------------------------------------------------------------------------ Goanetters visiting Viva Goa 2006 in Toronto, Canada on July 29, can use the BMX booth as a meeting point. Please list your name on the message board that will be provided, courtesy of BMX.
http://bmxgoa.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi Elisabeth, Thanks for the clarifications regarding your post. Well my post appeared on goanet almost two days after I e-mailed it and in the meantime you clarified a lot of points. Let me start by apologising for the impolite tone of that mail( I wrote it when I was a bit upset) It would be inappropriate of me to comment on the social order in Goa when you were growing up( many years before I was born) because caste is a cuss word in my home and is hence never discussed(even for purely academic purposes). I do have a question though, do you think that much has changed in Goa since then? I for one surely do but at the same time I am very aware of all the economic benefits I have enjoyed by virtue of coming from a bhatcar family. Also let me state that I despise the caste system and consider it the earliest form colour discrimination conceived by humanity. However, I believe that by launching lengthy tirades against people based on their caste serves only to perpetuate this evil. I'm happy we agree on a lot of issues( and disagree on a few!) because I enjoy reading your intelligent views which are a refreshing change from most of the "redneck cowboy logic, GWB style" posts I am used to reading from netters residing in your side of the world. Regards Sun(one N)ith Velho Panjim-Goa Elisabeth wrote: For a person of my "caste", it was far better to be raised in the Gulf than in Goa. My parents were what one would call today, educated professionals. One was an accountant, the other a nurse. They both spoke fluent English, Konkanni and Portuguese. Yet their opportunities in Goa will zilch to zero, made worse by the burden of my father's caste. My father's first paycheck was Rs100 working in a mine. They were not landed gentry, they didn't inherit bhats, they didn't have "access" to good jobs and for all purposes my father was like a second class citizens in Goa. I had the opportunity to go to a good school, to travel widely, to grow up with a cosmopolitan mindset. My father had the opportunity to create the type of wealth unimaginable within one generation in Goa, and this in turn opened doors of opportunity for us in Goa, which until then had remained firmly closed. Which life would you rather he have chosen for his children? _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org