Rene Barreto wrote: > Mr. Nair , > I believe You are TRYING to ridicule SOME our > Goans , please stop doing that. Please stop being too > smart. > I am not too sure if other Goans feel the same or > are they too scared to say so. ....
Ridicule? In what sense? There are racist Goans too, the kind who hate people on the basis of place-of-birth, origin or religious background. Our skin colour may not be white/pink, but that doesn't stop us from feeling superior to others. This holds true of almost every society, but it was acutely felt in Goa in the 'eighties onwards. I think RKN is pointing to this reality. Unlike British society, which has its strong component of criticism-from-within, we in Goa (and the rest of India, probably) are very thin-skinned and averse to criticism. So, while the best studies of British imperialism come from the UK itself, we in Goa, on the contrary, are unwilling to look critically at our own society, warts and all. While we need to improve our self-image to become more positive about ourselves, we also need to be more open to criticism. Both goals are not mutually exclusive. FN