Bleddy Goans and an East Indian bugger By George Menezes writer.geo...@gmail.com
Whoever Godfrey Pereira is, we Goans need to either give him an award, or pin a medal on his Bleddy East Indian chest.
Godfrey Pereira, a journalist who once worked with Sunday magazine Kolkotta and India Today wrote a “no holds barred” piece on the Goanet chastising the laid-back Goans and literally tearing them to pieces in the same fashion as the mine owners are tearing up the rich Goan soil mindless of the destruction that is caused all around.
I have a suspicion that Godfrey Pereira is not an ex-journalist. He is an “agent provocateur”. He uses language that would not only make a sailor blush but the entire Indian Navy turn red like the setting sun on the beaches of Goa.
I like what Godfrey wrote. It is a wake-up call to all of us Goans even though he gets carried away and is not in touch with the present day reality of Goa. He also exaggerates the achievements of the East Indians in the Gorai- Uttan agitation in Mumbai.
About Goa he says “the Russians have been openly running drugs in Goa. Army deserters from Israel have put up signs in Goan clubs stating “No Indians allowed”.
“What have you, paowallahs been doing?” he asks “Eating last night’s curry for breakfast? Susegad.” Later he goes on to say that beach after beach is being decimated and not a “beep” from the bloody Goan men. In a colorful metaphor, as colorful as the cashew fruit, he asks “what happened to the cashew nuts between our legs? The Goan women don’t seem to care as long as the sons send money back home.”
In a voice full of anger he says “let somebody else revolt Bleddy pass the pao, men. Make sign of the cross, do the mando. It is God’s will.”
“At least the East Indians are trying. What have you Goans been doing while your hills are being raped and your fresh water resources plundered. What? Have another feni? Talk about how Aunty Mary’s daughter is now going out with that Bleddy German bugger? Or are you all fighting your sisters for property you don’t think they deserve.”
In contrast, Godfrey praises the East Indians: “In Mumbai thousands of people from the ten villages of the Gorai-Uttan belt have been fighting Essel World India’s “largest amusement park” that’s coming up near Borivali. They are protesting against the proposed Special Entertainment Zone (SEZ) spread over 14,183 acres in the area. They know they stand to lose the core of their culture if this happens and so they are fighting this encroachment disguised as tourism. At least The East Indians there are trying.”
Whether castigating Goans or praising East Indians, Godfrey has not done his home work as well as he should have.
The reality today is that Goans have, however slowly, turned into human rights activists. There are individuals like Sebastian Rodrigues, Venita Coelho, Padma Shri Norma Alvares. Hartman de Souza, Durgadas Gaonkar and many more.
There are Organizations like the renowned Doctor Oscar Rebello’s Goa Bachao Abiyan, Floriano Lobo’s Goa Su-Raj Party, Bailancho Sad, or the very recent Community activism through “Video Volunteers” at village level.
So many heroic individuals and groups, too many to name, not to mention journalists, artists, musicians, fashion designers you name it, who have actively supported most movements to save Goa from its multi-pronged perdition.
As well-known journalist Frederick Noronha writes “these stories hardly ever emerge. The meek of the earth shall not inherit the headlines, as Indira Gandhi once famously said. Their campaigns lack immediacy, is bereft of the drama, and above all, these are simple people!”
In any case, Godfrey needs to update himself although, as many Goa watchers would agree, the movements are not sustainable and are not able to dislodge the political people in power for the same reasons Indians everywhere are not able to do so on account of massive fissures among the common people. Namely caste, sub-caste and creed.
On the other hand Godfrey has no excuse in having got the Gorai Uttan agitation wrong.
I like the East Indians. I became their adopted son when I built a cottage at the far end of the Gorai beach near the lighthouse, almost having a private cove for myself and my family on weekends.
When thugs started to excavate the sand all along the beach and especially in front of my house, when cottages for love-birds were built on Customs owned property, when the bullock-cart owner, my friendly neighbor, was killed by Mumbai thugs forcibly grabbing property, when Essel World was built ,there was not a whimper from the people of Gorai. Not a “beep” as Godfrey would say.
I was advised to stop writing complaints and bringing my very senior police friends to have a look at what was happening. “Uncle” they said to me “you are here only on weekends. Your house is the furthest from the village. All they have to do one night is to burn it down”
Godfrey should know that the successful stalling of the special entertainment zone of 14,000 acres was not a movement of the East Indians alone.
In fact the whole community was splintered into two groups. One consisting of NCP politicians, East Indians of course, who wanted the SEZ. And the other group, also East Indians, who were against the SEZ.
This polarization would have cost the East Indians dearly if Medha Patkar who was fighting anti-SEZ battles along the coast had not extended it to Gorai-Uttan belt.
It became a national issue and was backed by Cardinal Oswald Gracias who issued a letter asking all parish priests and their flock to back the agitation.
The Bombay Catholic Sabha, the Christian Secular Forum, the news paper “Spotlight”, the powerful Vasai Human Rights Organization led by people like Fr Francis Britto and Marcus Dabre not to mention Abraham Mathai of the Minorities Commission all put their weight behind the agitation.
The beneficiaries are no doubt Indians in general and East Indians in particular. Do you hear me, Godfrey? In what you wrote, you did a good job either way. (ENDS)
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