Fred Noronhan said that Gabe Menezes is doing a good job of being inhouse critic though I fail to understand why he used a smiley. Was it a joke or a poke? He also said that criticism is tolerable upto a point and beyond it it becomes counter-productive. I would like to hear from Fred what yardstick he would use to say that the final point is reached. In this particular case of the Global Goan Convention, I haven't seen Fred express his views. He would rather hold his comments but would not hold back telling others that criticism is fine as long as it goes to a point after which it becomes counter-productive. As a critic himself, since he writes the Devil's Adovate column in Oheraldo (Aug 24), Fred perhaps knows when his criticism or praise has reached that point when he would go no further. He doesn't seem to be interested in what the convention achieved or not achieved but he was keen to ask goanetters for information on the Goan population in their respective areas. This accumulation of information made his his recent column where he titled the piece, Who's Goan Where? Like some headings to his pieces, I found this one also hard to understand. What the hell is the question mark doing in the heading, may I ask the erstwhile columnist. Fred has laid out the cold figures, and that too without acknowledging the persons who gave him the details with the exception of just one. That privileged person is John Nazareth whose photo was on the Goanvoice.uk website. By the way John still lives in Toronto, more specifically in Mississauga, and not lived in Uganda and Canada, as Fred mention., He says that John is a statistician but does not mention John's field of specialization. To the best of my knowledge, John worked in the aviation industry or perhaps still does. Neither does Fred questions John on his methodology and sources. John has pulled the figures from the sky, and Fred has said that John "believes" there are so many Goans in UK, Kuwait, etc. The disturbing word is "believes". Will Fred "believe" if I say I "believe" that there are 200,000 Goans in Canada? Roland Francis has provided his own figures and it is open to questions how accurate Roland could be or, for that matter, John. I wish to know when John "undertook the task of calculating Goan migration level worldwide" and whether he tapped into the census figures in those countries which in mentioned. This sort of "guessestimates" may help in giving an overview of Goan population worldwide but it would not pass the scrunity of a serious reearcher looking into the figures of Diaspora Goans. Maybe when the Goa government sets up the institute of dispora studies, as mentioned by the NRI department, will serious follow into how many Goans and where they live around the world. Fred says that even if Pakistani Goans are "based oversea too, their place of birth makes them suspect in the yes of Indian consular officials." This is far from the fact. Pakistani Goans are not suspect, but indeed fall into the same trap as other Pakistanis who seek to have a visitor's visa to India. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) forwards all Pakistani applications for visa to the Ministry of Home for checking the bonafides of the applicant and also run their names through the police database. Fred asks, "What do these figures tell us? This is resource we've beem ignoring for too long. Unfortunately, the Goa-expat equation is still based on mutual selfishness; "Goa looks to its expats only for their remittances, and to make a fast buck on their affluence. At the same time, the expats have traditionally though of Goa only as a place for the occasional holiday, and to flee back to in case of a crisis. For example, Kuwait in the early 1990s and Uganda in the 1970s." Fred misses the purpose of holding Global Goan Conventions. It is to make expats Goans feel part of the their homeland and also to seek views how best the Goa government could serve them and, in return, the expats could feel "at home" in Goa that these annual rituals have been held. Wasn't a sesssion held on NRI issues at the London convention? Weren't there discussions on NRIs at the conventions held in Oman and Kuwait? The NRI department must have got a good feedback from these conventions and probably made some suggestions to the Goa government. However, since no reports on past conventions are on the globalgoans website many of us who were not present at these conventions are not aware what discussions took place. In similar fashion, the annual Bharatiya Pravasi Divas is held by the central government to provide both the government and the diaspora Indian community to exchange views and provide initiaves for plans that could be mutually beneficial or maybe even unilaterally beneficial to either of the party. It is through such conventions that the central government has initiated the Person of India Origin (PIO) card and followed it up with the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card. The central government has also okayed giving voting rights to the NRIs but expect the NRIs to have their names on the electoral rolls of their constituencies. Goans, like their fellow Indians from other states, have sent remittances to Goa either to build new houses, set up business or provide for their near and dear ones. Many have deposits in banks with an eye to come and settle down in Goa in their retirement ages. It would have been better if Fred had found "guessestimate" from government sources how much remittances follow into Goa annually. But that's not his job; he would rather ask all expat Goans to tell him how much they remit to Goa each year. Where does Fred want expat Goans to spend their holidays if not in Goa? Expats Goans come to Goa to inhale the Goan air, meet their parents or relatives, take in the festivities of the land or participate in individual events such as weddings, family reunions, etc. From my own point of view, I don't see Goa as a place for the "occasional holiday". I would rather come to Goa every six months if I had leave from work and also if I had enough money. The NRI Goan from the Middle East countries go to Goa on annual leave that is paid for by the employers as per the law of the land. I chose to come to Goa for medical attention, but for circumstances mentioned earlier on this forum I had to go elsewhere. My spending in Goa would be, in Fred's terms, helping Goa "make a fast buck." Like any other state, for example, Kerala, Goa too want to fill their coffers with NRI money or foreign visitors. Isn't tourism bringing in good amount of mullah to Goa and helping the hospitality industry survive? When tourism falls, the tourism industry wails. Goa has embarked on "medical tourism" just as Bangalore and Tamil Nadu has done. Mumbai attracts lot of Middle East Arabs who find it cheaper to come to the city for medical needs. Here's a story idea for Fred to chase on what percentage of foreign medical tourists come to Goa as compared to Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu? At the Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, I met a young Sri Lankan boy who came from Norway to seek medical attention for his burnt hand. Yes Fred, expat Goans from Uganda came running to Goa and elsewhere, such as Britain and Canada, after the Asian expulsion in Uganda. Also true that Kuwait Goans came rushing to Goa during the invasion of the country by Irag. Do you hold Goans guilty of coming back into the embrace of its mother country during such crisis? Where would you expect them to run? The Indian government sent planes to Kuwait to bring back NRIs during the war. Is India, therefore, guilty of going out to held its citizens caught in the grip of war? 'During the military action by Iraq in Lebanon, Canada airlifted thousands of Canadian Lebanese who hadn't lived in Canada for years. It raised criticism that these Lebanese are only Canadians in name and they think of Canada only in troubled times. However, since their were Canada it was left to Canada to provide them with aid on humanitarian grounds though not legally. What if Fred's family had decided to stay in Brazil and not come to Goa would Fred hold the same opinion as he holds of expats today? He says, "In a way, we're all expats. We have lived somewhere else, wish to go there, or have relatives overseas." Since Fred's family moved to Goa when he was young Fred may have had no choice to stay in Brazil. Maybe he DID have a choice when he grew up to choose Brazil as his country of residence since he was born there and possibly eligible for a Brazilian passport. If someone like Fred wishes to live in Goa we cannot fault his choice. I sometimes feel I made a big mistake going to Canada and there were times I wanted to return to India but circumstances prevented me from doing so. Fred's concluding para, "Tiny Goa whose strength has long been its ability to plug-in to the outside world, would ignore this potent resource at its own peril. More so in times when knowledge is in increasingly the level of power in our planet," seems to go over my head. Does it mean that Goa derives its strength from its diaspora? If so, it would be insulting to the local population who have maintained and sustained Goa in whatever way possible. Goa, like any other state, would not want to cut off its ties with the expat population. In fact, the Global Goan Convention is one route to maintain contact between the motherland and its overseas children. It is because Goa wants the new generation of expat Goans to learn and understand Goa's multidimensional personality that the Goa government has introduced the Know Goa Programme through the initiative of its NRI department. The Global Goan Conventions and the Know Goa Programme come with high cost to the Goa government and, as we have seen, it has generated enough controversy. A "rethink" or "doublethink" is called for on the part of the Goa government if it wants to keep alive these two initiatives of the NRI department or abandon them for reasons of cost. As for the second part of the last para, may I ask Fred what has "knowledge" and its use as a "lever of power" got to do with the economic benefits that accrues to the Goa government in keeping a healthy relationship with the Goan diaspora? I cannot fathom any connection between "knowledge" and "lever of power" in the equation of Goa's fervent desire to keep its diaspora within its embrace for mutual gain in not just economic field but also socio-cultural spheres. Look at Kerala who it bents over backwards to help its diaspora community. Goa is possibly doing whatever little it can to make diaspora Goans feel they are not forgotten or ignored.
Eugene Correia
