Goans: Britain's favourite migrants

From time to time the question has arisen whether the British treated Goans any diferently from the other South Asians in its African colonies. The answer is a firm yes and the British remained true to their Goan servants even when it came to migration of the UK as this excerpt for Hansard clearly shows:

GOANS: UK PASSPORTS

HL Deb 26 May 1976 vol 371 cc259-63

Lord ORR-EWING  My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.  The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government:

1. (i) who authorised the issue of United Kingdom passports to Goan citizens;
2. (ii) when, where and why this was done;
3. (iii) whether the Indian Government had agreed to allow citizens from the territory to take up Indian nationality;
4. (iv) whether Portugal—Goa's colonial power—was approached before United Kingdom passports were issued; and
5. (v) how many United Kingdom passports were issued to Goan citizens.

Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOE  My Lords, there is no Goan citizenship. Most persons born in Goa became Indian citizens in December 1961. British passports are issued on the authority of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to persons of Goan birth or descent only if they are United Kingdom nationals. The number is not known. There is no need to approach the Portuguese authorities.

Lord ORR-EWING  My Lords, would the noble Baroness agree that this situation is perplexing to the average citizen? Goa had been a Portuguese colony from 1510 until it was captured by India in 1961, and when that occurred the citizens were offered Indian nationality. How is it that they have now somehow arrived with British nationality? Surely, the first responsibility would have been with India and the second responsibility would have been with Portugal. Is the noble Baroness aware that Goa sent representatives for many years to the Portuguese Parliament, so it was closely allied with Portugal and Goans spoke Portuguese? Is the noble Baroness further aware that a number of Goans moved to East Africa, and that the nation is very perplexed as to how it is that we are obligated to receive all these Goans, if they wish to enter Britain, if they are turned out of Malawi and other East African territories? Could the noble Baroness clarify this position for the benefit of the House and the nation?

Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOE  Yes, my Lords; I think history is nearly always perplexing. The question of when Portuguese citizens of Goan descent became Indian is clearly defined in time. I agree that the situation may seem perplexing, but nevertheless it is perfectly clear what happened. As the noble Lord clearly knows, Goan people, because of their industry and ability, were immensely welcomed in British territories and British Protectorates in Africa and other places; and there they went, largely in order to serve British interests. Then they were given, by a Conservative Government—and rightly, in my view—the right to possess British passports to enable them to come to this country if they were no longer welcome in those countries where they lived.

Lord HARMAR-NICHOLLS  My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware, so far as public apprehension is concerned, that the real danger is the ambiguity of all this? The public really begin to feel that we have no powers to decide who shall come and who shall not come to this country. In order to remove, in the words used by the noble Baroness, the perplexity or the ambiguity of it all, has not the time arrived when the matter ought to be presented in such a way as to clarify where our powers are and what we can do? It is from this lack of clarification that the danger will flow, because a wrongly-informed public is one that you sometimes cannot control.  

Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOE  My Lords, the perplexity that I referred to was only in the case of history. There is no perplexity at all about who has a right to come here and who has not. United Kingdom passport holders—we are talking about Goans—have a right of entry only under the voucher scheme, and a very small proportion of these people are Goans.

Lord BROCKWAY  My Lords, may I ask the Minister this question. Are we not in the dilemma that the Indian Government encouraged Asians in East Africa to become citizens of African countries while we gave citizenship to those who did not do so? Is it not now possible to come to an arrangement with Malawi by which there would be phased immigration? Is it not also desirable that we should consider the position of other territories, like Hong Kong, before this dilemma arises?

Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOE  My Lords, so far as Malawi is concerned, there is already phased immigration, and we have no anxieties about how that phasing will work out. I must say to my noble friend that Hong Kong is a different question.

Baroness EMMET of AMBERLEY  My Lords, can the noble Baroness explain why it is that we were not able to approach the Portuguese Government about this matter? Is she aware that when I was last in Portugal, before this revolution, the representative of Goa was then sitting in the Portuguese Council?

Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOE  Yes, my Lords; it is almost never the practice to consult the country of origin if somebody applies for a British passport and it is felt that he has qualified under the usual rules to hold the British passport. No other Government is normally consulted.

Baroness EMMET of AMBERLEY  My Lords, should not we start doing so?

Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOE  My Lords, I do not think that would be at all useful.

Lord GRIDLEY  My Lords, may I raise a point in a friendly question to the 262 noble Baroness? Would she consider that at the present time there is a considerable amount of apprehension in this country about race relations in general? In view of that, would it not be wise for the Government to make some sort of Statement on the situation, and perhaps curtail very drastically immigration into this country from the new Commonwealth? She will understand that I ask that question in the interests of good race relations in Britain at the moment.

Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOE  My Lords, the noble Lord is always friendly and I accept his question in that spirit. We are, of course, discussing Goans and their rights to British passports. Perhaps I should not answer a general question on immigration. But I can say that of course everybody recognises the anxieties, the feelings up and down the country about it. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary made a very clear statement about this last Monday in another place. Of course, if the noble Lord wants a general debate on it, he has every right to do so by putting down an Unstarred Question or something of that kind.

Lord GORE-BOOTH  My Lords, with the same friendly intent. may I ask the noble Baroness whether I have this right? It would be helpful in any such Statement to make it quite clear that these Goans received British nationality for contributions made to parts of the world then under British sovereignty, and it would be very difficult to reverse that decision taken at that time.

Baroness LLEWELYN-DAVIES of HASTOE  Yes, my Lords.

The murder of innocent Khadija

The murder of Khadija

(Watch out for more updates on this subject)

I was first fell in awe of the mighty elephant when I was eight or nine. It was a magnificent David Shepherd painting reproduced in a magazine: a young bull charging the artist, ears flared, trunk raised to the heavens and the mighty tasks threatening carnage in defence of the herd. Elephants are usually quietanimals and go about the business of feeding without threatening any other animal unless the herd is threatened. I learnt that lesson when I was taken hunting by a well-known Pakistani big game hunter whose relatives were our neighbours in Eastleigh. I don’t think I said more than two words on that trip as I was completely rapt by the animals and the vegetation. Sure the lion is a magnificent king of the jungle and the cheetah is elegance personified and there is no less grace and stealth in the leopard. The majestic rhino and the buffalo have their own good graces but for me from that day the elephant was the greatest creation in god’s own back garden.

True as humans continued to scour more land from their habitats, elephants attempted to take their own land back and sometimes resulted in the death of a villager or damage to their plantations. But it was human error that was always to blame. As a young reporter I was to come face to face with the full horror of the results of the elephant poachers. I went on many sorties chasing (and sometimes catching) the poachers. What I will never forget is the site of an elephant carcass with its tusks ripped out. I can’t think anything more heart wrenching than that. It was often nightmarish. I have seen many people reduced to tears at the sight of the elephant’s murder.

Iain and Oria Douglas-Hamilton are extra-ordinary elephant conservations, working through Save the Elephants and Elephant Watch Safaris. I am indebted to a kindred spirit Alan Donovan in Kenya for passing on Oria’s email to other friends of the elephant.

“All of us at Elephant Watch and Save the Elephants, have been deeply shocked at the tragic killing of Khadija in Samburu, the last adult female of the Swahili Ladies family. One by one her whole family had been killed last year and she was looking after her own three young and five orphans.

“In early June she had been badly wounded. We kept a close watch on her movements and on the 24th, STE with the help of Ian Craig immobilised her when she came into the Reserve, they treated her wounds, put a collar on her and injected a massive dose of antibiotics and vitamins.

“With difficulty she managed to pull herself up on to her feet, and wandered off slowly. We were able to follow her wandering and she was gradually getting better. For some reason she kept going south towards the "bad lands".

“On the night of July 13, in the light of the full moon as she wandered towards the river, she was gunned down on the southern boundary line, in a barrage of bullets. We found her faceless with eight bullet wounds in her body, the collar removed and hidden nearby. Her tusks had immediately been hacked off and taken to a trader.

“We are on the war path against traders and poachers. It is a long uphill struggle, as the trade is spread far and wide and we are also in the midst of a serious drought in the north. The elephants are moving out of the safety of the Reserve in search of branches, their main source of food now. We still have water in the river. The local Samburu herders have left the area always looking for better pastures for their livestock, and our friendly "eyes and ears" in that area are now gone.

I have been working closely with Iain, David Daballan and the STE team helping wherever I can. Our boys are keeping a close watch on the elephants and we are hoping to find the eight orphans, who must be terrified and lost without leadership now and hoping to collar one of them. KWS and the Police, acting on some information, set up a road block on the Meru/Isiolo road and arrested three Somalis in a new vehicle, with 6 tusks and bullets in their possession. We do not know who shot the elephant.”

A report recently released by Save the Elephants warns that during the first five months of 2011, poaching of elephants in the Samburu/Buffalo Springs region has reached an all-time high, the highest recorded in the last 10 years. The report also shows that 14% of the social groups do not contain a breeding female over the age of 25 years and comprised multiple orphan calves. With many of the large bulls poached, the elephant population is now 70% female.

"In the first six months of this year, rates of illegal elephant killing on the south near Buffalo Springs Reserve has reached new record levels,” said Founder of Save the Elephants, Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton. “Samburu has been a success story where elephants have been recovering from the excessive poaching of the 1970s and 1980s right up until 2008. It has been one of Africa's few safe havens for elephants thanks to KWS law enforcement. However, the new poaching spike, driven by new demand, is threatening one of the most peaceful elephant populations in Africa with highly habituated trusting animals.

Save the Elephants, the Northern Rangelands Trust and KWS are uniting to provide more resources on the ground to protect elephants and other wildlife.

In another development, African governments have been asked to join forces in fighting poaching and other environmental crimes as way of protecting their economies, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service. The call to sign up with the Lusaka Agreement was made to African diplomats based in Nairobi at a special briefing on the eve of the birth of the continent’s 54th nation, South Sudan.

Recently, five tonnes of contraband ivory seized in Singapore, was burnt in Tsavo West as part of the celebrations. The bulk of the ivory was found to have originated in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. Ivory and rhino horn are easily available in neighbouring Tanzania. Fingers are being pointed at the huge contingent of Chinese workers in Kenya for the increase in elephant and rhino poaching. Both ivory and horns are fetching unprecedented prices. Chinese have long used both for medicine and as aphrodisiacs.

In 1989 the burning 12 tonnes of ivory was the precursor to the ban on international trade in ivory. This was a happy time for elephants right across Africa as herds began to recover as soon as the international markets were closed. But conservationists now warn that recent experimental sales by four Southern African countries to China and Japan have re-ignited the demand for ivory which in turn is resulting in increased poaching.

There is a little good news though. The elephant population in Tsavo West has increased to 12,572 from 11,696 three years ago according to the preliminary results of a census released recently. In previous counts a 4 per cent increase was achieved while the new figure represents a 2 per cent  In 1976, Tsavo was home to some 35,000 elephants. In early 1970s, around 6,000 animals died during a harsh drought, and by 1988 only 5,400 remained in the park in the wake of a serious poaching onslaught. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Kenya’s elephant population numbered amongst the hundreds of thousands until poaching almost wiped out the entire herd. In the 1980s the population went from a high of 120,000 to 15,000. Even the Maasai who have lived harmoniously alongside the wildlife succumbed to the rich, but evil, rewards of poaching.

While Kenya’s army of professional and volunteer conservationists is among the best in the world, there is the every present talon of human corruption lurking in the wings of any crime in Kenya.

Like I said there are lots of wonderful people doing wonderful things to help conserve Kenya's wildlife heritage. Ian Douglas-Hamilton has been doing it for 45 years and his wife Oria is a powerful force in her own right. If you can help, donate cash, adopt an elephant, whatever, check out www.savetheelephants.org

Pictured below: Khadija's corpse and Khadija as her friends will always remember her.

The Bathing of the Mind

The Bathing of the Mind

September is one of the best months to visit and tour Kenya. The mornings are fresh without any chill and the evenings are sublime, gives you that feel good kinda start to the day. Yep, definitely a spring in your step. In between dawn and dusk there is gentle warmth that opens your pores and lets out tiny sprays of perspiration. It is a kind of exhaust for the body.
Dawn: 6:06, sunrise: 6:26, sunset: 6:32 dusk: 6: 53. So you get 12+ hour days and a bonus dusk of 21 minutes. All this very important, especially if you are heading out on your first safari. So there you are all cuddled up in the warmth of your bed at the Amboseli Lodge. Yesterday, you fell in love with the lodge straight away and you got a little peek at Mount Kilimanjaro. Didn’t that make your day? Did not look like there was much snow on the ice-cream top, though. Still it was an awesome sight, took your breath away didn’t it? Felt like there was something divine in the air. Before dinner, went for a drink with the guys at the tented camp. They were all seated around a huge bonfire; someone was playing a guitar, all the drivers and staff were singing away. It was another memorable experience. Got back to the lodge and nestled in to watch the animals at the water hole. More of that in a moment but gave up fairly quickly because I was about ready to drop into the sublime, cat-purring sleep satisfaction. I was happy tired and delighted to be alive and with you. Dawn at 6:00 means that you will be out on a pre-breakfast game run by 6:30 at the latest. You will have had a perk-you-up morning tea or coffee in your room before you hear the gong go, the knock on the door, and a gentle voice saying: please wake for game run, the animals are waiting to greet you. Ah the previous night, now that was something else.
On the game run from Nairobi you visited three prides of lions. Your driver brought you so close you could touch them. Lazy weren’t they. Good everyone remembered to hold their breath, otherwise the lions would have caught the human breath and cubs would have started fidgeting the adults would have moved them on. God weren’t the cheetahs a sensation? Did you see them hunting in pairs. I saw that on television once, did not believe it could actually happen right in front my eyes. How lucky, how wonderful. What speed, what grace, what majesty, sorry about the prey. Guess that is what life is like in the jungle. People do it too. They call it War. Or they call it murder. You saw your elephants, lions and buffalo yesterday. Today you will hope to see leopard and rhino to complete the must see Big Five. We should have made a list, what else did we see yesterday? Zebra, giraffes (there are two types aren’t there?), gazelles, eland, impala, wildebeest, oh and those other things … bat eared foxes, looked so cuddly. Must make a list today. On your way to Tsavo East and West there is a great treat in store: Mzima Springs home of the mighty hippos. What a sight that is going to be!
And so it goes on! And you wonder where did the day go as you sit sipping your first drink just after 5 pm at Tsavo Lodge. Well you did start the day with a champagne breakfast by river. What a breakfast? You saw your first leopard and rhino and a bunch of other animals. But what took your breath away was the brief encounter with hippos at Mzima Springs. As the name suggests the watering hole with a resident herd of hippos is fed from a nearby spring. God they are huge, aren’t they? Very quiet, very serene. Yep, it is very peaceful.
After picking up your things from Tsavo East you headed for another game run and a bush lunch. There was nothing bush about it prawns, crabs, lobster, hams and roast lamb, pork, beefs and lots of salads. Wasn’t it absolutely fabulous. I saw you smiling to yourself a lot. You looked happy
You have showered and slipped into something cool and you are hungry but first there is the important tradition of pre-dinner drinks. Take it easy, it is going to be a long night, don’t know how much sleep we are going to get. After dinner, meet Joe Kavirondo, the man in charge of the animal orphanage at Tsavo (West) Lodge. At the moment the orphanage has three baby elephants, two black rhinos, six gazelles, two giraffe and a bunch of other smaller plains animals, and, oh, two orphaned lion cubs whose mother was killed by poachers. Aren’t they evil, the poachers I mean? Did you see the elephant carcasses, with the ivory tasks ripped off the heads. How sad, how in human? I will be heartbroken about that for the rest of my life. Joe’s mother was a Maasai and his father was a Kipsigis hunter from the north.
Some animals have an instinctive fear of Joe. He is a sort a human anti-baboon spray. Joe has to just enter an area where the baboons and monkeys are making a nuisance of themselves and they take off like their life depended on it. The Maasai Mara game lodge used employ a Maasai warrior to keep the baboons out of their dining areas. After dinner we are all seated around Joe.
“Welcome to Tsavo Lodge. I hope you will enjoy your stay enough to want to come back. I want to talk to you about the next few hours at the viewing from where you will be able to see a procession of animals who come for their daily drink, mud bath, frolic, and, of course, the all-important salt lick. You will see the elephants come, have a drink, take protective mud bath against fleas and other insects, and spray protective dust on their bodies. They will leave once they have had their fill. The will be followed by the lions, zebra, rhino, cheetah, other plains animals until every species has had its fill. This procession is repeated every night.
“There is one rule you must not forget: Do not talk, sneeze, cough or make any kind of human sound. The wind is likely transfer the human smells to the herds below and they will stampede. You will have spoilt it for everyone. Very late into the night we are expecting a visit from a couple of leopards. One of my colleagues will be going around the lodge with a gentle gong in hand. We have put up several game baits in the trees. You are sure to see a leopard or two tomorrow. In fact, if the animal gods are good to you, you might even see a leopard family we have been keeping an eye on.
“There is a special way of making the next few hours absolutely unforgettable. While you sit there, holding her hands, you are together yet you are alone. Your thoughts are your own. It is your very own private suite to the world. As you become one with the environment all around you, two things happen: your eye sight becomes sharper and your hearing keener. I do it as often as I can. There is a kind of magic out there. It is not just eyes that see, or your nose that smells or your hands that touch, it seems as if every part of your body is do any one of those tasks. It would seem like an out of body and in to wilderness experience that makes at one with everything around you. You are the night, you are the wildlife, you are the insects, you are the music of the night, you are everything and you are completely at peace with it all. Try and see if you can catch that exact neon second when dusk becomes twilight and twilight becomes night. The photograph above comes close to catching one of those moments.
“You may not notice it immediately, but you suddenly feel utterly and completely relaxed, at peace, you are home. There is a kind of languidity in your body, the limbs seem at rest. You feel it first in your shoulders. The head seems to come to rest, completely at ease, on your shoulders and it seems to rest deep into the shoulder as the night goes on. Oh, and that drink in your glass never seems to end, it is always there. First you hear the sounds of the animals. You play a game with yourself trying to identify each species. In the far, far distance, you can hear roar of a lion or two, or even the stampeding footsteps of a plains animal, perhaps someone’s dinner.
“So you stretch your legs in gay abandon. You feel good about yourself. Never felt so alive at this hour of the night, you tell yourself. But it is your own personal window into the world that you find so narcotic. As you watch for the departure of dusk, the arrival of twilight, and eventually the dark of night. The night sounds change … hear, hear it is the orchestra of the night, a billion, trillion insects playing their nightly symphony. You have to listen carefully. Don’t try to analyse it, just go with it.
“Isn’t that beautiful? How do you feel, how do you feel. Like I am in heaven you say. I saw that look on your face, you tell her, it had love written in large capitals all over it. Love it. Love you.
“We call that whole experience: The bathing of the mind. Please enjoy the experience of a little bit of Africa loving life to the maximum.”
He did not exaggerate one bit, did he?
What a night? What time did we slip away? Did you hear the gong? I wonder if the leopards came. Did you see that second pride of lions having a bit of squabble? Weren’t the elephant cubs just awesome? The rhino seemed a bit shy, but it was great seeing them again! What were those pigs, warthogs? Tsavo Lodge I love you. Thank you darling. Did we, last night? Felt like it … I mean I feel truly fulfilled.
Tsavo West you are my heaven.

So you stopped off in Voi, another overnighter, before gently arriving in your beloved Mombasa. Went to Malindi but the white sands had disappeared in a flood. Watamu Beach Hotel is even more beautiful than we remembered. Off to Masaai Mara, Mount Kenya Safari Club, Tree Tops, Secret Valley, The Ark, Mount Kenya, Nyeri, Nanyuki, Aberdares, Lake Baringo, Ol Donyo Sabuk, Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, a plane trip to Lake Turkana before heading for Tanzania, Arusha, the Serengeti and lots more.

More heaven for me to find ... one day, perhaps the next day, even if I am out of sight, I promise I will be back for more of this.

You say such nice things ... thanks

The things you said …
Thank you so much for the feedback which I have reproduced here but I have held the names back because I was not sure you wanted them made public. It makes interesting reading and I thought I would share with you.

At last somebody has the guts to say something on Goan Voice about destruction in Goa.

Hi Cyprian, I've been reading your blog - makes very interesting reading and how true everything you have written !!!
Thank you for the very refreshing reading material on your web. I have forwarded it to several of my friends. It brought back memories of a country (Kenya) I left, against my wish, four and a half decades ago to settle in Canada and now also in the US where we spend most of our retired lives with our four young grand children in the Sun & Sin City of Las Vegas.
Your articles refreshed the old life and politics back home. Continued good luck on new writings, so reminiscent of your write ups in the Nation in the late 50s and early 60s.
What a great article, enjoyed every word. I can assure you that the same exists with the Anglo Indian community! I've borne the brunt of a couple of
poisoned arrows in my time. I live by my Irish grandmothers's words:
"Darling child, would you say....do....think those things if Jesus was standing next to you!" I rest my case. Well done.
I enjoy your very frank opinion of our Goenkar brethren. Sad but true. What else can I say? Take care and keep well.

I thought it was among the Goans too. It could be something to do with being catholic. Some can be so awful, and then they go to confession and get a penance and forgiven and live another day to carry on being the gossipy nosey ......( sorry, there is me complaining too, it must be in the genes).

Very well put. I agree will all you write about as I have on some occasions experienced some small doses of that one trait in our gene pool.
For the last 8 months I have been heavily involved with the wider Indian community as Vice President of the SEVA International Inc ( http://www.sevainternational.org/ ) and the Council of Indian Australians Inc. as Co Director of the India Day Fair Event on 7th August (flyer attached) (http://www.cia.org.au/index.html ). I am convinced that this trait (gene pool) also exists in much bigger doses in the Indian community.
Keep up the great insights you share with the world through your writing. Your blog makes very interesting reading with real personal experience of the East Africa which many of us still call "Home" and the good old days.
You sure do have a photographic memory. Your articles were so interesting and in certain areas you have “hit the nail on the head”. You have taken me back to memory lane and the country which we still love and call home. It is amazing how you have historically documented your work. The names of the politicians, the Mau Mau days all came back to me after reading your article. The vanishing Goan is also such an interesting read. I have forwarded your website to many friends in US, UAE, U.K. Germany and Sweden. I think it would be useful if you added some pictures to each article. Keep up the good work. “You are talented and gifted”.
I love the article on Goan identity, it's something i've pondered quite deeply as i've watched my parents transition from kenya to the US, and then in a way, back to Goa...
Saw your blog this morning and thought I will take a quick glance at it so I could go and watch Tennis and Soccer,but as I read a few lines I was so impressed that I could not get out of it as it got more and more interesting and therefore I finally came to the end and forgot was I supposed to do. Very interesting and impressive writing and brought back many memories of my life and good old days in Kenya around fans and friends like you. I am proud of what I have just read written by you and it seems like a book or Movie material. Keep up the good work and keep our minds moving.

I started reading your blog and omg was so fascinated and thrilled to read history in the making... thank you, I will complete reading it at my leisure, I was reading it at work and could not shut it down.... wow so glad that the computer age is there to record such an amazing career - which i did not know much about... and now i realize the depth of your experience and knowledge.. i am proud to be known as one of your friends. bugger the errors... they are minor compared to what you have to tell.

Though I had only time to read the first two items in detail, then skimmed through the rest (have to buy a new computer before the day is up), I did find it very interesting and, of course, as we share a common background from the Nation, it felt like you were talking to me. So, yes, very interesting and a fucking good read.
I’m flattered I get a mention and happy that we are still good friends. I only wished you lived on this side of the country so we could get together more often. It is also good to be reminded of some of the good mates we had in those early days. We got shit pay but we loved the job and the challenges. I also admired Tom Mboya and I remember, when my dad was president of the Welsh Society and Tom was guest of honour at St David’s Day, that he took time to break away from the official party, when he saw me, and come over and exchange greetings. His death was a warning to us all that life is cheap in Africa. I wasn’t so immersed in politics and didn’t know the ins and outs so well described by you, but working on wildlife and tourism, and reporting more and more on poaching and hinting that Mama Ngina and others at the top were involved came the realization that I could become a target. Sean’s impending school age and lack of security for journos helped speed up our departure and we were gone in 1973 to Durban and later here. So our journeys have been similar (but don’t forget I am a massive five months older than you!) and, as I said, it’s great that we are still in touch. Keep up the good work and I’ll continue to review it. As it expands, maybe there’ll be room for guest articles.
Your article on freedom fighters is spot on - Needless to say I have sometimes been embarrassed with the actions of the group.

You hit the nail right in the centre of the Goan forehead. I have seen for myself over the years that a majority Goans seem to have a crisis over their identity and I could not find reason or proof why this has come about.
Your article has put everything about the Goan identity in perspective. In a nutsell: A Goan is a Goan, is a Goan. I don’t know where your article was published but I hope it was in the most of the Goan websites specially the Goan Voice.
Just want to inform you that I enjoyed reading your article in the GOAN VOICE DAILY NEWSLETTER SUNDAY 12 JUN, 2011
"Cyprian Fernandes' Sunday Masala: 1. Goans - What Crisis Of Identity?".
Hope that you have some more similar articles, that brings back memories of days gone bye. Days when we looked to the Daily Nation to read what you /Norman DaCosta wrote about sporting activities taking place. Thanks a lot.
Salaams to all old friends [x-east Africa] that are living in Sydney.

Enjoyed reading your commentary on Goan Freedom Fighters in GVUK, and you are 100% true. Many of these freedom fighters did not do a damn for the liberation of Goa !They claim only benefits from the present government. Why not dismantle the association and all work for welfare of the country rather than living on welfare!
Your article In Goan voice was interesting to say the least. I am a Goan recently (about 10 years.back) migrated to UK(London). When I first set foot in London there were few Goans who one would meet and it used to be a joyous occasion to sit and swap stories. Most used to be un-prejudical but some. Many a time I used to be taken aback when some "Goans" used to ask me "African or Portuguese passport". And these Goans mostly used to say that they are from Africa. I do not understand the reason for this. And when querried further "Oh my ancestors were Goan", but I am African. They used to go for annual holidays to Goa, have families in Goa, houses in Goa but profess to be Africans. I hope they are a tiny minority. I do not believe in caste but these "Africans" made me feel like a second class Goan and their "superior airs" always bothered me.

Hi, Good to know that you will be writing regularly. I enjoyed your item on Goans. It is a useful and timely reminder for our younger generation in particular to appreciate and understand what our heritage is all about. I intend to remind friends to read your contribution. Recently we had a UK General Census and had to state what our origins are - I really wonder how many had the knowledge to state "Goan" as opposed to Asian, British, Portuguese, Kenyan, Ugandan, etc. as opposed to stating their origins rather than nationality. Confusing, but your item is very clear and particularly for us Goans. Keep up your contribution.