GREAT FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR ALL GOANS by Oscar Lobo

Kitem uddoilem re baba!!! Great food for thought for all Goans; not only in our bangarachem Goem (Golden Goa) but mostly to all of us Goans who are spread throughout the length and breadth of the universe.

 

The late Jawaharlal Nehru (JN)seized Goa by means of war which was against Gandhi’s principles of non-violence. The way Goa was handled by the great JN was a blunder because Portugal was in no way any match for India. It was not a “liberation” as some people call it, it was designed to increase JN’s own popularity contest which was dwindling during the Indo China war.

 

I recall JN’s statement (which was repeated on Goanet when Goans wanted to have self rule like Falkland Island and recently East Timor), JN retorted saying “Goa ka lokh ajeeb hai” – little did JN know the history and culture of Goans for 451 years. Perhaps his knowledge was only based on P&O cruises that he may have taken during his reign and the information spread in the Gandhi family.

 

As Wikipedia states: The 1961 annexation of Goa (also referred to as Operation Vijay), Invasion of Goa, the Liberation of Goa and the Portuguese-Indian War was an action by India’s armed forces that ended Portuguese rule in its Indian enclaves in 1961. The Operation Vijay by the Indian government, involved air, sea and land strikes (bridges) for over 36 hours, and was a decisive victory for India, ending 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule in Goa. 

 

Twenty two Indians (there should have been none) and thirty Portuguese were killed in the fighting. The brief conflict drew a mixture of world wide praise and condemnation. In India, the action was seen as liberation of historically Indian territory, while Portugal and U.N. viewed it as an aggression against national soil. The United Nations took 14 years to recognise Goa as a part of India (1975)

 

I recall the words of J.F. Kennedy in 1961 to India “You spend the last fifteen years preaching ... People are saying, the preacher has been caught coming out of the brothel”

 

The Republic of India did not exist at the time when Goa came under Portuguese rule – 1510. India was only born in 1947, how then can the liberation” take place?

 

I think the Goans must stop using the word "liberation" as this is the Indian propaganda and freedom fighters “retirement funds”. When any country is invaded, the first thing that the military does is to take control of all air and sea ports. Therefore, after a certain period of time when there is a Government formed, the Army surrenders control of air and sea ports to the Civilians. The Dabolim airport is run by the Navy since 1961 and they are in full control until today. Furthermore, there are barracks of army in the heart of Panjim where there are civilians! Goa is still occupied; however, this time around by the Indian military.

 

As far as Konkani goes, it will slowly fade away simply because of Goan Diaspora and the euphoria of speaking English and Portuguese. Speak English as well as your mother tongue “Konkani”. I am going to start right from now. The Goans in Goa are talking English and Goans overseas keep saying they do not know Konkani. Hindi and Marathi are already the main languages in Goa and English is used by the elite Goans!? Konkani is disowned by many in Goa and particularly overseas. The life of Konkani depends more on Goans overseas.

 

Dialogue and communication is important if we are to keep our Goan identity alive mostly in Diaspora as there are more Goans overseas than in Goa and other parts of India. It is high time that the Goan organisations abroad commence talking in Konkani even if the accents are not in par with the pure Konkani speakers.

 

In the circumstance I am seizing this opportunity of including some passionate Goans and non-Goans who have at some point in time written or copied me on their e-mails/and or Goan forums. It is the responsibility of each Goan settled overseas to keep in touch with our language and use this as the main purpose of existence.

 

Young kids have the ability to learn more than one language as they are growing. I know of families that talk to their children in English, Konkani and Portuguese. The onus to keep Konkani going rests with Goans settled abroad who are the beacon of light for our mother tongue to exist.

 

Mog ani somjikai asundi

(Let there be love and understanding)

INDIA PIRATED GOA, CHINA IS REGAINING RAPIDLY ITS LAND FROM INDIA by Johny Rebello

In whichever way China may be perceived in different quarters, China will not spare India, and that is just as sure as the sun will arise forever, every morning.  India has notoriously established itself in the forefront as a regional culprit and therefore it is but inevitable that India is in the waiting to be taught a hard corrective lesson even harder, sooner or later. China did it in 1962 after Goa was invaded but has been incomplete.

 

It is India who has given a cause to .the Chinese by swallowing other people’s territories and administering them with impunity under her suppressive colonial regime. Indeed, India has swallowed more than it can digest and will soon have to vomit or defecate. India has retained and swallowed Chinese territories that have been occupied through bogus treaties initiated by the British when they made pacts with Tibetan monks and other regional chieftains ignoring the Chinese authority at Peking, to rewrite India/China border to run along the crest of Himalayas when traditionally the Chinese border begins from the foothills from the Indian side!

 

India pirated Goa on the International high seas, when Goa along with every other former colony irrespective was conceded by UN to be decolonized, and while it was in the course of its transition to a sovereign statehood, with its unequivocal right as per every former colony to stand side by side and shoulder to shoulder as a nation, along all nations of the United Nations.

 

In 1975 India swallowed chicken sized Sikkim overthrowing the young monarch to be an incapable drug addict. For generations now Kashmir has been held in a limbo denying the Kashmiris their deserved freedom to self exists as a country. 

 

However , the Chinese are no any fools and know this all well, and are watching critically at seeing the way Goa has been ruthlessly colonially suppressed and brutalized and ill-treated vis-à-vis to the high degree preferential autonomy and dignity accorded and granted   to Macao and Honk Hong to self-rule their domain under their own honoured flag unhindered, and to participate in the international events like FIFA and Olympics and, where they can stop, unlike in Goa, any Ghanties or Russians to enter their territories.

 

Imagine if Goa could be part of China’s territory instead of being part of colonial India’s. If only! And how advanced and prosperous Goa would be with Goa and its resources reserved for Goans only!

 

The Chinese can also now see well how the Goans have been so mal-treated and humiliated as to prostrate in submission as beggars, to beg for Special Status, when there is no cause for them ever to beg, when they have full dignified right to be masters of their own land and destiny under their rightly entitled independence and under their own Goan nationality.

 

However, since China is bound to invade to regain its territory sooner or later and when this process starts, it would be wise on the Goan part to seek help from the Chinese to free Goa together with their territories in order to restore peace and stability to the whole region in all fairness of International justice.

 

In such an event there will not be a place for such IIT graduate clown like Parrikar to run a one-man-show because Goa will highly advance like Macao and Honk Kong and will need highly qualified people to take charge. The quicker China attempts to regain its land the better will be for the Goans. It will be a blessing in disguise from heaven!

THE RAPE OF GOA - CATHOLIC HERALD

22nd December 1961 : UNO denounced Portugal for repressing revolt on her own territory. If it fails to deal adequately with Nehru for the rape of Portuguese Goa, it will prove to have been the biggest confidence trick ever bunched on political history, On Nehru's principle, France should forthwith march on Monaco, Germany on Luxembourg, and Spain should annex Gibraltar. His treatment of Kashmir and Hyderabad should have been warning enough. The disruption wrought by Indians in the Congo, and the recent meeting on Indian soil of Portuguese malcontents reveal the real depths of the Goanese issue. Diverting attention from Chinese depredations on the Indian border account for only part of the story. Nehru, the "positive neutralist". has a stake in the leadership of the Afro-Asian polity. He must champion nationalist causes. He must help those whose attack on Portuguese Africa is a major contribution to prising the white man out of Africa and letting in leftist subversion. Angola was a convenient spot to drive the wedge in. Now Portugal is attacked on a second front. The next stage? Maybe the signal is about to be given for the Portuguese dissidents in Conakry to move on Portuguese Guinea, or for those in Tanganyika to move on Mozambique. Those who would hasten the end of colonial government sometimes overlook the greater evils they may be letting loose—the cruelty of African to African, and Asian to Asian; massacres of blacks by blacks in the Congo and Angola; refusal of natural rights in Ghana, Guinea and Ceylon. Then too, for those of us who have placed our faith in UNO, there must now be disillusion. No one has been more active in its name than Nehru, who now repudiates its conciliation Out of hand. And what can it do in the face of Sukarno's lust for West New Guinea? UNO'S glory has been its achievements on the social welfare and economic planes. Politically, it is neither a super-sovereign state nor a true concert of states. It is a battleground for its members' sectional interests. Members support its adventures without enthusiasm. There is no religio to fire its soldiers' blood. To turn UNO into a "world government" or some sort of sovereign body here and now would be to confuse internationalism with cosmopolitanism. Destroy all that is meant by "national" and you are left without ingredients for a truly inter-national entity. If, in defiance of the subsidiarity principle, you divest nations of all individual sovereignty, of their characters and traditions, of their power to contribute that something which each one alone has to offer, you are left with a disembodied metaphysical theory. What is true of the relation between person and state is true of that between state and concert of states. It is beyond dispute that notions of national sovereignty have erred on the side of exclusiveness and acquisitiveness. 11ut, subject to the sacrifices outlined in Mater et Magistra, it is the free dialogue between nations and local federations prepared to fight for their national rights and yet to yield justice and charity, one to the other, that should constitute UNO's success. then, has it failed politically so far? The answer may WI-grt in what we wrote just before Mission Sunday about the need for the Western apostle to stop talking to the Hindu or Muslim as though he were a pagan, and to build instead on the powerful elements of truth he possesses. What is true on the level of faith may be equally true in terms of national character and philosophy. There can be no true rapprochement of Euro-America and Afro-Asia until we really begin to understand each other, to show that we understand, and to feel that we are understood. This may sound trite. In fact. it is a process that has hardly begun. It is not enough for diplomats to do it. Whole nations must do it before anyone can be convinced of its genuineness, let alone he converted. If it is not too late, UNO is the natural context for amends to be made, for we can at least find common ground in joint Social welfare action. THIS is the second time this year that Britain has had to face the prospect of an open breach with a major Commonwealth member. South Africa's affairs were at least internal in a physical sense, though of grave ideological implications throughout the world. But India has stepped out of her boundaries to become an invader and aggressor. The Commonwealth cannot he saved by sweeping its scandals under the carpet ; and this time the carpet would have to be a pretty big one. This is the time for the truth. If the Commonwealth cannot keep its own house in order, what hope is there for the United Nations—unless it be strengthened by a formal political association between the Commonwealth and a united Europe. This would be the best setting in the world for the re-thinking to be done by East and West in regard to each other. - Catholic Herald