I am amazed by the patience of some contributors to GoaNet and by the
insolence of others. I have been trying to keep up with all the various
threads and every now and then something jumps out that needs to be
addressed but as Bosco mentioned in his Admin message, we members too
have real lives away from the list.
There will be opinions from every quarter that will be argued for and
against but if we all keep in mind that apart from being a goan
cybertinto for chatting, this list hopefully will generate ideas for the
betterment of Goa and will not just be used to feed individual egos.
Let us learn from rather than try to teach each other. A byline from a
colleague struck a chord - Quit asking people what they think. Begin
watching what they do. Ignore their words; study their actions which
revealed an interesting site and article when I googled the phrase...
http://www.wizardacademy.com/showmemo.asp
Some threads (eg. the US led war in Iraq) have little to do with Goa but
others (eg. Catholic religion) is a hot issue as after the Portuguese
led domination and conversions, it has left deep rooted influences on
Goan traditions, culture and society. But the fact that Konkani posts
outnumber Portuguese ones (English being taken for granted as the
dominant medium of communication) goes to show that the main intent of
this list is our geographic commonality rather than religious or
political affiliations.
Having said that, there are certain norms of decency that should be
observed when dealing with others in a public forum and that is the
avoidance of personal insults to identifiable entities, whether they be
individuals (clergy, devotees, professionals, etc.) or groups (eg.
ethnic, religious or based on sexual orientation), the members of which
often have no influence on their inclusion.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out my disgust at whoever posted the
tuti frutti joke. You definitely offended some members of this list
with it. This list is as good at it's lowest common denominator...
let's try to raise that standard.
Kevin Saldanha
Mississauga, Canada
