Re: [Goanet] Odds In Favour Of Indian-Origin Chancellor Rishi Sunak As Pressure Mounts On British Prime Minister Boris Johnson To Resign

[Eddie Fernandes]

Hello Anita,



I was prompted by the subject line of the post to forward news about the
impending elections in Portugal and hope we can all join hands to pray for
Antonio Costa’s success.  Would you not agree?



Cheers



Eddie Fernandes

On Fri, 14 Jan 2022 at 21:04, Anita Dias  wrote:

> That's good to hear Eddie. I have heard and know about him but immaterial
> *if* he - Rishi Sunak was present at the BYOB party.
> *His integrity will come into play if he was at it.*
> That is what I am focusing on.
> If he is in the line-up for being the next PM; it is an important aspect.
>
> A shameful incident that took place in May 2020 is only now being
> revealed!!
> Therefore--Would it not be better to know now then later?
> WHO was at it???
>
> We know his dad ( an MD) is from Kenya...AND his mum Usha ( a pharmacist)
> is from Tanzania ie Dar; that she went to Shaaban Roberts Sec School.
> Parents with integrity!
>
> Goans - whether in Portugal or India or anywhere in the world were
> literally falling over themselves/drooling when Antonio Costa was elected.
> After all you too had many clippings on him on Goan Voice-didn't you?
>
> I have no idea why you are bringing Costa into this conversation.
> He has no bearing on it. On Brit politics!
>
> I think there is a change developing ---where integrity is the name of the
> game in politics.
> As sooner or later the true colours show.
>
> A
>
>
>
>
> --
> *From:* tgo...@googlegroups.com  on behalf of
> Eddie Fernandes 
> *Sent:* January 14, 2022 2:41 PM
> *To:* tgo...@googlegroups.com ; Goa's premiere
> mailing list, estb. 1994! 
> *Subject:* Re: Odds In Favour Of Indian-Origin Chancellor Rishi Sunak As
> Pressure Mounts On British Prime Minister Boris Johnson To Resign
>
> Yes, we are proud of Rishi Sunak, but what about Antonio Costa?
>
> “Donkey Babush” António Costa, seeks re-election as Prime Minister of
> Portugal
> 13 Jan: SIC Notícias (Portugal). Aged 60, a socialist since he was 12,
> António Costa seeks to be re-elected prime minister, a position he has held
> since 2015. “Babush” to the family – which means boy in Konkani dialect,
> from Goa – António Costa has been Prime Minister since 2015 and seeks to be
> re-elected on 30 January 2022… “A race between a donkey and a Ferrari” was
> used to describe his entry into politics in 1993 … António Costa was born
> in Lisbon on July 17, 1961.  Son of publicist, writer and Communist Party
> activist Orlando da Costa and Maria Antónia Palla a journalist … he is a
> descendant of families converted to Catholicism from the highest caste in
> India… 1616 words.
>
> https://postal-pt.translate.goog/politica/antonio-costa-socialista-ha-mais-de-40-anos-irrequieto-e-um-habil-negociador/?_x_tr_sl=pt&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB&_x_tr_pto=wapp
>
> 14 Jan: Jornal I (Portugal). Skin color, “never limited me” he said in
> 2014: “I, personally, never felt it. I may have heard them call me 'monkey'
> once or twice, but it's episodic”… 1837 words.
>
> https://ionline-sapo-pt.translate.goog/759318?_x_tr_sl=pt&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB&_x_tr_pto=wapp
>
> Video: 18 Jan. 2017. Herald TV. Portugal PM visits his ancestral house in
> Goa … 3m. 36s.
>  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAQGERuIH5Y
>
>
> On Fri, 14 Jan 2022 at 19:16, Anita Dias  wrote:
>
>
> Not only in British EA Mel, but also in British India which then became
> British Raj (a total of 400 years of ) and in every country of the
> so-called 'Commonwealth'.  A misnomer if ever there was one. As all the
> wealth only went to one country!
> The Indigenous also suffered in Oz, NZ and Canada.
>
> The 'work event'. A new term for a BYOB party but it would be better if
> the Brits knew who was present @ it.
> If there were any Ministers of the crown.
> It seems highly unlikely that the top Ministers were absent- which
> possibly means Dishy Rishi was there!
> Doubts will persist until the facts are known.
>
> I am just saying! As still a Brit citizen! I would like to know...
> A
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> *From:* tgo...@googlegroups.com  on behalf of
> ymirconsult...@gmail.com 
> *Sent:* January 14, 2022 9:20 AM
> *To:* Goanet ; Goans ;
> Tanzanite 2020 
> *Subject:* Odds In Favour Of Indian-Origin Chancellor Rishi Sunak As
> Pressure Mounts On British Prime Minister Boris Johnson To Resign
>
> What a reversal of roles!!  I’m old enough to remember the numerous
> humiliation meted to us Indians in the former British East Africa. Mel
>
> https://www.cnbctv18.com/world/odds-in-favour-of-indian-origin-chancellor-rishi-sunak-as-pressure-mounts-on-british-prime-minister-boris-johnson-to-resign-121166

Re: [Goanet] Odds In Favour Of Indian-Origin Chancellor Rishi Sunak As Pressure Mounts On British Prime Minister Boris Johnson To Resign

[Eddie Fernandes]

Yes, we are proud of Rishi Sunak, but what about Antonio Costa?

“Donkey Babush” António Costa, seeks re-election as Prime Minister of
Portugal
13 Jan: SIC Notícias (Portugal). Aged 60, a socialist since he was 12,
António Costa seeks to be re-elected prime minister, a position he has held
since 2015. “Babush” to the family – which means boy in Konkani dialect,
from Goa – António Costa has been Prime Minister since 2015 and seeks to be
re-elected on 30 January 2022… “A race between a donkey and a Ferrari” was
used to describe his entry into politics in 1993 … António Costa was born
in Lisbon on July 17, 1961.  Son of publicist, writer and Communist Party
activist Orlando da Costa and Maria Antónia Palla a journalist … he is a
descendant of families converted to Catholicism from the highest caste in
India… 1616 words.
https://postal-pt.translate.goog/politica/antonio-costa-socialista-ha-mais-de-40-anos-irrequieto-e-um-habil-negociador/?_x_tr_sl=pt&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB&_x_tr_pto=wapp

14 Jan: Jornal I (Portugal). Skin color, “never limited me” he said in
2014: “I, personally, never felt it. I may have heard them call me 'monkey'
once or twice, but it's episodic”… 1837 words.

https://ionline-sapo-pt.translate.goog/759318?_x_tr_sl=pt&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Video: 18 Jan. 2017. Herald TV. Portugal PM visits his ancestral house in
Goa … 3m. 36s.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAQGERuIH5Y


On Fri, 14 Jan 2022 at 19:16, Anita Dias  wrote:

>
> Not only in British EA Mel, but also in British India which then became
> British Raj (a total of 400 years of ) and in every country of the
> so-called 'Commonwealth'.  A misnomer if ever there was one. As all the
> wealth only went to one country!
> The Indigenous also suffered in Oz, NZ and Canada.
>
> The 'work event'. A new term for a BYOB party but it would be better if
> the Brits knew who was present @ it.
> If there were any Ministers of the crown.
> It seems highly unlikely that the top Ministers were absent- which
> possibly means Dishy Rishi was there!
> Doubts will persist until the facts are known.
>
> I am just saying! As still a Brit citizen! I would like to know...
> A
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> *From:* tgo...@googlegroups.com  on behalf of
> ymirconsult...@gmail.com 
> *Sent:* January 14, 2022 9:20 AM
> *To:* Goanet ; Goans ;
> Tanzanite 2020 
> *Subject:* Odds In Favour Of Indian-Origin Chancellor Rishi Sunak As
> Pressure Mounts On British Prime Minister Boris Johnson To Resign
>
> What a reversal of roles!!  I’m old enough to remember the numerous
> humiliation meted to us Indians in the former British East Africa. Mel
>
> https://www.cnbctv18.com/world/odds-in-favour-of-indian-origin-chancellor-rishi-sunak-as-pressure-mounts-on-british-prime-minister-boris-johnson-to-resign-12116692.htm
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Tanzanite 2020" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to tgoans+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tgoans/6B04AEDE-8CFB-441C-9A92-5E48F56CDDED%40gmail.com
> .
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Tanzanite 2020" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to tgoans+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tgoans/DM6PR05MB59480804F05D4A96C7A2B67DFC549%40DM6PR05MB5948.namprd05.prod.outlook.com
> 
> .
>

[Goanet] Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 18 Sep 2021 – Headlines

[Eddie Fernandes]

1: Great British Bake Off. More secrets about the contestants including
Crystelle Pereira
2: India withdraws e-visa facility for Canada, UK nationals
3: £399pp – 5-star Goan hotel in Madeira, 5 day escape w/flights, meals &
transfers
4: Indians among top nations getting Portuguese visas
5: Video:  Roshan D'Silva and the idea behind Pilgrim Stays
6: Portugal: Sérgio Santimano's Photographic Exhibition, “Door To Goa”
7: Yahel Chirinian, French contemporary sculptor and visual artist hopes to
return to Goa soon and live the rest of her life there.
8: Australia: Sarah Todd cooks Goan Pork vindaloo for Breast Cancer
Awareness
Links to the full text at http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/

Re: [Goanet] Happy Birthday Goan Voice UK

[Eddie Fernandes]

Thank you for the kind words Roland.  The journey would not have been
possible without the support of GoaNet

Cheers

Eddie

On Fri, 16 Jul 2021 at 05:32, Roland Francis 
wrote:

> Congratulations to Eddie Fernandes on the 23rd anniversary of his digital
> publication.
>
> Day in and day out with no break as far as I can tell, the daily edition
> appears on cyberspace. Even when Eddie sails on the high seas on his
> frequent vacations, and despite expensive marine communications, with high
> level personal effort, Eddie will ensure that the GVUK comes out
> unfailingly.
>
> A Goan from Kenya who emigrated to the UK, Eddie a professional university
> librarian now retired, has named the bulletin after an old Goan-Kenyan
> newspaper. Content is totally Goan or Goa related, picked up from
> previously published pieces all over the world.  Nothing is original, but
> Eddie performs an invaluable service by highlighting it to a mainstream
> worldwide Goan audience. I feel honoured that he allowed me to write an
> opinion piece every Sunday over a few years, that being the only exception
> he made to his ‘must be previously published’ policy.
>
> The death notice and obituary section is popular with Goans everywhere and
> has become a de facto standard like the Times of India used to be for all
> educated Bombay citizens. In fact if a Goan dies anywhere in the world
> outside of Goa, many families first choice is to place the notice in
> Eddie’s digital rag. With most Goans having family and friends all over the
> Diaspora, this is invaluable.
>
> He has also let his audience learn of outstanding Goans young or old whose
> deeds and achievements are bound to inspire and instill the Goan heart with
> pride.
>
> Viva Eddie Fernandes and the Goan Voice UK.
>
> Roland Francis
> Toronto.
>
>

Re: [Goanet] Radio Broadcasting in Portuguese Goa

[Eddie Fernandes]

>From Goan Voice Daily Newsletter, 18 August 2017 at
http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/printerfile.php?link=2017-08-18



<http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/printerfile.php?link=2017-08-18>
Libia Lobo Sardesai: India: 70 years of independence
14 Aug. 2017: The National (Dubai). India has undoubtedly achieved much
since breaking free of the British. But it has still not fulfilled its
essential duty of uniting its citizens… Libia Lobo Sardesai, 91, now lives
in Goa, but in 1947, she was at university in Bombay. Her father was away
working in Kenya … “In Bombay, we lived in Dhobi Talao … There were three
days of grand celebrations for independence… Our family always thought we
belonged in Goa, not in Bombay… I became a freedom-fighter. On the day Goa
was liberated I was the one who made the announcement on radio. That very
day also, I moved back to Goa… In retrospect, I feel that Goa was more
beautiful when it was undeveloped. I’m quite disillusioned with what has
happened since then…
https://www.thenational.ae/world/asia/india-70-years-of-independence-1.619751

Video: BBC. Libia Lobo Sardesai, who ran the Voice of Freedom radio station
in Goa, was part of the political struggle to win independence. She tells
of the "intoxicating" feeling of winning freedom at last… 4m. 11s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-30297213/goa-s-fight-for-independence-from-portugal

Forwarded by Eddie Fernandes

On 12 September 2017 at 14:00, Naguesh Bhatcar <sgbhat...@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
> I am not aware of the role played by Ms Libia Lobo Sardessai and her late
> husband.
>
>
> I had also heard that the "beeps" broadcast every hour by AIR Delhi,
> similar to the  BBC beeps/pips (Greenwich Mean Time signal), had also
> previously belonged to Emissora de Goa!
>
> NagueshBhatcar
> 
> From: Goanet <goanet-boun...@lists.goanet.org> on behalf of Frederick
> Noronha <fredericknoron...@gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 11, 2017 2:20 PM
> To: Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!
> Subject: Re: [Goanet] Radio Broadcasting in Portuguese Goa
>
> Actually, no. Libia and Vaman Sardessai (later ambassador to Angola and
> also editor of Goa Today for awhile) play an active role in running the
> India-supported 'clandestine' radio station out of near Castle Rock on the
> India-side of the then border.
>
> To my knowledge they were not involved with the Panjim radio station,
> though Mrs Lobo-Sardessai has somewhere (if I recall right) spoken about
> her role in announcing via hlicopter and calling for peace and calm after
> the Indian troops moved in.
>
> FN
>
> On Sep 11, 2017 10:46 PM, "Dan Driscoll" <driscoll@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > And you may know that at least one of the persons who did that is still
> > happily living in 'Pius Xth Bldg' on Church Square in Panaji. Libya Lobo
> > Sardessai & late Spouse 'Vaman' were the ones who got it going, if my
> > information is correct. I had the good fortune to have known both of
> them,
> > personally.
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 10:07 AM, Naguesh Bhatcar <sgbhat...@hotmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > >  >During the year 1961 a 50 kW. shortwave transmitter was installed,
> and
> > > this
> > > >unit made test broadcasts on three different channels, beamed towards
> > > >Africa, the Persian Gulf, and the Far East.
> > >
> > > >With the changing winds of fortune, Emissora de Goa finally left the
> air
> > > >and closed down forever at 8:00 am on December 18, 1961.  Less than
> two
> > > >months later, All India Radio came on the air from the same studios,
> > > though
> > > >with only one transmitter, the 5 kw. mediumwave unit on 880 kHz.
> > >
> > >
> > > It was believed that the more powerful transmitter from the Portuguese
> > > Emissora de Goa was dismantled and carted away to Delhi, shortly after
> > > Liberation of Goa.
> > >
> > > Naguesh Bhatcar
> > > 
> >
>

[Goanet] UK: Terry Falcao, GoaNet subscriber, becomes Teignmouth's first ethnic minority mayor

[Eddie Fernandes]

17 May: A well-known Exeter lawyer has become the first ethnic minority
mayor of Teignmouth . Employment lawyer Terry Falcao, 56, a former
Metropolitan Police officer, was unanimously appointed mayor of the seaside
town. The former chairman of the Devon Racial Equality Council said his
appointment was "all the more remarkable as Teignmouth has a 99 per cent
white population". His parents were of Goan origin and he first came to
Britain as a nine-year-old... Text + photo. 
http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Exeter-lawyer-Terry-Falcao-Teignmouth-
s-ethnic/story-29283967-detail/story.html 

Terry Falcao, a GoaNet subscriber,  was born in Karachi and traces his Goan
origins to Tivim.
http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/newsletter/2004/Nov/issue3/ 

[Goanet] The Saudi Arabian-American Oil Company (ARAMCO). Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis

To a job-seeking Goan, working for Aramco was to know that you were made for
life. You lived in a camp in the desert but this camp was built on the lines
of a small American city. Neatly lined and shaded streets and boulevards
with small single storied homes that had tidy gardens in front. There was
separation of course, but it was not of the segregated level. There was the
American section and the Asian and Arab. Unlike the rest of Saudi Arabia,
alcohol flowed freely for non Muslims within the camp, the rules being
enforced by Saudi security who were Aramco employees, nominally under the
tutelage of the Saudi authorities but with operational supervision of the
Americans. 

Any Goan retiring from Aramco stood out from other Goa-returning expats. His
house was bigger and flashier, his cars far more expensive and everything
about his standard of living smelled of money. After all the average Goan
Aramco employee during his working life, took home about five times that of
any other non-Aramco Goan in any part of the Persian Gulf. They were in many
positions in the company - from Tool Pushers and Engineers on drilling rigs
to accounting and administration positions in the offices and labour camps
and to support staff in the medical clinics, schools and the instrumentation
control rooms of Aramco's refining subsidiaries.

The story of how Americans gained control of Saudi Arabia is an interesting
but unsubstantiated story. You must remember that in the days we are talking
about, the British had almost total control of the Persian Gulf.

Ibn Saud was generally impoverished and his country's economy was dependent
on the revenues of the Hajj, export of dates, subsistence farming in the
small areas of the oases and the trading of goods carried to neighboring
countries on camelback. Therefore he was only too happy when a few American
exploration companies offered to look for the prospect on oil in the kingdom
on a contingency basis; that is, they would take a small proportion of any
possible future oil for a limited time, to pay for their expenses and
profit. They found what they were looking for in the Eastern part of the
country. The British lost no time in rushing in. To tempt the hardscrabble
Saudi monarch who was nothing but a warrior desert nomad, they brought in a
right hand drive Rolls Royce. On the inaugural drive, the king had to sit on
the left of the British driver and it was a terrible insult to him. Then the
Americans came in with a copycat show but with a left hand drive Cadillac.
The king was highly pleased with the seating position and the comfort of the
American made car. In addition, the Americans gave him a small suede pouch
of gold coins. The British were too miserly to have done this, or in their
imperial pride, they did not see fit to give a desert king any more than a
fine car for his oil rights. To a nomad-king, being seated to the left of a
subordinate is a big insult in his tradition. The Americans of course got
the rights.

This is in context of the news that Aramco is now being considered for
public sale. The oil company and its downstream facilities - refining,
petrochemical gas plants and the like, are valued at about 10 trillion
dollars. There is speculation about how much of the pie is actually going to
be sold.
 
How the Goans working there will be affected, no one knows. The good days
for them, as they say, are drawing to an end.

Forwarded  by Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] Portuguese Passports. Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan - By Roland Francis

[Eddie Fernandes]

It may have been Dictator Antonio Salazar's last revenge on the Indian
authorities. Either that, or his love for Goans (and Damanese and Diucars)
was so overwhelming, that he did something for them that no colonial
government anywhere had ever done for the people it once governed. In fact,
even the Portuguese themselves had never done any such thing for its other
subject people whether Africans, Brazilians, Timorese or Macanese.

I am talking about the granting of Portuguese citizenship to people even of
the third generation. Take my own example; my parents who were born in Goa,
left the land when young to search for and find employment in British
Bombay. I was born in Indian Bombay and also when about their age, left
India's shores for overseas climes, ending up as a Canadian citizen. My
children were born neither in Goa nor in India nor anywhere remotely
connected to Portugal, yet because their grandparents were born in
Portuguese Goa many decades earlier, they become entitled to Portuguese
citizenship (it's another matter that they may never want it). The surprises
don't end there.

>From the mountains of Kashmir in the west to the plains of flood prone
Bangladesh in the east,  down southward to the Gujaratis living in the areas
outside of Daman and Diu, to the coasts of Kerala, people in India,
dishonest or enterprising, depending on whichever way you look at it, pass
off false documents showing themselves of Goan origin and fool the
Portuguese passport-issuing authorities into giving them their citizenship.
The reasons for getting another nationality vary. Most want it so they can
work in the rest of Europe, others want it for tax purposes to launder away
their untaxed money (India has generous tax advantages for non-resident
Indians and foreigners of Indian origin), still others use it as rainy day
protection if the Indian economy collapses (not a far-fetched possibility
given the extreme corruption there) and a few others want it to escape
Indian justice. An example of the latter is a well known top Muslim gangster
of Bombay who fled to Portugal before the long arm of the law could catch up
to him and then gave the Indian Police a hard time before they could get him
legally extradited to India. I don't know why Portugal gave him its
citizenship protection considering he had quite obviously fraudulently
obtained it. 

I was quite amused with the story of my cousin in Toronto who told me about
his recent visit to Lisbon. He was looking out for Scotch Whisky and when
stepping into a convenience store was told by the Bangladeshi owner that he
could give it to him for a few Euros less since he was a fellow Indian
(irony is my cousin is Canadian and the Bangladeshi storekeeper is
Portuguese). Anyway when asked how he came to Portugal, he said he went to
Goa and easily obtained false documents showing his ancestors were from
there.

I see the hand of St. Francis Xavier in keeping the Portuguese nationality
route available to this day for Goans who want it. It must take the
extraordinary power of a saint to resist the protests from the European
Union to make Portugal change the law to make all those 'job-taking Indians'
enter England where they usually end up, adding to the 'trouble-making
Pakistanis' already there, not to mention the Poles, Slavs and the Arabs.

One of those who will not see eye to eye with the Patron Saint, will be
successful and well-known musician and entertainer Remo Fernandes who has
recently landed himself in hot water in Goa and must be cursing his decision
to take Portuguese nationality. Our Remo had styled himself as a political
activist poking thorns into the sides of Goa ministers' misdeeds while being
a foreign national taking formal part in politics and official positions,
clearly afoul of his legal status. Make no mistake. All the accusations of
his verbal abuse against a minor girl who was injured in a car accident
where his son was a driver and he a passenger, are just a smokescreen. Remo
is not out of his mind to have done that since he has enough to lose from
the negative publicity fallout he would have foreseen. But now, he must face
the music of his illegalities. It is ironic that he of all people would need
to opt for being a Portuguese citizen. But, the law must triumph even in a
country that has little respect for it.

Wish all readers a happy and healthy New Year.

Forwarded by Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] The Indian Railways and Memories of Moira

[Eddie Fernandes]

The Indian Railways and Memories of Moira

Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan -  By Roland Francis

Arab lands, ships sailing on global oceans, the happy life in East Africa,
the attraction of the elite ranks of the British Indian armed forces and
bureaucratic administration and the emigration to mother-country Portugal,
were magnets that drew Goans for most of the 20th century, continuing even
today though differently.

Basra, Abadan and Aden turned to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. East
Africa gave way to Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada. Cargo ships
and the Grand Old Ladies of the P and BI morphed into Holland American,
Disney and Carnival holiday cruisers. What did change is the solid core of
Goan Generals, Secretaries and top police ranks fading away into the sunset.
MHOWs (Military Headquarters of War) in the glorious Goan past gave way to
Swindons, in our not so glorious present. 

One of such lost services is the Indian Railways. Once dominated by
Anglo-Indian and Goans in equal measure, the rail network was a fine example
of how a service could be rendered to the country's general public. From
Engine and Train Drivers, to Foremen in loco workshops maintaining the
rolling stock to the Way Inspectors who were charged with keeping the tracks
in good working order, to the Divisional and Zonal Managers and ultimately
to the members of the Railway Board, Goans did credit to all positions. That
was the time that trains ran perfectly and on time, no matter what came in
the way. There could have been rivalry between the Goans and the
Anglo-Indians since they were both dominant and  vied for the same
positions, but instead, there was only mutual respect and co-operation with
a healthy dose of competition on the job, on playing fields and for the
pretty girls you could find everywhere in railway colonies.

The railwaymen knew how to work as well as to play. They didn't earn much
even by the standards of the day, but they lived in large well-kept
bungalows and what they earned they spent quickly and well with no regrets.
Why stash the cash for tomorrow if it could be used for some fun today, they
believed. 

Living in a Railway Colony, like Africa, guaranteed a good life. The women
taught in the school and volunteered everywhere else. They were great cooks,
gardeners and excellent dancers. Somewhere in all of this, they found time
to pass on the faith and strong moral values to their children. Christmas
was robustly celebrated the whole season with events for children and adults
every day in the Institute or on the grounds. But in time, the Anglo-Indians
emigrated, younger Goans found fresh pastures elsewhere and the railway life
that was once famous is now no more. 

Here is a walk down memory lane for the forthcoming Christmas season from a
German engineer, a Xavier's college man and proud Moidecar who although he
departed for German shores 60 years ago, never fails to frequently visit his
beloved village.
"The church feast in December with the "salves" was of course a highlight of
the year. For us, the event had a special charm because the bhojekar made
the bhojes 'in situ' using a small kerosene stove. It was pitch dark and the
burning stove and may be a small kerosene lamp with a wick was the only
source of light in the darkness. It was romantic, and we lined up to collect
a small portion, we could hardly afford to pay, to be munched on the way
home. We were always hungry!

The Feast day of course was a bigger affair. As youngsters, we got a pair of
new short pants and may be a shirt for the occasion in addition to at the
most one rupee for the "feira" from godparents or parents. The money was
spent on sweets like laddus, kario-bhorio and revreu. Till today, despite
diabetes, I relish these sweets in Goa and wonder if they could not be made
with a pinch of insulin! Our unforgettable Concu Mauxi was in command of the
kitchen preparing the delicacies of Cabidel, Sorpatel, Sanna, Odde, "arroz
refugado" and so on."

Happy memories.

Forwarded by Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] We Can Be Less Racist. By Roland Francis

[Eddie Fernandes]

We Can Be Less Racist. 

Stray Thoughts of A Toronto Goan -  By Roland Francis

 

We are honest, we are compassionate and kind, we are educated, sportsmanship
and music is in our blood and fear of God in our psyche, but we have our
faults and sometimes they overshadow the virtues.  Under the banyan tree of
our blessings, I wonder where those ugly traits could come from. It's not
that our heritage was bed-rocked in war, competition or deprivation. In
fact, when you look at other races and communities, we are heirs to one of
the most peaceful, co-existential ancestry lines in a fertile land. We were
once Hindus, but even after converting, there was no being 'more Catholic
than the Pope' for us. We embraced the Hindus, as they did us, no bitter
recriminations from either side for changing religion.

 

However, no one can credibly deny that we possess two hugely undesirable
burdens we could do without. We are racists of a high order and we are
always critical of the members of our own community who take leadership
roles, giving unflinchingly of their time and effort. Popularly known as the
crab mentality, it is not unique to Goans, but a blot on the community
character nevertheless.

 

Perhaps the racism came from the Catholic Church in Goa and the caste system
it perpetuated as a colonial strategy. Instead of firmly abiding by
Christian teachings, the Church not only turned a blind eye to outright
discrimination, but actually perpetuated it. Separate pews in Churches and
Chapels to divide the casteless, poor and humble, graves of different
classes in cemeteries, distinguishing clothing and responsibility in church
processions, denial to the priesthood for the less privileged - the list
goes on and on. Nurtured in the village, these habits were transported to
foreign lands where instead of weakening, they became even stronger and
extended beyond generation. Added to the Indian abhorrence for a darker
skin, look for yourself and see how many of our younger generation marry
whites and how many blacks. That is telling evidence.

 

In present times, this manifests itself in Islamophobia, the latest form of
racism. I have been an unwilling witness to Goans railing about the Muslims
being natural terrorists, religious zealots and worse. Why this selective
hatred? Have we not forgotten the racism experienced by the Diaspora in
earlier years? The fair-skinned perpetrators have evolved for the better and
moved on. We seem to have been stuck in the groove.

 

Every time I go to a Goan function, I am grateful for the good time. Of
course I regret that we have to restrict ourselves to mere song and dance
and the occasional Konkani play, but hey, I go to meet people, listen to
live music and take a break. Therefore I am grateful to those to make such
things possible by working behind the scenes, tirelessly, driving all over
the place (Toronto has huge spaces, often you have to drive 10 kilometers or
more for the littlest thing), blocking their personal time for all this. It
irks me no end when I hear unnecessary and unwanted criticism about the
people involved.

 

Goan clubs and associations which are the lifeblood of the Goan community in
Toronto as elsewhere in the Diaspora today as they were in Africa, Pakistan
or any large city in India, especially Bombay, in the last century, are
recently in an unwelcome trend, seeing much infighting. Money is not the
problem. Most of them have healthy cash inflows and even healthier reserves.
The problem is in the egos. Some bring their volunteerism with an agenda.
They are a definite minority but they can raise havoc and sap the energy of
the others, discouraging formation of future committees. For example one
club had its Treasurer resigning and walking away with the books, refusing
to turn them in. In another, each member thinks he is the President,
confusing everybody. In a third, resolutions passed are blithely ignored by
vested sections. Hope all this goes away. More of it and we will lose the
gifts handed down to us by the founding visionaries of those organizations.
Let better sense prevail.

 

Forwarded by Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan: Let The Music Play One

[Eddie Fernandes]

The 'G.O.A. Retirees' is an offshoot of the larger Goan Overseas Association
of Toronto and comparatively much younger than its parent. It is one of the
many older-member Goan-majority associations in the Greater Toronto Area,
and holds its own in terms of energy and organization.

Its recent function was a pre-Christmas treat. Rarely does one hear music
from the 60s and 70s played on real string, wind and percussion, nothing
synthesized, mixed or electric about it. The players were in the main,
resettlers in Canada from Africa, who knew how to select the pieces they
played by reading their audience well. The whole thing was reminiscent to me
of Bombay of the Golden Music Era of those years, the time of band-leading
stalwarts like Cyril Sequeira, Johnny Baptist, Micky Correia, Maurice
Concessio and the like. A week or two before that, was a similar treat;
another band just like this one, playing great music at an event of the 55
Plus Goan Association. When it rains, it pours.

It doesn't take much of an imagination to see these men as young boys in
Kampala, Nairobi or Dar-es-Salaam, playing their hearts out to make a few
bucks, or to impress pretty girls, or just because they carried the musical
genes of their parents. Two of the latter who played, were Errol and Tom
Francis with whom I proudly share grandparents though I have been handed
down no such talent myself.

There is a lot of music in the souls of the men and women of the Goan
Diaspora. Started in the rooms of the village church with violins and
guitars, or in the grand 'salles' of the landed gentry on expensive pianos
or in schools where music was an important part of education, albeit with
chrome-peeling saxophones or clarinets, the boys and girls in Goa, the
parents and grandparents of the current amateur musical talent in Toronto
and elsewhere, took to it like seeds in wet and fertile ground. 
Certain readers will recall with fond memory Johnson and His Jolly Boys
playing in Goa. Excellent musicians all and coming from all parts of Bardez,
they could read music well but played from memory even better. Those were
days when electricity was a very iffy thing even in the big towns, but
upstarts like the Tuna Sparks who depended on electronic instruments were
offering a challenge to JJB. Organizers of big functions whether weddings or
dances were engaging Johnson as well as his rivals in a two band billing.
Johnson would play his half of the function and when it was the other band's
turn, the electricity would go off and Johnson would quickly be asked to
return. Rumour had it that it was Johnson who arranged for the juice to fail
but since he didn't charge any more than he was promised, nobody knew the
truth. However what did happen was that people stopped engaging the other
bands, JJB regained their hegemony and their electronic rivals slowly bit
the dust, one by one. By the time utilities became more reliable, Johnson
had retired from his beloved music as undisputed king.

I have seen and written about our Goan musical talent before, in my article
on the Aunties of Dhobitalao, describing it as the music of much pleasure
wafting in the air as you walked down the narrow lanes of Dhobitalao.  Even
now it never ceases to amaze me any less than painstakingly cooked meals by
your grandmother in a Goa kitchen that was once filled with smoke from
burning twigs and leaves under a huge cauldron that was heated to give you
the hot water for a refreshing bath. That same smoke by the way, also cured
her sausages to perfection.

There must be many other things that Goans were, are and always will be good
at. Me, I am happy with just the music.
For the Roland Francis Linkedin profile, see
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roland-francis-9769a97
 
Comments can be sent to roland.fran...@gmail.com

Forwarded by Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] John Distilleries to launch Goa made Paul John whisky in US

[Eddie Fernandes]

11 Dec: Just Drinks. John Distilleries, the Indian spirits producer, is
gearing up to enter the US market in 2015 with its Paul John single malt
whisky brand. It first launched the premium Indian whisky brand in the UK
in 2012 and is available in six other European markets, including Denmark,
Sweden and Germany. .. The company is also looking to launch Paul John in
Bangalore next year, to build on its current presence in Goa, the
spokesperson added…
http://www.just-drinks.com/news/john-distilleries-to-launch-paul-john-whisky
-in-us_id115673.aspx
 
1 Feb: Ibev (Australia). Jim Murrays ratings of Scotches and Single Malts:
Paul John 96.5% … Johnnie Walker Blue label 88% … Chivas Regal 18 yrs 73.5%
http://www.ibev.com.au/#!hard-stuff-spirits/c20kj

Paul John whisky is produced in Cuncolim,  Goa – priced at £56.99 in
Selfridges, London and Rs 2600 in Goa
http://www.thegoan.net/Business/Business-and-Beyond/Single-and-Brillian%28ce
%29t/07662.html

[Goanet] Goa looks like paradise, but under the surface there is a hell

[Eddie Fernandes]

Felix Dahl Death: Goa looks like paradise, but under the surface there is a
hell

3 Feb: Dagens Nyheter (Sweden). Felix Dahl, 22, was found dead on a dirt
road on 28 Jan. in Patnem, Canacona, Goa. His parents suspect he has been
murdered, but are afraid the police will dismiss the case as a pure
accident. He was really scared weeks before he died, said his father,
Tommy Dahl.  After studying economics in Helsinki, Felix  travelled down to
Goa in mid-October, where he lived on his savings . The family has been in
contact with Felix's friends in Goa, who say that he started behaving
strangely about a week before he was found dead.  Some say he was afraid for
his life, others that he had paranoid thoughts. They say that Felix was
depressed and wanted to go home. The friends said that he was injured the
day before he died, but opinions differ as to how it happened. 701 words
(Machine translation). http://bit.ly/1uV2psX
  
3 Feb: Hufvudstadsbladet (Finland). Felix Dahl found mysteriously dead in
Goa. His mother and brother were due to head to Goa last week but changed
their plan fearing that danger was imminent . Goa looks like paradise, but
under the surface there is a hell. (Machine translation).
http://bit.ly/1K8MXCx
  
3 Feb: Expressen (Sweden).  Parents think Felix, 22, was murdered . (Machine
translation). http://bit.ly/1zQoq3D
 
From Felix's family: Did You Know Felix Dahl?   Felix had been staying in
Agonda since October. We are trying to find anyone who knew him or knows
what happen to him. Any information would be greatly appreciated. The police
aren't helpful at all. Please contact sanna.pirho...@yahoo.co.uk 

Re: [Goanet] Zimbabwe By The Sea

[Eddie Fernandes]

Marshall has drawn our attention to two guidelines – one of 1 July 2013 and 
the other of 2 June 2012.  As far as I am aware all the cases before the 
Enforcement Directorate were handed to them BEFORE  Marshall’s earliest date!

Eddie Fernandes
==


-Original Message-
From: Goanet [mailto:goanet-boun...@lists.goanet.org] On Behalf Of Marshall 
Mendonza
Sent: 02 February 2015 08:16
To: goanet
Subject: [Goanet] Zimbabwe By The Sea

The RBI guidelines on acquisition of immovable property by NRI's, PIO's and 
Foreign Nationals is very clear. If one has gone through it or studied it, 
there should be no confusion. I am appending below weblink to the guidelines 
and also highlighting critical points which are all
self-explanatory:

Extract:

8.Purchase of Immovable Property in India by a Foreign National of Non-Indian 
Origin resident outside India

i. Foreign nationals of non-Indian origin resident outside India* are not 
permitted *to acquire any immovable property in India unless such property is 
acquired by way of inheritance from a person who was resident in India.
However, they can acquire or transfer immovable property in India, on lease, 
not exceeding five years without the prior permission of the Reserve Bank

http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/notification/PDFs/04MCNIP010713.pdf

Extract from Press Release of Government of India dt.February 1, 2009:

Apart from above, a foreign national who is residing in India for more than
182
days during the course of the preceding financial year for taking up employment 
or carrying on business / vocation or for any other purpose indicating his 
intention to stay for an uncertain period can acquire immovable property in 
India as he would be a ‘person resident in India’ as per section 2(v) of FEMA, 
1999. To be treated as a person resident in India under FEMA, a person has not 
only to satisfy the condition of the period of stay (being more than 182 days 
during the course of preceding financial year) but also his purpose of stay as 
well as the type of Indian visa granted to him to clearly indicate the 
intention to stay in India for an uncertain period. In this regard, to be 
eligible, the intention to stay has to be unambiguously established with 
supporting documentation including visa.

* It has also been observed that foreign nationals coming to India and * 
*staying beyond 182 days on a tourist or other visa meant for a certain period 
are **illegally acquiring immovable property in India in violation of the 
extant rules and **regulations under FEMA.*

http://www.rbi.org.in/commonman/Upload/English/Notification/PDFs/MC04AT28062012.pdf






*-Original Message-From: Eddie Fernandes 
[mailto:eddie.fernan...@gmail.com eddie.fernan...@gmail.com]Sent: 01 February 
2015 01:33To: eddie.fernan...@gmail.com
eddie.fernan...@gmail.comSubject: Zimbabwe By The Sea*

[Goanet] Zimbabwe By The Sea

[Eddie Fernandes]

-Original Message-
From: Eddie Fernandes [mailto:eddie.fernan...@gmail.com] 
Sent: 01 February 2015 01:33
To: eddie.fernan...@gmail.com
Subject: Zimbabwe By The Sea

1 Feb: Herald. The horror stories of British expats who have invested in
property in Goa has earned Goa a new name ‘Zimbabwe by the sea” … Bryan
Smith, who is working with an informal group of British expats said, “None
of you know what really is going on. It’s a mafia all right. They are
elderly people out there and they are very very scared. People are falling
sick, some are suicidal and one suicide which has happened is, we are sure,
a direct result of such stress. Some really do not have any money left”. He
went on to add, “Do you know what Goa is referred to by a majority of those
who are suffering and those who have friends and relatives back home who
know what’s going on? Goa is called “Zimbabwe by the sea”… 905 words.
http://www.heraldgoa.in/Review/ZIMBABWE-BY-THE-SEA/84261.html 

Visa uncertainty and ED scrutiny pre 2010 made the Goa dream a nightmare for
Brits. 1 Feb: Herald.  653 words. 
http://www.heraldgoa.in/Review/Visa-uncertainty-and-ED-scrutiny-pre-2010-mad
e-the-Goa-dream-a-nightmare-for-Brits/84260.html 

Settled: All lands cannot be presumed to be agricultural. 1 Feb: Herald. …
442 words.
http://www.heraldgoa.in/Review/SETTLED-All-lands-cannot-be-presumed-to-be-ag
ricultural/84259.html

=

Englishwoman replicates restoration of Goa Fort in Portugal
31 Jan. 2015: Diario de Noticias (Portugal).  It may seem strange, but an
Englishwoman, Lady Helen Hamlyn, who heads the Hamlyn Foundation, will pay 2
million euros for the refurbishment of the Fort at Albarquel, in Setúbal,
Portugal.  She is a childless 89 year old widow and in 2008 paid for the
restoration of Reis Magos Fort in Goa …
http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/showlink.aspx?bookmarkid=XVEMS9SFQ1
M6
 
[From the Archives] 17 Nov. 2002. Daily Telegraph (UK). Tycoon's widow loses
battle to restore Goa's ancient fort. Lady Hamlyn, one of the richest women
in Britain, had offered to pay £300,000 to restore the 16th-century Reis
Magos fort. She has become embroiled in a bitter row with the government of
Goa after being accused of trying to turn an ancient colonial monument into
a holiday home …  [This paranoia regarding the Brits’ holiday homes is
nothing new, it appears!]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/1413458/Tycoons-widow-l
oses-battle-to-restore-Goas-ancient-fort.html

If the links do not work, check out www.goanvoice.org.uk  - newsletter of 1
Feb. 2015

Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] Watch Online Live: UK Parliamentary Debate on Corruption in Goa

[Eddie Fernandes]

Tues. 27 Jan: 4pm - 4.30pm. House of Commons sitting in Westminster Hall.
Debate on Confiscation of property from British nationals in Goa and
corruption amongst government officials. Introduced by Tim Loughton,
Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham. 
Go to http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=17057 

If you miss watching it live, you will find it in the archive.

Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] UK Parliament reveals Goa's land grabbers surpass Zimbabwe's: Report + Video

[Eddie Fernandes]

27 Jan: 16:00 – 16:00pm. Parliament TV. Introduced by Tim Loughton,
Conservative MP who highlighted the case of Les and Sheila Medcroft which
also affects many hundreds of other British expats … In 2001 the Medcrofts
bought the Oceanic Hotel in Palolem, Goa. They went through the legal
process and obtained all the licences and certificates.  A couple of years
ago the Enforcement Directorate claimed that it is built on agricultural
land and confiscation proceedings have begun. The Medcrofts started the
appeal process and were asked to pay a bribe of £10,000. They declined to do
so.  The case is still before the Court… A lecturer couple from Birmingham
took early retirement and bought a hotel in Goa.  Years later it is being
claimed that it is on agricultural land…  These are among the 750 British
national owning property in Goa who are facing “systematic abuse” and
“demands for money under menaces” … To watch a video recording of the debate
(link valid worldwide),  advance the counter to 16:00 using the right arrows
at  http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=17057 
 
For the Hotel Oceanic website, go to  http://www.hotel-oceanic.com/  
 
For Sheila Medcroft Facebook page, go to
https://www.facebook.com/sheila.medcroft  

Editorial: Goa named and shamed in British Parliament. 
28 Jan: Herald. Very rarely is a small province in a country singled out for
special attention, in a manner so shameful. But hearing the speech and the
interaction the MP had with his minister, not a single person in our land
would have had the heart or the will or the belief  to counter what they
said or have any defense… This particular speech and the Minister’s reaction
have caused far greater damage to Goa’s reputation than anything else ever
has… But the damage has been done by what happened in Westminster on
Tuesday… 764 words. 
http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=10796boxid=163131453uid=dat=
1/28/2015  

British MP accuses Goa ED officials of ‘ harassing’ his constituents. Part
1. 
28 Jan: Herald. Conservative MP Tim Loughton accused Goa officials of
corruption while dealing with property cases of British nationals; Says
‘It’s the Goan equivalent of the mafia’, over 300 cases of property
confiscation orders issued; Herald accesses live feed of British Parliament
proceedings …
http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=10778boxid=1681131uid=dat=1%
2f28%2f2015  
Part 2. 28 Jan: Herald. 
http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=10779boxid=164322406uid=dat=
1/28/2015  

NRI/ PIOs aren't exempt from this nastiness - dozens of them have been
hauled up before the ED on dubious charges of buying 'agricultural,
plantation or orchard land'…

Problems with the links?  Check out www.goanvoice.org.uk  newsletter of 28
Jan 2015

Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] UK Parliament to debate corruption amongst Goa's government officials

[Eddie Fernandes]

Tues. 27 Jan: 4pm - 4.30pm. House of Commons sitting in Westminster Hall.
Debate on Confiscation of property from British nationals in Goa and
corruption amongst government officials. Introduced by Tim Loughton,
Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham.,  Details at
http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/commons/speakers-offi
ce/wadjourns1/

Westminster Hall debates. Entry is free of charge. There is no system of
tickets or advanced booking. Places are limited and visitors are admitted on
a first come, first served basis . For details, go to
http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/watch-committees-and-de
bates/westminster-hall-debates/
  
12 Jun 2013 : Hansard, House of Commons.  Q: Mr Frank Field: To ask the
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is
taking to protect the interests of UK citizens residing and owning property
in Goa. [158764] . For the answer go to  Column 354W at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm130612/text/130
612w0002.htm

Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] Lambert Mascarenhas to feature on radio - Live stream 6pm IST today

[Eddie Fernandes]

15 Sep: Times of India. The centenarian journalist Lambert Mascarenhas will
feature on All India Radio's FM Rainbow channel on September 15 at 6pm in an
interview with Oscar de Noronha, associate professor of English, government
college, Pernem. The tete-a-tete titled 'The Living Legend called Lambert'
will cover some little-known aspects of Mascarenhas' life and work as an
editor, broadcaster, author, freedom fighter and family man.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Goa/Lambert-to-feature-on-radio/arti
cleshow/42471356.cms
 
To listen to the programme live, go to
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/goa-india-fm-rainbow-radio

Eddie Fernandes

Re: [Goanet] No Goan Canecos in British East Africa (Response by Rose Fernandes to Eddie Fernandes)

[Eddie Fernandes]

-Original Message- From: Rose Fernandes 
1.  Kenya Gazette 28 March 1950 – Government Notice 333  under Appointments - 
looks like Gerard Montfort Bess was appointed District Commissioner, Marsabit, 
District ...
2.  Kenya Gazette – 17 October 1950 - Government Notice 1131 – Wyndham Albert 
Wild looks like he was District Officer, Mackinnon Road, Terta District, Coast 
Province 


RESPONSE:

Rose,
So you have found a typo in the book.  1955 instead of 1950.  Does it make any 
material difference?  

Since it is the nit-picking season, 
1. You mentioned Gerard Montfort Bess instead of  Gerard Montfort Bebb
2. You mentioned Terta District, Coast Province. You lived in the Coast 
Province so where is the Terta District?  Little wonder Melvyn says, Goans 
don't tell the right story  

Since it has been claimed that that your review of Selma’s exhibition was meant 
to be sardonic.  Does this also apply to the final sentence of your review 
which reads:
 
“Well done and congratulations to Selma and the rest of the team for an 
uplifting insight” 

And does the smile you displayed in the photograph (http://bit.ly/13NyPJ0 ) at 
the event also a sardonic one?  Please, instead of getting your new best friend 
to write on your behalf, can we have the answer from the horse’s mouth?   

Eddie Fernandes
 

[Goanet] Request from Selma Carvalho

[Eddie Fernandes]

Gabe and Rose,

The whole of May and now evidently going into fair June, I have watched the
two of you try to tear down the new book 'A Railway Runs Through: Goans of
British East Africa.' In the process you have taken sniper shots at me and
my friends and anyone who so much as dares to speak a word against this
seemingly endless madness.
 
I don't quite understand what the point is, that you are trying to make? Is
it that I shouldn't have undertaken the project and the book? Have I
misrepresented the East African Goan community in the book? Have I shown
them in a poor light? All of those might have been good reasons to challenge
my writing. However, the criticism is disparate, and like a blind frog
without any direction. Rather a general angst that I - a non-East African
Goan - has written about East Africa. Well, East Africa happens to be part
of my personal family history. My grandfather laboured in Nairobi for nearly
twenty years as a bank clerk between the 1910s-1930s. Much like many of your
relatives, he was a pioneer Goan in Africa, and my mother's ancestral house
in Goa is to this day known as 'Afrikar Ghar.' It is my profound love for my
own family history which led me to investigate about a part of me which
remained unknown. Is it a sin? Am I not a Goan to understand transformations
which take place within Goan society wherever they may be? Are you
absolutely sure that the Goan settlement in East Africa was so unique and
esoteric; it has no parallel in other diaspora settlements? You might be
surprised to learn the progression of Goan settlements is almost inevitably
the same. If people are interested in the East Africa story now, it is in no
small part because I have spent the last 6 years of my life starting with my
first book, Into the Diaspora Wilderness (Goa, 1556) bringing this story
back into the public consciousness.
 
You say you don't find any parallel in the book with your own experiences in
East Africa. That's fine. This is just a book, one book. If you can't find
any resonance, stop reading it. Read something else. There are other books,
better still write one yourself. Mine has been a labour of love. It is a bit
surprising though that you found nothing to validate your experience because
the book contains 16 (let me spell that out sixteen) interview extracts from
people who lived in East Africa, some long, long before you came into
existence.
Literally hundreds of East Africans Goans have felt validated by the book.
Near 500 copies have vanished in three weeks since its launch on 3 May,
2014. People have read the book and ordered more copies for their children,
their parents, their families and their friends. Non-Goans have been
ordering the book, Patels and Karims from Zanzibar, and English families who
lived in colonial Nairobi, libraries which I have never contacted (among
them the University of Toronto Library and faculty of the School of Oriental
and African Studies, London) have been ordering it, and at a recent dinner
held by the British Kenya administration, I am told everyone was 'talking
about the Goan book.' Goans still living in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania)
have written in to tell me, and I quote from a message received this morning
from a prominent member of the Nairobi Goan Gymkhana, 'it has enlightened us
on so many things.' I think a lot of people are finding themselves in this
book. And I'm happy because above all this was a community project.
 
Lastly, thank you for taking time to scrutinise it minutely for errors with
such diligence and zeal. Since I am already in the process of getting the
second print ready, tiny and insignificant as the error is, I will ensure
that the amendment is made. I do wish such alacrity was shown when I was
asking for volunteers for the project. Sadly none were forthcoming then.
Everyone was too busy with their own lives to spend a few hours volunteering
for a community project. A few of us bore the brunt of this enormous project
which stretched over three years and had many firsts including the first
oral project in the UK to have video recordings archived at the British
Library, the first Goan seminar at the Royal Geographical Society, the first
Goan genealogy workshop at Bexley archives, the first East African Goan
video documentary, the first East African Goan exhibition for which
Secretary of State for Business, Dr Vince Cable chose to attend and solid
documentation through a book.
 
What a pity that instead of scrutinising the book, you didn't engage in
productively discussing the transformations highlighted there or the issues
of gender dynamics, caste and class consciousness, the struggles in the
civil service, the building of the churches, the politics, the prejudice and
the pain of migration. What a sad reflection it is on Goan society that an
entire month has been consumed on Goanet with such superfluous engagement of
ideas. I refuse to believe that our society hasn't evolved beyond this level
of discourse. That perhaps 

Re: [Goanet] District Commissioners of Marsabit in 1950 (Response to Eddie Fernandes from Rose Fernandes)

[Eddie Fernandes]

Rose,

Believe me I tried to answer your question about district commissioners of 
Marsabit in 1950 and researched the background but was stumped because I could 
not find any record, as indicated by you, of Gerard Montfort Bess or  any Terta 
District in the  Coast Province of Kenya.  So I seek your enlightenment to 
enable me to continue the quest.

I have no expectation at all from you at all about the book but I am relieved 
that you have confirmed that your review of the Project Exhibition was not 
sardonic as indicated by your friend who has earned the sobriquet of German 
Whisky.

I am amazed that you should have chosen Melvyn to write to me about the 
importance of dates since he wrote on 26 April 2013 that “18 May this year will 
be the 100 Anniversary of World War One”.  But you were prescient enough to 
call his contribution an idiots guide

Best wishes,
Eddie Fernandes

-Original Message-
From: Rose Fernandes
Dear Eddie
... In my goanet posting, you were given all the necessary links and I asked 
for your assistance as to who was or who were the district commissioners of 
Marsabit in 1950? ...
...Under a separate posting to you, Melvyn has written an idiots guide 
highlighting the importance of dates ...
It is also remarkable of you to expect my comments on the static exhibition to 
extend to the book there is a big material difference between the two ... 

Re: [Goanet] No Goan Canecos in British East Africa (Response by Rose Fernandes)

[Eddie Fernandes]

From: Rose Fernandes
is it generally true that those who DID NOT live in East Africa have now become 
so fascinated by what went on there, they have now become more expert that 
those who actually DID.

The answer lies in a GoaNet post of  7 June 2013 by Rose Fernandes:
 … no where have I seen anyone with such a love for East Africa as Selma. For 
enthusiasm alone, she gets a five star rating coupled with a capital 'E'. She 
knows her East Africanders better than they know themselves and tells their 
stories with such passion it is as though she lived through these stories 
herself… 

Read the full review at 
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2013-June/536904.html 

Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] No Goan Canecos in British East Africa

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Herald (Goa), 27 May 2014. 
By: Prof Teotonio R. de Souza 

Excerpts:

Selma Carvalho's A Railway Runs Through (2014) is a praiseworthy collection
of oral traditions and memories of Goans who have moved out from British
East Africa to England, Canada and elsewhere … 

If it is generally true that those who do not write usually criticize, I
have seen this happening to some extent in the Goanet forum, where quite a
few cheap comments have sought to belittle the research efforts of Selma
Carvalho. None of such loose-tongue critics have anything worth to show … 

The Indians in Mozambique had to suffer socially offensive nicknames, such
as monhés (Hindus and Muslims) and canecos (Goan Catholics). They were
invented by the Portuguese white settlers who hated their competition. I did
not come across any such parallel in Selma's book, while she does not shy
away from pointing to the caste rivalries that marked the Goan diaspora, and
illustrates it with the cases of Goan Institute and Goan Gymkhana in
Nairobi…  

we can all be grateful to Selma Carvalho who has laid the base for future
construction… 

For full text of the article, 884 words, go to  http://bit.ly/1jVW5yY 
 
To order the book, go to http://bit.ly/1h8l8jq 

Re: [Goanet] Today's Goa's Herald Review

[Eddie Fernandes]

From: Gabe Menezes
For the record there was no such thing as German Whisky in German East
Africa no, not even in the Mother land. I have pointed out the relevant
information. Now can someone produce a bottle of German whisky from the
time 1860 to 1920.
==
Gabe,
I assumed that the German whisky challenge would die after I provided the
reference in the Pall Mall Gazette and I am surprised that I am being asked
to produce a bottle - why not ask me to produce the Goan shop selling the
stuff!

If the Pall Mall Gazette reference does not suffice, go to
http://books.google.com/  and search for German + Whisky + Tanganyika.  

Check the first two results displayed. Both are within your timeframe

The first one refers to 15000 bottles of whisky being produced by the
Germans in Tanganyika.  The second cites one case of local German whisky -
very raw and strong stuff [evidently the stuff was 92% proof] ...

If that does not satisfy you, repeat the search at
http://scholar.google.co.uk/ 

Eddie Fernandes

Re: [Goanet] Today's Goa's Herald Review

[Eddie Fernandes]

Dear Melvyn,

You are right when you suggest exercising caution before criticising and 
well-meaning to suggest that Selma Carvalho may have been given the wrong story 
about German whisky and passed it on. 

Certainly any book written is prone to error and such errors must be contested 
and can be corrected in later editions of the book. However, those pointing out 
errors must do so with some authority and supply references to the contrary. 
Both Mervyn Maciel and I have been involved in the consultation process of this 
book and are familiar with the subject matter. Selma  is not only depending on 
information provided by East African Goans to recreate this story. She has 
meticulously researched this book at great length through sources dating back 
to the 1800s. Almost each sentence has a citation. If one is questioning that 
citation, they must first look it up. 

With reference to the question of German whisky, it must be viewed in the 
context of history at the time, when Britain had decided to restrict access to 
alcohol in parts of Africa. The ‘German’ she is referring to is not in Europe 
but the German coast of Tanganyika and the contraband emerging from this 
territory into Zanzibar, less than fifty miles away.  One reference to check 
for Goans selling contraband German alcohol is the Pall Mall Gazette, June 16, 
1885. There are many others but such scrutiny takes time and effort. Rather, a 
few prefer to sit on the side-lines and make spurious comments.

Eddie Fernandes
=

-Original Message-
From: Goanet [mailto:goanet-boun...@lists.goanet.org] On Behalf Of Melvyn 
Fernandes
...
If Selma Carvalho's book mentions that there was German whisky it may have been 
possible or she may have been given the wrong story and is passing it on.   It 
is up to everyone of us when we see something wrong to correct it and not go ya 
ya ya ya that will be chanted on with generations yet unborn all with the wrong 
story hence the phrase Are Goans Stupid?.   

[Goanet] Video: Book Launch 'A Railway Runs Through: Goans of British East Africa, 1865 - 1980'

[Eddie Fernandes]

Video by Raymond Carvalho.  'A Railway Runs Through: Goans of British East
Africa, 1865 - 1980, was released by Lib Dem Councillor, Rabi Martins at
HSBC Club in  Beckenham. The occasion also marks the end of the three-year
Oral Histories of British-Goans Project, undertaken by the Goan Association,
UK. A minute's silence was observed for those who participated in the
project but have since departed. Selma Carvalho, Project Manager, said it
was a triumph for East African Goans in Britain to have preserved such a
vital part of their heritage in the form of audio and video recordings, and
documented it on a book. For a video presentation, 32m. 05s.  Go to:
http://bit.ly/1j1vErB

For a photographic presentation of the book launch, 2m. 25s. Go to
http://bit.ly/1kNSr9I
 
To order the book, go to http://www.britishgoanproject.com/research/

[Goanet] Roland Francis: G.O.A. Toronto and Canorient Merger : Part 3 - The Backdrop. Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 20 April 2014 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

It was the late 1980s. A group of senior executives of the two associations
who were personal and social friends and kept in contact with each other for
the sake of the community's affairs, floated the idea of a merger. It made
sense to them that not only the two Toronto Goan Christian biggies should
merge but also that a couple of independent Goan associations in other parts
of the Ontario province should join the bandwagon in the form of chapters. 

There were concerns then as there are now. What would be the name of the new
organization? Would it lose the all-important acronym G.O.A, in deference to
the non-Goan Christian members of Canorient who then comprised about 2% of
that body and were mainly East Indians and Anglo-Indians. Huddles were held
and those minorities confirmed that the name issue was not important to
them. They were more concerned with full membership and voting entitlement.
No objection was seen to that. Then there were rumblings from Canorient's
parent body in Montreal. That too quietened down when the strategy of making
the Toronto body independent of Montreal was ideated. Meanwhile there were
some prominent Canorient members who voluntarily applied for G.O.A.
membership in addition to retaining their Canorient status.

By that time G.O.A. had acquired a large piece of property on the outskirts
of Toronto with various future plan options. The Canorient people wanted
G.O.A. to divest itself of that property, bring in the proceeds of the sale
into the new merged body and concentrate future plans on the Canorient's own
asset. The G.O.A. thought it would have some time to do this, but then deep
recession struck. Members were losing jobs, the sale price automatically
depressed and would be less than the outstanding mortgage and this plan had
to be quickly shelved. The property eventually became a millstone round
G.O.A's neck and it would take many years for the club to be fortunate to
get a business-minded young banker president to dig the body out of its
financial hole aided by the generosity of several members who invested
moderately large sums of money to be converted into bonds that would help to
sustain the mortgage. It was only in this year and last that the final
outstanding bonds were redeemed in full. With this unfortunate set of
circumstances playing out, the idea of merger died a natural death. It was
not due to opposition from any side, just the economic climate that affected
them both.

I have given you the G.O.A side of the story in my last article. Now for the
Cancorient's.

The Canorient comprises not only of the main membership, it also encompasses
a senior's club that pays its own dues, part of which goes towards
membership of the main body. In that it is different from the G.O.A. where
the senior members do not have something of their own within the club and
are an undistinguishable part of the whole where having paid membership for
some years, they are absolved of future dues on attaining age 65. This
automatically reduces the G.O.A.'s membership revenues. Dues are what
sustains all 'not-for-profits', along with some government grants. There is
a move to change the free-riding. 

Back to the Canorient's seniors. They are a powerful but not unreasonable
old guard of the club. They are not convinced of the need of a merger and
need to be presented with a strong business and community case. They feel
that the G.O.A. and the Canorient can present a united front for any need of
the community without an outright merger. They are by no means a stubborn
lot averse to change. A little work can bring them onside. The rest of the
club shows no outright opposition at this stage. I find them liberal and
more amenable to the idea of the merger than the G.O.A. who to all
appearances is the conservative partner in this proposed marriage. I am not
judging G.O.A., but I cannot get rid of an intuitive spasm that they are
going into this, with full brakes on.

When asked about the slowness of their approach, G.O.A. sources say that it
is from the necessity to exercise an abundant note of caution about
convincing members without upsetting the apple cart, which in this case
means shooing some members out the door of an already depleted list. There
is a lot more work both clubs can do about getting in new members through
some fancy marketing and a little appeal to the Goan Diaspora spirit. For
example the Middle-easterners in Toronto are a large but largely ignored
lot, left to licking their wounds about the East African domination, real or
imagined. Deal with that better than so far done and you will see a spurt in
new members.

We cannot let history repeat itself and bring in another set of
circumstances that puts the merger again on the wayside.

For Part 1 see:  Goan Voice, 31 Mar. 2014. For Part 2 see Goan Voice 14 Apr
2014].

[Goanet] Book Launch of of 'A Railway Runs Through: Goans of British East Africa, 1865 - 1980'

[Eddie Fernandes]

 The Goan Association (U.K) is pleased to invite you to the book launch of
'A Railway Runs Through: Goans of British East Africa, 1865 – 1980.' The
book is the outcome of the three-year 'Histories of British-Goans Project'
and forms a unique record of our history. The launch will take place at 1:30
pm on Saturday May 3, 2014 at the following address: 
Sterling Suite, HSBC Sports and Social Club. 
Lennard Road, 
Beckenham, 
Kent, BR3 1QW

Ample parking available. For those travelling by rail, the New Beckenham BR
station (Travelcard Zone 4) is adjacent to this club. Refreshments will be
served at the event. Please confirm your attendance to 
lescarval...@yahoo.com  indicating the names of those in your party. Thanks
to a generous grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 100 copies of this book
will be available for distribution, free of charge, on this day (restricted
to one copy per family) on a first come, first serve basis.
For details please check Goan Voice events listing at:
http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/events.php 
 
For a peek at the book cover see:
http://www.britishgoanproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/A-Railway-runs-
through-Cover-Final.pdf 

Tony Fernandes will be selling Goa-related books such as Peter Nazareth’s
‘The General is Up’ and Braz Menezes’ Just Matata. Do come along for a great
family day out.

Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] Lusofonia: Watch online: Battle of the fastest today

[Eddie Fernandes]

23 Jan: Herald. Come at the Athletic Stadium, Bambolim, on Thursday and you
will witness non- stop action as 3rd Lusofonia Games' main event, athletics
gets underway at 5 p. m. The men's 100m heats start from 6.30 p. m. with the
finals slated for 7.25 p. m. which will be followed by the women's final,
five minutes later. A total 93 medals in all 17 events with 12 on track,
three in the jump category, one in the throw event and a road race of 10 km
will be at stake. Hubert D'Costa ( 13.86m) is the front runner to bag the
gold medal in shot- put while Ashwin Soares ( 10.80) can also surprise his
teammate.
http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=13526boxid=155720906uid=dat=
1/23/2014
To watch the Lusofonia Games online, http://www.turbotv.in/dd-sports-live/

Portugal is critical of the Lusofonia Games organisation
21 Jan: O Jogo (Portugal). The Lusofonia Games began with many problems
which made Artur Lopes, head of the Portuguese mission, critical .. The most
glaring is the official language is English . The Games should have taken
place in 2013 but Goa was not ready and Brazil had offered to host the event
. the opening ceremony was beautiful but things have wrong after that . one
has to understand the Indian culture even in Goa . what is born crooked will
never get straightened . the people never say no but agree to do what you
want and then do nothing . the pavilions are dirty and of poor quality .
Portugal is pushing for its language to be included in the list of official
languages of the Olympics - what is happening  in Goa is demoralising!  .
424 words.
http://goanvoiceuk.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/o-jogo-lisbon-jan-21-2014-page32
/


Artur Lopes refuses to speak English
22 Jan.  Ponto Final (Portugal). The Head of Mission of Portugal, Artur
Lopes, refused to give interviews to Indian newspapers, demanding that they
speak to him in Portuguese. Ajit John, a reporter for the newspaper The
Goan, tried to address Artur Lopes on Monday for a brief  interview. The
same happened with journalist Mihir Vasavda of the Indian Express .  499
words. http://bit.ly/1jDoOXz

Re: [Goanet] Stay out of trouble abroad (from FCO)

[Eddie Fernandes]

More appropriate is the UK Travel Advisory to India update of 16 Jan. 2014
issued by FCO: 

UK revises India travel advisory
Hindustan Times  January 17, 2014
Last Updated: 08:17 IST(17/1/2014).

Excerpts:

The advisory says: Women should use caution when travelling in India.
Reported cases of sexual assault against women and young girls are
increasing; recent sexual attacks against female visitors in tourist areas
and cities show that foreign women are also at risk.
 
It adds: British women have been the victims of sexual assault in Goa,
Delhi, Bangalore and Rajasthan and women travellers often receive unwanted
attention in the form of verbal and physical harassment by individuals or
groups of men.
 
Serious sexual attacks involving Polish, German and Danish women travellers
have been reported so far in 2014. Women travellers should exercise caution
when travelling in India even if they are travelling in a group...

Full text at
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/after-delhi-rape-uk-revises-india-t
ravel-advisory/article1-1173776.aspx 
 ==

Sent: 17 January 2014 04:29
Subject: [Goanet] Stay out of trouble abroad (from FCO)

Stay out of trouble abroad (from the Foreign  Commonwealth Office)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/11991226106/sizes/k/

[Goanet] Selma Carvalho: Adrift in an alien land - Portuguese passport-holding Goans arrivals in the UK

[Eddie Fernandes]

22 Dec: Herald (London Post). Selma Carvalho writes, 

I have come to meet a Goan couple who live in a rented room . It is what
the English would contemptuously describe as 'third world' and yet this is
the life so many invisible immigrants endure in Britain. 
 
Portuguese passport-holding Goans arrive in an already depressed UK economy,
where jobs are difficult to find and the slightest downturn leads to layoffs
or reduced hours. To survive, they borrow from banks and relatives or worse
still, from quickfix money lending agencies charging usurious rates of
interest. Burdened with financial problems, unable to cope in an alien
country and cast adrift by their inability to communicate in English, they
spiral into debt, drink and depression. 

There is also currently a crackdown on landlords renting rooms and sheds
unfit for habitation. All this will make it that much more difficult for new
Portuguese passport-holding Goans contemplating a move to England.  

Full text, 891 words, + photos at http://bit.ly/1bYZlV6

Forwarded by Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] QUO VADIS GOA? By Aires Rodrigues - The Goan Voice Sunday Column

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 10 Nov. 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

FULL TEXT: 

We were promised a grand Clean-up in Goa. But over the last 19 months of the
vicious misrule by this government, democracy stands totally subverted and
buried. The current government is a Hindu right wing (RSS) controlled set up
where any voice of dissent is intolerable and sought to be crushed in the
bud. The communal venom being unleashed is destroying Goa's secular fabric.


We officially have a 12 member cabinet. But every department and all
decisions are controlled by Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar. The eleven
ministers are symbolic jokers who Manohar Parrikar prefers to frequently
send on outstation and foreign jaunts to keep them content.   The ruling
MLAs have also been silenced and banned from speaking out their mind on the
wrong doings of the government. In a very tactical move almost the entire
local press has been muzzled to play to the will of the government and have
conveniently surrendered their independence.

The fear of vindictiveness and retribution by this RSS driven government is
there for all to see. Ordinary citizens from fear of being targeted are dead
scared to speak out. The fright is so intense that it even deters people
from commenting against the government on the social media like Face book
with fear of facing the wrath of the saffron freaks.

To suppress the facts and truth from emanating and coming to light Manohar
Parrikar has gone all out to weaken the implementation of the Right To
Information Act. Everything is being done to keep the rampant prevailing
corruption and maladministration under closed wraps. On the pretext that the
government websites have been hacked most of them are non-functional and the
rest not updated.  Does it take so long to get the website up and working
again? Has anyone seen a website surrender to the so-called hacking? Has the
Government seriously attempted to track down the hackers? Or is this simply
a ruse to pull a bluff to shut down the websites?

The entire bureaucracy is also towing the government line, with officers who
dare to speak out being marginalised. This can be seen from the very
frequent shuffling and transfer of officers.

At the Goa Legislative Assembly which should have been the pinnacle of
democracy the scene is all the more agonizing. With the hard-core RSS
Rajendra Arlekar as Speaker the functioning of the Assembly leaves much to
be desired.

From the 1960's we have watched and witnessed Speakers of the Goa
Legislative Assembly but  Rajendra Arlekar cannot grace the walls of the
august Halls as one of the erudite Speakers as of the past. Many Speakers in
the past may have at times been partisan but members of the public have been
commenting that Rajendra Arlekar has utterly disgraced the august Chair of
the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

The role of the Opposition in a democracy is vital. In Goa with an already
decimated Opposition it needed to be fairly given an opportunity to
articulate views on the floor of the Goa Legislative Assembly. Over the last
two assembly sessions, Speaker Rajendra Arlekar has high-handedly been
silencing the Opposition. It has repeatedly been Tum bos even before they
stand.  It is good that the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly are
being conducted in Konkani. Is it because of Arlekar's love for Konkani or
because of his lack of command over English?

So why incur all that astronomical expenditure in having those Assembly
sessions if open debates and fair deliberations are not allowed. Besides,
there's no point having those meaningless cabinet meetings. Let Manohar
Parrikar and Rajendra Arlekar along with their Swami At-marop run the show
till there is some divine intervention to restore democracy in Goa. 

Goa is by the day getting more in the news for drugs, sex and sleaze. God
save Goa. Jai Hind!

For  the  Goan Voice profile of Aires Rodrigues, go to http://bit.ly/Kc2nbb 

[Goanet] Catholic Goans Don't Look Like Their Names. By Savio Carvalho

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 20 Oct. 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk  

A few years ago, when I had just taken over as the Country Director for
Oxfam GB in Uganda, I had gone to pay a courtesy call to a Minister in the
Ugandan government. On arrival, the ministers Personal Assistant (PA) asked
me. So, where is Mr Carvalho? When I introduced myself as Savio Carvalho,
(by which time we have walked to the Ministers chamber) the PA admitted that
he was expecting a middle aged, white man, a bit stouter (I think he wanted
to say pot-bellied) and in a three piece suit. This was the typical profile
of Oxfam Country Directors in yesterdays, which is no longer true. He was
intrigued to see a young man with Indian features and in semi-formal attire.

Sounds familiar? Such episodes are experienced some time or the other by
most Catholic Goans. You are going to meet someone you have never met
before. They are expecting to see the person (say Savio Carvalho) with a
name that is anything but Indian and they have already had an image of you.
You arrive, they see you, they look confused and on some occasions ignore
your presence - as they are waiting for that person (Savio Carvalho) whose
image they have created based on the name. And they are sure that Mr
Carvalho could be an Italian, Brazilian, Portuguese and but surely not an
Indian.

And after you introduce yourself, they are intrigued, puzzled and wait
anxiously to get to the bottom of the story. Sometimes you are asked
immediately, or at times they wait sheepishly to ask, So what's in your
name? Where are you from? And you promptly reply Goa And they then smile,
and their brain cells collide with each other trying to make sense of what
seemed bizarre, incomprehensible and at times embarrassing.

Over the years, crossing many immigrations points, working in 3 different
continents and meeting a wide range of people, I can go on and on with
anecdotes and stories on how my name and my features have led to intriguing
situations. So what does it mean to have a name that does not tally with
your features? It may at times cause some identify problems. It could also
raise existential questions on who am I, what is my identity, where do I
come from? You may recall the case of Berna Cruz (http://bit.ly/19V9S1i )who
was detained at Chicago's O'Hare Airport as the officers accused her of
using a fake Canadian passport and to make matters worse did not believe a
person of Indian origin could have the surname Cruz.

Many a time I do take the trouble of explaining my origins - explaining how
we were colonised by the Portuguese, converted to Catholicism and for
centuries now, have an identity of ourselves as Goans. I try and explain
how our culture, cuisine, dress sense, music and way of life differ from the
rest of India. I go on to explain that we are in some way westernised and
have embraced bits and pieces from the Portuguese, whilst on the other hand,
we have also retained parts of the Indianess like caste stratification. For
centuries this practice has continued even in the shadow of the Catholic
Church.

The best part of my identity I like to explain and emphasise is our
susegad nature. Whist other civilisations are struggling with a work-life
balance, I strongly feel that Goans have a unique edge to start some
programmes on How to live a susegad life. I am sure they will do well in
countries like Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. But to do this we
have to work hard.

Whilst many of these occasions are humorous, there is something to ponder
from such experiences. Being profiled on the basis of something like a name
or surname can be discriminatory. Many a times, in India, people face
discrimination due to their caste, gender, and religion, sexual identity
regions and even in based on physical appearance. Discrimination in any form
is a human rights violation. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights
(UDHR) in its first article says that all human beings are born free and
equal in dignity and right. However, many a time people are denied job
interviews or a place to rent based on their surnames. There have been
several cases where a person who applied for the same job with a different
surname have been invited or refused an interview. So let's be conscious
that profiling a person based on his / her name can be discriminatory.

As Goans, we need to be appreciative of our names and surnames. Other than
revealing the fact that we are from the west coast of India (Goa or
Mangalore), most us belong to a certain religion and have a definite culture
and it is difficult to get any other information from the surname. You can
be a D'Souza, Fernandes or D'Costa, a Carvalho, Pinto or Vaz - It's all the
same! You are Goan, and the most common discrimination you will face
(specially in Mumbai) is being called a Maka Pao.

Savio Carvalho, Director of the Demand Dignity Programme, Amnesty
International, International Secretariat is based in London. He was born in
Goa and spent 

[Goanet] Sunday Column: What happened to the Goan Community who served in East Africa? By Mervyn Maciel

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter of 13 Oct. 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

 (For obvious reasons, this account is written more from a personal angle)

Most of the Goans who, like me, came to the U.K. after Kenya's Independence
in the mid and late sixties, encountered no difficulty in finding jobs
either in the Civil Service or private  sector. Some like Francis da Lima,
M.B.E. from the Provincial Administration worked for the Customs  Excise;
the late Abe Almeida was with the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard and
Caje Simoes found a job in that much-hated of government departments -the
Income Tax department! 

Having worked for 20 odd years in the Kenya Civil Service, I didn't want to
go back to a government job, and decided instead to enter the Private
sector. After working in central London for a few months, and finding
commuting and especially travelling like sardines in the overcrowded Tube
cumbersome, I decided to move closer home and joined the South Eastern Gas
Board (Segas) in Croydon, Surrey. Latterly, I moved to an International
company within the Construction industry, again in Surrey.

Some Goans quickly found jobs at the Crown Agents in London, and they must
have proved such dependable and honest workers that the Establishment soon
became an unofficial Goan Recruiting Agency. The one thing I found very
irritating when registering with an Agency was the rather irrelevant
question one was always asked, Have you any London experience? I had to
remind them that I had only just arrived in the country and as such could
not be expected to have any London  experience.

Those Goans who were in the teaching profession, and whose qualifications
were recognised, found employment at various schools. Others who were not so
lucky had to settle for clerical jobs.  While in Colonial Kenya it would be
unthinkable for a Goan to have control over European (White) staff, I
myself, and no doubt other Goans in a managerial capacity had white
employees working under them.

Most Goans were quick to secure mortgages and move into their own homes,
settling in the London and outer London areas initially, and later moving on
to other areas of the country. My own Bank Manager was worried whether
Kenyatta would renege on his promises, but when assured that my pension had
been guaranteed by the British government, my overdraft was promptly
approved!   It was for the education of their children that most Goans moved
to the U.K., and it is heartening to record that on the whole, the children
of Goans who moved here from Kenya, have excelled at British Universities
and many are now professionals in their own right.

Socialising is very much part of our makeup, and even in those early days,
when most of us had never experienced an English winter, we used to organise
Christmas and New Year Eve dances at various London venues including
Alexandra Palace. A clubhouse and grounds which we had bought in 1983 from
the Times Group of Newspapers, and where we held many of our sports and
social events, was sadly to fall victim to an arson attack, when it was
burnt to the ground in 1998. A sad blow, but the Goan Association (UK)
remains undaunted and continues to flourish. In addition, the Goans are also
active in cyberspace; we have our own daily newsletter (Goan Voice UK), ably
edited by Eddie Fernandes, while social networking continues via goanet.

All in all, the GOAN DREAM has turned out to be a success story, and we
continue to play our part as law-abiding citizens in our adopted homeland.

Mervyn Maciel traces his paternal roots to the village of Salvador-do-Mundo
and spent most of his working life in Kenya. For a brief bio go to
http://bit.ly/17GMOV6   

[Goanet] Goan Voice Sunday Column: Neighbours, but foes on and off the field. By Norman Da Costa

[Eddie Fernandes]

 emigrated to Canada are now
seniors and they are still swinging away at a white ball – not hockey, but
golf.


Norman, a sports journalist, was born in Nairobi and traces his paternal
roots to Velim. He played field hockey and cricket for the Nairobi Railway
Goan Institute and was a member of the 1969 Gold Cup winning squad. He now
plays golf once or twice a week and still finds breaking a 100 a monumental
task, but enjoys the hoisting a few beers at the 19th hole. 

Comments to normandaco...@hotmail.com  

From Eddie Fernandes: This Sunday column solicits contributions from our
readers on an ad hoc basis. Please submit the text - approx 800 words - by
Wednesday, together with a photograph and bio of yourself. 

For a bio and photographs  of Norman Da Costa go to http://bit.ly/GEW6qh 

Re: [Goanet] Keith Vaz hits the right notes at Labour's party conference

[Eddie Fernandes]

RE: THE surprise hit of Labour conference was Keith Vaz.

What is, perhaps, a greater surprise is that the report appeared in the
right-of-centre Daily Express which has tormented Keith Vaz in the past . 

After I had put out a link to the Express story in Goan Voice on Saturday, I
came across a report and video clip in Dods Politics headlined Vaz the
Dazzler see http://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/85460/vaz_dazzler.html
 
And a week ago we had reports that Keith Vaz is the third most impressive
figure in parliament, according to a survey of his colleagues.
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Poll-names-Keith-Vaz-impressive-parlia
mentarian/story-19806359-detail/story.html

Eddie Fernandes
==

-Original Message-
From: Gabe Menezes
Sent: 30 September 2013 09:39

THE surprise hit of Labour conference was Keith Vaz.
*http://tinyurl.com/npw67bg*

[Goanet] Sunday Column: The Goan Problem: Who Am I? A young perspective by Richard de Souza

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 29 Sep  2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

By Richard de Souza

In July this year I attended the last day of the 'Oral Histories of
British-Goans' exhibition at the Nehru Centre, London.  Expecting to spend a
few minutes browsing through the exhibition, I found myself devoting an
entire morning to it, witnessing an exchange of personal expressions of what
it means to be Goan between the older generation, who migrated from
British East Africa, and the younger born-and-bred UK generation.  On this
last day, many visitors had turned up hoping to catch a glimpse of this
unique opportunity and consequently Eddie Fernandes took a group photo
(http://bit.ly/16TzmcU ) and led a discussion so those present could ask the
questions that the exhibition had evoked.

The exhibition, preserving the story of East African Goans who settled in
Britain, raised questions such as:  is this relevant to our younger British
Goan generation today?  Do they really care?  A handful of young British
Goans turned up for the exhibition, confidently sharing their viewpoint,
opening up minds and hearts to realise that there is a lot of work to be
done in understanding where British Goans, young and old, are at in their
thinking?  Why is there a division between the older and younger generation?
Or perhaps mere misunderstanding has arisen?  It was interesting to see
bridges being built to close that 'generation' gap.  Ultimately, the feeling
was that the exhibition was important to the young British Goans present.
Though there was not a strong sense of connection to the East African part
of our migration history (for it is somewhat a memory in the mind of our
parents with most of us never having set foot on African soil), there was
still a yearning for answers to the fundamental questions any young Goan
asks:  Who am I?  Why am I 'different'?  How do I define where I am from?
What is my identity?  The young lads present tried to express how life is
for them in 21st century Britain as a Goan; in the discussion issues of
identity, history, culture, racism and discrimination, music, dress, food,
language, nationality, heritage, migration and home all came to the fore.

The exhibition was fascinating:  photographs and articles, scans of
Portuguese identity papers for Goans and newspaper clippings showing the
British media's response to the incoming Goans from Malawi.  Everything
present was a visible snapshot of the life experience of the Goan community
in Africa, their displacement and migration to Britain in particular.  What
arose at the end of this marvellous exhibition was something I would like to
term Goanisity - to be Goan - what does it mean?  How Goan can you be?
What identifies a Goan?  And why do the older generation feel more Goan and
the younger ones feel so isolated?  Perhaps part of the answer to that final
question is down to migration and loss of continuity.  You are visibly
identified as an ethnic Indian, with brown skin and dark hair, apart for the
fact that your name is very Christian with a Portuguese infusion.  Your
birthplace is not Goa or the Indian subcontinent.  The birthplace of your
parents is not either, but you are not African.  You neither speak Konkani,
though your parents might, nor a language of the Indian subcontinent.  You
are Catholic (for the most part), but you do not have a clue what 'ladainha'
is all about.

The complex migration story meant that younger generations were cut off from
certain cultural aspects of being Goan as their parents' and grandparents'
stories may have included various parts of India, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika
 Zanzibar, Malawi, Belgian Congo, the Middle East and often returns to Goa.
Yet the young Goan in Britain just knows the UK and maybe the odd holiday to
Goa at Christmas or Easter for a week or two.  Their parents pass on less of
that sense of 'Goanisity' as their Goan life story also includes Africa and
less Konkani songs and more Jim Reeves!

The complexity of what it means to be Goan and the fact that older Goans
especially feel so strongly about their identity and roots in Goa, despite
their own story being quite a layered mix of languages, lands, cultures and
histories, means that the younger generation who are immersed in
multicultural Britain without the same living memory as their parents and
grandparents struggle to understand who they are and wrestle with the
question of identity.  The result of this is that you can call yourself Goan
and you can prefix British to that, but interestingly your 'Goanisity' will
include the East African influence, the Portuguese influence, the British
influence and maybe other parts of the world thrown in.  Even with the roots
deep on Goan soil, the complex history of Goa from its earliest days reveals
more and more about the complex identity of the Goan individual and the Goan
community over time.

Our layers of identity will be as complex as the intricate detailing of our
DNA - stretching it out

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Taking A Bow - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: www.goanvoice.org.uk Daily Newsletter of 22 Sep. 2013

It's been more than a year since I made an offer to Eddie Fernandes to write
a Sunday column for the Goan Voice which he graciously accepted. It's been a
fulfilling period for me. I got a wide audience with which to express my
thoughts and views on subjects common to us, hoping what I wrote would
resonate with readers and it did. Also it was a tremendous opportunity to
walk down lanes of memories in Bombay, Goa, the Gulf and Canada, mostly
happy, comic as well as serious. There was no philosophy or sophistry
involved, for I am a simple and ordinary Goan Canadian and wrote about what
I experienced and felt. I know I have sometimes offended some readers with a
few seemingly acute views, but other than saying unequivocally that I had no
intention to hurt anyone, I would say those things again. I thank folks for
their emails of support and appreciation. There is no bigger boost to the
writer's ego than being told that his or her readers look forward to the
next essay, with other comments to the effect that they would not miss the
Sunday column if they could help it. To those who didn't write, I hope you
too took some pleasure from my keyboard. I am rooting for Eddie to find
another Sunday columnist with his or her own perspectives so that I can on
Sundays, after church or even before, open up the site and go straight to
the column (other days I visit the Goan Voice more than twice daily) to read
opinion, thought, observation, angle and reminiscence like I used to do
before the column became mine.

The future has always been a challenge to our community and we have met it
well.  However, a time is coming when our resources and blessings whether
God-given or otherwise that we can call upon, will be sorely tested and will
call for different responses than heretofore, from us and more specifically
from our children. There is no part of the world that we have not already
gone to for a better life or merely to escape from what was not available at
home. But the avenue of migration will no longer be a viable option because
those challenges have already started in the developed world where the bulk
of our Diaspora lives. In the current global environment, it will not be
long before they are seen in Goa, India and Africa where the middle class
has just recently burgeoned. 

Goans have largely been a middle class. Whatever our occupation or class, we
have had stable homes, stable work, food on the table and a doctor to go to.
But the middle class faces a bleak new reality. The cost of living soars,
university education is no longer a sufficient qualification to find a job
and free medical treatment will slowly become a thing of the past in Britain
and Canada with costs rising beyond comprehension. To put it in the words of
Canada's Maclean magazine in their Letter from Europe - This summer the
British middle class went from being temporarily squeezed to officially
terminally ill. Also mentioned is that in the 'Guardian', columnist Suzanne
Moore observed that class has been recast as a generational issue, with
anyone born after 1985 denied access to what their parents had - the
traditional tools of social mobility - education, housing, steady income.
The situation in the US is worse with 4 out of 5 American adults struggling
with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of
their lives, according to the Toronto Star today. It's not that the world
has insufficient wealth for all those within it to have a decent life; it's
just that the rich are becoming super rich and the middle class poor. 

It's possible that eventually the problem will be mitigated. All the ills
that have brought the situation to where it is now, including the form of
democracy we know which is frayed, abused and incapable of being a
sustainable system needs to, like communism, be replaced or at least
improved unrecognizably beyond what it looks like now.

There is hope for Goans if like Jews after the Second World War, our future
generations reinvent themselves to meet the new challenges. That calls for
much change and discomfort. We will be unable to do it but we hope our
children will. They are more capable, focused and better educated than us
and they do not carry our baggage. But not only must they surmount the odds,
they must do it while retaining the values and traditions of decency,
morality, compassion and good faith that have defined us to the rest of the
world. That is our prayer.

From me it may not be a final goodbye to the column. If Eddie does not get a
volunteer or does not re-invent it I may yet see you again, even if
occasionally, though not anytime soon I am expecting. Saude ani sussego
(good health and peace) to you all and viva to your goencarponn (Goan-ness).



From Eddie Fernandes: I would like to place on record my grateful thanks to
Roland for his nostalgic, entertaining and stimulating weekly contributions.
I

[Goanet] Roland Francis: The Bucket List and Other Things - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis: 
The Bucket List and Other Things - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan
Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 15 Sep  2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

For Indian standards, the trial, conviction and sentencing to death of the
men who raped, severely beat up and killed an innocent young paramedic woman
student while savaging her escort on a quiet night last December in New
Delhi, was completed this week in record breaking time. Even considering
that the justice process was fast-tracked due to the national outrage it
created, it was still speedily delivered. In India fast-tracked can mean
three to five years instead of the usual ten to fifteen. It's another matter
when those on death row actually make the trip to the gallows.

Most Indians breathe a sigh of relief with the thought that a death sentence
would now be a precedent and a deterrence to any such crime, a kind of
panacea for all the evil perpetrated on womankind in India. That would be
quite convenient. But the facts show otherwise. If capital punishment or
even other severe sentencing were a true deterrent, US prisons would not be
full as full as they are now. Salutary punishment does not really reduce
crime, at least in developed countries. There are other more complex issues
that have to be addressed by society for that to happen. There are many who
tell me that Indian criminals respond well and solely to the threat of
punishment. I am hoping that for the sake of women there, they are right and
I am wrong. That kind of thinking will save them the effort of treating
women as equals, learning to respect them, discarding dowry (it has long
been a crime), giving them the same opportunities and privileges as men and
doing away with aborting foetuses merely because it will be a female child.

Closer to home in Canada, we too breathed a sigh of relief, a bigger sigh
though, when circumstances or should I say the cleverness of Assad and Putin
delivered Obama out of the corner in which he had boxed himself with his
avowed desire to bomb Syria. Though his Congress may perhaps have nixed his
request for aerial war, with the people giving him thumbs down, he might
still have unilaterally used his presidential authority to bomb to save face
and his line in the sand. For him it would mean little - a few billions
added to the national debt (even if that could be better used to alleviate
the poverty in some of his cities) with no American lives lost. But to
humanity it would result in a grievous wound, killing many people, most of
them innocent, so facilely described in American terminology as collateral
damage. Further, there would be ruination and destabilizing of an ancient
and beautiful country and a body blow to the Christians of the Middle East,
inhabitants of that land even before the Roman empire, being converted by
the apostles themselves.

Widespread and illegal mining destroying a local environment already made
fragile with construction and strewn garbage, is looking to re-enter Goa
riding on the greed of politicians, on the back of a plea of shortage of
revenue and through the rear door of the Indian Supreme Court via a petition
that seeks to circumvent and short-change the report of a Commission of
Enquiry that resulted in the recent decision of that very court to ban
mining. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the gravy was
being sorely missed by the corrupt men who rule Goa and it would be only a
matter of time for them to attempt to restart it again. For the sake of the
health and well being of the people of Goa who never benefited from the
money that rolled in but suffered from its disastrous results, I hope the
Supreme Court shoots down that plea. Sustainable mining that benefits both
business and people is possible. The Portuguese showed that when they
governed Goa. Being foreign, they could have been expected to despoil the
land and loot the populace with rampant and unregulated mining, but they
didn't. It took our own people to show Goans how it could be done. 

After you turn fifty you should have a bucket list - things to do before
you die, however far into the future that may seem to you. Things like
parting with precious things you own but which going forward will give
someone else more pleasure than they give you now. Perhaps if you can afford
it, travelling to some countries you have not been to, unrestricted for time
and location than allowed on those standard tours and cruises. Maybe going
and living as a guest in the home of some dirt poor family in a hopeless
country, experiencing how people sleep on an empty stomach, yet are happier
than you and I. It could even be doing something much less dramatic, by
freeing up the time you thought you didn't have, to do them. Spending more
time with family perhaps, renewing friendships even, with people who blessed
your life as you went through it, who are still around but whom you have
never thanked or talked to, enough. I am late in creating my own bucket list
but 

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Going To Church - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis.

Source www.goanvoice.org.uk Daily Newsletter, 8 Sep. 2013.

Growing up as a Goan Catholic in the usual rigid mould that was cast for a
boy or girl of that time, a notable part of my childhood and early teens was
devoted to religious based activities. There was the Sunday mass which under
no circumstances could be missed, the daily rosary, altar service, annual
retreat, benedictions, novenas, various feasts and a host of other related
events too numerous to be enunciated. Going to a Jesuit school, there was
further pain. Anyone who lived in those times will attest to the enormous
and stifling influence that religious figures like church and school
priests, nuns and brothers could have on one's life through instructions,
suggestions and societal pressure on parents. My father was utterly liberal
about all this but it was my mother who more than made up for his remissions
related to my catholic upbringing.

In such an environment, visiting a church other than Catholic on Sunday was
tantamount to heresy. That didn't stop me from trying. In a quiet corner of
Byculla's main street then called Victoria Gardens Road was a small and
architecturally very pleasing Wesleyan Methodist chapel of the Church of
South India - the latter being an umbrella organisation of Protestant
churches. Probably built when Bombay's ruling class and their Anglo-Indian
cohorts were in large numbers in that neighbourhood, I had always wanted to
see the inside and attend a service of Catholicism's greatest enemy of the
time. Breathe the P word and all hell would break loose on you, so asking
permission to do that was out of the question. If anyone espied going to the
enemy's place of worship, you were done for, being worse than just your
parents seeing you go there. But I did it anyway. 

It was a different experience. As I let myself in quietly, out of nowhere
came a member of the congregation welcoming me and asking if it was my first
time. He made me feel welcome and wanted, insignificant non-adult that I
was. The service itself was quite different from anything I knew. There was
singing and there was the homily. Everybody in the audience participated.
Years later this would come to my mind when I read an interesting and well
written book called Catholics Can't Sing authored by a Catholic musician.
Goans of course would have been the  exception. In those days in village
churches everybody sang in loud voices and with grateful hearts. The
Methodist service was absent the rituals and the chapel devoid of statues of
saints and other religious symbols except for a large leather-bound open
bible that was placed on a small central table and which the pastor used
during his homily. It was a serious commentary on a passage of the day
explained with simplicity and logic, devoid of fire and brimstone. Nothing
about hell, the Methodists didn't believe in it. To a early teen and one
that was steeped in the concept of punishment for sin rather than the love
of God, that was a pleasant surprise.

I thought nothing of that incident and the years flew by until I emigrated
to Toronto. I was disappointed at most of the Catholic churches I attended.
The priests were old, their zeal missing, their ideas few and their homilies
and organizational prowess uninspiring in all but a few parishes in the
city. I had been used to dynamic priests in Bombay and missionaries in the
Gulf and this was a let-down. There was no personal touch like before and
they seemed indifferent to whether you participated in the Church's services
or in its community where it seemed like not much was happening anyway, How
much of this was lethargy and how much was prevention of being legally
liable I don't know. It seems to be changing a little bit now with the
necessary importation of foreign priests from India, the Philippines and
parts of impoverished Europe.

On the other hand Toronto and indeed Canada is dotted all over with various
Protestant and non-denominational congregations. There is major presence of
the Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Anglican, United Church of Canada, Baptist,
Lutheran and other evangelical churches. I have from time to time attended
Sunday services in many of these denominations. They are a relief to the
Catholic landscape which counts on fifty percent of Christians in Canada.
People who go to these non-Catholic churches dress well, are on their best
behaviour at service, are friendly to strangers (like in the old Byculla
Methodist church) and full of Christian charity in daily life. Everyone
takes off their coats in winter and keep them in adequate closets provided.
Childcare is arranged for small children and bible classes for the older
ones so they do not disturb the service. The pastors prepare well for their
sermons which are infinitely more absorbing than those of Catholic priests.
They are filled with missionary zeal and they send lay members of their
congregation well funded to various parts of the globe to preach and convert

Re: [Goanet] NEIL RANGEL: ALTERNATIVE VIEW[Goanet-News] Rarely has the Goan Diaspora challenged the biased views of the mainstream media. (Dr Eddie D'Sa)

[Eddie Fernandes]

-Original Message-
From: neil rangel

 While I don’t have access to the original article that  quoted Mr Andrew Green 
; it seems that everyone has missed  the point of this concerned British man. 

Response:
Goan Voice carried a report on 13 May 2013 with links to:
1. The Daily Star article
2. The Daily Mail article
3. The 441 comments made by readers in the Daily Mail website
4. A video clip of the immigration debate between Sir Andrew Green and Keith Vaz
5. The statement made in the House of Commons ten years ago regarding Goans 
with Portuguese nationality entering the UK
Go to  http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/printerfile.php?link=2013-05-13 

And congratulations to Bene and Jason for the judicious response.

Eddie Fernandes
www.goanvoice.org.uk 

[Goanet] Roland Francis: From One Second To The Next - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis 

 

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 1 Sep  2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

 

The plight of women in India was highlighted again with the gang rape of a
young photojournalist in Bombay, a city that was once considered the safest
the country for women. A similar incident took place in Delhi in December
last year but fortunately this time the victim was not murdered. Both
incidents have demonstrated several things. 

 

That some Indian males are basically sexually crazed and repressed and are
encouraged in their misogyny surprisingly by the very females in their
families; their mothers, grandmothers and aunts. It starts out with little
things. The males are fed heartily at meals and what scant, insufficient
food remains is shared by the women in the household. It goes on to criminal
faults like instigating and abetting the young man in harassing the new
bride to get additional dowry from her family ultimately ending in a joint
conspiracy to burn and kill the hapless victim if her father is unable to
meet these later demands. 

 

That Bombay Police are very effective if they are forced to be so by public
pressure. The effectiveness has a price though. Suspects are routinely and
mercilessly beaten up in custody until they confess and their innocent
parents and other relatives are sometimes not immune from similar treatment
if they do not give up information that the police need. Also the system of
confidential informants (khabris) helps investigations as with police forces
in the rest of the world but in Bombay's case those CIs are protected by
their sponsor cops even more acutely from their own major criminal
activities. 

 

That the print, broadcast and social media all play a crucial role in
getting culprits to book in such high profile cases. The fact that no
lessons are ever learned or no future preventive measures implemented by the
authorities is another matter. They count on the light on such incidents
eventually fading away and so far they have not been disappointed. This
works for them even in case of major incidents like  people dying in bus and
train accidents which could have been preventable if basic safety and
anti-negligence measures had been in place. I need to correct myself.  In
India there is no dearth of commission reports, rules, regulations and laws.
The problem is with a lack of common civic consciousness in following them
and the widespread corruption that causes the guardians of those laws to not
enforce them.

 

Goa though has no saving grace like Bombay. The police force has been inept,
untrained and corrupt right from the time of change to Indian rule. It's not
that third degree violence or confidential informants are not being used in
Goa, It's just that even the best measures fail in that small state. As an
example, the rate of solving as well as obtaining convictions in major
crimes like murders and significant burglaries is abysmally low. The past
and present heads of this force have been either incapable or unwilling to
drive change to modernity and efficiency with better training and equipment.
Granted that politicians have been a major thorn and impediment to all this.
But such is the bane of police all over the country with the defining
difference being that while elsewhere some inspiring IPS officers like
Ribeiro, Mendonca, Inamdar, Soman and the current Satyapal Singh make a
change to the criminal landscape, no such officers seem to have blessed Goa.
There was the nationally famous Kiran Bedi who was a clever traffic top cop,
but even she seemed to have made no lasting impression on that crime cursed
and driving challenged territory.

 

On the plane of another thought and talking of driving, today's weekend
Toronto Star has devoted an entire supplement to the dangers of distracted
driving. While thanks to NGOs like MADD (mothers against drunk driving)  and
police and government efforts as well, society is well aware of the dangers
of drunk driving,  what is not so well known is that distracted driving
kills and maims even more people than driving under the influence of alcohol
and drugs. One of the biggest culprits of distracted driving is texting -
with eating, drinking coffee or pop, talking, putting on makeup, adjusting
the stereo or GPS, hands off the steering wheel and having an animated
discussion or verbal fight with a passenger, play their own dangerous roles.
Werner Herzog has created an about-to-be released documentary 'It Can Wait'
on texting and driving which has a very powerful message for all behind the
wheel. It is already on You Tube as 'One Second To The Next' -
http://bit.ly/15vaFCa http://bit.ly/15vaFCa  and has gone viral. Please
see the 34 minute viewing and pass on to those you care about. 

 

To readers in North America, have a pleasant and safe Labor Day tomorrow.

 

 

[Goanet] Roland Francis: CROWDFUNDING - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis. 
Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 25 Aug 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk  

Made famous by Barrack Obama in his first campaign for President, the
meaning of the word which is almost self evident, is described by Wikipedia
as the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money,
usually via the internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or
organizations. While his opponent  raised the large sums of money that are
required for a presidential election campaign through traditional sources
i.e. lobby groups, vested interests, super-rich individuals and
corporations, Obama raised even more gigantic amounts largely through very
small amounts of money donated directly by a large number of individual
Americans all over the country. The benefits are obvious - the greatest
being that he is beholden not to his major contributors but to the ordinary
people to whom he is responsible anyway.

There is a very practical need for the community to take on the freedom that
would be afforded by a revenue stream that is always needed for this Goan
cause or that. Once well-known tiatrists and musicians now seeing hard days
with no money for medical treatment, families already in penury losing the
sole breadwinner by an accident, physically or mentally challenged children
and students needing better care, food and education funding, legal aid
expenses for people in special cases who find themselves in awkward and
unjust situations and a host of other crying needs in a country like India
that is notorious for slow action and broken government promises.

Why depend on people having to part with a hundred dollars or more for each
cause on top of the money they already give to local charities? How many
people really exist who are willing to part with such amounts even though
infrequently and even though it really doesn't hurt their bank? Why not give
an opportunity to as many Goans as possible to donate a small amount like
five dollars once or twice a month. That's how much it would cost in Toronto
for say a couple of coffee cups and a doughnut. It will open a whole world
to the Goan Diaspora to participate in doing some good for their own
community. Taken one step further, there could be a pre-authorized system of
debit where people can commit to giving five or ten dollars a month, every
month, for as long as they want to do it that way.

There are many challenges to such a worthy venture, trust being paramount.
Administrative expenses need to be minimized and sponsored by individuals or
small businesses. Volunteers preferably retired but active and committed men
and women, whose character is aboveboard need to be recruited on a
semi-permanent, ongoing basis. There is much work involved not so much in
collecting (that is mostly done on the internet) but also in managing the
collections, disbursing it and speedily reporting on an active website. A
socially and financially savvy core group that is trusted by the general
community in each of the major Diaspora countries needs to identify and
administer each funding project some of which may run concurrently. These
core groups must liaise and enjoy rapport with each other for quick action.
Transparency and continuous openness must be practiced with all projects
undertaken so that financial and other information is available to
everybody, even those who don't participate, at a click of the mouse. Ideas
for more efficiency need to be fostered and both major concerns from
constructive individuals as well as frivolous objections from self-important
individuals whose words and actions are often frustrating to those putting
in earnest efforts, addressed.

The work ahead is cut out for us with tantalizing rewards of moral
satisfaction at the end of the rainbow. Imagine the whole process one day
running like a well-oiled machine that offers succor speedily to those in
most need. Imagine us Goans doing something as one body and one soul instead
of the constant splitting and bickering that usually takes place. All it
takes is for a few good men and women to make it viable and Goan generosity
on this micro scale will follow, making small and humble but important
impacts to society of which we can all be proud when it happens.
==

[Goanet] Roland Francis: A Lifetime of Bondage - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

A Lifetime of Bondage.  By Roland Francis.

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 18 Aug 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

One of the reasons that facilitated movement to the Diaspora was the long
established system of the house servant in Goa. Most often this was a woman
from a poor family with more children than their parents could handle. She
was offered to the household for a lifetime of servitude since education in
those days was accessible mostly to the land-owning class and there were no
laws requiring that children be educated until a reasonable age. A life span
of service was not always the case though. In later years after the 1960s
some of these women would move on to get married usually to a field worker
or mine laborer and if she was fortunate, to a settler in Bombay or a
seafarer. 

In some cases this servant was an adopted girl, a 'poskem' of whom I have
written in a previous column. These were more fortunate. Although they did
the same chores as that of a servant, there was always a kind of family
moral obligation hovering somewhere between a servant and a real family
member that resulted in a little better treatment. A few families who were
more Christian, with their faith extending beyond the Sunday mass and their
charity beyond provision of a minimum sustenance, treated their adopted
family member almost as good as their own. I know of some of these few who
gave their servant-poskems the family name and left them the same legacy as
they did for their biological children. This is more likely to have happened
if the child was brought as an infant rather than at 6 or 7 years old which
was the norm.

The job of a servant in Goa was all hours, all days all year. While the rest
of the family had breaks in routine on Sundays, feast days, visits of the
scattered family and fun times of that sort, the poor servant would actually
have to do double her normal work when the family celebrated. If someone was
kind enough to give a little tip for extraordinary services rendered, it was
usually inadequate but considered lavish enough by the giver to share that
information with one and all. The servant would be reminded of it for the
rest of the year. None of that right hand not knowing what the left was
doing. Talking of money, if the family considered itself generous, they
would set aside a small sum every month towards adulthood and marriage,
considering even that a favor. That monthly amount was nothing compared to
the real economic worth of that individual but few stopped to think of that
inadequacy and unfairness.

As family members got older, the servant doubled up as the long term care
provider (all for free) with all the ugly work that the situation entailed.
Senility made the servant's tasks all the more onerous. Nevertheless, there
were more complaints than appreciation for all this from the lady of the
house. When visiting family members and friends in Goa, I used to marvel at
the diligence and hard work of faithful, sincere servants but if I mentioned
my awe of these individuals I would be countered with petty faults and
trivial failings which I was often tempted to compare with those of the
householders, but being a guest prevented me from doing that.

The Mangaloreans have a system that Goans would do well to emulate. If the
mother dies and the father is incapable of looking after the children
financially or otherwise, or worse if the children were left orphans, the
maternal uncle would according to custom take in his sister's offspring and
bring them up as his own family. As such children grew older and did well
for themselves; they would treat these adoptive parents in a much more
loving way than would their cousins, the biological children. In such a
situation, orphans in the Goan community would be left to fend for
themselves either with a religious order or with some priest or other
relative 'magnanimous' enough to take care of them.

One would have thought that with the passage of time and people from Goa
becoming materially well off, attitudes with their domestic helpers would
have changed for the better. Unfortunately they haven't. Whatever changes
have occurred are due to a shortage of supply and the natural driving up of
wages and demands in level with other menial occupations. In my opinion,
adequate compensation for their work is still not being practiced - rather
the moaning and complaining of the employers has ratcheted upwards. I have
often heard overseas Goans telling long winded stories of how difficult it
is to get domestic help in Goa. What they conveniently omit is what they
consider an attractive wage is wage below what a human being requires to
keep body and soul together in today's Goa. What they should realize is that
every human being's desire to improve their lot, just as they did theirs,
should not be out of reach of their domestic help as it once was.

-

[Goanet] T.J. Lobo: A Lasting Legacy

[Eddie Fernandes]

18 Aug: Herald. In 2011, Selma Carvalho sat with Thomas Joaquim Lobo, then
102 years old and listened to him talk about his life. Thomas was born in
1909 in the small village of Parra. Nothing auspicious marked his birth
which foretold of the incredible journey which lay ahead. As the 20th
century opened, Goa was economically devastated. Whether a son of the soil
or born into privilege, almost every family was discreetly impoverished,
sustained only by an unwavering faith in God. Money was very, very tight,
Thomas volunteers candidly. Thomas, who spent much of his adult life in
Kenya, passed away in June 2013, a few weeks short of his 104th birthday.
http://bit.ly/17AmQQF
 
For a six minute video clip in which he (and his daughter) talk about life
in Goa, moving to Bombay in the 1920s and living in remote districts of
Kenya, http://bit.ly/IZNDhX

[Goanet] Roland Francis: The Street Bands of Calcutta - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 11 Aug 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

In the 50s and 60s of the last century, until a dour Communist Government
took over the state of West Bengal and drove all the fun out of its capital
Calcutta, that city was considered the soul of India with a vibrant night
life while Bombay was merely the country's financial center.  Calcutta was
the city where the pedantic but easily excitable Bengali coexisted with the
minorities of Marwari, British, Anglo-Indian, Goans, Jews and Armenians. The
city was volatile with violent crowds forming as quickly as today's flash
mobs but the situation was well-handled with the Anglo Indian-led Calcutta
Armed Police who knew a thing or two about cracking heads with bamboo batons
with the same finesse as their chiefs would sweet-talk to mob leaders to get
crowds into meek submission, from awe of their towering personalities.

One of the duties the police performed was to provide street corner pickets
to keep the peace and maintain order along the routes of major events like
Durga Puja for Hindus and Moharrum for Muslims. The final stage of Durga
Puja consisted of carrying the effigies of the goddess (protector from evil
and remover of miseries) from local shrines, in procession to be immersed in
the river Hooghly, much like the Ganapati elephant-god processions in Bombay
that end with immersion of the idols in the Arabian Sea.

The ornateness of the effigies was a competitive point between neighborhoods
as was the procession usually led by a street band called the pooh-pooh
band locally. In police circles, these street bands were laughingly referred
to as 'Harrison's Pipe and Drums' after the Harrison Road neighborhood in
which they lived. 

Street bands followed no conventional music structure and varied in number
according to the customer's capacity to pay and the availability of musical
instruments which the musicians had to hire. What they lacked in musical
talent they compensated by the garishness of their uniforms, a main feature
of which was that that they were not uniform; the range of kit worn was
subject to availability and vagaries of personal taste and other
eccentricities of dress. Outrageous colors and indiscriminate wearing of
buttons were affected for chimerical effect rather than identification.
Mismatched trousers and tunics were topped off with an exotic variety of
head gear worn at rakish angles. Footwear was subject to the personal
circumstances of the wearer with flip-flops predominating.

The group was led by a principal musician who played an E-flat clarinet with
wild flourishes, rendering an energetic version of a Bollywood 'filmi' tune
while the pipers struggled with a strange version of Cock 'o the North in
the background; all musical conflict in key and tempo being concealed by the
thunderous output of the percussion section which consisted of half the
band. Musical arrangements were impromptu, harmony an abstract concept and
musical expression swept aside in favor of decibel output which was judged
to be more essential than melodic content for the purpose of customer
satisfaction. Blaring out in unison and not necessarily in the same key was
general practice. 

While these street bands parodied the military bands of the armed forces and
police services of India from whose former members their principal players
were often drawn, they emphasized their casual, civilian nature by strolling
about in loose formations. Spontaneous street corner concerts were indulged
in at intervals, heavily encouraged by cheering bystanders who poured onto
the street in outbreaks of Bollywood dance routines requiring the
intervention of police to keep traffic moving. Outbreaks of gratuitous
violence rated high in the entertainment scale. Order was restored in the
usual Indian police way by a liberal and indiscriminate application of the
half-lathi (3 foot bamboo batons) to all in the vicinity which dispersed the
crowd swiftly.

During the Christmas to New Year week, occasional bands used to forage into
the central Anglo Indian and Christian enclaves to cash in on any seasonal
goodwill with band members emitting raucous blasts of Auld Land Syne, The
British Grenadier, When The Saints Go Marching In and Scotland the Brave -
all at the same time, as if oblivious to each other. There is an apocryphal
tale that once as a hearse passed an Indian wedding party on its way to a
Christian funeral, as a mark of respect the street band broke out into a
rousing rendition of the old-time music hall ditty Hold Your Hand Out, You
Naughty Boy.

Musical and sartorial incongruities aside, Pooh-Pooh bands were a harmless
and colorful feature of Calcutta street life. They spread good cheer and in
a complex multicultural society beset by poverty, intermittently splashed
with episodic violence and the grind of daily survival, they had an almost
universal appeal. While they may have set music lovers' teeth on edge, they
provided an 

[Goanet] Death: Melinda Coutinho Powell

[Eddie Fernandes]

8 Aug: Ooty, India. MELINDA COUTINHO POWELL. (Ex Air India; was an active
Goa Netter).  Wife of David Powell. Mother of Elizabeth and Rebecca Powell.
Daughter of (the late) Martin/ Flossy Coutinho. Daughter in law of (the
late) John/Ida Powell, Sister/sister in law of Ricky/Heidi Coutinho
(Canada), Sandra/Michael Fonseca (Canada), Susanna/Ian Netto (USA) and
Jonathan/Binaifer Powell (USA) Funeral was on 8 Aug. at St Stephen's Church,
Ooty. 

For the Melinda Coutinho Powell Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/melinda.c.powell

For links to some of her writing  http://bit.ly/1cNlMxb

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Beholden to the White Man - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Beholden to the White Man. By Roland Francis

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 4 Aug 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

Full Text:

As any school kid who has had the opportunity to study Indian history knows,
a very long time ago, going back four and five thousand years BC in what is
known as the Indian subcontinent today, there were the hallmarks of advanced
civilization the likes of which would come to Europe much later and to the
Americas even later than that. Even the Portuguese who came to the southern
part of the subcontinent twenty thousand years after those ancient
civilizations existed and to Goa a little after that, marvelled at the
riches, the lifestyle, the food and the general opulence of the population
driven by knowledge and industriousness. They were led by rulers who had the
wellbeing of their subjects, in a sort of democratic system but without its
failings which have proven all too common today. The only flaw in that Eden
was the desire of individual rulers to expand their territory which made
them a ripe target for Portuguese, Dutch, French and English ambition. These
European nations had little of the splendour of the natives but they had
what counted then as what counts today - superior arms, discipline and
strategies. 

Fast forward to modern and contemporary times, say the nineteenth century
and later where the western hemisphere dominated and the rest of the world
became either their subjects, vassals or followers. Lets us concentrate on
Goa and Goans. Change came with the times. The wealth of Goa slowly eroded
and not entirely due to the Portuguese who themselves declined from a world
power to an insignificantly colonial one. However Goa being an agrarian
society because of the fertile land, the rivers and the monsoon, while other
lands suffered from drought and consequent hunger, remained self sufficient.
Elsewhere wars came, but in Goa and the rest of India there was peace thanks
to our foreign rulers.  And thanks to Portuguese neutrality during the Great
Wars, Goa was spared even the minimal war-time deprivation that India under
the British could not avoid.

Goans prospered under the white man. Many of them may have been converted to
another religion against their will, but in return they were offered
education, music, good law and governance and many opportunities in trade,
mercantilism and administration to better themselves and their families.
This was not confined to the Catholic community alone - Hindus and Muslims
benefited too. For those whom prosperity bypassed, British East Africa
beckoned, followed by the Arab Gulf opportunity and England, Canada,
Australia and the United States in addition to those who made the mother
country Portugal their home. They all prospered under those conditions. For
such a small population, they made themselves felt in every endeavour they
undertook and in every society they lived. Those who did not excel lived
solid burgher lives; law abiding, education seeking, wealth accumulating and
just as industrious as Vasco da Gama must have found the subjects of Tipu
Sultan and the Cochin and Travancore Rajas on his trade trips there.

When the British left India and the Portuguese, Goa, there was great hope.
Both peoples had educated and trained leaders whose only interest was the
good of the country they governed. They had learned their lessons from the
Europeans well, often applying them in unique ways. Gandhi taught the world
non-violence, Goans the rest of India, trustworthiness and music. In Bombay
not too long ago, the word of a Goan and a Parsee was implicitly trusted.
Everyone else had to prove themselves. Freedom seemed a magic word. Somehow
it was taken to mean the antithesis of betrayal and it was going to make the
lands now freed of oppressors shine for all those who lived within it. Even
if it didn't shine quickly enough, the intentions were going to be
faultless. 

The rot took a little while to set in, about 20 years, since the lessons
learned under the white men could not easily be burnished. And then with the
generations who learned them gone, thousands of years of civilization
notwithstanding, all the factors that take a country to greater heights have
been dropped by the wayside. India and Goa seem prosperous, but it is the
prosperity merely of the moment, like a large lottery won and quickly spent.
Take the recent words of the clever Finance Minister. He says he is looking
for ways to encourage more FDI as a means to prevent the freefall of the
Indian Rupee. That ship has sailed. A band-aid for the battle wound of
wastage, nepotism, corruption, crime and a thousand major failings that
instead of being addressed are being denied. The favourite argument remains
the same as from Indira Gandhi's time: It happens everywhere.

A good indication of India's and Goa's future is the ever increasing desire
of people to settle overseas despite the currently weak economies and
India's still strong showing. They have no faith in the 

[Goanet] UK Goan Festival 28 Jul. 2013: reports

[Eddie Fernandes]

UK: Crowds throng the Oral History Exhibition !!

From Selma Carvalho, Project Manager:  Past Lives: The Exhibition, presented
by the Oral Histories of British Goans Project (Goan Association UK), funded
by the Heritage Lottery Fund, UK, was mounted for a one-day showing at the
Cranford College Hall, during the Goan Festival on July 28, 2013. Crowds
thronged the exhibition on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. Many of those
who paid a visit had already seen it at its previous venue, the Nehru Centre
but wanted to see it again. This was a touching tribute to the exhibition
and the love Goans have for their heritage. The preservation of our heritage
in oral, visual and written form is imperative. The time for a permanent
Goan Diaspora Museum is nigh.

As we dismounted the exhibition for the last time, I felt a certain pang in
my heart. The people who had come to see it, had marvellous stories to tell
of their own past lives in East Africa. For one brief moment, they were
reliving those lives. Kenyan-
Goan nationalist Fitz de Souza (photo at the link) gave us an impromptu
glimpse into his own life. Included in the exhibition was a Fitz de Souza
family picture dating back to 1898. My sincere thanks to all the families
who donated pictures to the project. 

Photos at http://bit.ly/151ABus



UK Goan Festival 2013 saw a crowd of 15,000+ 
28 Jul: Niz Goenkar. The annual Goan Festival organised by the Goa
Association UK was very successful and saw a huge crowd.  According to the
President of the Association,  Mr Ravi Vaz, the crowd had reached to more
than 15,000, a record breaking crowd compared to the 2012 event which had
seen about 9,500.  The event started with a concelebrated Mass at 11:00 AM
with the main celebrant being Bishop his Lordship Allwyn Barretto, a Goan .
Among the dignitaries the local MP of Goan origin Mr. Keith Vaz was also
present throughout the day . Goa's ace band Forefront performed on the stage
. The festival was sponsored by Air India, Tilda Rice and Sony.  There was
also Free Career Guidance for the Youth and Free Diabetes testing by Silver
Star Charity.  Stalls sold Goan Sausages, Sorpotel, Tisreo, Kharem, Isvonn,
molho, croquettes etc.  Eight full buses from Swindon arrived at the
festival . Note: Video Coverage of the Festival and  Opinion of the people
video will be available in the next day or two .  Full text + comments.
http://bit.ly/17Owb86

[Goanet] Roland Francis: The Gulf Opportunity - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis

Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 28 July 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

It was 1963 and under the mistaken assumption that I needed some coaching in
my high school studies (the problem actually was that I spent less time on
my books than I should have), my father got a 23 year old Goan lad from my
Bombay building to tutor me. He had just got a job with the Bank of India in
the Fort area and in a couple of months he interviewed for a clerical
position with then Gulf Bank of Kuwait and soon he was gone. He kept in
touch with us and we happily followed his progression. He took a part-time
job with a Kuwaiti trader who soon became a multimillionaire in the booming
oil city. Our Goan lad had become his right hand man. He met and married a
Swedish woman and in time he relocated to Sweden, a wealthy man from his
time in Kuwait. In due course when I went to the Gulf myself, working for an
English company in a senior management position relatively restricted in pay
by being hired from India and  I have sometimes wondered whether I would
have been much better off being a trusted lieutenant of the many Arabs I
came across who called me to work for them while they became very rich men.
It was not unusual to be in such a situation in those days - starting to
work for an Arab for less than you were worth but soon having access to
earning very big money.

There were many success stories of Goans going to the Gulf like that.
Initially they went from Karachi and Bombay but men and women from Goa and
even East Africa followed when economic conditions in the latter countries
deteriorated. Most of the salaries may not have been astronomical but they
were tax-free and earners were able to send money to relatives back home
while socking away enough for a nest egg. The Arabs were of the generation
that knew India from the dates, fish, pearl and gold-smuggling trades they
carried on with it while they were desert poor. They especially liked Goans
since they were polite, Christian and gave no trouble. Although they were
rude and exploitative to their Goan housemaids, they gave them gold, took
them with family on foreign trips and got work visas for their lazy no-good
sons in Goa all of which which were valuable perquisites to their paltry
salaries. 

Not to say that the Arabs didn't hire anyone else. The heads of families who
built their trading empires with the huge incoming flow of new oil money
went to Europe and other countries to get their executives and managers. The
Americans weren't interested then. The US was at an economic peak and the
only Americans to be seen in the Persian-Arabian Gulf were those in Aramco
in Saudi Arabia and those in the oil-drilling service companies like
Schlumberger and Halliburton elsewhere in that region. They didn't like the
English much although they needed them because they didn't bend to their
personal will and they didn't trust the Egyptians, Palestinians and the
Lebanese, Iraqis and Syrians not to cheat them while their backs were
turned. It was a very personal society then. If they trusted you they lifted
you if they didn't, you might as well leave. Your abilities came second,  if
at all.

The situation has changed a lot now as is to be expected. That generation of
Emiratis, Kuwaitis, Omanis, Qataris and Saudis has given way to their sons
and grandsons mostly educated in the US, quite a few of them in Ivy League
universities. The Ivy leaguers may not have all academically qualified for
admission but their governments have made sure that generous financial
grants and gifts to those universities paved the way for their boys and
girls. Money was never a problem - not when oil was $30/bbl and certainly
not when it became $110/bbl as it is now. Initially the Gulf youth partied
their way through American schools. They came out with degrees that were
suspect, proved by their ineptitude when they returned to high positions and
still depended on expats for management strategies. That has gradually
changed. Either by government prompting or by personally understanding that
their country cannot prosper forever through other people's visions, they
have become more serious in their learning. On returning they have become
less dependent and more capable. Many of the companies operating there which
were expected to flounder once the Brits left, have prospered beyond
measure. My own former employer the British Cable and Wireless which renamed
itself QTel and is now Oredoo has plotted a growth chart that was
unimaginable once, earning revenues comparable to a large North American
corporation. 

That is not to say that Goans cannot find their way there any more. However,
the middle class employee has given way to either the low-level hire with
pathetic wages, exception being those there for many years whose salaries
have shot through the roof, or the professional classes, those in
healthcare, IT, oil industry techies or teachers in international schools. I
know of a few Goan 

[Goanet] Goa: sunsets mystics. By Frederick Noronha

[Eddie Fernandes]

Machine translation from the Spanish:

25 Jul: ABC (Spain).  Lured by its idyllic beaches, hypnotic sunsets and
relaxed life, the hippies of the 70s descended on the former Portuguese
enclave of Goa as an oasis of fun amidst the misery that plagued India.
Wrapped by a mystical  halo, Goa is flooded each season by thousands of
'backpackers' seeking to pour into 'trance' music clubs and  'rave' parties
on the beach. Besides entertainment and debauchery, the coast of Goa also
offers secluded beaches full of coconut and palm trees,  such as Arambol
Mandrem, Agonda and Patnem, to enjoy its legendary sunsets when the sky
turns red at sunset and merges with the turquoise blue sea . ayurvedic
massages  are available at quite affordable prices . 

Machine translation at http://bit.ly/15NJiVN

For the Spanish original, go to
http://www.abc.es/viajar/playas/20130725/abci-playas-asia-201306070944_5.htm
l 

Re: [Goanet] Goa: sunsets mystics. By Frederick Noronha

[Eddie Fernandes]

Folks,

Given the prominence to the Frederick Noronha's name in the article  I
assumed that he was the author and attributed the unusual sentiments
expressed to mis-translations.  I now understand that FN only supplied the
photograph.

Eddie Fernandes

-Original Message-
From: Eddie Fernandes [mailto:eddie.fernan...@gmail.com] 
Sent: 25 July 2013 20:48
To: 'Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!'
Subject: Goa: sunsets  mystics. By Frederick Noronha

Machine translation from the Spanish:

25 Jul: ABC (Spain).  Lured by its idyllic beaches, hypnotic sunsets and
relaxed life, the hippies of the 70s descended on the former Portuguese
enclave of Goa as an oasis of fun amidst the misery that plagued India.
Wrapped by a mystical  halo, Goa is flooded each season by thousands of
'backpackers' seeking to pour into 'trance' music clubs and  'rave' parties
on the beach. Besides entertainment and debauchery, the coast of Goa also
offers secluded beaches full of coconut and palm trees,  such as Arambol
Mandrem, Agonda and Patnem, to enjoy its legendary sunsets when the sky
turns red at sunset and merges with the turquoise blue sea . ayurvedic
massages  are available at quite affordable prices . 

Machine translation at http://bit.ly/15NJiVN

For the Spanish original, go to
http://www.abc.es/viajar/playas/20130725/abci-playas-asia-201306070944_5.htm
l 

[Goanet] Roland Francis: The Bombay Tiatr - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter, 21 Jul. 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

Full Text:
It was around ten that humid morning and much of the perspiring Goan
population of Byculla was streaming into the wide gates of the magnificent
Gloria Church for the Sunday high mass.  Ladies were in their Sunday best,
some of them with hats, gloves and stockings but all of them in gloves
covering their delicate and often masala-grinding hands. The men in their
starched shirts and cotton light summer jackets lagged behind, for the
purpose of an exit route should the priest repeat his tendency to a long and
boring sermon.

Around the corner of the church outside a small bookstore selling rosaries,
medals, Konkani literature, song books and of course tiatr tickets, was
Peter Fernandes the owner. Although this was his peak business time he was
more interested in chatting with his favorite actor Robin Vaz. A six footer
and handsome to boot, Robin was lounging near the church not so much to
watch the fine Goan ladies and men but to shadow the more plebeian crowd
that followed - the domestics, the nearby Mazagon Dock and Port Trust
workers families and the simple people who resided in the nearby warrens of
the massive BIT Blocks, locally called 'cement chawls'. For it was these
folks who would populate his 'Agente Monteiro' play that was to debut in the
St. Mary's school hall only a few bus stops away.

He was not afraid of a lack of patrons. He was confident of his popularity
and the crowds that he could draw ever since he came onto the Konkani stage
popularizing the mandos through a dance form. He popularized the role of a
kunbi dancer more than an actor. If there was any doubt about the crowds, it
would be dispelled by a star cast of Bombay's best tiatrists. Robin Vaz was
every tiatrist's friend and they were keen on supporting him. The community
was closed knit and prey to two big flaws. They drank to excess and then
some. The other was a complete lack of interest in the revenue their plays
generated.  They could have been rich men but merely eked out a living one
month to another, mostly because they let the organizers, and agents hit
them in the pockets. They were happy with one for the love, and none for the
money.

The church crowds were exiting and Robin's purpose was for this very moment.
They were going to talk about the evening's play and he wanted to know what
they wanted for the intermission fillers - the skits, the songs, the music
of the live bands, the jokes on Bandodkar and the recent liberation. That
was what would make or break the play, not the play itself. Everybody had an
opinion, but one thing came out clearly; with such a star cast they wanted
the songs and jokes repeated and they wanted to see Robin Vaz dance.  That
was unanimous. Robin was happy, having heard what he came for and he would
do as they wished.

The talent and versatility of the tiatrists in Bombay was a thing of beauty.
So were the bands that accompanied them. They barely had any rehearsals, the
actor hardly learned the script, the musicians never got to practice the
notes. But no matter what, these men were maestros in their own calling.
Some players of the band were known to even international musicians passing
through Bombay. The tiatr organizers were lucky to book them from their
hang-out near Alfred Restaurant in Dhobitalao, often for a pittance.

It was sunset now and Robin Vaz along with a few of the performers were
exiting their watering place at Monteiro's just outside the venue where they
were downing drinks the past hour. It was already ten minutes past starting
time and they were primed for the stage and eager to give their best. Robin
was going to be Agente Monteiro himself, the big bad Paclo in whose unkind
hands would rest the fate of any Indian trouble makers within Goa and at the
end of whose revolver barrel would lie the lives of many 'satyagrahis'
(freedom fighters) entering Goa for nefarious purposes from the Portuguese
point of view. He was meant to be a villain to the pro-Indians in the crowd
and a hero to the pro-Portuguese. Robin had to fill in both roles and he
outdid himself. 

So did the rest of the cast, every last man and woman of them. At the end,
they clapped, stomped, yelled and whistled. The auditorium shook and old Fr
Bonifacio Dias, the kindly Jesuit tiatr-loving priest under whose favor the
hall was given out, muttered under his breath about talking to the tiatrists
not to drink and excel as much the next time, it was not good for the
building.  He knew that kindness and mercy, forgiveness and excellence, for
a Goan, all emanated from a bottle.
===

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Curse or Consequence? Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice UK  14 July 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

Curse or Consequence?  Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan.  By Roland Francis

The patriarch of this Salcette family was a feared man even among his wife
and children. Imposing in stature, well educated, influential in the
administrative circles of Goa of the time, he was blessed with a sharp but
crooked mind. He rarely dealt with anyone not of his class. Knowing his
companions could not be easily tricked, he set about creating a network of
his agents among the lower classes who were better positioned to know who
was in dire financial straits and thus vulnerable to being relieved of
property and gold.

Financial need abounded at that time. Farmers with failed crops, people who
needed a start in Bombay or Africa or Aden, or just families living from
hand to mouth who needed funds to marry off daughters. The Portuguese regime
although fair in their dealings with most Goans found it easier to
accommodate those who spoke the language and were people of means and
substance who they found were their supporters. Although the law was
equitable to rich and poor, its instruments sided towards those who
cultivated them because the poor had little access to them.

So our patriarch financially astute that he was, converted some of his
family jewellery to cash and set about lending it through his surrogates at
rates that were beyond usury. His targets were anybody whom he knew would
never be able to sustain his interest payments for long and who had land and
farms that he could eventually seize in lieu of the principal. Over a period
of time he was able to acquire vast amounts of property rich with coconut,
mango and other fruit and produce that was located half of Goa away from his
own village.  When he died of a consumptive disease, he left in his wake the
shattered lives of many victims and that of his own large family who except
for the eldest son, inherited nothing by will. His wife much against his
living intentions got a sizable part of the estate by Portuguese law taking
precedence over the will, but the eldest son not satisfied with his own
share, soon deprived his mother of hers, by guile.

With all the wealth at his disposal, this son became an inveterate gambler
who played cards for weeks at a time and became famous throughout Goa for
his profligacy, but in the process brought his family to near ruin. After
his death, for one generation, the family lived in penury but gradually with
education, thrift and some land which was overlooked, came to be counted
among the gentry again. After two generations, and  with
everything-to-the-eldest-son custom still ruling, the gambling genie which
appeared to have been bottled, was uncorked. In between, the family
experienced normality but more often than it should, also saw much misery in
sudden deaths, strange sicknesses and even stranger accidents until the
progeny could be traced no more. The once impressive, almost palatial family
mansion stands desolate and derelict today, serving only to attract hushed
whispers and warnings about gambling and cheating from passing villagers and
their guests.

This is not a stray and exceptional piece of Goan history. Facts and events
like this played out over several generations are well known to every Goan.
No village in any corner of Goa has been sequestered from such tragedies and
very few wealthy families have had no similar skeletons in their cupboards.
The skeletons tend to come alive even among the remnants of generations
scattered in faraway lands. Facts of long ago may seem to have been
forgotten but reappear when some older person in Goa with a long memory or a
proclivity for pagan connection, brings it to the fore.

Is this particular Goan history wound around superstition steeped in
nonsense and illogic or is it a real consequence of the bloody history of
murder, mayhem and violence of our past. It is too recurring to be dubbed
co-incidence.

The Bible is no help. Numbers 14:18 'The Lord is slow to anger and abounding
in steadfast love forgiving iniquity and transgression but He will by no
means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children
to the third and fourth generation', is contradicted by Ezekiel 18:19-20
'When the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to
observe my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The
son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father nor the father suffer
for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be
upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked upon himself'.

So in the end we must figure it out for ourselves.  

[Goanet] Roland Francis: It's A New World - Stray Thoughts of A Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice UK Newsletter of 7 Jul. 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

By Roland Francis.

Every time I visit our neighbour down south, I am amazed at the changes that
are continuously taking place in that country. Not so much the changes in
the immovable assets of buildings and infrastructure as much as the changes
in population mix and the continuous influx of new nationalities. The
previous  immigration, mostly legal, of Jews, Poles, Italians and Irish
displaced by famines, wars and genocide in the early to middle previous
century has been replaced by legal as well as illegal immigration of
Hispanics, Africans, East Asian, Arabs and Haitians who flee here for many
reasons but mainly for a chance to grab a piece of the American Dream. With
the huge deficits successive governments have been running for unnecessary
wars, that dream has become somewhat jaded but the US is a resilient country
and just when you think its glory days are past, it comes back with renewed
vigour. Nothing exemplifies the world population shift like New York City
where Spanish seems to have become more than a second language. All
immigrants are tough, ambitious and determined. After the struggle of the
first generation who are lesser educated, less fluent in English and thus
working in dead end jobs, gives way to the next generation who are a whole
lot better educated, integration becomes complete. Unlike in Canada, they
become thoroughly Americans first and last and proud of it. In Canada, for
better or worse, the culture and lack of flag waving allows them to retain
their heritage. 

To those of us who take the narrow view of this riff raff citizenry, it all
looks foolish. Why would any country risk that along with such immigrants
will come elements that foster drug culture, terrorism and a host of other
problems that could be kept away? There are two parts to the answer. One is
that the US has such a large and porous border with its only southern
neighbour Mexico that it is impossible to control it effectively. The other
is that for every illegal who proves troublesome and costly, there will be a
hundred who will contribute to the well being of the country, doing jobs
that Americans have to be paid a minimum wage to do or are too qualified or
don't want to do. Paid in cash, they pay their taxes based on false papers
but in return are unable to reap the benefits when they require it because
of their false IDs which were ignored when they paid in but not ignored when
they were to be paid out. Imagine this happening to millions of illegals.
The situation although unfortunate, serves both the country and them, with
an eventual opportunity of becoming legal through a political amnesty.
The New World consists of yet another element though it is a little less
obvious at the present time.  It is that of weather pattern change. The time
is considered past for scepticism and debate on global warming. Proactive
governments in developed countries are already in planning stages to deal
with the new phenomena of frequent and destructive storms, tsunamis,
earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, melting of icebergs and ice lands and
consequent flooding. The amount that will have to be spent will be in the
trillions but the recurring damage could be far more expensive.

The new world is not just for America, or Europe or for other parts of the
developed world.  It will cover the entire globe but lesser developed
countries will wake up later than they should, as is the custom. For us
Goans, thinking continues to be compartmentalised. We still tend to talk of
a Goan identity while even national identities with immigration and
intermarriages are becoming more and more hazy, nebulous and elusive. People
seem to be more occupied with grand homes than in stopping beach erosion and
preserving their cultivated land. Few demand good government and a plan for
capable disaster management whether for flooding, food shortages or long
electricity outages.  'Bhailles' (outsiders) whether from the rest of India
or long staying foreigners, are despised and milked rather than treated like
stakeholders. They ought to be made to feel responsible along with Goans for
improving the mess that is Goa today. There is a great wealth and not just
of money that comes with them and it would be foolish not to use this. But
chances are we won't do all this because despite our activists, we have
never got the big picture. The old days' liquor is quicker has been replaced
by wealth is health.
==

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Random Observations and Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan. By Roland Francis. 

Source: Goan Voice UK Newsletter of 30 June 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

Goa like the rest of India is a land of unfathomable contrasts. Dirty,
overcrowded, unplanned, corrupt and almost lawless, it continues to draw
tourists who call it heaven and it earns rave ratings in global travel rags.
With its beauty denuding however, how long this will last is anybody's
guess.

People in Goa have by and large transformed from simple and trusting to
cynical and conniving. Don't know whether 52 years of Indian rule is
responsible or whether it's just a sign of the times. Hospitality however
has remained a redeeming feature but violence is a new one.

Britain's course of action in requiring visitors from 'high risk' countries
to post a 3,000 pound deposit is an unfair and ineffective method of
preventing overstaying. Those who mean to illegally immigrate will be
unfazed and those who mean to return (the majority) will be unfairly
penalized. Somewhat similar to the United States giving the governments of
South American countries a hard time, accusing them of being implicit in
exporting drugs. Uncle Sam would do better to restrict their own population
from consuming them.

Global warming and its changing weather patterns causing extensive havoc is
here to stay. We can expect it more frequently. The recent heavy rains and
landslides in North India and flooding of Calgary, Canmore and the
surrounding towns in the Banff resort area of Alberta showed how nature in
an instant can make mice out of men. Nothing demonstrates it better than the
melting of huge bergs and frozen tundra, increasing water levels in the seas
and oceans, continents away.

Two multi-storied buildings came crashing down in Bombay's suburbs. While
that is nothing new for Bombay, it used to be restricted to 150 year old
buildings with poor maintenance. Now it is happening to buildings recently
but illegally built with shoddy materials and no supervision. How such
construction can come up within the jurisdiction of one of the largest
municipalities in Asia with a budget greater than many developing countries
will indicate the kind of corruption that puts no value on human life. The
authorities are not the only ones to blame. When notices of evacuation due
to impending danger are given, residents routinely ignore them. It won't be
long before Goa follows this sorry state of affairs.

Toronto's mayor is in a way like New York's Teflon Don, the famous John
Gotti of Mafia fame. The more the accusations flung at him by the media, the
less they seem to stick on him. In fact people feel he is being unfairly and
excessively targeted and sympathize with him. His popularly in opinion polls
is increasing rather than decreasing with every new expose. Talking of oily
skins, Narendra Modi the recently elected-in- Goa president of one of the
two largest parties in India also seems to have a duck's back. Several major
criminal charges originating from a mass killing incident which he is
alleged to have condoned or even caused, seem to have amounted to nothing.

A tramp steamer loaded with heavy armament, small arms and ammunition sent
by the US to rebels in Syria fighting the almost unbeatable (with Russian
help) Assad regime, has broken up off the coast of Goa. Ex KGB Russians,
vacationing Israeli soldiers, Al Qaida agents, handsome Kashmiri refugees
marrying lonely older British women - I thought we had them all. It took
this ship to remind that CIA financed arms smugglers were missing. 

It is amazing to read the achievements of Goans throughout the world as
recorded in Eddie Fernandes' Goan Voice.  With a magical sweep of the
world's press, he brings to our table news of industry moguls, famous chefs,
airline czars, software geniuses, crusty generals  and everything in-between
- as long as they are Goan or Goan connected. We even read of our very own
Mata Hari, a special agent once operating in Italy who outsmarted her own
employer, the CIA. Eddie is tight lipped about how he does it, but takes
pride in the fact that he doesn't originate anything. To people who like to
keep in touch with Diaspora news, people and milestones, GVUK is required
reading.

[Goanet] Bombay City. Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan by Roland Francis.

[Eddie Fernandes]

Bombay city grew on you, while you lived in it.  By Roland Francis

Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 23 June 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Many readers have written of their curiosity about period India since they
were born and raised overseas and have little knowledge of it described from
personal experience. So here I have repeated one of my 2008 essays, updated
and abridged for this column.

Ask even anyone who has lived in the city for more than a couple of years
and you will detect grudging admiration for the place. To the outsider the
closeness that the Bombayite (Bomoicar to the Goan) had for his town was
always a source of amazement. They see an overcrowded city, with apartments
the size of matchboxes that routinely housed not only the family but all
visiting relatives and friends and fellow-villagers from Goa who needed to
come to the metropolis for jobs, higher education, wedding shopping, medical
treatment or a dozen other reasons why people needed to come to India's
premier city.

Bombay was the place to be. There were exciting soccer matches on Cooperage
Grounds that no sporting Goan would miss. There were the English cinema
houses which played God Save the Queen followed by Jana Gana Mana. Before
the credits rolled at the end, the audience would melt into bhel puri
holes-in-the-wall and if in MGM's Metro at Dhobi Talao, like homing pigeons
towards an Aunty's hooch joint. There were several, even more numerous than
Goa's legal taverns. If you had a full wallet (no plastic or other credit
then)  off you went to the Harbor Bar or the Rendez-Vous at the Taj where
the cocktail mixes were as exotic as the names. 

The academic world of Bombay was of very high caliber and very low cost,
reputation built on the intelligence, knowledge and a flair for teaching of
Goan teachers and professors. People from all over including neighboring
countries came to the city to get an education and use it in their
developing countries. Even today in Toronto, I meet Africans, Arabs and
Iranians who will tell me of their college days when they discover I am from
Bombay, 

Bombay and Calcutta were once Asia's Hollywood, Broadway, New Orleans and
Memphis jazz and blues centers rolled into one, dominated by Goan musicians.
The scene was well described by Naresh Fernandes in his book The Taj Mahal
Foxtrot.  Whether you were classically or stage inclined Bombay was a treat
for you. On the weekends Goans retreated to Bhangwadi and St. Mary's Hall
where tiatrs went full house to cat-calls, wolf-whistles and boos.

That was the era of the Goan village social, the wedding receptions that
knew no midnight curfew and the grand dances at Byculla Mechanics, the
Catholic and Bandra Gymkhanas and the Railway Institutes  - Goan and
Anglo-Indian strongholds in their full glory when Christmas and New Year
celebrations in Goa were unheard of. Cavel, Dabul, Dhobitalao and Girgaum at
saints' feasts were one endless celebration on street and in home. Bootleg
of course was everywhere. 

The Bhaiyya brought milk, the Kohli woman  fish, fruits and vegetables. The
Bania sold groceries and every vendor shortchanged on weight. The Muslim
granddad made delectable roadside kebabs of suspect meat and tasty faloodas
whose ingredients you were better off not knowing. The Goan sold bread and
liquor and no one questioned the combination. Your faith was never an issue
though everybody knew which religion you professed.  The Hindus, Muslims,
Parsees, Jains, Sikhs, Jews - all were a religious melting pot resulting in
a brotherhood of man. The Goans who would not miss their mangoes, fish and
feni during summer in Goa, came scurrying back at the first sign of rains.

Corruption was the exception rather than the norm. If you were tempted to
break the law, Anglo Indian and Goan police superintendents and other senior
officers served to remind them, but they did it with heart, known to look
the other way when a poor Aunty had no option but to sell booze to support a
drunkard husband and many children. 

Now low-rise neighborliness is replaced by skyscrapers that discourage
friendliness. The rich became richer and the poor poorer. The Hindus are
incited to hate the Muslims, the Muslims the police, and the idlers and
ne'er do gooders everybody else since they are told by their leaders that
they own Bombay. The only love now is between criminals and the politicians
in a nefarious love-hate embrace.

But of that age, no one who lived in Bombay will forget.

[Goanet] Are We Indians? Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan by Roland Francis.

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 16 June 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

To those who know we are Indians, my question seems quite innocuous, foolish
even. But to those who disagree, the thinking is: 451 years of foreign
occupation and conversion from Hindu to Christian must surely have removed
the Indian from us. Or, I have never been to India and/or have no affinity
with her. Or, I have never had an Indian passport.  Accounting for shades of
gray, from quarters who while admitting they are Indians, are not fully
convinced of it, and the other section who while abhorring the Indian label,
will grudgingly admit to it especially at visa application or at property
selling time, the community has a clear fault line on whether we are Indian
or not.

Here is what one ex East Africa Toronto Goan says, Just like the
Malayalees, Bengalis, Punjabis, Gujaratis and others, Goans are simply a
unit of the whole India: Indian ethnicity and consanguinity remain
sacrosanct, whether professed or not.  Because the British listed Goans as
separate from Indians and Pakistanis for census purposes in Africa and for
preference in government jobs in India, it did not endow us with any special
status. Taking it further he continues in no uncertain terms to state
Rather than dwell on fading historical imperatives, a contemporary
anthropologist would find interesting how Goans domiciled out of India, in
different parts of the world, have been shaped into a people somewhat bereft
of their moorings when it comes to co-mingling with their counterparts
(other Indians). 

Is this bereft of moorings really responsible for our
inferiority/superiority complex.  Did it cause us to isolate ourselves from
the wider Indian community in the west falsely thinking that in the first or
even second generation we have become a part of the mainstream because we
are Christian, westernized and worse still, can talk and write better
English than other minorities. Frankly no one cares.

Growing up in Bombay, I know the self-imposed isolationist feeing the
community possessed. We ate with spoon and forks while 'they' ate with
fingers. We danced to western tunes and played western instruments. They sat
on floors and played funny looking contraptions that produced funny music.
It finally took the westerner to discover that all this music was serious
stuff, on par with the best that Beethoven, Mozart, the Beatles and Tom
Jones could belt out. Other Indians called us paowalas (bread-makers)
which made us feel inferior but we continued with our pretend haughtiness
mistakenly concluding that somehow one or more of our ancestors must have
been Portuguese while 'they' were merely natives. Not too far a view from
that of Anglo Indians who were actually of mixed British-Indian pedigree.
Those were days that India was isolated from the world economy by choice.
Today India seems to have turned on its head. Yesterday's pandoos, a
derogatory term in Bombay for yokels, are now supplying services to
multi-national corporations based in Europe and North America and today's
country bumpkins from Gujarat and Bihar are sending their sons to study in
North America and Europe, paying tuition fees five times the going resident
rate. Their parents travel the world on a whim and Indian plastic, while
driving Mercedes, Lexus and BMWs in their bullock cart villages.

We see ourselves quite differently from how others see us. A non-Indian sees
us as Indians and respects what he sees.  He sees a doctor, a software
genius, a shrewd businessman even when we are not those things.  Why we
would not take advantage of that perception is anyone's guess. Another
Toronto Goan, also ex Africa writes: I was chatting with a white Canadian
teacher from one of our Mississauga public schools and she was quite
interested when I said I was Goan. She said Tell me one thing, why do Goan
children consider themselves different, I mean sort of superior to other
Indian children? In fact they resent being called Indian. They do not mix
with them. They insist on being called Goan. Can you explain why?

If we are to break into politics in a meaningful way, we must identify with
the Indian community. That is not a difficult task but not an option either.
They already see us as being a part of them, so all we need to do is play
that role. Another Toronto Goan also succinctly put it when he wrote We can
be full fledged Goans and full-fledged Indians while being full-fledged
Canadians.  The trinity of heritage, motherland and nationality - a
trifecta that we could count on for the challenging Diaspora race.
=

Re: [Goanet] London..Journeys of migratory Goans through Visual Narratives

[Eddie Fernandes]

Frederick,

 

We are in awe of your Goa 1556 enterprise and understand your pride in
reeling off some of the titles.  But we are talking EXHIBITIONS here - Can
you tell me of any earlier one dedicated to overseas Goans, please?

 

Thanks Eddie

 

 

From: fredericknoron...@gmail.com [mailto:fredericknoron...@gmail.com] On
Behalf Of Frederick FN Noronha ?  *??? ??? 
Sent: 11 June 2013 23:54
To: Eddie Fernandes; Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!
Subject: Re: [Goanet] London..Journeys of migratory Goans through Visual
Narratives

 

 

On 12 June 2013 02:44, Eddie Fernandes eddie.fernan...@gmail.com wrote:

Selma must have anticipated your comments when she wrote for tomorrow's TOI:

It is my sincere hope, that this exhibition is the beginning of a long
dialogue


The beginning? It has been going on for a long time, from the 1960s or even
the 1940s. Let's give credit also where credit is due please... FN



FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436  mailto:f...@goa-india.org
f...@goa-india.org

Re: [Goanet] London..Journeys of migratory Goans through Visual Narratives

[Eddie Fernandes]

Frederick,

Since you now acknowledge that this is the first exhibition, why not give it
credit?

 

Your response to Selma's vision, quote 

It is my sincere hope, that this exhibition is the beginning of a long
dialogue

 

Was:

The beginning? It has been going on for a long time, from the 1960s or even
the 1940s. Let's give credit also where credit is due please

 

When challenged you claim:

My comment was specifically in response to Viv's: I don't know if anyone
has documented those experiences.

 

Both Vivian  Selma were referring to Visual Narratives.  The Subject line
clearly reads,   London..Journeys of migratory Goans through Visual
Narratives

 

It would be prudent if you read the subject line before shooting from the
hip and are you withdrawing your comment about Selma's vision?

 

A very confused Eddie

 

From: fredericknoron...@gmail.com [mailto:fredericknoron...@gmail.com] On
Behalf Of Frederick FN Noronha ?  *??? ??? 
Sent: 12 June 2013 10:39
To: Eddie Fernandes; Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!
Subject: Re: [Goanet] London..Journeys of migratory Goans through Visual
Narratives

 

On 12 June 2013 12:31, Eddie Fernandes eddie.fernan...@gmail.com wrote:

We are in awe of your Goa 1556 enterprise and understand your pride in
reeling off some of the titles.  But we are talking EXHIBITIONS here - Can
you tell me of any earlier one dedicated to overseas Goans, please?

 

Hi Eddie, this is not about Goa,1556 (a tiny drop in the ocean) or me (even
more tiny). It *is* about the many people whose work predates all of us. 

Anyway, let me not split hairs about this first exhibition. But please let
us give credit where credit is due.

My comment was specifically in response to Viv's: I don't know if anyone
has documented those experiences.

To which I responded by pointing to, among others, the Lambert
Mascarenhases, the the GoaComs and GoaWorlds and SuperGoas, the JB Pintos,
the Peregrino da Costas, the Ajay Noronhas, the JM Nazareths,  the J Clement
Vases, the Olga  Valadareses, the Teresa Albuquerques. Not to forget the
Soares Rebelos (hope I got this name right).

 

FN




FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436  mailto:f...@goa-india.org
f...@goa-india.org

Re: [Goanet] London..Journeys of migratory Goans through Visual Narratives

[Eddie Fernandes]

Thank you Vivian but the Exhibition was entirely Selma's creation.  I did
assist with some aspects of the reception but my preoccupation with Goan
Voice meant that I was not able to pull my weight.

There is to be a book about the Project which I know will be a trailblazer.
I really must get started preparing for the launch of that ...

Eddie Fernandes

-


Vivian A. DSouza  
Tue Jun 11 04:23:56 PDT 2013 

Kudos to Selma Carvalho who undertook this mammoth task and for the support
rendered to her by Eddie Fernandes of the Goan Voice.  I am waiting for the
exhibit to come to Goa some day.  These were stories that were lying dormant
in peoples minds, and as they age and pass away, the stories would be lost
forever.  Our forebears braved difficult voyages,
and inhospitable conditions to make a living.  They are an inspiration to us
all.
.
I am sure there are a lot of similar stories to be told by Goan pioneers to
the Arabian Gulf and Iran, and stories focusing on each of the East African
countries viz. Kenya, Uganda,
Tanganyika and Zanzibar.  While there was a common experience of living in
the British
colonies and protectorates, each country presented unique experiences. 
Burma at one time was the magnet for Goan migration.  The advancing Japanese
invasion during World 
War II caused an exodus of Goans, sometimes overland by foot over difficult
mountainous and forested terrain. I don't know if anyone has documented
those experiences.
 
Once again, my heartiest congratulations to  Selma and Eddie for a great job
!

Re: [Goanet] London..Journeys of migratory Goans through Visual Narratives

[Eddie Fernandes]

Frederick,

Selma must have anticipated your comments when she wrote for tomorrow's TOI:

It is my sincere hope, that this exhibition is the beginning of a long
dialogue

London: Blast from the past

12 June 2013: Times of India. By Alexandre Moniz Barbosa. The Goan East
African safari of the past century is coming alive in London these days. The
city's Nehru Centre has stepped back into history and is exhibiting some
genuine Goan gems from Africa unearthed by the Goan Association (UK), that
is working on a project to record stories of Goans who lived in East Africa
. 
Carvalho summed up, The story of our intrepid journey to East Africa will
continue to fascinate us for generations to come. It is a story of courage,
enterprise, romance and perseverance, but more importantly it is emblematic
of our collective identity. It is my sincere hope, that this exhibition is
the beginning of a long dialogue and becomes the nucleus of a permanent
exhibition housed in a Goa museum. 

Full text, 904 words, at http://bit.ly/109WWEA 



-Original Message-
From: goanet-boun...@lists.goanet.org
[mailto:goanet-boun...@lists.goanet.org] On Behalf Of Frederick FN Noronha
?  *??? ??? 
In a sense, this is a bottomless pit, because there are so many stories, old
and new, waiting to be heard and more in the making. 

[Goanet] Why Not Politics - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan - Roland Francis

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter of 9 June 2013 at
www.goanvoice.org.uk

Is there something in our past that has prevented, nay paralysed, the
Diaspora Goan from actively engaging in politics in the West? Is it the
legacy of our Portuguese colonialists that has emasculated our talent in
public (not bureaucratic) service from the time that Goans were  discouraged
from any meaningful power in governing themselves or being trained in it
like the Indians for whom the Brits allowed Home Rule much before they
granted independence?

It's not that Goans were not politically conscious during Portuguese
dictatorial rule. Instances are rife of bold protest. The one that comes to
immediate mind is the recent detailed discussion on Goanet about the
ruthless shooting of protestors in the residential circle around the Margao
Church where the old municipal office was located. So yes, we have been
politically active and no, we are not afraid. 

Even in Bombay and Karachi, Goans were as engaged in politics as they were
in other professions. Crowded out of parties by other blocs, Goans not only
survived, they made their mark. They became mayors, state and provincial
bigwigs, lawyers and judges, reaching all the way to their respective
country's highest courts and enjoying powerful political offices often
appointed from non-political backgrounds.

What then hinders our political endeavors? Is it that beyond the legacy we
are heirs to, we think that it is more important to establish ourselves as
first generation immigrants, putting firm financial and educational roots as
our primary priorities, positing that indulging in politics is the
preoccupation of the idle or the wealthy? The truth betrays both those
concerns. We are now into the second generation without any change on the
landmark and many of us are quite financially secure if not downright
wealthy enough to send a son or daughter into public life. Our children
speak like other Canadians, voluble, determined, demanding. Yet the
landscape for us remains as dry as when we first came. 

Politics has been the key to advancement of communities settled in the west
and elsewhere.  Ask the Ukrainians, the Armenians, the Jews, the Chinese,
the Portuguese or the Punjabis and the Tamils. While achieving great
individual and personal successes, as a community we have miserably failed.
If a minister here or a politician there comes to us to establish a toehold
in our vote bank, it is out of a certain bemusement, not out of urgency and
it is because we make ourselves part of another cause, thinking that being
Goan is not sufficient enough to attract the corridors of power. Take for
example a recent attempt of the Federal Immigration Minister to meet with a
few Toronto Goans who took the initiative, although not nominated by the
community. The cause was Christian persecution in other parts of the globe,
not Goan causes, as if we were afraid of our own unimportance and wanted to
make common cause with the Italians, Poles and whatever other Catholic
majority exists in this city. 

Besides wealth and education, we have the easy potential to wade into
politics. There are many decorated community social activists, recognized by
the city, the province and nationally. We have a number of lawyers for whom
politics is a natural stepping stone. We have doctors who have served the
wider non Goan constituency in their practice and could with little effort
garner the votes required for winning.  We have realtors who are well
travelled and not in distance only and we have aggressive entrepreneurs for
whom politics would not be half as taxing as running their businesses. We
have demonstrated a deep reservoir of time and effort in organizing dances,
church affairs, socials, and whatever hobby and pastime you could think of
and yet we don't have the time to encourage and push forward even
half-willing Goan candidates who could be our voices when our issues cry out
for attention. Even with the fine examples set in a city like Toronto where
people take up all manner of challenges and make tremendous sacrifices so
that others that follow benefit, we Goans are left to bite the dust, to all
appearances like chaff blowing in the wind rather than industrious ants
moving in unison to ensure the community prospers.

Unless we move fast and furious, finding out and demolishing the obstacles
that prevent us from uniting behind the leaders we appoint, we will continue
seeing bigger and more powerful institutions and thriving monuments to the
determination of others while we languish with no living legacy that says
Goans are here!  

==

[Goanet] Death: Angelo de Souza

[Eddie Fernandes]

4 Jun: Harrow, London, UK. MARCAL ANGELO DE SOUZA (Aged 64; ex- Mwanza,
Tanzania).  Son of the late Manuel de Souza (discoverer of the Tanzanite)
and Bernadette Woodruff.  Brother to Catherine Olsson, Cosma de Souza and
Maryanne de Souza-Jensen. He will be greatly missed by his wife Rosa (nee
Tellis), children (Patricia and Manuel), son-and daughter-in-law (Derek
Gilroy and Lisa) and his grandchildren (Sacha, Maya, Reuben and Zara).
Please send condolences to rosangelo...@googlemail.com

For a photo of Angelo De Souza see www.goanvoice.org.uk Newsletter of 9 June
2013

For a profile of his father go to
http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/supplement/ManuelDSouza.html 

[Goanet] London - Launch of Past Lives: The Exhibition

[Eddie Fernandes]

It is despairingly lonely to look into the mirrors of history and never
find reflections of yourself, said Selma Carvalho, Project Manager and
Curator of Past Lives: The Exhibition, presented by the Oral Histories of
British-Goans Project, the first exhibition of its kind in the Goan
worldwide diaspora. This exhibition hopes to do just that, create historical
reflections for the younger generation while preserving the heritage of an
older generation. 

The exhibition was launched by Flavio Gracias, Company Secretary and former
President of the Goan Association on the evening of June 4, 2013. Following
a welcome speech by Sangeeta Bahadur, Minister of Culture with the High
Commission of India and Director of the Nehru Centre, Flavio in his
inaugural speech outlined the genesis of the project funded by the Heritage
Lottery Fund UK, to chronicle the histories of British-Goans. 

Carvalho expressed the hope that the visual narrative of the migratory
journeys of Goans finds a permanent and larger home in a museum in Goa. 

The enchanting evening of the preview night was made complete by profoundly
moving operatic duets and solos by world-renowned soprano Patricia Rosario
and the rising star Oscar Castellino.  They delivered a stunning operatic
rendition of Aum Saiba poltolli vhetam.  

An impromptu attendance by UK's  Cabinet Minister,  Vince Cable, was an
unexpected and pleasant surprise.

Over a 100 Goans attended the preview night. The Exhibition runs to 14 June.


For 10 photographs of the event, including those of Mervyn Maciel, Ravi Vaz
- President of Goan Association (UK), Flavio Gracias, Oscar Castellino,
Patricia Rosario and Vince Cable at the event, go to http://bit.ly/1b8nJka

[Goanet] Roland Francis - Why We Can't Talk To Our Children - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter 2 June 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

Full text:

There are not too many things we Goans can't do besides not being able to
throw up good community leaders and then following them loyally through
thick and thin. But one of those things must surely be our inability to
maintain a dialogue with our children.  I am not referring to the western
ideal of trying to be their friends, but merely to being freely able to talk
to them when they want to or if we want to. We have painted ourselves into a
corner where our children will not even consider the possibility of
approaching us for more than a superficial matter, let alone a deeply
intimate one.

Perhaps it all starts when the children are young. We tell them the truth
except when it really matters. Take Mum and Dad going for an evening to the
races, or to visit some friends. Nothing sinister here, but they will tell
the young ones a fairy tale. We are going to an office party or to make it
weighty, we need to go to the doctor. Children may be gullible but they
have a mind even at that age. They have a suspicion even at say 7 years old
that doctors are unlikely to consult at 9pm.

That scenario progresses from lying to scolding and berating. A kid's
confession of getting a C grade in a given semester will result in a
harangue about how he or she is spending too much time with the opposite sex
or idling with friends. No thought given about being positive, of suggesting
some improvements in teen lifestyle and the benefits of education in later
life. Punishments will be given not as a last resort but as early recourse.
It's the beginning of hardening of attitudes on both sides - parents and
children.

It amazes me to experience how parents are such advocates for their
children's rights in Canadian schools. In my view, that's a good thing and a
bad thing. It gives the kid some semblance of self-esteem in the right
situation, but allows the young student to get away from responsibility in
an unjustifiable one. Compare that to our own day. A summons to parents by
the teacher no matter the reason, resulted in a severe reprimand if not a
beating on return home. No thought given to rehabilitation, merely to
punishment.

Coming to the subject of beating and violence, I can only talk about the
Bombay Goan experience where this was a given. There were boys in my school
who were regularly given the 'backhand' by their Goan fathers and in some
cases the leather belt or bamboo cane treatment when the parents were
fuelled by alcohol around dinner time. This was of course in addition to
being whacked in school by the priests and teachers using a bunch of metal
keys or being made targets of wooden dusters which primarily existed to
erase blackboards but were imaginatively used as torture tools. 

It's not hard to imagine that a sure outcome of such reprimand styles was a
clamming up of any desire to communicate freely with one's parents and even
a loss of affection and love if continued unabatedly. Children grew to
depend and trust on friends and neighbors however good or bad which then
molded their future characters accordingly. Not all bad resulted. Along with
fear, discipline became an outcome, accompanied by respect for authority.
There were better ways to achieve such results, ways that didn't include
physical punishment, but that was how it was then. 

Granted that Goans may not have been the only culture that inflicted such
labors, but much of it was stereotypically Goan.  We came from a colonial
heritage that was Catholic and therefore puritanical. Portuguese rule and
the Church with its eternal damnation instilled fear in our elders and they
in turn ruled us with the rod rather than with the mind. The latter was the
easier way but then in those days easy was never the way to go. I suppose
education or the lack thereof had much to do with it but on reflection,
perhaps this is not true. I knew as many educated parents who did what they
should not have done as parents who were knowledge deprived.

In the scheme of things played out on us in the future did the gross abuse
really matter? I think it did. If we forgave our parents, it was due to time
that healed, not the parents that asked for forgiveness, believing to the
end that what they did was right. We transferred that burden to our children
not through the hand or the stick but through the psychological ineptitude
and confusion (did my parents do right after all? No they didn't) that has
chained us from maintaining healthy relationships with our progeny. Perhaps,
like we once did, they in turn will forgive us one day, but we must ask for
it.

Re: [Goanet] Tradition of Mhar or Zudev celebration on 23rd June every year

[Eddie Fernandes]

From: radharao gracias
Kill the Jew is part of the historical anti Jewish tirade of Christianity.
The practice was observed in Goa on 23rd of June, i.e. on the eve of the
Feast of St. John the Baptist.

Response:

Headline: India cancels 'antisemitic' festival
Source: The Jerusalem Post. 12 July 1995 

Text: The Indian government has withdrawn funding from the Christian
celebration of Judeo, a local custom which has antisemitic overtones. 

Judeo is traditionally celebrated on June 23 every year. But the Clube
Nationale in Panaji, Goa, didn't mark the event this year. Club president
Francisco Martins said that several Goan citizens had protested against the
celebrations. While pointing out that most people were unaware that the
festival was antisemitic, Martins said: We feel this is a positive step as
we do not have anything against the Jews. 

Judeo's origins go back to Portugal's 450 years of colonial rule over Goa.
On the eve of the feast of John the Baptist, a procession would consign a
straw-and-cloth effigy to a bonfire amid cheers. 

Local political sources speculate that India's decision is due to the recent
normalization of ties with Israel.
===

 

On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 12:40 AM, Alfred de Tavares 
alfredtava...@hotmail.com wrote:

 Eric, I think there is an inadvertant miss' infra, as our jc would say...

 Should'nt it rather be 'mar'.

 'Mhar' is a cobbler or bamboo-worker by profession  which, 
 lamentably, places the group as untouchable---casteless;

 Whereas, 'mar' is (to) kill; 'mar zudev/zudev mar' thus rendering it 
 as kill (the) Jew.

 Although casteless, there was never any bitterness/animosity vs the 
 shoe- or
 baset- makers, in Goa, unless, woebegone, one of them dared enter a 
 Hindu brahmin house through the front door, enter a Hindu temple by 
 whichever door or even cross the shadow of a H. brahmin, however 
 tainted the later may be...

 Oh...I forgot, if the poor devil dared use a village well...he/mostly, 
 she was done for.

 Chacha...trying to impress (a bit) on his knowledge of 'castology'.



  Date: Thu, 30 May 2013 22:58:05 -0700
  From: ericpin...@yahoo.com
  To: joego...@yahoo.co.uk; goanet@lists.goanet.org
  Subject: [Goanet] Tradition of Mhar or Zudev celebration on 23rd 
  June
 every   year
 
 
 
Kill the Jew !   The practice is banned. Israel had issued a 
  formal protest to the Foreign Ministry several
  years ago. The government in Goa then responded.eric.
 
 
 
  On the 23rd June every year, a day before Sao Joao, we also 
  celebrated
 'mhar' or 'zudev', an old man made up of straw (with pant, shirt, 
 shoes, hat etc) sitted on a chair, we carried him house to house where 
 we used these pidde to hit or strike the ground saying 'Mhar re, Zud 
 re, ku, ku, ku'. This was a tradition in salcette, don't know it's 
 significance though (Zudev also mean Judev).

[Goanet] Roland Francis - Tumultuous Toronto Troubles - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter, 26 May 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

As they say, this was the week that was.  No, I am not talking about Goa
where such events would have been nothing out of the ordinary, but about
'Toronto the Good' as the city was once called.  

The mayor, rambunctious character that he has proven to be, tipping the
scales at over 300 pounds, was recorded on a cell phone video smoking crack
and making nasty remarks about the disadvantaged youth of a school football
team that he coached, calling them f---ing minorities and making similar
remarks against another disadvantaged group, in this case the gays. I don't
know about London, England or New York and environs or any other place where
Goans are in substantial numbers, but as far as Toronto is concerned, such
behavior is a definite no-no from anybody, least of all a high profile
politician. Quite a few Torontonians smoke pot but crack cocaine is another
matter and accompanied by such words, would violate the country's Narcotics
laws and the Human Rights Code and would attract criminal charges.  If the
mayor had immediately made a mea culpa, he might have been forgiven, but
instead of atonement, he called the accusations made by a reputed city
newspaper ridiculous.  Immediately after, this man who normally shoots his
mouth off at any given opportunity, went into seclusion for the next six
days, appearing only today to deny the authenticity of the event completely.
To complicate matters all this took place (the actual event I mean) in the
company of drug dealers who recorded their client and promptly proceeded to
offer the recoding for sale for $200,000 to the quickest bidder.

Next making the news not too far away, well out of the realm of comedy and
well into the ambit of tragedy was the fate of a young 32 year old clean cut
father of a two year-old from a Dutch farming community, who advertised on
Kajiji to sell his truck. He got a response from a 23 year old male and in
the company of two other male friends of the prospective buyer, also young
men, the seller went on a demonstration drive, never to return. In a few
days, his body was found in the fields. When the arrest happened, the
accused identified by an arm tattoo, turned out to be the rich heir to an
air-services company who could buy such trucks and sell them at a loss if he
wanted to, without making a dent in his fortune. The victim's wife drew the
attention and the sympathy of everyone with her emotional appearances on TV,
first pleading for his safe return to her and the little baby and then after
he was discovered murdered, her dignified and respectful mourning of the man
she had loved and married for two years.  The whole city cried with her.
There is not much violence in Toronto, restricted mostly to a couple of
neighborhoods (the city has only about 54 murders annually) connected with
drug related offences. Therefore when such things happen to uninvolved
citizens, everybody shares in the suffering of their families.

The next surprise that sprung came from the Prime Minister's Office. The PM
is a Quaker pastor type who brooks no hint of scandal from those in his
cabinet or party and is a very controlling individual, relegating his caucus
to helpless members who are unable to make any independent moves of their
own without attracting his stern and wooden gaze.  Therefore it was all the
more surprising when his Chief of Staff wrote a personal cheque of $90,000
to cover a Senator's scandalous misdemeanors linked to his reimbursed
expenses. This PM has a habit of immediately acting upon the minor
transgressions of people he does not like, while tolerating the major slips
of people who are in his favor. However public opinion generated too much
heat this time and his aide had to quickly resign. All this from the office
of the country's top politician who projects an aura of holier-than-thou.
Very much reminding me of Goa's own Manohar Parrikar who promised clean
government and zero tolerance to corruption in the state but did little to
promote either.

To end the stink of this week albeit an ocean away, was the heinous
beheading of a young British soldier on the streets of London hacked by a
couple of Islamic zealots and crackpots. These terrorists seem to have no
sense of gratitude at all for their adopted countries which gave them a real
shot at a good life. First the Chechen Boston bombers and now these London
Nigerian Christians turned Moslem fanatics. Who's next?

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Gulf Goans (The Conclusion) - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

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.
=

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Gulf Goans - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis

Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter, 12 May 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Until 1937 Aden was governed by the British as a part of India, but
realizing its future strategic importance both from a point of view of trade
as well as war, they decided to make it a separate colony and develop it. It
would serve their interest not only to export oil that was starting to be
drilled from Saudi Arabia but was also close enough to their oil interests
in Abadan and other parts of Iran or Persia as it was then called. Although
Basra was already being used, it wouldn't hurt for Aden to be the Arabian
foil to its Persian counterpart. The Brits controlled them both. And there
started the Goan Diaspora beginning of the Arabian Gold Rush that continues
even today.

Goans who were already well represented in Bombay's British Banks and
trading companies that were either British or Parsee dominated, were
encouraged to apply to positions that opened in Basra and Aden, the latter
more so. Already by that time fairly pioneering, having settled in British
and Portuguese Africa they must have said to themselves why not? The pay
was a little better than Bombay and the British recruiters didn't look at
educational qualifications too closely as they did for their hires in that
city. They knew that the climate was desert and intemperate but when did
weather ever deter Goan adventurers seeing how they in later years populated
even frigid winter countries like Canada.

So off to Arabia they went, with a large steel trunk on one of the BI
steamers (little ships plying the Bombay-Gulf route) with a hope in their
soul and a song in their hearts. In 7 days they docked and were met by one
of their Goan contacts already employed in the major port and shipping
agency of the place. Gray Mackenzie, a sister company of Mackinnon Mackenzie
of Bombay, was the dominating freight forwarder, port agent, importer and
exporter and was Goan dominated through the years of expansion that followed
in Bahrain Dubai, Doha and Kuwait.

After Aden, Bahrain opened up for Goans and became a more famous word in the
Konkani lexicon. For a long while any Goan coming on furlough to Bombay or
Goa mentioning that he was in Muscat, Qatar, Dubai or Abu Dhabi, would meet
with an understanding nod followed by aanh Behrin. Bahrain was more
salubrious, had fresh water that was transported weekly in dhows to the
other states and the people were far more progressive and less religion
focused, since their livelihood was based mostly on diving and trade of
pearls, along with dates and fish, with Bombay and Karachi. Of course oil
money and nascent Arab ambition changed the situation considerably by the
end of the twentieth century. It was also to Bahrain that Goan employees
were transferred after the troubles started in southern Yemen coming under
communist influence. 

If there was a capital of the Gulf Goan Diaspora, it was Bahrain. Qatar was
merely a conglomeration of fishing and desert villages and Kuwait was just
starting to discover oil in critical mass. In fact the oilfields and
surrounding camps of PDO (in Oman), Shell (in the Dukhan oilfield of Qatar)
and Aramco (in Saudi Arabia) were the only signs of any life, not just Goan
life in the Gulf.

Life in Bahrain was centered in the small city of Manama where most of the
companies and large department stores churches and clubs were located with
satellite towns around it. It had the Bab-al-Bahrain (Bahrain Gate) where
people congregated and if the Goan community were not in their clubs, you
could see them taking their walks near the Bab. There was much closeness
among Goans and I personally witnessed that. Almost every Goan in the other
Gulf States knew a relative or friend in Bahrain and they would be invited
to stay with them when they inevitably made a trip there. The small
island-state was liberal with alcohol laws and every weekend you would see
long lineups spilling onto the curbs, of people buying from a large choice
of booze from Gray Mackenzie or other Bodegas. Of course most of the buyers
were Saudis who would drive in for a weekend of spirit abuse, or other Gulf
nationals who were deprived of liquor (and pork) in their own states by
strict Islamic laws. Goans in Bahrain at one time had the best time of any
other Goan Gulf community and one might include some non-Gulf countries as
well. The pay was good, the life was good, and you could fly to Bombay or
Goa in a couple of hours. Of course there is always more to a situation than
just that, but I am telling it from the mindset that prevailed then. 

If there is one 'take-away' from all this, it is that someone up there has
always taken care of the well-being of Goans. The Portuguese didn't do it
and the Indians are certainly far from doing it as well.

Re: [Goanet] Death Notice

[Eddie Fernandes]

Dear Gabe

On Monday I received an email from the undertakers requesting that a funeral
notice be inserted in  Goan Voice regarding a death.  The announcement
stated that: 
The person had died of multiple organ failure
That the deceased had no immediate family in London
That the body would be cremated

I published  the announcement and was contacted by relatives in London of
the deceased who pointed out:
That the cause of death was in dispute and a claim of negligence had been
lodged against the hospital many months ago
That the relatives in London and had not been consulted or approved of the
funeral arrangements
That they suspect that the hospital is anxious to cremate the body to
destroy the evidence.  The hospital claim that the decision is based on
costs.
There were many other gravely disturbing allegations made some of which I am
not in a position to reveal and/or verify.

Accordingly I called the funeral directors on Friday but they refused my
requests to reveal:
Whether they had possession of the body
By whose or what authority the hospital had or would release the body.
The name of the person who had asked them to arrange the funeral.

I therefore told them that I would amend the Funeral notice to indicate the
status was uncertain and asked them to let me know of developments.  I was
informed  that they would do so.

I have a responsibility to the Community and it is my duty to alert them to
changes that may take place. However,  since then, more allegations have
come to light so I have deleted the funeral notice.

I have been unwittingly involved in a few  acrimonious family disputes in
announcing deaths and the one principle I have followed is that the next of
kin have the final say in the Goan Voice announcement.  In cases of doubt, I
have sought proof of this.  In this instance the name of the person who
authorised the funeral is being withheld.  I find that unacceptable.

Would you have acted differently?

Eddie Fernandes
===

-Original Message-
Sent: 04 May 2013 22:29

*Stephen Gomes: Status uncertain*
9 Dec. 2012. Tooting Broadway, London. STEPHEN GOMES. Bachelor, aged 90, ex
Mombasa E.A.R. H. Died at St Georges Hospital. The Funeral that was
previously announced may be postponed.


http://www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Comment: The man has been on ice for 5 months and the status is uncertain
with no link click on here?

Goan Voice should be more pronounced and come out and tell us why the status
has changed to uncertain and may be postponed. I phoned the undertakers and
they are set to go - this discredits Goan Voice...perhaps Goan Voice knows
some thing that escapes us?


Please clarify or foreever be discredited.




--
DEV BOREM KORUM

Gabe Menezes
.

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Goans and the Indian Army - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Roland Francis: Goans and the Indian Army - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan
Source: Goan Voice UK , Daily Newsletter 5 May 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk


The recent passing away of Major General Eustace D'Souza PVSM of Velsao Goan
heritage, Lahore (undivided India) and Bandra Bombay, at age 91, brings to
mind the noble tradition of Goans with meritorious and decorated service in
the Indian Army that began with a Goan general in a Deccan Mughal force of
the seventeenth century. Joining as a young officer at age 22, Eustace
D'Souza saw action in Italy during WWII, as part of the occupation of
defeated Japan in 1946, in the 1948 operations when Pakistan tried to take
over Kashmir, in the Punjab border war in 1951 that started the Hindu Muslim
partition slaughter, in 1965 driving China out of Sikkim and in the 1971 war
when India helped create Bangladesh. He was also an avid sportsman playing
soccer, cricket and field hockey, becoming a national selector for that
latter game. D'Souza's outstanding achievements reads like the other
brilliant records of the 42 Goan generals in the Indian Army led in rank by
a chief -Sunith Rodrigues of Curtorim and two vice chiefs - Kevin D'Souza of
Mapusa and Stanley Menezes of Sangolda.

The Indian Army is till today a much admired force, comprising 1.3 million
men and the third largest army in the world after China and the US. In an
otherwise bleak scenario of corruption and society ridden by caste and
divisions, the army remains a beacon of unity and professionalism. It has
been completely apolitical and only on one occasion more than 2000 years
ago, in 185 BC has an Indian commander overthrown the government of the day.
Traditionally, it is the senior of the three branches of the Armed Forces.

Several times after independence from Britain, the army has fought
successful skirmishes, battles and wars. Except for a humiliating defeat at
the hands of China in 1962 which was the result of both political and
military mismanagement, it has acquitted itself with credit in the military
actions of 1947-48, in 1965, 1971 and 1999. It has sent forces for
international peacekeeping in Korea, Indochina, Gaza, Lebanon and Congo.
With operation Vijay, It obliterated 450 years of Portuguese presence in a
matter of days with few casualties and tried to keep the peace in Sri Lanka
but facing a bitter, street fighting guerilla force against which it was
unable to retaliate, had no option but to withdraw. It routed a Sikh rebel
force in operation Bluestar of 1987 ending a long and violent terror
campaign against the state.

The Indian Army owes a huge debt of gratitude to the British for its
formation, training, discipline and many traditions. For example, the army
lives apart from society, in camps and cantonments and therefore maintains a
strict neutral distance from the people it protects. No other armed force in
the world has been able to maintain such a non-fraternizing policy. That
gratitude was paid back in large measure when Britain was able to raise an
Indian force of over 2 million men, the largest army in the history of the
world, fighting alongside the Allies in all theaters of war and in a few
that no other British unit was present. If Britain  granted India its
independence, it was not only due to Gandhi's and Nehru's long political
struggles but also due to a grateful empire that wanted to be fair to a
subject-nation whose soldiers laid down many thousands of lives in a war not
their own.

There were many Goans who even in the early days of British rule, lived
outside of Goa. Given preferential treatment like the Anglo-Indians and
Parsees for their loyalty and western ways, they reciprocated in large
numbers by joining the officer class of the police, the armed forces, the
railways and other branches of government that kept India together. Anglo
Indian boldness was always taken for granted, but the myth of the timid Goan
and the meek Parsee was shattered by the bravery of these two minority
communities. Goan valor in war and fairness to the lower ranks written on
regimental logs is replete with deeds of men like Gen Eustace D'Souza of the
Marathas. Goan fame in the Indian Army must have attained a unique moment in
the 1965 battle for Chinese occupied Sikkim when all three vital high
altitude mountain passes to Gangtok the capital on the ancient Silk Road
were all commanded by Goans - Lt Gen Stanley Menezes (later Vice-Chief), Maj
Gen Sidney Pinto and Maj Gen Eustace D'Souza.  Like the Goan identity, those
exploits which make all Goans proud, will soon disappear since  educated,
intelligent and brave Goan men no longer look at careers in the Armed
Forces, finding the lure of higher salaries in the private sector
irresistible instead. But happily, what has been written in an army's annals
can never be erased or forgotten.
=

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Life Notes - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Roland Francis: Life Notes - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan
Source: Goan Voice daily newsletter, 28 Apr. 2013  at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Some things take getting used to and other things, you never get used to at
all. Such experiences are common with Goans settled in this part of the
world although they may vary slightly depending on their origin. 

Start with the weather. In the East no one talks about the weather simply
because there is nothing to talk about. Imagine a conversation starting like
this: Isn't it such pleasant sunshine today (and tomorrow and every day
after). In Toronto not only does daily weather change, it changes several
times during a day sometimes by as much as 20 degrees C in winter. This is
especially tricky when you have to decide what to wear when leaving home.
Bright sunshine in Toronto does not translate into how warm or cold you are
going to feel.

When one arrives here, you have to quickly decide that reading a map is one
of your first priorities, even if you perchance don't drive. I have met
people who after living for several years still talk of left and right
directions. GPS instruments are alien to them. They get themselves quite
confused when left and right becomes relative to the direction from which
they are coming. Talking of driving, I notice an inordinate number of our
women don't drive and I am not talking of the older ones. This is all the
more puzzling because road designs, lanes and signals are well laid out, the
city is largely on a grid pattern and traffic follows the rules. The police
make sure of that. In the Gulf, the more you argue with police who have
stopped you, the better your chances of being let off. In India of course,
all you have to do is slip the green stuff in the constable's palms. But
experience does not always teach. Take me for example. When stopped for
doing 110 in an 80 zone, I told the officer that I was late for a relative's
funeral mass. This was the truth and I expected against my better judgment
to be let off. Instead I was told that I needed to have left home earlier
and not likely endanger my fellow drivers. He then proceeded to ticket me,
as he should. 

The honor system that Toronto once followed has been slowly buried. The
influx of immigrants over the years for whom trying to beat the system has
been key, is responsible for it. When I arrived, any statement you made was
taken at face value and no proof was required. It's not like that anymore. I
try to avoid doing business with new immigrants especially from certain
parts of Asia, Africa and the Far East. They have their own agenda which
often is different from the one that was set, and it is usually hidden. What
is asked upfront though, is always the question: What government benefits
can I get. The talk about bettering themselves comes much later, if at all.

The whole Roman Catholic Church hierarchy in this city it seems to me, treat
their vocations more in the nature of a job than a calling. That is not so
when one goes more inland where the priests still have a strong missionary
zeal. There are exceptions of course, but as far as I am concerned, those
exceptions only reinforce my observation. That was not the case as I recall,
of the priests in Bombay city. They were more imbued with the enthusiasm and
involvement in serving their parishioners and therefore more visibly active.
On the subject of the religious world, I recently talked to my high school
colleague who serves the Society of Jesus in Bombay in senior educational
positions. When asked about the Jesuit Pope, he seemed to think that Francis
will be boxed in by the crusty Vatican hierarchy in matters of progress. He
also commented that the dogmatic Benedict took the Catholic world back by at
least 25 years. Didn't ask him how, since that was what I thought too.

Post secondary tuition costs are quite high and increasing at an education
inflation of 7% or more, though Canada is still much cheaper (and has always
been) than the United States with standards higher than them except in their
Ivy Leagues. It makes me feel ridiculous considering the penny-ante costs of
similar education in India in the day. It was probably heavily subsidized by
the Indian Government through grants-in-aid that virtually paid off all
lecturer and professor salaries. And we repaid that country by taking
overseas those skills l learned without any regard to reimbursement. Of
course some alumni tried to do what they could for their old institutions
but that debt could never be repaid, in my case to the Jesuits.
 
Enjoy the sunshine and until next week.

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Regrets and April Showers - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis
Source: 14 April 2013 Newsletter at  www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Full Text:
 
Here are a few thoughts, a few observations and a few subjective opinions
(all my work). 

As long as the current deep-seated culture of corruption in government and
the 'live and let live' and 'it doesn't concern me' culture in Goan society
continues, it will become less and less of an international tourist
destination. That of course is not a worry to those in the trade. They know
the loss will be covered by tourists from the rest of India whose pockets
are deeper but whose quality gets seedier every year. 

The sight of multi storied buildings in once pristine villages and
tree-filled hills is an abomination to the eyes of any Goan. Who knew that
one day lush paddy fields, tall coconut trees and 'baands' teeming with fish
would make way for ugly concrete monstrosities in the name of progress. Yet,
real estate development Indian style, in Goa, has still a long way to go
with enormously more money to be made. That means the local criminals and
politicos will slowly make way for the Bombay and Delhi underworld, bringing
extortion and capital crime in its wake. The price of flats will go higher
and the construction quality lower than it is already. There will be more
black (untaxed proceeds of crime) money in the economy and a further
breakdown of the law.

The press in Goa, except for a couple of intrepid journalists is spineless
and a disgrace to their profession. Investigative journalism as in the rest
of India is unheard of, but this could also be due to non-existence of any
local newspapers not owned by vested interests that ensures their selfish
ambitions are not at risk.

The discrepancy between the price of fish purchased by wholesalers and that
paid by the public is shocking.  Someone is making tons of money and it is
not the trawler owners, who have their own rising expenses, or the
ramponnkars (traditional fishermen) who earn much less than they should.

On the subject, a study done recently says that most fish in Goa whether
from rivers or the ocean coastline is polluted.  Also the tonnage of that
polluted catch is speedily declining since there are no measures to prevent
overfishing. Go to any fish market and you will see the ever-diminishing
average size of the common varieties. Also, most fish served in Goa's
restaurants is stale and has to be heavily spiced and fried till crisp,
instead of just seared, in order to mask the staleness.  Perhaps just like
morgue cooling systems that don't work and make corpses stink in Goa, the
ice on fish fails to do its job too.

I laugh when I see the normal Goan house being advertised as 'Portuguese
style'.  It follows that any hut, shack, lean-to or mundcar's dwelling is
Indian style. Sorry I said mundcar's dwelling. Some of their homes are
bigger and swankier than the ancestral Bhatcar mansion.  An intelligent lady
from Goa once gave me a verbal treatise on why this is so. That also
answered the question of why unskilled Goans no longer go for manual labor
which is now quite well paying. Apparently it has to do with their
exploitation and forced servitude in previous times by the richer classes, a
situation from which they now wish to distance themselves.

The quality of education which in Goa was once envious and produced men of
stature in every area of human endeavour, is in a sorry state. Therefore
professionals like doctors are clueless of modern procedures, engineers are
incompetent, lawyers are unethical and IT technologists have left Goa in
droves. If you find capable people of these levels and question them, you
will find they were either educated under the Portuguese system, in the
early years of Indian rule, studied elsewhere in India or have had overseas
work experience. 

I have always wondered why the people in power did not turn Goa into an IT
hub. It is in the proximity of several engineering institutes and colleges
and the surroundings are salubrious (hints of California). The
infrastructure calls for much less land and capital than a new airport, the
state has a vast Diaspora with many Goans in other IT locales who would
gladly relocate. Even just call centers would provide employment to many,
since wages in Goa are lower than most places in the world.

The less said about the police, law and order, sanitation, red tape, the
medical system, adulteration of food and alcohol and many other things, the
better.
Of course there's a lot about Goa that is still good, though I have to
confess it's mostly about the nature of the people and what is still left of
the original Eden. I'll leave that for a future column.
=

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Atrocities against Women - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Title: Atrocities against Women - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan 
By: Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 7 April 2013

Full Text:
 
Nothing is more nauseating than picking up any Goan or Indian newspaper and
reading the various items either on the front page or tucked away inside
relating to physical violence against women. A young bride burned by her
husband with the connivance of his family for insufficient dowry, a minor
raped by a family member, a teen sexually assaulted in school, another
surgically dismembered in Goa's main hospital, a woman forced into
satisfying drunken friends of an alcoholic husband, an innocent tourist's
intentions twisted into acts of extreme lust, a  child not yet three
molested by a neighbor who was entrusted with temporary care, a woman taken
as wife when the man is still married and driven to suicide by harassment.
The list is unending and the rate of such crime increasing.

Goa has come a long way, in the worse possible sense, from the early banning
of 'sati' by the Portuguese, (the wife throwing herself into the burning
funeral pyre of her dead husband), a measure of social progress much sooner
into their rule than the British with the rest of India. It is not Indian
law that is lacking, it is the hydra-headed monster of police corruption,
political interference and the snail's pace of justice in India which is
responsible for the violence against women. That and the culture of a
country that till today in most of the land gives undue importance to the
male at the cost of the female, treating the latter mainly as family
chattel. While the Indian will pride himself in the way he treats his women
compared to, say the Arabs, the truth tells a different story. Arab culture
may on the one hand deny basic rights to their women based on some false
interpretations of their desert religion, but Arab males treat all females
in the most exemplary fashion not just their own, with perhaps the exception
of their domestic help who they see as slaves. When they vacation in Europe,
some of them will debauch themselves, but in their country, all women are
safe.

Another type of sexual violence becoming increasingly prevalent in Indian
cities and even in Goa, is blatant groping. While foreign women tourists
will come forward and describe in no uncertain terms how they were molested
when they found themselves suddenly in the middle of a crowd of Indian
males, Goan women will out of a perceived sense of shame, avoid reporting
it. I can picture the titters of even the police recording the complaint as
if it is some joke. What is it about Indian males that make them play out
their hidden lusts in so brazen and public a manner? It is not that
prostitution is rare or that Indian women are frigid (see the 1.2 billion
number, no less), so what could arouse such shameful behaviour?  It could be
a lazy police force such as in Goa, one that demands money not only from the
victim but also from the perpetrator. After taking money from both, it
becomes easier to not to pursue the matter, since doing so means gathering
evidence, recording statements, going to court and the various other things
the police are supposed to do. 

Even in Bombay where the police force though less corrupt is at least a
symbol of decisive action thanks to the young IPS Deputy Commissioners who
seek to make a name for themselves for career advancement, I have seen
lethargy in domestic disputes. The poor slum-dwelling wife goes to complain
to the local police station about an abusive husband who grabs her day's
earnings to get drunk and then beats her while accusing her of infidelity.
The constable confronting the husband, threatens him against repeating the
incident, but no record is made. Same incident in Toronto. A male and female
constable goes to the house, each questioning their gender counterpart and
if there is a mere hint of the male having raised a finger, he is handcuffed
and jailed for the night. Then he enters the court system, one that will
definitely give him second thoughts on account of consequences, if he is
tempted to repeat the travesty.

God counts a woman's tears. Despite all the cards stacked against her, or
perhaps because of it, Goan women especially of the poorer and depressed
economic classes are becoming more forceful, militant and socially active.
Allelujah! 

Here is a video link thanks to Victor D'Cunha and JoeGoaUK to the narration
by her sister straight from the heart, of the story a 15 year old girl in
Goa who entered the medical care system with an inflamed appendix and came
out dead due to causes that are not one bit short of murder. Pity the
family, but power and justice to them. Hope you understand Konkani.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li8De6lgIro
==

[Goanet] Roland Francis: The Goans of Poona - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Title: The Goans of Poona - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan
By: Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily newsletter of 31 March 2013 at
www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Poona, about 173kms from Bombay, was once the capital of the Peshwas, the
prime minister and governor class of the powerful Bhonsales of Satara who
were a formidable threat to the Mughals and the Portuguese. A small military
town, known for its Camp (Cantonment) area, and India's premier officer
cadet school at nearby Khadakvasala, during the British era it became a
summer retreat for the elite of the Presidency of Bombay (later Bombay
State) gradually transforming itself into a non-polluting industrial hub and
the ninth largest city in India.

Poona has had a very strong Goan connection for more than 150 years. Most
early Goans went there directly from Goa or by way of Belgaum and were in
self-employed occupations like tailors, bakers, musicians, people in the
armed forces and professionals directly or indirectly employed in the
numerous government and defense establishments. The lands for the City
Church (Our Lady of Immaculate Conception) the cemetery and the Poona Goan
Institute were donated by the Peshwas to the Goan Christians in appreciation
of their service in his army. The parish was administered by the Padroado
with priests deputed from Goa. Official Church documents until 50 years ago
were still written in Portuguese. The Jesuits from the German-Swiss region
conducted their missionary activity with the establishment of St Vincent's
School mainly for Goan boys in 1867. Just 10 years later, opposite the
school, a convent for education of Goan girls was started by the nuns of the
Convent of Jesus and Mary. Both these schools maintain their high standards
until today and are eagerly sought after for education by all communities.
Placido D'Souza former Indian Ambassador and his son Francisco D'Souza of
Cognizant international fame, Wing Commander Clarence D'Souza who was ex PM
Morarji Desai's pilot, along with many other illustrious Goan and Indian
military brass and eminent persons in various fields are all ex-Vincentians.

Goans dominated the confectionary trade and were major suppliers to the
military, hospitals and prisons. The Macedo's and Martyris' were leading
city chemists with high business and social standing. The community excelled
in sports, led the armed forces' bands as well as formed the leading music
groups one of which was D'Souza Brothers' Jet Set performing in the area's
top hotels. Among professionals, W. X. Mascarenhas was the most outstanding.
He built the NDA cadet school campus at Khadakvasala and was the first
Indian principal of Poona Engineering College.

Most Goans lived around the Camp, Quartergate and in the neighborhood of the
Church. Just  as in a large Goa village, everyone knew everyone else if not
personally, at least by name and face. During Christmas, reminiscent of the
Goan areas of Bombay, the streets would be decorated with streamers and huge
stars hung between low-rise buildings with creatively built cribs around
street corners. In the background you would hear Jim Reeves and other
Christmas music and carols emanating a strong Christmas spirit. Almost all
wedding receptions, the Christmas Dance, Carnival and social functions were
held at the Goan Institute to the accompaniment of Goan brass bands that
unfailingly included in their repertoire marching tunes set to a dance beat.
This was a military town after all. Marriage matches were made at such
events. The Army Club was popular with Goan youth for the New Years Eve
dance. What is unusual for a place inhabited by Goans of the day, is that
caste was never an issue except when they were made rudely aware of it
during their vacations in Goa. This was a pensioner's paradise, coming as
close to idyllic small-town Goa as was possible in the British-Indian
geography. 

No Goan Catholic tale of Poona would be complete without reference to Fr.
Thomas Barco of the Barco bakery family. A Deputy Collector before his late
vocation, he was in his priesthood, simple, down to earth, spiritual and
everything a good priest should be. Popularly known as 'Goribancho Padre'
(priest of the poor), he would minister to the most unfortunate and was in
much demand for family religious events. Never forgetting a name or face
even after a lifetime, he would spiritually tend to his flock anytime,
anywhere. People would come from all over Poona's surrounding areas just to
meet him and at his death, there were mourners from all religions - Hindus,
Muslims, Parsis Jains, Sikhs, rich and poor, mighty and humble. The parish
hall has been named after him.

May the spirit and joy of the risen Christ manifested through the simplicity
of Fr. Thomas Barco and Pope Francis and their kind, who are happy doing the
humblest things, touch you all this Easter season.

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Heaven Knows Your Future, Mr. Fernandes - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Title: Heaven Knows Your Future, Mr. Fernandes
By: Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 24 March 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk


When the majority of Goan families had little in the way of affluence, they
had each other. Mother and father raised their brood usually along with an
unmarried and disadvantaged relative and sometimes a posko or poskem - an
adopted child that may have crossed their path unintentionally. 

They stopped all activity at the evening Angelus bells, then gradually
recommencing until later when they would all huddle together for the family
rosary. After, Dad would open the small wall cupboard to pour himself a shot
of well matured feni while Mum and the children would help lay the dinner
table. While the parents had their own chairs, others would squeeze on the
wooden benches beneath the simple spread of rice, vegetables and some
curried or fried fish. Retiring to the cemented balcony at the entrance to
the home, they would stretch and talk under the starry skies until sleep
first gently nudged the most tired.
 
Whatever troubles beset the family would rest solely on the broad shoulders
of the parents who would never drop even a hint to any of the others even if
the problem belonged to one of them. It seemed prayer, toil and St. Francis
would solve everything and even when it didn't there were no recriminations
that destroyed the family peace. 

Mum and Dad eventually aged to infirmity. It was the custom of the eldest
son to take over their care and he did the job uncomplainingly without
expectation of any reward of asset transfer which in any case would devolve
to all of the sons. That's just the way it was, Portuguese civil or family
law notwithstanding. In any case the assets, mainly the land and house
amounted to almost nothing. Brothers and sisters maintained the family bond
and passed it on to their children.

Eventually all that changed with the times. The price of land and homes in
Goa escalated to dizzying heights. Families grew and accommodation got
beyond the reach of average incomes. In the fight for space, elders are the
first casualty.

Goan Christians are mostly working folk. Except for a few, they are hardly
entrepreneurs or business people. With high inflation, increasing medical
and education costs and rising gasoline prices, belts have to be tightened
and the old and infirm are the first to suffer. In certain areas where
property prices have especially skyrocketed, families prefer to sell
ancestral property, divide the proceeds and go their own way. Couples want
to be independent with no added responsibilities. Father and mother cannot
manage on their own and in a short time end up in old age homes.

In many cases the younger adults have to relocate to other cities like
Bangalore, Hyderabad or Gurgaon because they are either in transferable jobs
or have found employment in these booming cities. Goa has no meaningful
opportunity for the well-educated and skilled except in the stagnating and
unregulated tourist sector which lacks any kind of self-discipline. They are
unable to take their parents along because of their uncertainties in these
newly expanding cities. Jobs in India are no more secured than in more
advanced countries. If the stress levels in these parts are high, in India
they are higher since employers while their hands are somewhat tied in the
west, have unfettered slave driving opportunities in their outsourced
destinations.

Then there are Goans who see their future in immigrating to Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and lately the UK in large numbers. They need capital to
tide them over the initial difficult phase and they tend to entice or force
their parents out of their ancestral home with the promise of providing them
with a place to live with them in their new countries. Once settled, those
old folks become either babysitters or a burden and a nuisance to their good
life, or perhaps they are still struggling and their parents would seem to
add to the problems. In some countries where medical costs are high as in
the USA or where senior or long term care homes have to be partly paid for
as in Canada and the UK, problems are aggravated.

Thankfully, Goans long established in the Diaspora, especially those from
Africa who came with young children in the 50s to the 70s are relatively
unscathed from such issues. The parents now old, have worked here for a part
of their lives and their friends and support circle live among them. There
are no unmanageable expectations and no emotional trauma of sudden
separation from a community they have lived a lifetime with.

Everybody wishes that when they get old, a heart attack, stroke or rapidly
spreading cancer quickly takes them away. No one wishes to linger in
suffering or worse still be a burden, either financial or otherwise to their
loving children. But the reality is that we live longer than ever before and
until euthanasia becomes as common as cremation, or Pope Francis threatens

[Goanet] Roland Francis: An Accident in Goa - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Title: An Accident in Goa – Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan
By: Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 17 Mar. 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

Full text:

Goan villages can be great places for rest and relaxation but you cannot for
a moment visualize the trauma and misery you can be subject to, if something
goes wrong. Something did go wrong for a Toronto friend who never misses the
Carnival season in Goa every year while escaping the Canadian winter at the
same time. 

Riding a motor scooter after Sunday mass to visit his friend, fate made him
a tryst with an SUV filled with young men determined to paint Palolem beach
red. Throwing rules of the road to the wind, their wheelman tried to
overtake a public bus and went onto the lane where traffic and my friend
were coming in the opposite direction. Head on, the SUV and the scooter. He
was flung onto the windshield and lay writhing in pain, fibula and tibia
broken and protruding on the hot tarmac. Remaining conscious, he told
passersby to call an ambulance and he was taken to the Hospicio in Margao.
He didn’t know it then, but his real troubles had just begun. 

The way he tells it, the facilities at Hospicio are abysmal. The premises
are dirty and so are the beds. The linen has stains, some of which look like
they unsuccessfully battled against the last laundry. The doctors have no
sense of urgency and are quite incompetent. When his wife, hearing of the
accident, rushed there, she took one look at the surroundings and decided to
move him to a private hospital in Margao. That decision had its own
implications. This hospital did not have several pieces of vital equipment
and supplies and he needed to be moved again. 

Somewhere between the two hospitals one leg of the poorly maintained
stretcher came unhitched and the patient fell to the ground suffering
additional trauma not only to his smashed legs but also to parts of the body
that came unscathed from the road accident.

Moved to a big name hospital also in Margao, where one would expect better,
he was subjected to more of the same. The staff was professional neither in
expertise nor service, and the toilets are what you would expect from a
rural health centre in say Bihar. Remember that he was not ambulatory and
had to depend on the nurses and aides for every bodily need. It didn’t take
long for him to decide that the sooner he was flown to Toronto the better. 

The stretcher at the airport run by an outsourced firm gave way and as if in
a déjà vu scene, he was again flung to the ground violently. The wonder of
it was that he came through this third episode not much worse for wear. A
lesser man would have been felled with paralysis or worse. However, his
guardian angel was on the ball and the fact that he is a fitness buff
probably helped. 

Meanwhile there was endless paper work to be taken care of. The police had
been bribed by the guilty party and the report completely absolved the
negligent person despite all kinds of evidence gathered at the scene by
witnesses who were willing to help, pointing to the contrary. Remember
Scarlett Keeling and many other instances?  Although the wife ran from
pillar to post to get justice from higher authorities, it was the usual come
tomorrow, come next week. The inevitable conclusion was that everyone from
bottom to top had their palms greased. Justice in Goa as indeed India, is a
Utopian dream.

The eyes of my friend that were jaundiced enough to overlook all that is
happening in his beloved Goa are now open wide. He says that Goans in Goa
have abdicated their roles in well-paying as well as menial positions.
Doctors, lawyers and police think they are Gods and play with mortals from
that position. He compared his spending of money resultant from this
incident to the salt one sprinkles from a shaker. He laughs as he recalls
how the private hospitals made him purchase his own supplies and then billed
him for those very supplies he had to buy from outside. There is no value
put on human life in Goa, he wistfully whispers. So what else is new, I
should have told him, but didn’t. 

He is at peace that comes from returning to a sane world and is recovering
well in a Toronto rehabilitation center. He doesn’t know about tomorrow he
says, but smilingly talks about a day at a time.

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Goans at Sea - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Goans at Sea. By Roland Francis

I have always liked travelling by sea. When any opportunity arose, there I
was climbing the gangplank, suitcase in hand, a silly but happy grin on the
face. My first short voyages were between Bombay and Goa. Fairly large ships
like the Saraswati, and the Sabarmati sailed from Ballard Pier and docked at
Mormugao with cabins, decks and even holds chock full of vacationing Goans.
They hugged the coastline with stops at Vengurla, Malwan and Karwar,
ferrying goods and Konkan locals between those ports. Then, only Goans with
passports (travel papers really) were allowed into Goa.

The officers, crew and caterers were Goan or coastal Konkans. In the 24
hours it took, passengers were treated to Goan-Konkan type food (a great
fusion if you tried it), feni smuggled on board from Goa, games of bingo and
a movie or two. As Bombay waters were left behind, the air became much
lighter with the liquor helping. This mood continued until Mormugao was
sighted. On docking, the men took off to the nearest tavern for St. Pauli
Girl beer accompanied by canned Kraft cheese and Jacobs crackers, typical
snack staples of the day. The fun had begun. They were coming home!

Goans have a long sea-faring tradition. It started with fishermen going to
man oceangoing vessels from Bombay for a more lucrative living. The fathers
of today's seamen started their careers with jobs in BI (British India)
ships like the Dwarka or Dumra doing the Africa or Aden-Gulf run. The other
half were recruited through the Leo Barnes' headed seamen's union in Bombay
and sailed on cargo ships of various flags or on the forerunner of
modern-day cruise lines, the old PO passenger liners. Money was made on
English and American tips, smuggling gold into Bombay and profits from
currency conversion on the black market.

Eventually, all that came to an end, but luckily for Goan sailors and their
families, the phenomenon of Carnival, Imperial, Norwegian, Holland-American
and Disney one week to one month cruises started. Trips from Miami and Fort
Lauderdale to Mexico and the Eastern and Western Caribbean became extremely
popular with vessels carrying 3000 people and 1000 officers and crew. In
Europe they departed from Barcelona destined for European and Black Sea
tourist destinations and even across the Atlantic to Central America and
Brazil.
  
Unlike previous times when age was no hindrance to working on cargo and
passenger ships, today's cruises take mostly younger people. It's a sharp
business, there is no preference towards Goans like that shown by the
British and the underlying theme is profit, profit, profit. The passengers
are litigious North Americans and they must be kept happy even if it is on
the shoulders of the front-line crew. Goans are only one of many
nationalities. The captain is usually Italian, officers are from South or
East Europe and the crew the crew is from many emerging nations. The women
are preponderantly from Rumania. The policy is deliberate, to avoid
dissatisfaction in a group.

Most of these ships fly non-American flags, usually Panamanian, Liberian or
some other latest tax-free, mostly business friendly country. This allows
the cruise operators to pay less than the American minimum wage which they
would otherwise have to pay since their home ports are usually in Florida
and Texas.  The boys usually get for a 12 hour working day an American one
hour minimum wage. They work seven day weeks for a nine month contract.
Given accommodation below decks and poor food, it is hard work even if there
was enlightened management, which there is not. Working conditions and life
for them are far from easy.
 With economic liberalization in India, the gold smuggling and currency
conversion options are no more. The sharing of mandatory passenger tips has
replaced that. If you do the math on a $50 dollar tip paid by 3000
passengers for 1000 crew and multiply that by the weeks in a 9 month
contract, you will understand how the boys can build houses in Goa in a
couple of years, no mortgage attached. Hence the need to take suffering
silently.

I cannot end without mentioning that on one trip I saw a Goan face and name
among the management photographs hanging in gilt frames in a prominent place
on the main deck lobby. It was the Chief Steward and Purser who later told
me he was from Carmona. I talked to him when he was free and he offered to
give me a bottle of premium scotch on the house. I politely declined since
that was too much for me and I liked to drink whenever I felt like it, not
because there was a bottle in my cabin. But I was touched by the gesture.
Goan nature and hospitality, as always. 
=

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Man of the Cloth from La Motte

[Eddie Fernandes]

68 years ago in the tiny village of La Motte, 600 kms from Montreal, a
future Pope of the Catholic Church may have been born.  His father with 7
other children was a farmer like most of the men in that remotely rural area
although later with self-education he became a school trustee and
administrator. Quebec was then staunchly religious and Catholicism ruled
every aspect of people's lives, often stifling their social freedom. Young
Marc Ouellet grew up to be an avid sportsman and outdoors buff, fishing and
hunting as often as he could. His religious transformation took place when
he was injured in an ice hockey game and he began to read the only books
available to him - of the Saints and of his religion. When he was ordained a
priest in the late 60s, Quebec after the Quiet Revolution was already going
the other way, divesting itself of its Catholic influence, leading to the
province taking over health care and education which was in the hands of the
Church until then. In 1970 during the October Crisis, sovereignist
francophones under the FLQ rebelled against the administration, leading to
the imposition of the War Measures Act. During this very time, Ouellet was
sent to teach in South America where he remained until the new century.
Returning to his native land, ultimately as Cardinal of Quebec City, he
found a completely different civil society from when he left it. Sunday mass
attendance was ghostly and the church had completely lost its influence.
Ouellet was disoriented, encountering much criticism from politicians,
women's groups and the media when he said abortion was a moral crime even in
the context of rape. He retained his staunch conservatism and lost the
chance to build bridges with his fellow Quebecers.

Elsewhere meanwhile, in Europe, as in Quebec, churches were becoming empty
chambers. People were embracing secular and radical ideas of homosexual
equality, contraception, sex and laxer moral standards in dating and
marriage. The US led most of these revolutionary changes, with their clergy
quickly adapting to the new social standards. This adaptation often brought
them in conflict with the Vatican old guard. In less than two generations,
Catholicism and religion had undergone a sea change. China and India,
emerging Asia's two biggest Catholic population centers were engrossed with
their changing economies and Africa a later rising bastion of Catholic
conversion was still engrossed in life after colonialism, finding itself
embroiled in border wars and tribal violence. Meanwhile the Catholic Church
found itself in the middle of a huge sex scandal, the ramifications of which
are still unfolding, and another scandal, this one a gigantic mesh of
Vatican corruption.

Can Ouellet or any other Pope sort out all the problems that beset their
world today? What must the Church do to make itself relevant to their flock
while maintaining the tempo of rising numbers of devout followers in Africa,
Latin America and India-Asia? A century ago, the Catholic population of
Africa was 1 percent, now it is 21. Half a century ago India was 1 per cent
Christian, today it is 5. China had almost no practicing Catholics under
communism, today they are a large and influential body.  Catholicism is
challenged in the old world except among immigrant communities, by the
temptations of progressive society. The evangelical Protestants, well funded
and spiritually motivated, are making wide inroads in largely Catholic South
America and in Muslim Africa. In China, India and the rest of Asia, they
work like well-oiled machines, constantly expanding their influence.  Islam
is another challenge, considering it their duty to in Africa to wage a
crusade against Christian conversion, flush with weapons and funds from
extremist Gulf Arab quarters. 

In Goa, the Portuguese seem to have done a good job with religion. Goan
Catholics have remained more or less faithful to their faith and religious
traditions although riddled with comical hypocrisy. The old vestige of caste
has gone underground, but rears its ugly head when occasion demands.
Brotherly love goes out the door when it comes to land or money. Bribery,
cheating corruption and crime are common as with the rest of the population.
Priests are no longer the moral beacons of yore and the higher clergy seem
to do nothing about it. Bombay, the most influential Indian diocese has a
Goan Cardinal who is also the head of the chapter of the Asian Bishops
Conference but he is too mild, decent and studious where a firmer,
take-charge prince of the church is called for. But who knows what the
future holds. For the sake of the church, we wish for a Pope who brings
better times although that is a difficult task.

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Whither Diaspora: Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter, 3 Feb. 2013, at www.goanvoice.org.uk


Full text:

One would have thought that middle class people in India in general and Goa
in particular would be a happy lot. They have reaped the benefits of the
rising economy and salaries that have gone through the roof. No doubt the
good has been accompanied by a corresponding inflation rate that often
touches 10 per cent annually (compare that to Canada's less than 2) but even
so, they are able to afford a style of living that was unknown to their
parents. A family car, a luxury that was enjoyed by only a very few once, is
now taken for granted. The value of apartments and homes has increased ten
to fifteen times over the past decade and half and while that is
disadvantageous to new home buyers, it is a huge future asset to those
owning already, whether by appreciation or generational transfer. 

However, people are still yearning to settle abroad despite knowing that
with the current weak economies in the developed world, likelihood of
employment has become more challenging. Almost every young person in a large
Indian city dreams of nothing but going to Australia, Canada, England and
Europe. Almost everybody in Goa who is entitled to Portuguese naturalization
and those who are not, has either got the passport, applied for one or is
considering the quickest way to get it issued by hook or by crook, money no
bar. The Indian law against dual citizenship is flouted every which way, to
an extent that the Goa government doesn't quite know what to do about it.
That works out fine for everybody. The lawbreakers are allowed to get away
with it by hush money and enforcement gets to make the ubiquitous extra buck
as in every other avenue they find for themselves. 

Don't be fooled with the talk you get when you are on a visit. People will
run you down saying that they have no reason to go abroad, that we in the
Diaspora are treated like second class citizens (a continuous myth
perpetrated for many years and born of sour grapes) and why should they wash
their own bathrooms when they have someone to do it for them. I even had a
friend proudly tell me that his briefcase is carried by his chauffeur from
home to the car in the garage below. The latter argument is slowly wearing
thin ever since it is news that domestic workers are harder to find then as
ever, or are becoming unaffordable even to rich people. I have learnt long
ago not to ask anyone if they intend to emigrate, but even if I ask when
they intend to make a trip to Canada they become all defensive and ask me
why should they think of immigrating, while I only meant to ask them about a
holiday. That itself I ask as a quid pro quo to their asking when I intend
to come to India. Little knowing that once one no longer has relatives to
dutifully visit, India is about the lowest option on a holiday list to
someone born there.

Why are people pushing to immigrate to the western world when India an
emerging country has long been an attraction to foreign investment and a
beneficiary of new jobs and higher than ever salaries? Exponential increase
in population is the reason. It causes ever more and more people chasing not
enough higher education, infrastructure and facilities. Quality therefore is
the first casualty. Add to that the worst government in any democracy. Add
to that the history of acceptance of the way things are. Add to that a
crumbling and ineffective justice system and the whole deck just collapses.
Though not to them, only to us. When I left Bombay in 1976 it had a
population of 6 million souls. Now it has 21 million or more - all within
more or less the same boundaries. The city like many others, is growing
upwards to questionable building codes but doesn't have the life support for
it. One major disaster and havoc will prevail. Nonetheless the city has a
record of putting back its shoes, tying its laces and carrying on as if
nothing has happened. That is a good thing except no lessons will be learned
for the future. The value of life has always been quite low.
=

[Goanet] The Loneliness of Aging: Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis:

Source: Goan Voice UK Newsletter of 20 Jan. 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

In times past, it was easy being old. In fact 'old' in those days meant
anyone merely above 50. So a man retired at 55 lived for a year or two and
then died while still in his own home. There was no problem for his family
or even his wife who usually lived much longer. But now, with advances in
medicine, thanks to technology causing nature to be held at bay, being old
usually refers to the mid 70's and beyond. In some cases with many in
relatively good health the bar is stretched further. That presents a few
problems. 

To those who have immigrated temporarily as in the Arabian Gulf or for jobs
in Hong Kong and Singapore, there is the constant worry of the old man back
home. Distance has been made irrelevant by cheap air travel, but it is not
always possible to drop everything even for a short while and fly back to
help out during a parental sickness. So you make a few calls and try to get
to the heart of the matter. Is it serious? Is the cancer slow spreading
rather than aggressively metastasizing? Will the Parkinson's or Alzheimer's
give time and what can I do from here? Do I need to be there if for nothing
else than to make him more comfortable than what the folks around him think
is sufficient? With sons and daughters in the western hemisphere, those
problems are compounded further. There is too much efficiency and too little
heart in this part of the world with one's employment. So you pretend that
the problem is not so critical and you delay it until bad luck strikes with
a vengeance and senility, non-recognition and even taking of the final
breath occurs. And therein lies the Diaspora tragedy of the closest form of
human relationships - the Family. 

There is an even worse situation that prevails. Mum or Dad have been
persuaded that they are better off in England, Canada or Australia in climes
different from what they knew, snatched from familiar surroundings, with
people who grew to be their friends over a lifetime. They come because the
children are all here and they are persuaded that health care is light years
ahead of what they would get back there. Then they wilt. They have to be
beholden to whomever they live with, meekly saying yes to the son and
terrified of the daughter-in-law who didn't much like them in the first
place doing silent battle with the husband about why her parents have not
been similarly treated. So this once fiercely independent father and mother
who rocked their infants in the soft arms of love and affection, giving them
all their time and money which they didn't always have, through demanding
childhood, problem teen times and even the rough paths of young adulthood,
find themselves like vulnerable and wounded birds waiting for that predator
death to snatch them from misery.

Of course not all experiences are like this. Many children take joy in their
parents, treating them like they ought to and not like an inconvenience.
Many parents are happy, taking part fully in the lives of the children they
live with, learning that their own wise and selfless counsel must be kept to
themselves and given only when asked, even if that is rarely. I have seen
loving children find scarce money to place their parents in care facilities
where comfort and even luxury is compensation for the necessary parting from
the family home, finding time almost every day after work to visit, sit and
engage in conversation not in condescending manner but with the full
dynamism of grateful children.

It is the nature of the Diaspora beast. Children cannot be blamed for not
doing enough, only praised when they do. Forget the children, when you have
the occasion to meet an older person, drive him or her to a coffee or better
still for a nice restaurant meal. Chat. There is always much in life to be
proud of that each one brings to old age which could be teased to the fore
with little prodding. Watch that sparkle and catch that gleam. Whether doing
this or visiting someone known who is in an old age home, you are merely
paying it forward. If you reach old age whether you want to or not and you
are lucky, someone will gently revive old and pleasant memories for you too.

[Goanet] Roland Francis: A Little Bit of Heaven - Stray Thoughts of a Canadian Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice UK: Daily Newsletter, 30 Dec 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk


You've lived your life like the meek of the earth. Earned your living for as
long as you could or needed to, raised a family to love and respect the
world around them and in between you have done what you could for those less
fortunate than you. You had skeletons in the cupboard and they brought you
many regrets but then you never thought of yourself as a saint nor did you
paint yourself into the corner of a sinner even with the guilt of being told
you were born as one. Wasn't it understood that by definition of being
human, in adulthood we are all natural transgressors. So at the end, what
awaits you?

If you were raised in the Goan Catholic tradition as in many other Catholic
cultures of the last century, there is this fear of the unknown or worse
still, of a burning hell. After all we were converted from ancient Hinduism
neither out of a prospect of a better life in Goa, nor out of a
theologically sound reason nor by good example, but out of fear of the sword
and of eternal damnation. It had to be like that since the mystic faith our
ancestors practiced seemed better suited for that place and time. Hell was
an essential component of the fear that was made to choke us in order to
convert. A searing, burning hell that not satisfied with making ashes or
char out of a soul that was supposed to separate from its body, kept burning
it forever. Forever, at the best of times, is a concept that is difficult to
grasp when viewed from the mortal human condition, but when applied to
burning, it becomes somehow both real and frightening. 

Take a moment and look at it like the Economist tempts you to do in an
article this week Religion thrives on fear as well as hope: without fear
bad behavior has no sanction and clerical authority scant respect. Heaven
and hell explained tersely. The fable held out in ancient times by
philosophers that the eternal soul departed from a mortal body fit in nicely
with the church's concept of hell. The body could be buried or cremated
after death, suffering no further pain, but an immortal soul could offer
itself to unbearable suffering forever. That is until Descartes in the
seventeenth century blew away this idea with his philosophy that the soul
not being material like the body, could suffer no pain. 

What if it is true that after one dies, there is nothing more left, as
believed by most men of science and philosophy. What if immortality is a
fiction emanating from a mind that cannot come to terms with the limited
time ahead of it and that besides memories, we leave little and for a very
short while. Does it change anything for us in the here and now besides
requiring a major adjustment in the way we think? No more masses required
for dead souls, or sadly, no chance of meeting loved ones in happier
settings. Try to make the world a better place and then be gone to
nothingness. If you observe atheists and other non-believers of an
afterlife, they are serene and contented. They face death with much more
equanimity and in life they are better people. Which is more than one can
say of the rest of us. What has religion done other than give us all those
fears, guilt and misgivings, not to talk of those grievous wrongs that it
has helped perpetrate over the ages on the poor and vulnerable. Granted it
has been responsible for modern mass education and therefore progress and in
other ways it has played an unintended role in the human story. But also
ever so often, it chooses to belittle itself with modern day denial of
gender rights, birth control and other markers of evolvement and
development. 

If we choose to believe in a creator and sustainer and a heaven and hell, it
is our prerogative. Both sides can be right and neither side has enough
proof of its case. Science provides proof but with great gaps and sometimes
uncertainty while faith is no more than a large leap. The best we can do is
exercise a conscience and understanding that we have come by either as a
gift of an intelligent creator or as a result of the right chemicals and
electrical impulses in a brain that has had millions of years behind it on
the path to better ability.

Should I be thankful to all those Goan ancestors who have been responsible
for me inheriting a particular faith among all others as an accident of
history, or should I rue them for the rituals, tenets and practices some of
which seem absurd and all of which are dependent on the support of a highly
organized clergy. If I am able to put aside my fears and replace it with
clarity, I can make a choice on how to lead my life, by virtue of being in a
time and place where there are no consequences other than those I assign to
myself. We are indeed fortunate that no longer is there a Damocles sword,
temporal or spiritual, hanging over us as there was once. Like those ancient
tribes of Israel we are walking towards a hopeful future, this time choosing
our path without the pain of hunger 

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Goan Cooking Is Falling From Grace

[Eddie Fernandes]

Title: Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan - Goan Cooking Is Falling From Grace
By: Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 2 Dec 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Full text:

I wonder if anyone else has noticed the worldwide decline in Goan cooking
standards. In the best case this could be attributable to the 'chalta-hai'
(it will do) mentality that has permeated the methods and ingredients used
in such cooking. In the worst case this is another leading indicator of the
increasing loss of Goan identity that is becoming manifest not only in Goa
but also in the Diaspora.

Take the once real McCoy. Ingredients were fresh albeit unconcerned with
good health. Those were times when there were few buses and even fewer cars
and all that walking around villages and to nearby towns made exercise a
natural activity and high cholesterol an absent entity. Of course many of
today's known illnesses were not discovered then, but had they been, no
danger would be posed by that food irrespective of age and genetics. 

Then there was the cooking process. The mixing had to be done just so and
the stirring involved made muscles ache. Some dishes had to be kept for a
certain number of days before eating - like sorpotel and miscut - while
being stored in strictly specified conditions. It was all worth it. In the
end, the taste was superb however simple the meal and you knew that
freshness was a given.

From the most humble grandmother or aunt in residence to the most
sophisticated Goan chief cook in Bombay's or Karachi's leading international
hotels, a common dedication to the art, was the hallmark. No written recipes
were followed or recorded and all that expertise came from experience and a
liberal dose of talent, virtues much under-rated in today's cooking circles
which give undue credit to which institution you have worked in and under
which chef you have learned your trade.

What you taste today no matter where you go, is faux-Goan cooking. Time has
been sacrificed on the altar of expedience, freshness on the table of heavy
spicing and authenticity on the alibi of inferior substitution. The result
is mediocrity that would turn the souls of past mestres into banshee
screaming ghouls of paradise.

Take a Goan wedding. Anyone who has not witnessed a wedding celebration in
Goa in the day, is missing one of his or hers better life experiences.
Usually, the quality of the table was in inverse proportion to the status of
the bride and groom. No amount of liquor imbibed (and there was never any
shortage of it) dulled the taste of the dishes, so one can only imagine what
one's tongue would have experienced if unsullied by alcohol. The cooking had
to be started and completed on the morning of the same day and the catch and
crop had to be harvested and brought to the kitchen not before the previous
night. The spices had to be delicately administered and sprinkled not only
to emphasize the freshness and therefore the taste but also not to hide it.
The gravies, the viands and desserts all complemented each other like some
mafia nexus of made men, capos, law officers and judges all conspiring to
complete  some hugely profitable task, in this case complete satisfaction of
every hungry guest starving after the long religious rituals followed by
generous doses of the spirits that cheer. The only other occasion that
challenged the old Goan wedding was the Parsi celebration with its Sali
Boti, Lagan nu Acchar, Patra ni Macchi (one huge stuffed green masala
pomfret for each guest) and other favorites, not forgetting the human comedy
involved that rivaled the Goan in uniqueness.

Nobody has the time today to cook like they once did. The average household
in Goa minus the old folk buys plastic packed ingredients available in local
groceries which they call supermarkets and turn it in pseudo home cooked
Goan food via microwaves and gas burners. In restaurants rural north Indians
cook purportedly Goan food in the butter- chicken and tandoori-masala style.
Everyone seems to have gotten used to it. Expectations have been lowered and
high costs have gone even higher thanks to bad money chasing even worse
tastes. 

In the Diaspora too, what passes for Goan cooking has to be eaten to be
believed. To those who know better, that is. Pork sausages have undergone a
sanitization, becoming either milder than their Portuguese and Italian
equivalents or spicier than their West Indian cousins. Fish curries taste
like something out of an Eritrean menu and sorpotel and vindalho are rarely
seen, in the mistaken belief that they and they alone would cause heart
attacks and strokes. When they are present, you wish they would not have
been. Such is these dishes complete loss of Goan flavor.

So wherever you are and whatever you do, if you have the occasion to come
across some kindly Goan soul that offers you a meal for cost or for free, no
matter how humble or how elaborate or anything in-between and the dish you
happen to eat reminds you of something your 

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Of God and God-Men. Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 18  Nov. 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk


Full text: 

They were once a small but core part of the community. Dressed in white and
flowing cassocks as they were required to do, they inspired respect,
attention, obedience and sometimes awe. Very few milestones in life occurred
without their advice, strictures and urging. Children were made to be
totally beholden to their commands not only in religious matters but also in
other pursuits. Adults were not exempt. A reprimand from a priest and even a
hardened village drunkard bent his head and wished him gone. All other
people listened to and obeyed them like they did no one else. A wife would
care less for her husband’s view than that of the priest and though odd in
itself, it was the old normal.

But not all of them were the ogres that we read about. Some of them were
yanked away to the seminary at the raw age of eleven and thereabouts. Little
children really, whose hearts were still tender and surely bleeding from
separation. Today we would consider their parents and family elders
hard-hearted, though love was sometimes a sole motivation. Many families in
the Goa of Salazar times were as dirt poor as the rural Portuguese
themselves. Sending a son to the priesthood was ensuring that he got a good
education and a guaranteed job for life. Comfort was thought to be assured
though that ultimately proved to be elusive. Sisters’ marriages were to
become more possible and the family’s circumstances a little less harsh.
Though much of this was attained, it came at a high personal price for that
once-young lad. Prestige to a family with a priest was another motivating
factor though this one was more of vanity than necessity.   The Portuguese
administration gave much weight to the office of the priest  and allowed the
incumbent to  freely ask for a  job for a relative, a government permit for
a favored parishioner, an exemption from punishment of a minor offence
committed by a repentant supplicant. Next to the administration, it was the
priest’s word that counted and on occasions, trumped.

I had two maternal uncles who were priests and one could not be more
different from the other. The elder was commanding, a man of action, a
chaplain with the rank of Major in a Portuguese army garrison in Goa of the
early fifties and later on parish priest and supervising vicar in large
churches all over Goa. He had nine other siblings and whether men or women,
they all deferred to him in most matters. They even slightly feared him
though it was not his fault. Of the other four brothers, the youngest was
unceremoniously sent off to the ‘vocation’, seemingly by the parents, but
likelier at his urging and for what seemed to him to be good reasons. The
young lad not yet in his teens, had to adjust to a strange and strict regime
in the minor and major seminaries. He cried when his mother would visit once
a month when she came to do his washing. A short stint in a Goa parish was
followed by the Bishop sending him to Portuguese West Africa. This young man
was intelligent and well-read but of a meek and reticent nature. The Church
became his raison d’être and serving God his central purpose. After Angola’s
independence he was transferred to Portugal and then to Canada, then in need
of priests for its Portuguese speaking parishes in Toronto. I was fortunate
for the opportunity to get to know him better since I had scarcely
interacted with him before. In one of my conversations I asked what bothered
him most as a priest.  “Loneliness” he said in one word. And that hit me
like a ton of bricks. I had never thought of loneliness playing a large part
in a priest’s life even with family nearby.  

And so on to the world-wide abuse that a relatively few priests heaped on
vulnerable young boys and perhaps girls. There is no excuse for that and the
church has been paying dearly for the damage wrought on those innocent
victims. Hurt and damage that lasts their lifetime. Some of those victims
have gone to their graves with an unforgiveable wrong done to them not only
by those priests but also by their parents and those who didn’t listen to
them when they complained. The perpetrators thus avoided retribution and in
many cases continued with their vile acts elsewhere. Such instances in Goa
are whispered but surely the doors of truth there will also open sooner or
later. They must, in order to start the healing process.

Somewhere in the mess that occurred in the Catholic Church, the good that
other priests like my two maternal uncles spent their lives doing, must not
be forgotten. They sacrificed most of the joy, carefree life and the legacy
of children that we take for granted, in order to do their pastoral work,
run their missions, plough a stake in education and so much more. Thanks to
them, we could be educated in fine schools and colleges, learnt ethics and
morality, and sharpened our consciences during formative years. Not least of
all, by example, they 

[Goanet] Lest We Forget - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan. By Roland Francis

[Eddie Fernandes]

Title: Lest We Forget
By: Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter, 11 Nov. 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

Full text:

If you look at the moral decay in Goa today, it is tempting to secretly wish
that the Portuguese had not left or at the very least that the high moral
and civic values that were learned during the long years of their rule did
not disappear like leaves in the Indian wind. But if one reflects on it,
freedom from occupation by a foreign power is ingrained in every man and
woman's heart. And we Goans were no exception.

The first known revolt took place in 1563 hardly 50 years after the
Portuguese landed in Goa and was led by Fr. Mateus de Castro a Goan priest
who obtained his Doctorate in Rome and was appointed as a Bishop much to the
chagrin of the Portuguese who imagined that such a position was their
monopoly. They practiced the policy of discrimination and racial prejudices
almost until 1961 at least in Church appointments. Two hundred years of
comparative peace followed that revolt after which the next and this time
well organized attempt at rebellion took place in 1787. It was called the
Pinto Revolt. The brain behind it was Fr. Caetano Victorino de Faria of
Colvale, a father figure of the Goans in Portugal with the involvement of
his son, a Benedictine monk Custodio Jose Faria later to become well known
as the hypnotist Abbe  Faria. The main participants were Frs. Caetano
Francisco Couto, Jose Antonio Gonsalves, a few Pintos from Candolim and some
students living in Portugal. They were betrayed by their own and suffered
brutal reprisals by the Portuguese.

Besides these, there were about 40 other revolts during the entire
Portuguese rule of 450 years among which the constant and notable armed
insurrections of the brave Ranes of Sattari and Valpoi gave the rulers no
respite. After that, the age of gentlemen protesters and rebels dawned with
the first Goan Viceroy appointment of Bernardo Peres da Silva in 1835. A
host of Goan heroes followed with their voices raised to proclaim their
right to independence. Luis de Menezes-Braganza, Tristao de Braganza-Cunha,
Francisco Luis Gomes of Navelim, Joaquim Felipe da Piedade-Soares, Bishop
Joao Xavier de Souza-Trindade of Assagao, Pe. Sebastiao Salvador
Batista-Cana of Benaulim, Constancio Roque da Costa, Lamartine Prazeres da
Costa of Orlim, the Loyola-Furtados of Orlim and Bernardo Francisco da Costa
of Margao are all part of a roll call of Goan heroes who looked down with
contempt and disdain upon all honors, favors, status, position and wealth,
to indulge in their passion for Goa's freedom.

After Salazar came to power, and the political consciousness of Goans became
a thing of the past with dictatorial politics and the choking of civil
liberties, there were nevertheless Goan voices that would not be stifled,
like Jose Inacio de Loyola, Antonio Bruto da Costa, Antonio Colaco, Telo
Mascarenhas, Purshottam Kakodkar, Mohan Ranade and Pundlik Gaitonde to name
a few. Ram Manohar Lohia an Indian socialist politician played a major
revolutionary role with his 'satyagrahis'. Secretly, Goans hoped that
Salazar would grant Goa its own independence separate from but aligned
separately with both Portugal and India. That dream was not to be. In the
end, the Indian Armed Forces in a brutal and perhaps unnecessary action
nullified the efforts of all the Goan freedom fighters down the ages. The
actions of these brave men may one day be forgotten, but not easily. 

Freedom aside, being November, this is a time of year also to remember those
men and women of our families no longer living, whose many sacrifices,
seemingly unremarkable but intensely heroic, brought us to where we are now.
In the Diaspora, or in Goa itself, living the good life, we forget what it
took them to bear their loads. They endured deprivation, sometimes poverty,
constantly struggling with large families against daunting odds to give
their children better education and better lives, yet they taught us to
laugh, to love and to hold the family and one another dear. Not least of all
they showed us how to pray. A toast to your dad and mum, your uncles and
aunts, your grandfathers and mothers, and to all your other angels and mine

Please send your comments to roland.fran...@gmail.com

[Goanet] Colonial East Africa from Goan Eyes. Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK  Daily Newsletter 4 Nov. 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

FULL TEXT
If you want to read Diaspora history and relate to it, there is nothing
better than to get it from the perspective of someone who lived through it,
has a talent for vivid memories and sequences, can recount it well enough to
hold your interest and more importantly has no agenda in the telling.

By those standards, Braz Menezes' 'More Matata' now available in selected
bookstores and on Amazon is a book worth reading not just by the Goan
community, but by everyone else who enjoys being transported to an era that
seemed more simple but was not. Braz has accomplished a fluid continuation
from his first book 'Just Matata' so that even the reader of solely this
second book of the trilogy, finds nothing missing.

While previously the story is of Lando's early childhood and is virtually
bereft of any of the politics that prevailed in East Africa of the mid
twentieth century, the author does not shy away from those prickly issues in
this one. A good part of the current narration revolves around the Mau Mau
rebellion of the Kikuyu tribe of Kenya as seen from the daily life of a
young man in Nairobi who studies architecture in the country's first
Technical School and continues to an internship in a firm of the white
dominated business class. Nevertheless the politics of the time does not
totally cloud the author's writing. There is still enough devoted to the
real story - that of a young boy becoming a man living in a society that we
would find hard to understand in today's world and yet can sympathetically
view it from Lando's growing up. 

The unhitching of a country from its colonial presence always makes
interesting reading when related many years after. When lived by the
settler-people of that day, it is always traumatic. To narrate this without
seeking sympathy or victimhood is creditable. When told matter-of-factly, it
makes for a good book.

Picture communities living the good life in a beautiful country not their
own, though not without the many sacrifices they have to endure. Imagine the
turmoil they find themselves in when the yoke of colonialism is finally
being unburdened. And then when the process of freedom is almost complete,
imagine what they feel when told that they have no place in the new country
despite living for generations in it. All of that happened in Kenya and Braz
Menezes records it for posterity. Not much has been written about this
except for the coldly historical, so such writings must form a reference for
those who one day need to come back to that age and that experience.

More than a little space has been devoted to Lando's love affair with his
childhood sweetheart Saboti a Seychellois girl turning woman. I would have
preferred a little less of that and more of something else. However, an
author writes what he feels and not according to a critic's dictates. Braz
can therefore be excused  for that.

Not much has been written about the Goan experience in East Africa.
Therefore a novel such as this becomes valuable and not to be missed. Goans
can be great debaters like the Bengalis but when it comes to recording what
they experienced, they seem to be singularly lacking. To a non-East African
Goan like myself, every written word becomes a treasure chest to be opened.
Therefore these thoughts are not a critical view of what Braz has written (I
leave that to others) but rather but rather an acclaim of his having written
it in a way that is pleasurable and informative. I hope others from East
Africa follow Braz's path.

For more about the book, including ordering info. on the text and electronic
editions, visit http://www.matatabooks.com/ 

Comments to roland.fran...@gmail.com 

[Goanet] Roland Francis: The Goans of Pakistan - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Roland Francis: The Goans of Pakistan - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

Source Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 28 Oct 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk 
 
Full text: 
They are a vibrant and active part of the Canadian Goan community, in most
cases having immigrated to Canada much before other Goans. They established
the Can-Orient Association in Montreal as soon as they arrived and that body
became representative of most Goans in the same manner as the G.O.A. did  in
Toronto. In those days Montreal was the premier city of Canada and Goans
first settled in that city. That ended when Quebec became more strident
about the French language and culture and less tolerant of English as the
business medium. 
It has been about four to five generations or more since Goans went to
Karachi when it was part of British India and as important almost, as Bombay
in its own right. The port city of a large hinterland attracted Goans not
only in government but also through company transfers and the pioneering
spirit of growing roots in a new promising place. As was characteristic of
the Goans of the day, the community flourished in education, entrepreneurial
activities, the legal profession, the music field , clergy, defense
services, sports and everywhere they put their Goan foot in.

When the Gulf opened up its new oil riches, Goans from Karachi were the
first to volunteer to postings there that came up with shipping agencies,
banks and telecommunications. The oldest employees in Cable and Wireless,
the all-encompassing Arabian Gulf corporate monopoly, were these Goans. They
were also the first to use that springboard to immigrate in significant
numbers to the US, Canada and Australia.

Especially noteworthy were the numerous Goans who founded large businesses
in Karachi. They outdid the Goans in Bombay in this. The famous Cincinnatus
D'Abreo was founder of Cincinnatus Town and the Indian Life Insurance
Company.  The Goa Mill, the Union Press, Misquita's Bliss and Co
pharmaceuticals, Valentine Gonsalves' Alpha Insurance, Louis Rodrigues' St.
Mary's Industrial Engineering and the Bedrock Co operating in road
construction, demolition, housing projects and garment manufacturing. There
were other business pioneers too numerous to name, in the furniture, bakery,
tailoring and outfitting and music businesses whose activities were far and
wide, stretching beyond immediate borders.  

The social, the music and the tiatr scenes even today in Pakistan are active
and vibrant. Although in the generation after independence in 1947  Karachi
rivaled Bombay in such entertainment, today is a shadow of the former self,
but nevertheless amazing that they are still carried out in the midst of a
fundamental Islamic state. It goes to show that the Goan spirit cannot be
dampened even under the most challenging circumstances and commands respect
even from radical Muslims.

Unfortunately like everywhere else, the community carried undesirable
baggage in their settlement in Pakistan. The Karachi Goan Association was
said to have discriminated in their granting of membership which led to the
Goan Union being formed, the latter organization being more liberal and
accessible.

What of the Goan community that has remained in Pakistan today? Contrary to
popular belief they are doing well. The high quality of education made
available to them through their Goan forbears has stood them in good stead
equipping them with desirable skill-sets. In Karachi at least, the community
is small relative to the population and they attract no negative attention.
To those Muslim Pakistanis older than 40, the term Goan implies hard work, a
good civic citizen and one who has paid his dues to the country. They are
not discriminated against and they are not targeted on accounted of their
religion. In the diocese of Karachi, there are 12 parishes of which Goans
are mostly in 5. They are peaceful and allowed to conduct all their
activities unlike what one hears about Christian persecution in that violent
country rocked by Sufism and sectarian riots. Goans who want to emigrate
from there, do so because of economic betterment like everyone else and not
due to their personal safety.

There are many outstanding Ex-Pakistan Canadian Goans.  Among them are Carl
Rodrigues, of SOTI in Toronto, world-leader in cell-phone software; Dr Colin
Saldanha, Mississauga's Citizen of Year 2010;  Dr. Conrad Castellino, author
of Even doctors Have Heart Attacks;  Derek Lobo, Real Estate specialist;
Prof Joseph D'Cruz, Professor of Strategic Management, University of
Toronto;  Merella Fernandez, TV journalist with CTV News Channel in Toronto;
Patrick Mendes, Conservative Party Mississauga politician; Rowena Pinto,
Canadian Cancer Society, Ontario Division; Sybil Braganza, Community Social
Worker Calgary award winner  and Troy DeSouza, politician Conservative Party
of Canada and lawyer.

For a history of Goans in Pakistan, go to Menin Rodrigues'
http://www.goansofpakistan.org/  .  Browsing time well 

[Goanet] Roland Francis: For The Love of God - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis.
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter of 21 Oct. 2012 at
www.goanvoice.org.uk

Full text: 
There has always been a very cherished but formal and unreal bond between
the Goan and his God. In the days when it was taught that God was a
generally unreachable Being, high above and sometimes beyond the pale of the
pleas that his faithful sent out to him, praise and worship in the form of
prayers was considered effective only in the strength of vocal chords. And
that is where the Goan excelled.

A few decades ago, if you were a witness to a family rosary, a village Cross
feast or even Sunday mass, you would discover the fortitude and power of the
human voice in rural Goa. You would almost come to believe that Goans, like
their rural counterparts in Portugal and even Italy, enjoyed a special
audience with the Creator. That is until the chapel pews were empty, or the
feni servings ended at the Cross feast with the supplicants dispersed to
their normal everyday lives, invigorated with the powerful feeling that God
was with them in their fight with their siblings, their friends and
everybody else. They indulged in not just quarrels, but barefaced lying and
cheating, malicious gossip, and injustices towards the already downtrodden.
These transgressions didn't occur to them as the very sins that were just
denounced from whichever place of worship they had returned. Brotherly love
and forgiveness to all who asked it and even to those who didn't was not as
practical a concept as say continuing the 35 year old misunderstanding as to
why cousin Antonio in Kuwait did not attend one's daughter's baptism never
mind the fact that he had left Goan shores just six months before that.

And then there was the regular attendance at all occasions religious. Every
Angelus bell obeyed, every novena attended, every Sunday mass witnessed
every feast partaken. If presence were an important factor and not
compliance, then all Goans would have been saints even if till today, none
has yet been granted sainthood.

Thankfully, those times are over. In the Diaspora, Goans are merely a part
of the general trend. If there is a need to acknowledge a God it can be
fulfilled at Christmas time or when my job had just been downsized. It is
more important to have a personal relationship with my Maker and that can
take the form of a little chat with him just as head on pillow, I am about
to drop off to sleep. Sunday church can be dispensed with, after all God is
omnipresent and I can pray to him everywhere. Does it really matter that I
don't even do that. And then in the Goa of today, all hypocrisy is dispensed
with. Lying and cheating are acts performed without any of the previous
inhibitions and taken to new heights. Bribery and corruption are the new
norms. Robbery and murders just an everyday thing. Killing on the roads is
just a little bump in the motorist's day. Between then and now, either in
Goa or the Diaspora, we have never got our moralities right, let alone this
religion thing.

On a different note, visitations in funeral parlors in Toronto are not to be
missed. If you are expecting a somber, prayerful event, think again. There
is the lifeless body lying in a gilded coffin in front of which a few people
come, say a quick prayer and quickly depart to the other parts of the large
room.  After that like a minor inconvenience, death is forgotten. Old
friendships are renewed, invitations extended and social events promoted.
Days in Africa, India and the Gulf are fondly remembered with the resting
corpse not long ago a living friend or relative, totally excluded. Even the
lack of alcohol doesn't subdue the noise. It's the family's money of course
but I would have thought more respect and prayers would accrue to the
departed with the equivalent cost given to a food bank. That's just my
thinking of course. Must remember to get that done for myself.
(roland.fran...@gmail.com )

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Title: October Weekend Musings
By Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter of 14 Oct. 2012 at
www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Some casual observations in Toronto and elsewhere, in the first cold Autumn
weekend of the year, a la the late Bombay Busybee (Behram Contractor)
tradition. 

All Goans take to the cold except if they are old and have cash. Then they
flee to Goa at the first ache in the bones and promise to return after
Carnival. On returning they vow never to go again. That undertaking is valid
until next Fall.

Talking of old, never use the word with a Diaspora man. To him age is just a
number and a mid-life crisis. Must have to do with keeping up with the
missus, who is forever young at 29, even if 30 years ago.

The worse the physical mess Goa becomes, the more it attracts other Indians
and a certain type of Russian tourist. 

All hopes for Goa were pinned on the current Chief Minister. They were
quickly belied. Thanks to a leading lawyer-activist, his misdeeds are
speedily exposed, even if he is not reputed to be as corrupt as his
predecessor.  

The Goan in Bombay used to visit his ancestral home once a year in summer.
He had no money then. Now he goes there once a month and to a many-starred
hotel as he has the money but no home.

Who says Goan cooking in Canada is on the decline. The tradition is alive
with more and more people offering home cooked fare even as prices increase.
Goans from Pakistan make sumptuous biryani.

The Hindu Goan population in Toronto is miniscule unlike that in the US. Is
it the warm temperatures of Texas and California that beckon or are they all
doctors, welcome there but educationally discriminated against, here.

A few more Goan priests are appearing in the city. Some have come from Goa
and some are the children of people here. They are a welcome sight whether
their accents are Goan or Canadian or neither.

There are people with very interesting backgrounds you sometimes meet. X's
father was the Chief Chef of an Indian maharaja. X was educated and trained
in the precision trades in Switzerland. Now he makes parts in a small firm
for NASA rockets and satellites. You would never have guessed, he being so
simple and unassuming and Goan.

Canada has no Goan politician of the stature of Keith Vaz of Britain. Don't
know whether that's a good or bad thing.

Everybody in Goa knows at least 5 people in Toronto. And they tell you that
they all live in Mississauga. On a visit to the city they will come with
their names and addresses duly logged and you are expected to escort them to
visit each of the 'names' after you have done Niagara Falls and the CN
Tower.

The state liquor monopoly the LCBO, is finding that feni sells. But the
exporters are obscure outfits and it is being sold for about 10 times the
Goa price or the cost of genuine scotch on the shelves. Didn't know freight
is so expensive or is the LCBO gouging on the pretext of using their profits
to help fund the Ontario universal health system.

The global recession does not seem to have hit Canada badly. Don't hear of
too many Goans losing jobs or not getting them. The only casualties are our
young University under-grads who find their option is limited to further
study.

And on a happy note, Christmas is approaching sans the usual commercial hype
that usually starts in October but hasn't, this year.

By Roland Francis, roland.fran...@gmail.com 

[Goanet] Keeping What Matters - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK, Daily Newsletter, 7 Oct. 2012, at
www.goanvoice.org.uk
 
Full text:

In no time at all the Goan, as the world knew him or her, will soon
disappear. Already in Goa, for better or for worse,  there is a speedy
assimilation of the Goan with his Indian countrymen. Habits have changed and
character shed, followed by speech and mannerisms in rapid sequence. The
final markers that indicate a complete remake are the thought processes.
Once that changes, the transformation is complete. For Goans in Bombay,
assimilation didn't happen as easily. Their small numbers in a big
cosmopolitan city protected them while providing distinct advantage over the
less westernized (at that time) Indian. Then globalization took place, India
became a favored investment destination, money rained all over the city and
voila, the urban Indian became almost another Goan instead of the other way
around, as happened in Goa.  

In the western spectrum, Diaspora assimilation turned out to be a gradual,
natural progression. Of the first generation, the East African who already
had close interaction with British nationals in the workplace but was
largely separated in the social context, quickly assimilated. A similar set
of conditions was seen with Goans from Gulf countries. The Goan from India
was a little different. Not having much western personal contact back home,
he tried to stick to his Goan-hood as much as he could without seeing any
advantage in assimilation. Not to say he didn't follow the ways of the new
country, he just didn't see the benefit of it. Ditto with Goans from
Pakistan who sighed with their own relief at finding that now being in
secular-Christian countries, they no longer had to cower with religious
fear, or at being social targets. All this meant that the first generation
Goan immigrant zealously kept his Goan ways in private and in his own
community gatherings while quickly donning the mantle of the western
societal culture of his new home and citizenship at the workplace and in
public. This holding to roots unfortunately has proved all too fleeting and
has completely disappeared with the second generation who having been born
or almost- born in this new world, knows no different, no Goan way.

There is nothing to mourn but lots to keep. No tears need be shed for this
natural evolution, but there is also no reason why we cannot preserve those
Goan characteristics always worth keeping, for as long as we are able to
keep them.

Many years ago when my friends sent me a visa to visit them in Bahrain and
to see if I could find a better future than what I found comfortable in
India, I was amazed at what being Goan meant. I was a city boy, a Bombayite,
used to his own personal space and independence.  I knew little of what
being a Goan meant despite my heritage. The visit to that Persian Gulf
sheikhdom changed that. Strangers called me to their homes for lunches and
dinners and comfort. I had booked to stay at the Saligao Hotel, a quaintly
named Goan inn that was a little Arab style mansion owned by an old-timer
tiatrist from Sailgao who let out his rooms with home cooked meals, but
these strangers would hear none of that, offering me instead the hospitality
of their own homes for that one month. Though I politely refused, the
gestures made a lasting impression. People who had heard I was scouting for
a job opening would tell me of firms that paid well and currently hiring.
Not before and not since have I witnessed any such thing.

My experience is not unique. Almost all of us have at some time or other
been the recipient of the Goan milk of human kindness. If I have described
my wonderment, it is because words fail me when I have to define what being
Goan means. If you are able to describe it, then you have not done it
sufficient justice. 

That is what we must keep, while letting go of East African Goan, Bombay
Goan, Pakistani Goan, Goan from Goa, Gulf Goan and whatever other Goan there
exists, in order to be just Goan. There is much to celebrate in that plain
vanilla envelope [?] and much to drop off along the way. Caste, religion,
village, education, riches, poverty and personal and family status must all
be forgotten. When we see another Goan, we must see ourselves and enjoy
that. Time is not on our side but at least there will be no regrets.

Roland Francis (roland.fran...@gmail.com )

[Goanet] Have We Lost It? - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By: Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK  Daily Newsletter of 30 Sep. 2012 at
www.goanvoice.org.uk  

It seemed eras ago that Goans all over the world made a really big
difference wherever they lived. I am not talking about faithfully working
for the British, Portuguese, Indian or Pakistan Governments. That was at the
bottom line, a self-service. We can if you wish, admire but cannot stand in
awe of it.

The Wow Factor is when Goans built entire townships in a new country like
Pakistan. When they cornered judgeships, erected country infrastructure
through their engineering expertise, founded educational institutions to
which the Pakistani elite still flock and when they achieved the stature of
a community to whom the ruling class and national newspapers even today take
a bow. It is when Goans in Africa came to the attention of Governors, when
they fought for African causes that took them to leading positions in rebel
national organizations, when their sportsmanship elevated them to the
international stage. It was when in India's leading cities, they were in the
medical field a class apart, discovering new diseases, devising new medical
procedures and operations, becoming admired mayors and taking western and
Indian classical music to new heights. A time when Goan Cardinals had the
ear of the Indian Prime Minster and Goans were the backbone of the nation's
administrative, civil, military and police services and in the highest
positions. A time in Goa when Portugal considered Goans able enough to run
the entire civil and judicial services of its most prized metropolitan
district and for good measure a few others in their other colonies. Their
services were so valued that in appreciation it got them Portuguese
citizenship valid to this time. Salazar was not fond of easily giving such
dispensations on a whim.  I do not make an iota of exaggeration about all
this and about those eminent and super achievers. If anything, I vastly
understate.

And then there was none, as the politically incorrect ditty said. 

Where have they all gone? Have they not sired sons and daughters that took
their places in such pre-eminence? Were there no new generations in the
community that not only equalled but also excelled in what their
predecessors did? Sadly there is not a trace of anything of that sort.  It
is as if the Goans were strong enough only when their masters whether Brits,
Ports or a different class of Indian from that now seen, were stiffening
their backs. What other explanation is there? What answers can be given for
the Goans in power in Goa who are as corrupt as any in the darkest
hinterlands of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh? What apologies can be made for very
rich individual Goans who have winged their way into the economic
stratosphere without a second glance to their hoi-polloi far behind? In the
days that once were, those leading Goans always had their minds in the skies
but their heads on the ground. They did so much for the rest of the
community, it seemed that they worked to better themselves only so that they
could somehow help others.  Today's Goan corporate bigwigs have their noses
so far up in the air they couldn't smell their own odors. The large
community of Goan doctors spread all over the globe have not learnt any
lessons from the Baligas, the Borgeses , the D'Costas, the Shirodkars, and
their unnamed legions who slaved their way through their professional
careers so that others could be less afflicted and they had no thought to
burning holes in their own pockets if their patients as a consequence did
not have to be financially ruined.
 
Perhaps a lack of their continuing legacy signals the end of the magnificent
Goan empire. It was not a kingdom that was given to conquer other lands but
more valuably to rapture simpler and less fortunate hearts and souls. Let us
salute that breed of Goans before those of us who knew of them are no longer
around to sing their praises. 

Roland Francis (roland.fran...@gmail.com )

[Goanet] Alfred D'Cruz honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism

[Eddie Fernandes]

29 Sep: Oman Daily Observer. Veteran journalist, author and historian, the
late Alfred D'Cruz was honoured posthumously recently. Alfred's son, Sunil
D'Cruz, who is based in Muscat, receives the award . Alfred D'Cruz was the
first Indian journalist to work at the Editorial department of The Times of
India, Mumbai. He was a co-author of the book on Saligao, Focus on a
Picturesque Goan Village. Born in 1921, Alfred D'Cruz contributed to the
enrichment in the field of journalism for 65 years from 1947 to 2012 and is
known by the newspaper fraternity as the 'Eternal Newspaperman.' 657 words +
photos.
http://goanvoiceuk.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/scribe-honoured-with-lifetime-ac
hievement-award-in-journalism-oman-daily-observer-29-sep-2012-page26/

If the link does not work, go to www.goanvoice.org.uk 

Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] UK Goan Festival 2012: Worldwide TV feature on 28 Sep

[Eddie Fernandes]

Friday 28th Sep. at 19:00 to 19:30. DOCUMENTARY: The UK Goan Festival 2012. 
SONY TV Asia (UK: Channel 782 on SKY). Broadcast worldwide (UK, Europe, USA,
Canada, South Africa, Middle East, Australia  New Zealand) at 19:00 local
time of each country, as part of their programme 'SNAPSHOT'. 
This is a Free view programme so you do not need to pay to view it.  
For the Sony TV Asia website go to http://www.setasia.tv/  and select your
country. 
Please ask your contacts to alert their friends about it.

Eddie Fernandes
www.goanvoice.org.uk 

[Goanet] Madness in Mumbai - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis
Title: Madness in Mumbai - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 23 Sep. 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

There is an old saying in the financial industry that is true of any other.
What goes up must come down. If that is true, there is a lot of coming
down that is on the cards for Bombay and hence India and by natural
extension, Goa.

Manmohan Singh is a wily old Prime Minister. Highly qualified both in
education as well as in national and international financial positions, he
alone, with the mood of a nation behind him, was credited with bringing
India to a level the world celebrated. However, he has just sounded a sober
note in a speech to the nation, a kind of death knell to anyone reading
between the lines. To some who likened India's all-too-quick rise to a mere
bubble that was bound to burst, what he warns about was seen as the
inevitable result.

In practical terms, for ages there was the Bombayite, or Bomoicar as he is
known in Konkani, a struggling middle class denizen, living from salary to
salary, denied of anything that could be deemed remotely luxurious including
foreign travel.  Suddenly, as if the QE2 turned on a dime, witness his
measly square footage become worth the price and then some, of a spacious
and pretty home in a mid-sized city in North America on the right side of
the proverbial tracks. He was earning by some magic, in Purchasing Power
Parity terms, much more than a median wage in Europe and was travelling the
world over, jet-setting and cruise sailing, Zagat and Michelin in hand. He
was investing in high priced equities, precious metals and real estate in
the suburbs. He was buying cars his parents only saw and spending on
restaurants and entertainment alone, thrice the full salary he earned less
than a decade ago. 

His cousin in Goa fared not any less. His was not the money that came from a
booming economy and a well-paying job in a corporation that was flush with
Foreign Direct Investment. It came in the form of tens of millions in local
currency from the sale of ancestral land that was once not worth the labor
it took to cultivate and care. The magic of tourism, the ill-gotten and
corrupting political wealth, the greed of Goan miners deriving their tainted
profits from sources that were non-renewable, seemed to overfill the pockets
of everyday and every class Goans.  What they didn't realize while they were
getting their sudden wealth was that land once sold was gone forever, that
the Goan landscape once destroyed could not be made half-pristine again. 

They were in the dark. Manmohan Singh was not. He knew what was bound to
happen but chose to be helpless in the face of it all. People who put their
trust in their Prime Minister were betrayed by the seeming spinelessness of
a man who didn't seem to know or care about the puppet masters who played
him and his success. In any case he wasn't sure the masses would hear him
while they were having it so good. He should have at least tried.

Now that he is pushed against the wall, he is fighting back. Perhaps his
manipulators have no choice but to let him do what needs to be done, if it
can be done at all. He talks about how subsidies can no longer be given, how
interest rates may rise. How India's economy is slowing down while inflation
speeds up and its fortune no longer separated from the ills plaguing its
patrons in the West. How 1991, when India ran out of foreign currency and
had to pledge gold to its lenders could happen all over again. He likens
India's future to Greece if things don't change. What he doesn't say is that
bribery and corruption must stop. Perhaps he has no guts to implement that
or to be fair to him, he knows that it is too endemic and beyond him or
anyone else currently in power.

To aam aadmi the Indian term for a common man, the Bomoicar and the man in
Goa and others like them, that could only mean one thing - a return to the
bad old times.
 
For a video clip of Manmohan Singh's prognosis, go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwFNgzfKOPw
 
Roland Francis (roland.fran...@gmail.com )

Re: [Goanet] Cyprian Fernandes against Selma Carvalho (Response to Eddie Fernandes by Rose Fernandes)

[Eddie Fernandes]

Dear Rose,

You are right to question the resurrection of the doddery issue even though 
your path is replete with thorns! 

I too thought that this was dead and buried until on 13th Sep I received a 
message from Cyprian which was also sent out to about 100 other addresses and 
consisted of responses he had received supporting his position. This message 
started off with a Dear Eddie…

I replied to the 100 email addresses indicating why I thought his action was in 
poor taste considering that an apology had been made. I was completely thrown 
by a message that came back to me via GoaNet on 16th Sep. accusing me of being 
distasteful in having revived the issue! I therefore examined Cyprian’s mailing 
list and goanet was indeed one of the 100 names on the list. However, though 
Cyprian had obviously meant his message to go on to GoaNet, it did not do so, 
presumably running foul of the rule that does not allow cross-posting. But when 
I replied to Cyprian’s list, mine got forwarded by GoaNet, presumably because 
of the reputation I have acquired over the years of not being able to do wrong 
:-)
 
Thank you for your interest in our Oral History Project.  I wonder what you 
thought of the documentary released last week. 

Eddie Fernandes

[Goanet] Selma Carvalho: Rites of Passage (M.Boyer)

[Eddie Fernandes]

Summary:

16 Sep. 2012: Herald (Review). Selma Carvalho visits here
great-grand-father's abandoned house at the top of Marcaim hill in Goa, the
span of two or three impoverished rooms, held together by a thin wash of
cement.  It is also the ancestral house of tiatrist M. BoyerThe intrepid
journeys that began from this bleak house, which led strands of her family
to Bombay, the Gulf and London all began with one transformative rite of
passage. Kneeling at the Cross. 

Full text, 954 words + photos at
http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=6921boxid=53430750uiddat=9%2
F16%2F2012 

[Goanet] Cyprian Fernandes against Selma Carvalho

[Eddie Fernandes]

Folks, 

The woman that Cyprian Fernandes seeks to vilify has spent the last five
years of her life researching East African Goans. One of the earliest
columns she wrote about East African Goans on GoanVoice UK can be read here:
http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/newsletter/2009/Feb/issue3/ 

Sitting in the National Archives for long hours she gathered original
research and penned a hugely successful book, Into The Diaspora Wilderness,
largely about East African Goans. You can read 8 pages of comments and
reviews on this book here: http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/reviews-etc/


On the heels of this book, she successfully lobbied for a grant to have the
stories of East African Goans recorded. She then partnered with the British
Library to have them permanently archived. For the past one year, she has
been travelling relentlessly the length and breadth of London to record
these stories, recruit interviewees, transcribe, edit and produce videos. 

She then worked tirelessly to produce a documentary from the recording which
aired to a packed hall on the 22 of July 2012. The 25 minute documentary and
some other videos produced by her can now be viewed at
http://www.britishgoanproject.com/video-archive/  

The best testimony of the love and respect Selma has always harboured for
the East African Goan community has been her work. If there is one person
who has put East African Goans on the map, it is Selma Carvalho, the same
person Cyprian seeks to crucify. Such are the ways we Goans show our
gratitude

Please ask your friends to forward this message to their contacts.

Best wishes, 

Eddie Fernandes
www.goanvoice.org.uk  

 

 

[Goanet] Goan Nurses in Bombay's Medical Professions - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

By Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK. 9 Sep. 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk

Full text:

Although the first practical and modern nurses in India were trained by a
group of medical missionaries sent from Britain after the 1857 'sepoy'
mutiny which was the first major pang of an Indian independence struggle,
the nursing profession in that country formally began with establishment of
a Trained Nurses Association in 1908 leading to a formal ordnance in 1947
followed by the setting up of a nursing council in 1949. It was during this
period that Anglo Indian women flocked to the profession and young Goan
women quickly followed. 

Nursing was a glamorous profession then, like air stewardesses were until
quite recently when unions fought for and the courts agreed that a flying
career should not depend on age or beauty. Nurses were taken for training
only from good-looking, personable, western dressed Indian women and in
those days that meant Anglo-Indians and Goans. Although other Indian girls
did their best to join in, their families and Hindu society would not allow
for it. The likelihood of their women touching wounds and healing fevered
brows was not something educated Hindu families wished to contemplate.

Goan women were not as stylish and swank as their Anglo nursing counterparts
and therefore took longer to climb the hospital ladder on top of which sat
the Anglo matron, but what they lacked in personality and facile language,
they made up with hard work, a gentle touch and a less imperious attitude.

Bombay rocked then. It was pre-independence India or just after that and
Bombay was the center of the British Near, Middle and Far East
jurisdictions. Tommies were brought in for RR as a respite for their
battles in the North-East, Burma, Singapore and countries all through the
sea lanes to Australia. Later it was Brit soldiers and civilians
repatriating from a lost crown jewel. The city was in a joyous, hedonistic
turmoil. Money flowed as if through a high pressured tap and the Goans were
in the midst of it, as waiters in the Taj, Monginis, Gordons, Venice,
Bombellis and other top restaurants getting fat tips, as civil staff in the
naval dockyards, working for all the overtime pay they wanted, as musicians
in the best bands entertaining the wealthy and as fast rising supervisors
and senior officers in the divisional railways, Bombay Telephones, Post and
Telegraphs and every other British dominated enterprise. The Anglos were
leaving for England and Goans were thought to be their best replacements, a
good fit for the mantle of high positions.

More Goan women followed their earlier pioneers into the nursing profession.
The pay was nothing to write home about, but in the hospitals they served,
high level contacts were made, important impressions of their work formed
and good husbands attracted like bees to flowers. These contacts were later
useful to get children admitted to prestigious schools, jobs that were
impossible to normally get were opened up with a word or two and a second
income introduced into the family equation that helped no end. This was a
new trend. In those days one income, that of the male, was the norm. A blow
was struck for female Goan liberation.

Simultaneously, Goan medical doctors, specialists in every medical
discipline came to dominate Bombay. They were educated not only in
Portuguese Goa, but also in top Bombay teaching hospitals and interned with
them. Private hospitals were rare and the public hospitals like St.
George's, King Edward Memorial, and the Grant Medical College at the JJ
Hospital, were state and municipal run, with a sound British medical
administration and high standards. Goan doctors conducted pioneering
operations, ran tight medical ships and were well respected with their
services desired by all sections of the Bombay population. Goan doctors
asked for Goan nurses when they could, not out of a sense of  common
identity, but because these Goan nurses were second to none. Between them
they accommodated many Goans who came to the city for major treatment even
though most of them could not afford it. Complicated medical treatment in
Goa was lacking and going to Bombay was suggested by doctors in Goa
themselves.

And then as quickly as it happened, the phenomenon disappeared. Goan women
became attracted to well-paying secretarial positions in large corporations
and nurses from the state of Kerala rushed in to fill the vacuum.
Internationally, Filipinas - Catholic and good nurses like the Goans -
became that country's biggest export to the Middle East, Australia, Canada,
and elsewhere. An era ended not only of Goan nurses but of a Bombay that was
once all things to all people - wide and as far as the Empire in the east
could reach.

By Roland Francis (roland.fran...@gmail.com)