From: Dr. Jen Lewis Subject: [Goanet] Death - Er. A. P. Remedios (Mumbai) I've just heard that Er. A.P.Remedios died of cancer 3 days ago. My heartfelt sympathies to his family. This is a great loss to the civil engineering fraternity. Many of us may remember our practical training with him on construction sites. Dr. Jen ==============================================
For a photograph of Dr Remedios see http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/ For a background article about him (Times of India, 20 Dec 2008) go to http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Goa/Liberation_festivities_lack_lustre_in _villages/articleshow/3864519.cms Selma Carvalho wrote on 19 April 2009: WHO THE BLEEP CARES. Weekly column by Selma Carvalho. Who the Bleep cares about the past? Anthony P. Remedios passed away on April 16, 2009. His is a name that won't jump out of any history books, not because Anthony Remedios was not part of Goan history but because we Goans have been so lax about recording our history. I came in touch with Anthony while researching for my book about Goans in the Diaspora and was probably the last person to interview him via cyberspace. In 1956, the twenty-six year old Anthony was in London finishing his engineering degree. He became part of a group of men deeply concerned about Portugal's presence in Goa. He, along with Joao Cabral and another medical doctor called Denis, began assisting the freedom movement in a minor way, by translating Portuguese documents for the then Indian High Commissioner to the UK, V. K. Krishna Menon. The small group went on to form what became known as The Goa League, based at 77 Dean Street, Soho, London. The Goa League held its first meeting at Earls Court, Central London, in 1956. Many of them were young students from East Africa, who had been witness to the racial prejudice that prevailed in those countries and perhaps carried within them a desire to seek redress for the inequalities of Colonialism. Anthony himself had spent his youth in Southern Africa. About 80 Goans gathered to attend that meeting. Anthony along with the wife of renowned artist Francis Newton Souza, cooked sorpotel in the basement of the building for those Goans in attendance. Joao Cabral was holding a Portuguese passport and this put the League in a compromising situation, at which point Anthony Remedios who was holding a British passport, was made Secretary of the Goa League. When Dr Ramkrishna Hegde and Purushottam Kakodkar were released from Portugal, they arrived in London on their way back to Goa. A reception was arranged for them by Goa League at Canning town, near London's Dockland area. To bolster the attendance, Anthony scoured the Docklands, looking for ships with a Goan crew. Another meeting took place on June 18, 1956 to commemorate the Satyagrah movement. It was a cloudy day in Westminster. At around eight that evening, as the twilight spread across a summer sky, Member of Parliament, Wedgewood Benn, or Wedgy Benn as he was known, was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. Wedgewood was a confirmed socialist in UK political circles, sympathetic to the Goa League's pro-India stance and had argued vociferously in the House of Commons, against Britain offering any military help to Portugal to defend against India. The third speaker scheduled for that day was Joseph Murumbi, later to become Kenya's second Vice-President. The say in Africa, when a man dies a whole library burns down. So it is with us Goans. Our history is out there in oral tradition begging to be recorded. Let not more of it die before it finds its place on paper. Do leave your feedback at [email protected] =================================================================
