------------------------------------------------------- CONVENTION OF THE GOAN DIASPORA FROM GOA INTO THE WORLD Lisbon, Portugal June 15-17, 2007 Details at: http://www.casadegoa.org -------------------------------------------------------
I'm afraid that the vivacious verbosity padding the content of this message from Arnold was actually a jerky jumble of contradictions, like some convoluted plot of a Greek tragedy that somehow turns out Goan-Triatr-like-comic in the end, largely owing to a willful suspension of disbelief on the part of the indulgent audience, so much so that I, for one, feel a desperate need to go back to the drawing board so as to better understand the original cause of this fury unleashed with a constant and nagging prodding at the brain of a duel prong'd thought-hoe - sense and nonsense - skirting the margins of this whole article by Arnold, heavily padded in the middle. Ooooooooooops!!! If it is not the above, then I have failed to understand what perhaps is good ol' English festooned with dazzling un-clarity! (or is it vivid vagueness?) Please, let me first understand what I have just typed: I seem to be saying that I am horrified at Arnold's uncontrolled & verbose use of English language throughout his article, which although he intends to make an ardent point, fails to make it ,or manages to make it badly, owing to a two pronged device of sense and non-sense he is consistent in employing throughout the article. If it is not that, then I do not understand English. Wait, let me be simpler: The article is either horrid or I do not know English! Well, that's it... well more or less! Or better still, be humble and ask before judging. So, Dear Arnold, with ref. to your posting on the Goanet,Dated: Wed, 30 May 2007 16:15:43,What are you saying in your message to Selma? Mogachi kiss, Charu.____________________________________________________________________ To Selma, "Being a Goan from the heart of Salcete, I cling to my identity as a Goan Catholic and I can be as jingoistic as Churchill if need be." RE- Yes! That "if need be." part is important. Is there a need then? Perhaps there is, perhaps not, let's see. You write: "However, the older I grow and the more I travel, I realise how futile it is to cling to our narrowly defined identities because time is the great assimilator. If we refer to the Greek civilisation, a lesser known fact about it is, there was no Greece as we know of it today. There were the Mycenaeans, the Dorians, the Minoans, the Athenians, to name a few and it took centuries of warfare to create Greece. And yet, today these ancient principalities are seamlessly assimilated." RE:-I think that the seemingly unconscious evolutionary intent is the world union and union of races in order to achieve that on Earth which nature has not yet achieved. Mortality seems unnecessary, and efforts of both the scientists and the Tantrics and Yogis have been to erradicate death from our midst. Besides, the race which will inherit the living planet has to be strong and to avoid inbreeding, there is a constant flux and shuffle of the races. What nature has not yet achieved is another matter massive in its thesis. Although I understand what you are trying to say, I feel that until the ultimate goal is grasped by man consciously, thereby consciously striving to live as world citizens and members of ONE HUMAN RACE, until such time as there will be no need for emigration offices and national boundaries and different currencies, demarking one from another as many distinct nations represented in their cultural preferences to exist, one must hang on to the more immediate social bond. So there is the sense of family,city,town,state,nation,continent,world, universe, cosmos and beyond which has a defined hierarchical and evolutionary purpose. All the tails will drop when the need for them to exist will have gone on a more universal level and it becomes a conspicuous & general proclivity rather than just a irregular tendency in the race. Yet, it must not follow that achievement of wider sense in a few should delete the narrow sense in all human beings. The few who lose it first will lead the way of course, but they should not abandon those who still NEED that sense to live. There seems to be an amazing nexus between all beings and all the states of living organisms. You give the example of Greek principalities, prompting me to wonder if there was anything like principalities or clans fixed to a geographical location in the race that seems to be essentially and in its instinct migratory or nomadic. (Bonding between the immediate family unit members seems to be there as a factor essential to the survival of an individual and by proxy of a group, clan and so on) It seems to me that somewhere along the line of progress, nature evolved certain self limiting hurdles, if you like, like group sense, sense of belonging to one species and not other, and the need to attach to a geographical location, etc... yet your "However, the older I grow and the more I travel, I realise how futile it is to cling to our narrowly defined identities because time is the great assimilator." is equally true indeed! By the way what we know as Greece today is not the Greece that we refer to with reverance either. Then: "Much of what you are proposing bears merit on economic grounds but will do little to preserve us culturally." RE:-I fail to understand that. What much of what is Arnold proposing that bears merit on economic grounds and will not preserve us culturally? and again you: "Today, culture is not defined by clansman ship, geography or religion." RE: Are you certain about that? You don't seem to be praying to Goddess Wiki after your return from Minachosotto? Or is she misleading you? (Gods do that from t t t!) "There is a world culture developing and my sincere hope is one day we will define ourselves as citizens of the world" To that I say, "TATHAASTOU!" Then we can say "look amchem Goinkaranchem Jogg!" "Goa will be a pleasant footnote in the annals of history, but it will assimilate seamlessly into the folds of the Indian subcontinent." RE:-But Goa has always been a 'footnote' (since the Portuguese) except in the minds of us Goans, and the "philistine" bombayites (Indians) who have more often treated Goa as a place to go to for drinks and sex than not. Generally speaking, Goa gets its special tinge because of the colonial interlude without which Goa and Goans would be merged into the intricate warp and the weft of that lovely fabric called Indian culture, don't you think? "boinni maka disti podona// hanv kuddim"...that's a song culturally Goan and only Goan, which has no economic viability. I hope I am not ripping this once? Aslyar mog asundi nazalyar "kator re bhaji !" Charu. Khoro Goinkar! _________________________________________________________________ Spice up your IM conversations. New, colorful and animated emoticons. Get chatting! http://server1.msn.co.in/SP05/emoticons/ ------------------------------------------------------- Goanet recommends, and is proud to be associated with, 'Domnic's Goa' - A nostalgic romp through a bygone era. This book is the perfect gift for any Goan, or anyone wanting to understand Goa. Distributed locally by Broadway, near Caculo Island, Panjim & internationally by OtherIndiaBookStore.Com. 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