Re: [Goanet] Goa... the simple life re writing
* G * O * A * N * E * T C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May There is no better, value for money, guest house. Confirm your bookings early or miss-out Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. An excellent comment Elisabeth. Good writing helps you convey your ideas clearly and succinctly as well as extend your thought processes. And its of value not only in the careers that Elisabeth mentions but of great necessity in science, teaching, law and business. A well written email from a businessman is surely going to impress more than one with U 2 R . So good for you Fred - keep up your fine work of raising Riza to be a well written and well spoken young woman. I enjoyed her blog. Helga I think the problem parents have, trying to encourage children to pursue writing, is that they perceive so few people can actually make a living out of it. This perception is incorrect. Writing can lead one into a variety of careers from advertising to television to publishing to training. ___ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
Re: [Goanet] Clarification ...... re castes in diaspora theGulf's contribution
Hi Elisabeth, I wonder about that although I hope you are right. Because Fatima and I have lived a better part of our lives in Goa we have little hope that castes can be wiped off with simple economics. I would think that education from a young age by progressive parents is probably the best bet. If I look back at families who married regardless of castes, religion and Goan/non Goan tags, they have been highly educated, progressive and very active in social issues. Money hardly ever solves anything and I think you may be a tad enthusiastic with your 'The mostly impoverished Bamon families'! Many are very wealthy and successful in their professions and I dont think they have 'aching hearts'! However does that make them better humans? Its for each one of us to judge and if they don't meet our expectations to avoid or even discard. There is a lot of angst over the caste system in East Africa with discriminatory clubs and a very ugly mess it is. But I was equally offend by the many Goans who even as they cry caste turn around and berate Africans and use racial slurs which in their bigotry they pass on to their kids. In a case of 'its funny if it wasn't sad' I heard a young British Goan boy call all blacks 'Humphreys' - that's how he pronounced it! On my few trips to the Middle East I was also surprised to hear many Goans berate the Arabs. I guess discrimination is not the pejorative of a few - it exists in the hearts of many of us who discriminate and then turn around and cry foul. How can we forget the newly coined slur 'Ghantti'? It could be our greatest contribution to the Books of Bigots! Helga To this end, I think the Gulf Goan has contributed immensely in leveling the playing field. The Gulf Goan, fled to the Gulf in the 1970s and by the 1980s, with the rupee devaluation became a lakhpathi over-night. The mostly impoverished Bamon families back home had to sit up and welcome his petro-dollars with an ache in their hearts and a smile on their faces. The Bamon may have been the bank manager at State Bank of India but it was the Gulfie's greasy money he was after. Moreover, astute Goan families in the Gulf made sure they gave their children the best education money could buy, shipped them off to the US or UK for further education and groomed them with memberships to clubs, overseas travel, music lessons, sporting activities, etc. Second generation expat children became indistinguishable in terms of their cultural finesse from the so-called elite of Goan society. They also became doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs and all those things formerly reserved for the upper echelons of Goan society. ___ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
Re: [Goanet] Clarification ......Tanzania re castes in diaspora
Sorry Elisabeth that I have to break the bad news to you and many other ex pats who thought that castes do not exist outside of Goa. They do - very much. Whether in Toronto, Vancouver, and all the big cities in the USA where our community has spread and of course in the UK. Maybe as a kid growing up in the Middle East you did no notice it but the ME because it has a very recent immigrant populace is especially culpable. Yes its more stratified that our much loved bebinca. Why do moms bring their kids back to Goa to get married? Because marriage is the one big highlight of our otherwise prosaic lives when castes really matter.Please dont get me wrong - I am sure there are many whose conscience is lily white but there are many others who actually enjoy their 'status'. To your I've always been very curious to know how one could tell the caste of a person - no its not tattooing for that would have been too brazen. Fred quite astutely figured out a long time ago the cunningness that delves in the question: Where in Goa are you from?. We should speak about this more viva voce. Helga I'm so glad I grew up in the Gulf. There, second generation expat Goans were oblivious to the caste system of Goa. Initially there were so few of us Goan families, that we banded together just for friendship and cultural comfort, regardless of caste or creed. We had Goan clubs for all Goans, wonderful dances and football tournaments, and most of us went to a school run by Italian nuns and affiliated to the University of London. That de facto became a Goan Catholic school. It was only when I returned to Goa as an adult, that the hideousness of the caste system in Goan Catholic families became apparent to me. Elisabeth --- Tony Barros [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: As for the Goan Gymkhana Club in Nairobi, membership was restricted to the cream de creme- the Touchables Brahmins. And after membership was opened following Kenya's December 1963 independence, subtle forms of prejudice by brahmins continued to prevail. As also stated in my previous postings on the same subject, it was very apparent at dances when brahmin girls would refuse to dance with non-brahmin boys, and brahmin boys would not dance with non-brahmin girls- even though they studied with them from Grade 1 thru to Grade 12. Tony Barros. Union, New Jersey. U . S . A . __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org ___ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
