Dear Bernado,
I often wonder, before deciding to respond to you, whether I must. Because
you have this unsettling habit of making wild statements and, when cornered
to specific questions to explain/elaborate what you said, you duck the Qs by
spewing out some stupidity totally irrelevant to the point/s under discussion --
and yet have the gall to accuse others of going off at tangents (so, most often,
I decide not to respond!)
I see you are at it again, below. And have read FN's post to you on the same
thread, and your response to him, which does not address the questions he
asked.
Plain and simple, I had asked you (am retaining all the correspondence from
the start, below, for benefit of any reader who might have missed some parts
of this little exchange) if I should give you another "baby story," this time on
emigration and in-migration issues affecting Portugal, about which you seem,
rather surprisingly, to be on short change. Assuming silence is consent,
I will proceed to provide you another baby primer...
Throughout its nine-century history, Portugal was a vortex of migrations.
If you regressed some thousand years before, you would see that Portugal
was a bunch of people inter-breeding happily. The Goa of your forebears was
never so. The Portuguese are a half-breed people (you may need to refresh
your history to understand this.) And that was exactly how, "a half-breed
people,"
uncle Adolf Hitler precisely considered the Portuguese people: just a nudge
above gypsies!
On out-migration of this "colourful" people (from Portugal, you may remember
the beautiful ditty we learnt at primary school around 1961, "O papagaio canta
e...
a linda terra de Portugal") you perhaps forgot -- in your hate-India obsession
--
that this can broadly be classified into four waves:
1. During 16th and early-17th centuries, when about TWO-THIRDS (or 66%) of
Portugal's population migrated, mainly to North Africa and Asia. (The most
curious out-migrant flow in the middle 18th century was the one to Hawaii, where
Portuguese migrants introduced, among other things, the "ukelele" -- your
cavaquinho -- now a symbol of Hawaiian music.)
2. After the civil war of 1834-1838, when roughly one million (or what we call
ten
lakh here) Portuguese, or about 20% of the nation's population of those days,
crossed the Atlantic to make a living in Brazil.
3. During the 1960 and the first half of the '70s decade, when the Portuguese
mass
migrated to Europe (countries like France, Luxembourg, Germany and UK) and also
the US, Canada, Venezuela and South Africa, at a pace of more than 150,000/year.
4. The current one on the run (you, amigo Bernado, thank your stars you are not
in
Portugal but in the "Special Admin region of China under One Country, Two
Systems")
is headed mainly towards Europe and Africa (Angola.) Wonder which direction you
would run, and who you would heap curse upon, were you now in the downturned
land of the multi-coloured "papagaio."
Let's turn to the scene of in-migrations in Portugal, what you seemed to say
below.
It is not at all true that Portugal had no problem with migrants. First, there
were the
slaves. As locals left in increasing numbers for Africa, Asia, Hawaii and
Brazil, slaves
were brought in to fill the vacuum. A few lakh slaves from Africa dwelled in
Portugal.
Slavery was finally abolished in Portugal only in 1875.
Since the late 1990s, in-migrant flows from ex-African colonies (Cabo Verde and
Angola), Brazil -- and more recently Ukraine, Moldova and other ex-Soviet
nations,
have descended on Portugal. The actual figure of these alone is placed at
6,00,000
(there are 2,00,000 illegal migrants.) And what figures are you talking about,
sitting
in Macao?
Portugal today faces problems not only with in-migrants from ex-colonies
themselves,
but with the second and third generations. Result, of course, of bad urbanism,
a poor
educational system and generous doles handed out politically that spurs
marginality.
All said, I'm rather surprised you are so short on updates on Portugal. All
said, again,
and in fairness, Portugal is considered by other European countries as a role
model
of migrant integration. Unlike Goa, where we first welcome them, and then curse
them!
Have a bit of patience, amigo. If you will, read me through the last few pieces
on the
migrant problem as it exists in Goa, and where the blame lies -- as I perceive
of course.
Until then, I may not be tempted to reply to your tangential barbs, unless you
reply with
specifcs, and seriously.
Rgds, v
PS: If you have patience, baba Bernado, your Qs on why "Ghannttis" got jobs in
Goa
when there were no jobs available to Goans (which made Goans look for better
pastures
elsewhere, like you) will hopefully be answered. Remember that each Sunday I
must
write a column with a word length of 650 words. This story cannot be told in
one go.
PPS: Which "country" called Goa, in the world, are you talking about? If it is
the same
Goa you and I love, tell me any point of time in history when Goa was a
"country." If you
allude to brief intervals in the rather long Kadamba period, re-read your
history. They
were largely feudatories of reigning kingdoms of the times. (Water on a duck's
back,
I know, FN asked you the same Q though in different words!) -v
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bernado Colaco" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 7:54 PM
Subject: [Goanet] Goodbye Goans ahoy ghantis
Prof Val,
I think you are off the tangent like amigo JC. The question here is does a country have to be usurped by a migrant population just
because their own (not all) have left the soil? Goa is a free for all. It is better to understand the situation now than later, when
there will be no Goa left. Please do not come with khobrio of hate sentiments etc.
BC
===============
----- Original Message -----
From: "Valmiki Faleiro" <[email protected]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Goodbye Goans ahoy ghantis
Dear Bernado,
And it looks like, in your exceptionally unexpressed (below) hate-India
sentiment,
you forgot some basic facts on the issues of out-migration and in-migration that
affected Portugal down history (hardly relevant to what I was talking about --
Goa.)
Albeit, if you would like me to give you another "baby story" on that, let me
know.
Don't get blinded by your pet peeves.
Warm regards from rainy Goa, v
=============
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bernado Colaco" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 8:27 PM
Subject: [Goanet] Goodbye Goans ahoy ghantis
It looks like the writer is telling some stories to babies. Have other
populations around the world been usurped because they have
migrated to other countries? Take the example of Portugal 5million live in rest
of the world. But is Portugal inundated with
millions of migrants? The migration into Goa is free flow since its invasion in
61. This can be stopped only if Goa is made into a
special admin region.
The writer says that there were no jobs post 61 for Goans and about emerging markets migration. How can the ghantis take Goan
places
if there were no jobs for Goans?
BC
Finally dawned 19-Dec-1961. By late 1963, Goans were in charge of their own
destiny. But, in yet another twist of irony, Goa went into a tailspin.. Today,
her
demography is beyond redemption.
Post 1961, education facilities improved. But political improvidence was
obsessed
about Goa's merger with Maharashtra, without a thought to her economic welfare.
Education led to no local jobs. With emerging world markets, Goans emigrated in
larger numbers. And folks from the rest of India took their place.
