20, 45... random numbers at Goanetters' meet 2005

20, 45... random numbers at Goanetters' meet 2005

>From Frederick Noronha Goanet-Goa

"Did you count whether 20 people are coming?" Cecil Pinto asked. I laughed in reply; the estimate was as rough and unpremeditated as the functioning of Goanet. Like this list -- based on serendipity, goodwill and love-and-fresh-air -- the Goanetters meeting 2005 went ahead fairly smoothly too.

It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say we all learnt from one another. I almost passed out to learn from Cynthia Gomes James, who works with GE Logistics, that she got 45 email responses to one of her articles, put out via the Goanet Reader. Now, that isn't the kind of feedback one even gets from being published in the main newspapers in Goa. You wouldn't even have so many people stopping you to offer feedback on the streets of Panjim. Hey Cynthia, when is your book coming out?

Cecil and engineer-turned-writer Jose "Amazing Goa" Lourenco were the first in. They were already tucked into what seemed to be a meal; but it was 4 pm and we were a few minutes late. Before Jose was a lone copy of his yet-to-be-officially-released book on the churches of Goa. Frankly, the printer in Goa has done a good job of the book (not to speak of Jose's expectedly-good content). Hard to believe that Jose could get this quality in Margao itself.

For his part, Cecil was unusually silent, despite my best attempts to provoke him. He has apparently changed his introductory punch-line, and now describes him as "world famous all over Goa... and in coastal Karnataka".

In true Goanet style -- what would life be without a few blatantly offtopic posts? -- we just wasted time in endlessly introducing everyone to each one. Till Gerson da Cunha, the Mumbai-based advertising guru Gerson da Cunha [1] asked whether this was all that was going to happen.

By this time, some of our early guests had already come, excused themselves and left. There was Eddie Verdes and family, from the Gulf. Rajan Parrikar, a Silicon Valley engineer who studied at the Goa Engico (Engineering College, Farmaguddi) is an e-friend via the s.c.i.g network [2] or [3]. (What's that, someone asked.) Rajan is active on Usenet newsgroups like rec.music.indian.classical [4] Someone once described him thus: "Rajan Parrikar's strengths are as a critic: his observations are intelligent, intricate, irreverent, spicy, humorous, and venomous." Another poster said: The Lester Bangs of Indian Classical Music.

Vivian "Shenzi" D'Souza came in from idyllic Succoro (Bardez) but had to leave early.

[1] http://www.google.co.in/search?q=Gerson+da+Cunha +Mumbai&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8 &oe=utf-8&client=firefox&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial [2] http://news-reader.org/soc.culture.indian.goa/ [3] http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.indian.goa [4] http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.indian.classical/

Gerson spoke briefly about their work at AGNI -- the Action for Good Governance and Networking in India. [5] He stressed on the importance of citizens to raise their voice so that governments are forced to take note.

Vivek Menezes, aka VM (or VM de Malar) [6], next presented Goanet's plan to build a group blog, an initiative which he would lead. VM, now in his thirties and resettled in Goa after being abroad since the age of 13, narrated his experiences with Goanet since its early days. He made the point that diaspora issues are seldom covered by the media in Goa. "For a community that is well-educated and wealthy, we are quite primitive in deploying technology (to serve our communication and other needs)," he argued.

[5] http://www.agnimumbai.org/ [6] vmingoa at gmail.com

VM pointed to the way in which blogs had changed the mainstream media, and pointed to the recent example where Goan scientist Helga Gomes (of Verna) had gone to Antarctica, as part of a US mission, and had written a very interesting blog about her work and voyage there.

"We need to shake-up the way we look at ourselves. Blogs can have an explosive effect on media, society and culture," he said. When VM made the point that the diaspora was "disconnected" from Goa, others agreed that the Gomant Vishwa Sammelan (the government-organised non-resident meet, this year scheduled for Jan 3-4, 2006), as currently held, was a "waste of time".

Other suggestions that came up included one to share with non-residents the needs of Goa. It was also argued that the heritage of Goa, now under immense pressure whether from commercialism or corruption in planning, had to be projected to the diaspora and all Goans as something which "exists, is valuable, and which we all should care about".

Melinda Powell-Coutinho stressed the need for those away from Goa to be aware of things, and stay connected. The former Air-India air hostess said after living years in Goa, she was still to come to terms with the local style of driving on the roads, and the problem of garbage.

Manuel Caldeira, a Merceskar now in Moira, felt said that some Goans wanted to do very little with their home. Veena Patwardhan, of Cuncolim and Mumbai, said people seemed to busy fighting private battles, while not being aware of the wider problems that faced them, including political.

Others who spoke included Bailancho Saad's Albertina 'Tina' Almeida, Anita Comelo, Ana Goswami, Miguel Braganza... and help me to fill-in the missed out names here. Hermano Xavier, a young Portuguese national of Goan-German origins, now doing his higher studies on a Portugal-India exchange scholarship at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (Delhi), was more in listening mode, though he does have a lot to contribute. He runs the supergoa.com website and the forum_portugal_goa@yahoogroups.com mailing list. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/forum_portugal_goa

"With many expats need an answer to the question of 'What can we do?',' said Cynthia Gomes-James, who helped the formation of a Goan-East Indian-Mangalorean group in the US, called the GEMS of Texas. She suggested listing 'action points' via Goanet, where readers across the globe could take a stand. She also suggested a 'volunteers for Goa' project, where young people could spend some months or a year doing some constructive work here.

Anibel Ferrus-Comelo, who worked with labour in the UK, pointed to the example of the Filipino diaspora who were both the most organised and politically conscious. Filipino expats have 'exposure trips' to their own country, where they could get a real idea of what's happening in villages and schools, she noted. She pointed to issues of migrants, in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere, who were under pressure due to poor working conditions, and often defenceless, contrary to the perception of all expats doing well.

Various brief discussions followed. Some questions were raised about 'social software' [7]

[Social software enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities. Broadly conceived, this term could encompass older media such as mailing lists and Usenet, but some would restrict its meaning to more recent software genres such as blogs and wikis. Others suggest that the term social software is best used not to refer to a single type of software, but rather to the use of two or more modes of computer-mediated communication to engage in community formation.]

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software

VM made a strong appeal against "the idea of ourselves being continually defined by others". Gerson da Cunha stressed that this could be "the last generation for whom Goa exists in the way it is in our minds...." He said that as one speaks, Goa was being changed. Across the Mandovi river, a monstrosity of a Tata project was pointed to, coming up to disfigure the once-green area.

"Cyberspace could be used to start a movement, to further a cause," Gerson suggested. His offer to help the initiative was appreciated by all. "Land-use changes are critical... I don't think we will succeed, but we can put the sunset off for awhile," he said.

"If *you* don't do it, it's not going to happen," was a message that everyone left with. Besides the blog, and the other initiatives cited above, Jose Lourenco offered to take the leadership to build a Goanet-supported database of global Goan skillsets. Gerson suggested Goanet look at specialist 'silos' focussing on news, the literary world, and causes.