Dear Jorge, your comic piece was such a welcome relief from the usual boring posts on Goanet about the state of corruption in Goa when we all know the Goans themselves are hugely responsible for that corruption being major though sometimes silent participants in it.
On the other hand while the East Indians have no hand in the corruption environment in Bombay, you cannot turn the community into the victim and stretch out your hand for the dole of reservation. While there have been poor and landless in your community, most of your brethren benefited hugely from the urbanization of Bombay like the Goans who owned houses and lands in Goa and are benefitting from sky-rocketing real estate even in places that once nobody cared to walk through. For example when your Bandra landowning brothers were getting crores of rupees from builders along with spacious flats for each family member, why did they not keep aside a measly crore or so for their poorer kinfolk from places like Bassein, Kalyan and Ambernath who were still farmers and fishermen. Not to worry, they too eventually became rich men although not on the scale of those in Bandra, Andheri and Wadala. And now you expect the Bishops of Bombay to look after them? You have a point with the Bishops insofar as they supervised the abuse of the church lands of many parishes left by humble and charitable East Indians in the burbs. I have known many such examples. In my own erstwhile residence of Amboli, Andheri, I have been witness to many spinsters leaving large acreage and prime land to St. Blaises Church in the village. It was Diocesan policy to have an East Indian pastor although slowly the parish numbers of Goan and Mangalorean Catholics far outnumbered the original inhabitants. All those East Indian pastors have systematically depleted the assets of the parish. Similarly in Goa, there are many poor Goan Catholics and Hindus in the northern districts (Novas Conquestas). Instead of selling off communidade property in a phased and organized manner and depositing those sales in a Goa Sovereign Fund for the benefit of those and other Goan poor, the Ministers and their village proxies have converted those into personal Swiss bank accounts. No doubt shortly all Goans will be moaning the loss of their livelihood and asking for reservations for Govt jobs. At the least the Goans have no sense of entitlement. If they are miserable, they will pack their bags and move to Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad or the Cruise Lines, the Gulf and Canada or Australia. The East Indian wants his flat, his fields and his Bandra feast and whatever else he thinks he can dream of getting back. Why can't he learn to do what the Goan does? Lastly I could not help noting your "To be a True Christian the basic qualification is the person should have a Christian name and deep faith in Lord Jesus Christ & Blessed Mother Mary". Wrong, wrong and wrong. Names have nothing to do with it. Christians other than Catholics do not believe Mary has a role with deep faith and if you believe we are all sinners as we are led to believe, than none of us are true Christians, who must necessarily be without sin. Keep your humor going George, you've got your timing just right. Roland. Toronto.
