Frederick Noronha wrote:
Cecil, The debate below is about obscenely best-selling authors twisting
the English language out of their laziness, or without any method to their
madness.
The debate on English in today's Goa is quite another thing. If I'm being
accurate here, it saw Selma faulting Goans back in Goa (probably first
generation learners) for speaking poor quality English, with others joining
in (was it Santosh Helekar?) to suggest that if they can't speak English
well they (meaning, these sections) should probably stick to Konkani.
RESPONSE:
Dear Frederick,
Even if your interpretation of Jerry's point was accurate, which it is not, the
larger point is that you insist on disenfranchising viewpoints purely because
they belong to non-resident (some like me only temporarily non-resident) Goans.
And you use this rebuttal every time regardless of its appropriateness. To
illustrate: about a year ago Vinita Coelho had made exactly the same point in
the Herald, that because Goans speak not only poor English but poor Hindi as
well, they do not fare well in the job market outside of Goa. At the time, you
had taken the liberty of circulating her article on various Goan forums. I can
only presume you did this because you agreed with her or at the very least
respected the point she was trying to make. On the other hand, you felt the
need to turn the point I was making into a disparaging assault on me and accuse
me of elitist snobbery.
You seem to uphold certain ideals; the most constant being the need for
Non-Resident Goans to give up their livelihoods and return to Goa.
Unfortunately, mass humanity doesn't work like that. Migration is an essential
element of survival and integral to the evolution of the human species. Blame
it on the first homo-sapien who left the plains of Africa and went in search of
food elsewhere.
As an old friend, let me in sum say, that of late you have changed. While the
confidence that success has brought you is attractive this sense of
infallibility and self-righteouness is not.
Best,
Selma
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