I recently asked a Goan friend of mine to view Roland's review of my book on goanet. The individual concerned was born and raised in East Africa during the colonial era. Having seen some of the subsequent posts on goanet, this is what he had to say in a recent message to me:
Quote:The British Colonial Government was about a hundred years ahead of its time. It did what is being done today by several corporations; to keep cost down, it simply outsourced the clerical work to Goans. But unlike their corporate counterparts today, the British Government treated their workers as “employees” and not “outside contractors”, and they rewarded them with fair salaries, access to medical care, residential quarters in some instances, bursaries for their children to pursue higher education, a lifelong pension, a welcome mat to those who chose to live in Britain, ... and the English language that has helped Goans prosper in their adopted lands and which some of us, regrettably, use so fluently to condemn British colonialism.Unquote. Lets be fair - we were not treated as slaves, nor were we "kicked out"; The choice to move from a country and people we loved was purely our own, and was made largely for family reasons. Mervyn Maciel Mervyn Maciel --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------