Dear fellow readers I was astonished to read in the first line of Rahul Laud's glossified article in Asian Lite Digital dated 31 March 2014 (courtesy Goan Voice UK) titled "London Gears Up for the Goan Fest" he writes "There is excitement in the air". Let me assure all our readers worldwide that the only thing in the air in London, England right now is high levels of pollution and dust blown in from the Sahara giving us a foggy atmosphere so that one cannot see the wood from the trees, maybe this atmosphere is causing all this excitement, who knows?
Rahul Laud follows on to say "Ravi Vaz - President of the Goan Association (UK) and Chairman of the UK Goan Festival Organising Committee in exclusive interview to Asian Lite informed that the Goan event will be much larger than before, "We have grown ...................." he boasts with pride. We are expecting over 10,000 people this year from UK and abroad." If I can remind everyone of the following video interview Ravi Vaz had with Menino de Valpoi of Niz Goenkar outside broadcast unit after the 2013 Goan festival http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8sUgQnJujA] At minute 38.44 of 48.45 readers will observe a smiley face Ravi Vaz telling us all that last year's Goan Festival at Cranford attracted a crowd of 10-15,000 and he was expecting a crowd of 20,000 for this year. One can only summise that he has somehow been gifted a broken Chinese Bead Counter last Christmas that works backwards with some of the noughts missing as the beads fall off. Or else 10,000 of our fellow Goykars did a high jump to the aeroplanes flying above and gone elsewhere. Then Rahul Laud continues to quote his interview with Ravi Vaz who tells him "The ground presence is very large and the monies generated are donated to UK based charities.....". With the impression given by Ravi Vaz that vast numbers attend the Cranford Goan Festival UK and that monies generated are donated to UK based charities, I beg to differ and would like to draw the attention of everyone to the current appeal running on the Goan Association UK website titled "An appeal to help a fellow Goan". http://www.goauk.com/blog/ Unless there is A Hole in the Bucket..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfnD3fsDD5E There is a saying that "Charity begins at home" but whose home? I have yet to see verified accounts of revenue and expenditure of the 2013 event and earlier events. As this is a public festival and we are told monies generated are used for charitable purposes, may I take this opportunity to invite the directors and organisers of the Cranford Goan Festival UK to share the revenue and expenditure with us on goanet. In breadline Britain with the rising cost of funerals, it is good to hear on the grapevine there is only one Goan registered charity where you can join for a GBP One pound and be given a wooden overcoat with a courier escort to Goa where the soil is warmer, that is another story..... I am copying this missive to Rahul Laud for information as there should be no clash of misinformation. Melvyn Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 5 April 2014
