George, your slip underlined a valuable point! Who is to decide who's a "ethnically Goan" and who's not? While you are using progressive language to assuage our fears about your stance, I see you also go by the "ethnically Goan" logic. Is there such a thing?
If so, what is the cut-off point? If we advocate curbs against people on grounds of ethnicity, migration or origin, do we support the same against Goans elsewhere (without the fig-leaf of an excuse that Goans don't overwhelm others!) For instance, in Idi Amin's Uganda? Are you saying that someone should get a Green Card in a few years, but not accepted as having the potential to contribute positively to Goa inspite of spending a generation here? This locals debate is a bizarre one. If I'm not mistaken, at Keri-Ponda, when locals were agitated about the 'locals' not getting jobs, they meant villagers, if not people from the vaddo in which the plant was being set up. The funniest one I heard was earlier this week, when a lady from a South Goa village said she was considered an "outsider" because she was married (and hence, should be based in her husband's village, and not her ancestral one!) FN PS: You guys are just finding a convenient scapegoat to pin all of Goa's ills on -- the migrant. Even a perfunctory look would show that all kinds of people, both local and migrant, are to blame for whatever you'll perceive as Goa's problems. You know who were the builders of the concrete of rent-backs along the coast, and who bought them. You know who sold lands to create concrete jungles and who left loopholes in the law to ensure that the "coconut tree is NOT a tree" in today's Goa. There are some big out-of-state players (DLF or Vedanta), whose actions would have strong impact on Goa's future. But to use this as an excuse for an anti-migrant binge isn't becoming of someone with the intelligence and good intentions of a George Pinto. 2009/12/9 George Pinto <[email protected]>: > Yes Tony, I stand corrected. Anna is > ethnically Goan. Mea culpa. > The rest of my argument stands: i.e. > rich and poor migrants who engage in > illegal activities in Goa and detract from > Goa should not be welcome in Goa. -- Frederick Noronha :: +91-832-2409490 ANOTHER GOA: http://tiny.cc/anothergoa Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fredericknoronha Writing, editing, alt.publishing, photography, journalism
