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Dear Jose,
My inbox went down over the Viva Goa photos, almost
1,500 hits daily, the e-mail response was staggering.
I must quickly weave together the disparate strands
uniting Rene, Goa Day & the Devanagiri script. Certainly
you may be right wrt the re-engineered Konkani Romi
script. That does not make wrong my displeasure with
the underhand slipping in of the much-detested Devanagiri
script into Goan life. It might be tolerated and even now
accepted alongside the Romi script, but must never again
be allowed to enslave us. For the record I'm not a 'mogi',
nor fluent in Devanagiri konkani, just the Devanagiri script.
Rene is the face of Goa Day, whose antecedents remain
unclear. Despite spirited defenses, there is a difference.
Credit must always be acknowledged, lest a maverick take
advantage of the vacuum. A co-ordinator and a genuine
founder are quite different. Like Solomon's judgement, a
genuine founder would have understood the call to arms.
Goa Day is a creation, an ephemeral child, of the diaspora.
How many Goans in Goa take even a moment's notice of it,
let alone celebrate it ? Therein lies your problem - the long
simmering resentment of native Goans with the diaspora,
and their glib, flighty, fanciful ways. When irate Goans march
for their script in the flooded, steamy streets of Goa, the
diaspora Goans are celebrating WGD with song and dance,
toasting their personal success year after year, tossing off
jarring phrases "boonies","freeway", summering","turnpike",
blah, blah, blah... is it any wonder brilliant writers like Elisabeth
end up being mauled by the likes of Cecil Pinto and Sunith V?
The diaspora could do heaps for those who fight on back home.
Like support the script battle. And if you think it is possible to
ignore those of our less fortunate brethren, then may I quote
Walter Pitkin in reminding you that we must remain the enemy
of the good - because to love the best is to see the whole Goan
world in a fresh and startling light. As with the origins of WGD,
that being possible to hate half-knowledge, half-hearted ideals,
half-skills, sussegado,complacency, sets fire to something inside you.
Like many, our Goan world perishes under the misleading of stupid
people who disbelieve in perfection. Pitkin again. Calling themselves
realists, they are actually victims of the vulgar myth of man's supreme,
invincible incompetence. Rank leaders rise up with the day, saving
Goa from the govt., the Raj, the ghanttiis, even Goans themselves.
Deeming people to be much worse than they are, these so-called
leaders become compromisers, shirkers, or false liberals who spout
words and choke on deeds. True leaders will unite the diaspora
and the native. And never allow ourselves to be sold short, of our
cuture or destiny. Verily "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance".
Always,
FR.
.....
>Dear FR,
>wrt Rene: Like you too have said, he is a good guy. He does the best he is
>able to, and I commend him for that. Let's assist him if we can.
>
>wrt the Goa Day origins: I am sure the credit lies with the Kuwait Goans
>who started this event in the early 1990s. I also credit Prof George Pinto
>(and a fine Goan lady whose name escapes me at this moment) with the date
>etc
>of the present GoaDay. However, whoever the parents of the idea, and we
>should surely acknowledge them, it is Rene Baretto who has played the role
>of the
>active 'Father' of Goa Day, and Basilio Magno as the 'Godfather'.
>wrt Devanagri: Is it possible that we are somehow mixing up Devanagri (the
>script) with English (the language)?
>
>I personally believe that Devanagri is better suited to correctly give
>letter-form to the spoken form of Konkani. However, as Jorge de Abreu
>Noronha wrote in some time ago, that difficulty can be overcome in the
>Romscript, quite easily and without the headache of the reEngineered Romi
>Konkani script.
>
>If Konkani is to grow in more avenues than just the Tiatrs, the movers and
>shakers must think again. One method is to accept that alienation NEVER...
>ULO is the only present Konkani publication which has a chance of
>succeeding....while Sunaparant and Gulab have every opportunity to post
>a...
>Do understand very clearly, FR ....it is NOT the script which is the
>foundational problem for Konkani, it the mutilated and re-engineered
>Konkanithat is.
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