As someone old enough to be proud of my Goaness, and yet young enough not to remember a time when men walked down Fountainhas and serenaded beautiful women, I feel an odd compulsion to view this debate from both ends of the spectrum.
I think, in all honestly, we cannot have this debate without discussing what is Goan culture. The culture that we celebrate in diaspora is like a badly drawn caricature at some county fair. The culture that we hold dear to us, doesn't even exist in Goa, in the form that we hold it dear. Today's Goan is as comfortable singing the lilting melodies of A.R. Rehman as they are singing mandos. And they are as conversant discussing MF Hussain's art as they are discussing Dostoevsky's writings. Goa has never stopped evolving, we in Diaspora have stopped evolving what we know of Goa. We are like a severed thumb earning to be reunited with the body, and hoping that the body has not aged or matured in the meantime. The best that we can hope for is that generations that spring forth from us, take an interest in the history of their ancestors. That they feel a certain empathy with Goa's struggles, and they inculcate a sense of commitment to its future. For it is in their interest to seek out their past as a path to their own self-discovery. However, that choice must rest with them. Selma ------------------------------------------- --- Roland Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Mine is the other view to Mario Goveia's stand that > overseas Goans should > and shall lose their Goan heritage. He set out this > point in his counter > question to Helga's expectations for keeping > heritage alive at functions > like Viva Goa. > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org