------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | New on Goanet's website's A&E section - http://www.goanet.org | | Book in Review: A Kind of Absence - João da Veiga Coutinho | | POEM: SUSEGAAD - Cynthia Gomes James | | http://www.goanet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=216 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goencho Saib for Sale by V. M. de Malar
It had to happen sooner or later, there's a relic of Goencho Saib for sale on the Internet, check out www.ebay.com if you fancy making a bid. We've seen artwork from our churches being offered for sale online before, with the ominous guarantee "straight from Goa". We've all read about the spate of church burglaries that has stripped many of our vulnerable communities of their irreplaceable heritage. And now this, on sale for a mere 50 American dollars, a tiny scrap of linen "authenticated by Rev. Henry Westropp, SJ" which allegedly touched Francis Xavier's "incorrupt body". First, let's remember not to get too excited, because the picture of the "relic" seems to indicate that it was nothing more than a 1930's commercial souvenir picked up by an Italian pilgrim who then took it with him when he migrated to Australia; the item is being offered on the Internet from there. Even now, the "relic" has quite modest value, the current owner asked for 50 dollars for a bundle that also includes newspaper clippings, an RC missal, and a book on Catholicism to boot, and the highest bid (from a UK buyer named 'goamania') is lower than that. Second, let's remember that this particular "incorrupt body' has been dismembered, relic by relic, bit by bit, for centuries. There's the famous story of the bitten-off toe, there's the femur that sits somewhere forgotten in Macao. And then we mustn't forget the ultimate souvenir, the arm that was detached and ceremoniously carted off to Rome at the request of the Pope himself. This fragment of cloth isn't anything on that scale; its presumed sanctity is based on an allegation that's impossible to prove. Plus, it really does look like something that was mass-produced; it can't have been difficult to procure cloth that had touched the body in the 30's, since every exposition was open casket. Of course, let's also acknowledge that there is something inherently creepy about the distinctively Southern European obsession with physical relics that was imported and inflicted on Goa by Portuguese religious fanatics, this unsettling emphasis on fingernails and hair and scraps of century-old skin. The "relic" for sale isn't even that important, it's just a scrap of cloth, but one can't help but feel that there's something unhealthy in the attention paid to it merely because of its alleged proximity to what is inarguably an ancient corpse. This might have been a big deal in medieval times, but it's extremely off-putting in 2006. Still, there is something unnerving about this E-bay auction. It comes at a time when virtually everything we have is coming under a microscope of speculative demand. Goan property, by the hectare, is for sale to the highest bidder via a pestilential scourge of builders and estate agents. Goan antiques are big business, sold all over the world (including on the Internet) to canny collectors and dealers. The Goan holiday is becoming a universal dream, attracting punters from a bewildering range of countries; Russians, Israelis, Spaniards and Japanese, they all want a piece of what we have, and we're proving to be a community of real suckers by selling out without understanding what we possess. The spirited thirtysomething Goan artist, Theodore Mesquita, from Campal, once considered putting a provocative advertisement in the newspapers, after he'd become quite fed up of seeing similar ads promising "Indo-Portuguese" houses, and "Indo-Portuguese" antiques, and "Indo-Portuguese" furniture. Ted threatened to put his own ad among these, listing his "Indo-Portuguese" grandmother for sale, complete with certificate of authentication and period wardrobe. "It will come to this," he said, "after the land, and the houses, and the antiques, and the furniture, moves out of our hands, we'll only have the old folk left to sell. And the outsiders who have the land, and the houses, and the antiques, and the furniture, will still want even more "authentic" Indo-Portuguese relics." Ted's complaints sounded funny a few months ago, but artists often have a visionary knack for solemn, meaningful, prophecy. This international E-bay auction reminds us just how perilously far gone we are. Today Goencho Saib, tomorrow Avo and Grandpa. What kind of Goa are we going to leave for future generations? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VM de Malar is the pen name of a former Goanetter now in Goa. VM regularly writes for the Goa and Mumbai media. GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. 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