Dear Marion,
I am acutely sorry if the words 'pleasure and promotion' hurt the feeling of
our Goans.
When I said that, I meant those Goans who have sold off every inch of their
property they inherited from their peers in Goa and vamoosed from the land of
birth, not to have any connection with Goa any more and/or come as strangers to
their own land and stay in hotel resort, enjoy and go back. And those
properties have landed in the hands of rank outsiders to do what they want
with them. One such property is in Baga Calangute area now with a hotel resort
on it, mostly illegally expanded with impunity through bribes and inducements
to the extent that the beach area of the property has been converted into a
lush green garden by leveling off sand dunes and dumping over 200 trucks of red
mud to sustain the garden which cannot grow on the sandy/salty beach with
indigenous beach vegetation.
And we Goans in Goa now have to file Public Interest Litigations in the
Honourable High Court to challenge the desecration of the natural beach
habitat. Naturally, the new owner is a North Indian who has never seen a beach
in his life much less live on it, knows nothing about the ecological disaster
he is creating by wiping off the sand dunes.
I am sour on this point and nothing else.
'Excuse moi' if I have hurt your/other's feelings.
br & cheers
floriano
GSRP/GEAG/PPS/MNE
www.goasu-raj.org
PS: I am aware though that some Goans had no other alternative but to give away
their land at throw-away prices and scoot because of the Land to the tiller
Act, the Tenancy Act of the monster unGoan DB Bandodkar, who wanted to finish
Goa completely.
----- Original Message -----
From: Marion Pereira
To: floriano
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 4:03 PM
Subject: Re: Goan boy
Floriano,
Whilst you communicate elegantly and intelligently, there is no need to
write off such intelligence with a few wrong words. You are right in your
communication but for the bit on Goans fleeting abroad for pleasure and
promotion.
NOT ALTOGETHER RIGHT !
Historically, I believe, people boarded a fleet of ships unknowingly to
go to work and were separated from their families. Whilst there have been some
who had no chance of getting out of a rut caused by an alcoholic parent and
when the opportunity arose they grabbed. Yes there are others who left to
better their lives and that is how they can now invest in Goa.
Remember that God took the Jewish Community from their original
destination to another called the promised land !
kr
Marion
--- On Sat, 30/10/10, floriano <[email protected]> wrote:
From: floriano <[email protected]>
Subject: Goan boy
To: "Marion Pereira" <[email protected]>, "fiona lobo"
<[email protected]>, "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!"
<[email protected]>, "Jason Keith Fernandes"
<[email protected]>, "Oscar Lobo" <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, 30 October, 2010, 18:12
Dear Jason Keith,
Let me tell you this sincerely.
You are like a son to me. Your dad and I have been class mates during
our academic years.
I still address him by his pet name 'Amor'. And I know that he is as
good a fighter as I am.
Having said that, I have always believed that one is never too old to
learn, even from one's children.
That understanding dilutes your "apun odlo' complex that you believe
is a negative streak in Goans (at least in my case).
Coming back to the case of the Australian Boy , when a father feels
that there is no future in remaining in Australia anymore (due to this mugging
incident), it becomes a defeat of dreams one nursed for the future of his
children having giving up everything one had in one's own land for a future for
one's off-springs.
That is why I had used the word 'concerned'
I remember my mother's attitude when I was a kid. If I had to come
home beaten and crying from play, there was the likeliest chance that I would
get beaten more for having gone to play at all. Therefore, the complaining
streak was nipped in the bud and this singular attitude of my dear mom who is
now 88 years and bedridden makes me take care of her every need on day to day,
hour to hour- basis. Because it is the payment for building a tough son that
I am.
In the same manner, this father of the Goan boy in Australia is
expected to have a similar attitude. But when he sees that his son may lose his
eye, it makes all the difference. Again the word 'concern' I mentioned.
It must be a tough choise for a father to decide to return home and
forfeit his life-time dreams. It shatters a person from within as against from
without.
Coming to the dialogue mode, we Goans have been dialoguing,
discussing and deliberating for years together since 1961. All that is
happening is that outsiders (read Delhi'ites, Maharastrians and the RSS fellas)
are taking the upper hand with us Goans and reducing us to mere jokers (
intellectual) with ever so more brains than brawn. Look at the way the Navy is
consolidating its position in Goa citing security reasons. And what is it
doing? Sweet nothing. They cannot even manage the airport runway where they
allow a fuel tanker to plow through the runway, taking days to mend it. In the
bargain vital civilian flights are disrupted and Goa pays. And BTW the Navy
took over a civilian airport in an illegal invasion and is holding on to it as
if it is their father's property. Well, you might say that the Navy is our
Navy. Yes. But Goa, being as small as it is against the rest of India, does
not have the obligation of catering to the national security with its blood. Be
sides, the Navy in Goa is on HOLIDAY, vacationing entirely and competely
wanting more islands off Baina for picnicing.
Why am I talking about the Navy?
Because, I believe that young Goan intellectuals like you must
dialogue more on this and less on less important matters like the muggings in
Australia of Goans who have fled Goa for their own pleasure and promotion.
They could all come back to their Goa not as prodigal sons and
daughters but by right of being Goans, if only we could throw out the people
like the Navy, the national parties, and the born and bred Goan chamchas who
are making the mess of every inch of Goa being their bumchums, feathering their
own nests, elections after elections and helping the marauders to consolidate
their positions more and more each year, each month.
I am most interested in this type of a dialogue
Capice my friend???
Abracos to you from this end too.
and b/rgds
cheers
floriano
GSRP/GEAG/PPS/MNE
www.goasu-raj.org
----- Original Message -----
From: Jason Keith Fernandes
To: floriano
Cc: Oscar Lobo ; Marion Pereira ; fiona lobo
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 7:07 PM
Subject: Re: Goan boy
Dear Floriano,
(and you continue to remain dear to me - especially for the brave
and wonderful initiatives that you have and continue to take)
I am not sure what you mean by 'DIALOGUE MODES', but let me hazard
a response anyway.
I wonder if you recall a column i wrote on the fact that I do not
think that we Goans have a crab mentality. What I DO believe that Goans suffer
from is an unwillingness to discuss, ie. willingness to listen to another point
of view and respond meaningfully and respectfully to it.
This is not surprising given the 'apun odlo' attitude that we have
created, not least because of the caste and class hierarchies in our villages,
that are invariably criminally humiliating.
The more and more I think of it, the more convinced I am that this
is a significant lack that prevents us from moving forward in solidarity with
one another.
To listen to the other, only educates us further. We need not have
to agree, but we see how the other side is thinking and allows us to strengthen
our own argument, or modify it to embrace the other. Discussion and dialogue is
important because it is when one listens and discusses, that one develops the
cooperative frameworks necessary to take action.
In the instant case, I would hate to see an initiative like yours
water itself down and get caught into the nationalist trap of 'RAcism in
Australia'. The past Indian exercise was more to support its global ambitions
than about addressing the needs of South Asians in Australia. There is racism
in Australia, but can we think of other ways in which we can address it, by
building different kinds of networks with Australian groups?
If on the other hand the concern was for supporting the family of
the boy - monetarily and emotionally, then I have wasted so much of our
combined time.
sincerely,
abracos,
Jason
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