---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2008 International Goan Convention
Toronto, Canada
Early Bird Discount Registration closes March 31, 2008
http://www.2008goanconvention.com/regform_print.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF GOA
Oh, my Goa
My heart cries and bleeds for you.
You have lost your past charm, glory and pride
which will be difficult to restore.
Now you are sinking and stinking
in every field of life!
Our politicians care for themselves.
They have accumulated wealth for generations.
Yet they are ready to sell themselves
provided they get a mega price.
Every Panch wants to be a Sarpanch.
Every Sarpanch desires to become a MLA.
Every MLA desires to be a CM or at least a Cabinet Minister!
Throughout the year in Goa
we are entertained through their political circus.
Mine owners raped our hills and forests for years.
Now they are further molested and destroyed
with the blessings of our politicians,
'Developers', SEZ and IT Park promoters.
We abandoned our ancestral bungalows in villages
and preferred to live in flats in crowded towns
without realizing that in flats
our mentality has become flat and static.
Visionless and haphazard development desecrated
the natural greenery and aesthetic beauty.
We have become blind and immune
to the plastic and garbage menace.
Our beaches and roads have become death traps.
Accidents, drowning in the sea, suicides,
thefts, burglaries, dacoity
kidnapping, rapes, molestation, sex abuse and murders
have become norm of the day.
We have become accustomed to these things.
Without them our newspapers are tasteless and lifeless.
When we read these things in our news papers
or see them on TV channels
we are hardly touched by their horror.
Bars, Beauty parlours (massage parlours?),
paedophilia, prostitution, sex tourism bloom with pride.
Alcoholism, drug addiction, Ghutka and Matka
flourish with the support of many.
For all seasons and reasons
Goa has become a permanent holiday resort to everyone.
Uncontrolled tourism destroyed our land and people.
God alone knows how many of us are affected by AIDS!
It is said "Three W's (wealth, wine and women) ruin a man."
Here in Goa we are reduced to wreckage from A to Z.
We have drowned our age old morality and values
in the depths of the Arabian sea.
Religious leaders are busy with religiosity
they have not cared to understand the spirit of spirituality.
They use religion as an income generating activity.
Religion has become mere rituals and festivals.
Road side crosses, temples and shrines
are built not to give glory to the Mighty Lord
but for our own pride and hidden motives.
Though Goa is part of the mainland
Our mentality continues to be that of islanders.
We take pride that we are Goans
but none of us are capable
to define the meaning of 'Goan'.
We have lost our cultural and linguistic identity.
Majority community speaks Konknni but takes pride in Marathi
Minority community is even ashamed to speak Konknni.
Konknni is considered the 'spoken dialect' of Dalits and Konknne
Butlers' English (Tambddi Inglez) has become pride of their personality.
Written Konknni in Devanagari survives
with the government patronage.
It has become a gold mine for some to survive and dominate.
Since it lacks the support of the masses
it will exist till the mine lasts.
The future of Konknni in Roman script is not so bright.
We are heading towards to become an Anglo-Indian community.
We hide our inferiority complex under different masks.
One of those masks which we are afraid to shed
is our pride in the territorial identity 'Goans'!
In the rest of the India
the identity of a person is defined by his/her language affiliation.
Kashmiri speakers become Kashmiris
Sindhi speakers become Sindhis.
Konknni speakers should have become Konknnis
But alas! We islanders take pride as Goans!
without knowing what it means
And address others as 'Ghattis'.
Yet we proclaim as most peace loving,
cultured, susegad people.
Truly speaking we are the most lethargic, selfish, self centred people.
We lack unity and vision.
We faithfully believe and practice crab mentality.
Therefore we lack dynamic solidarity.
The success of Konknni Nirontori
has shifted the centre of Konknni from Goa to Karnataka.
Truly speaking Goa was never the centre of Konknni.
Goans are ready to speak and associate with any language
except their own mother tongue Konknni - lingua criados
Probably, if written Konknni survives in the future
it will survive in Kannada script in Karnataka.
Goa will become linguistically and culturally a barren wilderness.
Politically Goa is ruined
Culturally it is uprooted
Socially it is caste rooted
Psychologically it is shattered
Morally it is degraded
Ecologically it is polluted
Spiritually it is deprived
Aesthetically it is destroyed
Educationally it is disoriented
Economically it is lop-sided
Linguistically it is divided.
My Goa seems to have reached
a point of non-return
a state of beyond redemption.
Mother Goa is filled with
wounds, injuries, bruises and scars.
Yet who cares for her pain and agony?
Her cross becomes heavier everyday.
She is crushed with shame.
She has lost her face and fame.
Everyday has become for her "Good Friday".
She waits for her resurrection
Who will be able to redeem her from her lost glory
except her own children who know her true story?
Pratap Naik, sj
Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr
B.B.Borkar Road
Alto Porvorim
Goa - 403 521
