As a second generation NRI, the concept of NRI voting rights is of great interest to me. Firstly, the term NRI has been generally misused. NRI, is not a group of people. The term was primarily a banking concept, first introduced to accommodate those intrepid souls that made their way to the Arabian desert. Their remittances to India were banked under non-taxable, Non-Resident Indian or Non-Resident Indian (External) accounts with a massive 12-15% interest rate, to act as incentive.
In the course of time and evolution, the term has almost acquired an ethnicity of its own. It's not uncommon to come across ads, that want NRI grooms, as if it was a certain section of society with definable traits and attributes. I have no qualms about NRIs being given voting rights but to what end? NRIs, PIOs, expats are an apathetic lot. I should know. Most of my family is now in diaspora and much of it second-generation, whose only link to Goa, is the occasional trip back home to see the ancestral house, check out if Auty Teodoline really does sport a mustache and how Uncle Joe talks about Lisboa with such reverence. Throw in a cruise down the Mondovi river, a lunch out at Martin's corner and a drive through hawker-invested Calangute for souvenirs and, they are ready for the trip back home having "discovered their roots". I think Goans living abroad have very little knowledge and much less interest in the actual problems facing the people and the polity. They are immersed in their own daily battles, as they should be. I don't know if they can truly represent the hopes and aspirations of Goans living in Goa. I don't know if we should translate western sensibilities or solutions to situations that are indigenously Goan. This is my concern. That of apathy. That we will be giving power to an apathetic lot and power vested in such a section of society can be gravely misused. Elisabeth __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)