On 23 August 2012 05:19, Carvalho <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm happy to see Cyprian's mail shot into cyberspace with Goanet reader > titled in bold, CONTROVERSY. Nothing sells like controversy even in Goan > cyberspace. Those who write controversial stuff must be writhing in pain > knowing their articles seldom get so much mileage. > > It is true that I referred to the East African Goan as aging and doddery > (as in trembling with age). I had no idea at the time that referring to a > community as aging would cause such a brou ha ha. I certainly didn't mean > to hurt anyone. After all, I wasn't writing something particularly > contentious, libel, accusatory, inflamatory or derogatory about this > community. I had no idea, it was indeed a crime to age. > > Anyone who knows my writing for the past seven years knows that I don't do > sensationalism.
RESPONSE: Come off it, please! You had to ditch the stuff about the alleged double agent on threat of legal action. > That I am, at the core a quiet writer preferring to mull over things. That > I have managed to write for the past seven years, more prominently for the > past five, without causing hurt or calls for libel and defamation suits, I > hold to my credit. It is however impossible to be a writer and not err > occasionally. To cause hurt without meaning too. No writer, worth his salt, > has not erred occassionally, or not used words that are in hindsight > inappropriate. And if I have caused hurt, unintended as it was, I apologise. > RESPONSE: At long last, an apology but why did it have to take so long? like pulling teeth. > > However, what is particularly hurtful to me, is that instead of > remembering a record of four years of service to the East African Goan > community of London, which has resulted in countless GoanVoice UK columns > praising them, one book drawing their ethnographies, securing funds to > record their oral histories, partnering with institutions to archive them, > travelling on foot, car, train and bus carrying lumbersom equipment until I > was physically sick, to record them, working day and night to transcribe > them, producing a documentary and currently working on a publication to > preserve these stories, I am pilloried without redemption. > > Writing should elicit a rebuttal. That is the main purpose of writing. It > shouldn't however elicit a crusade -mostly led by people who have an axe to > grind. > > That a short and fragile memory is also a Goan thing, is sad. > > As my mother always reminds me - today is a sad day, don't worry my > darling, something better will happen tomorrow. > COMMENT: Something better does not always happen tomorrow - I have lost a ton trading and the next day was worse! I commend you on doing the right thing, albeit belatedly. As for a crusade against you, a bit far fetched, I know of a lot of E.A. Goans who have been hurt - not because you called it like you saw it but because they took you into their homes and you observed them doddering and used this as a parody in your Article - that is the crux of the problem, don't need to be a Rocket Scientist, no not even an M.B.A. to fathom out what was wrong...plain common sense. > Best, > selma carvalho > -- DEV BOREM KORUM Gabe Menezes.
