------------------------------------------------------------------------ Happy Birthday: St Britto's, which is 60 years old. Celebrations at St Jerome's Church Mapusa 11 am on July 30, 2006. Football match Loyola's vs. Britto's 11 am on July 31, 2006 at the school grounds.
http://bmxgoa.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Troubled Global Village: Nervousness On Both Sides Of The Divide Goa's multiculturalism is now raising an ugly head, laments Vivek Menezes [EMAIL PROTECTED] It's Foundation Day at the Mater Dei Institute in Saligao, Goa’s second-oldest English medium school, and a smiling quartet of 11-year olds whirls and bobs to the classic Konkani pop song, 'Juliana'. Their show is part of an annual ritual dating back to 1909, almost a full century of neatly uniformed students strutting their stuff and being rewarded with treats. But examine the picture a little closer, and it's apparent that there's something new happening under the Goan sun. One of the twirling little girls is local, another from North India. The third is European, from Portugal, and in the middle of things is Patharpron (Noon) Kong King, Thai-born, Goa-raised, just one of hundreds of foreign children being brought up and educated in a Goa that's suddenly morphed from sleepy getaway to global tourism hotspot. Cleta Lobo became headmistress of Mater Dei in 1968, at the age of 19, appointed after the death of her father (and school founder), Anicleto FX Lobo. She recalls that there were always one or two foreign students through the hippie era of the 1960s and '70s. That trickle has turned into a flood in the last decade, and storied Mater Dei's student body is now nearly 50 per cent international, with 22 nationalities represented. Lobo used to be charged with instilling conservative values in an almost entirely Goan Catholic student body. Now she deals with problems like racist behaviour directed at a Nigerian student by his European classmates. It's a formidable challenge to integrate students from all over the world into an academic environment that prepares all of them to take the demanding ICSE board exams. But Lobo is unfazed. "They come here because we can manage, because we are equipped to deal with them." Goa has surfed the waves of globalisation before. European colonialism kicked into action here first, in 1510, and ended here last, with a chequered 451 years in between. At the end of the sixteenth century, the port capital of Estado da India was bigger and much richer than Paris, London and Lisbon. It attracted travellers and traders from every corner of the known world, bestrode the richest international trading routes ever established, and ruled as capital of a vast maritime empire stretching from Japan to Africa. That heyday faded as fast as it developed, but connections to the outside world remained. Goans poured out of the economically stagnant colony to find employment abroad -- in Portuguese and British Africa, the Far East and Latin America. Mater Dei owes its existence to global Goan aspirations. It provided reliable English-language education to entire generations of Goans with parents working abroad; its graduates include civil servants in every country in the Anglophone sphere. Noon Kong King's parents have no doubts about Mater Dei’s cosmopolitan credentials. Henry Pfeiffer, a German, adopted Noon and her younger sister when he married their mother, Chawee. "We are very happy with their education here," he said. "It is a better, happier and more mixed environment for them to grow up in than Germany or Thailand." Pfeiffer believes that the girls’ prospects are better in Asia, that an Indian childhood provides a future competitive advantage. Goa offers his small, tight-knit family the twin advantages of great business opportunity and idyllic surroundings. "I moved to Goa to retire, actually," he said. "But when I had spent some time here I could see that there was money to be made, almost lying there on the ground all around me. It seemed lazy not to simply pick it up." The couple now operates Oriental, a well-established Thai restaurant in Candolim that’s developed a loyal following and a solid reputation for meticulously prepared Thai food. But Oriental is now on the move as a new cadre of moneymen and entrepreneurs have descended on Goa over the past two years. The contract that Pfeiffer had with his landlord has been discarded, and the new owners have plans for serious expansion that don't include him. He's scouting for a new location in a highly constricted marketplace that includes real hordes of competitors, each looking for a piece of the action. As Goa's prospects have risen sky-high, so have accompanying tensions. There's great nervousness on both sides of the insider-outsider divide, feeding a jittery, vitiated atmosphere that’s now spilling over into violence. In the last month alone, two businessmen from Delhi have been murdered in murky circumstances. The first, Anuj Joshi, was a long-term resident and owner of a popular bar on the tourism strip in Calangute. His friend, the writer Sudeep Chakravarti wrote searingly about the murder in a local paper: "I do know why Anuj died. The stakes have become too high here. His death is a symptom of Malaise de Goa." Chakravarti continued, "Piece of the action is ...driving Goa to the edge," and writes movingly about tears at his friend's funeral marking "a sense of loss for a Goa we pine after but can no longer recognise." It's a sentiment that’s nearly universal in 2006. Long-stayers, relative newcomers and locals all describe a sensation of being under siege. This feeling is particularly strong at the fringes of Goa's burgeoning tourism marketplace, in the decades-old long-staying communities that developed from the hippie phenomenon of previous decades. On the heels of a series of directives from the centre, officials from half a dozen different state agencies are turning up at people's doorsteps, checking the ownership and legal status of homes and businesses, and denying licences and permissions required to et up shop in Goa. Lisa Camps, American-born proprietor of the Anjuna landmark restaurant, Bean Me Up, has lived in Goa for almost three decades. "This is home," she said. "I’d get a green card if India offered one, I don’t want to leave and I won’t leave unless I’m forced to." Her restaurant is renowned for its "soya station", an all-vegetarian menu based on tofu, tempeh, organic vegetables and salads, and soy milk. It's a rare family-oriented establishment in an area that's often hostile to newcomers and outsiders to the scene. Bean Me Up hosts famous Halloween parties, and a carnival-like "Tribal Revival" at year end. But Camps believes that a certain turning point has been reached in Goa's trajectory, that unscrupulous new investors and local politicians are "stirring the hate pot" against foreigners. There's lots of proof in the folder in her hand -- dozens of clippings from the Goan papers, editorials and articles claiming "invasion" and "land-grab". It's an old story that’s played out every time an avowed paradise falls prey to rampant development, as openness and tolerance ebbs away in face of mistrust, moneyed newcomers and a sharply increased demand for property. Gaston Eyben has seen it before, and knows how bad it can get. "Many years ago, I bought a house in the countryside near the border of Wales," the Belgian said. "The locals felt under threat from the second-home phenomenon, just as they do here in Goa. Houses were burned, there was violence and lots of tension." The situation in Goa is bound to come to a crisis, Eyben believes, because there is such increased pressure, and because Goa is living off a reputation that does not stand up to close examination. Still, he has no plans to go anywhere, after building a marvellous, secluded retreat on the ancient island of Chorao in the Mandovi River. Goa is still very attractive, he says. It offers easy access to the world, as well as escape from it. "I've learned a lot, and find myself increasingly attached to the culture, and now involved in protecting it. I live here entirely out of choice." But even behind the thick trees, and surrounded by his own acreage, even on the island of Chorao, Eyben "cannot ignore the context in which I live". Goa is under stress, its people and media are displaying ugly xenophobic tendencies, and the political leadership has buried its head in the sand about the threats and opportunities involved with becoming one of the world's top tourism brands. Back at Mater Dei, the bouncy Konkani music faded away to be replaced by a beat-heavy, trance-inflected dance track, chosen as signature music by two wiry teenagers in hip-hop style shorts crossing the knee. Silently, unsmilingly, they danced back and forth in rhythm with each other, an Indian and a foreign student. Their eyes never met, though at one crucial point it looked like they would link hands and swing in unison. But it was illusory, they swept past each other without touching, and went on dancing alone. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Vivek Menezes is a long-time Goanetter, who was inspired -- in part by Goanet -- to return to Goa with his family while in his thirties. He has survived the first year, and writes often in the local media, under the penname of VM de Malar. He wrote this article for TimeOut Mumbai. GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. 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