Mr. Borges & Endangered Languages (1) By Tomazinho Cardozo
Mr. Sebastiao Borges is at his usual game once again. If anything is written that affects the Devnagori script adversely, he at once, comes with his own interpretation of the whole issue and tries to project it as a lie. These are his malicious ways to prove others wrong. Another worst habit that this "Professor" has is that when there are no arguments to defend he attacks you personally. His allegations are wild and without any substance. This wicked attitude of his, I have observed in many writings that he has done in English as well in Konkani against me. His only aim is to prove himself right by defaming others. In order to give in detail some important information about Konkani language vis-à-vis to expose the lies of Mr. Borges, I have divided his whole response into seven sub-topics. They are: (i) Personal allegations, (ii) Impact of OLA, (iii) Konkani Education, (iv) Konkani dialects, (v) Day-to-day use of Konkani, (vi) Konkani in Church literature and (vii) Konkani: an endangered language! I shall be posting one article each, possibly every week, so that Goans throughout the world get the first hand information about the activities of some fanatics like Mr. Borges who are all out to destroy Konkani in Roman script. Today I am dealing with the first sub-topic "Personal Allegations" Personal Allegations 1.. In his response Mr. Borges has tried to project me as an anti-Devnagori script person which is totally false. Mr. Borges knows it very well but purposely does it that way in order to create ill-will about me among the protagonists of Devnagori script. Let me re-remind Mr. Borges that I am not against Devnagori script at all but I am for equal status to Roman script along with Devnagori script. I am not fighting against Devnagori script but I am fighting for justice to Roman script because rightful status to Konkani in Roman script is denied to it by persons who have the same mentality like that of Mr. Borges. For Mr. Borges any one who supports Konkani in Roman script is the greatest devil on earth. Hence his devilish mind compels him to do anything and everything to oppose Roman script for Konkani. 2.. He alleges, "I have observed that two tiatrist couples (Cardozo and Mazarello, (prominent leaders of the anti-Devanagari lobby) invariably intercommunicate in English whether on the road, in a hall or in the church." One of the couples, he mentioned, is Cardozo couple. Although my name is not stated, I feel it refers to me only. I do not know where and when Mr. Borges has observed me and my wife communicating in English on the road, in a hall or in the church. Is he following us everywhere? Then I must be careful hence forth. As far as I am concerned, I have no contact with Mr. Borges at all except at the time of official meetings of Goa Konkani Akademi. My wife is never there with me for these meetings. How can you state such a lie Mr. Borges? 3.. Yet another lie of Mr. Borges. He states "One may remember that, among the Speakers of our Legislative Assembly, Tomazinho is perhaps the only one who used English exclusively in the House" This is yet another attempt of Mr. Borges to defame me in order to prove his point. This also displays his ignorance as far as the procedure of Legislative Assembly is concerned. Being a professor, he should have known that the Speaker of the house speaks the least. The Speaker mostly reads the matter provided to him by the Secretariat of the Legislative Assembly. All these matter is written in English. This does not happen only in Goa Assembly but also in our Parliament in Delhi. Speaker talks on the spur of the moment mostly during Question hour as well as when there is discussion on various issues and confrontation between the ruling and the opposition because the he (Speaker) has to maintain order and discipline in the House. I challenge Mr. Borges to prove that I used English exclusively in the House during my tenure as the Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly from 1995 to 1999. 4.. While talking about Konkani education, he makes yet another allegation which is totally false and baseless. He says "In fact, it is headmasters like Tomazinho who are largely responsible for this state of affairs." Ha. ha. ha. ha . I can only laugh at this childish and irresponsible statement. I prefer not to comment on such senile attitude of Mr. Borges. Before ending this part of my response, let me tell Mr. Borges that he can fool some people for sometime, he cannot fool all the people for all the time.
