tivim, made it so big in
Mombassa
that he owns trains and a fleet of yachts that can sail on short weekend
escapades or
months-long voyages, one for every need. Not because he is Hon. Consul of
Portugal in
Mombassa, but Franklin’s better-known as ‘Godfather’ – in Swahili. One of
Brazil’s ten
richest men in the 1960s was a Goan.
London-based Elizabeth Pires helped found ‘Investcorp,’ the global investment
bank.
Another UK Goan woman did well in the world of tourism.
Even Goan kids fared well. Loyola-Margao educated computer wizard, Savio Romulus
Pereira, was already a millionaire in Silicon Valley when barely out of his
teens. He had
big investment plans for Goa but, when he saw his mother struggle to evict a
rickshaw
driver, sheltered on humanitarian grounds in the outhouse of her Navelim-Salcete
residence, he came down, spoke to Adv. Radharao Gracias, realised the nature of
Goa’s
lawless laws, took his mother back to the US, and vowed never to invest here.
Goa’s
loss was Riverstone’s gain.
I salute Pilar Society’s Fr. Agnel Ashram fathers for starting a full-fledged
entrepreneurial
development institute at Verna. There is hope that young Goans, of all
religious callings,
will take to business, before we’re swamped forever.
PS: Goans will be glad that the sale of Goa, via suicidal SEZs, Habitats and
Parks, has
been put on hold. Couldn’t crack this one, though: industrialist-MLA, Anil
Salgaocar,
offers to buy Keri SEZ land for Rs.130 crore, to help Goans. Noble! Will he
also do his
bit and help remove the River Princess? (ENDS)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at:
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330
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The above article appeared in the December 16, 2007 edition of the Herald, Goa
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