Hi Valmiki I refer to your post to me on Closing Reflections dated 22 Dec 2007. Thank-you so much! I had responded to it briefly but have now had the time to read it carefully. I could pick a lot of holes in it but will confine myself to just one of your points. I believe you have given the anti-caste 'crusade' a powerful unexpected boost. Perhaps, it is even a Christmas present unwittingly from you! I therefore quote you: "I can only pray that some day when the "Goan Catholic anti-casteists--absentee by and large measure---are down on a patronising vacation and a wayward daughter slips into love with a local 'Mahar,' 'Chamar,' or migrant, parents like you will walk their talk." I am afraid this quote of yours is the most patronising and racist thing I have heard on Goanet. You deride the Mahar, Chamar, or migrant as though they are some kind of sub-humans. Who on earth do you think you are to be so contemptible of other human beings who may be intellectually, in terms of ability, and character, infinitely superior to you in your self declared Sarwasat Bamon garb? Please be assured that, I would gladly don the mantle of any one of those you obviously find so despicable. Sorry to be so tough with you but your words reflect the worst kind of racism that existed in the West about three decades ago but would cause an absolute furore if uttered today even on the Net. When legitimate Civil Rights were being demanded in the USA, racist red necks would alarm other whites with language that resonated with your words. The question then asked was "Would you want your blonde blue-eyed daughter to marry a nigger?" In the UK, your words resonated with "Vote Labour if you want a nigger for a neighbour." Now, because such racism was confronted really hard in every nook and corner and especially on radio and TV., such preposterous utterances are truly a thing of the past and rightly so. Indeed, in the UK, 50% of the Afro-Caribbeans are married/partnered to whites for both male and female and 25% of Asians are too and this number is rising fast. Marriage and cohabitation across all 'races', backgrounds and religions is seen as something pretty healthy for a tolerant and progressive multicultural/multiracial society. I therefore suggest to you that you display an incredible feudal mind-set but masquerade as though an educated and enlightened contemporary individual with a modern life-style. Regretfully, you fool nobody and it is time you took stock of your racist and casteist views and your supposed attachment to Catholicism. You really have made the anti-casteist case for us. Clearly, those close to the problem, and are indeed part of the problem like you, are too blinkered to see and understand the racist and casteist beast we have been attacking from afar. Sorrowfully as I had never expected to have to say the above, especially at Christmas time. Cornel DaCosta, London UK.
