In the past few weeks there have been many comments – spoken and written –
about the recent convention. The following is not an attempt to enter into any
existing debates. It is intended as a commentary on our Goan Community and a
plea for change.
Hearing the recent comments, I am reminded of the 1988 International Goan
Convention and the words of Herculano Dourado: "Our Goans are like a basket of
crabs. When one starts to climb out of the basket, the others try to drag him
back in." Although his words were met with much laughter, as a young lady, I
had yet to learn the true meaning of these words. The 1988 Convention was a
huge success and it is this kind of success that gets the crabs going.
A few months later, an article was published in The Pulse claiming Zulema
D'Souza, Al Mathias and myself had created the International Goan Orgainization
(IGO) to further our personal agendas. As some of you know, The Pulse was a
publication of the Toronto GOA, distributed to all its members. I cannot
provide membership statistics, but even in 1988, the GOA was a large
organization. I was stunned and puzzled…at the time that I was allegedly
participating in this sinister plot – as it was portrayed in the article - I
was at work at my summer job, collecting the necessary hours of technical
experience to put towards my degree. I was stunned not only because there was
not a shred of truth to the article, but because its intent was to publicly
defame Zulema, Al, and myself. I did not believe then, and do not believe now,
that I was the true target of the article. Zulema and Al, as then President
and Vice-President of the GOA were impressive
leaders. It was their vision, creativity, personalities and hard work that
stirred the crabs who did not like that these two individuals were perhaps
getting some well-deserved recognition for their contribution to the Goan
Community. The funny thing is, from my perspective, they didn't give of their
time for recognition. They did it to serve the Goan Community. What puzzled
me about the article was how a grown man could be so overcome with jealousy
that he could "attack" a young university student in his attack on the adult
"achievers" …seems a bit like an unfair battle.
Twenty years have passed and nothing has changed. Instead of recognizing those
within our community for their contributions, there are those who seek to
attack the successful instead of looking within themselves for their own
personal recipe of success – whether it be a success in the Goan Community or
in some other area of their lives. Twenty years later, Kevin and Lisette
Saldanha, another two impressive leaders, are attacked because their vision,
creativity, personalities, and hard work gained them recognition on an
international level. Twenty years later, it is still acceptable for a grown
man to attempt to publicly discredit a young girl, again in the pursuit of
bringing down the "adult achievers". Twenty years later, it is still
"acceptable" to attack those who through no effort of their own, are recognized
for their humble service to our community i.e. Aloysius Vaz. In fact, "humble"
is a key word here. I question the need to
recognize those that do a fantastic job of marketing their own accomplishments.
I feel a deep sense of shame for our community…a community that promotes
destructive behavior instead of helping troubled individuals learn how to
redirect their energies towards something positive. Surely, I cannot be the
only one who is offended that the opinions of some are portrayed as the
opinions of our Community as a whole. I wholly support freedom of speech, but
the time has come to help those who are so desperate for attentions do
something other than "achiever-bash", so that they too may have something in
their lives to be proud of. When a community publishes attacks of any kind
without including a disclaimer, it enables not only these troubled individuals
but other troubled individuals hiding behind those who are submitting the
attacks. It is time for us, as a community, to break this disturbing pattern
of behaviour. A behaviour that is perhaps better attributed to the cockroaches
that crawl out at night when the light is off
them.
Lola Vaz-Rafearo
(For the record, I am the sister of Lisette Saldanha, sister-in-law of Kevin
Saldanha, and niece of Aloysius Vaz. I am not related to either Zulema D’Souza
or Al Mathias and am profoundly appreciative of anyone who serves their
community – Goan or otherwise.)
