Eddie's being daft: try telling it (below) to the girl who wrote to me saying: My father is not a dodderer!
Dear Cyprian,
What is your agenda? Selma
Carvalho had a column in Goan Voice UK with an avid readership. She has written
an excellent, critically acclaimed book on the Goan diaspora. She has, against
the odds, secured funding for an oral history project involving East African
Goans. She has provided up with examples of her video interviews, each
receiving over 1,000 hits. She has received hundreds if not thousands of
congratulatory messages. Have you ever had anything positive to say about her?
Why not
OK, she is only human and can
make mistakes. Point them out to her by all means. But why, oh why, write to
your friends, sorry contacts, and then ask them to “share this with as many people
as you can!” Talk of sick minds.
But what is the mistake that
Selma made? Not in what she wrote but in underestimating how people like you
would pick on it and turn it around to suit your prejudices! I would urge
everyone on this list to read again what she wrote and judge for yourselves. I
reproduce below the critical section:
6 Aug:
Herald. The UK Goan Festival has been rejuvenated largely because of a second
migratory wave of Goans into Swindon, Wembley and Ealing … The Portuguese-Goan
speaks in unadulterated Konkani, and dresses loudly with jangly gold bracelets
and stone-washed jeans…. the East African Goan; ageing, doddery limps from tent
to tent, trying to find friends he knew back in East Africa only to find their
numbers dwindling with each passing year… In between these two strange animals
who seldom socialise with each other, there lies a spectrum of other more
nebulous and emerging identities; the offspring of things Goan but largely
British… 1009 words + photos at http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=6244&boxid=53915&uid=&dat=8/5/2012
To me it is clear that she is
referring to the two extremes of the UK Goan spectrum. Both are singular. What
is your interpretation? That she is referring to all or most or many or
significant? Do let us know.
To anyone who has progressed
beyond the Enid Blyton stage it should also be obvious that she is using parody
to cast her characters. It is refreshing to have her usual creative writing
instead of the banal “nice” reports that appear to be the norm.
I must confess that I could
not read beyond the first paragraph of your diatribe.
Eddie Fernandes
