For some reasons I am late to post these comments about this veteran goanetter, but yet I wish to say a few things to celebrate the life of a person who was involved with this very vibrant modern communications media for Goans worldwide.
Dr. Cornel da Costa. When I become 70 - if I live to become 70 - I'm afraid I'll be a morose, sour. frustrated old fool - probably bed-ridden and with no one to talk to. Sometimes I wonder why I am not one already. So I do admire people who are capable of engaging one's attention even when they are at an age when I can see their companions have just just withered away. Cornel, I feel was one such guy. I never saw his face but yet to me he was alive as if he was just out of his teens and raring to go at life. In the brief period I had some cyber-interactions with him he came out as someone who had a great deal of knowledge, which he wanted to pass on to others - he was in a true sense a teacher. He did not want to teach because of his salary but because ... well ...simply because he thought others should know what he knew. We both had a similar Marxist orientation although like me he used his reading not dogmatically, but as a tool to understand the world. Maybe that is why we got on well enough although we disagreed often enough which is when I would infuriate him by writing to Cornel-Mam as I used to tease him - in Konkani. I knew that Cornel who was brought up in Kenya like me, would have to ask a favour from someone else to translate what I said as he did not have my Goenkar advantage of knowing Konkani. Whilst corresponding with me, I think that he felt that I had some talent and was wasting my time in Goa with us poor Indians here, and he once sent me a long letter explaining how I could emigrate to the West and make a better living there. I am not sure about his judgement about this (I don't think the English speaking peoples need an Indian to teach them English), and so I politely declined his offer for help in this direction - but yet I was touched by his concern. If he had come to Goa I'm sure we would have tried to meet and I would have much more to tell you about him. I would like to end by saying that I am a little saddened that much of the discussion about Cornel on goanet has been quite negative. Instead of telling us about his life in Kenya and UK or his services to e-Goa or to academia it is focussed much on his relationship with someone who people think was his enemy but I think was his alter-ego and if they met personally, would quite possibly be a friend - Mario Gouveia. It is true that he used to have fierce discussions with MG but also with many other people, including me just as I have had fierce arguments with Cornel and MG. But I personally feel these were life-enhancing debates and arguments for Cornel. Otherwise he would be just another brain-dead uncle. But even if I am wrong, I think that it is not right to make use of those debates and arguments that Cornel had as an opportunity to point fingers at Cornel's and one's own common enemies in order to make them feel that they are criminals. Augusto -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal, Moira, Bardez, Goa, India E [email protected] or [email protected] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350
