Dear goanet readers, Over the last few weeks, I have to admit not reading Roland Francis's stray thoughts. His articles tend to tax my grey cells like Sudoku and these days I am all for a quiet life in front of the fire. Yes, fire .... in the United Kingdom we may once have had four seasons winter, spring, summer and autumn but we are now down to one ....winter gloom to match our economic doom.
Trying to follow the FN and JC latest goanet fire thread proved tricky until finally I gave in and read Roland Francis's "Gulf Goans - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan". What he wrote in his last paragraph was fascinating: Quote: If there is one 'take-away' from all this, it is that someone up there has always taken care of the well-being of Goans. The Portuguese didn't do it and the Indians are certainly far from doing it as well. Unquote Roland Francis is not the only one who feels about the Portuguese this way. Recently, in conversation with a Goan Catholic priest, he implied much the same until I reminded him that if it had not been for the Portuguese he probably would not have been a Catholic nor a Catholic priest! If the Portuguese didn't do a good job taking care of our well-being, they certainly did a good job in converting a number of us to Catholicism. The argument put forward by most Catholic Goans I speak to is that we were "forcibly" converted by the Portuguese but if they feel this way. I see no evidence of them rushing to re-convert back to their original religion. In fact, evidence shows that those of Goan origin in Goa and around the world who are Catholics are probably among the most devout on planet earth which has undoubtedly led to "someone up there" looking after us. That's our first precious "take-away" from the Portuguese - Catholicism. Many Goans today probably feel the Portuguese did and are still looking after them, granting them their Portuguese Passport with which almost three entire villages from Goa have managed to uproot and move to Swindon, United Kingdom over the last few years and certainly another half a village from Goa has moved and is living near to me. How do I know this, for the first time in over 40 years I can hear Konkani being spoken on the 250 red bus route. Exciting, as I can understand them but soon I will be able to respond in our mother tongue, watch this space. Therefore for many the second most important "take-away" from the Portuguese is their "Portuguese Passport". Roland Francis may have forgotten this, three entire villages from Goa have not moved near to him, yet. The third most important "take-away" from the Portuguese is our national dish of "sorpotel". A friend of mine living in the USA for over 40 years said that there is one dish that she and her entire family must have (I repeat must have) on their Christmas table, that is "sorpotel". This dish was eaten by Portuguese peasants who brought it over to us, we added spices and soro to it so the dish was renamed "sorpotel" to reflect this. But the origins of this dish remain Portuguese. Then comes Roland Francis's comment about Indians, let us all remind ourselves our Goan freedom fighters fought for us to be part of India, until of course we were. Now our war cry appears to be "special status", "special status", "special status". With the number of goanet postings on toilets, you would have thought someone in Goa would have done something about it by now. Never mind the public toilets, even when I have been for weddings in "posh" venues, I am disgusted to find there is no soap in the toilets. Apparently this is because soap goes missing but what is there for these "posh" places to improvise and fit in soap dispensers on the walls and fill them with soap liquid like we have in the United Kingdom, is this so hard for them to do. What about their kitchen staff, do they have access to soap, is this not a real health hazard when handling food. Garbage lying around is much more of an environmental hazard than anything else. On my last visit to Goa in January, the situation appears to have gone much worse. Locals blame this on the foreign and local tourists or the Government! How about themselves, aren't they living there and shouldn't they take personal pride and responsibility for their own environment? Rationing of gas cylinders used for cooking, etc. Apparently new measures had to be introduced by the Government because the previous measures in place were not stringent enough to stop some locals "cashing in". Finally, a gem of a story, at a high level meeting held in London once, don't know how it came about but one of our learned gentleman was talking about a solution to a particular problem, moving the Mandovi River! When we came home, puzzled, I asked Melvyn if there was more than one Mandovi River in Goa because the one I was thinking about would need a few billion perfect (not cracked) claypots to be filled up in order to be moved. Aren't we special enough already, "a state" because that's what we are still in - a state? It would be good to see our community finally find a threshold on which we can all be satisfied at least. Happy might be a little too optimistic. Rose Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 13 May 2013
