# If Goanet stops reaching you, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # Want to check the archives? http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others #
##########################################################################
My query as to whether anyone considered the words Gulfee or Shipee derogatory got me a lot of 'private' response. Very few considered the terms derogatory but a few did mention that some years back the situation was not so. Take for example the message I received below from an overseas Goan female correspondent of mine who wishes to remain anonymous. I have posted it with her permission and XXXXXed out certain references that may divulge her identity.
----------- quote --------
Hi Cecil,
How're you doing?
This is not for the Net, debates there tend to get out of hand and you have all sorts of jokers saying all sorts of juvenile things.
Encountered the bias towards Gulfees and Shipees while in Goa myself, specially from folk of the Portuguese era and some of these are my kin. Sometimes this condescension is tinged with jealousy. I once encountered outright hostility from a Konkaniwadi. The venom was spread all over a letter sent to another Konkaniwadi, in the local newspaper, who dared involve a Cristao in a Konkani debate on All India Radio, and which said something like "send all these batlele (polluted?) to the Gulf, they have no place here".
Unlike the Malayalees, Goans in Goa do their best to treat NRGs (of all denominations) like lost souls, as if they've forfeited their right to be part of the country. This despite the fact that it is foreign remittances that have historically and still keep the Goan economy afloat.
I've seen both sides of the coin. My grandad was a Shipee, my Dad slogged in XXXXX (Gulf) and my brothers are sweating it out in XXXXX (Gulf). I spent years in Goa trying to play down the Gulfee link because of the unspoken condescension I saw among folk down there and now after a few years on this side of the Arabian Sea, realise that basically this sentiment arises from a petty, ignorant attitude. Small pond, small minds, big egos kind of stuff.
Maybe it's also because the early Gulfees and Shipees were Catholics, who the Hindu folk, particularly in Bandodkar's Goa, did their best to denigrate and keep out of public life.
It's a different world out here and I don't mean the standard of living, the higher salaries or the modern facilities available. It's another culture, another history, a different way of thinking, living, truly broadens one's perspective. The Middle East is a very vital link between Asia and Europe, has been so for centuries and Indians have been active in this region too for centuries.
Goans too have been around here since the late nineteenth century, as Portuguese citizens in Oman, Sharjah, Basra, Aden. There are so many Goan families who've travelled all corners of the world and continue to do so, but unfortunately, many folk back home equate Gulfees with the 60s-70s burst in out-migration of largely unskilled, unemployed Goans.
Quite sad and narrow actually, for there's a lot that Gulfees and Shipees have and continue to do for Goa. There was talk once of tapping into this resource but nothing came of it and the old, outdated notions prevail.
Hope I haven't bored you.
Take care and have fun. Regards to your family.
XXXXX
--------- unquote ------
Now let me have my say.
My grandfather was a Shipee (Chef) on American Mercantile vessels. My father was a Shipee (Radio Officer) on Shipping Corporation of India and later for an Iranian company. Many of my relatives and friends are Shipees and Gulfees.
Now some thirty - forty years back the terms were considered pretty derogatory. For example a Captain of ship would be insulted to be called a Shipee which put him in the same category as the uneducated deck hand - as usually was the case at that time with very few Goans being employed in the upper categories both on ships or in the Gulf. In the decades since a lot has changed. Goans hold the top posts on Ships as well as in the Gulf and the word Shippe and Gulfee have now taken on a different meaning. A very respectful one I think.
My history may not be exact but the concept is right. In the earlier half of the 20th century calling a Negro a "Black" was considered derogatory in the USA. In the latter half of the century, somewhere along the way, things changed and "Black" became the preferred term to "Negro".
Similarly with the terms Gulfee and Shipee. People in their seventies and above may use these terms rather derogatorily but the modern generation does not.
Cecil
=====
