Dear Miguel, I am afraid you have left me sort of confused with most of your post.
2 specific areas where I think I understand your views: (1) Yes Media is influenced but still we can use it to shape opinion to some extent. (2) Surely we an understand the anomolies/exceptions of Goan Identity, we need to focus on the bigger picture. If we apply logic you stated, then there should be no Identity anywhere in the world. Regards, Arwin Dear Arwin, Wake up and smell the coffee ...and get your head out of the clouds! Who among these Editors of the leading English newspapers in Goa meets YOUR definition of a Goan? <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Derek Almeida [vice Sujay Gupta now doing PR for Timblo family business] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Ashwin Tombat [vice Rajan Narayan now editor of Goan Observer] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Arun Sinha [vice M.M. Mudaliar/ Bikram Vora] <[EMAIL PROTECTED] of india.com > Rajib Borah [new Edition in Goa] Neither the newspapers northe letters to the Editor help form opinion in Goa. If that was the case, Fr. Maverick Fernandes would have been jettisioned from the CSJP by the Bishop due to the people's demand. Soter D'Souza and I might have been ostracised and Dr. Oscar Rebelo would have been declared a living saint, with two angels by his side. It has not happened ....inspite of a sustained campaign by "vested" interests who wear bush shirts as a routine and suits when attending functions at the International Centre, Hotel Mandovi, GCCI or Portuguese Consulate .... irrespective of caste , creed and religion ...or political affiliation! I have a Konkani speaking, convent-educated friend who was born and brought up in Goa by her Malayalee Hindu Brahmin father and a non-Brahmin Catholic Kannadiga mother. She is married to an airplane pilot from Uttar Pradesh who was in the Indian Navy and they have a daughter studying in Goa who is also fluent in Konkani. Now is this grand daughter of a set of inmigrants any less "Goan" than my friend in Toronto-Canada,whose grand parents migrated to Tanzania and raised their children in suburban London does not speak a word of Konkani ..... and has never been to Goa? Feel free to forward this to any newspaper in Goa that you please. I will not retract my words. This week, my name is already a rage in the local newspapers for being an INTERNET TIGER. [Read Goan Observer of 09 aug, GT of 10 Aug., Herald of 11 Aug. NT and TOI have spared me so far. Thank God for small mercies.].It has had a disasterous fall-out: my wife has threatened to stop buying my favourite Parle's "Tiger" brand biscuits with immediate effect and force me on a diet of "local" flower biscuits! ;-) Mog asundi. Miguel
