Roland Francis: Gulf Goans (The Conclusion) - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter, 19 May 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk The entry into Bahrain seems to have been the proverbial opening of the floodgates for Goans in India to work and eventually settle abroad via the small states of the Persian Gulf. Although there was a trickle even before Bahrain that flowed to the other emirates specifically Dubai and Kuwait, it was Bahrain that proved to be the milestone and the watershed for the Goan community. It was the sixties and seventies. There was not enough economic activity in India to sustain the growing population and to provide jobs for the legions of young men and women making their exits from secondary schools and higher education. Oil that was discovered in the Arabian Peninsula thirty to fifty years before, was slowly bearing fruit. Construction in the desert cities was the first to create demand for employment along with the oilfield and drilling industry with finance and banking not far behind. What better opportunity for educated Indians who the Arabs favored since they were hard working, non-political and non-trouble makers. Among the Indians just as the British had, the Arabs preferred Goans. They were westernized, the job seekers were mostly Christian (people of the Book), and they were the perfect means to build businesses that were raring to go with all that spare money flowing into the local economies from oil exports. The British too who were no longer the masters of that region but to whom the Arabs still looked up to as demi-Gods, naturally themselves looked to Goans as their underlings and for their office staff. A Bombay bank worker whose pay on the high side was about Rs 500 per month, now could suddenly expect 8 to 10 times that salary if he secured a Gulf position. The word spread and soon Gulf recruiters were reaching out to Goa through their existing Goan network. Some Goans in key positions saw an opportunity to help their village folk and it became common in some villages for every idle boy to find a job in their sponsors company. This was especially fortuitous for the folk back in Goa and Bombay since these were the bleakest years of the era where India had decided that they were not going to import a single item if the exporter was not willing to transfer sophisticated technology to help in Indian manufacture. Coupled with some other silly prohibitions like that of liquor and gold, the average Bombay resident would have killed to enjoy a carton of State Express 555 cigarettes, a 'Made in England' box of chocolates, a French perfume and of course the ubiquitous bottle of Johnnie Walker which was good as gold at a wedding reception. All this and more the Gulf Goan could bring back. It was Santa Claus coming home to please the relatives and as any Goan knows, there were many outstretched hands that needed to be filled. Such situations were not without their own humor. New houses got built, the Goan economy stimulated, progress commenced. All on the dime of the Gulf Goan remittance. The mines were in operation of course but on a low key since Japan and the rest of the world didn't care for Goa's poor grade ore and China was still in its manufacturing infancy. What the Portuguese didn't possess to drive the market, Arab oil now did. The fact that later on money would flow, albeit not in the right places or the right areas is all due to the corruption that India festers in. Gulf money was clean, Goans were hardworking but times were going to change mostly for the worse from then on. There would be more money coming Goa's way but it would not be clean and only a few would enjoy its ill-gotten fruit. =============================