I do believe Filomena Giese is a woman of action (and I say that sincerely). The problem here is that she wants everyone else to toe the line by saying that those who have brought forward concerns about the convention are just long on criticism. Among the 'long on criticism' I do not count myself as I have been very word-economical in describing the event.
"Zilch comes out of such conventions" "The Saldanha Convention" and "The couple represented no-one but themselves" is the sum total of all I wrote. I also said that public accounting must be displayed since Goan taxpayers money was taken. This has little to do with the convention and much to do with potential abuse of funds both of the Govt of Goa and that of the paid delegates, myself included. I did not "boycott" the convention. It takes more than a Lisette Saldanha to make me do so. It was a busy work week as well as weekend for me at that time. With regard to the transparency of accounting, I shall give Goanetters a hint - what if someone had ambitions of becoming the GOA president or standing for elections at the level of local politics. No problem here. I am all for such participation especially in politics. But what if this community event were used to achieving such a purpose. Is that acceptable? Even worse what if public funds and private volunteerism were used for the ultimate purpose not of the community but for one's personal ambitions. Let Filomena answer this hypothetical question. As an aside, the current President of the GOA Toronto who I have personally never met, has fantastic revenue generating and money management skills. He has brought the organization from a deep red into a comfortable black. The huge mortgage from a unprofitable asset acquired before his term has been paid off to the Bank and the GOA can move on with it's head held high. Many would shudder to have a next Pres move through money like a hot knife through butter. That, the association needs like a hole in the head. Vivian D'Souza in his "Next Goan Covention" makes a good conclusion - "All it takes is a few selfless individuals to plan the events.." Selfless is key here. Lets just stop pretending that Conventions like the one in Toronto in July make any difference to any but a very few. Why not just have a Goan Reunion like the Anglo Indian or any other Reunions and have a big party to celebrate our Goanness. 10,000 attended the 1988 Goan Convention organized by the GOA in Toronto. 10,000 attended the Anglo-Indian Reunion in Toronto in 2007. 30,000 attended the Bengal reunion at the Rogers Centre in Toronto this year. All three were advertised as one big party, cultural bash, community feel-good time and everybody had fun. Except for this year, GOA Toronto has the annual Viva Goa festival where 5,000 or more people come to what is essentially one big sports and open house cultural event. The Goans in recently UK had one on the open grounds at which 3000 attended. Any Goan village association social in Toronto (and there is one every week-end in summer) pulls in 200 to 400 people. Compare the Convention numbers to that. Why do we have to pretend that less than 80 Goans, mostly non-Torontonians, needed to pay from between $125 to $250 (prices were reduced if charged at all as the date neared) to "make a difference" to the global Goan community? Let's just celebrate the Ball at which there were 400 people and the Tiatr at which there were an equal number (both separately ticketed events). Correction. The Tiatr cannot be celebrated as it was a event of frustration for many. They just walked out as it started unduly late and took too long. And of course lets celebrate Wendell's successful fashion showing with the help of Induvta a high end Indian Toronto fashion boutique. He didn't need a Convention for that. In fact Remo will be coming to Toronto in September hosted by the Indian Masala Mehndi and he will probably pull more than 100 times the crowd the Induvta-Wendell event did. Of course the difference is that there will be no wine and cheese provided at Remo's event. It's just fun for everyone. Masala Mehndi unlike Induvta does not need to sell anything. The less pretension, the more fun it always is. Ask any one. Roland. On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 2:54 AM, Filomena Giese <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Goanet Digest, Vol 3, Issue 992 > Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 13:09:56 -0700 (PDT) > Subject: Re: [Goanet] The Momentous Goan Convention > > We have been subjected to various posts on the Goan Convention in Toronto > which are long on words and criticism and short on action!
