Hi Gilbert,
Let me try to reply to your questions
Without going into too much detail because you can always read more about it in
our site www.casadegoa.org, our aims for the Lisbon Convention were to
celebrate the Goan Diaspora and the individual and collective contributions to
the societies in which we live as well as to reinforce second and third
generation Goans in their efforts to keep “Goanity” alive in the future
whatever that might mean in different economic, social and cultural contexts.
We are not sure of what it means and therefore we invited second and third
generation Goans to give us their understanding of the issue. That discussion
took place in the last evening of the Convention and the results are reflected
in the conclusions of the Global Goan Youth First Round Table.
For the achievements, we suggested 8 themes (fine arts, literature, music,
education, entrepreneurship, media, information technologies and volunteering)
sent them around to the associations and individuals whose mailing address we
had and asked for the inclusion of other themes and for potential takers who
would relate such achievements to their integration process in the communities
where they live and their children are now growing up. We also disseminated the
invitation through the Net.
As you know, we are not an official institution neither do we know all the
achievers form the various parts of the Goan world. Even if we did, we would
not be able to invite them all because we do not have the capacity to organise
such a huge event, nor would it suit our objectives. What we did was to ask
anyone who considered himself as an achiever to inform us of the reasons he
/she did so and to volunteer to participate. We were aware that we ran the risk
of being misunderstood in so far as the Convention might have turned into a
self-glorification exercise. But in our assessment the risk paid off. People
shared their achievements, put them in the “Goan” context and also pointed out
collective problems (non-achievements).
In all fairness, Gilbert, we only got to know many of the participants from
abroad and their work better as the Convention correspondence progressed. For
sure, if the Convention had taken place in another country and at another time,
perhaps a different set of participants would have been inclined to
participate. One never knows! The participants who came to Lisbon certainly had
a lot to share and they did so.
Regarding the number of participants, of course we would have wanted many more
people to attend but we were not disappointed that we had around 120
participants. One of the problems was that the schedule was too packed and
people were very tired towards the end of the day that was entirely devoted to
the presentations.
My personal opinion after years of involvement in many of Casa de Goa’s
activities is that different people are interested in different activities and
the challenge is to cater to these different interests, if possible. Not all
associations can do so and therefore the next best option is to identify what a
particular association can do best and then stick to it. Not all associations
can be mass associations.
Finally, I am all in favour of sharing the lessons we have learnt in these last
2 conventions, in whatever way the organisers of the coming Convention find
most adequate. That is the gist of the final comments of Part II of my report
that I have just sent.
Thanks for the positive reinforcement of your last paragraph. At Casa de Goa,
we certainly treasure our Convention experience.
Best regards,
Virginia Bras Gomes
_________________________________________________________________
Explore the seven wonders of the world
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=7+wonders+world&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE