That’s a phrase we often used when things are going on in an organized and peaceful manner and then along comes someone who just violently upsets the Apple Cart.
That is what is happening this summer with the Goan Community in Toronto. The Viva Goa is an annual usually outdoor festival organized by the Goan Overseas Association with the active help of scores of member volunteers, young and old. It’s a huge affair on the lines of an American County Fair attracting in a good year 5,000 or more fee paying guests from within and without Toronto - all in one day. American Goans drive or fly from different US cities because they don’t see and meet that many Goans anywhere else. Goans from other countries on summer holiday visiting friends and relatives come too. Everyone enjoys it, and the Association is pleased as pie that this event is the main income generator for the year for their many activities. Local politicians unfailingly visit, seeing in the event an opportunity to push agenda and their personal popularity. Then comes along the shit disturbing individual seemingly riding on the back of another individual from Qatar both of whom imagine themselves the flag bearers of the Goan Diaspora. Clothed in lofty ideals, their end game is personal profit. So the Toronto person organizes a similar-to-the -G.O.A. event a week away from Viva Goa itself trying to outdo the other with even more added attractions. While the G.O.A. has a corpus of funds with which to fund such a giant affair, one wonders from where that individual gets their finances. But that’s neither here nor there. While some of the community and perhaps visitors from overseas too, will attend both, most will not. These are not cheap affairs and after paying the gate, buying food and drink and stocking up on Goan provisions for home, a family of say 4 will be considerably out of pocket. I may be be concerned over nothing. It’s a free country, anyone can organize anything and the better entity wins. But to my mind the whole thing stinks. We are one community and when we go different ways, we look like we are lost. This doesn’t mean there is no place for more Goan entities. But one must caution that rather than dividing a small pie, we should look to increasing the size. In no way does the above mentioned confusion contribute to any increase. Hopefully, both events will come and go and no damage will be done to the community in Canada. But such things have a habit of portending problems. Roland, Toronto.
