Dear FN, This is no combat. Nor do we need to fight with our lives to “prove ourselves right.” However it is necessary to go to the bottom of a matter, unearth the truth and enable the readers to form their own considerd opinions from a position of knowledge and not of ignorance and blind faith. Hence I abhor sweeping matters under a carpet; the issue does not end there but keeps cropping up at repeated nauseating intervals, wasting precious time and bandwidth. It is not the question of winning or losing an argument or of deciding who was right in the first place, but of arriving at the truth.
On Sun, 12 Dec 2010 Frederick Noronha <[email protected]> wrote: << If the script and dialect used is one they are not familiar with (or one they see as being pressurised to use), there will be even fewer who will read it.>> Response: Sounds logical. So, which script-dialect combination would you advocate in order to avoid this situation? And why do you think your system should work? << Are you implying that a large number of Goan Hindus (or Goan Muslims, for that matter) read Konkani in any script?>> Response: No. But please reread my post; do you think this is a fair inference therefrom? << Even if people don't read a language, I believe they should have the right to decide about the dialect and script (i) which is used to teach their children this language in schools (ii) which is accepted as "official" in contemporary Goa (iii) which is used to judge their efficiency in the language when they sit bofore an interview panel for a government job?>> Response: Sounds like an enlightened philosophy. Could you cite just one place in the entire world where this doctrine has been or is being implemented? Alternatively, what makes Goa the ideal place to make a beginning? << on what grounds is the choice of Antruzi acceptable as the standard form of Konkani?>> Response: Let us assume that Antruzi is a bad choice. Which other form do you think would be generally acceptable, and on what grounds? << if we have an official language which hardly anyone is using to write to the government in, why have an official language at all?>> Response: As a matter of fact we do not yet have an official language in operation, it is only on paper. For over 20 years, no government has lifted a finger towards its implementation. It was only Churchill Alemao who made a sincere effort during his shortlived tenure as Minister for Official Language. << But the reality is that some dialects are treated as more equal than others.>> Response: The greater reality is that the interviews are just a sham. No government job is obtained on merit alone, dialect or no dialect. As a senior journalist, I doubt you are unaware of this fact. Truth shall prevail. Sotachench zoit zatolem. Mog asum. Sebastian Borges
