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This month's Goanet operations sponsored by Mrs. Daisy Faleiro ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To sponsor Goanet operations, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another email that I received ... ====================================== Hello Gabriel, I remember visiting Goa in 1965, a few years after the so called liberation from Portugal . The farmers had just harvested their crops of paddy, and there was a lot of intrigue in the air. The poor farmers were notified by the Goa Government, which they were allowed to keep back only a very small portion of their harvested crop, and surrender the rest to the Government, who paid about 1/20 of the actual market price of rice for the stocks lifted off by them. There were squads of police who would swoop on the farmers homes at odd hours of the day or night, in raids looking out for rice that was not declared and surrendered. However, the farmers were one up on the cops. They had organised an advance warning system for themselves. The Government forgot that its own employees too came from the villages, and were farmers themselves. So the whole village already knew when a raid was imminent. That day, farmers would move their stocks of rice to the homes of people who did not have paddy fields themselves. The raids would be futile and sometimes they would just confiscate small amounts of rice kept in the farmers homes. This apparently never happened during the Portuguese regime. So it is wrong on the part of some Goanetters to say that the Portuguese only catered to the needs of the elite, forgetting about the poor farmers and fishermen. A visit to any outlying village even today will show you the contentment of the poor farmers and fishermen during the Portuguese regime. All one has to do is try and befriend one of the village elders, and listen to their stories. When I was I Goa, I once visited a small fishing hamlet on the banks of the Zuari. The place was called Nauxi, and is located very close to the present location of the Goa University . Those people were fishermen and during season, produced some of the best cashew feni available. And yes, even they yearned for the good old days, when the Portuguese were there. Very nostalgic and touching. Once the Indians took over, all they wanted was to loot as much as they could, and that is still going on even today. ================================== Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com