Dear Mervyn It is always good to meet you on or off goanet, as I have stated before our people are like magnets where like poles repel, it is in our genes, hence I do not expect to start an argument. As you maybe aware, Goan people do not tell the right story but want to know everything, I prefer to deal with facts. There is an English saying Gentlemen in Rank, Empty in Bank, the English administrators (Bwana Kubas) from colonial East Africa are different from the local native population in the United Kingdom and probably took up residence in better class areas, such as a Bwana Karani as yourself. I wonder if they missed their shamba boys? I do not believe you did not encounter the racism that the majority of us did, we were called Pakis (wogs) and abused and spat at on the way to and from work, our school children had similar experiences. The newspapers actively encouraged race hate to increase sales and our people at work just got on with their jobs to earn their living. (Today, this is classed as a "hate crime" and can be recorded with the police). This was also a time when the working week was Monday to Friday, unlike the 24 hour working culture of today, everything was shut with our people having nothing to do other than meet, greet, socialise and dance to Goan music under chandeliers taking their troubles away. This was also the beginning of successful day time events by village organisations (still continuing to this day in the London area) as it was safer to travel on public transport in daylight. English people migrating to Canada were called Limeyes, Paki bashing was also an amusement there, all because of the colour of our skin. Over the years, our Indian cousins became employers while most of the Goan population are still employees despite having excelled in the professions.
Among our people, GOASCORRI was formed GOA-Standing Committee on Race Relations and Immigration to monitor these events, one achievement I can remember is together with the Indian Workers Union based in Southall representations were made to Home Secretary William Whitelaw on virginity testing on brides from India, at least one woman was humiliated at Heathrow before a stop was put to this. I can't remember if this was before or after the Southall riots when you could do the police a favour by beating yourself up. Now, by kind favour of goanet, I respond to your posting, here goes: 1. Discrimination in the job market In The Cambridge Survey of World Migration, the chapter on "The Migration of East African Asians to the UK" on page 336 this is what it says (NOTE the words "racial exclusionism at work in every facet of life in Britain"): Quote: ....However Robinson (1993) has undertaken such a piece of work using national data-sets measuring standard indicators of socio-economic status for the whole East African Asian minority in the UK. He noted the absence of qualitative inputs to the analysis and underlined the significance of these when considering the well-being of refugee groups. His findings were that, despite the powerful forces of racial exclusionism at work in every facet of life in Britain, the national profile of the group had changed considerably between the early 1970s and the mid-1980s despite the deepest recession the country had seen since the 1930s. East African Asians had acquired better formal qualifications than their Indian or white British counterparts, were over- represented in self-employment, had transported their socio-economic profile more rapidly than either of the other two groups, were found in better accommodation than were Indians, and had achieved all of this without the secondary migration which was such a feature of the subsequent Vietnamese arrivals. Unquote Vaughan Robinson has also written "Marching into the Middle Classes? The Long Term Resettlement of East African Asians in the UK" which has the following abstract (NOTE the words "despite the exclusionary barriers erected by racism"): Quote: This paper uses a range of national quantitative data to assess the long-term resettlement of East African Asians in Britain. It argues that they have made considerable material progress in the UK despite the exclusionary barriers erected by racism. Unquote Readers can find these using their search engine. 2. Culture of bribery As you have indicated you are an avid reader of Goan Voice UK, so you will already be familiar with the current bribery issue which is being investigated in Swindon. 3. Property value of houses falling when coloureds moved in If you go to the website www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/histories/asian/settling/settling.htm and scroll down to housing this is what it says: Quote: Early post-war South Asian migrants faced prejudice in finding private rented accommodation and council housing. A survey by Willesden Council of press advertisements for accommodation in the local press showed that 90 per cent of advertisements specifically discriminated against non-Europeans. Ajit Rai, who came to London in the mid 1950s, had first hand experience of exclusion: "White people would not rent their houses to us as lodgers, so that it was a very difficult time in that sense." In Southall, London, Rai witnessed a white exodus 'they started moving out when we started moving in'. As early as 1957, a Home Office document provided evidence of white flight and future segregation, which would come to characterise some northern towns and cities: 'The Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Warwickshire police say that white house-holders in better class districts resent coloured people buying houses in these districts and when this happens, those who can, move.' This was supported by a 1964 article in the Daily Telegraph in which an Estate Agent in Southall, London had agreed to sell houses owned by Southall Residents Association exclusively to white buyers. In the north of England, Pakistanis sought to overcome these housing problems by buying old houses often in slum areas and letting them out to newcomers. Unquote Valerie Karn wrote an article "Property Values Amongst Indians and Pakistanis in a Yorkshire Town" in which she included the following by Robert Weaver: Quote: There is no aspect of housing and of minority groups more important and also confused than the relationship between racial occupancy and property values. The most respectable and frequently quoted justification for residential segregation is the assertion that coloured people depress real estate values. Unquote Readers can find these using their search engine. 4. Church matters I was privileged to have met and worked with the late Cardinal Basil Hume when the first Asian Chaplaincy Festival of Patron Saints took place at Westminster Cathedral. He gave me his direct telephone number to clear any barriers that were being encountered dealing with church authorities. I also had to overcome restrictions by Westminster City Council to ensure that the festival took place. On 2 February 2012, I attended at Hotel Mandovi, together with over 200 people who represented the great and good of Goa, the launch of the book written by Fr Desmond de Sousa CSsR titled "The Concerned Face of the Church" (Printed by Lobo & Co, Bastora, Goa). Under a paragraph "The Challenge To Become a Participatory Church of the People" on page 515 is the following: Quote: The need for accountability at all levels is a major concern of the people today. There is a strong feeling that all should be accountable - bishops, priests, religious and laity - to some appropriate Bodies or individuals. This will check many of the abuses prevalent at present and will also create a sense of community and an atmosphere where all sections of the Church will be urged to work together as one family. We should create a participatory Church in which everybody's dignity as a baptized Chistian is respected. At present the laity strongly feel that they are a neglected lot and there is need to promote the rediscovery of the Church as a community in which everybody's role and charism is respected ...... Unquote Under a paragraph "India and The Phenomenon Of Out Migration " on page 569 is the following: Quote: The second wave was the one million-plus Indians who went to Britain in the last century, some via East Africa. Most of them were petty shopkeepers, blue collar workers, bus conductors, postal clerks. Over the years they have settled as British citizens, often within the enclaves that seem like "little India". Many Indian businessmen and professionals who were driven out of Kenya and Uganda in the 1970s also settled there making up nearly a million. Unquote Under a paragraph "The Church's Concern for Cultural Issues" on pages 587 and 588 are the following: Quote: By creating the Pontifical Council for Culture (PCC), Pope John Paul II stamps the cultural arena as crucial for the survival of human values and for the Church's evangelizing mission........... The Pope goes on to plead the cultural dialogue is of such vital urgency that it might well represent the ultimate challenge. "To the extent that the modern world stifles dialogue with cultures, it heads towards conflicts which run the risk of being fatal for the future of human civilization. Beyond prejudices and cultural barriers of racial, linguistic, religious and ideological separation, human beings must recognise themselves as brothers and sisters and accept each other in their diversity" (February 28, 1983). You say our community have left their mark. We have not left the United Kingdom yet and with the new arrivals from Goa, time will tell, whether this mark will turn out to be a large stain? Melvyn Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 23 May 2012 melvynfernan...@virginmedia.com
