Dear Eddie I too echo what others have written on goanet, this matter was well and truly closed. Selma had written an article on the Goan Festival 2012 which was published in the OHeraldo in Goa, a number of readers took issue at what she had written about our community from East Africa and this gauntlet was taken up by Cyprian from Australia who, with a fully loaded gold tip parker pen (with ink to spare) gave her a justifiable slap on her writer's wrist. In a rare display of humility, Selma apologised, we all breathed a sigh of relief and therein the matter closed. She then bade us all a fond farewell from goanet, but she bades us so many fond farewells, that we have all developed a great fondness for her in our hearts.
In your goanet posting, you have written that she has been "sitting in the National Archives for long hours" doing her research, I have to ask did our community live in the National Archives or did they live in East Africa? The story of our lives there is in the streets, the churches, the club houses, the sports grounds, the beaches, the schools, the colonial offices, the private companies, the railways, and in the hearts and minds of those who lived there, not in the National Archives, we are not some lost tribe yet. You have also reminded us "for the past one year, she has been travelling relentlessly the length and breadth of London to record these stories, recruit interviewees, transcribe, edit and produce videos." Let me take this opportunity to refresh your memory, how you announced with great pride of huge interest shown in every training session that it was fully booked even before it was advertised. There were 20 dedicated volunteers that took training on 29 October 2011 and 15 dedicated volunteers that took training on 26 November 2011 both sessions at the Indian YMCA in London, all were trained on how to handle video and audio equipment and interviewing techniques, as shown on http://www.britishgoanproject.com/event/ Did these dedicated volunteers pass or fail their training? Or were these training sessions a tick box exercise as part of the grant requirements? Could you advise us why you now feel that we should be giving a "thank you" vote to Miss Lonesome when she would have had enough trained-up, dedicated volunteers to assist her with this project? Like a mystery move on undir papa's game board, it is incredulous that you have resurrected this matter on goanet. As editor of Goan Voice and PR Director of The Histories of British Goans Project, you will be familiar with these types of clashes which have a tendency to die down after a while. In my opinion, the behaviour of my best friend mirrors a child standing on a pram because all her favourite toys have been thrown on the floor. Rather than an adult continually picking them up, in time this child will need to learn she has to pick the toys up by herself without any assistance. Rose Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 17 September 2012
