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Planning to get married in Goa? www.weddingsetcgoa.com Making your 'dream wedding' possible ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Noble Peace Award for President Obama. People are divided on the decision taken by the Norwegian Noble Prize Committee (NNPC) to award President Obama with a Noble Prize. While it may seem to be premature for some people many of us may have overlooked the fact that he is the first Black American President in the history of America. This in itself is an achievement as he has risen up from the down trodden community and he has commenced some good initiatives for the people of America. Instead of putting spanner in his good works it is better to put an Award to make him do some greater work being at the helm of his career. Encouragement brings out the best in people. Criticism brings out the worst. How many of us fall in each category! We Goans need to learn from all this. How many of our genuine Goans have contributed and continuing a great job in keeping our Goan culture and identity alive? We know a few Goans in Goa, Middle East, Canada, Spain etc; and what encouragement have we given to our Goans other than cheap shooting of e-mails and washing dirty linen in public? Do we know that Goanet is also read by non-Goans in India and elsewhere as there is no restriction to be a member of Goanet. Recently a south Indian said to me - Do you know Mr. Lobo why Goans are not progressing? I was curious and asked him why to which he replied "Because your community is suffering from Tall Poppy syndrome (Aum shanoh in Konkani) and Jealousy (Nosai). Let us therefore wake up to these observations by non-Goans and if necessary apologise to our fellow Goenkars if you believe we have hurt people because of ego or perhaps miss judgement. The most important commandment from Jesus was "Love one another as I have loved you" This is precisely what is missing in us Goans and quicker we start loving our community the quicker we will stand to gain. Zeal without knowledge is like fire without light. Oscar C. Lobo Melbourne.
