I agree with Santosh. These days (it was the same before, but it is more so now), Goanet and also the media (controlled by whoever it is) are becoming the fora for attaining legitimacy about who is fighting for Goa and about what constitutes fighting for Goa. Few cares to actually look and see who are really doing the hard spade work and the nuanced discussions. It just has to be black or white, that's the way goanet and the media want it. The terms of the debate are framed by them and the people who work to fight for Goa are made the puppeteers who have to expend their energy in debating within those terms. The lens is also on the basis of political positions, caste, place of origin, religion of the "fighters for Goa".
Also, things are measured by the "success" achieved. The "how" is not questioned. The long term work done by so many people that brought things about is not seen.That is not news. Ther press will tell such people who do long term work, come and give us information and make it newsy. Whose job is it to make news newsy, the people who are working to fight for Goa or the press? And should people run after the press and take time off from the work they are doing or should the press have its ears to the ground and run after the people? If someone, for instance, kicks ( I mean literally and also figuratively but more the latter) someone in public life and then addresses a press conference, that is news, no matter whether a principle is laid down on the basis of that or whether it was a one-off eye-catching incident or photograph or activity. This is not, as clarified at the start, to sweep every media person into this "press" basket. But whether it is goanet posters (by and large) or whether it is the media in Goa, they only reflect a sad malaise of hearing ( sometimes not even that) but not listening to the others' view-point and sticking to their own ( sometimes management-dictated, sometimes their own) at any cost and of not having their ears to the ground. albertina On 8/1/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote RE: Message: 4 Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:26:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Goanet] Betrayal by GBA and the Task Force farce To: Goanet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii --- On Thu, 7/31/08, Miguel Braganza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Had Reboni adopted the surname of her Goan husband, Francis would not have >even said what he wrote. Gender equality does have its hassles! ;-) > It is true that Francis would not have said what he did if her name was Reboni Saldanha. But this madness about Goans and non-Goans has gone too far. It is making otherwise smart people rely on the superficial facades of pictures and posts sent to Goanet as the basis for deciding who is fighting for Goa, and who is an armchair critic. Cheers, Santosh ------------------------------ (M) 9326137682 "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." — Margaret Fuller