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Old Farts: Fred’s tale Fred walked in and in one motion safely slumped into the chair and at the same time put down the pint of double extra dry lager. After pondering his surroundings including his drinking mates, he reached for the glass of beer and before getting it to his lips he saluted his fellow drinkers with a somewhat belligerent “cheers.” Alan was doing his usual SBS cooking review and was going on and on about some new vegetable he had seen being cooked somewhere in Thailand. He was swearing on a pile of Bibles that the veg was the same as that which he had eaten in Kenya called Sukuma weekie.   Various voices were trying to tell him that the vegetable he was in fact referring to was called kail or kael or a spelling to that effect. Fred smashed the chaotic scene with a thunderous clap of his hands. “Guys,” he said, “ I got to tell you that today I realized I was officially an old man. I saw the evidence looking at me square in the eye in the barber’s ...

Divine Retreat Centre AT FIRST glance faint-hearted Catholics, even the recalcitrant amongst might look up the Divine Retreat Centre in Somersby NSW, not too far from the Central Coast’s beach haven but inland into the grace and glory of the woodlands. Sixty-five rolling acres in the quiet of the countryside provide a serene setting for the Retreat Centre and this serenity is quickly felt all around you. I am by no means a Catholic fundamentalist or a breast-beating devout follower of the religion. I am however your everyday regular church-going believer in the Catholic religion. I am a cynic when it comes to Catholic circuses, Bible bashing or breast beating. The Goan Association of New South Wales was kind enough to invite its membership to the Divine Retreat Centre for a service honoring it current membership and remembering past members. Some 35 souls, some of them very experienced participants at the DVC, a few newcomers and a few who had been there before. As I...

BOOK REVIEWS FLY-ON-THE-WALL REVELATIONS With kind permission of the Communist Review Forward to Independence: My Memoirs By Fitz de Souza [Independently published, 2019, available on amazon.co.uk: pbk, 338 pp, ISBN 978- 1-0931-46882, £9.80; Kindle edition, 436 pp, ASIN B07R6FNYF1, £2.30.] Review by Cyprian Fernandes THE LONG, long-awaited memoirs of veteran Kenyan politician Fitz de Souza are finally out and the book is quite brilliant. Born into a family of Goan migrants, this former lawyer and deputy speaker of the Kenya Parliament – a rather quiet man in the sometimes loud circus of politics – was Jomo Kenyatta’s right-hand man from the first days of the negotiations for freedom with the British Government, until Kenya’s independence on 12 December 1963, and for the rest of Kenyatta’s life. The President of Kenya paid great heed to the legal, political, social and societal deliberation provided by Fitz de Souza. Not only Kenyatta, but politicians of every ilk sou...

Every time Australia has a major migration change it also results in a lot of consternation, even abuse of the migrants.  After all, the first, reluctant migrants, the British convicts were not treated with any kind of special welcome either. The end of WW11 brought a lot of Jews, Italians, Poles, and other Europeans ... who were very kindly abused as the Wogs and Dagos. So it is a tradition to shower abuse on new immigrants especially since they don't know what it is to be "Australian" and not familiar with driving according to the local laws. In the case of Indians, most of them drive as if they were driving in India and that causes all hell to burst loose. With the new young sub-continentals there is also a new arrogance that does not endear them to the locals, not even to Indians who have been here for more than 30, 40 or 50 years ... they will all come good in a few years. It was easier for people who lived in the UK, Canada, US, Europe to quite easily make themselv...

My wife Monnelia and I decided to have a 5 year memorial for my Dad at The Goan Gymkhana as it would be a good opportunity to hang his portrait by the artist Prakash in the Bar alongside many of his friends and to celebrate his memory and life. "I would like to thank everyone for coming to my father's 5yr memorial lunch" "My father was a patriotic Goan from Saligao who loved meeting his friends to chat and drink at The Goan Gymkhana" "Therefore it is appropriate that we hang his portrait in the bar alongside many of his friends (Alu, Pius, Tony)" "Throughout his life, my father was a kind, happy man who never hesitated to assist those who needed his help" "He instilled strong values in my sister Alison and I, that have stood us in good stead as we navigate through life's many trials" "More importantly he always encouraged us as children to aim high, achieve academic success so that we could achieve...

A GOAN BOY in KASESE, UGANDA Roy Pacheco Our parents, who migrated to East Africa, dreamed of one day retiring to Goa.   I, and many of my contemporaries, banished to Canada by the Ugandan tyrant, General Idi Amin, still yearn for the days of our carefree early life in Africa. Luck and destiny (and I suppose a general ingrained belief that God would take care of the details) helped to shape our lives. After finishing School in Nairobi, I was lucky to find a job as an apprentice to a major air-conditioning company in Nairobi, Kenya. The European manager had a special liking for the hard-working Goan community. As an apprentice, I got to do all the grungy jobs required in disassembling, fixing and handing over a fully functioning unit. We took great pride in our work. Our management always preached that a satisfied customer would bring in our next project. And so I worked hard, learned a lot and eventually became a fully-fledged Engineer. I would now travel as a troub...