Dear goanet readers After another evening of fine wining and dining, my thanks go to Mr Eugene Dias and his staff of Palms of Goa Restaurant, 160 New Cavendish Street, London for the excellent food and hospitality extended to all of us. Anyone wishing to feast at this restaurant can find details at www.palmsofgoa.com. Parking is free after 6.30 p.m.
This evening was the launch event of HTG "How's the Goan?" and a new initiative organised by Jason Fernandes and his team who felt the need to address the community gap in the United Kingdom for our youth. The evening concluded with Clinton Tavares entertaining us in his own musical style which was a real treat. His album is due out shortly and you can catch up with him on his facebook page www.facebook.com/clintontavaresmusic. A room full of young men and women of our community mingling with each other and enjoying themselves in a civilised manner took me back to the times when I was in my twenties and thirties. At this time, there was a whole group of us that went to a community event nearly every single weekend of the year having a great time. So why did I leave the event feeling that the youth of today or the community in general are experiencing some sort of Goan identity crisis? Was this event the first new green shoots of trying to address this? Jason and his team are organising further events (the next on the Konkani language planned for July) and I hope that these exploratory sessions will lead to our youth realising that within our community is the very best of everything, in our food, music, dancing, language and culture. Not all is positive, we do have differences, what can be done, what cannot be done but we all have to be proud of our culture and be ambassadors to showcase ourselves to the rest of the world. Not that the rest of the world doesn't know about us already. Non-Goans outside India enjoy Goa so much that they return to it year after year and I have often said that they market our homeland much better than we do! Jason Fernandes was a participant in the Goa Government Know Goa Programme. He is intending to set up a charity with the following aims: - An enquiry into what it means to be part of the UK Goan Community. - An access for everyone to contribute to the making of "enlivening results" in the UK Goan Community. - To be a representative voice for UK Goan Community Youth. Can you help Jason achieve these aims. He can be contacted on jason.p.fernan...@gmail.com or jason.p.fernan...@googlemail.com. Soon the Olympics will be in London, England and a flaming torch will be passed from one athlete to another before it gets to its final destination, lighting up the skies day and night. Let us hope that "How's the Goan?" which has started as a small flame continues to grow with each event planned, blazing the path of our youth as they journey towards reclaiming their birthright. Rose Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 1 May 2012
