I am sorry to hear that Brian had a series of negative experiences in the US after leaving university. I do agree that things have gotten a little less comfortable after 9-11, but I believe this has much to do with the policies of this present administration than the public at large.
Contrary to his experience, I have found my work environment to be as, if not more positive than what I experienced in graduate school. Perhaps this is in part due to me living in the silicon valley, which has long been a melting pot of various cultures and nationalities. Americans and for that matter Goans, come in different shapes and sizes. All those wonderful Americans you interacted with in academia could not have simply just disappeared. Maybe they all moved to California :) While I do like Goa, there are also many qualities of the US and specially California that I also love. I do know that there are a number of older Goans on goanet who evenly split their residences partly in India and N.America or Europe. Looks like these lucky people are getting the best of both worlds. On the other hand, if one wants to make a contribution to Goa, I believe it is better/easier to make the move when one is relatively young and therefore better able to recover if things turn south. If I were to make a list of the positives and negatives of Goa, I would come up with the following: Positives: 1) Family 2) Great food and mangoes :) 3) Ability to made a worthwhile contribution to Goa with modest amounts of money (but a lot of time) 4) Low cost of living 5) You can't get thrown out of your own country 6) Accelerating economic growth 7) Cheap labor Negatives: 1) Financial - if one does not have the finances to back one up, the only option to earn significant income may be by starting a business, which carries with it, its own set of risks. 2) Lack of familiarity of local processes which often seem alien, inefficient and unnecessary. 3) Corruption, bureaucracy, clueless officials/ rules and procedures being made on the fly and subject to change change without notice! 4) More difficult to get cutting edge labor in Goa (as opposed to Bombay, Banglore etc). 5) Limited network of friends and contacts 6) Language The above is a rather simplistic list of positives and negatives. I'm sure there are others out there who can refine or add to this list. Marlon --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi, > > Well, I had not pre-planned to move back to Goa, But > came down > on an extended break, happened to "re-discover Goa" > and have continued living here and have decided not > to return to the US. The quality of life for a > foreigner in the USA from my personal experience > went down-hill > drastically since September 11, though it was going > down-hill from much before. And you know with all > the constant tension and Asians being put under the > scan of suspicion was unsettling. > ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################