--- Mario Goveia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The amusing revisionist nostalgia for colonial > subservience continues unabated.
It is not revisionist nostalgia - I lived there at the time, so did a lot of people still in Goa. Ask the 70 and 80-year-olds who graduated through Liceu and the Escola Técnica or Escola Médica (incidentally, the first allopathic medical college in Asia), and continue to live in Goa. I just interviewed one on a personal basis, to confirm my experiences, and we spoke in Konkani. He graduated from Liceu then from the Escola Técnica, concluding the latter a year after "liberation"; then worked for various Govt depts finally retiring as a Chief Eng at the Electricity Dept in Panjim. He tells me there were more issues between Goans (to show who was the "greater" one amongst them) than between the Portuguese and the Goans. And on a converse issue, I was also told by this person that the Brits really ill-treated the Indian taxi drivers prior to 1947, something that never even happened in Goa. > Gabriel and Bernardo are living proof that there > will > always be some Goans who love the notion of being > sycophants under the heel of a backward third rate > European country and not part of a budding > superpower. That is your opinion. > 45 years later it's still a backward > third rate European country, but still close to the > hearts of Gabriel and Bernardo, "Oh, how good their > boots tasted, and how about all those imported cars > and duty free cosmetics. Oh, for the good old days! > > Can we turn back the clock, PLEASE?" I object to that insinuation. > > > Gabriel, apparently from aristocratic and affluent > Loutolim, is unaware that most village Goans back > then > used bullock-drawn carts for transportation in most > of > Goa, not the fancy foreign vehicles he lists, which > could not make it back to the rutted roads in most > of > the villages. Perhaps you did not read my last post in its entirety. I agreed life in villages was like what you stated, including having hitched many a ride on bullock-carts. Did I not? But not in Panjim, Mapuçá, Vasco, Margão or Pondá. So what if the village life was village life? How long did you spend in Goa pre-1961? And more importantly, where did you spend that time? I know of taxis (the very same the fancy foreign vehicles) that used to ply on the mud roads of Darbandora (a border village). And many of these roads were twin cement-concrete tracks, some of which can still be seen under that tarmac between Mapuçá and Moirá/Nachinolá. > Gabriel is wrong about colonial Goa being like most > Indian towns. I grew up in a medium sized Indian > town > and know that most of Goa under the Portuguese was > more like an Indian village rather than any Indian > town, because the Brits had done a far superior job > in > India than the somnolent Portuguese had done in Goa. Bah! somnolent Portuguese left a far superior life-style in the whole of Goa than ever did Brits in British India. Not my opinion, but various publications have stated this. And the Goan administration under the Portuguese ensured every village, under a Regedor, was clean and tidy. And there was an ancient system of Comunidade that the Portuguese left alone as it was efficient, but the Indians destroyed replacing it with the inefficient and corrupt Panchayat system. You can sneer and fool around with my statements. But you cannot deny the facts. > Apparently, freedom and democracy does not appeal to > everyone. Freedom? Is Goa *really* free? Why is the Navy still holding on to Dabolim? How was Anjediva handed over to the Navy? Why is the Navy blocking pilgrims (now for the last 2 years) to attend the two feasts? Why are there so many military camps in various parts of Goa? Why are the citizens of Panjim *not* allowed to park (By Order PMC) alongside the quartel? And given recent "warnings" on querying the actions of the Indian Armed Forces, is there really freedom of speech? This is my final post on this topic. Mário, as usual, can have the last word. Gabriel de Figueiredo. ____________________________________________________ On Yahoo!7 Dancing with the Stars Win tickets to be part of the glittering Grand Final! http://www.yahoo.com.au/dancing-with-the-stars